Some Carnival fun & Embrace the Camera...Enjoy!

Saturdays are for school carnivals and cotton candy, right?  Well, that's what we did last weekend.  Macy claimed it the best Saturday she ever had.  I have to agree to a point.  I had a blast watching her play games, eat cotton candy, eat the ever famous carnival hot dog, play "book" walk and get two awesome chapter books, get her sweet face painted and get the all popular tattoo.  You wouldn't think she would miss that tattoo, would you? 

Thankfully, it was a beautiful day for a carnival and we didn't sweat to death.  The weather here has been awesome the last few days.  I am not looking forward to the 100+ degree summers that we have around these parts.  {{yee-haw}}  I would love for it to be Spring all year around.  I love wearing jeans and flip-flops and/or shorts and sweatshirts.  It makes me happy. 

My sweet girl...You can't see if very well, but she has a pretty cute

shooting star on the side of her face.  If she isn't getting a tattoo she is getting

her face painted.  Should I be worried??  Don't answer that.

Who doesn't love a dunking booth??  Well, Macy's teacher, that's who.  Mrs. P

was such a great sport....for 30 minutes!  Poor thing got dunked a few times

but always came up with a smile.  I love this pic of her feet!  ha!  I didn't ask her

if I could put her face on my blog.  So, her feet will have to do.  :)

Best Friends....forever!  Aren't they the cutest little turkeys.

Macy and Mandi in a race....I love their faces!  Macy was so serious

and competitive.  She takes after her Mama!  :)

My WINNER! 

 Oh, my....there is the ever famous tat!  She washed around it for days...

It's that time again....time to linky up for  Embrace the Camera!  Check out Emily's blog over at The Anderson Crew.  Her adoption story will tear at your heart...so will her pictures!  They are awesome.  Go check out her blog, and join in on the fun. 



Me and my sissy.....aren't we just precious.  We always have a blast together and can talk about anything.  Sisters are a true blessing from God and when you can call them your best friend you are doubly blessed.  I am doubly blessed.....



so, are you ready to embrace the camera?

Wordless Wednesday

Batter swing....

I've always rewarded my kids with moolah for doing good.  If that's bad, well, too bad.  It's too late.  Reid made 35.00 during basketball season and was proud of it.  We have already had about five baseball games and I owe him a total of about 30.00.  YIKES!  Tonight we play again....the pocketbook is getting slimmer by the minute.

It was so funny....on our way to the very first game of the season, I told him that I would give him 5 dollars for every base hit.   If he made a double that's 10 dollars and for a triple it would be 15.  You get the picture.  I said if you smack me a home run I will give you 25 bucks!  He said, "Um, Dad said he would give me 100.00." 

Really?  Maybe the hubby and I should chat before we make deals like that. 

Do you reward your kids with money or am I the only sucker? 

Made to Crave

I know y'all are just on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what I will say about Chapter 1 and 2, right? 

Yeah, right.

I haven't forgotten about my whole Made To Crave deal.  I should have never said I would do posts about what I read because I am a s-l-o-w reader.  Ok, maybe not slow, that sounds like I have a reading problem.  The deal is just that I just don't have the time.  I have been carrying around this book in my purse for weeks thinking I can read a little in the car line or sitting at the ballpark waiting for the game to start but that hasn't happened.  Things happen and life happens way too fast.  Then at night I try to read a few pages and fall dead asleep.  It's a sad story. 

FYI...I am on chapter 8....so I guess that's not too shabby.

Ok, so let's see...

I loved the title of chapter 1...WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON HERE?  Do you know how many times I have asked myself that same question?  Every morning when I get up I am pretty sure I say that to myself in one way or another.  Especially when I try to put on my skinny jeans.  Who named those anyway?  Skinny jeans?  Please.

She talked a lot about the dreaded hunger pang.  (BTW, who knew it was pang and not pain?  It's always been a pain in my book.)  She reminded me of a commerical that I remember seeing long ago with a orange monster chasing around a woman tempting and taunting her with foods that she knows aren't healthy.  Just trying to sabotage her.  Dumb orange monster. Oh y'all, I have met him.  The commerical is a good reminder of how it feels to be harassed by cravings of sweet and salty yummy-ness all day long.  It's exhausting. 

Also, she helped me see that we do crave certain things.  That its only natural.  That I am not losing my mind.  We just need to choose the right things.  I laughed at one point because she said unfortunately, we don't find fresh fruits and veggies in a nearby vending machine.  Wouldn't that be awesome, though?  I would love that.  I mean I would totally pay $1.25 for some carrot sticks.  Maybe.

We were made to crave....long for, want greatly, desire eagerly and beg for....GOD.  Not junk food, money or any other things of this world.  But, here comes that nasty Satan trying to get us to crave something else.  Something that we think might be good and look REAL good but not good for us.  He's always playing those tricks on us.  We need to focus our eyes on the Father.  Things are always better for us when we do.....for that I am thankful.

"Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world--the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does--comes not from the Father but from the world." 

 1 John 2:15-16

Chapter 2 was all about replacing our cravings.  Easier said than done, huh?  We do, as humans, tend to rely more on things we can touch, see or feel rather than the Holy One.  I am guilty.  I would sometimes rather drown my depression in a box of Swiss Cake Rolls than read my Bible.  I would want something to fill my tummy and not my heart.  Failure.  She gave a suggestion....to pray when you crave something that wasn't part of your plan.  I love that.  I think mine would go something like this...

"Dear Lord, could you please send the Little Debbie guy and the chocolate donut man on a long vacay and let them not make their way to my grocery store?  Um, thanks."

It's up to me.  It's my life.  I only have one sweet and precious life to make the right choices, the right decisions for me.  Help me God to be satisfied with YOU in all areas of my life. 

Baseball, Anyone??

"Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd.

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks,  I don't care if I never get back.  Let me root, root, root for

the home team,

If they don't win it's

a shame.

For it's one, two, three strikes,

you're out,

At the old ball game!"

GO RICE!

Good-byes are hard...

I found out today that my crazy, funny, quirky, loud but gentle and sweet uncle James Keith passed away today.  It makes me sad to think of the years that we all missed together.  He was a truck driver and was gone for the better part of 10+ years.  Thankfully, we got to see him over Christmas and got to spend some time talking about the good 'ole days and reintroducing ourselves and our children.  He had never met Macy and the last time he had seen Reid he was 4 years old.  That is sad.  The only thing he remembered about Reid was how much he loved his 18 wheeler.  Now, a teenager was staring him in the face and only cares about sports and girls. 

I feel for my sweet Daddy who lost a brother.  I can't imagine.  There is a bond between siblings whether you see each other on a regular basis or 10+ years.  The memories that you have growing up are special and often times so vivid you feel like just yesterday you just ate watermelon while swimming in the river.  Only the Doty's remember how fun that was....

I know that my Dad and his brothers had some crazy times.  I'm sure they gave my grandparents a run for their money.  I can only imagine.  I hope the memories of his brother will help my Dad during the next few, hard days and in the future.

I know that James Keith is reunited with his son, Keith, who passed away in his early 20's, and his Dad, our Papa.  What a sight that was, I'm sure of it.  :)

Please pray for my Mom and Dad, Jarrell and Earline, Mimi, and James Keith's family.  I know they will all appreciate it.  I will too.

Thanks, friends...

Embrace the Camera, Y'all

Linky on UP!  Over at The Anderson Crew she always does a fun Embrace the Camera spilly-roo!  I thought it might be fun to participate.  Come on and join me.  :)

As a mom, we tend to NEVER be in any pictures.  If we are they are out of focus or our heads are cut off.  Husbands usually don't have an eye for pictures. Sorry, honey. Thankfully, for our kids sake we are always the ones taking the pictures.  I always tease Troy that if something ever happens to me there will be no pictures of me for the kids to have to remember me by.  He rolls his eyes. 

But, seriously, we as moms need to Embrace the Camera more.  Get out from behind that camera!!  Don't be afraid to ask for someone to take your pretty little photo!  Sometimes its embarrassing to have someone to take your picture, but when you see it, you are always glad.  Right?

I am thankful that Macy has learned some pretty gnarly photography skills.  Since she loves to take pictures there are more of me (and her) than in the early days when my kids were babies. I love that when Macy grabs the camera she likes to take a self portrait of the two of us....It's not usually frame-worthy, but a picture nonetheless.

embrace the camera is about YOU being IN the picture.

not just a picture of your kids.

not just a picture of your animals.

not just a picture of that random object.

now, if you are in any of those pictures, then that is embracing the camera.

but the point of it is to get out from behind the lens...and to get in front of it.

So, grab a camera and take a pretty picture of you with the ones you love....or by yourself.  :) 

My rule is, since this is my first Embrace the Camera, they can be old or new.  shhh!

Now, we have a lot of pictures together...20 years worth!

Now, that's a beauty.....not!

Look at how little and sweet my babies were!  ;)

A little of this and that

There never seems to be a dull moment in the Sab household.  It seems like we are always on the go.  I guess that's how it goes when you have a teenager and a tweenager.  Spring Break was a nice break from the hustle and bustle but now we are back on!  Thankfully, the weather has been wonderful so when we are sitting outside at baseball it is somewhat bearable.  I know that all too soon it is going to be so hot that I will wish my arms were tank top ready.  I feel weird in a tank top.  Anyway, that's a different story.  For another day.

This week at school, is our annual basket fundraiser.  We have Family Fun Day coming up and these baskets are part of our big money maker.  Each class puts together a basket and each class has a different theme.  Ours was All About Art.  So, um, guess who was in charge of that?  You guessed it.

Moi.

All the children brought money and I had to go shop at Wally World for all the goodies.  You should have seen the ladies face at the check out when I pulled up with my basket full of art supplies.  I know she wanted to ask what in the world I was doing with all that loot.  I finally told her it was for a fundraiser for school.  She looked relieved for me.  It was pretty funny.  So, $250.00 later I was loading all this stuff in my car   thinking, what was I thinking doing this again.  Oh, well.  Honestly, it was fun throwing stuff in my basket.....probably because it wasn't my money. 

The things we do for our kids.

I finally finished, ordered and got my Blurb book in the mail.  I was so excited!  {{yippee}}  For those that don't know about Blurb, let me tell you.  It is your blog all wrapped into this cool, hardcover book.  It took me forever to finish it but is was way worth it.  It has all my blogs in there from 2004-2010.  I thought it wouldn't be that many since I am the worlds worst blogger, but it has about 250 pages.  I was shocked!  I guess because it did cover a span of 6 years.  That's sad.  Anywoo, The website "slurps" all your blogs together and then you go through and set the pages up how you want them.  I had so much fun.  Since I haven't scrapbooked since about 2004 I was so glad to get something that had some pictures of my kids.  I couldn't believed how much they had grown.  Some pictures of Macy she had that precious baby face, baby teeth and pigtails. {{Tears}}  The ones of Reid were the ones that really made me cry.  He has grown SO much ...

Time has gone by so fast.  I am thankful for memories....

Now, let me tell you a little about this.(and don't judge the dirty tiles)  Over Christmas, Macy got some bath crayons in her stocking.  We have had so much fun using them.  It went from her drawing pictures every night of hearts and flowers to her and I leaving love notes to one another.  I would write to her and Reid almost every night.  Macy would usually respond with a long note and picture and Reid would on occasion, but just a "thanks" or "love you, too".  He is my little man of few words.

One night, after a LONG day of running around and craziness, I went to get in the bath.  The kids were all asleep, finally, and Troy was working. I wasn't expecting to see a "love note" from my baby.  I pulled opened the curtain and saw his sweet handwriting...Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."  Joshua 1:9

When Reid was in elementary school, he had some anxiety issues.  So, I started with this verse to ease some of his fears.  It has turned into "our" verse.  I would kiss him goodbye in the morning before he got out of the car and would tell him to be strong and courageous, do not be afraid!  Sometimes, we just said BE Joshua 1:9 today!  We still do that to this day and it does make our mornings more special.  Especially when you hear your 14 year old say the verse and to ask you to pray for him later.  {{Tears}} 

I love it when I put my camera card in the computer and all these random snapshots pop up.  Macy will take my camera and take self portraits and pictures of bugs, dolls and whatever else she can get her hands on.  There are even some funny videos that her and her BFF made and they "star" all the Barbies and Little Pet Shops in her room.  It is quite comical.  I have a feeling this sweet girl is going to keep me young and on my toes. 

I hope that everyone has a wonderful girly day!  Be strong and courageous today....Be Joshua 1:9.

A flower for my peeps....

Happy Tuesday Everyone!

"May the words of my mouth and the meditation

of my heart be pleasing in your sight,

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer."

Psalm 19:14

Wiffle while you work (that's all I could come up with)

It's no wonder with a title like that I have no readers, comments or followers.  ha!  It's as cheesy as they come.  But, with all the wiffle balls that have been floating over my house lately that is all that is on my mind. 

You can buy this boy a bag of wiffle balls and he will destroy them in a matter of minutes.  He hits them so hard that he cracks them in half...then on to another one.  Its quite hysterical.  There is no telling how much money I have spent on wiffle balls the last 10 years.  I give him a bag every year at his birthday and then all the months in between.  He is worth it, though.

He wasn't too happy with me when he saw me come outside with my camera.  He is at the stage where he ducks when he sees me coming with my big, bad camera.  (I LOVE my camera)  Anyway, I pretended that I was taking pictures of flowers, Macy and an occasional butterfly.  He wasn't buying it.

He's so smart.  Smarty pants, that is.

BATTER SWINGGGG

...and again, and again.  Don't boys get tired of that?

This was after he picked up most of them.  I am praying he doesn't break my window.  He hits HARD!

This picture is the one I got caught snapping.  He wasn't happy.  He wouldn't look.  Punk.

One day over Spring Break, Troy and I took the kids to Fattyland Gattiland.  You are never too old to participate in the craziness that is pizza, games, tokens, tickets and prizes! 

Macy and Reid LOVE Colorama and can blow all their tokens in minutes.  They are promised some tickets but you never know if you will hit the famous jackpot.  Gamble, much?  It's a little scary.

This boy has all the luck.  BTW, for the last 10 years, he has been saving his Gatti tickets and has almost 10,000.  Serious.  He is a saver.  His sister on the other hand.  Bless.

 SEE....jackpot.  I think they are counting out 100.  He was thrilled.  Macy was not.

 Then Dad and Son tried a little luck on Let's Make a Deal.  Let's just say there was no Deal that day.  It wasn't in the cards. 

Macy LOVES the prize counter.  I think we stood there for 30 minutes.  She had about 500 tickets that day.  She bought a couple of things and then saved the rest.  She is learning from her big brother how its done.  Thankfully.

She really did pick a bouncy ball and some crazy glasses....all for the grand total of 15.00.  Really?

Today the kids went back to school after a wonderful Spring Break.  They were not thrilled.

I went to the mall.  

Spring Break 2011

We thought it was time for a little family trip to Fiesta Texas.  Thankfully, Spring Break arrived (can I get an AMEN) and for the Sab's it was the perfect time to pack up the family truckster head on the road.  We left after Reid's baseball game on Friday night so we ended up not getting to San Antonio until 1 AM.  I closed my eyes for a bit and woke up with some pretty smelly teenage feet in my face.  I felt like Ellen Griswold. 

Last time we went to Fiesta Texas the kids were little and all we did was the kiddie stuff.  Now, don't get me wrong....I love the kiddie park and after this trip I love it even more.  Especially where Reid is concerned.  He talked big on the car ride there about all the roller coasters he was going to ride.  I knew he liked them because he loves to ride the Bullet at Kemah.  But, the Bullet doesn't go upside down and isn't anywhere near the magnitude of the ones at Fiesta Texas.  So, I knew he wanted to but would he?  Would he really ride the Goliath?  The Superman?  The Rattler?  The Poltergeist? 

Um, yes.

The boy is fearless.  It's scary.

Now, for the girls and Dad?  We were happy with the Gully Washer, the Log Ride and the Kiddie Koaster.  Those are more our speed.

A funny about the Gully Washer.  Unfortunately, we chose to stand in line for an hour and half for this ride.  Not one of our better decisions.  The things you do for your 8 years old.  She just knew that this was going to be the best ride EVAH. 

Not.

I told her as we were waiting in line that there was a possibility that she would get really, really wet.  Hence the name...the GULLY washer.  But, she insisted.  So, onward through the line.  I won't even mention how hungry Troy and I were and how we kept giving each other the look.  You know "the look"....like why are we in this line??  Why don't we have a fast pass and Reid does?  Why did we buy him a fast pass?  Why do we spoil our children?  I just knew Troy was reading my mind.

ANYWOO, to make a long story short.  We got on the boat.  Troy and I were dry as a bone and Macy was so wet we had to take off her shirt, wring it out, and put on her jacket for a shirt.  Her shorts were wet for hours. There were tears.

I did say I told you so.  Bad mom.



 I am so glad Macy likes to take pictures.  She is a pretty good little photographer. 

Now if I can get her to learn photoshop to make me look a little younger.  haha!





 Macy driving me around....a picture of things to come?? 

We rode this Kiddie Koaster about 10 times.  It is so my speed.

 Waiting in line for the Gully Washer....no pics after...too many tears.

 Yet, another pic by our fabulous photographer, Macy. 

 My LOVES!

What to do while your brother is riding Goliath for the millionth time?  Well, you dance....

 you make monkey faces.....

 and you get your feet massaged

 Reid riding THE SCREAM.  I still can't believe I let me baby ride this...



 There he goes...

 ....breathe.....breathe.....

You are looking at $8.00 worth of candy.  I'm sure it was worth it.

Should I be worried that my daughter loves tats?

We stayed until the bitter end.  Tired, wet feet and all.....We all declared that we LOVE Spring Break and will definitely go to Fiesta Texas again....soon.  Macy said next time we go back she will get her tattoo earlier so people can see it in the sunlight.

UGH!