Photo Friday on a Thursday: Jesse

Okay, so the boys didn't spend our whole weekend fishing! Saturday afternoon, while we were waiting on Daddy to get back, we went down to beach and had a little photo shoot. These are becoming a beach tradition, and I took so many that I decided to break them into a Jesse post and a Trey post. Today is all about Jesse! He is growing so fast and learning so much that it breaks my heart sometimes.

Not So Wordless Wednesday: Fishing Buddies

We spent a wonderful Labor Day weekend at the beach! However, we spent very little time actually at the beach because this trip the boys were all about fishing. This was Jesse's first, official fishing trip at the ocean. He and I briefly joined Daddy and Trey several years ago so that Mommy could take some pictures, but he was just a little thing then so of course it doesn't count. Needless to say, he loved it and Daddy now has two fishing buddies! Daddy and Trey got up before the sun on Sunday and Monday and headed out, then I took Jesse and dropped him at the boat ramp around lunch so that he could spend the afternoon with the boys. And Mama...well, I got a couple of afternoons all to myself!



The boys getting ready to head out on Sunday.

There they go...



The big catch...

Jesse with the BIG fish that he caught &

Trey with the biggest fish that they caught all weekend, a red drum.

The boys with their Monday catch!

I must give a very BIG SHOUT OUT here, because I am a very blessed woman!!! I am very thankful for a hubby & a daddy to my boys that goes that extra mile (actually he went about 150 extra miles) to make sure that our Labor Day trip was not ruined and to spend this wonderful time with our boys. You see it turned out that Phil had to unexpectedly work on Saturday...so he drove down with us Friday night and helped get us all settled, came home Saturday morning to work, and then drove back down Saturday night when he was done. What a wonderful man the Lord has provided me and my children with!

My Barefoot Farmer

I spent a lot of time telling you about how horrible it was being a working mom and how Jesse was just NOT adjusting to our new routine. I hope that you didn't mind all my long, windy posts and I truly do hope that it helped someone out there. Blogging about it truly was a life saver for me! It let me vent and gain perspective all at the same time and I walked away feeling much less stressed. So thank you for reading!

It was an extremely long two weeks. However, towards the end of the second week an amazing thing happened. When I wrote this on Wednesday I was seriously thinking about pulling Jesse out of school. That's how bad it was. Wednesday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day! But (knock on wood) it's the last bad day that we've had. Thursday morning he went in like a pro and had a terrific day. And he's kept it up ever since! I am so proud of him! And I am so thankful to all of you because I know that there were prayers being sent up and that my baby boy, as amazing as he is, did not make this miraculous, overnight transformation all on his own. God was right there with us and HE turned it around!

Sometime during those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad couple of weeks, Phil told Jesse that if he would be not give Mama a hard time when being dropped off in the mornings and be good at school and NOT wet/poop in his pants, then he could skip school one day and spend the day driving the tractor with Daddy. Well, we've had some bad weather and it's taken a while to work out a day, but this past Thursday was finally the day! Jesse stayed home with Daddy and went to the store and got chips, cookies, and YooHoos, and went to the warehouse, and drove the tractor in the hay field. ALL. DAY. LONG. And surprisingly, it went really well! Phil said that he was amazingly good and they both had a fantastic time! He came home tired and dirty and while you can't see it in the pictures, completely barefoot! But most importantly he came home happy and that's the best gift a Mommy (who still feels guilty over going back to work) can receive!

Happy Birthday Lexie!

So last Sunday, Phil and the boys attended the THIRD pool party of the weekend! Trey was being uncooperative with the camera, but Jesse was hamming it up!

You may have noticed that last week was filled with Happy Birthday posts. Strangely enough we have not one, not two, or even three, but FOUR family members with an August 26th birthday. So you see, it's a very special day for us and makes for a very busy end of August every year.

Photo Friday: Yummy!

Saturday morning Phil made chocolate delight for us to carry to the back to school pool party. Chocolate delight is a 3 step process...you must bake the crust and let it cool, you must make a big bowl of chocolate pudding, and you must whip together a big bowl of cream cheese, cool whip, and splenda. Well, Jesse caught Mommy licking the "white" off the beaters. We told him he could have some chocolate delight when it was ready. However, being the impatient Jesse that he is, he went to the fridge, found the big bowl of "white" and declared that it WAS ready! And Daddy, being the pushover that he is, quickly gave in and gave Jesse a spoonful of "white"!
This made Jesse VERY happy indeed!

Back to the Pool!

Our second party of the weekend was Saturday late afternoon. We celebrated with our church family with a back to school pool party! Lots of good food and fellowship! I am so thankful that our Lord has brought this new family into our lives! It is truly an answer to many prayers.

TreyJesseCaineCalebJesse performing his cannon ball!Our pastor performing his cannon ball to the kids cheers!

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Whitman

Saturday was Cora Jane's special day, but my favorite pictures of the day...well, they are of my sweet nephew Whitman and his ice cream cone!

Happy Birthday Cora Jane!

Last Wednesday was also Cora Jane's birthday and we celebrated on Saturday with a G-Force pool party and a humongous slide. Seriously...the slide was taller than the pool house! And I think the adults enjoyed it as much as the kids:-)

Jesse was a little afraid of the "elephant" slide at first. So his first time down, he went with Uncle Cory.After he got over his initial fear with that first ride, he was all about the slide!Cora Jane...She didn't like riding it by herself either!Vera Kate...Absolutely. No. Fear!TreyWhit's turn!After going down the slide 10 or 20 times, Jesse had another bout of fear!Lexie