Bridget the Bookworm

 One thing I learned quickly when I first met my husband (and his family!) was that I had better use proper grammar or I should expect to be corrected.  (This is all in good humor, of course, and I have to admit that it's a trait I rather like.  I've always been kind of particular about getting words right.)  One of their pet peeves is improper use of adverbs (think "I feel bad about.." vs. "I feel badly about..."). 

So it should be no surprise that my children have always spoken well and used correct grammar (for the most part) since they were toddlers.   Bridget cracked me up with this one today...

She has a book reader that reads the words aloud to her when she flips the pages.  I was in the kitchen working and I could hear her play the same page over and over, about five times.  Finally, she said, "Mom, come listen.  There's a problem!"

I assumed the problem was a low battery and that it wasn't moving on to the next page properly.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  She wanted me to listen because they used the word "townsfolk" and she thought that sounded downright wrong.  "Mom, can you believe they messed up like that?  It should be 'folks' not 'folk'.  So silly!"

She didn't exactly spot an error this time, but I imagine in no time she'll be following in her father's footsteps and correcting my mistakes!    :)

Spring pictures 2012

I love Springtime...new life, everything is green and blooming, the sun is shining, we can be outside all the time because the weather is perfect...thank you Lord!

Bridget Mary, age 4

Samuel Jonah, age 7

Henry David, age 8 (almost 9!)
I'm so grateful for my three wonderful blessings.

Jonah in the Kitchen

(Jonah in the apron that his Grammy made him for his birthday this year.)
One of Jonah's favorite places to be is in the kitchen, helping with whatever I happen to be working on at the time. I love this of course, because it's also one of my favorite places to be. :)

This afternoon, Jonah was mixing up pizza crust in the kitchen while I supervised and cleaned out some cupboards.

I pulled out a punch bowl that hasn't seen the light of day in about four years and set it on the counter. Jonah asked why and I told him I was putting it into our upcoming garage sale.

"Say what?" Jonah was incredulous. "Why in the world would you get rid of THAT? It's so pretty!"

I explained that it was something I previously found useful but don't use much anymore and now it just takes up space.

Jonah's reply? "Well I would think you could just keep it and give it to my wife when I get married. I think she would like it."

Goofy Girl

After lunch today, Bridget and I were talking. Out of the blue she asked me this very important question: "Hey Mom, is Dad at work, or in Colorado, or at a friend's house?"

I stifled a giggle but told her that he is at work.

"Okay," she said, "I just needed to know."

Jonah is 7 years old!!!

Jonah's 7th birthday was on February 7th...making this his GOLDEN birthday! :)

We knew it had to be special. We've been hearing that this one was coming up for a looooong time. Jonah woke up to a smiley face of fruit on his special birthday plate...

...followed by chocolate chip pancakes that he helped make. So fun!

We had a great morning. A little while after breakfast, Kelly and Jordan and Matthew came over, we all piled into the van, and we headed to Dallas. The first stop was for lunch at a mall. The kids picked McDonald's and Kelly and I ate from Chick-fil-A. I loved having a food court and options...the kids loved having a 3-story mall!

Our next stop was this place:

Great Wolf Lodge (a really fun wolf-themed hotel with an indoor waterpark)! Jonah had asked if we could go there for a night for his birthday, and since it was his golden birthday and all...of course we said yes.
The first thing we did was toss our stuff into our rooms, slip on swimsuits and head to the water park!

After a couple hours of fun swimming, slides, and playing in the water, we were ready to dry off for a little bit. Grandma Austin and Jim had bought Jonah a magic wand and a magiquest game (which is an interactive game played throughout the entire hotel). We played for a while and finished a number of quests before realizing it was time to start thinking about dinner.
So Kelly, the kids and I headed down the road to a Steak and Shake for dinner. It was a fun place to eat, with paper hats and cardboard cars to entertain the kids while we waited on our food. The kids were a little disappointed that we wouldn't order them the huge, fancy, signature milkshakes, but we had a special surprise waiting for them back at the hotel.

Sam and Jon had worked that morning, met up and drove together to meet us at the hotel! They had stopped at Costco on the way and grabbed an ENORMOUS (no joke, it weighed 10 pounds!) chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. YUMMY! Jonah was super excited.

We sang to him, tried our best to finish off big pieces of the yummy cake and ice cream, and then opened presents. It was SUCH a fun time.
By the time we were done it was really too late for more swimming, so we played a little more magiquest and then headed down to the lobby for storytime. The hotel puts on a great show with singing and moving trees, then the story teller tells a fun adventure story--although these guys might put on a slightly better show...

After the story hour, one of the wolves came out to take pictures with the kids. Of course, ALL of the kids wanted to have their picture with her:

Henry and Jonah were a little concerned that they might not be able to handle sharing a bed, since they usually don't sleep together. Turns out they didn't have a problem with it at all!

The next morning we had bananas and instant oatmeal, and watched cartoons during breakfast! It was Jonah's ideal morning.
We had lots more fun swimming, sliding, tubing, playing, and exploring the waterpark. We also took time to finish the magiquest game and thought it was one of the most fun parts of the visit.

One of the best things Jonah got for his birthday was a shaving kit...which altered Jonah's mornings dramatically. Now every morning, the first thing Jonah does is head into Sam's bathroom so he can shave with his Dad. (This might be my favorite thing!)

We got to celebrate with Grammy and Grandpop a few days later too. Grammy knew how much Jonah loves to help in the kitchen and had made him his very own apron! She also made him a photo book from his time at Grandkid's Camp last summer...both gifts were so special and are treasured by our little Bear.

Happy Birthday Jonah! We are so thankful that God gave us you. You are a special boy with loads of creativity, gentleness, compassion and friendliness. It is so fun to have you in our lives. :) Love you! :)

Christmas 2011

Last year Henry expressed his great desire to have "Santa clothes". When asked to explain that, he said, "you know, the clothes that Santa wears!" It was so sweet. Not being any sort of seamstress myself, I found a cute pair of red plaid pajamas and sewed white fur around the arms and leg cuffs. He thought they were great but couldn't quite get past that they were actually pajamas.
For Henry's birthday last year, my wonderful sister-in-law (who happens to be a really great seamstress!) made Henry real, true, Santa clothes. She completed the package with a hat and Santa bag to carry around his goodies. Henry was so thrilled! By that time of year, though he had really gotten over wanting to dress like Santa every day. So they were pulled out a few times to dress up, but mostly stored away. However, at Christmas time they came back out! Henry was so happy to have the outfit and wore it throughout the season. He doesn't like to draw attention to himself, so it made him a little self-conscious when he was out of the house dressed like Santa...but he sure brought smiles to the people we met!

Last year we started a tradition of seeing a movie at Christmas time. It's kind of a dangerous tradition to start because you never know if a good, family-friendly movie will be out at the right time! Luckily, "Alvin and the Chipmunks, Chipwrecked" was still playing in our theater. Kelly and I took all the kids to see it on Christmas eve. Santa was at the theater too, so we got to have pictures taken with him and he gave each of the kids a free bag of popcorn! :)

Christmas eve, another of our traditions: We always open one gift, usually something small and fun. This year all the kids got new pajamas!

The kids put out plates of cookies and milk, along with last-minute notes for Santa.

I stayed up late and sneaked a picture of Santa at the tree delivering goodies!

Christmas morning the kids awoke to find that the Twinkie Tree had mysteriously changed this year...probably due to the severe drought we experienced this past summer. Instead of producing the twinkies and cupcakes that it has been known for, it bloomed chocolate candy bars and bubble gum this year! Craziest thing.

Later in the morning, Dave and Mary Beth came over to spend some time with our family. We enjoyed a break from all of the gift opening chaos and had a cup of coffee with them. We always look forward to Grammy and Grandpop coming over and we got to exchange gifts with them outside of the big, entire-family gathering that was to come later.

Henry's greatest treasure...his brand new Bible! He also got a brand new hunting knife (Bear Grylls brand!) that he is super excited to have.

Jonah loved everything, especially his new scooter and the knife/flashlight combo that he got from Henry.

Bridget's treasured items were her new baby doll stroller and the battery operated toothbrush that Jonah got for her.

Sam was completely spoiled, as usual. Christmases are best when Sam gets more presents than anyone else. ;)

We had a wonderful Christmas and were able to slow down from the busyness of the season and focus on Christ and His sacrifice for us. We spent really fun time together as a family and enjoyed baking cut-out cookies many times throughout the season...more than we have ever made in the past. I'm so thankful for my sweet family!!!