You've gotta love him.

This kid right here.

Look at that face. Even in this shot where he's being a stinker and sticking his tongue out at me, I'm still very much in love with this rotten little man (just as I am the rest of his siblings).

We got his teacher a small gift for the end of the year. A framed, customized print.

In full disclosure, I bought the digital file from an Etsy seller. I was being super lazy, and I don't yet have a knack for design. It was well worth the few dollars I spent. Anyway, that guy in the picture was super excited to give this to his teacher. I kept reminding him that we would wrap it up nicely and give it to her tomorrow; the day of the class party.

Fast forward to this morning. He empties out his backpack, and since it's the end of the year, I don't question it. He asks for tape, but he's always asking for odd things. When we are ready to leave, this picture is missing from my mantle. "Ezra? Where is the photo?" He replies, "Oh, I have it in my backpack!" I reminded him that we were going to wrap it, and his eyes lit up as he said, "Oh, but I already wrapped it!" I regret not taking a picture of his handiwork. This is one of those "Don't sweat the small stuff" kind of things as a parent (one that I would've previously stressed about), and he was so terribly excited to give this gift with 10 feet of silver wrapping paper loosely attached. "Okay, you can go ahead and give it to her today." 

And I didn't have to wrap it. So, there you go. I love that kid.

Staying cool...

This summer is brutal. It's not a surprise, as we live in the firepit that is Texas. But we had springtime weather in January, so I'm not going to complain. However, it is too hot to just send the kiddos out all day. Instead of letting them play video games or watch television all day (or pay a meeeeeelion dollars for some summer camp thing), I got them rec center memberships. A month to month is $11/month for each kid. So worth it.

Especially when our rec centers have slides like this...

And kids end up looking like this when we arrive. (Okay, the smiles were totally put on, but only because they were annoyed with me for holding up their pool fun. Impatient little monkeys, they are.)

See the girl child? I have to get her a new bathing suit. I bought that one at the end of last season, and I intentionally bought it too big. Now it's too small. Jeez. And that scrawny (but oh, so handsome) guy next to her? It's hard for me to believe what a behemoth he was at birth (11 1/2 pounds, y'all. GINORMOUS!).

Anyway, that is what we've been up to. And this is what the eldest girl has been up to, apparently. (She is on a mission trip with our church's youth group.)

She cracks me up.

Anna's First Kiss...

There is this boy in church who Anna adores! Actually, we like the whole family. I was in a Bible study with the mom, the dad was once Anna's Sunday School teacher, they have two teenage girls, and a set of 4 year old triplets (identical boys and a girl). Allison is good friends with one of the older girls, and my two little ones play with the triplets.

One of the triplets has become the apple of Anna's eye. His name is Zachary. She is constantly talking about her "boyfriend". Oh, and even though he and his brother are identical, Anna has NO problem picking her boyfriend out. She even told me that she will one day marry him. I asked her, "What if you find someone out there that you like better one day?" She looked at me... She was dumbfounded... Then she replied, "Mom, there is no boy better than Zachary!"

Today, we have our normal church routine, and we sit next to the future inlaws. Anna insists upon sitting next to Zachary, and I spot her *gasp* with her hand around his shoulders. Oh my! What a forward little girl. Then... THEN... We see her kiss him. So, at 4.5, Anna has officially had her first kiss with a boy (who isn't related to her - LOL!)... Oh, just wait until her daddy finds out.