Beach Day 2

Day 2 we headed back out to the beach for more fun in the sun! Love this precious little face. 



Keaton and Grady loved to go shelling.  Grady invented his own name for each seashell he found.  It was quite hilarious. 

4 little monkeys in the pool. 

Grady and Garon posing for a pic.  Well sort of. 

That evening we decided to go back to the Beach Monkey.  We love that place.  The kids love the all  you can eat crab legs.  Not my first choice but they sure do love them. 

Day 2 was just as fun as day one.  At the restaurant we were so excited and wanted to head back and play cards at the house or something...but as soon as we got back we all hit the bed.  Guess the sun can wear you out faster than you think.  



Beach Day 1

Well I am still not sure what happened on Friday....but I am SO glad it did. After just arriving home to enjoy the beginning of my Spring Break, I got this crazy text from my mom.  It was around 4:30.  She told us no one was in the beach house until Thursday so pack up if we wanted to go.  Before I could respond Dan did.  "We're going!" he said.  Easy for him to say he didn't have to pack himself and two boys in one hour.  Yes, did I mention we were leaving in an hour. 

Staci was in but Scott couldn't go.  Sarah was out because of baseball.  So it was me, Dan, Grady, Garon, Halle, Keaton, and Staci...and away we went!!!!

We drove all night long (well Dan did) but we were good company.  The kids were very good.  They had phones, DS's, movies, anything that would keep them entertained.  It was a looonnng 12 hours but we finally arrived by 7 am and were exhausted.  We just knew the kids would want to sleep after staying up for so long, but NO they did not!! So we headed to the beach.

Garon loved the sand and water.  That's all he said 800 million times.  "Oh water! Did you see dat?" Like no one else saw all that big ocean water but him.  It was precious.  



 Love this pic. 

 Garon would sit and play in the sand for hours.  He even buried daddy's feet this day. 

 Garon also enjoyed being pulled up and down the beach in the wagon.  It was quite the workout but Keaton and Halle enjoyed it. 

Day 1 was exhausting but the beach can wake anyone up.  The kids all passed out on the couch early that night.  

Little All-Star

Grady loves to play sports...which makes me one happy momma! He has only been able to play baseball so Dan and I were super excited to hear that Grady was old enough to play basketball this year.  The only catch...it was in Branson.  We were so excited that the drive every Friday night to Branson didn't stop us!!

Of course I made Dan coach this team also. Dan had to go to Branson and actually draft his team.  Craig was helping Dan so we knew we got Hayden.  Dan said his only strategy was shirt size.  He was picking kids based on who had the bigger shirt.  :) As Dan was flipping through the cards he happened to see Kylee's name and grabbed her up fast!  So to our surprise we ended up getting someone we knew on our team. This made it even more fun!

Garon was NOT on the team, although he really thought he was.  It was very hard to keep him off the court.  It took a lot of crackers and M&M's. 

 

 Grady was really good at basketball.  He made a lot of shots during the season.  He would only pass the ball to Hayden and we tried to talk to him about this.  His response was, "I only pass the ball to people who pass the ball to me!"  (sounds like something I would have said)

 Grady and Kylee

 The big team.  We had a lot of cute girls on our team. 

 Even Garon got to dunk it!

 Dan is a really good coach and did a good job having a lot of patience with these kids.  The kids loved him.  They would run up and hug him when he arrived.  One even cried because she wanted to talk to him on the phone.  And on our last night as we were leaving a little girl chased us down crying.  She was said because she wouldn't get to see her coach again.  :(  Dan hugged her and sad she could call him anytime.  So sweet!!

Dan ordered the whole team trophies for their final game.  The kids thought this was so cool.  They were so proud!

And we were super proud of our big All-Star!

Grady turns 5!

Grady turned the big 5 this year! I am not quite sure how that happened but it did! Didn't I just have him? I am having to take deep breaths just to write this.  I don't know why this one is so hard but it is.  Maybe because he says all these things that just blow my mind away, or because he will only be staying with Mrs. Hope and April for 3 for months (and we love them), or because he asks every night "Mom, how many days before big boy school?" Maybe ALL of the above...or maybe it's just because I'm 29 and I am realizing I'm almost 30 and that I have a 5 year old!! And now I'm sure you can understand!



Grady was so excited to have a camoflauge birthday party this year.  We had a lot of fun with this one.  We made everyone dress in camo of course and had a lot of shooting events.  Food was everywhere at this party.  Camille made her infamous sugar cookies and these were amazing with the browning logo on them.  The cakeshop made the adorable cake pops.  And then Grady requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake so we had the big buck he killed pictured on it.  

We bought chocolate covered peanuts and called them deer pellets. 

Daniel dressed up as the park ranger.  He looked funny but we all got a kick out of it. 

Daniel's parents fried up some deer meat for us and instead of pigs in a blanket it was bambi in a blanket.  I don't eat deer meat but it sure did disappear fast!

I am so proud of this boy! He amazes me everyday.  He is growing up into a little man.  He picks up on things when you don't think he's listening, he can keep secrets now, he prays really good, he cares for his brother, he's smart, he can be patient like his dad or have an attitude like his mom, he's talented at sports, he loves guitars and singing songs, and he is 100% BOY!  I could go on and on. 

 When Dan and I had Grady we didn't even realize how much he would change our lives and bless our home.  He was an awesome baby and now he is a great big brother.  I am so thankful to get to be your mom.  Love you Grady! 

I am back

I AM BACK! I have sat down several nights thinking...I should blog today...but obviously I haven't in several months. One of the reasons is because I have been extremely busy! Who isn't right?  The other reason is because every time I wanted to blog I struggled with...do I go all the way back to September and blog...or do I just start with the now...
 As much as I don't want to short change my children and not blog about all the fun things we did...I don't have it in me to go back that far.  I hope to do a better job of keeping up, but I'm not making any promises! :)