Adventures in Babysitting while helping friends!

My lifelong friends, Ashely Jenni and Kelly lost their grandmother last week.  She was a beautiful woman, one of the last of the group of "old ladies" we learned so much from.  She's up there with my grandmother now and they're probably cooking some wonderful Italian dishes...in fact, I think I can smell it now!  Mmm!

While my friends were dealing with an incredible loss, I offered to watch Jenni's little girl, Jillian and Kelly's son, Blake!  These kiddos had a wonderful time wearing me out, having fun, going for golf cart rides, feeding the ducks and MORE!  

Can you see all those red cheeks and smiles??  

We played games, watched movies, ate snacks and played in the backyard for a long time!

It was Adventures in Babysitting for me, helping me understand that I don't think I could handle FOUR children at all times...it was hard work, let me tell ya!  But I love these kids and have known their mothers for a really long time, so it was wonderful seeing all of our kids having such a great time together since most of my childhood and teenage memories involve their Mommies!

Girls, I am sorry for your loss but she's up there watching over you and your families now, and probably having a great time with your PaPa and all of her friends :)

the big catch!

Since we bought the travel trailer, these boys have become quite the outdoorsmen!

They love to go fishing and luckily we've found a great spot not far from our house!  With his first cast, Jake caught this the other evening!  He was yelling and running with excitement and almost lost him!  Daddy helped him reel it in and then he stopped to take a picture with his BIG CATCH before releasing him back into the water!
That evening has followed by fishing EVERY evening!  Think we've found something he sure loves!  And Justin, our little man even caught a fish with big brother and Daddy's help!  Now that football practice begins on Monday, we'll have to save fishing for the weekends!  Ah, I'm such a proud Momma!!

Houston Zoo

Our friends asked us to go to the zoo and thanks to some of our other friends(Thanks Beck Family), we are members and got in free!  We had fun as you can see...

The zoo is always fun and I'm proud of my kiddos for hanging in the Texas heat today!  Well worth it!

are ya ready...

for some football??

fun outdoors!

Another fun, camping trip!  We headed to Jellystone this time around and enjoyed it so much!  We had a few groups of friends join us that have campers too, so it made it even more fun!

The boys had a blast being outside ALL DAY LONG, fishing, swimming, getting filthy, riding bikes and playing football!  Now that Jake is a pro on his bike, he'd take off all around the campgrounds with his buddy and they'd eventually make their way back around, telling us all of the things they saw...birds, squirrels, fish, turtles and more!

On this trip, I decided to really get into the outdoors, I REALLY enjoyed fishing and after a while of making Brandon put on my worms, my friend and I decided to do it ourselves...ewww, I know but it wasn't that bad!  I kind of enjoyed it, especially when I'd do the bait and then immediately catch a fish!  woohoo!  Made me proud!

Justin caught his FIRST fish and Jake was catching them like crazy!  Justin ran around yelling to everyone..."I did it, I caught that fish all by myself!!"  Ha!

There's something about watching kids explore, enjoy and have FUN outside...it makes you feel good knowing they can have good old fashioned fun without high tech toys and gadgets!  We are already planning our next trip and can't wait to get out there again!
We are getting the trailer full of the necessities we'll need each time, so we only have to unpack clothes and food which makes it nice too!

FUN everywhere we go!

Yesterday we had to go to Sports Authority in the pouring rain to find Jake some football cleats!  

Yes, football is our next sports adventure :-)  -flag, not tackle!  whew!

We arrive, nobody is in the store so we decide to turn the place upside down!  

NOT REALLY, but we sure had fun!!!

This is what they gave me when I asked for their INTIMIDATION FACES...

 Oh these boys crack me up!  We found Jake's cleats and he refused to take them off!  So, we tried on football helmets, pads, and gloves....threw the football too many times and he even ran a few plays with his brother!  LOL!  Oh we make such a scene EVERYWHERE we go!!!  And Mommy probably danced to a few songs that were playing in the store...I couldn't help myself!


And then it was time to hit up the putting green in the front of the store!
This was Justin's victory dance after hitting a hole in one, baby!!!  

Jake took it very seriously...which impressed me, because a year ago he could have cared less!  When Daddy came home from work yesterday, they had to practice hitting with his very own set of golf clubs that he's never shown interest in, until now!  He was driving the ball over the fence and actually doing pretty good!

See, don't ever think you've gotta spend money to have fun!  We have LOADS of free fun all the time!  You just gotta think outside the box and be willing to look silly, (this is a work in progress for my husband and Jake, but Justin and I love to make fools of ourselves)...that's what life is all about, right?!

STRIKE!!!

Have ya heard of this?

I suggest you check it out because all summer long at AMF bowling alleys, kids bowl 2 games/week FREE!
We paid for the shoes, which are only $4.35/per child! So for less than 10 bucks, we had hours of fun!!

With my husband's crazy work schedule, he's able to be off frequently during the week and the same for my friend, Sarah's husband.  So, with both guys being off yesterday, we took all four kids to our local bowling alley and it was a BLAST!  Little man used this to help him out, but Jake decided he'd go without some help(well, they did have bumpers!) and he scored a 104!  Pretty darn good for a 5 year old huh?  In that game, he had 2 strikes and a spare!

Happy bowling!
And all you have to do is register online, get a confirmation, bring it to your local alley and you're all set!
I think you can register as many children as you want...but you might double-check on that!

the week!

The week so far...

started off yesterday with a trip to the ER!  

Oh yes, Justin-our little guy was playing with some of his buddies, they were jumping around and acting silly and his friend, Hudson landed on top of him...after it happened, his arm went limp and he would scream every few seconds and would NOT let us touch it.  

We took him to the local urgent care/ER and they immediately ordered x-ray, and told us he probably broke it at the wrist...oh yes, I was FLIPPING out!  

Then during x-ray they turned his wrist/hand to get the shot and all of a sudden I heard a snap, he just stopped screaming and used the injured arm to open the door!  Uh yea!  The only reason I knew that he actually dislocated his elbow was because when Jake was 3, he did the SAME THING to the SAME ARM!!!!  I'm serious folks, I couldn't make that up!  

But I'm happy to say he's doing great today and I know these boys will probably have many more ER visits in the future...unfortunately!

mowing with Daddy!  Yep, they each have a lawnmower like their Daddy!

BBQ with my boys at a local place that has delicious smoked turkey & chopped beef!  Mmmm!  Blury pic!

and as always, lots of evening golf cart rides :-)

cousins. and my hubby too!

My husband's sister and family moved to Austin, so when these girls come in town, 

we always make time to hang out and have some fun!!

 They usually swim all.day.long at DeDe's and then eat junk food, watch movies and laugh hysterically!  Isn't that what grandma's house is all about?

...and a picture of my three boys!  

My husband, Brandon is my best friend.   He makes me laugh all of the time, especially when it's just the four of us.  He puts his family FIRST.  He is their hero.  They wanna be just like him with everything that they do.  He is the love of my life and if possible, I love him more than the day we met over 11 years ago!  

He has given me the gift of staying at home, raising these wild boys!  

And most of all, he's such a hottie...oh wait, that's just for me to know!!!