So Call Me, Maybe

Hello there!  Well, that week went by fast.  But, of course, it was very busy and awesome, as all of our weeks are.  :o)  The kids started their school clubs, Emily decided that Glee is her favorite new show, and I completely forgot about the boys' eye doctor appointments! :oO  Yes, shocker, I know.  Guess things just got a little too busy for my brain to keep up with! Haha - oh well.  I've already called and rescheduled, so we'll get them checked out in October.  But anyhow, here's our week!

Monday:

Emily decided that she needed to weigh in on the Wii since it's been a while.

And man, it says that girl's still over-weight.  ;oP

The kids all started their clubs at school.  Evie has joined the Sewing Club!

And she's sooo excited about it!  On the first day, they practiced stitching by hand, so she brought this scrap of fabric home for 'homework' to complete her practice.  She said that they'll start learning how to use the machines soon.  Go Evie!

Both of the boys joined the Computer Club on Mondays.  Honestly, it's just extra time on the computer for them to do whatever they want - work on homework, explore the school's software programs, do research, or play supervised games.  And I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure that our boys just like to play the games.  :o)  Oh well, it's a good break for them before they have to come home and get busy on homework. 

Later that evening, Evelyn had Gymnastics, so Emily and I took her.

The girl keeps herself entertained while Evie does her thing.

Oooh, the balance beam!  Backwards!

Go Sissy!

:o)

Tuesday:

*sigh* Yes, she's weighing in again, hehe.

It's just so funny how she thinks she's really playing a game when she gets on that thing, and check out how cute her little Mii is:

The kids made it for her. :o)

"It looks just like me!"

She was playing with some princess toy rings, and brought me one, put it on my finger, and held her own hand out and smiled.  So I took a quick pic of our hands with our matching rings on.

:o)

And she's always so happy to go get the kids from school.

The big midgets are really happy to see her too.

Later, the kids had church school, and then Chris took Joshua to his first football practice!  Sorry no pics, but Chris said that Joshua had a lot of fun.  His team is the Hawks, and their colors are red, black and white.  (North Shore?)  Haha, we can work with that. 

Big brother Matt-dog let Emily help him sort out the beyblade stuff.

It was just such a change to see them playing quietly together, instead of fighting and tattling on each other, that I had to take a couple of pics, hehe!  :o)

Wednesday:

We had a very busy Wednesday.  First, the big kids all had clubs after school again.  Evelyn had her first cheerleading practice of the year, which she said was awesome!  Joshua joined the BCA Boys' Club.  It's for 4th - 8th grade boys, and they just get together to discuss boy stuff and study skills, character building, new video games, sports, whatever.  Joshua really likes this new club.  :o)  And Matthew had Computer Club again.  Haha, yeah, they offer it 4 days a week, and he decided that he'd rather go to Computer Club again than join a different club.  :op  

Whatever my silly Matt-dog.

As soon as clubs let out, we ate a quick early dinner, and ran over to Evie's gymnastics class.  Chris had duty, so the boys had to tag along this time, but that's alright because then they had plenty of time to work on their homework.  :o)

And while I was testing Joshua on his vocabulary for a Social Studies quiz, I saw this vocabulary word - Nomad, described as, "a person in search of food or water."

Obviously, the hilarious part is how he illustrated what a nomad is, Lol!   

And a quick pic of Evie doing a back bend!

Right after I took this, the girls helping her flipped her legs up over her head so she could practice her back flip.  :o)

We left Evie's class a little early and hurried over to the football fields to pick up Joshua's equipment for the season.

Emily thinks it fits just right.  :o)

That night before bed, Emily brought Chris a plate of play food and 2 spoons, one for him and one for her.  Then she started pretend-eating their fake food with her spoon, going "Mmmm!" after every bite, and then looking at Chris until he took his turn and got a bite too.  

:oD  So cute!

Thursday:

After we took the kids to school, Emily and I went to the mall!  And it was the best time ever!

Nah, not really, we just got a few things, but it was still fun.  Emily found herself a new pink water bottle with a monkey on it.  She recently started liking monkeys a lot, making the monkey noise and pointing them out all the time.  So yeah, that water bottle was made for her.  :o)  (By the way, she's posing with her baby because she put her sunglasses on it, hehe.)

When we were checking out, she started going, "Bag! Bag!" so I gave it to her.

Mommy's big helper.

Quick pic of the very happy monkey once I washed out the water bottle and she could finally use it.

:o)

But we didn't want those big kids to feel left out, so we picked up some beignets from Cafe du Monde at the mall on our way out.

And they were so happy with their special treat!

Joshua ended up having an unexpected practice at 5:30, and Chris had duty again, so we had a quick dinner, and rushed out the door.  Mind you - the boys were supposed to have their eye appointment today - bleh, and yeah, I didn't even realize that we had missed it until Sunday, haha, oh well.  

Watching brother's practice from the best seat in the house. ;o)

They were mostly too far away for pictures, but I got a couple of him practicing.

Grrr, go Joshua!

Friday:

Quick pic of those midgets on the walk to school.

:o)  Emily wanted to make sure that I could see Dora.  Sadly, when we got to the school, she thought that since she had a "bag" like the kids, that meant she was going to get out of the stroller and go with them.  :o/  Yeah, she was pretty upset, but no worries, I made it all better...

Because they had cats at the Exchange!

The store on base had a pet rescue team on site, offering pets for adoption and stuff, so she got to visit with the cats!

"Meow, meow!"  :o)  She was sooo excited about them.

Unfortunately, she was all mad again when we left without taking one of those cats with us, haha!  Oh well, a lollipop helped her get over it.  :o)

Later, we were watching Glee on DVR, and I swear, that's Emily's new favorite show!  They break out into song every 5 minutes and she loved it.  She got right up and started dancing with them every time!!

"Miss you so, so bad!"  Lol!  It was the best thing ever!  :o)

After school, we rounded up the kids and went to the Family Day Picnic/BBQ at the big park on base.

Yay for hot dogs and hamburgers!

Yeah, Emily slept through most of it.

Guess all that dancing wore her out.

But the kids had a great time.  There was a slip-and-slide ride.

Hi Evie!

And they had a couple of these giant inflatable slides too!

Not sure if you can see him, but Joshua is up at the top of that pirate ship thing in this pic.

And they rode them over and over again.

Then it was snow cone time!

Emily woke up just in time to get a hamburger.

Yeah, she only took 2 bites, but ate 2 whole bags of the little chips, silly girl.

We spent the rest of the afternoon outside, chilling with neighbors and watching the kids play.

Emily spotted her sister.

And then followed her all around the park.

What a great day!!  :o)

Saturday:

Just after breakfast, the kids got some extra studying and homework done and out of the way, and then they played video games and outside for the rest of the day.  And man, for some reason, they had soooo much fun playing Wipeout together.

:oD

And do you know what those fools did later?? - They let a lizard into my house! :o[  Matthew came in to talk to me, holding the door open as he did, and we both watched as a lizard scurried in behind him, running behind the couch.  I said, "Matthew, you let a lizard in the house!"  He said, "No, I didn't Mommy, I didn't let him in.  He just came in when I did."  :oP

You're darn right I made them get down there and find that thing.  Eventually, Chris helped them out and they found it on the back of the top of the couch!  Yuck!!!  So happy they found it, so happy.  Yucky crawly things.

After that drama, we got cleaned up and went to church where, yep, Joshua and Evelyn were altar serving! 

Awww, yeah, I snuck back there to take a quick picture.  They were both really excited, but Evie was really, really excited because it was her first time.  She got to be a candle-bearer, while Joshua got to do some the bigger tasks like holding the water for Father to wash his hands and stuff. And they both did such a great job.  So cool!  Yay for my little holy children!!  ;o) 

Sunday:

Another day made just for chillin'.  And watching the Cowboys play, of course.  :o)

They're each wearing a Cowboys' hair-bow!

Later, Evie got all her Barbie stuff out, and begged me to keep Emily far away from her, hehe.

She also got to have her new friend (one of our new neighbors) come over and play with her for most of the day, so she was very happy about that.

Joshua finished his Social Studies project that's due on Tuesday, a flipbook/pamphlet thing on Ancient Civilizations, and he used Microsoft Publisher to do it!  He has started taking a flash drive to school (recommended by the teacher) so he can work on stuff there and at home.  It has been so cool showing him how to use it and different programs on the computer and watch him pick up on this stuff so quickly!  Yesterday, he was in Publisher and goes, "Hey Mom, did you know that you can do research while you're in the Publisher program?  Like, without opening a separate google window or anything?"  Uh... no Joshua, I didn't know that.  Show-off.  ;o) I forgot to take pictures of his project, but I'll make sure to when he brings it back home. 

The boys spent the rest of the day outside, except when they came in to watch some of the game, but yeah, pretty relaxing day.

Emily found this paper cut-out person that Matthew made of himself, so she posed with it.  :o)

And that was it!  Jen and Maw Maw Gregory are coming out to visit this weekend, while Chris and I sneak away to Alabama for a friend's wedding, so y'all pray that Emily keeps it together and just dances the whole time we're gone, okay?  Okay.  Hehe.  :o)  The kids are getting their Progress Reports tomorrow, Joshua has regular football practices now, and yeah, this week should be just as much fun as last week!  And as long as I don't forget about any more appointments, it'll be all good. ;o)  Hope everyone's having a great week!

Laters!

Dancing in September

Ba-di-ya!  What a great week we had!  Hello there.  We had a lot going on around here, but it all went so well, so we just had a lot of fun this week. Emily is back to her usually healthy self, Evelyn tried roller-skating for the first time, Matthew caught a frog, and all of our kids are nerds!  But you knew that already.  ;o)

Monday:

Like I said, we were dancing all week.

Emily found/claimed some of Evelyn's sunglasses, and she just knew how cute she was.

But then an itchy nose brought a cruel reality check.

"The cute only lasts so long, Mom."  Haha!

Quick pic on our way out the door to get the kids from school.  She really doesn't like to leave them at school in the mornings, and usually gets mad when they try to kiss her goodbye, because she knows they'll be gone all day.  Oh well, it makes her that much more excited to go pick them up later.  :o)

The kids all had homework, but it wasn't too bad.  Matthew, so far, just has 30 minutes of reading every day, Joshua has reading and 1-2 worksheets to complete, but Evelyn has a lot to do every day.  She takes the LEAP test this year, the big 4th grade test that Joshua took last year, and this week she had reading, Math, language arts worksheets, and studying for Science and Social Studies tests every day!  *sigh*  It's gonna be a long year, but my girl is such a trooper.

And look - she even lost a tooth at school!  Hehe.  She also had gymnastics on Monday, so yeah, that girl's gonna be busy, but she's very confident and knows that she can handle it all.  :o) 

Tuesday:

Matthew was rewarded with a new Spirit Shirt from school for being so awesome.

Haha, no, I don't think he got it for being awesome, I think he won a drawing or something, but he couldn't tell me why he got it either.  "I don't know, they just told me that I was really good at following directions, so I got to go to the office and get a new shirt!"  Haha.  Go Matthew!

While the kids were at school, Emily and I went to the annual 9/11 Memorial Balloon Release that they have here on the base.  I figured that she would really like the balloons.  Too bad she fell asleep on the walk over, haha.  Oh well, I woke her up.

Sleepy baby holding her balloon.

They had markers and stuf to decorate the balloons, so she liked that.

Pic from the base's Facebook page of me and the girl. :o)

It was really windy, but very sunny too.

And it was really pretty when everybody let their balloons go...

Except Emily.

Haha yeah, I had to pry that thing out of her hand!  Lol!  There were other kids that were all excited about letting them go, and then started crying as soon as they were gone.  So at least she didn't cry!  But yeah, as soon as she let go, it flew straight into that tree right there.  :oP

The kids had church class later that day, and then Joshua had his football try-outs/team selection stuff.  Chris said that they just had all the kids do timed runs, and then had them run while they threw passes at them, but Joshua didn't catch any.  But that's okay, like he said, "I'm on defense anyway."  Haha.  He's excited for the season to start.  :o)

Wednesday:

Emily found a new toy.

Haha, what a nerd!

When the kids got home from school, they got right to work.  Emily felt left out, so she went and grabbed a book, climbed onto a chair, and started 'working' too.

Gosh, that girl is such a little distraction!  Emily misses the kids all day and really wants to play with them, but they have to come home and get their homework done.  So when they ignore her, she gets very vocal and loud (and annoying!) - yelling as she runs through the house, shaking toys and pom-poms, bringing the kids her books, going "Read! Read!"  And the kids have to really fight not to give in to her.  Most of the time they do, and then I have to rescue them from her little cute/evil clutches so they can get back to work, haha.  But it's all good.

Later, Evelyn had gymnastics again, and she's already getting better.

No, that's not her in front, that's her waaaay in the back doing a headstand on the wall!  :o)

And then they practice doing them by themselves.

Another quick pic of her, working that upper-body strength.

Go Evie!  :o)

Thursday:

Quick pic before breakfast.

I was already downstairs, and Joshua heard Emily call for me a couple of times, so he got her out of the crib and brought her down to find me.  What a great big brother!  :o)

The girl thinks she can fold laundry.

But all she does is play hide-and-seek with the towels!

"Where's Em-my?"

There she is!  :o)

And guess who got flowers?

That's right - Me!  :o)  "Ooh, Daddy brought you some pretty flowers.  My favorite are the blue ones!"  Mine too Evie.  :o)

And later that night, we made milkshakes for everybody.

Why?  Just because.  :o)

I mean, does anyone really need a good reason for milkshakes?  Nope!

Emily said, "This straw stuff takes too long.  I figured out how to really drink it!"

Haha.  :o)

Friday:

Another quick pic before school.

They almost fit Emily, almost.

After getting the kids to school, Emily and I did some grocery shopping.  Just before walking out of the store, I stopped the cart, put on my sunglasses, and started going again.  Emily started yelling "Gasses! Gasses! Em-my gasses!"  Haha, my girl needed her shades.

I fished them out of her little diaper bag and she was all smiles after that.  Man, I can't forget anything around that girl, she lets me know!

Chris got home a little early, so we went to the annual Residents' BBQ on base.

Too bad it was during school time, so the big midgets missed out, but it was still really good.

Emily's favorite part was her wedding cake-flavored snow cone. So good! :o)

That evening, Chris and Evelyn were talking about working out her arm muscles, and he told her to try doing push-ups every day.  So she tried a couple, but he didn't think her push-up form was all that great, so he got down there to show her how it's done. ;o)

But then Emily decided she needed to do some push-ups too, so she got down there and tried.

She would lower herself down and then jump up on her feet and go "Ugh!" and then get back down on the floor, then pop back up on her feet, over and over, because those were her push-ups, haha!

No worries, despite the midget distraction, Daddy was still able to help Evie work on her push-ups.  And yes, she has been trying to do them every day.  :o)

Saturday:

Matthew had some weekend reading to do, so he finished it up early that morning.

He wanted a snack, so I introduced him to the tortilla with butter, and he was so happy!  :o)

I was on the phone with Booger, telling her about Emily and her push-ups the night before, and as soon as Emily heard what I was saying, she dropped and started doing them. 

Lol!

Quick pic of them girls.

Evelyn was all dressed up and ready to go to her friend's birthday party later that day.  She was trying to read to Emily, but Emily doesn't like to pay attention and would rather read other books while you're reading to her. :oP  We'll get there.

Before the party, Daddy took the girls on a walk and look what they found!

Ahhh!!  Yes, there was a gator in the big ditch back behind housing!  Man, they're always sending out notices and warnings about making sure your kids stay away from the ditches because of alligators and snakes, and I knew they were serious, but I didn't know they were serious, you know?  Evelyn thought it was very cool and the boys were disappointed that they skipped the walk this time.  ;o)

Then Evie went to her friend's birthday party at a roller skating rink!  Unfortunately, it didn't take her long before she wiped out.  :o/  And Chris even tried skating with her, but she was still kinda freaked about falling, so he got her some training wheels.

Hehe, pretty cool huh?  He said that a lot of the kids ended up using them and Evie had a really great time.  She also said that she's now saving up to buy herself some skates "for when we all go back."  Yeah, we'll see about that.  :o)

The other midgets and I hung out at home.  Matthew was "lizard-hunting" for most of the afternoon.  And it was so funny to watch, him and his little friend would walk really slowly around the porches and bushes, and then suddenly pounce when they thought they saw one, hehe!

Joshua hung out with his friends playing beyblades.  And oh goodness, one time he came inside to get something, and I asked how it was going, and he said all dramatically, "Me and this guy have a score to settle... so we're having a beyblade battle to settle it once and for all!" and ran back out of the house.  Lol!  You go J!  :o)

When Daddy and Evelyn got back from the party, they brought a "present" home with them.

:oP  Yeah, they brought home cake!  And not just a couple of slices, but a whole freakin' layer!  Chris works with one of the birthday girl's parents, so when they were trying to get rid of the extra cake, the mom looked at him and said, "You. You have 4 kids, you're taking this!"  I told him, "Did you tell her that your wife would kill you for bringing that home?!"  He said he tried... I have my doubts.  ;o)  Haha, well yeah, the kids were soooo happy about it, so I guess it was okay this time.  ;oP

Quick pic before heading to church that evening.

We gotta remember about that darn glare on the glasses next time. :o1

:o)

And then it was Cake Time!

See?  Happy midgets. :o)

Sunday:

So, Evie got these funny glasses from the birthday party.

And of course, all my nerds had to wear them at some point, and I caught them all.  :o)

Sunday was just an easy day for us, chilling, playing outside, and watching some football.

The kids were very interested in their friend's guinea pig, but Emily kept calling it a pup-pup and barking at it, haha!

And on his latest lizard-hunting expedition, Matthew caught a frog!

Not sure if you can see it, but there's a very tiny one in there. 

He said that he made it a "habitat" to live in, and I told him that he could keep it, but had to let it go at the end of the day. 

And check out our little Cowboys Princess!

Hehe, so cool.  And every time I would yell, "Go Cowboys!" she would yell, "Go Cow!"  Lol!  That means the same thing, right?  ;o)

Ahh, all our little Cowboys midgets.

Hehe.  :o)

Oh - and look!  A picture of Joshua taking the golf cart for a spin has surfaced.

Oh goodness, is it just me or does he actually look a little dangerous behind that wheel?  ;o)

And that was our week.  I told you it was awesome!  ;o)  The kids all started clubs today.  The boys are in Computer Club and Evelyn joined the Sewing Club, so I'm sure they'll be all excited when they get home. Joshua and Matthew will have their eye check-ups later this week (I couldn't get them all in when Evie went) so I'll let you know how that goes, but they should be just fine. I'm sure this week will be just as full as last week, but it's all good.  :o) Hope everyone's doing well.  Oh - and here's a sneak peek of Halloween for you.

Hehehe. :oD

Laters!