Say HEY!

This is a video that we took on the way to church one morning!

It makes my heart Warm to see this!

Way to go Daxtyn!

Go EAGLES!

I saw an awesome weekend full of football! I couldve done without the Tech/Texas game but I got to watch 2 other games that made me SO happy! Daxtyn(#8) is playing his second year of flag football and is LOVING it! He plays primarily on defense and running back from time to time. And I may be a little biased here, but he's pretty great! Both games he has intercepted passes which led to his team making a touchdown! GO DAX!

He was also chosen as the Defensive player of the game yesterday. I am always so proud of his hard work and focus. So whether or not Tech came out on top this weekend, I got to see 2 games that were way more important in my book!

Southern Summer Cooking

We've had a plethora of veggies this summer and I feel like I have to share these pictures with you. They are just TOO pretty.

Oh and these pictures of Dacie were also too pretty not to share! That girl LOVES tomatoes!

However, I must admit that by now I'm sort of losing interest in my garden. I've got too much to do and can't take care of it like I should. I've pulled up all the zucchini plants- I'm tired of squash bugs! I'm ignoring the Crowder peas- Too many wasps on them. But I never get tired of seeing those bright red, juicy tomatoes in my Cherry colander. It's a beautiful sight!( sorry, no pic!)

I also decided to grab a few green tomatoes. And serve up a beautiful platter of Fried Green Tomatoes! Idgie would be proud!

Isn't the contrast of color beautiful? Crisp green on the outside and juicy red on the inside!

These were so Yummy!If you've never had Fried green tomatoes, I'd love to fry some up for you!

"Oh, what I wouldn't give for a plate of fried green tomatoes like we used to have at the cafe. Ooh!" -

Ninny Threadgoode

"I found out what the secret to life is: friends. Best friends."

Ninny Threadgoode

FIGHT!!

It was our Fight day! We fought for several hours, as a matter of fact!

This was a day that we had planned on sharing with friends but as life would have it,

We decided to just spend Labor Day Weekend together as a family.

Round 1: Snowball Fight in September!

A little Brotherly Love...

ROUND 2: COLORED SPRAY GUN FIGHT

For this activity we all put a white T-shirt on over our swim suits and the idea was to see which team won based on who had the most color on the t- shirt.

Of course, some people cheated and poured the entire bottle on us! And others cheated by pulling out the water hose! But it was a fight just the same.

As you can tell, we all got colored pretty well!

Dacie liked the "Pinkalicious" on her shirt. And that was about all she liked. I don't think she could figure out why her family was running around throwing things at each other and screaming! By the time she finally got into it, the rest of us were out of snowballs, but she didn't seem to mind!

ROUND 3: SNOW CONES- We all saved one of our snowballs and had a snowcone to wrap up the day. We had originally planned to have a water balloon fight too, but after Kent being gone for 2 weeks and getting into the routine of school, we all decided that we'd rather curl up together and watch National Treasure 2.

What a great weekend! I love leaving "margins" in our life!

A long time comin'

There are a few things that every boy dreams of: Being a super hero, digging up a buried treasure, digging a hole to China, and bunkbeds! We finally broke down and got the boys their bunkbeds. They have been sleeping in a single twin bed together for their whole entire lives! Not because we only had one bed( they each had their own bed), but because that's the way they wanted it! And I think its neat so I'm not going to stop them. But I was concerned about the loud "thunk" that we would hear almost every night coming from their bedroom. Poor Dayton would fall out of bed quite often and the just get back up in bed and not remember a thing!(Hopefully because he was in such a deep sleep, not because he hit his head! Ha!) So we decided that maybe these bunk beds would be the answer to the problem! And if they want to sleep together they can, and if not, they have their own space to retreat to!

When I asked them what they wanted their room decorate in, they both said Tech. So I threw in a little Rock N Roll, because that is a big interest for Dayton right now, but I thought with the help of my wonderful friend, Aunt B (Beverly Perry) it all turned out great!

I'm pretty proud of how their pillows turned out that I made for them!

And what makes this even more special, is that alot of the things in their room are Darrell's things. Carrying on the tradition! Get your guns up and make him proud!

Go Red Raiders!

First day of School!

First Day of school-2009

Our "first day of school" routine starts the night before. I left off the pictures from that part of this event. We start back to regular bedtime the night before school starts and go through all the normal things of getting out the backpacks(school supplies were packed WEEKS ago), taking showers, laying out our clothes...etc.... Then for our traditional book we read "The Kissing Hand", "My School is A Zoo" and a devotional teaching about how God made us all to grow and change. You'll notice the lack of me in any of these pictures and that is NO accident. Example as to why: When I was making Dayton's lunch for school on Sunday afternoon I noticed that some of the packages looked like he might not be able to open them, so I called him over to me and was trying very hard to compose myself- But all of the sudden I became a blubbering idiot, unable to hold back my tears! So through the lots of tears I tried to explain to Dayton that if he need help opening any of his things all he had to do was raise his hand and someone would come and help him. And through my sobbing, I looked down at him to see this confused little boy, who could see that his mom was sad and didn't know whether to laugh at me or to cry with me, so he just gave me this very puzzled look, nodded yes and then walked away! So needless to say, there will be no pictures of me in this post because it took me all week to stop crying! And every time we prayed on Sunday, the boys would add "Dear God, Please help Mama not to cry so much!"

Strawberry Pancakes and Whip Cream for breakfast! Yum!

Traditional First Day of School Pose outside of our purple bush! Go Eagles!

Little Did she know, her world was about to change. She spent all week saying "Boys Back?", "Dayton", "Dax", and "I want My Boys". This didn't help me hold back my tears at all!

These boys were ready to go! There was no hesitation on their parts. I'm so proud of them for being such confident young men! Daxtyn was very ready for school to start. Mostly just ready to see his friends again. It makes it a little easier to let them go knowing that want to be there. But by Tuesday morning, he had already decided that he didn't want to go anymore! The new had worn off! But I've just been praying that Daxtyn will be a leader in his class and will let God's light shine through him as he interacts with others. He always tries his very best and does so with respect for others. I know he will be a blessing to those around him!

This little guy walked into his classroom with all the confidence in the world! I know that he will do great things. He has such a sweet spirit, is so tender-hearted and willing to succeed. We are so blessed to be his parents! I just pray that he continues to be himself and to stay true to the things that he loves, and to all the things that make him "Dayton". He has been blessed with so many talents and I just pray that God puts people around him to help him become a strong Christian one day!

As Kent, Dacie and I walked out of Dayton's classroom, I again lost it and cried all the way out to the car and Composed myself enough to discuss going to grab some coffee with Kent before I met some friends for a prayer breakfast for our kids. Then I started the car to drive aways from the school and with the most perfect, yet horrible timing the radio plays "And now the opening of the gates of Graceland... we welcome Elvis fans from All around the Country and All around the world..." and I look back in my rearview mirror and missed seeing the excitement that Dayton always had as we would hear that at 8:00am every morning! Dacie didn't seem to care about the opening of the gates... go figure! But my sweet husband, wonderful friends and lots of prayers helped me through the day!

Ahhh! The picture every Mama wants to see at the end of the first day! An excited, very happy boy! Both of them had a great first week of school! If you've read this blog post, please stop and say a prayer for these two kids as they continue on this exciting journey! And you could throw in a prayer for their parents too!

"Teach me your ways, O Lord,that I may live according to your truth!

Grant me purity of heart,so that I may honor you".

Ps. 86:11

Savoring Summer

"There's no other love like the love for a brother.

There's no other love like the love from a brother."

Is it possible that summer has come to an end? This is the question that everyone is asking themselves right now and I am no different. We have gone and done SO much this summer. Every year, on the first day of summer, we sit down together and make out our summer stash. This is usually done on some incredibly cute scrapbook paper

and each paper lists an activity we would like to do this summer.

And we did our very best to accomplish all of these activities this summer.

Here's our summer in pictures.

Some are big moments like going to the Great Wolf Lodge and catching a Rangers game

or birthday parties

others are not as big like having snow cones with our buddies

or selling lemonade.

But I think in the long run, these "small" moments probably mean the most.

A night at the museum: No light in the whole place! It was an awesome experience!

Savoring some watermelon with my little girl (while dodging watermelon seeds from all the boys!)

Hiking to the top of Palo Duro Canyon with Grandpa

Dacie bonding with Dustin in the Mountains

Daxtyn Fishing in Colorado with "D" ( I realize it is incredibly strange for someone in our family to be nicknamed "D", but that's how it is!)

Just Hangin' Out

Family Reunions:

Putt Putting- I Putt Putted enough for my entire life while on our vacation in Colorado, but it's always interesting and I ALWAYS get irritated and give up by the 14th hole. I stink at putt-putt!

Dayton's first camp out with his Best Buddies in the Playhouse- ALL alone- During a terrible storm!

Going to an Elvis "tribute Artist" concert!(that deserves a post all its own!)

"Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them."