BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Sunday night we celebrated in style with all Colson's buddies. No girls were invited but I didn't listen to that request. We counted down all weekend. Well we've really counted down for about 2 months. He would often ask, "How many days until my birthday?" And I would say "30 more days (or whatever the number was)". He'd then say "how many is that?" and I would have to count to that number. We'd then do the same thing for his party. So on Monday I told him that his birthday was now 363 more days and I couldn't count that high.

Look at this cute kid! My nephew Hudson (who'll be 1 in a couple of weeks...wow!)

We celebrated at the YMCA fun pool and these kids love to swim. It was REALLY hot for those not in the water but we managed. This is a fun age and these kids are pretty durn cute!

Colson and his buddy Jake. The look on Colson's face says...."oh I just love this guy"

Calli and her friend Taylor who happens to be Jake's sister.

Preston....oh my goodness this kid is cute!
Landon, his mom called him Red Baron with his goggles on. I called him Steve Erkel in this picture.

Colson with one of his new toys that was a hit!

Cline, Robyn's youngest. Poor Jay couldn't come because he had his tonsils removed about 10 days prior. No active play for 14 days after that...we know that rule :)

A TENDER MOMENT

On occassion this darling little child pictured above, at the know it all age of 9, will pull some attitude on this here mom of hers. On those occassions, I come down hard, which brings us into crying fits of pity and remorse. On Sunday, we had one of those attitude days. That evening as I was putting away some things in her room and the kids were spending the night at Grammies, I found this note written off her wipe off board.

Dear God,

I think I went a little over the top with my attitude. Lord I want you to help me Please! In Sunday School we learned about the thing about Jesus being the intercessor to God when a person is in need. That just really lifted me up and I love you alot! It is cool to think I am a princess and that my father is a King. Please help the Sunday School teachers this week to help them make a good lesson for us to learm about you like Ms. Mary did.

Thanks,

Your Friend,

Calli

Wow! That's my Calli girl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUDDY!

6, yes I said SIX, years ago today my sweet baby boy popped into the world. Today there is a little itsy bit of baby and a WHOLE LOT of boy. Colson has brought us much happiness, laughter, moments of pride and pure JOY! He's a mama's boy FOR SURE but loves hanging out with his dad doing all kinds of boy things! And let's just say that to state that Colson is ALL BOY is an understatement! We all love this kid and it's hard for others not to love him too.

Today we celebrated just like he wanted to. We ate Mexican food for lunch and several of his closest friends sang happy birthday to him in Espanol. He asked me at least 15 times if I told the waiter that it was his birthday.

Tonight we went tubing and the kids had a blast. Of course I didn't bring my camera so you'll have to trust me on that.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLSON! You are LOVED!

REJOICE WITH ME!

Today, June 23, 2009, John Colson Schubert is having his name written in The Book of Life. On our way home from his haircut, of all things, he decided he wanted to ask Jesus in his heart. It's been coming for several months but everytime I sit down and really talk through if he knows what he's doing, he gets silly and distracted, leaving me to believe he really doesn't understand it. Of course at age 35, it's still hard for me to understand and comprehend the magnitude of what Christ did for me and why I'm called to be his follower. But then again, as adults we do tend to make this act much more complicated than it really is.

So on the way home he states that we only get one wish with Jesus. Wish? I asked him. We don't make wishes with Jesus. He then explains that we only get one wish to ask Jesus in our heart. I redirect his thoughts and tell him that its not really a wish but we only have to ask Jesus into our heart one time. "But I haven't asked Jesus into my heart" he says. "No you haven't, would you like to" I ask. He then wimpers that he wants to but he doesn't know how. Well I can fix that.

We immediately went inside went straight to the couch and talked through the whole thing. He understood it, he answered all the questions and I fully believe the harvest was ripe. So I told him to just repeat after me. After he finished praying, he was beaming. Wes happened to be home and he ran and told him and then had to call the grandparents.

Of course we are all rejoicing! There is no greater joy as a parent to see your child come to Christ. And it's even cooler to be a part of the actual aha moment! There are so many that were a part of making this day come to fruition...so many that planted the seeds in this sweet boys heart. I am grateful to each and every one! Now we are challenged as parents to continue to see him grow in God's Word and to let this day be the beginning of a very long and extraordinary journey. God has great things for my Colson I'm sure of it!

NOT CUTE?

COLSON: "Mama is there such thing as a person that steals kids?"

ME: "Yes, there are crazy people out there that will take kids"

COLSON: "What do they do with them?"

ME: "They take them to live with them and sometimes do not nice things to them. That's why you should always stay with mommy or daddy or whoever you are with when you are in a store or out somewhere. Some people just say 'Oh that kid is cute, I'll take him'"

COLSON: "Good thing I'm not cute"

OTTER CREEK STOMP

This is Calli's 3rd year to do a piano ensemble group and if mom has her way, it will be our last. While the concept of 15-20 kids all playing the same piece in unison with an instructor directing them is cool, the time commitment can be great.

This years piece was titled Otter Creek Stomp. It is customary for the outfits to fit the song and everyone dresses alike. This year the instructor was a little more leniant (or better said, didn't know what he was doing) and not very clear (or better said, a horrible communicator) when it came to costumes and most other items. The end result of this "costume" was cute but the initial shock of "the tail" was quite comical. The joke was it didn't look like an otter's tail but more like a piece of poop hanging from their backside. The comical part was the director and his poop...I mean tail. It was quite big. Big enough to alter his walk. Pardon this visual but you know when a toddler has an accident in his pants and walks with his legs wide so as not to squish the object in his pants anymore....that's the walk he did.

He was SOOOO proud of the tails. Mind you, you can't see the tails as the kid SAT behind a grand piano 3 times their size, so we had to march them all in front and bow in a straight line in front and then turn and bow their backsides to the audience as well. I think he was more into the tails than the piano piece.

Crazy costume or not, all went well. Numerous practices as a group and individually led up to a performance on Monday night locally in Conroe for friends and family and then in Houston this past Saturday at the Texas Music Associations Convention. It helped that Calli's friends Shelby Jones and Lydia Derksen joined the Otter family and wore their tails with pride!

Saturday after Calli's piano thing in Houston, we all ventured out to visit Peppy...more pictures later this week on this new favorite friend. Sunday night, Wes and I ventured out to The Woodlands Pavillion (I love that place for concerts) to see Rascal Flatts in concert, along with Darrius Rucker. It was a great show and a relaxing evening!

GUESS WHO?

Hey its Calli taking over this post!

I know I am awesome!!! I am going to talk about my 3rd grade school year! I had some awesome teachers this year. My homeroom teacher was Mrs. Cooper who taught reading and my swichth teacher Mrs.Toups taught math! THOSE ARE SOME AWESOME TEACHERS RIGHT THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep they are the best. They helped me get the best TAKS scores! On reading I got a 98 ( -1) and on math a 100 (-0)! Are those the best or what! So thank you teachers!!!

I had ALOT of friends this year! Some were Kenzi, Logan, Michaela, Hailey, and Bailey. Great friends! We had alot of fun. Me, Logan, Michaela, and Hailey would cheer sometimes. Me and Bailey would play wolfs sometimes. Me and Kenzi would play anything!! We would all have alot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I will enjoy SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will have alot of fun doing all of the fun stuff you do in summer like sleeping in, playing with friends, going on vactions, and all of that stuff!!!!!! Now for the ending a awesome chat that I just now made up!!!!!!!!!!!! are you ready becuase here we go!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS THE WAY u-hu u-hu CALLI LIKES IT u-hu u-hu THIS IS THE WAY u-hu u-hu CALLI LIKES IT u-hu u-hu 1 -2 -3 -4 C-A-L-L-I CALLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YA!!!!!!!! ROCK ON BABY ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was just to say good- bye !!!!!!!!!!!! SO GOOD-BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Calli & Mrs. Cooper

Michaela, Logan, Calli

Wow! What another great year! I'll have to say that I was a little worried about 3rd grade and the challenges it might bring...with multiplication (I can remember sitting at the kitchen table for what seemed like hours learning math facts), writing skills, projects and TAKS I wasn't sure if this would be the year when the fun was taken out of school. But fun was certainly had! Calli loved doing all of the projects and learning in the classroom was made fun. As a compliment to both Calli's teachers, I will have to say that the talk about how the TAKS test is the main focus of the teaching, did not ring true in our classroom. I feel like they taught them good test taking skills in preparation but that was in NO WAY dominant of what they did in the classroom or at home!

Michaela and Calli (not sure why Kenzi looks so mad in the background)

Calli celebrated the last week of school with lots of playtime. Her awards ceremony was on Tuesday where she was honored with:

A Honor Roll for the year

Commended Performance on her TAKS (Reading 98, Math 100)

Citizenship Award for her excellent conduct (she must have gotten that from me)

It's always a bittersweet ending to the school year. The kids and I are so ready to be done with school yet we really miss the teachers that we leave behind. On one hand I was grinning from ear to ear thinking about the wake up time for the next day and on the other hand I was sad to bid farewell to Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Toups.

Kenzi and Calli

This is Mrs. Toups last year at the school and she will be missed! Her husband got a job transfer so her family is moving. And to put a damper on things even more, her grandmother died on the Monday of the last week of school so she wasn't even there for the last week. She called in from her mobile phone and with the phone on speaker she talked to the kids telling them how much she'd miss them and to have a happy and safe summer! It was very sweet.

Dressed to match...Calli, Mrs. Flemming (counselor), Michaela Flemming

So, we're moving on to 4th grade! For right now we'll just enjoy the summer with the heat, no early mornings, playing, swimming, camps, vacations and just being a kid (again for me!).

MEET PEPPY....

So Wes has been campaigning for a horse for about 2 months. My position...NO! Not maybe, not someday just NO! The kids have ridden our friends Rusty and Kelli's horses a few times and Wes has taken them to watch them barrel race, rope and all the fun stuff that real cowboys and cowgirls do. And all of that to me is great! But he wanted to bring it to the next level and actually own one. So after much debate, and some smooth negotiating skills on my part (not really but it sounds good), we have a horse. Meet Peppy! She really is a beautiful horse and after meeting her last night and the kids riding her, I could grow to like this 4 legged beauty. Peppy will be staying in Huntsville with our friends and their horses so he won't get lonely (I was told to have one horse by itself is just cruel). He will also be cared for by people that actually know how to care for horses, Rusty and Kelli.

So, on our way to meet our new family member, Wes goes over the horse rules that Rusty told him with the kids.

Rule #1. Never walk behind a horse.

Rule #2. Never run up to a horse or run around a horse, you should remain calm.

Colson decides that Daddy missed a 3rd rule that should really be thrown in the mix so we have

Rule #3. Never shoot a BB gun at a horse.

With that, I thought maybe we should have gone over in more detail other rules that are probably common sense to most people and kids but that our child might need to be told it's a rule in order for him not to do it.