More Birthday

Well, life is fun when you can truly surprise your kids! :) We, of course, got Brent a new bike for his birthday. So we blindfolded him on the front porch while Terry brought it up from the basement. This is his reaction when he saw it:

Here are more shots of him just waiting for Daddy and Grandpa to finish the adjusting process.


Here are a couple videos of him riding this bike for the first time (and for those who've never seen our house, you get a pretty good shot of it in the background and can even see our little bitty garden at the side of the house at the end of the second video):



After we came in from the bike time, Mom had a couple gifts for the boys that she made: Blankets! :) Brent's is Star Wars themed:

Clayton's was Cars themed and he went a bit nuts when he saw it. LOL I tried to get a shot of his facial reaction, and this is what I got:

But then we got him calmed down a bit and I was able to take these:



But then Mom turned the blanket over and before I could get a shot, he flopped himself down on it! LOL

Obviously he liked it ALOT! :) Brent liked his too...they both also got pillows of the same material and of course they slept with them. Then this morning, when they got up, they both came out of their room carrying their new pillows and dragging their new blankets. It was really cool.

After we showed them their blankets, we ate supper (Brent's choice): lasagna! :) It was so yummy! I use real ricotta cheese (not cottage cheese) when I make lasagna...and halfway through the dinner, Terry gave me a really nice compliment. He said it tasted just like (or better) than Olive Garden's lasagna! Go me!

So all in all a good birthday so far for him, I think! :) We are planning on going to the circus on Saturday night as well. It's the first time either boy has ever been, and a first for me in 20 years! Can't wait!

Recent Art

Here are some recent art projects from our house! :) These first two are Brent's creation. He used the Color Wonder Finger Paints from Crayola and painted on one side then folded it and left it for several days. He opened it up a couple weeks ago and said, "Mom look! It's a volcano that's exploding!" I really liked it!


A couple weeks ago, we took a field trip with some other homeschoolers to Horizons screen-printing shop. We found a homeschooling logo that we liked and they came up with a screen for us. We told them we'd want to tie-dye the shirts afterwards and so they got these special shirts for us. Anyway, the kids got to actually screen-print their own shirts and watch them go through the dryer/oven thing. Well, we finally got around to tie-dying ours this week. They turned out SO cool! Here is the boys modeling theirs:


And of course, this is me! :) (Just for you Sunny!!!!)

Here are my niece and nephew's shirts that we did for them. I really like her shirt the best! :)

Birthday bash...

Well, we had B's 7th birthday party this past weekend. What fun! It was the first time that Baby Chase got to come home to Salem so we had a double party! Brent wanted a Spiderman cake, so this is what I came up with...he actually loved it! LOL


It was quite humorous...I forgot the candles at home that Brent wanted on his cake, but there just happened to be a "7" candle at Janice's. But we'd already sang "Happy Birthday" to him when we realized it all...SO, we lit the "7" and sang again! LOL

After pestering us to finish eating and doing the dishes, we finally let him open his presents. He got this really cool tether ball thing from Aunt Darlene. (Remember those??? I used to LOVE to play with the tether ball at recess!) But this one is a bit different than the ones I remember...this one uses a tennis ball and rackets. I can't wait to play with him! The second pic is the Moon Sand he got from H. I'm not so sure about Moon Sand...they played with it (and have been begging for it for weeks!) but it's more messy than the advertising leads you to believe. But isn't that always the case? Either way, they had fun playing with it this morning, so that makes it cool!



We are celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa tomorrow night and mom has a couple of really cool things for both boys! :) We are also giving him his birthday present from us too...a BIKE! (Shhh...it's a secret!)

Will post more pics when I get them done!

Time for the Weekend!

Brent is SOOOO excited about his birthday party this weekend. He's ready to see Chase and ready to have his Spiderman cake and all that goes with parties! (Read: PRESENTS! LOL)

I spent all of yesterday afternoon and evening (well, night actually) working on a baby blanket for Chase. I have just procrastinated (hard to believe about me, right? HA!) and waited till the last possible moment to make it. But, oh well. I truly enjoy making blankets for people, even though I'm not the greatest seamstress (I know NO fancy stitches) and can't sew a straight line to save my life! LOL But, nonetheless, I keep sewing! Chase's room is in the farm/barnyard theme, and I happened to have this material in the basement. (The closeup one is a more detailed look at the center panel.)

So I'm sewing along...haven't touched the computer all day in order to check email or anything...and we go to put the boys to bed and I holler in to Terry, "Don't turn the computer off!" at the same moment he's clicking "Turn Off Computer". Of course, he didn't know, so he says he'll turn it back on. No biggie. Well, I finish sewing the blanket, finish putting supper away (yes, the dishes are still sitting there!) and see he's still playing his computer game. Oh well...I'll get ready for bed. No biggie. I start to walk back down the hallway towards the schoolroom and Terry meets me halfway there and the hallway is dark. I said, "You didn't turn the computer off again did you?" He just hangs his head. He said, "I'm so sorry." I laughed and said, "Wasn't the whole purpose of you turning back on so I could use it??" LOL But by this time it was 11:30 and I was going to bed! I figured my computer time could wait till today!

Oh well...c'est la vie, right?

Mid-week Slump

Well, there isn't much to tell. We had a fun/busy weekend, but nothing out of the ordinary. On Friday night I went to work on my scrapbook stuff at the church building...I got several pages done on C's book, but am still only at month 2 of his life! LOL Oh well...a little progress is better than NO progress! :)

Then on Saturday, we had a very laid back day until it was time to go to Guess Who's Coming for Dinner at church. We ended up at the Watson's with some other people and not only did we have FUN but we had VERY good smoke ribs! Go Scott!

On Sunday, we had normal life through the morning and then in the afternoon, the boys and I went to a baby shower for some friends of ours. He is precious!!! Brent got to hold a newborn baby girl while there and was completely enamored with her! I made the comment that perhaps if they had a new baby around the house, they would quit asking for a dog! LOL Some of the other moms there looked at me like I was crazy... They said, "You can't give a baby away when they get tired of it...a dog you can!" I simply told them that in our house that isn't true...once we get a dog, we'll have it till it dies, cuz with our kids there is no giving away anything! LOL So we'll see what happens!

Monday, we got to go see how screen-printed T-shirts are made at Horizons. VERY COOL! I remember when I was a kid and my dad did screen-printing for some extra money, that they had a max operation of 4 colors and it was all manual. Well, now, they have a 12-color machine..and it's automated! I was in awe! Then the boys (and the other kids that were there) got to screen-print their own t-shirts with a cool homeschooling logo on them. Next, we're gonna tie-dye the shirts so we can all wear them when we're out at homeschooling functions! So excited!! :)

Yesterday, mom came down and helped me do more spring-cleaning/organizing. We worked on the boys' room primarily...rearranging it and giving them more 'play' room so that hopefully they will actually play in their room more! :) But while Brent and I were organizing the toys and weeding some of them out, mom and Clayton cleaned up the kitchen... Clayton actually swept and mopped my whole kitchen! WOW! Now that I know they can do it, guess who will be mopping from now on?? haha!

Anyway, today has been spent doing school and working on my Bible class for tonight. This weekend we are going to Salem to celebrate Brent's birthday (he'll be 7 next week!!!) with the rest of the family. Plus, baby Chase will be there for the first time, so I can't wait! :)

Tae Kwon Do Pictures (Finally! From January...)

Well, I'm finally getting all my pictures uploaded from the camera and figured I would go ahead and take the time to put them here as well. These are from the boys' Tae Kwon Do tournament in January (and apparently I didn't post about how they did!!!! Sorry....)

Brent got 2nd Place in Form and 3rd Place in Sparring. Clayton got 3rd place in Form and 4th Place in Sparring (hence, the medal not the trophy). They both had alot of fun, although Clayton and another boy had meltdowns during the sparring time. They were from the same school (thankfully) so there were no hard feelings...they were mostly just VERY tired and VERY hungry and had just about had their fill of the day. :)

These two pictures below are just really goofy pictures. Mom and Dad were trying to help us get some good shots of the boys with their trophies and they were just punchy....they started acting weird. (What's new about that huh? LOL) Anyway, the first one here, I intentionally didn't remove the red-eye, cuz with their tongues hanging out and weird looks on their faces, I thought the red eyes make it look cool! LOL The second one, was just Clayton being Clayton and trying to be goofy when the camera clicked. (His timing is so impeccable sometimes!)



We don't have another tourney until August, so hopefully by then my life will be more organized (yeah right!) and it won't take me 3 months to get pictures on here! :) Till then....

Thursday School Graduation

Clayton has finally graduated from Thursday School! (My baby!!!) :) The graduation was last Thursday night and he was SOOOOO excited! :) Of course, he did well....he's Clayton! :)


Miss Faye is the Bible Class teacher (the Blue Class) at Thursday School. She and Clayton had formed a very special bond this year and have both expressed how much they will miss each other next year. We love Miss Faye! :)

Nearly a month..

has gone by since my last post. I'm so exhausted and have so much to tell...I don't know if I have time to type it all in. I'll do my best and add more later if needed.

Since that time, mom made a trip to OK to see J&J, and I took her to the airport and then picked her up again a week later. The boys really enjoyed that adventure....seeing the airplanes and such. Seeing their mother road-rage in St Louis. LOL

We made a couple trips to Salem to help care for J...she is doing remarkably better. Able to stand more on her own (with a walker, anyway), walking better, and showing improvement in her overall attitude. We're so pleased that she's doing better, even if we are shocked! :)

Chase is home and has since had his second surgery to remove the colostomy bag. We finally got to see (and hold) him this past weekend and I'm SOOOO happy! He's absolutely beautiful. I have to share this part: the two times that Terry held him, Chase would just fuss and cry...and as soon as Terry gave him back to me, he would quiet down. :-) I just thought that was cool. But, like I told Terry...I hope that doesn't continue...I don't want him to not be able to hold Chase. But it was cool for that one time. LOL

Clayton has graduated from Thursday School! (I will post pictures soon.) He was so proud to stand up on that stage and get his diploma and his new "Thursday School Bible". I got a couple good pictures...darn camera...and I know you will love them!

We spent this past weekend in St Louis at the St Louis Homeschool Expo. We learned so very much and plan on doing some changes to our school and our lives....more on that in the next couple of days.

Dad was installed as an elder at their congregation yesterday and we were able to be there for it. So touching and nice. But like I told him, I wasn't surprised in the least! :)

In the next couple of weeks, we have so much going on. We are continuing to work on the house to prepare it for the possibility of selling it sometime in the near future. Although, I just don't know how to get all of that done. Mom has been helping me for a couple weeks, and sometimes I still get depressed and feel like I'm spinning my wheels. :( But it will happen the way it's supposed to happen. We start T-Ball soon...the practices begin this week. On a Wednesday, no-less. I'm gonna have to call their coach and let him know that the boys won't be there on Wednesday nights. Hope he's okay with that! Terry has another surgery coming up; we don't have the date scheduled yet. They will be putting a plug in, and there is only a 60% chance that it will work. So we will see. It means 4-6 weeks of him not being able to do much of anything that requires lifting or exerting more than 10 lbs. So that means that all the garden and yard work is now left to me for the majority of the summer! Oh, dear! I'm not looking forward to that at all....I am an INSIDE person. LOL

Okay, I have to go...more housecleaning to do, things to pick up, clothes to fold...and dinner to prepare. The boys have TKD this evening as well. I'm hoping to get some pictures posted later this week.

Amendment to Rubik's Cube post...

Okay, since that posting, I have figured out (through Terry's tutelage) how to 'do' the Rubik's cube. And now I LOVE it! LOL I know, I'm eating crow now, but I'm doing it gladly. Terry likes to tease me with threatening to get a 4x4...and I just tell him to go ahead! :)