Thanksgiving Thursday

It's been a couple of weeks since I've done my Thankful Thursday list! I just about let another Thursday get by without doing my list! This week I'm thankful for....

1. ...Chad and the great husband that he is. I'm not sure what I would do without him!

2. .. my boys! They keep me so busy but I love every minute I get to spend with them. Over the past few weeks Cooper has started talking more and more and it's been fun watching the other boys interact with him. Cooper loves his big brothers and they are for the most part very sweet to him! Notice I did say for the most part..they have their moments!

3. .. times when my nieces come over to visit and play with the kids. We usually see one or both of my nieces (along with their friends) that are here in college a few times a week. The boys LOVE them and I am thankful that they take time out of their busy college lives to spend time with us.

4. .. Sonic drinks! The past couple of weeks I've enjoyed more Sonic drinks than I have in quite a while. Sarah (my niece) has brought us all Sonic treats a few times over the past couple of weeks. A couple of times she has taken the 2 big boys with her to get the treats. They thought that was great!!

5. .. the 5 hour notice I got before having to show the house today! Seriously I am thankful for that. It could have been way less time. Supposedly we are supposed to get a 24 hour notice (our realtor said she would give us that much) but we've shown the house 3 or 4 times and have yet to have more than a few hours notice. I did have 6 kids today but managed to get the house in great shape before the couple arrived. The kids were great and helped keep the house clean for me.

6. .. Cade's baseball team! He has had so much fun playing so far and is on a great team with great coaches and parents. We are looking forward to the rest of the season!

7. .. the time spent outside. This week there has been a chance of thunderstorms everyday but somehow it's managed to stay away and we've been able to get outside some everyday. It has been raining tonight so I'm not sure about tomorrow but I am glad we haven't been stuck inside all week...especially today when I need to keep the kids out of the house for a while.

8. .. consignment sales. Some friends of mine are having a sale this weekend that I'm looking forward to going to. I didn't have enough stuff to put in the sale this time but I'm still planning to shop. I love being able to get nice clothes (not that we need anything) for the boys for much cheaper prices than I would pay in the stores. We also have a consignment shop in town that I visit just about every week!

9. .. our caterpillar friend we've had for almost 5 days now. Last week the kids and I talked about, made crafts to go with, and read books about the life cycle of the butterfly. Well on Monday Chance found a little green caterpillar while playing outside. We've had the caterpillar since then and have been feeding it and watching it. In the 4 days that we've had it we can actually tell it's getting bigger. It's really neat to watch it eat! I'm hoping we will be able to see it change into a butterfly. That would be great for the kids to see after talking so much about it.

10. .. my nice, big, and warm bed! Good night!!!!

Little Green!!

This afternoon Chance came around the corner of the house holding a caterpillar! We all held and watched "little green" for a while. We now have him in a container with lots of leaves and a little water hoping to see him change into a butterfly. Hopefully he'll stay alive long enough to change!! Here are a few pictures of "little green"!
I asked Cooper where the caterpillar was and he said "in the tree"!
Silly Sarah
Everyone looking at "little green"

Butterfly Craft

This past week we talked some about the life cycle of the butterfly. With Spring now here I thought this was a good time to talk about this. On Monday the kids made caterpillars to go along with a cute book we have called "Caterpillar Spring, Butterfly Summer!" On Thursday we finished up our lesson on the life cycle of the butterfly by reading Dr. Seuss's "My Oh My a Butterfly" and making a couple of crafts to go along with it. We glued beans "eggs" on leaves for the caterpillar eggs, painted toilet paper rolls green for the butterfly chrysalis, and colored and cut out butterflies to go into the chrysalis (they were attached to a pipe cleaner). The kids had fun making their crafts and learning about butterflies!

First Baseball Game of the Season!

Tonight was Cade's first baseball game of the season! He played second base and had lots of fun! Cade's team is the youngest team (according to the coach) of the 6 teams in his age group! He is really enjoying the season so far and has already learned so much. He is on a team with some of his closest friends which he also loves. They were so fun to watch tonight and did a great job, especially with it being their first game. I look forward to watching them play and learn to be better players this season.
Heading to the game!

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getting a high five from the coach after his hit!

Caterpillar craft

Today the kids made caterpillars from egg cartons to go along with this cute Spring book! Chad's mom gave us this book last year I think. It's a really cute book and teaches in a very simple way the life cycle of the butterfly.

Theme-Self Portrait

This weeks theme at iheartfaces is self portrait! You can either enter a picture of yourself with a child or a picture of yourself only that you took of yourself (holding the camera) I don't have a picture of me that I took of myself with the camera but I do have one of me and Chance in the snow. I got to looking for pictures and I really don't have many pictures of me at all. I'm always the one taking pictures which leaves me with very few that I am actually in. This was taken at the beginning of March when we had our big snow! Head on over to iheartfaces and enter your picture or just check out this weeks entries!

A fun afternoon with Sarah and friends!

This afternoon we got a nice surprise visit from Sarah and her friends Stella and Clay! The kids had so much fun playing with them. They played everything from soccer, basketball, duck-duck-goose, jumping on the trampoline, to cooling off inside with a game of Wii bowling! I'm not sure who had the most fun, my kids or the "big kids"! We look forward to their next visit!

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It appears that Sarah is going to fall on her head but she actually landed on her feet! I was very impressed!

Purple Monster!

This is what happens when you let my 20 month old paint all by himself!!! He was actually doing a great job and keeping the paint on the sponges and paper until I took my attention off of him for a few minutes to clean out some of the sponges. When I turned around this is what I saw! Thank goodness for washable and non-toxic paints!!! I love the picture of him staring at his hands like "how did this happen!"

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Easter with Rah Rah

After worship today we headed to Rah Rah's house for a great lunch and more Easter fun! The boys got some new books(we LOVE books), new movies, and some really neat pillows!! The boys have sure had a great Easter!

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The boys woke to find full Easter baskets this morning! The Easter Bunny sure was good to them!!! They each got a new Webkinz which they have named Dusty (Cade's dog), Black Ears (Chance's cat), and a lamb (who has no name yet...I think the boys plan to help Cooper out with that soon!)They also got some music cd's, movies, and way too much candy which you can see in the bottom picture is causing some issues!


This was Cooper when told "no more jelly beans until you eat some breakfast!!" Such a sad life!!! :-)

Easter Fun!

Today we went to Savannah to do Easter activities with my family. We had a good time. The weather was nice so we enjoyed the time outside. On our way home we stopped at the Shiloh National Park to see if we could get a glimpse of some bald eagles who have a nest of new babies. We got lucky and were able to see both the male and female eagles feeding their babies. We weren't able to see the babies because they were down in the nest but it was incredible seeing those beautiful birds so close and not in cages like at the zoo.

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The boys helped fill eggs and decorate the cake for us to take with us

The boys on the hunt to find eggs!

Counting eggs and just hanging out on the steps watching the hunt. Notice Chad's hat...the best hiding place of the day!!

Cade getting a very close look at the eagles! It was truly amazing how close we were to them. The male and female flew over us several times bringing food to their young. We could actually see the fish hanging from their talons! Check out the size of the nest!

I just had to share this picture because I love it! Isn't it beautiful! I was able to get lots of great pictures! Some photographers had been there all day waiting and watching the birds. We had only been there about 5 minutes when we got to see them. We watched them fly in and out several times. I would loved to have seen the babies but today we had to settle for just hearing them. I was told in another week or two they would start standing on the edge of the nest! Cool!

Spring time fun!

Now that spring time is here (although it feels like winter today) and Easter is this weekend we decided to make something fun today. We all made "spring time nest" . The kids had a good time making the nest but had an even better time eating the eggs! Here are a few pictures of how they turned out! They are very easy to make just a little messy. It seems like all the really fun stuff is messy!!!

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Theme-My Friend and I

These two are just 4 months apart and have spent a few days a week together since Cooper was about 6 months old! They are learning to play together and can be very sweet to one another. At other times they are not so sweet to each other. Even our best friends can irritate us sometimes, right??? I think they will continue to grow to be the best of friends! Go on over to iheartfaces and enter your picture for the week or just check out the other great entries!!

Our little green friend

Yesterday while out running I spotted this little guy on the side of the road. He (I guess it could be a she) was so tiny and cute. I brought him home for the boys to look at. They of course loved it. We watched him just sit on the table for the longest time and then the turtle got brave and tried to walk off of the table several times. We decided to put him back outside where he belonged.

A beautiful day for baseball!

Cade is playing baseball this year! It's his first year to play and so far he is really enjoying it. We haven't had any games yet but have had several practices over the past few weeks. We haven't been able to practice on the baseball field in a while due to lots of rain. Today however we were finally able to get on the field which was very good for the boys. It's been a beautiful day and we enjoyed watching him practice.

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Thanksgiving Thursday

I'm Thankful For......
1. ...the beautiful day we had Wednesday. The boys and I enjoyed spending time outside together.

2. ...time spent talking to friends who live far away. I miss my friends who have moved away but am so thankful for our talks every week or so!

3. ... my husband who helps so much around the house! He is the greatest!!

4. ... a quiet morning! 2 of the 5 kids this morning are with my sister watching "Makin Music" at the university! The rest of the kids have been so good. The house has been very calm and quiet..even with the other kids here.

5. ... movie nights! This week is movie night once again. I'm looking forward to watching 'The Chronicles of Narnia' tonight and spending time with friends.

6. ... the couple mornings this week that my kids actually slept past 6:30!! This was not one of those mornings but that's okay.

7. ... temperatures that allow me to turn off the heater/AC unit and open the screen windows. It feels so nice and also helps with the Eeectric bill a little!! Any little bit helps!

8. ... Wednesday night bible classes. My kids have great teachers and love going to class. I am really enjoying our study on Paul in the Ladies class. It's been very interesting!

9. ... the unexpected coke from McDonalds brought along with lunch for me and the kids on Monday! I am blessed with some truly great people in my life.

10. ... the weekends when we as a whole family can spend LOTS of time together. The boys look forward to the weekends when daddy can stay home all day!

Well, that's my list for the week. Now it's your turn!