June 2009

#3 asked for only one thing for his birthday--this dinosaur! Some friends who were ready to be without theirs donated it to his birthday cause. Thanks, Anne!

#1 received his FIRST DEGREE BLACK BELT. #2 received his BLACK BELT. #3 received his BLACK BELT. We couldn't be more pleased with their dedication and success! And none of us, including these three, could be more pleased with the break we're taking from the many hours of classes we've been attending!

#3's friend in the longhorn shirt moved a couple of days after #3's birthday party. He is missed! We're hoping to get together again soon with some of these other fun friends.

#3 turned seven!! He decorated his cake to be a wii remote and had a Mario Kart party with some friends before having to get geared up for his black belt test.

#1 graduated from elementary school. The teacher at the pulpit was WONDERFUL. He involved the kids, welcomed their input, and really helped them excel. The woman on the left is our principal, who has also been supportive of our family.

#s 4 & 5 got all duded up to attend #1's graduation from elementary school.

#5, #4, and cousin looked darling in the sweaters Gram knitted for them!

We also began the most amazing summer trip we've experienced to date. For TONS of details on that, see our other blog at lebarons.blogspot.com . It's a private blog--if you'd like an invitation, leave us a comment.

Quotables:

Zeke, after momba had been quiet a little while on our 17 hour driving day: "Hey, Mom, is Grandma still with us?"

For more quotables, click here. I'll be updating more from our trip soon, too!

May 2009

Since I realized I somehow missed this in March, I thought I'd include a picture from the Kennewick Posse Reunion Trip. Rick is missing because his family was mid-move. He was missed, but these four had a blast.

We celebrated Mike's 35th birthday with a BBQ and swim with Brian and Allie. We absolutely adore Mike. No one could be more blessed than we are in their sweetheart/daddy!

#4 graduated from preschool. His award was "POCKETS" because he apparently always had a surprise in his pockets. I had never noticed! It reminds me of Hatari--love the Duke! Since then I've done more checking, and he really does always have a toy tucked in.

We had a Memorial Day flag ceremony with our scouters. We are grateful for those who serve to protect our rights.

We said goodbye to the 5 geckos we had caught. We released them into our backyard. We've only spotted one of them since, but we think that may be due to the Texas heat. Since I'm doing this update in July, it was 104 today!

Mother's Day was fun because my boys were so sweet to me. I even got my favorite breakfast--Mike's homemade french toast--AND still got to be on time to church!

#4's preschool class sang to us for Mother's Day.

#s2 and 3 made more hats for premature babies at Parkland as they finished their community service hours to achieve their black belts.

We had a very successful black belt bake sale. Thanks so much to all who supported us in learning a little about finances and responsibility as the boys earned money to pay for part of the testing fees! (Can you tell the boys did the decorating themselves?)

#1's choir had its final performance.

Hope took new family pictures for us. She had to take the kids faces from 5 different pictures and put them on this one to get it to look this good!

Quotables:

Zeke, distressed: Some of the pieces in this soup are entertaining.
Mom: Entertaining?
Zeke: Yes, they're entertaining, and that takes too much effort for me.

For more quotables, click here or here.