baylee turns 8

it is hard to believe that my first born is eight. i swear that i was just pregnant with him. you always here that time flies, but you don't believe it until you witness it first hand. i am so proud of the young man he has become. he is smart, friendly, and will stick up for those he believes is the underdog. i am amazed at how loving and caring he is. i can't even begin to explain the feeling of joy he brings me everyday. i look at him and think that lee and i have done a pretty good job of parenting, but i also know that he is one of the easiest boys to parent. i am so excited that i see the young man i want him to be already forming before my eyes.


baylee is really into pokemon cards these days. he wants to trade them at school everyday. he was super excited to get so many.

he had a slumber party for his birthday. several people told me that i should rethink the whole idea. i am glad that he had that experience. it was a lot of work for lee and i but, i am glad he got to experience that birthday. we started the day at the park. the bigger boys played football, while the 2 little ones played on the slide. then we went to the house and they played the wii, legos and outside. lee was awesome at the party. he played with the boys, wrestling with them. i think they did get the better of him at the end. it all started with a pillow fight and ended up with everyone dogpiling lee. there was movies and popcorn. kids trying to beat the record of how long they stayed up. all in all it was a great party. i hope baylee was as happy as i was.

"i am king of the world!"

in true tayte fashion he was laying there like nothing was going on. there was a wild chaotic war zone going on and if you looked at tayte he was unphased.

payton did not like that fact that all these boys were attacking his daddy. he tried several times to help lee. either he was flinging his blanket or he finally grabbed a pillow and was trying to help lee. he even tried to pull lee out from under the huge pile of boys.

i got up and cooked breakfast like i always do for a birthday, only this time i had 5 extra mouths to feed. i made baylee's blueberry pancakes and it was a success. since i am lazy and only make them from the box several of the boys loved them because they didn't taste like blueberries.

the aftermath of cooking pancakes for 8 boys.

i think baylee had a great birthday.

tara

sweet payton

i have been meaning to post this for a couple of days now, but i have been super busy.

a lot of the time i tell how onry payton is, but he does have a sweet side. the other night he was laying in bed with me. i was trying to sleep and he was watching tv. he was in no mood to sleep so he kept messing with me.

i felt a little hand under my chin. then i felt a soft kiss on my lips. he was so sweet.

"i wuz you."

he did that a couple of times and then rolled over and went to sleep.

tara

what do you do?

baylee has gotten in the habit of not bringing his homework home. he is an excellent student. the only grade that is not above a 94 each six weeks is his handwriting, and if you ever saw his dad's handwriting you would understand. he is a great kid, but twice this week he hasn't brought home homework. since christmas break he has forgotten 5-7 times. lee and i are at our wits end trying to come up with something that works. the last idea i had was a highlighter for his assignment sheet. any suggestions would be appreciated.

exhausted,
tara

dogpile daddy

lee and baylee started wrestling on the bed. i joined in trying to help baylee. payton thought it looked like fun so in he came. we yelled at tayte to come upstairs. finally he came and after lots of pleading he joined the fun. i yelled "dogpile daddy." we climbed on in order of age.

lee

me

baylee

tayte... at this point it was a large pile.

and, did payton make it on?
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yes payton climbed on.

lee commented on how much weight he added. apparently tayte thought the same thing because he said, "i should have climbed on last."

we need someone else around to take pictures.

tara

random sayings by the boys

i have been meaning to post some of these for a while now.

payton:

• pluh play = push play
• mau milk = chocolate milk
• fli fli = chocolate
• frink pepier = drink of dr. pepper
• had you = hold you

tayte:

• wudie = movie
• tayte is growing up so he is using big boy phrases: the other night baylee was pestering him so he looked at baylee and said "knock it off" we all started laughing because it was funny hearing that out of a little body

baylee:

• he is really into music so he has been singing a lot lately, my favorite is beyonce's put a ring on it. i don't know if that is the title or not but that is what he was singing "if you liked then you shoulda put a ring on it, if you liked then you shoulda put a ring on it. oh oh oh..." that cracked me up.

i will add to this post later.

tara

brothers

why is it that they boys can go from punching each other one minute to loving and hugging the next? they really do get along really well. they have been in a funk lately. i think that has to do with the bodily explosions (from both ends) that all the boys have had during the last week or so. they are better now, but there is the lingering whining that comes with being sick.

five minutes ago payton was hitting tayte. then payton fell and wanted me to hug him. so i was holding him and tayte decided he needed to be held. so i was holding both of them. payton didn't like that and wanted down, but after i started patting tayte's back payton decided he needed to help. he needed to love on tayte and hug him. i guess payton decides he needs to make up for being ugly and will love on tayte.

i really feel sorry for tayte. he is so much bigger than payton, but payton gets the best of him at least once a day. tayte doesn't liked to be screamed at and payton does it a lot, i think just to aggravate tayte. but, payton will try to be nice. he always wants to help wash tayte's hair, give him a cookie, or anything little like that.

i don't get brothers, they fight and then love. why does there have to be so much fighting?

tara

my grandma

yesterday was a very weird day for me.

i had heard a rumor that my grandma had changed her will before she went to hospice. the whole idea of that put a huge knot in my stomach. i have always known my grandma to be a caring person. she always thought of others, every year i would get a birthday card in the mail before my birthday would arrive. but i never, never, expected anything from my grandma after she died. ok, truth be told i did expect something that she had made, it could have been a quilt, a crocheted tablecloth, or something along that nature. so to get a will in the mail was unsettling. to see my name along with my aunts and uncles made me stop. what made my grandma so concerned that she felt the need to make those changes. i believe that you work hard because that is what you should do, not because you need to leave something for your heirs. i never thought "well one day when my grandma dies..."

my biggest fear is that by her doing this, there is more harm done between family. i don't want anyone else to be angry at me.

but, i also needed this. i needed to know that someone cared that much for me that they felt the need to take care of me. i will be forever grateful to my grandma. not for what she left me, but for the what she did for me. she is the greatest example of what a woman should be, and i am lucky to be able to call her grandma. i am a better person for her being in my life. i have learned many things from my grandma. i hope to be the grandmother to my grandkids that she was to me. i hope when my challenge comes that i can be as selfless as she was. if not i did not fully learn her greatest lesson, compassion.

i love you grandma. i love you for the memories i have with you and for the memories you made with my children.

tara

my 2 worlds collide.

it started with collecting (i have over 200 flair):

most of the flair that i have has some meaning. like the one above. i am omicron. the 15th greek letter. my family gave everyone one a greek name, whether they wanted it or not.

but then i had a friend make one.

it is so cute. i love that logo it is for this really great scrapbook store that i know.

and then i started making flair. this is not the best one but it is the only alamo sign i could find so it had to do.

so my world of blogging and my addiction to facebook have collided.

tara

ps. lee said i can't call him nerdy anymore. he says this takes the cake.

pps. i will be starting my 12 step flair program later.

eye dr round two

i went back to the eye dr. because i couldn't see out of my left eye. that was because he ordered me a -6.5 and should have ordered a -8. how do you get that far off?
plus i had to order a new one for the right eye.

maybe one day i will be able to see straight again.

tara

who needs a pool?

every once in a while the looks on the kids faces will outweigh the mess that is made and i will let chaos ensue. here is chaos at its finest. they had everything they needed: a slide, water and someone to enjoy the fun. it started with bubbles. tayte asked if they were taking a fast bath or slow bath. slow bath means toys. i decided to grab the bubbles, that started the excitement. they played in the bubbles for a while and then tayte got the brilliant idea to slide down. how he got it i am not quite sure, if he fell and then saw the opportunity. i will never know. the tub started 2 inches higher than it was when they finished, but thankfully there was not 2 inches of water on the floor. not sure where that went either. one towel was all it took to clean up. and if i had thought about it sooner i would have thrown it down at the end of the tub and there wouldn't have been anything to clean.

i am a strict mom and expect my kids to act a certain way. but i let them have fun. they took turns without me having to ask. they moved back so as to not get hit. and when i told them they each had one more slide, they took it and stopped. as crazy as this looks it wasn't the worst thing that could have been done.

now only if i had a tub big enough for me to do this.

tara

basketball program night

last night we had baylee's basketball program. panhandle does this thing where each grade is given a night that they preform various basketball skills at one of the varsity games. as luck would have it we got the girls game. i think we always get the girls game. anyway it is the same program year after year just the kids get bigger. this year there was excitement. three kids didn't get basketballs passed out to them. for these kids it was more anxiety than excitement. it just so happened that baylee was one of these kids. the look on his face as he scrambled trying to find a ball. i felt so sorry for him, it is a packed gym especially because the girls are doing well. finally, he got a ball and they could start. he did really well, we were all so proud of him. he really likes basketball, which i am glad because it is an indoor sport. he has improved so much since last year. i guess that is the good thing about the same program, you really get to see their improvement from year to year.

chest pass while side-stepping

figure eight through legs

dribbling down the court to finish

they also moved the ball around their legs, head, and stomach. shot the ball up and caught it. that one always makes me laugh because baylee not wanting to do it wrong or lose his ball, barely throws it in the air.

this year was also easier for lee and i. the other boys actually sat down for the majority of the game. they did run around a little, but it wasn't like years past. which also makes me sad because that means they are growing up.

this is the same face from tayte from year to year. i am sure if i looked back at last years program i could find a picture just like this. he cracks me up.

tara

that's what i get for thinking

a friend of mine gave me one of those $15 giftcard things for bath and body works. i think it is one of those that you get when you spend so much. she ended up with a lot and was not wanting to go back in again so she gave it to me. i walked in planning on getting their 3 for $20 special. as i walked to the back i noticed tubs full of stuff for $3. i put my first selection back and grabbed 5 of the $3 bottles. went to the register to pay and walked out not giving them a penny. these are the big bottles. the ones that usually cost $10-12 bucks. nothing, nada, zilch. this was my night.

and then we went bowling.

payton had my iphone to keep him busy. he did something and it froze up and wouldn't do anything. i went to get the boys some food. as i was walking down the stairs carrying the food i slipped. there were probably 10 steps. luckily i have ninja skills and ski-ed down the stairs managing to save 3 cheese sticks. the hot dog, chips, and other sticks were on the floor. half the ranch dressing was on me and the railing. but i didn't fall on my arse. really who puts stairs in a bowling ally. those shoes are slick. so i sat an pouted about my phone and food all over me. i went to bowl and the lights on the lane quit. i finished my turn and the lights came back on.

i did break 100. i suck at bowling, but i usually have fun so it doesn't matter that i stink.

i didn't break my neck. apparently a lot of people slip like that because the 2 guys at the counter were at my side muey pronto asking if i was ok. did i hurt myself. or else it just looked really ugly.

my iphone is working.

so i guess it wasn't that bad after all. it just stunk while i was in the middle of it.

tara