cousins

I forgot to post this picture when I made the Christmas slideshow, I thought it was adorable. Jordan just loves Isaiah...and what a lucky girl, with 3 big brothers and a big boy cousin to look out for her!

Merry Christmas

clay creations

In order from top to bottom: Mychael's, Zach's, and Jordan's.

more pics

trip to children's museum

I took the kids to the children's museum yesterday, it was so much fun. Jordan was cute to watch, she was very serious about doing some grocery shopping, and playing in the little house. My kids really got into doing dress up and performing on the little stage, I got a video of Jordan doing some dancing, and a few other pictures. But Nathan was hilarious as the pizza chef, I think he has a culinary career in his future. Let's just say his high energy and ability to move from one task to the next quickly could serve him very well. I know he's mine, but he's just brilliant at times, and absolutely adorable. Mychael had fun pretending, too, and I'm glad he's not outgrown that sort of thing, yet. Zach liked the firetruck, racecar, and fire station the best.

calling all prayer warriors

The father of my sister-in-law, Kit, is in critical condition in a hospital in New York. It was discovered over the weekend that he has a tumor or lesion of some sort, they will biopsy it tomorrow to more fully understand what they're up against. He is currently heavily sedated and on a ventilator, but at least does not seem to be in any pain. Kit and Justin drove up late Saturday night during that bad storm and got there Sunday; anyway, it looks like she may be there through Christmas, and Justin will come home to the boys. Kit's never had to be away from them, which makes for that much more hardship. Please remember them in your prayers, her dad's name is Art and her mom's name is Barbara. Also, her sister is Hillary and her brother is Jack, and they are all there together. Thank you so much. Oh...Kit's link is on my blog, the one with "proud mama" in the name, if you're interested in seeing a picture of her dad so you can visualize him as you pray.

another beautiful day...

We started off enjoying the outdoors during my Bible study that meets at a local park, then continued at home with a walk through the woods to "the fort," and playing in the sandbox. Nathan and Zach have friends over today, so Jordan and I had some girl time outside with our feet in the sand. I was halfway pretending I was at the beach...

For those that don't know, my grandmother Graves' funeral is tomorrow in Indianapolis. Her death follows my grandfather by not even 3 months, and when he had died and they found him, he was still holding her hand as she lay sleeping in the bed next to him. You see, they slept that way every night because my grandmother had Alzheimer's, and he was always afraid she might wander off during the night while he was asleep. "til death do us part." They were two very wonderful people that I had the privelege of calling my "grandparents," and they are missed.

beautiful weather

We are having strangely warm weather lately, it's supposed to be mid-70's all week long (which is really nice for us since our heat no longer works downstairs and we've been using the "emergency heat" function on our heat pump). Our friends Dub and Carla came over on Saturday with a whole mess of pansies from the landscaping company that Carla works for. She and Dub have transformed our yard from the weed jungle to neater and more landscaped- looking. Thanks, C! Anyway, we ended up being outdoors a lot of the day, with Jon, the boys, and our neighbor, Dustin, blowing and raking leaves (we have grass again!), and the boys also have been playing lots of basketball since the Upwards Basketball season started last week.
I am taking the kids to see Snow White on Wednesday, put on by the Storybook Theater, then we meet with our Bible study group at a park on Thursday, followed by basketball practice Thursday and Friday. Also, Mychael's class's Christmas party is Friday, which I have to help provide the food for...all that and Jon's in California all week! It helps me to stay busy when he's gone, though, but we still miss him terribly.
That's all for now, have a great week, everyone!

ABC song

Today, as we were riding home from taking Mychael to school, Jordan and I were singing the ABC song together. After we sang, "next time won't you sing with me," Jordan paused for a second and then said, "That's a great song." It was SO cute. Thanks for letting me share!

quotable quotes

Sometimes I find things hysterically funny for some odd reason, you know the sorts of things that you think about later and chuckle all over again, and for me it's usually things that people say (Jon does it to me all the time, he comes up with some CRAZY stuff). Here are just a couple, I guess you can call them "quotable quotes," something I'll probably have to post from time to time so I can go back to them when I need a laugh.

"Is there really such thing as curds and whey?"
~Nathan Forbis, age 7

"Don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya."
~Andra Simpson, age 34

elves with attitude

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1154278467

(This is my sister-in-law, Kit's, creation! Check her elves out on the "proud mama" blog in my links section...)

Here is a picture of our child that refuses to go to the bathroom in anything that resembles a toilet.

still here

I haven't written in awhile, and I wanted to let you know that it is because we lead such exciting lives...yes, lives you can only dream of having. I felt that this picture would capture the essence of the exciting lives that we lead, so don't feel bad if you find yourself coveting. Jon recently installed this new toilet, and it is capable of flushing 100 feet of toilet paper. We no longer have to plunge after every use of this particular toilet. Words cannot express the truly exhilarating experience that we now have when using this toilet. So don't feel bad for wanting to be us.