Spring Break campout

Wow! I love spring break. The weather is great, and there is so much to do. Our spring break started on Friday night with Swing Into Spring! That is opening night of spring sports where the teams get to run through a tunnel, there is food and bounce houses, and then it all ends in fireworks. We have three boys playing sports this spring, and it has already proven to be almost too much for me. On Friday night Jacob and Nathan both played their first Soccer game. This is the first time our family has played soccer. So, Nathan runs ahead of us to get to his game on time, and when I get there everyone is looking at me. They wanted to know where his shin guards are. What?? I know nothing about any shin guards! Well, he can't play without them. Great, so there is my first mistake. Well, the coach comes up with this brilliant idea that maybe one of the other teammates can just switch with him when she subs them out. Sounded good to me. The problem was the girl she asked to share had these guards that you have to take shoe, and sock off to slip them off of her foot. So I am taking her shoes off and putting her guards on Nathan when she says to me. "I think I need to go tell my Mom". OOPPS! I turn around to a Mom on the other side of the field looking at us with a "What the CRAP" sort of look on her face. So I quickly finish switching then run over to her to explain. I said he would just wear them for five minutes and then I would switch them back. That was embarrassing.
Right after that Jacobs game started on another field. So for the rest of the hour I was running with a two year old between the two games, not really being the supportive parent I should be for either of them. Steve was working late that night so he could make up for time he lost to go to school. He did make it for the ceremonies though. I am just going to have to be better at having three kids in sports I guess. :)

Even after that frustration I took the boys on a fantastic camping adventure Monday morning with two other Moms in our ward. No Dads! Not that we wouldn't have loved to have the Dads, they were just all busy with work. We had 3 Moms, 12kids (including 3 in diapers) and 2 young women with us. The kids did an amazing job at starting the fires. I got the hot spot of cooking over the fire which I loved. And I would say we ate pretty dang good during our trip.

The boys hard at work putting up our new 3 room tent. Love the tent! Hate the set up.

This is Nash, a 9 year old boy that stayed with us the whole time. He was awesome!Hot Dogs one night.
See the lake just behind our campsite. We spent some time letting the kids swim and fish there.

We ate lots of smores
Let the kids chop some wood
There was also a playground right next to our campsite which was wonderful. The two year olds stayed busy there.
We went on a great one mile two hour hike
The lovely brown river. This is pretty much how all the lakes and rivers in Georgia look.

We had such a great time and I am so happy that I have friends who are brave enough to go camping. :)

What's new?

Something strange yet Wonderful is happening today! My dear friend Shawnna invited Brandon over to play so that I could have some time to do whatever I wanted. So, here I sit in an empty house and it feels amazing!! I could count on one hand how many times I have been in my house by myself. I am so out of my element and am not sure what to do with myself. But since I had a heart to heart with Alicia about blogging a couple days ago I decided that this would be a good use of my uninterrupted time. There is too much of our lives that you are missing out on because I am not keeping up with my blog!! So here is the latest.

BRANDON:

Brandon has made some great strides since the New Year. He is now 2.5 and such a smart boy. He had a tooth ache sometime in February (getting his back molars) and did not want to suck his binky. He said it hurt his mouth. So, I jumped at the chance to take it away. It was THE EASIEST binky removal ever. Not a tear. So that is gone now, and with it went his precious blanket. Apparently to him they were a packaged deal. Without me even realizing it he started to go to bed without the blanket and is broken from that habit now too(sorry Aunt Laura). I thought that was very interesting though.

He also has decided that two and a half year olds don't need naps anymore, so we are going through that annoying period of an extremely exhausted 2 year old come 4:00pm. He sometimes takes a nap at that time, and then stays up until 10 or 11 watching netflix on the computer. He still has not done the potty training thing yet though. My rule is they will be trained by the time they turn three, so he has a couple more months and then he is DONE!! :)

JACOB:

Jacob is still enjoying kindergarten and is very well behaved. I went to a parent/teacher conference the other day for him, and she said he is well above where he is expected to be at this point in the year. As we were talking I mentioned that he is a great helper at home because he didn't go to Pre-K but instead stayed home with me doing dishes and laundry. The teacher was shocked and amazed that a child who didn't go to Pre-K could be ahead in his kindergarten work. I wasn't. We could all teach our kids Pre-K stuff if we want to.

NATHAN:

As you know, Nathan just turned 7. He is doing wonderful in school. It seems that he has worked out his bad behavior and is doing great in his class. He enjoys scouts and is now playing soccer afterschool. We have invited one of his friends to come home with us two days of the week and we are all enjoying that very much. He raced in his first pinewood derby race this year, and took first out of the three tiger cubs. :)

STEVEN:

Steven just started up baseball again, and he is doing so much better. He really loves the sport. I just wish he had more athletic ability. He is still getting A's in school and just took a test to be in Quest which is like an honors program. We really hope he gets in cause it is a great program.

STEVE:

Steve is doing awesome things. He started back at college in January and is taking 12 credits at Georgia Southern. He is handling the busy schedule so well and is even getting to work before 8am most days!! He doesn't see the boys Monday or Tuesday cause he is gone the whole day. But he is getting great grades and is really committed to school right now. He was recently in charge of a joint YW/YM activity where he did a scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun and the kids loved it. He is also getting geared up to get our garden planted which is going to be awesome. He also has taken on the hobby of making beef jerky. We got this beef jerky gun at a garage sale, and his friend gave him a dehydrater, so here he is making his own "slim jims".

And last but not least, he has purchased himself a new pet. He bought a ball python who now lives in our room and eats a mouse a week. He is a very nice looking snake and the boys and Steve love him.

ME:

As most of you who read this blog know, Steve and I started a biggest loser contest with my side of the family last week. So, that is something that I am thinking a lot about although I lost no weight the first week. But...with Brandon not taking naps anymore he and I were getting so bored at home and didn't know what to do with ourselves. Brandon had even started taking hour long baths for entertainment.

Well, there is a gym here that about 10 women from church go to and they invited me to come try it free for a week. I went last week and I LOVE IT!! They have free babysitting, so Brandon can go in and play with friends while I walk on the treadmill or do a weight lifting class. It feels so good and makes me feel like I am doing something important with my time. I just did a body pump and a body attack class this morning. AWESOME.
I was also given a popcorn maker from Laura for Christmas and put off opening it thinking it was going to be complicated (dumb I know). Well, I decided to open it and try it out at YW's one night, and we have been popping it like crazy lately the kids love it. We use it as a form of entertainment when people come over.

Nathan's 7th birthday

Nathan is now the big 7! It is so fun watching the boys grow up, even if they do seem to be getting harder to handle. :)

Nathan had a very fun birthday yesterday, and is looking forward to a great birthday party on Saturday. In fact he is inviting everyone he sees to his party. Even when I am standing right there, and I say no we can't invite that boy we already have too many people coming. He proceeds to tell the boy "K, the party is on Saturday, it is at my house, my address is..., my phone number is....." The whole time I am standing there saying as politely as I can "He can't come, please stop telling him all of our information!" Like my Mom says, I think our children get too good at tuning out Mom's voice.

Anywhooo. For Nathan's birthday I brought chocolate cupcakes to his class. I spent all morning making these darn things because I have only one muffin pan that holds six muffins. I needed 24 and they take 20 minutes to cook. So I finally get to the school, and we all enjoy our cupcakes. N had told the whole class about his birthday party so all the girls were asking me if N can't have girls at his party. Which I politely told them that is right.

When we were done with the cupcakes I signed Nathan out early so we could go to the book fair, and then he would come home with me just half hour early. At the book fair the Primary president from church was volunteering and talked to N about his birthday. She asked him what he wanted, and he said I just want a dog! Well he has been asking for a dog for about a year, but I am holding off one more year until he is eight and Steven is almost 10, so that they can do the bulk of the work for the dog. Nathan knows this, so there was no surprise. But when we got out to the car, he started bawling saying "I want a dog, I want a dog. This is the worst birthday ever!" Wow! He got to spend a little time in his room for that tantrum, and a warning that his birthday may have to be cancelled.

Well he calmed down in the afternoon and enjoyed his day. We went to Ryan's for dinner which is all the boys favorite (including Steve). Then we came home for presents cake and ice cream. Perfect birthday.



He got a card with $$ from Aunt Kristin and Uncle John.

He got a card with $$ from Nana and Papa, and got to talk to them on the phone yesterday.

He got a very cool nerf gun from G and G Allred, and got to talk to grandma.

And from Steve and I he got a Star Wars Leapster game. (That is a good replacement for a dog isnt' it?)

So now we look forward to his party on Saturday. I think we are going to build a fire and do hot dogs and I gotta think of some fun games to play.

7 wonderful things about Nathan that I love.

1. He is very considerate of others. He doesn't like to see people hurt or upset, and tries to defend them when he can. Including when Steve or I is getting one of the other boys in trouble for something and there is Nathan telling us why we shouldn't be mad at them.
2.He is a very lively excitable boy. Yes it can make things hard when he needs to sit still, but when it is time to have fun, he is the one that can make that happen.
3.He is a smart boy. He is a fantastic reader and continues to get A's on his report card. The behavior side of the report card has some marks, but the grade side is right where we want it.
4.He is excited to start soccer this year. He has never played, but is really looking forward to running around and kicking the ball. Perfect for him wouldn't you say.
5.He is really enjoying scouts and did great in the pinewood derby. So great in fact that he wants to have car races at his birthday party. :)
6.He is my most cuddly child, and I love that. Days can go by without me really touching Steven and Jacob (except for kisses goodbye and to bed) but if Nathan is needing a hug, he just comes up and gets one. Along with saying "I love you Mom." What a great quality in him.
7.He is maturing so much (FINALLY). I have been excited for Nathan to mature a little bit just to keep him out of trouble, and keep me from being frustrated with him. He stays out of trouble at school for themost part and seems to make better choices in general. We are not completely there yet of course. The bus driver had to talk to me the other day because he won't sit down on the bus even after being told ten times, and he got in trouble in primary because he wouldn't sit down and shut up, and was turning the lights on and off in the primary room. But.....we are making progress.

LOVE that Nathan!

Fun in February

January happenings

New Years with the Kirkhams

We had a very exciting New Years! Our friends the Kirkhams (met them in Germany, now they live in North Carolina, just four hours from us) were willing to come with their four kids to join us on New Years. We LOVE their company and were so happy to have them here.

On their drive here, they go through S. Carolina which is a big fireworks state. So they stoppped at one of the stores and got us some perfect fireworks for our party.

We made cheese fondue for dinner which was very fun for the kids. Then we played a couple of games and waited for midnight. Brandon asked to go to bed at about 10:30pm, but the rest of the kids stayed up for the party. We had planned on building a fire out back, but it rained up until about 11:30, and then it cleared up for us to go shoot fireworks.


(Starting to get tired)(Oz, Tori, and Steve playing Settlers)

Oz and Steve had a great time with their toys of course, while the kids watched from the trampoline.

After that excitement was over the parents went to bed and we let the kids sleep out in the family room watching a movie. They thought that was pretty exciting. I think all the kids were finally asleep by 2am. Which meant sleeping in for the next morning. Most of them woke up at 10am

We then made some chocolate pancakes for the sweets lovers in the house, and breakfast burritos for the salt fans. It was a fantastic breakfast



I love having the Kirkhams over and am so happy they live close enough for us to see them often.

CHRISTMAS

We enjoyed Brandon's santa outfit so much last year, I thought we could make it last one more year!


Christmas was wonderful as always....

Steve got a new Telescope from Santa and some massage oil from me.

I got $$ to go towards my trip in April to visit Jessica in NYC for her birthday and a popcorn maker from Laura that I think is going to be so much fun.



Steven also got the telescope from Santa, and he loves his pocket knife from Mom and Dad and the science kit that G&G Allred gave him
(One of the projects in the science kit)


Nathan got a remote control plane from Santa and some other random presents. For some reason that boy never plays with what he gets for Christmas.

(Nathan is using his foot to get into that present)

Jacob got a bake oven from Santa, and a top secret bank from G&G Allred that he loves. It has to detect the right voice before it will open, and Jacob loves that it won't open for anybody but him. His password is "YES".

(This is his SpongeBob snow cone maker he got from the Seraydarian's. The boys have big plans for a snow cone stand this summer.)

(The three older boys got guns from Nana & Papa. We are really going to turn these boys in to hunters.)
Brandon got a really cool ride on toy from Santa that is big enough for all the boys to use. That was my favorite Santa gift.

We had so much fun opening presents, eating quiche and then sleeping on Christmas Day. It was very enjoyable. And I am getting used to it just being "us" for Christmas.

Steven's new blog

Steven has been a little bored over this Christmas break, so he decided to start a BLOG! (Thanks Davin for the idea.) :) His blog is at the top of my links. Enjoy!