Yesteryear: 4 years ago

It's time for yet another edition of Yesteryear, where I open my thumb drive and post random photos from the past. This means 1 of 2 things: A) I have nothing exciting to report from the present day. B) I'd rather blog than clean my house.

If you chose A) or B), pat yourself on the back for making the right choice.

These photos were pulled from the January/February 2007 file. Liam was 3 1/2, and Jackson and Garrett were turning the ripe old age of 2.

If we were in the car for more than 15 minutes, Jackson would fall asleep.
Not much has changed on this topic, except that he can now make it 30 minutes on a good day.

Garrett was never a good napper as a little guy. Well, not much has changed there either. But my mother-in-law sent me this picture of him on February 1, 2007.
He was spending the day with her, and I remember she asked him if he needed a nap. Naturally, he said NO. So she told him to just lie down and watch a movie with his blanket. A few minutes later, he was asleep.

Why in the world do I remember that was February 1, 2007, yet I can't remember that we need olive oil when I'm at the grocery store???

Back to yesteryear.... I know that was February 1, 2007, because Garrett spent the night with Ni to celebrate his birthday, which is February 2nd. And it snowed that Groundhog Day. Random facts that help absolutely no one.

You're welcome.

Moving right along.

Back in those days, whenever we were expecting Didi (my mom) or Ni (Rick's mom), my kids liked for me to open the blinds in the dining room so they could watch for their cars.
All 4 of my boys would wait with great anticipation. Sweet, huh?

We often get warm days in the middle of winter here, and whenever we do, we head outside. This is one of my favorite photos of all 3 boys:
Reasons I love it: 1. Liam's cheesy grin. 2. Garrett's watching his big brother with great admiration, as he's always loved his big bro. 3. Jackson's scrunched up forehead that he thought was a smile. 4. J&G were lefties even then. 5. The ever-so-cute Beatles t-shirts.

Jackson has always sat in this position to watch tv.
To this day, he believes that is his spot, and he races to make sure he gets there before his brothers.

If we weren't outside or watching tv, I came up with all kinds of goofy games to keep these busy boys moving. One of their faves was to make a train and "choo choo" throughout the house.
Liam was always the engine, Garrett in the middle with his eyes on Liam, and Jackson the caboose and in a hat. They were creatures of habit even back then.

Another game was Red Light, Green Light that began at the front door.
I'll let you figure out who won every time.

As soon as we could get back outside, we loved to go on long bike rides. Liam rode his own bike, and every ride had to include chewing gum.
He has holes in the left knee of his jeans even today.

And the littles rode in the trailer behind me.
As long as they had their gum, they didn't care about being crowded.

Yes, my kids began chewing gum at an early age, each right around their second birthday. It was one way of getting some peace and quiet on the road, so they could have it in the car and on bike rides. Never once did they swallow or play with it.

We usually rode to the neighborhood park. A bike ride + playtime at the park = nice, LONG afternoon naps.
Jackson got his first pair of glasses in January 2007, just as he turned 2. His little round frames were a hit everywhere we went.

But I prefer his luscious eyelashes.
Be still, my aching heart! Where on earth does the time go?

Garrett's Journal

Garrett's teacher sent some of his make-up work home the other day. As he worked on a math assignment this morning, I thumbed through his journal and found this:

"My family is speshl."

I think so, too.

The Hunter

Good morning. It's day twelve here of the 2011 Virus, the bug that keeps on kickin'. Liam and Jackson are well and back at school this week. Garrett came down with it last, and he can't manage to kick the fever. It hovers in the 99-range until around 1:00 in the afternoon, and it shoots up to 101-102.

While his temp is around 99, he feels fine, as witnessed by his typical ornery behavior. "Hey, Mom, do you want me to hit your booty with this arrow?"
After a quick trip to the grocery store this morning, he pulled out two dozen straws and planned a bow hunting trip.

I love the creativity of this boy! He used a pencil to puncture a hole in each end of one straw. Then, he asked me to help him find and tie string through the straw's holes. The other 23 straws are in his Aggie backpack and pulled at a moment's notice when he needs to defend himself.
I remember reading in Dr. James Dobson's Bringing Up Boys how boys will turn the simplest things into weapons. He wasn't kidding!

My bow hunter is now asking for food and water. I think he's planning a major excursion, so I better go oversee his packing.

But first, did you notice he's not wearing pj's? Every hunter must get dressed into their favorite collegiate apparel. It's the proper attire, ya' know. And he told me that hunters don't need to fix their hair.

Okay, then.

The View from Here

I just turned on Photo Booth to take a picture of myself for your viewing pleasure. Are you ready for this?




















Unfortunately, you won't be viewing that photo, because...yikes...the view scared even ME. Instead, I thought you might like to see Winston. Quite frankly, he looks better than I do at the moment.

It's 1:00 in the afternoon, and Winston and I are in my bed. There's a sick boy sleeping on our favorite couch, so we've been booted to my bed.

And it's wonderful!

Liam came down with a high fever on Saturday evening, and I've been home playing nurse ever since. He went back to school today, but Jack came down with the same virus yesterday. And the pessimist in me expects Garrett to be sick by tonight.

Thankfully, this virus does not include vomit, because puke freaks me out. I'm talkin' I have a genuine phobia of vomit. Maybe I should consider counseling.

But this virus hasn't sent my blood pressure to 200 over 80, so it's all good. I don't like seeing my boys lethargic from fever, but I've been getting plenty of extra snuggles in the meantime.

And I love, love, love wearing my pj's every day. Like I could totally become a home body if it means my wardrobe consists of soft and cozy pajamas and snuggly little boys.

What's the point of my rambling? No point. Just needed a reason to share Winston's picture and the fact that I'm enjoying life at home, since I'm a housewife.

Cotton Bowl

Our beloved Aggies played LSU in the Cotton Bowl this past Friday night, and guess who got to go? Yours truly!

Rick's good buddy scored us three tickets, so Garrett and I were able to tag along to the Dallas Cowboys stadium, which I call the Mother Ship.
Before the game, we were able to meet Revellie, the Aggie mascot.
Some of the cadets posed with my maroon-bleeding baby.
The first quarter of the game was Aggie football at its finest with plenty of reason to WHOOP! We led the quarter by 3 points.

Sadly that was the only lead we had for the rest of the game. We lost 41-24, and I fear we'll never be invited back to the Cotton Bowl.

At least I can say that I'm proud of the Aggie players, coaches, and fans. They all behaved with class. Sadly, I can't say that about the LSU fans around our seats. Since this is a family-friendly blog, I'll leave it at that.

My Little Cowboy

For a long time, Jackson has asked for cowboy boots. It was around Halloween that Rick told him he could get his first pair for his 6th birthday. I patted my husband on the back for such a wonderful idea, because Jack's birthday falls only twelve days after Christmas, and I'm typically OUT of gift ideas by then.

True to Daddy's word, we took J-man to Cavendar's the night before his birthday to pick out his boots and hat. Rick's parents met us there to buy the cowboy a shirt and belt.
He chose black ropers, a black felt hat, a two-tone Longhorn belt, and a shirt that he calls the "Stampede shirt".
He dressed up for school on his birthday the next day and looked cuter than any cowboy I've ever seen.
And he hammed it up BIG TIME.
I wouldn't let him take his cowboy hat to school, but his teacher gave him a party hat for the day.
My mom took him Subway for lunch, and Garrett couldn't be left out of a good meal.

After lunch, I brought cupcakes to his class.
He stood on a chair while his classmates sang "Happy Birthday" to him.

He loved every ounce of the special attention.
When I went to bed that night, I was reminded that a cowboy lives in my house now.
On his birthday, the Lord kept reminding me of how far we've come with this little man. This time six years ago, I was still grieving the loss of Jack's failed adoption. I wondered where in the world he was and what would come of his life. Just a few months later, we were elated to finally be able to adopt him and bring him home. But the emotions were bitter sweet, as he came home with many needs. The Lord's grace carried us through some really tough times during Jackson's first year of life. Now that he's six, he's a silly little man with great potential.

Jackson, I love you, cowboy!

Putting Some Things to Rest

I like to call myself a "housewife", but I should really be home home more often for that to be true. I guess I should just call myself "busy". The past week was a super busy one, and my house and blog suffered as a result.

As I set out to clean house yesterday afternoon, I realized the dust bunnies had entirely too much time on their own this week. As I would round a corner with my broom, they would run away from me with an evil laugh echoing behind them. After some serious talkin'-to, the bunnies did surrender.

And my blog seems to be mocking me with the sounds of crickets chirping when I open it. I haven't even finished blogging about Christmas, for crying out loud! I guess I better remedy that now.

But since Christmas is old news, I'll just share a few of my favorite photos that I haven't had time to share and then I can put 2010 to rest.

As I mentioned here, my brother, sister-in-law, and Edie came to visit for the holidays. It was a lot of fun to watch the 4 kids play together. Edie is not a dainty thing, and she even learned to wrestle my boys to the ground. (Mom, I still need pictures of her taking the boys down!)

One afternoon, we all met at my boys' school to shoot off rockets. Ben and Edie joined us.

I love that picture of her and her daddy. For whatever reason, she has her finger in his ear. I guess it just felt right.

We also took Edie to walk around the Gaylord, which is decorated beautifully with gingerbread creations.
My boys began climbing the rock landscaping on our way back to our car. (Please tell me you let your boys climb the rocks, too!) Naturally, Edie wanted to follow, so I helped her climb a little, and we stopped for a photo opp.
Oh, how I love that girl!

On their last evening, they came to visit us at our house for a little bit. My parents wanted a family picture, so we set out to get that done. It took a lot of silly antics from Uncle Rick to get Edie to cooperate past her bedtime, but she loves Rick and he was able to get her to smile on cue.

(Yes, my boys are wearing pj's again. No, they don't wear them 24/7, although I know it appears that way on the blog. But we are ALL in our pj's as I type, because it's a snowy, sick day over here.)

Now that I've put the dust bunnies and the crickets to rest, it's time for my own nap. I'll be back in a day or two; I promise.