Monday, June 30, 2008

On Track

Whew! Been a busy couple of weeks. First things first: there are new pictures at my Shutterfly site. Use the "My Photos" link on the right of this page.

Marshall has been participating in Kindertrack the last 6 weeks (Track and Field for ages 4-7), and had his first Track Meet last Tuesday, "competing" in the Long Jump, 50 yard dash, and Frisbee (instead of Javelin; I just don't understand why they won't let 4-year-olds throw a Javelin). Let's just say that he's not so much "athletically inclined." Which doesn't necessarily disappoint either his Mom or his Dad, since it means we may get out of spending all of our free time for the forseeable future going to sporting events. (NOT something either of us look forward to!) He had a lot of fun, though, which was the whole point, and even got a ribbon, which he is VERY proud of. Here's a picture of him with his ribbon (he's only frowning because he had to concentrate on standing still for the picture).















Below is a video of him running his race. He came in last, and was quite upset (so upset that Mommy wanted to start crying too!). It's hard to tell from this, but he stopped running and started crying ("But I didn't win"). His coach had to help him to the finish line. Poor guy! He's fine with it now, though, and for the time being is ready to practice hard for next year!




Hunter has had a hard week or so. He had been sick with a cough/cold, then last week got an ear infection from it. Bad timing, because in addition to track, we were at the pool every day for Marshall's swim lessons. So 3 out of 5 days, Hunter couldn't get in the water to play. Then on Saturday, he was wrestling with Dad and Marshall, and hurt his knee. (Don't I always say it? If you're going to wrestle, you're going to get hurt!) It's not swollen or anything, but he couldn't (wouldn't?) walk on it for a couple of days, and it's still tender today. Although, I think he was more afraid to try than in actual pain. Milking it, the little bugger. I don't have many pictures of Hunter lately, because he won't let us take them! So we have to sneak them when he's asleep.

Audra, Audra, Audra. Nine months old now, crawling all over the place, pulling up on everything, and one of these days is going to just take off walking. Her favorite thing right now is having someone help her walk. So proud of herself when she does it. And she's a jabbermouth. That's not surprising to any of you who've been around my kids much, because all of them are. But Audra is at that stage where you just don't want to sit in church with her, because it seems like she just waits for some quiet so she can start yelling! Ah, well, they love that kind of thing here, anyway. She's also a very big eater (again, no surprise there; her brothers were too), and for the last month has refused to eat baby food and insists on feeding herself. I gladly acquiesce! If there's one babyhood chore I despise, it is the feeding of the baby food. I think I'd even rather change a dirty diaper. Well...maybe that's two babyhood chores...Ok, I could probably think of a few more. But they're so gosh darned cute!!! Here she is in our yard. She loves outside!




Saturday, June 14, 2008

Tag!

Got tagged by Jennifer. Thanks!


8 Things I am passionate about

1. God
2. My husband
3. My children
4. My friends
5. teaching my children to know God
6. cake decorating
7. reading
8. sleep!!

8 Things I want to do before I die

1. see my children accept Jesus as their Savior
2. read the Bible cover to cover
3. visit Scotland
4. visit the rest of Europe
5. sleep
6. watch my children raise my grandchildren
7. have an uninterrupted conversation (with an adult)
8. enjoy some peace and quiet


8 Things I often say

1. Stop wrestling, or someone’s going to get hurt!
2. I told you someone would get hurt, didn’t I?
3. Be quiet! Your sister is trying to sleep!
4. Lord, please give me patience.
5. Do you leave Sunday or Monday this time?
6. Do you get home Thursday or Friday?
7. What time does your plane get in?
8. I just cleaned in here!


8 Books I have Read Lately

1. My Bible
2. Untold millions of children’s books…
3. That’s all; I haven’t been able to read anything for almost a year!

8 Movies I have watched 8 times or more

1. Lord of the Rings
2. Steel Magnolias
3. Star Wars (the last 3 episodes)
4. Indiana Jones (all 3)
5. A Christmas Story
6. A Christmas Carol
7. A bunch of other Christmas movies
8. A BUNCH of kid’s movies, usually 8 times in one day.

8 People I am tagging

1. Kerry
2. Christi
3. Marie
4. Kristy
5. Becca
6. Tami
7. Mollie
8. You!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Sweet, Silly Marshall

I don't know how we got on the subject, but the other night we were talking to Marshall about how when we die, we go live in Heaven. If you know him very well, you might guess that this is a subject that always upsets my sensitive Marshall. So we were trying to tell him how great it will be, how much fun he'll have, etc. Then we told him that everyone he knew would be there with him, and started naming off all of our family members. This helped a little, I suppose, but he was still crying. UNTIL, we got to Ethan, Kerry, Kat and Sydney (the Reed family from Knoxville, who we became very good friends with). He said "Ethan will be there?! Really?!" I said "Yep, and you'll get to see him all the time, too." His reply was "Every day?! That's unbelievable!!" Cheered him right up. Ethan cures everything, you know. Good to know where Mom and Dad stand, though.

Friday, May 30, 2008

Love Notes

We had a great weekend visiting my family. The boys loved the pool, of course. Marshall was a little unsure about swimming without a floatie, but once I made him do it once, he was swimming around like crazy. Hunter was a bit of a different story. He was wearing a swim vest, water wings, a little doughnut floatie, and his goggles, but wouldn't leave the steps. He was quite adorable, though! I think we got a picture, and I'll post it here if I find it.

Audra was somewhat overwhelmed by all the people (we had 20, I think, including us!), but finally decided her Granddad was pretty ok, and kept falling asleep on him.

Here's a cute story that I'm sure Kip will love me sharing. We were sitting in church, and Marshall was playing with some stickers. So he turned to his Dad, put two heart stickers on his forehead, and said "I love you double, Dad." Kip says "I love you, too, buddy." And here's the cute part: Marshall says "Yeah, I love Mom more, but I love you double." Ok, I guess Kip didn't think it was so terribly cute, but I sure did!

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Uh-Oh

Whew! Audra is finally crawling. She's been working on it for a while, and getting very irritated, so it's a relief that we don't have to listen to the frustration any more. Of course, now she can follow Mommy anywhere, and I'm not too sure that's a good thing. Whenever she sees me she cries to be picked up, and I used to be able to put her down in the playroom and sneak out. This could raise my frustration level somewhat.

Marshall has started KinderTrack this week, which will hopefully ease some of that excess energy he's had lately. He's been getting somewhat bored with life around here, I think, and that translates into him talking Mom's ear off. Nonstop. We also started a kindergarten reading curriculum a few weeks ago, and he's just plowing through that. So far he loves doing his "schoolwork", so hopefully we can sustain that enthusiasm as we add more material.

We're getting ready to go visit my family for a few days, our first visit since we moved back from TN. The boys are very excited; we get to stay with Uncle Gary and Auntie Annabell, who have a pool! Hunter has been walking around saying "I going to Uncle Gary and Auntie Annabell's to swim like a fish." (The last couple of days he's been saying "I going to Uncle Gary and Auntie Annabell's to get a new car and a new basketball." Don't know where he got that, but hey, if they want to buy us a new car...)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Comfortable Mess

So, the woman that cleans my house was here Wednesday, so we had straightened up really well. All the toys and little stuff were put away, even in the playroom; it was really very nice. You know, that clean house feel. After she left, Marshall comes to me and says "Ahh. Now the playroom feels comfortable again, Mom." I'm thinking 'Hey, this is great. He's finally starting to realize how good it feels to have the house nice.' Then I walked into the playroom. It was completely torn apart (as is the usual case). Marshall says "I got out some toys, so it feels better now." Great.

As my niece, Lakyn, used to say "Boys these days!"

Friday, May 2, 2008

This song is speaking to me today, so I wanted to share it.