BRYANT - My great Big Helper Boy!

Here is my clean child (a little OCD) at times...guess who he got that after. Anyway, here is a picture of him sweeping. It doesn't appear to look like a great feat of any kind but let me tell you what led up to the picture...

Brad had been out of town all week and I had somehow pulled out my back and had been on the couch for a whole day not able to do much or pick up kids or anything. So this was a few days later and Bryant just went and got the broom and dustpan and starting sweeping (he's never done it before or since). When I asked him why he was doing it he said that I had a hurt back and he knew I didn't need to be doing any work right now. He is always so awesome about things like that...I have to say our 4 year old is quite exceptional! Love him!

Daddy and Brantley Napping

This was just a cute picture I thought I would add.

WILD TURKEYS...

We have 20 or so wild turkeys in our neighborhood and here are a few pics of their recent visit.

Update after 6 weeks of a blog break...

Here are the Halloween pics of the kids from October (Yes, I know it's December already) but what can I say... I have a husband and 4 kids...I really don't have time to do fun stuff much anymore.

Enjoy the pics - Monet was the "Queen of Hearts", Bryant was obviously "Spiderman", Brantley was a "Tiger" and Rylan was a "Pea in a Pod".

Firehall Outreach Ministry

Our class at church did an outreach ministry this week for a firehall in Nashville. Our church decided to take the money that we spent typically for cookies or donuts during class time on Saturdays and Sundays, and spend it on a ministry for each class to participate in each year. We no longer have snacks in class each week but know that the money is reaching people in need. We purchased food and necessities for this firehall in Madison and they were very thankful. Here are a few pictures. I was even able to sneek one in of the boys on the firetruck!

Attack of the Superheroes!

At Ansley's party there were a few Superheroes lurking around. Do any of them look scary to you? Maybe the Spiderman/Dragon combo????

Party at Ansley's House...

Here are a few pictures of Ansley Hamilton's Fall Party last Saturday. Our kids had an awesome time! Thanks Ansley, Brian and Julie and the twins!

Our little Rylan is growing so fast...

Here he is standing at the window all by himself. I think he will be walking before long. At this point he is 7 and 1/2 months old.

Rylan's Baby Dedication at Church

We had Rylan dedicated at our church - Cornerstone - on Wednesday night, October 22, 2008. All of our families were able to attend this time around. Thank you to all of our folks for making the trip up for the special occasion. We know that our children are all gifts of the Lord and we want to make sure that their lives start with prayer over them and accountability on ourselves to raise them to love the Lord!

This kid is always eating...

This is Brantley at the Fall Fest. He had just won a prize for playing a game. The prize is of all things - a candy necklace...he started eating it immediately.

Fall Fest!

We attended a Fell Festival last weekend at the church where the boys attend Mother's Day Out and we had a blast. Here are a few pics of the day.

Rylan's First Tooth!

Well, right on his 7 month birthday Rylan decided to display his first tooth...and all that goes along with that - which means fever, crankiness and the ever so wonderful DROOLING. Come to find out he also had an ear infection (due to some kind of viral infection) - after taking a trip to Dr. Kirshner on Monday. He now has one tooth though and more to come!

Rylan says "Trick or Treat"

Rylan - our little Pumpkin!

Gentry's Pumpkin Farm 2008

Here are a few pictures of the boys at Gentry's Pumpkin Farm in Franklin, TN from this past weekend. They had a great time picking their pumpkins this year straight from the patch. This was the first year that we made it there soon enough to pick our own. Bryant, however could not be satisfied with the choice of pumpkins in the patch so we had to buy him a small one that had already been picked.

Rylan is standing up now

Here are a few pictures of Rylan this week. He is now pulling himself up and standing. He is almost 7 months old now.

Soulwalk 2008 was a success!

Thank you to all of you that supported us this year in Soulwalk 2008! We did the walk this past Saturday, Sept. 27th at Bicentennial Park in Nashville. We went over our goal and had lots of prayers on our behalf b/c we had a very good day! The boys had a great time and Brad came home with a pulled hamstring. Here a few pics of our day!

6 months and counting....

Here is Rylan a few weeks ago at 6 months old.

Middle Brother and Little Brother...

Here is a very rare picture - rare because Brantley never is smiling in photos. Yeah - we got a smile from him. He's so much like me (even though he looks just like Brad) that I have to just love him in spite of it all.

Peek a BOO!

Here is Rylan in his early Halloween outfit!

Attack of the Killer Spaghetti!

Here is Brantley and Rylan in the car with a spaghetti "thing" that was bought on a stop to Cracker Barrell. I'm not sure why they wanted this so badly but you can see that we had fun with it when Brantley fell asleep in the car.

"You're Pretty Mommy"

One more Brantley'ism before I head to bed....
I have noticed that when I get agitated at Brantley lately and get on to him about something that he has started saying "You're pretty mommy" every time before he does or says anything else. I finally asked him tonight if he was saying it because he thinks I am mad and he said "yes". I guess our little guys are smarter than we think - maybe Daddy can learn that when Mommy is upset that a little compliment goes a long way! Ha, Ha!

Rylan is Now Crawling!

Rylan is officially a crawler now - right at 6 months old! There will be pictures to come but I didn't get any today...
I am so proud of him because he has really taken to it and loves being able to get what he wants. I hope it will slim him down a little.
His weight at 6 months tops out at 24 pounds!

We Miss Daddy!

Well let's start by saying that this week has not been all that it was cracked up to be...
Sunday, Brad left for Atlanta to do a trade show and will not return until tomorrow (Wed). So I had planned to be alone with all 4 kids anyway...even though I felt a sinus infection coming on strong I still felt like I could handle it...
THEN...Sunday night at midnight I woke up with a stomach virus (no details necessary) and had it ALL night long. I then had to feed a baby at 3 a.m. and get enough sleep between 3 and 6 to not be a zombie the next day.
By 6 a.m. when I had to wake Monet up I had gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep all night. I did manage to shuffle downstairs to get MOnet going and get the boys ready to go to Mother's Day Out. I prayed all morning that God would just give me the strength to get through the day okay...and He did. The baby slept most all day and so did I! I picked the boys up from school and when Monet got home she helped out a lot. I feel better today except for the sinus infection that's still sticking around but no stomach stuff! Praise the Lord!
Bryant has asked me every day when Daddy is coming home - it seems that when mommy is "under the weather" that Daddy is even more missed!

It's Official - Brantley is Potty Trained!

Yes, Brantley is finally potty trained and out of diapers. I am proud to say that he is not even 2 and 1/2 yet and got it down sooner than Bryant did (at 3 years old). Let's just hope that he doesn't regress. Bryant was doing good a week ago at night without a pull-up but we have had to revert back because of some accidents...that's okay though - we will keep trying!

Congratulations to my big boys on their potty accomplishments!

Soulwalk 2008!

Please check out our Soulwalk 2008 page. Go to www.soulwalk.org/pages/10bethany to check our webpage and see more about Soulwalk. We still need contributions to reach our $150 goal so please make an online donation or you can mail us a check - just $10 a person will help us greatly!

Thanks!

Rylan is Sitting Up!

Rylan is 5 and 1/2 months and sitting up by himself and starting to crawl. Here are a few pictures of him sitting up today.

Monet's Party at Poppa Randall's House

A few pics at Poppa's house for Monet's 12th b'day celebration!