A DAY WITH A DEAR FRIEND

This week I had the joy of spending the day with two sweet boys and their mama, Paula, the person I called my bestie throughout my jr. high and high school years. Every memory I have from those good ol' days includes her, including my pregnancy with Bethany as well as the labor and delivery - she never left my side. Our friendship has seen its share of ups and downs to say the least. And although it had been about four years (yes, FOUR years) since we had seen each other, as soon as she walked in the door it was like we picked up right where we left off. As crazy as it is each having two sisters, between the two of us we have five boys - ages almost 2, two 4-year-olds, and a 6-year-old.  (and of course my B who we missed not being here - she had a prior commitment). Needless to say at times it was a bit chaotic. :) But the boys played so well together, and I think we crammed as much catching up on the last four years as two people can do in a day's time. :)

Here are a few pics from our day. And although it seems I was a little (ok, a lot) partial to Cade, I really wasn't. It's just Owen didn't much like the camera aimed at him. Sweet baby Cade is a little ham and didn't mind having his picture taken one bit! And look at him, I couldn't help myself!

No fear:

Owen and Mac:

Sweet treats:

See what I mean?!? Look at that sweetness!

I had to be sneaky to get this one. I love it:

And about the best one we could get of all of them:

And we may or may not have bribed them with cookies to get them to sit still for 5 seconds. HA!

It was a fun day and something I hope to do again soon. She's someone who is very dear to my heart, and someone whose friendship I will always treasure. 

I love quotes (especially funny ones) and have come across a few friendship ones I like. One of my favorites and one that probably suits us best is this:

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you're a good egg 

even though [s]he knows you're slightly cracked."

~Bernard Meltzer

BROTHERLY LOVE

Grant is a softie and can't stand to see his brothers get into trouble. If either of them do find themselves in some T-R-O-U-B-L-E, he's the first one to their rescue. I remember being the same way with Dawnie. I couldn't resist the picture although I'm the one who caused those crocodile tears:

And I can't even remember what it was about now but I can assure you his behavior must have warranted discipline because well, look at that face - being the bad guy is not an easy job!

FINGER PAINT

Maybe it's just that it's fun.

OR

Maybe it's that it takes me back:

Boy does it! How sweet is she!!

I'm sure it's some of both. Either way I love finger paint - the kid in me loves it for obvious reasons; the mom in me loves it because clean-up is a breeze. And of course, like their sissy did (as with most kids) the boys love it too. Anything that requires getting your hands dirty, they're all for it. Being that it's 110° in the shade with what feels like 100% humidity, and being that the pool feels like nothing more than bath water, I decided today would be a good day to get messy with it.

And if I do say so myself, I think my little artists' works are nothing short of a masterpiece! :)

PEACE OUT

The other day while I was cleaning out a closet in the playroom, the boys were making a bigger mess playing oh-so sweetly with one another. I had my camera with me in the playroom because well, I never know when I may need it. The boys love taking pictures with it and asked to take a few of each other while they were playing. This is one I found on my camera:

I have no words.

WEEKENDS LIKE THIS WILL NEVER GET OLD

And I hope there are many more to come!

We started the day off at our house.

Then ended at Meems' and Granddaddy's with quality time telling stories and enjoying each other's company, of course lots of laughs, a wonderful steak dinner, and the best homemade cheesecake and pound cake known to man!

Where it's always nice to do this:

And have lots of these:

And one more for the road because well, we know what it means and it's freakin' HEE-LARIOUS!

God is good. All the time.

THE ART OF PERSUASION; TURBO'S THREE-YEAR CHECK-UP

Bethany has mastered the art of persuasion. She hasn't just mastered it, though, girl's got skills! If you can believe it she and her friends persuaded me to do this:

Obviously no, that is NOT me. Oh how I wish I looked like that in a bikini. That's Bethany and the picture is just to show you what they got me to do. And although there IS photographic evidence that I did it, it shall never ever be posted on this blog. It ain't pretty.

Anyhoo, they had me trying to do all sorts of "stunty" things that were so foreign to my body - you just don't even know. "Try a full down, mom."

"Yeah! Yeah! Miss April, do a full down."

I'm sorry. A what? What does that mean exactly?

This is what a full down looks like mid-way:

"Just do this with your arms [motioning what they do], and just twist your body all the way around as you're going down."

Do you really understand what you're asking me to do? The words just and twist combined with body don't quite go together anymore. :) Bethany and her group make stunting seem effortless. It's not! But it really was fun. And with the exception of waking up a few times that night wondering why my back was a little "catchy", I'm all good.

THREE YEAR CHECK-UP:

In other news, we're a few months late in getting Reid's 3-year check-up, but it was last week and I want to post a few things about it before I forget:

He weighs 29 lbs.

He's 3 ft. 1 in. tall.

He's in the 25th percentile for his height and 10th for his weight. He's a little tiny hiney!

Dr. Trumbull said he's growing exactly as he should, that all his blood work, etc. came back great, and that he would see him again at his 4-year check-up.

He loves Vienna sausages. They make me gag just getting them out of the can for him.

He loves steak, ham, turkey, chicken, deer meat - pretty much any meat. He's a meat and potatoes kind of boy. :)

He and Mac have to have their coffee every morning (caffeine free of course).

He loves to help me with laundry and dishes (proof below because I'm sure this won't last long).

He's not a big fan of sweets or candy (and surprisingly yes, he IS my biological child). If you give him the choice of a bag of candy or Cheez-Its, he'll choose the Cheez-Its every time.

He sometimes forgets but usually has very nice manners like his brothers. When he remembers, he says, "I said my nice manners didn't I, mommy?" only it comes out like, "I say-d my nice mannoos..."

He's very animated when he talks.

His nicknames are Turbo and Velcro. Turbo because he's always in overdrive and Velcro because he loves to be attached to my hip.

He is hilarious and makes me laugh every day.

Out of the blue he'll walk up to me and tell me he loves me. "I wuv u mama." He does that 3-4 times every day. It melts my heart every time.

He still has a blanket and calls it his baby. He doesn't carry it around during the day but wants it when he's tired and when he sleeps at night.

He loves to give me hugs and kisses. He's a mama's boy 110%.

He is very demanding and requires A LOT of my attention, but he's the baby. Our caboose. MY baby. He's my heart!

MOHAWK

A while back when Mac asked for a mohawk, I let him get it. I loved it and so did everyone in the salon. But we were all making such a big deal about it, he started acting all modest on me and asked to get rid of it before he even got out of the chair. Well, lately he's been asking for it again. If you know Mac you know it fits his personality to a T. I love it. So does he. I don't know how long it will last, but we're having fun with it for now.

The boys think people with mohawks are rock stars, so Mackey is quite the celebrity around our house these days. :)

MOM, WILL YOU TUCK ME IN YOUR BED?

No, that's not something one of the boys asked me. It was my sweet baby girl. I hope she's still asking me to do that when she's 30. I don't get to do it nearly enough but treasure it when I do.

A sight I love to see.

Sweetness. Pure, beautiful sweetness.

SWEET CHEEKS

He'll get me for this one day, but...

DON'T YOU JUST WANNA PINCH 'EM?? :)

THE COLLEY GIRLS; DECATUR RAIDERS WIN HOME POM

We had a big week last week, so I'm going to try my best to recap it all in this post. Especially since I have some free time on my hands with my little ones being with their RaRa. I'll be honest and tell you I don't quite know what to do with myself! HA! I miss them tremendously, but they are having so much fun they wanted to stay one more day. Like I said, Mommy who? And after the first day with Chris and I wandering around aimlessly wondering what we should do with ourselves, we've adjusted. :) We went to the lake yesterday, just the two of us. It was quite different being on a big pontoon boat with no kids. We went to different marinas looking at boats, then rode from one end of the lake to the other just looking at different houses and condos, then had dinner at a restaurant on the lake. It was really nice and so peaceful. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It's not something we want to do a lot but is nice every now and then - and needed too!

GRACE AND CLAIRE:

I performed one of the most selfless acts so far in my life - ha! (aside from the few times I've ever shared any of my Krispy Kreme donuts) and kept Martha's girls while she, my mom, my Aunt Sandra and my cousin, Anna, went to Six Flags for the day. It just didn't work out for me to go with them (although that's always kinda been mine and Rachel's "thing") SIGH. I was, though, very excited I had the opportunity to help Rachel out so she could go. Not only has she helped me with Bethany and the boys on numerous occasions (i.e., right this second), but she's the most giving person I know. She deserved a day to herself to do whatever she wanted. She's like a kid as soon as she walks through the gates at Six Flags, and if you're with her you better have your walking shoes on. They met us in Auburn Monday night to watch Bethany do their home pom competition at cheer camp, then I took the girls back with me. GaGa and Mags (I call her Claire because Mags and Mac sound very similar which tends to get on her nerves) spent the night and spent most of the day with us the next day. I couldn't have asked them to be any better, and they always get along so well with the boys. I very much enjoyed their company, and am going to try to squeeze in one more visit before the summer is over.

Homemade popsicles are a favorite around here:

Because she's crazy like that:

DECATUR RED RAIDERS:

Bethany and her squad did a fabulous job at cheer camp winning almost everything in their division. The biggest victory being winning first place in their home pom competition. They were allowed to stunt this year. I must say being the mama of a flyer on the squad means sitting on pins and needles.

You can tell from that picture she was favoring her hip a bit. She stunted more the week of camp than her whole life, and her body let her know she was overdoing it a bit. She left with a few bumps and bruises and a lot of sore muscles and joints. :) No worries, though, nothing a little Ruby Tuesday double chocolate cake couldn't cure.

I can't wait for football season, Umby!!