Mother's Day

Mother's Day was terrific. I woke up and found little homemade cards & gifts, from the boys, waiting for me on the kitchen counter. My good-lovin' man brought me flowers & a card with the sweetest words inside. I was able to guilt all the boys into posing with me for a Mother's Day picture. It was wonderful that I could spend Mother's Day with my own Mama this year. We all went to church together, to Costco for lunch and a little shopping, and then home for a peaceful afternoon full of sunshine. The boys played in the back yard in our state-of-the-art swimming pool. Seth even played outside with his little brothers. It does my heart good on the rare occasions that he does this. Now that he's almost (gulp) sixteen, it's a rarity.....which is natural, I know. But I just love it when I hear the laughter and yells of ALL of my boys, coming from the back yard. Seth even built his brothers a sturdy tree-swing, which he was very proud of. Justin made some delicious, homemade fried chicken and biscuits for dinner. The little boys said, "Happy Mother's Day, Mommy" about two-hundred times apiece, throughout the day, and gave me bazillions of hugs & kisses. I enjoyed time with my parents. It was truly a perfect day.

Our Special Easter

Our Easter weekend looked like a pretty typical Easter weekend, with egg-dying, opening Easter baskets, going to church....

.....but with a few very special exceptions. The first exception being the great idea below, which I stole from a dear friend. Keep in mind, I had to adjust some of the steps to fit our family's...um...needs.

Step one: On Good Friday, build a tomb out of boxes.

Step two: Let the kids play in it for a while. I know, it sounds slightly morbid. Fortunately, they know this story has a happy ending. Don't worry, I don't let my kids play in tombs very often.

Step three: Roll up some stuffed animals (in the shape of Jesus) in a white sheet and put "Jesus" in the tomb.

Step four: "Roll" a HUUUUGE stone (i.e., draw a stone with a sharpie on paper & tape it over the hole) in front of the tomb, sealing it for the rest of the weekend.

Step five: Have fun dying eggs & doing fun stuff all day Saturday. 

Step six: Try to keep cats from leaping onto the weak-paper-roof of the tomb.

Step seven: Rescue, from the grave, cats.....who have leaped (i.e., may possibly have been thrown, by certain angelic boys) into said weak-paper-roof, and onto the resting, stuffed-animal-Jesus.

Step eight: Put the sweet, angelic, kitty-throwing boys to bed Saturday night, tomb & seal still miraculously in tact.

Step nine: After said angels are sleeping, roll away the HUUUUGE stone (i.e., tear the paper & tape off of the entrance), throw stuffed animals on the floor in the living room, put sheet back into linen closet, and watch TV with hubby while filling Easter baskets.

Step ten: Sunday morning, show kids the empty tomb, ask them where Jesus is (and try not to laugh when Gideon says, dead-pan,"He's over there by the couch."), read them the Resurrection story, and celebrate that Jesus is alive & that he loves them!!!

Step eleven: Let kids open their baskets.

Step twelve: Turn tomb into a play-fort.....which is not sealed in case flying-kitties need to escape.

Goofy kids enjoyed their Easter morning loot: stuffed animals, KJV New Testament Bibles, Bible-story-books & candy....all from the dollar store....cuz I'm just that cheap. I must add that Seth was such a very good sport. He tried to tell me (being that he is almost sixteen years old) that he did not need an Easter basket. But he played along very sweetly, which is good because I only have 2 years left, give or take, to share Easter with him still living at home. And I plan to give him a basket both of those years.

The next special Easter-thing we did was go to Grandma's house for an Easter-dinner-birthday-party. Of course, she cooked a delicious meal (Rara made a delicious banana cream pie), and gave Jarod & I some awesome birthday gifts. She was even kind enough to provide a rock wall for the boys to climb during the Easter-dinner-birthday-party.

The most special "Easter thing" that happened was at church in the evening. Justin baptized Micah John into Jesus Christ. I am one proud and happy mama & wife. I'm so thankful that my children are coming to understand the deep love that God has for them, and that they want to say "yes" to Jesus. Of course, all of our local family was there for the event, including Cousins Abi & Yaya.

 This was the most civilized Easter picture I could get of them all together. Please excuse the scary eyes. 

From our family to yours, hope everyone had a Happy Easter!!! God bless!!!

I also want to tell my sister, Gloria, who's birthday was on Easter, "Happy birthday, sis!!! I love you & miss you."

PS. No kitty-cats were injured in the making of this blog post.

Birthday Grimaces & Doughnut-Cakes

April 4th was my birthday and April 5th was Jarod's. Last year, I wrote a sufficiently long and sappy blog post about our almost-shared birthdays, about how I was in labor with Jarod on my birthday, about how much I love him & all that good stuff. (Read here: http://boycra-z.blogspot.com/2011/04/almost-shared-birthday.html to refresh your memory.) So, this year, I'm posting some pics & calling it good.

These are the gorgeous flowers my man spoiled me with. He also bought me a gift, and took me out to dinner. Aunties Rara & Memmy babysat the boys. It was a lovely evening.

This is the birthday kiss that Jarod allowed me to give him, with only a small grimace. He loves me!!!! 

The boys spoiled me with sweet, homemade birthday cards. (Except for Seth, who did, however, post, "Happy Birthday, Mom!" on my Facebook wall. Seth acknowledging me on Facebook is HUGE....so that was almost as good as a card.) Gideon's card was the largest.

This is the handsome, 12-yr-old birthday boy, whom I adore with all my heart.

I was also spoiled with hugs & kisses & snuggles. I don't think any mama ever felt more special or blessed.

Yes, that is a stack of doughnuts. I was too lazy to make a cake....and too cheap to buy one. I also forgot a #12 birthday candle (if they even sell those?)....so I had to use a votive instead.

But the boys loved it, so I win!

Guess I did something right.

With this many brothers, there's always a party! Coming soon (may or may not blog it): on-going birthday celebrations with the extended family party & a friend-sleep-over for Jarod.

The end

Birthday Visit

Auntie Melanie & Auntie Jubilee came to visit a couple weeks ago. We celebrated Isaac's birthday, as well as Grandma's, Auntie Deborah's & little Cousin Aiden's (he just turned one year old!) birthdays.

Little Cousin Aiden giving Jarod some love!

Seth & Aiden

Auntie Jubee & Cousin Aiden getting ready to blow out candles

Boy cousin wrestle time!!!!

Auntie Melanie holding Birthday Boy Aiden & Birthday Girl Deborah holding Birthday Boy Isaac

Cousin snuggles

One of Grandma's big tough Newfoundlands hiding from the horrible scary noise of kids blowing into some little party party favor thingies. The horror.

A Mr. Roger's Field Trip

I knew that Krispy Kreme made good, fattening, sugary doughnuts that I should never, ever, ever...ever....eat. On occasion, I've had one (or two, or two and a half, or two and three quarters....but never three.....OK....yeah.....sometimes three....) when someone else has bought some and shared with me. I knew that they were yummy, soft, squishy, moist and best avoided at all costs. But I had never physically visited an actual Krispy Kreme establishment before this last Thursday. We were broke, as it was the day before payday, and we wanted to do something special, as a family. Something special....but cheap. I had free doughnut coupons for the kids, so off we went to Krispy Kreme. I found out some really cool things about Krsipy Kreme. I found out that the boys could actually watch the doughnuts being made on a conveyor, Mr.Roger's-field-trip-style. The boys absolutely loved watching all those doughnuts floating by in the oil, as if living some wonderful, fluffy, sugary, doughnut dream, and then going through the frosting curtain to be glazed. It was doughnut heaven. I found out that the nice Krispy Kreme people just come right up to customers to give them free doughnuts!!! And then they still let said customers redeem their free doughnut coupons. They even give away FREE HATS!!!! We bought coffee so they wouldn't regret being so nice. Yes, I realize that this was a guilt-inducing-ploy that they used against me so I would actually, you know...pay for something.....and I fell for it. And, yes, I realize that these are all things that everyone, but me, already knew about Krispy Kreme. I don't get out much, ok? But..Krispy Kreme is SO COOL! Kids get an educational experience that they can use later in life (in case McDonald's won't hire them in this economy....you know...) and parents don't have to pay for diddly! I think I know where our new favorite "field trip" outing place is............

No, I did not wash Isaac's finger before he ate his doughnuts. But I should have.

The Sweetest Words

In this house, there are 3 sweet little words spoken often, which promote affection, love & emotional bonding. And it's not "I love you". Well, ok...it is "I love you." But the other 3 sweet little words are the call to "DADDY WRESTLE TIME!!!!!!" It is all the boys' favorite past time. Justin's been wrasslin' those lil' cowpokes since the beginning of......Seth. Little did he know how outnumbered he one day would become. I sometimes wonder if he needs a little help. That's when I get out the camera.