Friday, August 17, 2012

Kindergarten

Since January of this year, every night before we go to bed, the last thing Grady says is, "How many days till Kindergarten?" My response has always been the same.  "Stop counting son...it will be here before you know it."

And it's here. 

I am so so so happy that Grady is excited about Kindergarten.  It would be much worse if I was having to peel him off of my leg.  But, I am not excited about having a Kindergartner.  It just makes me sad. 

Open House was last night and boy was Grady excited.  I asked him before we left to tell me 5 things that he was excited about Kindergarten.
1. I get to play on the playground
2. recess
3. I get to be with my friends
4. I get to learn and play
5. I can't wait to be with my teacher Mrs. Adams

Those were your exact words and I cried on the last one.  I am so thankful that you already love your teacher and that Mrs. Adams has made it a priority to build that relationship with you so soon.

Here we are leaving for open house.  He is super excited here. 


 Visiting the classroom.  Grady has a lot of friends in his class that he already knows from church, and we met a few kids that we knew and didn't even realize it.  And he is even in the same class as Hayden.  Here he is playing with a sweet little girl at the sensory center. 
 Here is Grady with Mrs. Adams.  She took them around the room and showed them the fish and hamster.  Looks like they will have a FUN year!




 This picture is for our Papa Benton.  "Hoo Aww Proud to be a Panther!" We like to give him a hard time since he is a bobcat in all.  I know we will get him in a Panther shirt before to long. :)



Grady,
I know you hate to be called my baby, but you are my first baby.  I remember bringing you home from the hospital the first night and you were screaming so bad and I looked at your dad and asked, "what do we now?"  Your dad was petrified to hold you.  You were a really good baby.  You liked to be rocked to sleep each night and I certainly miss those days. 
I remember your sweet little voice when you first started talking.  I know we didn't make a trip to Wal-Mart without coming home with a huge toy.  You had us both in the palm of your hand.  At about 1 year old you immediately turned into a big daddy's boy.  And I don't blame you.  Your dad took  you everywhere to do everything boyish.  He took you to a cardinals game.  He drove you around on the lawn mower, the 4-wheeler, took you fishing on the Ranger boat, took you to monster truck shows, the cow sell,...and you loved every minute of it. 
It's like all of a sudden  you are this big boy who can do all these big boy things.  You are so well rounded and smart.  You want to help load the wood, you want to open the gates at the farm. You like to help me cook, you read Garon books, you watch Dolphin Tale and cry because he gets a family at the end.  You are SO eager to learn.  You ask me when we can do our school lessons.  You pray before your meals, you pray for others at night.  You love to sing and play guitar because you want to be just like your dad.  Your amazing at Wii games and can use the iphone and ipad better than me. When Papa Davis passed away you told me I didn't have to be sad because we could talk to him every day because he lived in our hearts with Jesus.  You amaze me!!
I am so excited for you to start this new adventure in Kindergarten.  I hope you have an amazing year with Mrs. Adams.  We love you Grady Davis!

Who Loves Bruno?

We do! We do!

If you ask my boys what they want to do on a Saturday morning this is where you will end up.  They were ecstatic to head to the farm and ride the 4-wheeler.  Garon's quote all the way to the farm... "Dad got 4-wheeler in the truck! I wanna ride it!"
And here they are ready to go. 


Love this pic of my boys.  Grady found an old hat of dads and thought he was so cool.  He had that hat tightened as far as it would go and was so proud to be wearing one of dads hats.  Garon is obsessed with wearing hats also.  He will say, "I need to go get my hat." 



Grady was my chauffeur for the day.  He did awesome.  Not only that but he was my tour guide.  He kept telling me all about the hay and the cows and the frogs in the pond...



One of the main reasons we headed out to the farm besides to ride 4-wheelers was also to go "frog hunting."  Yes, I just made that up.  I don't know what else you would call this activity.  Here is Garon looking at the pond.  I love this picture. 


And I love this picure.  If you know Garon you would know that he can't stand, no dispises, absolute  hates with a passion getting his picture made.  (get my point)  So when you say smile, you get this face.  So technically he is smiling in this picture. 
 Both of my sweet boys checking the pond for frogs.  And boy were they everywhere.  So we frog hunted....



 Not sure who was having more fun...
And here is where the fun ended for me. 

We are at the pond minding our own business while the cows are eating their hay.  It was all fun and games until this big bull comes over for a drink of water.  Sure, he just wanted water, but I interpreted it as he was coming over to CHARGE at me or eat me or something!  Little background story. 

 The bull is heading our way.  I say, "Dan, that bull is heading this way." Dan says, "Yea, he's friendly," without even turning around.  I run to the 4-wheeler, to me as an attempt to save myself, and scream a little bit like a little girl.  Meanwhile, nobody else in my family cares that this large animal is coming at us.  And the bull walked over, got his drink, and left.  And still to this day Grady will say, "Mom, why did you cry like a baby when that bull came over? " 

I guess the first step is admitted you have a problem...well I hate cows.  I don't know why.  I grew up with cows, fed them, helped get them in the little chute things so my dad could dehorn them, even had my own cow to show at the fair.  So I have no idea where this fear comes from...but I am very glad that Papa Benton and Dad remain calm so that my boys will not be afraid like me.





 Then they all left and I got to go back to the pond with my family.  The little babies are cute. I don't think I am afraid of calves.











 Garon and I got tired of all the frog hunting so we went back to the house to play trucks with Granny Gray.  Garon desperately wanted Granny to hitch all trailors to the right trucks. 




We had a lot of fun at the farm.  :)


Thursday, August 16, 2012

Highs and Lows

This summer has been filled with so many good moments but yet also a very difficult time for us as well.
Baby Davis Scot was born.  He is precious.   He makes number 12 of great-grandchilden!
Brett Matthew turned into a teenager!!! Ahhhh!!! this is crazy to me.  Brett is such a good boy, he loves Garon so much he even let him blow his candles out.  Garon just walks around saying, "Where's Brett?"

I took my first girls trip in FOREVER...literally like the first one in 6 years.  We went to Tulsa to watch our friend Kari get married.  I love hanging out with all my friends from high school.  We are still so close and we had a blast.  I will have to post more pics later of Kari's wedding.  Jessie also joined us while we were there and it was fun.  






The hardest part of the summer was that I lost my Grandpa. He was the best of the best and I'm going to miss him more than words can say.  


 He spoiled us grandkids ridiculously but he spoiled the great grandkids even more...if that is possible.  :)  I am so thankful that my boys got to spend so much time with him and I am even more thankful for ALL the precious memories I have of him.  And I just can't say much more without crying all over my keyboard. 

Navarre, FL 2012

This year we took our annual trip to Navarre, except this time Nini bumped our trip up a month early and we spent 4th of July on the beach! It was FUN!
I seriously condensed this blogs picture selection to a couple of my favs because I am so behind on blogging...which is typical me. 

My precious Garon trying to catch fish in his net just like the big boys. 
 My sweet Grady who would live on the beach if we would let him.
 My beautiful mom with the grandkids. 
 We always try to get a beach picture but Garon could have cared less. He just wanted to play and not smile at the camera.
 The whole gang!
 You wouldn't believe how many times we went over the instructions.  Everyone jump on 3...and...let's try it again...and again...and again...but they (and we) laughed so hard. 
 This tree stump is right in the middle of the beach...so of course we had to sit on it.


 Each year we look forward to going and spending time together as a family.  We are so blessed to all be able to get along and live under the same roof for a week.  I wouldn't trade these memories for anything.