Lil' Cowboy

What can I say more?

Hope

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets

Winter to Spring

Last week the kids were outside doing this:

This week the kids have been outside doing this:

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

It has been a beautiful couple of days...until the snowstorm tomorrow.

I Have Cute Nephews

I think I can brag a little bit. I have very darling, handsome, and charming nephews. All 9 of them. Really.

As if I have to prove it, but here are some pics of Andrew's blue eyed wonderboy:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=157147&id=102199515806&ref=mf

But this is the one I get to take the most pictures of. Love my boy.

{Tereck...this pink flowered helmet picture is just for you. His idea, not mine. What's even funnier is that he would not get in the car without it on.}

How To Make Henry Laugh

Henry is generally a pretty happy baby. He smiles alot, and occasionally will giggle. But a couple of times, Henry has just busted a gut laughing. Like deep belly laugh. The kind of laugh that makes everyone else laugh. The kind of laugh that I just had to get on film while the girls jumped in a circle making him laugh in hysterics.

oUR mArCH MaDneSs

This is what we do in March.

The boys meet new friends:

Then they pound them, strangle them, and pin them to the mat.{all in a controlled environment}

I guess that makes it hard to call them friends. But good sportsmanship requires it.

Clay won 2 and lost 1 to take 2nd place in his weight class. It was so fun to watch him yesterday. He is really learning how to execute what they are practicing, and the kid is strong!

Sometimes, they look to dad for advice...where do I go from here?

Sam did ok. He won 2, lost 2. He had to wrestle 3 kids from his own team. He usually needs one tournament to get the jitters out and gain some confidence. He'll do great next time.

Wyatt...he just gets the job done. Hayley brought the kids up for the tournament. They love being with cousins.

Darren and A also came up to watch, and with Lindsey and Grandma & Grandpa close by we had a mini family reunion at the wrestling tournament. We went for pizza after and let the kids hang out and play for awhile. It was such a fun day!!

Some of the 17 being silly.

Allergic

This is what an allergy skin test looks like. That big huge welt in the middle..cashews. The one on the upper right shoulder...pistachios. We already knew this, but over the last year he has had several episodes, and we figured it was time to go back and get retested. It was actually Sam's idea. He would ask me every day after school if I had made him an appointment yet. He was really, really, really hoping that he had outgrown his peanut allergy. He was pretty convinced that he would be ok and allowed to start eating peanut stuff. It was a good thing that Nate prepared him for the reality that we saw today. I think it softened the disappointment a bit. No Nuts For Sam. {still} Now, the interesting thing about Sam's allergies, is that we believe he is allergic to pectin. It's the only explanation for some of the reactions he has had....like eating handfuls of raspberries, and then breaking out when he ate the jam I made just hours later. The Doctor did not have a pectin extract to do a test, and suggested that we bring some pectin in and he would make some to do a test if we wanted a difinitive answer. I think we will, just to see what it does. He also suggested that Sam would make a great Case Study if there were someone interested in publishing a paper. It seemed to me that he was pretty intrigued with Sam's whole allergy thing. I'm curious too, now. I think I'm going to do a little research.