Caleb is so cool.  He gets up every morning with his alarm, gets dressed, comes and gets  breakfast and is ready to leave (hair combed and teeth brushed) by 7:10 each morning.  He either has choir practice or math tutoring every morning at 7:20, so he's up and at 'em early.  He's such a self-starter and…

Jacob says this about homeschool…"I love it!".  He has adjusted so well to the new routine and I'm really proud of his attitude.  We see a big difference in him already…pleasant, happy, content. He gave his first talk in church on Sunday.  He was asked to give a 3-5 minute talk on the subject of…

Well hello.  It's been awhile.  I had to post SOMETHING so that we no longer had to hear about Mormons being Christians.  Because I'm so OVER that now.  But we are…just to be clear.  🙂 And well, October was a HUGE month around here.  Two travel destinations (for me anyway) and a birthday (also for…

I had a great time making the boys' costumes this year – Samuel was a spider!  Grandma Sherry had given him a toy spider that had purple rings on the back and legs, so he wanted a black AND purple spider.  Derek sewed fishing wire through the "arms" so they would all move with him. …

You might have seen recent news stories based on the remarks of Dr Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church of Dallas.    I address some of his claims in my own way in a letter to him…you can read it here. Dear Dr. Jeffress: I was recently struck by your comments to the media following…

Jacob celebrated the big TWELVE last Thursday.  He was pretty excited, but also pretty bummed because his birthday wasn't a "free-for-all" (i.e. he still had lots of homework).  But lucky for him, Nana came over to make it a little more special.  Derek had been traveling all week and flew in just in time for…

Samuel is in the "Dalmations" class at preschool.  Each class has its own name.  So, it only makes sense that his class should have a dalmation mascot!  (Actually a few!).  The class dog is named "Bolt" and each weekend he gets to go home with one of the students.  They keep a diary of words…

We wear crazy hairstyles to try to mix-up the normal Summer of '11 ponytail…  We take after-church naps in our Sunday best…  We have Sunday evening "still" art sessions…  We wait patiently for our boys during Scouts…  We run out of gas on date nights…  We snuggle with babies…  We roadtrip…  We watch great young…

Blogging seems like such a chore these days…probably because I'm so behind.  I never should have let myself get that behind!  Or maybe I've been so busy living, I don't have time to record it.  Seems like a shame, though. Life is interesting these days.  Quiet, mostly.  I feel a little like it's "Groundhog Day" every…

We swam a LOT this summer.  And since it was the hottest summer on record anywhere, anytime (70 days of 100 degree days) - it turned out nice that we had a swimming pool to retreat too every morning and evening (and times in between).  These pictures are just fun pool shots…      Coming up for a breath –…