Sweet Cousins

Born only 11 days apart...WHS is younger and pint sized compared to his cute cousin RP.  But they have loads of fun together!  It is ALWAYS good to have a little female influence in this house.

My Papa

I love this picture of my Papa.  I have seen this uniform in person and he was so tall and so skinny that I am not sure his pants would fit past my knee.  That is one gene I wish was passed down to me!

I wrote about Papa several years ago and I love to go back and re-read those posts.  Also fitting for this Memorial Day.

An American Hero

An American Hero (cont)

Now that I have three boys of my own, I cannot fathom sending these young men off to war.  Not only did these men serve and sacrifice for us, but their families did as well.  Thank you to all the men and women AND their families who sacrifice to keep us safe.

New Helmet

WHS got a new bike helmet.  You might think it was Christmas.  JLS got a new bike for his birthday so the boys have been racing bikes.  Unfortunately for WHS, his baby bike helmet is too small for his brain-filled head.  So, off we went to Target to get a new helmet.

I showed him the pretty blue helmet, the monster helmet, the sparkly red helmet.  BUT...his eyes were never deterred from the TANK Helmet.  I am fairly certain that he would wear that helmet all day long if I didn't ask him to hang it up in the garage.

One proud boy!

Be Still My Heart

In my quest to clean up my life and clean out my house, I am cleaning off my computer.  This is what I found today.  Clearly, I wasn't on my game in October to know it was picture day.  That said....Halloween t-shirt or not, I love this kid.

He regularly grabs my hand and kisses it and tells me how awesome I am.  

How in the world did I get so lucky?

Oh my gosh.  It just got better.  Look what I found now!

Third child.  That's all I can say.

Home Depot Party

JLS had his party at Home Depot.  It was another successful party and the kids had a blast.  We squeaked in from a baseball game to arrive RIGHT on time to our own party.  Eeks.

The boys started hammering right away on their choice of a tool box or football ring toss.

LH and JLS working away...

Serious carpenters here...

 The whole gang...

I think my flash wasn't working so I had to edit all the photos.  Unfortunately, this one didn't lighten any more, but oh so cute of the 3 toots!

Everyone had a blast.  We actually got to shop afterwards and then headed home for a big rest!  Happy Birthday sweet boy!

JLS' Cake

JLS is EIGHT!  Something about the number 8 seems so old.  7 seems young.  8 is old.  Sniff. Sniff.  At least I still have little WHS to hold on to.  I now know why "the baby" is always "the baby."  

This year, JLS had a Home Depot birthday party.  He picked out his cake decor, so it sort of moved from a Tool Party to a Road Construction Party, but he was happy!

This year I decided to try the checker board cake.   So, when you cut it, it had two colors on the inside.  I am not so good at "Free-styling" cakes, but JLS happened to pick out the pieces. I had to make it work.  To my credit, I think it looked better in person :)

I crushed Oreos for dirt and Nilla Wafers for sand.  And...I found Rock Candy for the rocks.  

In the end, it was the easiest cake I have made in awhile.  The checker board DID work.  Unfortunately, the pictures that I took turned out too dark to see.  One more cake under my belt.  How many more left? :)

Mommy-Willie Selfies

Field Day for the big boys happened to fall on Mommy-Willie Day.  Mommy AND Willie both LOVE Mommy-Willie Days.  We usually go to gymnastics after we drop the boys at school and come home to do whatever we want together.  This Mommy-Willie Day was spent watching JBS and JLS run, jump, hop, sprint and giggle their way thru Field Day.  

I thought it would be a fabulous idea to break out the biker trailer and bike up to the boys' school together.  Mind you, we used to do this twice a day, but since moving to our new school, no one bikes.  We had a small set back when I had to CLEAN the trailer after being in the barn for the last few months.  We got the tires aired up on the both the trailer and the bike and I was thinking I was already ready for a break.....not so lucky.

We were running late at that point and loaded up.  WHS was happy, I was happy.  It was a gorgeous and cool day to ride the bike.  When we were about half way there, I was half way up a gentle, but LONG hill.  WHS said, "Why you goin' so slow, Mom?"  I told him between huffs and puffs how heavy he was and that we were on a hill.    He was quiet for awhile and a few minutes later he said, "Maybe dis was not such a good idea for you Mom."  As a puffed myself up the last of the hill I started dying laughing.  My 4 year old knows I am out of shape and tired.

After the events, we had a break before the Finals, so WHS and I loaded back up the bike and puffed home.  Going home was much easier, as it was mostly down hill.  As I was on the home stretch, I heard his little voice say, "How ya doin' up there Mom?"  I laughed and asked if he was worried about me.  "Yes."  Nothing like your children making you feel old.

When we returned home for lunch, I felt like I had worked really hard and there was nothing in the pantry.  So, WHS and I loaded up for a quick lunch date at Jax.  As we were driving the CAR to eat, yet one more time, WHS asked if I felt OK.  This was too much!  I was not even out of breath and he was still worried about me.  Was it THAT bad, WHS?

I am here to tell you that I did, indeed survive exercise.  We had a fun day together with the boys at Field Day.  Only one more year of Mommy-Willie Days and I am so sad thinking about it already....

Field Day

Field Day at our new school is a BIG deal.  We had no idea!  The Sampler boys had a great showing and I am so proud of them!  There were lots of fun games that the class did as a whole.  But what seems to be the big deal is Tug-of-War, the 50 Yard Dash, and the Long Jump.  Every child participated in the Dash and the Long Jump and the top 3 kids in each class returned to the finals.

JLS placed 1st and his best buddy (left) a very close 2nd in the 50 Yard Dash.  And JLS got 2nd in the Long Jump.  So he returned to the 1st grade finals for both events.

JBS placed 2nd in the 50 Yard Dash and 3rd in the Long Jump for his class and also returned for the finals for both events.  The difference between JBS and JLS is that JLS plays to win....every time.  JBS is actually a pretty gifted athlete, but his desire to win is not the same.  It took JBS very little effort to place where he did and he was happy with that....just placing.

In the finals, JBS had TOUGH competition.  By the 3rd grade there are some BIG boys.  JBS is tall, but there are some tall AND wide boys that are what I call "Farmer Strong."  They are big, tough kids.  JBS ran and jumped very well, but not enough to medal in the finals.  He is a rock star in my eyes every day!

I am not really a track girl, so I can't give full disclosure on technique.  I can say that JLS ran, he jumped and one person beat him.  He placed 2nd in the Long Jump for the entire 1st grade.

JLS had a tight run between him and LH, his best friend.  The funny part was that they both knew they were each other's toughest competition.  When practicing in gym before Field Day, JLS always told me that LH won unless he tripped on his shoes.  As they started their run, LH was on one side of the field and JLS was on the other and they never took their eyes off each other.  In fact, I am not sure if they ever saw the finish line for all the racing they were doing against each other.  I have a feeling these cuties will be racing against each other for MANY years to come.  The best part is that LH is an awesome kid with an awesome family.  We are SO grateful to have found such a great friend in LH.

This is my first attempt at uploading a video.  I tried to video for Babe, but apparently when JLS actually won the race I got so excited, I missed getting him crossing the finish line...

JLS is in the bright green shirt in the middle...

Mother's Day

Another wonderful Mother's Day...another year these crazy angels are getting older.  Love them to pieces and love being their Mom. 

I love having a preschooler, as they still come home with some of the sweetest gifts for Mother's Day.  WHS had a cute little collage.  In fact, I will take a picture of it and share it.  AND...the best part of all holidays is when their teachers write down the kids' answers to questions.  My favorites:

What does your mom say all the time:  "I Love you!"

When does your mom look beautiful:  "When she wears handsome dresses."

What is her favorite outfit:  "Her purple OSU clothes." :)  At least he got pieces of both in there!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers!

Hoppy Easter!

We had our first Easter in our new house with Grammy and Big Daddy in attendance!  For the first time, I said, "The heck with it" and let the boys hunt Easter eggs in their jammies.  Early and fast!

WHS was, of course, the most ecstatic about hunting his eggs...

Cuties rolled out of bed and asked "Where are our baskets we can hunt with?"  I am that mom...the pretty baskets with their Easter things stay inside :)

Showered up and ready to go to church!

Grammy and BD....

The whole family...

 Including the newest addition....Miss. Mona.....

Happy Easter!

Fun Pics from the Lake

I am doing a massive cleaning of my laptop and desktop computers.  It has been SO refreshing.  I am going file by file and deleting unnecessary files and moving a lot over to the server (i.e. old Tippie Toads things I don't want to get rid of completely.)  By doing that I am finding some fun things.  Two pics from the lake in particular that I love....

This is back when JLS went NOWHERE without a cape.  Man, I miss those days.  And sweet little WHS...don't even remember those days much!  {sniff sniff}  While I love this pic, this was in the midst of me being unhealthy and getting healthy and lots of job stress for Babe.  We always found lots of peace when we headed to the lake!  JBS looks like just a little guy....a stark contrast from a boy whose foot is bigger than mine now!

And these boys!  {Swoon!}  I want to eat them up....

These pictures make me feel old....

Ain't

Last weekend, we had Gambo, Aunt Jenny & her two girls all come for a visit.  We were so excited to have them and always know we are going to have fun.  I, for one, benefitted from beauty nights with lovely make up and hair do's.  The boys had fun playing with their cousins.  We worked a large garage sale and survived it {barely}.  We were really sad to see them go.

That said, Tuesday morning, after we said "Good-bye" to everyone Monday, the boys were eating their breakfast.  JLS asked for the cereal.  Without missing a beat, JBS said, "There ain't any left."  I stopped in my tracks and looked at him.  He looked at me.  Then a smile creeped across his face.  I said, "Where did that come from?"

See...I am a bit fanatical about proper English.  I know exactly where it came from and that is my grandmother, Gigi.  As a little girl, she corrected my "Yella's"  with "Yellow"  emphasis on "O".  I said, "Mauve" {mahv} she said proper English was mOve. {mOwv}  She was very eloquent and always politely corrected my southern slang.  My husband consistently uses "set" in place of "sit" and it drives me nuts.  I have Gigi to thank for this, but she did teach me a lot about speaking properly with good English.

So, when JBS broke out "Ain't" for the first time every in his vocabulary, it stopped me in my tracks.  He finally said, "Kenzie says it.  Why can't I?"

Maybe it's time for me to send Kenz to the School of Gigi.  I can laugh out loud at the vision of Gigi if I said, "ain't" in front of her.  She might laugh and laugh, but she would definitely end that conversation with a "The proper way to say that is to say, 'There isn't any left.'  OR 'There is not any left.'"

So funny how our words turn to slang.  Kenz, we still love you to pieces. But there ain't no "ain'ts" here :)

The Tooth Fairy

This child....is having wavering faith in regards to the tooth fairy.  I never lied to him, but certainly didn't bring forth the truth :)  In an effort to keep the Tooth Fairy alive in our house, I decided to add a little glitter/fairy dust to his bed and around it to seal the deal.  The boys know I hate messes and there is NO WAY I would have created that kind of mess to clean up.  I went into his room after he got up and asked what all that was?  He said, "I know!? What is it?"  I said it must have been from the Tooth Fairy.

There was a particularly large spot of glitter that the Tooth Fairy may have dumped in the dark accidentally.  I said, "Oh my!  Look at this!"  With every bit of seriousness, JLS said, "Did she poop?"

Wouldn't it be nice to poop glitter?

Nothing Gets in His Way

Yesterday, this was JLS.  His tooth was so loose that it moved when he talked and rested on his lip.  He worked and worked on it and couldn't get it out.  He was most afraid he would swallow it in his sleep and miss the Tooth Fairy!

Today was a gorgeous day and a beautiful day to watch some baseball.  JLS's team played the best baseball they have ever played.  They lost their last game to one of the top rated teams by 3 runs....and it was a close game.  Very exciting!

Today, it was such a great game that JLS lost his tooth during the middle of his game.  He stuck it in his pocket and kept playing.  Always the gamer, never to be distracted....even if he loses a tooth!

He went on to make play after play at short never giving an inkling of an idea that maybe his mouth was bleeding?  Nope.  The game must go on.

Love this child.

Cute Cute Boys

These are some of the sweetest and cutest boys...JBS' buddies from his old school.  Gratefully we still get to spend time with these guys at church and scouts.  A great group!