Two Years

Our Ginger Girl is two years old today! I can hardly believe it! But in many ways, it feels like she's always been a part of our family.

She is always on the go, so I had a hard time getting a good picture of her today. When she finally sat down to catch her breath, she sat in the shade. No surprise there! Kaleb tells me she's just like him. They both love the shade. :)

Two years ago we knew we wanted a dog, we knew what kind of dog we wanted--we just didn't know where to find her! Today we're thankful to have Ginger. She is the perfect dog for our family. Here are a few facts about Ginger on her second birthday.

• She is the queen of our yard when she sits in her favorite spot--on top of the picnic table. We like to say she's surveying her "queendom" as she sits on her throne. :)
• Her favorite person in the whole world is Derek, but I like to think she's pretty fond of the rest of us too.
• She gets worried when I drop "her boys" off at school in the morning. Must be that herding sense she has built in her.
• She's better at "keep away" than she is at "fetch."
• She's worn a game trail through our yard as she weaves through the trees and along the fence. Kaleb likes to imitate her and run on her trail too.
• She's had some wacky health issues, costs us way more money than we'd anticipated, but we love her and wouldn't give her up for anything.
• Knowing how much money she's cost us, Derek calls her his camper. :)
• Ginger's best dog friend is the dog next door, a yellow lab named Wilson. We love to watch them run and play.
• While on a walk, Ginger will ignore the yip-yip dogs barking at her as if to say, "I don't have time for this riff-raff." But she will look at them with her ears perked up. :)
• She loves to run beside Derek when he rides his bike. They race each other around the track until Ginger finds the water faucet.
• Ginger loves water--from the faucet, in the pool, in the lake, and especially from the hose.

Some people think a dog is just a dog. But in our house, Ginger is more than "just a dog." She is part of our family. Happy Birthday Ginger Girl!!!

When our boys come home from school, they'll give Ginger her present. Her favorite bone, complete with the chicken scent. :)

Happy Day

First, a couple of funnies...

After taking a shower Sunday night, Kaleb dried off and said, "I'm all sticky! I can't get clean!" Braylen took a shower and said, "It feels like I'm showering in honey." I thought something was wrong with their soap. Nope! Derek figured it out right away--our water softener failed. At least now our boys know why we dump those salt pellets in the tank. And I'm reminded of why we dump money into the repair bill. We "suffered" with hard water for 4 days and rejoiced when the repairman fixed the tank today. :) Kaleb took a shower tonight and made up his own water softener song. I'm so glad he can enjoy his shower now!

Derek avoided a major injury last week. We always pray for his safety at work, but ironically, this near-accident happened while he was home for lunch. He took a bottle of Sprite out of the fridge and set it on the counter. I had put a fizz keeper on the bottle, so Derek began unscrewing it. Suddenly the fizz keeper exploded off the bottle of soda, whizzed past Derek's eye, dented our ceiling, scattered plastic shards all over the kitchen, hit Braylen at the table, and ended up halfway down the basement stairs!!! All of this happened in less than a second! When we looked at the damage to our ceiling, (textured ceilings scatter drywall mud when dented) we realized what could have happened if Derek had leaned over the bottle of soda just a tiny bit! Watch out for those fizz keepers. They're real eye poppers!

What's one of the best things about all my kids being in school? I can sneak away for a few hours and spend time with one of my very best friends. She and I each have 3 kids, and we had each of our babies within months or weeks of each other. We're living parallel lives, and whatever I'm experiencing, most likely she's experiencing it too. After spending the day with her I come home a happier person. She's positive, uplifting, and I'm just so thankful God put her in my life way back in 1999. :) Today we painted her bathroom while chatting about our lives. She treated me to lunch and we scoped out this camper for my in-laws. (they're in the market for a camper--Derek's best news ever!) It doesn't matter if we're shopping or painting or looking at campers--we have FUN together! We've come a long way as friends. From playdates with one child each, to doubling our number of kids, to our crazy feeding frenzy lunches with 6 little ones, to....just me and her. Ahhh. :)

One more thing. Today is my grandma's 85th birthday. I wonder if they celebrate birthdays in heaven? Probably not, but I'd like to think she knows how much she was thought of today. Happy Birthday Angie Grandma. ;)

The Knitting Club

None of us knew Aaron would fight fevers for 4 days, but he did. We also didn't expect to say goodbye to the sun for a week, but we did. Derek and I had a special date last Tuesday while Mom and Dad treated the boys to Chinese food and a movie night. In fact, last Tuesday was the last day I remember seeing the sun! Dad bowled 2 games with Braylen and Kaleb--poor Aaron didn't feel much like bowling. By Thursday he was finally better so we all went to see "Mars Needs Moms." This movie has such a positive message about the importance of family, and it even drew a few tears. No big surprise there, since I'm an emotional girl you know. :)

Friday was the much-anticipated breakfast date for all 7 of us, and a day for Mom and I to escape for a few hours in the afternoon. She helped me find some new spring outfits--not an easy thing for me to do. I've never liked ruffles, and it seems like ruffles are everywhere this spring! All my girly-girl friends must be in heaven. :) We splurged on fruity soaps at Bath and Body Works, and ate soft pretzels for lunch. Finishing off our afternoon with pedicures made the day complete. We have happy feet now--our pink toes are all ready for flip-flops!

While at home all week, we played games like this:

Before going to bed at night, we checked on the kids like we always do...and found our son sleeping like this:

Yes, that is a hat on his foot, and his toes are curled against the wall. He's sound asleep! What a silly boy!

Derek loves to teach our boys how to hunt and shoot. We love to play sports in the yard, go for bike rides, and a day never goes by without wrestling and rough-housing. But you know what all three boys learned to do this week? With Daddy's blessing?

KNIT! Even our little Aaron!

Grammy was a good teacher, and all three boys were quick learners. Braylen's stitches are the tightest. Knitting came the easiest to Kaleb, who liked to tell us he has no idea how it works, it just works. Aaron was determined to figure out how the knitting needles work their magic with yarn, and so he studied every stitch he made until he had it figured out.

So here they are, knitting away, in Grammy's Knitting Club.

Who doesn't love a real man with a tender side? :)

Aaron was proud of what he knit! He made this blue rectangle to be a pillow for his little doggie. What doggie? Well, Grammy let him pick out the design and the color, and Aaron ordered up a blue knit doggie. She worked on it the rest of the week, and here it is:

In his prayer that night Aaron said, "Thank you for my doggie Grammy knit for me special." Aww. :) Mom, it was worth every stitch.

Kaleb proudly displays what he knit this week. A 10 inch blanket for Aaron's doggie, and a bookmark. Sometimes they pretend the bookmark is the doggie's bone.

Braylen was embarrassed to hold up his knitting, but at least he agreed to still sit on Grammy's lap for this picture. :) He knit two small coasters, and he's the only one who knows how to start the yarn on the needles by himself.

Thanks to my parents we had a fun spring break! And an educational one too! :)

Taking a Break

My parents are here this week! The kids love playing with Grammy and Grampy. They also like staying up late and sleeping in. I like all of the fun and laughter they bring into our home. Spring break is here. :)

Braylen and my dad have already played several games of chess. Grampy also lets Braylen use his netbook, and all week I'll be hearing him wish for one of his own. Derek took Dad and Braylen out for shamrock shakes on Saturday and remembered to bring one home for me. :)

Aaron is Grammy's little buddy. He still loves to be her "string man" while she knits. He tells her which shapes he wants and she knits away! So far he has an orange and green square, a gray cape for his Star Wars figures, and a multi-colored Easter egg hot pad. Sunday after church Aaron wanted to go to bed...hmm...101.9 temperature. Luckily he felt much better with ibuprofen on board. Still, we decided to hang around the house the rest of the day, and all day Monday, to allow time for him to get better. This morning he's fever free.

Kaleb is ready for summer, can you tell? He absolutely loves tank tops. In fact, I have a feeling I won't see many t-shirts on him this summer. Just tank tops. :) He helped Derek wash our cars on Sunday, and he played lots of basketball with Grampy. Braylen taught him how to play chess, and several times I caught them in the back of my parents' van playing a game. The seats are folded into the floor back there, so they spread out a blanket to make a nice little hide-away for playing chess. Yesterday Grampy drove his van out of the garage on his way to run an errand...with Braylen and Kaleb in the back! Of course they moved into seatbelts before driving away, but he still surprised those boys. :)

Aaron discovered he still throws a baseball better with his left hand, and Kaleb joined in to play catch with his brother and Grampy. They spent a lot of time out there. Kaleb hit Aaron with the ball at least once, but Aaron held his ground and didn't cry. He didn't seek revenge either. At least not while I was taking pictures. :)

I'm letting the boys play lots and lots of Wii. Braylen's staying up later than his brothers--but they don't know it. Derek's taking me out on a date while our boys keep Grammy and Grampy in line. :) I really like taking a break this week.