The "Icecream"

The beginning....they liked to call it the "icecream".Tanner
Preston
Landon
Kaylie
I was sitting at the computer and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tanner high in the air. I was amazed at how he could launch himself in the air and basically do a belly flop on a pile of bedding that is on top of a mattress on the floor. All the kids had to take a turn and I had to get pictures!

Our Last Day Together

Here is the end of the visit with my sister and my nieces. On our last day together the first order of business was to get some school done. At 11:30 that Thursday morning, Theresa had a hair appt. with Jeannie, my closest friend here in Colorado who happens to be a hair dresser. So we pack up my three youngest to take with us and we leave the three oldest kids home so they can finish their school.

Jeannie did a great job on Theresa's hair, and while she was cutting I was getting some "professional" advice and asking for some tips because my nieces wanted haircuts. All throughout the week, Brooke was begging me to cut her hair. Theresa refuses to cut her daughters' hair (I think it is because she doesn't want them to be mad at her if they don't like it), and she doesn't want to pay the money just to chop off some length (which I totally understand because I wouldn't want to either.)

After doing some fruitless shopping and getting us some happy hour drinks at Sonic, it was back home, setting up a beauty shop in my kitchen. I think overall I did a fairly good job, and I know that both girls "LOVED" their haircuts. I know Brooke wasn't appreciating my "professionalism" during the haircut because it wasn't as fast as when Grandma cuts it, but she didn't have much choice in the matter! ;)

We ended the evening and the week with relaxing and watching the movie "Penelope". Theresa and I both love the 'feel good' movies. We both figure there's enough junk and drama in real life we don't need to watch it in our spare time!

Brooke - I'd say she got about 5"-6" cut off

Megan - we probably cut around 8" off of her hair

Megan & Brooke loving their hair!

The Pizza Farm

The kids at the "pizza farm".

On Wednesday, the 24th, we took a field trip to "the pizza farm" with a homeschool group that I have recently become a part of. Our understanding of this "farm" was that we would be served a pizza lunch and then we got to be a part of a "working" farm and see where the ingredients from a pizza come from, ie cheese from a dairy cow, tomato's in the garden, olives from a tree, the wheat in the crust etc. I think the whole group (the adults anyway) were disappointed in the "pizza farm".

Some of the homeschool group.

Our pizza lunch was frozen Tostino pizza's, one slice each, and a box of Hi-C orange to drink. It really was quite humorous once we all got over the shock. The only redeeming factor in that $5 lunch was that the proceeds were going to help the Denver Rescue Mission. The leader of the group did apologize to me about the whole thing and she said that she got her info off of their website and they were definitely misleading.

The pizza lunch.

I believe the kids still had a fun time. They got to see many farm animals and they got to feed a cow, pig, goats, llama's, and even a donkey. They got to run on a Hay Maze, and we got a wagon ride. They also got the educational tour of where the pizza ingredients come from, I can't comment on that part of the tour because I had to go sit in the vehicle because one of my children had a melt down.

The Wagon Ride

The Hay Maze

Feeding some animals

After the pizza farm, we had to stop by a Burger King and get us a snack! The "pizza farm" is so close to the Wyoming border, we then decided we would hit two states in one day! We figured the kids would have fun saying that they went to Wyoming that day. On the 20 mile drive from Wellington to the border, we saw scores of antelope. I have never seen antelope in the wild, Theresa informed me that it is because I've never looked for them. (Which I do have to say I am usually reading or sleeping when I am traveling.)





After we stopped and got some pictures of the antelope, I was trying to keep my two youngest awake so we could get a picture at the Welcome to Wyoming sign. My plan was to have them look for more antelope and count them. Landon started really looking and he excitedly yelled, "Look! There are... what are they called?" I looked over, chuckled, and said, "Cows honey, those are called cows." He said, "Oh, I thought they were black deer." :-D I think he meant antelope.

Some of the antelope we saw.

We didn't get a picture by the Wyoming sign because of construction, so all we really got to do was say, "Kids we're in Wyoming.....Kid's we're leaving Wyoming." The day ended with us being exhausted and us having some great, quality time together.

The Snake

The next exciting thing that happened to us was "the snake". On Tuesday, the 23rd, I was sitting in the living room doing who knows what and Theresa was upstairs in her room with the window open so we could hear the kids in the cul-de-sac. I heard some yelling and Theresa came flying down the stairs saying that Preston said he found a snake.

So we both went out front and lo and behold there was a baby snake slithering slowly in our driveway, heading straight into the garage. Of course, us moms being the "calm" in the storm, we started barking orders..."Go get a broom!"..."Get back! Get back!! It could be poisonous!"..."Get me a stick."..."Get back!!"..."Get me that container!"..."Stay back, kids!!!! It could be poisonous!" As you probably could tell in the dialogue above that Theresa and I came up with a plan. Get a BIG container, get the snake in it with either the broom or stick, and of course, keep the kids out of danger. (FYI, I was not "allowed" to use the broom because we might "hurt" the snake!)



To me, it looked like it could have the markings of a rattle snake. With it being a baby, it wouldn't have it's rattles, but when he posed to strike one time, he wiggled his tail. This became quite the event in our cul-de-sac. Preston ran and got some of our neighbor's, who happen to have a pet snake. We also had another neighbor come over so her daughter could see the snake.

(Please note Theresa bringing some leaves for the snakes "comfort and security". Can you tell who the animal lover is? I personally was fine dumping it with the prairie dogs, and if they killed it, oh well, it's the "circle of life"!)

After the excitement of capturing the snake, we brought the snake inside (that way we could make sure the kids didn't mess with it) and Theresa started searching on the Internet for what kind of snake it might be. We think that it was a baby "rat snake", which is not poisonous. Later that evening, during a beautiful sunset, Theresa and I took the snake to a pond close to the house and released it into some weeds.



This is not the first time Theresa and I have faced "danger" with just the two of us. We caught our first black widow together also! I wonder what the next "dangerous" adventure we might face together will be!?!

The Birthday Celebration

Here's the beginning of what has gone on in my life this past week. As you might remember the 19th was Landon's birthday, but we celebrated on Saturday the 20th. We wanted to wait until we could have Aunt Theresa, Brooke and Megan celebrate with us.

For the meal, Landon chose to have upside-down pizza, salad, and breadsticks. For his cake, he decided he wanted to do chocolate cupcakes and all he wanted on it for decoration was his name. (That is what he has really been practicing in 'school'.) So I tried to come up with something that I could decorate that would be boy and I could incorporate his name. I decided on baseballs.

Jeff, being the best dad and uncle around, took all the kids to the park. That way Theresa and I could run to the store, get the cupcakes made and decorated, get the birthday meal made for lunch and throw up a few decorations. All of that was made possible because of Jeff, and we had no interruptions.

Things really went smoothly until we were about ready to serve lunch. I took the breadsticks out of the oven and placed them on top of the sink. When I went to remove the breadsticks from the pan and put them on a plate, the pan fell into the sink with soapy water. I grabbed it, trying to save the breadsticks and burnt my thumb. We ended up having to amputate half of six breadsticks, but thankfully I got to keep my thumb! :)

After enjoying our birthday lunch, we then got to sing "Happy Birthday" to Landon, and we all enjoyed the cupcakes and some icecream. We then moved to the living room to watch Landon open his gifts. His word of the day was "AWESOME"! Every gift he opened was "Awesome." He then put all his gifts, still in their packages, into a box. For some reason he did not want to take them out of their packages and it stayed that way for most of the day.

One gift he got was the original "Horton Hears a Who" (of course I didn't realize that it was the original when I bought it.) Kaylie came to me and asked, " Can I watch 'Honey Shrunk the Poo'?" I had to ask her to repeat it again to see if I understood her right. I did! I got a good laugh out of that and I had to refer to that movie with her title throughout the week. My sis said I needed to be careful because then it will start to be called, "Honey Took a Poop!"

PICTURES: 1) The baseball cupcakes with his name. The red is licorice. 2) Landon making a wish. 3) Landon and his gifts (Yes, some are in Xmas paper.) 4) Kaylie and her "Honey Shrunk the Poo"

Company

I have had the company of my sister Theresa (she's not the nun :-D )and my two nieces this past week. I have so much to share but it will take time. Just wanted to let you know that I'll catch up soon, and it could come very close together! (Several posts in one day, is what I mean.)

Till the next post!

A Tam Memory

Right now I am sitting here, in the same room, with my sister Theresa. She is on her laptop and I am on mine. She said, "I am so glad I'm here so we can work on our computers together!"

That then led me to thoughts of my younger sis Tammy. I know she wishes she could be here and she sent me a surprise, a pink WSU hoodie! Tammy hasn't been feeling well the past couple of days and it brought me back to a memory of another time she was sick....

This past February, on Valentine's Day, my children and I were headed to Theresa's to spend a week with them. As we were going through Wichita, the kids and I decided to surprise Aunt Tammy with a visit and some Valentine gifts. We didn't quite get the surprise we were wanting because she was sitting on her front porch, but she was still surprised. After we gave her the gifts and flowers we had a real short visit. I then realized that Tammy's hair (because she'd been laying around sick) and Kaylie's hair (because she'd been in a car seat for hours) looked the same! We had to get a picture and we got a good laugh out of it! And I'm still laughing!!!! (The reason for this post.)

Hope she doesn't kill me for this.

The "hair"!

Aunt Tammy with her "Valentine's" and her gifts.

My kids with their doggy cousins (you can see the other "cousin" in Landon's birthday post.

Happy Birthday Landon!

Today, my baby boy turned six! How can it be that they are growing so fast.?.

I was actually due September 5, 2002. I was praying that I wouldn't go early because I wanted that sapphire birth stone (sorry to all who have August birthday's.) I really don't know why I thought I might go early because my sister went almost two weeks late with her two girls and I definitely wasn't early with my two older boys.

Once my due date hit, my OB kept telling me that we could make it happen any time. After having experienced induction with Tanner I did NOT want to be induced again. So I waited and waited. I finally made it to the that two week overdue mark and I had no choice. So my parents were able to come up and be there with the boys, and Jeff and I headed to the hospital in Liberal KS, a 30 mile drive. We got there a little before 9 am, got checked in, and then the Dr. came in at 9:30 broke my water and started the Pitocin. I believe it was a little after 11:00 that I was dilated enough to get an epidural. The anaesthesiologist didn't get in there until after noon. Once I finally got my epidural I found out that it only worked on my right side! So my right side was totally numb while I had intense pain on my left side. It was then just a few minutes after 1:00 pm that Landon Cade was born, weighing in at 8lb 13oz. My biggest baby!

From the beginning Landon preferred his mommy over anyone else. He was definitely the clingiest of all my children. I have always called him our "lover". He is the one who always wanted to cuddle and to have his hugs and kisses. He is also the "sensitive" (which equals many times whining and crying) one in our family.

Tomorrow is when we are actually going to have his birthday party. His Aunt Theresa and his cousins, Brooke and Megan, are going to be here to help celebrate!

We sure do love him, and we are so glad that God blessed us with giving him to be a part of our family!

So here's a Happy Birthday to our SIX year old!

Is this Joe Dirt....or Landon?

One thing Landon was born with was an "Angel's kiss" (see his rib cage). We went to see a dermatologist about his hemangioma, and she immediately said to him that he had an "angel kiss". He said nothing there at the dr office but later that evening I heard him telling his daddy, in awe, that he had an angel's kiss. He is still very confident in and proud of his angel's kiss!
This picture was taken in June '07 with his doggy cousin Jessie. Almost everytime he is around his doggy cousins you'll catch him lovin' on them!

My Man, Danger, & the Wild

WOW- two posts in one day! I'm trying to catch up while I can!

In the past week to two weeks we have dealt with squirrels AND birds in the space between our roof and ceiling. We have no attic because we have vaulted ceiling. One day I was sitting in our guest room/ office, on the computer and I was hearing some little claws scratching and walking on the ceiling. I knew it was too big to be mice so I was assuming it was a squirrel because we have seen a squirrel go on our roof many times.

I was then leaving the house later that day, and I saw with my own eyes that it in fact was a squirrel and I saw where he was getting in at. So when Jeff got home that evening he went up and boarded up the hole. The next day I heard more scratching. I thought, "Oh no, there are babies!" Well I definitely did not want them dying up there because I did not want to smell them, so over lunch Jeff went back up and removed the board.

I then looked up on the Internet on how to get rid of squirrels. Some of the things mentioned were, traps - the problem...if their were babies, it did no good to trap the mama, fox urine - the problem...not that easy to get and didn't want my house to smell like urine!, moth balls, Ah Ha! something that was cheap and easy to get. The person who recommended this, said that the same ingredient found in bat and squirrel repellent is the same thing in moth balls. So we headed to K-mart and they were on clearance! The box did warn that it was not for getting rid of bats and squirrels, but we decided for $2.50 we would try it any way. (I do need to add that Jeff kept wanting to smoke them out! I'm sure that fine idea would have worked but could you really imagine him building a fire on my roof so he could smoke out a squirrel! I could just see the whole house burning down, and we'd still have squirrel problems!)

By mid-afternoon of the next day I heard no more squirrels in my ceiling. Not sure what exactly happened...my sis mentioned maybe the mothballs killed them. I personally think that boarding up the hole scared the mama and she just naturally moved her babies away from the "crazy man" on the roof.

After the whole drama of squirrel was done, Jeff started hearing birds in the ceiling over our master bath! He then went out and boarded up that hole, while I was still in bed. (Which I'm glad I didn't know what he was doing at the time...which you will see why further on down!) The next few mornings I was awaken by a banging noise. I wanted to yell at my kids and tell them to be quiet so early in the morning. Jeff then informed that it was the birds trying to get back in!

Then this morning, hearing them again, I was sure that they had found a way back into our home. So Jeff drags out his ladders and his homemade contraption so he could "check" on these birds. I was about ready to have a heart attack right there. Being the loving wife I am, I kept telling him how stupid this was and he shouldn't do it, and what good would it do if he died because I would still have birds in my ceiling!!!

He was going up anyway, and by that time there was a small crowd gathering. All I could say was, you need to pray that there are angels around your daddy! I then decided, since he was going to do this I might as well take pictures...and in my sick mind I actually thought, "If he falls, maybe I will get a picture of him in mid-air!" I am happy to say that there were angels around him and he made it safely back down to the ground, AND the birds weren't back in our ceiling!

Pictures: 1) The hole the squirrels were getting in. 2) My man boarding up that hole. 3) My man and DANGER...please note the two separate ladders and the homemade contraption! 4) The small crowd, Preston and Tanner.

UPDATE about me from It's Been a While - My MRI is scheduled for Monday the 22nd at 3:15, so please continue praying that there it is nothing serious and for peace in my mind and body.

Green Eggs & the Park

Part of the joy having my children home with me and doing school at home it is easy to throw something new in for fun. On Monday, all the boys were working on their math and Kaylie was sitting beside me and I heard her keep saying, "I don't like them. I don't like them." So I finally looked down and saw her looking through "Green Eggs and Ham". I asked her if she wanted me to read her the book and she said yes and climbed up on my lap. After reading the book, we decided we would make green eggs for lunch!!! The boys were pretty excited about it...Kaylie not as thrilled (she doesn't care for eggs anyway.)
On Tuesday, I HAD to get out of the house. Jeff wasn't going to be home for lunch that day so I knew there would be no break from my duties. So I decided, last minute, that we would do lunch in the park and do some school in the park. All the boys had already finished their basics, like math and language arts, so we were going to throw in some science (the study of God's creation, ie insects and flowers), art (the drawing of God's creation), life/social skills (communicating and getting along with the other adults and children at the park) and PE (running, climbing, jumping, see-saw'ing, etc.) that afternoon...not only that, once they began their "PE" then I would be able to relax in the warmth of the sun and the beauty of the scenery, while also getting some enjoyable reading in!





Tanner drawing a flower.
Preston trying to decide what to draw next.

**Notice the scenery!**

Using the magnify glass to look at a bee.

Is that Sherlock Holmes or Landon?!?

I do want to mention the whole "social" issue that so many non-homeschoolers are concerned about. The couple of hours that we were at this park my children began conversations with adults, whether about their dogs or their baby, and they made "friends" with all the children close to their age at that park. They brought the other kids into the "games" they were playing.

I remember hearing about a study was done on the whole "socialization" thing, and they put public school kids (high school ages) and homeschoolers together in a group. What struck me and therefore I remember, the biggest observation seen was the public school kids stayed in their own groups amongst their peers, while the homeschoolers were the ones who introduced themselves to others and began conversations with those they didn't know. My question is, who will do better in the "real" world?

Here the kids are playing "pirates".

I'm not sure what the girls were playing, I just no the blonde was being called "lady bug" and Kaylie was being called "cat".