summer, again?

hello summer 2009. although we've had a couple of "cold fronts" come through its sure is getting hot, right? although i do have to give mother nature credit, its been pretty nice having the highs be in the 80's.
school ended last week for both of the boys so we have 3 fun-filled months ahead. not that we have a lot going on, our only big thing is going to see mom in canada at the end of july which i am really looking forward to. i know the boys are going to have a blast and its been since when i was pregnant with mason that i went to visit them. (i know, i suck as a daughter) so we've started the summer off with haircuts, i know UBER exciting stuff.....i don't know where my little 18 month old baby has gone, he looks like such a big boy now. sniff.

and the end of the school year wouldn't be what it is without the annual SMMS year end program. its so cool that mason will actually go onstage without whining, crying, running, etc. AND he SANG some! can't wait to see what its like next year .


Mason and his buddy ryan

so stephen is 18 months old. his favorite word is NO. go figure..... he LOVES books. almost to an annoying degree. he wants to be read to all the time. which is great, really. sometimes i just. don't. want. to.
mason i think has grown like 2 feet an as many weeks. i have also been noticing some emotional maturity in him (which i am sure i will eradicate over the next 3 months!!!)
so basically my kids ROCK. i have been so enjoying spending time with my family lately. that is such a good feeling. sometimes i can go through periods of time, long periods of time, when i just don't feel connected like this. things are good!

Mothers Day

mothers day was last weekend. the fam and i went to smithville for a long weekend. mike rented a cabin on the colorado river. it was a MUCH needed vacation. mike just wrapped up another semester and with work, school & the halfway house he has been really busy. the boys really enjoyed having him to themselves with no interruptions. and everyone got along, even the grownups :)

we hung out, went fishing, swam, hunted grasshoppers, made smores, and were just lazy together. thanks honey for a FABULOUS weekend! i put more pics up on facebook b/c its easier to upload there.

new do

i haven't written in awhile. hello, state the obvious. last week i was dealing with a sick kid and husband. stephen had the ear infection and continued to run a fever for several day after starting antibiotics. then i noticed a couple of sores on his tongue, we thought it was hand, foot and mouth disease. but it turned out the little girl in his class that we thought he got it from didn't have the hand, foot & mouth, but some other weird thing. long story short, too late, he's better now. mike in the meantime got sick as well with whatever stevo had b/c he had swollen gums & a huge sore on his tongue. he's better (thank god) i love you honey. but am i right when i say that men are such babies when they are sick? can i get an amen? amen.
during the sick kid/husband drama i managed to get into a car wreck in the parking lot of stephens school. good times. it was my fault. damn suv drivers that try to call their pediatricians office & then proceed to reverse from their parking spot without looking in their rearview. all i can say is thank GOD that the family was in their car and not on foot!! so needless to say i have heeded the warning and am paying better attention while driving.
i am oh so completely bummed out this week. an acquaintance of mines daughter passed away on monday. Dylan was just over four years old and has been battling a brain tumor since she was 6 months old. i only met her a few times, so we were not close, but i am so sad for her family. for her. that she didn't get to grow up and live life. didn't get to go to school, learn to swim, dance ballet, fall in love, see her baby sisters grow up. her parents seem so strong, so connect with God and Jesus. i am in awe of their grace. the second thing that has my tummy in knots is about my friend Michelle. her third son, Rhyder, is due in september. they have found out through a series of tests that he has trisomy 18. they are 99% sure about this. this is where there is an extra 18th chromosome, so instead of there being 2 there are 3. here is a link that has more info on it if you are curious: http://www.trisomy18.org/site/PageServer?pagename=whatisT18_whatis. so for a lack of better words, this sucks. please pray for her, her baby, and her family. michelle and dave are such lovely people. kind, loving, present, compassionate, REAL. REALLY real. i am so blessed to have met them a little over a year ago.

p.s.

yeah.... i had masons dr look into my ear, and i have a hole in my eardrum (this is from stephen banging me in the ear last week) i was instructed to go to an ent immediately so that they can track my healing progress, or fix if it does not heal. so i am not completely paranoid, it was as bad as i thought. obviously not bad enough that i've rushed to the dr yet. yes mom, i will make an appt.....

easter

we had a lovely easter weekend (although it started with me rushing out of my coffee group, that i was hosting, to take stevo to the dr. after i spotted goo in his ear, to find out he has an ear infection). we worked in the yard saturday and dyed easter eggs. had some family and friends over on sunday to hunt eggs and eat yummy honey baked ham. here are some pics:

hallettsville, tx

so we just got home from a visit with some family that lives down in halletsville (about 2 hours south of here). we went to see mikes niece haley(his brothers daughter) to celebrate her birthday that is next week(which we happen to share, the 9th). i am so glad we have finally gotten our stuff together to do it, we've really blown it on like every other of her previous birthdays. it was a blast! i forgot how much i like to be around her mom alicia, and how sorry i am for my own sake - not hers - that she and kelly are no longer married. mason got to fish and caught, with mikes help, about 6-7 bass :) both of the boys got to drive a golf cart, yeah thanks aunt alicia! mason promptly asked me when we got on the road if he could drive home. i can see that he's not letting go of that one so easily. we got to see a wild hog that got caught in one of their traps, which was kind of scary looking and stinky. it was so nice to hang out and watch the cows, oh and i saw 2 dear prancing by when we were driving out through the property. mason LOVED being out in the country!! stephen also enjoyed himself. it was a great day trip, and the boys did suprisingly well on the road. mike wanted to bring the car dvd player, and i guess a 2 hour drive is justifiably long enough for it. but for some reason i said no, i mean WE never got to watch tv, right?!?!?! we just had to shut up and deal with it. so i realized i really do like the country, but could not live that far out. maybe on the outskirts of a small city or LARGE town.
of course i forgot my camera, luckily mimi took hers, but wether or not i get pics from her is another story.