Just keep scrolling .....

I did a few (5) posts this evening. I have more that I know the grandparents are eagerly anticipating, so I will get them posted tomorrow. I have to get the pictures in a slide show, since there are so many of them. after tomorrow, I will be caught up on all the action here in our home. :) Long time coming on that one! The boys both have games tomorrow and starting Tuesday, Caleb will be in tourney mode, so we play every night till elimination. So, may be quite till next weekend and we are all done with games and school!

Look Who's Five!

My how time flies, and how quickly my children grow! What a blessing this little man is to our family. He keeps us on our toes, rolling on the floor and learning new disciplinary techniques. :) He will be starting Kindergarten in the fall and he is so excited! God blessed me with many smiles and hugs from my now big boy. I asked him if he would still be my baby the other day. His response? "No, Mom. I'm a big boy, but I will always love you- even when you are old."
Gotta love that boy!

Well, I decided to test my cooking abilities and try to make pizza dough. It turned out good, but I think I rolled it a little to thin. It was like a think crust pizza, but really good. The kids really enjoyed it and so did Matt and I. I am going to be attempting to make bread here soon, but thought I had better wait till school was out to attempt that feat! I may need a whole day to get it right!

Birthdays and Easter

We were blessed to be able to spend Easter up with our family in Indiana. We were able to celebrate Linda's birthday as well as Jake turning one! The kids had a blast and we enjoyed the time spent with family. At Jake's birthday party, since it was the weekend of Easter, Heather put together an egg hunt for all the kids. They had such a great time and so did we!

The Rays

Caleb is on the Rays this season, and these were pictures of his first game. The night before, his bike had slid out from under him, so he looked like he had been in a fight. They did really good and he was so excited. He is with several of the same kids that he was with in the fall. so that made it even better. Ian had broken his wrist the evening before, so he got to watch brother instead of playing in his game.

Playing Catch up

It has been so long since i blogged that I don't even know where to start! This time of year is insane, as school is almost out. I have gobbs of end-of-the-year paperwork and finishing up any IEP's (aka- Individual Education Plan for non- special ed people! :) ) for the next school year and the incoming Freshman IEP's, so I am pretty busy at the moment. But this is our last week!!!! I am PUMPED!
I applied for a transfer to Mt Juliet area schools since that is closer to us. I have an interview at an elementary school for a possible resource job. They are not positive that they will get it, but she wanted to go ahead and start interviewing. It is not where the kids will be going, but is only about 5-10 min away, so it is doable. I have lots of pictures to show, but am going to start with another post for those. Thanks for hanging with me as I get back into the blogging thing! :)

Yes.....We are still alive!

So it is the end of the school year and I am super busy! Plus make up baseball games from all the rain, school programs, field trips, birthdays, and so on.....I am WORN OUT!!!! I haven't uploaded pictures from Easter yet.... But I will work on it. Check back in 2 weeks when school is out! :) j/k- I will at least try to get Ian's birthday pictures up here.

For those of you who still check- thanks for not giving up on me. :)

To all the AMAZING mom's out there...

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!


no one ever told us that our hearts would be living outside out bodies, walking around- breathing. No one ever told us how much joy and pride we would feel, and how much hurt we could feel. But it is the greatest gift our Father could give us. he gave us the gift that would teach us more than we could ever teach them. Hug on your babies (young and old) and know that you are blessed!!

For all the mom's I have had the pleasure of knowing, and who have helped me in the early years, to now- thank you!! You are forever treasured in my heart...

Yea......it's been a while

Man....Time sure does fly! Sorry for the long silence- We have been busy and going at top speed. I also had left my camera at Lee and Lindas on our last trip so, that also snagged me from posting. But I will be doing several this week, as the baseball fields are closed till the water receeds. :) We have already missed so many games, that we will be making them up well into June, or we will have games 3-4 times a week till the end of the season.

We are all alive, and well. I have only 3 more weeks till the end of school (YIPPEEE!!!!) and that cannot come fast enough. :)

Check back tomorrow or Monday for some new posts about the kids and all the fun we are having with life!

Yummy Recipe

I recently discovered a new recipe (thanks to the Neal fam) that we LOVE!!! They are easy and way more healthy than the store bought ones I think!! I have been trying to make more things from scratch and I am going to be doing more baking this week (I am going to try making bread). It should be very interesting. I am excited to try! I am also very thankful that my children and my wonderful husband allow me to try new things and give me honest feedback.
Here is the recipe:



Home Made Granola Bars

2 1/2 cups quick oats (I use rolled and they turn out fine)
*For some reason- yet to be known- they didn't stick together this time- I think the butter was too soft (a little melted)
1/2 cup rice krispies (I use puffed wheat)
1/4 cup coconut
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients (I use my hands to mix) and press into an 8x8 pan. Bake at 350 for 18-20 min. When pulled out, score top to form bars. Let cool completely and then cut into bars.

I double this recipe and they last us about a week. The kids love them. I am going to be adventurous soon and attempt peanut butter ones and other variations. I'll try to remember to let you know how it goes!

An Evening of "Firsts"

My brave little man
Didn't effect him that much!
having to cut his shirt off to get it over the cast
Caleb's lips and chin
the good looking one
The morning after- looks like he got in a fight!
Ian's x-ray- smooshed bone is at top of wrist where it looks wide
Special breakfast that I made this morning for my hurtin' boys



Well, as you can tell from the pictures, we had a very busy Friday evening. We started out playing outside- Matt mowing, I'm weeding, Caleb riding his bike and Ian and Riley are playing together. Well, Caleb rode through a puddle and when he turned quickly, the tires skidded out from under him and he went face first into the driveway. His lip started swelling immediately, and there was a ton of blood and we were unsure what damage there was. We all came inside, got the bleeding to stop and tried to reduce the swelling. I called the on-call nurses and they called back and told us unless he showed signs of a concussion or if his teeth went through the outside of his lip. Fortunately they didn't, but the inside is pretty messed up. Well, while I am on the phone with the nurse, all of a sudden Ian starts screaming and Riley is yelling for help. Matt takes off running as the nurse asks me is everyone is ok. I told her my husband was checking and she told us to call back if we needed to. Well, all we can get out of Ian is that his arm is hurting. Matt told me then that he thought that it might be broken. Once we got him down stairs we saw it was swelling and he was not calming down, so we decided to take him to the ER. In between getting him downstairs and heading to the ER, we found out that he was climbing the ladder to the bunk beds and slipped, fell backwards and tried to catch himself. So he landed pretty hard on his wrist. All the way to the ER he is crying and I cannot comfort him, I can't hold his hand since the one that is broken is the only one I can reach. I was fighting not crying, just because there was nothing I could do. But I am so thankful that we are close to an amazing ER! Not kidding- once we got there we were in and out with in a hour. They were so nice and the x-ray tech let Ian see his x-rays and even got to take print outs home with us. The kind of break he has is common for his age- since the bones are still soft, they just squished down. It still hurts but there is less healing time and it heals well. So we are so thankful for that. He will have to wear the splint/cast for 4 weeks and then we will see from there. He is pretty sad that he can't play baseball, but I am just thankful it wasn't more serious. Caleb is still playing- in fact we are leaving for a game right now!

Little Miss

I had the opportunity to get some shots of Riley one Saturday. I think it was the weekend before we returned to school. Matt had taken one of the boys to practice and Riley was standing by the wondow watching them leave. She was playing,dancing and just enjoying her moment. I got caught near the end taking pictures, and was asked to stop. :) Here are the photos I got. There are a few that the heater is blowing her hair and it looks so neat. She is growing so fast- 3 going on 16.

Fun Visit!

We had a WONDERFUL visit from the Noel Family as they were traveling to Kentucky. We are so blessed that we are a stopping point for them and we get to see them fairly often (although not often enough in my opinion!). They came in Saturday afternoon and spent the night. The kids had a blast and enjoyed every moment of their stay. Matt and I did too! We were able to catch up and just enjoy all the discussions and laughs. We got to meet "ears", errrr, Bella and give she and Jakie some scratching lovin! We so enjoyed our time and we miss them already! We know they enjoyed their time with family, but we cannot wait for the next trip our way! Miss you guys!!

Over our spring break we had the opportunity to have a blast- these pictures were when they were playing with play doh. My kids love to create and they had a blast with the monster parts and with the molds. I had found 2 kits at Target that had a bunch of molds, toys and fun stuff, so we splurged and replaced our almost non-existent set. I love watching them make things and share with each other!

Any Ideas?

There is a poor lone robin, that has for the last 4 days, been trying really hard to get through our windows in the office. I have no idea why, but she will head-but the window for about 5 min at least 50 times a day. She looks at me like I am nuts if I try to shoo her away.....Anyone got good ideas on how to teach her that she can't get in?

Look mom! No training wheels!

For some reason the pictures are loading backwards no matter what way I put them in the loader and I can't get them to move down so I can type before the pictures....so start from the bottom picture and move on up! :)


Caleb has been working hard on learning to ride without training wheels. A few weeks ago he started getting good on his little bike. We had gotten him a bigger one for Christmas, but he was a little worried about riding it without the training wheels. Well when we got home from Indiana yesterday, Matt took the training wheels off the big one and we got him on it. These are pictures from his first try on the little bike and then of him riding on his big bike. We are still working on getting a smoother transition from standing to peddling and then stopping, but he is doing great!

The Princess and the Ladybug

During the spring and summer we get tons, i mean TONS of ladybugs. Well, two weekends ago, we found our first ladybug in the house and Riley was so excited. She wanted to hold him. So we made sure the boys didn't smash him and I put him on her hand. She was so happy till he decided to crawl. I wish I had gotten the shot of her face as he started moving, but alas, I was trying to save her from the ladybug. :) She studied him for about 5 min while he was still.

Spring Ball

Well we have officially started all the practices for the Spring season. I know the kids are super excited and we are staying busy. the boys usually have practice about 3-4 times a week. Once the games start (April) we will have 2 games a week (weekday and Saturday) and then maybe 2-3 practices. I took the camera to the kids 3rd practice and got some shot. Not too many of Caleb's, but a bunch of Ian's. Matt is helping to coach Ian's team (the Pirates) and helps with the practices of Caleb's (the Rays). We have had several practices back to back, so I see many more days coming with us being at the park for 4 hours straight. Riley has a blast at the park- watching the boys and playing in the dirt. I have enjoyed watching the kids play. Seeing the T-ball kids who many are just learning, to the older kids that have played for a few years. We will be taking Caleb to the batting cages here this week and on out to practice hitting. We got him a new bat, but he is swinging a little low, so we are going to practice and see if that helps, or if we need to get him a lighter one. He has several of the same kids on his team from last season and has the same coaches. That has been a blessing in itself that we already know many of the people he is working with. Here are a few of the pictures that I took at the practices. I threw in one of their bags hung up together and of their shoes- just scrapbooking shots for me! :) Some day soon, ballet shoes will be along side the cleats!