Brownie Celebration

Kaylee finished up her second year of Brownies. To mark the occassion the girls had a party and received their patches.

Kaylee's leader, Mrs. Jean, had each of the girls come stand on the star and tell their favorite activity for the year. Some girls said, seeing the Sleeping Beauty play, some said roller skating, but Kaylee said having all the Girl Scout cookies at our house.

As with every good party there is a theme. This year the theme was Stars.

Kaylee's looking forward to continuing Brownies next year. Especially since there are two campouts. I'm looking forward to cookie sales again....once I've had some time to recover from last year.

Where have you been all my life?

A few months ago I received a gift for volunteering at the school. In the gift bag was a box of Nips. I remember Nips from way back when my grandma use to have the coffee flavored ones at her house. Not my favorite memory.

Being that I"m not a real candy kind of person, the kids wanted one or twenty so I left them out and the kids ate the whole box. Or so I thought....



I was cleaning off my computer desk and found one lone nip. So I unwrapped it and popped it in my mouth. And what happened next was pure joy.....the outside of the candy was a hard caramel but the center was a creamy, liquid caramel.....So, to make a long story longer....When I went to the grocery store I started searching for my new BFF Caramel filled Nips. However, the closest thing I could find were these Werthers Creamy caramel Filled...And they my friend, are almost an exact replica of the nips. And my local Wal-Mart carries them which means they are much more accessible.



Let me know if you try them...We can have a discussion of the goodness.

Birthday Boy Bash

Ty's 4th birthday party was orginally scheduled for Saturday but due to Mia's virus we had to postpone the party until the following Thursday. It worked out well that the kids only went to school for 1/2 day. So we had a few friends over for swimming and cake. We only invited the little friends that Ty actually knows, in the center is Tate, Nathan, Ty, Mia, Terry and Avery. But since most of those kids have siblings it turned into a full birthday bash.

Sick & Tired of being Sick & Tired

Well maybe the tired comes just from being SICK.



In our family we have had 6 sick people in 6 days. That is less than a week. (Just in case you forgot) But those 6 days have seemed like an ETERNITY



Kaylee started the fun( I mean misery) on Tuesday morning with Strep Throat. That same afternoon we were back at the pediatrician with Zane for.....you guessed it Strep Throat.



Thursday David had some strange stomach virus that I was sure was going to turn into Strep but never did.

Then on Friday we received a call from the school nurse. Trent had taken an awful fall on to the blacktop during their Recreation day. The teacher is pretty sure he blacked out for about 15 seconds. What resulted was a massive goose egg on his forehead. and 4 bandages to the knees and elbows. He was pretty shaken but bounced back quickly....

Just soon enough for me to leave him while I held Mia in between bathroom trips. IF you have a weak stomach you can stop reading now (Bye, Honey)
But I just have to share than Mia scared me to death. I have never had a child do this to me and I hope she will grow out of it. But during some of the vomitting episodes Mia would hold her breath. Then her legs would go limp and she literally fell down on to the floor. I thought she was having a seizure. More than one time. Until I realized what she was doing. It was scary.... very scary.

I was the only one who took care of her during her 24 hr virus. And apparently it incubates only about 24 hr before it strikes again.....YEP, I've got her virus. Hopefully I'll be back to normal as quick as she was. Thankfully, we were all well enough to go to church this morning for Ty's dedication (more on that later)

So far Ty has managed to dodge all illnesses and bodily harm. But tomorrow's a new day....

Mia gets a brother

Our friends, Lance and Julie are in China RIGHT NOW!!! They are adopting a little boy. We met Lance and Julie on Round 1 of our first visit to China when we adopted Mia.

Funny thing is they adopted a Mia too.....

I tried really hard to get Lance and Julie to name their little boy Ty so we could all match but they wouldn't go for it. So instead they've named him Elijah and I think they will call him Eli.

We hope to see them at the end of the summer and get to meet Mia's little brother Eli.....

Man....He's really a handsome little guy! I'd like to call dibs (RIGHT NOW) on him for our Mia......I wonder if the Clarks believe in arranged marriages?

We're so happy for them.

Yao

This past weekend David and I attended a marriage conference called God's Blueprint for marriage. It was very good. The teachers were great and although we feel like we do pretty good in this department it was nice to have a time to reflect on the past, and focus on the future. After the conference we went downtown for dinner. Mechiel had recommended Yao's Restaurant....Yao AS in Yao Ming. It was really good Chinese food. And the doors were 10ft high. Even the women's restroom door. I had a little trouble pushing the door open.We overheard the waitress say....there is a special room in the back for Yao and his basketball buddies. The tables and chairs are much larger and designed especially for him. We didn't get to see it but I'm pretty sure that if Mac would have been with us he would have found some way to get us back there. I thought maybe next time Mac and Gayla could go with us but it would be hard to convince Gayla to eat Chinese food just to see some gigantic chairs....


How about gigantic shoes? Wow! and I thought my feet were big

Sooooo much going on...

Late April to the end of May makes me CRAZY!!!!
I feel like even if I had a personal assistant who told me where to be and when I still couldn't remember it all.
But the good news is once a few more things end I'll be back to normal...

Zane, Kaylee and Trent have just started swim team. They practice every day after school. At different times of course. And I really hoped Mia would be able to particpate this year, so I signed she and Ty up for swim lessons. those occur at two different times twice a week.
Plus we have all our other regular activities
Awana, Tumbling, Boy Scouts, Tiger Scouts, Brownies, Pre-School, Band, Speech, Tutoring,Youth Group and your various birthday parties.....

Anyway, as you can see it has been very crazy around here.
I have pictures of the swim lessons. (Which are going very well by the way) Even though the lessons are going well Mia is still not ready for swim team. The kids have to be able to swim across the pool without assitance and she REALLY likes assistance. So, we'll have to wait until next year. Fear plays a big part in her reluctance to swim but we are seeing her become more and more confident each time. Ty on the other hand has no fear but we have to remind him to come up for air. He seems to possess a very large lung volume.
Last weekend I attended my semi-annual scrapbooking retreat. I always have such a great time. It's fun to relax, scrapbook, talk and just hang out. My friend Robyn always does such a good job of coordinating the event. It's really nice for me, because usually I'm the one organizing events. I love just showing up. Robyn also just started a blog. During the retreat Mechiel (pestered)Robyn, I mean encouraged Robyn to start something on the web. We are all so excited because Robyn always has the best stories....

More later...

Why I want another one....

Is this not the most precious picture ever? .... This is Kaylee's very favorite baby girl Abby.

I love the sweet smiles.....it makes me want another one.


I love the rosy cheeks and the sweet smiles..mmmmm! it makes me want another one.


I love the details of the little fingers...it makes me want another one.


I love everything about this picture...IT REALLY makes me want another one...




A New Camera...A digital SLR camera. That's what I want.

Wait what were you thinking? Yea I know what you were thinking.


See, I took this picture with Abby's mom's Nikon D80 digital SLR, What a great photo, and all I did was point and shoot. Maybe one day I'll get one. ...another one.

A real southern boy...

Ty said a new word today. One I don't think I've heard before. It certainly made me stop and laugh.
Mia, Ty and I were walking up to the front doors of the church. It was a little walk from the parking lot to the front doors. Ty ran ahead of Mia and I. When we caught up to him
He said..."Ha! I beat YA'LL"

YA'LL....He said "Ya'll"

I wonder if his speech teacher would be happy with this?

Swimming with Ducks

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Multi-tasking Mishaps

There are times when one really should just focus on the task at hand......Or the task at hand becomes cleaning up a gigantic mess

Happy Easter

Cheese and Quackers

I had just told the kids that Nana and Paw Paw were bringing a surprise with them, when they drove up into the driveway. So the kids quickly jumped in the back to see if they could spy the surprise.

Can you guess what it is?

Baby ducklings....Five of them. Did you expect any less?

3 of them are Blue Swedish and 2 are Khaki Campbell.

In this photo it seems that Zane and Nana are practicing their duck imitations.....

The gig is up....

I've always prided myself in the fact that I can usually turn a chore into some type of game. Thus making the work seem fun or like a competition....
However last week I needed the laundry sorted between the boys and the girls baskets.

So I said, "Mia come here and let's play a game with the laundry"

She cocked her head back and said, "Come on Ty, This is gonna be lame"

Joleana

I would like to introduce you to the newest member of our family......Joleana

The girls have been talking a lot about wanting another sister. Mainly so that we can be "even" 3 boys and 3 girls. The girls don't like the fact that the women are out-numbered in this family. Add this to the fact that our dining table seats 8 and there is an empty chair at dinner.

So the girls decided to go ahead and make Joleana for us, complete with food and utensils. You may wonder where the name Joleana comes from....Before Ty came home we realized that we have children with a 3,4,5,6 letter names...Which lead us to Ty, because it is a 2 letter name.

So we've said that if we ever had another child he/she would have to have a 7 letter name. David jokingly came up with Joleana...which by the way would NEVER happen if I have anything to say about it at all.

On the other hand, as my friend Gayla pointed out, we could give him/ her a one letter name.... I said how? She said "just name it U"

When being helpful isn't self-serving

80% of the time I can understand what Ty is telling me. But there are times when I try my hardest and really can't understand him. So, I'll ask Mia, "What did he say?" and usually she's right.

For example....David took just Ty to Burger King. The order was taking a little while to process so they asked him to pull around and wait. While they were waiting Ty kept asking David something. David tried really hard to figure it out. Thankfully, Ty doesn't get upset and will usually repeat it as many times as you need it... Still he couldn't understand.
So as soon as he walked in the door he said, "Mia come here...Ty tell her what you were saying..Ty said it and Mia says,
"HE's saying What's taking so long?" Yes that was in fact what he was saying....

Well the other day Mia and Ty were playing by the backdoor. They were pretending to lock each other out of the house. Holding the door closed so the other one couldn't get in.(That same game got me a spanking in Elementary school, but that story's for another time) Anyway, The game got a little rough and Ty came in to me and said, "Mia is ........." I couldn't figure it out.

I said Mia what is he saying...She looked at me...Almost told me and then realized what she was doing to herself...She said, "I don't know"

Ahhh... I knew my girl was smart...

Park Day

Make a Smilebox slideshow

12 years ago today...

It's hard to believe that it was 12 years ago today that we became parents for the first time. I remember the day before delivery I weed- eated the front yard and David did the mowing. Little did I know that 3 days later I would have a new son AND break out in poision ivy. Our "little" bundle of Joy weighed a hefty 10lbs 4 oz. and was two weeks late. Come to think of it, to this day nothing makes Zane get in a real big hurry.........unless he hears the ice cream truck.

Zane was excited about going to school today on his birthday. For two main reasons...His math teacher doesn't make them do their practice exercises on their birthday....The second reason is that his group of friends sing very loudly in the cafeteria to embarass the heck out of each other....

but alas he did not go to school today. He woke up with "The Pink Eye" as Trent says. This is his 4th round of pink eye in the last few months. So his birthday included a trip to the doctor and a trip to the Sporting good store. Where he chose this new air soft gun. He and David did a little target shooting. We will celebrate his birthday with a few of his friends later in the week.

Up, Up and Away

Whew! It's been a busy weekend.
Among the things we've done this weekend are;
Mia's Dance Pictures
Kaylee and I saw a theater production of Sleeping beauty,
Trent raced his Pinewood Derby car, Not once but TWICE for Awana and then again on Sunday for Cub Scouts
A Sleepover for two friends
Church
A crawfish boil

AND.......

Zane got to go flying with his Boy Scout Troop. (Does riding next to the pilot count as flying?)
I think so. One of his leaders is a pilot for Continental and he graciously offered for the boys to come out to the airstrip and he took them all for a ride in his private plane. They all had a great time. The first thing I wanted to know was if they got to wear the headphones with the microphone attached. And the answer was Yes, They did. He thought it was as cool as I did.