1st day school

Here is our annual first day of school pictures.

Hampton is waiting for the bus with Emerson. He is excited for his last year of elementary school.

Austin is ready for his last year of middle school.

HAPPY 14th Austin

We had Austin's birthday party yesterday. Dad had to help Hampton light the candles because there were sooooo many to light.
After Hampton smashed the cake in Austin's face.

Austin's Night Out

Austin started the night out with Paul at Hooters. He said he was "going for the wings and that's my story."



Then it was off to the Coldplay concert.

Riding Horses

We drove out to Cedars of Lebanon State Park to try riding horses. We have never done this before. It was a 45 minute ride through the park on the trails. The horses fit our personalities perfectly:

Hampton - sweet and did as told most of the time
Austin - stopped to eat as much as possible
Paul - had a coughing fit - like he gets colds alot
Deborah - SLOW - nicknamed Eeyore - wanted to take the ride nice and slow without too much excitement

After we had been on the horses about 10 minutes Hampton asked when can we do this again. He loves animals.

Hampton looks so old in this picture. I can't stand it.
I took him to a professional soccer game in Nashville.

MOMMY POEM

Every year at preschool for Mother's Day, I ask the kids questions about their mom and write down what they say. We give each mom their poem for a gift and they all laugh at the answers. We get some crazy, some true, some very adorable answers. Austin was reading them tonight and found a blank one and decided to fill it out. Here is his poem. The italicized words are the answers:

My mother's name is Deborah. She is 20 feet tall and weighs 150 pounds. She likes to cook bacon for me. Her favorite restaurant is PF Changs and her favorite food is french fries with extra salt. Her favorite color is blue. She likes to play when I ask random questions with me. Her favorite thing to do is watch HGTV. She does not like to have a birthday (her days are numbered). She likes when I leave her alone (that's not possible), but she does not like it when I call her Debby. I love my mommy because she lets me see PG13 movies.
Love, Austin

Here is Hampton's poem:

My mother's name is Deborah. She is 5 feet tall and weighs 1,000,000 pounds. She likes to cook sloppy joes for me. Her favorite restaurant is Demo's and her favorite food is chicken. Her favorite color is blue. She likes to play games with me. Her favorite thing to do is love your child. She does not like to mow. She likes it when I say I love you, but she does not like it when I talk about farting. I love my mommy because she is the best you could ever have in 1,000,000,000,000,000 years!!!!!
Love, Hampton

Like I said some crazy, some true and some very adorable answers.

THEME SONG FOR MY BOYS

If I had to pick one song to sum up everything my boys mean to me, this is would be it. The song that says what I want to say to them in their life and always want them to remember. What I want them to know when they are grown up. They will always be forever young to me. This is "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart.

May the good Lord be with you down every road you roam
And may sunshine and happiness surround you when you're far from home
And may you grow to be proud, dignified and true
And do unto others as you'd have done to you
Be courageous and be brave
And in my heart you'll always stay forever young

May good fortune be with you
May your guiding light be strong
Build a stairway to heaven whether a prince or a vagabond
And may you never love in vain
And in my heart you will remain Forever young

And when you finally fly away I'll be hoping that I served you well
For all the wisdom of a lifetime no one can ever tell
But whatever road you choose I'm right behind you, win or lose
Forever young

I LOVE YOU BOYS

SPRING BREAK FUN

We went to the beach for Spring Break with friends - Diane, Coltin, and Camryn Briggs. It was really chilly and windy the beginning of the week. Now that the kids are older we can leave them in the condo and go out for walks, etc. One day when Diane and I went for a walk we came back to find this sign on our door. It says "If you want your kids back, drop 50K down." I wasn't afraid to not find my children inside because the note was written on a paper towel with classic Austin handwriting.
It did get warmer after a couple of days and we got to play in the sand. For the first time Hampton wanted to be buried in the sand and all you can see is a head sitting on the sand.

This is Hampton getting out of his hole. I have never seen this much sand on his body in my entire life. This is incredibly amazing from those first years of even not wanting to put his feet in the sand.

Here is the group shot.

APRIL FOOL'S

Austin gets me every year. This year's April fool's joke was the cereal switch. When I woke him up in the morning he said that he wanted Reeces Puffs for breakfast. I thought, of course, since it is a treat to have that cereal. So he and I went down and when I poured his Reeces Puffs cereal out came cheerios. In my 6 am fog I was very confused. I also had forgotten that it was April Fools Day. Then he said he was going to get Hampton and I looked around and could not find anything. So when I was helping Hampton get ready and he was running around looking for his shoes, I was getting his backpack ready and when I opened it out came his two jackets and his shoes. My first thought was why did Hampton put his shoes and both jackets in his backpack. It never dawned on me that it was another joke. Only when Austin asked Hampton after school if he found his shoes did I realize that this was the joke. I am so gullable.

Hampton had to get in on the jokes, so when we were driving downtown last night he kept telling me these crazy stories. After about 3 times and fun shouts of April Fools did I finally clue in and stop believing him.

I did try to get Austin by unplugging the TV and ps3. He came down to tell me that the TV would not turn on, but he was not having the panic attack that I was hoping for, so I don't think he believed me. There's always next year, but I will probably still be blond and gullable.

THE TIME ANTS ATTACKED

There are things that happen with children and you don't even remember them. This is a story that Hampton wrote in school. When I read it, I did remember it happening a few years ago, but I had no idea what an effect that it had on him or that he could remember every detail.

The Time Ants Attacked

I remember when I had ants all over me. I was at my uncle's house at the pool. I was on the diving board when they attacked. It was like one hundred ants.
I was about five and couldn't swim in deep water. I went to the diving board and then ants came out. They started to crawl at me. I didn't know that they were. Then they crawled on me.
I was scared. The parents came over to help me but they were already all over me. I didn't know what to do. I was by the deep end so I couldn't jump in. My parents came and grabbed my arms.
My parents told me to jump in but I refused. I didn't have any goggles on. I always needed goggles to go in the water. My parents dunked me anyway to get the ants off.
After what happened I have been scared of ants. I never would go near them. When they crawled up it felt weird. When I got home I had to take a bath. I will never let it happen again.


Okay, I do remember this and we did not just dunk him in the water by himself, of course, we were with him and holding him. What makes the situation worse is that he did not have any goggles on and as he said he hated swimming without goggles. He would refuse to put his face under to swim without them. Just one of the many picky things about my Hampton.

FIRST SHAVE

Austin shaved for the first time the other night.

Here is the before:

During:

After:

As you can see, he LOVED that I took pictures.

I'M THERE

Like the State Farm commercial:

You know the place where no plans for the weekends means my kids have made their own plans - I'm there.

Our weekends were once filled with plans that required babysitters and what we wanted to do. The kids stayed home happily and never knew there was anything else to do. Now, we have no plans and Austin begins talking about his weekend plans by Tuesday at the latest. He is on the phone with friends making plans and you assume that he has it all worked out and all of a sudden we have two kids sleeping over. Which can be fun on an occasional basis.

I was talking to Austin about the upcoming weekend plans made by us which are booked solid, and he realized there may be a few weeks with no sleep overs. He was upset and said that he was going to have to have a sleepover during the week. Not going to happen. I don't know when sleepovers became so important and a regular weekend occurance, but they have.

Yes, we are in a new era of parenthood where life if still about about them - and happily so.

OUT FOR THE DAY

This is what happens when a 10 year old pulls an all nighter. He can't stay awake. He went to a sleepover and stayed up till 6 am.

SUPER BOWL FUN

The boys had fun getting ready for the Super Bowl and showing their support for their team. It was Austin's idea to "paint" their stomachs with the Steelers logo.

Our tradition is to have a family party. We have tons of snacks in the bonus room and brownies for dessert.

MY PICKY KID

Hampton is my picky kid. This is him doing his homework. He likes to write on top of his agenda because it is slightly rippled which would drive me crazy but he likes it. Also I try to get him to fold his papers back but he won't - guess it would cover up the rippled feel. Also he hates the smell of pencil lead. Never heard of this before. But I know that he has a very sensitive nose. He is very picky about smells especially when we travel. This is how I used to know he was tired when he complained about a smell. We couldn't even smell anything but he insisted there was a bad smell and then he would fall asleep and when he woke up he wouldn't complain about smells anymore.

TRICKS FOR A GUARANTEED SNOW DAY

Hampton used all the tricks to guarantee a snow day today. And it worked. Just a little snow and ice but enough for the county to close. This is what he did:

- flush ice cubes down the toilet
- wear ALL of his clothes backwards to bed
- flush salt down the toilet
- sleep at the opposite end of his bed

The last two were new to me but I guess doing all this helped to make it possible for us to have a lazy day at home. Of course, when I looked out the window at 9:30 this morning I saw no snow or ice.

THE GREAT GERBIL ESCAPE

Yesterday, I was getting ready to leave to run an errand. The boys were home from school. Hampton called me to come here - very nonchalantly. I said no - you come here then I noticed he was in Austin's room staring at the gerbil cage. He said again - come here. I went in and he said he could not find Peppermint. He was not upset but confused. I opened the cage and searched through it and sure enough - no gerbil. There was a tube at the top of the cage that we put up to block a hole. The tube was on the floor. Austin said he noticed it but did not think anything about it. We never thought that the gerbil could crawl to the top of the cage and push the tube out and escape. But she did. This was at 11:00 am and we know she had been out at least an hour but probably alot longer.

We proceeded to crawl around the floor of the entire house looking in every corner and under every furniture piece. I did not think there was any way we would ever find a tiny, fast moving gerbil. But I did find her under the couch in the bonus room. The next challenge was to catch her. She was under the couch and we tried to scare her out on the one side. She would come out and when we moved even a smidgen she would duck back under. We tried blocking the sides and leaving only a hole but that didn't work. We eventually turned the couch over so she could not hide under it and trapped her in a corner and finally caught her. Thanks to Emerson and his gerbil catching expertise.

I taped up the holes and covered them with cardboard. There is no way she can escape that way again. But I am still checking on her every chance I get. This can not happen again. It was 2 hours of panic, stress, and fustration that I don't want to go through again.

HAPPY 40TH PAUL

Today is Paul's 40th birthday. Hopefully, he is looking forward to this next decade of his life. We are celebrating with a family dinner tonight at Demo's - a great steak restaurant in Murfreesboro. We are also going out this weekend with friends to celebrate in a different way. We are trying Melting Pot for the first time and we will be honky tonking at the downtown bars in Nashville.

Here is a picture of Paul's present. He found the motorcycle on Ebay and it arrived today. Just in time for the big day. To bad it is raining today and he had to go back to work.

A NEW PET

Both of the boys have wanted a new pet for a long time. We thought about a fish but we've done that and the water is disgusting. So my neighbor Joy talked me into a gerbil. Emerson had one and she died. Hampton bought him a new gerbil for Christmas and was so sad that we could not have one. But I kept saying that we couldn't because of Brit.

On Christmas Eve, I wrapped up some gerbil bedding which is the easiest thing I could get to Michigan. Hampton knew what it was but as you can tell he did not understand why they were getting it as a gift:

But after we told them, they could get a gerbil they were very excited!!!

So when we got back from Jackson we had to rush out the next day and get our new pet. She is a little white girl with red eyes named Peppermint. Yes, it has been easy so far.

AUSTIN'S TEEN PRESENTS

MY OLD IPOD TOUCH

I tried to trick Austin. About two weeks before Christmas I bought an IPhone. I knew the first thing out of Austin's mouth was going to be "Can I have your old IPOD?" And of course that happened. I had to make up a story fast. So I said that I traded my old Ipod for the phone. He did not believe me. He asked me for the receipt and I had to tell him that I didn't have one. He even asked me what time I traded it. I told him that I had no proof but I did trade it. So I wrapped it up and put Paul's name on the box. Paul even told Austin that he didn't beleive me either and he thought that I was going to give it to him. So on Christmas Eve I gave Paul the box and he opened it. But I had to tell Paul that it was not supposed to be for him it was actually for Austin.



AN ELECTRIC RAZOR

From Paul of course... but he hasn't used it yet.

A JESSICA ALBA POSTER

In a bikini. He was really embarressed about this one. He did not want anyone to see it.

THE HOLIDAY IS OVER

The holidays have come and gone. Yes, we drove 32 hours. It was worth it.

In Michigan, the boys and I had our first white Christmas. The moms sent the boys sledding. It had rained the day before and then frozen like ice over the snow. They came back moaning and groaning. Jack had the breath knocked out. Hampton's face was buried in the snow. They still had a good time and got to tell the stories of how rough it was.

The cousins in matching Gap jackets from Papa Paul and Grandma Donna.

Pop's Park is opening back up after being closed for a year. We got an early ride on the new go-carts. It was fun because they are not officially open and there was no time limit. It was also Hampton's first time to drive a full size go-cart. He was not going to let anyone pass him and just kept going faster. He said his arms were sore after the ride.