Lazy days of Summer....

I get sad every summer when it starts to come to an end. I love summertime! I love no schedules...hanging out at the pool, spending time with the kids, going to bed late, sleeping in, walking out in shorts and flip flops, listening to the crickets, watching the lightning bugs, looking at the sunsets in Ashburn. Everything about summer I love!
It goes way way way to fast every year. January never goes this fast....

We have one more week....ONE more. SAD!

Is she my daughter or what? Kind of scary!



This is how Jackson spends break at the pool....

Coop

Okay Jackson I think I can get it this time....seriously after 20 times.....

Um....not sure yet Jackson.....let me check...

Um....no......
I could not for the life of me get Jackson's actual flip in the picture.......


Sienna has this fear of hair this summer....if she ever finds any on her she freaks out...even if it is her own. She is showing me there is a hair on her hand that I needed to get off...
Funny girl.

She has become quite a little fish this summer with the help of her brothers. It's funny how fast they pick it up! She is almost ready for the swim team.


So I am going to soak in every single second of this last week of summer.....hopefully my vertigo will cooperate!

Vertigo...almost worth it.....

Ok so Sunday morning I woke up and felt like I was on an airplane. You know how when your ears are all muffled and you try and plug your nose and blow out...well that is what it was like except it wouldn't pop. I couldn't figure it out. So went to church like that and it stayed all day. I remembered Hunter had some ear drops from his swimmers ear a few weeks ago so I decided to try them. Then I thought hmmmm maybe that wasn't a good idea to use someone else's prescription so I asked our good friend Andrew Florence who is a Dr. ( sooooo nice having a good friend that's a Dr.!) he said it would be fine. (Thanks Andrew!)
I said Phew since I had already used them! Any who...the muffle went away, but Monday morning I woke up and got up out of bed and almost fell over...walked sideways into my bathroom and it hasn't gone away since. So not fun. This is why I don't drink! :)
It really makes you reflect on how grateful you are for your health.
I feel so lucky to have a healthy body, then when something like this happens and I can't just get up and go about my normal day it really makes me stop and think about how blessed I am.
So the point of this story is that today Cooper and Jackson gave me these...I had to go to the store to get a prescription and they somehow sneaked around me and got these....

Cooper got me a payday because I was telling him after I gave birth to all of the kids I'm always starving to death and for some reason always craved a payday....

If you read Coopers card.... he and his brothers have been fighting a lot lately..so when they start again I will just whip out this card!

Jackson's came with a "free" back scratch.....I LOVE back scratches and can't get anyone to give me one very often. A lot of times it comes with bribes...and even money!

So I hope and pray this goes away soon....these today made it almost worth it!

Growing and Eating!

So Jackson has been eating me out of the house lately. He is totally on a growth spurt. He has been loving scrambled eggs lately. I don't know if you all know this but I hate eggs! The smell...everything. So I rarely make them. I have to hold my nose. So Jackson who is 9 has been asking for them a ton lately, decided the only way he would get them was if he makes them himself. Well I have to say he has gotten pretty darn good at making them! (He can only make them when I am home of course...which doesn't really help the smell....oh well) he also knows he has to clean the pan after. Is there a pan out there worse to clean than a scrambled egg pan? Not to me.



This is Jackson saying to me...Oh no your not putting this on your blog!! Well Yes Jackson... Yes I am! Thanks for the idea!

Can't have eggs without pouring a half a bottle of ketchup on them! And I love that he uses a paper plate!

And I also have to say....I am loving the ages of my kids right now. Sienna is so content just playing with her little princess figurines. She will play for hours with them all by herself...quietly! Such a difference from when the boys were her age.
Caught her this morning...right out of bed....just playing by herself. Love it!

Cooper James Casillas Turns 12

Cooper turned 12 on August 1. I can't believe he is 12 yrs old!
It makes me so sad. Every year seems to go faster and faster.
So we had 2 birthday days for Cooper one on his birthday and one for his party with all his friends.
Coop has a lot of friends so it was really hard to narrow down his list. We tried but we still ended up with about 20 boys. 20.. 12 yr old boys..need I say more?

So his birthday started with having to go in to his football weigh in. Let me tell you Cooper has been trying to get down to a certain weight to play a certain position. It's so hard because he is going through his growing phase of his life..where they grow out right before they grow up but he worked his little butt off. Eating no junk and working out. His birthday morning Conwey took him over to sit in the sauna before his weigh in. I am not sure how I feel about all of this. I think it's great he was conscious of what he was putting in his mouth and reading labels, but seriously....so he lost about 10 pds. He was at the weight he needed to be. They go to step on the scale and they say oh you need to put the cleats on. He was a few ounces yes ounces over. He can't play in the position he wants. He is soooooo sad. Conwey too. Not a good start to his Birthday morning.
So he gets home and we go to Robecks (smoothie place) for breakfast. Cooper's choice.


Birthday calls are coming in.....Are you getting a sense of the sad mood....
Except Sienna who is always happy to go to Robecks!

So back to the house to open presents.....


His presents from Sienna...sunglasses and bball shorts... how can she pick out such great stuff? She was actually positive he wanted a Gaston figurine... (Beauty and the Beast)

Present from Jackson. He worked for 4 hours pulling weeds to earn money for Coop's gift and spent every last cent on Cooper. It was so very sweet.

Hunter was actually away at High Adventure Camp and didn't get home until later in the day. It felt really weird to not have him there.

Cooper's big present was a new cell phone. He had been wanting it for soooo long. Actually it is more for me than for him. So nice to be able to keep track of him. He is starting to want a little freedom. Going with friends more, riding his bike around the neighborhood....it's hard for me to let go, but I know I have to give him a little. At least now he can call me every 15 minutes or so. :)

I also had my two great girlfriends Amanda Lewis and Elizabeth Florence here for the weekend (more on that later) but I tried to get a photo of Elizabeth on this morning after she had just got out of the shower and she some how knew it might end up on my blog and wouldn't let me take the picture for some reason...love you guys!

So then we went to the batting cages.



Then Rachel and Jimmy came up. We went to lunch at Coopers favorite place California Tortilla, did a little shopping, and then it was time for Cooper's big family dinner at Red Robin.

Taken with cell phone very bad quality.....but you get the idea.

Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins....he loved every minute of it. Thanks everyone for making the effort to come. It really means so much to him. Especially excited to see The Thomas family cousins! Who just moved to Richmond and are so happy they are closer!

So then it came time for his friend party. Coop made it pretty easy on me and just wanted a big old football game with all his friends. So that's what we did. Football, pizza, cake, ice creme, and presents....what more could a 12 yr old ask for?



Conwey's brother Nico came and helped with the football game...Thanks Nico!

This is Coop's best friends older sister Jordan and we love her! I want Hunter to date her! (when he is 16 of course) Sienna love love loves her too....

10 Things I Love about Cooper.........

1. Tenderest heart I know
2. I trust Cooper more than almost anyone with Sienna, he ALWAYS takes such good care of her.
3. So very passionate about his sports
4. Loves his family so much
5. Loves his friends. He is the most like me I think out of all my kids......
6. Everyone loves Coop... we walk in to school and there is an immediate circle of kids always around him.
7. He always gets good grades.
8. Coop always saves his money and then when birthday's or Christmas' roll around he buys everyone super nice gifts that he thinks and thinks about.
9. Still loves me to come to his school
10. Has sweet talks with me all the time. Loves to go on Sunday walks and just talk.

I love love love Cooper James Casillas!!!!

***Oh and on a side note a little shout out to my hard hard working husband who was just promoted to Vice President of Public Relations in his office! So so proud of you Conwey! So I won't do it on Facebook but sure will on my blog! Love you.