Update

So I really want to get back in the blogging game, but I see that a year of only blogging once or twice has left me in the dust.  So pardon the dust as I try to sort through all the changes and get back on track.  It may be a little messy and a little sporadic as I try to figure all this out.  In the meantime here are a few pictures of my crew with the newest addition!

The Sugar and Spice of the House (she's more sugar than spice)

Always with the thumb when she's sleepy or eating solids.

Mr. GQ himself!

Very proud big brother with his little sister!

Talent runs in the family!While I'm trying to figure out how all the new formatting works.... check out my friend's new blog... it will keep you in stitches!

Science Fair

At the end of last month, Carter was part of the annual Science Fair at Austin Peay University...
For each local school there were three children competing for each grade. Carter was the ONLY 1st grade home schooler to compete.There were A LOT of first graders!
While Carter didn't place in the competition, every child received a participation medal.

I think he still had a lot of fun.
He learned a lot and it was a great experience overall. Not bad for MY first science fair project since 3rd grade!!
For Carter's project he chose five different paper airplane designs (including one he designed himself). The then flew each one five times and then averaged their distance. His goal was to see which paper airplane design flew the farthest. "The Moth" design was the winner.
While we WON'T be doing this EVERY year, I do plan to make it a regular part of our school schedule. (Per my mom's advice, I'm going to schedule them so that I only have one project at a time.)

New Additions

So this is Carter's last week of first grade! YEAH - except that I need to order books for next year AND get started ASAP on next years school to give myself some "wiggle room" to work with after the baby is born.

Which brings up the newest addition coming in July... around the 15th they say, but we have another ultrasound later this month to see the size of our little GIRL! Believe it or not a girl!... I won't believe it - at least until she is born - then I'll believe it! The pregnancy is for SURE the hardest one yet - for me anyway. The baby is doing great! Everything has been progressing with good with the pregnancy. All those annoying pregnancy problems are what is getting me!

We've also had another addition in the past few months... Barrett, a golden retriever. After praying for over a year for "the right dog at the right time", Carter had a BIG answer to prayer. I have to say Barrett is the perfect dog for our family. He is patient beyond words with the little ones (and sometimes the big ones too) and can rough-tumble with the big ones! He has definitely helped Wyatt (and my nieces) conquer the fear of dogs. I would have to say that Barrett really is the perfect dog for our family. It was worth the waiting and praying to have him. It has taught Carter about the power of prayer and patience for God's timing. (me too!)That's all the new additions we have for now and I HOPE HOPE HOPE to be more consistent in updating this blog. I really do love doing it - it's just finding the time now!

All or Nothing

I'm an all or nothing girl... that's me....

it's either all on the exercise or Nothing (more nothing than all)...

all or nothing on the blogging... lately nothing more than all.

So now I face the mound of "information" that I want so badly to share!!!

Let's wade through this together...

The past month as been full of plans and preparations... then THE big day!!!

Bryan and I flew ALONE all the way to CANADA for an ENTIRE WEEK!!!!

YEAH you heard right, a full week without the boys (my parents were at home with them).

I know you think we are crazy... heading further north in the dead of winter and all!! But when you have such great friends like Peggy and Joshua... and they live in such a great location to ski...

So the reason behind the get-a-way besides to get away, and to see Peggy, was to "celebrate" our 30th birthday(s). (Bryan turned 30 in October and I will turn 30 in March).

So since this was our first time away for more than a night since Carter was born, and since it was our first time out of the USA...

I have LOTS of pictures to share...

be patient... I'm the all or nothing girl remember?

In the mean time... her are some great pictures to get you to come back!

Fun in H2O

Family Camp is in full swing! We just finished week one... only 7 more to go!!! We really do love the camps, but it's really busy! We are SOOO blessed to live on the camp property and enjoy all the "perks" of camplife. (the beach, waterslide, BLOB, and boat to name a few)
During the week, Bryan is busy running various activities. When the weekend comes we try to get some work done, but also have fun as a family. The boys LOVE having so many people around to bug.. wait I meant to say...play with!
Carter is getting older and is more interested in hanging out with the big kids... we've had to find a balance with that... he is after all only 5!
They had their own volleyball game going.. his first "real" volleyball game.
That's Carter in the red shirt on the right side of the picture.








One of Bryan's jobs during the week is to drive the boat for the families to go tubing/skiing. The boys can't go when the campers are here, so he took them out on Saturday for some fun. (We also took some of Carter's friends... Cameron and Carter.) They had a great time! It was quite interesting to figure out if Cameron was having fun or not. (He was recently adopted from Ethiopia and still doesn't speak a lot of English.) Cameron would smile... then look concerned... then smile. He must have had fun. When he saw us today he asked... "Boat?"

A family that recently came on staff here at the camp has a son named Carter as well. (He is a little older than our Carter.) We took him out too and the "Carters" had fun being a little more daring.

Hayden is cautious to the point of not trying things. After agreeing to go out WITH him, he went tubing for the FIRST TIME! I was so proud of him. He was scared to death, but did it anyway! I told him that "It's OK to be scared, but you can't let that stop you from trying new things." (I don't want him to not try something just because he's scared... that is something I don't like about myself!) He held my hand and Bryan went really slow, BUT HE DID IT! I did manage to get him to let go of my hand and hold them up for a few seconds. YEAHHHHHH HAYDEN!

Wyatt... Wyatt is his own person that's for sure. I wish I had video of us trying to get him to tube with me. He screamed from the moment Bryan handed him to me... not because he was scared! He wanted to "help" Bryan drive the boat! He is goal whenever he is around a motorized vehicle is to DRIVE! (He "drives" (aka... sits on our laps while we drive) the gator and golf cart.) Just to show he's not scared of things.. he went down the waterslide (with his lifejacket on and us standing at the bottom) by himself from halfway up. He went down the ENTIRE thing with Bryan. Even when they both went under the water for a second at the bottom He came up smiling saying "MORE". (I'll have to get video of it sometime) He is a true Daredevil. If the older boys do it... Wyatt will want to try it! If/When I don't let him... everyone knows! He LOVES LIFE!

How quickly they grow!

SO I found a new "toy"... I think this is only a free trial version, so I hope to not get too addicted to it. It's so much fun changing pictures into sketches... since I can't draw...

Here are the boys when they were each 6 months... can you guess who each one is?
1.

2.

3.

I found this upload on this site... check it out!

CHEER-I-O (not Cheerios)

So while we were busy tearing our house apart we also had family visiting.
My parents came up from Virginia to give us a hand... oh and to pick up my sister, Keilah, returned from her semester abroad in London, England. We had fun picking Keilah up at the airport and "riding the train" there. We road it SEVERAL times!!! (My parents, Carter, Hayden and I went since it was a later in the day arrival.) Keilah also brought back lots of "goodies". I had asked for a fridge magnet from each place.. which she so graciously brought me. There was plenty of candy/chocolate YUMMY! They boys have "lovely" headwear!!!
She brought them books from several countries she visited. Carter got his double decker bus he REALLY wanted. Hayden and Wyatt both received cars of their own. Another big thing was the matching London shirts she brought them... Don't they look cute!








THANKS SO MUCH KEILAH!! We love you!

During that crazy time I also caught this picture of Bryan and the boys. I HAD to share it with you!

The BIG reveal...

Where have I been,

what's going on in the life of Karen that would snatch me away from bloggerworld?

Maybe it's this...

Or this...

OK maybe it's some of that last one...but really...It has to be big/huge infact!

I hinted at it in my last post and here it is our kitchen remodel... well our staff housing remodel.

(Some of these pictures are WAY old... How often do you just take pictures of your house? I had painted my old cabinets brown to cover all the junk the boys got on them... we don't have that chair, or curtains, or trashcan... so everything was different even than these pictures. Just get a feel for what it looked like before we tore it up ;)

BEFORE

DURING...

They aren't kidding that remodeling stresses your marriage!!! I can't imagine doing an entire house while living in it with three boys!

I should have taken a picture of our microwave in the bathroom... that's were it was for 2 weeks... makes you REALLY want to eat right?

We did have moments of time out.... that and 400 Little league games/practices...(OK not 400, but it felt like it. It was good to have those "forced" time outs just to chill has a family... or scream our heads off for our boy!)

Enough of the teasing... here are the pictures of the finished kitchen. (almost finished... still need to hang some pictures and other little stuff)

AFTER

A BIG-HUGE-YOU-GUYS-ARE-AWESOME-WE-COULDN'T-HAVE-DONE-IT-WITHOUT-YOU-THANK YOU-THANK YOU-THANK YOU to my parents, my brother-in-law (and family), and my sister who helped paint and wrangle (not strangle)the boys. They were all here during the first week of renovation to help with the "guts" of the project. Then Bryan (and myself) finished up all the other junky stuff... just don't look on our back porch right now...

That's the next project.. once it stops raining..