More Phone Pics



Kelsey got a high-backed booster seat.  She feels like such a big girl now. (Sept. 8, 2011)



Mackenzie-Sept. 8, 2011.  For Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) they did a horse theme and told the kids they could dress appropriately.

Natalee on RIF day.

My parents' new sign for their fence.  Sept. 26, 2011

     Kelsey said she had to wear a hat to Joy School this morning so that her hair wouldn't blow off.  She knew she was being silly and was laughing about it but it was driving Mackenzie crazy.  Mackenzie kept saying (quite frustrated) that her hair couldn't blow off.  So Kelsey would laugh and just say it again.  This one has quite the sense of humor for her age.  Always has.

Meet Annabel!

     We got a puppy!  She is a 6 month old basset hound and she is absolutely adorable.  She is an amazingly well-behaved dog.  We just got her 2 nights ago so we're still working things out.  Like where to sleep, for example.  She didn't want to sleep in our room the first night.  We thought she would howl if we put her outside so we tried letting her sleep in a kennel in our bedroom.  She howled in the kennel.  So we put her in a kennel in the garage and shoved Charlie in it with her to keep her company. (The family who gave her to us told us that she was used to sleeping in a kennel at night with her parents.)  She still howled.  We finally just put her outside with the other dogs and she was fine and didn't cry and we slept great.  Yesterday morning we went to the Kiwanis walk-a-thon followed by the family fun fair at Leroy Jackson Park.  We brought Annabel with us and she was basically showered with attention by us all day long.  When bed time came around last night we put her out with the dogs.  She started crying and howling.  So Daren brought her in and put her in the kennel in our bedroom where she happily slept all night long.  I think she likes us. :)
     When she came to us her name was Bailey.  Bailey is an adorable name for a dog and really seemed to fit her.  In fact, when I posted her picture on facebook, two of my friends either knew a dog or owned a dog named Bailey that looked exactly like her!  But that's not why we changed her name.  We just thought it would be far too confusing for her to have her name rhyme with Haylee.  But the kids loved the name Bailey and didn't want to change it.  Even Haylee assured us that she didn't mind that their names rhymed.  But yesterday afternoon I was looking for name ideas on the internet and I read about a basset named Annabel.  The names Annie and Belle had both come up at some point in our name discussions but neither of them had stuck out to us.  I was having a hard time changing her name because I knew I wouldn't be satisfied unless we found something just as cute or cuter than Bailey.  And Annabel was just adorable!  So I mentioned it to Daren and he instantly said he loved it.  So he went out and talked to the kids to see what they thought of the name.  I knew it was a hit because I could hear them calling to her, "Annabel!  Annie!"  So she will be called Annabel and Annie for sure, and maybe even sometimes Belle or Belly.  And Belly sounds a lot like Bailey.

P.S.  Cute pictures of the walk-a-thon and fun fair coming soon.

Something's Missing.....

I'm sure we'll eventually figure out what it is.  :)

P.S.  Daren felt that it was essential that he get a helmet first so he can be safe if he test drives anything.

Haylee Got Glasses!

     Haylee's glasses came in today and she looks adorable in them!  Here is a picture of her at the optometrist's office in front of a cool mural.

     She actually doesn't wear them all the time.  The optometrist said she should only put them on when she needs them and that she shouldn't wear them constantly.  She really wanted plastic frames.  They are a dark, dark brown in the front with pink behind them.  And the sides are pink, white and lavender hearts.  Adorable. (Daren's favorite word right now is 'delightful' so I decided mine is going to be 'adorable.') :)

Cute Boy in a Tie

     Nathan wore a tie to church today.  He looked so grown up and it was absolutely adorable.  We had to have a photo shoot!

A few pictures before church just in case the tie didn't stay on.  And of course Kelsey needed a picture too.  She did let me put a flower in her hair.

Natalee helped me with the photo shoot by posing for the first couple of pictures so Nate would want to copy her.

 A cute brother and sister picture.

Natalee's Bedtime Prayer

     Before blogging, I lost a lot of the adorable things my kids said simply by not writing them down.  I tried once in a while, but it usually didn't last very long or I would lose the thing I wrote it in.  I was just looking at an old notebook to see if there was anything valuable in it or if it was entirely filled with kid scribble.  I did indeed find a treasure.  As is usually the case, I had completely forgotten about this but I remember it now.  I had written down Natalee's prayer that night because it had amused me so much.  I think this was when we started realizing that the kids are picking up on a lot of what we say and we need to be a little more careful.  This was during the first year of Obama's presidency, I'm guessing right about when Natalee turned 8.  This is what she said:

"Please help our goats have lots of babies so we can have lots of milk during the depression.  And please help our president stop making bad decisions.  Help us get a new president before we lose our land."

     The election is one year away and I just hope we make it.  I really hope her prayer is answered and that we get a new president before we lose our land!  (And please let it be a good one this time.)

The Girl Who Cried "Hand!"

     Tonight we had dinner at my mom and dad's house.  After dinner the adults and Nathan were hanging out in the family room and the other kids were in the back bedroom playing with toys.  Mackenzie came out and told me that she needed to go to the bathroom really badly but she was afraid of something in the bathroom.  I just assumed it was some microscopic bug (somehow Mackenzie can find any little moving dot and she is completely terrified when she does) so I went with her so I could take care of the problem.
     As we entered the bathroom I toyed with the idea of fake screaming and acting terrified just to scare her but I thought better of it.  I couldn't see a thing but she kept pulling me farther and farther into the bathroom until she was pointing into the toilet.  I thought maybe there was a dead bug floating in the water, but nope.  She asked me what was in the water and I finally realized that the water looked a little yellowish to her like there might be some urine in it and she didn't want to go on anybody else's potty so I flushed the toilet and said, "Problem solved!" and started to leave the room.
     Mackenzie stopped me.  She was still afraid that there might be something in that water and she didn't want me to leave.  So I told her that I would stay with her just in case a hand came up out of the toilet and tried to grab her by the rear and pull her whole body into the toilet and down the drain.  I told her that if I yelled "Hand!" she was to immediately jump off the toilet and she smiled and nodded her head that she would comply.
     This time I decided to be a little risky and I yelled "Hand!" a couple of times and then said just kidding after each time.  Luckily I was right that she didn't believe me and she didn't actually jump off the toilet while she was 'going.'  But she informed me (very seriously) that I should stop doing that because if a hand really was coming out of the toilet and I yelled "Hand!" then she wouldn't believe me and wouldn't get off in time.  Yes, they very recently read "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."  I assured her that I didn't want that to happen and I would only say it again if there really was a hand.

P.S.  Have I mentioned that she won't sleep in her bedroom at night anymore because she's afraid of the hole in her wall?  Yes, the hole that she put in the wall!  :)

P.P.S.  Tomorrow Haylee starts guitar lessons.  She is so excited!  (I'm pretty excited for her too!)  We are going straight after school so she has her guitar and her guitar book out already so that I won't forget them when I go to pick up the kids.  After her guitar lessons we are going to the optometrist to hopefully pick out some glasses.  Haylee has 20/40 vision so she won't wear them all the time.  But she could use them to see the board when she isn't sitting right up front.  She has mentioned that she would prefer not to sit in the same front row seat all year long.

P.P.S.  Natalee just (literally, 3 seconds ago) tapped me on the shoulder and showed me a tooth she pulled out.  It was her "silver" molar and she just showed me today that it was loose.  I reminded her about 15 minutes ago that the tooth fairy pays $2 for silver teeth and she must have really been working at it since then!