A picture blog of our busy week!

This was quite an eventful week in our house!  We decided to do a few home improvement projects this summer, and the first one was to paint 3 rooms in our house.  We have lived here 3 years, and have left every room the same, neutral color.  After months of debate (green/red?  red/green?) , we went with green in our dining room!  

Our guest bath is mostly complete.  We have hand towels that are being embroidered for the towel rack, and I am going to spray paint the gold frame in the second picture, silver.

For the den, we decided on brown.  This will be transformed into our movie room this fall, and we wanted a darker color to help make the room more movie friendly!

On Sunday we drove near Houston to be with Bryon's mother for her 60th birthday.  My in laws are friends with a car dealer in Houston who has a car museum with hundreds of cars from the first cars to current ones.  All three of my boys were very impressed!  Matthew took over 200 pictures at the museum!

Here is Mimi with her 6 grandchildren:

Her four grand daughters:
And her three children:
And here is a car that retails for 2 million dollars!  I could think of a lot better ways to spend 2 million dollars!

This week was Baylor basketball camp.  Thomas went for 4 hours each day and learned more about one of his favorite games.  Five or six of our star players participated in the camp as well, and were so sweet with the kids!  In the first picture, the man on the left is one of our best players, Quincy Acy.  Our announcer at the games referred to him as "Quinnnncyyyyyy Aaaaaacyyyy!" in a very deep voice.  Mary Beth loves to copy the announcer and she did her impression for Quincy, which he loved!

The boys with Anthony Jones.
Matthew was star struck to meet Tweety Carter.  He just stared at him for the longest time and said, "So, how was it being in the NIT championship?"  It sort of reminded me of the Chris Farley sketch with Paul McCartney!  Tweety talked to Matthew for a long time, and I am so grateful that these players were so kind to some of their biggest fans!
Thomas making his 10 foot shot!
Matthew has been looking forward to going to church camp for the past two years.  The kids are gone for 5 days.  I love seeing him so excited!  He packed everything himself, and got a huge grin on his face when he talked about camp.  I am so excited to hear how things went, and I find myself wondering what his is doing often during the day.  

A few days before he left, we said something like we would miss him over the Fourth of July.  Once Thomas heard he was going to be gone over the holiday, he burst into tears not wanting his brother to be gone.  It was such a sweet moment, and it is nice to know how much Thomas looks up to Matthew.  Thomas was very teary the day he left, but we assured him we would have lots of fun with him being the oldest Barnhill kid in the house!

Matthew joking asked if his large back pack made his bottom look big!

After we dropped off Matthew, we headed up to Arlington to watch our number #2 Rangers play the #1 ranked LA Angels with some of Thomas's friends from his baseball team.  Before the game, Thomas and Mary Beth got to meet Elvis Andrews (who had stolen 4 bases the night before) and Darren O'Day, who is one of the pitchers.

Thomas got quite the rep on his baseball team for taking his shirt off in practice.  He thought it made him run faster, and cooled him down.  The child is very proud of his burly physique, and the kids always cheered when he took his shirt off!  It came as no surprise that midway though the game, the shirt came off and lots of belly rolls insued.  Sweet Thomas makes me laugh constantly!

Also, midway though the game, Mary Beth became quite bored!  I think I heard the most dramatic, "I'm BORED!!" 30 times.  She then said, "I DEFINITELY love God more than baseball players!"  Good to know, Dear.  Once Hank Blalock hit a homerun and the fireworks blasted, she became the worlds biggest Rangers fan, and screamed, "Hit a home run!" before each batter!  She got to see one more fireworks display when Blalock hit his second walk off home run!  What a fun game!

Thomas is doing the "Byrd" before Marlon Byrd went up to bat.  All the fans "flap their wings" for one of our star players!

Thomas and his friend Zachary, who rode up with us to the game.

"Yeah for fire works!"

Another exciting event this week was Mary Beth's swimming lessons.  Mary Beth is a lot like me, and is very easily motivated by presents! ;)  It was so important to me that she learn how to swim without floaties, that I told her she could pick out any toy at Toys R Us if she learned how to swim this week.  In three days, she went from not wanting to stick her head in to swimming!  As soon as she touched the other side of the pool, she squealed, "TOY!"  She now has a new Disney Princess tent!  Money well spent!

Always stopping to pose at the other end of the pool!  What a ham!

Only Thomas...

While in Conroe this weekend, we learned of the death of my sister in law's 14 year old weenie dog, Missy, who died Saturday night.  She hadn't told her girls yet, so we waited until the drive home to tell our kids.  When we told the kids, Thomas said, "Oh, man!"

Then about a 5 second pause.....

"So are they going to eat her now?"

Bryon and I looked at each other holding back the laughter/shock.

"What do you mean, Thomas?"

"You know, weenie dogs make weenies for hot dogs."

"Thomas, did you really think that weenie dogs made hot dogs?"

"Sure, I eat animals all the time.  You know, fish....deer...."

"Thomas, those would never be the first two edible animals I would name."

"Well, you can eat deer, and I LOVE salmon."

Just proves you learn something new every day.  Thomas just learned that he has never eaten dog.

Rangers!

No summer would be complete without our annual trip to The Ballpark At Arlington!  On Wednesday, we decided to take the boys up to see the Rangers vs. Astros.  Both the boys got into poison oak/ivy and had to get prednizone shots earlier that day, but nothing could stop the excitement of the evening!  My parents watched Mary Beth, so we could have special time with our favorite baseball players.

The game was great!  We won in extra innings, and Matthew and Thomas made their debut on the Jumbo tron!  The "Flex Cam" was going around getting shots of people flexing their muscles.  The boys jumped up showing off their "fire power" (anyone see Night at the Museum?).  I told them that there were over 25,000 people there, so they shouldn't get their hopes up.  Sure enough, the next thing I knew, my 2 studs were on the Jumbo tron showing off their guns!  Thomas even kissed his!  We had some friends on Thomas's baseball team, who were also at the game, and they were excited to see "Biggie" on the big screen!

It was an extra thrill to see our favorite Ranger, David Murphy, who was a Baylor star a few years ago, hit the winning walk off hit right by our seats!  The Rangers have been really playing well this year, but have lost the last 4 games since we saw them.  Maybe we should go back and give them better luck?

Bryon and I have a special place in our heart for The Ballpark.  That was the first place we held hands 14 years ago this week.  Little did I know how appropriate that setting would be.  After all, we feel like half of our marriage is spent at ballparks! ;)

Gift of a week!

As the week ends, I can look back and say that I don't remember one where I have felt so relaxed and accomplished!

On Tuesday, I took Mary Beth and Matthew to my inlaws.  They have had a blast!  Mary Beth loves visiting, because my sister in law lives two doors down, and she has 3 little girls around the same age as Mary Beth.  Since she lives in Boy World here, I think she really enjoys her visits in pink and purple houses!  Because of sports and school, Matthew hasn't had much one on one time with his grandparents in years.  They have enjoyed spending quality time with him and getting to know what a great kid he is!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have loved my time alone with Thomas.  He is so happy, laid back, and easy to please, that I have felt like I have been on Mommy Vacation all week.  Not only have I slept in each morning, I have been able to organize so much of the house these past few days!  Every cabinet and drawer in the kitchen, my bathroom, and mudroom were emptied, 1/2 of the items discarded, washed inside and out, and reorganized!  I am constantly culling out unnecessary things, but I still managed to fill a dumpster full of unwanted items!  I had a ton of cleaning energy this week (who knows when it will strike again?) so I used every ounce of it, and feel really great about the house right now!

And, of course, there was baseball every night!  We had been playing in this city tournament since last Tuesday.  On Friday, we lost to the number one team in a neighboring city.  This put us in the losers bracket, which meant that we would play every night except Sunday until we lost.  We won Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!  Unfortunately, we had to play the same team again last night, who we lost to on Friday, and were defeated in the last inning.  We parents felt to bonded to each other and to the team.  This was truly a special team, and all of us will miss it dearly.  Of course, I am also looking forward to seeing what my house looks like at 6pm!  Lots of quiet, long nights lingering around the table are a huge part of our summer plan!

Before and after each game, and sometimes between innings, the team huddled up, and Thomas got to scream "Who are we?  Who are we?  Indians!  One...two...three... INDIANS!"  Yes, he was the resident cheerleader for the Indians!  His coach said he liked for Thomas to do it because of his loud voice.  This says a lot about we Barnhills, since Thomas is the quietest out of all of us! ;)  Bryon and I feel like Thomas got a great foundation this year, and we look forward to him moving up to kid pitch next year!

We are ready to all be together as a family again.  Yes, this was a week I will not soon forget.  What a gift it was!

Matthew's point of view

Matthew received a new camera at Christmas this year.  I hadn't downloaded any of his pictures in a few months, and have enjoyed looking at all the things going on in his life!  Some were taken by adults, but mostly Matthew.

I love this picture!  After the boys' game that morning, they all went over to watch the 11 and 12 years olds play.  BTW, those boys are HUGE!  I can't believe Matthew will be playing with them in 1 1/2 years!!  It was so cute to see them hero worship those big boys!

Matthew and his good buddy, Ashlyn.  I have no idea where this one was taken!
Proud of his stunning architectural feat, Matthew wanted to show how his building towered over little ole, 5'6" me!
A random shot of Matthew and the tour guide from Inner Space Caverns!

New glasses!

Just hanging out on top of a mountain at Angel Fire!
A sweet pic of Little Emmy Lou Who!
Taken before Mary Beth's cheer day at Baylor.

Deedah throughly enjoying Mary Beth's ballet recital! ;)

There were 20 different shots of mini helmets on his camera.  Lots of different match ups with the helmets facing each other!  Makes me all excited about football season!
He also took lots of pictures of the pictures in his room.  Here is a picture of Alabama's most famous coach, Bear Bryant, and Baylor's most famous coach, Grant Teaff.  Thomas loves to talk to Coach Teaff at the Baylor Basketball games!

One of the boys' prize possessions...A Nick Saban signed photograph, courtesy of my dear friend, Karen!

A rare sight!  Nana snapped this picture after she and Deedah wore him out at the Scottish festival in Arlington on June 6th.

A picture of Matthew's best side while bungee jumping!
Got to try on Bear Bryant hats!
Matthew adores Scottish music and listens to his bagpipe cd constantly!
Turning in books the last day of school.

Biggie's first double last night!

Matthew has become quite the little photographer, and got a few cute things on video over the past few days.

Here is one: 

He's lucky he's so cute...

Due to our crazy spring, the kids haven't been down to see their grandparents since New Year's Day.  My in laws are dying to have the kids, and we decided that Tuesday, I would drive halfway to Houston, drop off the kids, and then Bryon and I would come down on Friday.  The boys are in a piano recital there next weekend, so it was a great plan.

Bryon and I were thrilled to have three whole days to ourselves!  We had big plans to organize the house, and go on dates every single night!  Woo Hoo!

Then, Thomas kept winning his baseball games in the tournament.  We finally realized that Thomas would not be able to go to see the grandparents with Mary Beth and Matthew.  He is going to get to go down by himself at a later date.  Oh well, there went a date or two and I would be a little more slowed down during the day. No big deal.  And, honestly, I was looking forward to some one on one time with my poor neglected middle child. ;)

Then we looked at the bracket.  If we keep winning, we will have games:

Monday night

Tuesday night

Wednesday night

Thursday night

So instead of nightly dates, we will spend each and every night at the ball fields.  Much the same as every night since March.

He's lucky he's so cute.

Of course, there is no where else we would be than right on the bleachers cheering on our baby.  He hit a triple on Friday night, and had a three run inside the park home run last night!  Considering how slow sweet Thomas is, that was quite a hit!  Yep, no where else in the world I would rather be.  Who needs movies, long leisurely steak dinners, trips to Barnes and Noble, and long walks when we could be at a ball field?  OK, the last line was a little much!

Dance Recital=Pure, absolute, 100% adorableness!

What a fun night!  Mary Beth did a great job in her two dance numbers!  I can really tell a difference in maturity from last year.  Her legs are much longer, and she is slowly moving from hilarious cutie last year, to much more graceful this year!

We were happy that Nana and Deedah got to come to the performance.  Bryon stayed for the first act, then had to leave for Thomas's baseball game.  Aunt Lauren, James, and Jack got to come to the dress rehearsal.  Mary Beth is so loved!

Phew!  After the dress rehearsal (we left after 3 hours) and actual show (2 1/2 hours), I believe I am danced out...until next year!

Miss Maria to the makeup rescue!  One of M.E's favorite parts of the recital is getting to wear makeup!

So happy that Nana and Deedah came to the performance!  Deedah bought Mary Beth roses, and she was THRILLED!!

What a great performance!

I feel very plain sitting next to Miss Fluff Ball!

Dress Rehearsal

Twist and Shout: Tap Number

Dance of the Reed Flutes: Ballet Number