from the mouth of babes...

i was in the car a few days ago with the little people, and we were discussing the upcoming mayoral election in town.  it's kind of hard not to because there are signs every 5 feet along the side of the road.  ya know...just in case you forget his name, there is going to be another sign 3 feet from it.  obviously, i'm not a fan of political signs.  or at least, i'm not a fan of 400 of the same signs within one mile of each other.  do they think i'm an idiot?

anyway....

william:  "so, jason shelton and fred pitts are trying to get to be mayor, right?"

me:  "yep."

william:  "so who are you voting for?"

(i'm just going to leave that part of the conversation out.)

william:  "is jason shelton a christian?  is fred pitts a christian?"

me:  "well i don't know either of them personally, but i think so."

william:  "well i hope they are both christians so that way we will have a christian as our mayor no matter who wins."

wes:  "yeah.  we don't want them to be like that crazy obama."

10 years

ten years ago today these two kids got hitched.

and tonight, one of them is working the night shift while the other takes the 3 little goofballs on a chick-fil-a date.  no sense in cooking on my anniversary, right?!?

hopefully, we can get a kidless date in some day soon, but what a difference ten years makes!  and what a coincidence that i found this while scrolling down my twitter feed while they were on the playground!!!




so thankful for the one that puts up with my crazy!!  happy anniversary to us!

no love for the car

yesterday afternoon, i piled the little people in my vehicle to go meet chase at mcalister's for kids eat free night before our baseball games.  and....it wouldn't start.

"what's wrong with our car?"

"is it gonna blow up?"

"did you put gas in it, mama?"

"let me out, i don't want to blow up!"

so...after i assured everybody that we weren't sitting on a bomb, we came inside to eat peanut butter and jelly and wait on chase to get home so we could go play baseball.  i had several different lights come on on the dashboard.  after looking them up in the toyota book, i still didn't know what was wrong because none of them gave me an explanation.  each just said....take it to the toyota dealer.

therefore, i packed the little people and some pop tarts in the car this morning and followed my instructions to take it to the toyota dealer.  (thankfully, it started this morning even though all the lights were still on!)  it needs a new crank sensor something or the other, and they didn't have that part in stock.  it would take a day to come in, and the lady told me that i could still drive it for the day and just bring it back tomorrow, but that i would run the risk of it not cranking.  i guess she read the "you've got to be crazy look" on my face as i pointed at the 3 kids with me.  like i want to be stranded somewhere with all these people.  so she immediately changed her tune and said, "um yeah.  let me go see if we can get you a car."

and we were soon the proud owners of a bright red camry for the day.  y'all.  to the mamas that drive 3 kids around in a car....i applaud you.  they thought it was cool because it looked like a race car, but that soon changed to disdain when they realized that they all 3 didn't exactly fit in the back seat too well!  "i can't reach my buckle because it's too close!"  "wes is squishing me!"  "no i'm not, you just take up too much room!"  children that age should not be allowed to sit where they can touch each other!  we had a come to jesus moment where i told them to suck it up.  we could handle anything for one day.  and then it just became comical.  for one, i felt like i was driving a go kart with super sensitive brakes.  so when i bottomed out just going down a slight bump and barely touched the brakes which locked all of their seat belts, they all started laughing.  "do you know how to drive race cars, mama?"

and then we made a quick stop by kroger because all the employees would miss me if i didn't show up that day.  "i can't get out because there is nothing to step on!"  vehicles without running boards are apparently very confusing to my kids.   as we were coming out of kroger, wes piped up, "where are you going to put the groceries?"

"in the trunk."

"the what?"

"the trunk."

"what's a trunk?"

"that thing in the back of cars where you put groceries."

"so that thing opens?  how does it open?"

"push this button."

all 3 little people:  "COOOOOOOL!!!!!"

"it's so huge, you could fit like a body back here!"

so help me.  how do my kids know anything about putting a body in a trunk?

"can we ride back here?"

after all the trunk discussion, wes tried to climb in the car (which does not have a running board), slips, falls and somehow ends up completely upside down.  "i don't like this car!"

since chick-fil-a is right beside kroger, we drove through for a drink.  i'm not used to looking way up at the pick up window.  the girl handed me 4 drinks, and i hit each cup on the top of the window as i was getting them in the car.  the laughter just got louder with each one.  she was looking at me like i was crazy.  and i'm sure she would have called and reported my license to have me hauled away except the car doesn't have a license plate!

when we got home, i told them to stay put so i could get a picture to remember this ordeal and remind me of why i never want a car.  and then i proceeded to bump my head on the roof getting out of the thing!  yeah.  at least they enjoyed this process!!

and while we have laughed a good bit this morning, i'll be happy to have my gas-guzzling, spacious, non-go kart back as soon as possible!  if it takes longer than a day, mama might not be too happy with the toyota lady.  but then again, this car could come in handy.  at least i'll have somewhere to put the body!  :)

goodbye, hector!

a few months ago, we ended up coming home from the golf course with a turtle.  reed named him hector, and he was our pet for a few days.  then wes had the idea to take him to school.  hector became the kindergarten class pet.  hallelujah!

let's face it....we don't have the best track record with small animals.  goldie lasted a month, and flipper was two weeks max.  hector's predecessor, leonardo, escaped.  they said he escaped outside, and i haven't smelled dead turtle in my house yet, so i guess they were telling the truth.  therefore, i never expected that little sucker to survive more than a few days, but he proved me wrong.  on the last day of school, wes brought him home for the summer.  well....did you read the previous few sentences?  if you live in a small, plastic box...our house is a death sentence! so we went back to the pond on #11 and let hector go.  he was so happy to be back with his brothers and sisters.  at least that's what we told reed who screamed and cried because "i didn't get to tell hector bye bye!"  (to the guys teeing off on #11....i'm sorry!!!)

here's to hoping hector spreads the word to all his extended family to swim to the middle of the pond when they see those henson kids coming!!!  :)

happy boy

 guess why this guy is smiling so big???

he joined the big brothers in the land of 2 wheelers!

(and just so y'all know...i'm old.  and everyday, i learn that there is something else about technology that i don't understand.  i videoed him riding with something other than my phone, and i'm as frazzled as ever trying to figure out how to convert an AVI to a GIF to get it to post.  not the foggiest what those stand for or what that means.  i did manage to get a fuzzy clip on here of him riding.  if you're friends with me on facebook, you can go there and see a clear video.  i give up on trying to figure it out.  maybe i should ask william!)




anyway, not bad for 3 years old, huh?  this guy is bound and determined not to let the bigs get too far ahead of him with anything!!  :)  this neighborhood better watch out!!

awards day

on wednesday morning, william finished out the year with awards day.  i'm sad to see this year come to an end.  he has had the best teacher, ms. dickerson.  and he's also had the sweetest class.  i've never seen a group just gel so well.  they really did love each other!!

each child gets a character award.  william got the discernment award.  he also got the fruit of the spirit award for his class, the sportsmanship award and the art award.  proud of this little guy!

my mom actually graduated high school with william's teacher.  how random is that???

they finished the year partying at fairpark!  such a great group!

hello, summer!!

the graduate

wes donned the cap and gown on tuesday, listened to a very brief commencement speech, sang some songs, danced a dance, walked across the stage, got his diploma, and graduated kindergarten!  this little dude has come a long, long way in one year's time.  i attribute that to his sweet teacher, mrs. williams.  at the beginning of the year, he couldn't even hold a pencil correctly.  (i blame myself for that, but he always hated to color, and so he never ever had a crayon in his hand!!  why would i force the kid to sit down and color when he just wanted to go outside?!?)  now he can write like a champ, he loves to draw, and he can read!!   what?!?!  kindergarten teachers need a raise!!!  :)

little brother gave him some love before we left the house!

these next pictures are surreal to me!  it seems like yesterday i was posing with all my friends just like this before high school graduation.  and now, my kids are closer to high school graduation than i am!  what happened here???

wes and jackson

sam, wes, and hope

wes and sam

the miracle worker, mrs. williams!!!

lined up and ready!

waiting patiently...

getting that diploma!

we're proud of you, wes!

watch out world....this crew is coming for you!  

six!!

the middle man is 6!  wes started his birthday celebration yesterday at school with his requested star wars cookies and popcorn!  

wes and his buddy, sam.

this morning, he was up early and ready to celebrate!!

i just noticed that he found a shirt somewhere between presents and donuts!  ha!


we hit up the bowling alley this afternoon.  (for the record....mama put a whoopin' on all the boys.  the little ones and the big one.  ahem.)

and of course the birthday boy chose d'casa for his birthday supper!

happy birthday, wes!  we love you!

bringing it to an end

we've crammed it in these last two weeks of school.  this week started off a with a fun tradition.  for years william's teacher, ms. dickerson, has had a 1st grade sleepover at her house.  i'm thinking she must be partly crazy!  :)  they watched a movie, played games, and ate ice cream.  i think they slept a little bit, too, at some point!  the girls slept upstairs while the boys took over the den floor.  i'm pretty sure that you wouldn't be able to pay me enough money to have all these people sleep over, but the moms that stayed the night said that they were all really sweet!

loud.  but sweet!  :)

wes visited healthworks and wtva.  he was impressed with the tv station.  we may have a meteorologist on our hands!

reed talked me into playing hooky and going to play golf instead in the middle of the week.  it's hard to turn this guy down!  i'm definitely going to be lost next year when he starts "big" school.

and we ended the week with much needed haircuts.  william has been asking for short hair for a while. i've always brushed it off.  well today, i gave in and told him to tell her what he wanted.  he got his wish.  i started the day with william.

i ended the day with chase, jr.

now we are on a 3 day countdown to summer!  whohoo!

more baseball

well i finally was able to take my camera to one of william's games.  and let me just say that once all 3 are playing baseball, somebody may have to come haul me away to the looney bin.  life with just 2 playing is cuh-razy, and i'm not looking forward to the day when i have to get them all to different games.  of course, they are spaced out just enough that they will never be on the same team.  maybe they won't all end up being baseball players.  (pretty please!!!!)

 we killed the team that we played this night.  and i'm not saying that because our team is awesome.  we can all hit the ball very well, but our fielding could use a little work.  i'm saying that because we played the team with the most intense coach.  this is a coach pitch league, and i think this one still believes that he is in high school or college because he was throwing some heat to those 7 year olds.  their team had two or three hits the entire game.  he struck all his players out because he couldn't just toss the ball to them.  he was out to prove a point.  i'm not sure what his point was, but he succeeded in frustrating his team of little kids.  good grief.  what is wrong with people today?!?

anyway, coach justin pitched the ball to our team nice and easy, and we were on our way!

 they move around to different positions every few innings, but william says second base is his favorite.

i think he likes catcher too because all the equipment is cool, but he might better put some meat on his body if wants to stay behind the plate!

and let's not forget the little fans who put up with this crazy baseball schedule!!  reed and noel, you'll each get your turn one day soon!