Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

This year we let the boys pick one activity outside of Awana that they could participate in.  Cooper choose T-ball!  So we signed him up and we have had so much fun watching Cooper play!  He is enjoying it and he is doing really well.  This week he got a great hit and finally got to touch home plate! 

Travis and I definitely get our fill of comedic entertainment each week.  Grandma and Grandpa have been able to come watch him several times and next week Gram will be in town and will get to see him play!

I can't even stand how cute he looks in his uniform! 

 His biggest fan!

 Warming up for the big game!

Getting ready to hit!

Tyler is starting basketball at the Boys and Girls Club soon!  He is super excited about it and we can't wait to watch him play!  

Desert Song

I'm not really sure how Claire learned this song, but I think Travis had been singing it around the house and she picked up on it.  Now, it's the only song she wants to sing before bed.  So today I asked her to sing it on the computer so we could capture it.  During the middle she gets a little distracted with seeing herself in the computer!  :)

P.S.  Just ignore my beautiful singing in the background!

First Day of School!

The last of my kids started school today!  The kids are all at different schools this year and they have had a staggered start.  Claire started first on the 13th, Cooper on the 16th, and Tyler finally started today.  Cooper and Claire had a great start.  Tyler had a little bit of a rocky start this morning.  I took him to school by himself this morning and walked him to his room.  When we walked in their were kids sitting at two tables which were already full, so Tyler sat at a table by himself.  He started tearing up when I asked if he was ready for me to leave.  He said he was upset because he didn't recognize any of the other kids in his class from last year.  I knew there were a couple of kids that were going to be in his class so I waited until they showed up.  He still wasn't his happy self when I left and it was really hard to leave him.  But when I picked him up from school this afternoon he was much better and told Travis he had an awesome day.  I'm so glad that his day turned around!

Ready for 1st Grade!

 Cooper ready for Pre-K!

 Claire and Coop saying goodbye

 Cooper and Brooklynn ready for class!

 Little Miss Priss needed her picture taken!  This picture cracks me up because it shows how tall Claire is.  Brooklynn is almost 5 and Claire just turned 2.

 Claire ready for Ms. Estella's Class!

Master Bedroom... Check!

After almost three years of living in our house, we FINALLY (well, almost) finished our Master Bedroom.  I still have a few things I want to tweak, but that will have to wait until I have some extra moola.  Anyway, we didn't really do a whole lot of remodeling- mainly just painted and changed the flooring.  It just took me a really long time to figure out what I wanted to do bedding wise.  But I'm REALLY happy that I waited until I found something I love.  I love how it turned out and I actually want to make my bed.  Shocker, I know!  

I have to give a shout out to my amazing Mother-In-Law.  She sewed the beautiful curtains and euro shams and saved me some big bucks!  Here are the pics!

BEFORE

AFTER

The fabric for the curtains and shams are from Ballard Designs.  I totally lucked out and found the ruffle spread and ruffle shams at Marshall's for a total of $39 for everything!  I love ruffles!

Below is a chest I bought off of Craigslist before we moved.  The mirror was a Goodwill find that I purchased before I moved as well.

Here is a closeup of the curtains.  The chest I found at Canton this spring.  I want to find a similar one for Travis' side of the bed.  The little mirrors to the right were another Canton find.  The lamps were the ones I painted and described here.

Here is a closeup of the bed.  I found the old corbels at a little antique shop near my parents house.  I think they are fun and unique.

BEFORE

 AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Close up of the frames.  These are old window frames that I found from Canton for $3.  I found some frameless frames at Hobby Lobby and lined it with the fabric from the bedding and placed a picture and a poem on top.

Walkin' in High Cotton!

The other night we all headed out to visit Granpda at one of his cotton fields before he finished picking cotton later this week.  The boys were really excited about riding the cotton picker.  We also took some obligatory family pictures in the cotton fields.

The family in the cotton field.  Notice Claire's choice of style!

 Daddy and his farming girl!

I looked up at Travis and you could see all the cotton in the reflection of his sunglasses.  I thought it looked pretty cool! 

The kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa 

 Grandma and her crazy girl!

 Farmer Johnson going to check on the fields!

 Beautiful field of white cotton!

 Riding off into the sunset

 Tyler and Claire rode with Daddy on one cotton picker, while Cooper and Grandpa rode together on the other one.  Midway through the row Grandpa's cotton picker broke down and he had to carry Cooper in his arms the rest of the way out of the field.  We teased Cooper that he broke the cotton picker.

The kids up close!

Happy Birthday, Cooper!

Tuesday was Cooper's 5th Birthday and he decided he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for the day so we headed out early Tuesday morning after opening presents at home.  We got there right after it opened and we had the place to ourselves.  We had a great time and we really hit the jackpot.  The workers were testing and cleaning all of the games to make sure they were all working properly, so after they would play a game they would leave all the tickets in the games for us to come around and pick up.  We probably got 300 tickets from just picking their tickets from the games.  The boys thought it was awesome!  

After Chuck E. Cheese's we headed to eat lunch at Chick-fil-a for lunch and then to Target where Cooper spent some of the birthday money he had received.  He had the best time picking out some new toys.  Then, we headed to pick up some cupcakes for later that evening.  Since we were in Mcallen, I decided to go to a bakery called RGV Cupcake Factory.  Last week I heard about them because they were recently on Cupcake Wars and won!  So I thought it would be a fun treat to try some out.  They were great and a special treat!  That night Cooper chose to go have Pizza with the family and Grandpa, Kelsey and her girls joined us.  We had a great day celebrating Cooper!

 Opening presents from Mom & Dad!

 Angry Birds!  We are a bit obsessed at the moment!

 He loved his shirt and wore it that day.

His very own Boogie Board for when we go to the beach!

 Tyler wanted to take a picture of the Angry Birds boogieing!

Claire riding the carousel.  I can't even handle her pig tails, they are so cute!  

She just started wearing pig tails!  I can't quite get all of her hair in them, but they are still just precious!

The boys playing air hockey!

Cooper's Kitchen

Cooper will be 5 on Tuesday and this weekend we celebrated with a Chef's party!  It was so much fun and I think the kids enjoyed creating all of their masterpieces.  We started off by making individual pizzas.  Papa Murphy's has boxed kits for kids to build their own pizzas, so we bought those for each of the kids which made it super easy on us!  Then while the pizzas were baking we played a game where we blindfolded the kids and we gave them something to eat and they had to guess what it was.  One of the little boys was awesome at guessing the correct item.  Then the kids made fruit skewers for appetizers and we finished off with the kids decorating cookie cakes for dessert.  We finally had to just take the icing away from them!  Some of the little girls were just sitting there eating sprinkles the whole time!  It was hilarious!  I think they really had fun decorating their cakes!

Chef Cooper waiting on his guests to arrive! 

Grandma and the Top Chef 

 Me and the littlest chef

 Cooper and Claire ready to create yummy treats

 The table

 Claire working hard on her pizza

 Callie spreading her sauce

 The boys working hard

 Chef Tyler

 Love this picture of Jackson

 The boys enjoying their pizzas

 BEAU!

 Brooklynn and Callie enjoying their delicious pizzas

 Time for ICING!!!

 The girls were a little more delicate in their use of icing.  You can see Callie on the left with her hand in the sprinkles getting her a bite of pure sugar!

 One of the finished products!  None of the parents were brave enough to try it!  I can't imagine why?

 Cooper blowing out his birthday candle

Claire decided she needed to be part of the mustache club!

We had so much fun celebrating Cooper!  It's hard to believe he is 5!  I love this sweet, little boy.  He is kind and compassionate and just easy to be around.  We love you, buddy!!!