Happy Monday!

Bye bye, Bunny

Each of our kids has had a thing that was their sleepy-time comfort object. Kellen's was the homemade "Taggies" blanket, Bonnie's was Bunny, and Noelle's is the pink blanket. Last night Bunny was on Bonnie's bed, and she threw it off while saying "Bunny, I don't want you!" before she crawled between the covers. She's moved on to a stuffed Winnie the Pooh. So, today I washed and dried Bunny. Bunny will live in my cedar chest with Kellen's blanket, and eventually Noelle's blanket. I don't save many things (6 moves in 9 years, anyone?), but these comfort objects are special to me. Bye bye, Bunny. We'll see you another day.

This And That

Here's a picture of our busy girl. She thinks she's so big. I couldn't get her to look at the camera. Too busy. This is the wisteria growing outside our back fence. It's beautiful.

Here are some pictures from a trip we took last weekend to eat some good BBQ, go to the Big Thicket visitor center, and ride the Texas State Railroad between Palestine and Rusk.

We took the obligatory mile walk (I won't insult hikers by calling it a hike) through the Big Thicket. OK, checked that off the list. Let's just say a little north in the piney woods is a lot prettier.

It's so amazing how people can have the same parents and be so different. I guess except for identical twins. Anyway.

Kellen:

Kellen is so interesting to be around because he verbalizes a lot of stuff these days. Like, stuff that people usually think but don't say. Or maybe all 4-year-olds talk like this. I don't know.
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Erin: "Kellen, don't {do such and such} because {insert highly valid reason here}."
Kellen: "OK, Mom, I won't do it when you're looking."

Conversation ensues about doing the right thing all the time, even when others aren't looking.
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Erin (who needs 2 seconds of quiet): "Kellen, go play."
Kellen: "But Mom, I just want to be with you all day!"

Don't I know it.
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Erin: "Kellen, I love you so much."
Kellen: "Yes, because I'm so good all the time."

Then we get to have a conversation about how we love him all the time no matter what. It's like, you assume your kids know these things, and I feel like it's really a gift to be able to talk about stuff like this while he still respects my opinion.=)

Bonnie:

Bonnie is the kid who we're always asking, "Why did you do that?" Even though there's no answer. We feel obligated to ask. Some examples: coloring in the grout in the kitchen, spitting on little sister in the bath (Reason: "I had bathwater in my mouth."), wiping nose on the wall

Bonnie likes to play by herself, and really uses her imagination. She's great at occupying herself with imaginary conversations. Wait, that sounds a little crazy. Really, it's cool.

Bonnie plays with other kids rather than at them. She loves to play dress up, and she loves to wear dresses.

Noelle:

I held off on saying this officially on the Internet. I waited and waited, almost 8 months. Well, Internet, here you go.

It happened. We got an Easy Baby.

Noelle pretty much keeps an even keel. She's super smiley, especially at her brother and sister, but she doesn't have very high highs or low lows (unlike a certain firstborn son in this family). The interesting thing to us about her personality is that while she doesn't cry unless something is really wrong, we also don't get belly laughs out of her like we did with K. If you get a "Heh!" out of Noelle it means she thinks you're pretty funny.

Right now Noelle enjoys playtime with the big kids, mealtime, and Bible class. She does not enjoy Mom leaving her sight.

We're having a lot of fun with her and her go-with-the-flow personality fits in perfectly with the rest of our rather dramatic crew.

News

Our family is readying for another transition. We'll be moving at the end of May. This is not a result of anything bad, or Josh getting fired or anything. So many things that have happened in the last few months led us to this point, and most of them are good. I don't even think I could write the whole story in a coherent fashion, so I won't try. I will try to give a few specifics.

We will be moving to Weatherford, where my mom lives. It's about 20 miles west of Forth Worth on I-20. We've lived there before, for 2 years, before Kellen was born. We feel like this will be a good location for us to settle. It is, of course, close to my mom, and about halfway between my dad, in San Antonio, and most of the rest of our family, in Lubbock.

Four years ago, my grandparents had a house built where they could live together with my mom since they needed help at the time (full-time caregivers). They have both since passed away. We are going to live in that house (Mom is living there now), and my mom will be moving in a few months to her new house in the sticks, which will be about 20 minutes away. She has her own little area upstairs so hopefully we won't drive each other too crazy in the next few months.

Josh has a job offer, but he is still thinking about what he wants to do. Probably, he will lay off coaching for at least a year. He is certified in Composite Science and his Master's degree also gives him the option to go into administration. So he has lots of options.

We've enrolled Kellen in full-day Pre-K next year at a local Christian school. We know both of the ladies who teach Pre-K and are very excited about the new adventures Kellen will have. He is so ready. I've also promised Bonnie gymnastics classes.

Our house here is already sold and closed on. Aren't you glad you didn't have a replay of last year's "house selling report?" We are leasing the house from the buyer until we move. Yes, we are the stupid people who sold 2 houses in less than a year in the worst housing market ever. Oh well.

Any other questions? Shoot!

Spring Break

Josh had his spring break last week. I had actually left a few days before that to go up and help my mom after she had a surgery on her wrist. Josh came up after he was done with school and we all hung out there for a few days before Josh and Kellen joined his parents at the basketball state tournament in Austin. This is actually just part of the playground at Dinosaur Valley SP.

Wading the Paluxy River.

Some dinosaur tracks.

I mentioned in my last post that my mom is building a house on our family's land west of Fort Worth. We got to see the site and it is beautiful and peaceful. I can't wait to spend time there with my kids like I got to with my grandparents and my mom got to with her grandparents.

The bulldozer had cleared off 3 acres and kicking dirt was big fun.

Here is K at the state tournament. He made it through 15 basketball games in 3 days.

Bonnie got ahold of the camera the other day and among other things, took a picture of the Wii Fit score for Kellen. Does playing Wii Fit count as TV time or exercise time?

Here are my pitiful azaleas. Luckily everyone else's look great.

And finally, a picture of Little One at seven months old.

FYI

I've been at my mom's house the last week while she recovered from wrist surgery. So, (Camille=) that's why there have been no pictures. I do have some "country pics" to upload after I get home. Mom is building a house out on our family's land and we got to go see the site the other day. Right now, Josh and Kellen are at the state tournament with the camera so there's no telling what kind of pictures will be on there when I get it back.

Josh/Daddy has always been our Coach of the Year, but now it's official. Check it out!

Need some good news?

We're expecting a nephew!