Finally!

Grace has wanted....no, I mean NEEDED a sandbox for years! When I say needed I mean needed. She has resorted to digging any dirt under the swingset into a little pile to play with. I don't like sand. I really really don't like sand. So, Memorial Day, Jared went to Home Depot and got all the supplies to build a little sandbox with a lid. Here is a little photo slide show of the day :).


btw...I don't like sand a little less now that I see how much the girls LOVE playing in there :).

Take the key and lock her up.....

Grace woke up today. Got dressed. Did her hair. Made herself breakfast. All before she woke me up...and she is only 6. WOW! She looked beautiful. She looked much older to me this morning. I am pretty sure I still looked like a baby in 1st grade. She is going to make me want to pack her up and move to a mountain with a big fence around the bottom so the boys have to stay away until she finishes college and has taken self defense...she laughs when I tell her that. She thinks I am kidding...we will see. Here is what I woke up to this morning:

And, here she is running toward all those boys we were talking about

Cave Kisses....

Today I got to accompany Grace and 39 other 1st graders (along with 2 teachers and a handful of parents) to Cave of the Mounds.

Grace and some of her friends

I went with Jack's 1st grade class and Grace couldn't wait for me to go with her. She woke up at 5 a.m. this morning asking what she should wear and can she have breakfast. She was a bit excited! We had a perfect day for the Caves...a bit warm but not as muggy. The bus ride was a bit breezy and loud :).

Grace on the bus!

First, we explored the caves...VERY cool (literally..it's 50 degrees down there & figuratively...it's amazing what God can create beneath the surface of the earth). Because it is the rainy season for the cave and we got a good amount of rain yesterday it was a very drippy day in there. The tour guide called it Cave Kisses....basically it was water running off the cave ceiling and dripping all over you :). The kids loved it!

My favorite picture of the caves today.

The tallest Stalagmite

The place where drippy Cave Kisses come from:

Then, everyone (parents and teachers included) got a bag of sand to take and dump into a sifter to see what fossils we got. One kid was so excited because he got 2 dimes in his bag of sand :). Next, a very nice lady took all the kids up on a hill and explained each of their fossils that they had found.

After that we went into a big barn classroom where the kids learned about how fossils are formed and got to hold petrified turtle poop (a big hit with the kids). Finally, it was time for our picnic lunch only to find out that all the kids in Grace's class that had the school pack their lunch didn't have a sandwich in their bags...only a bag of chips, a bag of cookies, a string cheese and a drink...I still have to call the school and figure out how that happened :). Luckily, I had brought a lunch so Grace could share with me so she didn't STARVE.

You would think after running outside and walking through a cave all morning (and not getting a full lunch) kids would be tired and the bus ride would be a bit quieter....WRONG....it is louder on the return trip :).

All in all it was a great day and I was happy to share the morning with my Goose.

Kate's 1st Puddle

After it rained the other day, I took Kate out....still in her pj's because she LOVES Elmo so much she never wants to take them off. She walked around it a little. Looked at me. Smiled a HUGE smile and jumped through it. She had so much fun in that little puddle....until she decided to blow bubbles in the water. I just couldn't let her keep doing it...it is gross...it is on the driveway and I have no idea what kind of chemicals are in that water. Everytime I turned on the video camera she would splash or jump for a moment and then down she would go to blow bubbles....enjoy :). Obviously we have some work to do on listening and obeying Mama.

A little heaven for everyone...

Kate. Kate is learning so much lately. Talking...she lets you know what she wants and we can usually figure out who she is tattling on. She will come out of her room and yell one of the kids names "Jack" or "Gase" and then go onto her fast jibberish of how they have wronged her. And don't laugh at her...she doesn't appreciate that when she has been wronged by someone :). Climbing...she is a climber. Good thing she is so short, she can't get far :). She can now get up on the couch by herself. Well, she could until we sold that couch and brought the couch from downstairs up to the livingroom. Now it is a whole new obstacle to overcome. We just found a little climb and slide thing on Craigslist so she has something to do outside. She LOVES it and it keeps her busy for a long long time :). Just wait until I buy the little plastic pool and she can slide into the water! The same house I got the climber slide at also just gave me a sand/water table.

So far it is just a water table that Kate loves to lay on and splash the water out of....Toddler Heaven!

Eating...I just let her feed herself pudding (chocolate pudding) for the first time ever. She feeds herself cut up food just fine but I have never just given her a spoon and let her at it. She could have handled it much earlier but I wasn't ready for the mess that I know comes with a toddler and chocolate pudding...and if I just gave her the spoon how would we share?

Grace. She is growing up too fast. She is such a kind and friendly (aka hugger) little girl. She is just finishing up 1st grade and isn't ready for summer break. She asked many times if we could still do math and reading over the summer. So, I talked the cirriculmn coordinator at their school and they are going to give me the math and reading books for the summer and see if she can catch up to the next higher level in those subjects. As long as it is something she wants to do and learn I am all for it. It can't hurt, right? This summer she is also signed up for swimming lessons at the Verona pool. I hope they help her swim and not just play around in the pool like they did with Jack's lessons when he was 4. Grace needs help with relaxing while she swims. She is so muscular she is like a brick in the pool...it is a bit scary and she is a bit big to hold onto or put a floaty on. She is 6 1/2 and it is time to sink or swim girl....here's prayin' for swimming! Grace just got to be a Jr. Bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding a couple weeks ago. She looked gorgeous and sooooo much older than 6. We are in trouble if this trend continues :). She loved getting dressed up and having Lindsey do her hair...and even got some makeup on...she was in 6 year old (going on 16 year old) heaven!

Grace and Abbey walking up the aisle

Grace watching everyone being seated before the wedding...she looks a little worried :)

Jack. Jack is 10 and can't wait for football and hunting to start. We just have to make it through the summer :). Right now he is with Jared out at a friends house siting in Jared's gun. 10 year old boy heaven! He loves going to Nana's house where he can ride 4-wheelers and check on deer stands, hunt for Morelle mushrooms, hunt turkey with his older cousin, Isaiah, and generally live outside for the entire time they are there. Jared went up with the 3 kids a couple weekends ago (YES....that means I was home all alone for the entire weekend....ALONE.....Mommy heaven). When they got home from Nana's, Jack cried for about 2 hours that he was 'homesick' for Nana's. It was sad. Someday son, we will have land for you to roam around and hunt on...someday....because everytime Daddy goes to Nana's house he too comes back 'homesick' for hunting land :). I am just thankful for the land my sister (Sarah) and her husband (Jeff) have for Nana to live on and us to visit and for Jared to hunt on...Daddy heaven!

This is the typical picture of Jack lately:

Jack and Kate at the wedding:

Genetics

Isn't it interesting to watch how much genetics play a role in your kids.

Kate for example has the exact cheesy smile I used to have.

Kate at 19 months old

Me at about 19 months old

Grace looks like me and I think has Jared's personality (read: master teaser).

Jack looks like Jared and his dad (Papa) but I think has more my personality for now.

Kate looks like a lot like I did as a toddler (cheesy smile and crazy blond hair) and I'm not sure of her personality (funny like me, naughty like Jared was as a kid....hehe).

3 totally different kids.

Jack is built like an ox, Grace is long and lean and Kate is our short stack.

Totally different personalities.

Jack is a rule follower and very caring of other people's feelings, Grace is FUN and very snuggly, doesn't always like the rules and doesn't always care there are rules (at home...at school she is the master ruler follower) and LOVES to tease and scare people (she will hide for 10 minutes under Jack's bed just hear him scream like a girl!)

Kate is silly, loves to make us laugh and we are working on following the rules (read...working VERY hard because she knows when she does something wrong but really doesn't care).

Kate seems to be a perfect combination of Jack and Grace.

Totally different kids and yet so alike in so many ways. They all love each other (yet tease and fight like normal siblings). They love Jesus and let you know it. They are each other's best friends. We are so blessed :).

Digital Scrapbooking....ahhhhh...

I love to scrapbook but have found less and less time to pull everything out, find my creativity and put together a couple pages. I have looked online for a while and got some tips from a friend (thanks Tawnya!) on digital scrapbooking. We finally purchased Photoshop Elements 8.0 and I became COMPLETELY confused. I couldn't figure out that program and was having a bit of buyers remorse, but I know you can't take software back and we paid good money for it so I was determined to figure it out. I watched tutorials (thanks Pioneer Woman) and would pause the tutorial and try what they were doing on one of my pictures. Slowly, I am figuring it out. I found a bunch of websites that let you download scrapbook paper, embellishments (ribbons, buttons, tags, letters, ect) for FREE! With Photoshop I am able to make that paper any color I need and the beauty of it all....it never runs out! I have found a place online that will print 12 x 12 pages for $2 or Costco in town will print them in one hour or less for $3. I am also considering at the end of the year looking at all my pages I have scrapbooked and uploading them to make a photobook for the year. We will have to see what works better. I still have TONS to learn about Photoshop but I have been enjoying making scrapbook pages and not having a mess to clean up and I can work on a page and leave it and come back to it knowing no little hands have "helped" me make my page. Here are some of the 1st pages I have done....