Our Trip

We had a fun filled week with family in Virginia the first week in May. The kids had so much fun spending time with their cousins and learning about different things that I think everyone needs a vaction to recover. I know I do.


We drove out to Virginia to celebrate Ben's neice's First Communion and figured that we would just make a "vacation" out of it since the kids love to see thier cousins and they have never been to the capital before.

We did something new everyday, DC, Mt. Vernon, a colonial farm, and a baseball game to name a few. The kids did really well on the trip to and from and had so much fun. We were getting ready to leave and they ask us when can we go back. They are ready for their next fun filled week or more with cousins. I guess we'll have to see what the summer holds.


Now back to our trip. The first day we were there, we just hung out at Charity's house since her kids had a half day of school and everyone was excited to see everyone.


Then Tuesday it was off to DC to check out some museums. We did not do any monument tours since we figured the kids would not really understand what was going on. Instead we visited the Museum of Air and Space and the Natural History Museum, along with a brief walk through the Scuplture Garden. It was a fun filled day, with a lot of walking and checking out of new things. The kids all did great. We even had a chance to check out the indoor butterfly exhibit with live butterflies that the kids really enjoyed.





On Wednesday we headed out to Mt. Vernon which is about five minutes away from Charity's house. Very convient, and I think the kids enjoyed themselves. They do have a museum portion and you can walk through the house. Plus they still have animals and a somewhat working garden on the property. My highlight was that I had a chance to see a bald Eagle flying over the Potomac right behinh George Washington's house. Very Cool.



On Thursday we were off to a colonial farm, to see what life was really like back in 1771. We signed the kids up for Farm Skills where they could try their hand at what kids would actually do on a farm during the colonial times. I think they enjoyed themselves, by particpating in yard carding, yard spinning, candle making and corn pounding. Chores sure are different today than they were back then.



Friday found us on the downtown strees of Old Alexandria on a walking tour with some historic points of interest. The kids did well for the most part, Cooper was a little bored and plenty tired. We did get to see some original cobblestone streets, the tomb of the unknown soldier from the Revolionary war and Robert E Lee's boy hood home. Plus we found a great bar to eat at, named Bilbo Baggins, that was of course why I chose that location to eat at. Then after a good rest and school, we drove up to Maryland for an Oriles game at Cadem Yards. Ben really wanted to see a game there so we jetted off and had a pretty good time. The team played through the rain and we had great seats that were under cover so we were actually able to stay through most of the game. The kids all did great, Bear even feel asleep, crazy!


Saturday, was filled with soccer, first communion and the first day of travel home. What spring time saturday would not be complete without some amount of soccer. I'm sure my kids would not have known what to do with themselves if they did not do something with soccer on a Saturday in May. Then we came home for a little rest before First Communion. Gabby did great and for the most part the kids were well behaved as well. Bear feel asleep again, that I can understand, but hey I did not have to worry about him being crazy. We were able to spend a little time after frist communion with the family celebrating before we had to start on our way home.


The kids were sad to leave but I think that just means they will be even more excited to see them when we go up to Wisconsin this summer. Hopefully all will be well until then.

Happy Easter

We enjoyed our Easter day down in San Antonio with my parents and grand mothers. The kids had fun, doing an egg hunt, swimming and eating dinner. Bear was the most excited to have gotten two Scooby Do DVD's from the Easter bunny. Cooper really enjoyed the candy he found during the egg hunt and Isabelle loved it all.


They are just so funny! Cooper thought it would be a good idea to try to push the big kids into the pool. So funny to watch because they had to "jump" in while being pushed to make it look really. He really thought he was doing all the work. Hey whatever works for him. Then he would be really sweet and pull them out of the pool as if he was helping to save them. The things kids come up with these days. At least they were having fun.

Happy Birthday Bernie

This past weekend Bernie celebrated his 60th Birthday with two of his buddies, in Sulphur Springs. They decided to get together and celebrate with a big party of friends and family. There was a band, with dancing, dining and of course drinking. I think everyone had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the party. I hope the birthday boys had as much fun as everyone else.


Josh and Charity were able to come in as well and we celebrated Jillian's Baptism in Sulphur Springs this past weekend as well. That was a special treat for everyone.

Spring Concert

Isabelle just had her first spring concert for school the other day, and she did great. I think she had a "part" for almost every song. We decided that she is either teachers pet or she follows directions the best. Whatever the case may be she did a great job and took her tasks very seriously. I tried to remind her to smile and still sing. The show was cute and sweet. The boys did great once we got started, and Cooper wanted to go up on stage and be with his big sister, what a great brother right? I really enjoyed watching her have fun and be a big kid.

Troop to Troop

Every year since the start of the war, the Girl Scouts have sent or given troops cookies donatated by people who purchased them and then did not want to eat them. This year is Isabelle's first year to be a Girl Scout and so far she loves it. Plus she had the chance to sell Girl Scout Cookies. She was so excited. This past Sunday we went down to the airport to welcome home troops coming in from Iraq/Afganistan. There were quite a few people out there to welcome them home including at least four or five Girl Scout troops.


Previously the girls made signs to hold up for the soldiers and we all talked about what they are doing and where they are at, having family members in the service really helped. All the girls were very excited to have a chance to pass out the cookies they could and some of the soldiers were even nice enough to take picture with the girls. One of the guys even wanted one for himself.


There was a gentelman there who was filming the welcome home, and it looks like he goes pretty often, who featured the girls in his film. You can check it out here on you tube. They come up at about minute 3:47 and again at minute 5:38. Overall I think it was a great experice and I would love to go again and take the whole family. I think it means a lot to show support to our troops and welcome them home from an environment that might not be so plesant.

Paige

My girl friend, and former roomate, Paige is getting married the first weekend of May. I'm a little sad because I won't be able to be there for her special day, but I will be there in spirit and love. Recently I was able to share with her at a little bridal shower that was given to her by some friends. I took Isabelle along as my "date" which she just loved. She is very handy to have around since she likes to take pictures and then I can actually be in some pictures. Anyway, we had a good time and some of the best cupcakes ever for dessert. Isabelle was able to get seconds but neglected to bring me one. Oh well, at least I had a chance to see Paige and I think I will be able to "party" with her one more time before the big day.

Garden and snake

Bear asked to go play outside today and who am I to say no to a 4 1/2 year old boy. I walk to the back door with him, since it likes to stick and open it. I get the door open and happen to look down. I see the tail of what I think is an earth worm. So I casually close the door to take a closer look. Yea, not an earth worm but a little, I hope, garden snake. I make sure Cooper is not in the way and close the door all the way, get my garden gloves on and contemplate how I am going to get this snake out of my house.


My first thought is just to pick it up and toss it outside. But then I think do I really want it still in my backyard, what if it actually is not a garden snake but something rather untold. Well I chickened out about picking it up anyway and went to get a "tupperware." I touched the snake and it tried really hard to get away, but I just don't think tile and snake were meant to go together. I get the container in place and the snake acatually goes inside.

I close the lid and then gather the boys into the car to drop the snake off some place where hopefully it will not come back into our yard. I know I could have killed it but I figure we are a catch and release family. So down to the little creek we go and I drop the snake out. I hope it will be ok, since it did not have any air holes in the container. If not well, I did my best.

Now I figure the snake got in through this little hole we have where the weather striping has come away. Guess what Ben will be taking care of this weekend, hopefully. Plus no judgement about the horrible state of our "door frame." No porch covering and crazy wind, plus children who open the door when there is water coming from the sky, sprinkers when windy and just small children. Unfortunatlly it is not on the home repair/update list. The list is long and that can wait a little longer.

Opening Day

Ben wants to take the kids each year for as long as we live in Texas, and are close to the Ballpark for Opening Day. This year was even more exciting, for them since the Rangers won the ALCS and have a really great team this year. Since they played the Red Socks, the Rangers did a ticket lottery for those people who did not have season passes. Lucky for Ben, that Penny has season passes she is willing to share with him. If not for that I have no idea how they would have made it to the game.

He said the kids were great! Plus they had such a fun time, they really do love their baseball. I'm not sure if it is the baseball or spending time with Dad but eitehr way they love it. They even get into little arguments as to which player is better. Bear really likes Michael Young, and Isabelle really like Josh Hamilton. I want to say that I have pictures from opening day but I don't. I sent Ben with the camera and got pictures of the jumbo screen. One picture with Isa and Penny that Ben would give me a hard time about if I posted. Oh well, maybe next year.

First Tooth

Isabelle is very excited to have lost her first tooth! We are debating how much the tooth fairy gives for a first tooth at the moment so it should be fun. Her other tooth is coming in behind her baby tooth, so we might end up with some issues later. Who knows, only time will tell. The dentist even made the statement that we should call if the tooth is coming in behind. He already knew, since he took some x-rays.


PS. scroll down past the boy announcement for another post. I have been neglecting my posts and was a little behind.

Iris

Ben planted me some iris's last year more towards the end of the season, and this year so far one of my plants is starting to come up and produce flowers. They are so pretty, a lovely variegated purple and white. I can hardly wait to see what else comes up. We are patiently awaiting our garden and flower bed. The flower bed has lots of green leaves but we don't know what they are to produce. We really hope they are not weeds. The garden is planted and the kids are ready to pull out their veggies and fruit. Isabelle asked about the peach tree, since the peach "just fell right into her hand," last year. Hopefully I will have lots more lovely pictures to come of my beautiful flowers and veggies.

It's a . . .

Healthy baby, boy! That's right we are going to be blessed with one more boy. I informed Ben that I would need lots of Mommy vacations ASAP. I think we are both still adjusting to the idea of another boy, Ben was really thinking that this one was going to be a girl, plus I really think he really liked the name he picked out. No I'm not going to share just in case. I case of what, no one knows but hey crazier things have happened.

So here is our still story of how we found out the sex of the baby. We went for our ultrasound, and asked the tech to make us some pictures but not refer to the sex out loud and to have us turn away to make sure we were still surprised. So she took all the measurements and found out the sex for us and placed our "pictures" in an envelop.


We took said envelop to go shopping. What girl does not like to go shopping. We let me tell you our choices were limited for stores and time, but we finally found a boy and girl outfit we could both live with at Ross. I know, but they do have really good deals. After getting the clerk to understand what we were wanting to do, we left of "picture" some money and the two outfits with her and looked around the store whie she purchased our choice.

Then we took our new found object to lunch where Ben let me open the pacakge to reveal a baby boy is in our horzion. I know I said I would put him up for adoption but really I was just kidding. I guess I'll have to keep him. At least now I can get rid of some clothes. I have so many from when all the kids were babies. As you can imagine I have more girl stuff than boy stuff, even though I only have one.


Here is a look at what baby will be coming home in and the outfit we choose for him. Very cute but hard to find. I guess I need to hit a Carter's store for more little goodies. We will of course be accepting little boy clothes as gifts, or any kind of cute cloth diapers, since we will go that route again.

Oh yea, everything looks great. The baby seems right on track for size and growth, and even did some wild and crazy moves while we were there for our ultrasound. A little wave, he turned his face towards the "camera" and even changed positions fully.

Everything is where it should be, the placenta is in the right place, and my cervix is plenty long enough so that we don't have to worry about pre-term labor. As is going very well. We just have twenty (20) more weeks to wait to see what this baby looks like. I guess now we can pray really hard for red hair.

Ben's project

Ben and I have been talking about putting a cover on the playgroud for while, and we finally got that completed. He even built a fort for the kids to play in as well. I think they are going to have so much fun in there this spring and summer. The cover looks great and as Isabelle pointed out, "it's Baylor colors, Mom." Like that was planned, I just think they did not have any purple and gold options or burnt orange. Either way I guess I should take the little victories. The kids seem please with the fort and cover, at least it will provide some shade and is not nearly as noisy as the tarps we had on before.

New "Toy"

I finally was able to get purchase a new camera. No it's not really a toy since I use it for work and maybe a little play. But it is very nice and I can hardly wait to put it to the test this weekend. I am very excited about my new camera and hope to help create some wonderful memories and images with this camera. Maybe I will capture some of your memories.

Jam or Jelly

At long last we have homemade jelly in the house. I know this would not seem like a big deal to most people, but we use a lot of jelly. I let my kids be independent and make their own sandwiches when they need or want a snack so we use this stuff up pretty fast. And the added benefits, of knowing where your jelly came from and what is put into it, far out weight the purchasing of store bought jelly. Plus the cost savings is amazing.


Plus the kids this time around got to have tons of fun, helping Grandma Nana make the jelly. She does freezer jelly so there is no cooking involved except for sterilizing the jars. Pretty cool stuff right. Since the last time some how to jelly they kids helped to make made it's way to another state. So we are not giving up our jelly at all.


Now I just need to find a place to put the jelly in my freezer. That is always the challenge. Ben has been asking for a freezer to put in the garage for years and I keep telling him, where are we going to put it? We have no room in our garage. But hopefully that will change soon, or at least a little. Some of our stuff will get shifted around, it will be great.


Either way, the kids had a blast helping Nana and I think that Nana really enjoyed her time with them as well. Better yet I did not have to do a thing except buy the supplies. I'm pretty sure we will need more jelly by April but hey at least the kids have the experience and can help me make some when we run out.

Hair

I know that there has been a lot about hair recently but hey I guess that is what is exciting and going on in our world right now. I know silly! Well I made the choice to donate my hair to Locks of Love. That was the only way I think I could have possibly cut my hair as much as I did. I gave a full 10 inches, and I still am having a hard time believing how short it really is. I know it will eventually grow back but hey, I'm glad for the change. Now I will say the first picture looks blurry because I later found a finger print on the lens of Isa's camera, but you get the idea.

At least I will be nice and cool during the summer. I'm not sure if I will stay with this style or try to grow it out to something different. I have not decided but since it is still so new I figure I have some time. It has been so long since my hair has been this short I'm not sure what to do with it. My stylist suggested a hair straightener for those moments when your hair does not want to cooperated, I would agree since my hair does not ever want to do what I want it to do. Oh well. Off to new and exciting things.

A new "do"

Isabelle is growing up so fast, I can hardly believe it. Her most recent move towards Independence has been a new hair cut. I took her in to get a trim and asked if she wanted to do something different and she said yes. So we asked the stylist to set us up with some books to look through and she found a very cute bob for her new "do." She looks adorable, and fortunately I think I will still be able to pull it back every once in a while for soccer or just a change of pace. So far so good she loves it, and kept asking people if they knew who she was with her hair cut. Too funny!

"Snow Day"

We are into our fourth "snow day" with at last some snow. Before we really just had ice. Believe it or not the people who live in this part of Texas are not prepared for these type of conditions. Not to mention that the Super Bowl is coming to town this weekend. I'm sure the football commission is really kicking itself in the butt for that one. But since they did not have a magic ball to predict that a freak snow storm was going to come to town they should really give that some consideration.

I'm sure Jerry land will be very upset if they are not able to host the Super Bowl again in five years, since he pretty much built the stadium for that single purpose in mind. Oh well on to bigger and better things.


Speaking of bigger, that is what I am getting. That's right the fourth and last child is on its way. Growing everyday and already starting to make his/her appearance known, since I have been stretched out three times before it gets harder and harder to hide each time. So far things are good and we are expecting our newest bundle of joy to arrive sometime in the first few days of August. So instead of complaining about the cold, I will be wailing on about the heat.


Enough of that, back to our snow day. The kids were all very excited about the snow and could hardly wait to go outside. So after a quick breakfast, they were getting dressed and racing out the door. Cooper discovered he does not like the snow to touch his gloves. Now I'm not sure if that is a function of his gloves being too small and not fittng well so he got snow down his sleeve a little or if that is because he hands got too cold. Either way it was pretty funny.

Isabelle decided to revamp snow angles and do them face first. Bear followed suit but did not like it as much as she did. I think she would have played outside longer if her brothers did not want to come in early. I was able to sweep the drive way off so that there was not as much snow covering the ice that is still there, but that was just silliness since it started to snow some more. Somehow I missed the report that told us it was going to snow. Crazy! (that person was driving too fast).


My four season garden just might be toast after this weekend. Since the cover is not on because two of the poles are missing in the neighbors yard. She is either:
1. Too lazy to go outside and toss them back over
2. Never goes in the back yard and does not know they are there
3. Has a different schedule than us so we have not had the chance to ask for them back


I should have just gone over during the day and gotten them from her yard. Oh well, we'll see how things go. After all we just planted some stuff anyway that would not be covered so it will be interesting to see what comes up when the weather changes.


Hopefully the kids will want to go play in the snow some more this afternoon. It's too bad they can't make a very good snowman. The snow is too dry. Makes for easy sweeping though. On the plus side, being home so much has really helped Cooper and I get over some of our potty training issues. Now for number 2 and we will be in good and pretty much done. I'm ready!