Garden spot, Good sleeping weather, and trailer fishing...

We enjoyed what was just a spectacular weekend! The weather could not have been more perfect. Reed was going to bed Thursday and and looked up at Rob and said, "Daddy, this is some goood sleeping weather!" I am in full agreement -- of course, all weather is good sleeping weather to me!

Friday afternoon the boys from the hood (i.e. Rob, Will, and Taylor) got started on our little garden...and it turned out to be a rather LARGE garden! I am loving the smell of the freshly tilled dirt. The soil looks very rich and soft -- I have a feeling we're going to have some pretty amazing tomatoes -- yum! It's going to be work fun for us adults but the children will enjoy watching everything grow AND we get to eat our own veggies. I just hope there will be a little corner somewhere for some zennias -- THE flower of summer in my opinion.

Anyway, here is a glimpse our little garden spot --

Pre-tilling

The first line of dirt -- much goodness is going to come from this dirt....

...I have developed a love/hate relationship with dirt. I may do a post later on what I love and hate about it... 

I guess since I live with two three boys, I better get used to having it around.

All rowed up...all I need now are these!

And this is my garden basket...

...perfect for lots of tomatoes, squash, cucumbers

(and I want to try making pickles since the bbs LOVE pickles)

I got the above basket at The Fresh Market -- most heavenly grocery store, thank goodness it isn't in our little town or Rob and I would be in big big trouble!

...now all we need is the seed!

Reed says he wants okra, tomatoes, corn, squash, peas, butterbeans, and watermelon -- maybe it's good that the "little" garden spot turned out to be a little bigger than we were expecting.

And while Will was tilling the garden on Friday, the BBs were doing some fishing from their "boat." Y'all didn't know we had a lake in our backyard too, did you? Reed said, "Daddy, will you move the boat to the middle of the lake, I think the fish are biting." He was pointing to the trailer, and Rob said, "Sure, I want to see you cast it out there and catch us some fish." Practice makes perfect!

Reed -- "hooking up the boat to the dock"

Saturday afternoon we took the BBs to the State baseball game and we actually made it through the 5th inning -- with a almost 2 year old and almost 4 year old and lots of "nandy" they enjoyed the game. Reed loved it that there was a player named Luke. I am so mad at myself for forgetting my camera...even though we didn't win, we had a great time at Dudy Noble.

Anyway, on our way home, Rob and I realized that we had forgotten "bapi" -- Luke screamed all the way home -- I am now having mini panic attacks every time I think about taking the "bapi" away -- ugh!

"Nandy"

I will be very glad when the Easter candy is gone -- my children are seriously junkies...

A rare, sweet moment from Sunday afternoon...

I ask Reed everyday, "Did you have a good day at school?"

Reed: "Yes"

Me: "Who did you play with?"

Reed: "Luke, he's my best friend (inside I am such the proud mother), "but today I had to go sit in time out because I hit him in the head with a shovel." -- proud moment...vanished.

Brotherly love...I guess that too is a love/hate relationship...

with these two little BBs my prayer that it will always be more love than hate!

Springtime with the BBs

I kept wondering why in the world my house was staying so clean. Well, we haven't been inside. The little blond boys have been getting home from school and not even going through the door. We've been sliding, swinging, riding bicycles, driving jeeps, picking flowers, playing baseball, blowing spilling/eating bubbles (thank goodness they aren't expensive) and chalking on EVERYTHING (including ourselves...and FYI it doesn't come out of clothing). Basically just having tons of fun (minus the yellow dust all over everything)!

Reed and Luke love to pick flowers for me -- and that is all they pick is the actual flower -- no stem.... 

Pure joy -- loving being outside.

This picture just reminded me of the above picture of Reed for some reason -- am I just crazy?!?!?

Luke mowing --
Rob is hoping both BBs continue to enjoy mowing for about the next 10 - 12 years so he can turn over the upkeep of our almost 2 acre yard to them. I'm sure they won't want to, but I feel like they will get the yard work anyway...

Reed batting -- he loves to play baseball, but I think we're going to wait
until next year to play anything organized.

Luke even got a turn (which is rare) and loved it.

Had yet another terrible storm last night and the BBs ended up in the bed with us, which is very rare. They are now sharing a room and sleeping in twin beds. They love it! But if there is lots of thunder and lightening, Luke isn't loving anything, except finding his mama and daddy, and Reed isn't staying in there by himself. SO, they end up in the bed with us. Well, they continued to sleep through Rob and I getting
ready this morning and they looked so angelic...

You can barely see a little bruise on Luke's check from where he fell at school and his little dog "Daisy" who has sidewalk chalk ALL OVER HER.

Sweet sleep!

And last but not least, this is my snowball tree in the backyard --
it's about to be FULL of these blooms and I can't wait to fill by house with them!!!

And everything that is new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season´s change
And so it´ll be
As You´re re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring 

 Every Season by Nichole Nordeman (the spring verse)

Prayers to the Harris' family

I always wonder what heaven is like -- I know it is more awesome than we can ever imagine. Well, Taylor's dad, Craig, is experiencing the majesty of God's glory right now. Mr. Harris lost his battle with cancer early yesterday morning after suffering for about 6 months -- it's going to be a very sad time, but think about what he is experiencing right now.

Laura called me Tuesday night while they were visiting with him and she said, "You know he is so close to heaven, I mean, we talk about that all the time and he is right there!" It's sometimes scary to think about death, but when she said that, when hits that close to home, it makes you think about it on a deeper level.

I went running last night and the Natalie Grant song was on again that I posted in my Easter post, and this is the last verse of that song:

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

WOW -- so I preceded to listen to the song during my whole run. Such a comfort! Can't stop thinking and praying for Laura, Taylor, and the rest of the Harris family.

Easter Part II

Well our Easter Sunday was such a lovely day! Our service at church was just beautiful -- all the songs and the sermon were straight from the mouth of God. Both of the BBs came to the service since we release butterflies afterwards. We brought home the butterflies several weeks ago when they were still caterpillars and watched them form the cocoons, then they became butterflies a few days before Easter. After the service the entire congregation goes out onto the front steps of the church and we release the butterflies and have the benediction. It's such a symbolic little ceremony and fun for all the children too! Here are some pictures of the BBs before church around our beautiful cross and then after church with their butterflies:

My little cheeser

Precious thing

Feed this little boy some Gummy Saver Bunnies and Eggs and he is set for AWHILE ( like literally he ate the whole bag that was in his Easter basket in one sitting)

Such a cute picture of Haley -- Reed not so much...already over pictures...

About to release the butterflies!

So so beautiful!

Had to try one more time to get a family picture -- is it this hard for everyone?

Mimi and Charles with BBs (notice the tears streaming down Reed's face--done.with.pictures.)

Our Easter Table -- had a kids table too but they never even came inside.

Imagine trying to get 5 little boys hyped up on Easter candy -- minus Luke who was napping -- inside to eat. They were having too much fun playing outside together.

Reed put on EVERY Silly Band that came in the pack. They were actually cutting off the circulation in his arms. When he saw them in his Easter Basket, he said, "OH MY GOSH!!!! SILLY BANDS!!!" with more excitement that I have every heard him use.

We had so so so much fun being together this Easter and are so blessed to have such wonderful families! Terry and Laura, Shannon, Lee, Will, Ben, and Charlie -- come back soon! We love you! 

And I had to sneak these two pictures in -- "Dee Bost" shooting some hoops. Rob and Reed (and Luke just walks around clapping) love to play basketball (obviously it's MSU basketball they are playing) inside and Reed started referring to himself as Dee Bost, so Rob ended up being Jarvis Vanardo, and Luke was Riley Benock, and who was I, but THE cheerleader.
I will always be his #1 cheerleader!


Okay -- so onto the storm story -- many of you know our "beloved" Beagle Lilly. Well she HATES bad weather (so much so that we have to medicate her) and it just so happened that a terrible storm came through while we were visiting Rob's parents. Laura called us Saturday morning as we were getting ready to head back and this was what I heard:

Rob: "Yes...well, that's fine...she wasn't there?...no, I'm sorry...we will see it when we get home...

Well it ended up that Lilly had gotten scared of the weather and at about 2 a.m. she dug out of her fence and ran down to L & Ts house and started barking at their front door. L brought her back (twice) and closed off the dog door with Lilly inside thinking she would come back in the morning to let her out. When she got up to our house Saturday morning Lilly was no where in sight and this is what she found:

Lilly had CLAWED her way through the door!!!

This is shards of the door all over the room.

Blocking the hole with a 24-pack of diet Mt. Dews until we can get the new door -- pretty ghetto fab, huh?

Come to find out, my mother had gone up there about 5 a.m. since she knows Lilly's psychosis. Lilly had apparently clawed her way out of the door and was just hanging out in our yard. Mama took her back to her house and Laura didn't know mama had been there. Anyway, we figured out she was safe then dealt with the damage. So now, we're getting a new back door!!! Still can't believe she clawed right through the door...crazy dog...

Loving spring and being outside -- looking forward to a wonderful spring with my three boys!

What a wonderful Easter weekend!?!

We have had such a fun weekend (especially since it has been 3 days)! The BBs have been loving getting to play outside because the weather has been so pretty. We have enjoyed looking around everything growning in our yard.

Thursday, we went up to North Mississippi to visit Rob's parents and Reed informed us about Spring:

Reed: Daddy, did you know what happens in Spring?
Rob: No, tell me.
Reed: Well all the baby animals are born and all the flowers bloom. And Jesus rose from the dead.

He is getting too big for words!!

Friday, me, the boys, and their Mia (Rob's mom) went over to see Aunt Kristen. We got there and she had gotten the boys an Easter surprise -- fishing poles! The BBs were SOOOO excited. We went immediately to the lake and got busy fishing. Reed had a worm on his pole and everything thanks to Uncle T. I taught Reed how to cast it out into the water. After several scary moments involving the slinging casting of the hook and a lot of practice, he would cast it into the water about every third time! Luke lost interest in the fishing very quickly but just walked around and played -- it will be a few more years until he can sit still long enough to fish! I could tell Reed was getting a little restless, and about that time he caught a FISH!!! So exciting!! Below are some pictures from our excursion!

SO excited after catching his 1st fish! (Reed was all too happy to continue to remind Uncle T that he caught "zero" fish and Reed had caught one -- but Uncle T did catch a turtle by the shell, then Reed told him,

"T -- T stands for Turtle"

Thanks Uncle T, Kristen, and Mia for a wonderful day!

Daddy and pop caught a few fish of their own on Friday as well.

                                                                    Rob and Aunt Kristen

On Saturday morning, we're on our way back home for our church's annual Easter Egg Hunt at the home of Moe and Peggy Yarbrough (affectionately known to us as Papa Moe and Ms. Peggy). I will spare the details of the mosterous fit that Reed threw as we were leaving (mama said I used to throw these all the time when I was his age -- payback I guess...ugh!). Anyway, the Easter Egg hunt was so so so much fun and the weather was PERFECT after the bad storm that blew through the night before (more on the storm and what happened at our house in my next post)!

"Little Buddy" Papa Moe's Donkey

Reed going down the GIANT slide

Sweet Luke

Luke and SA having an Easter moment

Luke runs to me like this all the time and says "mommyeeeee" and I LOVE it!

(I didn't think the above picutre of Reed needed a caption -- ha!!!)

Reed and Papa Moe on their way to check out the garden --

can't wait for all the peaches and plums that are growning out there!

Our Easter Family portrait!

                                            
                                       -- more on Easter and our storm incident later --
                        Oh, but one more thing...this song by Natalie Grant...Happy Easter!