Better Late Than Never.....

Wow, I apologize for being such an absent blogger.  I feel so busy with work and family and life, but I think I can contribute a lot of my absence to “Words With Friends”.  My recent addiction to this Scrabble- like Smart Phone application pretty much takes up all my free time!  However, since I have another application (second favorite) called “List Master”, I have been keeping track of blog posts I wanted to write.  I have also since realized that I can actually type in a MS Word document while I am at my Customer Service job, so I am going to try and catch you up.  I was going to do separate blogs, but I think I will just summarize my list, and then try to get back on track!  Hm... I think I have said that before.

Gerbils:  Morgan found the gerbils in her closet!  It turns out that the Gerbil cage was left open and they escaped from the playroom.  At some point they made it to the kitchen and ate through a bag of tortillas in a grocery bag I hadn’t put away!  I wish I could have just let the front door open and let them really escape!   They are supposed to have a life expectance of one year; it has been about 17 months!  They stink.

Trampoline:  In case you haven’t heard on Facebook, or talked to us, we got a trampoline a few months ago.  We were going to get one for Christmas and were glad we didn’t when someone from Curtis’ work GAVE us a hardly used one!!  The kids love it and have so much fun!  The latest is jumping on it while the sprinkler is on!

Sports:  Graydon played soccer and he was SO good and so cute to watch!!  Schuyler and Morgan played Volleyball and really enjoyed it.  Morgan did Bounce Crew (basketball) awhile back, but I don’t think I ever blogged about that.  I still play and love my weekly soccer night!   Have videos of the kids, but never uploaded – sorry!

No More Bunk Beds:  The girls requested their own beds, so we disassembled the bunk beds.  They are still in the same room…. For now!

Spring Break:  Okay, it is summer, but I never blogged about Spring Break.  We went to our friend’s cabin and camped and just had so much fun!  We came back tired, and with several tics (river scene) – yuck!

Other Random:  Schuyler has been reading like one book per day!!!  Morgan has been having a terrible time getting up and going to school.  Graydon says that he lives in “Tescus” and it is so cute!!

Mother's Day

I have to say that I LOVE Mother's Day! I love, love, love the handmade gifts! This year I was a little overwhelmed making sure my 8 kids at school had something for their mothers that I didn't get anything for my three (sorry)! We had a great breakfast and then attended church.  We spent time with Bryan & Kristall, then I went and got a pedicure with two of my friends. We had our neighbors over for dinner and playing! It was a great balance of a day!

SCHUYLER

Schuyler (and Curtis) have been taking a few painting lessons with our neighbor.  For Mother's day she painted me this beautiful canvas painting of an orchid!  I wish I had a picture of the actual orchid, it looks just like this!  She also gave me a few "home" made cards and some cute flower pens she made in Brownie Scouts.  She didn't really bring anything home from school!?  Do they get a certain age and stop making stuff?  There was a paper from school which would have made my day all in itself.  It said:

Dear Mom, I love you because.... You help me clean my room.  Your eyes sparkle! 

You always look so pretty!  And sometimes you make me lunch! 

I love you Mom!  Happy Mother's Day!  Love, Schuyler

GRAYDON

His card just cracked me up!!  He is so funny!  The front of the card had a beautiful poem and the inside had this hand print butterfly and a quote from Graydon.  In case you can't read it - it says, "Happy Halloween!"  I loved it so much!

MORGAN

She had also made a few "home" made cards, a laminated colored bookmark, and this below card sent home from school.  One card simply said, "I hop you hav a Hape Mothrs Day Mom, love Morgan"  I loved it so much because she did it and it was colored and had bubble letters!

Bugz

The Lago Vista Elementary Second grade class put on a "Bugz" performance last night!  It was SO very cute, and had every kind of bug you can imagine with the most creative costumes (stink bug, lighten bug, fruit fly, ant, spider, cockroach, grasshopper, maggot, moth, caterpillar, butterfly, among others).  There were four songs, and everyone had a speaking part!  Schuyler was a yellow jacket and had the following speaking part directed to the stink bugs- she nailed it!  It was just such a fun, special, stinkin' cute performance!

"There's just not room for all of us.  Not in this neighborhood.  We'd just assume you went away and stay away for good!"

Schuyler with her good friends Jade Press (Lady Bug), and Raegan Cromwell (Monarch Butterfly less her wings).

Happy Easter: Schuyler Guest Post

Today I woke up to see what the Easter Bunny had brought…there was lots of candy, a book, a toy, bubbles and a new beach towel. The Easter bunny hid Easter-eggs all over the house. Me and Graydon found the most of them, there was lots of candy. Next we went to the church and had lots of fun, we had this game where whomever team had the most balls, that team would win! Our team won. After Sunday school, we went down to the football field where there were thousands of Eggs and in the middle of the field the words “ Happy Easter” were spelled out, but I didn’t see it. My basket was overflowing with eggs and so were Graydon’s and Morgan’s. I had to carry three extra eggs that’s how full my basket was.

Next, we went back home and we are going to have a family Easter Dinner together with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. Happy Easter!

Come Sale Away!

When it comes to the playroom and the kids toys I have always been a packrat.  I feel so bad giving away toys that the kids have received as gifts, and toys that I know someone paid good money for.  When I couldn't see the playroom floor for a few weeks, and when it was almost too overwhelming for me to clean up, I decided to get rid of stuff.  So the kids went through everything and we decided to have a garage sale!  The kids were so pumped about this!  We sent an email out to about 150 families, but had no other advertising.  We didn't get much foot traffic, but they sold toys, clothes, books, movies, popcorn and lemonade!  They made a $22.00 profit (after paying me back $3.00 for popcorn and lemonade).  They had so much fun preparing and hosting!

They really had A LOT of stuff, you only see about 1/3 here.  Schuyler had made wonderful signs everywhere, and colored some of the bubble letters with dollar signs and dollar bills!  About half of what we didn't sell will be donated, and ther other half we will bring up to a local consignment shop.  The kids will donate 10% to the Lago Vista Elementary PTO, because they are trying to raise money for new playground equipment! 

Other news:
No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth.  For awhile my free time was spent working on a 2010 family Snapfish album (no where near complete).  Other free times is spent playing Words with Friends (Scrabble) on my new Smart Phone!  I have several blog posts in the works and will try to be better!  :-)

Move over JB

So the door bell rang and everyone went running, as usual. I open the door and there is a tall boy standing there asking if Schuyler can play!! What?! His name is Trace and he lives nearby in PV. He stayed for the 30 minutes we had to spare and they just jumped on the trampoline. When he left, Schuyler said, "That was the best time ever!!!" Morgan immediately chimed in with, "Schuyler and Trace sittin' in a tree....."  He was very polite and nice.  Schuyler also made note that this was the first boy she had over that wasn't "this" big (holding her hand at her chest) or that was related to her!  So it starts.......?

Morgan works so hard on her reading a writing.  I find pieces of paper ALL over the house that state, "Yer the bast daddy and mommy I love you!"  Or just "I love you" and it includes a list of our names and all her friends names!  So sweet!  I put one in my wallet!

Look Ma - No Training Wheels

Guess who can ride her bike without training wheels??  On the first attempt!  M-O-R-G-A-N!!  Have you seen these push bikes with no peddles?  What a great idea!  I found Morgan's really little bike in the attic, so we took off the training wheels and the peddles.  She pushed around maybe three times for a few blocks each attempt getting her feel for balancing and then requested the peddles back.  So Curtis put the peddles back on, and this video is her second time riding with peddles and no training wheels - it is like "riding a bike" and it looks like she has been doing it her whole life!!  She rode this little bike about two more times, and has moved up to her normal big bike without training wheels! Amazing!

Other news:

• Schuyler has a crush on Justin Bieber, aka "JB" (see pic below).
• Morgan had the worst tummy bug ever (60+ kids were out of school - everyone has the flu and/or tummy bug).  Schuyler now has a fever.
• I finally have a new Smart Phone - a Droid X.
• I also just got a new laptop - spoiled!!!

These comments are from some time ago:
Morgan came home and said, "Mom, I am in love with Enrique! He is my boyfriend and I am his girlfriend! I am going to go over to his house, we are going to go in his bedroom, he is going to lock the door, and we are going to kiss!"

Schuyler was telling on Morgan for putting her middle finger up (even though Morgan wasn't, she was just showing a boo-boo). Morgan didn't understand the fuss and I explained that it was a bad word. Schuyler still wanted to tell Morgan what it meant, and I asked her what it meant, she whispered, "it means oh my God!"

I will have to check my brain for that answer???