Marshall is 5!!

I can't believe my baby is 5 years old!! And starting school. Wow. I'm just speechless. Here are some photos of his Wall-E birthday party, and a few of him from years past.

Baby Marshall, just one week old!

His first birthday.

Marshall and friend, Ethan Reed, at Marshall's 2nd birthday party. This was right after we moved to Tennessee, and little did we know what good friends these two would be!

Birthday number three.

Fourth birthday party. Arrr, matey!

Back row: Katyana and Sydney Reed

Middle Row: Ethan Reed, Hunter (none too happy about taking a picture), Dmitri

Front Row: Nathaniel and Marshall

(I'm not even going to try to spell Dmitri and Nathaniel's last name, because apparently I don't have it written down anywhere, and I'm sure to get it wrong...sorry!!)

And finally, here's a couple of pictures of the Wall-E cake I made, which I am rather proud of. It's definitely the most elaborate cake I've done to date. It was 3D, and consisted of 6 layers (that's 3 whole cake mixes!). The eyes, arms, wheels, etc. were made from carved styrofoam covered with fondant icing. The body was cake. The cake flavors were Triple Chocolate, Decadent Strawberry, and Caramel-Vanilla-White Chocolate. The icing was Vanilla Bean, flavored with real vanilla beans. Yum! (If I do say so myself). My cake philosophy: If you're going to eat cake, and all the calories therein, it may as well be very good cake!! Otherwise, why bother?

To see more cakes I've done, visit the My Photos link on the left. I've also added more NEW pictures from Marshall's party and from the last few months. It's about time, isn't it?

Still busy busy busy!

Yay! We're finally moved back into our bathroom. Thank goodness. Not that it's the end of the world all of us having to share a small bathroom, but the disorganization was driving me crazy! And, despite having everything in our bedroom shrouded in plastic (which is pleasant in and of itself, may I say), there is drywall dust covering all of it. Ever try to clean that stuff up? Not easy.

Marshall started playing soccer this week, and after one practice has decided he likes it better than track & field. One of his teammates is our neighbor, who we've gotten together with a few times, so I'm sure having a friend there helped. He actually surprised me with how good he was for never having played before. The coach had them dribbling the ball across the field at one point, and he was the first kid across every time.

Public school started here this week, so I finally got my act together and ordered some curriculum for Marshall. Oops. I hadn't planned on starting until September, anyway, but ordering it ahead of time sure might be helpful, don't ya think? Both of us are pretty excited to start. I should say all three of us; Hunter likes sitting with us while we're doing lessons, so I got some curriculum for him, too. I think he'll enjoy having his very own lessons to do.

Speaking of Hunter, we had some fun last week. On Thursday he was having some fairly bad abdominal pains, so the doctor wanted to see him right away. Hunter is a tough guy, and only complains about something when it REALLY hurts. (Even his ear infections get really bad before he even says anything to me!) Luckily, some friends were in town visiting family, and said they'd watch the other two (thanks Kay and Jennifer!!), because I was afraid I'd end up spending the entire day running around getting x-rays and blood work. So, after all of this, the doctor says it's just constipation. Well, thank goodness, because you never know with abdominal pain, but I'm so glad we wasted an entire day for THAT! Not that I'd rather it be anything else, mind. He was fine, by the way, by the time we got back to pick up the other two. Joys of motherhood.

(Incidentally, I should never have said anything last week, because it came back to bite me: Hunter has now officially entered "The Phase." Arguing and telling us no for everything, throwing fits, mostly in public, of course. Man, that kid has some lungs! He screams at the top of them when he doesn't get his way. Kerry, no laughing! I know you're thinking of Marshall in "The Phase"! I'm not looking forward to this!)

Here's a little movie of Audra walking. She doesn't do it much anymore, but you can kinda see how she moves her arms like a locomotive when she's walking.

Ok, the next couple of weeks will be busy with Marshall's party coming up and starting school, so don't expect much from me until next month! Sorry!

Busy Busy Busy

We've been so busy lately I can hardly keep up with myself! Recently we started remodeling our bathroom, and what started out as a weeklong (max!) project has turned into THREE WEEKS! Millions of little problems and a few big ones contributed, but mostly it was little miss Audra, who couldn't stand not being back here with us while we were working and pretty much screamed the whole time! We were reduced to two hour workdays many times - naptime for Audra. So, we've been making do with some of our things in the hall bath, but with most of the power in there turned off because it was on the same breaker as the Master Bath! Anyhow, the power is back on, and I am hopeful that our bathroom will be in use again by the end of the weekend. Luckily, this is the biggest home improvement project we intend to tackle all by our lonesome.

And some big news: Audra is walking!! Not great at it yet, but she won't take long to master it. I can hardly believe my ten-month-old is walking. It's nice; all of my kids were so much happier once they started, but so early! Amazing baby girl!

This bathroom project has delayed me somewhat, but hopefully next week we can start gearing up to start homeschooling Marshall. He's very excited! So am I, if also a bit apprehensive. I'm not entirely sure how we'll find the time, but I'm sure once we get started everything will fall into place. Luckily he's a pretty smart boy and eager to learn. He also gets to start soccer next week, which will be good because he starts turning into a grump if we stick around the house too much.

Hunter is up to some cute things. I've been trying to get this on video, but can never manage it. He says the cutest prayers when he's in the mood. We came up with a prayer for the boys to say at dinner time: Dear God, Thank you for today. Thank you for our food. Thank you for Mommy, and Daddy, and Marshall, and Hunter, and Audra. In Jesus name, Amen. Here is what Hunter says: Dear God the food. Dear God the milk. Dear God the (specific food items on the plate). Dear God the plates. Dear God the forks. Dear God the trees. Dear God the... and he goes on naming anything he can see. Sometimes the content varies, but you get the idea. Bedtime is much the same, with different items, such as his bear, his bed, the books, the light, the walls (and he calls the ceiling the "sky wall"). I know that soon he will enter that phase that makes you wonder why anyone has children, ever (Oh man, Marshall had a complete personality change for, like, six months!), so I'm trying to store up the sweet and adorable stuff to get me through. He supplies so much, thankfully! For example: He won't touch red tomatoes; Marshall loves the cherry and grape varieties, so I'm growing several kinds this summer. Can't get Hunter to eat them. A green one fell off the other day, and he tried that. Loved it. What a kook! I'm afraid to let him eat them much, though, since I'll get to deal with any, um, fallout.

Here are some of what we call Hunterisms:
Buh-scuse me (Excuse me)
Buh-tach (Attach)
Buh-cross (Across)
Barella..actually pronounced bawewa (Umbrella)

And a couple of Marshallisms:
"I can't believe my mind!"
and
"That's amazing!" Everything is amazing to this kid.

Can't wait for some Aduraisms! She does say "Do'h", although she doesn't really know what it means. Still, Daddy is awfully proud. (And if I have to explain it, you probably won't think it's funny).

This and That

Audra had her 9-month checkup yesterday (yes, I know she's almost 10 months now; Mommy forgets to make phone calls sometimes). "Robustly healthy" is the consensus again. She weighed in at 20 lbs 2 oz, so she's still the lightest of my babies. The doctor was amazed with her; she's way above average on most things like sleeping, eating, motor skills, and walking (not quite there yet, but it won't be long!) I'm just glad she's such an easy baby, and such a sweetheart. Well, she is working on about 3 teeth right now (she already has 5 others!), so she's not always so sweet, but who can blame her?

My Mom and niece visited for a week, which all of the kids enjoyed a lot! Lakyn is so great with my kids; I wish I could keep her around, but I think she started missing her parents. She might have been a little tired, too. My boys kept her going pretty nonstop!

Marshall is getting excited about his birthday, so look for a post at the end of August about that. I'm a little excited, too, because I get to do a 3D cake for him. I don't want to give it away, so you'll have to wait for his birthday post. If it comes out right, it's going to be really cool. (Everyone is welcome to come up and see it in person. His actual birthday is on a Wednesday (the 27th), so we'll probably have the party on the 23rd or 30th.)

Nothing else too interesting going on at the moment. We try to get to the pool regularly, but it seems like whenever we have the chance there is a thunderstorm passing through! So, we hang out at home a lot, and I'm left wondering just what I spend all of my time doing, because it seems like I don't ever get any of my projects done. Maybe I shouldn't spend so much time shopping online. Hmm.

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!

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!

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.