faulkinbury family

recent projects

2012-02-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

I promised my sister-in-law that I would try to post more, she mainly wants to see our dog so I will post pictures of the dog soon. I got in the mood the last few days to sew. I love doing quick and simple projects because it feel like I am so productive. First I redid the chair at my desk.

I'm not sure how long this will stay looking nice because there are already scuff marks on the legs, but it looks good now. :) It's a bolder print than I normally go with, but I love it. So much in fact I changed one of my pillows. Cute, no?

And lastly I redid the rocking chair fabric to go with the other chair I refinished a while ago. Hopefully this will tie the many different wood finishes together so it will look more cohesive. I will probably end up repainting to my favorite heirloom white, but for now it will have to do.

Random...

2011-07-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

1. This summer has flown by and Kaitlin and Daron are going to be gone in a couple weeks. We unpacked the last of the boxes last week! Yay! Now I just have to decorate, if only it were that easy. It seems to take me forever to do that. I have to say I am really excited though, because Kaitlin is going to paint a couple canvases for me to hang next to the painting my dad did. I sure am lucky to have so many talented people in the family!

2. I finally downloaded all the pictures from my camera. Here's one from Eli's baptism back at Christmas time, I guess I forgot to write about that. oops! Unfortunately, Grandpa Mike and Grandma Bonnie snuck out before we could take a picture with them. We were grateful to have family come support Eli that day.

3. These pictures, blurry ones by me (it really has to be the cameras fault though) are from Easter. I tried my hand at sewing ties. I think they turned out pretty good and was excited they could actually wear them. Can you believe how tall Kaitlin is getting!

4. Daron had this funky tooth inside the normal row of teeth that finally got pulled. I'm sure he's glad to have it gone.

5. Now a funny story about Daron and his hickey. You know those little half circle popper things the kids play with? Well I guess he thought it would be fun to put it on his chin. I didn't see it until afterwards. I saw him and asked what was on his chin and he said he didn't know. I started cracking up. I told him to wait there while I got the camera because I had to take a picture! Here he is embarrassed and hiding.

I finally got him to let me take a picture because I had to remember this. haha. this kid cracks me up sometimes.

6. I miss our old yard! Here is a picture of when Daron and Eli watched a movie and almost camped out in the backyard. It's all fun and games until Daron has an allergic reaction to the outdoors and his eye starts to swell shut.

7. Cousins fishing. Albert had the boys go out to the creek in mom and dad's field and cut some long willow branches down to use as fishing poles. They caught about 30 or so fish with the makeshift poles. The boys had a great time! Thanks hon!

8. Here is Nathan with a couple of his good friends from Cleburne. The boy seriously can't keep his tongue in his mouth when a camera shows up!

9. Here is Eli with his best friend Jaxon, brother to Nathan's friends.

10. Eli went to day camp this year for the first time and had a good time. Daron asked if he could volunteer. I told him he probably wouldn't because they might want their volunteers to go through a class or training, but we brought him anyways. They were happy to have him there and the boys were both thrilled to be together.

11. I wish I had a picture of Kaitlin to show you. She went on a pioneer trek a couple weeks ago and loved it. She said it was the hardest thing she has ever done, but the best experience she has ever had. They were only able to stay for 2 days because of the heat. She got poison ivy on her leg, luckily it wasn't too big. Her job while walking was to push one of the wheels. It got stuck at one point and she tried to position herself in a way to have the most leverage for the wheel. Her toes ended up getting in the way as the wheel got unstuck. She says, "you'd think I would learn after this to keep my foot out of the way. But no, I did it 3 more times." The rest of her family ended up banning her from wheel duty so she wouldn't hurt herself anymore.

the end.

We're packed

2011-05-10T12:09:00.000-07:00

and just about ready for our next adventure in life. We are going to spend a couple months visiting family in Arizona before we head to our new home in....Toledo, OH! Albert got transferred up there. He has to finish up a project in TN, but will be done sometime in July. Then we will all head up north. We really enjoyed Indiana and hope to enjoy Ohio as much. Definitely looking forward to the better weather in the summer.

Eli isn't really excited about it. He has some great friends here and is going to miss them. I tell him he is at a good age to move because making friends will still be easy in 3rd grade. The only way we got him excited is to tell him we were visiting AZ beforehand. We have been telling Nathan all about our move as well. He is excited to tell everyone that he is moving to O-hi-O. However, with all the chaos that moving brings he has become less than excited. He woke up this morning really upset about the whole thing. Luckily I have a great friend who agreed to watch him for the morning so he wouldn't freak out when all his stuff was being boxed up. He was happy again though with the promise of seeing a cool huge moving truck and giant boxes. He's pretty set now and wants to move right now!

Kaitlin and Daron don't really care one way or the other (mostly being the teen and almost teen they are). They are just happy not to have to pack anything. I'll let them help me unpack though, we don't want them too spoiled now do we. ;)

Lately...

2011-02-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

Nathan started speech a couple weeks ago. His first teacher, well frankly, was not a good match at all. He started seeing his new teacher last week and loves her! That makes me happy knowing he enjoys school and seeing his teacher. He didn't even care that I stayed in the hall the first day (with his new teacher) and didn't walk him down.

Last week we had vacation 4 out of 5 days thanks to a huge ice storm that wouldn't go away. We definitely had tons of fun sleeping late and wearing pajamas late into the day once or twice (or 3 times) But who cares if you aren't leaving the house anyway, right? Eli got to have his 2 best friends over for one of the days and another day we built Spongebob complete with yellow snow. :)

Albert is still gone lots for work, it should slow down in another month. His flight got cancelled this last Friday due to the storms, but luckily he was able to get another one for Saturday morning.

I started exercising again today. I guess it takes me a while to get back in the habit after the holidays. Lately I have been using netflix as there are a tons of exercise shows on there. I though I would try doing a little dancing... fun exercise makes it easier or so they say. The salsa was todays pick and the last dance one I will be doing. I seriously don't have a single dance gene in my body. I could get my feet to kind of so what they were supposed to, then they throw in a hip pop and then arm movements and then speed it all up x10. Ya, it was pretty pathetic! I think I will stick with my usual.

That's about it for now. Enjoy the silly boy...

more pictures

2011-02-07T18:09:00.001-08:00

She's gonna have to watch out for the boys!

family pictures

2011-02-07T17:02:00.001-08:00

My awesome sister Heather took our pictures while we were in AZ! (thanks girl!)

Nathan was hilarious, he would not smile for anything!

ideas?

2011-02-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

On the blog it has this little box that says "This image or video has been moved or deleted...photobucket." Any ideas how to get rid of it?

funny dog

2011-02-07T16:52:00.001-08:00

I took these pictures when I was in AZ at my mom's house at Christmastime. I was shopping with my mom and sisters. We parked at Walgreens so Shelane could run in and get something. As we were waiting in the car we looked over and a dog has climbed in the front seat of the car. It sat down and looked forward as if driving, then looked over at us and stared. It probably wondered why we were looking at it. It was pretty hilarious, maybe not so funny reading this, but we got a good laugh.

birthday party

2010-11-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well I suppose I will be a good girl and post more...at least it will last this week, I can't promise more.
We had Eli's birthday party today. It was pretty fun! He had a spy theme. First we had spy training. Albert did an amazing job of putting up all the "lasers" for the boys to go through to get their code breaker and spy name. Then they went to open the presents, but someone had stolen them and put a coded message in their place. They had their first mission, running all over the place finding clues until they at last found the presents. One of the clues was on the porch. They seriously ran past it about 20 times and couldn't find it...it was hilarious.
All of this was supposed to last a lot longer than it did, so Albert, being his genius self, filled the remaining time with target practice, dodging nerf bullets, red light green light and other stuff. The boys had a great time, especially Eli, which made me happy!

Happy Birthday Eli!!

2010-11-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

He's 8 (yesterday)! All dressed in his new scout uniform and pretty excited to get started. He was upset that his birthday was the day after scouts. I told him he'd survive for one more week. We got him all his scout stuff and a new set of scriptures with his name on it. He didn't seem too excited about it, but I told him that is what we give for the 8th birthday. :) He really wanted money so that he could get a Dsi. He's been saving for a while now and is just about there. Hopefully there will be a good deal after Thanksgiving and he can get it cheaper.

We decided to postpone his baptism until Christmastime so that Eli could have more family around for the big day.

Now for a funny little story, mainly so I can remember later. Eli doesn't like girls, it's been that way for several years now. Last week we were trying to figure out how to get in touch with one of Eli's friends to get him an invitation for his birthday party. Eli said we could call Alana who is a friend of this boy. I didn't think anything of it, but after that her name came up several times. Ex: Mom, I know what starts with A and ends with A.....Alana. days later: Mom, what starts with A and ends with Z...Alaniz.

There were others, but I can't remember what he said. So on this last one I said "Alaniz or Alana?" He got mad at me. :) It was funny. I told him that it was okay to like girls or think they are cute. That eventually he would like girls and it was all part of growing up.

Wish you could have been there. Knowing how he won't even give his mom a kiss or say he loves me and to think he may like a girl just makes me laugh!! I won't bug him about it anymore though. I don't want to scare him away from cute girls forever.

Nathan's alphabet

2010-10-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

Nathan has really been interested in learning the letters for a while now. We play games and use his leap frog magnets, and he caught on pretty quick. Watch this cute guy...

what do you think of our kitchen?

2010-03-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

We are trying to redesign our kitchen so I can have more counter space. What do you think of our designs? I'm not going to tell you who thought of what just so Albert can't say you are taking my side. ;)

Here is our kitchen now... look at that cute little guy!! and the green grass! can't wait for that to come back.

anyway...current kitchen.Here is plan A, do you like mad drawing skills!! The idea is to extend the counter around so it goes into the middle of the room. The fridge will be moved from where it is on the right side of the picture to inside the pantry, so it won't be hanging out in the middle of the room, but it does make for an awkward shaped triangle. Plan B was easier to lay out because there aren't all the curves of the last counter. Put an island in the middle move the fridge to the other wall. Now it is farther from everything and has a longer triangle .

see the bed there, that's going to be cabinets that will also go over the fridge and down the left side. the other idea here is to put the fridge in the pantry area and fill this wall with cabinets.

So...what do you think? Have any other fabulous ideas for me? I've been calling around to find someone to do a consultation, but thought I would ask for some ideas here since you are all so creative!

make it new

2010-02-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

I'm in the serious refinishing mood right now. I got a couple mirrors at goodwill last month and have finished one. I painted both heirloom white, but can't decide if I should leave the second one because it looks really nice or if I should "dirty" it (according to Albert, hehe) with some stain or glaze. So here is the first mirror. Love it!

And now this next project was a last minute thing, like so many other ones! I was reading a blog that talked about oil rubbed bronze spray paint. She was painting things like drawer pulls and lamps and I got to wondering if I could paint my ceiling fan. You know the one, old brass ugly thing! So being the impulsive project person I am, I decided to take the thing down and see what happened. What do you think?

Before:

After:(you can pretend my kitchen is clean, can't you?)

I'll probably go buy some new glass thingys, but other than that I think it looks amazing! A word of cuation though: make sure hubby is at home to help you put the ceiling fan back up!! It is such a pain doing it with only a big (little) helper. Thanks Eli!

what we've been up to lately

2010-02-01T17:47:00.000-08:00

I feel like I haven't been on here forever, so I thought I would post something. Here are a few things that have been going on. First, the biggest news. Eli has a new, awesome look.....

Apparently, his right eye is a bit farsighted and his left eye is very much so! He actually can't see out of his left eye if his right eye is closed. Luckily, the nurse at school was doing basic eye exams at school and sent notice home that we needed further checking. Eli was hesitant at first, but once we found these glasses he was really excited. We just got them tonight, so he is having a hard time seeing until his eyes adjust.

Here is Nathan with his new glasses. As soon as he saw Eli's, he ran to find some to put on.

Nathan loves "organizing" all the cans for me. What a big helper!! He will always say "ta-da" and clap for himself. It's so cute!

Here are the projects I have either finished or will be working on shortly:

a t-shirt!! I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I have never touched knit. I didn't want to mess with the stretch and really wasn't sure how to do it. Well I jumped in and it didn't turn out too bad. I don't love it, but I know now what I can improve on for next time.

super cute wreath. love it!

I-spy bag, Lightning McQueen of course.

Be blocks. I did these for Christmas gifts, still need to finish mine.

And my new projects... can't wait to see how they turn out!!

Fall

2009-11-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

Poor Nathan has been fending for himself all week as I have been in bed sick, so Sunday Albert took the boys out back to play in the yard. This is what I saw when I went out to check on them. (sorry for the blurry pics, it seems like everytime I go to use the camera the batteries are dead or still charging!)
There was a serious amount of leaves covering the yard and patio, I couldn't even walk out the back door without having to wade through them. Once they got the pile built up Nathan had to get used to being covered in the leaves, but then they kept tunneling through the pile and jumping in.

Eli's 7!!

2009-11-17T08:38:00.000-08:00

Can you believe my little boy is 7!! He opened our presents on his birthday and had a party on the weekend. I had been teasing him all week about gifts. I would ask him if I really had to buy him something and he would keep telling me yes. Are you sure? Yes YES! Why? Because it's my birthday!! And I would in the end always tell him we would buy him gifts.
Then Albert says I should get a gift for carrying him in my tummy for so long and helping him be born on his birthday. Finally one morning he says "Mom, Stop giving me a hard time! I want presents on my birthday!!" It was so hilarious!
So on his birthday he got the 2 gifts he had been wanting, Bakugan and a fishing pole that lets you shoot the hook into the water.

Here he is trying to guess what the big present is.

and super excited when he sees a peek of the pole

We told him he could have a big party at the house with all his classmates or he could take his best buddies to the bounce house. He opted for the bounce house. So we start out at our house to open present and have cake & ice cream, then Albert takes the boys to the bounce house. He calls me less than 30 minutes later and says they are done and want to come home to play at the house. I told him to tell Eli he should play for 30 more minutes and then the y could come back. Well 10 minutes later they were home.
Eli had got Bakugan from each boy and apparently knowing all those Bakugan toys were waiting at our house was too much for them to handle! :) So they spent the rest of the time in Eli's room playing. They had a great time though and Eli was more than pleased to add so many Bakugan to his collection.

Halloween part 2

2009-11-17T08:25:00.000-08:00

I'm playing catch up today. So much has been going on lately that I haven't had time to post any pictures. This is from the Halloween trunk-or-treat at church. I can't believe I forgot to take good pictures of the boys in their costumes. Oh well. Nathan's costume turned out so cute! I made one for his friend Loic that's the same age and he HATED it! Loic screamed when we would try the costume on him. Nathan just looked at him like, "what's your problem? It's no big deal, didn't you see me try mine on? I'm still good." so funny!
Enjoy the pictures.

Halloween

2009-11-17T08:05:00.000-08:00

Painting pumpkins

The boys had such fun painting their pumpkins! Nathan screamed

when I told him we were done..not a happy boy that night.notice all the paint on his shirt, I thought it would wash out. Oh well, he had a great time! Eli was proud of his finished pumpkin, he planned it all out on his own!

And now on to the food!

Nathan asks..."Do I really have to eat this centipede!?"

dear siblings,

2009-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Fond memories of growing up made such a good start to my day today. Yesterday I took the boys grocery shopping. While we were there I picked up a pomegranite and told Eli how yummy it was going to be. I cracked it open this morning and neither of the boys cared for the taste. So I got to sit down and eat it, well half of it anyway, for breakfast. As I was picking all the pieces out it took me back to Gilbert, the Hellmanns and Reeds, Espinozas and plenty other families there. Katie Hellmann and I would live off pomegranites when they were in season. I'm sure we had more than our share of them! I remember riding my bike down to her house and getting my dress caught in my chain. Most of the time though, I would walk and have to "book it" past Sid. Remember that nasty dog? He would freak me out.

side note: this just reminded me of Kaitin and our last house. She would come running home totally out of breath and on the verge of tears because she was so scared of our neighbor dog. Sometimes she would start walking to school and come running home because of the dog. So one day I decided to go talk to the owner of the dog to see if they could keep it in the back yard before and after school so Kaitlin wouldn't have a heart attack at such a young age. Well, we walk over to the house and all of a sudden Kaitlin grabs my arm in an attempt to hide behind me. I look over and what do I see? Not a big, mean looking dog or a dog with a big loud bark. coming towards us is a cute little (annoyingly yippy) chihuahua. I laughed. She got upset. I tried to explain that if she just stopped, stomped her foot and yelled for the dog to git, then she wouldn't have problems. Eventually the problem got better though.

Now back to 155th St. Do you remember the huge snake in the bush by the railroad? One of you was with me. We kept throwing rock at it...smart I know! It was huge though! and going past the bush was our way home. What about the time we swam with some of the neighbor in the big canal or when some guy tired to water ski down the canal. I have such great memories of those days. I think that is why I always bug my kids to get off the computer or tv and (heaven forbid!) use their imagination. I know they don't have the space we had to roam, but I love when they are creative and have fun just playing. I would never dream of letting the kids do some of the stuff we did. Katie and I would walk a couple of miles to the CircleK to get snacks. We all would wander and explore, being gone all day. We would talk about the hobos that probably lived in the trees just past the railroad tracks. We would run down the ditch, hopping from side to side, doing our best when it had water in it not to fall in.
I remember sitting on our roof and watching fireworks, there weren't many houses out there to block our view. Oh, and the hot air balloons. I think it must have been a yearly thing. There were tons floating through the sky. And the fair grounds close by I'm not sure we ever went, but I walked over there with someone just to check it all out.

I could go on and on!! I love all the memories and think that is why I would love to live in Snowflake someday. It's a smaller town and we could have lots of land for the kids to explore and be gone all day. If it never happens, at least we have mom and dad there and the kids can explore on their vacations!

our week, part 2

2009-10-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

Family Pictures! Why do we do this exactly?? First mom asks everyone to get dressed in the clothes SHE has picked out. This means they all have to stop what they are doing , which happens to be the most important or interesting thing of the day, so they are very disappointed to have to stop. Next she says she wants all their hair done just so...more sighs of frustration. Then comes the actual picture taking. This is where all the fun really starts! Especially since we are using a tripod and can't entertain Nathan.

first comes crying

and then the attempted escape
and the actual escape

then the lips are puckered because mom just gave the

baby candy to sit with Kaitlin

and then another escape to get more candy

not sure what this is

then the baby is happy cuz he is hitting brother

(in a nice way of course)then we get an actual smile, but in Kaitlin's direction and

not towards the camera

the kids are done, I think we have enough of them. Maybe one of

those 50+ pictures will turn out. Now it's mom and dad's turn...

nice! dad, can we please be serious just for a minute

gotta love this face. Not only do I get compaints from the kids, but the hubby too.

(actually he was sick and I made him come out anyways...what a trooper!)

And finally here are the best of the lot. I'm not really thrilled, but

this is our fun family right now and it will have to do. It actually

gives me a good laugh to see all the funny ones.

Next time I just might hire someone to take pictures!

What we've been up to...

2009-10-19T13:50:00.001-07:00

Kaitlin and Daron came to visit us this last week. We are so glad they had a week off to spend with us. Eli and Daron were especially sad that the end of the visit was last night. We had to get up at 4:30!!!!!! to take them to the airport. But we did have some fun while they were here! I think Daron and Eli spent most of their free time playing Bakugan. Kaitlin missed her playmate, Maddie (her step-sister), but hopefully had fun with us. Monday we were able to go to the state fair. Eli was SOOO disppointed that he had the stomach flu and couldn't go with us. I didn't take too many pictures, because I hate dragging my camera around everywhere, so I ended up using my cell phone.

This ride was fun...I actually went on it and I don't do rides.

Daron cracked us up. He kept trying to climb on the tire and slipping. Finally he just climbed under the car and left it at that.

We were also able to paint Kaitlin's room a light green. We're still working on the rest of the room. I found this (previously ugly gold and scratched up) mirror and we painted it black.

I made these super cute pillows. Don't you just love the ruffle one?

We painted her night stand and still need to paint the bed. Everything is going to be black and white. I still am looking for the right curtains and comforter to finish the room off. At least the pink works for now.

We also painted her ugly brown dresser. It's really amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do to a room and it's furnishings.

Eli was sick the first half of the week and Nathan was sick the second half, so we really didn't get out all that much. So it was great just to hang out as a family this week playing games, watching movies, and messing around.

*We love you and will miss you Kaitlin and Daron!!! Can't wait to see you again!

party leftovers

2009-10-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

Nathan found the sprinkles, I guess I left them on the table, because I had put him in his chair for lunch and he can't move the chair out yet. We had such a funny conversation I thought I'd share.

Nathan: Oh-No (I hear from the other room)

Me: uh-oh Nathan, what happened?

Nathan: all goss (gone)

Nathan: (gasp) mess! MESS!

(he likes things clean and gets antsy when he sees messes like this)

Nathan: thinking, looking, not quite sure yet what to do

Me: Eat it

Nathan: mmMMMMM! mmmMMMMMMM!

The End.

it's a birthday!

2009-10-02T05:29:00.000-07:00

Nathan's birthday was yesterday. Can you believe he's 2?!? He's such a cutie and has a great personality. He's not as laid back as Eli, but still pretty easy going. And he likes to make me laugh; he is starting to see humor in things more. I love to see him laugh at things.
He's not sure about birthdays yet, but loves that he was getting so much attention yesterday. He wanted to hold all the things we were buying at the store and was mad when I made him give them to the cashier.

I just love this picture. I want to eat him up.

His favorite part though was the balloons. He squealed every time we blew up another balloon and threw it to him. He tried to pick up 4-5 at a time, but that wasn't working, so he opted for laying or sitting on them.

He's trying to bite the balloon. Luckily we figured this out before it popped in his face.

I made him a gluten free cake! It actually turned out tasting pretty good too- for gluten free that is. I have to remind myself that GF food will never taste like stuff we normally eat. It's all Nathan knows though, so he likes it. He was so funny when he started eating the cake. He took a bite and a big smile spread across his face then he let out a little giggle and dug in for another bite. He ended up eating almost half the cake (it was about 4inches across).

Eli looked at all his silly faces and laughed; he thought they were so funny!

Fab.U.lous gift idea!

2009-09-25T09:38:00.000-07:00

My super creative and talented sister just opened up an etsy shop where she is selling cute stained glass pendant necklaces and keychains. I just got mine and totally love it!

I think I'm gonna go back for more and get the keychain this time. Lucky me to have so much talent in the family! Here are some she offers or you can pick your own!

Check it out here. Christmas is coming up quick and this would be a great gift!

pictures...finally

2009-09-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Amber made me feel a little guilty the other day for not posting pictures of the house. I haven't done it yet becuase I wanted to post some nicely decorated rooms instead of what I have now. But seeing as we have been here for 3 months and not done much I will show you what it looks like now and then you can ooh and aah when I finally figure the whole decorating thing out!

Here is the kitchen. I love how this color turned out! We are going to be adding a counter/bar area that will fill in the breakfast area since I have pretty much no counter space right now.

family room. We painted it once and decided it was way too dark and after mixing a few samples came to this. It's still a little dark, but hopefully it will work out. It doesn't show in the picture, but I have curtains that have this green, yellowish gold and the orange from the kitchen in them. My goal is to tie all the downstairs together and make it flow nicely. (wish me luck)

Living room...

Here is the mantle that I am working on.

I want it to look something like this one, just the mantle, you can ignore the rest. Good idea, bad idea? What do you think?Nathan's room. Man can he make a big mess in a small amount of time!!

I wanted to have an animal theme and these pictures looked good before I framed them or hung them. I have serious decorating issues! Any suggestions?

Eli and Daron's room. We still haven't decided on a color for this room yet.

I'm not posting Kaitlin's room yet because all my sewing stuff is everywhere. She will be coming in a few weeks and I think I will have her paint her room. She wants green and I found a super cute room that had limeish green and everything else is black and white. It looked SOOO good and I am going to try and copy it.

This is our backyard. Up til now it's been either hot or raining so the kids don't go out there much. Hopefully they will be able to enjoy it soon. I want to setup the "clubhouse" so they will have fun out there.

Here is our huge oak tree. Thanks to it we have lots of squirrels running around!

And I had to include this super cute boy! He looked so grown up on Sunday. It's hard to believe he will be two in about a week!!!

sick

2009-09-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

We have a house full of sickies today, which means movies and vegging all day. I sure hate having them sick, especially Nathan when he can't tell you what's wrong. BUT the snuggling sure is nice!Here's a random pic I took the other day. Nathan found these teeth and brought them to me. I tried to get them in his mouth but he was a little freaked out! I finally showed him how to do it and convinced him it was safe. He is so fun to have around!

Eli's first day

2009-09-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

I know it's like 3 weeks late, but here are a couple pictures from Eli's first day.

He was pretty excited, but not totally sure he wanted to go to a new school. At least one of his friends from church is in his class. He's doing great so far, and it's been a crazy year already. His teacher hurt her back the second day of school and has been gone ever since. We hope she will get better soon. After a week and a half of substitutes the finally got a certified teacher to come sub. (you only need a HS diploma to sub here, which is fine for a day here or there)

This school seems very unorganized so far, so hopefully it gets better. I've heard this school and our last one were the best in the district, so we'll see. Eli has been sick the last few days and I told him he really needed to take it easy so he wouldn't miss school next week. He said it didn't matter because he doesn't learn anything anyways! He cracks me up!

my little peanut butter fan

2009-09-13T13:20:00.000-07:00

He would eat it all day if I let him. silly boy!

2009-08-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday bud!

I know I'm a day late posting this, blogging just isn't my thing. But hey, at least I did it!

You've grown so much recently I can hardly believe it! I'm so glad to be your mom and to have seen you grow and mature over the years. You love life and are always looking for excitement, yet you are smart and love learning. You are a good big brother (and those brothers miss you and your imagination!). Good luck with the saxaphone, I know you will practice hard and learn to play quickly! We sure do love and miss having you here everyday, but know you are doing good in AZ.

What to do with all those boxes...

2009-07-09T12:26:00.000-07:00

I figured when we unpacked everything I would just freecycle all the boxes. Leave it to the kids to find a better use for them! It really turned out good, because this kept them busy for days!!

it's official!

2009-06-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

We just signed the papers on our new house yesterday!! We are so excited to finally own our own house. We don't actually get to move in until Monday, but that gives me more time to finish packing and cleaning here.

The kids are thrilled at more bedrooms and a huge backyard. We took Eli a couple months ago to look at it. As we were leaving he said we should buy it "right now". When I asked why he said it was because there was an upstairs. It's so funny how kids think!
As soon as Kaitlin found out, she has been planning her room. She has measured all her furniture and cut out scaled-down pieces and has been figuring out the perfect set-up (I'm afraid I have passed on the organizing gene to her). The boys are excited, but not at all concerned about planning anything.
I'm trying to plan, but have no clue where to start. The living room and family room are huge and I don't know the best way to set things up. It's okay for now since we don't have much furniture, but eventually we will. It takes me forever to figure all the whole decorating thing out, so I have to start early and watch all the decorating shows! Wish me luck!!

power outage

2009-06-14T23:16:00.000-07:00

The power went out yesterday from noon until about 7:30pm. We ended up going to the church for a while, then going to the store to shop for a no cook meal. When we got home it was still pretty hot so we ran an extension cord from our neighbor's house to hook up fans and run the fridge. Since it was pretty warm Albert decided everyone could run around in their underwear. Once the power came back on I told the kids they could only run in their underwear during power outages because how often does that really happen. Really. I mean it's not like it would happen again the next day, right? Well...the power went out AGAIN today. Crazy, I know. What are the chances of that? So as soon as the boys realized the power out again they stripped down to their undies and ran around happy as could be. Boys!

snack time

2009-06-14T16:48:00.003-07:00

The boys were hungry the other day and decided to take matters into their own hands.

Daron got this practical joke set for Christmas and hasn't used it much. We have been watching America's funniest home videos lately and I think that started the jokes at home. We had the missionaries over for dinner last week and just before they got here Albert found the mouse hidden among the dinner rolls. I'm sure it would have scared them, but it was funny to think about. Eli will casually ask me where I am going next in the house and suddenly I find the mouse right there. too funny! I may have to think of some of my own practical jokes to play on the kids. Any great ideas?

Oh, we also had a hail storm the other night. I couldn't believe how loud it was I was hoping it wouldn't break the window. Luckily they weren't too big. We went out on the back porch to watch. We kept telling Daron to stay away from the edge of the porch, but Daron being Daron wouldn't listen and kept getting his legs pelted with the hail. Coincidentally, Albert was telling us last week how hail was formed. The hail keeps getting pushed back up after it falls and more ice gets coated on it, when it is too heavy for the wind to push it back up it falls down. I forgot to get a picture, but as we were looking closer at the hail you could see the layers inside; it was pretty interesting.

my baby is graduating!

2009-05-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

This picture cracks me up every time I look at it. I asked Eli why he was smiling like that and he got all frustrated. He says "the man kept telling me to put my eyebrows down and I couldn't !"

This is usually the smile that we get from him...

(this is from fun day last week. He had alot of fun! He got 2nd place on the relay and first in this race where you put a ball between your knees and bounce)

Kaitlin & Daron are home!!

2009-05-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

We picked up Kaitlin and Daron on Sunday and are so happy to have them back home!! It ended up pouring rain that afternoon and the kids couldn't resist going outside to enjoy it. Here are some pictures of their adventure. Sorry most are blurry, I was inside the house staying dry with Nathan.

Poor Nathan!

2009-05-26T10:47:00.000-07:00

I had just finshed curling my hair Sunday morning and set the curling iron down. Nate was right there and grabbed the curling iron. Normally Nathan isn't interested in anything but my drawers in my bathroom, so it really surprised me that he did that. Luckily, I was there to pull his hand off quickly or the burn could have been much worse. I feel so bad for him!! He cried and cried. It took a while for the blisters to show up. We ended up bandaging the hand because with burns everything hurts, even the air touching it. He finally settled down after a couple hours.

We got a little smile for giving him a cookie.He was even pounding the piano by the end of the day (thanks to the padded hand I'm sure).

Here snakey, snakey

2009-05-11T05:47:00.000-07:00

I had to do something in Nathan's room this morning; I've completely forgotten at this point what it was and frankly it's not going to happen anytime soon. You see, I stepped in there and glanced across the room. It kinda looks like there is a snake by the stuffed frog puppet. I'm sure it's a rope or something because it's still a little dark in there and my eyes always play tricks on me like that. So I turn on the light and freeze. I blink in an attempt to clear my eyes and see what is really there. There's no way a snake could get in my house. How in the world did a snake get in my house!! What the heck am I supposed to do? Albert is at work already and I don't want to look stupid running to the neighbor for help. I have to find a box to throw over it.
Hmm, I have to find one that is big enough to go over the snake and the frog that its head is resting on. I got nothing. Maybe the trash can will work, the top is sort of big. So I silently, but quickly creep into the room and jump on the bed which luckily is right next to the venomous creature. I seriously think I am having a heart attack at this point and I'm shaking so bad I might start convulsing at any moment. Just as I start to throw the trash can on top of it all the snake decides to move under the frog and then heads for the wall. I'm trying to move the frog and still catch the snake, but all the shaking from my limbs is causing some problems with my swiftness. It escapes under the closet door to safety...at least for now. So I grab sheet from the bed and shove it under the door in hopes that the slithering one won't get out.
Albert has a meeting by our house in a couple hours, so I call and leave a message for him. Forget the meeting I say and come save your child. He must take a nap and there is no way I am going to put my child in danger by having him sleep in the same room as that thing. Now the trick will be waiting and waiting for Albert to come save us.

My memory is a little fuzzy, but this might be what it looked like...

*******

I really don't think I can make it for the next couple hours. Everytime I walk into a room something looks like a snake and I start freaking out all over again. Maybe I should turn all the lights on for a while. I seriously can't get my heart rate back to normal. Anyone want to come find the snake for me? Now please!

*******

Post-edit: For all those who are wondering, I called my hubby on the way to the store since I couldn't handle being in the house anymore. He told me was on his way to the house. He called me later to let me know the job was done. However, he can't miss an opportunity to bug the heck out of me. He asked me if he didn't find the snake if he should tell me he did so I would stop worrying. Well, this just brought on new fears! He finally promised that he truly had taken care of the creature and it was waiting on the back patio for me to see so I could sleep at night. Thank goodness! Although it didn't totally help, I kept seeing things and Albert would sneak up on me and hiss (the punk!)

spring break

2009-03-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

Spring Break wasn't exactly how I had planned. We had lots of great activities in mind, most of which never panned out. We had a house full of sickies until the middle of the week. Monday we loaded up on movies and hung out in front of the tv all day. Even with all the sickies, it was fun watching movies and eating popcorn. By Wednesday we were almost all better and headed out to the zoo.

Can I let you in on a secret?

DO NOT go to the Fort Worth zoo during spring break on half price day! It took way too long to get there and we ended up having less than 2 hours to get through the completely crowded zoo. It wasn't the smartest thing I ever did. But Nathan definitely enjoyed all the "monkeys" (all the apes, chimp gorillas, etc were monkeys to him). He couldn't take his eyes off them.

The kids enjoyed some time together on the tramp...it was great to see them all getting along and NOT fighting! These are the moments I savor.

We made dessert. Unfortunately, there were a few floaters.

Kaitlin stayed up way, way too late. Reminds me of mom and me late at night...laughing hysterically for no reason.

The boys went fishing after Albert got back from his business/fishing trip. Don't have good pics to show of that though.

Nathan discovered he really likes cars and trucks. That's all he's played with lately it seems. I will say "rrrrrrr" (in my not so good sound making voice) and he runs off to find a car. So funny. He also learned to knock on the door...cute!

We got to watch Eli play soccer...they won! Eli has some awesome moves!!

Kaitlin was pretty tired after getting up extra early that morning.

Albert and I had the special privilege to take Kaitlin to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. It was a great experience for all of us. Kaitlin was happy to feel the spirit so strongly and know that she was doing something good for family members.

K/D, we are so glad you got to visit. We love you and will miss you!!!

kids, don't try this at home

2009-03-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

We love popcorn.

And since Nathan can't have milk products, I thought I would try to make our own popcorn. I found a recipe online that said you could put the popcorn, salt, and butter in a brown paper bag. Roll the top a couple times and put it in the microwave. The butter ended up leaking out of the bag and all over the microwave tray.

I figured I would just go buy an air popper, but before I could do that hubby decided he would experiment.

This one didn't turn out too good. So being the great guy he is, he went shopping and found a handy, dandy popcorn bowl made especially for the microwave. I have to say it's been great! And super yummy as we can add whatever we want to it. I would show you how lovely it turns out, but it's gone.

who is that moustached man?

2009-03-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Albert thought it would be fun to grow a beard this winter to show his brothers how it's done. He likes to give them a hard time. I thought sure, whatever. Christmas came and went and the facial hair kept still kept growing and growing.

I begged, bribed, harassed. All for nothing. And then one day the wolfman disappeared and back came my long lost hubby. Sadly I don't have a before picture, he thought of that afterwards. But here is one at Christmastime to give you an idea...just pretend it is bushy and has tripled in size.

Before...

After...

zerberts

2009-03-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

What do you do?

2009-02-19T09:12:00.000-08:00

How do you clean your whites?

I was using the hot water cycle, my laundry soap and some bleach. This seemed to work good and all the dirty socks came out white. However, I began to notice it was affecting my colored loads. I guess the bleach didn't always get cleaned out of the machine and I was getting discoloration on some clothes. So I stopped doing that. It bugs me though, because the whites aren't as white anymore.

I am going to try adding Borax today to see how it works. Maybe there is a detergent out there really great for whites. Any suggestions??

I am my father's son

2009-02-08T17:38:00.000-08:00

ultimately leads to....

my sweet baby

2009-02-07T17:48:00.000-08:00

Why take only one picture when more is so much better?

Now tell me, HOW do I resist those EYES!!!

date with Eli

2009-02-07T16:57:00.000-08:00

Eli and I had a date and spent most of the day together. It was fun to just spend time with him; it doesn't happen too often anymore. First we went to Home Depot where he built a box, which was supposed to have a heart on top and heart stickers all over. We left all that stuff off. He really loves to go build things at Home Depot and Lowe's, I'm glad they have these programs that make it simple for kids to make things.

So what's the deal with kids and cheesy faces when you are trying to take a picture. Please could you just smile your cute smile that I love so much?! No, you tell me that you are smiling like normal! Silly child.

Next we were off to Taco Bell, Walmart's toy section, and Pink Panther 2 which turned out to be pretty good.

When we got home we decided to get Valentine stuff ready for next week. I love to see him write. It's cute how one he tries to write really small, but one name still ends up on 2-3 lines!

A little side note...Eli's school has a reading program (AR) where they get points for the books they read and pass a test on. Well, Eli is one of 2 students in his class reading and was the first in kindergarten to get all the points! He is so excited to be able to go on the trip to the theater next week! Go Eli, you rock!!

awesome deal!

2009-02-02T10:37:00.001-08:00

I just have to say that I am really pleased with myself today. I had planned on going to CVS today to buy some things and as I was cutting out last minute coupons I ran across one in the ad for a $25 gift card with a prescription transfer. Well, I just happen to be getting a prescription today anyway, so I sent it on over to CVS. All this stuff was bought today, and I left with no money out of pocket and an $18 credit. How sweet is that! They pay me to shop there. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work out this well, but it sure is nice once in a while! It makes me want to keep at the whole coupon thing, which I tend to give up on after a couple month because it seems like I spend more using coupons. Go figure.

hello toothfairy!

2009-02-01T16:29:00.000-08:00

Eli lost his first tooth last night. I had put him to bed when he started calling me to tell me his tooth could move sideways. I think he was really wiggling it because there was a little blood. I told him I would get the blood off with a tissue and squeezed ever so lightly; it just popped out. I held the tooth in the tissue for him to see. I thought he had seen it, but he didn't say much, so I mentioned how exciting it was that the toothfairy was going to visit. He looked totally surprised that his tooth was out and then couldn't stop smiling.

Dreams of toothfairies and money danced in his head...

random pics

2009-01-30T12:25:00.000-08:00

this is Eli's new pastime; admiring himself, or rather his teeth, in the mirror

because his first tooth is loose!!

I told him I'd yank it out with string. I told him how my mom would tie a string to my tooth and the door....but he decided to just wait. I was smart and decided not to tell him about the time my mom tied my tooth to the string, it flew across the room and we lost it, not sure if we ever did find that darn thing.

A funny story about Kaitlin and loosing teeth. She was still young and thought mommy would never trick her... poor child. I said Kaitlin, let me feel your tooth to see how loose it is. I need to use a washcloth though because my hand is slippery. Well I wiggled her tooth a little and squeezed ever so gently and POP, out it came.

I don't think it really hurt since it was just hanging on by a thread. She was pretty surprised at first, then happy to have a tooth for the toothfairy.

Here is Nathan's favorite toy (daddy's cell)

this is his new expression, he walks around taking big breaths and making this face, it's so funny.

And here is his new haircut, it's so cute spiked up! I used the clippers (which he did great with) and used a longer attachment, but it ended up so short. I think because he had so much hair on the top and in the back that it looks super short. It's cute, but I already miss my baby, he grew up in a haircut. hate when that happens.

finally...

2009-01-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

We have been in this house for two years now. Initially we thought we would be here for 18months and move, because Albert was supposed to transfer to 3 different positions (outside of Cleburne) before they let him settle down. Luckily his company eliminated that program and so we are here until further notice. I haven't wanted to decorate too much since this was temporary.

we're. still. here.

This past summer I finally decided that I wanted to start decorating. My problem is I don't have the decorating gene. I know what I like when I see it, but couldn't say for sure what my style is. And if I buy things that I like it never seems to look good once I get it home. So this is also part of my procrastination. I am trying to get past that and have been trying to find pictures of things I like so I can copy them.

We made some tiles with saying on them and they got hung in my dining room. Thanks to Heather and Ryan and their vinyl letter cutting machine, I was also able to finish a project that I have had in mind for a little while. I would give credit to someone, but I was surfing one day, ran across a similar picture, and saved it to my computer without a link or reference. Well, thanks to whoever you are with the creative mind!

I love it except the letters are shiny and reflect the light too much. It was hard to get a picture that didn't have a glare. Cute though, huh?

Next I have some old windows that I am going to fix and hang in the dining room. You know that as soon as I get this place just how I want it we are going to buy a house!

At least I'll be able to paint.

horseback riding

2009-01-03T07:57:00.001-08:00

The kids were all asking even before we got to Snowflake if they were going to be able to ride Booga. I told them I'm sure grandpa would take them out. Sure enough, he was willing to take them out...he's such a good grandpa! The 3 older kids were out riding for a while having a good time, while I was taking a nice, long shower. As I am drying my hair Kaitlin comes in and matter of factly tells me she fell off the horse and shows me the scrape on her stomach. Then adds, "oh, and Daron fell off and landed on his head." What! I go in to the other room as Albert is checking his eyes. He looked fine, but had a terrible headache. Doc said Daron will have a sore head for a couple weeks. Luckily, both kids were okay and there was no permanent damage.

part 2, Christmas

2008-12-30T20:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve at the Faulkinbury's is quite an event. It gets pretty crazy and the house is full of tons of people. I usually don't know everyone there. Santa comes to visit the kids and hand out a gift. It's chaos as gifts are handed out, I have to wait until after the party to find out what the kids got. We love it though and the kids have so much fun.

Nathan was hilarious with Santa, maybe in part because he looked like his daddy. Nathan just sat there and stared and stared and then stared some more with his mouth hung open.

The boys loved opening their gifts. And Eli was much more excited than he looks in the picture. His favorite super hero these days is batman and he ended up with a few things batman this year.

Next stop... Eilertsen's for Christmas day. It was great to see my family!!! We really miss being close to our families, but are happy to be able to go to AZ twice a year. Kaitlin and Daron were with their dad Christmas Eve, so we took them up to Snowflake with us that night. Albert got the coveted tie, doesn't he look excited?

Doesn't Daron look great with his new teeth?

Aunt Norene made me and Kaitlin some awesome hats and scarves!!Everyone got some great gifts, but we were especially happy to just be spending time with relatives!!! We love you guys!

trip, part 1

2008-12-30T19:47:00.000-08:00

Our trip over to AZ went pretty good, given the passengers. Nathan got fussy, but I would too if I was strapped to an uncomfortable car seat for that long. Eli kicked back with his gameboy and Nathan watched movies.

Once we got to grandma Bonnie's house Nathan got busy...

controlling the remote

playing with Aunt Dresden's phone

hanging out with grandma Bonnie and Maddie

sweeping the floor

playing with Maddie and Emmie

road trip

2008-12-19T18:50:00.000-08:00

We are headed to AZ today!! Don't be too envious, we have to drive for 18 hours with a 14 month old and a 6 years old, but the 6 yr old is good. Hopefully Nathan will sleep for a long, long time. Maybe a few doses of benadryl during the day will do the trick.

(put the phone down, you don't need to call cps, I was just kidding!!! )

I really can't wait to get to the mountains.

I miss the mountains and the smell of pine trees. When I am at Eli's school I like to walk out the door by his classroom becuase there are a couple pine trees there. I will stop and just smell the air for a minute. Eli thinks I'm weird.

We'll head up to the mountains Christmas Eve. I think I'll ask Santa for a little snow while we are up there.

What do you do...

2008-12-18T13:27:00.000-08:00

with a 14 month old on a long, long, LONG drive?? I am afraid that he will get bored of the bag-o-tricks I have real quick. I have recorded a couple dvds of his favorite shows, but even then, his attention span isn't that long.

This sweet slumber is what I am hoping for, but know there is no way it's going to happen. Any great ideas for me? Help me keep my sanity. What do you do with your little ones on road trips?

Christmas concert

2008-12-16T11:19:00.000-08:00

Eli had his Christmas concert last night. It was great, these kids are so fun to watch. Nathan didn't think so. He opted for chewing the string on my sweater.

This is all of the kindergarten classes singing together.

Eli got to wear a sweater that he made last week in class. Isn't it cute??

This video is of one of the fun songs. We missed recording the best song, the kids were dancing around, shaking their thang, it was too funny. Maybe I can find someone that got the whole thing on video, so I can get a copy.

Gingerbread house

2008-12-15T18:37:00.000-08:00

Eli's kindergarten class made gingerbread houses. His teacher had a great idea for this. She took empty milk cartons from the cafeteria, washed them and glued the top shut. Then we hot glued the graham crackers to the milk carton. When the kids got to school the next day they were able to get started on the frosting and decorating.

It was too funny to watch them. I think half the frosting ended up in their mouths! (I wish I had brought my camera!) They had a huge assortment of candy to pick from and had such a great time decorating and sampling. Eli was actually quite reserved, most kids had every inch of their board covered. At least now there isn't too much candy for him to eat.

Oh, Christmas Tree

2008-12-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

Mission Completion!

2008-11-24T12:54:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe it myself! If I didn't actually do it myself I wouldn't believe that it is done. Yes, I have finally finished the piano!

We were offered a piano about 2 years ago for free, yes free! So we gladly accepted it. In addition to being free, it plays good. The only glitch though was the sweet lady that owned it previously thought it needed furniture polish on a regular basis. Which is great until you realize that the last 30 years of polishing never went away, it only layered thicker and thicker.

Back to us, we get it and it smells a little of smoke and has cat hair clinging to it, so we decide to clean it. We start cleaning and realize we are rubbing off the finish! We are upset until we realize the next day that it isn't the finish, it is only the polish. So after cleaning it off and on for a year , we finally finish the piano. (hey, cut me a little slack here I was on bedrest and had a baby! )

Now I only had to finish the bench, which I promptly shoved into the corner of the garage. It haunted me and would call out to me begging to be cleaned. I ignored it, since I had better, more entertaining things to do. Well, I finally had enough and pulled it out this week. I cleaned and polished it. And just how long did that take you ask? An hour. Yes, I put off the pestering bench when it would have only taken an hour of hard scrubbing and polishing! Argh.

Now... I have to learn to play the silly thing!

little chef

2008-11-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

Eli and I had fun making cookies. He was such a great helper!!

He mixed

and tasted (to make sure it was safe for us, of course)

and rolled the cookie dough balls
Thanks Eli.

Kaitlin's Birthday!

2008-11-20T10:38:00.001-08:00

Kaitlin turned 12 yesterday (sorry K for running late on the post)!! We are so excited for her. She has been looking forward to being in Young Womens and did a great job completeing her "Faith in God" before her birthday. She always strives to make good choices and is a great example to her brothers and sisters.

We are proud of what a wonderful daughter we have! She is so talented and right now especially loves acting and singing...she does a fantastic job on both! She also enjoys writing and drawing. I like to look in her old notebooks to see all the clothes she designed. I think she probably has a whole book dedicated to it.

Kaitlin, we love you and are so glad that you are part of our family!!!!! We sure do miss having you around all the time!!! But look forward to seeing you at Christmas!

Giveaway!!

2008-11-18T05:16:00.000-08:00

There are 2 great giveaways at chicken scratches. I am especially fond of the book.

Check it out, but please don't comment.

Just kidding...no seriously, I want to get it.

Ok, you can comment too if you want.

on top of the world

2008-11-15T18:02:00.000-08:00

Kaitlin drew an angel for Granny Faulkinbury last time she was here. I have been trying repeatedly to get it on the blog without any success. Finally, I realized the file was too large. Sheesh! It took me long enough to figure out!

She did a great job on her drawing and I wanted to make a copy of it before we sent it off. She has a little angel statue that gave her the inspiration for this drawing. Kaitlin puts a lot of effort into her work to make sure it is just how she wants it.

I love you sweet girl!

a glimpse of our weekend

2008-11-14T18:07:00.000-08:00

My boys.

I slept in a little on Saturday and woke up to find that Daron had got Nathan out of bed and was taking good care of him. How sweet!!!

Kaitlin opening some of her birthday presents.

Playing baseball on the Wii.

And here is our little monkey.

Eli's party

2008-11-13T17:26:00.000-08:00

We had Eli's birthday party last weekend while Kaitlin and Daron were here. I sure am glad they got to be there for it. There was a science theme for the party. We had just the right amount of boys for this. I think if more had come it would have gotten pretty crazy.

First we had a little football toss until all the boys showed up. The boys loved throwing and chasing the ball and tackling each other.

The first experiment of the day was to find out if a black marker was really black or if there were different colors in it.

Inflating balloons with soda and vinegar

Here we are checking to see if a balloon filled with water will burst when there is a fire under it.

A little firework show with milk and food coloring.

The eggs-periment was fun. The kids tried to push the egg into the bottle, but couldn't get it to go in. Abra-cadabra...the egg got sucked in.

Here are some screaming balloons. Thanks goodness we did this outside!

We also had this cornstarch goo that was fun to play with. I think the adults actually enjoyed this more than the kids! Oops, we forgot the picture on this one. This stuff is really interesting. It looks like a liquid, but when you slap it, it turns hard. You can roll it into a ball in your hand, but as soon as you stop rolling it, it melts out of your hand.

Last, but not least we had a mentos geyser.....

me want ice cream

2008-11-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Hmmm, what's this?

Ooooh, that's good.

Hey, wait! Give me more!

(crying) You're not nice! I want more!

Ok, just one more little bite. Let me help you hold it mom.

Oh, oh, I've almost got it...

Sweet! It's all mine!!! I've got her wrapped around my finger.

just how hot are jalepenos?

2008-11-06T14:45:00.000-08:00

Ever since I saw jala-ween poppers I have been craving them. I thought surely I can make these things. Just clean out the peppers add a little filling and cook. And whatever you do, don't touch your mouth or eyes...easy enough.

I do great! I clean out all the peppers so they won't be so hot, wash my hands and start filling them. Since I am the cook I have to do a little taste test to make sure the filling is "safe" for the family. Yum, tastes good, a little hot but not too bad.

Wipe the mouth. Wipe again a minute later because the chopped jalepenos in the cheese are burning my lips. Holy cheese!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm feeling the BURN. I'm not talking breathe in and out and drink some water so it will go away. I mean the skin on my face is melting off! So I go wash my face, but instead of getting better I have somehow spread it further out and up to my nose. And now my hands are burning. This is seriously intense burning people! You can see the red on my face, I know it looks likes I just waxed or something. I would glady take the most painful waxing compared to this.

Just because you wash your hands after cutting jalepenos, does not mean all the oils are off. The oils get under your nails and who knows where else and they don't come off easily. I scrubbed my hands 5-6 times, soaked them in milk, rubbed them with olive oil, rubbed them again, slept with an ice pack (frozen fingers actually felt good) and still they burned for a good day and a half. ouch. Next time I will wear gloves and a face mask...okay, there won't ever be a next time. I'll stick to store bought poppers, thank you very much.

Happy Birthday Eli!!

2008-11-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Eli turned 6 today!!

He is such a big boy and great helper. He loves to play with Nathan and is very protective of him. Eli is always finds ways he can help his little brother. We loves his fun personality, love of family, desire to be good, and his awesome soccer skills. His favorites right now are soccer, Ben10 and Batman, black, silver and neon green, learning to read words, being the little chef.

The day turned out special for Eli with presents

cake

and a Happy Meal (btw, what ever happened to the fun boxes?)

Happy Birthday Eli, we love you!!

Halloween

2008-11-03T11:32:00.001-08:00

The kids had fun this year at the Trunk or Treat. Nathan was a giraffe and Eli was Ben 10. Eli got to be in a parade of costumes. The lady asking him what he was had to keep asking him to repeat it becuase she didn't understand or didn't know what he was. It was funny and went something like this: "Ben10.....BeN10......B.E.N.1.0."

People didn't recognize Eli at first with his black hair. Ben10 actually has dark brown hair, but Eli wanted it black, so black it was.

Isn't he the cutest giraffe you ever saw!

I had to add this one because he looks so good (minus the scratches).

Albert kept trying to take a picture of the boys, but Nathan was more interested in finding out what happened to Eli's hair. (fyi: the hair spray paint is a pain, make sure you cover everything you don't want colored or else there will be a fine color mist everywhere. and cleaning it off is no treat either.)Kaitlin was a vampire bride. So cute...I mean Scary!!

Daron, as the biggest fan, had to be Harry Potter again!! He looks

awesome, but where is the black hair?

I really was a slacker this year. We never did end up buying pumpkins. I was bummed because we love to go pick our own out of the field at some farm. Well here they have to add all the bounce houses and such and charge admission just to walk on the farm. We just want a pumpkin! I really did mean to go get some pumpkins, but never did (bad mommy). I did however make some eyeballs. They look cool, but didn't taste that good, too much tomato paste.

diaper bag

2008-10-25T15:52:00.001-07:00

I made myself a new diaper bag. I am so excited cuz it turned out super cute!!! I don't think I made enough pockets on the inside though. I always end up getting more ideas after I finish sewing something. I think I am finally getting the hang of sewing and feeling pretty comfortable with it. This is one of those things that I wish I had taken the time to learn as a teenager when my mom tried to teach me. Just think of all the cute bags I could have made by now! Here are some pics of my labor.

family pics

2008-10-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

We wanted to get some family pictures while Kaitlin and Daron were here. We ran out of time so we took some in the front yard the night before they left. I think we ended up taking about 150 (thank goodness for cameras that take multiple pictures real fast). At least we got a few where everyone was looking at the camera. I think some turned out pretty good.

Poor Eli couldn't keep his shirt on straight. Nathan kept grabbing it and pulling.

Nathan decided that he didn't like the taste of grass.

I love this one, the way Eli is watching Nathan is so cute! He sure does love his baby brother.

a camping we will go...

2008-10-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Kaitlin and Daron came to stay with us for a week. Yeah! It was great, we had lots of fun and were sad to see them go last night. Now that I have finally washed the last load of camping clothes/blankets that were filling the hall I can post some pictures.

We took Eli out of school on Friday and made our escape to nature. First thing we did was go to a fish hatchery. We were feeding the catfish and they all seemed to be starving. The kids were brave and all rubbed the fish's skin...in case you don't know catfish are really slimy.

Next we went outside to the lake; Daron and Eli found some small fish to look at in the water.

Meanwhile, Kaitlin gets a head start to the other side of the lake.

Daron got the only catch of the day, and within the first 10 minutes! Way to go!!

Later that day we got to our "campsite". This place was crazy. We ended up sleeping in someone's backyard!! It had a great view of the lake though and the kids found a swing that was hooked to the tree really high, so they had fun with that!

Aren't they cute!

THe boys found some bamboo stick and Daron smoothed the ends down with his pocket knife so they could have wands. They spent most of the afternoon running around casting spells on everything and everyone. It was fun to watch.

Kaitlin, in the meantime, decided it would be fun to play with Nathan's hair.

Before we left the town we were in we all stopped by a fall festival. The kids had a great time! They had this trailerbed filled with dirt that had money mixed in. You'd think there were hundred dollar bills in there they way all the kids (not just ours) were digging.

And to end a fall festival on a good note you have to get your hair colored.

Even though we did sleep in a backyard and not out in the woods, it was still a fun trip. One night is all I can handle though. :)

blog giveaways

2008-10-20T07:51:00.000-07:00

Holy smokes! It's a great giveaway at calico.
http://cally-cruze.blogspot.com/2008/10/shes-maniac-its-giveaway.html
The bags are so sweet and I want one! If you leave a comment there don't forget to mention that I sent you, so I will get bonus points.

And a cute jewelry giveaway at http://jillenecox.blogspot.com/2008/10/200-wonderful-amazing-awesome-terrific.html

So hop on over and give it a try! What have you got to lose?

he's walking

2008-10-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

Nathan has been testing the waters a little. It was funny to watch him Saturday during conference. He would stand up and take a step, then sit down. He did this repeatedly throughout the afternoon. Then, of course, as soon as I turn around he takes several steps in a row for Albert. And that night he took about ten steps for me, of course while Albert was gone. So I tried to get a few steps out of him to get a video clip. Thankfully he obliged .

We interrupt this blog...

2008-10-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

URGENT WARNING...Aliens are coming to Earth on Sunday and their mission is to abduct all good looking and sexy people. You will be safe, but I'm just blogging to say goodbye.

Happy Birthday Nathan!!

2008-10-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Today is our baby Nathan's first birthday!! I can hardly believe it is here already.

At his birth Nathan weighed 4lb, 7oz and was 17 3/4" tall.

At one year old he is a hefty 20lbs and 31.5" tall.

Some accomplishments:
sleeps 10 hours at night!!!
has said mama, dada, uh-oh, achoo and all sorts of other things that we can't quite understand yet.
He has taken a step before, quite a few times actually, but decided that was enough and prefers to crawl on his hands and feet like Mowgli in the "Jungle Book."

His favorite thing by far is to take the desk chair and run laps around it... forever. Once in a while he will stand up, probably just to entertain mom, dad, and Eli though more than anything.

He has tried to eat table food, but still prefers the store bought baby food. I guess it's too much work to chew everthing. He likes to play peek-a-boo and sing "eensy weensy spider" and "pat-a-cake". He loves to watch tv especially while he is drinking a bottle. The top picks right now are Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins and Dragontales.
Nathan loves to be outside, be pushed in the stroller, look at the birds, and hear the dogs barking.
Nathan had a great birthday. I gave him a balloon this morning and he played with it all day. He thought this was the best thing ever. And actually, I think he liked it even better than opening presents. I had a hard time keeping him focused on ripping wrapping paper. He either wanted to eat the paper or watch daddy using the camera.

Nathan wasn't too interested in eating the cake. He tried a few bites and then smeared the rest on his tray.

After smearing it all over he decided to share a little of his cake with daddy.

Wordless (not) Wednesday

2008-09-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

I'm still in shock

2008-09-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

I do believe in miracles. I do. I do. It was even more surprising to have one take place under my own roof. Yup, that's right, in my very own house! You see, I got a kiss last night. A kiss you say?

Well this wasn't just any kiss. This one was extra, extra special because it came from my Eli. My dear sweet Eli, who hasn't kissed me since he was 3 and hasn't willingly let me kiss him either. Sure, I steal one now and then and he is very quick to wipe it off and give it back. I might add, he even does this in his sleep. I went in the other night to check on him before I went to bed. As I was covering him he turned over and gave me half a hug. Well since he was sleeping I figured he wouldn't mind if I kissed him on the cheek. He did mind and was once again wiping it off and sending it back.

So back to my original story. He started to whisper a little something about dad and stopped. I asked Daddy about it later and after some persistance he finally told me it was a contest to see who could give mommy the most kisses. This morning I go to wake Eli up and asked if he would give me another kiss but he said no; this was a one time deal. I swore to him that mommies don't have cooties, but he still wouldn't agree.

I've got to enjoy this, it must have taken a whole lot of effort to give me the one kiss that he did.

Now I have to figure out how to not let Eli's habit rub off on Nathan!

My little fisherman

2008-09-27T11:09:00.001-07:00

Like father, like son. Shockingly, Eli likes to fish... go figure! There was a fishing tournament for kids this morning at the lake nearby. Eli decided he wanted to join in on the fun. A couple days ago he took his pole to the front yard and practiced his casting. Watch out on his right side! He tends to swing his pole like a bat and send the bait off to the right (so don't stand over there). Fishing lasted for a few hours this morning and Eli caught 22 fish. He got 3rd place!! He is pretty excited to have a new trophy! He also got some rubber bait and hooks, free meal at IHOP and an ice cream cone at DQ. Congrats Eli!!!

And to top it off, he caught a bull frog and carried it all over the place. Lucky him!! (ugh)

Happy Birthday!

2008-09-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to a wonderful dad and husband! We love you so much!!!! We are grateful for all you do! Now get out of here and enjoy an afternoon of fishing!

Nathan's got his first

2008-09-16T11:06:00.000-07:00

haircut yesterday. I really loved all the curls, but it was getting so thin on the ends and needed a trim. Isn't he adorable in this picture!!

He really did an amazing job sitting there and let me cut. Finally after about 5 minutes he looks up with a puzzled expression like, "What are you doing mom?? Where did you come from?" This was due to the amazing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. He loves this show! So I was literally in the middle of the haircut before he realized what was going on. And even after he did look at me for a second and a half he couldn't help but turn back to the singing and dancing on the tv.

Look how long his hair was beforehand.

And how cute he looks afterward. I couldn't get him to look at me. He loves the camera and usually won't let me take good pictures if he sees me. This time he was pretty interested in the dangling lense cover.

What a handsome guy!!

Am I clean Yet?

2008-09-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

I went to check on Nathan after he fell asleep this afternoon and this is what I found...

Hilarious! This kid can reach anything now! He's into everything, I just have to laugh sometimes, actually a lot of times. So I am trying to clean this mess up without waking Nate since he had a rough night and needed some sleep. I get all the wipes and try to get a towel under him since I obviously can't change the sheets until later. As I am lifting his legs I find a huge wad of more wipes stuffed under his tummy and between his legs. Oh, I bet that was SO comfy! Cold wet wipes on the legs and belly.

Art

2008-09-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

I am an artist! lol. I wish. I just did up a painting to hang in Kaitlin's room. Isn't it cute?!! I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself!

The funny thing is what Albert thought. I started working on this about two weeks ago and finished a few days later when Kaitlin was here. I told Albert that I had bought these canvases to do something for the dining room, which was my initial intention. Well the design I had thought of doing wasn't working out on paper, so I had an idea for Kaitlin's room. I guess I never told Albert. So the whole time he is thinking this thing is going in our dining room. Being the wonderful man that he is and not wanting to upset me, he never said a word! A few days ago, he mentions in passing that this is what he had been thinking...although he still never said he would rather die than have to look at this pink beast everyday. He just smiled and agreed that it goes good in Kaitlin's room.

a funny thing happened...

2008-09-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

I copied this from Kaitlin's Goodwin family blog, thought it was too funny not to share!

Okay, so everyone was up getting ready for school and Miss Kaitlin has to be prodded out of bed much like every morning. She, the most of all of our kids and truly her Father's daughter, LOVES her sleep and much is required!!! She has to get up and this makes her extra sad this day. She is up now and looking for the jeans she wants to wear and realizes they are in the dirty clothes. This makes her sad. I try to help her pick a different outfit and nothing is as good. This makes her sad. I ask her to do her hair and this makes her sad. Her Dad in his funny way, trying to get her to laugh, helps her do her hair (which was hilarious by the way) and this makes her sad. My point, is that EVERYTHING made her sad that day and this is not true Kaitlin form. She is always so happy and bubbly. She will be 12 in November and we all know what that means!!! She's just getting a little more emotional than usual and growing up.
So anyway, I tell Kevin we need to send her back to bed for a "mental health" day off from school because she was just not herself! It was 7:30am and back to her cozy bed she went. Of, course, there was no fight on her end about getting to dive back in! She must have been tired even though they are in bed by 8:30pm every night, because she slept until 11:30am.
While she was sleeping Lauren kept going into her room and I did not want her to get woken up before she was good and ready as I didn't want a replay of the morning, so I turned the door lock on the inside side of her door to be locked so Lauren couldn't get in. About 12noon I get a phone call from Kaitlins cell phone . I answer and she asks if she can come out of her room. I said of course, and she told me that she was locked in. I laughed hysterically because all she had to do was turn the lock and come out. She thought I had locked her in there because she threw such a fit that whole morning. I asked her have I ever locked you in your room??? NO!!! I got a good laugh out of it and we moved on to lunch.
I made her her favorite lunch which is tuna salad on crackers and some nectarines. It was yummy and fun to have lunch together just me, her and Lauren.
Then, I was walking by my purse and heard my cell phone beeping. I picked it up and had 4 missed text messages. I looked at the messages and they were hilarious. They went something like this...
11:25am I am hungry! Can I come out or is this a punishment where I am not aloud to leave my room because my head hurts! S.O.S.! Starving! Me! Starving!
11:30am Oh great now my stomach hurts!!!!!!
11:34am I am sooooooo sorry for my rude behavior today. I really should be more considerate of others. And, I promise I will be more respectful of others. I feel soooooo bad!
11:38am I have been awake for an hour!
Then, she called my house phone from her cell phone in her bedroom to ask me to "unlock" the door so she could come out!!! HILARIOUS!!! We all Laughed for quite awhile about this at the dinner table that night. Kaitlin included. All she needed was a little more sleep that day and she was good as new. We all have days like that and our kids are no different and I guess we need to remember that as parents!!! We ALL need a day off once in awhile or five minutes to yell and get it out of our system or a day to cry...but as long as you can laugh about it later it's all good!!!!!

calling all YUMMY recipes

2008-09-08T14:16:00.001-07:00

I need some new ideas for meals. I guess it's a summer thing, but I am getting tired of eating the same old stuff. I am really having a hard time eating meat lately, even chicken which I love. I think it's just because of the heat though. I am looking for vegetarian dishes, especially ones with beans in them. You can email them to me (ac_faulkinbury@hotmail.com) or post, whichever you want. Thanks!

Girls Night Out

2008-09-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

I got to hang out with Albert's Aunt Carolyn and the cousins. We had such a great time!! It does a mommy good to get out once in a while and have adult conversations w/o the kiddos.

Thanks girls for a fun night!!
L-R: Sherrie, me, Carolyn, Carrie, Chasity, Paula

no sourdough for you

2008-09-07T16:04:00.000-07:00

So I was prepared to show you a beautiful loaf of sourdough bread that I made today. Well it didn't go exactly as planned. A few weeks ago I went to the church for a demonstration on how to make sourdough bread and got a starter to take home. I fed the starter as I was supposed to and decided yesterday I finally had time to make it. (I don't have a mixer, this has to be done by hand and takes a while, so I have been putting it off) I started on Friday, thinking we could have it that night. As it was rising...or not rising, I remembered the guy saying it could take a day or so to double. I thought I would be smart and put it in the garage since it is warmer out there. I left it out on the deep freeze and figured that would do the trick. A few hours later I check on it...nothing, no rise, still the same as when I left it. Hmmm, what's up with that? Maybe I didn't do it right (wouldn't be a big shock afterall). As I put my hand on the freezer to get the bowl I realized it was cool to the touch. Well, duh! it's a freezer! So I move it to the laundry room and switch loads so I can start the dryer. It seems to help a little. Finally by the next evening it has doubled. It was too late by this point to bake the bread, so it will have to wait til Sunday after church.

As I am reading the rest of the directions, I realize I have to knead it a few more times and let it rise AGAIN to double! This is killing me! So I put it in the bread pans and cover it with plastic wrap. Then, a brilliant idea hits me! I will put it in the oven and heat it just a bit to get this moving along. I explain what I am doing to Albert and a few minutes later I am heading off to take a nap. Just as I am getting really comfortable in my bed I jump up with a start. I forgot to turn off the oven!! So I run out to the kitchen, luckily Albert already realized what had happened and pulled the pans out. But sadly the bread is ruined by the melted plastic wrap. :( I am done with sourdough, it is just too much work. There will never be homemade sourdough bread in this house.

Ride the Bronc!

2008-09-07T15:39:00.000-07:00

While we were at the cowgirl museum the boys got to ride a bronc that you had to rock yourself. There was a green screen behind it and they put you on an old movie. The boys thought this was great. Daron had the wildest bronc you ever saw. And Eli almost did thanks to Daron (he's such a good big brother).

Kaitlin and Daron visit!

2008-09-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

We were so excited for Kaitlin and Daron to visit us this last weekend. They have been busy in school for the last month and I'm sure it was nice to get a break. They actually get at least a 3 day weekend every month. We had a lot of fun with them here. We all went to pick up Eli after school, so K/D were able to say hi to old friends and teachers.

We went to the Science and History Museum and cowgirl museum in Fort Worth. I have to say we got really spoiled in Indiana with the Children's Museum there. It was AMAZING and now nothing really compares and we tend to get bored quickly. At any rate, there were a few fun things for the kids. They made these little paper things and taped them on to a paper cup, then put them over a powerful fan and they flew up in the air, spinning around. The boys really had fun with this.

Kaitlin was too old for this, so she entertained Nathan. They both seemed to like watching the paper things fly. Then she found some blocks to play with.

(isn't she growing up so fast? And so beautiful!!!!)

The boys went fishing Saturday morning while Kaitlin, Nathan, and I hung out and did our nails. Well, Nathan slept while we did our nails and watched a movie. And Monday we had some cousins over for a barbeque. The kids all had fun playing together! The weekend was great! And we are looking forward to the next time they get to visit.

We love and miss you Kaitlin and Daron!

Eli starts kindergarten!!

2008-08-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

Eli was so excited for school! He was up early and ready quickly so he wouldn't be late. Albert went in to work late so we could both walk him to school. He really wanted to have a Ben 10 backpack, but by the time we started looking for it, everywhere was sold out. :( So he ended up with his old pirate backpack and had to wear the shirt to match.

Here he is putting his stuff into his cubby.

So up to this point he is still really excited for his first day to start. Then he walks over to his desk and starts to freak out a little. He gives me this look that says, "help mom, get me out of here." So I go sit by him at his desk. He starts crying and has a death grip on my shirt. After a few minutes I tell him that daddy needs a turn to say goodbye, so he finally lets go of my shirt and I take off to the hall. I think I ended up doing more harm than good by being there. We went to check on him a few minutes later and he wasn't crying anymore. By the end of the day, he thought it was great. Here is a picture of him not so happy about us leaving him in this classroom AND sitting by a girl for heaven's sake!!

stuff...

2008-08-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

It seems that I have been slacking on my blog lately. Kaitlin and Daron started school a few weeks ago. They are going to stay with their dad during the school year. They both are excited to have friends in their classes and meet new ones. They are a bit behind in some subjects, so they are having to work a little extra to catch up. I guess Ben Franklin schools teach a little ahead of public schools. I know they will catch up quick, becuase they are pretty bright kids. Both kids just started their own blog, so if you haven't already been invited to read it and would like to, let me know.

Eli is SOOOOO excited for school to start tomorrow. He was just bouncing off the walls tonight. I asked if he was going to be able to sleep and he said no. Luckily we put him down a little early, he did eventually fall asleep though. I can't believe he is starting kindergarten!!! Where does the time go? At least I will have little Nate to keep me company. It will definitely be weird not having Eli around all the time and have Kaitlin and Daron not here!!! We should be able to see them once a month or so. That will be good!

Nathan is getting too close to walking!!! He is balancing better everyday. A couple of days ago he let go of a chair to step over to grab on to his toy. I am not ready for this. I really do try to put walking off as long as possible. Albert tells me I am hindering his development. What I am hindering though is a bogger mess than I already have! I can't keep up with him as it is. Oh well. It will be fun to see him walk soon.

Not much else is going on here. Although I did just make aprons for me and Eli. He was excited to be the chef yesterday and said he also wants a hat to make it official. I'll try to get pics posted soon.

Time flies....

2008-08-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

I guess we have been pretty busy entertaining ourselves since our trip to AZ. I really haven't given blogging a second thought (gasp!!). Don't freak out on me now, I have been reading your blogs and posting comments here an there, just not doing much with mine. So here are a few pics of things going on here in Cleburne.

Nathan discovered how to open cabinet doors. He found a pan and decided he liked how is sounded bangin on the floor, so we got to listen to his performance for the next 30 minutes. Amazing the don't get annoyed with the sound after a while!! He is finally figuring out that he can voice his opinion when he gets mad. I had him put the pan down so he could eat, you'd think he was getting hurt the way he carried on! So after dinner, he proceeded to pull out all the tupperware, then moved on to the next door and pulled out everything that caught his attention.

Moving on...Eli got a snorkeling kit and decided it would be fun to try it out in the bathtub. (don't worry, there are no nudie pictures)

Nate decided to start playing the guitar. You gotta start early on these things. (sorry for the blurriness, I'm not the picture taker of the family)

And today the boys made a fort under the table. I think Nate must have smacked his head on something, there is a big red spot on his forehead. Thank goodness for hard heads.

Eli starts school in 16 days (and counting down). He is pretty excited and so I am. I am excited for him, but I think I will miss him once he is actually in school. It's pretty much been me and him for the past 4 years. At least I will have Nate to entertain me!!

more pics...

2008-07-20T17:01:00.001-07:00

Here is our family picture. Since Kaitlin and Daron couldn't be there we are going to photo shop them in. Hopefully it turns out good.

This is all of my family.

and the grandkids

mom and the girls

mom and the guys

dad and the girls

a goofy family pic

this is Nate's new cheesy grin, so funny!

me and Nate

Family reunion

2008-07-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

We just got back a few days ago from AZ. We were able to stay for 2 1/2 weeks and had a great time there! I decided to stay away from blogging and email so I could focus on enjoying family time. For the first few days we had a reunion for my dad's side of the family at my parent's house. It was great to meet some relatives I hadn't met before.

Eli got to ride on a horse for the first time!!

I went rapelling! I actually wasn't going to go, even though I really wanted to because I didn't have any tennis shoes. Thanks Joe for letting me borrow your stinky shoes. :) I went the usual way backwards. My sis Deanna and my brother-in-law Joe did something they call Spiderman, where they go down backwards, then flip upside down and turn to face the wall, then they climb down- like Spiderman. Then my brother Mark took his boy behind him so Markie was actually just hanging there...he's such a brave kid!!

A couple days after the reunion, we got to have Kaitlin and Daron with us for a week. All the kids had a great time with their cousins!! K/D got to ride the horse.

The grandkids, grandma and grandpa worked on building a playhouse. They didn't get all the way finished, but they had fun in the meantime!

Our garden

2008-06-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

I am glad for summer to be here so we can have a garden. We have been growing cucumbers, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, and bell peppers.

The zucchini and squash are growing good...too good. I have about 6 large zucchini sitting on my counter and I have to figure out what to do with them.

One of our tomato plants isn't doing so good, not really sure what happened. It was the first to start growing and blossoming, now it seems to be dying. So sad. Hopefully the others end up producing some tomatoes for us.

We have a couple bell peppers that are starting to grow. I am so excited to have our plant growing; last year it didn't turn out. The bigger pepper is about the size of a raquetball. We love bell peppers! I can't wait to taste them.

adventurous little guy

2008-06-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

Nathan seems to be getting around so well lately. He thinks he can do it all now that he is learning to be more mobile.

leads to...

We got the picture of the banged up eye is the next day, it looked better by then. Of course he has to do this right before church so he shows up with a swollen eye, poor guy!

I'm still not quite sure what is so interesting in the walker. We found him stuck in the walker head first crying for someone to help him. After that he wanted to do it again, maybe he likes the head rush you get when you are upside down.

We try to keep all the doors shut so Nathan won't get into anything he's not supposed to. I swear that kid has a radar! As soon as a door opens (the bathroom especially!) he's off. I was in Eli's room the other day and Nathan started coming down the hall. I had to go to the other room for a minute, by the time I got back I found him on top of the box. He was so excited.

Here is a picture of Nathan's teeth. Kinda hard to see, but it was the best I could do. He now has 7 teeth. 5 of them all came at once...not the funnest thing to go through. He had a rough 2 1/2 weeks! At least it's over for now.

Eli learned real quick not to put your fingers in a baby's mouth when he has teeth.

Sunrise

2008-06-25T16:55:00.001-07:00

What if...

2008-06-25T05:26:00.001-07:00

"Mom, what if there was no internet or email (like when I was growing up? gasp. How did we ever survive!?) or cell phones or computer or tv?"
"Well Eli, what do you think would happen?"
"We would have to use hockey tockies (walkie talkies) to talk to each other."

Kids are so hilarious! I love to talk to them and hear all the creative thoughts they have. Eli has a rough time for a few weeks after Kaitlin and Daron leave to Arizona for the summer, but after he starts getting used to it his imagination runs wild. He always has some new pretend game to play. I really do try to get involved, but there seems to be a lack of creative juices flowing in me. Eli is detemined to fix that or at least die trying.

Confessions of a mommy

2008-06-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

We were so good with Eli, never let him watch tv for the longest time. Then Nathan comes and all that seemed to go out the window. Albert ended up buying a huge box of Baby Einstein dvds. Thus started the excitement in the wonderful world of tv land. I really didn't plunge into this too quickly, every now and then I might put a show on so I could shower or something equally important. Nathan's new favorite show now is Dragon Tales. As soon as he hears the song starting he get so excited, starts kicking around, and his eyes light up. It is sooo cute! He does the same thing when the caterpillar walks across the screen on the baby Einstein movies.

So now I end up putting Dragon Tales on so I can eat dinner without baby interruptions. Bad? Oh, well. I get to eat a freshly prepared meal now.

I'm no where near a good photographer, so hopefully this picture will suffice.

my little piano player

2008-06-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

The other day I set Nathan in his walker in the middle of the living room so I could get some stuff done. A little while later I hear the piano playing and assume it is Eli, until he walks into the kitchen. I start to freak out a little, because Eli says Nathan is playing. Well, how in the world is Nathan playing the piano??? Did Eli take him out of the walker and sit him in the chair? So I run in there and find that he has pushed his walker backwards to the piano. (pause- he's safe, stop the heart from thumping out of my chest) Nathan ended up turning around and reaching the keys to play; I didn't even think he was tall enough to do that! Do we have a future musician in our family?

Jellies

2008-06-09T10:15:00.000-07:00

Do you remember jellies? I was in Target this morning and ran across them. They were popular at some point in elementary school, can't remember when though. I used to love these shoes. It makes me feel a little old thinking they are coming back.
My favorite thing that I have seen back in stores is this toy that I can't remember the name. It has a ball and a plastic disc in the middle that you jump on. Those were so much fun. What is your favorite thing from childhood that has come back?