Professional Pics from Mark & Sarah's Wedding

Trying to embed a slideshow into my blog.  Seeing if it works.

My sweet girl!

Wow!  It's been a long time since I've blogged.  Probably nobody even goes to my blog to read it anymore since I take so long between posts.  Oh, well.  It's mainly for me to remember and share memories.
Jordan had told us a few years ago that he wanted to live with us forever.  He never wanted to get married and stay with us.  We just chuckled and told him that of course he could live with us for as long as he wanted.
Tonight as I was driving home with Rachel and Joshua in the car, Rachel and I had a similar conversation that went something like this:
Rachel:  "Mommy, when I get older I'm going to leave our house."
Me:  "Yes, someday when you're older."
Rachel:  "You & Papa are going to miss me when I leave."
Me:  "Yes, Rachel, we will miss you a lot."
Rachel(starting to get teary-eyed):  "I'll be sad when I leave your house."
Me:  "You don't have to leave if you don't want to.  You can stay with Mommy & Papa for as long as you want to."
Rachel(wiping her tears, voice cracking):  "OK.  I don't want to ever leave.  But I won't be the same me."
Me:  "It's okay.  You'll just be bigger.  Mark still lives with Grandma & Grandpa and he is a big boy.  He is about to move out of their house now because he and Sarah are getting married and he wants to live in his own house with Sarah.  You might meet a boy one day that you want to marry and that would be the only reason you might want to leave our house."
Rachel:  "No, Mommy.  I'm never going to want to marry any boy and leave you."

I just had to get it down in writing so I can show Rachel what she said when she decides to get married one day.  If only their sweet words could last forever! 

Out of the Mouths of Babes!

Well, each of my children always has something funny to say. More when they're little, but sometimes the older ones too.

Jacob has gotten old enough that he doesn't have too many funny slipups anymore. Joshua is young enough that he still doesn't say many words, but his facial expressions are hilarious. He'll give a look sometimes that is like rolling his eyes, but he droops his eyelids really low and glances out of the corner of his eye at you. Then he laughs very loud and runs away.

Jordan and Rachel gave us a couple of funny kid-isms to share again.

First, Jacob was saying (for some reason I can't remember), "I've fallen and I can't get up!" - the quote from that old commercial. And Jordan said, "Is that Shakespeare?" Jacob pretty much fell out on the floor laughing at him.

While Jacob & Jordan were in Houston a couple of weeks ago, I was trying to get Rachel to help me with something and she didn't want to do it. I said, "I'm doing all these fun things with you. Today I took you to the park and Children's Museum and tomorrow we're going to the Bounce, and how do you repay me?" And she said, "I don't know! 50 dollars?"

Techno Kiddos

I continue to be astounded at how quickly kids catch on to technology. Rachel and Joshua are growing up with a whole different type of technology than Jacob and Jordan have experienced before now. It is so funny to hear the things that Rachel says and see the things that Joshua does related to technology.

1st story: We have a TV with DVD and VCR upstairs in the kids' gameroom and we have a Blu-Ray player with our TV downstairs in the living room. Rachel wanted to watch a movie and I told her that she needed to watch it upstairs. She said, "But Mommy, the movie is on Blu-Ray!"

2nd story: This is partially my fault - When I run errands, take the kids to the doctor, go to events for the older kids, etc, I usually let Joshua play on my iphone because it keeps him happy and quiet and then we don't have a scene like in one of my prior blogs. I have gotten free apps that are educational games for little kids and have 2 movies on my phone that I let them watch, too. Anyway, Scot and I decided we needed to cut back on Joshua's "iphone time". He fusses everytime he sees my purse wanting my iphone and is obsessed when he has it. So I got some of his usual toys for him to play with in the car when I was going to take Jacob, Jordan, & Rachel to the dentist. I had gotten everything together and was herding the kids out of the house toward the car. I had left my purse and Joshua's diaper bag sitting on a chair. As I turned around to tell Joshua it was time to go, he had already thrown his other toys on the floor, unzipped my purse, and taken out my iphone and was trying to input the passcode to start playing on it. I couldn't believe that sneaky little devil. I was glad I had the iphone at the dentist, though, since I spent an hour and a half with Joshua in the waiting room.

They continually amaze me!

Baby Pictures

Since our oldest "baby" is starting highschool in the fall, I thought it would be fun to post baby pictures of all the kids to see how they looked compared to each other. It's funny because I have to scan pictures of Jacob and Jordan. There weren't digital cameras when Jacob was a baby, but there probably were when Jordan was a baby - we just didn't have one yet. We got our first one in December 2001. Hope you enjoy the look back!

Jacob as a newborn

Jacob at 1

Jacob at 2

Jacob at 3

Jacob at 4

Jordan as a newborn

Jordan at 1

Jordan at 2

Jordan at 3

Jordan at 4

Rachel as a newborn

Rachel at 1

Rachel at 2

Rachel at 3

Rachel at 4

Joshua as a newborn

Joshua at 1

Joshua hasn't reached 2,3, or 4 yet so here is an updated school picture at 18 months.

A Real Tee, Finally!

Joshua's Batting Tee

Well, I found the perfect t-ball stand for Joshua at Walmart today. He loves it! I made a video of him, but of course it's too long for my blog. I'm going to post it on facebook for you facebookers and see if I can somehow provide a link here. I shall return to add the link if possible.

Our Creative Little Baseball Player

Well, Joshua has become obsessed with baseball, or should I say swinging a bat and hitting a ball. Ever since Jordan started playing baseball, it has become an obsession. That has become his main activity. He has pretty much used everything as a bat: toy bowling pins, stuffed animals, a pack of pencils, books, movie cases, dog toys, sippy cups, and actual toy bats. The list could go on and on. He usually uses a real ball (or something round) as the baseball, but this one day in particular he had a very interesting combination as his bat and ball.

I guess I should have mentioned that I am usually the tee stand (or my hand is the tee stand). He brings me the ball and says, "Ball". Then I am supposed to hold it in my hand and he hits it (most of the time - sometimes he hits my hand or my arm) with his bat for the moment. He has a perfect batting stance and swing. I have been looking for a real tee stand that would be good for him. Anyway, back to my story. Rachel has a bucket of fake food. One day Joshua brings me a fake whipped cream topping with a cherry on top and says, "Ball" and guess what he had in his hand to use as his bat? A lipstick pen of Rachel's! :) It was so funny! I guess he was pretty desperate to play ball and that was all he could find at the moment.