My little chef

Tyler is such a great helper and especially loves to help in the kitchen. I took him grocery shopping with me yesterday, and he was in charge of the "list" and the pen to cross things off - slowed me down a bit, but he sure loved helping out.

On the canned goods aisle, he declared we needed to buy some vegetable soup. Vegetable soup is very healthy for you, he told me. I without telling him which soup was ,indeed, vegetable soup, I let him look and pick out a can of soup on his own. He came back with a can of cream of mushroom soup, which I thought to myself, "good . .at least that's something I can use since I know good and well he will NEVER actually EAT vegetable soup". He has never eaten soup in his life, as much as I've wanted him to, and I sure didn't think he'd start out with vegetable soup!

We got home around supper time, and he immediately wanted to make his vegetable soup. I was impressed he remembered we had bought it. Instead of pulling out the cream of mushroom, I redirected him to a can of alphabet soup that I had foolishly bought thinking my children might eat it just because it had letters in it. He was excited and began to cook his soup (with the help of Daddy).

He got out bowls and even thought it would taste better with crackers crumbled up in the bottom, then carefully poured the soup into the bowls for he and Daddy. Daddy loved his soup, and after trying to keep adding things to it and being told no, Tyler finally took one little sip of the broth and quickly declared, "Yiiiickkk! I do NOT like vegetable soup!"

Oh well . . .
At least he knew it was healthy!

Blue Eyed Boy

I just got a new "Memory Manager" software pack that helps me organize, edit and scrapbook my photos, and I've had fun playing with it tonight!! Here's a picture of Brady - cropped and with the color removed except for his eyes. It's my first attempt, and I'm pumped!!

Just too cute not to share

This one was just too cute to not share . .

The Hawkins Girls

We had the privilege of hosting the Hawkins sisters (my mom and her 2 sisters) Monday and Tuesday night here. My great aunt (their mother's sister) passed away on Saturday and the funeral was yesterday afternoon in Louisiana. They were all 3 very close to "Auntie", so it was important for them all to be here. I love it that we live in a good location for people to gather so that I can be a part of their time together, because let me tell you, the Hawkins girls together are a HOOT!!! They are great individually, but there's something really fun about all 3 together!! Lucy came from Carlsbad, NM to Midland to pick up Mom, then they came on this way. We went and picked up Rose from the airport late Monday night - she came from Florida, and they left early yesterday for the funeral in Bossier City, LA. They returned last night and amused Monica and I until our sides hurt and everyone had tears emerging from our eyes. Rose had brought little gifts for her sisters which included a unique mirror to use like for makeup application, etc. It was a little scary at first peek, though - if you hold it far enough away, you appeared upside down. When you got it pretty close to you, you could get a nice view of every pore in your skin!!! Mom's first response was to yelp and holler (Hawkins family members can hear this sound as I type I'm sure), and the laughter and squealing followed for quite a while. Lucy had to check out all her wrinkles in the magnifying mirror as well. Good times. Funny girls. We love Aunt Rose and Aunt Lucy! Come back to see us soon!!

Boys and Birthdays

The Vaughn Birthday Season is officially over. It's actually been over for a week now, but I think I'm just now coming out of "recovery" mode (Spring Break mode) to get to the computer to write about it!

Colby's birthday was February 19th. I think I just referred to Donny's blog for the details about sweet Colby's party. He had so much fun having "his very own party"! On his second birthday, we had a great little party planned for him here at the house with a few friends. Then the stomach bug hit the night before, so we called everyone to warn them away. We did have the party (basketball theme) since my parents were in town, and we had one friend who wasn't afraid of the bug and brought her son anyway! But not quite the "bash" we had planned. Last year the big boys had a combined party at Let's Jump, which was a blast! We had it closer to Colby's birthday because I was due to have Brady close to Tyler's birthday. This year, we felt Colby needed to have a special party for just him that people could actually come to! ha! He had a great time - it was the first time he helped with the invite list, and he wanted to invite all his friends from his preschool class plus a couple of best buddies from church. That's a new threshold to us as parents - your children having friends that you don't know very well and don't know their parents. Sweet Colby makes friends very easily, and has always been a favorite of parents and classmates.

I sure do love my little Colby man. He's my shopping buddy, my self-esteem builder ("Mom - is that a new purse? I sure do like that purse!" "Mom, your hair sure looks pretty. I like it alot!"), and just a very fun little boy to laugh with and play with.

Brady's first birthday was next on March 8th. Can my baby really be one already?? There's something about turning one that makes them suddenly less of a baby and more of a toddler, and with Brady, I'm not sure I'm ready for that. He's not walking yet, which makes it easier to still see him as little, but the sweet boy weighs 25 lbs. and is just very very BIG.

He is absolutely fascinated with his big brothers and loves chasing them as fast as he can crawl, imitating whatever they are doing, and playing with their toys, etc. They amuse him more than anything else in his little world, and I love that. He did not get "his very own party" this year . . .maybe next year if he's lucky, but he did get a cake, a cute party hat, and a family dinner to celebrate his birth! He loves puppy dogs, and that was the first "environemental noise" (barking) that he made, so we made a little blue puppy dog smash cake for him that was copied from a cute little party hat I had found. He LOVED the cake - we had to take it away from him before he ate the whole thing and made himself sick!

My baby is trying to communicate so much - he signs some and imitates words all the time. Last night, we were eating supper and my sister was here. She wanted some Skittles (her favorite candy), and she was telling Brady that it was candy. He got this wistful look in his eyes like, "Man, I sure would like to taste that stuff", and said a version of "candy!" several times while trying to put his little finger in Aunt Moni's mouth and dig some of that good stuff out to take a look at. He really likes to imitate noises that we make - like when we groan to pick him up since he's so heavy, or grunt a little. He's just so very cute.

Tyler is 6!!! My "baby" is so tall now - and so very grown up. I was telling him about what he was like when he was a baby the other day, and it seems like not so very long ago . . .he sure has changed in these 6 years! He decided he wanted a football birthday party, so on the Saturday of his birthday we had a very fun party at our favorite park. His sweet Daddy is such the party planner - I'm just the cake maker and helper with the execution. Donny does everything from designing invitations to searching for party games to play. I love it that he is so involved in his children's party's. He's such a visionary and dreamer - I'm just the reality check that brings him back down to the appropriate level of party sometimes! ha!

I have loved being a part of Tyler's learning this year. He's been in Kindergarten, and has done so well. I love watching him learn how to read, learn about math and science . . .all the fun things of beginning education. I love watching him soak up the Word lately, too. He loves to just sit around sometimes and read his Children's Bible and ask questions about different Bible stories. We are talking about Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection lately, and he's drawing pictures of it, making crosses out of paper towel rolls, and telling the stories to anyone who has a minute to listen to him. I had a mom at school yesterday tell me that he stopped her at lunch and said, "Hey, Eric's mom," (you know, all the kids know you by your kid, not by your actual name) . . "Did you know that God promised to never flood the earth ever again??" She thought that was so sweet, and I love it that he's sharing the Word with people (even if that's not exactly the socially appropriate way to introduce a topic!).

Life is good. Busy and full and good. Boys are good. Busy and exhausting but good! I sure do love them . . all 4 of my boys!

Brady the Destroyer

Little Brady has a new nickname in the Vaughn house . . ."Brady the Destroyer". Don't get me wrong . .he's still the same precious, so funny, sqeezable little man that we love, but he has an eye for destruction and he is exercising it! His new favorite places to "play" in the house are in the guest bathroom - unrolling the toilet paper roll (ALL of the toilet paper roll), on the fireplace mantel - slamming picture frames down so my cute children's faces are down on the brick, and in the magazine basket - ripping pages out of magazines (chewing on some of them, but mostly just ripping them to shreds). Oh dear. He's become very obedient and spits out things from his mouth when I stick out my hand and tell him to give it to me, which is good I guess. It's just an adjustment in our house to remember to close the bathroom door, pick up all small objects from the floor, and by all means, don't leave your pictures you've worked so hard on laying in the middle of the floor, Tyler and Colby!! The big brothers are so good with Brady. They are my eyes and ears around the house when I can't be close enough to see what he's up to. I frequently hear, "Brady - no, no,no. Let's not put that in our mouth!" They are great. We love Brady, and we love this age . .this sweet, destructive, busy, and precious age!

Let the Games Begin!

The boys both started their soccer games today. We are officially a Saturday soccer family! Have I mentioned that Donny is coaching Colby's team?? We had put on the application that he would help assist with coaching a team - he unofficially assisted in the fall with Colby's team - but the team had no coach, so the head guy called and asked Donny if he would do it. He agreed to, and is doing a FABULOUS job. He doesn't know much about soccer - just what we learned last year from watching Colby's games, but the good news is that all you have to know at the 3-4 year old level are things like "This is a soccer ball. This is a goal. Get the ball in the goal." He is so patient with the kids, and encourages them like crazy, which I think is 90% of what needs to happen in any team sport at this age. The parents are loving him, and the kids are, too. Just had to brag on my man for a minute.

Everyone had a blast today - except it was BITTER cold. Deceptively sunny looking, but with a north wind that bit through every layer of clothes we put on! A couple of Donny's players cried when they had to go on the field, and one parent couldn't get their kiddo to calm down, so they finally went home. Poor little ones are going to think soccer is a horrible, cold game. Hopefully it will be sunny and WARM next week so everyone can have a comfy experience!

Tyler's game was at a bigger field - at least 3 times the size of Colby's. He did great - his team is Blue Lightning, and he is so excited to be a part of it. He has a buddy on the team that he has known for a few years, which makes it fun for him and us on the sideline. We're proud of our big boy for wanting to be a part of a team and play a sport. This sure hasn't been an interest of his in the past, but after watching Colby play in the fall and enjoying playing some at PE in school, I think he's excited about playing games with friends now.

Here's a little "bonus" for you - the big boys played with a spin art cool music thing that Colby got for his birthday this year, and they were being so funny, I thought they warranted a video clip! They really crack me up . . boys are so very fun - especially mine!