Pictures

I have done HORRIBLE lately about the camera! I am posting all the pics I have taken in the last month and I will try to do better!!

Isaac's Award Ceremony

Isaac had his awards ceremony at school a while back. He got the A/B honor roll and perfect attendance. AJ and I went, but when we got there we could not even get into the cafeteria to watch. We stood at the entry way, took a couple of pics and when his class was done - we left. I forgot AJ's stroller so I was having to hold him and he is getting heavy!

Good job Isaac!!

Fund Raiser

Caleb was doing a fund raiser for school. A kid had come over and was wanting us to buy from him and we told him our son was selling. They knew each other (Caleb admits to having a "crush" on the kids sister) so they decided to go sell together. After going around the neighborhood, they were not ready to give up, so they set up a "stand" at the street (using AJ's wagon turned upside down), made a sign and made ISAAC hold the sign (and since he looks up to his brother and was getting attention from him, he had no problem helping out).

Andrew's Fashion

Andrew likes to wear his shirts like this and if you do not have two shoes on his feet, he will find a shoe (his or not) and wear it like this. It is pretty funny to watch.

Andrew Painting....the HOUSE

As I have previously mentioned, I have been painting the house. This is in the kitchen. I had gotten this green for the kitchen, but we decided it was a little too....flourescent on the wall. So, this color is in the boys bathroom instead. It almost matches their shower curtain (note to self: get new shower curtain. Lot of green in that small bathroom!).

Andrew sits right next to that wall and after he gets up from eating, he tries to paint. I guess he doesn't like the partial paint job. I got some paint last weekend for the kitchen, just need time home to do it!

Boys and Their Toys

Thanksgiving morning, after getting the turkey in the oven, Daddy and Isaac decided to play the X-box. Andrew, of course, wanted to join in. If you notice his controller is not plugged in and he is holding it upside down, BUT - he THOUGHT he was playing and it kept him happy, and more importantly, BUSY!

Sneaky Little Boy

As part of Isaac's homework every night he has to do sight words. He gets a new list every week assuming that he is able to tell all the words on the list on Friday (if he doesn't know all the words he gets the same list a second week). I have to initial every night that he did his list.

I am going to be honest here. I am NOT a perfect Mom. I know that is REALLY hard to believe. Sometimes, though, I forget to sign homework and notes. SOMETIMES, I even forget about some of the kids homework I need to help them with (although, technically I make it THEIR responsibility to come to me with homework they need help on). SHHHH - our secret here!

Isaac has gotten bad about not bringing me his list of words, or asking me to initial after he says his words. Instead of getting a check, which would bring his conduct down from and A+ to an A, he just puts my initials on it - whether we did the words or not. I have gotten on to him about this and tried to explain that it is lying (forgery) and cheating. Today when he got home I was looking at his papers. I noticed that my initials were on it and instantly remembered we DID not do words last night. He looked at me and said he did NOT sign my name. I asked how it got there. He said he just put "MB" not my name.

Yes, he can write my initials and make them look like mine because I normally just scribble my initials while also working on something else. I told him I would not sign if he does this. But, that is okay with him because HE will just sign it the next day. I guess I will have to send a note to the teacher and explain what has happened and tell her to only accept my signature with a certain color of ink that he can't get his hands on. This is not something that is acceptable now or ever wil be so this needs to be stopped NOW!!!

Big Brothers

Isaac has hit that stage where he wants to be just like his big brother. He always changes his mind if you give him options for stuff (like food or movies or games) to whatever Caleb says he wants.

Saturday it was rainy outside. Caleb decided he wanted to dress up (not sure why). Isaac comes out in a green striped polo shirt, black slacks and brown dress shoes. Daddy asked him why he was dressed up and Isaac just said "because". Daddy asked if Caleb was dressing up and he said yes. I walked in to find Caleb in the closet (putting on mismatched dress socks). He had on a green striped polo shirt (almost the same ast he one Isaac was wearing), black slacks and black dress shoes.

Oh the joys of being the big brother! Just wait Isaac, your little brothers will want to be like you too!

Teenager

I don't remember exactly what Caleb was trying to convince us to let him do or get for him (probably because I was so blown away by what he said) but the other day Caleb was trying to get his way about something and he says "But I'm a TEENAGER!"

I quickly put him in his place and reminded him he is NOT a teenager yet, so he needed to stop ACTING like a teenager!

Time for me to go hide under a rock for a few years!

Spanish

The boys ALL have spanish at school. We were eating dinner at a Mexican restraunt a couple of weeks ago and the waiter (a mexican) was giving us our drinks. Bryce says "I know how you say 'bye' in spanish." We asked how and he says "Hasta la vista".

It does mean "see you later", but not really what I expected to hear him say as a child just beginning to learn spanish!

Frowning Moon

Last night, if you looked to the southwest sky, you could see the moon "frown". The planets Jupiter and Venus aligned with the crescent moon. The planets looked like eyes and the moon a frown. You were supposed to look at dusk, but unfortunately at the best time to view it (4:30 pm) we had clouds in our way. We were able to see it a little later, after the moon had risen above the planets (so it was an upside down frown face).

Caleb has been learning about astronomy in school and also got a telescope for his birthday, so when I read about it I told him he could go out and watch it. He loved it and can't wait to tell his teacher about it.

Paul and I spent quite a bit of time outside last night. We were having a shed delivered and the guy did not get here with it until almost 7. It was quite a show even when we were out. It was VERY bright and definently caught your eye whether you were looking for it or not.

I think I read the next time this would happen would be the year 2052. I am glad Caleb got to see it while he was learning about this stuff and excited about it.


This is what you were SUPPOSED to see if you saw it early enough. By the time our clouds moved out the smile was above the eyes and was more like and upside down frown.

The Case of the Mysterious and ANNOYING Smoke Detector

I have mentioned in the blog before about our really annoying smoke detector. The smoke detector in the boys hallway likes to beep in the middle of the night.

ALL night.

About every 15-30 seconds.

BEEP!

BEEP!!

We have found that it starts beeping as soon as the thermostat hits 74 degrees. As soon as the house warms above 74 degrees it stops.

I have to adjust my thermostat to my smoke detectors comfort level?

I did some research tonight online about the problem. I really was not expecting to find much, but it is apparently a common problem. There were people saying to change the battery (which there isn't one that we can find, but we can't get the alarm down to actually check anything). There were also people saying to use canned air to clean the housing, because it could be dusty. I don't think dust would cause it to beep at 74 degrees though. The only other thing I found was to get a new detector.

Great, except again, we can't get the alarm off the ceiling.

Is it spring time yet?

Happy Thanksgiving

We have had a pretty lazy Thanksgiving this year. We had our lunch, complete with our normal turkey, broccoli and cheese casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, creamed peas and Watergate salad. It was all very good.

Unfortunately, AJ is sick. He has been running a fever off and on all day and kinda had his big naptime meltdown during lunch. After lunch EVERYONE took a nap (THANK YOU TRIPDAPHAN - I think we need to eat more turkey!!). It has been raining today, so between full bellies, cloudy skies and rain hitting the window - PERFECT napping scenario!

After everyone got up, we have basically sat in front of the tv, played video games, etc.

When we sit down to our "feast" it is our tradition to go around the table and say what we are thankful for. I thought I would post what everyone was thankful for this year.

Daddy is thankful for his family and our new house.

Mommy is thankful for her family, all of the blessings in our lifes and that Daddy has a job where he does not have to travel often so he is home with the family.

Caleb is thankful for God and Jesus.

Isaac is thankful for God and Jesus and all the new toys they get from the store (I assume this is because birthday and Christmas is coming up because they don't get a lot of new toys throughout the year).

Bryce is thankful for good behavior and cleaning his room (I find this very ironic since we have constant battles with BOTH of these issues!).

Andrew was apparently thankful for his food, because the whole time we were going around the table telling what we were thankful for and all of the boys saying their own blessings, he was EATING! Hey, it was either that or listen to him scream and not hear what the boys were saying. Sometimes, you just gotta go with the flow!

It was a great day and after a LIGHT dinner of turkey sandwiches and broccoli casserole, we are going to enjoy some pie in a bit and watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving special.

Hope you all had as good a day as we did. We miss everyone - especially around the holidays.

A Week Home

The boys don't have school at all this week. They came home chanting "no school for nine days" Friday. Daddy has Thursday and Friday off and gets off at 3 all week.

Bryce is having asthma issues the last few days. He is doing his normal coughing, but at had a full blown asthma attack Saturday night. It has been quite a while since he has had to use his inhaler. I wasn't sure where it was and had a moment of panic when Paul came and told me he was having an attack. Luckily, it was where it was supposed to be.

Andrew is having issues this weekend too. He has a bad cough and really snotty nose! He has not been sleeping well this weekend, but last night was bad. We assume he had a nightmare, but not sure. Really, what is a 19 month old nightmare like? It took about an hour - at 3 am - to get him calmed down and back to sleeping. I didn't get up with Daddy this morning at 5:15 - like I normally do. Had a little recovery time. :)

Biting the Bullet

We are FINALLY painting the inside of the house. We have been talking about it since we bought it, but haven't done it. Tomorrow we are getting our dining room furniture so we wanted to get the dining room painted. We went with a darker green in there.

Also, Paul was SUPPOSED to get his fishtank today. Once water is put in it, it isn't moving - so we had to paint before the tank got brought home. Well, we went to get it and it didn't come in. It was left off the order for some reason. So, the corner where the tank will be is painted - but we still have a long ways to go. We got what we thought was a pale yellow to brighten up the main living space. We are not sure about the color now. I hate that - it always looks SO different from a little sample to a whole wall!

Tomorrow, I will do the kitchen and we will get more paint for the living room - I ran out. The kitchen will be a brighter green - not flourescent, though. Hopefully, everything will blend well. It is so hard to pick colors for such an open floor plan, but I don't like one color throughout the house (especially when it isn't much of a color).

Hopefully we won't be REPAINTING after Christmas! I will give it the rest of the year for the colors to grow on me - if they don't....we will have to do new colors!

Today Tomorrow?

Just about every morning Bryce asks if today is tomorrow. I tell him no, today is today, tomorrow is tomorrow. I have tried to explain how it works, but every morning we still go through it.

And, every morning he gets mad - because I won't agree that today is tomorrow!

Questions From the 18th Century

Caleb had a homework assignment where he had to interview a grandparent. He told me though, that his teacher said he was supposed to interview someone from the 18th century. I guess we could have visited a grave, but can't guarantee that we would get a response!

Sad Economy

Everyone knows our economy is in sad shape right now. Personally, I don't think it is the governments place to choose which companies are worth saving and which are okay to go under. This car maker bail-out is really irritating though. I understand the number of jobs that are tied into this, but the CEO's talk about how they are sacrificing all they can, they are laying off people, etc. to make ends meet, yet they go to Washington on their plush $20,000 roundtrip private jets - when they could have flown commercial for under $300.

I have heard the arguement "Do you know how much these people travel?" EXACTLY!! How much do these CEO's travel on their private jets at $20,000 roundtrip. Think of how much they could save if they flew commercial, as do the majority of American's. Think of how much money they could make if they SOLD their private jets. One of the CEO's only travels by this private jet - as does his wife - personal or business.

Don't ask me to pay to bail you out of your problem while you are still traveling on your plush private jet. We don't work our butt's off (PAY FOR OUR VEHICLES), etc so that we can bail out all of these private companies that like to waste money on their personal comforts.

A congressman asked the CEO's for a raise of hands of those that were willing to sell their jets, where they sit, and fly home on a commercial plane. NOONE raised their hands.

Well....CEO's their is your answer. When you are willing to make some REAL sacrifices, like us "normal American's" are having to, maybe we can put this issue back on the table. What do you think is going to happen to your private jets when your company tanks?

Thief

We were in the car a while ago and Bryce says "Mom, I had $2207 in my coat pocket and someone opened my pocket and took it."

"Where did you get $2007?"

"Yellow"

This is not an uncommon type of converstaion with him. He likes to have conversations that make no-sense and leave the person he is talking to scratching their head!

Bryce's Fire Training Trip

If you remember a while back, Paul and Bryce were invited to watch the fire brigade from Paul's plant do training at the LSU fire school. They went, but as I believe I wrote he probably would, Paul forgot to get the camera out of the car and did not realize it until he had walked about a mile to where the training was at. So, he took some photos with his phone camera. Luckily, the firemen took some pictures too, and Paul got them.

The firemen LOVED Bryce's uniform. Bryce was a little confused at the beginning as to why these men were going into a fire. Obviously, this is the first time he has actually seen firemen in action. I think he rethought his choice of wanting to be a fireman. Unfortunately, by the end of the night - he was back to wanting to be a fireman - for real - knowing what exactly they do.

Nervous Mom here!!

Bryce talked about the trip for days. It was so exciting for him and he had a great time. Sounds like the firemen had a good time with him, too. They were invited to have a catered dinner with the firemen, but it was late and Bryce still had homework to do, so they passed (they ate before they went too).

This was such a great experience for Bryce (and some great one on one time with him and Daddy). I can't thank the fire brigade enough for inviting him. It was a once in a lifetime treat for him.






These are the pictures that were taken with the phone. If you double click them and blow them up, you can see it better.