4.17.13

I love mornings with just my little girl. She is just so snuggly and sweet.

4.14.13

Our new home-away-from-home! We are the proud owners of a 28 ft travel trailer! Queen bed in the front, bunks in the back... plenty of room for our big family. :) I can't WAIT to explore our state this summer!

Catching Up...

A bit of goings on about my oldest that I haven't written about yet... I really wanted a good time to sit and write, a time of peacefulness and quiet, a time all by myself... Yeah, who am I trying to kid?? Maybe I'll get that time in 16 years, HA!

The Gifted and Talented program that Owen is involved in through school (and now Jacob too! He was accepted and will start next year!) does a very intense, months long research project that they call TRIYS (Texas Research Institute of Young Scholars). Owen chose not to participate in this project during 1st and 2nd grade, mainly because a requirement of the project includes presenting the finished project to a panel of judges and the thought of public speaking gives my son the heebie jeebies.

This year, my husband and I pushed him to participate, and he did! With a small amount of grumbling and muttering, but still, he did it!

The kids are asked to think of a "global issue", and then they create groups based on their interest in whichever issue they chose. Some of the groups chose West Nile Virus, some chose drought issues, some chose pollution. My son wound up in a group with two other (super awesome and smart) boys, and they chose to research energy drinks.

Here's the 3 research scientists!

 These kids had to log so many hours researching energy drinks and their effects. They had to get in touch with an "expert" in the field, and so they interviewed a local cardiologist to get his views on the harmful effects of energy drinks. They participated in a school TRIYS Fair, where they set up a booth with all of their information. Kids would use a soft bowling ball to knock down "pins" made of empty energy drink cans. My guys would then teach the students a fact for every pin that had been knocked down. Each boy also made an alternative to energy drinks- an "energy smoothie" made of natural ingredients and this was offered to the students as well.

Bowling for energy drink facts...

In an effort to educate the community about the harmful effects of energy drinks, we realized that we had a very useful resource close to home. Our Air Force base here is teeming with airmen just out of basic training... what better resource that a large group of 20 year old kids??

My husband pulled some strings and got the boys about 40 military students to interview and present their project to. What luck! :)

The boys and military students... and their official cheerleader there on the right!

 

The boys then arranged all of the information that they'd gathered into a (wonderful, if I do say so myself) Power Point presentation, and then they practiced, practiced, and practiced. When the day came for the preliminary round, the boys were confident and ready... and they passed that portion with flying colors!

Finally, the next week, they were bussed to the school district's main building to give their final presentation.

I can't even begin to tell you the pride that I felt, watching this child of mine stand in front of a room full of people and speak with such confidence and poise. Blown away. I was totally blown away.

They worked so hard. These kids made me so incredibly, overwhelmingly proud.

When it was over- the awards were given out, and my son earned himself a silver medal.

I am so proud. :)

-Kerry




3.15.13

 

 

 

What do you do on a warm spring afternoon?

If you are MY kid, you...

 

 

Put on your prettiest bathing suit...

Throw a couple of water balloons...



And spray your biggest brother with the hose!

 

Sounds good to me!

-Kerry

Snake Pit!

Now that we have just over a year left in Texas, I feel the need to get going on my LIST. That is, my list of places to see and do while we are here- my list of "real" Texas experiences. Which explains how we found ourselves surrounded by rattlesnakes. Thousands of rattlesnakes. Angry, rattling, rattlesnakes.

Every year in Sweetwater, TX, thousands of rattlesnakes are rounded up for the aptly named Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup. This is apparently a huge event- with a parade, a carnival, bouncy houses for kids, hundreds of vendors selling whatever you can imagine, and... of course... there are snakes.  There are pits of rattlesnakes everywhere. We watched rattlesnakes being "milked" of their venom:


Sorry for the terrible picture quality. We forgot our good camera. Here you can just barely see that there is a man, holding a rattlesnake, and what he is doing is "milking" the snake of it's venom. The boys thought that this was awesome.



Also, for $20, you could gut and skin your own freshly killed rattlesnake, AND keep the skin! No, we didn't do that. And Owen lost his appetite watching this being done.

Here, these lovely ladies have been handed a freshly killed snake (still wriggling) and they are hanging it on hooks so that a customer can come gut and skin it. Those hand prints on the wall behind? Those are hand prints in snake blood. Yep.

Oh yes. My sweet baby with a fresh snake skin. See how he's leaning away from it??

Oh, boy, what else did we see? There was a man who got into one of the pits (with protective gear, thank goodness), and there must have been 500 snakes in there with him. He basically riled up the snakes so people could see them attacking his boots. I lost my appetite at this pit...


It was gross. It was overwhelming. The smell of thousands of rattlesnakes is not a pleasant smell.

We had a great time. :)

-Kerry

Jacob's 6th Birthday

Oh my! My "middle" baby is 6!

Jacob is my comedic relief throughout the day... I never know what is going to come out of his mouth! He is loving, sweet, funny and smart. This kid- what can I say? My life would be a lot less bright without him.

Jacob is the absolute "man's man". He loves cars, trucks, airplanes, sports, and all things cowboy! I will say that as much as Texas and I don't see eye to eye, this is the perfect place for this rough and tough boy to have been.

So- his birthday. He woke up to find balloons hung on his bedroom door (our family tradition), then I brought cupcakes to his class at their snack time and all his classmates sang "Happy Birthday"to him. After school, he came home to find a pile of presents on the kitchen table, but mean Mom made him wait until Dad came home to open them... The suspense about killed him!

I think the wait was worth it, because he said that every gift was his favorite one! After gifts, we went to Applebee's for dinner (yuck! But his choice!) and he REFUSED DESSERT after dinner! He said he was too full... I am starting to wonder if there was a mix-up at the hospital 6 years ago... Hmmm. I'll have to look into that!

All in all, he had a great 6th birthday. A BIG thank you to those who sent gifts and called him, I can say for sure that you all helped make his day so much fun. And now... the pictures!

Anxiously awaiting Daddy's return home... Let's get unwrapping!

Birthday door balloons!

Money is always a great gift!

"I love this one SO MUCH! I want to hug it!!"

This one is for Grandma Lissa... look at that face!

Yee-haw! He was super happy with the vest and chaps from Mom and Dad- he even wore them to Applebee's!

I sure love this kid. I'm so glad he had a great 6th. :)

-Kerry

8.27.12

Freedom!!


Oh whoops, I mean... 1st day of school!

This year, I have a 3rd grader and a Kindergartener... can you believe it??

Sweet brothers... "Now, act like you like each other!"

Kinder-boy

3rd grader

And, they're off into the morning! Love them!

*After School* WOW- a big day indeed! He lost his 1st tooth on his 1st day of Kinder!! The tooth fairy will be visiting someone tonight....  :)

Now, you may have asked your self... "What did the girls do all day while the boys were gone?" Well, we put on dress-up clothes and vamped around, of course. Duh.
 

-Kerry