Trip to Tennessee Summer 2013

This is a big photo dump from the trip to Tennessee.  We had such a great time, and we miss everyone so much.  

Dinner with siblings and without kids and Noah. :( The Cruze Family Fund paid of for a delicious meal at the Cheesecake Factory where choosing what we were going to eat was half of the fun.  I've never seen Cally come up with so many great suggestions.  The best moment was the check:  confirmation that the Terrible Cruze Math Gene is alive and kicking.  

Two trips to Metcaffe Bottoms in the Smokies.  My boys were initiated into crawdad catching and river wading.  I was initiated into lots of muddy shoes!!!

Lori Cupp always has the best ideas:  tying the boat to a tree and letting the kiddos play around in the boat.  They  loved it!  The downside was when I took all of those small, small kiddos down without life jackets!  Mid jaunt, I thought, "If this thing tips, I'm screwed!"  It was a touch scary.

I also don't have a picture of cally floating on her stomach down the river.  I wish I had snapped one.  She looked so peaceful!

Wyatt enjoying, no, savoring, his first trip in the bed of the "trash truck."  We took a little drive around the old farm.  Luckily we weren't chased by any bulls or cows.  Phew!

Shaf......such a great picture.  I also love that it's Sweet Emily holding his picture.  

Another picture of a thrilled Wyatt.  I promise he seemed to be having a good time.  

We went out on Norris Lake with the Atkins Fam.  We had such a fun, fun time! Wyatt was terrified of the water, though he did get in.  He cried a little when he fell off of the tube and slid off of a bank.  Cyrus had the time of his life:  jumping off of the boat, being pulled on the tube, and driving!! You can spot Calvin being pulled on the tube.  He would have stayed all day if we let him. 

Eldon twirling the kiddos on the floor.  Fun times!

Cyrus being tortured by said Uncle.  

We also got to spend some time at Jump Jam.  We do love the trampoline parks!! Wahoo!

Shaf is such a great grandpa.  I told him I wanted to put up a tire swing, and he did all of the work. It reminds me of a sweet picture of Shaf pushing Noah and Nathan on a tire swing when they were little.  The boys loved it!

I love this picture of Grandma Daniels.  It was so good to see her.  

As we were leaving Scott's house one night, he pulled Wyatt out of bed to put him in the car.  He had him on his back, and Wyatt stayed asleep.  Even as Scott squatted down, Wyatt slept.  So funny.  

Lori humorously gave Cyrus as many towels as he wanted when he complained of being cold.  

We were ready to come home, and the trip back was a doozy.  

We missed the connection in Texas, but they put us First Class for the last leg.  It's too bad that after we had been in the air, they turned around to have us board another plane (some kind of malfunction).  I'm glad that we were on a safe plane.  They stuck us in first class again, but because it was so, so late at night (1:00 a.m.), we didn't get the full experience.  I had heard rumors of candy bars being passed out of beautiful baskets in first class, but all I got was two cups of Dr. Pepper in a glass cup.  *Sigh* Next time, I will get my candy bar.  Mark my words!!

The time went too fast, and we were sad to leave.  But, we were so glad to be back in our own beds.  I don't have any pictures of the Shafers.  I am bummed that I didn't catch all of the fun that we had together.  They spend hours playing with Mimaw and pepaw. 

To Do List for 2033

In 20 years, if my children don't have their own children, I am going to visit their homes and complete the following TO DO items:

Calvin's House

1.  Carve my initials in his kitchen table and claim that I didn't know it would never come out.
2.  Pile all of my clean clothes in the dirty clothes so I don't have to put them away.

3.  Just after he spends 30 minutes making me dinner and just before he takes his first bite of food, I will ask him for a milk refill.

Wyatt's House

1.  Pee in his shower with my clothes on just to make Calvin laugh.
2.  Sprinkle legos on the floor of his bedroom.
3.  As soon as I walk in his front door, I will take off my clothes and sit on the kitchen table in my undies.

Cyrus' House

1.  Pee in the clean sock bin while I am in time out.
2.  Climb into his bed in the middle of the night and in my very best loud whisper ask for a drink of water. (repeat this one 3 times in one night).
3.  Right after he makes his bed, I will burrow under the 6 decorative pillows and make them tumble to the ground.  I will probably do this one 5-6 times a day as needed.

Merry Christmas

Things That Make Me Laugh

Obviously, this picture of Wyatt from the app "Fat Booth" on my phone.  Calvin took everyone's pictures, but Wyatt's was the best.  Too bad he slept through it!

 This John Stamos Tweet.  I loved Full House, and I love this joke. 

 Letting Cyrus take our picture at the airport.  I'm actually glad that it's so blurry.  It makes it that much more difficult to see my flared nostrils.  

The Pesky Pest and His Wily Antics

When he was born we named him Cutie.  And he is a cutie.  But he has now adopted the role of "pest."  And he excels in his new position.  When the boys are at school, he strolls into their bedroom and picks through their toys, playing with whatever he wants.  When they come home, he is so indignant that they don't want him to mess with their stuff (it's his!! isn't it???).  

He is guilty of sitting too close to you on the couch, swiping your cookie from under your nose, and coloring on your coloring book.  But he doesn't stop there.  Their Mom is actually "His Mommy!" and he doesn't like to share her.  After all, we do spend about 7 hours a day together without them around. I'm pretty sure he thinks they cramp his style when he gets home.  

 Perhaps Cyrus' greatest threat is his love to escape from home.  He sees the front door as his ticket outta this place, and whenever it opens, he tries with all of his might to race through and b-line for the sidewalk.  I'm still trying to figure out where he wants to go???  I'm guessing Dairy Queen?  Wal-Mart? Constantinople?  It's hard to tell.  He can climb over the wall in the backyard and the gate leading around the corner.  I am "this close" to getting a leash, invisible dog collar, or at least a bell.  At the park he tries to run away.  At the store he tries to wander off.  At church he tries to leave the nursery.  But at Target he doesn't try to climb out of the cart (he knows better than to leave the popcorn and soda).  Buckle him into his cart! You say!  I do! I say!  I'm telling you - - - he is a regular Baby Houdini, escaping from all that keeps him bound.  

 For all of his busy escaping, you wouldn't believe that he would ever sit still.  But he loves to color.  For hours at a time.  One week he went through 2 coloring books.  He doesn't just color the picture.  He likes to color the entire page one color - top to bottom, side to side.  He likes a solid page of color. His medium is marker though he will settle for a crayon in a pinch.  He has been known to sit down and color in the middle of the gym floor and color while basketball-ers try and play around him.  He's insatiable.

 This little short stack also loves to climb all over me and Noah.  At nightly prayer he climbs on top of Noah's shoulders.  While I'm curling my hair, he climbs on the bench and tries to sit on my shoulder.  I once busted him trying to climb on top of the car in the garage.  He was working his way up the windshield as if he were hiking Mt. Everest.  

 And last but not least, the Pest is 100% Boy.  I can prove it with the following quote (said after we put up the Christmas tree):

"Mom, I yike the kistmas twee.  It's bootiful.  I'm gonna punch it."

P.S.  If you ask him how big your bottom is, he is almost certain to tell you that it is either big or medium.  If you ask how big his bottom is, he is almost certain to tell you it is small.  He knows his stuff.

Random Pictures + Random Things

For Valentine's Day, Noah got Wyatt a bathrobe.  He took to it like a fish to water.  He loves to take long, leisurely baths filled with soft singing and playing.  Then he saunters out of the bathroom and puts his robe on and lounges on the couch until bedtime.  His love for comfort and leisure tickles Noah and I.  On this particular day, Noah teased him and told him to put sliced cucumbers on his eyes.  And of course he loved it.  

 Seeing how much fulfillment Wyatt's robe brought him, Calvin had to have one.  He likes to lounge, but he doesn't have that natural inclination to savor the moment quite like Wyatt does.  He did, however, want cucumbers on his eyes to.  

 This is the only picture of Noah's birthday.  This typifies our house.  We love to eat.  And take pictures of what we eat, but there are hardly any pictures of us adults on our big days.  Instead of cake Noah opted for a fancy version of monkey bread.  It was pretty, pretty good.  Some girl in this house can cook!

 This picture exists solely as blackmail material in Wyatt's dating years.  

 Scrolling through the pics from our camera, Noah and I couldn't help but laugh at this artistic shot of some goldfish crackers.  It's way better than any pictures we have ever tried to intentionally take.  We are pretty sure that Cyrus took this one, and we already have him lined up to take our family pictures in the Spring.  I hope he gives us a discount.  

 The last week before school started we had a "flour fight."  It was just as fun as you would imagine it would be.  It was also just as messy as you would imagine it would be.  The cleanup was outrageously hard.  I will never do this again, and I don't recommend that you ever do it.  Unless, of course, you love to try and clean up gummy flour.  It was the worst mess in the world.  Now, if you are planning to leave me a comment about how you would never do that, and you could have told me it would be that horrible, to you, I say - - - save it.  I'm simply going to collect the "My Mom is Awesome!" points I got from my kiddos without any comments from you!

A Cub Scout is loyal, thrifty, kind, cute, adorable . . .

It's official! We have our first Cub Scout. I can't believe he is old enough to be a cub. He loves it, and we are loving passing off things with him. He takes great pride in wearing his uniform and going to his meeting. I sewed on his first two patches and then quickly turned to my glue gun for help. Yes, I am that kind of Mom.