We survived

Another Halloween has come and gone. The more children we have the more it seems like we're just surviving the whole week!

Kalleigh's class party was Wednesday, then Trunk-or-Treat was that night. Johnathan was a pirate because he had gotten toothpaste all over his Batman costume. Yeah. Then when we got to the church building, he realized that he had left his pirate hat at home. Kalleigh was a cheerleader, complements of Uncle Kreg and Aunt Keleigh, and Jonas was a dalmatian puppy.

Here's the slide show from the party and Trunk-or-Treat:

Thursday night, Clearly Vocal did a free concert for our church friends. It was supposed to just be us basically singing through our repertoire for the 12 people who might want to help us out and be and audience for us. But it turned into a bigger production than that. We thought, "Hey, why don't we serve dessert and coffee, too?" And more people wanted to come. Then, "Well, if more people are coming we should set up the light trees along with all of our sound equipment!" And more people wanted to come. So, of course, we needed to dress up in our fancy singing attire with the guys in jackets and everything. I made two pies (Mamaw's Fall Pumpkin Pie and Mom's Green Apple Pie), my good friend Chelsea made a turtle pie and a yummy strawberry dessert, Stef, our soprano, made brownies, and Danny's wife Jeanne brought pumpkin cheesecake! We cut little pieces, and served over 50 people! We sang well, and I think the our friends enjoyed it. Thanks to all of you who were there to support us. That means so much! And especially thanks to Jeanne and Chelsea who cleaned up. I am SO grateful for your help.

On Friday, Johnathan had his class party. He went as Indiana Jones. Of course, at school they can only wear crazy hats instead of a full costume, but Johnathan and I figured that the rest of Indiana Jonas's costume counted as regular school clothes. He wore his Indiana Jones hat, complements of Nana, with pride. As I aimed to take my first picture, the camera batteries died. Of course they did.

That evening we went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with our kids ... and dogs. John helped Johnathan get his Batman costume, complements of Aunt Laurie, back into shape which he wore over his Mr. Incredible costume from last year so that the muscles would look big! Kalleigh and Jonas kept their same costumes. John actually dressed up as Indiana Jones and borrowed Johnathan's whip to carry around. When I saw John dressed up, I decided to dress up as Willie (from The Temple of Doom), complete with blond wig, and be his sidekick. Oh rats; we didn't any pictures of that. ;) The dogs wore their sweaters since they have outgrown the Men In Black tuxes they wore about five years ago!

After that we drove over to Danny's house because he had decorated his house all up and wanted us, uh, I mean our kids to see it. :) We walked up to the house and there was Frankenstein waiting to greet us at the door. When Johnathan rang the doorbell, Danny pushed the button that made the Frankie statue dance to "Thriller!" Pretty cute. We went inside and Jeanne had a spread of finger foods on the table and tomato juice to drink. I was pretty thirsty after an evening of trick-or-treating, and the kids were, too. I spooned some tomato juice into a little cup and gave some to Johnathan, knowing he wouldn't like it. "Eww!" he said as he pulled back after taking a sip. I chuckled to myself. Kalleigh said, "May-yI peas haf dink?" "Yes you may," I said, and knew her reaction would be the same as Johnathan's. She took a sip and I said, "Do you like it?" She shook her head and in a rather high-pitched voice said, "No!" Again, I chuckled. Glad that the children wouldn't be asking me to share my drink anymore, I took a sip. Whew, it sure was strong tomato juice. Another sip. Man, I didn't remember tomato juice being that strong I mean, it had been a while since I had had any. But not to be rude, another sip. Wait a minute ... Sniff. Of course. It's Halloween. Bloody Mary. Oh my goodness, I'm SO naive. And I had give my CHILDREN some. Good grief! Jonas started fussing about then, so we packed up and headed home!

And here we are. Happy November. We all wore shorts and short sleeves today! Johnathan played his last soccer game, but just barely. He slipped on the curb and scraped his knee and the world nearly came to and end. But he survived and went on to play just fine. After the game, Johnathan's coach gave him the blue star that Johnathan believes means "Best Ever!" I can't bring myself to tell him that it's "Best Effort!"

Tonight I cooked a fabulous meal, if I do say so myself. We had Italian Breaded Pork Chops, Baked Acorn Squash (you need to read this and all of the Pioneer Woman's recipes--they're hilarious!), steamed peas, and Mamaw's Amish Friendship Bread. Oh yum.

I'm headed to bed. My clock says 11:09 pm, but of course I know it's "really" 10:09 pm, so it doesn't feel as late. Don't forget to set your clocks back!

Trick-or-Lousy Trick

The trick was using John's drill to carve out the teeny-tiny spaces of the pug pumpkin.

Here it is with the flash:

The lousy trick was spilling the guts out.

ALL.

OVER.

THE PLACE.

Words of Wisdom

Oh the whining and complaining heard at our house. It's just something I don't handle well at all. Neither John nor I puts up with it, and we've started introducing the age-old phrase, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I'm reluctant to use phrases like that, but after all, it's right, isn't it?

So today John was talking to Johnathan and offered another one of these seemingly appropriate truisms, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit." Johnathan said, "Yeah, I know that AND, 'If you can't say anything right, just don't say anything.'"

I'd say that's valid. :)

Favorite Video

Just thought I'd share my kids' favorite YouTube video right now. It always brings a smile to my face, too. :)

Pumpkin Punks

Johnathan's class, the Green Room, took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Jonas and I tagged along. Kalleigh's class, the Blue Room, is too young to go on field trips, so she missed out this year.

And now, 12 of my favorite pictures from the pumpkin patch.

One more so that the middle child isn't totally left out:

Photo Tag

Sorry, Britney, for taking so long to do this!

This one is definitely a random tag. All you do is post the sixth picture from your sixth picture file. I think I'll change it a bit and post the first from the first, the second from the second ... all the way up to 10. So here goes, my random assortment of pictures--no cropping or cheating of any kind:

First from the first:

From the "2006" folder, "April," Dad's wedding: Kreg, the best man.

Second from the second:

From the "2007" folder, "April" (because it's alphabetically first, of course), our family Easter picture.

Third from the third:

From the "2008" folder, "April," the percussion set used by one of the bands at the Denton Arts and Jazz Festival that John and I attended. We wanted to get a good idea of what one looked like so we would know what to get for Group Therapy. We have and use ours now. :)

Fourth from the fourth:

From the "Adobe" folder, outgoing email attachments, Kalleigh's first Sunday.

Fifth from the fifth:

From the "Attachments" folder, Abby, Kalleigh's best friend. (Taken last November.)

Sixth from the sixth:

From the "Bread Making" folder, Mamaw rolling out the dough for cinnamon rolls. Not sure why I didn't put this file in the May 2006 folder. I think I'll move it. :)

Seventh from the seventh:

From the "Clearly Vocal" folder, the original four.

Eighth from the eighth:

**Removed ... just to be safe. :) **

LOL ... this was from a series of pictures from a company called Healthy Figures. They hired me to scrap some before and after pictures of people. This was a before (obviously!). I'm sure I don't have permission to post this. Anyway, it's from the "Healthy Figures" folder.

Ninth from the ninth:

From the "Horses" folder, Gallant. Yeah, I sold him.

Tenth from the tenth:

From the "John and Kim" folder, Harding Academy, one of the many pictures I scanned for our Harding Academy Class of '97 Facebook group. Matt Milligan and I on the KAT hayride, fall '96, I think.

Feel free to shuffle through your photos and do the same thing!

Nominated

This tag, uh ... nomination, is from Deborah who nominated me among others for the I *heart* your blog award. Thanks!

To accept this nomination, I must answer the following questions with one word answers and nominate 10 other blogs for the "I heart your blog" award.

1. Where is your cell phone? unsure
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? strong
5. Your father? generous
6. Your favorite thing? family
7. Your dream last night? intense
8. Your dream/goal? faithful
9. The room you're in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? scrapping
11. Your fear? snakes
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Tyler
13. Where were you last night? rehearsal
14. What you're not? stacker
15. One of your wish-list items? sweater
16. Where you grew up? Searcy
17. The last thing you did? Facebooked
18. What are you wearing? short-sleeves
19. Your TV? off
20. Your pet? pugs
21. Your computer? laptop
22. Your mood? content
23. Missing someone? Mom
24. Your car? mini-van
25. Something you're not wearing? socks
26. Favorite store? Kohl's
27. Your summer? pregnant
28. Love someone? John
29. Your favorite color? red
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? August (?)

Okay, here are my 10 nominees:

Amanda R.
Amanda M.
Britney
Chelsea
Daisha
Heather
Kira
Kisti
Reagan
Sandi

Feelin' Groovy

I take no credit for this whatsoever. Kristi did it first on Facebook, and I totally copied her. But if you have a couple of extra minutes to put off whatever else you need to be doing, you should check out yearbookyourself.com. It's just pretty fun. Here's me from 1960:

Tagged ...

... by Chelsea, so here goes.

1. Where was I ten years ago?
In October, 1998 I was a sophomore at Harding singing with Good News, planning the Shantih Spring Sing show, changing my major from biology to accounting, living on the third floor of Harding Place, making frequent runs to the Fina for chili-cheese fries, driving my first car, and terribly missing my boyfriend of six months, John, who was working on his masters at ACU.

2. What was on my to-do list today?
Tanna's voice lesson at 2:30. Check.
Download two Point of Grace songs. Check.
Continue catching up on life at home. Check.

3. What would I do if I were a billionaire?
Pay off all our debt, fully fund the kid's college accounts, pour money into cancer research, give generously at church, build a house on a working ranch with a massive scrap room so I could have scrap retreats at my house and ride good horses.

4. Five places I have lived:
Ft. Worth, Texas
Memphis, TN
Searcy, AR
Colorado Springs, CO
Tyler, TX

5. Bad habits:
procrastinating
over-committing
late-night snacking
yelling at the kids
being too critical

Feel free to consider yourself tagged, even if you've done this one before!

So typical

I just thought I'd give you a glimpse into our lives on the rare occasion that we have the day at home. These are the most common sights these days:

Johnathan, in underwear, jumping around playing the Wii; Jonas's containment gear scattered around.

Kalleigh, in diaper, throwing a fit on the floor. This one happened to be as a result of me telling her not to touch the camera lens, resulting in this blurry picture.

And poor Jonas is STILL in the swing ... not buckled up.

I suppose I could've taken a picture of myself at the computer with no makeup and a bed-head, but who wants to see that? Please don't answer.

All that being said, I LOVE staying at home when I can. It would totally drive me nuts to do it for more than a couple days in a row, but when it's about once a week, it's perfect!

I'm alive.

Don't worry faithful readers, I'm alive and well. We went out of town that first weekend in October and only just today do I feel caught up. It was just a weekend, but man! We pretty much all felt like this:


Finally today I feel caught up ... mostly. It just took us a while to get back into our life groove!

I'll try to go over the highlights of the past few weeks.

While John was in Nashville at the ZOE Conference that weekend, the kids and I stayed in Searcy. Thursday was Kalleigh's birthday, so Mom had made her a princess cake. I'm hoping Mom will send a picture to me since I didn't get any of the cake! We spent some good time with Momo Friday morning before heading out to the farm to see Mamaw and Papaw. Rachel also came over with Abby, so that was fun! On Saturday, Mom and I (and Jonas) got a lot of important shopping in while Kreg and Keleigh did a marvelous job on "kid-duty" keeping Johnathan and Kalleigh. If you're "friends" with Keleigh on Facebook, you should look at her pics from the day. We celebrated Kreg's birthday after church at IHOP and then we headed home.

Jonas & Abby -- just one day apart!

Namesake

Kalleigh started "Little People's School" the Monday after we got home. She goes Monday and Wednesday mornings while Johnathan is also in school. Those are fabulous mornings for Jonas and me!

Kalleigh and Ms. Carys on the first day.

"The Blessing," our five-voice ladies group from church, was invited to and sang at the Hawkins Oil Festival last weekend. We were one of five groups/bands/dance teams (!) to perform! (Hawkins is a little town just north of Tyler.) We even got a thank-you letter from the city of Hawkins!

The five of us ... at least this time. We've never sung with the same five ladies twice!

Clearly Vocal is performing twice over the next two weeks, and anyone can come hear us at these! Friday the 16th we're singing at the Azalea Trails assisted living center at 5 pm. Then Next Thursday the 22nd we'll sing at KE Cellars at 7pm. Again, anyone can come to either one of these.

And for those who have asked, and you're so kind, the rest of Johnathan's soccer schedule:

10/18 -- 10 am
10/25 -- 8 am
11/1 -- 10 am

All games are played at the Colonial Hills Baptist Church on S Broadway across from Target.

And here's what today is like:


And now you're caught up. There you have it. :)

Happy Birthday, John!

The man I love is 34 today! It's a special number to us. Kind of one of those silly dating "things." While we were dating it just seemed like we saw the number 34 everywhere. If a book fell open, it would be to page 34. If we looked at the clock it would be Whatever:34. The inspection number on a new shirt ... you got it. So, it's kind of a silly thing, but it does remind us of those fun dating times when we got all excited when we saw "our number."

Love you, Honey!

Normal

I loved Kristi's post about her normal, and I thought I'd give it a try. I'll opt for the list version. Left-brained, perhaps? Uh, yeah.

Changing diapers
Being in a hurry
Church
Ladies' Bible Class
Rehearsals galore
Finding childcare
Changing diapers
Nursing
Waking up at 4, then 7
Soccer practice
Blogging
Facebooking
Stepping on toys
Picking up toys
Changing diapers (did I say that already?)
Laundry
Running, when convenient
Singing gigs
Driving
Scrapping
Cooking (occasionally)
Laughing at funny kids sayings

I guess that's it in a nutshell. I'd love to see your normal, too!

Oh, here's the funny kid saying of the day:
Johnathan, playing the Wii game, Batman: "Mom! I need to buy this character, Bunny Girl!"
Me, half listening: "Uh-huh."
Johnathan: "Do you see her, Mom? It's Bunny Girl."
Me, still not even realizing he's talking: "Uh-huh."
Johnathan: "Mom! You gotta come see Bunny Girl. I need to buy her!"
Me, realizing that he's talking to me, and finally looking at the screen: "Ha, ha, ha! Oh, Johnathan, that's Catwoman!"
Johnathan: "Yeah, Catwoman!"

Vocabulary Explosion

Kalleigh's vocabulary is going through another growth spurt, which can be really funny, of course. The problem is, as all parents know, when they start saying the phrases that you say all the time ... the ones you don't realize you say all the time! Then there are the words that you have no idea what they mean, so you ask the four-year-old to interpret for you. Here are just a few examples that I can remember from the past two days:

In the van, Kalleigh: "Mommy, ahnna hear own-choo, own-choo nake."
Me: "You want to hear what?"
Kalleigh: "Ahnna hear own-choo, own-choo nake."
Me: "Johnathan, do you know what she's saying?"
Johnathan, in an exasperated voice: "She wants to listen to Don't you, don't you step on a snake."
Which is the first line in the Real Group's Big Bad World. Of course.

At McDonald's. Kalleigh is playing and John and I are talking about something very important that was demanding all of our attention. (I have no idea what it was now!) We hear Kalleigh say, "Hee I am! I kymed!" And she was up in the high chair how? She climbed! Oh, she's my child.

Then this morning I noticed that any time Kalleigh needed to get past someone who was in her way, she would say, "Watch out!" "Where'd she get that?" I wondered, and I told her that she needed to say, "Excuse me, please." A little later, Kalleigh was playing with the magnets on the front of the refrigerator. I needed to put the juice away, and as I reached for the handle, I said, "Watch out!" Good grief. "I mean, excuse me please!"

A new life stage

We've entered into a new life stage in our family. Soccer. Today was Johnathan's first soccer game. Ever. We're in a Christian league organized by one of the big Baptist churches here in town. I had heard so many positive comments about this program versus the Tyler city league, so we decided to give it a try. The teams say a prayer together after the game, and there is a lot of emphasis on being Christ-like out on the field. Then, of course, there's the additional bonus of learning the game of soccer and what it means to be a part of a team!

Johnathan had a blast out there and earned the "best defense" award for this game! That's my boy!

Ready to play!

Pep talk from Daddy.

He started and got to kick off!

Seeing some action.

Best Defense sticker!

One of the little girls on his team scored two goals during the game. At one of his breaks, I said, "McKinsey is doing really good, too, isn't she?" (J)"Yeah! She got to score!" (Me)"You should tell her good job!" He did his little grin-with-an-eyebrow-raise and turned to go tell her 'good job.' Then he stopped, turned around and said, "I'll probably just give her a high-five." Oh yeah; much cooler. :)

Sick baby girl

Kalleigh has her two-year molars coming in. New teeth are always accompanied by a runny nose, a yucky cough due to the drainage from said runny nose, and a low fever. It's sad when she doesn't feel very well, but ........


..... it sure makes for one very sweet little girl! So calm and cuddly!

I out-shuffled my dog.

No, really.

When I run (and I use that word in the loosest way possible) in the mornings, I always take my dog, Bison off-leash. He always stays right with me, with the exception of an occasional pee here and there. Bison, not me. Belle stays at home because she does not stay with me at all and I don't want to take her on a leash. Besides, she has hip dysplasia and can't go that far anyway.

This morning, Bison and I started out on our regular route. Our neighborhood has three parallel streets and two that connect them on each end. A figure eight plus one big loop is 2.1 miles. Well, less that a quarter of a mile into our route, we saw some friends. I guess Bison decided that he didn't feel like running this morning, because he went right over to them and sat down. I figured that he would catch up when he felt like it, but I kept getting further away and Bison wasn't going anywhere!

I finished the figure eight I had started and went back by our friend's house on the last big loop, and there was Bison. Our friends had left, but Bison was just sitting in their driveway. I guess he figured I'd be passing by again and he just thought he'd sit out for that figure eight. He rejoined me and we finished the big loop.

Crazy dog? Smart dog? You make the call!

Poor tired dog!

Pictures from yesterday

Jonas started grinning a couple of weeks ago, and this was my first successful capture! Who's he smiling at? Daddy, of course. :)

Sweet brothers!

Similarities

Keleigh took these while she, Kreg, Tami and Taylor were here. They swung through on their way to Harding to meet Jonas and be there for Johnathan's soccer try-outs back in August. See any similarities?!


Kalleigh and Mommy


Johnathan and Daddy

We did not pose for these pictures.

And a side note: Jonas slept from 11 until 5:30 last night. I hadn't gotten that much sleep in over a month! I felt fully rested! So I went jogging! I went two miles, though I had to walk about a half a mile of it. Whew, I have a long way to go to get back into shape. But, hey, it was the first step, right? I'm going to be so sore tomorrow (and the next day, and the next ...)! While I was pregnant, I had no way of telling the "Wii Fit" that my incredible obesity was due to the pregnancy. It kept asking me if I knew the causes of my weight gain, and pregnancy was not one of the options to choose! Now it is a little concerned that I've lost "so much" weight in such a short time!

Jonas photo shoot -- 5 weeks

Here's a shout out to my good friend Chelsea for taking these pictures this morning! Isn't she amazing? And these were just my favorites!

Enjoy!

15 minutes

I've never had professional lawn guys do our lawn before. Until today. A friend from church set it up for us as a baby gift! I was such a nerd. I was so geeked out about their heavy duty lawn equipment that I took pictures! I don't think they knew, because I just cracked the blinds open just far enough to snap the pictures!

The front yard. That thing is like a mini bush-hog!

The back yard. Here, they guy is moving the swing set. I guess there was some good that came from not bolting that down! And look at that mower! Way cool.

It had been SO long since the back yard had been mowed that the guys had to ask if these were weeds or bushes and what to do with them! No, they're not bushes.

It takes me about three solid hours to mow and edge the front and back yards. The four of them did it in 15 MINUTES. No joke. Like magic!

One month, really? (well yesterday, anyway)

Jonas, has it really been a whole month? (A whole month without a good night's sleep?!) I wouldn't trade it for the world! I love you my sweet baby boy!

Okay, maybe he's not quite ready for the Bumbo ...