It's been HOW long?

Ok, so Jackson turned 9 in July, Sam turned 7 in May, and I turned, well, older in November. Andrew's birthday is in two weeks (!) and we are just trying to keep on keeping on.

We tiled all of our floors downstairs, and the two upstairs bathrooms. We put wood laminate on all the other floors upstairs. We spent Christmas break remodeling our master bath and bedroom, and it is lovely!

We even added a new family member. Charlie came to live with us out of nowhere. . . his temporary caretaker knocked on our door and he literally leapt into my arms! We tried to find his owners, then a new home, but he made it clear he belonged with us.

Andrew graduated from Ball State with his masters in special education, and I was accepted to the Indiana University school of education! When I'm done (if that ever actually happens), I will be licensed to teach secondary English, French, and ESL.

Jackson had a faboo football season with the Dolphins (they won the little league super bowl!) and Sam is fully entrenched in Karate life. He currently has five stripes on his second belt, and he will be testing into his white-with-yellow belt (whatever that means ;-)) at the end of this month!

We are busy, crazy, and very much appreciating the little time we get to spend together. I am constantly aware of how fleeting these years are with our precious boys, and I try every day to stop what I'm doing and listen to them when they have something to say. I know it won't be long before they are teenagers and have nothing to say to us! Jackson will be a high school senior in only eight years! Whew, does time fly! It seems like all of my high school friends are pregnant or have small babies, and it is soooo weird that my kids are nearing adolescence. I have loved being a young mom, and getting to spend eight years at home with them before going back to school and work full time.

That's all for now. . .

You only turn 8 once!!!

Jackson had quite the birthday extravaganza! We went out to eat with Meemaw and Papaw on Monday at Red Lobster. Jackson got a brand new Razor Scooter! He was so excited. He rides it constantly now. I can't believe how fast he goes on it!!!

Jeff, Jenny, Hannah and Joshua came over for dinner on Wednesday (Andrew made homemade turkey meatballs and sauce and whole wheat pasta), and we had lots of fun!

Andrew took his last final exam on Friday morning (he got A's in all four summer classes!), and we left for vacation around noon.

We arrived at April and Jerrod's house at about 5pm on Friday, and went over to the campground where Grandma and Grandpa were staying for a yummy camping supper! The boys stayed the night in the camper with grandma and grandpa, and Andrew and I went back to April and Jerrod's and crashed!

Saturday was the big day, and the party went very well. Everyone had fun, and both Jackson and Emma got lots of good presents! Emma's favorite was the Little Einstein's Pat Pat Rocket, and Jackson's favorite was his new iPod! They both got lots of other wonderful presents too.

We went to Das Essenhaus for dinner on Saturday night, and had some authentic Amish food. Later that night we watched We Are Marshall with April and Jerrod. It was a good movie. I cried a little.

Sunday morning we left April and Jerrod's and journeyed on to Shipshewana and Splash Universe! We spent two days playing in the huge indoor water park. They have two huge water slides, five body slides, a lazy river, a Lily pad pond, an interactive kiddie pool, a three-story water jungle gym and a 500 gallon bucket that dumps water every five minutes. We had such a great time!!! Our suite was very nice. The main room had a very comfy king-sized bed and a television. Then there was a middle room with bunk beds and a TV for the kids, and the entry area had a table and chairs, sink, fridge, and microwave. Very nice!

We ate breakfast on Monday morning at the Amish restaurant in the resort (best Maple syrup ever!), and after breakfast went into Shipshewana to check out all the shops in town. After several hours of shopping we had a light lunch at Bread of Life in Davis Mercantile, and headed back to the resort for more water park fun.

After 5 more hours in the water, we took showers and got dressed and spent some quality time in the arcade. Andrew and I generally despise arcades, but they had a super fun Deal or No Deal arcade game, and you essentially gamble for tickets. Once I won 105 tickets in one game!!! It was really fun.

When we had spent our arcade cash we grabbed (another) free diet Pepsi refill in our souvenir cup and a few bags of fresh popcorn for the road, and we set the GPS for home.

We arrived at Meemaw and Papaw's house at about 11:30 to pick up Annie, and we had the car unpacked, the dogs and children in bed, and showered and gotten ourselves into bed by 12:30. It was good to be home.

I think we all thoroughly enjoyed Jackson's birthday trip.

Thanks to everyone for all the great gifts and time together!

Time flies...

Wow! It has been forever since I last posted! So much has happened. Samuel had his tonsils and adenoids removed and tubes put in both ears. He eats so well now! The surgeon said his tonsils were so swollen they would have touched every time he swallowed, and his adenoids were so large he may never have entered REM sleep! No wonder he would only eat two or three things and was often cranky!!! He went on July 11th for his post-op appointment and got a clean bill of health! Go Sam!

Trip to the Children's Museum

Jerrod had surgery yesterday on his very injured elbow, so we have had the pleasure of spending time with April and Emma (and Jacob - although he's such a laid-back baby I keep forgetting he's here:-)) for the last couple of days. Today, Andrew and I took Jackson and Samuel and Emma to the Children's Museum, and we had all kinds of fun. We kind of expected Emma to like the Dinosaurs, but she totally went crazy over the trains. She kept pulling my hand and leading me back to the model train exhibit! She was such a good girl. She has decided that Sammy is her new best friend, and she likes it when I sing the Little Mermaid song to her at nap time. I am totally smitten with her. It's so nice to actually have another girl around, especially one as sweet as Emma!!! Jerrod should be released from the hospital soon, but I think we're still going to drive Emma up to Grandma's house tomorrow morning.

Stitches

Jackson added a battle scar to his already venerable visage yesterday. He was in a heated pogo ball competition, and he inadvertently bounced on a piece of wood that his brother had been using as a sword. You know the cartoons where the hapless character steps on a rake, only to have the rake come up and smack him in the face? Yeah. Kind of like that. Ouch. There is some argument about how many stitches it ended up being, but I am pretty sure it was 12. He says 11. He was numb, and I watched the whole thing, so I am inclined to believe myself.

I'm pretty sure it was more painful for me than it was him, because we were home for less than an hour before he was back on the pogo ball and less than two hours until he was diving headfirst down a slip and slide. I love boys.

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