"It's Cool in the Furnace"

Grady had the chance to be a star at church the other night. He performed "It's Cool in the Furnace" which is a small musical with a drama. When we started attending our church regularly, Grady started participating in a children's choir. He was excited to do this since he LOVES music, however, he felt he was far behind the others in learning his music. Let me tell you, that boy practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and practiced! He got all of his words down before the performace! I was able to help him a little bit, but he initiated a lot of the work on his own! The director told the children they needed to practice their music twice a week and Grady followed those directions EXACTLY!!! He is so funny!

One of Grady's favorite parts was playing the kazoo's. I now hear that lovely instrument daily - but it makes my heart happy that he was able to minister to others at such a young age!


Quite the performer!


What a cutie!

Exploration Place Field Trip....aka - Family Fun Day!

So Teacher Jenny decided to take her homeschool class on a field trip. Exploration Place is a family hands-on science museum. All of the activites are designed for younger children to dive in and explore around with. I invited a chaperone (aka Daddy) to be our bus driver and parent helper for this field trip. He took a day off work to spend as a Family Fun Day and we were truly excited about that after him having to travel so much with work.

So off we went . . . .
by the way . . . . this was our first adventure in our new van - which was very exciting just by iteself! :)


First stop - a seesaw that played music! Pretty cool to these students!

Ellison always out to make a new friend - anywhere!!! I asked her if she wanted to come along on our adventure - I think she was a little overwhelmed at our school size!!!

This set of pictures is at a castle themed area where much fun was had. Here is Grady galloping away from the bad guys!
Master Hudson and Master Grady

Spring loaded sea horses kept Anders attention for awhile!!!

This gives you a better picture of part of the museum! Since we registered as a homeschool, we got in quite cheap for a family of our size!

Ellie played us some beautiful music!

At dinner Ryan and I asked the students what their favorite part of the museum was. This particular event got many, many votes. They called it a roller coaster and I was surprised at how much speed they could get on this wooden contraption!!! This "roller coaster" was in the toddler section, so my older ones were able to go pretty fast on it!

Trying to dig his was out of a nap!

Ellie's potato head creation! This was mommy's - err, I mean the teachers favorite part - to sit and play with all the Potato Head pieces!


For a family with the majority being boys - this part of the museum was a total hit! ALL of my boys love trains - we have an electric train - it just hasn't gotten set up here in KS yet! We are hoping to get her up and running soon! This electric train model was a set up of Wichita in some earlier year - perhaps the teacher should have read more about the train model! :)

The next set of pictures the kids got to go into a contraption of some sort and feel what it would be like to be in a tornado. They all enjoyed it and gave the teacher some great photo ops!

I had some "boys" in particular that really enjoyed the last section of the museum. The Flight Area. Of course, I lost my chaperone's help during most of it! :) Here is Ellie and Hudson flying a simulator of a hang glider.

We had a great time on our Family Fun Day / Field Trip!

There she is....our new wheels! And I am loving it! So much space and room to move around without having to climb over anyone or anything!
Only part of the crew wanted to get in and explore! We are all moved in now and I will have to update when I get a picture of all the car seats in it. We are ALL enjoying the space!
We decided to go with a 15-passenger instead of the 12 for more cargo room. We are planning on taking out the very back seat that sits 4 to make room for groceries and Sam's runs. We also are looking forward to traveling and putting suitcases and such back there!

Peek-A-Boo!

Come and see us and we'll take you for a spin! :)

Big Boy Bed - Dorm Style!

So we finally got our second set of bunk beds done! My dad and Ryan got them built - and then it seemed like forever for us to get them sanded and painted! But alas, we got them done and I think they look GREAT!!! Yes, it's a little crowded - but we won't be in this house forever! Plus, the boys are much smaller than I am right now, so they don't have a problem with it at all! Ridge and Hudson bunk together with Ridge on the top and the other set is Grady and Anders, with Grady (of course!) on top!

Here is Yummy exploring his new beddy-bye! He loved climbing into it, however, later that night - he wasn't aware he actually had to sleep in it! He cried for about 10 minutes off and on and the resigned himself that it was where he was staying!
Now he is a little champ and loves his new bed!

CHEESE!

My awesome and hard-working husband allowed me to get new bedding for them all to match. I was hoping to find the same duvet covers to match from the previous set, but couldn't find them anywhere! So my honey offered to let me get exactly what I wanted - he is too sweet! Thanks Ry!

So here's the boy crew in their dorm! They love it and are great sports at sharing a room! The only tricky obstacle is closet room - we have been rather creative there!!!

Big Boy Coming Through.....

Anders William is quite the little handful these days! He has started throwing temper tantrums, whining excessively, and just overall being kinda hard to deal with. He definately takes some patience to deal with recently! So when I get these cute adorable moments with him, I snap the picture to help me rememebr daily how much I love him!!! :)

Always looking for a laugh!

So when my parents were here visiting my mom and I took the kids out to Applebees (of course, where else would my mom and I go, right mom?!) And the waitress made a reference to Anders about being a girl. I chuckled and dismissed it while Nana stood her ground and defended Anders. It was shortly after that, that I decided it was time to cut off Anders head - that's right - time for his Big Boy Batchelor Buzz! All of my boys have clipper cuts in some way or another. Some use scissors on top, some buzz all around. Mommy is the designated buzzer, so as to save $36 every month! Anders had been getting scissor cut, but I decided on a whim to go ahead and clipper cut his back! So, while Ryan was off working in the garage on the bunk beds, my mom and I got busy on cutting hair! Here is the finished product, which you can't really see too well. But he looks exactly like Hudson now with the new 'do!!!

And of course, I love me some tubby-time pictures! I hadn't brought the camera into the bathroom for a long time, so these are way over due as well! Enjoy!

More to come on Anders! To give you a little preview - he has moved into the bunk beds in the boy's room - so stories and pix to come of that later on! :)

Another Typical Day!

On any given day - if you dropped by our house, you would find us looking like.....


Today - we find 1 race car driver - whom seems to be hiding in the background!
1 gymnast, 1 Bob the Builder, and 1 monkey boy! This changes by the minute, this is just when I happen to capture to moment with my camera! The more I look at the picture - don't they seem like loving, happy children whom never fight with each other! Who knows how many battles I disengage throughout the day!

My Happy Monkey Boy make me laugh daily! "Oh Hudson" is what you hear me saying most days several times a day! :)