All Worth It

Tonight after watching Air Force One with my husband this is what I found in my bed. Absolutely priceless.

Because Sometimes You Just Can't Tell...

Today my dad came to watch the children for me while I went to workout at the rec center. (a whole other story) Before he left I asked him to look at Dirk. There has been some speculation on my and Nathan's part, we just weren't sure. Nathan was leaning one direction and I was leaning the opposite. Sure enough, my suspicions were confirmed. Dirk is not a boy. Dirk is a girl. Dirk is now not allowed to go outside. :) My dad would know too, because he grew up on a farm and has had lots of cats running around. She'll have to live with a boy's name though cause it would be to hard to change it with the kids. Little Peanut has just started calling her 'kitty' after following her around for two weeks calling her 'doggie'. That's all for now...just thought I should let you know.

Cough Drops and Assisted Living Facilities

Preschoolers are amusing...and I'm sure no one knows what exactly goes on in their heads.
Today I went to pick up AJ after school. I picked up his backpack before I went in the room to get him. It was kind of heavy. I was very curious because the only thing he ever brings home is papers. I opened it and there was a large bag of Halls Cherry Cough Drops. I couldn't imagine what they were doing in there.
AJ's teacher was apparently expecting a confused expression from me because when I walked in the room she came right over and asked to explain why my four year old had a big bag of cough drops in his backpack.
Once a month the morning class goes to a local assisted living facility and sings songs for the residents. On a different day, the afternoon class goes to play Bingo with the residents. AJ is in the afternoon class and yesterday was Bingo. Apparently the winners get to pick something out of a basket. The prizes are geared toward things that would be useful to the residents. AJ won twice in a row so that was what he selected out of the basket. On the way back to class he said to he teacher, "I think I might need one of those when we get back."
His teachers were very amused. She said, "At least he didn't pick the toilet paper. One kid picked that today."
I said, "Hey, you'll definitely use it."
I never know what to expect when I go to pick him up.

anyone need a cough drop?? We have plenty!!!

Pink is Purty!

My sister has had a Dyson for several years. I have always liked how it performed and have even borrowed it on several occasions. I have a nice Kirby with all the attachments but it seems to be suffering from all the overworking it receives in this house, mainly from JM. Here's the perfect opportunity for me to win one for free. 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away one of these beautiful pink Dysons. Proceeds from the sale of the pink Dysons are going to breast cancer research. All you have to do is go over to 5 Minutes for Mom and leave a comment. By the way, they are also available at Target but they are going quickly. Here's hoping I win! :)

Wordless Wednesday

A New Edition

As some of you know, I've been pestering my husband for sometime to get a dog/puppy. I want to get a golden retriever for our family. They are great dogs and I've always loved my aunt's dog Murphy who recently passed away. Murphy was a golden retriever. I've decided the dog's name will be Jack, in honor of my all time favorite literary character, Jack Ryan. (Tom Clancy novels) However, we don't have the ability to get a dog right now. We want to be able to take good care of it and they are rather expensive.
So, meet Dirk! (another literary hero from Clive Cussler's books.) Okay...let me try that again. Meet Dirk! Oh, for crying out loud. Meet Dirk...with a nice close up! Kittens do not do well posing for a picture. Ha ha! I will try for another shot later. But here he is. He for awhile anyway, then he will be it, courtesy of our neighbor who works for a vet. He's a sweet little kitty. Little Peanut follows him around saying, "Doggie! Doggie! Doggie!" I'm seriously about to change his name to Dog just for her. He doesn't scratch the children and the boys really don't even like to get near him, especially AJ. We are enjoying him though, even Nathan. He's quickly becoming Nathan's little shadow.

Busy Again

We've certainly been busy this last week. The Lord really worked it out so that I was able to pick up AJ as school all week with minimal help. My parents are out of town this week and my dad usually helps with picking AJ up. Sarah was home several days allowing me to go get him. Yesterday I discovered that if you call ahead they will walk him out to the van. The school has a policy that you aren't allowed to leave children in your vehicle when you pick up your child. That makes it pretty hard when you would have to haul in a 2.5 year old, 16 month old, and 5 week old in a car seat. I was very thankful they walked him out. :) Last Saturday we bought AJ a new bike. The little tricycle was to small for him and JM rode it mostly. Here he is on his new bike.And then of course there's been the regular boo boos. JM recently cut his thumb with a brand new razor. Apparently, the top of the medicine cabinet isn't the safe spot we thought it was. Here he is with a Curious George band-aid on his leg. He wanted me to take more pictures of it.And since there are pictures of the other boys on this post we should include one of little Grasshopper. Here he is in his favorite position with cousin Belle. I love it when they drop over to see him. And now that Belle has wheels we've seen them several times. :)

It's Only September But...

Yesterday I had to run to Wal-Mart for diapers for JM and Peanut, we only had one left. I had just walked in and there in front of me was a wall of apple cider. I love apple cider. I buy apple cider every fall. I drink whole gallons of apple cider by myself. It's one of the first signs of fall, apple cider on the store shelves.
As I walked through Wal-Mart I noticed all sorts of things, pretty fall welcome mats, fall flowers, candy corn in large stacks, wreaths, stupid Halloween decorations, lots of cute scarecrows, and pumpkins. Now my sister loves fall. It's one of her favorite times to decorate. She has some really cute things too. But my little trip through Wally World reminded me that the cooler weather is coming, even though it's hot now. Only a few leaves have turned but more are coming. Before long Nathan will be asking for chili and frito pies. I'll be getting out sweaters for the kids and buying us a rake because we always borrow our neighbor's. I really like fall and my favorite decorating time is just around the corner...bring on the blue and white. By the way, sister, we need to draw names soon.
Christmas is coming!!!

Wordless Wednesday (Cell phone edition)

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

For my birthday Nathan got me this little beauty. It's an ipod shuffle. And yes, I did get it in that color. Let me just say for the record that my husband is not an Apple fan. In fact, he highly dislikes their software, itunes ect, but their hardware he thinks is well designed. Others we know are all out Apple haters! :) (Scott!) But Nathan was sweet and knew that I wanted an MP3 player for my birthday. Sunday we downloaded itunes onto our computer and I spent a lot of time uploading all our cds to it and organizing them. I found a lot of great songs on itunes that I'm sure I will be spending my allowance on. Everything you can imagine, except for the original Beatles, is on there. Classical, instrumental, Christian, rock, pop. I'm becoming a fan of the itunes store. But before any of you panic, I have yet to buy a song. I can't decide where to start. :)Thank you baby. I love my birthday present. And it's so pretty too.

Picnic at the Farm

Today we drove out to Nathan's parents' house for a picnic to celebrate their anniversary. It was really beautiful out today, perfect picnic weather. The boys played with their aunts and uncles and Peanut charmed everyone. Grasshopper slept through it all, almost. Nathan launched his 6 foot rocket that he's been working on since I was pregnant with JM. We had two very successful launches. Come to our church harvest party and he'll launch it again. I think he was a little disappointed in the height, however that's a lot of rocket for a really little engine. I was impressed. Here's the slide show of our day. If you put the mouse over the picture you can see the captions.