Let the Brainwashing Begin...

We decided that it was time for the indoctrination to begin! The day didn't start off all that well, but by the time we got there...everybody was ready to have some fun!

I don't think Luke was really into the game. He was more into taking pictures,

bothering "Mr. Matt", eating junk food, spilling drinks and looking at everything through his toy binoculars...

Natalia was more into wearing the gear, eating junk food, talking (very loudly) and playing with "Mrs. Elizabeth".

Carson and Dave, on the other hand, were into the game 100% and also into all the A&M traditions that go along with it. Carson never took his eyes off of the football field! He was completely interested in the whole experience. He never stopped asking Dave questions about the game.

I couldn't even get Carson to take a picture with us!

After the game, we were able to walk on the football field (a first, even for Dave). Carson was in heaven! He asked Dave to race him to the end zone. He could imagine himself being a football player! You could see it in his face.

If you see closely though, I don't think Luke is very convinced about the whole thing just yet (not sure if he wants to be an Aggie or a Longhorn)! Still, lots of work to be done!

Luke's Last First Day of Preschool

Last Tuesday was Luke's first day of school. Where has time gone?! I cannot believe this is Luke's last year of preschool! Luke was so ready to go back to school. He loves his teachers and he is enjoying seeing so many friends from last year, church and Bible Study Fellowship (BSF).

I even had to take some pictures of Luke with his gun...he insisted. He was even posing for the camera.

Mommy and CARSON........and Luke

Carson's pre-school had their annual Art Show this evening, therefore, Carson had no school today.  I thought about keeping Luke at home too, but then I decided to have a special day with Carson only.  Carson doesn't get too many of these days so I jumped at the opportunity.

Immediately after dropping Luke off at school, Carson and I headed to the bowling alley.  Oh boy, do I stink at bowling.  Good thing we had bumpers on each side.  Carson had a blast!  

Right after that, we took care of his second request....Tennis.  We played tennis for a while.  ~He was just eating all this individual attention up!

I'm sure you've seen this shirt several times already.  He LOVES this shirt.  

He tries to only wear it when he knows he will be playing tennis.

Later, after bringing lunch to Natalia and Natalia's teacher, we met Daddy at work so we could go grab a bite to eat at Olive Garden, per Carson's request of course!

I gave Dave the keys so he could be the designated driver.  Well, we got in the car and the car would start up but then, immediately, it would stall.  He tried this several times.  Every time he tried, the car would roll back a little.  Eventually, he figured out we weren't going anywhere so he pushed the car back into the parking space.  All this time, I kept praying!  I kept thinking, this is NOT what we need right now.  Well, once we were back in the parking space, right after he finished pushing the car, Dave realized that he had been using the copy of the key which will unlock the car, but will not allow you to drive the car with it.  ~Oh boy!!!!

We finally made it to Olive Garden and had a fun lunch together before we picked Luke up from school.

And that was the end of Carson's Special Day!  

This evening, after eating dinner at Grannie's house, we all headed to the Annual Art Show.  

Luke's Art 

Luke showing off his picture.

Carson's Art

Cousins - they love each other!!!!!

Week Recap - Can You Say Crazy?!

I still haven't finished blogging about our Spring Break fun, but just wanted to let you know what we've been up to this week.

Wow, what a busy week.  Ready for some rest!!!!

*Last Saturday, we attended the Annual Easter Party at Mr. & Mrs. Ivey's house.  As always, we had a great time.

 

Natalia and her best friend Hannah

   

The kids went fishing and we also went on a little canoe ride.

*Sunday morning, my friend Brittney picked me up at 6:00 a.m. to go and buy junk at Round Top!  Oh, I love doing sort of thing.  Dave, on the other hand, stays home hoping and praying that I don't go too crazy and buy too much junk.  

Here is Brittney and the truck full with all our junk!

   

Meanwhile, Dave and the kids were planting an herb garden!  

  

*Oh yea, and this is a picture of Dave and my new old outdoor furniture I got at Round Top.  You have to have vision to see what this furniture will look like one day!  :-)  ~Dave just can't wait to see!!!

*Lately, Natalia has been waking up with the desire to serve her Daddy.  ~More power to you girl!  It is the sweetest thing.  She is so proud of all her hard work.  And Daddy, well, he is eating it up!

  

*Carson had a little presentation at school this past week.  He is so shy that he just stood there looking cute.  ~I sure hope he grows out of this :-(

  

*Oh, what a busy day I had on Thursday.  Carson's Easter party was at 11:00, then Luke's was at 12:15 and Natalia's at 1:30.  They had a blast though!

  

Natalia and some of her friends from school.

  

*Dave went to Houston on Thursday night for a tennis tournament, so we decided to have fun. We rented a movie and built a fort.  What????  I can't believe I did this.  If you know me, you know that I'm all for schedules and I definitely won't make a mess I later have to clean up.  But, I did on Thursday night.  The kids couldn't believe it and we had so much fun.  

  

*Today, we ended our week by making breakfast together.  Natalia cooked the eggs, Carson was in charge of the bacon and Luke took care of the biscuits.  We spent our afternoon at the park and ate dinner at Chick-Fil-A.

Hope y'all have a great weekend and Happy Easter!

Week Recap

This is what we've been up to this week:

Potty training Luke.  Now I know why it took this long to potty train Luke.  I always hear, "ah, don't worry about it, he'll do it when he is ready."  Well, that might work with some kids but it hasn't worked that way for any of mine.  I wish it did, but I guess, I was never that lucky.  You see, for me, it has been... when is mama ready to potty train; because as you know, that means, cleaning up accidents all the time, washing a lot of underwear and towels and staying at home ALL the time.  But, thank goodness, I think we are there!  Yay!  No more diapers at the Stovall's residence!  (Okay, so maybe it's a little bit sad.  This stage of our life is over.  No more diapers = no more babies :0(  )

My baby Luke! 

Luke:  "No me no baby, me big boy!"

Carson now walks around saying that he wants to "Bring it!" Here is Carson doing P90X.  In this particular exercise, you need a stool to swing your legs from one side to the other.  So, Carson went to his room and found this little stool:

Keep pushing play Carson!

  

The last several mornings, the boys have been waking up at around 5:00 a.m. and going to our bed to sleep for about 2 to 3 more hours.  So, this is what Dave has to put up with...( you know, I'm already up doing P90X - which is probably why they're waking up this early too.)  Except, this morning we had no visitors in our bed.  Last night I told the boys that they needed to stay in their beds and Luke responded, "me know that Mama."  

I almost passed out when I heard Natalia say to me one morning:  "Mama, I want a salad for lunch"  and then, last night while we were out to eat, she asked for a salad for dinner.  I mean, you don't understand, she is such a picky eater!  I worry about her eating habits all the time.

Well, I guess I'll just enjoy this little phase she is going through and like Natalia tells Daddy every morning as Daddy drops her off at school, "carpe deim, Daddy"  (little tradition between Daddy and Natalia).  

Or as she would rather have it, "freeze the day"! 

 As part of Dave's P90X diet plan, he took the kids to get ice cream (apparently chocolate peanut butter ice cream counts as one protein?).  As soon as Natalia walked into Baskin Robbins, she noticed the "Freeze the Day" sign on the wall.

Weekend Fun!

We had a busy, but fun, weekend.  Our weekend started on Friday night.  We invited two families to eat Chicken Carbonara.  We had a great time visiting and the kids had a tremendous time playing with every single toy!  You should have seen my house.  Now, I wished I would have taken pictures, but once again, I was a little preoccupied that night.  I didn't mind the mess at all though, all the children were having a great time and at the end of the night, we all cleaned the mess together.  Thank you moms!  

On Saturday, Dave left to Houston for a reunion with some of his high school guy-friends.  During their high school years, they used to play this game called Shogun, which takes hours to play so wives and kids were not invited :0(  ! 

Oh, no hard feelings, I know how to entertain myself and my children.  So, we headed out for a hike.  It was the perfect day for this kind of activity too!  We picked up some lunch at my all time favorite, Chick Fil A and took it to Village Creek State Park for a picnic.  After our yummy lunch, we went for a loooong hike.  It was so long that Carson even thought we were lost.  The kids had a great time looking out for tracks, rabbit and mice holes, bugs, nests and looking at the pine cones and leaves to determine what kind of animal had been eating it.

Later, we went to eat dinner at Matt and Elizabeth's house.  Oh my, they had so much fun.  Matt was building a walkway and they got right into the action... this is right up their alley.  Needless to say, they were a total mess from head to toe.

Matt and the kids built this domino train together.  How did Matt accomplish this, I don't know.

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

 

Dave just finished reading Old Yeller to the kids.  Carson is starting to really enjoy hearing big books like this one read to him.  Natalia, like always, just can't wait until it's time to read and then she never wants to quit reading.  "Just one more chapter Daddy, Please!!!"

The kids were pretty sad the night we finished the book.  As the book was coming to an end, and Travis had just shot Old Yeller, Carson said, "I think I'm starting to cry."  They were wondering why the book had such a sad ending?  

Thanks to Grannie, we were also able to watch the movie this week!  As a matter of fact, we've already watched it twice.  Lia runs into the other room every time she recognizes a scary part is coming, and Carson is upset that the movie left out the scene of the chongo bull and the roan bull fighting.  I guess Carson now understands Tom Clancy's sentiment when he says giving your book to a movie producer is like giving your daughter to a cheap pimp?  (Ah, by the way...this last sentence was added by Dave.)

But anyway...great book and we highly recommend it!