Day 1 of Super cousins Week

Zane and Nickolas had fun making their Tie Dye T-shirts.

After a great morning of VBS we spent the afternoon at a friend's pool. The kids had a great time doing splash contests, Marco Polo and sneakers.

A night with Steven Curtis Chapman

Last Friday night we had the honor of seeing Steven Curtis Chapman live at an event downtown. It was such an awesome night for us because we were able to take all of the kids. They had never been to any type of concert before. The kids went nuts because the first song he sang was "Live Out Loud" They couldn't believe this was the same song we have listened to over and over again in the car. There was a free concert to support The Source for Women, which is a crisis pregnancy center, and a classmate of Zane's - mother is on the board of directors. Zane was most impressed because we had VIP tickets.
SCC did such a great job. It was just him and his guitar. He played and talked and shared his heart for adoption. Which of course is so close to our hearts. We were even privileged to hear one of his new songs that will be released on his newest album, the song was called "Cinderella" I don't think there was a dry eye in the place. What a great guy, I hope one day I can have just an ounce of his passion for finding homes for orphans.

Sleeping Beauties

Or should I title this picture "Fly Catchers?"

BOGO Cats

So did you ever think the animal shelter would have a Buy One Get One Free Special on Kittens? We took a trip down to our local shelter to check out the kittens. (Our black cat, Molly, was hit by a car 2 months ago. The kids have been wanting another kitten but I was trying to wait until school was out and we would be home for a while.) So today was the day! We found the white and orange kitten first and then Zane really liked the black and white kitten. They both kept meowing hysterically at us. The orange one even tapped Kaylee on the shoulder from inside the cage. We were only going to adopt one but Zane really wanted the one "with the little mustache"

So, after some deliberation, cell phone calls to Dad and promises to help mom we brought home TWO...... Of course the workers are trained well and know just when to throw comments into the conversation like "They really do better in pairs" "The price is the same for 1 or 2" "If you get one now and then try to introduce another kitten later to an adult cat it could be bad"

So here we are home with Izzy and Webster. Izzy is the Black and white female and Webster is the Orange and white male. Both have been respectivley neutered and spayed. David and I had different ideas about the name for the Mustache cat..... I voted for Groucho and David voted for Adolf.

There has been one major advantage, the amount of time spent holding a cat has been increased.

That was THEN this is NOW

It seems like just yesterday this little guys were waddling into our lives and now their almost full grown. (OK so it was almost yesterday) Man do Ducks Grow fast or what?

We took them yesterday to a pond near our house and released them into the wild. They liked swimming in the baby pool so much we knew it was time to let them go. Plus they were beginning to annoy the dog. For the last few weeks the ducks and dog have been loose together in the backyard. Sometimes the ducks would get a little to close to the back door and Rocket would chase them back to their corner of the yard.

The release went well. Except they didn't want to leave us. We rode our bikes to the pond. (David pulled the baby cart with a rubbermaid containing ducks) When it was time to leave they huddled up near the bikes. We had to take them further out and stay for quite a while until they got use to swimming in the pond. They made some new duck friends and they didn't look back.

A cool thing we saw there was a mother duck and her 8 baby ducklings. Then when we walked the ducks farther we spotted another mother duck and 8 more baby ducklings. Apparently it's a family pond.......

Scrapbook Retreat

The 4 day Wonderful, Glorious, Highly anticipated, much needed Scrapbook Weekend.

This was my third scrapbook retreat to attend and it was just as much fun as the first two. There were 13 of us who spent the weekend at Lake Livingston just working on our scrapbooks. We didn't shop, we didn't put on real clothes and make up was highly discouraged. This event has become a semi-annual event for me and I try to rope any scrapbooker I know into coming along. It's more than a crafty weekend it's a True Retreat......Go to sleep when you want, wake up when you want and scrapbook in between.

Now does this look like a care-free, no cooking, no cleaning, no make-up, no worries, shot to you? Looks like I am hard at work here..... Deeply enthralled in my lay-out..... this is serious business........:)

Robyn, the mastermind, behind the whole retreat weekend. Also the person who taught me how to scrapbook 10 years ago. I give her all the credit.

My Friend Darla,(aka my sister-in-law) rearranges her layout yet AGAIN! Just don't ask her to write Prom on your paper because she sometimes writes Halloween instead.

Apparently Stacy works better standing up. I guess it's hard for most pharmacists to think sitting down.

Apparently some scrapbook glue can make you down-right GIDDY! But it doesn't take much to make Carla Giddy! (Another reason she may be happy is that she surpassed me in the finished pages count. She did over 35 pages. Kudos Carla!!!

My friend, Tiffany waits patiently for the Cricut to finish laser cutting her title. She and I both brought our new machines. This machine is awesome it cuts any paper into any word or letter you program in. NO computer needed.

Been Farmin' Long?

This is Trent's friend, Kevin who moved away not long ago. Trent was so upset because he finally had a friend that was a boy and was his exact age. His Pre-K class was 12 girls and 4 boys, and his playgroup has 6 girls and Trent. Hopefully Kindergarten will bring out a few new "boy" friends.

Take out the ducks and here come the kids....

I think the ducks may have a kid magnet in them. Several of the neighborhood children came over to play with the ducks. There were 11 kids in the front yard. It was a lot of FUN!

Slip N Slide

Let's hope it's true....

I've always heard a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human mouth. Let's hope it's true

Bragging Rights

Sheri, Sheri, quite contrary how does your garden grow?

With Silver Bells and cockel shells and

SEVEN ORCHID blooms all in a row!!!

Ok So this may not seem as important to the rest of the world as it is to me BUT....I grew an orchid plant. Last year I bought Mom, Granny, Toni and I orchid plants for Mother's Day. After the blooms fell off I kept my plant in the window for a full YEAR... I was getting rather disgusted with it about a month ago and threatened to throw it out because it had not bloomed again all year. When all of a sudden I noticed there was about a 10" bloom stem on the back of the plant. (It must have sensed my frustration) So now all 7 blooms are open and are perched beautifully in line.

On a side note: (I have since rescued Mom and Granny's orchid plant from the front yard of Mom's house where they were not so lovingly taken care of last year. I don't blame her I usually can only grow weeds, myself. Maybe next mother's day this orchid will have company)

Upward Football and Cheerleading

Zane and Kaylee participated in Upward football and Cheerleading. Yesterday was the last of their 8 games. They both had a great time playing. Zane played on the Eagles team and Kaylee cheered on the Butterflies.

Mia got in on some sideline cheering. Kaylee taught her the cheers and she knew every word. She was just missing some pom poms. I made her a little outfit to match her big sister's uniform. She can't wait to "cheer for real"

WARNING

WARNING!!! If you visit our house you might just learn something........

Apparently teaching will continue to run in our family for another generation

Playdate

Mia had a playdate with her friend Willow. Zane is good friends with Willow's brother, Taylor. So when Taylor came over Willow stayed to play with Mia. They had fun playing babies and school. One time it got very quiet and I went to check on them. Mia had spread construction paper out on the floor and had 2 bottles of clear fingernail polish and long paintbrushes. Yes, the polish was already open but luckily none had gotten on the wood floor yet.

Another "Miaism" - Mia was digging through the Easter candy the other day and found something she wanted. She had it in her hand and was walking off I said, "Mia, what are those?" She said "They're called -Their all mine and I'm eating them all by myself"

Woo! I think David and I have our work cut out for us!!!

Already a Decade

It's so hard to believe he's already 10. The years went so fast. Zane had an awesome birthday. He spent the night with Nikolas&Grandma, got new baby ducks, had an Easter Egg Hunt at Aunt Darla's AND found the Golden Egg (which contained 10 BUCKS!) All topped off with Cookie Cake and Presents. What more can a guy ask for?

Duck Tales

As you can see, we've had a great time with our little ducks. They all look so much alike it's hard to tell them apart. So we got a sharpie and made dots on their feet so each person would know which duck was "theirs" We've had a hard time coming up with names. There's always Huey, Dewey, and Louie but what would the 4th one be? Mia is the only one who decided. She settled on "Quackey"

Kaylee discovered that if she puts them all on the floor together they will follow her around the house. (Much like a mother duck) I've yet to get a good photo of this but I will persist.

Quack, Quack, Waddle, Waddle

Easter Bunny

Trent and Mia got to visit the Easter Bunny at the mall. As you can tell someone is M.I.A that's right MIA wouldn't go near the bunny. She screamed and wrapped her legs so tight around me, I knew there was no chance of "talking" her into it. Maybe next year..... I didn't realize how big the trauma was to her until Sunday morning when I was getting her out of bed, I said "Let's go see what the Easter Bunny brought you" Then the screaming began again. She calmed down quickly when she saw the candy and no sign of a big furry rabbit.

Easter Party

Trent's class had a fun Easter Party on Monday. They did their hunting on the church Playground and then went to the room for a true 4 year old feast: McDonalds chicken nuggets, potato chips and grapes, followed by a bunny cupcake. What else can a guy ask for?

Trent and his best friend Joshua. They're never far apart.

4 WHEELIN

During our trip to Gilbert we went to Uncle Sonny's house. He has a four wheeler and go cart. The kids had a blast riding around. I wasn't sure that Trent would be able to control the go cart(actually I was afraid he wouldn't stop, and drive straight into the river behind the house) but he did a great job. Well, right until the very end when he was trying to look back over his shoulder and out drive Kaylee, he didn't see the tree ahead of him and the go cart went straight up the tree. Thankfully, the seat belt worked and he didn't fall out.

Trent, Kaylee and Cousin Gabe cruisin the place.

Gabe and Mia cheer everyone on.

Blogging outage

Yes, it's been a while since the last post but a lot as transpired in the last month. Good news is - a lot of it is "blogable" But it will take me actually having time to sit down and do it. I was very inspired this weekend and then a bad storm rolled through on Saturday. Lightning struck our modem and we were without phone and internet for 2 days. Thankfully, we had a busy weekend and my computer withdrawls were shortlived.