Jr. Beta Club Induction - Matthew & Olivia

Congrats to Matthew and Olivia on entering the Beta Club. Now, let's see if they can remain a member for the rest of their school years.

I don't think Matthew wanted me walking down in front of everyone to get this group shot. Don't you just love embarrasing your kids?




This is Chaz. One of Matthew's best friends since they were little. Chaz is one grade ahead of Matthew so he's always there to give advice on how to handle the next school year coming up.
We solemnly swear to uphold the rules and regulations of the Beta Club, to study every waking hour and never give our parents one minute of problems. Well, it didn't quite go like that but it was close.

This is Alex. She is Matthew's SPECIAL friend this year. Congrats to Alex as well!
I think this is where Matthew and Evan asked me to go back to work and quit taking pictures.

Mother's Day/Jubilee/Trike Ride

Yes, that is a coursage that you see in front of a beautiful flower that my mom gave me. The flower is actually growing inside a lava rock from Hawaii. It might live seeing as it requires very little watering and is in front of where I sit to eat every night. It was a wonderful day and I am proud to be the mother of four wonderful kids.

If you haven't noticed, I have been pretty slack on blogging here lately. Once a month seems to be the norm these days thus resulting in the title of this blog being three-part. In this blurred picture, you will see Chase on the far left and Matthew in the striped shirt, top right corner. This was Children's day at church and the children led the night service. Chase opened up with the welcome announcements and Matthew gave his testimony at the end of the night. Wow, what a kid. I would NEVER have gotten up in front of all those people at his age and spoke. I didn't let him know that until after it was over with. I am very proud of both of them.

This was the trike parade that took place for the preschoolers prior to the evening service. I think the bib I happened to throw on Carson says it all.

Well, some people didn't quite adhere to the age restrictions to enter the trike parade. This is the back of Mr. Gary. Mr. Gary is the one who so graciously ran all the electronics the night of our auction to raise money for Julia. He is a very special guy.

Yes, this picture is out of place and should be at the bottom. We attended the annual Jubilee Festival in Montgomery and decided to take pictures on the river while waiting for the bands to start up. Chase won the squeegy bottle in his hands by doing 10 pullups at the Marine's booth.
Julia was not too sure about the trike parade and decided to stay behind until everyone else was well on their way around the parking lot.

She did want to partake in the popsicle part of the trike parade and had no problems devouring her snack.... Little piggy.
Carson, Judson and Becca Beth had a little race going on to see who could finish first and make the biggest mess.

You always have the book worm in the family and then there's the athelete. Chase wanted to do the pullups every time we passed this booth. I was so glad to see they shut it down around 10:30 p.m. How many pullups can a 9-year-old perform.

Alright, already. No, none of the rest of the family can beat your record. Matthew did get up there and try to do one. Well, like I said, he tried.

This is what you wear when you are 12 and attending a Sugarland concert. Yes, we pay for blue jeans that have holes in them already.

HAPPY EASTER! HE'S ALIVE!!!!!!

Julia loved her lamb that Ms. Dawn gave her at church. We are always excited to see her showing interest in stuffed animals or at times "dolls". At times, I'm afraid she is going to be a huge tomboy with all these brothers. Please have some girly-girl traits for Mommy.

Julia is dropping the eggs as quick as she puts them in her basket and moves on to the next one. I saw that this egg hunt could take a while but she quickly decided to just go take Carson's bigger basket with his eggs... problem solved.

Yes, this is Granddaddy's bike that he used on Jekyll Island when we were youngsters. Carson fit nicely in the basket. This is where our children are put for time-out sessions.


Carson decided he liked the egg hunting thing but found that he covered more ground if Daddy carried the basket and Dakota sniffed the eggs out for him...cheating??

Why is it that whenever you finally get a good shot of the family looking straight ahead and no one has their eyes shut that you, yourself, look horrible. Could it be because I was left with 5 minutes to pick out what to where to church, fix hair and apply make-up?

Let's discuss the reason I was left with 5 minutes to get ready. Yes, I cooked a pan of cinammon rolls, orange rolls, biscuits, sausage and fresh fruit. Do you see what Carson chose? A ring pop. Okay, it's Easter.

Could it have been that they didn't want my breakfast because the Easter Bunny placed 10,000 grams of sugar at each of their seats?

Now, if you look real close, Julia is trying to make Mommy happy by acting like she is eating some fruit. I really think Meshu, the dog, was being fed under the table.

We received a very special treat this Easter. My brother Brian, his wife Jen and my niece Megan came to visit. We decided to have a cook-out and bonfire the night before Easter.

Matthew and Chase were put in charge of creating our bonfire and they did a wonderful job. Stewart was the first to try out the smores.

Now, Megan (on the right) is what a girl would have looked like if I would have had one. Carson (on the left) is what a boy would have looked like had my brother had one. There is only two months difference in age ... Carson being older.

Grandma Carol providing the after dinner entertainment.

This picture was taken of Carson before he determined it was easier to recruit the dog and his Daddy on the Easter egg hunt.

Julia decided that she wanted to take a break and have Olivia help her check out what was in the plastic items she was busy collecting.

I think Megan had a little inside information on where the eggs were placed.

I hope Megan's Daddy bought her a stroller when they returned home.

This is how Carson welcomes his cousin into the house.

I hope this kiss didn't scar Megan for life.

See, what did I tell you.. It helps when your mom has hid the eggs.

Has anyone seen my glasses?