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Friday, April 30, 2010

Random Pictures from March & April

Here are some pictures taken in March and April with my purse-size camera (as opposed to the MAC Daddy camera Philip owns). None of these really warranted a post all by themself so I'm just clumping them all together.


Before school one morning....

Having a snack of row-rows (Cheerios) and watching their new fave show, Barney. (Yes, Perkins family...if any member of you are reading this you can laugh at me and say "PAYBACKS." I know I teased your wee one all the time about Barney, but for goodness sake, I was but a child myself.)


Sitting with Daddy on Mimi and Papa's bed Easter weekend....

Going to the Easter Egg Hunt in Texarkana. Zane was playing peek-a-boo with his "egg babbitt."




Here they are watching Barney again. Looks like Zane was super dee-duperty tired....






Having a quiet moment outside at Cold Stone Creamery....

One of their new favorite songs is "Freeze" by Greg and Steve. They put their hands on their head when the song says FREEZE!

Both boys in the FREEZE position....




Using our new-to-us kiddy pool...


The boys absolutely LOVED it! I don't think they knew it was supposed to have water in it....can you see on the left there is a teeny-tiny amount of water and no water on the right???


The big kids thought it looked like fun so they joined in...swimsuits and all!


Philip arranged a sitter for the kids one Friday night so he and I could go out alone! He said I got to choose where we went. Being tired of the same ole "go out to eat and go home" routine, I surprised him by going to a Razorbacks Baseball game. It was my first time to go to one. (And I'm sad to say I never even went to a single Gator baseball game when we lived there.)

Anywho...I even donned a Razorback shirt for this momentous occasion! We had a fun night together!


Last fall when the tree fell on our roof, it simultaneously shattered our patio set. I've been casually looking at patio sets since then, but now that we are outside playing almost everyday, I've REALLY been fixated on getting a new one. I loved this one from Sam's.... but didn't think I wanted to shell out that much money. I found one at Home Depot that I liked that was much cheaper. I showed them both to Philip and we both came to the following conclusions:
  1. we needed one with six seats
  2. the difference in the quality between the two was not even comparable
  3. we liked the one at Home Depot but really really liked the one at Sam's

So, I'm sure you can figure out which one we bought.

We decided we'd take both cars to go and pick it up. We didn't know how big the box would be, but our game plan was that we'd fold down the back row of my car in order to get the box in. Then Eli and Emma Kate could ride home in Philip's car.

Ummm....that plan was not so good. It took Philip multiple trips in my car with BOTH rows folded down to get the 3 (or maybe it was 4???) boxes home.

However, this is what we did for the first trip home (the one where we had all 4 kids with us).

We put the 2 car seats in Philip's backseat and then crammed Emma Kate in between them. She was oh so comfy...can't you tell? P.S. As always seems to be the problem at Sam's, I came home with another purchase in addition to the patio set. Pics to follow when it gets assembled!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Conversations with two almost 2 year olds

So here's the conversation I had with Zane and Zander this morning while we were on our way home after we had dropped Eli and Emma Kate off at school.

Me: "I'm going to call Grandma now."

Zane: "Maamah (Grandma) home?"

Me: "I don't know. I'm calling her to see."

Zander: "No Maamah home."

Me: "Grandma's not home?"

Zane: "Sleep."

Me: "Grandma's asleep?"

Zane: "U-huh."

Zander: "Bah-bahs (passy)."

Me: "Grandma has a bah-bahs?"

Zander: "Me-me (blankie)"

Me: "Grandma has a me-me?"

Zane: "U-huh."

Me: "I don't think Grandma has a bah-bahs or a me-me."

Zane: "Pah-paw (Grandpa) home."

Me: "I don't know if Grandpa is home. Grandma isn't."

Zane: "Pah-paw sleep."

Me: "You think Grandpa is asleep?"

Zane: "U-huh."

Zander: "Bah-bahs"

Me: "No Grandpa doesn't have a bah-bahs."

Zander: "Me-me."

Me: "No Grandpa doesn't have a me-me."

Zane: "Baff-room (bathroom)"

Me: "You think Grandpa's in the bathroom?"

Zane: "U-huh."

Zander: "Kuh-owwws (cows)" (this was as we past a field of grazing cows)

And that ended the conversation about the whereabouts & doings of Grandma & Grandpa. For the next 4 minutes until we got home, we discussed the cows and whether or not they were "sleep."

And that my friends and family is why I talk and talk and talk whenever I see another adult. I need crave adult conversation!

1st Grade Missionary Project

For a couple of weeks, me and Emma Kate have been working on a missionary project that was assigned to all the 1st grade students. Emma Kate chose to do her project on one of my parent's friends from Piggott, Jerry Morgan. I guess I shouldn't give him the label as just being friends of my parents. We have known him for many years also. Jerry was who Philip and I chose to marry us 11.5 years ago. He is such a good Godly man who is pretty much like family to us!

Having said that, because we left Piggott when Emma Kate was 6 months old, she doesn't know him as well as the rest of us do. When the assignment was first sent home, she and I talked about if she personally knew any missionaries. She said no, but I quickly reminded her about Mr. Jerry and told her that he is a missionary. She immediately decided to do her project on him and his work in Ukrainian orphanges.

We began by emailing him a few questions. I typed the email but Emma Kate picked out the questions to ask. Here are the questions she asked Mr. Jerry:

  • What is it like to be a missionary? Why did you choose to be a missionary?

  • What countries do you go to?

  • What can you tell me about that country? What are the people like? How do they live differently than we do? How do they live the same?

  • What do you do there? How often do you go? How long do you stay? Do you take things with you for those people? Do you like that country?

  • How do you tell the people about Jesus?

Mr. Jerry responded back in a few days with very thorough answers. And in case you didn't know it, God often uses our children (or in this case their school projects), to teach us valuable lessons. I was so touched and moved by Jerry's answers, by the love of Jesus that he shows to these children, and just by God showing me how over-abundantly blessed I am. The morning that I received Jerry's response email, I was in tears as I got to the end of the email. It just made me want to be the hands and feet of Jesus to others in need. Just like Jerry is doing. I want to go and visit them. I want to bring them home with me. I want to buy these children things. I want to love on them. For as long as I can remember, children have been my passion. From my 1st year of teaching, I learned that the love I have for children isn't just reserved for white children. That year I had a classroom full of African-American and Hispanic kids that I dearly loved. Now after emailing back and forth over the last few weeks with Jerry about these children, and seeing pictures of them, I know that the same love extends to these precious children in the Ukraine.

Do you see what I mean about me learning more from this than Emma Kate? This post is supposed to be about her project and I can't quit talking about how deeply I was impacted! But I will quit...for now.

Back on track....today was the presentation day. I was able to go to her class and video it (even though she told me that it would "freak her out" if I came). She presented it although I could tell she was either very nervous or scared (or maybe both). That girl is somethin' else. She'll get out on a gym floor in front of hundreds of people and perform all by herself, but if you ask her to talk....FUH-GET ABOUT IT!!!



So, here's her presenting her project entitled,

Mr. Jerry the Missionary and the almost ABC's

(you'll have to turn your speakers up as high as they will go to hear her tiny little voice. and even then you probably won't be able to tell what she's saying, so I've translated it below)



"Mr. Jerry the Missionary and the almost ABC's

A is for Alexsey and Mr. Jerry laid down beside him and petted him like a dog because he lived with dogs and goats.

B is for babies and there is a baby orphanage where that he talks about.

C is for children and there's children in the orphanages.

D is for diapers and the ladies make handmade diapers.

E is for expenses and our Grandma and Grandpa give him money every year to go and talk about Jesus.

**She accidentally skipped F & G. The poster says "From God." She was supposed to say that Mr. Jerry says being a missionary is like getting a hug from God everyday on this Earth.

H is for hair and they have red, blonde and brown hair just like us.

I is for items and he brings items and he brings items to everybody in the orphanages.

J,K, and L is for Jesus, Kind and Love and he acts like Jesus, he's kind to them and he loves them.

M is for magic and someone asked him to go and do a magic , his magic routine for them.

N is for nearly 2,000 children in the orphanages.

(O is for orphanages but she didn't say that) and there's a picture of one of the orphanages.

P is for pets and they have cats and dogs like us.

(S is for six but she didn't say that either) He goes six times every year.

(T is for transportation but again she didn't say that) They ride on a bus and it takes them 30 minutes to get everywhere.

(U is for Ukraine) Here's the Ukraine. Here's us and there is them over there. (as she points to the United States and then to the Ukraine.)

W is for wheelchairs and there's a wheelchair orphanages.

Y is for Yes! He said yes to go and do his magic routine.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Two almost 2 year olds

I can totally tell that the boys are going to be 2 VERY soon (as in next week). After getting most of our homeschool work done by 9:30am this morning, (thank you Providence teachers for lightening the workload just a bit during the last 2 weeks of school!) I loaded everyone up to run some errands in Fayetteville. We had 3 stops to make, all of which were things to be done for the boys birthday party.





  1. Rick's Bakery. I ordered their Elmo cake 2 weeks ago, but had to pay for it before picking it up. I wasn't prepared to pay for it the day I ordered it, so we went back to pay for it.


  2. Personally Yours. My awesome and amazing friend Bridget made Elmo shirts for the boys to wear at their party. All I had to do was take them in to get their names embroidered.


  3. Party City. Needed to buy all the Elmo party supplies.

The first 2 stops were quick, easy and uneventful. Our final stop was Party City. And this is where the fun began. I purposefully saved this one for last. My thinking was that the boys would be so excited to "see" and hold Elmo stuff that the excitement was best saved for last. We walked into the store and the boys immediately started yelling "MAH-OON" (balloon). We walked back to the aisle where the Elmo stuff was and they then started yelling "ELMO." This was all fine and good. The yelling doesn't bother me at all. We got what we needed and then walked to the front of the store to pick out some balloons and then pay. I had assigned Eli to hold one boy's hand and Emma Kate hold the other boy's hand. As I was paying, I heard Emma Kate say in a not-so-thrilled tone of voice, "Zander get up." I turn around to find Zander sprawled out on the floor. He was mad. He wanted one of the already inflated "mah-oons" to take home and Emma Kate said no. So, being that he's almost 2, he just threw himself down on the floor in protest. As the cashier is looking at what's going on in the floor, I know what he's thinking. "Good grief, lady. Can't you control your kids? If not, you should just leave them at home." So, I get the items all paid for, scoop Zander up off the floor and we walk out to the car. Now mind you that Zander is still screaming/crying all the way to the car, so I'm feeling a bit frazzled at this point. I open the car door and put Zander in. Turn around to get Zane and find him on all 4's in the parking lot. Zane is a frag-ile sort of child, can go from 0-90, laughing to crying, in 0.2 seconds. (and that has nothing to do with being almost 2. That's just Zane.) Apparently something "triggered" him right as we got to the car. Have no idea what it was, but his "I'm almost 2 years old" reaction was to throw himself down on all 4's in the parking lot. Lovely.


**I can't help but wonder if the cashier was looking out the window to see yet another on of my heathens children throwing a fit?!?

Friday, April 23, 2010

Game Night

We had Family Fun Game Night tonight after we put the boys to bed. As of right now, they are going to bed at 7:00pm and at that time of day, there is still plenty of light left outside, so it works out great!

The first game we played was Hyper Dash. Lots of fun with lots of running around and laughs!





This is the look and strut of a proud man who has just won a childs game against his wife and 2 oldest children!


Next, we played "Mother May I?" (which I think is a game that EK plays in PE sometimes)



After that, the mom and dad were worn out so we came inside for some board games!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Lens with a different view

Emma Kate loves to take pictures. Note that is VERY different than having your picture made. She does not like at all to have her picture made. But, she loves to have a camera or cell phone in her hand and take pictures. Here are the most recent pictures she's taken with my camera.

Zander using a washcloth to "wash" his hair....
Zander (or 1/2 of him anyway)....

Me taking Zander to lay down for a nap....

Self-portrait....

and me looking not-so-glamorous on a pajama homeschool day....

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Water Table

The little boys absolutely LOVE the water table that Mimi and Papa got them for their 1st birthday. Most days, if its warm enough, I just put them in swim clothes or a plain ole diaper when they are going to play with it. 'Cause I know any piece of clothing they have on is just going to get soaked. But this day, I didn't for whatever reason and YES, their clothes got soaking wet.
Zane's absolute most favorite thing to do is pour water in the funnel and watch it come out through the spinning wheel....


Zander likes any part of it that gets him wet....










Look at the concentration on that face....



Zander also LOVES to drink the water which I think is tee-total GROSS. He knows he's not supposed to, but I'm thinking by the lips-puckered-together-look on his face that he's just taken a big ole drink....





Normally he just drinks out of one of the 8,000 cups they are using to play with, but this glorious day he decided to try a new way of drinking the water....




I think he liked it!

So proud of himself!






Let me try that again...


Zane says "Have your fun your way. I just want to continue to pour the water."

It's all fun and games till Zander splashes himself on the face....


He immediately says "eyes towel." (which translates to wipe my eyes with a towel)