AND THEY"RE OFF!!!!

Well three of my four boys are at school today... my step son Cody starts tomorrow. Travis is going into the 8th grade and his last year as a middle school kid. Next year he will officially be in high school!!! He also like to remind me that next year he will be able to get his permit to drive.......AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Cody is going into the 7th grade and as far as I can tell he is ready for it. He is a social kid so he like being able to go see his friends. Dakota is going into the third grade and he is pretty excited even though he doesn't like to say it lol. He is ready to see his friends again to and make new ones. He is very worried about learning multiplication this year so he is stressing....he was thinking they were going to throw him into it on the first day and expect him to know it lol. He will do great though. Now for my baby Austin......."sniff"...."tear".....he is officially in Kindergarten!!!! He was soo excited to get ready today once he woke up. He ate his cereal and i went downstairs to start some laundry.. I came upstairs and he had hi sock, shoes and backpack on and was waiting at the top of the steps ready to go!!!!! I am so proud of all my boys and I can't wait for them to get home to tell me about their days.....I will keep you posted!!

Happy Birthday Travis!!!

Travis is my oldest son and he turned 14 today!!!! Can it be possible?????? He is one of the BEST boys you could as for as a son. He is kind and considerate and yes onry as all get out lol. I am so proud of him and who he is growing up to be. I know he will grow up to do AMAZING things in life. He makes me and his Dad sooooooo proud!!!! I am sure he makes his Grandma (punkin) and Grandpa a little proud to LOL. they are definatly a HUGE part of their lives. Travis grew up living with me and them at their home for four years until me and my husband married in 2001. He still recalls all that he loved about living there. He still goes out there every chance he gets and wants to spend as much time as possible with them. They help him through the good times and the bad and have some of the best advice anyone could ever give him. We are so lucky to have you all in our lives like we do and I know Travis will take any advice you all give him in any situation in life and save it in his heart to help him through any problems he might have weather they be present or future problems. He will always have you all to turn to and for that I thank you. Did I mention I AM ONE PROUD MOMMA!!!!!!!!

School Days

Ok this one is short but sweet.....We went to open house at our youngest boys Dakota and Austin's school. Dakota is going into the Third grade and is kind of excited kind of not to be going back to school. Austin is going into Kindergarten, he went to summer school for a few weeks and LOVED it!!!! We went in last night to drop off his school supplies and meet his teacher Ms. Miller. Austin went into the classroom like a pro. He was a little shy towards his teacher but overcame that pretty fast. He found his spot at the table and unloaded his supplies where he was suppose to and hung his backpack on a hook on the wall. He went over and sat in one of the bean bag chairs and looked around and said "why does everyone keep leaving?" We were busy filling out papers so we didn't answer him at that time so he just sat there watching everyone. We finished filling out papers and meeting his teacher and said "ok buddy get your bag we got to go " he stopped in his tracks and said "WHAT!!!! I thought we were staying!!!" He then looked like a deflated balloon lol. We said "we aren't staying tonight hun we are just here to meet you teacher and drop off your supplies." He hung his head and started to get upset and his teacher looked at him and said "AWWWW buddy we will see you next week though.....and then looked at me with her sad eyes like she felt so bad for him. He soooo has her already wrapped around his finger lol. Austin has BIG brown eyes and has a REALLY good pouty face! She is putty in his hands and school hasn't even begun.

Independence Day!!

Happy Independence Day Everyone!!!!!! I hope you all have a wonderful day. I am going to shoot off fireworks with the kids and have some BBQ with friends and hopefully everyone else stays safe out there and don't start any fires and Doug won't have to leave for a ton of fire calls. There were two yesterday within a few hours of each other so I am not sure how this is going to go lol. Tomorrow we are going to spend the afternoon and probably some of the evening out at my Mom and Dads house and we re really looking forward to that. We have not spent a lot of time with the family lately it has been so crazy with everyone playing sports and all that so we are going to enjoy the day tomorrow also. I hope everyone stays safe out there.

To all Dads

I was out of town yesterday so I wasn't able to do a post yesterday so here is my short and sweet one today.


















(Left) This is my Dad and Mom, Jim and Deanna. The best parents in the world. My Daddy has been there for me through some of the greatest times in my life and some of the hardest times. I was very blessed to get the Parents that I did and I find myself as I get older trying hard to copy their parenting ways as much as I can. I don't think I do them as much justice as I would like sometimes but.....I will succeed in it eventually. The picture on the right is my Husband Doug with three of our four boys. Austin our 5 year old didn't want to fish this day and this is the most current picture of them I have. He is such a great Dad to all four boys and a pretty darn good husband to lol. We spent the day playing ball in the back yard at my In-Laws and just enjoyed the day without having anything pressing that had to be done until later in the day. We then went to Austins (our 5 year old) T-Ball game and although they play for fun the kids are encouraged to try to catch the ball and if they get the ball they are suppose to go through the actions of trying to get the batter out. Well Austin made his Daddy very proud yesterday. He stopped the ball and then picked it up, ran to second base and stepped on it and got the other player out!!!! The other player still gets to run the rest of the bases, this is just T-Ball but hey he knew what he was doing and made the crowd CHEER!!! The kids each have one parent on the field with them to help out and Doug goes out with Austin. I saw the smile on his face from the bleachers. I only wish I had my camera ;( I hope everyone had a great Fathers Day and were able to remember all the good times they had with their Dads. Happy Fathers Day to my Grandpas who are with God now also I know you are watching over us everyday. I see little things here and there and think did Grandpa Hood or Grandpa Haslag put that there for me. Only because they remind me of something they would do. I like to think when I see things that remind me of them that maybe they had a little to do with putting that particular thing in my path so I would remember them at that moment. HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

Daddy

This is my Daddy!!!!


I have the most wonderful Daddy in the world!!!! He was a lot like the song by Holly Dunn "Daddy's Hands". He was a firm man who knew when he needed to be firm with us but at the same time he knew when to be gentle and loving. I had a flash back to when I was a little girl tonight as I was tucking the boys in to bed. I was putting my youngest two boys to bed and I kissed Austin good night and tucked him in and told him to have sweet dreams (this is something we do all the time he likes it)and then proceeded to go in to tuck Dakota in to bed. Well Dakota had a rough night fighting with his brothers and then trying to get them in trouble he lied and told me that he was being hit by one of his older brothers (travis lol) and then after talking to both boys found out he in fact hadn't been hit at all. Well I let him know it was not ok to lie at anytime and made him sit on his bed and then it was bedtime shortly after that. Well I walk in to tuck him in and find him crying! I said "oh hun what are you crying for?" He wrapped his arms around my neck and said "I am soooooo sorry I lied to you Mom!! I really am!!!" I looked at his face and he was so sad and upset and I sat with him and let him know what he did was wrong and I was disappointed that he chose to do that but that didn't change the fact that I Loved him and always will no matter what he does.Well this is where my memory of my Daddy comes into play. As I was sitting with him trying to think of something to say to get him to calm down and think of something else my mind went to when i was a little girl and I had trouble sleeping. As a little girl when I was just having trouble sleeping or if I was sad for one reason or another my Daddy could always come in and help me fall alseep. He would sit with me on my bed and stroke my hair and in his soft kind loving voice tell me to close my eyes and dream of Rainbows and clouds. I would fall alseep dreaming of beautiful clouds and rainbows. So tonight I was able to calm my son down and had him sleeping hopefully dreaming of beautiful rainbows and turtle shaped clouds (he loves turtles lol). I still to this day have trouble sleeping sometimes and I try to relax and hear my Daddy's voice telling me to relax, close my eyes and dream of rainbows and white fluffy clouds. I love you Daddy (you to Mom lol) thank you for taking a firm hand with me when needed and also thank you for knowing when I needed your kind and loving way.

Last Sunday my son Austin played his fist T-Ball game!!!! It is all just for fun so there is no score keeping. Both teams did a great job and all kids had a blast and were very funny to watch. There were some that knew their bases and ran where they were suppose to and then there were others that hit the ball and then ran to third base and others that started in one direction and then turned and ran in the other direction lol. Austin looked sooo cute out there on the field!!! Each kid had one parent on the field with them so of course Doug went out with him Austin was so intense he wanted to play so bad he was ready to get the ball so when it came over to him he ran over and got that ball!! When he got it he turned around to his Dad and said "what do I do with it now?" LOL Here are a few pictures of him at his game.