Special Times

We had such a special week. Michele and Dale were able to come and spend some time with us. We were all excited and the kids were SUPER excited to be able to see Grandma and Grandpa Coates. The weather was crazy here in Texas the day they were flying in and they ended up with their flight delayed for a few hours in Denver. That is never fun but they finally made it. We had such fun hanging out, visiting, and playing games.

The main reason they flew down was so that Dale could ordain Courtney a high priest. We feel so blessed that they were able to come with such short notice to participate in this special event.
Dale was able to get Courtney ordained to the office of a high priest and then President Krogue set Courtney apart as a member of the high council. I feel so blessed to have the priesthood in our home to bless our family. Oh, how I love my husband and the man he is.
Now we begin a new adventure. Me trying to get the kids to church on time when Courtney is gone traveling and speaking in other wards. Oh, and trying to keep them somewhat reverent during Sacrament meeting. Wish me luck.

Bluebonnets

The bluebonnets have really started to come out around here so a group of us decided to head over to Ennis, TX to check out their bluebonnet park. So after driving a little over an hour we got to bluebonnet park and there wasn't a bluebonnet in sight. But there was a playground, so we let the kids play for a while. We did find out that they have tons of trails you can walk and drive to check out bluebonnets. We couldn't resist stopping here and getting pictures. There were horses, ponds, and beautiful bluebonnets everywhere.

Averi had some serious sun in her eyes but she was a good sport and let me get a picture anyway.
I love the sibling love going on in this picture. In all reality though, it was the photographer that was with me that suggested that Rylan could put his arm around Ave. I am so glad she did. It turned out so cute. And sadly, that is when my camera ran out of batteries. It was so funny because the kids kept asking if they could just go back to the park. Apparently they haven't discovered the beauty of just looking at the wild flowers. It made me laugh because they would ask, "where we going now?" I would respond, "to see all of the flowers." Then they would proceed to tell me that we had just seen flowers. It really was a beautiful day and in the end I think they even had a good time checking out the bluebonnets.

Aaaahhhhh!

So, I am so sad because my kids are simply not going to have any pictures to keep the memories alive of the last few months. Averi thinks my camera is a toy...it is not. Which brings me to my next question, why will my kids not play with the awesome camera that is for them but instead beg for, steal. and break the real thing. I hate posting with no pictures. I will probably have to get over it because I don't see a new camera in my near future.

Scary.....

Scary....or not so much. I tried to have the kids come up with costumes ages ago so we could kind of coordinate. That didn't work so well. So, we headed to the store and they just randomly picked something. I guess all that matters is they were happy. Jax chose a Ninja. He was breaking out some pretty serious moves. And they have been constantly singing, I am ninja, you are ninja, we are ninja, ttttwwwwoooo.
Kam was a skeleton...or as I like to call her, and eighties rocker-skeleton chick. She sure looked cute though.

Rylan was Batman. Again. He loved every second of it. It is batman everything at our house with him. Everything he got for his birthday was batman too.


Sweet Averi decided that she needed to be a princess. She didn't care who the princess was, she just wanted to be a princess. We found the Ariel costume and she loved the dress. So she was Ariel even though I don't think she has a clue who Ariel is. And don't you love the bows in her hair. She insists that they match and that they are "pretties". So being that she is two and always right she has been wearing the bows everyday for about a week. No reason to make an exception on Halloween.

Here...Fishy, Fishy

You have to look real close but Averi even caught a little fish. She was obsessively reeling in the fishing line and somehow managed to grab a fish on the hook on the way into shore. It was so funny. There was so many weeds and junk I didn't even know there was a fish on the line.
We went fishing on Saturday evening. It was so nice. We went with our friends, the Faulkinburys, to a private pond. It was the perfect place to fish, especially for the kids. The fish are constantly biting so they can catch all sorts of fish. Not so fun for the men, probably, because they spend the whole time retrieving hooks and getting the fish back into the pond. Courtney had a heck of a time getting the hook out of one of the fish I caught. (yep, he even has to bait my hook and get the fish taken care of and back out there.)
Jaxon caught quite a few fish. This is one of many. Although, he is super funny about the Blue Gill. For some reason, he is just not a fan. I think it is because last time they went fishing he kept catching the smallest fish, oh, and it got him with its spikes. The other day we were at Bass Pro shop and we happened to be looking at a chart of fish. When he got to the Blue Gill, he raised his fist and said, "Curse you, Blue Gill."
Kambree got one of the biggest catches of the day. It was pretty exciting. She was even able to get the worms on her hook by herself. And then Courtney convinced her to hold and throw the fish back. She did way better than her mama.
The kids were way excited to go out on the kayak. Kam and Jax went out with Christy earlier in the day. Right before we left Courtney took the younger kids out for a little ride. We had such a good time and are glad the Faulkinbury's invited us, helped us with all the kids and the fish, and let us go out in the kayak. It all made for a great family outing!

12 Years down....Eternity to go

August 8, 1998

It seemed so natural at the time to be getting married. I knew I had found the man I wanted to be with for eternity. But I have to admit when I look at our wedding pictures now, I am amazed at how young we were. The only thing that really matters is that age didn't matter. I made an amazing choice and I love Courtney more today than I ever thought possible. We have had to endure some tough times but those times have only made the great times that much more amazing. I feel truly blessed to be where I am now.

So here are my 12 things I love about Courtney:

1. He always sees the positive in every situation.
2. His sense of humor ensures I am smiling a lot.
3. He is such a hard worker.
4. He always supports me in everything I do.
5. He helps out around the house.
6. He makes some yummy food.
7. He doesn't complain about the "honey do" lists.
8. He "plays"/wrestles with the kids.
9. He is my rock.
10. He is a great father.
11. He honors his priesthood.
12. He loves ME.
    

Here is an example of one of my honey do jobs. I saw a washer/dryer stand on another blog and decided I had to have one. So, we headed off and bought the supplies and even went and borrowed the necessary saw. Courtney even did all the painting after it was built. Then, when I was gone to girls night on Saturday, he moved it in and even lifted the washer and dryer up on it all by himself. I was so excited. It turned in to quite the fun gift.

Tramp

Averi follows Zander around wherever he goes and loves him to DEATH. He is a good sport and allows her to torture him with her love.
Zander was loving the trampoline!Lyndsey and Jer were able to come down for Easter and of course they brought Zander. (Court told me later that Zander is his favorite nephew on my side...but shhhhh, don't tell anyone.) Here is a video of Zander jumping with the kids (this is for you mom). In the beginning he sounds like he is crying but he is really laughing. You will have to excuse all the other conversations about dodgeball and such that are going on.

Soccer...Jaxon

It has been really fun and busy around here recently. Soccer has started. Both of the kids are playing this year. They have not played soccer since I was pregnant with Averi and I was the coach. I know nothing about soccer....so this is a whole new experience for them.

Jaxon's team are the "Cheetahs". He is pretty good and has really enjoyed playing. He really gets in there and goes after the ball (totally different than last time). It is so fun to watch him play. In this first picture he is the goalie, that is why he is standing there staringout at the game.
Here is driving in for the goal.

Now if the weather around here would cooperate it would be way nicer. The whole week will be amazing weather and then come Saturday it seems to be windy and cold. Either way, this season is going to be a lot of fun.

Snow!

Snow, snow, snow. Around here snow literally shuts everything down. It is a little strange to those that actually deal with "snow". We received word this morning that the schools would be shutting down early and the schools won't be opening tomorrow until later in the day. Of course, the kids are very excited. Here are some pictures of Averi and Rylan earlier this morning in the snow. Averi wasn't sure exactly what it was. She kept pointing and screaming. She has been in snow before but I am not sure how much she has actually been around while it is snowing.

Please excuse the quality of the pictures, the snowflakes kept falling and sliding down the lens.
Rylan couldn't wait to go out and play in the snow. Of course, he only lasted about 10 minutes. But he thought those 10 minutes were great.
It will be interesting to see just how much snow we end up getting.

Finished

This is kind of a silly post but I had to document it anyway. I finished a project today. Not only did I finish it today...but I started it today. This is an accomplishment for me. It seems I end up with a lot of projects that get started but never finished. So, here is my completed wreath. I love it.
I am so excited to hang it on my door. Now I will move on to a new project.

Above The Crowd

Court got a call last week and they said that Kam had been nominated for an award at the school. They would be having an assembly and we were welcome to come and watch. So, today we headed over to the school for the assembly.

She got the "Above the Crowd" award. We already knew she was amazing but she was so surprised and excited. She was nominated by her teacher for being such a hard worker and trying her best at everything. That is exactly how Kam is and she does such a good job. She loves her teacher and we are so pleased that she is doing so well!

Halloween

No, I am not behind even a little bit...

At Courtney's work the theme was "medical". So he went with "construction accident". He cut off a huge nail and we gauzed it on to his head and then put some red for blood. It worked well for his job.
For Halloween this year we went over to the church to their fall festival and trunk or treat. The Fall Festival was way fun and the kids had a ball. We played all sorts of carnival games and the kids earned tickets that they traded in for prizes. The kids loved all of their candy from the trunk or treat, of course. We then headed over to the house of a lady that Court works with where the kids got a lot more candy (she seriously gave them handfuls). After that we decided we were still hungry, so we headed to Taco Bell and got free black jack tacos for Halloween.

The kids were so funny about their costumes this year. Kam knew what she wanted to be clear sense last year. She wanted to be a witch and wear an old dance costume (for some reason this dance costume seems to be glued to her body. she wears it a couple of times a week.) We sprayed her hair purple/pink which she thought was pretty cool.

Jaxon and Rylan both went as Batman. This was a large improvement over their previous ideas. Jaxon had decided he was going to be a pillow. I will admit a pillow would have been easy to make but, wow, we aren't sure where that one came from. Rylan had then decide3d he would be mashed potatoes...with a gun. Umm...yeah. So when the batman idea arrived I ran with it. The only problem was that while I was in the middle of their hats (on Halloween day) my sewing machine broke and I was trying to pice the hats together by hand and quickly. Ry's hat never did get finished. He didn't seem to mind once we got to the festivities. He still wears his shirt and cape around. We just have to watch him because he seems to believe he can fly if he has his batman suit on.

And sweet Ave was our little lady bug. Isn't she adorable?

Happy Birthday Rylan

So, today Rylan turned 3! He is just the funniest kid. Where would we be without our Ry guy? A couple of days ago I was leaving Walmart and Rylan had been super good. (He has been struggling at the stores recently.) Rylan informed me that he would take his doughnut reward now. (Bribery-yes I stoop that low!) I told him we had one more store to go to. He looked at me and said, "I don't think so brewster." I was laughing so hard. I mean really...where does he come up with some of this stuff? I ended up giving him the doughnut before we went to the other store. The other thing he has been funny about is Batman. He has decided that that is what he wants to be for Halloween. So, the other day, he informed me that he was going to jump off the balcony. Minus the physics lesson, I told him I didn't think that would be a good idea. He told me, "Duh, I am going to have my batman suit on..." Well then, by all means jump away. I guess I didn't fully understand. (Disclaimer: of course I am not going to let my child jump off the balcony. Don't worry.)

The other day at Walmart a guy turned to Rylan and said, "Wow, you sure are a redhead." Rylan answered back, "No I'm not. I'm a coppertop." He will fight with anyone who says otherwise. So here is our coppertop on his birthday.

He got his Handy Manny motorcycle. He has been wanting it and mom has been trying to ignore that...but it is his birthday. I figure he and the other kids have probably played with it enough in just this one day that it is good.

And here he is blowing the candles out. -I know the cake is super amazing. I don't need anyone to tell me about that. Really, we have a great track record of some pretty hideous cakes at our house.-

We are so blessed to have Rylan in our family. Love you buddy!

Just call me "Danger"

This is the conversation we woke up to this morning. (Everyone is home sick so we are all just lounging around.)

Kambree to Jaxon, "No your middle name is Courtney."
Jaxon, "No, dad said its danger."
This goes back and forth a few times. And of course is getting louder and louder.
Kambree comes running in and says, "Mom, Jaxon says his middle name is danger and I told him it is Courtney. Which is it?"
We ask, "On his birth certificate or just what we call him."
She thinks about it a second and chooses birth certificate.
We answer, "His middle name is Courtney."
She runs off all vindicated to tell Jaxon that his middle name is indeed Courtney not "Danger".

So, I know you all are curious how this all ends. Jaxon is all upset that his middle name isn't danger. He is sure that we need to officially change it. Oh, and Kambree has informed us that it is just not fair that she doesn't have a middle name. She has asked us to come up with one and then, of course, legally change it. Which actually got us thinking, why did we not give the girls middle names? I don't have a middle name, my sister and mom didn't have middle names. Even Courtney's sisters and mom didn't have middle names. But I always hated not having a middle name. So...maybe we will have to consider her request.

Trash Talker

So Rylan has decide to hone his vocabulary skills using the fine art of "talking junk." Unfortunately, he is exceptional with his skills (I mean for a nearly three year old). Kellee gets a little upset at me because I egg him on a bit but he has quit copying me and now comes up with his own original stuff. Here is some of his best stuff.

"I'n gonna fro you in a boat an sink it. You goin down babe." (just happened tonight, Kellee nearly choked on a bow tie pasta)

"I'n goin rip you head off and poop down you neck." (I am going to use this in real life situations.)

"I'n goin trade you for boots." (Pretty fair trade when it boils right down to it.)

"I'n goinna jump on your face." (Right before our every other Wed. night family wrestling event. Everyone brings their game face. Gets pretty rowdy.)

There is more, but sometimes he is a bit more than PG rated. Can't even tell where he has heard that stuff before.

If anyone needs some material for co-workers or rec league trash talk, drop me a line and I will have him work up some material. There will be a nominal fee of course.

Courtney turns 30

In August we celebrated Courtney's 30th birthday. We didn't have anything big planned but we did have fun. When Courtney got to work on his birthday, he was surprised to find his office completely filled with....all sorts of stuff. Seriously, it was pretty funny. There was all sorts of stereotypical "hillbilly/country" stuff.
The picture with the hand and the pen on the string is Court's new "palm pilot". The one you can't see the writing on is a sign showing off Courtney's retirement account, aka, the plastic container holding all of the coins. There was hay, saddles, sign, and all sorts of goodies everywhere (even a box of cow turd). The one picture is Court holding his new flyswapper. It is the kids favorite-unfortunatley, they already broke it. The whole family was able to go to Courtney's work for cake and ice cream. It was the first time that the kids had been so they got to meet everyone.

Later that night we had Jeremy, David (Courtney's boss') family, and Alan (guy Court works with) family over for a barbecue. We had Court's famous hamburgers, pasta salad, and fruit. It was all delicious. The kids made him some amazing things. He of course got a birthday crown, that is the most important part, and numerous other crafts. And finally, on Saturday we were able to go and find him some boots. Yep. It is official, he can now live in Texas. (We do laugh at this because he did grow up on a farm and have a lot of boots in his life but apparently you have to have boots in Texas.) We had a lot of fun and can't wait to celebrate many more.

The Show

My kids are pretty funny and they keep putting on these "shows". They all get in costume and out on some kind of production. They cut up all of these little papers and hand them out as tickets to the show. You have to bring the ticket or you don't get in. They have had some pretty amazing shows and then they have also had some...well, not so amazing shows. Sometimes they even have a script that they have written (those are usually the better shows). But no matter what, we know we will laugh.

In this next picture Jaxon is a mouse...or something. Whatever it is it is mighty cute!
This is all of them participating. It was mostly a wrestling match.
Rylan had decided that the costume was not for him. In the background you can see that Averi even gets in on the shows. They even helped her get dressed up.
This was their super secret spy...the racoon. It was one of the highlights of the evening.
I really am so glad that they are using their imaginations and creating such super fun memories.

4th of July and Grandma

It has been a crazy month of July for us. My mom came to visit for a month. The kids couldn't wait (even the us big kids). We wanted visitors since we haven't seen anyone since we moved! So we did all sorts of fun stuff. It really has been a partying summer for my kids. We hung out, went swimming, had barbecues, and even went to the zoo. These pictures are all from the fourth of July. We woke up and went to the parade here in town. To say the least, we were pretty disappointed. It was literally just a big line of cars that were advertising for different businesses. Not a band, or a marching group, or even a piece of candy to be found. Then later in the day Lynds, Jer, Zander, and my mom came down and the men went golfing. The rest of us were going to go swimming but the pool had closed early (who does that?), so we ended up at the splash pad. Then we grilled up some hamburgers, which Courtney makes the best in the whole world (for real). We then proceeded to go watch the fireworks. Here they let them off from the dam, so they are seen over the lake. It is really pretty. It was pretty fun because we didn't have to wait forever for a spot...we cruised right up to the city's water treatment plant where a group of people from Courtney's work let us in the gates and we had front row seats. Their assistant even made homemade ice cream for everyone. The fireworks were going off right by us and it was an amazing show.

Here is Averi right before the fireworks. She was so proud because she got her shoe off for the hundredth time. The girl hates shoes.Rylan was playing and having a great time running around with the other kids...but...all of that changed as soon as the fireworks started. He HATED them. He cried and cried and had to just sit in the truck until it was time to go home. I think it was just too loud for him. (which is silly considering how loud he is on a regular basis)
Kambree and Jaxon are looking quite patriotic. Who knows what they are doing exactly??? But it makes for a pretty good 4th of July picture.
Here is a picture, that my mom took, of one of the fireworks.
And this is where the two oldest watched the fireworks. They were being so silly. But at least we got a picture of them with grandma.
We really are so blessed to live in a free country. The kids are always asking me if such and such a place is free. I am always pleased to tell them that most of the places they are asking about are part of the U.S., so yes they are. They even asked us when we were moving if Texas was free. They were concerned. I also feel such gratitude to all of those people and families that help us keep the freedoms that we enjoy.

Baseball...

My sister and brother-in-law called and asked if we wanted to go to a Texas Rangers baseball game. Jeremy was going to get cheap tickets for us at the school so we decided to give it a try. On the day of the game it was raining like crazy but we headed up to the stadium anyway. We payed, we parked, we walked, and walked. Once we got to the stadium we found out that there was a rain delay but that they should play. Luckily the delay was only about an hour and a half. Nothing that a lot of junk food can't cure. So then we ate, and ate, and ate.
My kids favorite part of the whole experience was jumping in all of the rain puddles until they lokked like this....
Our seats only cost us ten bucks each so we figured that they would be horrible. But they turned out to be pretty good. We were on about the 24th row. Here is a picture during the national anthem. Rylan was so funny the whole time because he refused to let us get a picture of him. So instead I ended up with this amazing picture of me. Beautiful, I know.
The kids got their hot dogs and that is really all that matters to them. Here they are scarfing them down by Aunt Lyndsey.
It was really a pretty good time...until the kids decided to have a break down. Can any of you guess when that was? The fourth inning. We left in the bottom of the fourth and went home. How pathetic is that? In our defense I will say that there were more pitches thrown in the fourth inning than the rest of the game combined. So when you add that with the rain delay and also the other teams pitcher getting thrown out the second pitch of the game, it equaled a little too much for my fam.

End of school

Really my kids had such a weird end of school. When we first got here in mid April we didn't make them start school for a week. Once they started they went to about a week and a half and then the school systems were shut down for a week and a half because of all the swine flu stuff. The part that was pretty sad is that both of the kids had field trips canceled because they were during the swine flu-cation. It was especially hard for Jaxon because he had moved right before his field trip in Utah. When they finally started school again it seemed like they just played.It was actually pretty fun. This is how Averi spent the last few weeks of school. We were over at the school a lot so she had to stay in the stroller.
Here is Kambree and a friend at the park on a day. They were so cute dragging Rylan around...helping him play. He thought he was pretty neat stuff. ....And of course he was. I thought it was such a smart idea that they make the whole class wear the same color of shirt while they were at the activities away from the school. It seemed way easier to keep track of everyone.
Here is Kambree's class at field day.
So, Kambree decided that her favorite part of field day was bouncing with her friends in the bounce house. (of course, I don't have a picture for that.) Here she is getting ready for an obstacle course.
This is Jaxon's teacher, Mrs. Porter. He was receiving his certificate of completion for Kindergarten.
This is at his Luau on one of the last days. They had a lot of fun limboing, making visors, blowing bubbles, and eating ice cream. Jaxon was actually really good at limbo.Here they are doing their coconut race at field day. I thought it was pretty funny that little Jaxon would choose to be paired up with the tallest kid in class.
They really had so much fun. I hope they understand that that is not what school will be like the whole time down here. They are actually going to have to do something. I guess it was a good way to get thrown in to a new school.