No Bow

With all of the warmer weather we've been having, I decided that it would be a good day to do a little photo ditty with my little gal in the back yard. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out like I had envisioned. I had two things working against me. The first was Lanie's right arm.
I'd put the bow in, she'd pull it out.....and look me right in the eye while she was doing so.
Bow in. Bow out. Bow in. Bow out.
Finally I gave up on the bow thing and decided to just proceed. That's when the second obstacle reared it's head.
The wind. One stiff breeze rolls in and the LanieBugs can't keep her mouth closed. Literally can't. It always takes her breath!
After the initial shock of the breeze, I replaced the bow and quickly snapped ending up with some pretty cute pics of my baby girl.
The truth is, it's really hard to NOT get some cute pics of her. I know I'm totally biased, but I feel confident in saying that she's got to be the cutest thing I've ever seen.
And I can say that without hesitation because I had nothing to do with her cuteness. That's all God's hand there and I'm just lucky enough to be able to claim her. Here's to better luck with my next photo shoot. In the meantime I'll be checking The Weather Channel for wind speeds and I'll be initiating serious hand off bow training.

Cupcakes and Lasers

Today was the long awaited Party Day! Grant had changed his mind from having a sleepover party (as the last two birthdays have been) and instead, thanks to my suggestion, had a Laser Tag party! Lanie didn't get to go since she's only about the size of a laser gun. She stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa but managed to get one picture with the Birthday (party) Boy! (She's totally in love with him by the way!)

I got one measly pic snapped with my favorite seven year old in the whole wide world. The rest of the time I was trying to snap pictures of a bunch of rowdy boys ready to sling some guns and take names.
Callan showed up in his all black attire just knowing that his stealthiness would be a major part of his "A" game.
Not only did the kids get to play at this party, so did the dads. I'm sure Bobby is explaining his strategy for singlehandedly taking out every player there and therefore being the #1 guy. He's not competitive. At all.
You can already see the fear in Rhett's face......he knows he's going down.
I was pretty happy that I got to get in on the action myself. I'll be honest, most of my shots were piled up on these two. Hey, I didn't say I was the best laser tag player there ever was but I'm smart enough to know how to rack up some easy points!!
I joked in my birthday day post about the candle forgetting tradition and it's no lie that when it came time to sing happy birthday and blow out the candle, guess where mine were? On the counter top at home. Right next to the lighter. It really IS a tradition! There is no use breaking it now. I asked Grant to pretend to blow a candle for the sake of pictures but he refused.
Cade loved the Laser Tag party. I'm pretty sure he's going to request one come May.
Present time!
We walked out of this place loaded up on legos. Grant's buds know him well! I'm pretty sure by now that we enough legos in the playroom to build an addition onto our home. Not entirely joking.

No matter how many sets we have, Legos still bring the smiles!

It was a great boy party and we'd definitely recommend partying here. It was great to include all the besties and their brothers as well. I couldn't take pics during the actual laser tag because it's so completely dark. It's probably for the best though. It wouldn't be nice to see Bobby hiding in the corner picking the children off one by one. He did get first place so apparently he knows what he's doing.
Happy Birthday Party to you, Grant!

The Big Secret

One year ago today ( I can't BELIEVE it's already been 12 months!) Bobby and I were keeping in the BIGGEST secret ever!! Do you know what it was? Lanie says she doesn't know:

Oh yeah! It was ME!
It was exactly 12 months ago that our agency called and said that we had been chosen and that this little cookie would be born in May. If you want to hear about that day you can click here! It's one of my favorite posts to go back and read :) We didn't share the news with anyone right away.....partly because we were both in complete shock that our adoption plight had changed pathways so quickly and partly because there was a paper stack we had to read over and consider.
It didn't take long to decide that this match was going to be a keeper....on our end of the deal anyway. This marks the day that I turned the corner from "Is this ever going to happen?" to "What if she changes her mind? Uggghhhhh. My stomach hurts!" I would like to say that I was all calm and collected and didn't let a thing bother me because I knew God had it under control. I, however, don't like to lie on this blog. The truth: The digestive tract knew something stressful was taking place.
Today I was combing through all of our adoption paperwork and weeding out the pieces of paper that I don't need to keep (i.e. "bonding with the adopted child"- check, "The adoption tax credit and You"-thanks, "Becoming a multi-racial family" - we readily accept her Honduricanness. ) You wouldn't BELIEVE the amount of paper! Anyway, I came across this little ditty randomly scrawled on a piece of scrap paper:

"Be assured that if God waits longer than your wish, it is to make the blessing all the more precious". I don't recall where it came from but I can tell you today my response to that is "AMEN!!!" The wait isn't always fun but His blessing is always well worth it!

The Seventh

As hard as it is for me to believe, we have hit the seven year milestone with my second born here at the Morgan Casa. This is what seven looks like wearing the birthday crown and standing on the kitchen chair:

As with every birthday, my picture taking ability goes down the drain because I am NOT a morning person, birthday or not, and NONE of my functions function at the morning hour. Just ask Bobby. Speaking of Bobby, he was in charge of the birthday breakfast and per Grant's request, ran to the Donut Shop and got some chocolate covered yummy and some donut holes.
I ALMOST pulled my "I forgot the candle", which has actually become a tradition instead of a mistake, but then I found a rogue candle in the cabinet that had only been used once.....or twice. It was happy to perform it's job for this quick occasion.
One early morning birthday shot with the brothers. We do have a sister in this family but she's wise and she actually sleeps in when school is canceled for snow.
Praise the Lord for seven healthy years and may there be 7 times 77 more to go! Happy Birthday, Grant!

It's What's for Dinner

It seems as though my family, namely Bobby, is getting sick of my normal rotation of dinner ideas......poppyseed chicken, pasta, chicken noodle soup, baked chicken, chicken fajitas, pasta, chicken poppyseed, and noodle soup with chicken. So, every now and then I'll step out of my chicken box and fish around for a new recipe. This time I checked out the Pioneer Woman because apparently she cooks, blogs, photographs, homeschools, and flies airplanes all while taking care of a bunch of horses and kids. I decided on her mini-meatball sandwiches even though meatballing totally gives me the willies as well as a big case of faux nausea. She had 317 grandiose comments regarding this dinner and I figured I couldn't go wrong. Here is my plate of balls of meat:

Let the eating begin! And the complaining. The groaning. The "how many more bites do I have to take"ing. After all was said and done the votes were taken. Bobby?
Rhett (who may have gagged eighteen times before completing 3/4 of one sandwich in order to gain rights to a fudge pop):
Grant found them to be quite similar to his favorite meal, cheeseburger only not nearly as good. So, he gave me the sideways vote:
And, the one I can always count on. The one that eats anything....ANYTHING, gave me a big thumbs up:
Being that he's the one that eats freshly killed dove shot right out of the sky cooked over a fire in a barn, AND eats it with delight, I'm not sure I can trust his opinion. Needless to say, I'll be restarting my rotation tonight starting with Chicken Noodle Soup. The first person to complain will be eating leftover mini-meatball sandwiches. That should be threat enough to silence my complainers.

Oh Joyous Day!

To say that we were all excited about the big burning heat ball in the sky this past weekend would be the understatement of the year. Frankly, we were all a bit shocked at the blue skies and unseasonably warm temps. I mean, who'd a thunk that I'd be sporting a tank top on a Saturday jog in January??


It was the perfect weekend to get my camera outside and snap some silliness......and silliness I captured.


We had the best day working on the clubhouse, going for jogs (Cade and I ran all the way to Walgreens to rent a movie from the handy RedBox! He thought it was awesome!), throwing ball, swinging. Ahhhhhh, makes me long for spring! We didn't waste an outside minute and we all went to bed having emptied our pent up energy stores. You can tell by the look of my crazy boys that that in itself was a monumental feat!



Jump for joy! Spring is right around the corner!

Same Snow Story. Different Snow Day

Our first major snow of 2011 rolled in pretty quickly after the new year. I'm not going to lie.....I was pretty much over the snow before it even came. If I had wanted to see this much snow in a year's time I would've packed it up and moved to Michigan. Of course school was canceled and the night before the snow brought much planning for snow day festivities.

We had our usual inclement weather crew over to frolic in the frozen precipitation.
This snowfall was particularly great for making awesome snowballs. We had a serious adults vs. kids snowball fight that made for many sore arms the next morning.
Snow days are always great for Rhett because a) his brothers are home and b) he gets to hang with Silas who is normally in kindergarten.

The little people got to get in on the action a tiny bit this year.
Cruz did some sledding and I think he liked it although his face is a bit unsure in this picture.
Grant and snow-eating Cavin.
The half finished clubhouse served as the "base" for the kiddos during our snowball war. It was quite the safe haven until Mr. Jason dumped sleds full of snow through the unfinished roof.
And, a snow day just isn't a snow day unless Brent brings the 4 wheeler and pulls us through the field!


Cruz hung pretty good in the cold weather riding on that sled!
Carris even braved the cold for a few minutes.

Looks like all the Ashmans like to eat the snow!
Little Lanie came out for a bit but she wasn't about to smile about it. She kept her stone face on the entire time. Her baby bunting kept her toasty warm so I don't know what she was so smug about.

Jason and some of the boys spent time making an army guy snowman. Once he was finished he had snow arms holding a stick gun and a stick crew cut for hair. I didn't get a pic of the finished product. :(
You wouldn't have been able to pick tiny Eliza out in a lineup with her snow playing get-up on. Her clothes added at least 15 pounds and 45 inches to her frame. It didn't stop her from keeping up with the boys though!
Callan fashioning a snowball
This snow go-around I made it a point to catch a picture of Baylor. Last snow he evaded my camera.
More friends came over as the day progressed but by that time I had put my camera away. I did happen to catch a snapshot of this man pile. Someone was smashing someone's face into the snow. I am not, however, going to name names in the hope of protecting the dignity of the bottom of the pile. brent jones

Snow days can be a lot of fun but I'm going to be honest people. My kids need to head back to la escuela. This global warming thing is killing my schedule.