how to deal with a problem

Hannah: "daddy, my roly poly in the jar died."
Ben:" It's ok. Do you want me to help you bury him?"
Hannah: "Does that help him get a life?"
Ben: "no. He's dead now. He's not gonna be alive again."
Hannah: "Let's just leave him in the jar."

Cookies and Crawfish

We hosted a crawfish boil for our RUF ministry team last night. It was to welcome the new members and say thanks and goodbye to the Seniors. It was Ben's first time to boil crawfish. Way to go, Ben!

Justin holds a live crawfish for the kids.



Hannah gets brave.

And finally, Nathan does to.
He didn't bond quite as well as Hannah did. This was the only time he held one. Hannah practically made one her pet. Very surprising to me.
Alive and kickin'
Pete and Hannah's crawfish face off. And to finish the evening, we were elbow deep in cooked crawfish after this point and didn't take many pics. I think i got a few of the group but for the sake of Hannah's grandparents/aunts/uncles,etc., I wanted to say that she fully partook of the cooked crawfish, eating them and concluding that, "they can't pinch me now!"

A Shower for Katy

Katy...our wonderful RUF intern...will be leaving us soon, but for a good reason. She and Alex are tying the knot on June 20 in Asheville, NC. We had a sweet time showering her with gifts this past week.
The other Katy, Hannah and Quincee
Some of the RUF girls...back-Quincee, Rachel, Catherine, Liz, Meredith and Stephanie. Front-Jill, Katy, Rachel and Nicole
Carol, Nicole and Lesley
Katy's mother Nevette and Helen
Hannah was quite the little lady...
...and Katy's big helper when it came to unwrapping gifts.
But she stayed close to Momma...
Katy was so excited to get the tools she registered for.
Some of the hosts...Rachel, Stephanie, Katy and Katy, Beth and Carol. Not pictured are Lesley and Katharine. Thanks Ladies!!

A perfect day to fly a kite (last Thursday)

... the first attempt wasn't successful...
...but the kids got the hang of it...
...and were having a blast!





Finally, we were able to let the string out more.

And enjoy the wind.

"Brown paper packages..."

Shouldn't there be a line in that song about dying Easter eggs post Easter on a thunderstormy morning? We had a wonderful morning listening to music, chilling out in our pajamas and making our second batch of dyed eggs. About the time we were pulling our first batch of eggs out of the dye, the thunder and lightening started. We had to run to close all the windows when the rain arrived.

"Thunder!!!"
My two year old can peel a hardboiled egg!! He peeled this one all by himself. Ben's grandmother showed me a trick with a wet spoon that gets the egg shells off but Nathan's tiny little fingers with fingernails work well too. And he knows how to EAT some eggs! I think he had two for breakfast and two for snack. Thanks to the Lees who supply us with fresh, real eggs from their farm, keeping Nathan fed is less of a chore.
And the rain is really comin' down right now. It's absolutely cascading off of the roof corners. The gutters are no doubt overloaded. I'm hoping it doesn't overwhelm all of our new plants that we worked so hard to set out, including the new bed we did on the side of the house. It's been so much fun watching the new buds pop open.

RUF Student=No Tears Haircut

Well, it was only a few short weeks ago that poor Nathan endured the torture of a haircut. Since then, I've analyzed what it could be that I did wrong. Other then coming up with one answer...EVERYTHING...I was stumped. So last night, i tried a new approach. I sat him on a footstool on the kitchen floor and let him comb my hair to get familiar with the idea. Then it was my turn to cut his hair, good idea in theory, right? Wrong. The screaming started up again. So Ben tried to hold him which only made things worse (thrashing, crying "i want my hair!" as he tried to put it back on, etc) and I butchered his hair. Time for plan B. Ben called Cody who willingly came over and worked MAGIC with Nathan Hailey and Nathan Hailey's hair. The pictures tell the rest...
Thank you, Cody, for Nathan's first buzz cut or as some call it, Nathan's first "Aggie haircut".

Easter Festivities

Are they all hidden yet???!!
Ready...set...GO!!



Mrs. Barbara, my sweet friend and prayer partner. We met many times this semester to pray for the RUF girls and our Bible study.



Lots of Texas friends for which we are thankful.

Nathan, Cara Beth, Elizabeth, Alexis, Hannah, Benjamin, Fiona and Bryn
Playing "dead princess"...checking her pulse??? who knows...
We surprised the kids with Easter baskets on Friday morning.
One of the things in Hannah's basket was a pack of baby bottles with "real" juice and milk. Even Nathan was fascinated.
Nathan got three of the cars from the Disney movie. Chick Hicks, Lightning McQueen and Dinaco.