making memories

i saw this quote earlier in the week, and i am making it my new mantra:

don't cry because it's over.  smile because it happened.  ~ dr. suess

i am trying to remember this as my children grow up way too fast.  i am extremely nostalgic, i don't much care for change, and i don't want them to ever leave me.  i just love them so much.  but i know (deep down inside) that i will have to let them go at some point, and that it is good to do so.  but until then, i want to make as many sweet memories with them as possible and treasure every moment.

so that's what this post is all about.

as i let these thoughts settle into my soul over the past few days, i tried to think of some creative ways to spend time with the boys.

so on thursday i packed a lunch and a blanket and headed up to school.  we have a beautiful pond by our grammar school building so i met the boys in the lunchroom and out we went to have a picnic by the pond.  burrito and noodle eat at different times so it was a good opportunity to spend some individual time with them.

the beautiful pond.  it ended up being 101 degrees this day (sept 29) but in the shade it was pretty nice.

my sweet noodle

my growing-up-too-fast burrito

this is one of those hold-the-camera-out-and-see-what-you-get sort of pictures.  i wish i would have thought to do the same with noodle.

the boys are already begging me to come up again this thursday for a picnic date.  who can say no to those sweet faces?

for more fun making-memories moments, i had friday's activities planned a few days in advance, and it was torture not telling them my plans!  the boys have been begging us to go camping.  for maybe an entire year.  we bought a tent last april for burrito's camping themed birthday, and we have been either too busy or it's been WAY TO HOT to even consider sleeping outdoors.

well this weekend was going to be a perfect opportunity.  the boys did not have soccer and the overnight temperature was going to be a glorious 54 degrees!  so friday afternoon, while they were still at school, i set up our tent in the backyard.  i figured we better do a trial run before officially camping somewhere just in case my little campers changed their minds about how much fun camping is, ha, ha!

i bought the necessary ingredients to make s'mores, i rented a movie to watch on the laptop, and we planned on attending our school's football game to ensure that we had two sleepy boys on our hands!  and things went just as planned!

here are some sweet friend pictures from the football game.  it was perfect weather!

noodle and his reading buddy caleb

burrito and his new friend diego, who is one of john's students.  they came over to tell me that they were bff's so i told them i better take a picture! :)

and they were so excited to come home and see the tent set up!  these first two pictures were taken in the afternoon before we left for the football game because i knew it would be pretty dark before we would get home.

our home away from home (but not really!) and yes, all 4 of us crammed into this tent for the night!

this is supposed to be their really excited and shocked faces!

burrito eating s'mores

noodle with s'mores already all over his face

we realized rather quickly why most campers do not eat s'mores inside their tents, and because the mosquitoes are crazy bad in our backyard, we decided we better head indoors to finish eating our snacks.

we retired to the tent around 11:30pm.  the boys watched the movie for about 15 minutes and then were out.  they slept all night until i woke them up the next morning for a breakfast of donuts.  we never get donuts for breakfast so i think they were shocked and thrilled at the fun time we were having.  i don't think any of us slept very well because we did manage to nap for a couple of hours this afternoon.

both boys said several times today that they had an awesome time and want to do it again.  and i would semi-sleep on the hard ground again to make these types of memories with my boys.

i love them so much.

another one bites the dust

this time burrito managed to pull the tooth (#2) out himself.  i told him that if he did, i would yell and scream and act like a crazy person outside (which i did) and that i would buy him a big ice cream cone (which i will do tomorrow).

the things mothers do for their children! :)

happy (belated) birthday to my sweet hubby

though i am a week late, we do love and treasure our september birthday boy john.  we have celebrated multiple times with friends and family.  we love him so much and are so thankful to God for his humble leadership and shepherding of our family.

john and i celebrated his birthday first with a date to chuy's and starbucks.  and our super sweet and awesome babysitter did not charge us as a birthday present to him.  isn't that awesome!?!?

we celebrated with friends last sunday night by meeting for MORE mexican food and then coming back to eat dessert at our house.

we celebrated with family last night at my parents' house after eating at chuy's (do you see a trend here?  we love our mexican food!) by eating more dessert and spending some relaxing time together.

the boys bought john a bicycle helmet and then made him a coupon to pick out a new bike.  we didn't want to do that without john's input and who can wrap a bike!?!?  the boys love going on bike rides with him and he's always had to jog along, so this really is a good present, ha ha!

john modeling the new helmet and holding the coupon for one free bike!

happy birthday to the best dad and husband ever!  we love you!

labor day john deere races

after seventy 100+ degree days here in texas, labor day was a refreshing 85 degrees.  so how did we celebrate?  we headed to mimi's and poppy's house for lunch and to sit out back and enjoy the beautiful weather!

you might remember me mentioning the best toy we've ever purchased:  the peg perego john deere gator.  it's still alive and kicking after 4+ years and 2 rambunctious boys, but we don't get the opportunity to ride it as much, and now that the boys are older they prefer their bikes.  because we have sweet porkchop (my almost 2yo nephew) now, i knew this would be a great toy for all 3 boys at my parents' house.  so we haphazardly loaded up this thing in the back of our pilot and off to grandmother's house we went.

and i was right.  burrito and noodle LOVED riding the dog out of this thing down there.  it's a good thing we have 2 batteries!  and even porkchop warmed up to the idea of the bigger cousins driving him around.  it didn't take too long for the boys to remember that poppy has a john deere of his own.

and 2 john deeres + 2 boys + one poppy =  john deere races!

it was hysterical to watch them and impossible to decide who was having the most fun.  i took over 200 pictures that day but these are a few of my favorites:

this one is my favorite i think because they are all smiling.  don't miss those kool-aid mustaches!

poppy letting burrito drive.  watch out world!

burrito is LOVING this!

noodle running, or driving rather, for his life!

check out burrito's hair flying in the breeze

porkchop showing me what he found on the patio

sweetness

i love this picture despite the shadow!

noodle's turn to drive!

porkchop keeping himself entertained with his football

noodle and poppy love

this picture would have been awesome if you could see ALL their heads.

it was so fun to relax and spend time as a family...a perfect day off of work!

texas rangers

a few weekends ago we received a call from a sweet friend offering us their tickets to the rangers game.  in one hour!  we love this type of last minute surprise so off we went and had such a great time!  the seats were awesome!  and to sweeten the deal, the rangers were playing the angels, vernon wells' (one of our school dads) team.  it was so funny to watch the boys be so conflicted over who to cheer for....do we want the rangers to win or do we want vernon to win???

this is vernon wells at bat

in 100+ degree heat, a lemon chill never tasted so good!

not a great picture taken with my phone but i just couldn't resist putting it here

well, vernon ended up winning but it was a great game and we had a great time, even though we were sweating to death!

soccer season is coming

the boys are super excited for their first soccer game of the season coming up this saturday.  we've been practicing since the first of august and the season officially started 2 weeks ago but we had a weekend with no game and then labor day weekend so it feels like it will never start!

the association we play with had a little team parade on opening day that our team participated in, even though we weren't officially playing that day.  the  boys are playing on the same team this season, the monsters, and proudly marched around the soccer field.

burrito is the "O" and noodle is the "N"

i am so excited to watch them play together this season.  they are playing on a much larger field in this age group, and i think that will play to their advantage.  we love our coach who is really great with the boys and is a Christian.  we like to give him something at the end of the season to say thanks for all his hard work and i am thinking this season that i will try and take a great action shot of each boy on the team and make a photo book to give him.  don't you think that would be fun?  i even thought that if i can get it made early enough, i could have each boy autograph their picture.  we will see how that goes....i'll have to remind myself to stop cheering them on and take some pictures.  i get so wrapped up in the game!

boosterthon fun run 2011

our school does a fundraiser at the beginning of the school year called the boosterthon fun run.  the kids get pledges from those who would like to support our school and then run up to 35 laps at the fun run.   supporters can pledge money per lap or pledge a flat amount.  this year, our school is raising money to build a playground for our grammar school (grades 1-4).  my thanks to those who supported our boys this year!

i'm not a fan of fundraisers, especially when the kids get all worked up about getting prizes for the amount of pledges they get, but my boys do have fun running.  and they ran fast and hard and always exceed the 35 lap limit.  they are so cute.  i spent the morning with noodle's class this year and was able to take some fun pictures of his kindergarten friends.   here are some of my favorites.

noodle before the race

class picture minus 2 girls

the girls (minus one).  aren't they cute and sweet?

the boys.  cute and tough!

look at that hair fly, he is running so fast!

noodle in action, with the ever-present tongue hanging out. :)

i love the way the sun was in my lens in this one and it looks like noodle is checking out his competition!

and even though i was the unofficial race photographer for noodle's class, i did manage to sneak over and cheer on burrito as well!

my other adorable athlete!

he looks so intense!

i love this one...like he is checking out his competition and wanting to edge out the lead over his friend!

i think they this was a lap where the kids could walk but not my fierce burrito...he just ran past them!

i tried to get a shot of the whole field.  there were two racetracks set up, one for grades PreK and K, and one for grades 1 &2.

we were all glad it was over!  this is noodle's class celebrating their victory with their senior.

now, if i can just remember next year to NOT send them in good clothes or shoes.  for some reason, every year this is more of a mud run than a fun run.  the kids don't seem to care, but i have a sneaking suspicion that the moms do!

congratulations little runners!