Love him

This is one of the many reasons I love my brother. He just stopped by here with Airborne for kids for Brent and Ryleigh in the hopes that it will decrease their chances of getting swine flu. How sweet is that?? When/if he has kids, he will be amazing.

Carlton, is that you?!?!

Brent's class had a program at school last week that they have been preparing for in music class. They performed about 7 songs or so and Brent was crackin' everybody up. In between the song breaks he was doing his own moves, which included piano air play and guitar air play, but this video was by far the best and I couldn't resist posting. Let's just say he got David's dance moves...(you don't have to watch the whole thing, you will see exactly what I am talking about around the 15 sec. mark)

Growing up too fast...

But no matter what, he'll always be my baby boy

3rd grade drama

This is the conversation I had with Brent yesterday after school:

B - "Man, today was such a stressful day!"
Me - "Why?"
B - "Because Evan was trying to make everyone go on strike, I picked the tamales at lunch and they were kind of spicy and our substitute gave us so much work that we didn't have any free time"
Me - "Well, Brent, school is about learning, not about free time, that is what coming home is for. I'm sorry you didn't eat your lunch but you can have a snack. Oh, and what do you mean Evan was trying to get everyone to go on strike? Against what?" (yes, I did respond to the school work first, I am a mom after all!)
B - "Well, I didn't say I didn't eat my lunch, just that it was spicy" (lol oh, really? ok, then why are you complaining?? also, imagine the rest of this conversation in a 9 yr. olds disgusted, I'm over this situation kind of voice..)"And Evan was trying to get everyone to go on strike because he was "going out" with Devon and now she broke up with him to go out with Frankie so he was trying to get everyone to hate Frankie." (at this point I realize that I need to explain the meaning of strike to B but that can happen later) "He started spreading rumors about Frankie and he even made up a song about him"

So we all know that this is the part of the story where I start explaining to Brent that this is going to happen from time to time and he just needs to tell them that he is staying out of it. I am also thinking that these kids are too young for all of this drama to already be happening but then I start thinking back to elementary and by 3rd grade we were all passing notes and everyone had bf's and gf's but of course, we seemed WAY older than my boy!! This is also another reminder that he's sadly getting to the age where we are going to have to have THE TALK and of course, I am terrified! How can this be happening already? Wasn't it just the other day that I was crying because he started kinder? Anyway, back on track...so we have our conversation, Brent gets his snack and starts to head to his room and as he walks away I hear him mumble, "Man, I can't believe 4 girls like me...I'm glad I don't have a girlfriend!" Oh, my innocent little man...

Easter Sunday

We spent Easter at David's grandma's house here in Mansfield. It was a sad day because we all miss his Grandpa but we know he was smiling down on us. I do love getting together with his family at the holidays because they always sit around and tell old stories (there were 5 kids and 4 are girls) and they are ALWAYS hilarious! Here is the rundown of the kids running around now:

Brent, great-grandkid, 9

Jacob, grandkid, almost 8

Clayton, grandkid, 7

Ryleigh, great-grandkid, 6

Hailey, grandkid, 5

And if Crystal's kids had been there, we would have had 3 more great-grandkids, ages 4, 3 and 2! Man, once Brent graduates, we will have MANY MANY years of graduations after! Since it had rained, we had to do the hunt inside, but the kids didn't seem to mind too much.

Lining up to hunt eggs..

Brent searched for the "lucky" egg but...

Ryleigh found it! It had $10!

Uncle "Ernest", Aunt Traci, Aunt Karen, G-ma Barker and Tricia

My mom and mom-in-law

Ryleigh & Hailey

Few more...

Oh, and I better not leave out some of the big kids...

Easter Egg Hunt

Nicole was nice enough to organize an egg hunt for all of the kids this past Sat. so we went to a park in Arlington for a few hours and just let the kids run around and have fun. Rye, of course, is always obsessed with Hudson and spent most of her time (when she wasn't playing with Nolan!) going down the slide with Hud. It was such a good day!

Ashley's 26th

Yes, again with the youngsters birthdays. My brother's girlfriend Ashley turned 26 last Wed. so we all went and had dinner on Saturday night (ok, she and I might have also had dinner and margaritas on Wed. but that's besides the point). We went to Los Vaqueros in the Ft. Worth Stockyards. They have really good food and the drinks aren't half bad either ;-). Oh and I almost forgot, Eric bought her a ring for her b-day, just not THAT kind of ring...oh well. Welcome to your late 20's Ash! Love ya!!





Ashley, her bro Justin, sis-n-law Jen and baby Kendall


Ashley's mom Cindy and my mom (yes, Ashley looks JUST like her)

Ashley's sis Shawna with her sweet boy Landon

Becca's 27th!

So I realized the night of Becca's birthday dinner that I have been to more 27th birthdays within the last 3 months than 30th birthdays, which means that I will be the person whose 30th they go to! 9 months and counting...oh, so sad! Either way, I have had a ton of fun at all of them and last Sat. night was no exception. We went to dinner at Joe T's (gotta enjoy the spring weather before summer gets here!) and then finished the night off at a little bar somewhere (hey, I wasn't DD that night, David was!) Happy 27th Becca, I had a blast sharing it with you!!







Aren't they cute singing together?

Rockin' with Mother Goose

Ryleigh's class had their last field trip of the year, I know I can't believe school is almost out either! Anyway, it was at Casa Manana and we went to see Rockin' with Mother Goose. It was a really cute play that incorporated all of the nursery rhymes with music. The kids really enjoyed it but I think were also just as excited about riding on a bus for so long....I need to be 6 again!

Mad scientists

At bath time tonight Ryleigh was in there and she was busy working on a "potion" (this is what my kids do in the bathtub). It was some kind of green concoction in a test tube and she asked me to PLEASE not pour it out. I got her out and next up was Brent's turn. As I am clipping Rye's nails I hear Brent yelling for her because he says he has something VERY EXCITING to tell her. By the time I was done with her, Brent was already out so he comes in and this is what he says to Ryleigh, "With the decomposer, I added water, the potion and Johnson's shampoo and created a healing factor that for a short time will make any cut and bruise not hurt!" My first thought was, "Um, what the heck just came out of your mouth", however Ryleigh completely understood him and starts jumping up and down and says, "I knew it would work!" This was followed by the two of them running to the bathroom so Brent could experiment on Ryleigh's scratch. I let them be and instantly jumped on here to capture this moment. As I sit here typing, this is the conversation that is happening between them: B -"And for my next experiment I will be working on something that will obliterate scratches and bruises", R -"We should bottle it up and sell it when we get home tomorrow!" B -"Let's go in the kitchen and see if we can find something to add to it that will give it a tickling sensation" B-"We need to test it on a scratch that is a little less fragile" B -"We could ask $3 for a tube" R- "No, $20!" B-"No, that's way too much, noone is going to pay that for a little tube, especially when it only works for a while" LOL! Now they are both jumping up and down saying, "We're geniuses!!" Oh my, I must put their creative minds to bed now but man do they make me smile...