Final Field Trip and AWANA Awards Night!

This month has been so much fun and so hard in so many ways.  It has been filled with soccer, baseball, church, friends, family and school!  It is also the countdown of Zander's elementary years... soon he will be in middle school and the youth group so I'm trying to savor the final elementary experiences with him along with the final celebrations within the children's ministry at our church.  I was able to attend Zander's final field trip of elementary school to Camp Raven Knob.  As you can see, it was wet!!  We persevered and Zander said we "saved the best for last".  It was his favorite field trip and he told me he was so thankful I was able to go with him!  I'm holding onto this when the time comes that he is "too cool" to hang out with his mama.  The field trip featured team building, creek wading, keychain making, rock climbing, archery and boating.  It will definitely be a day I will never forget with my first born!

We celebrated the boys' accomplishments with our AWANA Awards Night last Sunday.  Maddox got the Sparky Award for finishing all three Sparks books, and this boy also impressed us by requesting and finishing three extra credit books full of memory verses!  Zander received the Timothy Award, the highest achievement within the AWANA program.  He memorized verses contained within four books and has even finished a fifth book, working toward the middle school goal!  Zander has such a great "guy" friend group that encouraged and challenged each other to reach this goal.  It is rare for even one student to receive this award and within Zander's class there were five boys that met this goal.  I am so incredibly proud of both boys and equally thankful for the friendships they are building that will support and strengthen them as they get older.  Also, I am thankful for each leader that has invested time to work with our boys to memorize these verses. 

2 Timothy 2:15:  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."

Time flies.... this was from 5 years ago after Maddox finished his first year in AWANA!

Zander continues to show maturity by offering to help with additional chores.  He has added mowing the lawn to his list of weekly tasks, making life easier for mommy and daddy. ;)  I still supervise this activity at this point and on Friday a rain storm came through and soaked him as he was in the middle of mowing the front yard! haha

On Saturday, we explored Triad Park for a bit.  Since we have been reading books about September 11th, the boys were excited to see part of the South Tower is included in the monuments displayed at the Field of Honor.

I was matching one of my friends and Zander's fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Flowers, for the second day of field day!

Maddox continues to impress us on the ball field, hitting multiple in the park home runs and making key plays in the field!  This boy loves any sport he plays!

We celebrated the rest of the April birthdays finally!  Zander requested Fire and Sticks and Aunt Lindsey obliged!  We all had a blast eating delicious food!

These fifth graders (and Luke) are enjoying their last days together before heading off to different middle schools!  I think they will miss the afternoons they get to hang out with each other! 

Happy Mother's Day 2024

This week I enjoyed my 12th Mother's Day as a mom.  I started celebrating Mother's Day when Zander was just three weeks old, fresh out of the NICU and in my arms at our church's baby dedication.  It is crazy to see how far we have come since 2013!  I included some of my first pictures with my boys and our most recent from this year's Mother's Day celebrations.  The boys brought me breakfast in bed and Maddox made some of the sweetest homemade cards and plaque.  He is the best artist in the family!  Zander used a birthday DQ gift card for us to get a sweet treat on him for Mother's Day evening.  These boys helped me celebrate all weekend long with a backyard firepit and cookout just the four of us and we were able to celebrate with Grammy and Grannie at church on Sunday and with a home-cooked lunch prepared by Zack afterwards.  We finished out the day by playing soccer and Mario Kart as a family.  I hate to admit it but Zander and Maddox beat the parents in a 2 v 2 soccer game at the local track! They are so talented on a soccer field!  The parents just couldn't keep up!

In other news, Maddox continues to share with others that Jesus died on the cross for his sins.  He is drawing three crosses any chance he can get (even in school on the whiteboard)!

Zander and I took a free evening at home to mow the grass.  I taught him the basics and Zander is on his way to earning his keep! ;)

Last weekend, Maddox went to support his best friend, Mollie, as Timon in the local theater's presentation of the Lion King! She did an incredible job and Maddox was such an encourager and supportive friend in the audience.  We also stopped by the Spring Folly for about 30 minutes to grab a turkey leg (Zack), a bloomin' onion (me) and cotton candy (for the boys).  It rained all weekend so we didn't last there long!

I got to cheer on my favorite graduate as she officially finished her 2nd Master's Degree... this time in School Counseling.  I have had a small glimpse into all the hard work Linds has put into this program within the last three years.  Our weekly runs would sometimes discuss big projects due or important facts she had learned within her reading.  I always say she is my best therapy on our Saturday morning runs and now she has the degree to prove just how valuable her guidance is!  I'm so proud of my little sister for recognizing something she is passionate about and working so incredibly hard to reach this goal while maintaining a full time job, raising a family and being available to her family and friends... she didn't miss a beat but she definitely deserves a well-earned break from academic studies!

We continue to cheer on our favorite baseball players throughout the week.  The cousins had a match up last week and it was fun to see them both on the same field at the same time!  It was pretty easy to cheer for both of them when they were making plays and up to bat!

On Saturday, we attempted to make a quick trip to Lowe's to get flowers for Mother's Day.  Someone hit the side of my car while trying to park their F-150 truck.  Unfortunately, they didn't stay to accept responsibility for their actions, but a kind bystander waited with us until the police arrived to file a report and take their statement.  I am still in shock that we have had TWO hit and run incidents this year.  I wish people were more honest and owned their mistakes.  We tried to turn the day around by getting Frappuccino's while grocery shopping and having a fire pit in the evening!

Speaking of things that need repaired, Maddox hung from this spindle and broke it last week.  Zack tries to tell me that the damage our boys have done over the years is minimal when you consider the gender of our kids but it doesn't make it hurt any less to be looking to repair this in the near future!

We got to visit Dot, one of Great Grandma Nancy's best friends, on her birthday.  The boys love working on puzzles with her. 

Today was Zander's last field day of his elementary career!  It is also the last field day for his teacher and Maddox's teacher as both of their teachers are retiring at the end of this school year.  I guess they decided to go out with a bang and finish with the Houston boys.  We love Mrs. Morgan and Mrs. Maready and are thankful they stayed around for Maddox and Zander.  They will be greatly missed as they enjoy their retirement!  Grammy got to enjoy field day as well!  She took most of the pictures while I manned the snocone machine with Angie and Tracy.  Zander won first place in "Jump the Creek" (check out the action shot a friend sent me).  I think both boys enjoyed field day and the weather was perfect for some outdoor fun!  I even grabbed a quick picture with Emmy! :)

The fifth graders asked Mr. Ben, WSFCS Volunteer of the Year and one of our favorite people at SGES, to be the graduation speaker.  All of the 5th grade staff kids asked him and he said YES!

We finished out Zander's soccer season on Friday.  Aunt Lindsey, Emerson and Eli were able to come to his last game.  We tried to snap pictures.  As you can see, Aunt Lindsey got the best one of the night! :)

Baseball, Soccer, Grand Prix, Fun Run and Career Day!

We have had a lot going on since my last post!  This spring has been the busiest one yet!  To finish up Zander's birthday festivities, we had Super Hero Night at AWANA.  Check out Spiderman (a.k.a Maddox) holding the AWANA flag.  Zander got a sweet treat (which is the Sunday night tradition after AWANA) to finish out his birthday night.  Both boys had new shoes delivered since they keep wearing through their tennis shoes.  We are hoping basketball shoes might work better for these busy boys!  Finally, Zack brought lunch to Zander on Monday, and he got to invite some of his friends to sit outside and eat with him.

Zander testing out the new hair product that Grammy and Grandpa got him for his birthday.... he looks so grown up here!

I went out of town last weekend to celebrate Jamie's 40th birthday.  While I enjoyed a weekend away in a mountain cabin, Zack had fun with the boys.  I got a picture of them playing soccer at the nearby track.

I got home in time to see Zander play in one of his last soccer games of the season.  They brought home a win with a 3-1 score!

After bringing Zander home from soccer practice this week, I discovered that Zack and Maddox had taken out two more of M's baby teeth.  I have no idea how he will eat until some of these teeth come in! haha

Maddox continues to love baseball and even had Mollie cheering for him one night last week.  He had three home runs this week!  He has played catcher some but his favorite positions right now are short stop and first base, both positions where he has had double plays recently!  I can't wait to get his baseball picture... they sent the proof that is included below.  I get to see Emerson and Eli while I am at the ball field which I absolutely love!

We had our annual AWANA Grand Prix night last Sunday.  Maddox brought home third place with his American flag design.  The rest of the Houstons participated in a 6 minute challenge to build a car from scratch and see which car made it down the track the fastest.  Zander won the whole thing competing against his parents and some other AWANA leaders and his best friend, Jackson.  We all came home winners as it was a fun evening.  We are so thankful that Zack works for weeks to get the boys' cars competition ready!

We had our school Fun Run (Glow Run) to raise money to buy new curtains for our school.  I loved getting to check in on my boys for a moment during all the fun! #workperk

Yesterday was Career Day and Zack was asked to be a presenter!  He was in one of my friend's classrooms and she said he did an incredible job keeping the kids entertained and giving them important information about his occupation!  Zander loved having his daddy at school and purposely planned to attend one of his sessions!