SO Proud

For years Braden has attended school with a sweet girl named Megan who has Down Syndrome. In elementary school, a few of the girls adopted Megan, in a way. They included her in their group for school activities. I remember one day, in particular, when it was "twins day". They made sure Megan had clothes to match them that day. So sweet! Well, now this group of kids is in the 8th grade! Last night was the homecoming game. Not only did the eight grade class vote Megan onto the homecoming court, but they crowned her as queen!

 

The smile on this precious child's face is priceless! I asked Braden if he voted for her and he said he had. Word has it that she won by a landslide. I am just so proud of this class. Even Cade (6th grade) asked if I had seen Megan win. He said he wished he was in 8th grade so he could vote for her :) You just have to love that!!

The dance is Friday!!!  Braden has a date and Cade has a group of silly boys coming over to take pics.  I'm thinking I'm going to have some fun pics to share!!

Time for a Little Football!

This past weekend was just what I needed. Heidi and I have been friends for 30 years! We were both in desparate need of some R&R and that's exactly what we got. We did a little retail therapy, pigged out on some amazing food that we did NOT cook and were completely lazy the rest of the time. It was perfect!! (This isn't from this weekend, but a couple of months ago.)

If you remember my last post, I was ticked that I had missed all the "good stuff" earlier in the week. Finally, I caught something exciting! Cade made an interception in the game last week and I caught it on film :)




He actually hit the ball first and it flew back in the air, then he caught it.  So awesome!




I love this shot...I just feel bad for his little teammate that is under him :)








Cade is usually all about me taking his picture.  This night, I guess he decided he wasn't up for it!  I told him I was posting it for sure!


Reminded me of another picture I posted recently:


lol...BOYS!!!!!!

The Beast

So this post is totally going to be bragging.  I apologize now but it is, after all, my blog :) Cade is having an amazing week!

We are in the middle of football season.  Football has been different this year.  He's playing for the jr. high school and it doesn't quite compare to the amazing season we had last year.  Last year was something special.  However, he is in 6th grade and he's doing great.  He plays in the 7th grade game and will likely start seeing the field in the 8th grade games, as well.  I never knew I would enjoy this sport as much as I do! I have yet to catch any amazing pictures yet, but I'm going to try again tonight :)

In the middle of football, we are also playing a little baseball!  Not a lot, but we are on a newly formed team this year and they want to see what they have.  This will be the first year that Cade has played in his own age group.  He has played in a higher age bracket since he started tee ball at 2!  He got away with that because Richard coaches and because he's so much bigger than most boys his age.  Also...he's that good!

He has had an amazing week.  He went 9 for 10 Sunday with his first over the wall homerun!  He was just a little excited.  I, however, have been in mourning all week because I was in the 200 degree bathroom with 2 little 4 yr. olds when he hit the homerun!  I'm pretty ticked about it actually, but so proud of him and happy for him!  He also caught a pass for a touchdown yesterday (NO...I was NOT there!!!!).  I will be there tonight, however, so he'd better do something impressive!!!!!!!!!!

They played and won 4 games Sunday and I had 4 other children to take care of, so I missed the last 2 games.  A friend snapped these for me.

That is his homerun ball and the ring they won.

Tired.

I thought I would sit down and document (mostly for myself because I will never remember!) what I do in an average week these days.  This doesn't include cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc:

This week I've:
been to church once
one orthodontist appointment
brought Braden to one baseball practice...yes...BASEBALL!!
brought Cade to two baseball practices...yes...BASEBALL!!!
watched 2 jr. high football games
brought the girls to school and back 5 days
brought the girls to 1 gymnastics class
brought the girls to 1 dance class
went to my class at the gym 3 times (yes...I'm very proud of myself!)
went to see Bryce's band play at the high school football game
multiple trips to the grocery
many nights of homework
had at least 1 serious "girl" conversation with one of my boys
2 baseball games beginning at 8:00 am on Sat.
2 baseball games again beginning at 8:00 on Sun.

I'm tired.
I'm crabby.
I'm a little overwhelmed.
I have the girls home today because we all needed a day to stay in our jammies.
I get to go away this weekend with a girlfriend.  Actually, we're just going to a hotel in town because we're both too worn out to do much more than that (sad, but true)!!
I'm very happy about that.
I need it!

I thought you'd get a kick out of this pic.  Even watching tv with Gracie is a physical sport!  This girl makes me laugh.

My Boy

Oh, how I love this boy! You don't see him much around here because he does NOT enjoy having his picture taken. I can force him into it every once in a while, but it's often met with many rolled eyes! The other day, however, I saw this pose on a friend's facebook page, and I knew I just had to copy it! Braden spends many afternoons in the backyard shooting targets with his bow. Yes...we live on a golf course. No...they probably don't know we do that...don't tell!!

 I can't say he was excited about taking the pics, but he was willing and he was pretty happy with the turnout. I am thrilled. These pics just capture my sweet boy perfectly.

 



 I just realized this morning on the way to school that Braden and Cade have a homecoming dance coming up! (I already have Bryce's on the calendar) Braden said he was going to ask a date, so I told him he needed to hurry up! I guess that means I'm going to have to get dress clothes for all of them! I'm so excited to see them all dressed up...not so excited to shop for the clothes with them though! :) It does mean that I should have lots of handsome pics coming soon :)

 BTW...the girls start dance again tonight!!! They are so excited (OK...I am too!!)

A Little Funny and a Lot Sweet :)

I thought I'd share a few of the funny and sweet things that have been heard around here recently. I know I haven't remembered all of them...but here are a few:

Wesleigh has the biggest crush on Braden right now.  It is really funny.  She adores him and has been talking about marrying him for quite a while now.  She says, "when I get big, I'm going to be a princess and Braden is going to be my prince, and we going to get married".

The girls have gotten quite good at their prayers.  It is precious to hear their little voices talking to sincerely to God.  Gracie, however, can get pretty long-winded saying her blessings sometimes.  The other day, she started saying her blessing and we just let her go.  She thanked God for the obvious things, then she started naming all the princesses.  We let her go until she hit Aurora, otherwise known as "seeping bootie" in this house!!  We all started dying laughing as she thanked God for "seeping bootie".  She looked up and said, "HEY!  What everybody laughing at!".

I was in Walmart a while back pushing the girls in the buggy with the addition on the front so they can fit.  I was going about my business when I hear Gracie complain of a booboo on her hand.  W looked at her and said, "Gwacie, you want me to pray for your boo boo?".  When G said yes, Wesleigh held her hand, bowed her head and prayed that God would heal Gracie's hand.  So sweet!

Richard hurt his back a couple of weeks ago and was in bed with it.  Gracie went over to him, put her hand on him and asked God to help "make Daddy's back feel better".  So sweet!

And because I would never want you to think they are always this cute and loving...Wesleigh told Gracie last night, as we were driving home from a football game, "Gwacie!  You weally tickin' me off!!!"  lol....seriously???  I could so tell you that they get it from the boys, but I'm afraid that one comes from me.  Yikes!!

Show and Tell

I wanted to share which pics the girls chose for show and tell today. I laid out 3 pics for each girl to pick from. Gracie chose first and picked this pic of the two of us:

I really had no idea which one she would choose, so I'm glad she went first. I asked her what she would tell the class about her picture. She is still not great at stringing together lots of words, so she pieces together thoughts.
 She talked about being on my lap and also about her toys. I think she remembers that this picture was taken on our way back from Walmart. We let her choose whatever toys she wanted :)

Neither girl really paid any attention to the other 2 pictures and really didn't even acknowledge that they were of themselves.

Next, Wesleigh chose this pic:

I would have been shocked had she chosen a different one.
I asked her the same question, "What are you going to tell your friends about this picture?".
This is her reply, word for word, because I ran to write it down as soon as she said it!
"I want to tell my friends that I was a baby in China, and my family come to get me. And I so happy and my heart is Jesus heart."

Talk about make a mama smile! What a blessing these two are!! I pray that they will always use their story to share the love of Jesus.