Top 10 for Summer

Favorite Summer Fun...

Late Family Fun Nights... Night Swimming...

Working in the yard with the boys...

Attempting to teach the boys to cook.

Making Memories...

Swimming with family and friends...




















Taking the Boys to hear John MacArthur on our way to Newport Beach or LA.



What great memories he represents for Tony and I!!!

(hmmmm... not so much for Caden apparently - stinker!)








Going to ball games...

Having friends over to make Smores!!!

Poolside Service on vacation.











Taking the boys bowling


Playin' at the park.










.... and so many more!!!
I love, LOVE summer time!

Trading Places

Yesterday morning Tony woke me up because one of my favorite people in the world was on the phone and wanted to talk to me. It was an early morning call, and anyone who loves me or knows me, knows not to call me early... unless it's important (except my dad of course, who calls me regardless of the time - just because he can).

Unfortunately, the news was not good. She'd just found out her husband has cancer, and they were going in that afternoon for some more tests so she wanted me to pray for them. Now the word cancer means different things to different people... and in her case, having just lost a brother in a long, painful battle to cancer -- you can imagine what it means for her.

A few hours later, literally, we prayed with some friends that were leaving to have surgery for their baby whose skull isn't developing right. If you've ever had a sick child, you know it's the most helpless, heartwrenching feeling in the world. A place that no family wants to be.

As I cried to my dad about my friend's husband having cancer, he reminded me that another friend was being induced this morning at 7:00 am. The doctor's are anticipating her to deliver the baby around 1:00 p.m., and the baby isn't expected to live more than just a few minutes. Can you even begin to imagine the emotional struggle of these last 9 months for them...

So dad's point was this... as bad as life circumstances can be - with our kids, or job, or family... there is always someone who would desperately wish to trade places.

So as I went through the day, with a heavy heart for all three of these families... my own frustrations with the kids, my house, the bills, getting a TICKET for the first time in my life... and life in general-- seemed easier to put into perspective.

I wouldn't want to trade places... but I sure am more appreciative today than I was before.

me, me, meme

Instead of doing all the things I should have been doing today... I was checking out some new blogs. I love reading about how other people "do life"-- and I especially enjoy the ones with cool photos of the kids... it makes me remember my own boys... not so long ago.

I ran across this meme several times, and thought I'd do it too.
Here's my freshly painted red bathroom: (thanks for the inspiration to paint kristen!)


And look... it's even got cleaner in the toilet...imagine that!

And here's my favorite room...


even though there's stuff all over the table...
I really love sitting around the dining room table with the boys, either to eat or do projects with them.

I mentioned that it took me forever to do this... and I still didn't get the pictures in the right order...

But, here's the awful color I painted the bathroom a few weeks ago when I first decided that it wouldn't be too much work to paint it.

Here's a wall in my closet:


Here's one of my favorite shoes... (thanks to McMommy... I already had a picture)


This is what my boys were doing when I originally started fiddling on the computer (they've long since gone to bed, seeings how... it took me so long to actually finish the meme.




Are they cute or what!
Watching ESPN is one of their favorite things to do.

Here's my laundry ... (not bad- Tony is really good about never having more than 1 or 2 loads to do) Yep, he's been doing the laundry since we were in college... reason # 3457 that I finally decided to marry him. I need to remember that more often!


Here's my "self portrait" ... of me scrapping in Cabo (because... I was trying to keep my picture "family friendly" and I'm ready for bed - I had to search for a picture of myself that had already been taken.

Note to self... Holy cow... with 7500 pictures on your computer... don't you think you should have one or two of yourself that you wouldn't mind posting? The boys might want to actually have pictures of their mom later on. ya, ya...


ah... vacation...

Moving on... here's my fridge. (which was supposed to be first, but oh well. (See that "very worn" paper... that would be the key to our parenting: straight from "Shepherding a Child's heart"... amazing book moms!)

Here's the sink... Can you can see the AJAX inside it? Don't forget to take note of the hot guy loading the dishwasher who will be scrubbing that sink!

(because... I'm busy taking pictures for the blog of course)

And here's the last picture...

Just so you can see again what color the bathroom was a few weeks ago... before I decided "it wouldn't be too much work to paint the bathroom again". (What was I thinking???)

I'm so glad I kept Mr. Chicken's kinder class photo from his night at the Mac house... just so you all could appreciate my pretty blue bathroom walls....

http://4funboys.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html

Summer Fun

I love summer! I love being with the boys and trying to fit a zillion things into the day, almost as much as I love... planning on doing less tomorrow! That thought of rest, sooths the soul.

Today was a ... see "how many things I can cram in" day. And I love the feeling of checking things off of my 'to do' list.

• Prime bathroom
• Turn in Violin downtown
• Take boys to the library
• upgrade the boys cell phones (thanks Nana...)
• paint bathroom... again
• buy software for computer
• take boys bowling
• last day of basketball camp
• Walmart... (urgggh)
• Pick up sitter
• Dinner party with friends (supposed to be at my house... but I cheated and we met at a restaurant...tacky, I know. But, my house smells like paint and I had too many things to do!)
• Swim with the boys
• Cut in paint for bathroom ceilings
• read blogs...

Tomorrow... tomorrow is NOT going to be like today -- because, quite frankly... as good as it feels to finally "get things done"...

Resting sounds a WHOLE lot better!

So boy... I love you, but don't wake me up before noon! I promise to be ready for baseball and birthday parties... and whatever else, where ever else... you need ... AFTER I recover from all that fun today.

Go Royals

royals 2008 010_edited.jpg
Originally uploaded by rmac4444

I'm so proud of my ALL Stars... both of you!

Happy Father's Day Daddy

Happy Daddy's Day Dad!

I love you... and so do all these boys + 1 princess...


You're the world's best Dad... and grandpa!

See this pix of Rufus and you... brought back so many good memories...

We sure had it good! How'd we get so blessed to get you for a dad???

I love that you're a father that we've ALWAYS been able to look up to and admire as you continue to be a wise, and godly man (in spite of us, sometimes... *grin*)

I don't know how we got to be so blessed to have you as our father... but I'm sure thankful that you are!

I love you dad... and I'll never get tired of Cinderella!

LUV,

Cardo

This Is What "Bored" Looks Like on Summer Vacation...

Dodger Day

This is what it cost to get enough gas to go 1/2 way to see a Dodger game from home...

This is how happy AJ is to help spend that much to get to a Dodger game...
This is how happy mommy is that her 10 year old baby is happy at the Dodger game...

This is how happy the 6 boys are to be watching Dodgers warm up for batting practice several hours before the game starts... (because a 3 hour game is apparently not long enough, and we had room to bring a friend, so why not take another boy to make the trip even more loud... I meant "more fun" (honest)

and this is one happy birthday boy because he had a fantastic catch in the outfield...

and here's one happy daddy eating $12 Dodger dogs...

and your over-joyed 89 year-old great-grandma Faith on our return trip home.

Overall... I'd say that it was a great birthday weekend son...

AND I LOVE YOU TONS... but

PS... I'm not coming out of my room for the next 48 hours because I need to recover from being in the car that long, with that many loud boys, with ALL that energy... but feel free to ask me and your daddy to do it again in 10 years -- we might be up for it again by then!

Happy Birthday AJ... on graduation day!

There are sometimes that I think I try to fit too much in a day... but there is just no other way! Today was the last day of school... THANK GOD! And it was also AJ's 10th b-day! And Caden's kindergarten graduation. And the last scheduled baseball game of the season for Colton and Caden. And Josh and Cassandra's 8th grade graduation... but... we fit it all in! Yes! Today was a memory making day at it's finest! How blessed am I!!!



Nana and grandpa kicked down the cool b-day gift for AJ that he wanted!

And... here's the kinder graduate... with his great toofless smile! Gosh, I love this baby!

And then... there was the twin's graduation... my niece and nephew graduated from 8th grade!

There couldn't be 2 better children on the planet! I am so proud to say they're mine. They are what every parent hopes and dreams that their kids will become. They are smart and beautiful... with hearts of gold! I pray my own 4 boys learn well from them... the important things in life. Good job sis... you single-handedly are doing an AMAZING job! Today was evidence of that! I'm proud of all three of you!

Josh spoke at the graduation ceremony... and we were all in tears!

Never to be out-done by his twin... Cassandra followed her brother with an amazing performance of her own. I've never seen this done at a graduation before... it's fantastic! And I was ever so happy to finally learn how to use my camera (quite by accident) to record this just in time to share on my blog!

Cassandra is the cutie on the right!

How can you ask for a better day than that?

Scrap Day...

I haven't had a chance to work on my scrapbooks in a VERY long time... but today was my lucky day! After 3 hours of playing around with it at a friends house... I got exactly "0" - zip - zilch # of pages completed... but it was so fun! And we talked about all the worries of where to send our kids to school, and the all star team, and ... about how great Pioneer Woman's recipes are!

I'll eventually catch up with the boys' books... or not... but it was still a fun day!

And before anyone asks what the boys were doing... they were watching baseball with daddy, of course! And I figured I didn't need to see any game that one of my boys' wasn't actually playing in, because I've already been to 9 games this week, and sat through 5 practices!

So, maybe this summer I'll do a little more scrappin' ... and a little less yappin (or not).