Everyone has left and it's just the kids, myself and my parents at the lake now. We had a lot of fun the last two and a half days. Here are some photos to show you what we've been up to:

Aunt Jennifer with Anne Morgan, Drake, Sophie, Christopher and Hunter watching who knows what on tv. We actually didn't do much of this, but it was the best way of getting everyone distracted when fights were getting out of control.



We rode miles and miles on the plasma cars. Oddly enough you don't have to weigh the most to win races. Watch out for next month's issue of Hot Rod magazine. This little cutie just might make the cover.



And look for this little beauty anywhere her mommy and daddy are. She will be one in July and has been doing lots of walking lately. She is second to plasma cars on the list (the kids' list, not adults) of popular things when this family gets together.


The boys had their first crush this weekend. Mom and Dad's neighbors have two children that are so kind and love coming over to visit. Gracen (sp?) will be in the 3rd grade next year and the boys were totally smitten with her. Christopher would tell everyone she was here when she would come over to play. If you asked him where his "girlfriend" went he respond quickly without thinking twice about what you just said. Oh boy.


The boys went on an adventure to meet more neighbors. They love to make new friends and explore in the woods.


Lights that we hung up for the holiday weekend. I have a feeling they will make an appearance in several weeks when we all meet back here again.


Caroline was sweet enough (and smart enough) to help Sophie finish off Christopher's ice cream when he was full. Lots of these were eaten this weekend too!


Christopher, Hunter and Drake had more fun jumping off the dock and swimming this year. I can't wait until Sophie reaches this point, but she's a little afraid right now. There is peace in having your children comfortable around water. This is one of the things we work on at a very young age. Hopefully Sophie will be there by the end of the summer.





The boys playing in the pile of dirt next to the driveway. They love getting dirty. Then clean. Then dirty again. Then swimming. Eventually we just quit bathing them.

The kids and I are going to be around a little bit longer and are looking forward to visiting with some friends while we are here. This is my favorite place on earth and so thankful that my parents decided to live here. (Thank you to Kyle and Caroline for the photos. I never pulled my camera out the whole time.)

i appreciate those of you who appreciate my honesty. those who don't, well, you just don't understand what it's like to be us. and they probably don't read my blog very much. (or they won't after today.)

just wanted to say that we are having a better day. except i keep hearing, "mommy, you have to play with me." and "mommy, will you please play with me?" and no matter where i am i seem to be i have ZERO personal space. and i need that. just ask anyone who knows me.

what is it with little kids wanting to on top of you all the time? i'm losing train of thought. i figured out why the last few days have been so "moody" and that made me feel better. don't you hate that? you feel out of control and yell and stuff and then wake up one morning and think, "oh, THAT'S why!" gotta love it. ok, i better run before i get in trouble for being "too honest" again.

I am ready to get out of town. We are going to the lake this weekend and I can't wait. The kids and I are frustrating each other. I'm not exactly sure what is behind all of it, but I think we are just on each other's nerves. And now they fight with each other. Like punching each other fight. So far it hasn't been hard enough to seriously hurt anyone, but still. They are either being rude, pulling on my clothes, won't stop when I tell them to (after saying it numerous times and getting louder), making dirty messes, WHINING when asked to do anything, rubbing all over my legs (which I find totally annoying by the way) or constantly at my feet. I feel like I have these tiny little yippy dogs at my feet that I'm trying not to step on, but they won't go away either.

Now I want to make clear that I do not find my children as annoying as tiny little yippy dogs, but they are just always at my feet. My poor husband wonders why I don't want to sit next to him, much less cuddle, at night. It's b/c Christopher has rubbed all feeling off of my legs and Sophie has tried to rip my clothes off, literally, or climbed all over me (whether I'm sitting or standing) ALL... D A Y... L O N G.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was ordering lunch at Chick-fil-a and Sophie grabbed hold of my jeans pocket and swung from it? Feet off the ground and moving side to side. Yes, and she's 35 lbs. How this old pair of jeans did not rip I will never know, but I am thankful for me and the poor young man that was taking my order that they didn't.

On the upside Sophie is going potty more often. She went about 3 times yesterday. Maybe this is why I'm so grumpy? I hate potty training. It means extra work on my part, but it's worth it in the long run. I hate diapers even more. Well, maybe not. I'll let you know. I think I'm just worried how long it will take. Everyone swears, "Oh little girls are easy!" or "It only takes a couple days to train little girls!" I have my doubts. Sophie's not very girly.

On the downside, Christopher has been mean to everyone and even got sent to time out at school for calling people names. This trait annoys me to no end and I don't know how to fix it other than putting duct tape over his mouth. He makes up words to call people names, he also uses stupid, poopy, ugly, bad and all sorts of other combinations. He is so mean to his friend William that I don't even want to get together with them sometimes b/c I don't want to deal with the way he acts.

Surely there will be an upside to this weekend. Mostly b/c my family is all going to the lake and it always makes me happier when I'm with family. It will be difficult b/c Brandon is leaving this weekend to go on a 2 week mission trip to the Dominican and I always worry when he travels. I can handle being away from him for a few days, but the kids get grumpier when the "fun" parent is gone. I just have those fears that something will happen and we aren't even in the same country. Thankfully the kids keep me busy enough I don't have time to think about it. Now I feel bad b/c I sent the kids to any room to play b/c I was tired of the crying and constant asking to build something with legos that I have no idea how to build (doesn't care that I just spent 30 minutes building 2 different trucks) and they are back there as happy as they can be reading books to each other.

Talk about guilt.

Love you kids!

Another upside.... when we get back the splash pad on base will finally be up and running again!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Why they wait until the last day of May... in FLORIDA... to turn sprinklers on I will never understand.)

This weekend we took our first trip to Crab Island. We rented a boat with the Ramages and loaded up Saturday morning for our adventure. We'd never been before b/c I wasn't ready to deal with two kids on a boat, with one being a baby. But Sophie has proven herself to not scream "like a baby" when wearing a life jacket so I was finally ready. We had a blast and I could have spent the whole day out there. (For those of you who do not know what Crab Island is, it's an area in the bay that is very shallow and boats just gather there, drop anchor and you swim and play until your heart's content.) Here's the photos:

Christopher and William were "chillin' like a villan" (the kids phrase for the day) up at the front. These boys are trouble when you get together, but so cute at the same time. They love and fight just like brothers. I fear for their teachers if they are in the same pre-school class next year.


Matt doing what Matt does best.... being himself. The phrase for the day was, "I'm on a boat!," but it must be said like a rapper in a music video (do they still make those?) surrounded by booty-licious women with tiny bikinis and high heels dancing around. You got a visual? Yeah, Tiff and I did NOT look like that. But thanks for playing!

They have a little ice cream boat that rides around with music playing just like the ice cream truck. We had to get some. Sophie loved it. Can you tell? We were out on a boat, playing in the water. A must have. There is also a hot dog and sometimes a burger boat. And we've seen a massive blowup slide before too.

Christopher has never shown a fear of water. A good and bad thing, but last year he really learned how to swim with a life jacket on and this year he's doing even better. Now he's perfecting the dive and we are laughing our heads off b/c they always end in a belly flop, but he's never said it hurts. Hey, he looks awesome going in so does it matter how he lands? Oh, and we did not teach him this diving method. We are trying to put fear into him, but he's not understanding it. I'm just glad he's a good swimmer.

William had never jumped off of anything before yesterday and did a great job. The rest of the day he jumped off the boat like he'd done it a million times before. We were so proud of him!

Sophie jumping off the boat. She is really enjoying the water now. I had hoped it wouldn't take long, but you never know with kids. She gets very excited when she starts kicking her legs, even though she's still straight up and down in the water. Gotta start somewhere!

Happy little girl. : )

(I had to remove the rest of the story due to embarrassment of my family. Sorry!)

that's how i feel today. woke up with a strange headache, my jaw feels like i'd been punched by a kid on each side of it and any time i bend over to pick something up i feel slight sinus pressure. none of it is severe, but it's just enough that i notice it. making it annoying.

i've folded some laundry, started all new loads again and now i'm listening to sophie read eat your peas, which is so funny i've got to record it one day. she cracks me up!

here's a funny for you about sophie. christopher and i were reading out of his bible the other day and he wanted to hear the story of adam and eve. there was a point in the story that talks about how God loves everyone, but satan doesn't want us to believe that. i asked him if God loved him and he said yes. i asked him if God loved everyone and he said yes. i asked him (i know, even i'm annoyed right now) if he loved mommy, daddy and sophie. he said yes. BUT sophie was sitting on the other side of me, minding her own business and yells out, "NO JESUZZ WUV ME!!!" i turned to her and said, "Jesus loves you." i get a "NO! JESUZZ NOT WUV ME. DADDY WUV ME!" right back. i tried really hard not to laugh, but egged her on instead and then gave up b/c she was getting upset that i wasn't understanding her.

that girl. she's gonna wear me out.

thank goodness i love her so much!
she has no idea.

Today I'm going to tackle the laundry and try to "clean" the house. Two jobs that are never officially done or even look like they've been done once you are finished. I'm also going to work on Christopher's attitude and Sophie's potty training. I have a LOT on my plate today. Here's what the kiddos are doing.

Christopher has already been in time out a couple times and had a few meetings with my hand. He has become very rude and disrespectful to me mostly, but also to other adults and well, everyone. So today we are dedicating ourselves to begin fixing that problem. I've had it up to as high as my hand can reach in the air of him yelling "NO!" at me and yelling orders at Sophie and saying, "I'm tiiiiiiired" when he doesn't want to do something. After about an hour of on and off fighting we are doing better and now he is playing Mater on the Wii while sitting on top of a pile of sheets that haven't been folded for a couple days.


Sophie has gone potty at least once each of the last three days without me asking her if she needed to go first. She just told me that she needed to go potty so we ran back there and had success. We cheered and clapped together and then got down. Put a sticker on our potty chart that came in the mail (along with coupons for the pulls ups I'd bought the day before - without a coupon) and then she said she needed to go poo poo. We grabbed some books and went and sat down. A little while later she yelled saying she needed more books. I got 3 more. Next thing I know she is in Christopher's room grabbing as many off the shelf as she can and needs help taking them back to the bathroom. Since I started writing this, she has given up and just wanted to bring the books in the den with the rest of us. But she sure was cute sitting there in "the library." (I love when she fixes her own hair! It always looks like this, but a different headband.)

Here's to hoping it's a good day and to knowing I don't have to fix dinner tonight b/c we have leftovers.

We've had some great company over for dinner the last two nights and it makes me very excited about the upcoming year and the new families moving here. I was very upset about our friends moving, but forgot for a little while how God always provides for us when in need. My friend Tiff that you hear about so much still has no clue where, when or if they are leaving. But if they end up having to leave us too, I'm glad that I will have friends here on base to spend time with. I thank God that He gave me the opportunity to live around the people we did and form the friendships we have. Next year it will be us moving, but I'm not going to think about that right now. I am however going to join the yard sale the ones who are moving will be having so I can go ahead and get rid of a lot of stuff. Brandon, just turn your head b/c I'm going to haul as much out there as I can! If we haven't used it in 6 years it's outta here!

I told you I would put photos of the crafts that we made at MOPS this year and here they are. The only one I didn't have a photo of was the ornaments that we made at Christmas. They were really cute, but mine is put away with the other ornaments. I'll tell you how we made them at the end of this post.

Along with the following crafts we try to do some service projects and this year we did Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, we filled Easter bags (easier than baskets) for families in a neighborhood that a group from the church (SOS) provides supper for on Saturdays and we also made card kits for Kidslink Downrange, an organization that provides cards for children who have a parent deployed so they can stay in touch with each other.

I can't take credit for all of these crafts b/c I searched all summer for ideas and unfortunately I can't remember where I found them.

1) Magnetic note pad: use a 4x6 magnetic photo frame, slide a piece of scrapbook paper inside, add a ribbon for detail, glue a post-it pad on there and add a clip to the top to set your pen on. I forgot to put a pen on it for the photo and just didn't feel like going back to add it.



2) Fridge magnets: I found large glass gems (1.5" in diameter) online and ordered those along with magnets to make these. I tried regular scrapbook paper, but the magnet showed through once you glued them on, so I bought scrapbook card stock that was printed on both sides. I used E6000 glue to stick it all together.



3) Personalized soap bottle: use scrapbook paper, scrapbook scissors and modge podge to make this cute little addition to your kitchen sink. I got some stickers to put on there to make them more personal. I suggest using the glossy modge podge and make sure you paint a layer or two over the whole thing when you are done to make sure it is sealed nicely.


4) Photo albums: use those 4x6 flip books you can find at pretty much any store. Use scrapbook paper and some stickers to personalize it. I made a much cuter one, but couldn't find it so I made this one super quick to just show you an example. I thought Brandon might not appreciate all the flowers and stuff the other one had on it when he goes out of town.


For the Christmas ornaments here's what you need:

- 4" clear glass ornament
- scrapbook paper (suggest the kind that is printed on both sides)
- glitter
- those little table confetti things you sprinkle at parties - in a Christmas theme
- ribbon (about 18 " strips)
- Christmas raffia grass

Cut the scrapbook paper into 1/2" strips and wrap them around a pencil to curl them. Stick it in the ornament and then add the other stuff, except the ribbon. Place the ribbon through the little metal loop in the cap and tie it in a bow with a larger enough loop to hang it with. Here's the site where I got the idea, but they have different examples up now.

If you are interested and have a small MOPS group I have a ton of photos albums leftover and some ornaments as well. Actually, I got a good bit of everything left over and I'd be happy to sell it to anyone. We won't be making any of these next year. Just let me know! I hope I didn't bore all of you, but I remember last summer searching blog, after blog, after blog for ideas and thought that maybe I could help another craft leader out there somewhere. Or just a mom at home looking for something cheap, easy and quick to do!