Pool Guest

As I walked by the window last week, I glanced out at the pool as I normally do. A little something caught my eye, so I had to take a second look. There was a brown ball of fur sitting on the cleaning tube. A little brown mouse. Apparently, it couldn't figure out how to get out of the pool & had been swimming a long time. It must have been exhausted, since it didn't try to run as we approached. After a few tries, Randy netted the little creature and tossed it onto the deck. Randy said he would dispose of it, so the girls and I headed inside...didn't really care to watch what might come next. I just know that I didn't want to find it on the bottom of the pool...or even worse, in the filter basket after having been sucked up by the cleaner! :-0

Mother's Day '10

Since our schedule has been so busy lately, Randy and I didn't have time to go see our moms for Mother's Day. :-(
My family was really good to me though. Allyson and Claire wrote the most beautiful poems for me (& made me cry), and everyone gave me cards. My big gift was a mini camcorder...a cute little Sony Bloggie. I've had some trouble with my flip camera, and the family has heard my grumblings about it. So proud of them for "listening"! :-)

After church on Sunday, the kiddos and I posed for a pic. I truly hate being in photos, but I did it for the kids. LOVE my kids! SO very blessed!!

April Wrap-Up

OK, so I didn't improve on blog posting for April as I hoped. :-) We've just been incredibly busy with a big home improvement project, so my journal (the blog) took a back seat. I'm just going to do a quick wrap-up for the last half of April (since I can't really remember everything we did), and make a new goal for May! :-) May is another CRAZY busy month for us, so my goal is just to post once a week.

OK, so wrappin' it up quickly....

Emily participated in a band clinic, where she played a flute solo...she received the highest ranking and a medal. She also traveled to Tulsa with her church youth group, and attended a wonderful concert featuring Mercy Me. To top off her month, Emily tried out for the cheer and dance teams at school....and she made the cheer team! **Go Emily!!** Sadly, the only pic I have related to any of her activities is of a cookie...one of her friend's mom gave one to each girl as a good luck gift. :-)

Allyson participated in her first school orchestra concert. She had the best time, and the orchestra played beautifully. I love the fact that the orchestra is much smaller than the band, so the gathering seemed more intimate. She has two more concerts in May.

Now...just a few random pics from the last couple of weeks...

And finally, I think spring has finally arrived here. The giant bumble bees were buzzing around our little redbud tree so I grabbed my camera. This little guy was kind enough to pose for me...so sweet of him! ;-)

Easter

Egg hunt at church on Saturday. Allyson and Claire were in one age group, Max was in another, so Emily and I split the picture-taking duties. Everyone came away with a basket full o' candy (er, I mean eggs). Max was perfectly happy with his eggs...then a well-meaning lady at church showed him that the eggs opened to reveal chocolate candy inside - oh boy! Had to quickly redirect him to keep him from devouring it all on the spot! ;-)

Decided to set the camera up and take a quick shot of the family after lunch. Not a great shot, but we're all in there for once....

Dentist

Max had his first dental visit yesterday. Before we left home, I explained where we were going and what they would do to his teeth. The only problem was that I told Max about this early in the morning, so I had to listen to "We going to dentist?" at least a hundred times before his early afternoon appointment. :-O The appointment also coincided with nap time, so I was more than a little worried....Max is NOT fun to be around when he hasn't napped! lol (Had to take this appt. time as they only see new patients in the early afternoon.)

Max was first weighed, and then he climbed onto the exam table. He looked around and tried to quickly jump down (mommy is worried at this point, but kept encouraging him). The hygienist used a stuffed frog (with a beautiful smile) to show Max what they were going to do. Max was sold as soon as she showed him the water squirter! He then agreed to lay down, don the sunglasses, and opened his mouth (& asked for more water! lol). Max's teeth were successfully cleaned, and the dentist said his teeth look good. A new toothbrush, a little bouncy ball, two stickers and we were outta there! :-)

Spring Break 2010

Just realized I never posted about our exciting spring break. Actually, not so exciting...just a break (much, much needed break). We're doing some construction and landscaping around the pool, so that was our break. Emily was none too happy about our plans, because apparently *everyone* in her school (except HER) was going on a trip or cruise of some kind. ;-)


The kids returned from school on Friday, SO excited to play outside. The weather was lovely, there was no homework for a week, and the scooters were charged and ready to go. This was the action here on Friday afternoon/evening:

And THIS is what we woke up to on Sunday morning! A lovely covering of snow! I think we ended up with around 8" of snow by the time it stopped. It was beautiful, but we are all ready for spring.

Cuteness

Trying to catch up on emptying some of my camera cards today, and thought I'd post a couple of pics to add some cuteness to the blog. :-)

Caught Mr. Max playing with his cars....

And, is there anything cuter than a little boy in plaid deck shoes? Major cuteness happening here!

M.A.X.

Just took this photo of Mr. Max a few minutes ago. We are so blessed to have this little guy in our family! He is a true joy. He is one smart cookie too...and can already spell his name! I realize that it's only 3 letters, but he can also pick them out of the letters on the fridge. :-) His two favorite words right now are "Why NOT?". LOL He is fully potty-trained now as well (& he did it all on his own btw, because I gave up after only a week!). :-)

Yes, I definitely need to change the picture in my blog header!

Peter Pan Ballet

While I'm catching up on my poor little blog, I thought I might as well get REALLY current...as current as last night! A rarity for me - yes.

Last night we attended a wonderful performance of the Peter Pan Ballet. Our school is blessed with a wonderful group of staff who encourage participation in the fine arts. Not only is this encouraged, but they have made it a part of the school day. While it's only 30 minutes a week, one teacher (a former ballerina), teaches a ballet class to any students who want to participate. In the spring, the class then performs for their parents. This year's group was made up of 130 dancers, ranging from first through fourth grade. A few of the teaching staff also had parts in the play, including the principal who played Captain Hook.

Our Claire had the part of a fairy in the play. We were so proud of her and all of the other children. They practiced hard, and performed for the school yesterday afternoon, and then for the parents in the evening. The school choir also performed prior to the ballet (& Claire sang in that as well).

What's this? Claire was SO tired by the time we got home, this is as far as she made it to dump all of her things.

Max is 3 !!

Our baby boy turned 3 years old earlier this month! He isn't a baby anymore though. He even describes himself as a "big boy". Mr. Max doesn't really watch tv, so he isn't really in the know about current favorite characters that most kids want for a birthday party. His favorite toys right now are cars, so we just went with a simple race car theme party. Truthfully, the only things Max could talk about was CAKE and PRESENTS! lol

Since this was Max's first birthday home with us, we wanted to keep it simple and low key. At first we thought it would just be our family, but then decided to invite a cousin and one friend. I spray painted some copy paper boxes and decorated them like little cars (complete with a custom license plate), and the kids made a few laps around the house with those. Max really enjoyed his cake...and even knew what to do when we lit the candles! Can't believe Max is 3 already! He has changed so much since coming home last year. I really need to design a new blog header, because that sad little boy pictured just isn't the same boy I live with. Here are some pics of Max's big day:

The racers are ready...

Max in his "car" going forward

and in reverse...

Thoroughly enjoying cake and ice cream!

Epiphanie Camera Bags

It's the middle of March...and I haven't posted since Feb. 19th? Seriously?! Not sure why I've neglected the 'ol blog - guess we've just been busy with our normal, everyday, boring life. Oops!

OK, now for the reason I *made time* to blog again! I just saw on the Epiphanie Camera Bag blog that they are doing one awesome giveaway. Of course I want to enter, and in order to get more points, I need to blog about it. Sooooo, if you're interested in winning a choice of some airline tickets or a cool Canon camera, check out their site here. I would love, love, LOVE to win that camera but if I can't be the one to win, then I welcome all my friends and handful of blog readers to enter.

Surgery #?

We learned recently that Randy needed yet another round of surgery on his eyes. He now has cataracts in both eyes...good grief! Apparently, the cataracts were caused by all of the previous problems and surgeries he's had. :-( Unusual stuff for a guy his age.

The first surgery was done on Wednesday. Max went along to wait with me in the waiting area. When we went back to pick up Randy, Max charmed the staff. Two nurses went scurrying around the room, only to return with an eye patch just like dad's (it's behind the glasses). They also gave Max a doctor's hat and mask to play with at home. ;-)

More Science Fair!

Well, I guess we just "thought" Emily was finished with her science fair project! She turned her board in and received a grade...that's all we thought was involved. Not so, grasshopper!
Apparently, the teacher put the boards up and had someone judge them...Emily won 1st place in her category, and received a giant blue ribbon! She will now go to the UofA next month to participate in the state science fair. We are told that the winners there receive cash money, so our fingers and toes are crossed for Emily and her orange juice! :-)

My Valentines and Sadness

For Valentine's Day, the kiddos in Claire's class were asked to decorate a shoe box in which to collect their goodies. Claire didn't want to do a simple box though! She has been asking to make a giant Hershey's kiss for the past couple of years, so this was the year we tried it. Not quite sure about how to make the form, we jumped in and got our hands dirty...very dirty. We used paper mache'(sp?) and built the shape around a bowl, then covered it with aluminum foil. Claire was thrilled with her finished product. Mom was happy. The classmates were pretty impressed too. :-)

The "sadness" part of the post is about Randy's dad. He has been suffering from the effects of Parkinson's disease for some time. The disease finally won and he passed away on February 12th. Norman is in heaven now - if there is fishing in heaven, I'm sure he's catching some big ones. Randy and his brother both gave loving tributes at the funeral, so that visitors would know about the man they called "dad". So very sweet and touching. While we are sad Norman (grandpa) is no longer with us, we are rejoicing that he is with his Lord, and is no longer dealing with that disease.

Since we were busy with the funeral, etc., I forgot to give the kids their valentine goodies. I decided to make made simple cones from scrapbook paper, & filled them with their favorite candies. Made a nice mid-week gift.

Attn:Scrapbookers! Cricut Cartridge Giveaway!

If you love your cricut machine, and would like a chance to win a new cartridge, go to this blog:
http://scrappinstyle.blogspot.com/
She will be giving away a Love Struck cartridge...all you have to do is become one of her followers and post on your own blog (like I'm doing here). If I'm not the winner (& I would truly LOVE to win this), then I would be thrilled to know that one of my friends won. So hurry on over to her blog and leave a comment!!

More Snow

We got another round of snow this weekend. It began Thursday afternoon with freezing rain/sleet, and then changed over to snow...giving the kids another day off of school on Friday. We were so thankful to sit in our warm home and watch the beautiful scene unfold outside. SO, SO thankful we didn't lose power. Remembering one year ago this weekend that we had lots of ice, which resulted in power loss for several days.

After staying in all day yesterday, today was a great day to play in the snow. Sledding, snowball fights, building a snowman, and then hot chocolate...good times.

Where...

did January go??!! Can't believe we're already near the end of the month, and I missed a lot of blogging days (bad, bad blogger). It seems I've been playing catch-up...so the trend continues...

The girls made fudge one snowy afternoon. They had to honor traditions and lick the bowl clean. :-)

Max loved wearing the cook's hat (from fudge making day). He paired it so stylishly with some flower leis (that big sis Emily wore to a Hawaiian birthday party).

And then some shades...

Allyson's class did a study on immigration. The entire 6th grade did a re-enactment about Ellis Island, and each student was an immigrant. Allyson portrayed an 18-year-old young woman named Pirkko from Finland (a young mother and seamstress).

In other school news, all 3 girls made the honor roll at their respective schools. We are so proud of them! They continue to do well in extra-curricular activities as well.

Max continues to adjust well. He has moved up to his big boy room/bed full time (even for naps!). We started potty training, but quickly stopped as I realized he can't even pull his pants up/down by himself. :-( We will work on those skills some more and then start again when we're both ready. Max's speech continues to amaze me. He talks just as well (if not better) as other kids his age (& he's only heard English for 7 months!). I think the most amazing part is that he always uses words in their correct context, and with the right feeling behind them. (note to self: kids are always listening to what we do/say, and they repeat those things! lol).

Last week we had the pleasure of meeting the parents of our dear friend Chun. Randy met Chun in Shenzhen China during a business trip. A few years later, Chun moved to the US to work. She is now married and expecting her first child, so her parents came to help with the new baby. We look forward to getting to know them better in the next few months.

Keeping Busy

The snow/ice on our roads resulted in our schools being closed ALL week! We were off 2 weeks for the Christmas holiday break, so the kiddos got 3 weeks off total. Not a lot of excitement happening around here, but I did get a few pictures this week:

This is an old bridge in Cotter, AR. We drove over to pick up my mother-in-law and stopped to take a pic of this bridge.

When the kids get quiet, I have to go and find them (to see what they're up to!). This is how I found Allyson and Claire one evening. They had pulled out some scrapbooks and were looking at pictures of themselves as babies. Sooooo sweet!

Max is really into playing with little matchbox cars. He likes to line the cars up, bumper to bumper and show them to me. This day was different though. When Max said, "Mommy, I line up" I was surprised to see the cars spaced out in an arch shape...so of course I had to snap a pic.

Snow Fun!

We had about 3" of snow/ice when we woke up on Sunday morning. This resulted in school being canceled for two days (which made for an extra long holiday break). The kids didn't mind too much though...the snow was great entertainment.

This was Max's first time playing in the snow and he absolutely LOVED it!