My little artist!

I read on a blog the other day about a mom making homemade sidewalk chalk paint. I thought to my self, "Self, that looks fun and easy!" All you have to do is mix equal parts cornstarch and water and then add food coloring.


Jack getting started on his project.

Morgan working on his masterpiece.

Jaden in earnest concentration.

I just figured out that this may not be the best canvas. The slant was not helping keep the paint where they wanted it to be.

Jack and Jaden more content with the flatter surface.

This is good as it gets, when it comes to my artistic ability. Splatter paint.

As we painted Buzz entertained himself chasing bees.

Jack's foot after he helped me splatter paint. He loved it the messier the better.

My feet after splatter paint. Kinda wish I had taken off my shoes.

This boy loves his dog. And the dog likewise.

Morgan wanted to tell the neighbors HEY!

I would strongly suggest this. The boys had a blast. It was cheap and easy and kept them entertained for an hour. I think it would have gone on longer if the neighbors were able to come over and I had made more paint.

Musical Beds

Let me give you a little history. When Morgan was born we lived in a 3 bedroom house. It was really 2 with one bedroom being John's office. Then Jack came along and bless his heart he never really had a nursery. His crib was in the corner of John's office. When Jack moved to a big boy bed we broke out John's old bunk beds and Morgan was on top and Jack on the bottom. Morgan complained that Jack was too noisy and he could not sleep.

When we started planning for Jaden we put our house on the market and looked for something where they could each have their own room. They were so excited to have their own rooms. Morgan got a full size bed that Grandmother and Granddaddy gave us. Jack got the full size bed that uncle Homer gave us. Sometimes on weekends Morgan would allow Jack to sleep in his bed.

Jaden got big enough for a big boy bed, that's when the fun started. They would fight on the weekend as to who Jaden got to sleep with. Well about two months ago I asked Morgan what he thought about putting the bunk beds back up, since they were already sleeping in the same room. He and Jack were very excited. I asked John to help me get the bunk beds down, and put one of the full size beds back up. I put the bunk beds in Morgans room because it is the bigger room and left the full size bed for Jaden in Jack's old room. Well the first night, Jaden was not sleeping in that room. It was not his room!!! He wanted to sleep with the other boys. So from that point on no one slept in Jack's old room It briefly became the guest bedroom.

So everyone was in Morgan's old room. Morgan on the top bunk, Jack on bottom, and Jaden (with help) made fort under the top and between the dresser. They did that for a couple of months before Morgan could not sleep. Jack and Jaden were to noisy and fighting. Morgan moved to the guest room.

And guess what, starting last week all three boys are now sleeping in the guest room. I wonder how long this will last.

Bathroom Etiquette 101

I think only the mother of boys would "feel" my pain on this one. I go into the bathroom this morning and the seat is wet and in the floor is a huge puddle. I am thinking "WHO, has this bad of aim?" Morgan comes down first. Morgan- Did you make this mess? M- No, that was Jack!! (usual suspect) He has a history! Jack comes down Jack is this your doing? J- No, that was Jaden! Jaden must have some talent, because he still pees sitting down. I know, I know, but since we spend sooo much time together he has to go to public restrooms with me. And I pee sitting down. OK so back to the lesson at hand. I have been finding the bathroom like this more, and more over the past couple of months. So I checked the bathroom after each boy went in and all was clean. Then as I was starting the washing machine I heard a racket coming from the bathroom. I found my culprit... BUZZ! Caught red handed drinking out of the potty, leaving a tidal wave in his wake. The punishment for bad aim is cleaning the bathrooms. Now how do I get Buzz to clean the bathroom...

****disclaimer***** I did not take pictures for the post because I really don't think anyone wants to see my bathroom. That and I have already cleaned up the evidence. So it would just be an unnecessary potty photo.

Our Second Ski Trip

On March, 7 2011 we took the boys skiing again. They had so much fun the first time we decided to go back.
Here we are in front of the ski lodge. All geared up and ready to go.

Hear is Morgan on top of the Appal Strudel. We are so proud of him he skied down this one and then went on to Orchard Run. He and John eventually tried one black diamond called Big Appal. He is so brave.

Here he is making his way down the Appal Strudel.

Here is Jack on the Appaltizer. When we first started he wanted to hold my hand the whole time. But then he saw some of his buddies and wanted to race them. Then he was gone and even moved over to the Strudel. He got on and off the chair lift better than me. Which is not saying much. I had some serious difficulty getting on.

Saturday Morning at Lowes

Occasionally on Saturday mornings we like to take the boys to Lowe's to build. These little projects are free and the boys love it.

Here are John and the older boys walking into Lowe's.

Jack ran into a buddy from his soccer team while we waited.

Jaden wanted to put the wheels on first. He did not want to put it together he just wanted to play with it.

Jack carefully hammering his car together.

Morgan getting all his tools and pieces together and patiently waiting for John to tell him the first step in the directions.

I helped Jaden a little with the hammer. I thought it would be safer that way.

Jack putting the bottom plate on his car.

Finished product. You may notice that I had a car too; This is because in my haste to put Jaden's car together fast I did not pay attention to the directions. When I nailed/tacked the bottom plate on I put it on upside-down. In doing that I covered up the mechanism that allows the car to move forward on its own. So on the second one I made sure to put the plate on correctly. I lined up the holes and hammered away only to find out that it put pressure on the back tire and it would not roll. I am hoping Daddy can sand it down so Jaden can play with his car. So the lesson in this story is READ the directions.

Our First Family Ski trip

On February 9th we went with a couple of friends to go skiing. We decided to try out snow boarding.
This was the extent of my snowboarding career. It is a lot tougher than it looks. I spent more time down than up.

This is our snowboard instructor using the much needed "hands on" approach with Jack. To no avail.

Here is Morgan hitting the slopes during a practice run.

This is everyone pouting that they hate snowboarding and that this is the worst day of their lives.

Oh look what happend after lunch. The snow boards magically turned into skis. Then the worst day of our lives quickly turned into the best time we have ever had.

Morgan even got brave enough to try some slopes that required riding the chair lift.

Morgan going down the Strudel which is a blue square slope. That means difficult. Green square-aka bunny slope =easy. Blue Square= difficult Black diamond= very difficult. Very proud of both boys for trying new stuff and they had fun doing it.

The Power Team

The Power Team came to Morgan's school and talked to them about abstaining from drugs and alcohol. Morgan begged and begged us to go. He told Jack how cool it was going to be.

This is a Big Country blowing up a hot water bottle. He blew it up until it popped.

I can't remember this guys name but he was bending a lead pipe over his head. These guys were very strong.

This is Big Country he broke a wooden bat over his thigh, his shin and his knee. The boys were very impressed.

Here are the boys with a member of the Power Team. The boys loved the show and had lots of fun. At the end they had an altar call and implied that all the people were saved by walking forward. We worried about going for that reason but it gave us an opportunity to talk about true salvation with Morgan and Jack. All in all it was a good night.