Brotherly Love

I'm glad my boys have each other as they grow up.  I've worried that the 4 year age difference would make it hard for them to stay close as they get older.  Well, I can tell you they have their moments that make me wonder, but then I see the crazy ways they connect. 

Andrew and Mason both have crazy senses of humor.  Andrew left the note below on Mason's lunch sack this morning hoping he would take it to school and make his friends think this note was from me.  Nothing like a brother to play a practical joke on you and embarrass you in front of your friends.  I love how he spelled "SWEETIE".  I cracked up laughing! 

Slightly crude humor to share but too funny not to remember forever on our blog.  And no, Mason did not take it to school.  Andrew was too impressed with himself to keep it a secret before school.

OK, I know there is a bit of a jab at me in here since I do put notes in their lunchboxes sometimes that tell them how great I think they are and how much I love them.  I think you can't ever tell a kid too much how great they are or how much you love them.  Any kids that make fun of my notes secretly wish their moms would leave them notes too...that's what I tell my boys anyway ;)

A girl and her Granny

On the days I work at home, this is how Melanie and Granny spend the early afternoon.  Granny is crazy about her little Great Granddaughter and Melanie is crazy about her.  She smiles so big when Granny talks to her.  I love the sweet connection they already have.

 What a cozy spot for a little nap!

Those hands have loved a lot of babies!  It started with her baby sisters, her own two boys along with nieces and nephews.  Then her grand children, great grand children, and now she even has 3 great, great, grandchildren.

Tricks and Treats - A Happy Halloween

Halloween is FUN!  I love carving pumpkins, creating costumes, and of course trick or treating.  So needless to say, we had a great time last night. Andrew has been planning his costume for weeks.  He is just like me when it comes to Halloween.  He looks forward to all of the fun.  Mason does too, but at his age sometimes he is unsure if he should be too excited about Halloween.  Some kids act like they are too big for dressing up and trick or treating.  I tell him I never outgrew the fun.  This year I was thrilled when he decided (at 4:00pm on Halloween) he wanted to dress up.  We put together his costume quickly and I have to say it was HILARIOUS!

 My nerd, my little pumpkin, and my flying ace.  Be sure to notice their throwing up pumpkin on the steps.  Andrew picked that design :-)

 Our sweet little pumpkin!  I was going to dress her like a ghost with a cute little white tutu but Mason insisted she should be a pumpkin just like he and Andrew were.  He loves tradition.  He was right, she was an adorable pumpkin.

 I loved Masons brief case for carrying his candy.  He was the funniest Nerd.  He was acting it out all the way.  Andrew is so creative.  He came up with his costume himself.  I helped him with the scarf but he found the rest.

 Here they are waiting for tricks or treats!  Notice the "KICK ME" sign on Mason's back.  He was kicked a few times in good fun.

Here is Andrew with all of his loot!  He had a blast.  After we finished dinner, Andrew wanted to go to a few more houses.  Mason wasn't wanting to do anymore so I took Andrew for a bit longer.  He is just like I was as a kid...and still am, he doesn't want all the fun to end.  Once we finished up he was ready to dump out his candy.  He was thrilled when Mason gave him all of his too.  I love these kiddos!  They make simple things so much fun.  Just think, next year Melanie will be ready for some candy too.

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Well, a Scientist of course.  We call him Dr. Funkenstein.  Today was the day to dress up as "what you want to be when you grow up" day at school.  He wanted some crazy hair so he could be a bit of a mad scientist.  I love this little guy!  He loves to go all out and dress up on these fun days at school but he also stays practical.  When I asked him if he wanted some black round glasses to wear he said, "Mom, I don't wear glasses."  We have to keep it real.

IT IS GREAT TO BE EIGHT

My little guy Andrew is now a big eight year old.  He woke up this morning and came in my room, woke me up and said, "It's my birthday!".  That is the life with a new baby in the house.  Usually I wake the kids up with singing Happy Birthday and treat them to a special breakfast.  With a new baby, he had to wake me up :-)

So now, here are 8 of the many things that make Andrew the special boy he is to our family:

1.  When Andrew is interested in something he is ALL IN!  He was doing a project at school about Tornadoes so he wanted to make a tornado model that required using dry ice...we had to squash that idea but I love that he wanted to go big!

2.  He has a smile that lights up the room.

3.  Football is really something he has gotten better at this year and he LOVES it!  He wears some type of football jersey nearly every day, Pittsburgh, Longhorns, MV Tivers, Baylor Bears...he is a fan of many :-)

4.  Andrew is crazy about his great grandmother.  She loves him so much and might spoil him just a bit.  He asked her to make her special sugar cookies for his class snack this week.  She couldn't wait to do it for him.  I catch him some evenings watching Wheel of Fortune with Granny in her room.  SO CUTE!

5.  This kid is a FOODIE!  He loves to try new things and has a very discerning palate.  We took him to PF Chang's for his birthday dinner.  The waitress was cracking up because he didn't want the stuff on the kid's menu.  He wanted a spicy shrimp dish and lettuce wraps.  That's my boy!

6.  Snuggler.  Does a mom need to say anymore... I love that about him.

7.  This boy has been an early bird since he was a baby.  He doesn't want to waste any time snoozing.  He might miss something great.

8.  Andrew accepted Christ this year and has really grown to a mature young boy.  He asks so many deep questions that Mark and I both know God has amazing plans for him.  We love watching his personality blossom in Christ.

We love you, Roo.  God blessed us richly when he gave us such an extravagant gift!

A Dedicated Brother...

Andrew is full of questions about his baby sister.  He is inquisitive by nature anyway, add to that his love and concern for his baby sister, and he is intense!  When he rides in the backseat with her he always consoles her so sweetly when she cries and gives me the play by play of everything she does.  When her blanket fell on the floor at church yesterday and he was quick to ask me if I should cover her up with it anymore. 

From the day she was born, he would ask me when we were going to take her to church.  I told him she had to get bigger before we would take her to church and one day we would stand up in front of our church and make a promise to teach Melanie about Jesus, just like we did with he and Mason.  I explained it was called a baby dedication.  The first Sunday we took Melanie to church he asked if we were going to take her up front.  I told him no, she would be bigger when we do that.  We waited a couple of weeks before we took her back to church, but again Andrew asked if we were taking her up front.  I told him no again and explained it would be several months.  He then asked me how the baby dedication worked.  I told him we go up to the altar with brother pepper in front of our church family.  He then interjected, "Do you hold her up like this", demonstrating by holding his hands way above his head and trying to sing the native African chant at the beginning of the Circle of Life song during this scene of a familiar movie:

I couldn't help it, I cracked up laughing!  I explained it isn't like the Lion King movie.  Now he was totally serious when he asked but when he saw me laughing, he got silly and said Dad or I should do it to be funny.  Mark held back his laughter (for a while) and explained to Andrew that being silly when we are making a promise to God was disrespectful to Him.  Andrew understood what his dad was telling him but I couldn't help but giggle at how his little mind was trying to envision how it worked and the Lion King scene is what came to mind when I was explaining the formality.  But, like Andrew, I have one more question.  Who's the monkey, me or Mark...or in keeping with the movie, is Brother Pepper the monkey?

The Payoff

Little babies are front end loaded.  Well, sometimes they are back end loaded as well, but that is another story.  The first few weeks are intense to say the least. 

Sleep deprivation, breast feeding, burping,

diapers, bathing, spit up and diaper blowouts. 

You stay busy.  Just when you think you may be to the point of exhaustion...

when

you

get

one

of

these

then you suddenly remember how great these little sweeties are and you get a new rejuvenated spirit.  God is good.  He knew just when to time those first sweet smiles to bless a tired mamma's heart.

FINDING HER HAPPY PLACE

We have all been working to find our new normal around the H. home.  They boys are back in school and football has started along with AWANA so we are busy during our week nights.  Little Melanie is growing and changing a bit every day.  She has begun to have a bit of tummy trouble so she is unhappy much of the time unless someone is holding her.  There is always a good supply of people in this house ready to hold her except for first thing in the morning when we are trying to get the boys off to school.  Melanie will usually sit in her bouncy chair for a bit and be happy but not this morning!  She was fussy to say the least.  Mason looked at me and said, "Melanie needs to find her happy place".  I laughed so hard when he said those words!  Mason is the most patient of everyone when Melanie gets fussy.  He will hold her and talk sweetly to her.  I love to see that connection between them.  It was funny to see even Mason have enough of the crying.  Don't worry, we didn't let her cry long.  She is officially spoiled :-)

And later this morning she found her happy place...

I am hoping we have found some of the reasons for her fussiness.  I gave her formula in a bottle for the first time on Friday and Saturday morning she was covered in a red rash.  We think it is a cow's milk sensitivity.  So now I must stop eating all dairy products and any other food item that contains milk proteins for a while.  Hopefully this will help Melanie feel a bit better while her little digestive system matures and can better digest cow's milk.  I'm on day two so wish me luck.  Just so you know, milk products seem to be in EVERYTHING so this is quite a task.  But hey, Oreo cookies are milk free so I can live ;)

THE BIG TWELVE

No, this post is not about college football but believe me, this house is keenly aware it is football season.  Today Mason is turning 12.  It has been a blessing to raise him and watch him grow into the wonderful young man he is becoming.  I love this kid so much, here are 12 reasons why:

1.  Mason has a great quirky sense of humor, just like his mom, so we laugh together often.
2.  I've watched him be a hard worker this summer.  He mowed our neighbor's yard to earn his own money and has done a great job.  He is even mowing our yard for dad!
3.  He is becoming more patient with his brother and is being a good example to him
4.  He is so loving to his baby sister.  She is only a few weeks old and I can tell she knows his voice and likes to hear it when he is home.
5.  He is trying new things like playing guitar and beginner band percussion.
6.  This boy is a great friend.  We have new neighbors and he couldn't wait to invite the kids over to swim and ask their son (who is 10) to go bike riding with him.  He loves to make people feel welcome.
7. Football is his favorite sport.  He doesn't let his smaller build stop him.  He plays hard and loves every minute of it!
8.  Mason continues to be a good student and work hard.  He puts his studies first.
9.  Maturity is blossoming in him.  I can see a bit of the man he is becoming and it is wonderful. 
10.  New foods are not always fun for him but he is boldly trying new things.  He even decided he likes fried okra!
11.  The little girls next door (ages 5 and 7) came over to see if Mason could play.  He didn't make a face and tell me he didn't play with little girls.  He went outside and played so sweetly with them for a few minutes before dinner.
12.  He loves the Lord and is learning to be His feet.  He invited several neighborhood kids he has been playing with to go to church on Wednesday night.  When I asked him if they had fun he said yes but he was most excited that they would be learning about Jesus.

Every year with Mason is a new adventure.  He takes us to the next phase of parenting and teaches us so much in the process while we try to teach him.  We are truly blessed to be his parents.  We love you, Mason.  Happy Birthday!

Back to School Blues

For the very first time the boys were not overly excited about going back to school.  I think it is because they do not want to leave their new little sister behind.  They are just smitten with her and it is so cute.  I have to admit, since I am home right now, I hate to not have them home all day too.  Once the day arrived they were pretty excited and ready to go back. 

It was an interesting morning.  Getting 3 kids ready to go in the morning is quite different!  Mark was home but was leaving for the airport that day.  He was able to take the kids for their first day.  You know I couldn't stay behind so Melanie and I went along too.

Here's little Melanie riding with her two big brothers to their first day of school as 6th and 2nd graders.  Doesn't she look excited?

Boy do I love these not so little guys!

We dropped Mason off at the intermediate campus and drove around to the elementary building.  I asked Andrew if he wanted me to walk him inside on his first day.  He had a funny look on his face and said, "no way mom"  I guess second graders don't need mommy to walk them inside.  At least Melanie will let me walk her in someday...I hope not too soon.   :)