Attention

We were so happy when our neighbors came to the Good Friday Fish Fry with us at our church. The evening was beautiful, the kids were playing, parents chatting.  It was a wonderful night.  We brought our wagon to help us carry all our chairs and blankets from the car.  However, our sweet neighbors and WHS found great fun in taking WHS for rides.  WHS already adores these two and can say their names so clearly.  

They spent at least half an hour taking WHS for wagon rides, which made me happy because he was always entertained!

Sweet baby WHS loves getting that "baby" attention...

What a Toot!

Last weekend, we spent it at none other than the ball parks.  The great news is, we only had one game on Saturday, which left the afternoon open for some fun.  JLS invited a friend from his baseball team over to swim who also has a big brother on JBS' baseball team. So, we had both boys over to swim and for a cookout after JLS' game.  On the way home, we had a car full of five boys being boys in the back of my burb.  It's so hard to pretend you don't hear what they are talking about and let out a giggle every once in awhile.

Of course, the discussion never fails to turn to burps and toots.  This time it progressed into a contest of who could blow the loudest on their arms to make the best tooting noise.  So proud of my boys, indeed.  So, each of the bigger boys went around the car giving their best effort.  The oldest of our guests even conceded that his little brother was the "King of farting noises."  So funny how tickled they were getting.  Boys are such a unique species!

Then, the boys looked at WHS and said, "WHS, you do it!"  Not ever wanting to be left out, WHS raised his arm to his mouth and let out the juiciest, loudest noise from his arm readily beating all the boys in the car.  They all went NUTS dying laughing and going crazy that the littlest toot in the car, was, in fact, the best toot maker of them all.  WHS was officially "Cool" and loved by the friends and now has his place in history.

Again, I am so proud of my boys.

This one...

It's so amazing to have three boys.  Three boys that came from the same womb, the same daddy (this is confirmed :)), live in the same house, yet they are so different.  Different is good and they get along really well, but wow!  So fun to see how they are developing their own personalities.

We moved to The Woodlands in March of 2008.  So, just about four years ago, I was desperate. JLS STILL didn't sleep through the night at 2 1/2.  I had no sleep, stressful move, living in a rental house...and oh, so sick.  Not only did JLS not sleep through the night, but he threw major temper tantrums.  For the record, I do not tolerate irrational behavior well.  It drove me crazy because there was no talking sense into him.  It was at this time that I was told to look into speech therapy and we discovered he couldn't hear very well because of all the drainage in his ears.  He couldn't hear, so he couldn't communicate, so he was a holy terror at times.  Not all the time, but in hind site, when he just couldn't communicate his needs. Now, I feel awful because this precious baby just couldn't help it.  Then, I thought that JLS, for sure, was my trouble child and I feared him as a teenager...

Fast forward four years (and four years of speech and eating therapy later), JLS is a total angel. He never has a temper tantrum, he rarely disagrees, he can speak well for the most part and he is a complete joy to have around.  MY how times have changed.  I love this baby.  I love who he is becoming.

He is a wonderful brother to WHS.  Each of the boys loves each other, but JLS and WHS have a special bond because they go to school together.  We go to a very small preschool and they pass each other in the hall or see each other on the playground.  WHS ADORES his big brother and JLS loves being the big brother at school for WHS to adore.

He is curious, he is helpful, he is kind, he is creative and imaginative and I love to watch him as his brain works...when he doesn't know I am watching...

Happy Easter!

These boys clean up nicely.  I literally ran in to Dillard's with Babe and WHS in the car while JBS, JLS and I found an Easter shirt for the boys.  I picked out the gingham shirts for JLS and JBS and a pretty pastel striped shirt for WHS because they didn't have a long-sleeved gingham shirt in WHS' size.  JBS, however, was insistent that WHS wear a gingham shirt, too.  I bought both a short-sleeved gingham and the striped shirt, thinking I would return one later.  On Easter morning, I had WHS' striped shirt sitting out and JBS was so upset.  MOM!  WHS needs to match us.  We all need to wear the same shirt!  I thought it was hilarious that he cared so much about them matching perfectly and conceded.  

Getting ready for the hunt...

Such sweet brothers.  The love is mutual...

Gambo and Poppy were here for the weekend, which we loved....

The big hunt.  WHS is in training, learning how to compete with the big boys.

LOVE that JBS still loves to hunt some eggs...

Always the fiercest of competitors...

A wonderful Easter Sunday for our family!

Boy Legs

I remember when JLS was right around WHS' age being obsessed with his cute feet in "big kid" socks.  JLS had some new ankle socks and I just died at how big he looked...no more baby socks.  The other day as I was watching my precious little WHS at the pool, I couldn't stop staring at his legs.

For one, he dresses himself backwards every day...underwear and shoes included.  EVERY DAY.  Shouldn't there be a likelihood that he does it properly at least once?  Shorts backwards in this pic...

And he is on such a mission... How cute the hind shot really is!

And those curls get him out of most trouble...

I was actually sad today as I walked down the baby aisle at the store to buy some wipes for the baseball bag.  I miss that aisle...all the good feelings of a new baby, new baby lotion, baby food.  All are gone!  But I guess the trade off is that I do get a great nights sleep these days.  And now, I get to watch those cute little baby legs working ninety-to-nothing all day long. Love. It.

My Birdies

It has crossed my mind that my house is a zoo many times in the past.  However, today it has crossed my mind to charge admissions and contribute to the college fund :) Not for the show inside, but for the nature before us in our yard!  Every day, the neighbor kiddos have come by our house before and after school to check on the status of the Monarchs.  Today, we had an amazing find as well...brand new birdies.

We knew there was a birds nest in our Bottlebrush trees behind our pool.  Today, we heard the equivalent of a baby human crying.  There were some HUNGRY baby birds waiting for some worms!  JBS and I peeked in the nest to see what we could see.  To my complete SHOCK, one of the little birds raised up his big mouth looking for food.  I have never seen anything like it.  For the record, they aren't cute, as they are brand new with sparse feathers.  After he raised his head up, I continued to take pictures for the next 20 minutes to get a good shot.  Holy Hannah.  It was amazing.

Is this National Geographic worthy, or what?  How BIG and yellow those mouths are!

The best I could tell, there were only two birds.  I was holding my camera out and over the nest to snap these pics.  Totally amazing.  Do you think their mouths are that yellow so momma can see where to drop the food or so they look like flowers to possible attackers?

What a beautiful week watching God's creatures!  Still so humbled by the beauty!

Monarchs

As you may recall, I have a very popular garden for monarch caterpillars.  They show up every spring and fall and gobble up my Butterfly Weed and occasionally we have had the amazing opportunity to see their chrysalis'.  This year, I didn't get around to cutting my Butterfly Weed back, as I usually do and I think it was a GREAT oversight.  One day we pulled into the driveway and JBS said, "Mom!  The caterpillars must be back!  The bushes are all gone!"  And that they were.  We ran over to count at least 30 monarch caterpillars munching away on our bushes.  Little bitty ones to big over-stuffed ones.  The boys were mesmerized.  We sent a few to JBS' school and the neighbors took a few, but every day for about two weeks we monitored the status of our monarchs.

The first pictures I took were of the caterpillars scaling my wall when they were looking to start their chrysalis.  Here is a brand new chrysalis (If you look closely you can see the design on the caterpillar through the green shell).  And here is a caterpillar about to do his miraculous thing!

Can you believe this?  The day before the Monarch come out of their cocoon, the shell gets clear enough to see their wing pattern.  These are all hanging on the gutter of my house. Beautiful!

I think this has to be one of my favorite pictures.  Here is each stage of the Monarch after it has gone into its cocoon.  The green is a new chrysalis, then one about to "hatch" and a brand new Monarch...still coming out of its cocoon!

As close I could could get with my lens of the almost complete chrysalis...

My gosh, God made these so beautiful!

 A new baby going into the real world!

And on Friday...I took JBS to school at 7:30am and these were still in their cocoon.  When I got in the car at 8:30am to leave the house, this is what I saw!

Absolutely stunning to watch God's creatures come into being.  Truly, the life cycle of a caterpillar to butterfly is a miracle!  HOW in the world does that happen???

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, starting with a day at home on Good Friday.  I did a lot of cooking and preparing for the Easter Sunday meal with our family, but the boys played and had so much fun.

First, the eggs...

Then the pool...

And the awesome Fish Fry at our church on Friday night...

We ate, we played football, we hung out with friends.  So relaxing and such a beautiful night...

Baseball games and family arrived on Saturday.

Happy Easter at School

WHS celebrated Easter with an egg hunt at his preschool.  JLS did, too, but I couldn't be there :(

Coming out to see all the eggs...

Showing me his baseball egg... (too cool!)

WHS' class...He's the youngest!

Eating bunny cookies...

WHS had fun hunting eggs.  He is still not uber-competitive.  He most prefers to get an egg and eat the candy, get an egg and eat the candy.  Cutie pie.

The Rodeo

My Little Cowboys

I failed to mention our big trip to The Houston Rodeo this year.  If you aren't from Houston, this is a BIG DEAL.  This isn't an ordinary rodeo.  It is three solid weeks of evening concerts, rodeo events and a monster expo.  I, of course, love the expo the most because there are such great vendors.  I got a fabulous purse this year :)  In true Texas style, you don't go to the Rodeo without dressing the part.  Everyone is in their cutest and nicest cowboy attire...even if we are city folks.

As for the boys, they had a blast.  I actually left WHS at home so the big boys and I could enjoy the sites together.  First and foremost, I was so proud of JBS.  Last year, as you might recall, he had an asthma attack at the rodeo with all the animals and dander around....even while wearing a face mask.  This year, no face mask and no asthma attack.  It was such a beautiful blessing.

First things first, JLS got his annual boot shining.  It is hilarious.  JLS LOVES to get his boots shined.  I guess he takes after Big Daddy in that department.  He thinks its a foot massage.

Elsie and Beauregard are there every year.  And every year we buy a bottle of Borden's Milk...

And the Fair Food...aww.  Foot long corn dogs and funnel cakes.

We are always extremely impressed with the winning longhorn.  To be so close is quite impressive.  He is a beast.  And a beast I hope never to be face to face with in an open pasture.

And finally, the boys LOVE to get on the tractors.  This might be the complete highlight of their trip.  What a dream to just leave it all behind and move to the country.

One of our favorite songs, of course, is Craig Morgan's International Harvester.  Maybe we were destined...