Mothers Day

All my Mother's Day loot!  So happy to be the mother of my wonderful 5 children!  

St Patrick's Day!

Ahhhh!  The leprechaun struck our house!  But oh how fun it was to watch the little ones discover each place the leprechaun had been!  No one wanted to go pee in the green toilet in the morning so I watched each of them from my bed come in to use my bathroom!!

12 years old!

This handsome guy just turned 12!!!  I can't believe it, I don't know where the time has gone.  I couldn't be more proud of this young man.  He is a wonderful kind, talented, smart, diligent, sweet, thoughtful, perceptive, spiritual boy.  I am so grateful for his example to his 4 younger siblings.  They each love him and that says a lot.  Justin often tells him that he is his best friend and Trey says it back.  It just melts my heart.  Love this kid!!!!!

Trey made another woman cry today!

Yup, it's true. But in a good way. It's such a funny thing, he is always making ladies get all choked up because of his kindness and helpfulness to his siblings. It's happened several times lately. When Roslyn was born and we were still in the hospital, the boys and Ryan came to visit me. The nurse who had been helping me my whole visit there saw Trey loving and holding the baby and got so choked up she had to excuse herself from the room and kept apologizing about it later.

Just last week the boys went to the dentist and I waited in the waiting area with Roslyn. Apparently Trey was in the back helping Justin as usual. He was helping him at the drinking fountain to rinse his mouth and I don't know what else. Then we came back there and he was holding the baby. The receptionist was so touched that she gave Trey a $10 gift card to Jamba Juice! She said she was behind her desk and kept watching him and she kept getting all emotional over it.

Today we were getting in the car after school and one of Justin's teachers was with us and she saw Trey help Justin and she got all choked up. This scenario happens again and again. It is second nature to Trey to just help his brothers, and sister too. But especially his brother Justin who has special needs. I've been watching him do this since he was little, it's totally natural to him. On Justin's dresser I have a little statue of two boys, one is carrying the other and it says, "He's not heavy father, he's my brother!" As soon as I saw that a few years ago, I knew I had to have it. It perfectly describes the relationship between those two brothers, Trey and Justin.

The things kids say

I love to hear what comes out of my kids mouths sometimes. They can be quite funny! Today they cracked me up several times, but I only remember a couple of funny quotes. We bought Fruit Loops, the cereal, at the store today and when we got home Seth wanted some. But I was not wanting to give him any, so he kept walking around and in a sort of angry, loud, demanding and growly tone, he kept saying, "I want Foot Woops!" We thought it was so cute that we started imitating him, and then he thought it was funny too. We were at the store today and had to go into the women's dressing room to nurse Roslyn and when we got in there and sat on the bench, Justin said, "Aw, home sweet home!" What?! That kid is so funny!

Brothers

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted! A lot has happened in these last several months! But I just have to write this down before I forget. It's too sweet and such a summary of my sweet boys and their relationship. This morning I went into Trey and Justin's room to wake them up for school and to my surprise, they were both sleeping in Justin's bed. They were sleeping in their own beds when we put them to bed the night before. I asked Trey why he was in Justin's bed and he said that Justin was crying and was scared at around 3:00 in the morning so Trey came down to sleep with him so he wouldn't be scared anymore. I am so grateful for my boys. Trey is an outstanding young man with such a huge heart. He loves his brothers so much and expresses his love to them often. And he adores his new little sister (one of the big things that has happened that I haven't blogged about yet-I had a baby girl!). He is so helpful with her and is always asking to hold her and is so tender with her. He is a wonderful helper and son and I'm so proud of him!

Family Campout

We just successfully went on our first family campout! We've been camping many times with Ryan's family, but never all by our lonesomes. We have always bummed gear off of his family, but this time we went out and bought our own stuff. And I'm happy to say, over all it was a great trip! The boys loved it! We went down to Del Valle in Livermore, CA, only just over an hour away. The weather was perfect. It was pretty chilly at night though. I was freezing the first night, but changed things up a bit to warm up the second night.

This was our campsite. It was a little weedy, but the boys didn't care. They loved playing in the dirt. Seth and Justin were constantly dirty, literally the whole time. The minute we washed their hands and feet, they'd be back in the dirt again digging. As long as they were having a good time, I wasn't too worried.

We set up the horse shoes. Trey especially loved that.

Lunch is served!

Trey brought a little wooden airplane that broke on the way down, but luckily the camp store had just the same one, so we bought another. He was thrilled.

Just got the first ringer!

And I got the next few! Yep, that's right! You can't beat mama sass, that's what Ryan calls me!

All my boys.

We stayed two nights and had one full day there. We went to the lake that day and rented a boat. Justin and Seth were a little apprehensive at first, but by the end they couldn't stop talking about it. Trey's driving the boat here! Shhh! Don't tell!

Ryan took a dip.

I was in the back with Justin asleep on one side of me, and Seth trying to dive in on the other. Actually he wasn't trying to dive in, just trying to touch the water, but would have if I wasn't holding on to him.

Justin helping Ryan drive the boat.

I wish I had a better picture of Seth. He kept leaning over like this the whole last half of the boat ride and putting his hands in the water while we were moving (I was still holding him from falling in) and he was getting all splashed and cracking up. But here it looks like he's almost asleep! He was anything but asleep.

Once Justin had a little nap, he was all smiles, especially with his can of soda.

What cute boys I have, seriously!

As we were packing up to come home, the boys found a little creature thingy. I don't know what it was, maybe a ground hog. But he wasn't too afraid of us, he kept popping his head out of his hole.

It was a great trip. We definately want to go again.