Ummm....excuse me mommy...

We are all playing, working, reading, in the living room the other day when Aubri says, "ummm...excuse me mommy. I put one of those beads up my nose." And sure enough that little stinker stuck a perler bead up her nose. Luckily, it wasn't very far up there and it is a hollow bead. We were able to get it out with a pair of tweezers. This girl sure keeps us on our toes!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

March 2nd was Dr. Suess's birthday and the kids were supposed to dress up like a character from any of the many Dr. Suess books. Of course, I didn't remember this until about 8pm the night before as I was tucking the boys into bed and Kaleb said, "I can't wait to see my Wocket costume tomorrow". Oops....better get to work. it's a good thing I had a pretty good stash of scrap fabric.

We started the morning with what else but....Green eggs and ham! Nathan claimed that he didn't like the eggs...even after we explained that they were just regular eggs with green coloring on them. I guess our mind really can trick us sometimes.

Nathan was the Grinch....with a shirt showing that his heart was two sizes to small and a santa outfit. It really worked to my advantage that the santa suit the grinch makes is really raggedy. Because amazing seamstress I am not. But I think I did alright converting this clearance target fleece throw into a santa jacket.
Kaleb wanted to be the kid from "there's a wocket in my pocket". I took a tshirt of mine and altered it to fit a 6 year old. Then I took the extra fabric and made a pocket for the wocket stuffed animal that Grammy got him for Christmas.
The wocket was a big hit at school. kaleb said that he even earned two lassos (making good choices bracelets at the kid's school) for helping out his teacher and staying quiet all day. he thought that was awesome!

A birthday party...lego style

If a lego party is what you want, then a lego arty is what you get. We started out with some simple decorations made from what else but....Legos! A number 6 and a picture frame displaying some of my favorite shots of him from this year (courtesy of the best photographer I know....Mrs. Danielle Tripp!) I also did my best to make a Lego cake (It's a regular rectangle cake made from a 9 by 13 pan and then I put 6 mini cupcakes upside down on top and iced it. I used an upside down cookie sheet covered in foil for the base of my culinary masterpiece!

We played a building game to see which team of three could build the largest tower in 2 minutes. We sorta let the little girls cheat by using the giant blocks instead of legos.
We also had a spoon relay. But instead of eggs they carried Legos.
I bought a lego ice cube tray off of Amazon (for free using gift cards I earned through swagbucks) and melted some of our old crayons in them to create lego crayons. There is a big difference in using cheap crayons and Crayola. The cheap ones separate into plain wax and colored wax.....it was weird. If you ever plan to do this go for the Crayolas....you will not regret it.
We ate lunch. We served little rectangle and square sandwiches, chips, grapes, and juice.
We built many, many creations.
We played carpet ball. (it's kind of like tabletop shuffleboard only with pool balls.
Foosball anyone?
It's cake time. You can see I also used my ice cube tray to make multicolored chocolate legos....they were the hit of the party I think!
Make a wish...
Open your presents....more legos than even one 6 year old boy could dream of...
And be sure to tell everyone thank you!

In the blink of an eye

6 years has gone by so very quickly...

Holy cow...I was H.U.G.E. and I don't look so totally comfortable. Maybe it's because of the giant manchild living in my womb.

And here he is....all 9lbs 9oz of him. He looked like a two month old next to all the other newborns in the nursery. But he was the handsomest little (big) baby in all the world.
That smile can turn my day right around.
What a little lovey...I miss smooching those little fat rolls.
Time has gone quickly....and I wish that I wouldn't have wished so many moments away because of my lack of patience or my tendency toward worry or irritability. But, as I look back I will cherish every memory and every photo. And as I watch him today I will be grateful for the little man he is becoming and will pray to God that He will make me more patient, gentle, and nurturing so that I can enjoy every second I have with this precious fellow.

Birthday boy!

February 22 is always celebrated all over the country. Most people celebrate it as George Washington's birthday. And they usually celebrate with a day off of work or school. Around these parts, however, we celebrate for a much different reason. We celebrate because it's the day we met Nathan. One of the greatest gifts we have ever been given in this life. It is so very hard to believe that he is 6 years old.

We took brownies to school to kick off the celebration.

We even took Kaleb out of his class to join in the fun.

What we did over winter "vacation"

If you patrolled facebook during the monster snow storm you would find tons and tons of moms sharing their stir crazy stories of rambunctious kids who need to burn off steam. Some were even begging for the schools to reopen. That was NOT the tune we sang in this home. While we were, at times, stir crazy and full of energy that was difficult to expel, we had the best little mini vacation. Of course I am sure it helped that Rayden got to stay home with us. But, I think I caught a glimpse of what homeschooling can be....and it delighted me. We did so much together.

We built castles out of tinker toys and protected them with lego men...
We learned how to measure things using the measuring tapes they give out at Ikea (I may or may not have taken about 50 of those the last time I was in Dallas to use for such a time as this)...
We watched our St. Bernard....oops...I mean our little cockapoo play in the snow. She was in heaven out there...
We (unsolicited) built a replica of Moses and the Burning Bush out of Legos. Warms a mother's heart...
We painted sun catchers (how blessed we were that I had just gone to Michaels the day before the snow hit to buy a few Valentine's treats...we made good use out of those for sure)...
We colored...and colored....and colored...
We learned how to do two digit math....very quickly I might add....I have some very bright boys (if I do say so myself....which I do...in case you were wondering...and I know you were!)...
We colored and constructed 3D models...
We played games.....war, battleship, Guess Who. You name it, we played it...
What's this you ask? Why, that is an empty hamper. In fact, my house had 3 empty hampers all week long. Holla! Can I get an amen?! Now, don't ask to look in my hamper today....that's a different story altogether...
We actually worked together without fighting several times. If that isn't a miracle of God, I just don't know what is!

Snowpocalypse 2001

Better late than never, right? Here are some of the pictures from the great snow storms we experienced in Bolivar. We had about 20 or so inches. It was awesome! We loved every second of it.
Kaleb kept saying, "this is the most snow I have ever seen in my whole entire life" I had to agree with him. This certainly takes the cake in my history as well.
Some friends snuck over and buried Rayden's car. We caught them about half way through when we noticed what we thought was a critter of some sort slinking across our yard. It was actually the son of one of those friends who were so lovingly stranding us in our home. I have to admit, I was slightly jealous that we didn't think of it first. It was an awesome prank so we let them finish.