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Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1. I love to write. Really, really love it. Ever since I was a kid I have just enjoyed telling stories. That's why I love to scrapbook and blog-both are just different forms of storytelling. I have tried really hard to show the boys the importance of reading and writing, it's something that I enjoy and I have always hoped they would too. So imagine how happy I was to find a 3 page story in Bryce's homework folder. It was a creative writing assignment about Frosty the Snowman. In it Bryce had Frosty going on a journey to Japan, it was funny, imaginative, and original. My boy can write and I feel like, today at least, I'm doing something right as his Momma.

2. The other 8 year old boy in residence had a pretty amazing weekend. I mentioned a few posts back how he had won a reading contest at school. this weekend he got to bring his cousin Zachary with him to a Miami U basketball game. Not only were they chosen to participate in the fan tunnel at the beginning of the game but they also got to be in the "high five" club and go out on court during player introductions (and get a free T-shirt). At halftime, Jarron got to go out on court and get his award and gift bag. It was so cool and we were very, very proud.


A little video of the award...

3. The 5 year old in residence is rocking the Tae Kwon Do uniform these days. And looking pretty cute doing it, if you ask me. Jackson loves Tae Kwon Do. He literally can not wait for his class every Tuesday and Thursday.


4. The one year old in residence is into everything. And I do mean everything. At his well baby check-up on Friday, his doctor and I were talking and he just climbed right into the cabinet underneath their sink. When we looked inside we caught him trying to turn the water valves off. They say he looks and acts more like a 2 year old, which I think we already knew. He is very smart and very curious, we certainly have our hands full with him. But his little smile? It gets him out of trouble 99% of the time.

 
What? I'm just sitting here...not turning the valves or anything like that, I swear! 

Could you be mad at that little face for very long? Yeah, I didn't think so!

5. I realized tonight the uploading pictures to blogger and videos to youtube at the same time is a very bad idea. I'll be doing one at a time for now on...

6. To whoever is stocking the AWANA store at church-I appreciate all that you do, it can't be easy to find interesting things to appeal to kids of all ages and genders. But did you really think these were a good idea?

Guess whose kid saw those on Wednesday night and couldn't wait to bring them home? Four boys and a pair of boxing gloves....enough said.

7. I just finished the latest Hannah Swansen mystery by Joanne Fluke, The Plum Pudding Murder. It was very good and it had 3 recipes that I need to try out. If you like cozy mysteries, I highly recommend it.

8.  My sweet little nephew Keaton turned three this past Sunday. I can not believe how big he is. He is such a cutie. My mom got a little cheesecake to celebrate his birthday Monday (in addition to presents, of course). When I asked him what he got for his birthday (meaning present-wise), he smiled at me and said, "Cake, it's mine."

Jackson, Baby Keats, Chuck and my dad

9. Just for kicks, I decided to take a look and see how many pictures I took last year-insert drum roll here-4,231! That seems a bit excessive. For the record I took the most pictures in December (excluding vacation) and the least in November. Super interesting, right?

10. Please, please pray for Kate McRae and her family this week. I mentioned last week about the Cards for Kids project and how she was the inspiration for it. Her parents and doctors are going to have to make some really difficult decisions this week-please lift her up in prayer.
You can get updates on her condition here-Kate McRae's Journal




Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday
1. The medium sized kid has been cracking me up lately. Sunday afternoon, on the way to the library, we had this conversation:
J: "Mom, you know those commercials where they sell stuff on TV?"
Me: "Infomercials?"
J: "Yes, how come you have to be 18 to buy stuff, that's rude. Five year olds need stuff too."

 
2. We made our first trip to Urgent Care for 2010. Bryce and Keaton knocked heads and Bryce ended up with a black eye and nasty gash. No stitches (the skin was too thin over his eyelid) but a pretty impressive wound.

 
3. Bryce and Jarron are having a great time playing basketball for Upwards. Their team is 1-1, but more importantly, they are both playing hard and having fun.

 
4. Moosey will be 16 months old this Friday. He's starting to communicate more and more. Anytime someone comes home, he leads them to the pantry and stands there. If you say, "do you want a cookie?", he nods his head, says, "Yesh, tookie". So funny. He's such a smart little guy. He's very independent-loves to do things for himself but is still having trouble sleeping through the night. I think he must be a restless sleeper or something. He has a check up this Friday-I can't wait to see his growth chart.

 
5. I had to google what "smh" meant today after seeing it in a number of status updates on facebook. Am I that old, that I have to google for slang terms? (For the record, it means "shaking my head".) smh
 
6. It snowed a week or so ago, and the boys had a great time "shoveling" the driveway. I gave them a shovel and a couple of brooms and watched from the living room. I ended up going out later and re-shoveling but they had a lot of fun. (Those snow pants were purchased at Target like 3 years ago-I can't believe how well they have held up!)


 
 
7. We are going to a Miami Redhawks game with Jarron and our nephew Zachary this weekend. I think we are sitting next to Jarron's principal, so I guess we'll have to be on our best behavior.
 
8. I'm trying to take a picture every day this year. Not just of the kids, but of every day mundane stuff. Stuff that years from now, my grandkids will be able to go through and learn about who we were in 2010. I have an account on a site called Shuttercal.com-you can see the most recent picture of the day that I posted at the bottom of this blog. I think it will be a fun project. I certainly take enough pictures. :)
 
9. I am hopelessly addicted to Utz brand sourdough pretzels right now. One of my co-workers has a big barrel of them on her desk and every day at 3PM, I eat 10 pretzels, no more, no less. They are so yummy and delicious. I wonder how many calories they have in them?
 
10.  Many of my online scrapbooking friends having been making cards for kids that are struggling with cancer and other illnesses. I'm hoping to participate and put together some cards this weekend. If you are a crafter, I encourage you to help out. Anything that puts a smile on their face is worth it. I am constantly reminded how lucky and blessed we are to have four healthy boys.
For more info on Cards for Kids go to:
You'll see a button for it on the left side of the blog. I'm not an overly emotional person, I'm not a hugger, I typically keep my feelings/emotions to myself but I literally am brought to tears reading the story of Kate McRae, the little girl who inspired this card drive. You can read her mom's journal here

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Things We Do For Our Kids

I'll be back on Thursday to update with a "Ten on Thursday" post but I wanted to quickly share what kept me from working on a "Ten on Tuesday" post.
Jackson's AWANAs class is having a drive-in movie night tonight and he needed a "car" made from a cardboard box. He requested a Spongebob car. So Chuck and I came up with this:

Front of the car-Chuck did the freehand drawing. I did the die cutting.


Side View

 

I used my Silhouette die cutting machine to cut all of the various sized circles. We just glued plain old yellow posterboard to a cardboard box as a base. Chuck (who is way, way more artistic than I am) drew the face. We finally finished it at about 11PM last night. I think we did a pretty good job. :)
More pictures of the "medium sized kid" driving it tomorrow...

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Ten on Tuesday

1. Ah, my first Ten on Tuesday post of the new year. (Because technically I started writing this on Tuesday, so it counts. Don't judge me.) Anyway, as I was saying it's 2010. Traditionally people list resolutions in the new year. Things they will try to start or stop doing. I have never really been good at keeping those, so this year I have more of a goal than a resolution. And that is....


to keep this plant pictured here alive until June. I know it's a pretty lofty goal, considering my brown thumb (I am even able to kill cactus plants-apparently they need some water-who knew?); but I'm going to give it my all. What? You didn't think I was going to put a fitness or weight loss goal on my blog for everyone to see, did you? I think I'll keep those to myself.

2. Over the holidays we got a chance to stop in Lexington for the night and tour some of the shops downtown the next day. One of the shopping centers was in a really cool old building with amazing architecture. I'd like to go back down there at some point when the shops are actually open-it seemed to have a number of really cool little stores.

Seriously, how cool!

3. Chuck and Don (Chuck's brother) have been absolutely cracking me up lately. They are both obsessed with college basketball (specfically UK basketball). The other day they were literally calling each other at the exact same moment when some news broke about the Tennessee basketball program. It just makes me laugh to hear them on the phone analyzing the teams and games.

The Lakes Brothers

4. My Cricut die cutting machine died a couple of weeks ago. I was so sad. It lasted nearly 3 years, so I can't complain too much. And after selling some of my cartridges on eBay, I was able to replace it with this amazing piece of technology...


that's right, I got a Silhouette! (Scrapbookers will understand my excitement.) I got her on a smoking hot deal on eBay (seriously, like half off of retail-and it's brand new!) and I love it. It cuts any true type font on your computer, no more cartridges to buy. Serious scrapbooking joy in that machine.

5. Upward basketball is back up and running, and the twins first game is this Saturday. We stopped at a certain discount retailer (begins with Wal and ends with Mart) to order RecSpecs, so the boys can actually see the net and ball. Why the un-named retailer that I hate so much? They were the same exact glasses at one of the stores I work for at less than half the price (after my employee discount). Easy decision. We should get them in next week.

6. We've been getting a little snow here and there the last few weeks. And the boys love to play in it. We could get 4 inches or more this Thursday, so hopefully there will be enough for them to acutally build a snowman this time.


 

 

7. I helped out at the kids' holiday parties before winter break. Bryce is one of the "senators" at his school and was chosen to be the "human tree" for one of their games. This picture is worth a thousand words...


He was also chosen as one of the students of the month for December at East. He got to eat dessert with the principal. One one kid from each class is chosen each month and both the twins have been selected this year-can't begin to express how proud I am of them.

8. Jarron also won a reading contest at school this week and earned tickets to a Miami Redhawks basketball game and a pizza party for his whole class. I'm guessing he's a pretty popular guy right about now.


9. Mr Moose got his first haircut this past week. He didn't shed a tear, he just kind of sat there until he got a little antsy but by then it was all over. I'm going to miss those little curls but his haircut definitely suits him. Such a little man.

Getting ready for the cut...



Mid-haircut...


All done! Get me out of here mom!

10. We've decided to sign Jackson up for karate lessons. We really wanted something that he could call his own and this is perfect. He's so funny, lately he has been asking me to call him the "medium sized kid". I often call the twins, the "big boys" and Moose, the "baby". I tried to include him with the "big boys" but he said, "No, I'm not ready to be big yet. How about you call me the medium sized boy?" Works for me, since I'm not ready for him to be big yet either. ;)