Trace is 8

As I look back through eight years of pictures, it seems like forever ago that we were sitting on the back porch at our first house in Sugar Land exposing Trace to the sun because the poor thing was so yellow. But it also seems like it was just yesterday. This was the day after we came home from the hospital. He did manage to fatten up a little, but he's back to long and skinny!

Trace's first Rockport trip! He was one month old in this picture. Hunee and Pop rented a condo on the water.

I love, love, love to watch Trace sleep. He looks so peaceful. And it's one of the only times he is still. If you know him, you know what I mean! He still sleeps with his hands together like this.

6 months: Being baptized really wears a kid out! I loved the feeling of a sleeping kid on my shoulder. Sigh...

Eleven months

One Year!!! He walked at 9 months and was ready for a playhouse for his first birthday.

17 months: Mama B (Auntie Missy's mama) bought Trace this shirt. He was a biter and the shirt reminded her of him...check out the teeth!

Easter 2004, 2 yrs old...I absolutely loved his outfit! Tiny little boy boots, an ATM cap and a hoodie. And the grin just makes it perfect!

His first of many pony rides.

His first ride on Bug. He is so at home on a horse. It's the only time he's not asking for a television or video games.

So serious! Black belt at three and a half.

Three years old...his first baseball bat. He's come a long way since then! He ended the season this year with a .750 batting average, and a spot on the All-Star Team.

Deer, the camphouse, and the cow pasture. All that's missing in this picture is a horse!

Chad says of this picture, "Can you hear the ground?" I love it. There's that grin, again.

Easter morning 2007...I cannot be held responsible for this outfit. He dressed himself. You can't see, but he is also wearing boots.

Here he is at one of his favorite places...The Camphouse. The perfect place for a boy to be a boy.

I tied my own shoes!!! First grade, 6 years old.

Here is what happens when you leave a 7 year old alone in the back of the car with a camera. I have a feeling that's me he is mocking......

2nd place 7-8 yr old Rangers. He is in the front row, second from the left. He played 2nd base this year and batted .750.

May 27, 2010 - with his newest prized posession...a PSP. He had a great day. Chad's computer crashed last night so he couldn't do much work and took the day off. Trace and I went to IHOP for breakfast this morning, then he played his PSP for HOURS. He got to choose the restaurant for supper. His choice: Whataburger. What a great kid we have! That smug little grin says it all!!!

I think if I have ever earned a glass of wine, it was Wednesday night. Chad was working out of town, Ella was spending the night and the kids were having a fabulous time. I put the kids in their beds and set the alarm at 10:00pm after a movie and a bowl of cereal. I was sitting in my kitchen doing a little online shopping for Trace's birthday next week, when at about 11:30, my house alarm goes off. To assume I was petrified would be a safe assumption. I grabbed the phone, put all three kids in one bed, then ran to the safe for my pistol, all while calling 911. There was no way in the world I was waiting for the alarm company to call me!

I was talking to the 911 dispatcher, my heart pounding and breathing as if I'd just completed the Boston Marathon, when we were disconnected. I used my cell phone to call my neighbor to ask her to send her husband, Ella's dad, over to check things out. When she answered the phone, all I could do was cry! I managed to get 'alarm' and 'Scott' out where she could understand me and he was on his way. During my call with Brook, I managed to get the 911 dispatcher back on the phone. The dispatcher did tell me that she would not, if she were me, answer the door with a pistol when the deputy came knocking. Sound advice, which I followed.

The deputy came barrelling down the street and joined Scott int he backyard to check things out. When they were satisfied things were a-ok, they came in to talk to me. The deputy asked me for my name, and when I opened my mouth to tell him, I started to cry...again! Those of you who know me, know that I do NOT cry in front of people! So Scott (who probably had to wake up in 4 hours to go to work) was giving my name to the deputy while I cried. I knew I couldn't panic until there was another responsible adult there. Once that deputy gave me the all clear, and I felt satisfied that we were all safe, I quit being the responsible adult everyone says they want to be with in a crisis situation.

It was a regular 3-ring circus here for a little while. I forgot to mention that during the pandemonium, I decided to let Katie out of her kennel because if the guy from the last episode of Criminal Minds was going to come busting in, she damn well better sacrifice her saved-from-the-Wal-Mart-parking-lot-butt and protect me! So when the deputy came in through the patio door, she went to telling him what she thought about a strange man walking in our house...and it wasn't nice. So there I was trying not to cry, him talking to me, and Katie barking like nobody's business.

It was determined that it was just a freak thing. "Sometimes they just go off," the deputy tells me. There were no screens pulled off the windows, tire marks on the street, footprints around the house...so I was really, surprisingly, ok. If there would have been a tiny bit of anything suspicious, we'd have been breaking in that new Marriott in town tonight. But all the windows were still locked and the screens were intact. I think the kids believed that it was just a test that the police sometimes do to make sure everything works right. That's what I told them and that's what the story will forever be. Well, until they read this when they're older.

Summer & Kinsey's a Graduate

It's officially summer at our house. Trace is all done with 2nd grade and Kinsey has graduated from preschool. Trace is thoroughly enjoying lounging around in his underwear until the last possible moment before we have to leave the house to run errands. There has been a ton of Wii and Nintendo playing and an almost equal amount of cartoon watching scheduled to fill his days of leisure. I did manage to get him to help me clean out his closet on Friday. Although you would have thought I'd asked him to paint the Sistine Chapel!
Trace enjoyed having a friend spend the night on Tuesday. It was a make-up from the one we had to cancel during Spring Break because Trace got strep. It included baseball, pizza, a movie, and lots of throwing tennis balls on the roof and "accidentally" getting them stuck in the gutter. As I told the boys, I don't think eleven balls in the gutter is an accident...maybe one or two.

Kinsey almost enjoyed having Ella spend the night. I say almost, because at 11:30 that night, our alarm went off. More about that later. Needless to say, after all the commotion, everyone wanted to sleep in their own beds!

Here is Kinsey receiving her diploma. She has been looking forward to graduation for months! Now that she is the first one in our family to graduate (as she says) she gets to have fun days at school. Sno-cone day, watermelon day, ice cream sundaes, water day, and an end of the year party.
Our proud little graduate!
It is taking forever to upload videos, so if you go to Brook's blog http://sbeedurhamfamily.blogspot.com/2010/05/ellas-pre-school-graduation.html you can see short videos. It's worth it...the songs are PRECIOUS! Hip-Hip-Hip-Hippopotamus is my favorite!

Playing in the Sprinklers

It was H O T last week and the yard needed water, so playing in the sprinkler seemed the obvious choice. The kids were super excited, but when they saw that the sprinkler they were playing in was the sprinkler system in the yard...well, the excitement level dropped a little. I had to laugh out loud when Trace said, "WHAT?!?! I'm not playing in that! That's from the septic system!" I should clarify...WE DO NOT HAVE A SEPTIC SYSTEM. They warmed up to the 'sprinkler' and had a great time.

3 More Days & Baby Charlie

Trace's last day of school is Tuesday. He is thrilled, to say the least. All year, he has been asking to go to school 3 days a week, like Kins. Her pre-school goes until the end of the month, so Trace is relishing the idea of staying home with me when she has to go to school.
The 2nd grade class is going to the elementary school for a tour this morning. There are no words to adequately convey his excitement! He got dressed up in jeans, a t-shirt, and a button-down shirt on top of that. Then asked if he still had the tie he wore in Uncle Tug & Auntie Missy's wedding. Lordy. He also asked if we could go get some bigger jeans for him after school today. Something is definitely up. Trace, asking to go shopping??? I'm sure it has to do with a cute little blonde girl in his class. I'm not ready for this.

Kinsey is practicing for graduation at school this week and next. Yes. Graduation. Do we really need to graduate from pre-school? I told her teacher that this is just another opportunity to make me cry. They even wear little caps and gowns. Precious. She will be in for a rude awakening next year when she is not allowed to hang out in the office or the teacher workroom all day. That's what she thinks you do at the primary school.
This is baby Charlie. Thanks, Disney Channel, for giving us another sitcom on which to base our pretend life. Kinsey has been telling people that Chad and I have three kids. Yep...baby Charlie would be our third child. She even went with us when we were at the school serving teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.

We're on the Move!

As if we haven't moved enough over the last 2 years (5 addresses)...we are moving AGAIN! We are staying in town this time, just moving a mile and a half down the road to a house with more room...inside and out! We are very excited. Although it is going to be tough leaving our neighborhood. I'm just thinking of all the cleaning out as spring cleaning!
This picture is taken from the property line. The house sits on 2 acres. Plenty of room for a shop and a batting cage!