Spring Break 2012

With Mike and his schedule in the spring with mowing starting, we can't really go very far for Spring Break. This year we decided to do something a little different.

Monday: PJ/Movie day. Yep, we stayed in our pajamas all day and took turns picking movies, ate popcorn and just relaxed.

Tuesday: Water day. The temperatures were quite warm ... upper 80's, perfect day to play outside with the kiddie pool, sprinkler and water guns.

Wednesday: Wii day. I let the kids take turns picking and playing games the first half of the day and then I let them play outside for the 2nd half. Our neighbor's kids ended up coming over to play and then my kids ended up following them to their house.

Thursday: Farm day. Mike took the day off of work and he did his mowing on Tuesday and Wednesday so we could have the rest of the week to play. We made arrangements with my brother and his family to meet up at our "Uncle" Lee's farm and the kids run and play with all the animals. We surprised Constance when Maddie came too -- they are best friends since they met when they were 2 and they haven't been able to spend much time together. Constance and Maddie extended their time together by spending the night together with my brother and his family.

Friday: Friend day. Constance spent most of the day with Maddie at my Brother's house, the boys went to a friends house and spent several hours playing there. Mike and I went and spent some time with some really good friends. After we picked our kids up we went to a friend's house to grill and play some more.
Saturday: Much to the disappointment of my children, today has ended up being shopping day and clean up day. When you play all week, you have to take some time to getting things done at home.

Here are pictures from our day at the farm.

Dominic attempting to catch the baby goats

Dominic is sad because he can't catch the baby goats

One of the other kids were kind enough to catch and goat for Dominic to hold.

Love the smile on Jordan's face


Constance and Maddie catching up.

Bumblebees and Flowers

I have discovered Jordan is not to keen on bugs. We were outside playing and he started running and screaming when a bumblebee started flying around him. I told him he really didn't have anything to worry about, if he left the bumblebees alone they would leave him alone.

When I told him that bumblebees like flowers, he quickly told me he was a flower. How else would you explain them flying around you?

On the other hand the boys have been excited to see the bees. Every time they see one they tell me "the bees are making honey". I tried to explain the bees make the honey in their hive and they told me they needed to have a beehive.
For some reason I don't think that would be a good thing.

It's Springtime

According to the Calendar it isn't official yet, but you wouldn't think that if you looked out the window.

We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and start to get some yard work done. Of course, our kids are always ready, willing and able to help.

Jordan and Dominic helping load mulch into the wheelbarrow. They are all such hard workers. They stuck to it all the way to the end.

Constance is such a good example to her little brothers -- it may not get done as quick as you would like or it might not even be as neat, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

We have had a very mild winter in Tennessee this year.
As we have inched closer to Spring we have been having some rough weather. On the day I took this picture we had just had some really heavy rain, winds and hail move through. When everything had calmed down, I looked out the window, and the sky was this beautiful orange. I just couldn't resist taking a picture.

National Elementary Honor Society

Constance became a member of the National Elementary Honor Society. She was so excited about it. Here are some pictures of the ceremony.
Constance with her 4th Grade Teacher, Mrs. Pierce

The Smyrna Police Chief was the guest speaker. He did a great job.

Between the 4th and 5th grades their were only 11-12 kids inducted into the NEHS. We are so proud of our little girl and this accomplishment.

June -- 2011

They do say laughter is the best medicine.

Jordan passed gas and he looked at me and asked "Why am I doing that? Am I sick?" No baby, your not sick.

Jordan bit his cheek -- next thing I know he comes in with a band aid in hand and wants me to put in on it. I had a hard time trying to get him to understand why the band aid wouldn't stick on the inside of his mouth.

Dominic dropped his gum on the floor in church. I wrapped it in paper and told him it was "yucky". He then tried to figure out why the pencils that dropped on the floor weren't "yucky" too.

While wrestling with his Uncle and being stuck, I hear Jordan yell "Oh Toodle". Evidently he always come when Mickey calls him and helps Mickey out so why wouldn't he come to Jordan's aid too?

Jordan tried to look down Grandma's shirt. When she told him no she was trying to be modest, He informed her that he didn't have any of those, only big girls do. (this from a 4 year old).


Other times all you can do is just shake your head:

Dominic licking me and when I tell him we don't lick people, he tells me he is a dog.

For whatever reason Jordan decided to pee in the tub instead of using the toilet that was just a foot away.

My boys decided to decorate their bathroom with baby powder -- all over.

One Sunday Morning Jordan informed us "I'm sick. I need to stay home from church."

One day I go to the bathroom because I hear Jordan yelling for me and find him with his pants and big boys around his ankles and poop on the floor.

Another day Dominic had taken his diaper off and then pulled his pants up before I could get another diaper on -- I find this out after he peed his pants.

Jordan managed to get himself stuck between the closet doors and couldn't get out.

The boys had a big Fire Truck they broke in half -- they just couldn't understand why it couldn't be fixed.

Dominic has decided it would be a good idea to try and step on bees. So far no stings. Thankfully he has missed them and they have missed him.

On a shopping trip to Publix I had to carry both my boys out after Dominic (who was holding his sister's hand) decided to lay in the middle of the floor. Jordan then decided he would load anything and everything in the cart. On the way out, Jordan started yelling for grandma. I informed him that "grandma can't help you." and took them to the van.

Our house has gone through extremes this month. One day I was freezing and discovered the thermostat was set on 50. Another day our house was really warm and I found the bathroom stool by the thermostat and the temperature was set on 90. Thank you Jordan.

I needed to get some shopping done and wasn't wanting to fight the boys to do it. My mom said I could bring them over. Jordan told me "But Mommy, you will miss me." I told him "yes baby I will, but I am going grocery shopping without you and I will be back to get you."

Then there are times that make you so proud:
We made a day trip to Alabama to takes cousins home. My brother, Leif was working on things outside and Jordan decided he was going to help. He grabbed a shovel, rake, or a broom, whatever was available and went to work. His little head was sweating. I asked him why he had water on his head. He told me "Because I'm working Mom." I attempted to have him go inside once for a break and to cool off. He threw the biggest fit because he wanted to work.

Mike's truck engine blew. Evidently there's a problem with 2004-2007 Dodge Hemis. The engines blow between 120-140k miles. Mike's truck is at 135k. Initially it was going to cost $4500 to fix it, but they came back with $3000 for everything. When Constance heard us talking about it, she handed us her wallet and told us we could have her money to put towards fixing the truck.

Lesson Learned -- by me!

Back in June:
We switched the boys door lock around earlier to keep them from locking us and each other out. Evidently I need to make sure there is a way to unlock the door from the inside. This was a lesson learned the hard way.

My nephew had spent the night and we were trying to get everyone dressed and ready so I could take him to my mother's house. Both Constance and Noah were ready and waiting on me to get the boys dressed, so they came in the boys room to wait. I was trying to get Dominic's shoes on when Jordan decided to be funny, lock the door and then shut it. Yep, all of us were locked in the boys room.

Mike was at the Fire Department -- he had just gone in that morning. Constance told me I should call Daddy -- that would have been a great idea except my cell phone was in the kitchen on the table. I looked out the window to see if I could get my neighbors attention to have them call Mike -- but no one was home. I was hoping my mom would get tired of waiting for us and come and get Noah (she has a house key) -- of course I found out later that my dad actually had our house key with him out at their farm.

The entire time we are trying to figure out what we are going to do -- Jordan is smiling and thinking he is pretty clever. I pointed out to him that we would see how clever he still thought he was if we were still stuck at lunch time when I couldn't get him anything to eat and when he had to go to the bathroom.

I learned real quick how utterly useless plastic toys are on hinges as well as flip flops and tennis shoes. Thankfully we had a can in the boys room under the bed and were able to use it to pop the hinges off the boys door and make our escape.
Needless to say, we now make sure there is a "key" inside the boys bedroom so we can unlock the door if this ever happens again.