Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

The Hottie and I both forgot his mom's birthday Thursday. Oops! So to make it up to her...

This post is dedicated to Grandma!!!

I love this picture! She looks so young and cute.

And carefree.

Must have been taken before she had SEVEN babies!
Here's a shot of her and the Hottie having dinner (long before he was the Hottie but he was pretty cute even back then). She's a great cook. We love her boiled dinner and carrot cake from scratch. She lives far away so we don't get her cooking very often.

Here she is with her four oldest children. She's a great mom. She loves each of her kids completely and unconditionally. Even if they have made choices she may disagree with she loves them just the same. I hope I can be that kind of mom. She is a fantastic grandma. She has 23 grandchildren! We don't get to see her very often but she comes to visit whenever she can. My kids love it. She will play games and do puzzles and read books for hours. She even taught Sassypants how to use the pedals on her tricycle. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Mini Me and Mini He

I showed this picture to the Cowboy and asked him who it was. "It's me Mommy!" he says like I just asked him the most ridiculous question he's ever been asked. So I told him it is not him and asked him to guess again. His reply in a very serious tone (I think he thought I'd lost my mind) "Dat is me mommy." So I told him that no, it's not him, it's daddy. So he smiles really big and says,"ebwee one says dat I look like him." Yes indeed Cowboy, you do.











So that's the Mini He, (by the way, that's the Hottie in first or second grade. Now you know what Cowboy will look like in a couple years) now here's the Mini Me. I'm sure you all know who it is before seeing the pictures but this is me in second grade.

Everyone has always said that she looks just like me. I guess I didn't realize how much she did until her second grade pictures came back. Kinda creeped me out a little bit.

Caveman Walking on Water

This is the post where I'm going to brag on my Caveman for minute. No, he can't actually walk on water, but he's a great kid! As our first born he has been our guinea pig in a lot of ways. He didn't sleep through the night until he was 15 months old but that was totally my fault, not his. The poor kid has had to endure his parents inexperience in lots of ways but he seems to be turning out all right. So far.

The Caveman is really smart. Especially when it comes to math. We're not sure where that gene came from, but it's definitely there and has been most of his life. He was adding and subtracting m&m's and hot wheels long before he went to school. The first week of kindergarten his teacher told the class they were going to split into three groups. So the Caveman says, "there's 18 kids so thats 6 in each group." Fast forward to sixth grade, he brought home his progress report the other day. Math grade...101.25. I don't even know how that's possible. That's how bad I am at math.

He has really great taste in music. So good that I usually let him choose what we listen to in the car. His most recent picks in the suburban are Anberlin, Cartel, Rocket Summer, Dashboard Confessional, Jimmy Eat World, and Reliant K. I owe my brothers Reed and Kirk a shout out for influencing him in the music department. And in lots of other ways too.

Caveman LOVES to draw. This is a talent he got from his dad for sure. Right now he is on an Ironman drawing spree. He loves to draw superheroes, especially spiderman. And he likes drawing charactures of his dad. I should post some of those some time....

He's funny! He makes me laugh all the time! He's just fun to be around. So Caveman, I love you son. You're a great kid. And I'd love you even if you couldn't add, couldn't draw and listened to the Jonas Brothers. I'm glad your my son! I love you!

Mom

It's Autumn Time!!!

I love fall! It is my very favorite season. I love putting the flip flops away and wearing boots. I love sweaters and jackets. I love the crisp cool air. I love the yellows, oranges and reds that cover all the trees. When the kids got home from school Monday I decided we should take advantage of the great weather so we went to a nature trail a couple of miles from our house. The sun was starting to go down so I didn't get many great pics but we got a couple. Any time you can take a picture of five kids and they are all looking should be considered a success.

I put the baby in a front carrier and since he's weighing in at almost twenty pounds these days, I needed a break by the time we got to the creek. Caveman and Sassypants both took a turn sitting on the rocks with him.

It was a beautiful evening and the kids had fun running on the trails and climbing on the rocks. They didn't want to leave but we were losing daylight.

One last picture on the dock at the lake, then we stopped for some fast food then went home to play UNO Attack. Cowboy won!

Cowboy for Obama???

We went out to lunch the other day and the Hottie was telling me how he's been joking with the guys at work saying he's going to vote for Obama so that if he gets laid off he'll still get paid. (He's not getting laid off, don't worry.) So a few minutes later Cowboy pointed to the TV and said, "There's Obama." The Hottie and I looked at each other then at Cowboy and we both said, "WHAT?" So Cowboy says,"There's Bwoko Bama wite there on the TV." And sure enough, he was. Then the Hottie tells him he better not say Obama, he needs to say McCain. Then Cowboy looks back at the TV and says, "oh, yeah, there he is with the white hair." It's good to know my four year old keeps up with current events.

Halloween

We hope everyone had a great Halloween! We definitely did at our house! I didn't get any pictures of the Caveman. He went trick or treating with a friend and I forgot to get a picture before he left. He dressed up like an emo kid with black clothes and eyeliner and crazy hair. I tried to get him to dress up like "Hannah Montana after a fight" but he wouldn't do it. Something about wearing his mom's clothes wasn't appealing to him.

Sassypants was a fifty's girl. I made her a poodle skirt and I think she looked pretty darn cute!

The Rockstar was, well a rockstar. A secret rockstar! She loved the make up and the wig and complained that she didn't have any jewelry. What a diva! But a cute diva!

Cowboy was....Buzz Lightyear! You weren't expecting that were you? He gave up his cowboy duds for the day to be Buzz.

And my Baby...
He was just the happiest little dragon ever! We went trick or treating and the kids got loaded down with candy then we went to Red Robin and I had a DELICIOUS chicken bruschetta burger. So yummy! Then I raided the kids candy when they went to bed. Back to the gym on Monday!

Cowboys Hat

Thursday afternoon we were getting ready to head to the airport. I was fixing the girls hair when Cowboy told me he didn't need his hair combed because he was wearing a hat. I told him he didn't need to be a cowboy on the airplane and he said, "No, Mom, not my cowboy hat. I want to wear that blue hat." I didn't know what blue hat he was talking about so he said, "you know, the blue golf hat, like they wear on the golf shows. The one with no roof."