Imagination!

Hudson has always had a VIVID imagination.  He can have fun in a room with only four walls. :)  I have decided that if he isn't a musician, he should be a screenwriter.  The stories he comes up with are awesome.  Needless to say, he loves playing in the playroom.  He builds things and creates scenarios for his army men, cowboys, etc.  One day while playing, he invented this concoction.


He has all the cars, tractors, etc lined up and ready to attack the fort on the table.




He used the cardboard block to build his fort. 



Hudson has a tendency to embellish his Bible stories. :)  This story event is about when Christ was crucified and the bad men are on top of the fort surrounding it and the good guys are trying to attack and save Jesus.  The picture of the crucifixion is on this neat witnessing tool called the EvangeCube.

He used his Crayola Twistables to be the guns on top of the fort

The snake is none other than Satan

My big helper

This is what happens when you leave the room for a few seconds. :)  Landon wanted to help me out so he thought he would continue feeding Colson his cereal.  I think most of the cereal is on his pajamas and chin!

The Boys

                                  We just got Colson a baby swing to go on the swing set.  He loves it!

                                    All my boys having fun outside.  Check out their cute expressions!

When Colson was about 3 months old, Hudson pulled out the stickers and decorated him a bowl.  He wanted me to save it until Colson was ready to eat cereal.  We put the bowl in a special place in the pantry, and when Colson started eating cereal he ate it out of the sticker bowl.  I was touched by Hudson's thoughtfullness.

Photo Shoot

I decided to play around with Colson and take pics.  I did these back in September when he was 7.5months old.  He is our blonde hair blue eyed baby boy!

Boy Time

Hudson has really  been into "men that protect our country" aka soldiers. :)  A few months ago, Ben took the boys for their special "Boy Time" one Saturday.  When they got home, they told me all about their adventures at the Dollar Store and Top Brass, a military store.  They came home and immediately started setting their war zone.

Catching Up!!

Well, I did it again and didn't stay on top of my blog.  Life got crazy with the end of summer and beginning of school and I'm just now updating everything.  Enjoy the new posts!

Colson

Colson is 7 1/2 months old and time has definitely flown by.  He is a happy baby who takes 2 great naps a day and sleeps from 8pm until 6:30 or 7:00am.  He is a good eater and loves sweet potatoes, green beans, applesauce,etc.  I've been trying to make his baby food like I did for the other kids, but I still buy a fair amount too.  I have a great baby cookbook called The Happy Baby Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel.  I have used this cookbook with all 3 boys and it has great recipes in it to give your baby lots of variety.

Colson rolls all over the place, gets up on his knees and rocks, loves to stand on my legs and jump, sits up, and has 2 teeth.  He loves to watch his brothers play and laughs a lot at them. :)  The big boys usually fight over who can make him laugh.  This week he just started playing a game with me.  He'll sit in my lap and place his head on my chest and I say "Where's Colson?" and then he pops his head up and I say"PeekaBoo".  We will do that over and over.  Last night he started saying "momma".  Now I don't think he totally knows what he is saying, but I'm still proud!  The 2 videos are of Landon making Colson laugh and of Colson saying "Momma" - Enjoy!

Preschool

Landon with his new cowboy backpack

Landon started school last Thursday.  He goes 2 days a week and his teachers are Mrs. Pat and Mrs. Mary.  He has a class of 9 kids. 

For his special breakfast, he had Froot Loops.  Now normally I make a special breakfast, but Ben had gone to Sam's for me and came home with a box of cereal that had Froot Loops, Corn Pops and Apple Jacks in it.  The kids were so excited, even though they hadn't ever had those cereals.  Apparently the fun color of the cereal made it look extra good!  I remember growing up that Daddy would be the one to buy us the "fun" cereals.  

Landon had a great day on Thursday and was smiling when I picked him up.  His teachers told me that he told them all about his stick horse and plastic cowboy figurines that he plays with.  I am so thankful to have found such a great preschool that loves on my kids and balances the education with the spiritual.  (http://www.wtbc.org/ministries/children_day.aspx)  To see more pics go to http://picasaweb.google.com/brothermclain

Kindergarten!!

hudson in his chapel day uniform

Hudson in his classroom at Meet the Teacher

Hudson with flowers for his teachers on his 1st day

I can't believe that my first born is in Kindergarten!  He was so excited about going to his new school.  We debated for months on where Hudson would go.  We live in a good school district and have an elementarty school right down the street, but we fell in love with Veritas Christian Academy (www.veritasca.org) It is a classical Christian school and really stresses that God permeates every area of our life.  So they weave the Bible into all the subjects.  I truly feel that the school is not just Christian in name, but in action.  They want to raise up boys and girls that the love the Lord and use their minds to glorify Him.  

For his 1st day breakfast, Hudson had whole wheat peanut butter pancakes with chocolate chips on the Red plate.  Ben led us in a devotion about Joshua and how he was strong and courageous in the Lord.  We all took Hudson to school and Landon had to wear his backpack and bring his lunchbox so he could be just like Hudson. :)

Hudson has 2 Kindergarten teachers.  Mrs. Gallegos teaches Bible, Reading and Math in the mornings and then Mrs. Leonard teaches Social Studies and Science in the afternoon. Hudson also has PE, Music, Art, Spanish, French and Computer.  There are 15 kids in his class and he seems to get along well with everyone.  He has a Bible verse each week to memorize.  By the end of December, he will have memorized the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 13.  To see more pics of his 1st day go to http://picasaweb.google.com/brothermclain
   

Robyn heads to the DR

hanging out with her boys

RoRo swimming with the boys

Robyn, my younger sister, graduated from Texas A&M this past December.  She did her student teaching overseas in the Domincan Republic at the Doulos Discovery school (http://www.doulosdiscovery.org/).  Doulos is a Christian school in the city of Jarabacoa.  The founders of the school are Aggie Alumni and also from Tyler.  Robyn loved the people of the DR and getting to use her teaching ability as a ministry. 

She was there last fall and they asked her to return this fall for a 2 year committment.  She flew out of Houston on July 31st.  She and my mom came to Houston several days before she left so that she could spend more time with the boys and me. :)  Check out her blog that is listed in my blogroll.

Road Trip to New Mexico

Landon and Hudson at the Texas musical in Amarillo

scenery in Glorieta

cabin in Glorieta, NM

McLain Family 2010

In July, we took a family trip to Glorieta, NM.  We drove the 15 hours there and had a blast!  We started driving on a Friday night right after the boys' VBS finale and drove to Dallas where we stayed with my Grandmommy.  Then we drove from there to Amarillo.  We took the boys to the Texas musical and they LOVED it!  It had horses, cowboys, singing and even fireworks. The next day we arrived in Glorieta, NM.  There is a Southern Baptist retreat center and that is where we stayed.  The weather was fabulous and the boys loved being in the mountains and woods. 

It was so good to be together as a family.  Since Mike and Meredith live in California, we don't get to see them very often so it was great to spend quality time with them.  The boys loved playing with their cousin, Bella.  She was so sweet to bring her pink stick horse so they could all play cowboys/cowgirl together. :) Ben's parents even kept the kids one night, so that we could do a double date with Mike and Meredith. 

Santa Fe was only about 20 min from Glorieta, so we hung out there and even went to Taos and saw a real working Indian Village.  To see more pics from our trip go to our Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/brothermclain

JBU Girls Weekend 2010

playing spoons while Colson watches

sara, emily,christy, jenny, jackie, kelly and baby sanderford

the view from the deck

I am blessed with 6 special friends from college.  We have been getting together every summer for a special weekend without kids, unless you have a nursing baby. :)  Each of my boys has experienced the fun of the weekend when they were babies.  This year Colson joined in on the fun!  We stayed at Emily's in-laws's lake house in Oklahoma.  It was such a peaceful weekend of playing games, talking, praying and having fun.  Sara led us all in a bow making time.  Since I have no girls, I enjoyed making bows for my niece. :)  I cherish this time every summer and am so thankful that the Lord brought these ladies into my life.

The big boys and I Ben met us at the airport and I think the boys were more excited to see Colson than me.  While Ben was getting my luggage, the boys were fighting over who could make Colson laugh. :)

Fun times in Tyler

The boys and I went to Tyler back in June and enjoyed a great time with BB.  Hudson went to Green Acres's VBS and Landon enjoyed lots of one on one time with BB and I.  The boys loved digging in the dirt, climbing trees and hanging out with their BB. Robyn would take Hudson to VBS in the mornings, because her work was real close.  Hudson loved riding in her 4 Runner, which used to be Dad's.  To see pics from our trip go to http://picasaweb.google.com/brothermclain

Enormous Amount of New Posts!!!

So life with 3 kids has been busy! We've had end of the school year stuff, swimming lessons, trying to keep up with laundry, etc and I have neglected the blog. Today I got busy and got all of the posts done. There are 18 new posts so get a cup of coffee and sit down for awhile. :) To see all of the pics taken over the last couple of months go to our Picasa site http://picasaweb.google.com/brothermclain

Baker Family Vacation

My mom took us to an incredible place for Memorial weekend. The town is called Bandera and it is in the Hill Country. We stayed at the Medina River Ranch Resort (http://medinariverranchresort.com/). This place has several luxury cabins and has TONS of land where they bring in exotic animals for people to hunt. We saw water buffalo, antelope, zebra and deer. Our cabin was called The Duke in honor of John Wayne. Daddy loved John Wayne movies so it was fitting for us to have chosen that cabin. We enjoyed hanging out with each other, playing games and going to a rodeo. We all took turns cooking which was lots of fun. Rick and Katie made fajitas Saturday night, I made breafast quesadillas Sunday morning, we ate at an apple orchard for lunch, mom made brisket for dinner and then she made breakfast pizza for the next morning.

the view from the deck overlooking Lake Medina

the living room and kitchen

the lodge

PrK Graduation

It is hard to believe that Hudson has finished preschool and will be entering Kindergarten in the fall. After lots of praying and debating, we decided to enroll him at Veritas. Veritas is a Christian Classical school and we are so excited about it. I think Hudson will benefit greatly from small class sizes and learn a lot from their curriculum. He talks about Veritas all the time and wishes Kindergarten was starting now. :) The other day we went to the used uniform sale at the school and got Hudson some navy pants, shorts, sweatshirt and dress shirt. As soon as we got home, he put on his pants and sweatshirt and said he was ready to go. :) The website for the school is http://onegreatschool.com

Daddy's Right Hand Man

Anytime Ben has to fix something, Hudson and Landon come running. Hudson brings down his toolbox and gets ready. Ben needed to put on a new flapper for the toilet and Hudson was right beside him the whole way. After they finished Hudson said,"all in a days work" :)

Colson's Dedication

Each of the boys have been dedicated on Mother's Day so we did the same for Colson. He wore a cute monogrammed seersucker jumper and the boys wore seersucker shorts. They all looked very handsome. Some of our friends, the Harrisson's, have two boys and they dedicated their son, too. Their oldest son, Will, is Landon's age and Weston is exactly 3 weeks younger than Colson.

We were all up at the front of the church, when Will took off to sit with his grandma and then Landon took off after Will. The whole church laughed and it created a funny memory. :)

Since it was Mother's Day, Ben ordered yummy cajun food from Hebert's of Houston. He got stuffed cornish hens, stuffed shrimp and boudin balls. The food was terrific!

Jordan and Paige

Ben's brother Jordan, aka Uncle JoJo, flew down with his girlfriend Paige at the end of April. It was so fun to meet Paige and get to know her better. As soon as she got here the boys started wrestling with her! Jordan had just gotten back from NY and he brought the boys NY shirts and they loved them.

Hudson's Open House

Hudson's school had their Open House and children's concert. It was so fun to see Hudson's class and his teacher even made every kid their own scrapbook. At last year's concert, Hudson just stood there. His teachers were so surprised, because in rehearsals he had been the life of the party. This year Hudson made up for it. :) He totally came to life on the stage and you can click on the video to watch part of his performance. He is on the top row on the right.