To my Bear

Ok.  The kitchen is clean and I am rewarding myself with a blog!  I have SO many things to blog about....we've been doing so many cool things since our move to Texas.  Today, however, I need to talk about my son. 
Bear is 13 now (yes, that still hurts to say!) and I couldn't be more proud of him.  He is such an amazing person and I love being around him.  He wakes up in the morning and usually helps get his sisters breakfast.  Sometimes he even volunteers to get up early and make biscuits or something.  He gets himself ready for school and helps with anything else that needs done, from packing the girls' snack to making me some coffee.  :-)  On cold mornings, he even starts the car and gets the heater going for me.  Some days he will ride with us to school and walk the girls into class and some days he will leave a little early and walk by himself.  He says he enjoys the quiet and peacefulness of the early morning.  He's learned to find his serenity.

Bear does his homework and schoolwork without me having to tell him.  He does chores and cleans without complaining (mostly).

He's got the biggest heart.  The other day he was talking about how much he loves fresh green beans.  He said 'How awesome would it be if we had 1000 acres of green beans?  We could keep a third, sell a third and take a third to Africa and feed starving kids.  Or Haiti, or anywhere really.'  Let me tell you, it was all I could do not to cry.  So I told him how proud I am of him and what a wonderful young man he is.  So he says, 'It's all thanks to you, Mom'.  Yeah, I broke.  You would have too.

He loves animals, being goofy and running.

At the San Antonio Zoo

Goofy, hard at work.

He loves to ride his dirtbike, play paintball and......draw.

Yes, you can see my reflection taking the picture, but at least you can see one of Bear's latest creations. :-)

I used to have a cute, sweet little boy who would bring me flowers (still does on the rare occasion :-) ) and somewhere in the middle of living life, I blinked and he grew into a handsome young man who stands eye to eye with me.

He's becoming more patient with his sisters and doesn't get so frustrated with them.  There are times that he makes me even more proud.  These are the times that he IS frustrated and he takes a deep breath and doesn't lose his cool.  It's easy to be nice when you're not upset.  Did I mention he's 13??

He doesn't lie. Period.

There are not too many people that I can say, with 100% certainty, are completely honest and I am humbled to know that my son is one of them.  His integrity is above reproach.  We talk about everything.  Girls. School.  People.  Friends.  Dreams.  Desires.  Wishes.  Life.  We laugh and joke.  We are serious.  We have a great relationship and I am so grateful.

We did a family photo shoot the other day and we haven't got the pictures yet, Mike snapped a couple with his phone.  

I know we all say it, but I truly believe I'm the luckiest mom in the world.  

Our First Day in Texas!

So we wake up in a hotel in Ft. Stockton, TX and prepare to continue our journey to San Antonio.  Keep in mind that I have already accepted the fact that the sunrise and sunset of Texas would not be the stellar thing of awe that it is in the desert.  That being said, THIS is what we began our first day as Texas residents with.

The sunrise and sunset are food for my soul, my 'down' time.  Even if it's only for a couple of minutes.  Having emotionally left the Arizona sunsets in my rearview mirror, you can imagine the smile this put on my face and in my heart.  Also, the pictures don't do it justice.  It was stunning.  Then, we came to what Isis calls 'Box Mountain' for obvious reasons.  We now call it Isis mountain. :-)

And the American flag.....because I had to.

Awesome brother taking care of his sister.

So we get to San Antonio, check in with the housing office, and get the keys to our new home.  I'm not sure if the kids are excited....what do you think?

 Carpet Angels

More Carpet Angels

This is what happens when you put desert kids in a happy place.  Snow Angels, Carpet Angels, it's all the same to them.  :-)

Our first family picture in our new home!!!!

The Adventure Begins

The tile is down, the houses are rented.

 Thank goodness that's done!

 Yes, we were all that tired.

The movers are gone (with WAY more stuff than we could possibly need) and we are ready to hit the road beginning our new adventure......destination San Antonio!  We grab our snacks, fill up the gas tank and we are on our way!

But not for long......

Right after passing Willcox, our truck broke down.

And so, once again, here comes Papaw (my dad) swooping in with his white hat and cape to save the day.  He and my mom brought his truck and trailer to put our truck on and take it to his shop.  They also brought their Tahoe so that we could hook up the small trailer we were hauling and keep rolling on to Texas.

So that is exactly what we did.

Well Hello New Mexico. Nice to see you.

AND.....welcome to Texas!!

We kept going until we got to Ft. Stockton, TX and stayed the night there.  Fortunately, my Aunt Carol lives not too far from there and we were lucky enough to get her to come up and have dinner with us!  The kids were SO excited!

 Aunt Carol being mauled by Sierra and Isis.

 Aunt Carol taught the girls how to be real Texas girls....with Longhorns.

And this concludes our first day on the road.  On to San Antonio early in the morning!! 

Thanks to Ami

Ok, so you might be wondering why I chose this particular title for my first blog.  So in order to explain, I need to give a little back story.  Eight weeks ago, we moved from Tucson to San Antonio.  The kids were all SO excited for a new adventure but emotional at the reality of not being able to take friends and loved ones with us.  Knowing how much we would miss everyone, on their last day of school, I followed Sierra and Isis around all day taking pictures, giving hugs and maybe shedding a tear or two.  


During the day, we found Ami Bunch, amazing woman, Kindergarten teacher Extraordinaire, Premier Jeweler, wonderful mother of the famous Bunchkins (her gorgeous almost two year old triplets!), and........Blogger Mommy!!  

Ami and Sierra

Not only does she have an awesome blog that is read by SO many and inspired many, many others to start blogging, she has even been on the news and been named the Blogger Mommy!  So, when we saw Ami that day, she said "You have to keep us all updated on all your new adventures when you move. You know the best way to do that, right??" Hehehe. So here we are, full circle.  If a Kinder teacher, mother of triplets can do this, I should be able to at least muddle my way through!  So here's to you Ami.  My first blog!!