Ten Years of Family

Ten years!!


I can hardly believe it’s been ten whole years since I first held Brandon in my arms.

What an amazing feeling to be handed my first child in that airport from the ladies who escorted him from The Home of God’s Love in Taiwan into his mama’s waiting arms.

Happy Gotcha Day to my smart, funny, amazing son!

It's hard not to laugh

Ethan always keeps me on my toes. Almost daily there are times I have to squelch a smile about something he says or does. The icky sick bug has hit at our house and Ethan has a very stuffy nose. Our conversation at bedtime Monday night went a little like this:


E: “So, Sinus’ are where my boogers life?”

Me: “yes”

E: “How medicine get up there?”

Me: “It goes down to your tummy then travels up to your sinus’ to help get rid of the boogers.”

E: “Its like a broom and sweep the boogers out?”

Me: “Uh . . . yeah”

E: “Drink water help get boogers out too?”

Me: “Yes, drinking a lot of water helps you get better and get the boogers out”

E: “Drink water flood the boogers out?”

Me: “Getting lots of sleep helps a whole lot, so let’s get you tucked in so you can sleep and feel better tomorrow.”



Sometimes you just have to change the subject a little so you don’t laugh out loud.

I’m am very thankful for two munchkins who keep me laughing as we work our way through life.

Lisa

Fun and Food Friday!!!

We do most of our schooling Monday through Thursday with Fridays left for any catch up we might have to do from doctor appointments or other things that might change our schedule during the week. This year with homeschooling both of the munchkins I have instituted “Fun and Food Friday’s” where we do some sort of fun project, or a cooking activity. Munchkin #2 loves to help me in the kitchen and it is such a good learning activity for him that I love letting him help.


Today for “Fun and Food Friday” we dipped Oreo’s and pretzels.

Let me tell you . . .

A fun and messy time was had by all.

Lisa

Fun times at the Hopkins Picnic

Ethan and Uncle Barry on the Merry Go Round

Ethan riding the motorcycles

Bumper Cars

Definately a favorite

Ethan's favorite game, the cork gun.  His last time he impressed the guy running the game because he knocked over his two cans in his first two shots. Unfortunatly we're now the proud owner of a plastic ninja sword and a lightsaber, as well as several skee ball bears.

Waiting for a ride

Watching Brandon ride the scrambler with Uncle Barry

Riding the scrambler with Uncle Willard

Getting ready for the 102 Valley Bicycle Tour

After Brandon's first 8 mile bike tour.

Catch up

It's time to play catch up.  Since I've last blogged, we celebrated Brandon's 9th Gotcha Day, had Christmas, Ethan' had surgery on his legs and had his 3rd Gotcha Day, finished our first year of homeschooling with Brandon and now summer is half over and we're gearing up for birthdays. 

Wow

I promise I'll try to update better.

Lisa

Trip to the police station

Ethan's cub scout den had a trip to the police station this evening.  Everyone had lots of fun.

the officer showing Ethan his collapsible club

checking out the police cars lights

The SWAT truck

Decorating the tree

We had a fun time this weekend decorating the Christmas tree.  Ethan had the most fun helping me take the ornaments out of their boxes.

Fun Thanksgiving

We had a fun Thanksgiving at Grandma and Papa's house.  We watched movies, Brandon got to practice his chess, play a multi-hour game of Monopoly with Daddy and it was nice enough to play lightsabers outside.

Add some very yummy turkey, dressing and sweet potatoes along with chocolate dream pie and it was a great Thanksgiving!

New pictures

We took a walk down to the lake after school today so I could try and get some new pictures.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Wordless Wednesday

Biker Dudes for Jesus

Brandon dressed up as a biker dude in his Harley stuff for Halloween at Grandma and Papa's house. They went to a few neighbors houses but I think he had more fun passing out candy to all the trick or treaters.

I hope these scary biker dudes are on my side if I meet them in a dark alley.

But then how scary can you be when this is your trick or treat bag.

Sometimes your kids do things that just make your heart smile.

pumpkin time

You want me to touch what?

Okay, not so bad, I can pull out this stuff.

Ethan's pattern

Cutting out the eyes.

Popcorn break. You're doing a great job dad.

Which face is the real kid and which two are the Jack O'Lanterns.

Shoes

For part of their homework in October ,the 1st graders had to learn to tie their shoes. This is something we haven't worked on since Ethan's shoes that fit over his braces are all Velcro. He was so excited to show off what he learned.

Yeah Ethan!

Fish

We had another burial at sewer for the recently renamed fish "Flippy" He earned that name because about a month ago he started to swim with his body at a sideways angle and would sometimes start doing flips and somersaults in the water. This morning he was finally out of his misery. I told Brand he had flipped his last, and he replied "It's too bad he couldn't live to flip another day."

But all is not lost. Our 13 babies from a month ago are getting big, and I saw three more babies in the tank this morning. I knew that Mollies were life bearers and thought it would be neat if we could see them giving birth, but little did I know that they have the ability to remain pregnant and have more babies every month for five or six months. Can you believe it? this time I am not sticking the babies in the little mesh cage so they are protected. It's survival of the fittest in our tank now.

Another fish earned a new name last month. We now have "Big Mama" in our tank, I don't think anyone remembers the names of any of the other fish anymore. Brandon did suggest today we rename her "Baby Mama" but I think we'll stick with Big Mama.

Anybody want some fish? Our tank is getting too full.

Geology Night

Fish fossil

Gold ore

Fools Gold

Gold Ore

Brandon had fun at geology night with the cub scouts at MU. He got to see a lot of neat rocks, fossils, and volcanic rocks. As soon as we got back to the van I asked what he thought. His response "hundreds of millions years old? Yeah right." I love that our science book is written from a biblical world view and we've been able to teach him about the truth of creation.