WWE RAW!!!!!

Back in August, I believe, my brother left for Australia.  He became a temporary resident there, due to a "special project" he was working on, in his career as an FBI agent.  Before he left, he promised Tyson that he would take his son, Will, as well as Tyson, to a WWE RAW wrestling match upon his return.  Tyson literally counted the days down! David stuck to his promise and purchased tickets for a December 30th match. My mom was also visiting, so it was a double treat.  

The night of the match, the boys made posters for their favorite wrestlers.

Uncle David helped out a lot.  Who knew he was into "crafting!" I had to take a picture of his tongue sticking out.  LOL! He used to use his tongue, as a kid, when playing video games.  I think it helped him advance to the next level.  #socomical

Uncle David came downstairs all dressed and ready for the event.  I guess the sunglasses, on the t-shirt, symbolizes one of the wrestler's known attire.

The boys completed their posters and were all smiles, knowing it was almost time to go.

Jax chose John Cena! "You can't C me!"

Ty chose "Big Show".

Will chose CM Punk!

My brother didn't bring a camera, of course, MEN, but he captured two shots at the event.

Jax didn't have a nap that day, so by 10:30 pm, I think he was DONE! He couldn't take another minute. He truly had to be tired to 1. Fall asleep (it's LOUD) and 2. Trust that his Uncle David wouldn't leave him there, but rather carry him to the car. LOL!   

Dave, we are very thankful for fulfilling your promise to our boys.  They will never forget that night.  I'm thankful they have at least one uncle that they are able to visit with on a regular basis.  

Precious Times...

Two weekends ago, I traveled to Richmond to see visit my brother's family.  My mother was also there.

It means the world to me when my children can spend time with their grandparents.

Being that I only had ONE, strong grandparent figure in my life, I always wanted my children to have an insanely strong bond with my parents/husband's parents. Sadly, it's not often enough.  

Gram brought gingerbread cookies, ALL the way from Florida, for her grandkids to decorate.

 

The decorating kept them quiet for a good 10 minutes.

Until they started drinking the frosting!

And dousing their cookies in candy galore.

Then the WWE wrestling began… on each other.

I always had a very close relationship with my cousins, growing up, until the family dynamics got too intense, and sadly, we don't talk at all (unless we attend a funeral). My hope is that my children have an amazing bond with the cousins they have. So far, the relationships are awesome; the visits are just not as often as I'd like. Proximity is to blame.  We are working on that though and I believe we are getting better at both the quantity and quality of our time together.  #thankful

There will be a few more pictures to come, in another post, of our visit.  Surprisingly, I failed to take my camera out, like I normally do.

They Picked Up Right Where They Left Off...

My brother and his family came to visit for the weekend.

 Cousins

 Playing

 Indoor

Football 

 Running

Tackling 

 Charging

Pulling 

 Rough 

 & TOUGH

 Laughter

 Memories!

Cousins: Childhood playmates who grow up being forever friends.

2Good + 2Be = 4Gotten

We have so many friends/family members starting kindergarten in the next few days/weeks.  It's so hard to believe that Ansley, Cohen, Salene, Vivian, and Will are entering the "big girl/boy" school system.  They are so sweet and we wanted to make sure to express our excitement for them, so we put together a few little school supply items for them to take with them. We delivered a few of the packages today and we will mail out the rest tomorrow.  

 First up, our dear friend Cohen!

Cohen is 4 1/2 and will be starting kindergarten tomorrow.

His mommy is home schooling him.

She has chosen the "Classical Conversation" route.

We are praying for their first day to go smoothly tomorrow.

From what I understand, his requested lunch is packed and ready.
Chicken tender/honey mustard sandwich... crazy kid.

 Salene, my sister and sweet "cousin" to my children.

It seems like just yesterday she was born

How in the world did this happen so fast?

Salene starts school on September 1st.

She's such a smarty and can definitely hold her own.

I have no doubt this will be a great thing for her.

 Aeila, my cuttie pattootie niece.

If you spotted her in person, you'd never think she was old enough for school.

She is such a little shortie, but she's bright as a whistle.  

She lives in PA, so my guess is that school starts after Labor Day!

Mommy will have a quieter house without her around.

 My nephew William will also be starting kindergarten next week.

Right now, he's spending his last week of freedom at the beach.

He's blessed, in that, his mommy works at his school.

I have no doubt he's going to love big boy school.

 Vivian should be entering 1st or 2nd grade with her reading level.

She has been reading since she's been three.  

We will be praying for her mommy to make some good decisions for her.

Her bus picks her up at 645 am, so this will be a huge transition for her. 

She is lucky though to be in Ansley's class and KNOWS the teacher personally.

 Ansley will also appear to be a 1st or 2nd grader, due to her height.

She is probably going to be the tallest kid in her class.

Ansley lives so close to the school that she could probably roll out of bed,

10 minutes before class starts, and be there just in the nick of time.

 The back of their folders relate to our faith.

 Ministering doesn't stop at church or home.

 So, I made sure they bring it into the school system too.

We love each and every one of you and will be praying for an easy transition to take place.  The hardest part is just being gone from home, all day, without any rest.  Otherwise, I think you all will LOVE being at school, learning and playing with your friends. WE, on the other hand, will miss our playdate fun :(  All good things must come to an end, I guess.

A Trip To Richmond and Busch Gardens

My brother's job has moved him all the way across the world to Australia WITHOUT his family.  It's a great "promotion"/accomplishment, but it's sad that he is missing out on being with them daily.  His wife, Amanda, is a school teacher, so the plan was as soon as school got out for the summer, her and the boys would travel to see him, spend the summer with him, and return before her new school year began. Unfortunately, Amanda's father's cancer has spread to his bone marrow and brain and he has been given 6-12 weeks to live.  Amanda and her father are VERY close, so she has cancelled her trip to reside in Australia for the summer, with my brother, to spend her father's last days with him. I knew this news would be devastating... all of it.  So I asked Amanda what I could do to help, if anything.  Amanda said, "Having visitors, for Will especially, would help distract us for a day or so."  SO, that's exactly what we did.  We loaded up the car on Wednesday and hung out with the Crisafi family until Friday.  Will and Tyson reunited like they just saw each other the day before. Lilah and Jax kind of tagged along and when Michael would allow Lilah to, she would follow him around "mothering" him. We got a ton accomplished in just the short 2 days we were there.  On Thursday, we went to Busch Gardens.  It was my second time and the kids FIRST time ever.  I think we ALL had a ton of fun. In fact, we had so much fun, we are heading back there THIS wednesday with daddy to spend a few days at Busch Gardens and Water Country Safari.  Enjoy the photos I took while in Richmond/Williamsburg.  I am posting a few of my favorites and then you can double click on the photo album below to view ALL of them, if you so desire.  :)

*George Coleman is Amanda's father's name if you wouldn't mind keeping him in your prayers, mostly for pain management.  Amanda has a twin sister (Melissa) and a mother (Vicki) who has been married to George for 40 years.

 Love this shot of the 3 boys.

Aunt Amanda took it while I was waiting in line at BG to park.

 By request, the first ride the kids rode was the "Pirate Ship".

From the looks of it, Amanda is the ONLY one who was having fun.

 Aunt Amanda and Michael.  Sorry I cut you out Will :(

 Watching a show in Germany, while I grabbed lunch.

 Ropes course.

Lilah really was there, lol!

Michael and Lilah were limited on what they could ride.

They hung out mostly together on the "baby rides".

Shorties......

 Jax was super psyched to learn how tall he really was.

He has grown 5 inches in the last year.

This allowed him to ride the BIG boy swings.

Tea cups.

 "Weeeeee!"

 Face painting fun!

 I rode the Pompeii Rapids with the boys.

I was in desperate need of being refreshed by some cold water.

THAT'S probably the ONLY reason I agreed to riding it.

 It actually was fun, but the straight down part wasn't, lol!

 COUSINS!!!!

Below, Tyson, Jax, and Will do the ropes course.

 Aunt Amanda braved the dizzy tea cup rides with all the kids.  I would have been sick the rest of the day if I rode this.

I braved the Pompeii Water Rapids ride with the three oldest boys.  We rode it twice.  I chanced video recording it with my iPhone, but when we got inside the tunnel, someone asked me to shut my camera off.  LOL!  Leave it to me to get yelled at on a ride for having my video camera on.  Oh well, it's probably better than I didn't have it in my hands while going straight down.  I probably would have lost it.  

ONE of the reasons we are going back this weekend is because we didn't even finish HALF the park & tickets to go BACK were only $15 since we were able to apply last week's ticket prices to the return ticket.  AN AWESOME DEAL!!!!