Gulf Shores 09

This picture is not the greatest, but it's the only one of all 4 of us!
Me & Ben @ Longhorn

Isn't he so cute? The mark on his head is from the sand. The waves crashed him into the sand and it left this lovely mark. But he didn't care, he went right back out! He loves the water!

Adam & Ben share their "love for the water". They stayed in it ALL DAY!!

Ben & his big cousin Zach. They were so excited over their shirts!

He has learned just to smile and not complain when I get the camera out!

My FAVORITE....

It's been a while...

I have decided that I am just not a good "blogger"...lol. I just never have anything interesting to put on here, but I guess I will catch up on some things. Summer has been very busy for me so far. I am teaching the Summer Reading Academy at Ider. It was only a 3 week program, so it's almost over. Next week will wrap it up. I enjoy the hours (7:30-12:45)... they are great!

Adam has been doing his Field Experience for his schooling. He was placed at Ider and has observed in the 21st Century program. He loved it, he always had a few stories every afternoon to tell me.

Ben is officially the cutest kid ever. lol.. He has a tan like his big brother and has highlights in his hair from all the sunshine and swimming! Unfornately his tan is not dark enough to cover all the bruises and scrapes from the bike wrecks. lol. He learned to ride his bike without training wheels probably a month ago, but still wrecks at least once a day. His poor little legs look like he has been beat to death. It would help if he would ride the bike normally, but he has to start out running by his bike and then jump on it after he picks up speed. lol. He is a mess. Have I mentioned that he is cute... and that I love him!!

Jake is Jake! lol.... Moms out there, please tell me the "I know everything" attitude will fade away with time! Jake is a good kid, don't get me wrong..... but I swear.... he just KNOWS IT ALL! :) He has been busy with football workouts 3 nights a week. He also helped in Bible school, and he seemed to enjoy that. He recently spent 3 nights straight at the Smith house and loved that.....J & J are inseperable!!!

As most of you know, I am searching for a job!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it's KILLING ME! I have NO PATIENCE..... I LIKE TO PLAN........ &..... I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MY FUTURE HOLDS!! I think God is teaching me a lesson in waiting....and being patient. I know he has the perfect job picked out for me, I just pray that I find it soon. Everyone knows, I would love to be at Ider, but now I am at the point where anywhere I can find a job...will be JUST FINE! :) Please add me to your prayer list... I know I have asked for prayer about this for a loooonnnnggg time, but I do need them. Not only do I need a job, please pray that I understand that whatever happens is God's will!!! Pray Pray Pray.... :)

Anyways... what a long post! This weekend is Father's Day, so I better talk about my daddy a little. I have the greatest dad in the world! I have always been a daddy's girl.... and I still am! My favorite thing to do with my daddy is spend Saturday's watching Alabama football with him. (Unless Alabama is losing....then things are not too great..lol) I did get my "lack of patience" from him! Daddy is a funny person to be around and is always cracking jokes. Since I have been married, I have lost my identity somewhat.... In many many cases, if I told someone my name was Christina Hayes..... they would reply with "Are you Marty Hayes' daughter?" lol. YES I AM... and I am proud to be! I love my daddy with all my heart... daddy's girl from the start!
Happy Father's Day Daddy!!!!!

(Momma- Don't be sad, I love you too)

I guess I better go now. Adam just said it was illegal to blog this long! lol
Im off to the beach next week for Laura's wedding. We are taking a girls trip, so I should have stories and pictures to share later!!!

I can't believe he is a FIRST GRADER now... .

Well...my sweet (not so little) Ben officially graduated from Kindergarten today!!! I can't believe it, the year just flew by. The graduation ceremony was very simple and cute. Ben however was not very interested in the cute little dances and songs that they had to do! He had that "Im too old for this... this is not cool.... " look on his face!! I knew he wouldn't be too excited about it, but it was still very funny. OF COURSE.... my lovely camera died... and then came back to life.... then died.... etc. I was able to get some good pictures. Ben was on the back row so I didn't get many pictures of him, but his adorable friend Sydney was on the front row.... so I used her as my focal point! lol.

After graduation, instead of going home Ben stayed at school with me at our 2nd grade picnic! It was fun to have him there today, and he loved hanging out with the big kids. They all love him and are so impressed at how smart he is!

Now.... my LOVELY card reader thingy is not working so I cant put the pictures up tonight. I will try to do that tomorrow!! I hope everyone has a great Friday!!

Mother's Day

Since this weekend was Mother's Day, my momma came to visit. I had a great time just sitting around talking with her and my sister. She is and always has been a great momma. Im not the mushy lovey dovey person (if you know me at all, you can probably tell this) but I do love my momma and I don't show it like I should. This being said, I am NOT like my momma when it comes to being emotional. I cry... and I cry more now than I used to... but I don't cry like my momma does! (or Deb) lol. However, momma knows I love her... I just don't sob and cry and hug all the time to show it!

Anyways. I have a great momma and I am thankful for her. You probably notice that I still call her my MOMMA.....not mom! I never have been one to call her mom. I hope that I can be a momma like her one day.

Today was a sweet day at church, but it was also sad. We all miss Adam's momma, but today she was on my mind more than usual. My heart just broke for Ben...because he don't get to have his momma like all the other kids do. Adam and Jake are older, and they had more time with her. Ben just had those 3 precious years. I feel so guilty sometimes getting to watch him grow up, when I know how much she would love to. I never want to try to take her place, and I fear that people think I try to. But I can't not love that child, it's just not possible. I probably baby him more than I should..... but I guess that's ok. Ben often has to tell his friends at school.... "She is not my mom... she's my sister-in-law!" lol. Can you imagine the look on the other kids faces? Half of them don't even know what a sister-in-law is!! But it never fails... usually everyday at school some kid will say "Hey there is Ben's mom!" And the lady at Lowe's the other night wished me a Happy Mother's Day. Ben just looked at me and kinda grinned, we have both learned just to let it go.

I wish Tammy could be here to watch her boys. I know she would be so proud of all of them! Jak is learning to play the piano and the guitar. He can play nearly anything by ear. Ben is just a little man. He can read some words you wouldn't imagine! He asked Adam yesterday what LEGITIMATE meant... because he read it on something! (and yes.. I just had to ask Adam how to spell it... lol) She would be SO SO proud of Adam. She raised a great man, and I will forever be grateful to her. He is just everything I need. He is wonderful to me, and I love him so much. He has taken on more in three years than some people do in an entire lifetime. Talkin' about a GREAT DAD.... I just can't wait to see it! He has been Jake & Ben's rock and he loves them so much. I can't imagine how he will be with our babies.

So this long post is in honor of 2 great moms... My mom and my mother-in-law! Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommas out there!

A much needed laugh!

This week has been extremely long... for many reasons... so I am very happy SPRING BREAK is next week! Today during my planning period, I was in S. Pruetts room talking to her. We were just talking when we had a cute little visitor stop by. S. McKay saw us talking as he walked by her room , so he stopped to tell us some "news"!

This is what our conversation consisted of....

Him- (Hey.. my dog Daisy is having puppies!!)

Me- (Really, that's good! I bet your mom is not happy)

Him- (NO, she's not)

Me- (She doesn't like Daisy, does she?)

Him- (Nope)

Me- (Is she having them today?)

Him- (No, we just found out yesterday.)

Him- ( They are gonna be half Saint Bernard.... )

Me- (Wow...those will be big puppies...)

Him- (Yeah- that dog was huge, he kept jumping over our fence)

Him-(But she is only having six puppies..)

Me- (How do you know? Did you take her to the vet?)

Him- (No..... I just counted her milk squirter thingys.. and she only has 6!)

Me & S. Pruett- ( LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL)

WE LAUGHED ABOUT THIS FOR THE REST OF THE DAY. If you know S. McKay, you can imagine him telling us all of this. He is hilarious....

Happy Birthday Taylor..

This is one of my favorite pictures of Taylor! Acting funny and making everyone laugh was what he did best! This was taken at our cousin Margaret's wedding. I'm not sure how old Taylor is here, but he was always like this!! He was so happy that day, wearing that tux. He knew he looked good!!
This was the last Christmas we got to spend with Taylor. He was excited over that Alabama boggin that we got him. With a family of mostly Auburn fans, Taylor loved Alabama just like me!!

I love this picture of Hayden & Taylor! It's so sweet.

Cousins! Taylor loved all of us, as much as we loved him.

This is the whole gang back in the day! Although Hayden & Lillie's face does not show it very much... we LOVED each other! lol

Taylor McCrary was loved by EVERYONE! I have never heard of anyone who did not like him. He could make you laugh as soon as he entered the room. If he was ever around me for any length of time, he had me scratching his back. Then he would move to the next person who would scratch his back, usually his maw maw. One of the sweetest memories I have of Taylor is when he would stay with his maw maw nearly every weekend. After Uncle Bill died, he would stay with her to make sure she was ok. Not many 15 year old boys just go stay with their maw maw. But Taylor was special, he was not your "average" young man. He loved playing golf and was good at it! My daddy would always brag about how far Taylor could hit the ball. He loved all sports, and was good at all of them too! I remember on Senior night during my basketball season, Taylor came to watch me. He sat on the bottom with my daddy. Daddy told me if I could score 20 points he would give me $100.... Well, I scored 12 in the first half and then six more the second half. Once I got to 18 I could not hit anything. I remember looking over at Taylor and he would just be dying laughing. He would hollar.. only 2 more points and then just laugh his head off! I also remember when I got my first car. Taylor of course wanted to go on a ride, so I took him. Between him and Adam I was crazy when I got back home! They were hollaring out the windows, Taylor kept reaching for the emergency break..just trying to scare me! And it usually worked! lol. He would absolutely aggravate me to death.... but I still loved him to death! I would give ANYTHING to have him here to aggravate me again!! I remember one time we went out for Amanda's birthday. Taylor was proud that he got his permit... we ate at Famous Daves and Taylor asked the lady if he could order a beer, then he opened up his wallet and showed his "ID". Of course he was kidding, and the waitress got a kick out of it! I have many many great memories with Taylor. He was the greatest thing in the world to me. I can still see that big smile, and hear that laugh. He was an awesome son, brother, grandson, nephew, cousin, friend. I know he is truely missed by everyone. I know there is not a day that goes by that he doesn't enter my mind. I can't wait until the day I get to see him again!

Happy Birthday Taylor! I love you more than you know!

Busy Saturday..

We have definitely had a busy Saturday, but it has been enjoyable! Ben came over around 11:30 this morning and we have been in full swing since then. We had to be at the egg hunt by 1:00. It went really well. Ben loved it all, he loved finding eggs, getting prizes and riding the lovely ponies. However, he was not crazy about the Easter bunny that was there. He has a fear of things like that... such as the mascots, disney world characters, etc.. So he didn't get his picture made!! We had tons and tons of cupcakes. Ben had chocolate all over his face and then come to hug me like a sweet child, and then wiped his chocolate covered face on my back!! Anyways... By the time we left the egg hunt it was 3:00. Adam wanted to run get something to eat so we went to pizza hut in Fort Payne. We were in a hurry so we left quick and headed back. We had to be back to Ider for C. Tinker's birthday party by 5:00. We all had a good time over there! I have decided that C.Tinker is one of the sweetest kids ever and I love him dearly.(I can't believe he is 3 years old). There were lots of family and friends there. Ben enjoyed playing with all the kids. After leaving there we stopped by my Granny's. I had not seen her in a couple of days, so we went in and visited with them a while. We finally walked in the house around 8:45. Ben will probably sleep good tonight. He has played his little heart out today. He is curled up beside me on the couch right now, yawning lots!! He will more than likely be out of it soon!

I'm sure tomorrow will be a busy day too. I dread it being cold... I want it just to stay warm weather forever. I guess I will bundle up and stay in the house between church. Maybe I will catch me a few zzzzz's !! Nothing like a good Sunday nap. Tomorrow will be a sad day for our family. It will be Taylor's birthday. He would have been 20 years old!! So hard to believe....I miss him so much. I know it will be an even harder day for Leslie. Please say a prayer for her!

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend!