Raigen's 1st grade field trip! Houston Zoo!

On Wednesday Raigen got a special treat when her Daddy, baby brother, and I all got to attend her class field trip to the Houston Zoo!

We had a fun filled day of checking out animal, pressing pennies, shopping in the gift shop, and eating at the Rainforest Café!

A special day for this special girl!

Funny story .... we were scrolling through pictures on my phone asking Ryker what each animal was and we got to this on and I asked, "Ryker, what is this?'

To which he responds, "a hand!"

This boy definitely keeps us laughing!

Hello, Softball Season 2017- Raigen's 1ST HOME RUN!

This precious girl LOVES Softball and has some major talent! We love watching her play! And she maybe a tad excited that her Daddy is coaching her team... :)

They played this past Tuesday night and whooped some butt AND this princess scored her first home run!!

GO Raigie!!!

This Snapchat just about sums up my convo with Rilyn and CJ today....

Rilyn jokingly called me her evil step mother, to which I replied, "girl, you better watch it. I brought you in to this world and I can take you out!"

Clearly CJ didn't understand my reference because he replied, "Oh really mom?? You dont know magic and you don't even have a spaceship!"

And... clearly I'm way too nice of a mom.



Therefore the new me will be doting a nose ring and black lips. And mean-ness.

Flash-Back-Friday! Easter Edition!

Since I was so terrible at keeping my blog up to date last year, lets reminisce at Ryker's Easter pictures last year.....

Cutest bunny ever!!!

Ryker's FIRST haircut!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Isn't he the cutest!?

My Gym Life

For some crazy reason I always said I'd be fit by the age of 30.

But of course, here I am one week till my B-day and I am unfit as ever.

In response to my whining about this my husband had a grand-idea, "hey, why don't you get yourself a gym membership for your birthday," he said, "and you can start coming with me to the gym."

Although I think I look great for someone who hasn't worked out in over 15 years, the reality is, I get out of breath tying my shoes.

So... maybe I should get  a gym membership.

I mean, I want a hot body.... I just want tacos more.

And just incase I forget to post about it on Facebook and almost make it worthless, I have been encouraged to diary my progress.

03/19/17

Dear Diary,

Its officially 4 days till Gym-Day.

Its Sunday and I've decided Wednesday would be a good Gym-Day since I have a whole entire 30 minutes to kill between work and church. I know I have nothing to worry about, but I am nervous. This morning I even drank a whole pot of coffee! I am now wobbly, but I feel energized. I figure, if I am going to dive into this whole "Gym Thing" I better work on my stamina. I DO NOT want to embarrass myself be doing anything less than 5 miles on the treadmill!!!! To work on this- today at Walmart I parked 11 spots down. I have NEVER parked this far out before!!!! The brisk walk into Walmart has all my muscles burning, but I feel great! I can totally tell I am building up my stamina.

Its a whole new life for me. I like it.

While at Walmart I picked up some weights. These 10lb weights looked like just what I needed to get my arms gym-ready!

When I got home this evening I did and excruciating 6 curls with each arm! I know, I know, DONT OVER DO IT!

(Which I totally did!)

A few minutes in, just as I was starting on my 2nd set, I got a Charlie-horse in my arm (is this even possible?!?!) and I dropped the weight nearly decapitating my big toe!

My arms are clearly not ready to curl anything heavier than a sandwich.

03/20/17

Dear Diary,

Its now 3 days until gym-day.

I am so stinkin' sore!

My legs ache and my arms feel like jello!

I was so wobbly going up the stairs this morning I almost tripped over my 20 month old, but luckily my 110 month old was there to pull him out of the way and I was able to catch my balance.

And to top all of this pre-workout-soreness off , I ate concrete today at work while trying to take the garbage out!!!!

IN. FRONT. OF. EVERYONE!!!

WARNING!!!!!! THE PHOTO BELOW CONTAINS BLOOD!!! DO NOT SCROLL DOWN IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

All the soreness I got going on now, paired with my scraped up palms and knee (see photo above), I'd swear I was in a fierce fender-bender.

In fact, that's what I told everyone who asked me why I was in a scooter-cart at Walmart this morning.

And just to give you a better picture of how banged up and sore/shaken up/emotionally unstable I really am, last night I lacked the strength to even use the remote and ended up catching 6 straight hours of the weather channel. #truestory

Today I plan on calling the church to see if the church van can pick me up and take me to Wednesday night service tomorrow so I can thank GOD that I did not waste my money on a gym membership!!!!!!!! I am in NO shape for the gym! I will also pray that my super sweet husband will have a better idea of what I should get for my birthday next year, something fun- like a root canal or a hysterectomy.

In less depressing news-

This past weekend I did pickup this way CUUUUUUTE new MK purse for myself for my birthday!

P.S. If Josh asks, its TOTALLY a "Mary Kay" purse, okay!?

#happybirthdaytome!

Girls-Night with my girls!

A few weeks ago these sweet girls and I attended the local "Miss Polk County Pageant".

I love our special girl time!

Oh... just your normal "after church" family picture....

Dr. Seuss Day 2017

One thing is true, the older my kids get the less excited they are about school dress up days.

If you know me, then you know a little piece of my heart shattered when Rilyn told me she wasn't dressing up this year. This would be her last year to dress up for Dr. Seuss Day before heading to the big kid school (Intermediate).

Later that evening she conveniently changed her mind and her "Thing 1" shirt from the prior year was too small, so what do you do?

You stay up late constructing your daughter a "Cat-n-the-hat" themed headband out of an empty pill bottle and ribbon. Viola!

 Dr. Seuss Day 2017

And just for fun:

Dr. Seuss Day 2016

 Dr. Seuss Day 2013

#twinning

According to Josh, Ryker and I have a lot more in common then just these striped shirts.

My sweet husband informed me he thinks Ryker will have my "SpongeBob Teeth" too.

Hey, did I mention how sweet my husband is?

Like, so  flippin' sweet that at lunch the other day I said, "dude, why didn't you tell me I had something stuck in my teeth?"

To which he responds, "must be somethin really big."

Ahh... so sweet.

Like, I-could-just-punch-him-in-the-face-sometimes-sweet.

Like when he calls my teeth chiclets.

Or holds two zebra cakes in front of his mouth and says, "hey, who do I remind you of?"

Yep. That's my sweet husband.

Ya'll, he may be annoying...

He may make way too many jokes about my big gapped teeth....

But you know what? There is never, ever a dull moment around him.

And over the 10+ years we have been married I have learned that the key to a happy, successful marriage is LAUGHTER. And that we have plenty of. ♥

Flash-Back-Friday ST. Patrick's Day!

Can we just take a moment and 'awe' over how stinkin' adorable Ryker was for his St. Patrick's Day photoshoot last year?!

My Nerd Herd!

A couple of weeks ago we took all of the kids for a check-up. Since we switched insurance companies it was required. At the visit both Raigen and CJ, neither of which wear glasses currently,  failed their vision screenings.

I was with CJ (Josh was with Raigen) and by the end of CJ's test one thing had to be true, either:

A: CJ is blind.

B: CJ is purposely failing this test because he wanted glasses.
or
C: CJ does NOT know his alphabet... like, at all.

The boy got 0 letters correct!

The nurse worriedly asked, "Um.... CJ, do you have trouble seeing?"

\

"Yeah, like, my eyes have been like, blurry and stuff my whole life," he, all too happily, explained.

Now, if you know CJ, you know that you cant believe any thing the kid says. I am 100% sure he isn't blind. And I know he knows his alphabet. Anyway, I knew we would be instructed ot get his eyes checked and we did.

At the optometrist I instructed him to be honest and do the exam to the best of his ability. I also informed the doctor that this kid would more than likely be a trickster.

And boy was I right!

The doctor put a giant "E" on the screen and asked CJ if he could see it.

The letter was as big as my head! And what do you know, it was SO blurry he couldn't even see it!

In fact, he couldn't see any thing the doctor  asked. Shocking.

After a few minutes the doctor was on to his shenanigans and informed us that he would need to dilate his eyes.

After the burning sensation subsided, we headed over to pick out frames.

Every single frame CJ tried on made him magically able too see. It was an absolute miracle. With every (non-prescription) frame he could see better and better.



"See mom," he said trying on a frame, "told you I needed glasses, because these make me see perfect!"



Rilyn looked at me puzzled, "he does know that all of those are clear, doesn't he?" she asked.



All I could do is laugh.



In the end, the doctor said he was going to just go ahead and prescribe CJ very low reading glasses that he could wear while he was reading.




"Awe man!" he whined, "I was hoping I didn't need glasses!"

#liarliarpantsonfire




Hey- how cute are they?!

Look! We both got new glasses!

Girls only! #photobombbyryker

Spring Break- Family Fun Day- 2017

Rule #1 of Spring Break is I hate doing anything on Spring Break.

I hate the crowds and how everything triples in price just because its Spring Break. We spend the majority of our Spring Break staying up late and sleeping in! I do, however, like to set a side a day or two and enjoy some low-key family activities.

Tuesday we ventured to the Lufkin Zoo! The weather was peeeeeeeerfect and we got there early before the crowd! It was so nice! It was Ryker's first time to the zoo and he LOVED it!

We picked the Lufkin zoo because we knew it wouldn't be nearly as busy as the Houston zoo, and plus, we are going to the Houston zoo in 2 weeks for Raigen's field trip.

Side note: Did you know you can get a family membership at the Lufkin zoo for only $40 bucks! AND its excepted at the Houston zoo (and lots of other zoos, too!) that's $100 CHEAPER THAN IF YOU BOUGHT IT AT THE HOUSTON ZOO! (I am just a little excited about this! :)

On to picture overload:

Just look at these four....man, we make cute kids. :)

This right here is the face of a kid who LOVED the zoo!

My biggest baby!

Well actually, here is my biggest baby! :)

Ryker pointed at EVERYTHING! And everything was a dog or a cat. This was one of the rare times he was actually right. :)

My middles. Loooooooove these two!

Cheese!

Yall! This right here is the SWEETEST big sister! She wanted to hold his hand and show him everything!!

The only family picture we got:

This sweet mama's girl wanted to walk with me and hold my hand at all times! So sweet!!!

Take #245 with a toddler. Yall, it is SO HARD to get any pictures of your kids when you have a walking toddler at the zoo!!! Cardio for the month = DONE!

We finally conned Ryker into sitting on Josh's shoulders.

Oh look! A Bald Eagle!

Oh look! Now its staring in to my soul....

The end.

We ended our zoo visit with a picnic at the park and it was so nice!

Next, we headed to see the Batman Lego movie, followed by Red Lobster for dinner!

It was a fun, relaxing, much needed low-key family day.

I sure do love these people.