Random pics from this weekend...

We did Halloween sugar cookies with friends. The kids had orange and green frosting and all sorts of sprinkles and candies to have fun with. Sam used a whole bottle of green sprinkles before I saw what he was doing, but he sure was proud of that cookie he made.

We made chocolate spiders. Marshmallows on a skewer stick with pretzel stick legs, dipped in melted chocolate, with red hots for eyes. They were devoured immediately. Yum.

Jared had to go to St. Louis for a business conference on Thursday and Friday, so boy did we have a ball while he was away. I moved a mattress into the family room and we snuggled up and watched a movie and ate dinner down there. All the kids know it's party time whenever Dad leaves. (Sorry hun)!! It's our tradition to do fun stuff, and most importantly, everyone sleeps in the master bedroom with Mom. It is GREAT FUN!

I bought some sharpie markers and let the kids draw faces on a pumpkin. I think Isaac's is my favorite.

We spent hours and hours outside on Saturday raking up leaves and let me tell you-- it is a tough job. The kids helped so much, I was delighted. Of course they had to jump in the leaf pile a few times.

Soooooo Cute! He did this on his own. I just love having kids.

Here's my little Sam and Tom. All dressed up for church! They are so handsome, aren't they? We had a pretty good weekend.

School's Out...until tomorrow.

This is my lab group from biology, working together. Going clockwise: Shahid, Jessica and Amanda, Matt, and me. It was so nice to have a group of friends to work with. The work went a lot faster that way, except when we made mistakes and ended up the last ones in the room with the teacher! I really enjoyed my time in Biology, and here are some of the things I learned about:
*How the cells turn oxygen and food into a useable form of energy for the body.
*How to make beer! haha
*How the food chain works, and how plants make food and oxygen for everybody.
*How to use a microscope (How embarrassing that I didn't know this and I'm 32 years old!)
*How plants reproduce
*What causes genetic disorders, and how genetic inheritance works.
*How to count the kernels on an ear of indian corn (don't ask)...
Overall I had a great first semester, and I'm looking forward to next session. I will be taking chemistry online, and Anatomy lecture and lab on campus. Hooray!
Hope everyone is having a beautiful and peaceful sabbath day.
HUGS!

We've been having some fun...

We had a girls night out last week. My friend Dana and I took our girls out to see the Toy story movies in 3D. We all had a great time. Aren't they cute?
We like to go down to the creek at the end of our street back in the woods. Here we are playing with some of the neighbor kids.

Sam is starting to love the water. He fell in and got wet, so I took his clothes off. I made Mary take off her leotard under her outfit and I put it on Sam. He was cute dressed in purple and stars. LOL

Here is Mary with her little stuffed animal riding in her shirt. She's going to be a great Mom, she already takes great care of her stuffed animal "babies".

Here we are playing at Cosmo park. It is pretty close to our house. We are playing in the volleyball sandpit. We made a castle and a pyramid together. I wanted to do something fun before I had to go to school that night. I feel like I need to be a good Mom so much more now that I'm going to school.

Notice how Isaac is trying to keep Rusty from demolishing the pyramid before we could get a picture of it.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll try to post some more stuff tomorrow. I'm cramming for finals. I have two final exams next Thursday. Pray for me! I have to get good grades to get into the nursing program next year. xoxo

A quick post

I am again having wildlife issues here. Yesterday Suzy and I found a squirrel in the middle of the road that looked like it was having a mental issue. He kept going around in a circle in the middle of the road, and wouldn't get out of the way. We stopped and I tried to push it away with a piece of cardboard, but it wouldn't leave the roadway, so I picked it up in a little blanket and put it in a box in the van. Poor little thing. He was perfectly tame. He had a bald spot on his head, so I think he had been hit by a car. I took him to a wildlife rescue place on the outskirts of town. I hope he gets better.
Then today Jr. caught a baby frog, a full grown frog with one leg missing, and a full grown toad. They were racing them around their bedroom tonight (yeah, I caved in. More creatures in the house, I know, but what's a mom to do?) Rusty was just chasing them around as fast as he could. It was so cute to see how he just screamed and giggled. The toad was the fastest, probably because he's more of a land animal where the frog lives more in the water. The frog is more beautiful though. The toad peed on Tommy's hands, and we began to laugh, but he had a serious face and said it was NOT FUNNY. I'm going to lay low for a bit because I've got a midterm and a quiz on Tuesday. Every spare moment is going to be spent studying. Have a good weekend ya'll.
Julie

Labor Day Fun!

We went an hour North of here to the Long Branch State Park and had so much fun at the lake! The kids never wanted to leave!

Sam turned 3!!!

Here are the birthday party pics for Sam's 3rd birthday!

I know I need to visit Blogland...

I'm just so busy I can't even stand it! I'll try to blog soon. Here is a picture of a butterfly that I photographed when we were at the park. There is so much beautiful wildlife here.
I took my math midterm today. I think I did well. Rusty started walking a few weeks ago.

Also, Isaac got his braces on a couple days ago.

He is trying to get used to it. Poor guy. Well, in other news, it was our 11th anniversary today. Yes, we made it to 11 years! I hope the next 11 years are not as hard as the last 11 years, but something tells me they may be even harder (can you imagine having 4 or 5 teenage children at once? Yikes!) So, I guess we better hang on to our hats, it's gonna be a wild ride. Well, it already is.
Tommy is doing well in kindergarten.

His teacher is giving me some really good feedback, thankfully. Jr. is the one I have to worry about. His teacher says he is already getting lazy in doing his work at school. I know he is smart enough, but he just gets lazy.
Labor day, we might go visit a potential camp spot about an hour North of here. It has a lake with a beach where the kids can play. What are all of you up to? I haven't heard from many of you, and I hope you are all doing well. Love and hugs!

The snake was found and it's back in the wild...

Yes! It took until 4pm today, after leaving no stone unturned, we found the snake behind the dresser in the closet of Jr. and Isaac's room! After playing with the snake for about an hour, we finally got Jr. to let him go. New rule: No creatures in the house, EVER!

My first day of school went well...oh, and there's a snake on the loose in my house right now, (yawn)

This is a funny story. Yesterday, Susy came over to my house to study with me, and saw a snake (about 12-16 in. long) in my front yard, so we decided to catch it for the kids to see. The fix-it guy across the street helped us get it into a container. So, we taped this wire mesh colandar to the top of a glass bowl, and he was in there with a little water, he could breath just fine. He kept snapping at us up against the glass. He was a very intelligent creature. We looked him up on the internet, he is from the rat snake family of snakes. He is non-venemous because of his round pupil (not like a cats) and his markings. So, the kids came home and they looked at him all afternoon. Jr. took him and showed him off at scouts last night. I was doing homework, while Jared put the kids to bed, so I didn't know what happened to him from there. Well, I get a tap on the shoulder at 2am. It was Jr. telling me that they had put the snake in a bigger container (a plastic tote with snap on lid), and that he wasn't in there anymore. So I wake up Jared (Sr.), and we go down there to try to find him. We searched EVERYWHERE for about an hour, but couldn't see him anywhere, so we finally gave up. I had to pray my way back to sleep. Jared had to go to work this morning. I don't know what to do now, but one thing is for sure: I am now convinced that having a house full of boys is going to be the end of me.
Any suggestions?

Mary has a new cute hairstyle