Warning: Boy on the loose with a screwdriver!

Have I mentioned that I only have 4 weeks of teaching left for this year? Surely I have mentioned this because I am plumb GIDDY.

The last few weeks of teaching are a lot like the last few weeks of ANYTHING. It’s getting a little sloppy. People that say “finish strong” are basically just getting on my nerves at this point.

So here’s what’s been going on:

1.Caleb developed a sudden fascination with a screw driver today. The toys took a hit.

2. The blog is doing well. In fact, the blog is doing so well that I’m being bombarded with “sponsored post” requests on a daily basis. I’m going to honor the ones that I have accepted, and then I am going to post a price list. I figure that will end the bombardment, as few people actually want to pay much for advertising. I’m thinking $50/review. Not even kidding. I’ve worked hard on this blog, and my time is valuable.

Don’t worry, friends. These fees won’t apply to friends and family.

Don’t ya’ll think that sounds fair?

And while we’re on the topic, I would like some feedback, from you, my friends and family, my readers on what you’d like me to review on the blog. Food? Services? Health? Kitchen supplies? Beauty supplies? Curriculums? What kind of reviews would you like? Or none at all? Tell me that too. 😉 Lay it on me.

3. JD is using three words consistently: Yes, No, Nooooooo, This.

He can also say all of our names, but I just love hearing his adorable little voice.

cornbread fiend

4. You know the phrase “eat or be eaten?”

JD takes that phrase seriously. He is the biggest food thief. First, he goes to his plate and eats all that he wants from that. Then he climbs down, walks over to Dan’s plate, before Dan even makes it to the table, and he eats Daniel’s food! Not kidding! He especially does this with cornbread and mashed potatoes. Boy loves him some ‘taters. 😉

Actually, all food is pretty hard to get your hands on. Alan just cried out in dismay, “Where are the brownies!??” Seriously, Alan, when you left the house this morning there were 3.5 brownies in the pan, how could you possibly expect brownies by the time you got home????

5. JD has joined the mob of children on our trampoline. We just have this rule that they have to only ‘jump’ on their knees. They are really careful and sweet with him, so this has been SO EXCITING for JD, and for everyone, really–except us because it makes us nervous.

6. California is turning brown again. This makes me really sad. I keep praying for rain. Each time I pray, it will rain a wee bit the next day, the ground soaks it up, and then it’s gone. C’mon ya’ll!!!! Let’s pray for rain!!!

7. 

Toddlers are a lot like cats. They like to sit on the table. Don’t worry. We don’t let him do that often, but it’s really not a big deal to us. I’m sorry. Once you have so many children, you simply are not so tightly wound any more, and there’s no way to get the high-stress parent mode back. You’re welcome, John David.

Okay. I HAVE to go clean up, and I WANT to make Alan brownies. Even I have standards. 😉

Hey, he was cold. Two hats helped him. 🙂 Have a great week, ya’ll!

The post Screwdrivers, Food, and Price Increases: Yes, it makes sense! appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD’s new room setup

It all started with Caleb’s scooter accident on Sunday…apparently that was an omen of sorts. The next big challenge was that we promoted J.D. to a toddler bed. This has never been a big deal for us. I remember Joshua was so good at sleeping on a toddler mat, that at 14 months I could put Joshua on his mat in the hallway of a friend’s house, and he would go right to sleep.

Joshua and Caleb were both crib jumpers that had to be promoted at 15 months, to keep them from injuring themselves!

I remember Aunt Fran telling us, “You know they aren’t ALL going to be this good, right?”

hehehe  I’m sure we just thought we were the bomb, and of course they’d all be compliant nappers.

Caleb took us down a peg.  He liked to wait for me to leave the room and then pass out in his floor, playing with toys, but he was quiet, and he left us alone, so we were satisfied.

Daniel, around 18 months, sleeping soundly in his crib

Then came Daniel. By the time you have your 3rd kid, you are too busy to recall such details. Three is a stressful number because you’re still trying to live like the average American family, despite the fact that you have three children, six and under. I don’t recall Daniel’s transition at all.

But we have this one kid who has been sure to keep us humble in all of our endeavors: enter John David: both mover and shaker, a spunky man indeed! The boy has pluck.

This is John David helping me unload the dishwasher. One year olds make wonderful dishwasher unloaders!! He takes his job seriously.

A few months ago, Alan made his weekly run to the dump. Yes, we recycle, but our local California town gives us a trashcan that is barely bigger than the trash can in your kitchen to put each week’s garbage in. There are SIX of us. Seriously, you should see our teeny tiny garbage can.

So Alan was at the dump, dropping off our extra trash, when lo and behold he spots a beautiful toddler bed sitting off to the side. People around here move a lot, and sometimes the easiest way to get rid of things is to just set it by the dumpsters and figure someone will pick it up…….someone like us.

Did we NEED a toddler bed? No. We have 2 extra twin beds that we aren’t even using, but I can’t explain it. We thought the free dumpster toddler bed was cute. We proudly added it to our garage collection of “stuff we never use but couldn’t possibly give away.”

Eventually, we got tired of it taking up space, so we decided to go ahead and promote our little fella. Ready or not, here we go!!

Some people just can’t handle freedom of any sort. That boy could no more control his little self to stay in that bed than I can turn down a Krispy Kreme chocolate covered donut!! It was ridiculous! Any time he would wake up, he’d roll, or sometimes fall, right out of bed and head straight for his door. He figured out how to work a doorknob, and he was on his way to adulthood, he really seemed to think!

I already mentioned the first night, when he headed down the stairs at 1am. We have remedied that situation.

It’s been a week now, and I’m happy to report that things are much better now. It isn’t perfect, but it’s better. J.D. is a gregarious little individual. He has very set ideas for how he likes things, and change takes him a while to adapt to.

We love this outspoken, opinionated, animal loving, raisin bran crunch eating, cuddly, cuddly, cuddly little rascal so much.

Let me tell ya what is new in John David’s world:

-He has earned the nickname Angry Bird, because he reminds me of a bird sometimes, and he can be quite grumpy.

-He is usually the first person awake every single morning. I took a page from Aunt Amy’s book and hung black-out curtains. We’ve never felt the need to do this until J.D. Yes, the others all woke up early. No little boy here ever slept past 7am, but 5am is a WHOLE other kettle of fish! That is unacceptable, for sure.

I’ve always encouraged their early to rise routine (between 6:30 and 7) because I think it is a WONDERFUL habit to form as a young person, and I hope they will be able to keep it for the rest of their lives. Waking up in the morning, to this day, is my greatest struggle. I seriously need to be up and running at 6am, and that is the hardest thing in the world for me to do! Even when I go to bed at 10pm, which is my new habit for 2015, I still can’t wake up early! If you are tempted to say, “Then go to bed at 9pm,” you obviously do not have four young children. That is not actually possible in my position, I can assure you.

-JD eats breakfast with his daddy every morning. They eat eggs and Raisin Bran Crunch together. I was awake at 6 this morning to witness it, and JD mixing his eggs and cereal and eating them with his spoon, his fork, and his hands was both messy and adorable.

-JD is mostly only allowed to drink water, except for his nightcap of milk. This is because we are trying to get him as full of nutritional food as possible, in hopes that he will sleep better. Vanity, really….it’s all in vain….

-JD is starting to show interest in going to the potty. I don’t potty train 18 month olds. It’s hard enough at age 2. He will wait, and he will be just fine.

-favorite expression: “Ruff ruff! Ruff ruff!” He barks all day long.

-Favorite activity: puzzles, trains, Batman, and following his mother around. He also likes to color.

-Things his brothers say about him:

Caleb, while taking a bath with JD, “Look, Mom, I taught him this game.”

They promptly began hurling foam alphabet letters at each other and laughing hysterically. Right, well, I guess those foam letters are good for something after all…

Daniel: “Mommy!!!!  Baby took my Batman!”

“Moooooooom!!  No baby play my Batcave!”

“No, JD!”  “No, Baby!”  “NO!”  “Can JD sleep in my bed?” (Answer is no.)

“Me wake up baby now?”  (Also no.)

We were in the car the other day, and I said that JD looks so much like Joshua did. Joshua chimed in, “Except he’s way fatter than me.”

“Um, actually, JD is the skinniest baby we’ve ever had.”
“What!! I was chubbier than JD!!” Yes, Joshua, yes you were.

Caleb proudly proclaimed, “but I was the BIGGEST of all, but Daniel really was the fattest.”

Caleb, pictured here at 2 months, was off the growth charts from day 1. Extremely tall.

Daniel: His rolls had rolls.

All true, Caleb, all true. Come back tomorrow! Hopefully, I will find time to write about Caleb’s week of exciting new adventures: new sports, new friends, and one very happy Caleb.

The post You know they aren’t all going to be this good, right? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Ah……nothing like kicking back and resting with a three-year-old…

So the first four weeks of home school are done. I’ve been trying to approach this as a puzzle. What can I do to fix the things that I see that need fixing in their education and in their character? Those are the two things I’m keeping them home to work on.

I feel as though Joshua has made amazing progress. Seriously. Amazing. First, he started out way ahead of where I thought he was, so that made the academic part fairly easy.Today I had to introduce the kind of multiplication problems like this: 38 x 3. I thought, “Oh, this will be big.”

I accidentally included three such problems in his seat work before I even introduced them. He blew me away by getting 2 of the three CORRECT. I was puzzled but impressed. There was no scribbling on the paper, either. He did it all in his head. I’m sort of amazed by how much he has accomplished since school started. There is no way I could have ever solved 48 x 3, without someone teaching me how first.

Actually, what Joshua needed to work on was more in the attitude department and the paying attention department–behavioral stuff. He has grown by leaps and bounds in attitude. I finally took my mom’s advice and found more ways to praise him–about behavior–at the very beginning of the school day. That way, he started off on the right foot right away.

Attention isn’t  a problem at home anymore. I know that he has to do all the writing on the board when learning something new. I try to take as much listening as possible out of the equation.

This morning, I was putting JD to bed, when Joshua came by the door, and said, “Mom, I totally get why you had me copy Proverbs 1:8. Obey your mom.” He chuckled, and then he ran downstairs for recess.

This boy’s grades are flying high, and he reads so many books, day and night, I can’t keep up with it.

************

Caleb

My main objective is to bring Caleb up to grade level with his reading this year. So far, this is not going as quickly as I’d hoped.  He started off like a rocket, and then his progress slowed way down. I think I’m going to have to switch gears. I was really pushing Phonics, but Caleb folds up like a envelope when I whip out the Phonics tests.

 Everyone says, “Each kid is different.” That couldn’t be more true. However, Joshua improved his reading by reading all day long in the 2nd grade, so I think in THIS particular case, my next course of action should be to try to do what actually worked for Joshua.

ALSO, the Classical Conversations stuff–Caleb is way behind where Joshua is on that. Joshua has it all down pat. Caleb has a little of it, but he especially does not have any of the songs. He also refuses to sing. This is the exact OPPOSITE of Joshua who sings the answer to everything I ask him. I tell him to recite his 3 times tables, and Joshua sings them. I haven’t even taught him a song for them, and yet he still sings them. I’ve always thought that would work for everyone. Caleb is proving otherwise.

So tonight, I retreated to the beach to pray and think, and that’s when a light bulb went off in my mind. Caleb had such an INCREDIBLE first week, and he was so very very happy and dedicated because he felt successful. He was getting lots of praise. He’s still getting that, especially in math, but not so much in the language arts and CC memorization stuff. If he thinks he’s behind in something, he shrinks away, and doesn’t want to touch it with a 10 foot pole. Caleb is afraid of failure.

Now I know what the problem is, so I have a few ideas for addressing it.

1. Go to the library this weekend and check out even MORE books that are on his level.

We were throwing books into the book drop last week, and it was taking so long to turn in our 40 books, a line formed….sort of embarrassing….A lady said, “That’s a lot of books.” I smiled and replied, “It’s a lot of children.”

library days

I think his 2nd grade reading book is just a touch above his level.

2. Way more celebrating of Caleb’s victories

3. Explain how fun it is to master something that used to be hard. That kind of victory tastes so much sweeter than when something just comes easily, and you don’t have to work for it at all.

Behavior wise: Caleb is still doing really great. He just always seems so happy.

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Daniel

Oh, you know Daniel. Right now Daniel is in his room, playing with toys when he should be sleeping. As long as he stays in his room and doesn’t bother anyone, I let him be.

I do feel like I don’t get to spend as much time with Dan now that I’m always working with the big boys. However, you can bet you can still always find Daniel by my side in the kitchen. That boy does love to cook. He also knows how to work the Keurig and likes to make my coffee for me. He cleans up, he plays Legos, and sometime in the last month or so, he graduated out of night time pull-ups, saving us at least $20 a month. Daniel is a joy. One day, his wife will thank me, and I will have to say, “It wasn’t really me. This is just who he is.”

When it comes to 3-year-old pre school, I’m like this, “Dan, look, this is a three. See? Put your finger on it, and say ‘three.'”

“Good!  Now go get me three airplanes.”

Dan returns 2 minutes later with three airplanes.

“That’s so great, Dan!!!  All done. Now you can go play airplanes!!!”

That really is about all I do. He is good at tracing his name and numbers and letters as well. I just don’t have the energy to come up with an abundance of pre-school “activities”!

*******

John David

disclaimer: Those two random patches of sod on dirt were like that when we moved in. Grass has to be watered constantly to grow here. We have it in the front only.

Tiniest Man now walks everywhere. He even ran a little today, which made us all laugh. His favorite words to say are “aaaaa, aaaaa, aaaa,” which I think is mama, “Hey”, and “Night night.” He loves to say “night night.”

He shakes his head “no”, any time we say “no”, which is also adorable. He’s a good little block builder too. His favorite toys of all are his dinosaurs and his polar bear. He carries those around and roars, pretty much all day long.

He is still highly opinionated and aggressive. I’m convinced that the more children you have, the more aggressive they get because…well…..survival. Don’t even think about taking a toy from JD. It will never work. He will go full scream on you, and he has the grip of a kid whose fought some battles.

And Big Man has gotten a lot done too. I feel SO APPRECIATIVE of this guy these days. Alan built this fence, which is now complete. Our trampoline should arrive on Tuesday, and then he will build that too. Thank you so much, Alan.

*********

Me

I think God sees me the way that I see John David, “Oh little one, why don’t you go to sleep??  You know you are tired.”

The post Home schooling Progress appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

He takes about 10 steps a day, but he still crawls most of the time. Apparently JD is a gradual, gradual, gradual learner. 🙂

My life is seriously adorable at the moment, and I am so thankful. It is a TON of work though. We bust our rears on this whole parenting gig.

We were hoping to go to Moss Landing today and check out the whales. But not so fast. My friend Sarah found a used fence for sale for me, so instead, Alan is digging fence holes today. We bought a chain link fence. It’s required in our neighborhood to put up a trampoline, and you know my boys have to have their trampoline.

Seriously, if you have little boys and room for a trampoline, there’s nothing I could recommend more highly.

We get the kind with the safety net, and they spend hours on it. I don’t do fence holes, so my goal is to catch up on laundry and maybe unpack a box.

I’ve noticed that I tend to exaggerate towards the negative.

The truth is we only have 4 boxes upstairs and one downstairs left to unpack. It has been that way for a week. We do have about 10 left in the garage, though. Alan needed a bucket today, and we couldn’t find one!

So here’s what’s new with us this past week: the craziness on camera

That was all during “seatwork” time.

I met an angel in disguise at the curriculum fair where I bought my A Beka books.

She said, “Now your schedule is not going to look like your friends’, and that’s okay. When those babies take their nap, that’s when you are going to teach the math and the grammar. Those are the things where the big ones will really need your undivided attention.”

I have treated that as gospel truth. There was one day where I tried to do Caleb’s phonics and reading while JD was awake: huge mistake. JD wanted to practice walking to me and get lots of cheering, but Caleb really needed me to listen to him read. Lesson learned.

The modern method for teaching writing, which was used at my kids’ last school, worked great for my first son, but failed my second son completely.

They have open-ended questions that kids as young as kindergarten are supposed to answer and just spell their words phonetically.  Since my second son could not read and did not have any kind of grasp on phonics, he would just panic and not write anything at all. Therefore, he was learning nothing about writing at school for the past two years. His papers would be blank.

Instead, I am using the Classical method of teaching writing for him. This way my son writes all day, but not from his head. He copies. He copies, and copies, and copies. I give it to him in attainable chunks. This way he is learning through actual writing. He is seeing how words are spelled correctly. I think this will pay off big time.

Even if I send my kids back to public school in the future years, this could be used to help a struggling writer in the after school hours.

Daniel tossed this puppet in the trash can about 5 minutes after we finished it. Oh well.

I know I’m his mom, but I was seriously impressed with Caleb’s snail drawing. He is seven. Way to go, Caleb!

So two weeks down!!! I was definitely a nicer, less stressed person this week than I was last week. I don’t think I handle heavy stress very well.

I have tried everything to get JD to sleep better at night.

Nothing has worked. Finally, two nights ago, I gave it over to hard, devoted prayer. There are many ways to pray: half-hearted, absent-minded, and then there’s the hard core prayer: where you are begging God for help. He listens really well to that last kind. For two nights now, JD has gone from sleeping 5 hours straight only, to sleeping 8 or 9 hours straight.  My prayers were answered. I’m going to keep praying.

Do you know what the hardest part about living here is? I know that this amazing ocean full of sea mammals is minutes away from my door, and I’m always too busy with work to get out there. It’s calling my name, and I cannot answer!!  Yesterday I had two errands to run: Staples and grocery store. I snuck off to the beach on my way. I only stood on the sand for 5 minutes and watched the waves crash into the shore, but it still helped!!  I VOW to take all of my family to that beach before Labor Day Weekend is over.

Yesterday I just reminded myself: No, I do not have free time, and life is a whole lot of work right now. But you know what? I have something way better than free time. I am important. I am needed. I have an abundance of purpose.

I remember when we first got married, and I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do or be. I felt like I had no purpose. I cannot even imagine that now. This craziness, these children, this life is the greatest blessing I will ever have. Praise the Lord.

The post Home Schooling 4 Boys: So Much Work, But So Fulfilling appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Off and on for the entire month of June, our family has been in the process of tackling this cross-country move. There has been stress, travel, excitement, anxiety, and a whole lot of “we’ll see when we get there.”

Oh, and by the way, ‘this process’ won’t even be somewhat-finished until the first week of August, when we finally move into our new house, and our household goods arrive. In the meantime, we spend a lot of time crashing at our parents’ houses and sleeping in hotels. Alan is actually living in a hotel right now, and while his classes haven’t started yet, there is already a lot of preparatory work to do. Hang in there, Honey!!

There’s one question that kept coming up, as we packed up our things, drove across the country, and went house hunting.

“But where are your children??”

We felt so funny without them that we would feel the need to tell people who didn’t care at all, “It’s not normally just us. We do have kids–four boys, but they are in Alabama with our parents while we work this transition.”

This past Sunday we visited a church in our new area, and as we walked in, just the two of us (so weird!) to ask where to go, we knew they were looking us over to decide which Sunday School class to send us to. The nice ‘welcome committee’ lady decided the “class with several young military couples” would be best. As Alan and I headed up the stairs to this class that the powers that be had specially selected for us, we both were thinking, “oh no, they don’t know the real us!!  What if they think we are younger than we are? What if this is more of a college/career/newlywed type group when we are the embodiment of the ’30s/parenting class?  They think we are young and free.”

We feel very much the opposite of young and free. Parenthood just does that to you. Don’t you think? Or is that just us? Either way, we feel busy and responsible all of the time. At the back of our minds, we are always crunching nap and feeding schedule and checking diapers. We are the kind of couple that can’t name any of today’s t.v. sitcoms or top 10 recording artists. Can you?

Thankfully, the Sunday School class turned out to be perfect. We were in our little military community, and it was a small class. Almost all of the people in there were also parents. It was a match. Phew!

…….Meanwhile…..the kids…..

The second week of June, the oldest three boys stayed with Alan’s parents, and we let JD stay with us. This worked out just fine. JD even got us all to himself for once.

Alan’s parents were wonderful. They drove up and met Alan halfway to get the boys, and they kept them busy, happy, and well fed. What more could you ask for? The boys got to go to a museum, visit their great-grandparents, their cousins, ride the lawnmower/golf cart thing, go to the movies, and do a ton of slip-n-sliding! Nonna worked so hard at keeping them from over-doing the electronics, as she knows how that bothers us. I felt bad about that, Nonna. I totally should’ve told you the “what happens at Nonna’s stays at Nonna’s philosophy” before your week so you could have felt less pressure.

I can honestly say that while we felt sad for them having to say good-bye to their friends, we were never the least bit worried about them because we knew Nonna and DaddyO were taking such good care of them.

Our boys go, non-stop, all day, so this is a job. DaddyO said the very first morning he barely opened one eye, sometime around 5am, and there was Caleb, just standing by his bed. Caleb whispered, “You know, it’s morning outside.”

They wake up early, and it doesn’t matter how late you keep them up at night, they wake up early.

We reunited with the boys after that week, spent a few days with our family in Alabama, and then hit the road again, this time leaving all four with my parents.

Mom and Dad, I never worried. I knew ya’ll would be just fine. I still cannot believe ya’ll braved the zoo in the Alabama heat with all four boys, but I am amazed.

Mom had the added difficulty of JD’s night time plans…

I hate to even admit this, but JD still wakes up one time a night for a bottle. I know. It’s a little depressing. He slept through the night for a few months there, and then that was over. I’ve tried lots of different things to change it, but the fact is that he wakes up for the calories, and if you fail to provide them at the one wake-up, he will just keep waking up every hour until you do, so we just go in armed with an 8 oz bottle.

Thankfully, this is our 4th baby, so while this would have caused us great stress with the first baby, this doesn’t even register in the ‘problem’ category at this point. At JD’s 1 year well baby appointment, they asked how he sleeps, and I said, “He wakes up once each night for a feeding.” The first nurse explained to the new nurse-in-training, “That’s normal at this age.”

Thank you!!  Would someone please publish this for all new mothers who feel like they are failing because their baby has to have a midnight bottle? It’s normal. Just normal.

However, it does make the job harder, so I felt bad for my mom!!! She persevered. THANK you, Mom!!!! Oh, and there were a lot of rainy days, so thank you Mom and Dad, for handling all of the sibling conflicts. I did not miss that! The boys carried on their slip-n-slide fun at my parents’ house too. This will go down as the slip-n-slide summer.

The boys also went to an aviation museum (which was a huge hit with all four), as well as the library and the toy store. Between both sets of grandparents, Joshua, Caleb, Dan, and JD have had all the indoor lounging, video gaming, day trips, ice cream, and summer fun that anyone could ask for. I feel like my ‘bring the summer fun’ job is done for the year. Thanks ya’ll!!!

I know. We really do have the best two sets of parents ever.

***********

Daniel is hilarious!

So today I was pushing Daniel on the swing outside, and we had this really great talk:

Me: Daniel, you are so precious. You know that? You are just so adorable and sweet and precious.

Daniel: …..talking softly…..no idea what he said….but smiling really really big

Me: I love you, Dan. I love you.

Dan: I love you, Mommy. …more soft talking…I want to go to your house.  *****(He’s always called our house ‘mommy’s house’. I don’t know what that says about me, but that’s what he calls it….)*****

Me: Oh, Dan, we will. We are all going to go to a new house. We are going to have a new house, with new rooms. You will have a new room. I will have a new room. Your brothers will have a new room. It’ll be really great.

Daniel: I have troubles too. *Brother hit me, at the door, right there.

What a smart boy! Never underestimate your children!!

*name omitted

The post But where are your children? Moving Cross Country appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

JD’s first move— He seems to be having a pretty good time.

 Today Alan and I kissed our children good-bye and set back out–alone this time–on our big cross-country road trip.

It’s really been fun so far.

 Over the last few days I have gotten to visit both sides of our families, swim in the backyard pool with my two oldest boys, celebrate JD’s first birthday, visit a Pioneer Museum in Alabama, and even revisit the University of Alabama campus, where Alan and I got our undergraduate degrees!

Whew!

Seriously, one of the ‘funnest’ (totally SHOULD be a word) things I have done this whole summer is swim in the wading pool with Joshua and Caleb. I highly recommend it. If you haven’t swam with your kids this year, you have just got to go do it, even if it’s only a wading pool!!

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Photo Highlights:

I love it when they look all sweet and brotherly like this.

This is why you don’t let your husband pick out your baby’s birthday cake.

Just for the record, if I had the whole ‘baby parenting’ thing to go back and do over again, this is the ONE big tradition I would IGNORE.

Giving a one-year-old nasty sugar-laden RED birthday cake and letting them just go for it….this idea could not have come from any mother ever. Horrible idea. If I were to have any more babies, they would learn the beauty of a nice birthday bag of gummy fruit snacks–delicious and clean.

Yep. He did all the messy-baby-lovers proud. Even after the bath that followed this immediately, I still found some stray red icing–in his ear. Terrible idea. Seriously.

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And the road trip resumes! We made it through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas today.

We are now on the western side of the Mississippi River! More photos to come in the next post.

For today, I’m going to focus on the Pioneer Museum that we visited in Alabama.

Alan and I love history stuff. I have throughly enjoyed researching my ancestry and reading history books. 1796, a Thomas Jefferson biography, an Andrew Jackson biography, The Mayflower, Rose Kennedy’s autobiography, and Ronald Reagan’s autobiography are a few of my favorites.

Therefore, this side trip was perfect for us.

Do you see the tall loblolly pine tree behind the triangular sign? That is the ‘moon tree’, grown from seeds that traveled to the moon on Apollo 14.

Beautiful. Alabama is beautiful.

This place had a collection of around 20 carriages and buggies. Love!

I have an ancestor listed on this plaque!!  So cool!

 I’ve always loved American history, but I got into the genealogy thing on accident!

A few summers ago, the two oldest boys were spending a couple of weeks in Alabama with their grandparents. I was kid-free, so I took a couple of days to just explore D.C. on my own. It was heavenly.  While I was out, I happened upon the 1st Annual Genealogy Conference at the National Archives building. It was free, so I just went right in, attended a couple of classes, and brought home a whole bunch of information. Then I got to work!

 I rarely get to do any research now. Okay. Actually, I never do any research now, but I do miss it. One day!!

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This was an especially exciting day because we also got to visit our old stomping ground: The University of Alabama. The thing is, I have a whole lot to share about that too, so it will just have to wait until tomorrow!

Visit this link for our UA pics and stories!!

Denny Chimes

The post Cross Country Road Trip of a Lifetime: First Stop: Alabama appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

If you NEED a chuckle today, watch this video of Daniel:

Alan:

He has been hard at work getting everything wrapped up for the move. He has made sure we have a house lined up to move into when we get there. There is SO MUCH planning that goes into a cross country move. Meanwhile, he’s been handing over his current responsibilities at work, signing out of his current post, lining up the shipment of one of our vehicles, and of course, our newest talent: calendar coordination.

We now use Google + calendars so that we know each other’s schedules. With each kid we’ve added to the family, and as the boys get older and have more of their own activities, there is just so much schedule planning that has to happen–constantly! I highly recommend the Google Calendar to all families!

This morning our church presented Alan with a Bible, engraved with his name, to thank him for his service in teaching Sunday School the past year. They had me go up there with him, and our pastor gave us a good farewell–which suddenly made this whole moving thing seem so real.

Wow! We really are almost gone!!

Alan is having to prep himself for returning to the student life. He will be getting his masters degree in engineering, and that is going to require a whole lot of math.

All I can say is, glad it’s him and not me!!

Me:

I’ve been trying to prep for this move by purge, purge, purging!  How do we have so much stuff!!??  Even after the yard sale, we are drowning in stuff. Bleh. Who needs it? I’m getting rid of as much as possible!!

We also have to get the house all cleaned and fixed up nicely for our move-out inspection. It’s easiest to get that finished once we move out our massive amount of junk, so for now…..I did some gardening:

Oh, the weeds….

I planted this rhododendron bush 2 years ago, and it FINALLY has its first bloom. Yes!!

I forgot to get a good before picture of this plot. It was even worse…

…..and after.  Yeah, My legs are STILL sore.

Of course, I had some helpers:

Work, Dan, work. Eh….pajamas are fine.  We’re just going to get dirty anyway. 😉

That’s one happy little helper.

Look! No hands!  And thank you, Amy!  She is ALWAYS holding babies and helping us with Daniel. I’m sure she loves always having her picture on the internet, too. haaa– I bet Amy’s hoping the new tenants do NOT have a blog….

Adding the fourth baby was big for us this year. I had to cut a lot of things: gardening was one of those things. This was the first time I had worked in the dirt in an entire year.

What else have I been doing….a lot of socializing…..because you know me, that’s what I do. 😉 No, really, I just want to see everyone one last time! I’m going to miss my friends so much!!!

Then there’s the whole schooling thing to figure out. I’ve gotten a lot of mixed reviews of the school where we are going, and I just have no peace about it. I finally decided to just devote this issue to prayer. You can find plenty of good reasons for each different method of schooling. Forget about it. Two weeks ago, I told Alan to devote the week to praying about it, I did so too, and we’ll do what God leads us to do.

I did get the answers I was looking for, so at this point we are moving forward in that direction, but I’m not ready to blog about all of that yet, so we’ll talk more about our schooling plans later.

Oh! And I’ve been working on teaching Caleb how to ride a bike. It kind of makes me want to pull all of my hair out, but we’re making progress.

Daniel:

Ah, Daniel. Daniel has learned the power of the word ‘stupid.’ We’ve never had much trouble with name-calling from our first two boys, but Daniel has this keen sense for bad or taboo words. Say something nasty in front of him one or two times, and he locks in and repeats it. And repeats it. And repeats it.

“You stupid, Caweb.” You get the idea. He likes to get a reaction. We are working on that problem…best advice:  You definitely want to watch your mouth around Daniel. He’s the only 3 year old I know that uses the expressions, “What the heck!” and “Dang it.”

Redeeming qualities: He LOVES his baby brother, he is compliant in public, he’s cuddly and sweet most of the time, and he also loves to say, “I love you, Mommy.”

Of course, sometimes it goes more like this:

Me: “I love you, Daniel.”

Daniel: “No. Me love Daddy.”

Nice.

Daniel and his best bud

John David:

The gates are hung, and JD is off! He is officially a crawler, and it is just so adorable. It also makes him happier, easier to deal with, and he sleeps better at night.  All good things.

One day last week, I suddenly realized that JD is 11 months, not 10.  Huh– so he’s our latest crawler ever–I guess that probably means we don’t have to worry about him walking yet either.

So now the baby is crying and needs to be fed, so I am outta here!

The post “No! Me love Daddy!” appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.