A MAJOR Milestone

I have blogged before how I am not a cook.  I am a great sou chef - I can cut up chicken, marinate, chop onions, make salad, etc. Well, the menu tonight was grilled chicken with baked potatoes and salad.  When the clock struck 6:15pm, I became nervous that the chef wouldn't be home at a decent time to grill the chicken.  Now, I must stop here and try to explain my fear of fire (or anything that has a flame) especially grills you have to light!!! I won't stay outside when Rhyne lights the grill - I have always had a huge fear of fire.  By the time 6:45pm came, I knew I had to do something.  I took a deep breath and called my Daddy (by this time, Rhyne was in a huge mess at work, so I couldn't bother him).  My Daddy talked me through each step of lighting a grill.  And here is the milestone......I LIT THE GRILL AND COOKED THE CHICKEN TOO!!!! This is such a HUGE accomplishment for me!! I felt it needed to be documented so my kids will know on this day, I conquered the grill!!!  Maybe next I will conquer my fear of deep water??

We will miss PawPaw here on earth, but we rejoice he is home!!

Fun in the Sun

poor Ben- if only his height would

catch up with his waist!

We had another beautiful day here and decided to play in the pool!!

Happening Friday Night at the Hooks House

Love this: the boys caught Rhyne off guard while

playing Star Wars

Rhyne was a good sport and let the good guys win

(I won't pretend to know the correct good guy/bad

guy names from Star Wars)

Love This: Ann Phelps is "telling" on

Daddy because he hit Will in the face!

It is rare that we have a Friday night with nothing to do around here. Since the weather is still bearable outside, we decided to have a "weenie roast" (actually Daddy grilled the hot dogs). While the kids were waiting for the hot dogs, I let them play the noodle balloon game. Get a couple of poo noodles and balloons - try to keep the balloons from touching the ground. They had so much fun and after the balloons were popped, they decided to play star wars. Daddy really go into the star wars game!! I love nights like this! Maybe if we keep doing fun activities on Friday nights, my kids will turn down invites to "go out" when they are teenagers???? I know, wishful thinking!!!

My Bible Study Partner

Every week on either Monday or Tuesday afternoons, I study my MOMS Bible study lesson to be prepared for the Wednesday meeting. My boys are usually playing with legos during this time, but my little lady is sitting in the dining room right by me doing her "lesson" also. It is so sweet to watch her set up her Bible and notebook and she even has a baby to take to nursery!! Today, her "baby" was fussy and didn't want to go to nursery so she had to bring her in the meeting! I only pray this will continue to be her desire (to study God's word) for the rest of her life!!

Daddy's Post.....

I have written before, when Will started t-ball, that this was one of the happiest days of my life. Well, Saturday morning was also one of the happiest days of my life. Ben has started t-ball, and he absolutely loves playing. My family was here for Easter and said Ben looks exactly like me when I played ball back in the day. These pictures amaze me, how Ben looks like a little man with his uniform on and his stance at the plate. I loved the game of baseball, and I believe Ben is going to love baseball as well. As I said before in Will's t-ball post, my kids were not blessed with the GOD given talent that I was blessed with, but we can work on it (ha, ha). Ben, Daddy loves you and I am so proud of you wanting to play baseball. I look forward to many afternoons practicing in the yard. My daddy saw ben running from second to third and laughed saying, "Ben has a long stride like his momma, but it is a shame that he has your speed." Thanks dad!!!!!

Easter in Brandon

I joked about this pic.....this is a redneck Easter -

trying to slap your mom with a stick in the front yard

Will and me in front of Matthew and Harris'

memory tree

4 generations

Here we go

I was blessed to attend my sweet friend, Keira's

baptism this morning

playing Transformers

This is a story- - the Easter Bunny found out on Saturday

morning that the only thing AP wanted in her basket was

some purple and pink PEEPS! After the Easter Bunny ran her

5K she stopped by Walgreens and got the last boxes of PEEPS

(thankfully they had pink and purple)!

Art supplies - her favorite!

Transformers!!

Dying eggs

We celebrated Easter at our house this year. Rhyne's family spent the weekend with us. It is so nice to just be able to visit and enjoy everyone with nothing to do! Although, we had a tball game, the men worked in the yard Saturday, Grandmother had a migraine Friday night, and I ran a 5k race - but we still had great visiting time!!!

Ben's Debut

Ben with some of his fans. Notice AP's pout, she

was upset the picture wasn't all about her!

Ben is finally old enough to try his hand at t-ball. Today was our first game. Some funny things to remember--- When Ben had to take his tball picture, Ann Phelps was upset and pouted because she wasn't having her picture made; Before we left the ball field, Ben started crying and wouldn't tell us what was wrong.......he told MaeMae he was thirsty and FINALLY by the time we got to our exit, he told me he was sad because Cray's mom had some gatorade for Cray and I didn't have any for Ben!! You can bet, I will have tons of gatorade at every game!!

Happy Easter

AP's Egg Hunt

my cute little bunny

her little bunny tail

hunting eggs

all her eggs

At Covenant Preschool, the parents don't get to come on party days - they do this to keep tears away (in case not every parent can come). But the 2 year old parents always get to join in the Easter Egg Hunt fun!! Today was a nasty weather day (in the morning) so the egg hunt had to be in the fellowship hall. The kids didn't care, they got to get eggs and that is all that mattered! Ann Phelps followed her rule of only getting pink or purple eggs (one blue egg did get in her basket, but she said it was ok)! I was going to Will's egg hunt too, but it was rained out. Ben hunted eggs too, and he said he had a great time!

Early Easter in Acona

Ann Phelps wouldn't pick the eggs

that were "for boys" aka- it's not pink or

purple!! She would throw them back on the

ground if it wasn't girly enough!

Boots helping

Checking the treasure

AP supervising Boots getting the crawfish ready

Listening to music in MarMoo's car

Has to have all eyes on her!

She had to try tball too

Eating crawfish

Boots and Britt

Otis isn't sure about being a country dog

MawMaw

Conversations with MarMoo

Lessons from Boots

I am sure Boots is sore today from this!

Sometimes we catch frogs instead of baseballs

He is ready

We celebrated Easter with my Family one weekend early. After my race, we went to Acona to hunt eggs, eat crawfish, and play a little baseball! It was so much fun! I hope Boots (my brother) isn't too sore this morning from all the baseball he played with my boys!!