Found this...

just got out of the shower to find this happening...

Babe making his own snack. Honey on Tortilla chips!   Good to know if left along he wouldn't starve. 

Happy Birthday LG!

Today is LG's 8th Birthday! 

So to celebrate, I thought we'd take a little journey down memory lane. 

February 2009

July 2009

August 2009

October 2009

February 2010

April 2010

October 2010

August 2011

May 2011

March 2012

August 2012

October 2012

November 2012

February 2012

May 2013

August 2013

Happy Birthday, LG we love you so much! 

1000

1000!

 ONE THOUSAND posts!

Earlier this week, when I logged on to post something to the blog, 

I was very surprised to see 1000. 

In fact I had passed it and was at 1003. 

What?!?!?! 1,000?!

Wow, that's kind of cool and awesome.  

It's kind of a big deal, right?

I have reached such a milestone. 

Seriously, 1000 stories, thoughts, tid-bits, ideas and more.  

Probably 2000+ pictures of my little family here in OK. 

This journey started back in 2008 and I seriously thought by now it would have taken us somewhere else, but we are still here. 

There's been lots of trips especially to WA and KY to see family and friends and side vacations to AZ for spring break and fishing for trout on the White River, AR and more. 

Lots of soccer games, baseball games, football play-by-plays and the like.

Many post about the silly and dumb things we've done or not done correctly - like M.E. snippy a weed thinking it was a herb and cooking with it OR the Man stacking up boxes and chairs to reach a light, when there was an unused ladder 4 feet away. 

Funny things the boys have said. 

There has been my slaughtering of the english language with misspelling, run-on sentence, wrong usage of words and so on so forth.  

I taught math remember!

The announcements - when Babe was entering our family and other major family changes.

There have been disappointments, too along the way. 

And prayer requests, when things were hard and family was sick.

But the biggest and most important thing of all, is that its documented. 

It's all here.

Things change and I'm glad that I've tried at least in someway to go with it all and document it along the way for them.  Not sure, if it will ever get beyond this internet server somewhere and make its way into a hardcover book - my dream. 

But at least for now its here - it's archived. 

Thank you to all who visit. I realize its mainly Mamaw in Kentucky and Grampa in Washington and several other family members.  And I'm sure I've delighted you with pictures of the boys and bored you with stories of my craft projects. 

Nonetheless, I will continue. 

I have ideas to change things up, branch out, be more. 

but for now, I will keep on, keeping on. 

Try to grab the camera more often and try to jot down those funny quotes. 

Here's to the next 1,000 - may the force be with M.E. 

Fall Soccer Season Closes

Its hard to beleive that we are already into November. How did that happen?  Regardless that time is moving too fast for M.E., Buddy's fall soccer season is now over, 

all except one last tournament this weekend.

Buddy's team was new to him this year but its been fun and they've done pretty good with an overall record of....

Games	12
W-D-L	10-0-2
Goals For	65
Goals Against	13
Goal Ratio	5.00
Win %	83.3%

Of those 65 goals, Buddy thinks he probably scored 12 of them and he might be right.  He scored two just this past Saturday. And while its fun to score goals, he is a pretty descent defender too.

According to the website, where I got the above stats, his team is ranked 6th in the state in their bracket.   I'm not sure if that's a big deal of not, as I have no idea how many are in that bracket. But regardless they are a top ten team!

Soccer is in his blood and he simply loves its. And he's pretty good at it.  He's short for his age and often has to work harder (run harder) to cover the same distance.  

After this tournament this weekend, he'll have a game break until January, 

when we start our session of indoor.  I really like indoor and I will certainly look forward to less time at practice and more time at home.  

He doesn't have the best footwork, but he has skill and instinct that have served him well.  He will certainly have to step up the footwork to continue to compete for playing time.   

As for aggressiveness - check, he has that.  

Who knows, what his future holds, but for now its all soccer. 

That is until baseball season starts and I think the Man has already 

scheduled a batting practice for next week. 

Go, Buddy, Go. 

Good luck this weekend! 

The Halloween Story

Oh the fun of holidays, especially fun ones, when you have three boys.

Halloween was a very busy day for M.E.  
Babe and I managed to tag along with LG's field trip in costume.

Babe at the nursing home waiting for LG's field trip.   How awesome is this pic?

And yes, I was in these tights all day.  Babe picked them out and I must say, I loved them. Might have to buy more crazy tights just because.  Although it doesn't look like it I actually do have a dress on, I was holding it back to get more tights.  And of course, purple shoes are cool. 

LG on his field trip. What a cute little Harry Potter!

Babe and I managed to finish up the field trip with LG and quickly make our way over to Buddy's party.  Thank goodness the schools are only 10 minutes apart. whew!

At Buddy's party, the Man met us there to watch the 5th graders perform the "Thriller" dance from Michael Jackson's the Thriller.  Oh my, it was great. 

Zombie's haven't come to life yet. 

Front row for this guy! Look how much fun they are having.  The dance was great and I wish now I would have videoed it.  Oh well! 

After school, we got our pumpkins. Yes, I waited until the day of to buy pumpkins. 

So about 5, we started carving.   

We missed the Man, who was having to work late. But we carved nonetheless. 

Its really cool that Buddy and LG are old enough now to do almost all it on their own.

I cut out the tops and helping LG with his knife work while he did all the cleaning out and design work.

Buddy did his entire pumpkin on his own with no direction or help. Fabulous.

Babe played with his pumpkin.  I did have to clean his out for him.

He really didn't know what he wanted to do. so he just kept cutting and stabbing it. 

LG's pumpkin with a moon and a star!

Buddy's pumpkin who ate too much candy and spilled its seeds!

(his idea, oh boys)

And Babe's with some holes. Kind of reminds M.E. of Charlie Brown's ghost costume in the Great Pumpkin show. 

However the highlight of the night, as always, is the boys hiding in the back of the truck and scaring folks as they walk up for candy.   This year was no exception and Buddy and LG took turns in the back of the truck.  

We had a plan and code words and the like to really get people spooked as they walked by. 

LG happened to time one family just right and literally scared them silly.  

It was hilarious!  The dad was a big dude about 6'3" and 300 lbs and he screamed like a little girl. 

Too funny.  

The Man later asked LG, "where's your beans and cornbread?" to which LG replied, "right here!"  He was squatting in the back of the truck eating his beans and cornbread while scaring people bowl and spoon in hand. Oh my stars, LG there is no one like you. 

Beans and cornbread are just that good!  You can eat them in the back of the truck scaring people on Halloween!

LG's New Chapter!

It has been no secret that LG has struggled with school.  

He simply just doesn't like it and while we (Buddy, the Man and M.E.) loved our little Catholic school LG has been really unhappy.  He doesn't do well working independently for more than half an hour and especially on something he doesn't like or see value it and it was something he had to do everyday, sometimes up to 90 minutes a day.  And with 30 other children in his classroom to distract him - it was a mini-nightmare for him daily.  

He has an auditory processing delay which means when hearing something for the first time or something out of context, or surprising, it takes him a while to process and store that information. This is one reason he doesn't make good eye-contact.  He often can not look at people and hear what they are saying at the same time. And often after he has heard something and stored it, his brain doesn't know where it is and it takes him awhile to recall it or do what was asked.  It is the main reason he has been speech delayed since birth.  He does not process and store information like most kids his age and it is something that he's not going to outgrow, he simply learns in a different way they most.  Give him a book or a movie and he will store every second of it, bam! But hearing it, not so much. And so at our school there was just no room to maneuver around this delay and while he was "getting by", that's not the education nor experience we wanted him to have.  LG is smart, actually very smart with a high IQ, but still things weren't working and he KNEW they weren't working and the stress level for us all grew. 

So after much prayer and research, we enrolled him in a new school, an out-of-the-box kind of school. It is similar to a Wardolf school and nicknamed a "hippie" school because its so laid back and their animals everywhere. He will spend his time developing processing to help him learn, succeed and process in new ways.   There are three groups of 2nd/3rd grade mixed classrooms and in his classroom, he is one of eleven students, all on a similar learning level. He will be encouraged to be himself, given time to think & process, and most of all not be stressed out.  His lessons are very hands-on, process based with few tests at this level.  They don't even have desks, but sit at a table together and spend a great deal of time outside.  And go on field trips nearly every week. Its definitely outside the box, just like LG.  

Playing legos before school in the 2nd grade commons area. 

Its going to challenging mentally (two school scheduled, two drop-offs, two pick-ups), physically (I can't be in two places at once) and financially (tuition is high), but we really feel he will thrive there. And for those of you who know LG, he is special and we really want to cultivate that and all his talents and gifts and will do whatever we can to do so. 

At his new table, doing morning work. (Sorry its so blurry) 

He left his old school on Friday, Oct 25 without much ado. And began his new school on Monday, Oct 28.  And I can honestly say that after only these few days of school. He is a different little boy.  

He has always been our little lover, always there with a hug, smile and pat on the back. But now it shines out of him like the sun. I honestly feel terrible about the mental and emotional exhaustion that he was experiencing everyday that it is now gone. I had no idea.  He's old teacher had once told the Man and M.E. that it took every once of energy, will and self-control for LG to get through the day and now I completely believe it.  He is so much more relaxed and happy now. 

Halloween field trip to a nursing home for an indoor parade, performing Halloween songs and visiting with residents.  (He was one of 5 Hogwarts students)

He now has a locker.  We will be decorating it with cool magnets over the next few weeks.  

The new school doesn't mean the challenges for him are over. It will always be tough for him, but he's now at a school that understands and works with students and parents to make every student as successful as can be. School should be fun! 

Circle time after the field trip. 

Thanks to everyone for their support and for all the prayers that have gone up the last few weeks. We have felt them and are blessed right now as the transition couldn't have been easier! Go, LG, Go! 

Mom & Me Campout

Last weekend was the annual CubScout Mom and Me campout and my 5th one. Wow.  And I have to say these campouts are my favorite.

 The weather was overcast and a little chilly on Saturday morning, but soon warmed up. 

We headed for the zip line first. 

 LG never has any fear of these sort of things.  He just loves it all. 

 New this year was the hamster balls.  Too fun. 

 LG LOVED this and got in line again and again. I think he wound up doing this activity like 10 times.

 Most successful activity was archery. I say most successful because he was really good at it.   With little help or instruction, he got up there, took his time and did his thing. 

 Yep, that's his target. 5 out 6 arrow hit the mark.  There's two side by side almost in the yellow. woohoo!

 BB shooting on the other hand was a complete miss.  Several times, we thought he hit the target, but upon inspection. He had no holes in his paper. 

He wasn't upset. Not at all. 

Supper was good with grilled hamburgers and hotdogs and a spooky hayride.  We had so much fun.  Temperatures dipped into the 40s, like 40 degrees.  It was COLD. But we have great sleeping bags and slept snug as bugs in a rug.  

Here's LG the next morning, getting shoes on for breakfast.  What a fun time! 

Can't wait for my 6th Mom & Me!