August Mud

What are boys to do when the creek runs dry and you don't have anywhere to swim? Well, I guess you'll take what you can get! Kyle was cleaning out the horse trough and the boys took advantage of the mud and water. While Cullen was rubbing mud on his legs he stopped, smiled at Blake, and said "Mom LOVES dirty urchins!!" Which is true, I do.

The Rest of 2012 in pics...

I'm so far behind on blogging I'm just gonna do summer and fall 2012 in pics:

 Some good friends from college, including my sis-in-law Kate came down for a day of tubing.

 Kyle's office party in December, one of maybe 3 dates this year.  Why do babysitters have to leave for college?!

 I took the boys this summer on a trip to see Allison Woods.  The boys had such fun together!!

 So did I!

 Nicole, Summer, Leni, and I.  Leni moved to El Paso last year and was back in town for a visit.  Still miss her a ton.

 My Uncle Danny and I took the boys to the Trophy Barber Shop, where they have over 200 animals and my brothers got their hair cut there as little boys.  They loved it!!

 Blake's first crabbing experience.  When we cooked it and ate it (the one crab), he declared it to be "even better than bacon!"

 While in Corpus we also went to the beach.

 We also went out to the Gulf with Rog and on the way out we got to salvage a very small shipwreck.  Totally legal, FYI.  Seth was super excited to find some dice, which he is convinced belonged to a pirate.

 Look how we started the day happy ....

And came back sick as dogs.  At least all the Stringers.  I guess I have lost my land legs.  I heaved every time I moved my body out of absolute horizontal.  It did not help that Roger and Beth laughingly talked about the worst meal choices they've seen people eat before a boat trip.  They included, but were not limited to: chorizo tacos, tuna salad, and spicy spam.  I seriously don't know what happened to me.  It was a nice average day out there.

 We also went camping in the fall at Somerville State Park with the Stringers.   I did not get seasick.

Naughty Boys 2012

I wasn't very diligent this year about taking a pic every time Ruckus made a mess or did something naughty, it was nearly constant.  Here are a few pics I did get, though. 2012 messes:

 They hayed the horse by dragging it handful by handful through the house.  I was working in the yard.

 Cullen painted the cat.  It's a lovely green.

 Blake taped his cheese to the wall.

 It's hard to see, but Cullen's forehead is slathered with foundation.  Guess it's a good shade.

 They are wearing like 7 layers of pajamas.

who knows

So, I know this is old news to most people by now, but Cullen fried my laptop in May by sprinkling it with his sippy cup.  More than a year's worth of photos are gone forever, so although we really did have a busy spring.... I can't prove it!  So why haven't I blogged since February?  Well, I guess I haven't really felt up to it.  You know those wonderfully inspiring blogs where every post is an "in the moment" glimpse of the trial they're going through?  Apparently, that is not this blog.  Objectively, (is that even possible?) I think I'm dealing quite healthily with losing my mom.  And while I certainly do not suppress my grief, I have found I don't want to write about it much because it makes me so sad.  The grief is palpable, always right under the surface, threatening to well up at any moment.  I've had a really great spring, and enjoyed my life in so many ways, but grief doesn't go away so quickly, you just learn to make room for it, too.  I have been so thankful for the continued words of comfort and encouragement that I get.  Alright, enough waxing philosophical.... here's a few pics of what we've done recently...

We found a ginormous grub in our garden!  Apparently they become rhinoceros beetles and are good for your garden.

Ruckus giving his "I'm incredibly impressive" look.  He also gives this look sometimes while chunking things off the porch and saying "I'm being naughty, I'm not allowed to do this!"  Stinker.

Sarah and Jarrod Dyer came down for the first half of Spring Break and we have been friends with them since our freshman year.  We had such a good time!  And they are wonderful friends because they  helped me put my garden in.  Kyle built me a stone raised bed that runs the length of the porch, and Jarrod and I and the bigger kids filled it with a dump truck load of dirt while Sarah watched the littles, and then she helped me plant everything.  Kyle was in shock when he got home from work and it was all done! 

We got enough rain one day that we could actually tube our creek!  The water had actually receded several inches when I took this pic.  We had a blast!  

I got to go with Kyle to his conference in Austin in May while Chuck bravely and successfully watched the boys one night for us.  We had so much fun and ate at the food trucks and I got to sleep in.

 Even more fun, Kyle and I spent the night at the Hotel Havana on the Riverwalk for our 13th anniversary and we had a blast.  I am definitely a happily married woman, but getting to spend a whole 24 hours with just him and no responsibilities (or conference for him to go to) was like "Oh yeah, this is why I fell in love with you!"

 I also got to go to Pink Impact in Grapevine this year with some of my dearest friends.  The conference was AMAZING and I will try to go every year.  Kari Jobe led worship, Beth Moore and many other wonderful people spoke, and it was so Spirit filled!  Here I am with Crystal Brashear, Stefanie Reese, and Debbie Ray.  I miss these girls!

Banana Boy

Once upon a time there was a Boy named Blake.  He looked like this:

One morning for breakfast he was sitting at the table eating a banana when his dad came in and noticed this on the counter:

 "Blake," Dad said, "You should not tear apart an entire bunch of bananas so they can't hang on the hanger anymore.  That's wasteful."  Blake said, "Dad, I lined them up because that's the order I'm going to eat them in."  And he did.  For breakfast.  And he was still hungry by snack time.

Here's Ruckus.  This is what his hair looks like if he gets out of the tub and we don't comb it down.  Seriously.  I keep growing it out thinking it will lay down if it's just a little longer.  I'm not sure that's going to work!  

 Blake caught a spiny swift this week because Sukie, our cat, had attacked it and it was hiding on the porch trying to die peacefully.  No such luck.  That poor lizard was found by Blake who loved it right to its grave, and he bawled brokenheartedly when I insisted he simply could not keep a dead lizard as a pet.  Mean mom.

Christmas and New Year's

This year we had Christmas with the Stringer's and we had a great time.  For about 30 seconds we considered just staying home because we were so tired from all the travel but I knew if we just powered through we would be glad we did.  On the Monday before Christmas we were in Chappell Hill, then on Wednesday we were in College Station for the funeral.  We drove down to Corpus for the memorial service Wed. night and drove back to Bulverde Thursday night afterwards.  Fri. morning we had our own little Christmas, then Kyle worked one day while I hurriedly washed and repacked and loaded the truck.  Then we stuffed our family into the truck, not the comfortable minivan, and traveled 7 hours to Winnsboro (it should take 6, but not with kids).  We arrived at 2:30 a.m.  Whew!  Needless to say, I took a couple of naps while I was there.  Christmas Eve held the annual Henson (Kyle's mom's family) Christmas party, which was as entertaining as ever.  This year was a redneck theme:

And no, she's not really pregnant.  Pretty realistic for a towel, though!

Cullen had such fun with his cousin, Chaney.

And Jitterbug was a huge hit, of course!!  He's the reason we took the truck!  He rode in the back in a hog pen.  We might have gotten some funny looks.

New boots and toy guns.  Happiness.  It was a great trip, even if it took us 10 hours to get home because of traffic.  It's always worth it to see family.

For New Year's we had a big college party planned, but for one reason or another, everyone cancelled except the Porter's, some of our dearest and oldest friends.  The best man in our wedding.  I think it was just what we needed.  We had a blast, caught up, and just talked and talked.  I never even bothered to take a single picture, which is a shame, the kids had a blast together.  We did find a cool snake, a patch nosed snake.  He looked like a fat striped garter snake with a cool nose.

The kids all took turns holding him, and since Amy was taking a nap, we decided the snake could help wake her up: