Maude's first painting

I am in love with this painting! So proud of her and her willingness to try something new. Maude doesn't always like to try new things...

Joshua's birthday Baylor game

Cody took Joshua and his best friend to Baylor homecoming for Joshua's birthday. They have had dr pepper floats, Viteks gut packs, stormed the field after 41-14 victory and got to sit on the first row. Think they made a few memories today! What an awesome husband I have and how lucky are our kids to have a daddy that takes time out for them and let's them know how special they are!

Aidan's first two deer

Aidan has wanted to hunt for a couple of years. He has practiced in our yard and in the neighborhood for the past two years also!! I have had many many birds and squirrels lined up on the driveway. He was very excited to get these two. Very proud of him and he got to make this memory with his Granddad! I have many many memories with my dad hunting but we never had a heated deer blind:)

Boys and Football

Boys of Fall We finished today the football season. This was Joshua's first year to play and he played with all heart every play. Very proud of him and his teammates. They lost their first game and then won the next 6 games very good season. Cody also coached this group. He was a great influence on these young boys. Aidan's team went the entire season without a lost. Aidan started the year not knowing if he wanted to play. Right before the season started Aidan's coach he had played under for 2 years died in a car crash. He was heartbroken and didn't know if he wanted to play for someone else. Throughout this season after many games he always would say wish Eddie was still here.

Family Picture

Brothers

Best Friends

Best Friends

Should I be concerned?

Top of Joshua's helmet....
Think this is when he got a new bike this summer that had working brakes and he found out it's not a good idea to pull both brakes at same time...

Best friends

Maude and Miss Tinley are in home room this year together:) Last week they went to Palo Duro canyon and had a great time with their class!

Blue/green?

Is my blue eyed boy turning green? His hair had started getting darker and now his eyes?!?

All A's for all 3

Not easy this 6 weeks but all 3 were able to get all A's this past 6 weeks! We carried on tradition of donuts on Friday. Apparently you are too cool to have award ceremony's every 6 weeks in middle school, so no picture of Aidan:(
We had a surprise visit from Annie at the ceremony and celebrated with city drug ice cream!

Tennis

Aidan has been playing in a fall tennis league. It is his first time to play and compete. He played in the 14 and under age division which is a division up. He has played well but never could get a win. Today he played great and won mixed doubles and singles both scores 8-3:) such a great confidence booster.

Mom survival of boys

Joshua broke his hand last week and all week he has said he was going to play football today. Well he did much against my liking his dad reassured me he would be fine. He played offense and defense and a little quarterbacking. Joshua even threw with his brace on his right hand, completing 3 for 3 passes one for 25 yards. His team won 28-0:)
Aidan's team won 54-14. Aidan played a little as quarterback as well but mainly defense. Love watching my boys play. My favorite part is the smiles when they come off the field after the game!

Sent from my iPhone

My sweet girl

True love

In a moment like this you see true love and concern. Aidan was so concerned and sad for his brother. Joshua got hit on the hand while running the ball with a facemask/helmet in yesterday's game. He will have more X-rays on Monday to determine if the metacarpal is fractured. He was sad and hurt rolled into one. I shed a few tears for him on the way home because he just stared out the window saying 'it's only my 2nd game!' This boy has so much heart for everything he does and he has waited a long year to finally get to play. Praying for the best for him! Love that blue eyed boy!!

Wildcat homecoming!

This year it happened....all 3 kids have a 'date' to homecoming! Maude was worried her Daddy would be upset but he handled it really well better than me:) It has been a fun week at school! I love fall and everything that goes with it.

Wacky Wednesday

I love homecoming week:)

Great day for football

Joshua and Aidan played a little football today. Joshua's team lost 12-18 and Aidan's team won 42-26. Both boys played great and their teammates:) looking forward to watching this group!

Tennis anyone?

Aidan played in his first organized tennis meet today. I would love to tell everyone how he won but he didn't:) he is playing in the 14 and under division. The first singles match was one to get all jitters out and he wasn't sure what he had gotten himself into. Second was boy doubles and still a little nervous but getting better.
Second round was against Tulia:) which ended up to be against his friends he use to hang around. Doubles they had to play a tie breaker after 7-7. They lost but played better. Then he played a singles game against a friend he lost this one as well but the jitters were finally out and hit the ball really really well. So yeah for tennis that I know nothing about:) do you think I can learn all the rules on YouTube?

Art lessons

Maude started art lessons this past Thursday. This is her first attempt at pastels. She loved it and I am looking forward to filling the walls with art:)

My oldest boy

Most adults don't see this side of Aidan:)
I look at him in this picture and think how lucky am I to get to watch him grow up. He is such a sweet funny kid. I know that at this young age of 11 he has so much to accomplish and in another 11 years I will sit across the table from him and he will have changed the lives of many. He might have just graduated from Baylor after playing tennis for four years. He might be fixing to go to dental school or into the mission field.
I do know I will hang on to every glimpse he gives me and those crazy smiles and his funny laughter. I love this boy and his heart. Go be a light!

Weekend away

So we ran off to Waco for opening game last night. I was kind of nervous not knowing what to expect after leaving last year on such a high note. So glad they played well :)

In true Culwell fashion we had a memorable weekend... Joshua ate in and out burger before the game, funnel cake, corn dog, lemon ice and chuys for dinner. Only to see it all again in the hotel bathroom. There is such a thing as over eating. He is constantly hungry these days so this typically would not be a abnormal undertaking for him but spice of chuys got him. Cody slept with him. Which meant I had Maude the tumbler in bed!! Only to have Aidan join us at 2 am because he was frozen. So I 'slept' on my 6 inches of the bed in between Maude moaning and sniffling and coughing all night. She has ran fever the whole way home. So normal right? This is how the rest of you travel right??

First day of school

Typical Culwell start Aidan and Maude were prepared yesterday. Backpacks were laying at the end of their beds and clothes were already picked out. They both were up as soon as they heard me say time to get up. Both of them were too nervous/excited to eat breakfast. Joshua was last to get up, rolled out of bed went and ate breakfast...hair a CRAZY mess. Then as we stepped outstide to take first day of school picture he looked at Aidan and Maude and said "Oh I need a backpack" then reached behind the backdoor to unload his backpack from the last day of school last year. Walked out with it unzipped and holding a football. Dropped Aidan off at MIDDLE SCHOOL!! When he got out I said "you have your schedule right?" His eyes said it all. So quick call to Dad to run it up the street. While I dropped off the other two I was looking for a place to park and asking Maude if she knew where they were going, when Joshua said "I got this Mom, Maude just come with me and I will show you were to go." Maude said "Ok Mom just drop us off at the door." And somewhere in the midst of crazy morning traffic and not so awake I actually let him take her!!!! What was I thinking?

3rd, 4th and 6th

Noooo

I just registered Aidan in 6th grade. Wow! How can that be?!? Joshua and Maude registered yesterday into 4th and 3rd, this is just going way too fast for me!
Sent from my iPhone

Oh Roxy

She loves the kids and I mean loves them!!! She hugs all the time it's so weird to watch her put her paws around them. This is her loving on Joshua. She just doesn't know she is 65 pounds of love... They kind of love her too:)

Sweet Maude

I hope this never changes. Maude and I toured a museum in Waco. We both sat on opposites sides of the table and drew what we wanted our coat of arms to be. When we got up to see we were almost identical in what we had drawn. I have to say dragging my kids around from camp to camp and chasing them from event to event I pray this will always be shown in my life as the center.

How lucky am I that I get to spend time with this gorgeous girl inside and out?

Cheater!

Cody has been checking standings on the Olympics before we watch them and it has been driving me nuts!! So tonight I begged him not to give me any indication on who won or didn't And then he slipped.... Guess who is going to watch the Olympics in the garage apartment?

Hmmmm

Aidan is rarely crazy! He is fixing to start middle school and I don't know if that's why his sudden hysterical self has emerged. When packing for camp he came in mad! He said "I have no shorts that come in between my finger tips and knees!! They are all lower than my knees! I can't wear any of my shorts!" Then yesterday he was at the skate park with friends. I drove by and dropped off gatorades another mom took them lemonade. I stopped back by later to check on them because of the heat and make sure he was drinking. I pulled up and asked "are you drinking?" he said "NO!" I said you really need to be it's hot outside. He then grinned and said "oh I thought you meant drinking drinking!! I am drinking Gatorade."

Time will tell

But I think Joshua will out grow both of these boys!

The NYC model

This past spring there was a photographer in town from nyc and she picked a few girls that had American girl dolls and spent a few HOURS at our house taking pictures of Maude. Maude now is hanging in 3 galleries in NYC and one gallery in Spain. It was very interesting and fun but Maude said she didn't ever want to model after that!!

Friends

Like I said earlier I wish their future wives luck!

Roxy

Most of my stress comes from this dog!! Thankfully she has finally settled down and is part of the family now.

All 3 basketball

Representing Culwell in all divisions :)

Maude basketball

Maude played basketball for the first time this past year. I coached their team and after being with boys for the past couple of years it took some getting use to. There was a lot of talk about shirts and they talk a lot!! Our first day of going back and forth down the court I had two girls just sit down on the court one off them being Maude. I asked what she was doing and she replied "why can't we just use this one goal?!? So we don't have to run back and forth!"

Shamrock tournament

1st place after a long day in the HOT sun. I love his grin and all the red dirt on him. Got to pitch a couple of innings this tournament.

All Star Baseball

Joshua surprised us this summer. We played in the little league all star tournament, which has a million rules. One of them being a pitch count. Cody helped coach and realized with game 3 going by that we were not going to have any pitchers left and Joshua was next on the list. Joshua has never pitched so Cody took him out to kind of show him how to do it. Well the next night we did indeed run out of pitchers and Joshua was up. Pretty sure my stomach turned over. The kid shocked all of us and struck them out. The only one not going crazy and excited was him.

Baylor Basketball

How summer really goes...

Aidan went to Camp Blue Haven June 3-9 Both boys basketball camp at Canadian June 11 & 12 Both Boys Baylor Basketball Camp June 13-16 Aidan's team won championship Tennis camp Maude and Aidan June 19-21 Joshua All Star baseball June 22-25 Joshua Baseball Shamrock tournament June 30 Cody left for Honduras June 29-July 6 Aidan Church camp with our church July 15-21 Joshua WT basketball Camp July 15-19 Joshua won layup award Boys football camp July 23 & 24 Red River 26-29 FAMILY TIME FINALLY Through all those dates Maude and Aidan take tennis lessons and Maude goes to the library with a reading buddy. I am exhausted just reading all of that! Happy to state the next 3 1/2 weeks are ours and no plans!!

Comedith's Birthday

We baked a cake and celebrated Comedith's birthday. Even though she only took one bite, my Mom said she talked all day about the kids and her cake:)

Summer

Last day of school we had to celebrate!!

Smart kids

As crazy as our lives are and as nonstop as we go...I am proud of the kids for maintaining their grades and participating in all of it. This is not a brag post it's just a way of having it documented what they did this year. 2011/2012 Maude had all A's this year and was awarded the math and reading award. She also read enough books to earn over 200 AR points. Which passes her brothers.:) Joshua participated in UIL Ready Writing, Spelling and Art Smart He was on the 5th grade Art Smart team and they placed 2nd as a team. Joshua also had all A's for the entire year. Aidan participated in UIL Number sense, Dictionary, spelling and Art Smart Joshua was on Aidan's 5th grade art smart team. Aidan also participated in Robotics and competed at regionals in Amarillo placing 2nd. They advanced to State in Dallas. They were one of the youngest teams there and competed against jr high kids. It was a neat experience. They placed 25th out of 1100 teams. Not too bad. Aidan also finished his last year at Baker elementary. He finished top 10 in his class. I am not ready for middle school!!!

Track meet

Both boys were in the Baker track meet this year. This picture shows why we have to take 20 pictures for one good one! This is what I have to work with!

Leadership Training in Christ

We attended LTC this year. All the kids did bible scripture reading. It was our first year so we went down to Dallas to check it out and see what all we could do in the future. The kids did great and had a lot of fun together. They were a very sweet group to be around.

April 2012

Christmas 2011

This year we celebrated Christmas at our house. I really enjoyed it, we will see if the rest of the family enjoyed it as much as me this year.