Bags By Me

I've been spending a lot of time with my sewing machine lately and its been really fun. I've made pjs for me and the boys, curtains, pillows and an apron. I figure if I'm going to play "Suzy homemaker" I should have a cute costume to go along with it! My latest project has been bags. It is SOOO fun! I made the one on the right first and I like it but I should have used more interfacing to make it stiffer. The one on the left is my version of an imitation Vera Bradley. It turned out pretty good for a first run and it was really easy! I bought a ton of fabric at JoAnn's last weekend and I'm getting started on version 2.0. I can't wait to show it off!

Five Kids For a Day

The Allan kids (well, 3 out of 4 Allan kids) hung out with us today! It went REALLY well! All of the kids got along great! I don't think there was one sharing or caring dispute all day! Libbie is a great help. Aadric is really strong and Kaedrin just cracks me up! Max was feeling lousy all day. He (finally) started complaining about his ear so he's on antibiotics now after 5 days of battling an awful cough and runny nose. Hopefully this will do the trick. He still hung like a champ and managed to play video games, tag and trains as if nothing was wrong. Poor guy! Nolen went to school this morning. Max needed some chill out time this morning...he wasn't feeling very well. We had left over pizza for lunch and we hit the park this afternoon.


The 4 year olds on the slide!



Following Libbie the leader!

All five kids in one picture!!!

Max, Nolen and Aadric...Nolen was being super silly today. He looks like he is imitating Tarzan!

At one point the kids decided to log roll themselves down a hill. It was pretty funny. They actually rolled pretty well!

The kids all played tag for awhile. Libbie was the jailer and she had to keep herding the kids into a "jail". They were not very well behaved inmates and they kept escaping.

Taking a break after tag.

The four year old swing.

The Allan Kids

The Allan kids came for a visit...yeah! We met them while we were here in AL for flight school. Nolen and Kaedrin were born 4 weeks apart. The kids haven't seen each other since Nolen and Kaedrin were teeny babies. Its so fun to see how much they've grown! Maybe someday I'll even get to see Jennee! Our boys had fun sharing the wii with them...the kids are
Aadric is 7, Libbie is 9, Kaedrin is 4, Nolen is 4 and Max is 3.

Origin of a Word - Water Oak

Yesterday Ed spent quite awhile outside splitting wood. These are the logs from the dead branches he cut out of the trees a couple months ago. Today he was splitting them for firewood with a wedge and a sledgehammer. It was pretty fun to take a big swing at them and get a big split! Last night we brought some logs in for the fire. What a nice evening...football and a fire...or not. Edward has since learned that the Water Oak got its name because early firefighters used Water Oak logs to put out fires! They actually hold water in their wood so its pretty fireproof. The logs did hiss, simmer, smoke and literally drip water in our fireplace...but it never actually caught on fire!

Practice Makes Perfect

Nolen is still playing basketball at church and he's making some improvements. He doesn't cover his ears to block the sound of the buzzer anymore, and he usually knows where to run and when to throw his hands up to block people. Dribbling and shooting are still pretty tough for him though. I guess its a good thing we are starting him early! I can tell that he is getting frustrated sometimes and doesn't try as hard as he could. Last week at practice we were shooting together and I told him that if he made a basket, I would play Super Mario Galaxy with him when we got him...and you know what?? He made exactly ONE basket! Ha!

I realized that night that my baby is turning into a boy. A frog carrying, rock throwing, dirt wearing boy. Edward was on duty all night so I was home alone with the boys. I helped Coach Ryan during basketball practice that night (which is Ed's job when he can make it). Then we went home and played video games together while Max cheered us on. And before bed, we all curled up on the couch and read some Captain Underpants!

The boys love Captain Underpants. Its full of actual toilet humor. There is a Purple Potty Time Machine, a Super Diaper Baby, and some kind of Evil Talking Toilet Villain. They are chapter books and the boys and I read about 30 pages each night and finish a book in about 4 nights. We just got a new one from the library. I don't mind the toilet humor as long as its limited to story time and brother/boy time. Plus, its fun to watch them get so excited about a non-picture book!

Max's First Day of School at the Byrd Nest

Today is Max's first day of school at the Byrd Nest! He was SO excited to go. All school year he has been asking when he could go to school and he kept saying that the CDC at Forst Rucker (Nolen's old preschool) was his school because he is three years old. Well, today was the big day. Of course he isn't going to the CDC but that doesn't matter. He ran in to the Byrd Nest this morning. I told him to say hi to his teacher and he ran into his classroom waving and saying hi. I hope he does well. The only thing I worry about is that Max can be stubborn and tempermental sometimes. He does well if you lay down the law with him.

Yesterday was Nolen's first day at the Byrd Nest. We LOVED the Primary School at Fort Rucker but the drive and afternoon schedule was too hectic. He had a great first day yesterday. They reviewed the letter "N", had cookies for snack (which Nolen was happy about) and Nolen said his teacher called him a "smarty pants" because he knew that "1-0-0" is called one hundred. Sounds like a good first day to me! I think many of the children in his class are going to go to Hillcrest Elementary School with Nolen next year so that is pretty exciting too! My boys are growing up!