March Madness

This is what happens when you have a baby in the middle of March and Daddy is home during the day for 2 weeks! Homeschooling centers around March Madness! Spelling happens as they learn to spell "Louisville" and "Gonzaga". Math happens as they pick their winning teams to go to the "Sweet 16" and the "Elite 8".

Brian got us all involved today. He had brackets for all of us to fill out. The kids have been so excited to watch and see if 'their' teams win. The funnest part was listening to the reasoning behind their picks. Emmie picked Kansas because Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz lives there. She also picked West Virginia (to go all the way in fact) because that is where PawPaw is from. Coleman picked VCU because they are yellow, his favorite color!

So, needless to say, we've been busy around here with a new baby AND March Madness! I'll let you know who wins!!

Christmas Fun!

The Annual Gingerbread House

Precision!

Concentration!

Little Helping Hands...

The Finished Product (which didn't last long)!

Can YOU guess Calvin's Sunday School craft?

Calvin came home with an interesting craft yesterday! We had a hoot of a time trying to figure out what it is. Maybe you can help. Could this be a ghost or something?

This is a paper plate with yarn on it...

Could it be a pot holder or something?

I guess it could be baby Jesus in a manger maybe (since it is Christmas time)?


What do you think?

Fall Fun - Catching Up

Calvin having fun with the Princess Leia wig!

Ellerie's turn...

The Crew on Fall Festival - Candy night!

Yoda carrying his Lightning McQueen car.

Annakin

Princess Leia - with her gun in her holster and baby on her hip!

Sweet friends!

More friends...

Coleman and Ellerie in the leaves (if you can see her)...

Emmie

Dad and Calvin

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Back in October we went to the local pumpkin patch for a hayride, a straw maze and pumpkin picking! Here are some pics...Ellerie - "I can get it ..."

Calvin - 'this will work but...'

'I'd rather have this one!'

Coleman on the hayride...

Emmie in the straw maze

Let's try for a group shot...

Ok - let's try again...

Alright - one more time.

Work with me people!

All the VA cousins...

Yumm-O!

Most of my friends know that I love to bake. Part of the fun of baking is licking the bowl, spoons, beaters, etc. Well, guess what I found at Wal-Mart the other night? Ben and Jerry have a new ice cream flavor - and it is called "Cake Batter."! Here's the description: yellow cake batter ice cream with a chocolate frosting swirl!

Oh my - it is yummy indeed!!

Our Weekend...

The great thing about Brian having a blog is that I can just link to his post if I don't have time to write my own! He wrote a post about our weekend fun - check it out!!

Slurpee! (Icee)

Don't forget - tomorrow is 7/11 so the 7-11 zippy marts are giving away free slurpees all - day- long!! Brian calls them Slurpees but I call them Icees - anyway, they're free so who cares what we call them!!

Welcome to the Family!

Well, it was another kidney stone the other night! That's the fifth one so far. I was up all Wednesday night with the pain but I did have some painkillers which dulled the pain a little but not enough to really sleep. We went to the Dr on Thursday and they did an xray and he thought he saw something small, maybe about 2mm, and thought the best thing would be to take medicine as needed and drink plenty of fluids to help the stone pass.

I have found that the pain is the worst when the stone is moving from the kidneys to the bladder. That pain is like labor/contraction pain, but without the breaks. Once the stone moves to the bladder, the pain isn't as bad.

So I felt better pain-wise on Thursday night and Friday but the lack of sleep was quickly catching up. BUT on Friday night I finally passed that stone and it was HUGE! It was my biggest ever! Yes, I am a little proud - I mean, after all that pain, you got to get excited about something! It was over 5 mm. The one I had when I was pregnant with Ellerie was smaller than 1 mm and the largest I have had so fa was about 2 mm. Lucky for you, Brian has the camera at the fireworks tonight so I can't upload the picture for you...

But trust me, it was huge! So, the 'delivery' of the stone this week has worn me out! I'll try to catch up on posting next week!

The Truth

Kidney stones are bad....

but pain medicine is good....

A Bad Hair Day

The plan was to cut the boys' hair on Sunday night. Brian was running late so I went ahead and did Calvin's hair. I took the guard off to trim around his ears and neck. Brian then came home with Coleman and Emmie so I rushed everyone to get bathed so they could get to bed and I went to do Coleman's hair quickly - so quick that I forgot to put the #2 guard back on the clippers, meaning there was no guard, meaning that it cut right down to the scalp! I noticed this after the first strip and about had a heart attack. Coleman asked what was wrong. I told him nothing but that I would came back with Dad and let him finish it! (By now, Brian is good at fixin' my mess ups!) He just did a #1 guard all over and it's not too bad. Coleman's hair grows fast so it should be good by the end of the week!

Here is the 'before' picture of Coleman's hair. (Please excuse the silly putty on his face - I don't know why it's there but this is the best of the recent picutres).

Here's the 'after' shot. Can you see the line on the right?

See it a bit better?
Oh my!
Poor guy!

Anyone need a haircut? I don't charge much!!

Just a Quick Note

We had a week of vacation at the beach! Then we spent 5 days with family in Georgia. I hope to post about it soon. Brian couldn't go with us to GA so I had to laugh when I saw the 'groceries' (pictured above) he bought to survive the week. Mix this with the bar-b-q his parents gave him - and he was set!

Girls Night In

Great minds think alike...

(just in case you didn't know, that's Kim from Mercy Days - and that is not the best picture of me but since we only took one, we'll have to go with it - and this is too funny not to post - and no, we didn't plan it)!

Weekend Fun

Last weekend we wrapped up the soccer season...




...and the dance/gymnastics year...

Coleman and Ellerie watching big sister...

Calvin was amazed ...

Emmie and her friend Gracie

... now we are getting ready for a vacation ... at the beach. We haven't been to the beach in 10 years and this will be a first for our kids. We are all excited and I am looking forward to it!

So the blog will probably be quiet for the next week or so, depending on computer access...

Just Plain Funny

Brian has a college friend who started a blog. He wrote a post recently about diaper changing stations that have instructions on them ... written in braille! Who knew?

Brian then told me about a pair of his boxers that say "change daily" on the inside tag. I didn't believe him until he showed me. I just had to take a picture - that's blogworthy right there. I guess guys need this type of reminder...





Too funny! I'm just glad that it doesn't say 'wash daily' cuz that just may not happen 'round here! Ya know?

Ride Em Cowboy

Today Daddy had the privilege to go to a Ligonier Conference to hear RC Sproul and Steven J. Lawson. (How incredible is that?)

So while he was gone today, we went to ChesterFest (a little carnival of booths, kiddie games, etc.) It's become a yearly tradition as well - sort of a neat little small-town gathering here in a suburb of Richmond. The kids got up the nerve today to ride ponies today for the first time. I know, I know, lots of kids ride ponies but for some reason, mine have been too scared to do it until now!!

County Fair

It seems that all of my posts lately have been strictly pictorial ... but that seems to be the easiest way to describe what's been going on around here.

For the past 4 years, we have made it a yearly tradition to go to the County Fair around the weekend of Emmie's birthday. So last Tuesday night we went to the County Fair with PawPaw and Granny ... here are the pics:

Coleman posing by the Pig covering the trash can ... well it is a County Fair!

Bumper Cars with Dad

PawPaw and Calvin

Coleman and Emmie in the cars
In the helicopter ... Coleman isn't big on heights, but we told him that it didn't go very high...

Calvin with PawPaw (he's not big on loud noises, can you tell?)

Granny and Emmie

Dad and the kids
Mommy and Ellerie

Hey I like the view up here!

Emmie as Superman

Coleman as Superman

Many fun memories! We can't wait until next year!