Were they creating their own vaulting horse?

The boys were watching mens gymnastics while I was working at my desk. I walked into the living room to find this.

Simple Misunderstanding

Today was election day.  I told the boys we were going to vote (they said we're going voting!)  When we left the sub courthouse Barrett was very disappointed.  I asked him why he looked so bummed and he said, "I thought you said we were going 'boating'"  Poor guy.  Guess helping me push the buttons to vote isn't nearly as exciting as riding in a speed boat!!! Lol

Meeting Alberto Gonzalez

Another exciting day for our young Texas Rangers fans! Alberto Gonzalez was at the Whataburger in Ft. Worth. 

 

After getting his autograph, the boys chose the seat directly behind Gonzalez for us to eat at :)

Then it was outside to find Captain.  I think Barrett might actually want to go to these TX Rangers appearances just to see Captain! lol 

 

Jimmy Sites and Grandmommy

Yesterday Daddy Steve and Namaw took Brody and Barrett on a little road trip....

They woke up early and went to Gatesville, TX to hear Dr. Jimmy Sites preach.  Jimmy was my former youth minister and a close friend to Daddy Steve.  He is now the producer/host of Spiritual Outdoor Adventures.  He is the star in the hunting shows produced on TV, he writes books that are sold on their website, and has many other programs/events that he sponsors that are related to both God and the great outdoors.  To the boys....he's the star of the hunting show we watch and they were excited to have him autograph a set of their deer sheds!

 

After church, they headed to Grandmommy's house to celebrate her birthday (just a little late).  The boys had fun visiting with her and Sharon and Jim....and Amy (the puppy) of course! 

 

Look who came to visit!

 

Sydney, Kidist, Kaleab, Cedric, Tyus, and Taya (and Dwayne and Rene, of course)!

(We couldn't get a straight faced picture of all of them.  Someone kept crackin' jokes.  Cedric was laughing in this picture...but you can see everyone else.)

They are on their way to Houston as Sydney, Taya, Kaleab, and Tyus all qualified for the AAU National Track Meet!  They stopped here for few hours to get out of the car, play, swim, eat, and relax.  Then it was back on the road.  We're hoping that they'll stop on their way home and stay the night so we can have a little longer to catch up.  It was so good to see them!  It had been way too long!!

"That's NOT Leonys Martin!"

Today was another scheduled public appearance by a Texas Rangers player.  Since it was at the Whataburger close to us, I stopped by after the gym to see if they were giving out the wristbands yet.  They weren't giving them out yet....but at 6:30 am there were already 8 people sitting in their lounge chairs in line (one of them had a 2 year old with them!)  Leonys Martin wasn't scheduled to come until 10:30....so I'm not sure why they got there so early!  I stopped by early thinking that if they were already giving out wristbands I could get some for us and then not come back until 10:30! lol

When the boys woke up they wanted to hurry and get to Whataburger so that we didn't miss getting a wristband (like we almost did last time when we got numbers 222-224 out of 225!)  We stopped by Wal-Mart first (to get a new baseball for him to sign) and arrived at Whataburger around 8:30.  When they passed out the wristbands, we were numbers 41-43. 

Brody and Barrett waited so patiently as we sat outside in the sun.  They played a few games on my phone, but that got old fast.  So we played many, many rounds of "would you rather".  Not only did it keep the boys entertained, it also entertained everyone sitting around us!  At one point the employees from Whataburger brought around kids cups of ice cream.  The boys loved that!!

When "would you rather" got old, I told Brody we could play War.  He informed me that we couldn't play War if we didn't have a deck of cards....and then I made up some rules for playing Imaginary War. We would say, "1, 2, 3...." and then whatever card we had in mind.  Before long people around me were saying, "Wow!  I didn't know you could have so many ace's in one hand!"...so I had to enforce the "only 1 ace can be played per minute" rule. 

Leonys Martin arrived on time (10:30) and the line begin moving quickly.  Within 10-15 minutes we were inside Whataburger.  Brody and Barrett were so excited to hand over their baseballs to be signed!  Then....Barrett looked up at Martin and said (in a loud 4 year old voice), "Momma!  That's not Leonys Martin!"  The room suddenly went silent.  I said, "What do you mean?"  He replied, "He does NOT look like Leonys Martin!"  "Well he IS Leonys Martin!" I said.  "Well he doesn't LOOK like Leonys Martin!" said Barrett. By this point everyone around us (including Martin) was laughing at the little boy who was disputing the identity of the "celebrity" signing autographs!  I finally convinced Barrett that this is what Leonys Martin looks like in person...and that maybe he looks different on tv because he has a hat and baseball pants on.  This finally satisfied him.

 

After getting their baseballs autographed, we bought some lunch to eat.  The boys were estatic that the booth directly behind Martin was open!  Brody wanted me to take a picture of him with Martin in the background (he even told me exactly which angle to take the picture from!)

 

I spent most of my time saying, "Boys!  Sit down!  Stop breathing down Martin's neck!!" I also didn't want them dropping pieces of chicken strips on Martin and his translator! lol

 

Almost as exciting as meeting Martin was seeing Captain!  Captain's helper ordered him a drink as they were about to leave and the boys were dying to see how he was going to drink it through the horse head....so they were disappointed that the drink was to go.  lol

 

Little Grocery Carts

Our a/c is working again!!! Yay!!! It's tough to be without a/c in Texas...pretty much any time of year!

After Ken came out to fix it...and after work...the boys and I headed to the grocery store. They decided they didn't want to ride in the race car grocery cart. Instead, they wanted to each push a little cart. I've never let them push a little cart (mainly because we always have too much on our list for such a small cart), however, today I gave in. They followed me around the store like train cars follow an engine...making sure I put an even number of items in each cart.

After we checked out, they pushed their carts out to the car and loaded the groceries in the back! It was strange not pushing a cart or loading the groceries in the car! And did I mention how CUTE they looked pushing around the little carts?!

Keepin' Cool

The fan motor on our condenser went out last night. What does that mean? It means it's HOT in our house! How does Barrett resolve the "my hands are sweaty" issue? .....

How Old Were You?

How old were you when you shot your first gun? I was 19 years old.  It was the Christmas after Mike and I were married and he took me to Kansas for 2 weeks.  I remember being terrified of the kick of the shotgun as I squeezed the trigger...and then the ringing of my ears for hours because I'd forgotten ear protection.  Over the past 13 years I've learned a lot about guns and now I love going shooting with Mike.  I can't wait until we have a hunting lease so that we can spend more time shooting and hunting as a family! 

Our boys have learned about guns at a much younger age than I did.  Brody was 4 years old when he went to the gun range with Mike for the first time.  At that time 4 seemed a lot older than it does now that our baby is 4!  Since Brody is on vacation with Grammy right now, Mike took off work yesterday so that we could have a special day with just Barrett.  He was so incredibly excited when we told him that we were taking him to the gun range today! 

 

We stopped and bought some new ear protectors for him on our way and then he patiently waited as Mike got everything ready at the gun range.  {Side note:  I know you're used to seeing my picture collages...the ones that I make so that creating a blog book is easier on my end....but I wanted you to be able to see all these pictures full screen....so instead of a few collages you get a lot more individual pictures today!}

 

Pulling the trigger on the .22

 

 

 

So serious as he focuses on the target...

 

Yet, he didn't hide his excitement when he hit the bulls eye!  He LOVED it!!!

 

Mike and Barrett with the target that Barrett shot to pieces.  It is now hanging on the wall by his bed.

 

 

Guess who said my name?!?

AXTON!!!!!! It's so fun when the little ones learn to say your name!! He may not be able to say "Aunt Staci" yet....but Audria and I could tell that the "da-ce" was most definitely him saying my name. Love it!!!

Letting Go

Today I did something pretty hard...I sold this in our garage sale.

 

There are a lot of reasons (that will be in another blog post)...but one of them is that this thing takes up a lot of space.  There are so many memories that we have with this high chair...so it was like letting a piece of my boys childhood go.  I was thankful that it went to a good home...but I did shed a few tears when it left.  We had a successful garage sale and all the cousins had fun playing together and selling lemonade!

 

 

 

The start of a tradition...

Grammy decided a while back that she would like to make a tradition of taking her grandchildren on a trip (just with her) for their 6th birthday.  Brody is the first one to turn 6 (or he will in August) and he was super excited to have Grammy all to himself for a week!!!  We got Grammy a Texas Rangers cup for her birthday (so they'd match on the roadtrip).  They had me take their pictures with their cups before they climbed in the car.  They'll visit some friends and family in KS before heading to Colorado for a bunch of different activities including a train ride at the Royal Gorge.  I hope she takes lots of pictures for us!

 

Mike and I aren't the only ones who will miss Brody this week.  Barrett will be lost without his big brother!  I'm not sure he'll even know what to eat for breakfast since all he says when I ask him what he wants is, "What is Brody having because I want the same thing?"

 

Collin was over to help with the garage sale we're having at Daddy Steve and Namaw's, so he joined in with Barrett on the goodbye hugs.

 

Walking home from work

 

Swimmin' with Axton

After work and rest time, Audria and Axton came over to swim with us! The boys had so much fun entertaining Axton in the water and Audria and I had fun hanging out, talking, and watching our sweet boys play together! I have a feeling these boys will grow up to be more than cousins....they'll be great friends!

 

 

Ready for a day of work

Event Photographer

 

 

 

Barrett's fav part of Hawaiian Falls....

 

Fireworks from a trailer!

 

Tonight we went to David & Daina's house (Audria's parents) for a July 4th celebration.  Daddy Steve & Namaw; Caleb, Audria, & Axton; Carl, Trisha, & CJ; and Poppy (David's dad) joined us there.  Along with all the yummy food, we had fun time just relaxing and hanging out.  We missed Tyler, Ann, & Luke being there with us (they were recovering from another stomach bug).

 

 

 

 

Relaxation

I think we've had the perfect start to our July 4th holiday....

• Night swim last night in our pool
• Sleeping in 'til almost 9 am
• Yummy French toast breakfast
• A competitive game of NFL Monopoly

 

Shhhhh!

Barrett told me to keep the door shut to his room when we were leaving for work today and to be quite in the hallway.  I asked why and he said I could peek in and see.  This is what I found....

 

He had tucked "Real Bear" in bed with the baseball pillow under his head.  He'd also left the music (John Denver) playing and had turned off the lights and closed the blinds.  He said Real Bear was gonna take a nap while we are at work today and he told Barrett he likes it dark and likes to listen to the music.  Barrett was so serious telling me all of this....and it was so precious!! 

Our 'lil entrepreneurs

Today at work the boys spent most of the day building with Pipe Works.  The set at Daddy Steve and Namaw's house is from when Caleb, Tyler, and I were little.  I'd say this toy was a great investment!  They are so well made that I'm guessing my grandchildren will still be playing with them!

Normally I am being interrupted 5,387 times to help the boys build something.  Today I wasn't interrupted at all, so I was surprised to discover that they had built a lemonade stand all by themselves!  They were super excited about having completed it and couldn't wait for me to finish working so I could help them make lemonade and set up shop!

We took it home with us, made a pitcher of lemonade, and then they sat outside to wait for cars to drive by.  Brody said it was the perfect time for a lemonade stand because it was time for people to come home from work.  After several cars passed without stopping, the teenager who lives across the street pulled into her driveway and got out of the car.  When she started walking towards the garage door to go inside Barrett yelled out, "HEY!!!!   WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" and held his hands up in the air with exasperation!  After I was able to stifle my laughter, I spent some time talking with them about the proper etiquette of running a lemonade stand.

 

The boys had 2 "real" customers today (Daddy Steve, Namaw, and Mike also purchased lemonade...but do they really count?  The boys told them they didn't have to pay for lemonade...but were happy to take the money when DS, Namaw, & Mike insisted).  They may not have made tons of money today with their business venture, but I was so proud of them for being little entrepreneurs!