The cub scouts recently had an outing to a local candy shop. They each got to make their own sucker with candy molds. They thought it was pretty cool seeing all those colors!




To pass the time while we waited for our molds to freeze, they were given a taste of chocolate out of a 200 pound drum of melted chocolate.




The finished product.......I am not sure how they ever got to sleep that night.

I don't usually like taking the boys grocery shopping, but there is one store that the boys really enjoy, because they get their own carts.


The two boys look so cute walking beside each other with their own cart. Wouldn't you know, the one time I remember my camera, Jbird refuses to get a cart. The store is very kid friendly. The last time we were in there, the owner was stocking some milk and gave each of the boys a carton of chocolate milk on the house.

JB had several appts. this week. Seems like no two people are seeing the same thing. He saw an occupational therapist, physical therapist and pediatrician. Some of them saw a weakness, but on the opposite side as to last week. Some of them saw some visual tracking problems, others did not. Friday morning he had his hearing test. This is the one area everyone involved has been wanting to get something definite. Today we got definite. He tested within normal ranges for frequencies for his age group. So the audiologist had no concerns at this point about his speech being connected to his not being able to hear everything. The pediatrician had looked at his ears on Wed and all looked good. We will just need to watch them once the ear tubes fall out to see if he regresses. Not that there is much regression that could happen at this point. Still have two eye appointments set up for him in the coming weeks. Otherwise, we will plug along with speech, implementing some new things, praying that they trigger something within him that starts bringing it all together. Might try again finding a daycare for a few hours a week for the socialization. Sometimes being around peers can challenge and push kids more than other situations.
The pediatrician did say that with a second speech therapist coming on board, if we don't see some marked improvement in the next 3-4 months, maybe try seeing a developmental pediatrician in another part of the state. Hopefully we start progressing.

On two different occasions I have gone in to check on the boys after they are asleep. I have found the older two, asleep with things on their head.
Many years ago, when I moved from Texas to North Dakota, my mom gave me one of those white 'Russian' looking hats. It is very warm but I don't wear it much, but never wanted to get rid of it. Well, B has discovered it and wore it around the house one evening with his pajamas and later that night he had fallen asleep. (The following two days he also wore it to school....he was so proud of that hat, regardless of the comments he got)



All the boys love the football helmet and for some reason, Jbird wore it to bed.


The chores are slowly starting to pay off. One thing we do is pick out our clothes the night before, so the boys can get dressed first thing in the morning. I try to get them to fold their clothes, so they look a little nicer laying on the floor. This morning I woke up to this....I just had to smile. My little Jbird is sometimes so precise and particular about his clothes.


The last two nights Jbird has been sleeping on the top bunk and loves it. He thinks it is so much warmer up there. One plus is that he has not been waking up in the middle of the night and crawling into bed with us.

For those of you who attempted a guess at the baby pictures on the last post, the answers are Joseph, Jacob, Benjamin, Jacob, Joseph. I had one friend that guessed all 5 right, quite impressive since mom struggles to identify them.

I have always thought my boys all looked so different. Since I was going back through some old pictures, decided to post some of the baby pictures. Two of them have a newborn picture and one that is a few days old. One of them just has one a few days old. Not sure what happened to the hospital pictures of that one boy. Can you tell who is who? Surprising, I had a hard time. They all started out looking alike, but sure changed quickly, in my opinion.

Had our first snowfall of the season yesterday. (A few weeks early in my opinion). The boys had a great time getting out in the back yard.


Jbird has gotten into the card game Slap Jack. As he was waiting for me to play, he started 'shuffling' the cards. Had to laugh because all he was doing was running his hand down one end of the cards to make the shuffling sound. Then he would flip the deck over and do the other end and declare them all shuffled.
When he is mad now, his favorite thing to say is "I am not going to play with you any more Mom." Thankfully he forgets that 2 minutes later.
We got a huge box of Jalepeno peanuts in the mail from my dad. The kind in the shell. Jbird just loves them. I love eating the shell along with the peanut, but these are way too hot for me, but Jbird just eats them hand over fist. The other day JB was napping and Jbird and I just laid on the bed and talked. He was telling me all the sports he was going to play when he turned 5 and was old enough. I am seriously considering getting him a free standing basketball goal for Christmas. I am amazed at how many baskets he makes on a 6 foot hoop. He is the kid that would stand out there in the cold and shoot and shoot and shoot.

I had a huge victory with my eldest son. He finally tried my most favorite comfort food of all times and then asked for seconds. It was chicken fried steak with gravy!! I can't believe the foods my kids miss out on just because they won't even try a bite. I
B has tried out for the 2nd grade Christmas program. I believe they will all be singing but he tried out on Friday for the Director position for the 'play' part of it. A position that would suit him VERY well I think.
Teacher conferences are this next week. Report cards came home on Friday. Just laugh at some of the same comments from last year.

Last night JB was just chattering away while sitting in my lap. Did not have any words just stringing sounds together. The frustrating part, I was trying to watch some TV and found myself telling him to be quiet. What was I thinking. Tomorrow we will have a pow wow with his therapist and see what she thinks of the 'diagnosis' and their recommendations. The one thing in researching Dysarthria further, is it seems a huge component is slurred or slow speech, of which he does not really have. He very well could have a few components of dysarthria and apraxia, the other 'diagnosis' that his therapist has thrown out before.

I am embarrassed to say it, but we hit a milestone this week. For the first time in probably 5 years, the boys and I have been having family dinners. See, JR gets home to late for the boys to eat. So, normally the boys sit at the island and I stand in the kitchen. I seem to always be getting them this or that, so I always figured what was the point in sitting down. Well, things changed this past week. I decided we needed the structure, needed to work on some 'table' manners and the boys needed some chores. It has gone well. At the end of dinner, I ask them a bible question and if they get it right, they get a piece of their Halloween candy. I am also being intentional about asking specific questions about the day. How easily it is to spend a day with my boys but not really connect with them. They seem to be enjoying it too.

I mentioned chores. We officially have chores now. I have tried chores, chore charts etc but to no avail, mainly because of my inconsistencies. However, I went to the bank and made sure I had all the coins and dollars I needed for 2 months. Since B is 7 he gets $7 a month or $1.20 a week and Jbird gets $4 a month or $1 a week. They have been doing really well about staying on top of their chores. The boys switch chores every week. Some of them are daily and some are twice a week. I of course have had to spend some time with them showing them how to do it, but when they switch, each boy with train the other in how to do the chore. They also each have parts of the house that they are responsible for. They don't necessarily have to clean that area, but have to make sure whoever made the mess cleans it or they themselves end up doing it. Finally pushing some of the burden on them. In the long run it will be great for me and them, it is just hard getting it going and knowing how long it is taking. I am determined though not to step in and do it for them. Today is the first pay day. They have containers where they put some money in to spend, save and give away.

JB had a 2 hour evaluation yesterday. I felt like after a year of speech therapy and not much progress, we needed to re-evaluate. He met with 2 therapists that conducted all kinds of tests. They think they have a diagnosis. Yay!!! Dysarthria, which is a neuromuscular impairment. That is, the speech mechanism (larynx, lips, tongue, palate and jaw) may be paralysed, weak or poorly co-ordinated. (Often times this can be seen in older adults with a brain injury, stroke, Parkinsons, etc) A few other things they noticed that are symptoms is poor breathing control and weakness (on his left side). All of it should come, but we will be ramping up the therapies and adding a few more to the list. They are still concerned about his hearing and wants another test to see if we can get better cooperation from him (the last test was one day at 3pm and he had not napped, so he zoned a bit). They also noticed that he was not properly tracking objects with his eyes. We will get that checked out by an opthomalogist in the next couple of weeks. Really important to start working on that before he gets to school age and learning how to read. They noticed how his abdomen was a little distended (swollen) and attributed that to all the air he is swallowing because he is a huge mouth breather. They were able to feel some of his muscles (his trapazoid). Since they were very tight, that is one of the indicators that he is not using proper breath control and without breath control, you can't form words or sentences. While we were there, he took a couple of swallows of his water and when he was done, he was gasping loudly for air. They were like, clear indicator of breath control, and I just laughed and told them whenever he had done that, I looked at him and said 'wow, you were thirsty.'
It is just amazing while talking with them how God created the body and a deficit in one area really affects other areas. So, I am going with Dysarthria and we will see where we are in 6 months or so. Just glad to be able to hang my hat on something right now. They said that he is a very frustrated little boy that is trying very hard to get words out and just not able to. Makes me use a little more patience with him, knowing that he is truly trying but just neurologically unable to do the tasks at hand. (They are not sure how the never damage occurred and they told me I could run further tests, but may or may not get answers.)

Here are some recent pictures....

The boys trying on some glasses and teeth they got in the mail.


I was amazed at how well JB was able to keep them in, once we got them in.

Did not get any pictures of actual trick or treating....but got one over the weekend when we went to a Trunk or Treat party at a church.

Recently took JB to have his 2 year pictures taken. With each of the other two boys I have done collages of them in an 8x24 and 11x14. When we did JB's, I had them take a picture of the 3 boys. (Either I don't know much about resizing photos or when she emailed it to me, she did something with the photo because I can't figure out how to enlarge it.) Anyway, thought it was a great picture, so wanted to post it.

This time last year, a tradition was started. We do not have a lot of trees at our house, so every fall, there are no leaves to play in. So last year we took our rake up to the school and raked piles of leaves while we were waiting for the bell to ring. The time has come this year to do the same thing. It is starting to catch on and a few other parents are bringing their rakes. The kids just love playing in the leaves and then having leaf wars. (I have wondered how fun it would be to find an electric leaf blower and do the whole front lawn of the school.) That is Jbird with his back to the camera and rake in hand.



JB is still not too sure what to think of all this.


The boy holding JB in the following picture has the same name as JB. We would see him every day after school and he took an interest in JB and would play and play with him. He is currently home schooled but he has a sister in B's school. So, every day he comes to school with his mom and always seeks out JB. They are a great family and I even take the younger two over to their house 3 times a week, so I can hit the gym. It has been a huge blessing finding this family. There are also 2 older sisters that are very helpful with my boys. Every one just loves the Doty's.

It has been a tough week. Dealing with some pretty heavy extended family stuff, so have been preoccupied. The kids however, have not missed a beat. This is our last week of soccer - yeah!!! As much as I have loved watching B grow and develop this season, it will be nice not to have the 1 hour, twice a week interruption from 5:30-6:30. Plus it is starting to get cold and when the sun sets around 6pm, I am heading for the car.

JB had his Harvest Party at preschool on Wednesday. He opted not to wear a costume. Surprised me, not sure why because he is my child that you never know from day to day what to expect. He had a lot of fun and I think he enjoyed showing his little brother all around his 'school'.

Wrapped up most of the fundraiser stuff. Most of the money is in and I am going over the weekend to buy the bikes for the kids that won! Probably a highlight. Some of these kids were so motivated to win so to see their smiles when they learn their hard work paid off, is worth it all. With the Fun Run, the kids met their 5,000 lap challenge. Therefore, 4 of the teachers competed in a Minute to Win It challenge. We brought the whole school out to the soccer field and cheered them on. The winning teacher, her class, then got to silly string the principal. Amazing what 25 cans of silly string looks like!

All of us curled up on couches tonight and watched game 7 of the World Series. JB started out on my lap. Once he was asleep, B took his place for a while. Then J stole his spot and fell asleep within 2 minutes of settling in with me. I don't know the last time I had all three of them on my lap! I was actually shocked when B told me he wanted to lay with me.

Have some pictures to upload. Hopefully this weekend. All we have is a Cub Scout Archery Camp and the last soccer game!

Fall is here. Last weekend we carved pumpkins. I sure wish I could find a fool-proof way to make carved pumpkins last. We usually get about a week out of ours before they are gross. Maybe as the boys get older we can paint our.

Recently we headed to a local pumpkin patch with Jbird's preschool. The boys love it and it always culminates in making their own apple cider.





JB has learned to do summer saults. He will get the attention of anyone who is nearby and will just turn and turn and turn. Not sure where he picked it up, but he is pretty good.
Last night I was curled up with the younger two watching the World Series. Jbird started playing with my hair. Soon he was running up stairs to get a brush, barrettes, etc. He came back down and profusely asked if he could cut my hair, saying I always get to cut his but he does not ever get to cut mine. Precisely and I hope to keep it that way.
Hunting season (the regular season) is now underway. I should anticipate some animals hanging in the garage sometime soon.

Yesterday was the school's Fun Run. Myself and a few others organized the event and it was awesome! It was 60 degrees, no wind and not a cloud in the sky. A gorgeous day to be outside! We had a DJ and rockin kids music. Just a blast. 24 hours later I am still pumped and waiting for next year. It is just so neat to finally find things that really click with me. I have been involved with things for years and volunteered in many capacities, but organizing this event for 600 people and doing story time at AWANA are two of my favorites by far!
Here are some pictures.....




The entire school ran over 8700 laps. Later next week one of the classes will get to silly string the principal because they surpassed the 5000 lap challenge.

Earlier tonight I was at the computer and heard the doorbell and then a knock. Thinking it was strange since it was dark outside, I opened the door. There stood a fireman, with lights going behind him. He made small talk and then asked us if we were feeling okay. I guess our neighbor was concerned about carbon monoxide. As a courtesy they check with the next door neighbors. It took a few minutes for my heart to quit racing but fortunately nothing serious. Last week was fire prevention week and the fire department was at B's school. He came home wearing a rubber bracelet that said "Stop, Drop, Cover Your Face and Roll." Found it interesting that they have added to the stop, drop and roll.

Tomorrow and Friday are a school holiday. The statewide Teachers conference. Don't have much planned, just a lot of hanging out. The last couple of weeks have been busy so looking forward to unwinding a bit.

This past week was Spirit Week at B's school. The week leading up to the Fun Run. The best day of all was crazy hair day. This is what B chose....

The other two chimed in with their crazy faces. JB did end up spray painting his hair blue, but for some reason it did not stay in long.

The Fun Run is Tuesday and I think I have everything lined up. Should be great weather and hopefully a really, really smooth event.

This past Sunday B was a mad man on the soccer field. When that kid focuses, look out. We played the best team in the league and it was a great game! B was charging the ball and getting in there. He even assisted on a goal. On the other hand, when he is done, he is done. At one point, during play, he walked to the side lines and when I asked him what he was doing, he said he was sweaty and sat down on the side lines. (Never said a word to the coach and the coach did not pull him.) The coach had to scramble to get someone else in there. Happened to catch a picture of him and Coach Danny...probably one of the best coaches ever.


B has also lost another tooth...finally one of his top front teeth!

Things were busy this past week. A little of this and a little of that added up to quite a bit this past week. The Fun Run fundraiser I am coordinating happens on the 18th so my plate will clear up quite a bit after that! I catered a wedding yesterday that behind the scenes was a disaster. Fortunately the wedding party did not see much of it, but so many things went wrong. I was, for the first time, in charge of the buffet and hit lots of little glitches. Some not my fault, but definitely stuff to learn from. I don't have anything else scheduled for the rest of the year, but will probably get one or two things closer to the holidays.

Had a great time at the women's retreat last weekend. Always nice to get away and have some time to refocus and just hang out with others. Went and saw the movie Courageous tonight. A very good movie and one that will challenge you regardless of the age of your kids!

This past week I was making some microwave popcorn. I went upstairs and started to smell the popcorn about the time the microwave went off. Right after that, the smoke alarm went off. Assuming the popcorn had burned a little, I wondered downstairs. Only to find a fire on the stove. I had also put some water on to boil and the classic, turned on the wrong burner! The burner I turned on had part of a dishtowel on it! So thankful for smoke alarms with batteries!

Now that the weather is turning colder, I have pulled out the long sleeve shirts. I showed all of them to Jbird. He is my picky clothing kid and I wanted to know which ones he did not like, so I could go ahead and put them away for #3. He told me he did not like any of them and only wanted short sleeve with sweatshirts. I talked him in to a few of them. One had a moose on the front and a bear on the back. He liked the bear on the front so decided if he just cut out the tag, then it would be fine and the bear would now be on the front. I just love his logic. So concrete. He is still enjoying preschool.

B is gung ho with scouts. His new den leader is awesome. Very much on top of it. Today they (his wife and son) met us all at the pool. The den leader does not really do water but wanted to get the boys in the water to earn their swimming belt loop. They will be doing an archery camp in a few weeks. We are in the process of completing our good hygiene and chore charts. Reminds me again of how intentional I need to be, so bad about filling that stuff out. He continues with soccer for a few more weeks.

JB has finally figured out that when he wakes up in the mornings he can get out of bed on his own. Normally he will sit in there and call out to us. He is so cute as he struts out of his room, smiling and holding his little dog. The office where he does his speech is relocating this weekend, so will be interesting when we go in on Monday if it sets him back at all.

JR has yet to shoot any animals. Has not really seen any! The weather is just now turning colder, so hopefully the mountain snow will drive them lower.

My dad called the other day around dinner time. He jokingly asked what was for dinner. My response "one is eating pizza, one taco, one lasagna, one pulled pork and I am having chocolate milk." That was the truth. Fortunately it was one of those leftover nights instead of me cooking up 5 different meals!

I heard today from another neighborhood mom that a 1st grade girl from our neighborhood snatched one of her mom's cigarettes to go try smoking. One of B's 2nd grade friends happened to have tagged along and was going to try it, before they were busted by a 13 year old neighbor boy. I made very sure to convey to B my thoughts on the situation. He is quickly learning what guilty by association means. Mom will not tolerate stuff like that. I have told him numerous times that I have eyes and ears all over the neighborhood and that we moms talk. Conversations again about how we need to honor God with the things we do. Just seems so backwards, and I know it is, from when I was young. Since when do you have to worry about that kind of stuff in 2nd grade. So I was very thankful when two of the school boys ended up at our house recently on early release. I would rather have 15 boys at our house than my one boy out. More reasons to always pray God's protection.

Speaking of protection....we were running late today for something and I was a little annoyed. Only to realize that we missed seeing a man get hit and killed by a train by a mere 30-60 seconds. So thankful, with the boys in the car that we did not have to witness that.

Recently JB had a terrible night. He woke up probably 8 times, not screaming, but using his 'uh' voice loudly and calling my name. Not sure if he was dreaming but every time it took him a few seconds to settle down. After I would sit with him he would start saying 'off' but when I would start to unzip his footed pajamas, he would say 'uh uh'. I have also noticed this past week that he is asking me to take his shirts off more. Sometimes he will let me put one on him and sometimes he won't. Not sure what that is all about. We are looking into the possibility of him going to a daycare a few hours a week. The therapist and our 'family advocate' both think it could be really good and maybe helpful if he had more interaction with other kids. Not sure if it will pan out but at this point, I am open to all suggestions to get words coming. He can often imitate (approximate) sounds but usually can not recall them on his own. I have also had several people recently tell me that like 80% of kids who are in speech therapy also do occupational therapy. I have also heard mixed reviews on testing kids for OT before 3 because so many issues don't develop until closer to 3. The speech therapist and I have also had the hearing talk again. I know he can hear but could there be certain frequencies or tones he is missing? Who knows and still too young to accurately test. He is just very much below where he needs to be and we are getting a little more aggressive in trying to sort through it. I think the therapist thought after a year of speech that he would be further along, as did I.

Went to our local fall festival over the weekend. The cub scouts were in the parade, handing out candy. Here are a few pictures.







Here is a picture of JBird and his school teacher. (He has made it very clear to me that he does not like the word pre-school.


Our ladies retreat is this weekend, so looking forward to getting away. It might be one of our last nice weekends, as I hear there could possibly be some mountain snow in the next 10 days or so.

Either I can't seem to find much to write about, or the days fly by too quickly for me and before I know it, it has been almost a week.

Just living life and keeping up with the boys. Today we headed to the football field at the school. Jbird is getting into his football. All the boys, JB included, ran up and down the field, throwing, kicking and punting. Might just have a football player on my hands, although I certainly don't think he would be one of the big players - maybe special teams.

Have not played much tennis this past week. Was having what appeared to be a hip issue but according to chiropractor, seems to be a hamstring thing. Some stretching has helped tremendously.

Jbird loves preschool. He is so excited because Wed is early release which means big brother B can go with us to pick him up and B will be able to see Ms. Tina - who was his teacher too. I ordered a book online that I have heard a lot about. Something along the lines of How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 lessons. Jbird is showing some interest in learning. We will see how it goes.

JB is starting to show a little interest in potty training. How nice that will be when we don't have, not only the diaper expense, but the hauling around a diaper bag thing. When we can just leave the house with nothing but snacks and water. Speech therapy is still really slow for him. Not sure what the issues are but they are starting to create frustrations. He is so adamant on wanting something but I don't know what he is saying. The other day we were at B's soccer game. He would look at me and say "up". I would pick him up and then he would start crying and screaming and say "up" and pointing to the sky. After about 15 minutes of me looking at him and saying "I don't know what you want", another mom came over with her umbrella. She said he kept looking up at all the umbrellas (it was about 90 degrees) and pointing. Sure enough, he wanted an umbrella. Another time it took about 10 minutes of him screaming and crying in the car for me to figure out his 'sign' for music. He is also starting to display some of the oral stimulation issues that Jbird has/had. I don't know the number of times I will find JB chewing on something. When he spits it out, it is a wheel off of a hot wheel, a small lego or other odd toy. Gonna hopefully get him some 'toys' ordered that will help with that and give him some appropriate things to chew on.

The Women's Retreat for our church is this weekend. Looking forward to a night away. Then 2 weeks later is the Fun Run at the school that I am coordinating. It is coming together nicely, now all that is left is getting all the information out to parents and teachers and then lining up all the volunteers for the day of the run. Will be glad when that is over and I won't have to think about it!

Will try to be better about posting more often, but no promises!

This past week I decided to do some more cleaning/clearing out. I had about 10 years worth of old bills. I had recently gotten rid of our paper shredder because we never used it and figured if it was anything real important we could throw it in the fire pit. Well, not such a great idea when you throw piles of paper in the fire pit and try to burn them. I thought I did a pretty good job of layering them so they would easily burn. NOT. After about 20 minutes things were really smoldering and I got concerned someone would send the fire department out on a scavenger hunt. (Our backyard backs up to a huge field, so the smoke was only visible coming over the top of the house). I doused the thing with water and intended to go back out later and clean up. Well, later did not happen. A huge wind came up. I still had lots of un-burned papers stacked in the backyard. B comes into the kitchen and said there were papers flying all over our yard. Sure enough, all my bank statements, credit card bills etc from early 2000 were all over the place. As we scurried about, I found 2 twenties and a ten in all the mess. Neighbors on both sides of me have returned things they found in their yard. I just hope it did not make it any further. I don't think so, at least not as far as the eye could see.

B has become quite handy in the kitchen. The other night he fixed himself a breakfast burrito. He cracked and cooked the eggs, heated up the hot dogs and got everything rolled into a tortilla. Maybe they will be capable of cooking me a hot breakfast before too long. I have started keeping the bar stools on the kitchen counter. Seems little JB is getting into the habit of helping himself to whatever he can find in the cabinet when I am not in the kitchen.

The boys have been in to painting this week. We are finding all kinds of scrap wood that they have re-purposed in fun colors and then turned them into ramps for all of their cars. Just today Jbird learned that he can lay a piece of wood across the two couches and make a bridge. JB does really well balancing on it. The boys have also been into sliding down the stairs on their stomachs, head first. They also figured out quickly what a rug burn was.

Cub scouts started back up for B. His den leader is a husband/wife team that have older boys (not one in the den). They are super organized and wanting to hit the ground running. Will be nice this year to have a gung ho leader that wants to accomplish alot, although it will be lots of time and energy on our part! Last year our leaders were new to scouts and both very busy so we seemed to skate by with the minimum.

Gearing up for a beautiful weekend. I will work about 8 hours on Saturday and teach Sunday school and have a soccer game on Sunday. Maybe get in some more tennis!

The youngest one has found a new purpose for my metal mixing bowls.....



Few pictures from our recent BMX track outing.....




A recent painting project for me....


Jbird woke up early Saturday morning throwing up. I ended up sleeping on the floor with him. Thankfully, it once again, was something that did not stick around. Not that I want it to, but we have never had a stomach bug work it's way through our house. Anytime the kids have been sick, it has always been very isolated!!!

B had his second soccer game today. It was pitiful. I think we lost 8-0. I think the boys got it past middle field maybe 3 times. The boys had fun though. Hopefully the next time we play this team, we will have it a little more together.

JB had his follow up appt with the ENT. The ear tubes still look great and we are hoping they take us through the winter before they fall out. At this point, he should be old enough not to cause more problems with ear aches. Remembering how much the tubes helped his speech the first time, better watch for regression though when they do come out.

I hit the tennis court 4 times this past week! Woo hoo. Slowly things are coming back. I think I will be in my full swing about the time the snow flies and I will have to hang up the racket for about 6 months. For the first time ever, I had a blister on the palm of my hand from my grip. Waiting for the callous to form so it no longer bothers me.

Enjoying the fall weather that is quickly approaching! Nothing but our regularly scheduled programs this week (Awana, soccer, cub scouts and speech therapy). So thankful every thing is close. Most times, I can go almost 3 weeks on a tank of gas.

Just a quick update of things happening around here...not much, but something!

I have handed the crib off to a friend, so for the first time in 7 years, no crib in this house. Slowly getting rid of all things 'baby' as the boys get older. Jbird has learned how to tie his shoes and he can tell right from left. He is such an eager learner. All of the boys get so excited when they realize things have changed in regard to their height. Today Jbird sat in the back of the van and was able to reach up, while buckled, and grab something from my hand while I reached back from the driver's seat.

I think the older two boys have each grown about 2 inches in the last 4 months. Jbird put on jeans for the first time recently and he looked so long. All summer he has worn gym shorts that come past his knees (what he prefers)and seeing him is jeans was weird. JB did not know what to think of jeans. When he put some on, he looked down as if to say "where are my legs".

JB has hit the 10 word mark!!! Yeah. He has "mom, dad, up, open, uh-oh, uh-uh (his 'no'), off and can't remember the other two right now. His motto continues to be slow and steady wins the race. Baby steps!

The boys have been out of bikes more. Loving the BMX track. I think next summer if they continue, we should look at getting some more helmets. I have been hitting the tennis court again. Jbird has taken to tennis so bought him a racket today. Would be really fun if he picked up the sport. JB loves to chase the ball around.

B is in full swing with soccer and enjoying it. Cub Scouts officially starts up tonight. He is becoming quite the proficient reader. Sure is fun to listen to him!

JR is busy working. His responsibilities are going to change the end of this month. He is looking forward to doing more property management for vacation homes instead of the huge multi unit complexes he has been doing. A promotion of sorts for him! He has been out hunting a few times but the elk are not quite in the rut and answering his 'calls'.

Another week has left us. Not sure where the week went, since it was not particularly a busy week for us. Jbird started preschool on Wednesday. He was so cute, as he got up and asked lots of questions. (Where will we have snack? What will we have for snack? What room will we play in?.....) He just beamed anytime I mentioned preschool. When I went to pick him up, he was all smiles and told me all about the day.

B's first soccer game is this weekend. I taught the first story time at AWANA Sparks this week and loved it. It is 10 - 15 minutes and there were about 30 kids there. We were talking about sin and how it use to be an old archery term that meant 'to miss the mark'. I was telling the kids about how I mess up and sin everyday and they could always ask B if they did not believe me. Well, as soon as I finished talking B came up to me and told me I needed to make an announcement to everyone that if they wanted to know how bad I mess up to just come talk to him and he would tell them. That's my kid for you.

After soccer practice today the kids were playing on the playground. I had one of those moments where JB could not be found. 2 other moms and myself canvassed the playground and realized he was not within the fence. We all ran out different gates. (All I could do was silently pray that God knew exactly at that moment where he was.) He was found within about 1 minute. He had wandered off to a dirt pile that he had played on the prior week. It really surprised me because he is not the type to wander off without making some type of contact with me. He usually likes to be right in the middle of it.
Then a few minutes later they were all playing tag (about 8-10 kids) and I heard a faint cry. I looked up to see JB face down in the dirt at the bottom of the slide and there were about 4 kids all jumbled up on the slide. He was laying right under the slide and as each child stepped off the slide they did not see him so stepped right on the back of his head. He would raise his head again and then get pushed back down. I just screamed at the top of my lungs to stop. He thankfully appears okay, had a little bloody nose and a mouth full of dirt. I could hear him chewing on the rocks. It was a great teaching opportunity for another mother and myself. Stressing how important it is to watch out for the little ones. None of them realize what was going on in all of their haste. It reminded me again of all the times I pray for a hedge of protection for my boys. Just never know in that split second when something will happen or something terrible will be avoided.

Another quiet weekend ahead. Dinner and a movie with some friends, a soccer game and hopefully some tennis!

Fall is creeping in. The mornings have been really chilly. Probably one of my highlights from the last half of the week had to do with the cold. We had slept with the windows open and when we woke up, it was 43 degrees. Got B off to school and later that morning JB took a nap. I was still chilled so Jbird and I shared some hot chocolate in our 'cheers cups' (wine glasses that never get used, so Jbird has taken a fancy to using them). Had so much fun hanging with my little guy, just sitting on the floor sipping our drinks.

The other day the boys were riding their bikes. All of a sudden I heard B crying. I looked down the street and he was face first, flat on the ground in the middle of the street and not moving. I ran down there. He was stuck. He had gotten on his bike without tying his shoes. He shoelace had tightly wrapped around the peddle. I guess he stuck his foot out to catch himself, except that he could not get his foot off the pedal. The shoelace had pulled so tightly I could not get his shoe off. I really did feel for him because he was at such an awkward angle, but also had to bite my lip so that I would not laugh at the situation. It took us about 5 minutes to untangle him. I have, and will continue to, mention this experience in the event they hopefully learned a lesson. I was thankful that it had not happened while he had ridden around the block, because he would have been at the mercy of anyone who could hear him cry or a car that drove by.

This morning we drove about an hour away to a mining town. Played at a couple of different parks, went to a lookout for the mine and strolled the business district. We walked into an antique store and after looking around a while, B said, 'this is just junk.' I told him we were in an antique store and antiques were old things. He was looking at some china and I told him "for example that could have been dishes that Granny ate on." He said wow, so some of this stuff could be from 1974". I had to chuckle. He has no concept yet of years. Speaking of, the other day JB was in the bathroom taking care of business. (He loves to just sit in there and talk, to no one in particular.) He was carrying on a conversation with himself and I heard him say "well, yeah, my mom is 61 and my dad is 62" He repeated this emphatically several times. I can only imagine who he was pretending to talk to.

Here's a few picture from the day.....(can't get pictures to load, will try next time)

This evening I took the older two to a production of the Shakespeare play "The Merchant of Venice". It was held outside in a nearby park. A great play, although I remembered why I struggled with Shakespeare. Have such a hard time with the language. I got the general gist of the play but will have to find some online cliff notes to fill in the missing pieces. It was a gorgeous evening. The play was just over 2 hours, without an intermission. The boys did awesome but we were really chilled by the time it was over. I don't know that B caught much of what the play was about but he sure got a few laughs at the characters.

Not one plan for the rest of the weekend. JR is hunting. Suppose to be beautiful, will get in lots of bike riding.