I'm the oldest....

On the ride to preschool the other day, Hannah & Spencer were discussing future events in their lives and who would get to go first based on age. This was how the conversation went.....

Hannah: I'm older so I get to go first.
Spencer: No, I'm older so I get to be first.
Hannah: Nu hu, I'm older.
Spencer: Mom, Who is older me or Hannah?
Mom: Actually, Hannah is older, bud.
Spencer: That's not true. I'm bigger than she is.
Mom: I know but that doesn't make you older.
Spencer: But Mom, my eyes are taller than her head.

That may always be the case with these two.

The Lawn Boy

Todd has been saying that he wants to get Russell to help him with the yardwork. He wants to eventually have Russell mow the front yard with a walking mower. Then when Russell can do that to his Dad's satisfaction, he can hire out to mow other yards. This was the first step in getting him to help.

Although, instead of blowing the grass clippings off the street and into the yard, he blew the grass out into the street. Oh well. He will get the hang of it soon enough. But he sure looks like he knows what he's doing.

Concert Festival

I like how my phone camera allows me to focus in on one thing. It made it possible to actually see Rachel in this picture of her on stage at the Concert Festival I helped chaperone last week. The orchestra and both band from our High School scored straight 1's. They all did amazing!!

All Green Day

Hannah & Spencer love their preschool class. They are totally into it. Especially when they have "special" days. Last Friday, they had All Green Day in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

Spencer's hat has a propeller on it.

Hannah wanted to know why I didn't get her any green pants to wear.

Unfortunately, they were an hour late for school, cuz Momma took 2 sets of keys with her when she left to chaperone a High School fieldtrip and Daddy didn't have any keys to take them to school. He couldn't get any of the neighbors to answer their phones or their doors.

He ended up texting Janelle and had a friend leave work to go to the High School to pick up the spare key and bring it to him at home.

I've been instructed that from now on, I have to check to make sure I only have 1 set of keys with me when I leave the house.

A Scoutin' We will Go

I am caught up to this month now. Everything in the next few posts happened within the last few weeks.

This month's pack meeting was a big one for our family.

Christian got his first scouting award, his Bobcat.

And after much work and dragging of feet by the scout, Russell earned #8 & #9 in activity pins, his Religious patch, his compass patch, and his WEBELOS!!


Christian is going like gang busters to get his Wolf and Russell only has 2 more things to do to complete his Arrow of Light. Way to go boys!!! I am so proud of you both!

Happy Sweets Birthday to Me!!

This year's birthday was the year of the sweets.

Julie made me this sewing machine cake.

It's a replica of the new machine I got for Christmas.

This is the cake my friend, Stephanie made for me.

I also had 2 other friends who brought me bakery sweets for my birthday.
One brought 3 cupcakes from one of the cupcake shops.
Another friend gave me 3 gourmet cookies from one of the bakeries.

Thanks to all my friends who helped make this birthday a wonderful one!

Purple is my Favorite Color

but NOT when it comes in this shade....

I was on the couch when the phone rang all the way across the kitchen on the media center corner. I ran across the hardwood floor in my stocking feet and as I got close to the media corner, I slid. I stubbed my toe into the underside of the cabinet and promptly landed on my rear end. I'm glad no one was around to see my feat. But I didn't realize how badly I'd hurt myself until I took my socks off that night.

Grandma's Birthday Cake

Julie has become the resident baker. She asked for decorating books for Christmas. So when our Grandmas and Grandpas were here for Christian's baptism, she decided to use her new books to make a cake for Grandma Bingham's birthday.

This is the inspiration cake.

This is the cake Julie made.

She did a great job improvising when I wasn't able to find everything the recipe called for.

Spencer does the Laundry

This basket of towels was sitting in the TV room waiting to be folded. Spencer took it upon himself to fold the entire basket without any help. He did an awesome job!

A Visit from Mr. & Mrs. Claus

We got a visit from Mr. & Mrs. Claus 2 days early!

Julie did this to entertain the kids.

We all thought it was fun!

Merry Christmas from Stephanie

Thanks Steph, for the 24 pack of Peanut Butter Twix.

Now I know why it was so heavy when you gave it to me!

Cars Don't Know How to Swim

This post is for documentation purposes, as most of you already know what happened.

Rachel decided she wanted to swim with her High School swim team this winter. The team practiced in the next county (about 20 minutes away). Rachel had started to drive herself to practice, when one night we get a phone call. Yeah, that kind of phone call. The one no parent likes to get.

Unfortunately, Todd nor I answered our phones and she had to call Janelle to get a hold of us. Janelle brought us the phone and this is how it went, "Dad, I'm okay but I need you to come help me. I've run off the road just around the corner from the swimming pool."

That was about the jist of the call. So, Todd grabs his towing straps and loads them into the truck. I decide to go with him just in case, he needs help getting her back onto the road.

When we pulled up to where she said she had run off the road, we saw 2 police cars, another car pulled off the road, but no Explorer. As we walked up to the bridge, we realized why we didn't see the Explorer.... It was lying sideways in the creek, just below the bridge. The other car was a team mate and his Dad who had stayed with Rachel until we got there.

She had made the left hand turn wide, had run into the grass, run across a pipe that ran parallel to the bridge and when she tried to correct the car, it tipped over into the creek. She then rolled down the driver side window and threw out her swim bag, thinking the road was just right there. It wasn't.

Her bag took a trip down the creek. It had her swim fins, hand paddles, swim goggles, swim cap, water bottle, and wallet, including her driver's license. The police tried to look for it that night but couldn't see it under the bridge or down the creek. It had been raining hard for the last few days, so we just figured it was gone.

We had to have the car towed out of the creek. I think they did more damage pulling it sideways out of the creek than Rachel did putting it into the creek.

One Sunday at church a week after the accident, one of our friends came up to me and said he had been thinking about the accident and that he thought we could find Rachel's bag in the creek. He thought it shouldn't be too far away from the bridge. So 2 days later, I decided to test his theory.

I called my friend, Stephanie, and asked if she wanted to go on an adventure with me. She brought along her knee-high wading boots and we headed out. I took Julie's rain boots so we could both get into the creek. This is what we were able to find....

1 hand paddle, 1 swim fin, the water bottle and the best find of the day: the wallet (including her driver's license, all her gift cards, and her scripture mastery cards). Too bad we could only find 1 of the hand paddles and 1 fin, but finding the wallet made the trip all worth it. And our friend was right. We started finding the stuff about 12 feet from the bridge. My friend, Stephanie found the wallet. She said that all the keychains Rachel had attached to her wallet, weighed the wallet down and that's why it didn't float away. I'm so glad we found it. I did not look forward to having to go through all the hoops to get the license replaced.

It took us a while to get Rachel back behind the wheel of a car and when it rained, she asked for one of us to drive her to practice. But I'm so glad she was okay. The Lord truly watched over and protected our family that night.

Spencer Plays Soccer

This last fall, the church league that our kids play sports through opened up a league called the Mighty Mites for 4 year olds. Spencer has wanted to play for a while now so we thought this would be a great low-key opportunity for him to learn how to play.

He loved it!!! He could dribble the ball up and down the field. He even scored several times. He loved his coaches and they had the patience of Job to direct eight 4 year olds on the soccer field.

Missing Halloween

I realized in looking at my past posts that I missed posting anything about Halloween.

This picture is of Hannah & Spencer and what they dressed up as

for their preschool Halloween party.

Hannah as Cinderella & Spencer as a Magician.

I will have to find the pictures of the other kids and post them later.

For the actual trick or treating in our neighborhood,

the younger kids went as characters from the movie, "Despicable Me".

They even included Daddy. He went as Dr. Nefario.

Russell & Christian went as minions.

Hannah went as the adorable Agnus.

But Spencer refused to dress as someone from the movie.