The Most Unbreakable Bond

I have to admit it... I under estimated the bond between a mommy and a daughter. I always knew the bond was strong between my mom and I, but being on the "mommy" side of it is something stronger than I could have ever imagined.

Don't get me wrong, I love my boys, my husband, my parents, my brother and my niece more than anything but Taya is the single best thing that has ever happened to me. She makes me want to be better. Better at everything. I guess it's because I want to show her how to be the best little girl, lady and woman she can be. Our moments spent together are so precious. I long for the weekends so we can nap together on Saturday and Sunday. We sing together, she rubs me, I rub her...and she tells me "Momma, hold you". So she turns her back to me, I hold her close and we dream off peacefully...together.



The older she gets, the better it gets. We now go get pedicures together, shop together, and just enjoy being together no matter what it is we may be doing, whether it be simple or full of energy. It has gotten to the point that now anytime she and I leave the house alone together, she asks me, "We go paint toes" which means "Are we going to get pedicures?" Anytime we go to Target she says "Get Choc-it" which means "I want a Caramel Frapaccino".

Taya is a sweet spirited little thing. If she is sad because something has upset her, she says "I sad" and if she is scared because someone is being loud, she says "I scared", but the best has to be when something makes her happy, she says "Oh, Make-a me so haaapy". We now spend our time trying to do and say stuff that will prompt her to say this. Sooo, I devised a plan. Now instead of her saying it, I say to her "Taya, you make-a mommy so happy". This is followed by her saying "Aww, yeah" accompanied by this face"



I love her more than all the stars in the sky and with her, I have the most fun. I can't wait to watch her grow and become a beautiful young lady. At the same time it makes me so sad. I cherish every moment and every memory with her. We have the most unbreakable bond and I love her so very much.

The Love of a Daddy

Any man can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a daddy. That's exactly what my brother, Brian, is. An Awesome daddy.

How many single dads do you know that would drop everything, load up a Uhaul...clothes, furniture, personal belongs and all, quit their job and move half way across country to be near their child. Brian did just that...for Nikki. He did this all the while knowing that the road ahead is going to be the most steep, curving, un-nerving, torturous one he has traveled yet. There are a couple people and a few key factors that play into the unsettling road yet traveled. It's gonna be a fight to the finish and a battle of the courts. I know that CT is a temporary home and he will be back, but it seems so far away. In the words of Carrie Underwood-"This is our temporary home, it's not where we belong, These windows and rooms that we're passing through, this is just a stop on the way to where we're going, I'm not afraid because I know, this is our temporary home."
I always knew that the bond between siblings was great, whether it be brothers, sisters or a brother and a sister. I see it everyday in the lives of my children, however, I never experienced it first hand like I did Friday night when I had to say goodbye to my brother while loading up his things. It was honestly one of the hardest things I have ever done. I didn't want to do this and I didn't think I could. Here I was in tears and my brother, being the one leaving everything he knows behind, was so strong. Not sure if that's because the rest of the family was falling apart and he was trying to keep it together or because he is so determined to get his daughter back. Whatever it was, he was strong. As we left, I hear my daughter in the back seat say "Corbin kying, Corbin kying", Ethan then turned and said "Corbin is crying". I asked what was wrong and between breaths he says " I'm gonna miss Uncle Brian", so then I start to cry even more. Then, this morning as I tell Taya we are leaving she says "we go see mema, pepa, Biiian" which brought tears to my eyes yet again. Their uncle has brought them so much joy and so much love, I can hardly imagine the love his daughter feels for him.
We have always been close but I didn't realize how close until he left. We talk every once in awhile and see each other a couple times a month but I now see I wish I had made more of an effort to do it more. I have called him 3 times already and he hasn't been gone 24 hours yet. I feel very blessed to have such a wonderful uncle for my children, a brother-in-law to my husband and a brother to me.

I know that God does everything for a reason. Just seeing what those reasons are sometimes feels impossible. I believe in God, I have faith and I pray constantly but I often wonder if the power of prayer is enough. Is it? I feel so hopeless not being able to do anything to make the road easier. All I can do is pray. I hope it's enough.
I just want to tell Brain, to keep your head up, keep the faith and keep praying. Always know that you have a devoted family back home that will go to great lengths to see things work out.
"And through time as life changes, always know of his love, in his arms he will guide you, it will always be enough. He will give you special strength when those hard times come, just close your eyes and know he's there giving you his love"-Michael Bridges
In the perfect words of Brian-This isn't a period, it's just a comma in the story book of life.

Is It Child Labor If They Wanna Help?

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one. Anything he can do to be just like dad. He is DEFINITELY Mini Matt.

Please note: This was NOT EVEN 24 HOURS AFTER the "dresser to face" fiasco...tuff kid, nuff said.





There's nothing better than being his parent. What an awesome kid we have:-)

Good Thing He's Beautiful

God knew exactly what he was doing when he gave us Ethan and made him so beautiful. See, the month after Ethan turned 5(This was May 18th, 2006)he flipped backwards off the swingset and busted his forehead open which ended up in a multitude of stitches and a mommy being MORE protective. Things went well for 7 MONTHS, then on New Years day 2007, he was rough housin' with his brother in our living room and somehow managed to trip and/or fall into our wooden end table and the corner went THREW his lip. When I say went through, I mean had a nice HOLE through his top lip. This again ended up in another multitude of stitches and an EVEN MORE protective mom. Again, things have gone well for 3 years...UNTIL Friday night. Ya see, the boys are lazy at times. They have a tall dresser in their room that I ALWAYS have to tell them to shut the drawers. I do have reasoning with my insanity here. It it because it looks better shut and for SAFETY REASONS! Matt was gone to get dinner, Corbin was in the shower, Taya was playing in the boys room, Ethan was in his room and I was in the kitchen cleaning up a bit. All of a sudden Ethan started to cry a bit. Actually, it was more like whining because some one made him mad. It was in no way a scream of sheer pain and terror. I even thought to myself "What is he whining about now" BIG MISTAKE! I decided to see what had happened and to my surprise and heartbreak, I turned the corner to see blood dripping from my son's face. We rushed to the bathroom. Ethan was freaked out due to the blood, Taya was freaked out due to Ethan being freaked out, Matt was still gone, Corbin was just getting out of the shower and I was TRYING to keep my composure. I just kept telling Ethan to breathe, not to mention telling myself the same thing. There was so much blood coming from his head, I couldn't see where the stinkin' blood was coming from. It was coming from his forehead, the side of his nose and his nostril itself. Thankfully, somehow none of these injuries were deep enough to need stitches. In the end, he ended up with a nice gash in the center of his forehead, an ugly scrape down the right side of his nose and a chunk of skin is missing from his right nostril. Poor kid...


Even with the beat up face, he still manages to smile and laugh through it all.



I have learned no matter how protective you are, things are going to happen and that's just a fact of life. We must live with it and move on. In the end, it only makes the kids stronger, not to mention us as parents, as is the case with Ethan. As small as he is, his heart is HUGE and he could conquer the world if he wanted to. We are so very blessed, lucky and honored to have him as our son. He is our sweet, innocent, precious, perfect little brusier and we could never love him anymore than we do right now. EVERYDAY is a gift NO matter how crazy it may be. Kiss your babies endless amounts and let them know just how awesome they are:-)

Us + The Boys + Cowboys Stadium + Monster Jam = One Fun Night

Cowboys Stadium is INCREDIBLE!

So...I bought our tickets plus our parking pass online-Little did I know that we parked on the OPPOSITE side of the stadium rather than near our seats. PLUS, the section in which our seats were located was insane. The seats were great, getting to them...not so much. We entered at the 2nd level, had to go up to the 3rd, then UP again to the 4th, and finally walk to the OTHER side of the stadium then BACK DOWN to the 3rd. OMG! By the time we left, I had blisters on the back of my heels, not to mention a bit of bleeding occurred:/
There were 11 trucks at this rough ridin' event and I'm pretty sure ALL 11 either crashed/flipped/caught fire. Now, back in the day before my hubby acclimated me to the danger of such things, I was terrified to have any crashed/flips/catching fire. I have since realized that the chances of this happening are very slim and now I wait for the next catastrophe.


The boys had a ton of fun and loved the earmuffs. They were in amazement at times.




It was a blast and I can't wait to do it again! Motorcross is next month! YAY!