Tidbit Tuesday

Here are a few little tidbits about what's going on around here:


Hollace: has been in Oklahoma for a week now. She is having a ball. Everytime we talk to her, we ask "Do you miss us?" and everytime she responds exactly the same: "Yes, but not enough to come home yet."

*Here is a post card we got from her the other day.


Thad: Poor little guy has had a stomach bug the last couple of days. Brent found him in the dining room like this.

He has not felt good at all. Rhett had the bug last week and so far Brent and I are ok. Let's hope we don't get it on the drive to OK. If you recall we had the stomach bug at our house when we were suppose to be driving to Ok last time too. What are the odds?

Also some big news about Thad: He is FINALLY walking. A couple of weeks ago, he took his first couple of steps and within a couple of days was walking all over the house! I really need to get some video on here. The little wobbly gait is so cute!




Rhett: He has just been busy playing. He is loving Toy Story right now. We finally bought the first two movies and he has been watching them everyday. He is also BEGGING for a bike. I don't know if we can hold out until his birthday in August.

Here's Rhett and I after the triathlon Saturday. He was playing in the dirt the whole time they were there and I don't think he even saw me.
Me: This tri was a little longer than the last one, but still a sprint. The main difference was that it was an open water swim, in Old Hickory Lake. I was a little nervous about this, but I actually really enjoyed it and thought it was easier than the pool swim, even though it was twice the distance.
I got some clip-in shoes last week, so I need to start using them. That should be interesting.

Yeee-Haw!!! for VBS!!!

Our VBS was a couple of weeks ago, and all three of my little cowpokes had a great time! I taught a three year old class-NOT Rhett's three-year old class. I learned this lesson teaching his class during Sunday School/ETC a few weeks before. They all got to go since I was teaching. It was a long week, but lots of fun.
Here is a picture each of them "made" in their classes during the week. So cute.

Don't worry, this shaggy-haired cowboy has since had a haircut:

Sheriff Rhett:
This picture didn't scan very well, but you get the idea:

Wordless Wednesday

Father's Day, Baby Dedication and a Sendoff

Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful father I ever could have hoped to have for my children!

....and to two great Dads/Papas that we are so lucky to have!!

Today we dedicated Thad in the baby/family dedication service at our church. We weren't able to get any good pictures during the service, but the church is sending the families a DVD. This picture we took after church will have to do for now.

Uncle Scott came this weekend for an adjustment- I mean visit! He did give Brent's braces a little tweak while he was here. Hollace had fun being Scott's assistant.

We took Scott back to the airport this afternoon with a little more baggage than he came with......Hollace. The grandparents talked us into letting her go to Oklahoma WITHOUT US. She will be there a little over a week, then we will drive there for a visit and pick her up. I'm going to miss her, but I know she'll have a blast.

Here she is on the way to the airport. She got a haircut this last week. You can't really tell from the pic, but it's a lot shorter.

We'll miss you, Hollace!

Random Picture Parade

I was looking through some picture the other day and found several that I had meant to post at sometime and never got it done. They are cute, funny, or otherwise blog worthy- or just something I want to remember later. There are quite a few of them. Here they are in no particular order:

Hollace put this bath toy net on her head and she and Rhett were playing "wedding" during bath time. Apparently this net was her "veil". Isn't she a beautiful bride?

This was "Round Up Day" at Sunday School. How cute are these little cow pokes?

I like this pic of Thad at a year. We had just cut his hair.

We were taking family-self portraits just for fun last summer. Thad's face in this one cracks me up.

This is one from our family shoot last summer. I like this one more now than I did at first. Thad looks so little.

This is a scanned picture of a magnet Rhett made at church last Christmas. I just thought it was so sweet the way he was sitting in the nativity by baby Jesus.

Cousins: Thad and baby Margot last October.

This was the same time and it's not a great picture, but I like it b/c I think Hollace and I look a lot alike here.

I'm not sure why, but Rhett is wearing the inside part of a plastic fireman hat here. Hollace said he looked like he had had brain surgery and was calling him "Brain Surge Boy".

They decided to play school (ignore the trashed play room), and I overheard Hollace say to her student: "Just because you just had brain surgery is no excuse for that behavior." Ha-Ha.

This next one may need a big explanation. You know Scott put braces on Brent awhile back. It has been a little tricky getting his adjustment made with his orthodontist 800 miles away. So every time they are together we just make it work. Our living room has been a make-shift ortho office a few times. This time was at Thanksgiving and I think this is funny b/c of all the people here. Bev was holding a flashlight. (Again, ignore the messy house)

Another adjustment on another visit:

Hope you enjoyed the parade.

"Pay It Forward"

My friend Kara did this on her blog awhile back. It is a little game called "Pay it Forward". Basically the first three people to comment on this post will get a little something handmade from me sometime in the next year.


The only rules are that you have to have an active blog to participate and you have to do the same post/giveaway on your blog after you receive your gift from me. The gifts don't have to be anything big or spectacular. Also, if you're not crafty, you can still participate. You can support a friend or local business and buy something handmade.


This is the gift I got from Kara: two mini scrapbooks, ready for me to fill with pictures. Aren't they cute?

Sounds fun, doesn't it? Hurry and comment.

My POOR, SWEET, SMART, FUNNY Boy

There are OH SO many words I could use to describe Rhett, but this last week, these 4 come to mind.

POOR

We were at our church's indoor play area and Rhett had a major collision with a pole. It was padded so I know he must have hit it really hard. He was running and not watching where he was going. His eye was bruised and swollen immediately. I held him with an ice pack on it for a while and he finally decided he was ready to go back to playing after a lecture about running, etc. He wasn't up 3 minutes when he ran into the slide with the other eye. It wasn't as bad, but he ended up looking like he had been beat. These pictures really don't do it justice.

After a couple of days, the swelling was going down, but still bruised. I think it actually looked worse the day after this.


SWEET

A couple mornings ago I was in the bathroom getting ready and Rhett came in, and out of the blue (and without asking for anything afterward) we had this conversation:

Rhett: "Mommy, you're beautiful."

Me: "Ahh, Thank you Rhett, that is so sweet."

Rhett: "and you're pretty."

Me: "That is soooo nice, Rhett."

Rhett: "and you're even cool!"

Me: "Thank you, Bub!"

Rhett: "Which one do you like me to say to you the most?"

Talk about MELTING MY HEART!!!. He really wasn't trying to butter me up or anything, then he wanted to know which I liked him to tell me the most???? Could he be any sweeter? I'll have to try to remember this next time I'm really upset at him- which could be anytime now.

SMART

Background: A couple of days ago we were discussing a bible verse from church, which was "Love one another", and how this meant to show kindness to one another, etc.

So......today he was asking for a drink, actually whining and moaning about how thirsty he was. (He had left his sippy cup upstairs and didn't want to go get it.) I told him to bring me his cup and I would be happy to get him something to drink. He said to me: "Mom....Remember, "Love one another"?....That means if one person doesn't want to go upstairs and get their cup, then another person should go get it for him."

FUNNY

Today he told me about his lesson from VBS: "Zacchaeus climbing up the Fickleman (Sycamore?) tree".

.

AND on a totally UNReLATED note: the other day he casually grabbed his boy-parts-area, and said to me: "Mom, I'm going to start calling this my Dude".

OH MY, that boy....................................

The Long Awaited Pool Opening

Our neighborhood pool opened Memorial weekend. The kids have been asking for months "how many more days until the pool opens?". We have to pass the pool to get to our house, so now they ask EVERY day if we can go. I am grateful to have the pool and it is a great pool, but I have to say taking a 6 year old, 3 year old and a 16 month old to the pool is a lot of work. It's not like I get to sit and bask in the sun and read magazines. It is NON-STOP chasing, floatie inflating, sunscreen applying, holding, taking to the potty, lifeguarding, and wrangling. Oh well, the kids have a ball so I guess it's worth it. Brent went with us on Memorial Day, so it was a little easier and I was able to snap a few quick pictures, but they are not great.

Big Sis and Baby Brother.

He looks so big in these, and Hollace has really started to be a big helper lately with Thad.

Thad wasn't too sure at first, the water is still pretty cold, but he ended up having a great time.
I could barely catch Rhett for a picture. This is the best I could get.

A Memorable Memorial Weekend

I did my first ever sprint TRIATHLON on Saturday. I decided to do it about a month ago and talked my friend/neighbor into doing it with me. She is a biker, but hadn't been doing it much lately. I haven't been on a bike in years and have NEVER been on a road bike. But- I run and we can both swim okay- SO we decided- what the heck, we could figure it out together. I looked and looked for a used road bike that fit me and finally gave up and bought a new one three 1/2 weeks before the race as a sort of Mother's Day present. (Brent says it's my Mother's Day present for the next 10 years!). Anyway, we did the best we could to get prepared in less that a month. We were really nervous. I was mostly nervous about the bike part given my inexperience and that it is the longest part of the race. We were also nervous about the transitions between events. (It's really hard to put on bike shorts/shoes, etc. when you are soaking wet.)

So the big day came on Saturday. The race was in another town and we had to be there at 6:45 so we had to leave the house by 5:00. I was ignorantly thinking we could just load up the kids and they would sleep all the way, but NO. There was no sleeping on the way there or back.

Here I am right after we arrived with my new ride.

This is Alex and I on our way to set up our transition area and get our bodies marked with our race #, age and category.

I guess triathlons aren't the most fun thing to watch, because you don't really get to see much. Mostly the beginning and ending of each event.

I love this picture. This is before it started. We were all inside the gate about to line up for the swim start. Brent realized a few minutes later, they could actually come inside and get a better view.

The rest of the time, they watched from the transition area. Here I am leaving for the bike portion.

Coming back on the bike. I'm still smiling after 11.5 miles. I didn't fall off, or wreck, or get a flat tire, or lose my chain-or any of the other horrible things I had worried about.

That last pic is really blurry, but I thought Brent did a great job. He had his own triathlon going on supervising the three kids, videoing and taking pictures all at them same time.

This pic makes me laugh, the way he's standing. Brent said the kids could have been better, but could have been worse. It was pretty hot and long for them.

The last part was the run. I guess he didn't get any pics from that part. He did get some video, maybe I'll figure out how to post it on here.

This is after the finish- leaving the transition area with my gear. I finished, still standing.

We actually had a REALLY good time and are signed up to do another one the end of this month.
I did better than I expected. I got 5th out of 29 in my age group. I was pretty happy with that considering it was my first and I've only been riding my bike for three weeks.
Here I am with my three biggest fans (Okay maybe two big fans and one little guy that didn't even know why we were there).