My mom engaged!

Yeah! Wedding is in August (as of now)! What this picture doesn't show is the ring, earrings, necklace and other gifts! More plans after tax season.

Toilet Tales (Will Sam need counseling later b/c I blog this?)

I know I always used to write about Tate, and now Sam
has entered into the "say everything understand
nothing" phase that keeps us so entertained...

He was using the restroom, which is quite an event
around here the last two months.... "Here come the
poop bombs!! C'mon, Mom, RUNNNNN!!!" and then lots of
singing and "Stay in here with me mom but don't look
at me.... Did you look at me?! Go right outside the
door but stay there... Are you there mom? Don't leave
me. NOOOO! DON'T OPEN THE DOOR!!! I need
pwwwivacy!..... Thank you..... Mom??? Are you there?"

Tonight after about ten minutes of this, I finally
said, "What in the world are you doing???" I peeked in
and he was patting his head with one hand and
balancing himself with the other. He said, "I
am trying to pat the rest of the poop out, will you
help me?" I just stared at him so he clarified:
"Mom, hit my head weally hard like this."
(Demo of slapping his own head) "I think
some of my poop is stuck." So I patted his head, then
harder, like he asked, and he is all done now.

You honestly can't make this stuff up.

Sam's version of truth

I was having lunch with Sammy at our breakfast bar when I noticed that our fruit bowl had an apple with one bite taken out of it, but was still proudly setting on top of the stack. I was considering this, chewing my nachos and wondering how to explain to Sam that we don't take bites out of food and then put it back in the serving bowl -- and wondering how many other serving dishes I should check -- when he noticed me looking at the apple and exclaimed, "Oh my!! Look at this!! A squirrel has gotten in here and taken a bite of this apple! Naughty squirrel!!" I stopped chewing and stared at him, and so he raised his eyebrows, pursed his lips and studied the apple seriously.

"Oh really?" I asked.

To which he calmly replied, "Well.... maybe it was a racoon."

Sam's Day

Sam is a very busy man. He start off the day getting in bed with us, but trying not to wake us if the sun's not up yet (the rule). He brings Penny, Blankie, and sometimes books or the pet sting rays. Then he fixes himself water and brings IN bed. I often am awakened by freezing water on my face ... "Oops, it spilled," he'll say innocently. This morning, MY glass of water had been drained, so I rolled over to see if Sam could fill it back up. This is what I saw...

Isn't he a good little builder? He did it all by himself waiting for Tate and I to get up. (Tate was konked out on the other side of me snoring. When he woke up he assured me Sam builds these little planes every day)

Sam's chores around the house include unloading the dishwasher, clearing the table after each meal, and putting shoes away. He also sorts laundry and starts the machine with help. But lately, he is REALLY into building. I mean REALLY. Everything. Anything. He stops to stack..... This is Sam NOT clearing the table.

This is Sam NOT unloading the dishwasher! But he sure has fun stacking.

He doesn't stack our shoes, he just lines them up like a train and then drives his "train" around. I can't imagine why my house isn't clean!

Running the 8 minute mile!

You have heard that some guy broke the four minute mile back in the 1950s (or whatever), well Today I did my first ever in a long time mile under eight minutes! Yippie! I usually run four miles, but they are slow and steady. Today I ran one mile under 8 minutes, and one mile right at 9 minutes! It helps that it is 80 degrees outside. It also helps that I chose the downhill miles. I won't tell you what my uphill miles were!

I SO enjoy the cows, dogs, trucks with guys yelling out the windows, clouds building on the horizon, and WIND that we get to enjoy here on the plains of rural mid-western America. Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia... I've run all those places, but I just feel more at home with cow poop smells, semis blowing their air brakes as they drive by, harley men turning completely around to raise their non-helmet-headed eyebrows, and boys in loud trucks screaming "Yeah Baby!!" (Is it true that our state ranks 49th in education? I tell you I just can't believe it.) I run on the access roads next to highways out here, so what else can I expect? Actually, two weeks ago one of those trucks slowed down and asked me if I needed a ride. Since then I have tried hard to at least LOOK like I mean to be running, and not like I missed the short bus.

It is fun to BREATHE in all the space we have. You may not enjoy jogging but you gotta love the sunsets and stars we have here. Here is to the last of the warm air... I think it'll snow again tomorrow??

Laundry Helpers

Here are my laundry helpers. They carry all the clothes to the laundry room, they sort by color, and then they jump in the piles and spread it all over the floor. It is really fun!
Can you find them? Just as I grabbed the camera, they went under!

Here are the piles once they actually finished. They wanted a picture to show how good they sort! Great job, boys.

Happy Groundhog Day!

I don't know about your family, but for some strange reason (we don't live anywhere NEAR Punxsutawney Phil) we love to celebrate Groundhog Day. Ever since we were little, we get a "groundhog" pizza and really enjoy ourselves. So here the tradition continues, with kids of our own.

Mike, Sam and Tate

We all met at Pizza Hut and did groundhog day word searches, coloring pages, and had little excuse for a party.

See how big Becky's baby has gotten? He is so fun now, he really laughs and smiles at us.

Nathan especially enjoyed the attention from Uncle Micah....

ORRRRR... could there be another reason he is laughing at Uncle Micah??? SERIOUSLY! LOVE that mustache!! I laughed for two minutes straight when I first saw it, and honestly, can you even look at this without laughing??

Scott and Becky

The five big kids are too busy for pictures, but they did hit everyone up for quarters to play video games all night. The are getting big fast!

And if you haven't seen "him" yet, here "he" is! Gary, Mom's square-dance partner. That is the official title, I believe. I think, unofficially, he is also dinner partner, church partner, movie partner, etc... We enjoyed having him at our GroundHog Day party!

Until next February 2nd... by the way, did anyone actually hear what Phil decided? I guess winter is... over?

Homeschool in full swing

With winter days, homeschool for Tate is full-speed ahead. He is winding down first grade, and should be ready to start second in May. This is Tate working on spelling words. He likes to get up early and get it all done. He had to wait for Mom to have her coffee before he could take his spelling test!

Sam is not officially doing "school" yet, but he loves to practice. He has gotten the hang of pattern blocks in recent weeks. We are very proud of him.

Notice Penny is his helper and had to be included in the picture! Sam wants me to tell you that he knows how to find the right block to fit the picture now. Good job!

Tate's blog all by himself -- Meet The Pets!

This is Tate's first ever attempt to add original material to our blog site. He put much thought into what to contribute. He likes seeing us on-line! I typed exactly what he dictated and added exactly the photos that he chose. (Remember, he is six!!)

"Sneakers has a little sister. Penny is his little sister. Tonight they are camping out with Sammy and me. I hope you get good sleep. Here are pictures I took today. I hope you enjoy them. Sneakers is mine (I named him because sometimes he sneaks out and goes to Starbucks while I am sleeping) and Penny used to be mine but Sam has had her and taken care of her since he was a baby. Now he loves her. "

I took this by myself. Daddy barely gets in our pictures so I wanted him to be on my blog.

I took this by myself. Sam is taking care of our pets.

Sneakers! I caught you this time! No more stealing cookies!!! No sirrie bob!

Sneakers, who are you talking to? Penny? Yes, Tate, how did you know?

Sammy, get a seat for Penny, don't set her on your head!

Bye, family and friends. Thank you for visiting my first blog. And thank you for visiting Sneakers first blog, now he is on-line like Penny. From Tate.

Hanging Out with Uncle M

These are from last fall, when we had a bon fire at Uncle Micah's place. He had cleared some brush and he let all the nephews and nieces come and run around all over his land. We also celebrated the September birthdays (mine is best)
These are the kids (minus baby -- he wasn't living here yet -- plus Uncle Scott) playing on the hay. Yes, we like to color coordinate!

Sam on Micah's tractor

Micah's house has some sort of rope thing that the kids (And Uncle Scott) were trying to swing on...

Sam liked to wander all around behind the house and explore

Lacey and Sam

Micah grilled us a feast and we enjoyed catching up with each other.

See what I mean? Color coordinated! You can see Matt playing with his phone almost able to escape my picture! Scott tried to escape (seated leaning back) but I got him, too! The kids are all Becky's!

CHEEEEEESEEEE!

Aren't they adorable?

Yummy dinner! Thanks Uncle Micah!

Happy Birthday to US!!! I turned 21 and Micah turned, well ... I guess that makes him like 14. Go figure. He must be SO SMART to already have a house!

After dinner and cookie dough (and gifts!), we went outside for the bon fire!

Dance party!

Still newlyweds...

Arg. I am man. I build fire.

Kids EVERYWHERE!

Kids

Tate, Sam, and Mikey with big boy boots

Still stuck together, these two

Can you believe they AREN'T actually sisters? One of these is the mom...

And one of THESE is the mom, too!

I love Grandma and no I won't let her go.

We all love Grandma

Lacey (minus two front teeth) is always in front of my camera. How does this keep happening?

We finally sat down and all sang campfire songs. Or rather, Sam insisted that we all sing "Wheels on the Bus," which thanks to Mothers-Day-Out at church is the ONLY song that he knows. And he knows it, all the verses. He sang loudly and wanted us all to do the motions!

Here we are making the wheels go "round and round, round and round."

Relaxing under the stars

Sammy trying to shove his roasted marshmallow down my throat!

More singing

The sibs. Good night!