Grant's Birthday...wow, # 6

It is hard to believe that my boy is now 6 years old....the time has gone by so fast, he has changed so quickly. So, on Sept. 7th, Labor Day we had a big celebration. I made mini pizzas for the kids, 10 total. They all got a long well and played together.
Seems like they all liked the pizzas too (which were weight watcher friendly by the way :o)).
I made cupcakes and made Grant's cake in a mini loaf pan. I think he liked it, he ate it like he did anyway :o).


The older kids played Wii Resort and had a good time with it.
A new transformer game, just one of the things he would say, Want that, want that....when he would see a commercial for it. He was happy to see it :o).All the boys were so interested to see what was in each bag...the girls, however, not so much...
So, here is my handsome boy. When I held him in my arms 6 years ago I would have never dreamed of what he would be like at this age....and certainly a lot has happened in that short time. But every bit of it, good and bad, is shaping him into the man God will want him to be in the years to come.

Zoo trip

Yes, I know how long it has been...my time has just been occupied with other things...
But I am away from home for a training with work and took the opportunity to finally post an entry :o)
On May 30th we went to the zoo with several other families from our SS class. We have a really good day and the kids had a great time. It was really warm but not too hot or real humid.
Here is a picture of some of our group:
Grant sitting on a turtle statue.
Kaylyn had to do it, too.
We stopped at the picnic area to eat lunch. My kids, however, were more interested in feeding their lunch to the geese...
Grant and Alyssa holding hands...I could not resist taking a pic...just before the dads started their comments...
Here is one of my favorite animal pics of the day...watching the giraffe get a drink of wate...didn't think he was ever going to come up for air.
Then I had the big idea that we should get all the kids on the rhino statue for a kids group pic...we were so close and then Keenan decide he didn't want to look at the camera...so here are the attempts I made a the group shot.
Finally got a pic of Keenan looking up at us :o)
I had to get a picture of Micah since he didn't get to be in the group picture.
Yes, we did ride the train before we left for the day...and then 2 days later one derailed!!! But no worries, we were on the red train not the green train....still scary though!
And the only picture I got of myself was this one...after we had been there all day and we were all sweaty and tired (and me with no makeup)...I look horrible but I had to have something that documented that I was there too.

How do you get a 2 yr old to smile in a portrait studio?

If anyone has a fool proof plan for that let me know...because so far I am 0 for 2. It seems something happens around the age of two that causes my children to do the opposite of what I want them to. At least Kaylyn just would not smile, Grant cried and was not happy at all.
We took the kids to Sears on Friday to get some pictures made. I had not taken Kaylyn to get her 2 yr pictures done yet so that was the main focus of Friday's shoot. I also wanted a couple of pictures of the kids together since that is what most family members want. So, we ended up getting a picture CD with our order so I saved the pictures on my computer and was able to edit them the way I wanted to. So, that can be good and bad. We got about 25 shots on the cd, and I now have over 80 because of all the editing I did. I thought I would share I favorites with you.
Oh...you want me to smile? No way!
I am merely amused...
Here Kaylyn, this is how you do it!!! Cheese :o)
This kid loves Easter eggs. He has been talking about them for 2 weeks and drawing them on his art work at school...I should take a picture of his art work....hmmm.
This is one of my favorites.
I am going to hold this smile in if it kills me!
Okay, maybe just a small grin before I get up and run away, again...
Another favorite of mine :o)

And another, Kaylyn in her Easter dress.
Still, just amusing...not funny, I don't care how many times that frog falls off your head!
Yes...that is a Christmas ball ornament she has...so what... :o)
Here is it, the mischievous smile.
What, sit like a lady...you are so silly...almost a full smile.

I made my own big shot picture.
Look how long her hair is getting.
Finally! Success. Boy was I worn out! And very thankful for such a patient photographer. I was pleased after the fact.
I will post an Easter blog soon....I hope :o)

Finally! The finished project :o)

We have been cooking this up for a long time. I decided I wanted to put up some family pictures over the couch. Kenny saw this curtain idea on a home design show. So, we put the two ideas together. This is what we got...let me know what you think :o)






***Very long post below***

The first quarter review

WARNING! Very long post!

The the first quarter of the year our family has been very busy. We have moved into a new house, done some decorating, weathered an ice storm, celebrated a birthday, I started a new job and Kenny and I both traveled for work. Here are some pictures from the first 3 months of the year.
We were SO blessed to have 6 of our friends and Kenny's mom come to help us paint on New Year's Day. We were able to get it all done in one day. This is a before pic of our living room:
This is Mace, he is Mister Handyman! He helped so much around our house to get things done and get us in the house. He helped Kenny change out light fixtures and patch/putty the walls to get them ready for painting. He also changed out the locks and dead bolts and changed out the outside light as well.
Here is a before pic of our bedroom:

This is a shot of the view from Grant's room in the front of the house...
Here is Grant's room. Chris is putting together out new entertainment center while the room is getting ready to be primed and painted.

This is Wes painting the living room...ok, so the color didn't turn out the way I had pictured but it is growing on us...It was supposed to be more of a burnt orange instead of the dark orange-y peach color it turned out to be

This is my B-I-L, Chad. He helped paint in our bedroom.
Here is a picture of our refinished closet. It was in bad need of repair, some of the shelves had pulled out of the wall and taken chunks of drywall with them. So, Mace patched them and put up a new shelving system. There is plenty of room to hang clothes now :o).
Kenny's mom was a big help that day too. She scrubbed down both bathrooms for us. I was so grateful for that!
This is Stephanie painting Kaylyn's room. I absolutely love color...it is ok if you don't but it is my favorite :o).
Kenny painted Grant's room. At first I thought the color was way too bold but now I like it and really fits him.
Finally, the finished project. Our living room...
The master bedroom...I have found a painting I want to buy to put over the bed that has the same colors in it as the bedding set.
This Kaylyn's room...sorry this is the only picture I have of her room. We are in the process of finding her new bedding and I have plans to make some wall hangings...hopefully I can get it done before she turns 3!
Grant's room is so big we were able to 'upgrade' him to a full size bed and still have room for our old entertainment center and hide-a-bed couch. Chad said Grant is the only 5 yr old that he knows that has a bachelor pad...
Then in February we had the ice storm. Here are some pictures of our yard...
Yes, we have A LOT of trees! But we were very fortunate and only lost 5 or 6 small limbs. And none hit/fell on the house. This is the barn behind out house...I just liked this pic...
The ramp to our front door is very steep and it was very hard to stay standing with over a half inch of ice covering the whole thing!
Finally, the day came when sun shone again and melted all the ice off...
While it was beautiful to see the ice glistening in the sunlight it didn't take long for it to start falling. We had gone to lunch and Wal-mart with Kenny's mom and Grandmother. The ice was still on the trees when we left. When we got back it had started to fall. It was like a hail storm! We could not get into the house because of all the falling ice!
Here is Kenny cleaning off the porch and ramp. He was being silly, wearing Grant's ball helmet so the ice didn't pelt him in the head.
And last (for the post), we celebrated Kaylyn's second birthday!
She had so many gifts to open that she lost interest in opening them...She would open one and then run off to play. I finally put her in my lap and opened the presents myself.
Kenny's dad and step mom came to visit on Friday night and brought Kaylyn her birthday gift. Grant ended up wanting to play with her present as much as she did!
This is one of the presents that my mom and dad got for Kaylyn. Thankfully, they had a great season and she got to wear it many times. To bad they didn't make it to the final game...but at least they made it to the big dance!
My aunt Kathy (Kaky) got this for Kaylyn, she is a little princess...
Louisville had a game the day of Kaylyn's party so she was able to wear her cheer outfit.
And with all the festivities the little cheerleader was really tuckered out.
To finish, here are a few pictures from March to complete this post.
One afternoon the kids saw a squirrel in the tree and were interested in why is was running all over tree branches.