On to the Safari

We all loaded up into the redneck limousine (aka. Nate's dad's old suburban). Nate's parents, sister, Jack and baby Benjamin were in the lead car enjoy some more subdued fun. At one point Nikki said she looked back and it was as if a "fountain of bread" was flowing from the redneck limo.



Grant enjoyed lots of time hanging out the back window. He affectionately pegged the emus with bread balls. At one point he threw a piece of bread onto the hood of the car behind us.

The 3 amigos: Jack, Drew and Parker. Seconds
after this picture was taken Drew danced his way off the table, head first. Fortunately he hit the bench rather than the cement patio.




The back window gang: Grant, big Grant, Drew and David. They provided lots of entertainment for cars behind us as well as plenty of bread for the animals.
















Most of the party crew. Thanks for coming!

Party Time

Months ago, we decided to have Jack's birthday part at the Drive-Thru Safari. He loves it there and he has a spring birthday so we have outdoor options for parties.

When I woke in the early morning hours to pounding thunder, lightening rain and pouring rain I said a silent prayer, "PLEASE MAKE IT STOP RAINING!" It was still raining when I woke up. I told Max we needed to pray that the rain would stop for Jack's party. He decided we should all pray out loud right then and there. We checked http://www.weather.com/ for the hour-by-hour updates all morning. Should we postpone? Just come to our house for cake? Brave the weather? Long story short, we opted to have cake and open presents at Nate's parent's house then head out to the Safari. It did stop raining (thank you, Jesus!) and it warmed up to a nice 52 degrees.



The friendly lion cake, made of course, by the amazing Kathy Frey.

The big boys.




The little guys.


The baby.


The birthday boy.

Happy Birthday, JACK!

Today my baby is 2 years old.

March 28, 2006:


Today: We love you, little Jackimo!

Easter- The final segment

What do you do after everyone has left from a day filled with family and friends? Sit with your brother to watch a movie with popcorn and orange juice (I made them watch it on the computer so I could lay on the couch and watch Law & Order). What a day.

Easter- Part 3

Our second Easter celebration was later in the afternoon. We had our 2nd annual Easter with friends celebration. This year it was at our house. The Davis', Kelleys & Henrys came over for lunch and the big egg hunt (unfortunately, we experienced the devastating Hog loss to NC at this time, too).
Let the hunt begin. Jack was confused. He didn't even take his basket.

Parker and Jack comparing their loot.

Max took advantage of being the biggest and fastest- he went and got a second basket after his first one was filled.

After the hunt.

... and with baby Benjamin. That's a lot of boys.

A little Ava action

We are very easily entertained by this little girl.

Easter- Part 2

While we were making lunch after church I told Bekah, "Where are Mom and Grandma when you need them?" Then we had the horrifying realization, WE ARE THE MOMS! Yikes.

Adam made the pork medallions, Dave made the chipotle sauce, Bekah made the salad & lemon cake, I made the divine (in honor of Easter) eggs & potatoes and Nate made the sweet tea. A true group effort.

Max. So tall and handsome.

Grant... who didn't want to wear this shirt but who looks like such a big, good-looking kid in it.

What happened to all my babies?

We are quite a motley crew.

Sunday's Coming

I couldn't get the link to cooperate so... go to youtube.com and search Sunday's Coming to watch the awesome video they showed at church.

Easter- Part 1

I have LOTS of Easter pictures so this is only the beginning....

Before church:
The cousins... a small Easter miracle: everone is looking in the general direction of the camera and I don't recall any tears being shed.

The boys...Grant, Dave, Adam, Jack, Max & Nate.

Sweet Ava in her fancy dress from Nana. Too bad it was 36 degrees when we left for church. Brrr!

Where's Leah?

The Parrish family. Ava turned 8 months old on Easter.

Ava and Easter preparation

Dave, Bekah, Ava & Adam came over Saturday afternoon. The boys got lots of good cousin time. All the boys love Ava and want to hold her, especially Jack. Now that she's mobile that is getting more difficult.
The bearded beauty. Ava started crawling a couple days ago. She used her new talent in the bathtub to go after the toys and inhale the bubbles.

Easter is a great excuse to make Spring sugar cookies.

Believe it or not, there is a cookie under all those sprinkles. Grant's cookies weighed approximately 1 pound each when he was done with them. I learned from the last decorating experience and we didn't start the fun until after Jack was in bed.

McGooden Look-alike Meter

I found the Look-alike Meter on the Leonard's blog. The results do vary with different pictures.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family name history

McGooden Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

McGooden Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy sites - Geneology

ANTS!

Max got an ant farm for Christmas. We sent off for the ants in January and they finally arrived today (they wait to ship until the weather is warm). The ants were inside a little plastic test tube with a plug lid. The instructions said to put the ants in the refrigerator for 15 minutes so they will be less active in order to get them in the farm. After about 15 minutes we got the ant filled tube out of the fridge, removed the lid to the farm, removed the lid to the ant tube and attempted to dump the ants in their nicely prepared farm. Chaos ensued. First of all, the tube was bigger than the lid to the ant farm so it was difficult to dump them in. Second, the ants were in a big clump so they weren't falling in nicely. Third, what the instructions failed to mention was that approximately 5 seconds after being removed from the refrigerator the ants would be back to their normal, active selves. Ants were everywhere. These aren't your typical nice, yet annoying, black ants. They are red and have those nasty little pinchers on their heads. All over the little tube were caution labels: CAUTION: ANTS WILL BITE. So, being the calm, rational person that I am, upon seeing the ferocious little beasts crawling all over my dining room table I started to panic and scream. Max started to cry and yell, "Mom! Do you want me to get the fly swatter? Just smash them! Kill them!" Jack started to cry. Grant just sat there. All the while, in the chaos I didn't put the lid back on the ant farm so the few ants that did fall in were trying to get back out. I was yelling for the lid while running all around trying to find it. We got the lid on (which may or may not have smashed a couple of ants in the frenzy). There was an empty wipe container on the table so I wiped the escapee ants into it. I put the wipe container back in the refrigerator. After 20 minutes, I got it back out and decided a funnel would work better. First I tried by cutting the corner off of a ziploc. Didn't work; they just stuck to the ziploc. Then I attempted to get them in by funneling a piece of paper. They just started climbing up the paper toward me. Finally, I used a wooden skewer and dropped them in one-by-one. Good grief! Max said, "Man, Mom, I didn't think it would be so much trouble to get them in there."

Hopefully, the boys were traumatized enough by the experience to never take the lid off.

Jack ATTACK

In his ripe age of almost 2, Jack is holding his own in the wrestling arena. He can tackle his brothers and hold them down for a few seconds. We, of course, think this is hilarious given his size. Max and Grant still think it's funny, too..... only for a matter of time, I'm sure, until the laughter turns to tears and retaliation.
Check out those muscles.

Get him down, big guy.

Down with Grant.

After the Dig

We spent the night in Hot Springs after our long day of digging. After all the kids were cleaned up we went and ate dinner downstairs in the hotel. It was a nice restaurant but Jack and Grant were way too excited to sit still. There weren't any highchairs, which Jack thought was amazing. He could climb over everyone and run out of the restaurant at will. He especially liked the fountain in the middle of the hotel. He even tried to climb over the rail to get in it. It's no wonder Gloria, Debbie and I tried to enjoy a nice glass of wine at dinner. I chugged the remainder of mine down as I ran out after Jack.


We made a stop in North Little Rock on the way home and spent the night with the Loibners. We have perfect stairsteps of boys from 2 to 6. It is a guaranteed crazy time when we get together. Campbell came out soon after we got there and said, "Mama, there's a nice baby in my room. Get him out." Man, those are funny kids.

Digging for Diamonds

The little guys and I headed down to Murfreesboro, AR with Memaw, Debbie, Adrienne & Chloe in search of treasure. Max was very disappointed we weren't going anywhere for Spring Break (I guess he was expecting the beach every year.... maybe someday, Buddy) so this was our big trip for the week.

Max was loaded down with the big backpack since I was wearing Jack on my back. This lasted approximately 4 steps.

The field of dirt.... a little boys dream come true.

Jack found a puddle and decided it was more fun than the dirt. No, he didn't fall in. This position was very intentional.

Grant found a MUD puddle and decided it was much more fun than just the dirt. He lost his shoe in the mud which Adrienne dug out later.

Chloe and Max... Max lost a little shovel in the big puddle which they spent over an hour trying to retrieve. We didn't find any diamonds but the boys came home with a nice bag of rocks. What more could you really ask for?

Sleep over

Last night Max and Grant had a friend spend the night for the first time. Marcom came over after dinner for an evening full of sword fighting, wrestling, occasional arguing and movies (or so I'm told; Nate stayed with the boys while I went up and did some last minute cleaning at the new church building). When I got home at almost 11:00 pm they were all still awake watching a Power Rangers movie. Apparently, me walking in rejuvenated them because they started jumping on the furniture, planning their next fighting moves and talking very loudly. Boys must feed off of each other's energy. At midnight when I went to bed Max had fallen asleep but Marcom and Grant were still laying on the floor talking with their stuffed animals while Narnia played in the background.

Boy sleep overs aren't at all like girl slumber parties.

Ranger

We buried Max's cat today.

He didn't come back to the house last night. He's done that before but has always been waiting at the door in the morning. When he wasn't at the door this morning I got nervous. My pit grew when he hadn't come home when I got home from work. On the way to community group tonight my worst fear for him became reality. You know when you see something and you know it's true but you still don't want to believe it? As we turned the corner I saw him in the ditch. I recognized the white stripe on his leg. I whispered to Nate that I thought I had seen him even though I knew in my heart it was true. We turned around because I wanted Nate to see him to make sure. Then I wanted Nate to get out just to make sure he was really dead. We went back home and broke the news to the boys. Then Nate, Max and Grant went to retrieve him so we could bury him in our backyard. Nate said when they went back to get Ranger's body Max said, "Now I don't have my own pet anymore."

The grief was briefly interrupted by arguing over who got to use the shovel to dig and by occasional flings of dirt at each other. The neighbors came to "help". Then as everyone was walking away Max kneeled down and prayed by himself over Ranger's little grave. Such a hard lesson to learn after only having your very own pet for a couple of months.

Before getting in bed tonight Max said, "Whenever I say Ranger's name I start to cry." He also told Nate that he broke the news to Leo and that "he's OK."

Bye, Rangie. Thanks for being so tolerant of being chased and shot at and tackled and for never hissing or scratching or biting (except for Nate's toes which is completely acceptable). You made a little boy very happy and are already missed very much.

Fun in the.... Mud

Due to the 4 inch (being generous) blizzard causing schools to be canceled the little guys and I enjoyed a snow day. Actually, Max and Grant enjoyed the snow while Jack napped and I cleaned or did laundry or something equally productive (yet somehow, my house still looks as messy as when I got up this morning. How is that possible?) This afternoon all 3 boys went in the backyard to enjoy the sunshine and the MUD. What a dream come true for my boys: no school, snow and mud.

Somehow Grant (blue boots) always ends up the dirtiest. It appears he wallowed in the mud; I mean, how in the world do your entire pants get soaked and muddy all the way up to your booty? Jack actually got his boot stuck in the mud and came trudging back the house with bright red toes, carrying his boot and crying. Poor little guy. I guess he had to pay the price for INSISTING on wearing his big brother's boots.

Now can it be spring?