Cowboys vs. Seahawks

We have quite the feud brewing in our household! We are huge Cowboy fans, but the biggest Seahawk fan east of the Rockies resides in our house. Yes, Thomas has been trying rather successfully to convince his brother and sister to "vote" for the Seahawks! Mary Beth came running in our room this morning squealing "Go Seahawks!" "Go Shaun Alexander!" Bryon and I don't want to see Thomas disappointed, but who can "vote" against America's team?!

Matthew played his first Upwards Basketball game today. At the end of the game, Bryon asked for a volunteer to lead the closing prayer. Thomas jumped up and down begging to pray. Here is what my little 5 year old prayed:


"Dear God, Thank you that everyone played well today. Thank you for everything in the whole wide wrild. And please help the Cowboys lose tonight."

Oh dear. Since Thomas seems most of the time more angel than little boy, I am afraid God will answer this prayer!

For the record, Thomas did say that he would be happy for the Cowboys if they win. We'll see....

It's a new day, it's a new start!

I love January. I love it more every year.

I love taking down the Christmas decorations (that I loved putting up!).
I love going through old clothes and toys and getting rid of clutter.
I love the cold dark atmosphere.
I love reflecting on the old year.
I love planning for the new year.
I love having Matthew home for a few more days.
I love looking at myself--seeing the good and seeing the things I would like to change.

This year, I will:
Start making breakfast more and stop relying on cereal and breakfast bars!
Take better care of my skin!
Lay out clothes on Saturday night for Sunday morning!
Find the good in everyone I come into contact with!

Just a few of the surface things I would like to change this year. The desire to be a better person is always there and doesn't seem heightened this time of year.

Happy 2007 everyone! I can't wait to see what is in store this year.

I am so proud...

Bryon and Josh grew out facial hair for their ski trip. When Bryon came home from the trip, I was eager to see him and even more eager to have my freshly shaven face back! Instead of shaving it all off, the boys decided to have a little fun with facial hair. Lauren and I agreed to 24 hours of this only! ;)

Josh looks like a blacksmith from the Wild West. The jury is still out on Bryon. A few images come to mind:

1. A 1970s porn star.
2. Lester the molester.
3. The lost member of the Village People.
4. A very white Latino man.
5. Inspector Cleseau.

What are your thoughts?

 
  

Christmas photo blog #1

Here are a few pics (more to come) of our family's Christmas. We had a great, fun filled, action packed 4 days and are now enjoying a few down days!
 
 
 
  

In the nick of time!

Bryon, Josh, my brother, and some friends went skiing in Colorado last weekend. They flew home from Denver Tuesday afternoon. The next day, a huge blizzard hit and the Denver airport is shut down. They say it is the biggest snow storm there in years! I am so thankful that they didn't ski one more day. Otherwise, we might have been celebrating Christmas without Bryon! I hope everyone stranded there gets out in time for Christmas.

The Christmas tree of a mother of boys

And for the second pic of the day:

The Cowboys won their game Sunday night. To commemorate the victory, Thomas ripped the headline out of the newspaper and put it on our tree. Who needs crystal ornaments when there is newspaper abundant?


  

"I am the princess..."

"And since I am the princess, I have decided that I don't need to wait until Christmas like everyone else to open presents".

Now, how do you think she figured out which present was hers? That was the only one under the tree so far for her!
  

A Christmas Carol by Matthew

I went to Matthew's school today to take pictures for P.T.A. Matthew's teacher gave me his journal entry from yesterday to read. Every Christmas Eve, our family watches A Christmas Carol. This was Matthew's memory of the story. It reminds me of the Cliff Notes version! Spelling and grammar are all his...

Once a pon a time, on Christmas Eve. There lived old Ebenezer Scrooge. He was at the office counting his money. And Bob Gratchit went by. "Mary Christmas" he said, Bah humbug. Then Ebenezer left, he went to bed, and he was awakend by a noise and his old pal Jacob Marly. He draged chains. AHHH! screamed Scrooge. Thease chains are made from all the bad deeds he had done when he was alive. Marly told Scrooge 3 ghosts would come. The 1st one took him to his Elementry. One little boy was in it, could it be me...Scrooge said. Yes, thats why I am called the ghost of Christmas past. And the 2nd spirit came. It took Scrooge to Bob Gratchit's house, they were very merry. Gratchits youngest son Tiny Tim had to youse (use) a chruch, but he shouted, "God bless us all." And then well they wernt very merry. Tiny Tim's chair was empty. Please let Tiny Tim be OK. And he was back in bed.
A 3rd Ghost came. It took him to where the Bankers were talking a bout someone dead. Who will take his money. I am going to the funerel. And they were at a grave yard. There stood Scroogees grave. Scrooge cried. And when he woke up, he was Alive. I am alive. He tossed a coin to a man and said buy a feast for the Gratchits. Merry Christmas.

The End

Photo Blog #2

The first two pictures show a typical afternoon in our backyard! The boys are always playing some sport or other, and ME is getting into the water. We have been blessed with a few days of pleasant weather which has sent us all outside.
 
 























This occurred the other night in our house. Lauren and I LOVE to listen to music and dance. ME joined in the festivites with us!
 












Winter time in many ways is my favorite time of year. This is my first winter in our new house and I am pleasantly surprised every night by a beautiful winter sunset. This night was no exception. There is an owl who lives in the tree that you see. I love hearing him "hoot" the night away!
  

Photo Blog number 1

Thank you to everyone who said such sweet things about Thomas yesterday! Here are a few pics from the weekend:

My dad and Thomas share the same birthday. Here is a picture of them on their big day. Poor Thomas has a horrible case of chapped lips!
 












Our little family. Bryon is growing a beard in preparation for his ski trip next week.
 













Thomas and Scarlett at their joint birthday party. They have been friends since they left the hospital!   














Lauren and me. Love my baby sister!
 

Thomas

  

  
We had a really fun birthday weekend filled with parties and celebrations. The most exciting thing was that Thomas turned 5! Thomas has been a joy since the moment he was born. He is kind, sensitive, funny, loving, and a perfect fit for our family!
 
 
Here is a glimpse of Thomas at 5:
*He entertains himself. I will see him playing in his room and he is content for an hour looking at books, playing with toys, etc.
*He is still obsessed with NASCAR and the Seattle Seahawks. This is very amusing to us as we have no ties to either "obsession"!
*He adores playing sports and watching it on TV. He is learning math by watching football. The other day, he was watching a game and the score was 14-7. The winning team scored a touchdown and before the new score was displayed he said, "Now it is 21-7!" Yes, my little boy can count by 7s and 3s from watching football!
*He is the most literal kid I know. No exaggerations or generalizations allowed around Thomas. Even Saturday night, I said, "I want to kiss my 4 year old one last time." He said, "You mean 4 1/2 year old?"
*He has a special relationship with his brother and sister. He seems to navigate equally well in the very different worlds of big, testosterone filled older brother and little sister. They both are blessed to have him as a brother.
*He is very unselfish. When I asked him what he wanted for Christmas, he named three things. "A Hello Kitty pillow that says I Love You for ME, a playstation for Buddy, and a Shawn Alexander game for me." He also gave several of his toys to his sister to play with yesterday.
*He loves to read and write and gets better at both everyday.

I have been blessed for 5 years by my little boy. I couldn't imagine life without him.

What's going on

Lots going on!

Last weekend was a lot of fun. Friday, Dad drove to Dallas to teach an EMBA class. He took Thomas with him and handed him off to my brother to spend the night. This has been a treat for Matthew in the past, but Thomas had never been by himself. They had a blast watching a Christmas movie and painting ornaments.

While this was going on, Mom had Matthew over for one of Matthew's favorite traditions. Every year since he was 2, they have made fudge together. Friday was "fudge night". Bryon had to work late so Lauren and Josh went out while I watched James. Then, they brought us take out from Carino's.

On Saturday, my mom, sister, and I drove to Dallas to pick up Thomas and have a quick shopping trip. I hadn't been shopping there since March so this was a fun treat! While at the Galleria, I ran into a friend from high school who lives in Waco. I don't know how this always happens, but I seem to run into people I know there a lot. How does that happen with so many million people living there?! It was fun hanging out with my brother and SIL as well. They are so good to my kids!

This week has been business as usual but gearing up for a big weekend. Thomas and my dad share a birthday which happens to be Sunday. T's friend party is on Saturday. Then we will have a big lunch at my house for the family who will be in town. Sunday, we are having a big turkey dinner in celebration of the two birthday boys! We always celebrate Thankgiving scattered over the South, so it will be nice to eat the meal together. Sunday night, I am having friends over for cookies and girl time.

So much to do but looking forward to all of it. I love coming up with a menu and making a shopping list. Now if only I didn't have to clean my house!

In the Christmas spirit

It is finally beginning to look and feel like Christmas in our home! I finished decorating today and feel a sense of accomplishment and relief! Here are a few pictures of my living room. You can see our stockings lovingly made by my aunt. My stocking was the last one my grandmother made before she died. It is very special to me. You can also see my Snow Village that I have been adding to for 10 years. It is a labor of love to put together, but we all love it! Above the Snow Village, you can see the nativity scene that was given to me by my aunt when I got married. They are hand made by a nun. We had a great weekend that I will write about tomorrow. In the first picture, you can see what we did this afternoon. Watch the Cowboys beat the Giants! How 'bout them boys?

 
 
 
  

A Day to Play

 

I love freezing cold weather. It made me sad, though, to see Matthew brace against the sleet running to his carpool this morning. I just wish he could have stayed home with us. It got me thinking about getting the kids ready for Mother's Day Out. I just didn't want to get the kids out of the house this moring, so we decided to play hookey! We are all still in our pajamas after lunch and I made a concerted effort to focus on the kids and not do housework. This is very hard for me! Days like today are precious and VERY far between in our neck of the woods. I want to savor each one. This is the last year that I can play hookey with Thomas. Next year, he will be bracing the cold with Matthew! 

See Ya Next Year!

 

I am sad to say that we are expecting a huge cold front to come in tomorrow morning. I absolutely love freezing cold weather, but the first freeze means all my flowers will die, or rather, go to sleep, until next year. I am going to cut quite a few in the morning and give them to Matthew's teacher!
 
I love gardening more than almost any other hobby. It is right up there with reading and cooking. Every morning, I walk into my garden and see who is blooming, who is taking a rest, and who is hosting the hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees that come for food!

I heard a quote once that has always stuck with me. It goes something like, Wonders in nature occur whether we choose to witness it or not. I choose to witness it!

Here are a few pictures taken on Monday.

Bundle up bloggers! It's going to be chilly!


 
  

 
 
  

Happy Holidays!

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. Like all holidays, it went by too soon and I was sad to see Bryon and Matthew leave this morning.

Thursday morning, we headed down to Conroe like we do every year. We had a great time as always. ME enjoyed playing with her girl cousins who are right around her age. She didn't stop all weekend! The boys as always spent the majority of their time playing football in the backyard. I enjoyed hanging out with my my sister in law, mother in law, and mother.

Friday morning, my MIL, SIL, mother, and I headed for Kohl's at 5 in the morning. Every year, I wake up thinking I am crazy but we always have a great time! All of their toys were 50% off and I managed to get all the neices/nephew gifts as well as most of my kids at a great price!

Friday afternoon, I went with my parents to Old Towne Spring while Bryon hung out with his dad. I don't get to spend a lot of time with my parents where we aren't playing with the kids so I really had a good time and being there really got me in the Christmas spirit!

Saturday we headed home and I started decorating for Christmas. For the past 7 years, I have been a well oiled machine when it came to decorating. I knew where everything went and was able to do it all fairly quickly. This year, I am having to take the time to decide where everything goes. I am still not done decorating! In true Griswold fashion, I put too many lights on my tree and I blew several fuses in the lights. The majority of my night was dedicated to fixing the problem. Ughh...

Today is Matthew's class trip so I am headed to his school to join them this afternoon. The rest of the day will be dedicated to putting up laundry, finishing decorations, and resting after a busy holiday weekend!

Matthew's birthday weekend

What a fun birthday weekend! I asked Matthew if he wanted a cookie cake, ice cream cake, or cake that I made, and he chose the last one! I spent the night making his football cake.













Then Saturday morning, 7 of his friends came over for Matthew's party. The beginning of the party was, of course, a football game in the backyard. All but one of the boys played flag football together this fall.



















Then, after presents and cake, we headed to the Baylor game. I don't want to jinx it, but Matthew's birthday has been gorgeous every year. It's always pretty here this time of year! Yesterday was bright sunny skies with a high in the upper 60s. Perfect football weather. I had friends concerned about my sanity having 8 little boys in our control during the game. They were really great, though, and I can honestly say I enjoy most of his friends almost as much as I enjoy my own children! Of course, Baylor lost 36-10. We were thinking it would be much worse. Nope, not Baylor's year, yet again!

After the party, my family came over to watch the Iron Bowl. Another disappointing one. Dad was saying that he never dreamed even if he lived to be 100 years old that Auburn would win 5 in a row. Oh well, there is always next year....

Tonight is book club. We will be discussing The Other Boleyn Girl. I haven't changed What I Have Been Reading in a while. I have read a book since then. I will update it soon!

Looking forward to a fun holiday week. I am in charge of the cornbread dressing and a pie. Matthew is going to make mini pumpkin pies that he made with his teacher last week! I am going to get my turkey tonight to cook my dressing in. I never enjoyed dry dressing!

Happy Birthday, Matthew!

At Matthew's First Grade Musical last night! What a cute little piggie!
Dear Matthew,
I wanted to write you a letter on your 7th birthday. Tomorrow will be quite busy with your birthday party so I will go ahead and write it today.

I can't believe I have been you mother for 7 years! You have brought me so much joy over the years. You make me laugh the loudest, cry the hardest, and make my heart swell with pride.

My favorite things about you are your love of learning, love for your family, both immediate and extended. How sweet you were last night crying in bed because Aunt Lauren and Uncle Josh were leaving for Thanksgiving! I love how much you love God. I pray that you always put him first in your life. I love how you are always quick to apologize when you have done something wrong. I love how you remind me so much of my father. I love reading the books you make and journals you write. I love thinking about what you will do with your life!

You have been such a gift to me for 7 years. How could I thank God enough for you? Happy Birthday, Matthew!

Wednesday morning

I am enjoying a quiet morning at home. These are becoming a rare commodity so I am savoring every minute!

Last week went really well. A good friend of mine and I headed up the book fair at our school. It was hard juggling the little kids while I was up at school most of the day everyday, and I couldn't have done it without Lauren, but I loved the job. We made $8500 and a lot of it goes back into our library so I was proud of that! My friend and I enjoyed it so much that we are planning on doing it again next Fall. I adored being up at school and seeing Matthew coming to and from lunch and specials. I am having withdrawls not being up there this week! I am happy to be home though and am enjoying the cold windy day with a cup of coffee.

Here is what is happening with the kids:

Matthew:
Matthew turns 7 this week. Hard to believe and I will write more on that later. I just enjoy him more and more with each passing year. Many people who know him call him a little politician or the future president. (Think Alex P. Keaton) He was familiar with all the people running in the local election and would ask who I thought would win. He was also mad at me for voting for the conservative candidate running for a House seat!

My favorite thing about Matthew right now is his love of reading. He is reading between a 3rd and 4th grade level. After I tuck the boys in bed, I hear the pages turning in his book for up to an hour after bedtime! Since I sympathize with never wanting to put a good book down, I usually let him just read until he falls asleep. Maybe he should join my book club!

Matthew got to do something fun last night. At our fall festival at school, there was a silent auction and each teacher donated something to bid on. Matthew's teacher donated a cooking class to be taken with her for the winning bid. Matthew has been begging me since he was 4 to take a cooking class. They recommend you be 7 to do it. He would say things like, "Since I am 5 1/2, I only have to wait 1 1/2 more years to go to Young Chefs!" We had to bid on it and won! They had a fun date last night. Matthew adores his teacher. We feel blessed that Matthew is in her class.

Thomas:
Thomas continues to be just a little ray of sunshine. He rarely gets in trouble and seems to have an easy time following rules and being a good boy. A few nights ago, Matthew was annoying him and I sent him to his room. Matthew and I proceeded to have a chat about being a good example. Then, Thomas walked into the the room and said, "I forgive you, Buddy. Anytime you are mean to me, I am going to punch you back with prayer." Then he got down on his knees and asked God to help Buddy not be so mean! This was a concept Matthew had leaned in Bible school last week. Matthew said, "That is good Thomas because the Bible says to forgive 77 times." Thomas looked at him and said, "Well, then I will forgive you 100 times." What a sweetie.

A funny thing about Thomas is his love of football. He will sit and watch a game from start to finish. He knows the rules and will call out penalties or what the team should do before it is announced on TV! His across the street friend came over on Sunday and the little boy played by himself while Thomas watched football! He is still in love with the Seahawks and I constantly find papers with "Seattle Seahawks" written on the top all over the house! I TiVo games from time to time for Thomas to watch while I clean house.

Mary Elizabeth:
Little ME Lou Who is in the height of two year oldness. Absolutely adorable half the time and absolutely exasperating the other half of the time! She is funny, loud, joyful, strong willed, tenderhearted, and exuberant all wrapped into a tiny little package. She has made several funny comments lately that have made me think she needs more girlfriends. Lets face it, she is living in a boys world! I met several of my neighbors who have little girls at our local children's museum on Monday so I can encourage her to branch out into little girl activities!

Thats about it for now! The rest of the week will be spent getting ready for Matthew's birthday party. Since Baylor's last home game is happening on his actual birthday, we are taking several of his friends to the game for his party. Baylor's head coach has a weekly call in radio show and Matthew has already called him and begged him to win for his birthday. I am not keeping my fingers crossed!

A fun weekend has come to a close!

Whew! Lots going on here!

Thursday, I met my mother-in-law half way to Houston to drop off the younger two. Matthew was in school so he couldn't go. This was ME's first trip away from us to see her grandparents so it was a momentous occasion! I hurried home to witness Matthew's last football game. He scored another touchdown and had a great time. It is always bittersweet ending the season.

Friday was meant to be a day to organize without kids around. It ended up being an almost entire day up at Matthew's school getting ready for my big P.T.A. event this week. While I was bummed to not be home, I was grateful to have the time kid-free. I picked Matthew up after school and we had a great time hanging out just the two of us. Just like the old days!

Friday night, Lauren and Josh graciously agreed to have Matthew spend the night with them so Bryon and I could go out on a long date! This is dinner and a movie. Not dinner or a movie! After a meal at our favorite romantic restaurant, we met some friends of ours for a coffee and movie. These are friends who have kids our kids ages, and we spend lots of time on the ball fields together, but this was our first "date"! We had a great time!

Saturday morning, we headed to the Antique Rose Emporium for their rose festival. I took a few classes and had fun roaming the nursery. Saying it is a nursery really isn't doing it justice. It is a sight to see. Bryon and Matthew were with me and they enjoyed sketching the flowers. Matthew is really into art right now and loves drawing on his doodle pad! I loved our time here and look forward to their next festival!

After our time here, we headed down to my in laws to pick up the kids. We had fun visiting with everyone and left after church today. I love watching ME with her two girl cousins. One is a year older than her, one is a year younger than her. I am sure they will have lots of fun together over the years!

What a horrible weekend for football. Alabama was embarrassed, Baylor lost, and the Cowboys lost in the last milisecond of the game today. Ugh...

I am hoping just to survive this week. I will be up at Matthew's school almost all day every day with ME and Thomas. We will see how it goes!