Thomas at 11

We celebrated our Sweet T's birthday two weeks ago, and wanted to write a blog about our favorite 11 year old.

*He is loving life at his new school.  Still loves all of his classes and getting more freedom in intermediate school.  Thomas is a 5th grade ambassador for his school, and he is responsible for showing the ropes to children who are new to the school.  He recently had to do a new kid tour, and his teacher told me that he was extremely prepared.  She also told me something that I have heard many times about Thomas.  She said that Thomas was giving the talk to the new kid about classroom procedures.  Normally, this is a conversation held between the new kid and ambassador, but everyone in the class stopped what they were doing to listen to Thomas speak.  She said he has the most soothing voice, that is almost put the classroom in a trance!

*He is a voracious reader.  I remember being concerned that he didn't seem as excited about reading as Matthew did in kindergarten and 1st grade.  I will never forget him coming home in 2nd grade and telling me that his teacher "changed his life" by introducing him to Mark Twain.  He hasn't stopped reading since. Whether he is reading from his Kindle Fire or from old fashioned books, he reads 400-800 pages books on a weekly basis.


*Here is Thomas with Baylor's star wide receiver, Levi Norwood, which goes with my next point...

*It doesn't matter where we go, we always run into people who know Thomas  I took him to a Baylor game recently where we were just a few rows up from the field.  A man on the field, wearing credentials, saw Thomas and his face lit up with a smile and said, "Hi, Thomas!".  He walked over to our section and gave Thomas a Baylor T-shirt.  I asked Thomas who that was, and he said it was a guy who he talks to at Baylor baseball games.  Whether its at restaurants or sporting events, there is always someone around who is Thomas's friend!

*There isn't a jumbotron or post game interview that Thomas hasn't found a way to be on!

*Thomas has deep long lasting friendships.  You couldn't find a more loyal or trusting friend.

*Other than God, family, and learning, Thomas's biggest passion is football.  Alabama football remains his ultimate favorite, but he also adores Baylor football and the Washington Redskins (now that RG3 is their star player).  He also enjoyed playing in his PeeWee league as the center and defensive tackle.  Our laid back, gentle boy becomes a monster when he puts his pads on!  And since our baby boy is in the 98% for height and weight, we have strangers in football stadiums ask when he is going to be an offensive lineman for Baylor! He was recently diagnosed with Osgood-Schlatter disease, which is a swelling of the patellar tendon that happens most often in athletic boys going through a large growth spurt at the beginning of puberty.  His left knee continually bothers him, and he will have to wear a brace on his knee when he is playing sports until he stops growing.

*I could go on about our kind, funny, easy going, protective, joyful, encouraging boy, but suffice it to say, we couldn't be more proud of our Thomas!

Matthew at 13

Well, it's finally happened.  We officially have a teenager in the house!  Now, this has been coming for a long time.  Matthew, who seems to be trying to be growing up at lightening speed, has been teenagerish for quite some time.  But November the 18th made it official.  I've said that I am having a harder time with the concept of being the mother of a teenager than the fact that Matthew is a teenager.  

Ahhh, the wonder years.  Here is my two year old Matthew just weeks away from being a big brother.

 And here he is now!  Here are a few things about my Matthew:

*I LOVE talking to this kid.  I can hardly wait to pick him up from school every day.  He is my most sharing of information child, and I get the details of all things middle school every day.  He talks or texts me all the time, always asking for advice or just wants to talk.  I am so grateful for our close relationship.

*So so responsible.  Matthew had a HUGE history fair project due last week, and I hardly knew what was going on.  He did the entire thing without much input from Bryon and me.  He gets his business done without reminders whether it is for school or sports.

*By far, my most demanding child in terms of his schedule.  Matthew's social calendar needs a full time employee.  I must admit that him getting his liscense in three years is going to be AWESOME!  Between sports, parties, youth group, hanging out with friends, bible studies, study groups, etc., Matthew keeps us on our toes.  He is very social and his texting sound on his phone is becoming a regular noise in our home!  I love all of Matthew's friends.  A group of about 15 of them come over to the house every week for a KLife bible study.  It is such huge entertainment watching these guys interact!  Have I mentioned how much I love teenage boys??

 *Matthew is still one big ball of physical energy.  He loves anything that involves a ball, a gun, a fishing pole, a swing, a club, or wheels.  He has very little interest in video or computer games.  Matthew just wants to be outside.  He is incredibly aggressive and intense.  At 5'3" and 130 pounds, he is one solid mass of muscle...and can totally overpower me if he wanted!  Yikes!  Football is his favorite sport.  He enjoyed every minute of it this year and can hardly wait to start up again next fall.  He managed to escape injury this year and only had one broken tooth to show for playing in two football leagues. ;)

 *He is such a good public speaker, much like his Dad.  In his Leadership class this year, he was tested to see where his areas of strength were.  It determined that Matthew would do well as a lawyer!  Bryon was so proud!  It seems like this is what he is most interested in right now.

*Matthew is great with little kids!  I think it must come from being the oldest child, grandchild, and cousin.  I love to see the little ones enjoying their oldest cousin.

*I remember studying that sweet little two year old face that you see at the beginning of this post.  Those big blue eyes and mischievous grin.  I remember thinking to myself, "Someday, this beautiful baby of mine will be a..a..MIDDLE SCHOOL BOY!"  Oh, the tragedy!  I am pleased to report that I couldn't love having a middle school boy more than I do!  Happy Birthday, my teenage son!

October into November

Here is a sampling of pictures from our last few weeks.

We have enjoyed watching our Midway Panthers this year and even have season tickets to the games.  This year, they jumped up to 5A and are 12-0 as I write this!  Here are a few pictures of when the little girls who attended Cheer Camp got to cheer before a game.

I love this picture of Bryon and Thomas before a big game!  The next picture is of Thomas, his friends, and Baylor's awesome wide receiver, Levi Norwood!  He came out to watch the boys play their Pee Wee game!  Levi has been so sweet to the boys, and even had a lengthy conversation with Matthew at Academy about how cool it was to play Midway Middle School football.  "Mom!  He was on the A team, too!"  No words to describe how happy I am to see these Baylor players being kind to my kids!

Sweet Mare Bear.

A trip to the farm!  We love getting a chance to go to Aunt Bernie's farm and got to spend the day with cousins feeding the catfish and shooting skeet.

 This is a scary sight!  I did manage to shoot one skeet, but I'm afraid target practice isn't for me!

 Naturally, this little punk was an old pro at it!  His physical abilities amaze this klutzy mother!

 Funny Matthew story.  He had a choir concert scheduled immediately following his football game.  He had one of the best games of the season and even scored a touchdown at this game!  The choir teacher told us that if our game went long, we would be excused from participating in the concert.  The boys finished their game 20 minutes after the concert started, but the coach started making a beeline for the lockers with the football players who were also in choir.  We raced into the auditorium right in time to see the football choir boys file in.  Matthew had drenched hair from taking a 2 minute shower and was still tucking in his shirt while filing up on the risers!  It was hilarious!  The choir director was just happy to have them there.  Just another day in the life of Matthew!

 Hat day at school.  Wouldn't you know these besties would be wearing the same hat?

 Halloween!  Look at my cleopatra!

 Love these two playing together.  Thomas had an incredible game for Matthew's team and even sacked the quarterback.  Big bro was very proud.

 I was in charge of the bookfair at Thomas's school and enjoyed seeing him interacting with his friends. I don't get to see him too much now that he's not in elementary school!  These three have been good buddies for years and I'm happy to see their friendship continue though their school is now twice the size of the elementary.

 Bama bound!  Our dear friend, Karen, surprised me with a text message on Halloween asking if Bryon and I would like to take her tickets to the Bama/ aTm game the next week.  It sounded like a fun getaway, so we hopped at the chance!  Our close friends from Waco were also going to the game, and we enjoyed a wonderful trip to Alabama.....to watch the most exciting game in Aggie history!  Boo!  We sure wished that we could have watched a victory, but we decided a little loss (knocking Bama from the 1st place position) wouldn't dampen our weekend.  As a side note, when Bryon and I were driving home, I mentioned to him how cool it would be if Baylor could help Bama get into the national championship talks again by knocking off the new #1, Kansas State the next weekend.  More on that later.

 Grandma's old house.  My parents got engaged on that porch, my dad grew up in this house, and this is the house that I came home from the hospital to.  A very special place indeed.

 Good old Southern food.  Yummy!

 Martha Kate and me after the game.

 We love our friend, Karen!

 While we were gone, the boys got to play at Baylor's stadium.  Very cool!

 Have I mentioned before how many times Thomas gets on jumbotrons at sporting events?  Here he is on television after the Baylor basketball game behind our head coach, Scott Drew, and "the voice of the Baylor Bears".  Thomas said he was pretty famous at school the next day!

 After Mary Beth's 3rd grade musical.  She had a nice sized speaking part and nailed it.  This child was born to be on stage!

 So the very same week that I was in charge of book fair, and Mary Beth had her musical, we celebrated our family's Thanksgiving and Matthew's 13th birthday.  A very busy week!  Mary Beth, Nana, and I were vegetable choppers extraordinairre!

After our Thanksgiving feast (no pictures!), it was time for the Baylor game.  I didn't think I had the energy to go, but my brother couldn't come last minute, so Dad asked me to take his spot.  Bryon and the kids were at the other side of the stadium.  Boy was I happy to be there!  In my 22 years as a Baylor fan, I have never been to a more exciting game!  BAYLOR BEAT THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE COUNTRY IN A HUGE UPSET!!  Unheard of!  It was so much fun going with Dad.  Also, in a strange twist, this win, along with the huge Oregon upset moments later, helped push Bama back to #2.  Apparently, all around Alabama's campus, they were offering free drinks to Baylor fans.  What kind of bizzaro world is this?  And what are the odds that I would have been present in back to back weeks in the stadium when the #1 team in the nation fell?

 Thanksgiving in Galveston this year.  It was very warm and almost felt more like Fourth of July than Thanksgiving!  Mary Beth did manage to hit her head so hard that she required 3 staples in her head.  During the procedure, she didn't cry a bit.  The nurses in the ER stated that they would be talking about her for a long time.  I think having 2 older brothers makes you particularly tough! ;)