Joey's Birthday (AKA The Best Birthday Ever!)

Joey turned 12! The grandparents and Uncle Scott and Aunt Lynn came up to help celebrate.
Ralph barbequed chicken and we had garlic bread, homemade applesauce, salad and Hot Fudge Brownie Sundaes. Oh yeah! The birthday boy got some really nice things--a camcorder from Grandpa and Grandma, an airsoft gun from some of his siblings, gum, candy, money, some stuff for a fish tank he is setting up, a skateboard from us, um..other stuff I can't remember right now. But Joey said it was his best birthday ever. :-)

Well, then. Hmph!

Following is a conversation my little "buddie" and I just had...

Jackson: "Please, just one more?"
Me: "No."
(Repeat the above sequence 4 or 5 times).
Finally....
Me: "Jackson, if you ask me again, you will be very sorry, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart."
Jackson: "You don't have a heart."

Sometimes, you just gotta laugh. And I did. Heartily.
:-)

Girls' Day Out!

Last Saturday, I had some shopping to do to get ready for Joey's birthday party. I decided to take the girls along and have some fun with them. Rebecca had McDonalds and Baskin Robbins gift cards (earned in Sunday School) that were burning a hole in her pocket and she was happy to share. So off we went for lunch, Walmart shopping, thrift shopping, and ice cream! I just love spending time with my kids. It's the best!

In September, we went to Snowflower for a few days. The pictures can speak for themselves.

Needless to say, we had a great time, just relaxing and being together as a family.

Jackson's Birthday

Can you believe Jackson turned 6?

Grandma and Grandpa and Omi all came up for the birthday party. Jackson requested hot dogs and chips and cheesecake with chocolate topping.

What a handsome little man. Love him!!

Omi Turns 80!

Also in August, we surprised Ralph's mom with an 80th birthday party. There was tons of food, swimming for the kids, and family fun. Happy Birthday Omi!!

Black Belts!!

In August, Danny and Nick were promoted to 1st degree black belts. Congratulations boys!!

Pictureless Post/ General catch-up

So many things have happened, I don't really know where to start. I think I will do a general catching up post, and then several individual posts.

Ralph and Jackson and I took Cara back to college. We got stuck in crazy traffic on the way down (3 miles in 3 hours on the Grapevine), got there late, moved her in the next morning, and drove home. Long, long 2 days. But, hey, I got my favorite Denny's chicken sandwich out of the deal on the way down, so I was happy. :-) It was hard to leave Cara again, but not as hard as last year, for either of us.

We started school back up, with the remaining 5 at home. Jackson is in 1st grade this year and is now ready to learn to read. We have our school time together every morning, and for the most part, we both enjoy it. Rebecca is in 5th this year, Joey in 7th, Samantha in 9th, and Nick in 11th. Nick is taking the PSAT this weekend, and if he does as well on the real test as he has been doing in the practice tests, I think he will score somewhere in the 95th to 98th percentile. We'll see how he does under pressure, but I'm proud of him no matter what.

AWANA has started back up. This is Jackson's first year, and after being uncertain the first couple of weeks, he LOVES it. He has memorized quite a few verses already, as have the other kids.

The kids are still doing karate. Nick teaches a kids class on Mondays, then does the black belt class that night (Danny too). Danny and Nick teach at the Nazarene church on Thursday nights and all the kids but Jackson (and Cara of course) attend that one. Danny has also been teaching on Friday nights lately.

Danny has been very busy with school, working towards both his bachelors and masters degrees at the same time. He stays 2 nights a week down with Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandma is trying to fatten him up. :-)

Hmmm, Joey had to have 4 teeth pulled, cause they just wouldn't come out on their own.

Ok, that's the general news. Now, if my camera will cooperate with me, I will do some separate posts.
:-)

Hope Valley Camping/Birthday Trip (Happy Birthday Danny)

Last weekend we went camping to one of Danny's (and my) favorite places for his birthday weekend. We took Colette along to experience the crazyness of camping with the Houseful of Blessings. The kids fished, played in and on the lake, we ate lots of good food, and we celebrated Danny's birthday. It was a really nice, relaxing weekend, and I'm so glad we got to go. It was the only chance Danny got to go with us this summer, as he has been so busy with summer school and working. Rebecca was the only one to catch 2 fish. She was dedicated and got out there at 6:30 in the morning. When she caught her fish, she came back and work us up (around 7 am) with "I caught it, now what do I do?" and it was dangling from her pole. We were too lazy to get up yet so had her put the fish on the pole in a bucket. (She said it was too wiggly to get it off herself). Funny girl.

I'm just gonna post the pictures in random order, cause I'm lazy like that.