Birthday Surprise.

For my birthday my sweet friend Candi sent me an e-card. I was so excited to see this picture she put on it because I'd never seen it! Wasn't Kory just so cute!! I'd forgotten how light his hair was, how chubby his cheeks. Time sure flies! We had a fun birthday. Friday afternoon Monty's mom took us to our favorite Thai Restaurant, The Rose Apple, for lunch and then Saturday my parents had a get together at the park for all the May birthdays, Ryan, Trey, Monty, Dustin and me. Lets just say there was cake to spare. It was a nice afternoon.
When we got there I saw a sign warning about rattlesnakes, so I gave the boys a lecture to watch and look out for snakes, but not to touch any!! After lunch the boys went with some of the others up to the playground. A man there found a harmless snake and picked it up. Kyle had it wrapped around his arm. Because Kyle is a total joker I decided to pretend I was mad when I found out what he'd done. I simply said, "What did I tell you about snakes?!" He wasn't sure what to say and had tears in his eyes. I felt kind of bad because he's such a good kid, but when I asked him if he thought he was in trouble he said he couldn't tell because I was kind of smiling. Later when I was making sure he knew he wasn't in trouble he said, "Mom, I really wish you could have been there." I wish I could have seen it too. Not that I like snakes, I hate them, but to have seen his joy would have been fun.

Live and Learn

The boys have a new job. After meals, they have to clear the table. Last night Kory held up the leftover chicken in a Ziploc and asked if he should put it away. Monty simply answered yes. This morning as I was fixing breakfast I opened the pantry to find...our leftover chicken! I pulled it out and asked, "How did this get here?" Kory said, "I didn't know where else to put it!" We burst out laughing. I loved the innocence.

Pigs, Spiders!?!

Kids know what they are talking about!
Last week at my mom and dads house Trey told me he saw a pig. I thought he was just blowin smoke, but when I looked threw the fence sure enough...THERE WAS A PIG!! My parents new neighbors have a pig. He knew exactly what he was saying. I vowed after that to listen to kids and pay attention to what they say.
Shortly after Trey's party we were just hanging out as a family when Trey started going crazy.(I didn't mention that the night before his party Trey had a fever, so I started him on Ibuprofen. During his party we had him on medicine and he was pretty pleasant all things considered.) We gave him one last dose and he was playing with some toys when all the sudden he started screaming about a spider on his foot. Monty went over to check if he could find anything, but no spider. A little while later he screamed out again...Spider!! Then the screaming began, "Spiders are crawling on my feet. Get them off!" We checked his feet for any signs of anything, but didn't see anything. After us trying to convince him there were no spiders and him trying to convince us there WERE spiders I put him in the tub. While in the tub he was fine and we were happy to have some quiet. However, the second I got him out he started screaming, "The spiders are back! Get them off." At this point we were more than frustrated. There is nothing worse than not being able to help your child when they are hurting. We weren't sure what was going on and thought maybe he was just overly tired, so I took him to his bad and told him a story. In the middle of the story he fell asleep. OH peace and quiet! But, when I tried to get my arm back he woke up and the whole "Spiders. Get them off of me!!" started again. AHHHH. So...this continued till about 2am when he fell asleep for the night in our bed.
We thought it was over, but the first thing he said this morning was, "The Spiders are back. Get them off!" Monty and I just looked at each other like--what are we going to do? Then it dawned on me that maybe he was having an allergic reaction to something. We got him some benadryl and wow...the spiders were gone.
The entire time he was trying to describe a feeling he was having in the only way he knew how. So, while in our minds we thought he might be going insane, he knew exactly what he was talking about. (we still aren't sure what the cause was or why it manifested itself in his feet. Monty found that the ibuprofen expired last september, so maybe that was it, or maybe walnuts from his cake?) This much we do know...THANK HEAVEN FOR BENADRYL!!!

Trey is Tre!

Today is Trey's birthday, but because it fell on a Sunday this year we decided to have a party for him yesterday. Monty got home in the morning, so he got to do the grilling. We had an intimate party with the grandparents. Some aspects of his party that I don't want to forget.
*We HAD to have Soda. Trey LOVES soda.(so we don't buy it much) I'm not sure how much he ate, but I know he drank at least two sodas.
*He told Mammy and grandpa a story and it began with, "When I was 5...".
*Nana made his cake and thank goodness he was only turning 3 because he had a real issue getting the three candles blown out. He ended up blowing them out one at a time, but I think it took about 10blows. He never got really discouraged...he just kept blowing.

He was really cute about his gifts.

Mammy and Grandpa got him a new bike!

Grandpa Tini hooked him up with some money.

Nana got him a few cute outfits. It was a great way to celebrate two special things. Our family being together again and three years of being blessed with Trey. Trey is a great boy. He is very talkative, knows what he wants and doesn't stop till he gets it. Our home wouldn't be the same without him. He sings a lot of the day the songs he hears on Radio Disney. We are surprised at what he picks up. We had to laugh the other day when we heard him rappin, "When I was 13, I had my first love..."

Happy third birthday buddy. We love you!!

Boring!

One thing I learned when Monty was in the Air Force was that when he would leave the best thing to do to pass the time was to have a project. Well, the past two weeks he's been in Mississippi taking a class on fungus. When he left I decided my project would be fixing Trey and Kory's bed. Now-the picture looks as if I did nothing to the bed. However, if you'd of seen the 'before' picture you'd of seen a bright red, silver, and white painted bed. We got it from some friends and the mom painted it like a fire truck, but I prefer the natural wood. So, I spent hours scraping and scraping some more and then staining. It still needs another coat of polyurethane...which I'll get to one day. For now I'm just happy it's one color!:) Kory wasn't thrilled with his bed when he first saw it. He said, "So mom...what color are you going to paint it?" Kyle said, "Mom Kory's bed looks really boring now." Oh well...I guess I'm boring! I love the bed now. If we weren't moving in a few months I'd make curtains...but we are, so I won't!

A House of Boys!

In this house, drinking milk out of the jug is oh so fun. I always use to say no when the boys asked, but then I figured it's better for them to live their dream when the milk is almost gone vs. trying it on a jug that is full and me not knowing it. They know the rule. They can drink the last bit of milk this way if they PROMISE to never do it and leave milk remaining. Kyle was more than happy to pore the boys milk last night at dinner. I realized afterward why!

Two is Better Than One!

Makai is constantly chewing on his hand, but last night he figured that two was better than one. All I can say is he was going to town! He made these bad boys look pretty good.

We sure love this boy! His face in this picture cracks me up. And one more picture of Makai's talent! My grandma Peterson noticed when she was down that Makai puts his feet together. It's happening less and less as he's growing up, so I was glad to get a picture of it.

BIFOCALS

Last year Tyler brought a note home from school saying he'd failed his vision test at school and I should go get his eyes tested. I asked Tyler if he wanted to get glasses and after he cried I decided to just blow it off; afterall, he seemed to still be able to see just fine. A few weeks ago I asked him to read something for me and saw that he needed to squint his eyes to see it. This reminded me of that letter and decided maybe it was time to take action. So last week we took him in and sure enough the boy is near sighted and needed a prescription. Yesterday his glasses finally came in and he was so excited to see the world. One of the first things he said was, "Wow, that's a mountain! I always thought it was a cloud!" I didn't know whether to cry or smile. I only have one problem with his glasses--he looks so old!

NO MORE MONKEYS JUMPIN ON THE BED

Trey tends to be a little on the active side, but yesterday it got the better of him. Poor guy was jumpin on his bed and I decided to just let him have fun. Then all of the sudden I heard a LOUD 'thud'. Followed by a louder cry! I'm not always very sympathetic when my kids get hurt. I figure they are boys and I can't baby them for little falls, but this was no little fall. This was real. I ran to him and rocked him. As I rocked the goose egg began to grow. Kyle ran and got me some Ice and we quickly began to ice it.I took him into the front room where the other boys were and started asking him questions. He was answering them all correctly but was still crying. I said, "Trey, it's going to be okay. I've got ya." He was saying something, but I couldn't make it out over the cry so I had him say it again. "I can't see the tv." Well, that was an easy fix. I held him while he watched tv and put ice on his face until he fell asleep for the night. I feel so blessed it wasn't worse.
This morning when he woke up he saw it for the first time and said, "Mom my head hurts!" I asked him if he remembered what happened and he said, "Yeah, I jumped on my bed and bonked my head!"(oh and that pen on his forhead is a Harry Potter scar)

Loved

Yesterday was Mother's Day and all I can say is I'm so blessed to be a Mother. As a teenager I remember being worried I'd never have the chance to be a mom, but thankfully the Lord blessed me with this wonderful learning experience. After church Tyler offered to make lunch. So I had a sweet lunch with my boys.

Today Tyler came into the room I was in with these beautiful hand crafted flowers and a card. Pretty clever. He even put candy at the bottom of the vase for us to enjoy(I realized from the candy that he knows where my stash is.:)Kyle came home from school with this beautiful flower. (Nevermind that his teacher made it because he left school early Friday.) He was so proud to give it to me. He was hiding it when I picked him up. Trey made this yesterday in nursery. In this picture he's saying "I Love You"! And of course who wouldn't be so honored to be this little mans mom.

I love my boyz!

The King Crew

This weekend we had the chance to go see some good friends for a very special day--their babies blessings. Shortly after finding out I was pregnant with Makai I found out my friend was pregnant with not one, not two, but three little boys! Yes, she's a very competitive woman. She caught up with us in one shot!:) She jokes that all that work and she didn't even beat us--Only tied! It was awesome to watch them be blessed. Their blessings were very touching. These three boys have a special bond with one another.Monty is holding Colton. Colton was born at less than 3lbs, but now is a hefty 8lb boy! In the back Betsy was enjoying Makai. Tyler spent the afternoon making airplanes for Cameron and Carolyn. The kids had so much fun flying these bad boys. We've wanted to get a picture of our four boys together. Of course, you can tell which one is Makai, then Connor, Caleb, and Colton.(I was honored to get Caleb ready for church, so we have a special bond which is good because Betsy broke the cardinal rule and woke the poor guy up for this picture.) Brett and Monty catching up while Makai took a little snooze. Church wiped him out. It was hard to have so many old friends owing and ahhhing over him. The beautiful Richards women and Tationa.

After church it was so fun to sit and just talk to Betsy about how she's adjusting to her new life. Her response is simply and I quote, "I LOVE MY LIFE! I LOVE MY BOYS!" Here she is holding Conner. I'm proud of myself because after one afternoon I can tell them apart.

Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day. We are so proud of your guys. Hail to the Kings! Your family is adorable.

Good Examples!

Our family has never watched the Amazing Race, but this year about half way through the season we ran across the show and quickly found a favorite team. Cord and Jet are awesome! These two guys are full of great qualities. After an episode we'll talk about how they've interacted during the specific episode and how we can apply those characteristics into our lives. Some of these qualities: They are not afraid of HARD WORK, a positive attitudes, the ability to find humor during a trial, cooperation, faith in what they can do even if they've never done anything like it, clean language, team work--just to name a few we've talked about. We hope to raise our boys with similar characteristics and are thankful for good examples.