Happy 14th Birthday, Landon!

Myspace Codes: MyNiceSpace.com

Where have these past 14 years gone? I can't believe my very first baby is 14 today. I know it won't be long before he's gone for good. He's a terrific kid who is a huge help around the house, especially with his baby sister, and a real servant at our church (just ask our preschool coordinator)! We are so blessed to have him! Landon's special birthday request was to have his friends over to play Risk. We did that last night, and they had a fabulous time!




After sleeping in, Landon and Greg headed to the Ocala Airport to see some WWII planes that were there until noon today; it was the best part of the day, according to Landon. Then he visited the library where a man who was on the Battan Death March was speaking and signing books. These two things are right up Landon's alley! How neat that they were available to do on his special day. When he finally got home, he had the chance to open his gifts. He got a nice atomic watch and a new Bible, both of which he really needed. We hadn't realized that the last new Bible he got was when he graduated from the Kindergarten class at church! He got a leather NIV Study Bible. He also got a book about WWII aircraft that he had asked for.



The big surprise was a new bike, which he wasn't expecting at all!









After drum lessons this afternoon, we went to Chili's for dinner.









We made a couple quick stops, then had ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. We had never been to a place like this before. It was awesome! It was a great day!

Have I bragged about my kids lately?

I don't think I posted anything about Landon's latest accomplishment on my blog yet. Three weeks ago, he went to our local community college and took the Western Civilization I CLEP test. If you get a score of a least 50 (out of 80) on this test, it is worth 3 college credits. Well, my 13 yo, 8th grade son, got a 74! History is his "thing", of course. But he's a really neat kid in a lot of other ways, too. Way to go, Landon!

National Pancake Day!

One of the great things about homeschooling is getting to set your own schedule. For example, yesterday we had school, even though the public schools in our county were off. Today, however, we had a very light day of school in honor of National Pancake Day. We drove to the nearest IHOP (about 35 minutes) where they were offering free pancakes. They did ask that you make a donation to the Children's Miracle Network. Then we did a little shopping and came home. We finished the little bit of school we had and headed out for haircuts. It was a busy but fun day! Note - Gerren and I were there, too, but Landon took the picture and it was too blurry to use.

13 months today!

Well, Carys is 13 months old today, and she does not seem interested in walking on her own yet. She loves to walk holding onto our fingers, but she has to use both hands! The older kids are trying to get her to hold on with just one hand, but she whines and cries about that!

A Support4Homeschool Valentine Dare! Well, I don't have any bad wedding pictures. I think we only kept the lovely "studio-type" portraits! But here is a picture that shows my dress. We got married in 1989, so I guess I didn't have the same dress as Yvonne and Liz and ... The other photo is my very favorite. It was actually a "candid" taken between the posed shots. It is the one I having hanging on my wall to this day.

Happy Valentine's Day! As you can see (any of you who read this which seems to be my loop and homeschool friends and NOT any of my family who live far away and should want to see pictures!), I am awful at keeping up with this at all. I knew I would be. Just too much like journaling for me. Here is a picture of my four little Valentines. If I can actually find one of the big Valentine, I'll post it, too.

I told my SHS friends I'd post this picture of Chase's first look at Carys on my blog. The joy on her face is something I'll remember for a long time!

I couldn't leave that SCARY picture on the top of my blog, so I'm posting a better one! This is Greg and I in October.

Scary, way scary! Okay, here's my scariest picture. It is shortly (very shortly!) after Carys was born at home. I look AWFUL! (This is a topic we're discussing on my homeschool e-mail loop for those of you who aren't part of that and wondering why anyone would post such an awful picture of themselves!)

Carys loves to eat everything we are eating! This particular morning Landon was having a grapefruit for breakfast, and Carys had to have some. He gave her a drink of the juice, which was all that was left. What a face she made! She liked it, though, and had to have more.

Here are some pictures of a hooded baby towel I made for Carys. I got the instructions for this project YEARS ago from a "loopie" friend in Oklahoma. I make them for almost every baby gift I give!