BEFORE:.....

I did a little redecorating using all the stuff I already own and a designer that could lend her great eye. Here's the before. I'll post after in a little bit...

Dentistry and Heaven

All four kids had dentist appointments yesterday morning at 7:30 a.m. After a rushed morning- we pulled into the parking lot of the dentist office about 5 minutes till. After finding out that "every so often" they have to have all the paperwork renewed- I settled down with "new patient" paperwork on four children and got to work.

At this dentist office- all the kids are taken into different rooms at the same time- and seen by different hygienists (getting them all done and out of the way in one quick swoop!!) and then I child- hop with a dentist or two- listening to praise and concerns.

As I entered Cohens room- his hygienist was smiling at me. She then recounted how Cohen had told her that "when he is a grown up- he gets to go to Heaven. And so does she. And isn't that SO exciting? He is SO excited to go to Heaven."

Not only do I love that he talked to her about that- but that she loved to hear it =D

I Agree...

Today for lunch, I gave the twins the option of Macaroni and Cheese or Top Roman. BUT they have to both agree on what they are having. I told them to talk it over and let me know when they agreed on what is for lunch.

Enter the twins:

Chezney: "I agree on top roman."

Cohen: "I agree on macaroni."

Mom: "This isn't how agreeing works. You both have to pick the same thing. So one of you is going to have to change your mind so that we can all have the same thing for lunch."

Chezney: "I agree on top roman."

Cohen: "I agree on macaroni."

Mom: *sigh*

----

In the end- Cohen conceded and we are having top roman. Chezney gave her brother a nice thank you for giving in and we'll be having macaroni tomorrow for lunch =)

Just A Typical Day....

I love to hear laughter...

Especially when it's MY kids.

Especially when it's a hardy laugh from the GUT.

Especially when it's all four of my kids laughing TOGETHER.

Especially when it DOESN'T end in tears...

Ethans 8!

My Little-Big guy turned 8 today. I can still remember the day I had him like it was yesterday. These are the times when I feel that time is slipping by entirely too quickly.

I asked Ethan what he wanted for his birthday. He listed several items that I know he's seen at the Dollar Store. While I appreciate his inexpensive little heart- we still wanted to get him something nice. SO we got him the plastic recorder, the gag "spilled paint" toy, and a bathtub fishing pole that he had wanted- plus....

We got him a REAL mini work bench with REAL tools. This kid can now saw, drill, hammer, and rasp his way to fine woodman-ship. And to start him off, we got two different little wood projects that he can put together with his new tools.He was so excited to get started that he decided the box that the work bench came in needed to be dismembered. He is SO ready for this! Eventually I think we'll even move on to old radios and electronics for him to take apart and build things with the parts. His little science-y mind will be exploding with ideas- I'm sure!

Happy Birthday my little Dude! Love you!

Birthdays at TRA

The River Academy has a fun birthday tradition. The birthday child sits in the hallway while everyone else is in the classroom with the door shut- and they all decorate the white board in happy birthday messages...

All the kids hide and then the lights go out. The teacher brings the kiddo into the classroom- and everyone pretends like they don't know what happens next....
SURPRISE! Happy Birthday Ethan! You are LOVED!
Then the kiddo wears the birthday hat of honor and gets to open a gift from the teacher- a mystery candy that everyone is excited to see...

The birthday kid gets to see their giant birthday card....And then a photo op always presents itself... these are all of the boys in Ethans class this year...

Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you! And we love the school family that you get the privilege of being apart of!

Benefit Dinner at TRA

This school year brought us our 6th TRA Benefit Dinner (although we have miss one or two in those six years of being part of the school). This year's theme was Narnia- and for the second year in a row, I got the fun opportunity of making the invitations.Ethans class did two different things tied into one performance. A sound off and song. At one point- the senior class held up props to go along with the 2nd graders song and Ethan represented man- so the student behind him picked him up. I'm sure Ethan LOVED the attention that this moment brought him!

Danissa's class did a sound off the explains the different components in the story of narnia. It was a great way to tie in the theme, while still showing off examples of learning styles at TRA. The class dressed up as Narnian characters. Danissa was assigned to be a "narnian creature" and decided to be a Water Sprite.... so this was our idea of what that might look like....

The four performing cousins together for a photo-op....
And for the sake of never being dressed up- together- at the same time... we let Danissa take a photo of us =)

A little more of fishing

I just have to steal this blog post from my mother, as I was not a witness to the fishing, and didn't even get to see them come home or hear the stories of how the day went from my dad...:

Chezney and Cohen were invited by Papa Steve to go fishing today.

With the first cast Chez caught a fish.

Cohen then wasn't understanding why he didn't have one on yet!

Eventually there were two fish on the stringer.

However, with the kids walking back and forth the stinger got loose and the fish swam away...

still on the stringer.

A bit later, Coco caught another fish...

no, wait.... two fish...

and retrieved the stringer as well .

When they were packing up to go home Chezney told Grandpa he shouldn't put the fish in the car because the fish would make the car stink...and then she wouldn't want to ride in the car!

He laid the fish on the back bumper of the Yukon for a moment and Chez told him that wasn't a good idea either.....(I love it!)

Then he asked where he should put them ...and joking, asked if the top of the rig would work.

She thought for a moment and then said, "That might be ok!"

Fishin' With Grandpa

No childhood is complete without a fishing trip with grandpa to put in the book. Today was the first day the twins have gone fishing with grandpa. AND THE CAUGHT 5 fish!!! They are so excited and keep telling me stories of how they caught the fish and of grandpa cleaning out the guts. (This always comes with a look of disgust from Chezney) =) Such a good grandpa they have!

A Little Bit of Sunshine

The weather is finally looking nice but some days lately, it has been a bit deceiving. On this particular day, we decided it was a great day to head to the loop trail for a brisk walk while the kids zoom on their scooters. When we got down there, however, it was so cold and windy that I think my lips actually were numb by the time we got to the car. Beautiful. Sunny. Frigid!

The Boys

The boys are- together- becoming way more rowdy than how it was with just Ethan being the wild one. They are constantly either snuggling, wrestling, hitting, or punching each other. MOSTLY it's all in fun. Occasionally I have to jump in and settle down an actual disagreement. Today- Ethan tried to show Cohen something, just saying "Cohen- come look at this!" Cohen comes over- stares at Ethan for half a second, and then kicks him in the shin. Ethan responds by chasing him down and rolling on the floor with him. And they laugh. This is how it's been for weeks and I really have to say that I love it. I love seeing them growing closer as brothers and having someone to romp with. God blessed me with two boys so that they would have each other!

Lights. Camera. Chezney.

Whenever Chezney gets ahold of my phone,

I wind up with a photo roll that looks something like this:

Along with many videos of nothing.

These ones were all taken in the same day, despite the outfit changes!

She is one stylin' little photo diva!

Dinner

My parents came over for dinner tonight. They brought pizza and dessert and the kids were in heaven on all accounts. The kids got to recite their speech meet pieces they are working on, play the piano, read some books and got in LOTS of snuggle time. I love getting to see family and having family close enough that my kids get to have that be a constant part of their childhood memories!