The Boys

I have stopped using a baby book for each boy and I have just opted to use the archive of Facebook and my blog to keep up with their accomplishments and cute things. I am definitely more dedicated to FB and I share my life with the world ;-) or so my hubby says.

That's just me.

Transparent.

It is officially time for me to update my blog on the boys.

Dane turned 5 in June and it just doesn't seem real. Webb turns 3 in a few weeks and I find myself saying, "Really, are my baby days really gone?" (For now?)

One of the things Dane has been saying for quite awhile is, "Gollee". It cracks me up and he puts a nice southern draw on it. Makes me laugh every time I hear it and I find myself saying, "Golllllleeeeeee" all the time.

Dane gave up the training wheels the 2nd week of April while he was still FOUR!!! He mastered the big boy bike in 2 days, but was an instant learner. He is now working on "tricks"-- one hand only, one foot on the bar, riding off curbs and riding up curbs. He is quite talented and brave!

He did have his first major bike wreck in June and I caught the whole thing on video. He was racing another boy down a steep hill and lost control. He plummeted head first into the cement in front of me. What a trooper. Although he hit his head hard, scratched his elbows, hands, and knees, and had the handle bars go into his stomach, he cried for about one minute and never really complained of pain of anything. In August, he went down that same hill again for the first time since June.

Dane LOVES to color and draw. He spends hours each day coloring and he is such a perfectionist. Stays right in the lines and is extremely talented. I print things offline for him to color based on what he wants to color. He will say things like, "Mom, can you get on the internet and go to armyman.com and print me off an angry man?" or "Can you go to ninjalego.com and get me a page?" when really I just google, "army man coloring pages" or whatnot and let him pick. His wording cracks me up and his "knowledge" of the world wide web.

He is always sounding out words. "Ccc-Oooo-Sssss-Ttttt-Cccc-Oooo, is that Costco, mom?" It helps that he already knows it is ;-)

Dane picked up the phrase, "What the heck?" awhile back although he doesn't say it near as frequently now.

He loves chores and is always standing at his chart seeing what he has finished and what still needs to be done. Earning tickets and Best Behavior Tickets make Dane super happy and proud!

Dane got "into" Angry Birds right before he turned 5. That just seems soooo grown up to me!

A few months ago, I went into the boys bathroom and there was pee everywhere! I figured it was Webb, but asked who did it anyways. Dane says, "Oh. It was me." He comes in there and says, "I held my goober like a water hose to see what would happen and the pee went everywhere!" I was speechless and trying not to laugh. I told him to not hold his goober like any object other than a goober and to just focus on peeing when he needed to and to clean up his mess when he forgot! In case you are wondering what he did, he put his finger on the end of his goober and held it tight as he peed like you would to a water hose to make water spray in every direction possible!

By the time Dane was 5, he knew 8 Bible verses and today he knows, 14. He loves to recite and practice them. I give a chocolate chip for each memory verse they know and then as we learn a new one, I give 2-3 for new phrases learned. We make up hand motions and songs to go with the verse and it helps us all remember the verses.

Dane's favorite colors in July were-- blue, black, and camo

He is extremely OCD. He has a certain order he gets dressed, does his chores (they are cards lined up and he REFUSES to go out of the order they are listed. He gets all that from his daddy. He will drive Brent nuts and I remind him where it comes from and Brent will start cracking up and appreciate that OCDness a bit more!), and puts his markers in their box (he knows the exact order and I don't. I always get in trouble for putting them in the wrong place. Brent likes to sneak and switch them all around. Dane will pull them out and say, "HEEEEY!!!!!! WHO MESSED UP MY MARKERS???!!!! THEY AREN'T IN ORDER!!!!!!!"). Don't mess with his order or sequence of anything!!!

Dane is a hoarder. I am not and it drives me batty. He, once again, gets that from his daddy. He doesn't want to throw away anything and everything has a special meaning. He has 2 treasure boxes. One is a small wooden one we got from Hobby Lobby and I let him paint it and the other is a Nike shoe box. He keeps all his special things in there or special money (a dollar from the preacher is in there, a dollar from Boppa, and a quarter from Papa.). He has this fireman house that sits next to his bed. All of his special things are on it or in it. It looks like a trash receptacle and drives me bananas. If I even mention him cleaning it up he says, "MOM! No!! This is my SPECIAL stuff!!!"

He loves to play with big boys and if he sees some out, he automatically starts doing "cool" things for them to see or so they will notice him.

Dane learned to swim in July and is great! He must have on googles and I pride myself in that I was his teacher! Whoo hoo! I didn't know I knew how to teach swimming ;-) we saved a lot of money by me doing so.

He has started begging for a dirt bike. He and Brent will sit on YouTube and watch videos of kids racing and search for which dirt bike Dane should get, etc. He is ALL boy!

Dane loves to go to church, Bible study, and AWANA. Almost every day he will ask me if today is a church day.

He is so self sufficient and can do almost everything for himself on his own. I am amazed at what a mature, good boy he is!


Dane has mastered counting to 100 and does almost everyday. Now, he is begging for me to teach him how to count to 1,000 and I refuse to! LOL.

He struggles with his attitude and anger. He crosses those arms and gives looks out that could kill and gets in trouble multiple times a day for it ;-) Definitely something that I am in constant prayer about.

Dane is very interested in Heaven and the things of God. He tells us Jesus is in his heart and I prayerfully wait for the day he is truly ready and understands he hasn't done that yet. I was saved at 5 and I am hopeful and optimistic that this could be Dane's year to be born again!

Dane amazes me everyday at how bright he is and how easily he catches on. I am so thankful God led us to homeschool as each day is an adventure and I love sharing it with him. He is such a good boy and aims to please.

He loves to read and we read chapter books on a regular basis.

I think his love language might be quality time and he sincerely craves that and needs individual time with just mom and dad. Even if it is just 5 minutes here and there.

Dane, I LOVE being your mom. You are a challenge and you force me to better myself constantly. I look at you and see innocence, faith, and happiness. I am constantly praying that God would make me into the mom you deserve. You are truly a gift from God and I want you with all of my being.


Webb is about to turn 3 on Sept 1.

He is still my baby in so many ways though and has even started telling us recently, "I not a big boy. I teal a baaabbby. Hoed me." He will crawl through the house and even outside. Sometimes, he even lays at my breast and pretends to nurse. He will cry out, "Waaaa- Waaaaa". He told us to turn his carseat backwards "betause babies not wide dat way and I a baaabby." We have named Webb as the baby, BamBam.

Webb was potty trained the first week of April and mastered that immediately. The only accidents he has are when he passes out, which have become a daily occurrence again :-/

Webb loves to make us laugh. He will definitely be the laugh of the party and the "class clown". A few months ago, he would turn into a "mad kitty" and would have a mean Meow and would bite the couch or your shirt and pull the fabric back as he had a "mad" face.

Sometimes, life happens and I have to pray for Webb. He might not feel good or have lost his kitty. Whenever I pray for him, I peek out and watch him, he will be struggling with his bottom lip. It comes out and he starts boo-hooing. He is super sensitive.

Webb says, "Hehe. I twick you" all the time. Especially if he lies and he knows he has been found out. He'll look all guilty and smile and say, "Hehe. I twick you." It is so hard not to laugh.

He stacks his food when he eats. Every morning, he eats 2 pieces of bacon (or more, but never less) and I have to stack his eggs on top and feed him. LOL.

A few months back he would say the phrase, "What??? Tell me, momma!" and it was so precious. Anytime I would say I have a surprise, or guess what.

His official Webb Phrase would have to be "I not tare" (said with an attitude). He says it if we tell him he will get hurt or if we tell him his shirt is on backwards or his shoes are on the wrong feet, "I not tare." Sometimes, we tell him things just to aggravate him and hear his response that we already know he will say. His newest phrase is, "I be tough!" Tonight, we were playing down the road and the kids had a swingset. He slide was missing off one side and Webb was about to jump. I said, "Oh no you don't. You'll get hurt and pass out." He said, "nuh-uh. I be tough, mom." I went on the edge to catch him and right when I got there, he acted like he would jump to me and twicked me. He turned to the other side really quick and jumped before I could get there. He laughed at me and said, "I tell you I be tough!" Then, he did it again before I could get to him and passed out cold the minute he hit the ground. He was out for about 25sec and peed all over himself. He has sprained his ankle apparently (swollen and can't put any weight on it) and I said, "I thought you were going to be tough!"

Along with the "mad kitty", Webb also turns into a "mad man". If you have ever seen him wrestle before, this isn't hard to imagine. He squints up his eyes and balls his fits up next to his face. He puts his meanest face on (which is still not very mean looking), but what makes him "mad" to me is how tough he is. He will claw, bite, pull hair, and NEVER give up. You can be dead exhausted from wrestling for 30 minutes and here comes Webb, charging at you again ready to fight once more!

He is tough as nails. Sure he can be whiny, but he is strong and tough and can defend not only himself, but Dane! Dane was being bullied at the pool one day from some much older kids. I was sitting back listening and when Dane tattled to me that one had called him a baby (which I clearly heard), before I could respond, Webb stood up next to Dane, faced those kids, and puffed out his chest. He screamed to that child in particular at the top of his lungs, "WELLLLLL!!! YOU A BUTT-HOE!!!!"

Webb learned to swim in June, before Dane did. That was on purpose. He had NO fear of the pool. He has no fear in general. One day at the pool, before he learned to swim, he had his floaties off because he and Dane went to the kitty pool (Webb has always thought we are saying "Kitty" pool when we say Kiddie pool). He came running back to the big pool which I was in. He had this huge, daredevil smile on his face. As he got closer, he dodged me and ran to another side of the pool, laughing hysterically the entire time and yells at me, "Not tatch me! I tan wim!!!!!". I'm in the water, which makes it hard to run, but I run after him. My sister-in-law, her boys, Dane (none of who can swim so she is watching them while they are in the pool helpless to assist me), and the ENTIRE pool watched this unfold. As I run towards him, he darts back to where I came from, still laughing and yelling, "I tan wim, mom! Not tatch me!!". I run back that way and he darts the other way. I start to get frantic as I realize how big this pool is and how I'm in the middle pretty much helpless while he does this. I start saying ,"No Webb! You can't swim. You will go under!!" He gets more cocky and starts running further distances away from me and yells, "I NOT TARE!!!!!". I end up yelling, "NO, WEBB, NOOOO!" So, if everyone wasn't already watching, they are now. I'm sure they were impressed with how much control I had over my child. He eventually jumps in while I'm no where close and I have to swim to him. When I pull him up, he is smiling from ear to ear and said, "I tell you I tan wim, MOM!!!" I was speechless. I was also exhausted. I told Brent that day, "no more trying to teach Dane to swim. He has a healthy fear. Webb is my number one priority." And he did learn to wim. Very quickly. Now, he flips in the pool instead of jumping. Such a daredevil.

Webb sleeps in his bed every night, but gets up and gets into our bed every single night. A few months ago, every single morning he would call out for me. When I would get in there, he would have his face buried and say, "Baaakk, Baaaakkk" (like a chicken) and he would say, "A ticken in your bed, mom!"

His favorite color is pink :-)

He is still super attached to me and passed out this past week because I told him he couldn't get in the shower with me because we were in too big of a hurry.

He mastered a scooter before the age of 3! I find that highly impressive.

He still nurses in his sleep (not for real). His sucking noises wake me up every night. I tell Brent that means he got taken off the tit too soon ;-) He finds it hard to believe that 30 mnts was too soon to wean.

When Webb spells his name he says, "Double, E, B, B." So it sounds like he is EEBB. He calls "W" a "double".

Webb is like a little echo for Dane. ANYTHING that Dane says, Webb repeats it word for word. I often make Dane let Webb answer first or else, I won't really know Webb's answer.

He idolizes his big brother. I think that is normal. I sure idolized mine growing up!

Webb knows about 8 Bible verses and he took catches on very quickly. I am going to start working with him this year as Dane starts Kindergarten because he wants to do school with Dane and I can see how eager he is to learn as well.

Webb makes more messes than any child I've ever know. He destroys things just to destroy them and spills things just to splash in them. Every morning, it appears more eggs are on the floor than in his stomach. If he is carrying a glass of any liquid, go ahead and count on him spilling it, because he will ;-) He keeps me on my toes and is always finding something get into.

Because of Dane, Webb has been listening to chapter books for about 5 months and understanding them. He loves to read also!

Webb, I LOVE being a mom to you!! You keep me on my toes and force me to work on developing patience. When I look at you, I see joy, lightheartedness, and trust. You make me want to better myself and be all you think I already am. You are truly a gift from God and I want you with all of my being.


I am so grateful that God allows me to raise these boys. It is my prayer that I honor God as a mom and that He receives all the honor and glory for their life. They are such blessings and although they know how to frazzle me and truly make me loose my mind ;-)  I can't imagine my life any other way and I wouldn't choose it any other way!