For the Brian Reagan fans… a copy cat.

Thad this morning:

Eli is my BEST friend.   Except for Jesus.  He’s a little more favorite!

with a B.R. sound and everything…

overdue pictures

I love this picture.  It captures a face we see often…

Also what we see often… Shand in her play pen… where we lay her during the day often… Shand trying to dress her!

check out the hair!!

Keenan back from camp… both of them so very silly excited. this is the least goofiest pic I got.

Again… Talia determinied to sleep against all odds

the mohawk the boys have always wanted…

we went to the Renaissance Festival – Three Barons Fair… legos – out. swords, knights & fighting – in! Keenan cut out a mask and sticky  taped it to his face!

Its so hard to capture a good smile… she smiles a lot but always while moving!

Shand looking beautiful.

last one. Talia in a deep sleep… looking just like Hewett, Keenan’s twin who passed away… its blurry, but we’ll keep it anyway… I walked past her sleeping and mt heart jumped when i saw her.

SO there is a few pics… i so need a new camera… ours is taking more crappy pics than good.

A Day with Just the Girls

Absolutely at a loss… NO IDEA what to do with myself.

Bryan took the boys camping (they could not be swayed to tent in the living room even though it POURED rain the night before and it was windy, cloudy and forecasting rain).

And there I was with the two little girls…

Next time, I think I’ll plan some stuff and have some things in mind to do with Shand.

I’m sure it would have helped had Talia not had tummy aches all day.  I wonder if it was the brownies… I might need to cut out chocolate.  Sad.  But I will.

Pics coming.

lessons from kids camp

if i just let the boys wear the same clothes all week, and skipped showers, it would not only save on the water / electricity / gas bill, but my time in doing laundry and cleaning the showers.

he actually looked very healthy and handsome in his stinky grime!

Kids Camp

Keenan.

First time.

Exhuberant and excited 4th grader.

Sad and nervous mama.

who said motherhood was boring?

I’ve had a ‘first’ today.

I got to stick my hand down inside the toilet in hopes of pulling out a toothpaste tube.  (Did I just say that I HOPED to pull out a toothpaste tube?)

I wasn’t sure whether to believe Shand when she said she put the toothpaste in the toilet.  But it was draining slow  and… VOILA!!

Yeah for honest two year olds, even if they are little trouble makers.

The birthdays…

not much inspiring here… just some information for my ‘journaling’ purposes, if you can call it that! We’ve had a string of good days with Shand (if you can call three a string ) I think we are FINALLY settling in. The day before bryan went back to work I was FREAKING out.  turns out, every day has been great. Tiring, even exhausting, but great, nonetheless.  Turns out what really makes me stress is FEAR, not the actual circumstances of the day. THIS POST from Conversion Diary is changing my days.  Actually, God is changing my days, using this post that pinpointed the root of my sin.

Anyway, I’m not feeling terribly inspired, beyond getting through the day with relatively healthy meals, and carrying out life with joy and intentionally loving and touching my children.  And enjoying our unseasonably warm spring.  Its bliss, really!!  Green and SUNNY!  Already more sunshine than there was ALL of last summer!!

Here’s a few pics…

This is a regular pose for Shand… kissing, leaning over to touch the baby’s head with hers, stuffing the pacifier in her mouth and talking REALLY close to her face.

Three weeks… growing and getting fat!

Thad’s birthday… we’ve never done the park thing before… its never been this nice and warm and sunny and DRY in May.  the grass was still too wet for them to run in, but the playground was dry.  Bryan was my hero.  my HERO.  He went shopping the morning of to get the gift.  He made the cake, convincing Thad he wanted a dump truck cake (as in the dirt in the back of his toy truck) and not an excavator cake crafted and shaped and decorated by me. And then he made the cake.  and crushed the oreos.  I DID make the chocolate pudding though!  And made a second cake when I decided one wasn’t enough. (We are eating the second one this week.  One was MORE than enough!! )  All while I sat and cried and nursed and fought post partum depression and struggled through the pain of nursing and a bad back.  It was a beautiful day, and the kids had a blast at the park, and my boy is SIX!!

Shand… singing Happy Birthday (her new favorite song… it found its way into her prayer the other night! ) Bryan, again, speaking some sense into me and encouraging me to not go over the top for the birthday ideas!!  I made the cake with PEANUT oil… oops… it was a party for a 2 yr old, with little ones there, who are allergy prone… so I made ANOTHER cake… the frosting couldn’t have butter in it, which is fine, but it is VERy hard to frost with non-buttercream icing.  We were going to do a whole bunch of butterflies… but as each butterfly took about 15 minutes to frost and decorate, I shifted to cupcakes with a flower on top after we had enough for each of her friends.  (or the little girls of mommy’s friends!)

Hugging a new stuffed toy from our DEAR FRIENDS in INDIANA!!! we miss you!!  Every time I make wacky cake I think of Nolah!

Holding her baby doll in her new sling that my mom made her.  Along with the sweetest little apron!!

Then that afternoon, after more cooking, we trekked out Wasilla, leaving a messy kitchen and the house a wreck, to go celebrate Mother’s Day and have more Shand celebration with family.

We are doing little bits of school here and there, and playing lots of games, and gardening a TINY bit… a little tiny bit of gardening takes up a LOT of time it seems!!  Next week I start back leading worship.  I’m not ready.  But I won’t stress about it, because if you followed the link above, you’ll know, I am giving up fear, moment by moment… I can do all things He has asked of me.

Making Slimy Plastic

 

 

 

 

 

This was the most fun of science experiments… stir together glue and water and a wee bit of food coloring… just for looks…

Then dissolve some borax in water. POUR into glue mixture and watch the cloud form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reach in and pick it up! J The boys had so much fun… you can see in by their facial expressions how they went from unsure to elated!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids Say Meme

1. What is something mom always says to you? I love you. Thank you

2. What makes mom happy? When I laugh. Kisses and hugs.

3. What makes mom sad? Sad movies. When I lose something, like if I really needed a pan or something that I didn’t have, but I actually did have it but I lost it it would make you really sad.

4. How does your mom make you laugh? When I tell you something funny. When you tickle and when you make me really really happy it makes me feel ticklish a little bit.

5. What was your mom like as a child? Funny? I don’t know. I wasn’t even born.

6. How old is your mom? Maybe 32. I think you’re 44

7. How tall is your mom? 100 cm. 90 inches (that is short as grandma)

8. What is her favorite thing to do? Read stories. Read your bible and pray to God? Get mad.

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? You watch TV. Come find us and play I’m just thinking things that you MIGHT do.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Paintings. Maybe you’ll be a ballerina. I think you’d be a good ballerina.

11. What is your mom really good at? Writing. You’re really good at telling me stuff that I don’t know.

12. What is your mom not very good at? Running. When you’re pregnant. You’re not very good at ballerina and dancing. But I’m good at dancing.

13. What does your mom do for her job? Take care of us. Take care of us.

14. What is your mom’s favorite food pineapple. Mac and cheese. I think its MY favorite food and yours too.

15. What makes you proud of your mom? She cooks well. You do good writing and drawing.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? Bugs bunny (no hesitation!) mickey mouses’s sister. Minnie mouse?

17. What do you and your mom do together? read. we sometimes read a book.

18. How are you and your mom the same? We both like each other. We both have one nose and two eyes.

19. How are you and your mom different? we both have different hair. I don’t have glasses and you do. That’s different. that’s really different

20. How do you know when your Mom is mad? When she “hrrr.. arrghh. Aahh!” cause I can see with my eyes.

21. How do you know your mom loves you? Cause you give me kisses and hugs. Cause I do things really nice and you do things nice for me. Like do the dishes for me sometimes.

22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? Home. church

interesting.  just shows how well my kids know me! (or don’t know in some cases… ballerina???)

Lent with kids…

A little heads up for anyone who wants one… this year we are doing a “Lent Tree” with activities for each day.  Here is the link for the website that we got it from… it’s free this week!  Better late than never… we are starting Thursday instead of Wednesday…  It’ll be good to have something to help us look forward to First Fruits… (Easter )

CurrClick

We are memorizing Psalm 139, one section at a time, and getting ready to start on the second section.  Its going slow.  BUT again.  Better late slow than never… I don’t usually wait for Thaddeus to have it totally down.  He gets full verses here and there, and since we review what we have already memorized, he’ll get it eventually.  We memorized Psalm 1 in the Fall, and he ha it almost perfect now.

More later with pics of our week of homeschool… its been a busy couple weeks!  And I’m feeling REALLY super-mommish with all the messy activities… sand art even!!