My Boy

Today we picked up his school schedule. The sign inside the entry way said welcome Class of 2019. The schedule we picked up marked another milestone for him. For me. His high school years are about to begin in only 9 days. 

My boy is a Freshman. Where has the time gone? My boy who has served as a life changer for me in so many ways. Ways he may never understand. You see there was a time when it was just he and I, and then another time when it was just the two of us again. He prayed. Then there was three. Then came four. Then we were complete. 

My boy. My big hearted boy. So talented, so patient. Patient with everyone but his little sister. I'm told that is normal. Did I mention talented? His love for sports, especially basketball is going to take him far. Between the love of the game and his love for Christ.  I pray that his life experiences are well learned lessons. Lessons that one day can mentor those from similar situations. He will be an excellent teacher. An excellent coach and mentor. 

My boy makes me proud each day. There will be lots of growing for both of us in the next four years. Four years that I have to hold him as close as he will allow and cherish each precious moment. Four years to call him my baby boy even though at  almost 6'2" and 187lbs he is far from a baby. My boy will forever be my pride and joy, this Moma's baby boy. 

Filling the Bus

The annual school sit and cheese pics have been brought home. The bus collages that hang in my hallway have had another picture added to it, leaving one less space to fill as my babies move up in their school years. I have been very, very vocal about how much I detest these particular pictures. This year they aren't so bad. These particular ones serve their purpose. They fill the bus windows.

This year though it hit me. 

Did you count the blank spaces left in the above picture? Go ahead. Count. FOUR left! He hasn't changed that much. Just lost his baby cheeks, added glasses for two years, and has now found contacts. His style hasn't changed much either. Hair or clothes. His face is longer, shoulders broader. And his height, that can't even be recognized in such pictures as these. He now towers over me by almost 4 inches at 6'1". He is in his first year of school ball- basketball! Obviously I am the mother of a rapidly growing man child. 

Miss K became a mini me in the past year. I blinked. Her hair isn't so curly anymore, with the help of product we can still make it pretty wavy. She is sassy and crafty. The girl can scream and throw drama like nobody's business. No one will ever mess with her. She always has to be busy. Her imagination is infinite. She is still dancing and even has a part in the upcoming South Tulsa Children's Ballet's Nutcracker performance.  I still have ten spaces to fill in her bus. I have a feeling I will earn my head of gray while filling these seats.

Like I said above, this year filling the bus seats hit me, hit me hard. The school day memories that have been made and will be made are memories to treasure forever. The education they receive now will prepare them for adulthood and for their future careers.

Education, a lot of prayer, and a solid faith in Christ our Savior.

A Souper Recipe and PINK Hair!

Hi y'all! Yes, it's been a while since I wrote here, but no worries, I am still around. Be sure you are following me on all my other social media sites (click on the icons to the right folks) to see the snippets of what is going on in and around my nest. It's CRAZY, I tell ya. Today I have a boy with pink hair.

YES, I said PINK!!! But before I get into that story, I'm sending you all over to Oklahoma Women Bloggers. Today I am posting the following recipe. Everyone needs to make this recipe this weekend. It's Souper Comfort Food for the rainy, chilly Fall weekend we have ahead of us. Yay for Fall!!!

Now the Pink hair story.

It's #PinkOut day here in Broken Arrow. His middle school is going all out. I even heard that his National Junior Honor Society was doing some kind of contest. This is just plain awesome to raise awareness for breast cancer and any type of cancer for that matter.

I am so proud of this boy. He always has had such a fighting and supportive spirit toward any type of cancer. Today he wears a medal that he received in a 5K for a recent loved one who passed away from esophageal cancer, he even stepped out of his comfort zone and dyed his hair pink. I never thought my son would raid my closet for all of my pink gear. He did it for 5 family members in 5 years, one being his own grandfather. At 13, he gets it.

Do you Pink Out where you live? 

Basketball by Braden C. Crow

Since this is a family blog, it pleases me to no end to actually be able to share my own children's writings, with their permission of course. Braden wrote the following poem this year in his 7th grade English class. He had to read it/perform it in front of the entire class to be chose for the school's Poetry Slam. His poem wasn't selected, but he read it several times to us. (I'm even going to try to talk him into a video, that hopefully he will let me share.)

Basketball
by Braden C. Crow

Basketball is a sport I have passion for, but everytime I go down the court I try to score.
When I go down the court to score, I dribble as I run, I release as I shoot.

Again, I love basketball, but there is more than just passing the ball or being tall.
The crowd roars when I score. When you get down the court to play defense you got to stop the offense. When I'm on defense I rebound bigger than a town. When I block it sounds like a rock hit the ground.

The third time I say this, I hope I make it clear, because you are my peer. It's my favorite sport, no one is going to change that. Basketball.

A Week in Pictures from Our Nest

What a crazy busy week this past one was.  So many HUGE events going on that I would have to write a minimum of SIX posts to get it all in. So I will just post a week's worth of pics (mostly unedited from the iPhone) and give story captions. 

B has been invited to play AAU Basketball this Summer. Practice started last week. 

We haven't been at the same gym twice. 

P.S. We are accepting any and all donations and fundraising ideas toward this cause.

Look who made the National Junior Honor Society!!! He only thought my pride was in his athletics. I was crazy ecstatic when he brought the invite letter for this home. His installation is next week. More pics to come.

 

Miss K's 1st Grade Field Trip was at the Tulsa Air & Space Museum. Daddy Crow and I both got to attend as chaperones with her. He learned exactly what it was like to handle/chase four 1st graders. 

Beautiful Feet Dance Company held its 16th annual dance recital last Thursday night. This is our little ballerina's fourth year to perform. Oh so sweet. I caught this picture backstage in between my emcee lines. 

Me & Miss K after the recital.

On Saturday we drove a few short miles from my house and visited the Blue Whale on Route 66. My Moma was in town for the weekend. We enjoyed a lunch of KFC and explored for about three hours. 

Miss K's art masterpiece was selected for display at the Broken Arrow Schools District Wide Art Show. The piece is a circus/clown themed piece colored with block crayons. Below is a closer view of one of the clowns. She doesn't know this, but I used to collect clowns when I was a little girl. 

 

I captured this shot as we were leaving the art show. This is outside the Administration Building at the Broken Arrow NSU campus. I am so proud of my kiddos and their accomplishments. They are growing so big and their light shines so bright every day. 

Summer. Moving On By.

Hello. Wow! What. A. Summer. Where has July gone? The boy got back from DC, we both were sick and we haven't stopped since those diagnosis last Tuesday. I think it's time for a quick catch me up post. 

We've crafted. Yep, made a banner for my friend's kindergarten classroom. How cute did this paint chip banner turn out?

What about these glitter clothes pins and pencil cups? Got to love the mod podge and using vegetable cans. Got to love being Pinterest inspired.

We've also done LOTS of swimming. Even made a little trip to Muskogee to River Country Family Water Park. Way smaller version of Big Splash, way easier on this Moma's nerves. Especially when the kids just wanted to float the lazy river all day. 

And then we roll into this week. Is it really already Thursday? 

We had a dentist appointment on Tuesday...

Followed by a pedicure.

 

And of course didn't miss our Wednesday movie. This week's was Happy Feet. I have loved these fifty cent movies.  I also started my 34 lb weight loss mission again this week. So far so good. I have logged three days onto My Fitness Pal and have logged 9 miles worth of walking so far this week. It really messed up my pedicure. 

Activities for the week are not over yet.

Keeping these kids entertained this summer has been a full time job and paycheck, even though most of the activities we do are at a reduced rate or free.  I'm betting we see the swimming pool and a pair of bowling shoes before the week is over. 

How is your summer going?

Tween Room Clean

My almost 13 year old, but not quite because I refuse to admit it, son has been gone for over two weeks. TWO WEEKS and two days before he is back under my roof tomorrow.  I have whined, moaned, and probably whittled my Facebook friend list down a few do to this absenteeism.  From what I understand, I am not alone. He is being called a Moma's boy. He wants to come home badly. He got sick in DC, so sick he didn't even go see the 4th of July fireworks at our nation's Capitol. Poor baby.

What does a Moma do when her tween son is finally out of his room long enough for her to tackle cords, video equipment, games, clothes and forgotten school papers? 

She cleans it.

I really forgot to take a good before pic. This one was where little sis snuck in his room and started playing with his old toys. I am not the only one missing him.

Ta Da!! Room clean. Curtain hung. Bedding changed. My husband thinks this bedding is too boyish. We'll see.

Woo Hoo!!! Clean carpets and I can see baseboards. I even hung pictures. Did I mention I love seeing baseboards? He knows his room is not the way I left it. I may be in a little bit of trouble for sorting out and untangling ALL the gaming controllers. They are organized in an over the door shoe organizer. I used these when he was young for stuffed animals, so why not utilize now for electronics.

Can't wait to see him tomorrow. Can't wait to see his reaction over his room. CAN wait to see how long it takes to get messy again.

Today's Post

Today's Post is about me LETTING GO at Oklahoma Women Bloggers.
"He’s 12. Never been on a jet plane. We are not the “sleep away” parents. I can’t count on a single hand the times he has spent the night with friends. Grandparents have to beg for nightly visits from our children. We are just the parents who find comfort in having their children safe and sound under our roof and watch. Did I mention he’s never been on an airplane?"
To read the rest you will have to go to Oklahoma Women Bloggers. Don't forget to leave some comment love.

Finally a dream come true for him, while I'm holding back tears and letting go.  I can only hope someone catches him in this particular pose/shot. HINT HINT!!! 

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the most wonderful man in the world. The man we like to call Dad, Daddy, Honey, Babe & Jason....

We Love You!!!

Of course this is not an original idea of mine, I just love being a Real Housewife of the Internet and using my favorite tool in the world of Pinterest for gift inspiration. Of course I always add my own twist, so I guess my originality does come in somewhere. We made a collage at Walgreens (FREE) and a card. Also, let me tell you a little secret. Braden does not own a plain white t-shirt. The one he has on in the photo has a flag on it. PicMonkey is my favorite picture editing tool ever. Yep I drew that flag right out of that shirt. 

The Fairy House

Imagination. Kid's play. Siblings getting along for more than five minutes to accomplish a goal of creativity while their Nana, Grandma, Moma and Daddy look on. A true blissful time that was experience by my family this past Saturday. All electronic devices were put away, the only one even present was an iPod with a 10% battery life confiscated from my son and used by me to capture a few pics and videos that will be shown on this post and used for memories in years to come.

The little sister convinced her older brother to build a fairy house. He didn't argue. For once. She really will remember their teamwork forever and he probably doesn't even know it now. They gathered sticks. She finally found the right piece of ground to make them stand in. Even though we have had an inch or so of rain, our ground is still so hard from being starved of moisture for so long. They hammered the sticks with a Nerf baseball bat and croquet stick. They gathered yellow dandelions. They worked for close to an hour. Priceless. #MyMommyMoments for sure.

I realized later that the idea of the fairy house came from a book my little Kindergartner and I had picked up at the book fair. Pinkalicious Fairy House. Thankfully she forgot the part where they spent the night outside waiting for the fairies. Reading really does spark the imagination. What a reward it was to realize that the pages of a book came to life this weekend in Grandma's backyard for a little girl and her brother.

I Detest School Pictures

This is not a paid post. 

Rather a mother's observation from experience. School pictures are not nice. My friend Tracy talked about this very subject at a recent Women's Lunch Club meeting, there are so many kids and so little time what can you expect. I guess the memory of the quirkiness. You could be really silly and get voted Class Clown.

Now I will admit. My son takes pretty good school pictures.

2012-2013 Yearbook Picture and the bus collage picture.

Picture I took in December 2012

Obviously, I am NOT a professional photographer. I have a Sony DSC-H50 and use PicMonkey to edit. One of these days I will figure out how to not have a glare on his glasses.

Now here is the reason for this post. 

THIS is Kaybrie's first school picture. I bought the $20 packet, it's the prepay one.

Her first yearbook picture and the picture that goes in the bus collage. 

This is what I took when the kids were having fun, being natural and themselves at the park in December. See the difference? 

And this is what she just brought home from school yesterday. Needless to say I did not send a $46 check back to school and keep the pictures. Nope, the entire portrait packet went back to school today. 

Let me make myself clear. I don't think they are necessarily terrible pictures. They just don't capture her personality. She is not natural. Very fake and posed. She is going to be one of those girls that has to be in her own element.

My friend Sherri at Sherri Scarpa Photography takes my family pictures- you know the ones where the parentals actually get in the shots, not the random ones I take for fun. She does the best job capturing my family in it's FUN! She shows us living, laughing, learning and loving. 

All the things that WE are about. 

She is actually running a fun contest right now. 

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to enter in the Luckiest Photo contest. Email Sherri a picture of what makes you feel like the luckiest person in the world. She will open an album for voting on March 10 and post rules for voting. Email pictures to photographyXss@gmail.com

What do you think about school pictures vs professional? Do you have a favorite photog? Let me know if you enter Sherri's contest. I will vote for you. And you might just find an entry from me. And I promise this post does not get me brownie points. 

100th Day of Kindergarten Fun

Today is my baby girl's 100th day of Kindergarten.

I couldn't post her pictures without first pulling out the scrapbook and taking a trip down memory lane to just six short years ago when my son was also celebrating his 100th day at the same school. 

 Remember scrapbooks? 

Hard to believe six years have gone by. Time is so precious. 

One way or another, I will get images scanned into this blog of mine.

Note: I did manage to repair the scrapbook page and keep his memories archived in it forever.

He brought home a hat that we had to decorate. Being that Kaybrie was just 8 days old, Jason and Braden put the hat together. Quite an imagination. Oklahoma was turning 100 years old in 2007. 100 stars for Liberty Stars, a $100 bill, and 4 quarters!

Kaybrie had to dress up like a 100 year old lady. This proved to be a little tough. We don't know any "old" ladies to borrow anything from. We hit the local Goodwill store. 

Skirt + Brown Sweater + Had to have matching purse = $15

Baby powder for gray hair= necessity at our house.

Pearls= must have accessory.

Makeup=must have cosmetic.

Suntan knee hi's= oh geez, couldn't believe I still had those. I decided they were over 12 years old!!! That's what happens when a former bank manger/officer is such a hoarder. Their not even sandal toed knee hi's!!!

I love the 100 days of school activities. Did your children celebrate? Did you post? .

If so leave me a link or picture in the comments and I'll come visit!