Warming Weather

As the weather warms, and the sun stays out longer, the days seem to be passing more quickly. I wonder why it is that summer goes by so swiftly but the days of winter drag on. I suppose it's just a matter of perspective. Summer is full of activity where as winter is a time when things slow down and there is less occupying our time.

Reflecting these truths is the fact that our past two weeks have been just packed full of activity. We've been running around to concert band contests and soccer practices and games for Emily. Unfortunately Emily has decided not to continue on with band next year and so our young trombonist will not be playing anymore :(

While at home, though, Ella and David have been making the most of their time. I came home one afternoon to find them very busy in the backyard. I'm not sure I can explain what I found or why they created it (Ella's imagination is the source of this one). So, I'll just let the picture do the talking.

It was described to me as an Animal Tree!

The past couple of weekends were very fun! We had my brother, Thom, and his girlfriend Katherine, come to visit the family here in town! Thom and Katherine (T&K) made the rounds and lodged at Mom and Dad's house but ate dinner each night with a different sister and family. We got T & K on their last night in town and the kids had a blast playing with them in the backyard. Emily, Ella and David just love their uncle Thom. Ella says it's because he plays with them so much and is fun! Katherine fit right into the mix too and was just as active playing with the kids that you would have thought they played together that way all the time!

Unfortunately our evening with T & K was cut short. We had David's preschool "graduation" to attend after dinner. Although it was very cute I'm not sure I really understand the point of having a graduation ceremony for preschoolers (thankfully they did not have to wear caps and gowns!). They marched down the isle to the Olympic theme song, sang some songs for us, watched a slide show of pictures from through the school year and then each got their "diplomas" from their teachers. David had a wonderful year and is looking forward to riding the bus to kindergarten in the fall.

Here is a video of David marching down the isle at the beginning of preschool graduation.

This past weekend we were able to spend a long Memorial day weekend at "The Land" (our little piece of land that we camp on just, about 2 hours south of here). The weekend included many good friends, family and six dogs at one point! Our activities comprised in our time were...

1. A water balloon fight

2. Playing in a sprinkler

3. Arts and crafts

4. Playing volleyball

5. David finding an "earring" (clip-on) and wearing it just like Daddy, it's in his left ear.

6. And of course s'more making over the campfire (which unfortunately I did not take photos of).

As the spring days heat up and get closer to summer, I pray that you will take time to relax and enjoy what it is that you have been blessed with by God.

Until our next post!

It's been awhile since I've posted but not having the computer up to par is really throwing me off! I've been trying to make the best of the time and so have been spending a lot of it outside in my garden. I'm excited that this year (being the fourth in our present house), my garden will be filled in. It takes several years for a perennial garden to look good and I think this is my year!

Alright, enough about me. We're in full swing of spring soccer season. Emily is our only one playing this year, which is fine with me because the running around with just one child involved in sports is enough! Here's a few photos of our superstar!

We recently celebrated Emily's birthday too! Her actual birthday was filled with running her around to soccer games and youth group activities but we were able to take some time out to spend with family and have some cake and ice cream together.

The next weekend we had eight of Emily's friend's over for a slumber party. It's great that Emily has so many nice friends that we enjoy having over to our house. I was sure though that I would be denied a good night's sleep. Thankfully the Lord saved me by taking away our electricity for one and a half hours! We had a blackout in the middle of the evening and as a result we had a change in plans. The kids got to roast marshmallows over candles and make smores and then all hunkered down in the living room with flashlights and decided to spend the night in there. Just about the time they got nice and comfortable the lights came back on! Too late though, they were happy where they were and they decided to turn on a movie and then went to sleep. No late night of giggling girls for me!!!

Believe it or not these next three photos were taken in the dark, guess my camera just has a good flash!

Reality has also set in for Jason and I. We had to go with Emily to schedule her classes for high school next year. What a shocker!! We knew it was coming but to actually look at the schedule and realize that our baby girl will be in high school just makes us feel like time has just flown by! The rest of the time we have left with her at home is just that more precious to us. This fact brought to mind a quote from Erma Bombeck that was shared with me recently.

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"I see children as kites. You spend a lifetime trying to get them off the ground. You run with them until you're both breathless...they crash...you add a long tail. You patch and comfort, adjust and teach - and assure them that someday they will fly. Finally they are airborne, but they need more string, and you keep letting it out. With each twist of the ball of twine, the kite becomes more distant. You know it won't be long before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that bound you together and soar - free and alone. Only then do you know you did your job."

Even though Emily is not flying on her own yet, that day is coming, and I'm dreading it. To trust the Lord with her completely will be a big challenge and lesson. For Jason and I to step out of the way and let her make her own decision, and mistakes. It's humbling and makes our job now seem so much more important.

Technical Difficulties

This post is a long time coming. I actually started the draft at the end of March, and in anticipation of events to come I held off on posting it. We had spring break, Easter, etc. We also ended up with an unseen misfortune, our computer totally crashed. Jason and I are not really sure the reason behind this but my suspicions are on Facebook. I enjoy Facebooking but I suspect we got some unwelcome computer viruses, etc from the site. Our computer has been totally wiped clean but not before (by the grace of God) I decided to buy an external hard drive and Jason backed up all our files (this was only a few short days before the surprise crash). So, a word of advice, get some type of backup system in place for all your important documents, pictures, music, etc. We would have been sorely out of luck without having done this!!! I'm currently working on a laptop that my brother gave Emily as a birthday present last year, we outfitted it with Internet access only for this short period of time. OK, enough about our computer woes, onto the update!!

I'm happy to report that my parents made it home safe and sound from their month long trip to Australia and New Zealand. They had an absolutely wonderful time, and I have yet to see the photos. In fact when they went to Alaska a few years ago I never actually saw any of their photos so I'm still suspicious if they actually went!

Here they are at the airport when I picked them up!

As a family we had a second weekend in a row (last weekend in March) down at our "land". We were able to tow down Jason's parent's new trailer but unfortunately did not get to put it in place because it was much too muddy. For awhile there we were not sure we would be able to get it down to the land. The day before we were to leave Jason's father's truck blew a spark plug. We were scrambling to find a way to tow the trailer the next morning but fortunately a good friend of ours towed it down for us, thank you Shane!!!

Here are a few photos from that muddy weekend!

David's precious umbrella did not make it home in one piece. He played so roughly with it that all he ended up with was the handle, it's now his "cane".

David and Ella had a blast playing in all the mud and puddles! They were busy splashing away and at one point, as you can see from the photo below, David jumped right out of his boots!

During spring break we had all types of plans to go to museums and the zoo but Emily came down with Strep throat and on top of all that the weather didn't cooperate with going to the zoo on the day we had designated. Instead we had to make our own fun. We got movies from the library, colored eggs and did some baking together.

Later on in the week the whole family did end up going to COSI in Columbus, a wonderful science museum for children. The photos from that fun trip ended up as the only casualties from our computer crash, glad that's all we lost!!

We had a wonderful Easter at our house, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The weather was beautiful and we were able to go over to my sister's house for an egg hunt and dinner. (I, unfortunately did not enjoy this dinner, I had some type of stomach bug that kept me otherwise occupied). Here's our photo from that day!

I have two stories to tell you about Ella. She is becoming quite the punster. Telling puns is our family's favorite form of humor and Ella has taken to this very quickly. A couple of weeks ago Emily was telling us her bad news of the day, that the band director kept changing where they were sitting and she kept on sitting in the wrong seat and it made her feel silly. Without blinking an eye Ella asked Emily "So are you guys playing 'musical chairs' in band then?" I was laughing so hard it was very difficult to stop. Her Boppy should be proud!!

My second story was reported to me from my parents. It seems that they were in the car with Ella and David and David started up with complaining about something (his new habit is to complain that he doesn't like things, I think just to be difficult). He started to object about something and said "Yeah, but ...." when Ella promptly cut in and told David "Hey, that's MY line!" Apparently Ella has claimed "Yeah, but ..." as her personal line!! My father was very impressed to hear something so adult coming out of her mouth. It's no real surprise to me to hear that she identifies with this particular phrase, she is always ready with some type of logical argument when thing don't go her way. I'm wondering if we have a future lawyer?

Hoping that you are enjoying the glorious nature that surrounds us all by our Heavenly Father, until next time!

Oh yes, oh yes, it's Springtime!!!

Notice anything different? I decided to update the look of our blog thanks to doing some blog research of my own. I hope to change the look to accompany the season or the mood of things around our house. Enjoy!

Well, it's officially spring!!! In reality my favorite season is autumn but no one can deny the excitement in the air of the first warm day of the spring season. Looking around and seeing the first crocuses of the season blooming, trees budding and the birds preparing nests for their next batch of offspring. It gives me a thrill to see it all.

March came in like a lamb for us but quickly transformed into more of a lion. Jason has been extremely busy at work and has been putting in 60+ hours a week. Emily started soccer practice and of course it coinsides with Ella's Wednesday night programing so getting the girls to their respective places on time and picking them up at the same time has been quite a chore.

We have had time to relax and enjoy a little bit. Jason and I attended a wedding the beginning of this month, Jason was actually in the wedding.

Ella's class, along with the other second grade classes, performed "Jack and the Beanstalk" that their music teacher wrote all the dialogue and songs.

This past weekend we went down to our land to play "musical trailers". What I mean by this is that we moved around the existing trailers to make room for Jason's parent's new trailer that they bought this past winter. This whole rigmarole sounds a lot easier than it actually was. I will spare you all the details but it involved extending decks upwards, a lot of cinder blocks and one extremely talented truck and trailer driver (Jason).

Here we are literally raising the roof, the deck roof that is, to make room to move out and then back in the trailers.

All three trailers moved, halfway to our goal!

One trailer into it's new spot.

Second trailer into it's new spot, and DONE for the weekend, YEAH!!

Moving trailers wasn't all that we did. Emily found it amusing to record short videos on her new cell phone and created "The Adventures of Teddi". Teddi is a Ken doll dressed in a Barbie dress and later on in the adventures puts on black pants made up of a stretchable glove. I'll post a few of these videos for you, they are very funny.

Emily and Teddi!

Ella spent her time playing and eventually making a huge mess of herself and the dog with some Styrofoam she found.

David played around too.

Emily also got to drive Papaw's truck and my minivan around the land a little bit. She was so excited to be entrusted with this privilege, although I was sitting in the passenger's seat to help guide her.

David's 5th birthday was the 23rd! He awoke to find that the Five Bunny had visited our house. The Five Bunny is a tradition on my side of the family where when a child turns five the Five Bunny visits the house and decorates the house with the number five to celebrate their special birthday. Here's a video of David waking to find what the Five Bunny had left behind!

David also got a goldfish for his birthday. He had been asking for a pet of his own for awhile and we decided to wait until he turned five and he could get a fish. He decided on a goldfish and named her "Goldie". Here he is after just putting her into her new home.

Also for David's birthday we went to one of our family's favorite restaurants to celebrate. David has a huge pile of presents to open. His favorite one was his new blue umbrella!

On top of all this excitement my parents have been out the country, continent and well this hemisphere for two and a half weeks now. They are visiting Australia and New Zealand in what my dad calls their "trip of a lifetime". I miss them very much but we are looking forward to their return in early April. In their absence Jason and I have had to buck up and learn to fend for ourselves when it come to babysitting. We are extremely blessed (some may say we're spoiled) to have my mom coming over very early one day a week to get the kids going in the morning and to babysit David the rest of the day. Also, my mom is also usually very willing to help out whenever needed if Jason has work pop up on Fridays and I'm working too. I thank God everyday for such wonderful parents and also thank God for Jason's parents who also love spending time with the kids and helping us out whenever their schedules allow.

Until the next update!