Go Hogs Go!

We went to the Razorback game against Mississippi State this weekend with Mom, Dad, Brian, and Jamie. We all rode up there together, which I think is a first, and it was so nice to go somewhere together WITHOUT kiddos! Papaw Sonny came and kept the kids all day for us and the kids really enjoyed the time with him.

These pictures are actually from the game in September that I took. I forgot to take a camera this weekend.

Mom and Dad....
Brian and JJ...
Mom cheering and sweating (remember it was September and still hot!)... although she probably broke a sweat this weekend as well!
It was a great day and the Hogs pulled off a victory! Brian said that took away a little of the sting of losing Friday night!!

Birthday Party Pics

Here are a few pics that I took last night of Kam's birthday party. I have tons more to download off JJ's camera but these are better than nothing.

We had Kam's party at Smithzonian Art and the kids had different "creation stations" that they rotated to... I think they had fun. It got a little chaotic, but we managed and I didn't have to clean anything up before I left!

Here is Ms. Cindy and baby Grace.... I think they match!
Each kid was able to paint a canvas to take home iwth them. Most of them made handprints and then painted on it.
This is the boys table (with the exception of Brooke) and Miss Emily, who helped everyone.
Braden and Cooper at the marshmallow creature station. I think Braxton and Cooper ate more marshmallows than they actually used to create their creatures.
More marshmallow creatures.....
I'll post the rest later....

Happy Birthday, Kamdyn!

My baby girl is 5 today! I can't believe it! She was so excited when she got up this morning. She has just a few misconceptions about being five. The first thing she said to me this morning was, "Mommy, I have just one more day of school before I go to Kindergarten."

Then later on she told me that her foot was now as big as her friend Bailey's because she was five now. Apparently, foot size is a talked about topic on the playground. When I told her that her foot wasn't as big as Bailey's she argued with me and told me she had a five foot. She did the same thing with her head when I tried to put her cute hat on this morning and it was tight. She said, "I've got a five head now!"

Here she is talking to Uncle Bubby on the phone this morning.... I ran into Brian at Magnet during lunch and he told me that he actually had tears in his eyes talking to her. I think he can't believe she's five either! We had to reminisce about what we were doing five years ago at this time...
Reminiscing about our children's births is something that Mark and I always do on their birthdays. Mark makes fun of me because if you ask me, I will tell you that I had a terrible marathon labor with Kamdyn and that I should get some sort of medal or special award for it. Don't all women do that? Aren't labor stories sort of like war stories????? But I wouldn't change a thing and I most definitely would go through it all over again for this child who makes me laugh constantly and then infuriates me in the same breath!

Kam insisted on opening her presents this morning before school, which I knew wasn't a good idea, because she wouldn't have time to play them before school. She got a TAG reading system and two books which, by the way, I had to go back and rewrap some because Cooper began opening it when no one was in the room. According to Kamdyn, this was what she always wanted!
We went to school and had a party there. The kids played games and sang some songs. I think they are doing the turkey trot song here. See the cute booty sticking out the bottom of the picture...
I love this picture! This is Kam right before she blew out her candles.... What a beautiful girl that I have!Here are Kam and some of her friends after having cake, chips, and punch. They were getting ready to go to the playground and run some of the sugar off!
Kamdyn is having a party at the Smithzonian Art Center tonight. She loves some arts and crafts so she is super excited about it! Check back tomorrow for more birthday pics!

The Bible According to Kamdyn

Kamdyn has this little white New Testament Bible that she gets out to "read" a lot. As a matter of fact, she made Mark go get it from behind the table at bedtime the other night because she said that God "told her to read it" to us. Normally, I think Mark would have just told her he would get it the next day but I don't think he thought he should argue since she insisted God told her to do it.

So I love it when she reads the Bible to us because it is downright hilarious. She starts out talking out about Jesus and then it can go anywhere from there. Around Halloween she was reading to us and she went from Jesus dying on the cross to the "witches up in the air."
I swear that I heard her saying something one night about "political meaning 'yes' in Spanish."

Last night she told me a story about Jesus and the cross and then she went on to Gideon before saying, "and Moses was a shepherd, leader, and a lawyer. He was a good lawyer!".....

I have no clue where she gets this and I promise that I do not make this stuff up!

Life's a Garden

A while back Mark was flipping channels and landed on the David Spade movie, "Joe Dirt." A real classy movie, let me tell ya. I told Mark that he probably needed to change the channel, and he did eventually, but not before Kamdyn picked up a few new phrases.

So when she tried to tell me "what that guy said on the movie" a few days later, I held my breath waiting on what she was going to say. When she said, "life's a garden, you gotta dig it, mommy!" I had to laugh. It's become her favorite new phrase because she knows she always gets a laugh from whoever she says it to. I guess I should be grateful that it's not dirty or offensive!

Mimi and Pop's New Ride....

Mom and Dad got a new 4-wheeler, or 4-liter, as Kam calls it a little over a month ago. The kids are having a blast with it.
The Chastain's officially have a new hobby.... I never thought that I would be one for just riding out in the woods for no reason, but we are having such a good time exploring with the kids.
We have been riding around looking at land and debating a good spot to build. It's really been a great bonding time for us and, hopefully, we'll be able to build sooner than later!

Yesterday, we went back to pick up a deer skull and horns that we found a few weeks ago for one of Mark's coworkers who collects horns. Cooper wasn't too sure about it when Mark first put it on the rack but he eventually liked our new hood ornament. He said, "hold on, deer" when Mark took off and then asked if he could put it in his room. I told him the only way he could put it in his room was if he promised to sleep in there with it. That's about the only way he will get deer horns on his wall anytime soon!

I promise...

So I've been a little slack with the blog--again! My apologies to those of you who actually read this every day (or so you tell me you do!)... I've been in Corpus Christi since Sunday for a conference, but I promise to update soon! I've got Halloween pics that I need to post and, of course, a few stories. I know... it's almost Thanksgiving. I'll catch up, I promise. Thanks for reading! Check back soon.

Surprise

Imagine mine and Mark's surprise a few weeks ago when Cooper went to the chalkboard and out of the blue wrote this:
I knew he could write a C and O but I had no clue he could write (or even spell for that matter) "pig." We were pretty impressed!

Halloween Craft Fun

The kids and I got craftsy last week for Halloween. Nothing thrills Kamdyn more than a craft project. She loves it. This is one of my door signs that I painted. The kids loved the witches feet.
I also painted a witch for the front door that Cooper wasn't always so sure about. I tried to tell him she was a friendly witch. One morning while I was unloading the dishwasher, he was sitting at the table alone eating breakfast. I noticed he kept looking at the witch in the corner and before long, he was rotating seats around the table so he wasn't anywhere near the witch. It was so cute.

I found an easy "black cat" project for the kids to do; however, it turned out to be very messy. Black paint and kids is never a good combination. I was going to post some pics of the kids actually painting, but we had to quickly take their shirts off when I saw how messy it was and I didn't want to run the risk of being turned in for posting those kinds of pics on here! Stranger things have happened. So you'll just have to settle for the completed project.