Thursday, June 30, 2011

Worth Going Over Water

My husband jokes me for my strange fears. But some are not soo strange.

I don't like needles. I'll get my blood drawn and I"m "ok" with that, but needles... ahh!! I'm not even tempted to get an epidural... I've seen the needle!!

Another is kind of silly. I don't really like bridges that are over water. They're cool to look at and I'm just amazed at the architecture!! But I'd rather NOT drive over them.
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During my trip last weekend, we went over many bridges :/ And while I'm always a little nervous, it didn't send as many shivers up my spine. I think part of my fear is having the kids with me if we had an accident on a bridge and having to get them all OUT of their seats in a hurry as our van plummets into the water...

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LOL, am I making anyone else a little weary of bridges??

Anyway, usually the reason we're crossing the reliable bridges we have is to visit family or spend time together as a family. So it's always worth it.

And was especially worth it last weekend;)
I LOVED seeing my brother... he reminds me soo much of my dad.
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Getting to spend time with Kelly:) She's taken to caring for Wesley soo quickly!

*All the chat time with my mom!!

And seeing and holding Sweet little Wesley:) He's was just precious;)
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Coming home was sweet, too:) As I try to keep up with my littlest rascal as he finds the silliest little things to amuse himself;)
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Since holding Wesley, thinking about my "silly" fears and honoring a church member who passed away this week (one who has prayed daily for my family)...

This song has been on my heart and mind:)

Lyrics | Bill Gaither lyrics - Because He Lives lyrics

* I needed to "correct" my hours in the car chatting with my mom;) I did have a 7 hour trip one way, but I met my mom 2 hours into the journey. So we really had only 5 hours... plenty of time to have sore throats from all that talking;)Next time we'll plan to turn on the radio for a bit;) LOL!!

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Nate's 1st Trim

Nate has been needing a trim for a while...

I just have been trying to "wade it out" hoping his hair would get long enough to "blend in"...

But this morning, with a lack of humidity in the house... all the curls in the front fell and left little Nate trying to keep his hair out of his face.

I did try a quick fix for a sticky pancake breakfast.
(wouldn't he have made a super cute girl??? just kidding!)
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Obviously my little boy can't be wearing hairbows... so I called my mom and sister to figure out a plan. I know to distract the little ones during haircuts with videos or treats:) And I knew I needed some scissors and water to keep his hair "slightly damp"... aka manageable;) But it's the HOW to cut that had been stalling me the most!!

My mom tried to help and my hairstylist sister didn't answer... LOL!!
I was determined to cut his hair!

I gathered his hair by rectangular chunks and started cutting
(i should say trimming)!

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He wasn't entertained by sitting on the push toy going NO WHERE...
so there was a little game of chase;)

I was walking, not running with the scissors... sorry the pic looked dangerous;)
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We finally found the perfect "still" spot for him. On the bench with a Popsicle, his brother and pointed at the street to watch the trucks and cars race by:)
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I'm NOT a stylist... but I think we did well;)
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You can see it's not straight across. I really didn't want it to be since he usually has it pushed to the side OR its curled up... gotta love humidity curls.

And there is a piece in the pic on the right that has since been trimmed to be a little more even;)

Oh, and he was super still with the popsicle. It was very messy!!! You can tell in this picture that he ENJOYed it;)

You might even see in these "final" pictures the HAIR that was stuck on him... he didn't mind;)

And his newest battle wounds... from trying to take on the driveway :(

Definitely bathtime ;)

But first,
we had to be sure everyone knew that no curls were injured during the trim;)

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More Wordless Wednesday at
5 Minutes for Mom,
Go Graham Go,
To Be Thode,
Serendipity is Sweet,
Mama to 4 Blessings,
and any other linkys I find !!!

***And a super HIGH FIVE to Anna who took the pics;) Glad to have pictures of Nate's 1st haircut !! Thank you sweetheart!! ***

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

TTT in pictures



Chris loves riding his bike.... and he's a BOY so he needs to take it to a new level!!
His Daddy understands and made him a "make-shift" ramp:) So I now hear...

"Watch this action!!!"
and see this...

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I have to include Lydia's most recent attire;)
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And Nate's early entrance into the blogging world...

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yes, Heather, he's reading your blog and wishing you well on your move and furniture hunting :)

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While I was away Grandma and Granddaddy BOTH heard Nate say "a book" as he carried a book into the kitchen to show them!! Already a book lover;)

Monday, June 27, 2011

The Finger Grip

Baby Wesley holding Grammie's finger....

Just love the generations AND how much a grandmother LOVES their grandbaby;)

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plenty more baby Wesley pics to come:)

Friday, June 24, 2011

My 1st Time Overnight Alone

I have a great opportunity to visit with my brother, his fiance and my little nephew this weekend. It's great because

#1 - I can go :)
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#2 - My husband has PLENTY of help with Grandma and Granddaddy visiting

#3 - My mom and I get to share the 7 hours of driving ONE WAY

#4 - My father-in-law is preaching for Brian on Sunday:)

#5 - Did I mention that I get to see my little nephew??

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While I am very excited about my little "adventure"...

I am nervous. My family is MORE than capable to care for the kids!! And my kids feel very safe in their care. I feel like they can hold down the fort:)

But I've never left them overnight before.... EVER!!
(only remotely close case was when Brian took just Anna down to his parents in January!)

For 7 years and 26 days I have ALWAYS had most of my children in a room next to me!!

I think I'm going to be ok... hopefully!

But I'm seriously going to miss them... and am super glad I'll be home on Sunday afternoon.

Driving-chat time with my mom... time to get to know my brother's new family more.... all perfectly timed when my family is being cared for... seeing my little nephew and maybe just crying over how beautiful he is
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PRICELESS!!!


SOOC Saturday

Happy Birthday Grandma:)

It's Grandma's birthday TODAY!!!


She did ask for ONE thing...

a picture of her, Granddaddy and the kids...
Silly pic with Grandma


no a decent picture... one to frame;)

So thanks to some cloudy weather and downtime after church and Daddy making some CRAZY faces and doing some CRAZY dancing behind me...

we got one;)
Kids with Grandma & Granddaddy


Then we went in to blow out candles.
Blowing out the candles;)

And celebrated with CAKE:)
Rainbow Cake II

Happy Birthday, Grandma!!
We love you;)
And we were super excited to celebrate your birthday this week:)



Thursday, June 23, 2011

You Capture: Bathrooms & Purple

I live in amazing parsonage. When we moved into the 3 bedroom & an office house we felt like it was a mansion;) Then when expecting Nate the church overwhelmed us with the huge blessing of finishing off our attic... giving us another full bath, another office and a big room (right now the playroom).

The one room I still hold my breath when I walk into it is my "pink" bathroom:) It's very dated with pink and maroon tiles... we tried at one time to decorate it with pink or maroon details... it looked worse;) But it holds a special place in my heart because it's the place where I've bathed my babes for almost 7 years...


it holds lots of fun, silly bath time memories:)


And has plenty more to come with the newest little one


joining right into the bath time antics;)

I"m also adding some purple;) These are my newest flowers... finally some flowers in the front!!
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I love the hanging iron baskets that we found at Walmart. And we got our flowers at Walmart, too.... in the clearance section;) Whoo- hoo:) I was very glad to have some pretty things at half the price... nice, especially when I'm starting soo late:(

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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Captive Audience

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And what kept their attention????

Yep, the garbage truck.... they are easily entertained;)

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More Wordless Wednesday at

Monday, June 20, 2011

Just Two Racing Wheels

After months of watching his sisters ZOOM around on their bikes, Chris decided to try riding without training wheels a few weekends ago. Once he really tried it, he took off and LOVES riding his bike.

The obvious difference between girls and boys is even more obvious with Chris on two wheels now. He ZOOMS like he is in a race EVERYWHERE he goes:)

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Love this pic. You can see Chris RACING ahead and Lydia behind him enjoying her ride;)

Weekly Wrap-Up

Seriously... another summer week over :(

Bible
To better learn the 10 Commandments, I made copies of a simple list of the 10 Commandments. Then the kids took some time one morning to decorate their own.... I cut off the "aquarium" theme, pasted the Commandment List on a piece of cardstock and the kids decorated. I'm hoping to use this as out first page of a 10 Commandment booklet they will put together.

They all copied and illustrated the 1st Commandment. Anna wrote on her illustration in her own word what the Commandment means, and she did the 2nd Commandment, too. So for those 2 days that was her "journaling".

I also copied a 10 Commandment Train for our "working on it" door or wall. We'll add a piece as we study each Commandment. And I changed the 1st verse to be John 14:15,"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." It's definitely a motivation for learning and following.

My challenge this summer if to read through J.Douma's The Ten Commandments:Manual for a Christian Life as the kids (and I) memorize and talk about each. I read the book in seminary but felt "rushed" through it. I remember loving how it applied each commandment to modern day situations/thought!

Language Arts
We followed our goals each day we were home;) Anna journaled and read! She's also

Chris did most of his reading from Leap Frog "learning to read" set of books. He likes them, but it doesn't follow our reading curriculum's school of teaching reading, so there are a lot of words I have to help him with because he hasn't learned some of the phonics rules yet.

Lydia has been doing a great job in the OPG book. I kind of knew once she started getting some more one-on-one time she'd really start "buzzing" through. But I've been really impressed with how quickly she wants to and can work through her lessons... funny how different kids can be:)

Math
We did a math lesson or two. And Anna practiced her addition facts using a workbook I had saved for her. We also went back to the "store" and played store for a couple of turns:)

Math fact practice and discovery has been happening on it's own. I've lost count how many times Chris or Lydia shares with me a math fact that they've figured out on their own;)

History
We started a chapter on Christopher Columbus and other explorers during that short time period. Obvious in a young children's curriculum Columbus was the one most discussed:) So we read, colored and read some more. Our read aloud book last week was Christopher Columbus from the Sower Series of books. And we'll be finishing it this week;)

We also finished the chapter of explorers learning about Magellan and Amerigo Vespucci. We borrowed a great biography of Vespucci that we're hoping to finish reading after we finish Columbus although a lot of the Vespucci biography contains a lot of Columbus.

We have some company coming in midway through this week, so we'll probably continue working on the 4 explorers that were mentioned in the chapter and finish up the biographies that the kids had started to enjoy listening to:)

Science
No intentional Science again this week :(

But from reading about the explorers we got a nice review some of the constellations that would have guided the explorers and even some earth science with hemispheres, equator, and directions. That wind and currents affected where the explorers landed. And different types of land formations... like islands, peninsula:)

And we FINALLY started planting a garden;) LOL... I know super late. I had really given up hope of having any flowers or veggies. We were given two healthy cucumber plants and then one evening at Walmart we started hunting in their plants and found some clearance tomato plants (we'll see if they do anything!!) and flowers:) So we talked PLANTs:)

Ohh... that gives me some ideas for THIS week;)

Other Activities
On Monday night we made a visit with Brian. Since it was in a hospice facility and we really didn't know how everyone was doing, the kids and I stayed in the car (and explored outside until they got bit by fire ants!!) After a bit, Brian came out and asked if we wanted to visit because our church member was ok with visitors and seemed well. I know the kids were a little nervous, but Chris brought in a picture he drawn and wanted to share and we marched the troops right in.

Looking back it was a simple last minute decision to visit with her too... it really would have been a LOT easier to NOT visit, to jump into the car and head to our next destination/activity for the evening.

But I am soo glad we went in, we had no idea that she was going to pass away soo quickly just two days later. I am soo thankful for her kind and sweet words over the years. Her testimony of a gentle and quiet spirit. And our last visit. The family said that on Monday evening she was talking about all the teeth Chris had drawn on his giraffe picture he had given her.

On Tuesday morning/afternoon we went to town:) First we made a stop at the library to get loaded up with library books for at least the next week and I got history books for next week as well. Then we headed to the park and met up with another sweet family... it was last minute and the kids were glad to have friends to play with:)

And then we completed our grocery shopping for the week. I went without a list or my coupons pulled ;( But I knew that we'd complete the shop during Sonic's Happy Hour so I told the kids if they behaved then we could make a stop... slushies for 50cents... sounded like a cheap way to have a good shop!! The kids did awesome... soo nice and I was GLAD to stop to get their slushies;)

The rest of our days were filled with bike riding, scrapes:), reading, naps, meals, another swimming time, cleaning the playroom, Little House episodes, Father's Day cards:) The kids ALWAYS have something to do:)

Pics of the Week
Just realized I had only 1 picture of schoolwork from last week :(

here's our Father's Day pic for Brian;)
Kids- June 2011


Just taking pics outside with the kids....
I liked this one of Anna and Nate drinking
I think I like it b/c of Anna's eyes;)
Drinking h20 with nate

Sunday, June 19, 2011

No Empty Arms

A truly rich man is one whose children
run into his arms when his hands are empty.
~Author Unknown


(Brian pulling double duty with Chris and Lydia... Jan 2010)


(Granddaddy holding Nate... March 2011)

(Pey holding a little Lydia.... Jan 2009)

(My Dad Kevin holding me.... 1980???)

Happy Father's Day!!

We are thankful to the Lord for the dads (and now grand dads)
that have loved and carried us (all of us) at one point.

We love you and look forward to the times we get to spend with you.
And the sweet memories we have together;)

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Singing a Song in Pictures

SOOC Saturday

He stands on the picnic table and sings...
for anyone willing to listen;)



An "Eeeeee..." added, too!


And a hand clap;)