Keep Out ... or else

Kerst has not been happy that Jaley "swipes" Kendall at night - she sneaks in after both boys are asleep and takes Kendall to her room. Kendall is supposed to sleep in his own crib in Kerst's room - according to Kerst.

Jaley LOVES to snuggle with Kendall at night. I usually find this in the morning:

They have a very sweet relationship.

Kerst made a sign yesterday.

Keep out

do not think

of coming in

Jaley or Jenna

unless it's a emergency

do not ruin this page

or else

Jaley saw it. She smiled. "Mom, I'm going to go in at night and yell, 'It's an emergency, I need Kendall!' grab him and run out."

It is an emergency ;o) - you need to snuggle that little guy as much as possible because he is growing up right before our eyes!

I am lucky

Sweet words from a cute 2nd grader on St. Patrick's Day. I'm lucky too ...



His wording and spelling:

I think I'm lucky because ... I am baptised. When you are baptised your sins are washed away and you get the holy ghost. The holy ghost guids you if somthing is rong.
Name - Kerst

(playing catch up with some memories)

Dear Future Third Grade Teacher ...

I can't believe the school year is winding down! Kerst brought home his rough draft of a letter he wrote to his future third grade teacher. I LOVED it! He hit the nail on the head about describing himself. Here is what it says (spelling and all):

Dear Third Grade Teacher,
My name is Kerst. I am 8 years old. I love ravioli. Somtimes I'm a little silly but I'll do my best. Most of the time my desk is messy. My Mom and Dad's name's are Corin and John. I love to do math. My favorite thing is to Read. I love to talk I talk on and on and on!
Your student,
Kerst


Editor's note: Yes all of the above is true. I got a great chuckle out of talking on and on and on. That is the most accurate of all! He will talk your ear off.

More scented memories

Julia has a project to do in her History Class at school. She is doing a report on Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith - a con artist and gangster who was known for the "prize package soap swindle".

We are making homemade soap. With Lye. No lie. This is part of her project. It was exciting yesterday when we made the soap - chemical reactions - so fun! Julia sent a text to a friend (very knowlegable about science) to inform him that we were starting our hazardous science/history class project. About an hour later Julia received a text "are you dead?" We laughed. We survived. Now we are waiting to see if we did it right.

So ... the memory ... We added a scent to the soap. While pouring it into a pan, John said ... "it smells like Clifford!" What fun memories! You had to be there to appreciate those memories!

Who is Clifford? The big red 15 passenger van John bought on Craig's List to haul around our family at our family reunion a couple of years ago when we hosted it in Chicago.

Maybe we will name the soap "Clifford" ... too bad we colored it yellow and not red ;o)

Scented Memories

I helped Julia purge her closet today. Much needed. We are scaling back to simple simple simple. It is nice.

I left her alone to rummage through a couple of drawers. She soon came bouncing in and shoved some pj's in my face. "Guess what this smells like?!?!!!" The smell was so familiar and comforting.

Bama!!!

Sure enough, they were pajamas that Bama had and passed down to Julia. Purple. Plaid.

When John got home Julia did the same thing to him. He immediately recognized the scent.

Julia put the pajamas in a Ziploc bag - now we can open it and smell our favorite memories! I'm surprised that the scent is still there after 3 years! I need to bottle up that scented memory!

Sean, Papa, Uncle Keith, Reed, Bama and me - May 1976

Jenna's science scrapbook

Jenna's science final is a scrapbook about the 6 different topics covered this year in science. I helped put it together and just sent it off to be printed into a book (a one hour book printed by ritzpic.com ... now how cool is that?!?). I am going to go pick it up in one hour ... and it is due tomorrow ... yikes! Talk about last minute!


Here are my 2 favorite pages in her "scrapbook" about genetics. I thought they turned out super cute! The Got DNA shirt was made by Julia earlier this year for her science class for a genetics project. It is nice to be able to "reuse" projects in another way!

Just Us

Yep. It is just us now.

My three little friends went home yesterday. Shannon is healed ... she needs to build up her strength and endurance - plus my parents will be with her for 6 weeks to help her so she can keep recovering.

I'm going to miss
Tablespoon drinks of water at night (sigh ... when I saw their empty cups on the bookcase).
My little alligator swishing across the floor.
Cade vacuuming with my new vacuum.
Your Highness.
I'm dry!
Not Cars.
Toothless grins.
Midnight feedings (sort of)
My-ca-doos.
Remembering how many plates to pull out each meal.
Mommy.
I did poop!
Pancakes EVERY MORNING.
Playmate for Kendall.
Dance parties.
Discovering movies I didn't realize we had.
Snowmen snowcones.
Snowmen!
Names on their chairs (and being VERY possessive of it!).
Prayers.
Talks on the phone with Shannon (I'm not a huge talker on the phone ... seems like everything falls apart while I'm on the phone!).
Princesses.
Doctor visits (maybe?).
A very active pew at church.
My closet sleeper.
Cade's head popping up from the pillow when you come in the door.
Having my little buddies around...

It was a great experience. Thanks for sharing the kiddos David and Shannon!