Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Love it!


Z quote, "Look Mommy I'm Picasso."

Yep I'm a slacker!

It's been awhile since I've posted. As usual I've been sitting around eating bon-bons and not sharing any of the fun stories that have been happening around here.
This weekend I took BK&A to CS. I scrapbooked with my friends Christi & Kierstyn on Friday night. Saturday morning I took A to have her 1 year old portrait taken and she did GREAT! I was supposed to pick up B&K after that and come home to make another trip to the insane asylum (IKEA) but we had a slight change in plans. The kids were having so much fun with their friends in CS that they wanted to stay another night, I agreed to this even though I was positive that we had plans on Sunday (but couldn't remember what they were). I was about half way home when I remembered what it was, the kids had a birthday party to go to on Sunday at 1:30! UGH! I speedy-quick worked it out that I would pick the kids up at 12pm on Sunday at the half-way point and then we'd go to our party. The kids had a great time this weekend, spending time with friends and at the birthday party (which was a pirate theme - hence explaining the next set of pictures).
Monday morning we had a little morning singing and dancing. A enjoyed wearing her brother's pirate bandanna while she danced.

Friday, April 25, 2008

hip hip hooray!

I have my living room back! Yea!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

A pictorial vocabulary lesson

altruistic ~ unselfishly concerned for or devoted to the welfare of others


K made a teddy bear today & gave it to her brother, Z (since BB is still missing).



bookish ~ given or devoted to reading or study


Z has begun to enjoy some really deep reading - today we discussed nuclear fusion! Whoa!



disheveled ~ Marked by an absence of cleanliness and order


my living room! I looked at it today and thought no wonder you feel so out of sorts!!!



osmosis ~ the diffusion of fluids through membranes or porous partitions


no really that's what we studied in science this week.



muss ~ A lack of order or regular arrangement


and I'm not just talking about the hair!



purse ~ a small bag, pouch, or case


yea that was the giveaway word for the week. A loves carrying around this little purse and it's just so cute... that here's another picture.




ingenuity ~ the quality of being cleverly inventive or resourceful; inventiveness

I was impressed.


Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Sneaky, sneaky me

I've been up to no good! I didn't actually tell you everything I've been up to. On Sunday morning we didn't just work on our bedroom... we went out to a wild flower patch and had some pictures taken. Here's just a few of them.
G'ma Bonnie, Nana & G'ma Judy - YES you will be receiving portraits of these. Happy Mother's Day early (or late if you figure that I was a little busy last year!).

Monday, April 21, 2008

I feel so loved

I've had two people email or comment that I have been slacking in my blog writing duties - so sorry!
So here's my weekend recap:
Saturday morning we were up bright and early - I had a yard sale (hoping to sell our old bedroom furniture - alas Jason & I had to lug it back into the house!) but we did make enough to off-set the cost of new dressers for the kids. Saturday afternoon K,Z&A went to Emma's birthday party and had a blast jumping in the blow up jumper. B had his friend Hank over to play. Then Saturday evening we went on bike rides with the big kids - Jason went with B and I went with K. I'm hoping for my birthday to get my own road bike & a bike trailer so that we can go out as a family. Until then we take turns.
Sunday we got up bright and early had breakfast and went to work on our bedroom - we are DONE! We debated painting the ceiling and I still think we should but we were so ready to be done with our week long project (ha ha - it took over a month!) that we didn't want to commit to painting the ceiling too! If we get this wild home improvement bug again we already have the paint so we could do it "easily." Now we just need to sell this furniture so we can buy new dressers. We couldn't help but laugh last night at how naive we are that we thought this would be a quick project and how we are selling one set of perfectly good furniture to get another (the older set is just too large with our king-sized bed and new desk). Yesterday afternoon I went to a VBS meeting and I signed up to help... I was a little worried until I found the perfect job for me. I will be in charge of taking pictures and creating a slide show each day! I am SO excited! Then yesterday evening we had worship service with our church, The Journey. When we got home we put the room back in order, as much as possible. We obviously have more to do.

As usual here's pictorial proof that all is well in hot Texas with Jason's Clan - Enjoy!

Z's still trying to dress himself
(yep pants & shirt are both backwards).


My guy!
(showing off my new bedroom!)


She's really fast - sometimes I'm just lucky to get the diaper back on -
forget buttoning the clothes!
Sisters enjoying some book time together.
Silly smiles from my favorite 10 year old.
A day in K's life (currently it is 12:55pm and she's still got 4 things left to do).

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

200

This is post #200! Wow Kierstyn you created a monster when you convinced me to start blogging. I love it - couldn't tell couldya?! I actually started about a year ago and I did some figurin' in my head the other night and realized that I have been blogging on average about every other day, who knew I was such a talkative lady huh?!
I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate 200 than a montage of my babies! So enjoy!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Our little Z

Z has started showing a great interest in dressing himself, here's the outfit he put together on Saturday for himself, notice the backwards pants!!

Today he had a little help dressing himself but I thought this picture was so cute. This is Z at K's Girl Scout meeting - love this stance & look!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Everybody together now...

P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S! Put it all together and we have PROGRESS! Yea! (Now you know why they didn't pick me as cheerleader three years in a row!)



Now in other news:
K enjoyed Mark's birthday - that was her math lesson for the day.


Z is learning to write sentences with play-doh. This sentence if it isn't very clear says, "I ate a sandwich." Wow Z!

Finally, BB is still missing. So sad!
I rode again last night. I did go running on Wednesday, it wasn't as much fun as swimming and biking. No worries - I will stick with this! My goal is the Family Triathlon on July 19th (swim 200 yards, bike 5 miles and run 1.2 miles)! What makes it even better is that B and 'our' coach - Adrien made a bet on me last night. If I beat B then he has to swim a 250 butterfly for coach and if he wins then the coach has to swim a 25o butterfly for him! Love it!!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Happy Birthday Mark (with pictures?)

Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Marky Sparky Superman! Happy Birthday to you!!!

Today is my big brother's birthday, I am now convinced that he will always be older than me and yes he will always be bigger (aka taller) than me! - Yay-ess!! HA! Whoopie! Happy dance! Why is it that when you are 8 years old that is an issue but now... no problem!

Happy Birthday Mark - we here at Jason's Clan hope you have a absolutely, fantastically rotten day! Oops I really meant to say great - no really!


Thursday, April 10, 2008

Have you seen this bear?

Baby Bear is missing. He's been missing since Tuesday evening sometime.... I am hoping that we will find him at the Y tonight when we take B to swimming. If not then I have NO IDEA where he could have disappeared too. Z has had a couple of "conversations" with him but BB has not given Z any indications of where he's hiding. SO if you have seen this sweet, cuddly bear please tell him to come home - we miss him.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

She swims!

Another hurdle down! I went to swim practice this evening and found out that paddling around the pool to cool down on a sunny day is nothing compared to swimming for exercise or technique! B is my hero! I am amazed at his form, his speed and his ability to pull it ALL together! I felt like such a fish out of water this evening, flapping about wildly and erratically! But it won't get me down!! I can do this!
Tomorrow night is the third hurdle - walk/run, I understand that we are actually going to be doing the bleachers - AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWW!!! I'm terrified, but eager to feel the burn! I'll post tomorrow.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Funny Z story

Jason had to work this weekend from home and requested a quiet house. There is only one way to make this house quiet during the day time - get the kids out! So I loaded up B,Z&A and B's friend, H (K was at a friend's baseball game) and we went to Sweet Berry Farms to pick strawberries. While we were there Z enjoyed picking and eating the strawberries. I tried to convince him not to but every time I turned around he was eating another one. When we got home I asked Z to tell his daddy about picking strawberries. He said, "I picked them and ate them." So I asked why did mommy ask you not to eat anymore? His response, "So I don't get sick and need the barf bucket." YES! I may not have that boy potty trained but he's figuring out the barf bucket!! cha-ching!!

Enjoy the montage of our little adventure.

Friday, April 4, 2008

Mother-in-LAW!

Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people in the WHOLE wide world and I'm not just saying that because she is my husband's mother! Really!

Happy Birthday Bonnie!

My mother-in-law is super, terrific and wonderful. She is loving, gentle and would do anything for her family (except maybe call in pizza). There are times now when I look back at the beginning of our relationship and remember being terrified of this woman - because I wanted her to like me. But as of now I'm officially her favorite daughter-in-law and I covet that title! Thank you Bon-Mom for loving me like a daughter and helping me, through your example, to be a better mother!
I love you! Here are some of my favorite pictures of my Bon-Mom (I could have done another montage!)





The week in review

This week was exciting. K and I (with Z's help of course) did our first science experiment. We've been learning about plants and this tied right in. Enjoy this montage:



Z learned about the new computer & head phones - so cute.

Oh yea and he built the "coolest robot EVER!"


A started walking AND climbing. She loves to stand in her "thinking" chair, we are working on that!

Happy Belated Birthday Andy - hopefully this time we will be able to see these pictures.

At Jason's graduation in 2006.

At Andy's graduation with B&K in 2003.

Finally, I decided to start training for a triathlon! *gasp* I have been wanting to since July when B ran, swam & rode in his but I have procrastinated my way into April! Last night I started talking to B's swim coach (who also does a lot with the triathlon club) and she mentioned that they were starting an 8 week session meant to prepare or introduce people and said I could start Friday with a small 10 mile ride. I went into panic/excitement mode. I called several people to see if they thought I could do this and the answer was unanimously - YES! So I took my bike (last ridden about 3 years ago) and had a tune up done and the tires aired up and I WENT! I tried to psych myself out all day but I did it and I couldn't be happier, thank you Rachael for helping me through one of my more psycho moments today!
I will be feeling this in the morning! Especially my skinned up knee - ha! Funny side note: when you bike 12 miles (yep they added two on me somewhere along the way) and then get off your legs feel something like jell-o and when I tried to stand on my right foot and take off it gave out and I fell down - I love a good fall so I laughed at that! So hurdle one is over, now hurdle two... swimming - that's Tuesday night! Woo hoo! Prayers are always nice! :)
Here's a picture of me after my 12 mile ride.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Belated Birthday...

Yesterday was Uncle Andy's birthday.

Due to technical difficulties the photos I found for Andy's b'day have not been wanting to show on the blog - I'm sure it is nothing personal Andy, Jason's clan does not discriminate against anyone for age, race, religion or gender - however we have been known to advertently create more traffic to our blogspot with little glitches in the system. So that might be why this has happened! Please check back for pictures of the famous Andy, creator of the snafu on Jason's Clan.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Happy Birthday Andy!

Today is Uncle Andy's birthday (although he's not my uncle, that is what he's called around here). B&K have always thought the moon rose and set around Uncle Andy & who am I to tell them otherwise. Andy is a terrific young man! I've known Andy since he was 6 years old - now that seems just crazy to me! We love you Uncle Andy! Happy Birthday!

(picture to be found and reloaded at a later date - sorry Andy!)
B&K with Uncle Andy at his graduation in 2003

Andy at Jason's graduation in 2006
Most recent picture I have of Andy (holding Erin's little guy J)

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Retraction

I'm sorry. I owe a few people an apology for my April Fool's Day prank. In my defense I've never pulled off a prank so I really didn't expect this one to be such a success (oops I mean horribly inappropriate). Here's the true story. Jason did get asked if he'd be willing to go to Canada - he said yes, but has not heard anymore about it. We are still secretly dreaming that something will come of it, but alas no word. Today - due to my insensitive blog I found out that Markham, Ontario is about a days drive away from Erin. As you can imagine that would be much nicer for us than the current 3 day drive that we are now. So there you go - I'm sorry, my only defense is that the whole April Fool's is contagious at my house right now. K put B's swim suit in the freezer (thanks for the idea Uncle Andy) and B returned the favor by putting ALL of K's underwear and nightgowns in the freezer.
Happy April Fool's Day - Here's hoping that someday our Canada dream will be a reality and not a dream.

Exciting News!

I just got off the phone with Jason! Several months ago Jason was asked if he would be interested in working in Markham, Ontario to help them bring some tools on line for their device analysis department. When he volunteered he never thought they would ask him because he was so new to the company. Well, I guess he was wrong. Matt Thayer came to him this morning to ask if he was still interested. He just called me and although we have a LOT to discuss, it looks like we'll be moving to Canada sometime this year!