The baby's gender

So, we went to the doctor today to see what the sex of the baby was. Of course, we also wanted to know if all the organs were working and make sure the baby is healthy. Well, the baby is definitely....healthy. No need to worry there. So then Eric and I were patiently awaiting finding out the sex of the baby. I was excited because I was planning on going out and buying a new outfit for the baby regardless if it was a boy or a girl. Poor Eric didn't know that, so after my doctor's appointment we stopped for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and then I wanted to do some shopping for the baby, but we didn't have time. Then we had an 11:00 appointment at Loveland Baptist Schools to look at enrolling the older boys into the school next fall. I'm not too sure what I thought about it, but I really want them in school especially with 3 young kids at home together. It's basically a one-room schoolhouse. Yes, believe it or not, they still have those obviously. There's only about 30 kids in the school, and they do paces. So basically it's someone else homeschooling our children. So I don't know. I have mixed emotions about it. I want them in a classroom setting with kids their own age, but I'm not thrilled about the whole pace thing.But I just think that it would be difficult to homeschool with the three younger kids even if one of them will be 4 years old. Jakeb's going to be four years old in July. Can you believe it? I know that I definitely can't believe it.
Well, now we're home, and we told the boys what we were having. Oh my word, I still haven't told all of you, have I? I'm so mean, huh??? Well, watch this video of Eric telling the boys, and you'll find out. If you can't get the video to upload, don't worry...I'll post more about it tomorrow. After all, I'm going to buy a new outfit for the baby still.

Blue or Pink?

Well, in less than 24 hours, we will know if we're having a Boy or Girl, blue or pink. I'm pretty excited. I'm good with a boy because I've "been there, done that." But I'm also good with a girl because, well...it's something new, and well....it would be fun. However, Eric is positive that it's a boy because he doesn't think that God would give him a girl because he doesn't think that he could handle it. And, now...how many of you know that God will give you what you think you can't handle because He knows that you can handle it. All the boys want another brother because they're not thrilled with the idea of pink entering our household. (They are all boys.)
So here's what I thought would be kinda cool. I'd like to take a poll, and see what the majority of people think. Do you think we're having a boy or a girl? Leave a comment, and we'll see tomorrow who's right and who's incorrect. (Did I mention that I'm carrying the baby higher?? And that I haven't been as sick as the other pregnancies??? So who knows??)

more craziness w/ blankets

First of all, I wanted to clarify that while most of us would simply call this a pile of blankets, it's not. In fact, how could you even think that is was a pile of blankets. It is so obviously a hmm...birthday cake. And such is the imagination of a 5 year old boy named Luke and a 3 year old boy named Jakeb. It's a birthday cake. So, I'm assuming Jakeb just popped out of the birthday cake for these pictures that he called me in there to take???

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Then they decided to move all the blankets, once more, to the bed. It had to be done a certain way with none hanging out or anything. Once this was done, they were able to perform for us. Enjoy! Even Blake got in one of them, and performed his funny walk that he got from an episode of Curious George.

Reading

My kids can READ, and if you ask me; they can read well! Of course, I'm a little biased, but...seriously they both read well. Of course, one reads a little better than the other; but that's just because one doesn't care as much about reading. He's a little lazy, but in the past month even his reading has improved greatly. I remember starting phonics last year, and I hated it. I never thought they would understand, but eventually over time, they both caught on and started to form words and read them just fine. Now they are both reading at a first grade level, and that makes me very proud of them.
This is probably the only part of homeschooling that I slightly enjoy. I feel pretty privileged that I was the one that taught them to read. To me, it feels like a major accomplishment, and I just wanted to blog about it in case I ever forgot that teaching my kids to read was one reason that I could find that I like homeschooling.
I also hope that one day they love to read as much as I do!

chair + Kaleb = Happy Kid

This was Kaleb today during Sesame Street. Someone had decided to put a chair in the middle of the living room, and Kaleb was thoroughly enjoying sitting in the chair. He then, got to dancing with the music, playing peek-a-boo, and all other sorts of stuff.

Another where's Waldo....

Jakeb's latest fascination is blankets....lots of them. He did have all of these piled on his little car toddler bed leaving absolutely no one to get on the bed. He told me that he planned to sleep right on top or them, and he was quite disappointed when I told him that he couldn't.
Now, every chance he gets..he'll sneak into his brothers' room, and quickly grab their blankets off their beds, and then he'll rush back into his room with all of them. And then he either gets under them or over them. Pretty cute, huh?

Girls Afternoon Out

I can't believe I forgot to take some pictures this afternoon on our girl's afternoon out! Oh well! It started out at Uno's at 12:30 where they have this awesome Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla. Yum! I ordered Dr. Pepper, and they brought me Diet Pepsi. Now, while I don't really like Diet Pepsi, I despise Root Beer ten times more, and had they brought me that like that did one time before when I was there, I would have been mad. So no big deal. We made a joke out of it to the waitress telling her about the whole Root Beer story from before....blah, blah, blah. We were on our way out, and I ask for a drink to go, and guess what that little waitress brought me....go ahead, guess.....Yep!! she brought me the cursed drink of ROOT BEER!! Blech!! I think she did it on purpose. I, of course, didn't take a sip until I was out in the car, and by then it was too late. My friends wanted me to go back in and let her know, but I tried to have the good "Christian" attitude about it. ( I had even left her a good tip. Maybe she was having a bad day.)

Anyways, we continued GAO over at the Rave theater and watched CATCH AND RELEASE with Jennifer Garner. (I love Jennifer Garner!) It was absolutely adorable. I gave it a B-.
After the movie, we did a little shopping. I got a jean skirt at Motherhood maternity. (Thanks, Niki, for the gift card!) And then we went back to...shh...don't tell Eric...Meijer. Just kidding he knows. I had some stuff to return.
And well that was the end of our girl's afternoon out this time. Here's a picture from one of the last time that we went out all together. Talk about good times!

The first picture was taken outside of P.F. Chang's, and the second picture is taken in Red Robin where we normally always go eat, but we were all so sick of it lately.

And the Rockets score....

Blake had another game this morning. (Did I ever mention that his team name was the Rockets. Hence the reason for the title....) It started at 9:00...needless to say, we got there a little late which was not my fault. I would love to blame it on the fact that we had a late night last night partying on with some new friends, Gail and Lisa Terrell. (Seriously, how can 4 adults party on with five children 6 and under? So, we obviously didn't party on, but it was a good time. Kaleb loved playing with their 10 month old son, Nolan. Once he fell, and Kaleb was trying to help him up. He was playing the mother hen. Absolutely adorable. Not to mention that Luke roped poor Gail into playing games with him. I'm just glad that Lisa and I ended up beating the guys later that night in Rummikub!!! Girls Rule! Thanks for coming over guys!) Anyways, I'd love to blame it on the fact that we slept in because of the late night, but nope wasn't the reason. We were up at 8:00. Well, 5 out of 6 of us were. I'm not even sure why we were late,but we were. Why am I rambling on about being late? I don't really know, so I'll shift back to the original topic of this post - Basketball.

So, Blake had his game, and he actually got the ball a few time. He was able to pass the ball to someone else, and he actually dribbled it down the court once. And during half time, he shot it twice, and almost made it. I was so proud! He's awfully cute out there running around, not knowing what to do or where to go.

Blake's President book

He's been wanting one forever! When his T-Rex sent him some money, he decided to order a President's book with his money. How could I say no when it was for something educational. He's been enjoying ever since he got it yesterday. (I've been enjoying it too.) For instance, how many Presidents have been assinated? How many President memorial's are there in Washington D.C.? Which president was the only President to have a child die while he was in office? Which President was the first President to have a child be born in office? I'm filled with all of this President trivia now! (Leave a comment, and see how smart you are about Presidents. Questions will be answered in my comment section sometime tomorrow in case you're interested. Great, now I've turned into a complete President dork.)

New Stuff

Okay, most of you all know that I have been on a spending freeze as far as scrapbooking supplies go. The last time I bought something scrapbooking wise was back in September when I was in Gatlinburg. I almost lasted until February which is something you should all note, but tonight I went to Meijer and they were having a huge clearance with their scrapbooking stuff. I got those huge packs of paper for $7.49, rub-ons for $3.89, and everything else for less than $2 each. The one pack of paper is all Christmas paper. Hoo-rah!

Meijer was also having a huge clearance sale on clothes too. They were having 50% off their regular prices with an additional 50% off the clearance price. And would you believe that God must have actually wanted me in that store tonight because they had maternity jeans in my size for $10 plus the additional 50% off, so I got them for $5!!!!! Then they had maternity tops too. I don't think I paid over $6 for any item that I bought. I got some new shoes to replace my brown shoes that have huge holes in them. I also got Jakeb a new winter jacket for $12.50. He needed one because his zipper was broken. And I got Luke some new shirts too because he so desperately needed some new shirts because all of his are too small! And everything I bought was on clearance. I didn't get home till about midnight, but it was so worth it. Shopping without kids? The only way to go. I didn't even know how to act. I kept babbling to the register clerk. She probably thought I was senile. Now I just have to pray that Eric doesn't kill me when he gets the credit card bill! At least it was all on clearance!

Snow pics for all of my "lucky" Floridian friends

Okay, so I'm from Florida. I'm still trying to talk Eric into moving back. I'm a southern girl all the way...at least weather wise. Give me sunny weather any day. I'd rather have a warm Christmas than a white Christmas in a heartbeat. It was funny we were out to eat on Sunday (our first big snow day) with our friends Roy and Terani who are from Michigan. Eric and them were talking about how they wished that we had more snow. I was like, what in the world? I'm quite content with the warmer weather than freezing cold weather. I hate having to wear a jacket. I hate freezing for about 5 minutes in the car until the heater gets warmed up, and then you start to sweat to death because then it's like a sauna in your car because you have your big jacket on. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to complain about the snow. I think the snow is beautiful, and there's a lot of fun things to do in the snow like snowmen, snow angels, snow ball fights, and all that stuff. But, if I had the chance to choose, I would choose 80 degree weather anyday. Of course, my hair does much better in the Florida weather too!

(These pictures are taken in my backyard. Note that in at least one of them you see some left over empty firework barrel thingys sticky out of the ground. I'm assuming this will be our new decor until July 3rd.)

My Frog and Tiger

The boys got these towels for Christmas. After they spent close to an hour in the tub, they got out, and let me take some pictures of them in the towels. They're pretty cute, huh?

Go Diego Go!!!

Luke's T-Rex, which is what they call Eric's dad, sent Luke a word book and some money to go with it. He bought the Go Diego Go playset with his own money. (Yeah, I know....like we need another toy in the house.) It's basically a boy version of Dora the Explorer. These are normally $40, but we found it on Amazon.com. for only $20 which is exactly how much he had to spend. He was pretty excited, and he's been looking for it in the mail every day. Well, today it came, and while he was cleaning the bathroom (his chore for the week) I put the thing together. I think he really enjoyed playing with it. What's funny is his favorite part was when we had the animals play "hide-and-seek" and we actually hid the animals and the other person had to find them. He loves stuff like that. Well, when the younger boys woke up from their naps they jumped on the playset too. Kaleb loved to dance to the music that it played.


I predict the helicpoter is going to hit him in the head one of these days!! It's not gonna be pretty when that happens.

Morning Coffee

This is sad, but true. I like coffee. I'm officially old enough to thoroughly enjoy coffee. I never though that I would be that "old," but I am. This past year, I've been telling everyone that all I really wanted a Starbucks coffee cup. I mean, seriously, there is something very cool about having a Starbucks mug, but I am much too cheap to buy one! For my birthday, my good friend Terani bought me the cool pink one. And for Christmas my good husband bought me the silver one which keeps the coffee insulated for seriously hours on end. I can go about 6 hours without taking a simple sip, but then take a sip, and it's not even cold yet. It's awesome!!!!!

24 came through again!!!

Okay, so just a quick post to say once again how proud I was of 24. The twist from last night was simply crazy. You've been wondering now for two seasons who this one guy is (It's actually Dr. Romano from ER, who incidentally was my favorite character off of ER.) But now you find out that this horribly bad guy is actually Jack's brother who he hasn't talked to in years!!! What in the world??? Craziness!!!!! Gotta love it!

Choo-Choo

Well, this was a Fisher Price Geo-trax train set that Jakeb received for Christmas. It's very cool, and I highly recomment it to anyone who has kids 2 and over. However, we just opened it yesterday. And, of course, upon opening it, it needed the only batteries that we did not have in our house - AAA's. So they played around with it without the batteries. Then when Eric got home, he took Jakeb out alone, and they went to get batteries. They also went to Wendy's to get a Frosty. It's great that they had some "alone" time because that doesn't happen very often.
Anyways, I put the batteries in it after the boys went to bed. After we finished watching 24, I heard Jakeb in his room messing around, so I let him out of his bed to check out his new train. He was thrilled! I let him drive it around twice, and then told him to go back to bed. He kept saying, "Okay, I'm gonna go to bed and close my eyes." This morning when he woke up, he ran to the train and has pretty much been playing with it all day. (We should definitely get some more batteries for it!) All the boys have pretty much been fighting over it, and while normally I tell them to share; this time I'm telling them to let Jakeb have first dibs because for crying out loud...he waited almost a month to open his Christmas gift. (He actually has at least one more that he hasn't openend not to mention a small box full that the other boys haven't opened either. I'll save those for a rainy day!)

Tiger + 4 boys = Mass Mayhem

Eric has been doing this with the boys since they were really little. They all sit on the couch, and he acts like a tiger and gets them by tickling, wrestling, and stuff like that. Watch the video; you'll get the picture. The boys make me laugh because they are getting rougher and rougher. I dont' know how much more Daddy can take!!!

A snow day

Today was the first big snow day this winter. Yes, I said this winter. It hasn't snowed much at all. In fact, it's been a light winter. Well, the boys were thrilled that it had snowed although they didn't really get a chance to play. They did however get a chance to throw a couple of snowballs, and they loved that. In fact, coming out of church this morning, I caught ERIC thowing snowballs at people coming out of church. Seriously, he's like a big giant kid! Maybe tomorrow we'll get a chance to go out and play a little more.

Hands Up!!

Today Blake had a game. He was so cute. (He would be so mad if he heard me say that....because he's a "good-looking" boy.) Anyways, he starting to really like basketball even though he won't really admit it. He's actually going for the ball a little bit more and is trying to make a basket. Unfortunately, he has inherited my wonderful coordination skills much to his father's dismay. He can't seem to get the ball high enough to go into the net.

Picture this (because I didn't take a picture): He finaly got the ball. Time stood still. He gets ready to shoot the ball. He crouches down as far as he can like a spring to get a really good shot. He shoots the ball....and....he still misses. It was a priceless moment. You should have seen him. He was a like a spring loaded trigger. People in the stands were chuckling at him (in a good way).

Well, the main reason I'm posting this is so you can see Blake in action. He runs, he stands, and he puts his hands up in the air. Seriously, so adorable. Look at him in this video:

A normal day

It was a pretty normal day. We were supposed to have some friends over tonight, but Luke was having some bathroom troubles and kept complaining of not feeling well. Our friends, Gail and Lisa, have a little boy, and I didn't want him to get sick, so we ended up cancelling. Of course, Luke said he felt better in the afternoon, so I was a little frustrated, but well, we're doing it next week. Right Lisa??

Anyways, here's a few pictures of a normal day of play in my house. I love the one of Kaleb screaming and smiling. And I'm not sure where Blake was when I was taking these pictures, but he missed out.




We also ended up watching Over the hedge tonight. It's a pretty cute movie, even Eric says so. There are two things I really love about watching movies as a family: one....hearing Eric chuckle at a cartoon, and two.....hearing the boys laugh at the movie. Sometimes the parts that the kids laugh at aren't even funny, but they sure think they are!! It always makes me smile. There's just something about hearing a child laugh that warms the heart a little.

Where's Waldo?

So these pictures just crack me up. We had just finished eating lunch, and it was time for the younger boys to go down for a nap, and when I glanced in their room, this is where they were: hiding! For some reason, it reminded me of a 'Where's Waldo" moment. Man, I use to love those books even if they did hurt your eyes from staring too hard. Of course, looking at them didn't hurt my eyes at all, just made me laugh. They're so sneaky, moving the bed out and ducking down behind it! Or at least they think they are.

Okay, so this page has sat on my desk for 3 days straight with nothing on it. It has been redesigned multiple times, and I still don't like it. This is why I only like to scrapbook when I feel like scrapbooking. I haven't felt the urge to scrapbook in what seems like forever. I actually miss it, but at the same time the creative juices aren't flowing. And when they don't flow, They don't go well. Oh well, at least I have another page done.

Presidents

Last night at church a friend of mine gave Blake a book on his favorite subject: PRESIDENTS. It wasn't just any President; it was Abraham Lincoln. He was absolutely thrilled. It didn't matter that the book was from the early 80's, it just mattered that it was all about Abraham Lincoln. Shoot, I think he even went to bed with it.
Now fast forward almost 24 hours later. The book is nowheree to be found. I'm talking nowhere. He said that he left it on his bed. Regardless of what he said, it wasn't on his bed, under his bed, or behind his bed. Eric even got in on the search and got his flashlight to search for it. It was nowhere. I figured if they would just clean their room, then they would find it. I told them to look on the bookshelves and just about everywhere.
Blake was about to completely give up when I remembered that this morning, they started their school work almost immediately which means that his book could be back his desk. SO I told him to check the shelves on his desk; and lo, and behold, there it sat the Abraham Lincoln book.
Talk about one happy child!!!

Jakeb's thankfulness

At bedtime, before prayer, Eric asked Jakeb what he was thankful for. Our three year old, Jakeb's answer was, I'm thankful for my "new mommy" and daddy. Who's the "new mommy"? When we asked him who she was, he pointed to me. WHo knows what the little critter was thinking, but at least he's thankful for me and Eric. And we sure are thankful for him, craziness and all!

17 weeks

So here's me at 17 weeks pregnant in my raw beauty...no make-up, nor hair done. Shoot! I don't even match too well. Maybe the whole pregnant glow has kicked in or something! Anyways, I'm huge already! How did this happen. I've been showing since about 2 months, but oh well..such is life.
Well, I'm off to eat my midnight snack, and no, I'm not gonna eat the whole candy bar, just almost all of it! I will drink the whole glass of milk and maybe more. It's the only time I like to drink white milk....with something really sweet.

Gotta love that Chick-fil-a

We went to Chick-fil-A today with some of our friends. The boys absolutely love that place. We could eat there every day, and they could seriously spend the entire day there playing the playland. Chick-fil-A is such a cool little restauraunt. We love the fact they honor God by staying closed on Sundays, and that they play Christian music in the store. The staff is always so pleasant. Anyways, enough of Chick-fil-A...