HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY LOGAN!

Today was my nephew Logan's 5th bday party!

It was a swim party with fun had by all!

Cake

Presents

Watch out Tyler!

My nephew Noah - this face is priceless!

My brother Rob - he is the definition of farmer's tan

If I drink Sunkist can I have a body like my niece Monika?!?!?

Caution: Blue icing will turn your teeth blue

Elijah going down the slide

Isaiah is finally talked into going down the slide HOWEVER Jimmy thought Rob was down there to catch him and Rob thought Jimmy was going down with him SOOO......

....luckily Jim was there and got him out but he was UNHAPPY to say the least!

He pretty much stuck to water guns after the slide fiasco!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISAAC!

Today was my nephew Isaac's birthday party. It was at a park splashpad and it was hot to say the least. We had a good time, played, ate pizza and cake and got wet!

Elijah and Micah high atop a HUGE rock. How Isaiah got up there I still don't know but it made my heart skip several beats!!

YOUTHQUAKE 2008

I am so excited for Tez I could just bust!! Tez left this afternoon for church camp in Como, Colorado with my niece Kristin and her church youth group. This is his first camping trip - wish I could watch it could be funny! I went to camp in cabins at a camp site but they are actually going camping in the mountains! Tez went with us to Branson a few weeks ago and I think that was the first out of state trip that he can remember. I am so excited for him! He is going to have more fun than he can even imagine! I think Martez is a little jealous b/c he keeps saying I didn't get to go to camp like he is still a teenager. I went to camp every year from second grade through my senior year in high school plus annual church trips to Six Flags, retreats a couple of times per year and Youth Congress in Florida. I loved every minute of those trips and the memories I still have even though somehow our bus broke down on every trip to Six Flags. I can't even begin to count how many pictures I have aside the highway while we still had fun waiting for help to arrive - pre-cellphone days! Although buying the plethora of camping items was tedious I was just so excited I didn't really care! I can't wait to hear all about the trip! He seemed a little nervous and unsure when I dropped him off but still excited for his adventure ahead! Isaiah on the other hand was so upset his big brother was leaving that he screamed and cried himself to sleep on the way home! ;(

You know what really irritated me....well I am about to tell you. Tez's mother kept saying, "Well does he really want to go." YES we aren't forcing him to use the opportunity to have fun in the mountains of Colorado. The my MIL kept asking questions like, "Did you give them a phone number to call if something happens? What if he doesn't like it? Does he know anyone he is going with? Will he be the only black kid?" My answers: First of all they would not allow him to go without emergency contact info. Second of all do you really think we would send him to the mountains of Colorado to camp and not give them an emergency phone number. If he doesn't like it we are not going to go get him anyway so he can suck it up and try to act his age. He is going with his cousin Kristin and the other teens from the youth group he has been going to for months. I don't know if any other black children will be there and it should NOT even matter!!! I seriously doubt they will have a Christian lynching of the black boy. We try not to send our kids to a racist church camp. I wanted to say he experiences far more racism from you than he ever will with the WHITE people we associate with!! SERIOUSLY THAT CRAP IS SO IRRITATING, STUPID, JUVENILE, IMMATURE, IDIOTIC..............you get the point right! WHO IS THE RACIST HERE? I SWEAR IT NEVER ENDS.

SWIMMING LESSONS LEVEL 2

This morning was Elijah's final day of swimming lessons Level 2. He was so excited to show me that he can jump off the diving board but it never happened. I must say the instructor is brave to appear in front of all the skinny moms in a bathing suit. She is burley! Mean I know! I was very proud of my boy he came a long way this past month. He didn't pass Level 2 and will need to repeat it next summer but NONE of the kids passed so I didn't feel so bad.

After lessons they got a special treat - go down the slide!! The first time Elijah went down he didn't realize he did a flip underwater, came up disoriented and panicked not realizing he could touch. I will never forget the look in his eyes each time he popped up and I was SCREAMING, "STAND UP BABY YOU CAN TOUCH!" The instructor wasn't paying attention until I screamed the second time and dropped my camera fully preparing to save my boy. I've never had a feeling like that with him and he just had a terrified look in his eyes. She grabbed him, showed him he could stand up and then asked if he wanted to try again. His first response was NO but his friends pepped him up and he tried and succeeded the second time. Don't think I wasn't totally terrified for the second try!!!!

This first attempt scared the crap out of me b/c he didn't pop right back up!

The second time I just held my breathe and prayed until he popped out of the water with a smile asking to go again!

Do do do do....the DEEP END AND THE DIVING BOARD!

All he talked about all week was showing me he could jump off the diving board but when the time came he look terrified and anxious. No matter how much we begged and bribed it just never happened! Oh well maybe next year!

Deep in thought

Every time we thought he was going to jump he would merely reach down and scratch his foot. He did this about 10 times! Next year baby!

BA FOOTBALL COMBINE

Today was the BA football combine aka draft. I still can't believe they draft 6yr olds. That is beyond my comprehension - hello they are 6! It was HOT - sweat rolling down your back and into your eyes hot and we were out there for about 2 hrs!! Elijah, much to my surprise, was "protected" after only running two drills!! Woohoo! He was the 2nd fastest kid and I think he got that from running from me when he is in trouble - lol! In the second running drill he still got a good time EVEN with his pants falling down. What a sight to see! The timer kept yelling "just run buddy don't worry about your pants" so I look over to see him running his little heart out holding his pants as he goes. He is in between sizes right now. The XS is too small and the SM is too big! Guess we will be searching for new pants tomorrow!! I am proud of my boy regardless!

Run Forrest Run!

Look at their cute little butts in the air!

"WE'RE WATCHING A MOVIE MOM!"

Tonight Martez watched a movie with Elijah and Isaiah while I was cleaning. Anytime I would ask for help I would get, "WE'RE WATCHING A MOVIE WITH DADDY, MOM!" Irritating at the moment but cute because they were so excited Daddy was in THEIR bed watching a movie with them that I didn't care. Then I kept saying it was time to go to bed and would again get "WE'RE WATCHING A MOVIE WITH DADDY, MOM!". Again annoyed but I didn't mind! When I finally really needed Martez and no one was answering me I went in to see them all sprawled across Elijah's bed sound asleep with Samson snoring in tune with Martez! How cute are they! I rushed to get the camera, took several pictures, covered them up, turned the TV off and shut the door behind me so my three loves could sleep!

PRICELESS MOMENTS ARE THE BEST

FUN IN THE SUN

Today wanted to take the kids to Big Splash. I did not want to be in a bathing suit with all the skinny teenagers running around in bikinis besides the fact that the kids wouldn't be able to do half of the fun things and Martez can't swim SO basically we would pay a hunk of money to play in a kiddie pool. I suggested we go out to Nienhuis Pool with the cool slides and different kiddie areas. Elijah was so excited to show us everything he has been learning in swimming lessons and I was excited to just be out! Off to Nienhuis we went........

Showing me he can float

That face is priceless!

Showing he can put his head underwater (Look how dark he is!)

This face cracks me up! He makes this face everytime he comes up from having his face underwater!

This is a really cool community pool and for just $12 we all had a blast! Plenty of slides, cool kiddie areas with slides and I must say I thought the main pool was neat but odd. The main pool is different depths all over which was nice for the kids even Isaiah was able to stand up in certain areas. I must say I didn't have to worry about how I looked in a bathing suit (it's real bad!) b/c there was a ton of "heavies" out there and a bunch of them were sporting swimsuits they should not have been wearing esp. in public!!! Made me feel pretty good though! Sad but true.....fat people always like to see people fatter than them!!

My boys are getting so dark! Elijah is darker each year and I keep saying at this rate in a couple of years he will just look black and people won't think I am his mom! lol I, on the other hand, just burned like a little crisp today! It wasn't even too hot in fact in the pool when the wind would pick up it was a little chilly! Don't let the temp and clouds fool you - it is one hot summer sun that will definitely burn your shoulders - I know firsthand!

PBR

One of the things some of you may not know about me is I love to watch bull riding and the cowboys that do it! We go see the PBR every year it comes to Tulsa and occasionally watch bull riding on TV. This year my Dad got a bunch of PBR VIP tickets and most of the family went last night. It was really neat we got to eat beforehand and received a backstage tour. Gotta love it!

Part of the backstage tour was seeing where the bulls are kept. The bull on the left really did NOT like my foot and flip flop....scary!

One of the many reasons to watch PBR is Adriano Moraes well at least the back of him!!!

Why Martez bought Isaiah a cow bell I will never know!

In the beginning this was Logan's reaction to bull riding - total shock!

This is the only answer I have to why my Father should never wear baseball caps!!

CULLOM COOKING HOUR WITH ELIJAH CULLOM

Elijah likes to be the host of the Cullom Cooking hour. The Cullom Cooking Hour was a show that Elijah created by asking me ten thousand questions each evening while I cook dinner. Tonight he really wanted to help like he usually does but he wanted to cut veggies for our pasta salad. I finally let him cut the "trees" aka broccoli. I still think he is too young to be using a knife but it was just cutting the end of the stalk so I let him "help".

I found a new kid size apron that came with a hat but somehow I lost the hat before anyone got to wear it. It's crazy how think just disappear literally....like pacifiers when the baby is screaming its head off or how you always have leftover socks without a match. Things that make you go..hmmmm! Are you singing?! Your welcome! My point of this story is it is our fun little time together and he cracks me up so I wanted to take some pictures. Imagine that, I know!! He was cutting at first but then I wanted a full shot with the apron and he said, "Wait Mom let me grab a bowl and a spoon to pretend I am stirring!" I let him get situated and didn't realize how funny it was until I looked at the pictures and realized he was hard at work pretending to stir his food in a colandar just over the kitchen floor like it wouldn't spill out! Goofy boy! Of course he doesn't understand why I think it is funny but it JUST IS! I love my kids!

TIME FOR A TRIP TO OUR 2ND HOME

Yep it's that time again.....time for another trip to our 2nd home Branson!!! Our family loves it there!! You can never run out of things to do no matter how many times you go, seriously! We left Thursday to return on Sunday!!! This was going to be Tez's first trip to Branson and we were excited for him. It was funny watching him experience so many new things. For instance, on the drive there when we were losing radio stations and looking for new ones he said, "why did that station start sounding fuzzy?" I said, "well we are losing that station so we'll have to find a new one." He looked at me as if I had lost my mind and said, "you can't lose a radio station!" I explained to him that Tulsa radio stations aren't aired all over America and tried to explain the radio theory. He was shocked & it just cracked me up. I didn't realize he had never been out of Oklahoma before! This was all new to him. I had arranged to go to see the "bendies" again just so Tez could see them. I absolutely love the "bendies" and everyone who goes to Branson should see them. It will absolutely amaze you! The 'bendies' as I call them are actually the Shanghai Circus Amazing Acrobats of China or as the acrobats say it: "d amadzinG ackwobats O china". I started calling them the bendies when we went with Shan and I said she should "get with" one of them b/c they are REALLY bendie!! Sick I know but you can't help but wonder about their bedroom acrobatics while watching some of the crazy things they can do. Smaller children may not be as impressed b/c of the length of the show but our kids love it! Needless to say Tez was more than amazed! The next day was Silver Dollar City and Tez rode roller coasters with loops for the 1st time with ME! I love roller coasters and now I have someone to ride with since Martez is anti-loop! He cracked me up though - the 1st one I swear he screamed my name about 30 times within 5 seconds just terrified but we got off the ride and got right back on! He thought he would have a heart attack but he survived and loved it. Long story short we stayed the day at Silver Dollar City. That evening I looked through brochures and the phonebook finding more fun things for us to do when I stumbled upon a Presidents' Museum having a Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit. I quickly called my mom and made plans to go when Martez was taking the two older boys to ride go carts. My mom and I were very excited UNTIL we arrived. First of all it was in an old building and we couldn't find the museum portion. After we rode the elevator a few times we finally found a lady to ask where to go, she informed my mom there was a bug on here arm.....IT WAS A FREAKING ROACH! UGH I HATE ROACHES! THAT IS JUST NASTY! We finally found the museum and the Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibit was less than half the size of my room. Basically one glass case of guns, antique irons,etc and lots of reading on top of the case and along the walls which also had old clothing..oh AND a tape player playing an interview over and over again. My mom and I couldn't help but laugh and laugh AND laugh. We were all excited and this was it!!! Plus through reading all the info we discovered that the show didn't exactly hold true....they had a bulldog not a border collie, Mary never married, Laura paid for Mary to go to school then took care of her the rest of her life, they only lived in the Little House on the Prairie location for a few months....this list could go on and on. Needless to say I think we were better off thinking the show was more realistic! However my Dad had warned us that since it was a traveling exhibit it would probably be small and we could NOT let him be right so we played up the exhibit QUITE a bit when talking about it with the men!! We went to the outlets. I FOUND A SCRAPBOOK STORE...BAD NEWS I TELL YOU!!! We took the kids to see Kirby Van Burch and got backstage passes hoping to find trap doors and stuff to prove our theories about all the magic tricks - no such luck! Magic baffles me! Every time I think I have a trick figured out they do something to disprove my theory. We also went to the Monster Museum and Dinosaur Museum and I don't recommend either. They are rinky dink and not worth the price at all. Then off to see Grandma Bryan or as the kids call her Grandma Souri b/c she lives in Missouri. We had lunch with her on Sunday then headed home!!!

WHAT.....NO PICTURES?!?!?!

I am so sad and so is Elijah! Today we are leaving for Branson which is exciting BUT I took off work today to take Elijah for his final swimming lesson in Level 1 and take pictures. We get there and it looks like it is going to rain but nothing yet. The swim instructors come out to tell everyone that swimming is canceled for now b/c of lightning. They are not allowed into the pool until 30 minutes after a strike of lightning and so after a 30 minute wait their alloted time would be over. He gave him his certificate for passing Level 1 but now I have no pictures of Level 1 swimming lessons for his scrapbook. Maybe my mom took some over the last couple of weeks......I sure hope so! Well I need to go load the car up for our trip..............woohoo!

"I SO FUNNY MOMMA!"

Tonight I was sitting in my oh so comfy leather chair that just sucks me in and of course I had Zaya on my lap when I hear him talking to himself quietly. He was quietly debating whether or not he wanted to go live with Meme or stay at home with Mommy and Daddy. He kept whispering, "I want to live with Meme no I want to live with Mommy!" How sad is that?!?!? But he was doing it oh so quietly to himself as if doing the "he loves me, he loves me not" deal where he thought I couldn't hear him! I said, "I can hear you!" He just started to seriously crack up and said, "I so funny momma!" I tell him that all the time b/c he is really funny (he gets that from me - lol) but now I guess he believes it and can even make himself laugh. Kids.

JOHN'S 7TH BDAY

Today we went to John's 7th birthday party. Another swim party with BBQ....fine with me b/c Daddy Bob's BBQ is THE BOMB! I can't believe John is turning 7. I met Tammy and Jessie...hmmm...about 12 yrs ago. Wow that is a long time ago back in my wild days!! Jessie was the bouncer of the club I temporarily called home 4 to 5 days a week with my friends. Tammy was his girlfriend and her brother Sean was MY bartender! Wow how times have changed! We are all married now with children all around the same age in fact John is only 6 mos older than Elijah and Sean's son is a few days older than Elijah. Crazy world! Tammy ended up marrying my big 'ol teddy bear brother from another mother Jessie and I was her bridesmaid and when I married Martez she was one of my bridesmaids. It seems like just yesterday we were livin' it up havin' fun but now we have grown up moved on and have a TOTALLY different kind of fun! I often miss those days ONLY because I got to see my friends so much more than I do now! Movin' on.....we had a good time and of course I took pics: