Christmas program

Christmas snapshots

Okay, so I've not only been a bad blogger lately, but I've been a bad picture taker. I didn't take any of the kids opening presents on Christmas morning, and very few of them at all that day. They woke up at 5 so I was out of it most of the day. I'm planning on still getting a picture of all of them by the tree, but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

However, we had a great Christmas. The kids got spoiled, and believe it or not, they still have one more Christmas to have. Their grandparents are coming in to town tomorrow, so maybe I'll take pictures of them opening those presents.

Anyways, here's some snapshots of Christmas day. Christmas dinner, and no...I did not stay in my pajamas all day. I would never do that.

Kaleb hiding out in his room playing with his new toys because he didn't want anyone else to play and he especially didn't want Makenna to come and mess up his people.

Jakeb and Luke playing DON'T WAKE UP HULK! This was the year of games for Christmas. Everyone got at least one game. Luke got like 5.

Blake and his favorite toy....a Mega Rig Space Shuttle by Matchbox. You can build the shuttle a ton of different ways.

And one of my personal favorites....the old people sleeping on the couch....Eric and my Grandma.

Look who's walking now!

Just like Eric predicted a year ago, Makenna started walking right when we got back from the wedding. I mean, she would walk a couple steps here and there, but then fall and go back to her goofy crawl. Or she would walk along things holding on for dear life. Now she's Really walking. I' talking the night we got back from NC, she started. So,at almost 18 months she finally starts walking. Check her out. Even with her pants to long, she can move pretty fast.

And I leave you with this picture of her trying so hard to be like her brothers. Check out her guns!

Kids dancing!

Check out their moves!
The Kids' Dances
And if you have time, check on the other dances too, they are awesome!

The Wedding

We arrived on Thursday afternoon. The bed and breakfast was lovely. The shower in the bed and breakfast was phenomenal. It had 7 spigots shooting out everywhere. I told everyone about the wonderful shower. Sorry, didn't mean to get a little off subject there about the shower.

Anyways, on Friday there was a bridesmaid luncheon at a quaint little tea house. (Is that what it's called? a tea house?) It was nice to meet a lot of people who I have heard about for the past couple of years.

That night was the rehearsal of which Makenna did wonderfully. She sat in her little red wagon and waved as she came down aisle. I managed to hobble up the aisle without causing too much attention to my foot. And the boys were perfect.

The rehearsal dinner was back at the bed and breakfast where the catered food was fantastic. Some friends from cllege showed up so we introduced the game of ZOO to our husbands (to be). If only I could explain ZOO on my blog. It was basically a game that we played in college before Saturday hall meeting. Each person was a different animal that had a different hand movement and sound. It was basically a rhythm game with clapping and lots of noise. The boys were in complete shock, but played along with us. (I think they did it to amuse us.) Talk about a loud, but fun time. We were laughing so hard that we were crying.

(From left to right starting at the top:1 Niki and her mom, 2 the announcement and our bouquet, 3 her guest book (what a great idea! i believe she had three of these to sign), 4 part of the Dinner Club reunited, 5 Niki and Jeff; 6 Shelley,me, Makenna, and Tracy; 7 Jakeb kissing Makenna after the wedding,8 the cake, 9 the kids after the wedding)

Saturday was the wedding day. Niki and I got our hair and makeup done and were off to the church to get ready for pictures. I get there,and realize that I forgot my jewelry in Niki's car back at her house. AHHHHH! Then I go to put Makenna's tights on only to discover that they weren't a pair of pantyhose with cute little ruffles on the butt, but they were just little ruffled underwears!! My little girl didn't have any tights. Could I possibly do anything else to mess up Niki's wedding?

(From left to right starting at the top: 1 Shelley and I after the ceremony with the sparklers. Instead of bird seed, they did these. 2 Niki and Jeff at the reception. 3 some college friends, 4. Niki and the groomsmen, 5. the ceremony, 6. tired Makenna, 7. string quartet, 8 Kaleb, 9. Niki and Tracy)

So anyways, let's move on to the prettiest wedding that I have ever seen. Niki was a breathtaking bride,and the whole ceremony was beautiful. Too bad Makenna wasn't there to enjoy it. She absolutely refused to come down the aisle in her wagon. I guess the people scared her too much. Oh well!
Niki had a string quartet at the wedding and at the reception. Oh my word! It was such a nice addition to an already perfect wedding. The reception was equally as beautiful, and just look at how pretty Niki looks in her cape over her dress. She looks like a princess! I kept saying she looke like Belle.It was such a great trip. Jeff is a great guy, and I am thrilled for both of them.

PS. Thanks Shelley for posting the pictures on Facebook so I could post them on my blog. I was horrible and only took one - the one of Niki and her mom

Look what I have

Anyone want to guess who did this?? I'm getting way too much abuse around here. Here's what it looks like today. Lovely, huh?

an innocent letter

Dear ___________________
I'm sorry for disobeying you. I should obey you. One ofthe 10 comandments say, Thou shalt not commit other adultery.

The above letter was written by Luke because he disobeyed a gentleman in our church. When I read it, I about choked when i got to the adultery part. I asked Luke, "Why did you write that part?" He responded with, "Well, Mom, I'm supposed to obey ADULTS, so I figured that's what ADULTery meant." Needless to say, I about peed in my pants. I went on to explain that that is not exactly what that word meant although that was very good word association.

Going outta town tomorrow

Going to my best friend's wedding where I'll be the maitron of honor hobbling down the aisle right in front of the beautiful bride!! I can't wait to see Niki get married. Pray for us all...oh, and pray that Makenna's black eye (that Jakeb gave her) goes away. (She's the flower girl)

And now for the the story.....updated

you've all been waiting for......... How did Marshan break her foot?

Well it all started with our arrival home from Michigan. We brought all of our stuff inside. It was awesome because Eric parked in the front of the house which made it really easy to bring it in and all. No stairs or anything....so nope, I didn't break my foot then.

After being home for no more than about 15 minutes, I remembered that I had promised Kaleb a toy for his b-day. His grandparents had given him $25, and I had already pre-bought a toy to give him from them, so I needed to go downstairs and get it. Eric told me that I didn't need to get it because our kids had plenty of toys, and Kaleb didn't need another toy. He said our kids were becoming spoiled brats because they always get everything that they want. We already weren't getting along that day, so I got mad and said some things that I didn't really mean (so much for being a submissive wife, huh?). This caused him to lose his temper and pick up the nearest object to him, which just happened to be my beloved one year picture of Makenna, and threw it at me.

I ducked and grabbed the nearest object to me which just happened to be his xbox (You see, it's been upstairs for about a month now.) and hurled it at him. All the kids watched in horror as their parents were positively going insane. He miraculously caught his Xbox in mid air, but unfortunately tripped over the luggage that we had just brought in to the house. And down he went....Xbox and all crashing to the ground breaking his xbox into a million little pieces all over the floor. Whoo! The man was livid now. At this point the kids are screaming and crying because we're both so angry and for their poor friend, the x-box. Of course, Eric wasn't going to let me get by with throwing his precious baby at him and ruining it. He came running toward me and tried to grab me, but I ducked out of the way cause shoot, I'm six years younger than him and much quicker.

I then decided that it was time.....it was time to do my Karate Kid kick....you all know the one...the one when Daniel-san lifted up his arms and his one leg and did the amazing kick and knocked his opponent out.....Well, that was my goal, to do the amazing kick and knock Eric out. So up went my arms, and up went my leg...and with my perfect coordination I did it only I kicked him right where it hurt because well, frankly, I couldn't get my leg up quite as high as Daniel-san.

Of course, Eric doubled over in pain, but not before he gave me a huge shove pushing me down our basement steps resulting in me landing unnaturally and breaking my foot. So, see..it's all Eric's fault. All because I wanted to get a toy out of the basement for Kaleb. So since I was already down there...I hobbled over to the where the toy was, grabbed it, crawled up the stairs, and handed it to Kaleb. I won. Eric lost! Ha!

So what if I have a broken foot? So what if my kids are permanently scarred for life? So what if Eric will never have kids again? (Get it...cause I kicked him right where it hurt?) It's all good because not only did I get the win by getting the toy for Kaleb, I also won by ruining the X-box! I killed two birds with one stone! Who-heeee!!

And just so you know....Eric and I apologized to each other, so all is well. No needs to worry. We're fine. He took me to he ER which is obviously where the picture is taken.

I broke my fifth metatarsal in two spots, and then the next day he took me to the doctor's office with all the kids. That was fun...all seven of us smooshed into one room. We felt like sardines! So they gave me an air cast/boot to wear for a couple of weeks. I go back in two weeks to make sure my foot isn't falling apart. (How comforting, huh? That's what the doctor told me.)

I got my air cast right after this picture was taken.

UPDATED: For all you dorks out there, this entire story is made up except for me being home for about 15 minutes, me going to get a toy for Kaleb, me falling down the stairs, and me breaking my foot. That's it...simple as that. I just thought that I would spruce it up....you know....make a good story out of it....see how long it took for the rumor to get around. And just for the record... I can't ever recall a time when Eric or I threw anything at each in anger.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was good and relaxing. We spent it in Michigan at Eric's parents house. Before we left though, I had the boys write five things each that they were thankful for and then we put them on leaves, cut them out and put them on our fall tree the basement.
Blake: going to Michigan, our toys, George came over, planets, Jesus died on the cross
Luke: there was no fire in our house, Bible, family, cousins, Jesus died on the cross for our sins
Jakeb: house, church, bones, God, co-op
Kaleb: mommy and daddy, school, brothers and sister, health, birthday

Our trip was fun too. My sister in law straightened my hair. I LOVED it. Check it out! Let's see what else did we do while we were there in Michigan. We played some family games after the kids went to bed. We also watched movies, played the Wii (on loan from a great brother-iin-law), and just had a nice relaxing time. We also took the kids sledding for the first time

and then to warm up after they got back, they were able to get in the jacuzzi for some bath time fun. Kaleb was not too impressed with tub, but Makenna was dying to get in. Check out this picture.

My mother in law and I did some heavy duty shopping on Friday. Fortunately we didn't have to go out early. We simply went out about noon and got everything that we wanted. We did spend about 45 minutes in line at Kohl's though. That was a long line!! It wrapped around the entire store. Sheer Craziness!! But so worth it.

On Sunday we went to see Eric's old pastor who was filling in as an interim pastor about 1 hour away. Afterwards we were introduced to the BEST PIZZA EVER at some podunk small town restaraunt. And that, my friends, pretty much wraps up our trip to Michigan.

Kaleb's b-day

Thanksgiving day was Kaleb's birthday this year, and since weren't going to be home, we did a little celebrating early. We took a quick trip to Chuck E. Cheese, and then met up with Daddy and George at Lone Star for dinner.
They surprised him at Lone Star by bringing him out a big brownie ice cream sundae. He was a little overwhelmed by all the attention and almost started crying. He even tried to refuse to eat any of it, and then we started dividing it up, and he realized that he did want it. About five minutes after they came and sang to him, he realized that he forgot to say thank you, and made sure he told the waitress thank you when she came back.Afterwards, we went home to get some presents for the little guy. He knew what one of them was because he found it a couple of months ago in the basement, and believe me, he didn't forget about it. He's been asking for quite often since then. If you asked him what he wanted for his birthday he would respond with, "All the Geotrax!" And well, that's what he got. He got the airport, the barn, and a little train. We also celebrated at Grandma and T-Rex's house too that evening. Grandma Alma made a fun cake. She makes the coolest cakes. Then he had a couple of presents to open from them and one from Grandma Hintson.

I"m coming back....

really. We have a lot of stuff going on. We had a birthday, went out of town, and then I decided to go and break my foot on top of it all. (more about all of that later.) So once I get all the picture uploaded and all....well, I'll have a good post for everyone.

Murder Mystery party

What a great activity! The was our Sunday school activity for the month, and I think everyone would give it a thumbs up. It was so much fun. Basically it was a human clue game set in the medieval time, and you had to come dressed in character. Each person was given a character with some background information about their character, and then you also had a few objectives that you had to carry out...and of course you had to figure out the killer!

Children's choir

These kids are stinkin' adorable even if almost half of them are mine. They did such a great job. I love the part when the guy in the front row shows Kaleb some candy and he gets all excited about it.

Creation Museum

We took the field trip to the Creation Museum. It was so cool. I actually was stroller free this time because my friend Lisa was kind enough to watch Makenna for me. And oh my word, it made the visit there so much better. I even was able to jump on the bouncy bridge.
I like the inside of the museum, but my favorite part is still walking the grounds. It was especially cool to see the baby donkey that was only a couple of days old.

Field Trip #1

This is the week of field trips. We somehow planned two field trips....one to the fire station and one to the Creation Museum. Today was the fire station. Our co-op went today. I think there was about 35 of us. The boys learned lots of cool stuff. So did their mama. For instance, did you know that a lot of fire stations have done away with the famous fire poles that they slide down because of ankle injuries?? (Blake asked one of the firemen about that. He was pretty disappointed to not see one.)

Not me Monday

I have definitely been such a good blogger lately and have not temporarily replace blogging with playing a video game this past week. I absolutely did not discover the kids' Star Wars Lego game for the Xbox 360. I have not become an addicted fiend of the game playing way too much and way too late. I would never start school almost 2 hours late one day just because I wanted to show the kids a new level on the game that I had discovered the night before. And I absolutely did not skip history class just so that we could play some more. What kind of mom would I be if I did any of this? I would never do any of this. I have not stayed up late at night playing this game because I highly do not approve of the xbox in the first place. I do not get giddy when I realize that we have unlocked another level or when we have enough coins to buy a new character. And I definitely do not get grumpy when one of the boys accidentally shoots my character. What kind of mom would I be? I mean seriously, that would be totally immature. I also did not try to wake Blake and Luke up on Monday night to help me with a level because I couldn't get past it. I also did not get slightly sad when I couldn't get them to wake up no matter how hard I tried.

I also did not let the laundry stockpile up again especially after I had just completed it all. It is not all over the floor in Jakeb and Kaleb's room because they keep taking their clothes off and throwing it on the floor. No way, I have complete control over my kids, and they obey every time I tell them to pick their clothes up.

OH, and contrary to popular beliefs, I did NOT turn 31 this week. I am only 29 years old. People only think that they threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday last year. I was really only 28 back then, so that would make me only 29 now. I did not slightly mope around for my birthday. I also did not get very happy when my husband let me stop at UDF and get PUMPKIN PIE ICE CREAM. so YUMMY! I also did not make my husband eat at Penn Station twice in one day because that's where I wanted to go for dinner for my birthday dinner. That would be cruel. (In all reality, I didn't know that he had been there until after we arrived there and were ordering food, so it's truly not my fault.)

Oh, and have I mentioned how our basement does not have the worst smell ever after doing dished upstairs. There is positively not some sort of a break in a pipe or something causing the basement to smell like sewer or something just as rank as that. There is also not water seeping into our house when it rains outside causing Eric's carpet in his office to get all wet also causing another horrible smell in our basement. And he certainly did not get perturbed by the whole situation and did not just decide to cut out half of his carpet out instead of enduring the horrible smell and waiting for it to dry. Nope, he would never do that.

I also did not go scrapbooking all day on Saturday when Eric could have worked on the basement fixing these problems that we have. That would have been extremely selfish. I did not have a great time scrapbooking and hanging out with some scrap friends. And I positively did not NOT call my family all day to check on them. Really I called them every hour to make sure that they were fine. I also reminded Eric to make sure all the kids to take a shower or bath because if they didn't take a bath, it would never create craziness on Sunday morning.

Speaking of Sunday morning, someone did not mess with my alarm clock setting the volume on the radio so low that it must have gone off for 30 minutes before I realized it was going off We did not have to squeeze 6 showers/baths into an hour of time along with having breakfast and cleaning up some. Of course we weren't running so late that Makenna had to eat breakfast in nursery at church. That would never happen. I'm always on top of it all.

Oh, here's another Eric one. Eric is also not addicted to the Star Wars Legos game. He does not say he plays it just for me cause he knows that I enjoy it. Because he would never play all by himself either. He would never play it after I leave for church by himself. And he would also never give Makenna a controller to pretend that she was playing only to discover later that night that the rubber had been CHEWED off of the controller meaning that Makenna probably does NOT have rubber going through her digestive tract even as I type. She was also NOT sitting right next to him while all of this was happening which would not at all prove that he was completely enthralled in this game and not loving it as much as I do.

I also am not almost completely done with my kids Christmas gifts because I do not get so excited when I get to buy fun stuff for the kids. I also did not buy too much stuff or spend too much money.

As far as school goes, I did not forget to make Blake practice his piano everyday last week. And he would never be overjoyed at not practicing. And he did not remember and just not tell me either because that would show that he does not like piano and that he thinks I'm torturing him by taking piano lessons. Nope, not Blake. He LOVES piano lessons.

Now also, let me tell you that I did not find my daughter already being a tomboy by playing with cars the other day. I did not video tape her on my kitchen floor. The kitchen floor is not as dirty as it seems. And I was completely not completely embarrassed to post this video of my filthy floor, but found Makenna just too cute to Not Not post it. I'm also not going to make an excuse for my floor being that dirty!

Oh, and by the way....my daughter is still NOT crawling at the ripe age of almost 17 months. No way! She's too advanced for that. She's actually running laps around our house and doing somersaults in the living room. I just didn't post that yet. I have not given up hope of her ever walking. In fact, I have not resigned myself to her crawling her funny crawl even at the age of five. Who knows. .... it might just look cute then.
You know, I'm sure that there are NOT other things that I could add to my list here, but my memory is definitely not failing me at the moment.

a huge accomplishment

I'm sure that you're expecting me to type up something completely fascinating about one of my kids, but unfortunately for you guys, I'm not. I'm simply typing this post to let all of you know that the laundry hamper that has been in my room for a month. ....you know the one...the one from all my Not Me Monday posts??? Well, it was removed this past week. I was completely caught up on my laundry for a day. Who-hee!!!!
I figured that deserved a post all in itself.

Political thoughts from a little guy

In Jakeb Alma's words upon discussing how God is powerful and can do anything He wants to do including destroying the world and starting the world over.

"If McCain wins he will make everything back to good. And Obama makes everything turn to bad"

Not quite sure how the two go together, but hey....."from the mouth of babes!" If it's clear to a FIVE year old, why can't the rest of America see it? Go VOTE today!!!!

Not me Monday

I promise that I am not sitting here at the keyboard frantically trying to think of something to type. Hmmm....let's see, what did I not do this past week.

I positively do not still have a basket of clean laundry sitting in the middle of the room in my bedroom still. It's definitely not become a permanent fixture in my bedroom. I am definitely not thinking about getting a red laundry hamper just so it will match a little better instead of the lime green color that it is.
I also did not stop breathing for a full 5 minutes when my husband kept doing THIS to my little baby. Eric did NOT have the people next to us also holding their breaths too praying that our sweet little daughter would not fly right out of the swing. He also did NOT do this repeatedly. Oh, and Makenna did not squeal with complete delight and smile over and over when he did it.


I also did not start to stress out when I was making Chicken noodle casserole tonight because I had no Cream of anything soup in my house. I most certainly did not make up my own chicken noodle recipe with what I had in the house, and I would never get slightly over pleased when 6 out of 7 people in my family liked my very own homemade recipe. Talk about a shocker!

I also did not make a chore chart system for my kids with a rewards store just so that I could get out of doing some chores. That would be downright wrong to bribe the children to clean!

Oh, and you should believe me when I tell you that I would never let my children use their closet rod as a jungle gym. I would never let them hang from the bar and climb up the wall just so they could preform for the camera, so that I could make a video and post it on my blog. I would never do that. It could be dangerous. They could fall. Shoot, the bar could fall.
OOoooooo, I have a "Not me" for my husband. My husband is not finally getting around to sanding the wall in our living room where a window used to be. This is not the same wall that he told me it would only take three days to fix. Oh, and when he said that....it was not August of 2007! Did I mention that I have not had curtains hanging up in my living room for the past year even though there was no window there...just the drywall where a window used to be. I also did not purposefully take down the curtains just so my husband would be reminded every day that he needed to do finish this task. I also did not roll my eyes when I came home on Saturday to find a FORT in my living room. Now I wonder how long we'll have this fort in our living room.

Believe it or not, Luke did not somehow accidentally jumped over something, and he easily stopped himself before crashing into the living room window breaking one of the smaller windows. This would not be the seventh window that has been broken since we lived here. And I'm serious when I say that I have never broke one. Only the kids have broken them.

I really am not an awful person, and when I tell you what I'm about to tell you...well, just know that I'm not as evil as I sound. I have not been purposefully NOT feeding the fish that we are watching for our friends. I am NOT purposefully hoping that they will die so that I can flush them down toilet or do whatever it is that one does do with fish when they pass on. The reason that I am not doing this is NOT because our friends never actually came back and left again. They also did NOT say that we have basically inherited their fish as pets and are just getting the privilege of keeping them FOREVER! Seriously, I love those fish. I want to keep them. I would never do anything to them. (Anyone not want some fish?)

And well, that's it for the Not Me, Mondays. I guess I could go on and tell you how immaculate my house is because I would never for one second let it get messy. There is never any dust in my house, and my kitchen floor is always sparkling clean because I scrub it on my hands and knees every single day. And we all know that there is no way that the dirty laundry baskets in every one's room are NOT overflowing again. I stay completely on top of the laundry every day.

Bad hair days II

It must run in the family. I think someone else needs a haircut too, huh? He's still pretty cute. I can't believe how thick his hair has gotten.

This is Makenna at church on Sunday morning. Yes, I said at church. She decided that her pigtails were not very cool. Well, when her pigtails were fixed in to a simple ponytail, she decided that the ponytail wasn't very cool either. That was when we gave up and let her have the bad hair.

Somebody got a haircut

I didn't want to cut her hair. I wanted it to all grow out, but it kept falling in her eyes. Not to mention the fact that she now refuses to leave a barrette in her hair, so I simply had no choice. It had to be cut. So, on the spur of the moment, I decided to cut it. It definitely shows off her stylin' mullet a lot more. I think she's pretty cute...mullet and all.

BeforeDuring (Doesn't this picture just crack you up. Luke took it for me. Every time I see it I laugh.)
And after

Basketball superstar

Blake & the girl he loves a little

When asked by his parents if he loves Makenna, this little boys grudgingly always answers, "Yeah, a little bit."

Here's what Makenna decided to do when we first got into the doctor's office yesterday. Blake was not too impressed, especially when she drooled all over his forehead. I, on the other hand, was very impressed that he let her climb all over her without complaining. Yeah, he must love her "a little bit."

Makenna's bad hair

Today part one

Makenna had a doctor's appointment. I had given into peer pressure and taken my daughter to the doctor simply because she hasn't started walking yet. I've had quite a few people tell me that there could be something wrong with her feet or hips or who knows what. Anyways, it finally got to me on Friday, and I called and made an appointment. So I've been slightly worried about it all weekend. I mean, what if there was something wrong with her feet? Why didn't I take her before to get it check out? What if her funny crawl that she does is not really funny after all? What if she does that crawl because there was something wrong with her leg and not because of the hardwood floors? I'm telling you. Every thought imaginable was going through my head. I can honestly say that I prayed about it, and I was okay with whatever the outcome was gonna be, but come on....no one wants anything to be wrong with their kid. Know what I mean? Well, I combined this visit with her 15 month appointment (which, by the way, none of my other kids have ever gone to that appointment. I have always skipped that visit.).

Anyways, so we're there because Makenna is not walking. So, as I'm telling the doctor about everyone else's concerns that are becoming mine, and that little booger takes two steps. The doctor looked at me like I was crazy, and actually said, "Look, her first steps!" She is such a little stinker! It was almost like she was telling me, "Mom, I don't have to be here. I can do it just fine. I've been trying to tell you that. I just don't want to walk yet." She goes on to climb all over every chair and moved more around that little room like a little Tazmanian devil making me look like a super-paranoid, over-protective mom. Anyways, for all you concerned friends of mine, thanks for caring, but the doctor says she completely fine. Her feet point outward because of the way her hips are, and that's how they fit into her sockets. (I'm pretty sure she inherited that from her mama.) And since she's progressing fine in every other area like crawling, holding on and walking, pushing things around, and a couple steps here and there; she's fine. She's just holding out on us. I think she's purposefully waiting until after Niki's wedding, just so she can be pulled down the aisle in a wagon like a princess or something.

Today - part deaux

Next we met up with some friends at Sharonwoods. It was very last minute, planned last night at church....the joys of homeschooling. We had a picnic, playtime, and a nature walk. The boys were to find five leaves and five rocks. I'm pretty sure we got all the leaves, but not the rocks. Here's Jakeb with his little creation.
Here's Blake being a complete daredevil and following Kyle out as far as he could in the creek. I really thought he was gonna fall, and I was gonna get to send in the video that is to the left into America's Home Videos. But he did not. Stink! I was really looking forward to the $10,000. Anyway, the was the first creek/waterfall area that we went to.
We then moved on to the second waterfall area that wasn't quite stroller friendly. So, Wendy stayed at the top, and and I went down with the kids to keep an eye on them. See how gross the water was. Oh, and by the way....do you see Kaleb in this picture below? No? Well, neither do I, but don't worry, I hadn't lost him like I do so many times. He must have been right next to me while I took the picture. Oh, and see that little spot of water that's NOT covered with green slime junk?? Well, that's the exact spot that Kaleb FELL into when he got a little too close to the water.
Yes, I said FELL into. He fell and did the floating, face-down ,flailing his little legs and arms around ,waiting for someone to rescue him thing. I threw my camera down and tried to reach out as far as I could, and couldn't reach him. Next thing I know...I'm down in the water waist deep grabbing the little guy. Poor little guy. Once we got him out of the water he was fine. He never even cried. He did want his mommy to hold him very tightly for a few minutes. If you ask him about it, he'll tell you he was scared, but that he didn't cry and that mom pulled him out. I'm still not breathing properly yet, and it must have happened about what......8 hours ago. My baby almost drowned. Okay it wasn't that bad because I was there, and I knew I would get him out, but still.....I'm still very surprised that I didn't panic or freak out or anything. I was surprisingly calm. Of course, when I think back on it, it is not a pretty sight to see your kid floating face down in the water, but I thank God that He kept Kaleb safe. Here's a picture of the wet Kaleb. (This is the only part where he almost cried because he did not want me to take a picture.) Oh, and I'm sure that if I would have had the camera on, that this all would have made the $10,000 prize on AFV. Oh, and to end this post of a happy note...a slightly jovial note. This is the exact same waterfall area where Luke fell down last year. We do not do good here at this waterfall area. Note to self: do not return to this area. Someone always falls and gets wet! Check last year's adventure out here. (Remember that one, Betsy?)

Oh, and we came home and watched the Absent-Minded Professor and had popcorn and hot chocolate. That always makes everyone feel better.

PS. Don't forget to check out the new videos on the left in you get a chance. They'll make you chuckle.