The days are long, but those years....

The days are L-O-N-G, but the years are short.  We've all heard that from time to time.  I honestly am not sure I had even heard it, or maybe I had, until I had kids.  I totally understand it now.  My days are always long.  I start at 5:00 AM on Monday-Friday.  I go go go until my head hits the pillow around 10:00 PM.  I feel like I am in a state of constant motion, because I am!  I pour myself into my family and plan to continue doing so as long as I can.  I strive for greatness in myself and my people, and if that means I'm tired every single day...then I'll be tired!

The children and their activities rule most of the hours of our day.  Ford's heart belongs to baseball, but we've thrown in a little soccer for several weeks.  Tonight was his first game of the season.  His team won 3-0 with two of the goals being made by my man, Ford!!!

I played rec soccer for 4 years, but I honestly don't know the rules.  I can however holler at Ford to hustle, kick the ball, get the ball, take his hands out of his mouth, etc.  I am NOT that annoying, over the top, yelling parent though.  I just like to keep my kid in check!

BoomPa has been traveling some lately and we hadn't seen him in a few weeks.  Annie was so excited to see Boom when he came last week.  They watched Mickey together.

My baby....that hair.  What baby????....she's a little girl.

Bitty is a different bird.  He always has been.  He's very different from Ford.  People will rave on how smart Ford is, how mature Ford is...all that good stuff.  Then we have a wild boy Bitty.  But I'll have you know.... this kid is really smart.  He has been asking me all kinds of deep questions lately, he's curious about time so we've talked about the clock a lot, and he's really good with math.  He did NOT get that from his momma.  He adds big numbers in his head and really seems to understand math.

The other day he asked me to take him and Annie to the park because he wanted to run a mile.  The track at the park tells you how many laps you must make.  Bitty rode his bike, ran mostly, and walked some until he had gone 1.5 miles.

He was 5 in June, so he's young, but he has expressed to Trey and me that he's ready to be baptized.  I explained that baptism does NOT get you into Heaven.  He knows that its an outward sign telling others about your decision.  I had him meet with our church's seminary trained children's minister.  She said he understood everything she asked and answered correctly.  We're going to keep discussing things, but keep looking because I could be posting some of the BIGGEST news of his life before too long.

Sister, is 100 no no no 110% a handful.  That 2-4 year old time span is purely exhausting.  There's really no other way to explain it.  She needs constant attention and supervision.  On the days she's home with me I don't get a lot done.  If by chance I do take my eyes off of her then something happens like: she draws on the wall, takes the tops off of 33 markers, colors on the table, spills stuff, etc.

But she's so stinking cute and says she Wuvs me all day, how could you not eat her up!

Bitty is my child that attracts accidents.  If something painful is going to happen, it'll happen to Bitty.  Friday he got poked in the eye at school....

We have.... We have... WE HAVE... our FIRST pair of real KEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Those fat little feet need a size wide.  Keds don't start in W until a little bit bigger so we have just now crossed over into the cute shoes.  Annie loves her size 8W keds!!!!!!

It's just about that time of year.... HUNTING season.  I'll keep my thoughts to myself on that subject matter.  The kids and I went out to the farm on Saturday....

And when it was time for me to leave, I'll have you know it was ANNIE who pitched a fit to stay and ride the tractor.  Trey was NOT in favor of that idea, but she PROMISED not to poop her pants if he'd let her stay.  She stayed.  They bonded!

Friday night Ford got to help play water boy at the high school game.  This activity brought him great pleasure.  Someone snapped this picture of him...

Annie was cranky this afternoon so I got the bright idea to make her take a nap.  I'm glad I enjoyed that 45-60 minutes because tonight it took FOREVER getting her to sleep.  I won't make that mistake again.

Busyness and outside play

Life hasn't slowed down and I don't see anything coming to a screeching halt in the near future.  Trey and I sat down last night to talk.  We rarely have time to talk, just us, uninterrupted talking.  I expressed my displeasure for the busyness we have going on in life right now.  We are rarely just sitting still enjoying the moment at home.  So when we are home for that hot minute I try to let the children play outside while the weather is pretty.

 I've never met a child who loves sports, all things sports, and their sporting equipment more than Ford.

 And these two just play and play together.  It's not always peaceful, but they play together.

She is HIS baby and he loves her.

Two's.  It's a hard age.  Dealing with a two year old can challenge you.  It can frustrate you.  It can make your blood pressure go up.  Dealing with an overly intoxicated individual would be more reasonable than a two year old.  There are meltdowns and tantrums.  There are hugs and kisses.  There and fits of rage and crying.  Two is challenging, but if I do know one thing it is" This too shall pass.  She's cute, but she's a handful!

Baseball.  I have a feeling I'll be spending time at the fields for another 13+ years.  And who doesn't love some fall ball.  We said goodbye to our Titans team and the majority of the boys joined The Giants.  Here we go....

Lots of Chiefs back there..... need more Indians.

On Saturday Ford played in his first game as a Giant.  After game #1 he came off the field declaring he had a loose tooth.  It wasn't ready to come out per say, but I knew we had to get it out or he'd mess with it the entire second game.  Finally, the fourth person to attempt the tooth pulling got it out.  Thanks to Nurse Kristin!

Tooth #7

Annie's room.  Queen sized bed.  New headboard.  Partially new bedding.  Three babies and sleeping looks good!

Bitty, the artist and entrepreneur, sold his first two pieces of art to Uncle TA for a boot full of change totaling $7.00.

Sickness, lying, 100 months, and doves

Ohhh glory, I am behind on blogging again.  One would "think" that since I have 3 mornings a week kidless that I would be able to blog away.  Not the case.  I stay plenty busy, I promise.  I'm not sitting around eating bon bons and watching Kathie Lee and Hoda.  There's always stuff to be done.

For over a week now I haven't felt good and last Saturday sickness struck.  I had stomach bug like symptoms for 4 days until I finally drug myself out of bed to the doctor.  Who even knows what's wrong with me, but I am still far from 100%.  During my four day downtown this house turned into a total mess, which tells me I can't be getting sick again.

Onward.... Bitty is still working mighty hard on all of his artwork.  I'm glad we have an entrepreneur in the house.

He's hoping to score BIG bucks from Uncle TA for this farm: complete with a barn, tree, pasture, cows, horses, and manure.  The total package my friends!

The weather is turning out to be quite lovely.  I can stay out there longer than 2.5 seconds without heat exhaustion.  Sister wants to drive the riding toys all day.  However, steering isn't her thing.  She hasn't a clue how to steer.

 Some afternoons we just do this.....

 And play so hard that by 5:45 we can't stay awake!

 Annie is tough.  I suppose living with Ford and Bitty you better be tough or else you're in for a long life.  Well, she is also abusive apparently.  Last Thursday I was speedy quick trying to mow before we got hit with our part of Hurricane Harvey.  I had the littles playing in the driveway.  All of a sudden I see Bitty screaming and crying (this is normal daily behavior) and heading towards me.  He proceeds to tell me that Annie pushed him into the driveway.  Annie says the bicycle did it.  Annie also lies!

 I don't love Pinterest.  Things on there make me feel inadequate.  Just saying.  They do.  However, I got on there last week to look up restoring antique mantles and built in bookshelves (new project I have going on) and saw ALL the fall ideas.  I decided I too could spray paint pumpkins gold and I did!

 They look lovely out in my house!

 The babies before school....

 The Bit wanted to brush my hair... I was nervous... Can you tell????

 Fridays mean Football!  Fridays mean dress up days!  It's hit or miss with Bitty on dressing up, but last week he was ALL in!  Red, white, and blue day!!!!!!

 Which also was the day to document Ford being 100 months old.  NO,  I haven't been waiting 8 years and 4 months to post this... I promise.  But in the car my kids are always asking me 2 zillion questions.  Some of those questions are..."How many months old am I?"  Well, Ford was 99 months when he asked me the last time so I decided we needed to document him turning 100 months old!

 He's changed since he was 100 days old!!!!!!

And Mr. I'm only 62 months old needed a piece of the pie too!

 If only we were all so cool!!!!!

 I also appreciate that he still calls tennis shoes "tanna shoes"!!!!!!!!

 And not everyone was excited about Friday football day!

 So I'm sewing a Christmas tree skirt... It's actually my second one to make.  I decided since we have two trees, I need two skirts.  I will also have you know that my last sewing class was canceled last Thursday due to Harvey weather which meant I had to do it solo.  I got this... right...???  Ummm, I said way to many bad words in the two hours I was sorting and sewing.  If someone asked me to sew another one I would panic.

 It's off to have the binding done on the back and be quilted and then I'll sew down the edges.  New Lamar family heirloom.  My kids can fight over the two I made!

Clean and Sweet

 Saturday marked the opening day of dove season.  Fancy can't get up before 6:45 on school days be he managed to get up at 5:30 on Saturday.  Ford accompanied him.  Bitty wouldn't wake up.

 So Trey had to take them back that afternoon so John Brantley could have his turn retrieving the doves.

 Ford killed one all by himself.

 Then came the nasty part of getting the breasts out....

Annie and I didn't hunt.  We played with Maggie instead...

My mom passed down the good qualities of bargain shopping to me.  I LOVE a good deal.  Yesterday we went into the attic for dress up clothes and found these $2.00 Halloween costumes I bought on sale last year.  They had big fun dressing up!