Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all my Mommy friends and family. I love days that celebrate loved ones in our lives. Gives us a chance to give those who deserve our love, admiration, and gratitude a special day. My day did not turn out exactly as I thought it would. Our original plan was to attend church and then go to the park with Ryan's Mom and Dad to eat lunch and let the kids play for a bit. Then I was going to take the boys down to my Mom's for an afternoon visit. Well, Saturday evening Grant started running a fever. He still had around 101 degrees this morning so Church was not an option for him. Ryan and Garrett went to church and I stayed home with Grant. Also being around the cousins and out in the hot sun was also not an option so the park was out. Ryan ended up taking Garrett to a local pool with his family and I loaded Grant up in the car and we drove down to visit my Mom.

My mom was hosting her whole family for the day and it was nice to get to see some family that I haven't seen in a while. It was a fun day and I enjoyed the visit with my Mom and Dad.

Here are some photos from our day.

Ryan took these photos right after he and Garrett got home from church. You can tell Grant did not feel well as he was not very cooperative and for that matter, Garrett didn't cooperate that well either....Oh well, it captured the REAL us.......

Grant definitely was not himself. Usually when I want to take photos of him, he is EVERYWHERE and it is hard for me to get a shot where he isn't moving. Today when I asked him to sit in Granny's flowers so I could take some photos, he plopped down and just sat. Now you could tell he didn't feel well as he didn't smile or entertain like he normally does but I did get a few really beautiful shots of him in these flowers. I adore this photo although it is a little dark. This is my daddy and his mother. She will be 80 years old this year and her health isn't all that great so I was so glad to get this sweet shot of them together. My dad has a special bond with his Mom. He is her oldest son and his Dad died when my dad was twenty three or twenty four and so my dad has really watched over his mom all these years.
And of course, what would Mother's day be without a special photo of me with my incredibly wonderful and beautiful mom....

I have such a wonderful family. I truly am the most blessed person on Earth.

The Cougar Mile

Garrett's school, Cedar Creek, used this week to emphasize physical fitness and they culminated this week today with the annual running of the Cougar Mile. They divide the kids into ages and seperate boys and girls and they all run four laps around the track. Garrett expressed his desire to run the Cougar mile a few months back and so I have taken him running with me several times to try and prepare him and let me just say, I was not optimistic.....

But he was so excited....I fed him pasta last night and then bananas and yogurt this morning for breakfast as well as making sure he was drinking enough fluids. He woke up this morning all ready to go and dressed in his running shorts and Cedar Creek shirt. The six year old girls ran first and while watching them, and seeing how tired they were getting not far into the race, I began to worry about Garrett but of course, didn't let him see that.

After the girls finished, the boys started their warm up..... They did a five minute warm up and then the announcer asked for them to take their positions on the track.... Here they are jockeying for position...there was quite a bit of shoving and elbowing......

On your mark........................................Get set............................................................GO!!!!!!!

And they were off!!!! Some of them you could tell were experienced runners.....like this little boy here in the red shorts that you see......he finished the mile in 7 minutes......others took off WAY too fast and ran out of steam way too early. We had tried to remind Garrett over and over that he needed to set a pace that wasn't too fast and not too slow so that he wouldn't tire himself out....well.....he did really really well!!!! I was so proud of him........Here he is after his first full lap....he looked pretty tired and I was a little worried about him.....as he passed I gave him some encouragement......Ryan was on the opposite side of the track from me urging him on.....

Even though he looked soooo tired the little guy just kept on running......

Here he is after his second full lap......

His tongue was hanging out and he was sweating buckets....I was still a little worried....more and more kids were slowing and starting to walk some instead of keeping up a steady pace.....but about halfway through his third lap he settled in and actually seemed to do better............

Here he is after his third full lap....you can see his PE coach encouraging him and showing him that he only has one more lap to go.....I think this really helped him out alot!!!

So he began his fourth and final lap......this photo was taken after he was most of the way around....you can see from the pic that he has just come off the final curve and into the straightaway....that is Ryan acutally kind of jogging along beside him telling him he was almost there..... And that was about the time that he realized all his friends who had chosen not to run were sitting in the stands and they were cheering for him.....you can see in this photo that he is looking up into the stands and kind of smiling......this kid lives to impress others........ and after just a few more steps, he had made it!!!!!!

And then he was done......He got his National time medal and his cup of gatorade and sat down to rest and revel in the fact that he had completed his first Cougar Mile.....his final time was 10 minutes and 20 seconds give or take a few seconds which I thought was incredible!!!!!! For no more than he has been running or training he blew us away!!!!

This was such a huge confidence booster for him. He has one race under his belt, he knows what it is all about now, and I think he was VERY proud of himself. We are so proud of you, Garrett.....you persevered.....you pushed through......you proved to yourself that you can do it!!! Now that he has a taste of that satisfaction, I have a feeling we are gonna be doing alot more running.

One more thing before I let you go......someone else was caught up in the spirit of the race......he always watches Garrett and wants to do everything he does.....he begged me through the entire race to let him run....I kept telling him when Garrett was done.....I figured I could let him run a little bit before the next age group started.....well, let me tell you something......This little toot ran TWO WHOLE LAPS.......yes two that is half a mile without stopping.....those little legs were just a pumping and before long the entire crowd was watching him.....he had a pretty good little pace going too.

.....looks like I'm gonna have two runners!!!!! I am such a lucky Mom!!! I love you boys!!!!!

Some New Stuff

Ok....I promised some baseball pics which are in the post below and I also promised some pics of some of my newest layouts.....so here they are.....


This one is for Grant's first year album and lists all the things he was doing at three months old....yes....I do realize that he is now 3 YEARS old....I am slightly behind......but I try not to let that bother me.

This one is of Grant's Baby Dedication day which also happened to be Mother's Day 2004. Dedicating my babies to God is something very important to me so it was a wonderful day in that aspect but the hidden tag tells the true story. It was a HORRIBLE day. The only time Grant smiled that day was for the pic on the left when we were still at home early that morning. The rest of the day...including while we were up on stage he fussed or cried. Garrett who was only three was uncooperative all day and cried while we tried to take some family photos. I felt VERY fat in my dress and looking back at these photos I realized I was very justified in feeling that way....and to top it all off, Ryan and I got into this awful fight before leaving for church and so I think I cried most of the day.....lol.....anyway....the important thing was Grant's dedication even if I couldn't hear it because he was crying in my ear.
This layout is dedicated to my Mom. She really is a lifeline for me. She has been there for me unconditionally and she is so selfless and giving. I love you Mom!!!!
ok...I think that is enough for now. Thanks for looking!!!!!

First Game of the Season

Friday night was Garrett's first tball game of the season but he didn't need a T!!!! We have been working with him alot and he can really get some good hits with one of us pitching to him and so Ryan (who is his coach) pitched to him during the game. Actually most of this little team hit off of Ryan pitching to them. They did AWESOME!!!! We were so excited!!!

Also he looked so cute in his Chili's shirt and cap...

It is so neat to watch him....after he made that first hit you could almost literally see his confidence growing....He also played first base and got two people out at first which is incredible for a tball team comprised of 4, 5, and 6 year olds.



Both sets of grandparents were there and he soooo wanted to impress them with how well he could play.....and he did it!!!! I love this photo of him running towards home plate....






We are so looking forward to years and years of baseball!!! One of the perks of having boys!!!

TGIF!!!!

Well, here it is Friday again....I swear sometimes it seems like the older I get the faster time just seems to fly by!! We had a good but busy week. Tonight we top our week off with Garrett's first T Ball game of the season. He is so excited. Both sets of grandparents will be there. There are three "Maddens" on the team well, actually five if you count Ryan and Wes who are Coach and assistant coach. Garrett, Parker, and Hannah are all players and tonight promises to be VERY entertaining. I'll take lots of pics and post some here late tonight or tomorrow. For now I'll leave you with a couple of my latest creations....

This is Garrett at two years old.....sigh.....can't believe he is six now. Normally I don't think Garrett and Grant look that much alike, but looking at these photos makes me realize that they really do favor ALOT!!


Here is another of Garrett from 2003. He still LOVES to play in the water. Maybe its a boy thing....

Until next time....Have a great weekend!!!