A Jam-Packed Fourth of July Weekend

We went to my parents' for the Fourth of July weekend. We went down a day early for a sad reason. My uncle, who had been struggling with his health for several years, passed away. Does it sound weird to say that I enjoyed his funeral? It really was a wonderful celebration of his life, his time of service to his country, and a wonderful reminder of the grace and love of our Savior. Ron knew the Lord and is now in Heaven where his body will not fail, and he will have no more pain. He is with Jesus and is experiencing unspeakable joy. The graveside service was a military tribute, and the three-volley salute, the playing of Taps on the trumpet, and the flag presentation were quite moving. We will all miss Ron, especially my aunt and my cousin and her family, but we can rejoice knowing that we will see him again in Heaven.

On Saturday, we had a picnic on Bays Mountain with our extended family. It was great seeing everyone. The kids played in the creek and on the playground. My cousin took some great pictures, and I hope to get some of them to post on the blog.

On Sunday we went to church and took Pierce and Madelyn to see Toy Story 3. We saw it in 3-D, and the kids didn't have too much trouble keeping the glasses on, but I personally don't think the 3-D aspect added much to the movie. The movie was really good, though, and I had to wipe away a few tears near the end. The funniest part was when Buzz started speaking Spanish, and I was just laughing and laughing. Madelyn kept asking, "What is he saying?". I realized I needed to read the subtitles to her. We had contemplated taking the kids to see fireworks, but since none of the fireworks displays started until 10, we opted to buy sparklers for the kids. They seemed to be fine with that. Oh, Mom and Dad bought Madelyn and Pierce Woody and Jesse dolls, and I'm not sure if they've put them down yet. Madelyn said, "Did you know that this is my favorite toy now?" I keep expecting Jesse or Woody to blink at me or something as I start to leave the room.

Monday we went to my cousin's to have lunch and swim. All three kids were exhausted and Pierce could hardly speak without crying as we packed up to leave. You know your kid is tired when he asks if it's nap time and immediately bursts into tears, swearing up and down that he's not tired.

JD and I came home with Isabel yesterday, and the big kids are staying with Mom and Dad for a few days. They went to Dollywood yesterday and are going back today. I hope they don't have too hard a time when they get back home. They are going to be used to non-stop entertainment.

What to do on a hot day?

Run through sprinklers, of course.

On your mark,


get set;


wait, let the big guy take of his shirt; go!


And one more time.

The Queen Mum and Her Youngest Grandchild

Thanks to Madelyn for the crown.

Green Thumb

Madelyn planted a few sunflowers in the spring and she was so excited to see the "fruit" of her labor. Hopefully, we'll have a few more flowers before summer is over.

Conversations

Madelyn: Hey, Mom, what's for dinner?

Me: Chicken

Madelyn: Why is it called chicken?

Me: Because it's chicken.

Madelyn: You mean like a chicken, chicken?

Me: Umm....yes.

Madelyn: You mean I'm eating a chicken?

Me: Well, a part of it, yes.

Madelyn: What about pork?

Me: Well, that's from a pig.

Madelyn: You mean a pig, pig?

Me: Yes, a real pig.

Madelyn: You mean I'm really eating different animals?

Me: Yes, hon.

Madelyn: How did I not know that?

Pierce (in the crowded pool bathroom): Let's play a rhyming game.

Me: Okay, you start.

Pierce: Yucky

Me: Lucky

Pierce: Trucky

Me: Silly. I don't think that's a word.

Pierce (laughing and yelling): Is *ucky a word? * = F

Me: Don't think so, bud.

Pierce: What about ducky?

Me: Sure

Pierce: *ucky ducky! That rhymes!

Me: Hey bud, let's not say that again, okay?

A Kid Update

It's been a while since I've done an update on the big kids, so I thought I should do one. That way, when I've forgotten what they were doing at this stage, I can look back here and remember.

Madelyn:


Madelyn is really reading now, at least when she's in the mood to do it. She can't pick up an encyclopedia and read for content, but she can definitely read simple kids' books. She's also been really interested in spelling, and her handwriting is getting MUCH neater. She still prefers capital letters to lowercase, but her writing is very legible now. She started tennis lessons today. I'm interested to see if she enjoys this. She was disappointed that we didn't do soccer again, but I was able to sign Madelyn and Pierce up for the same tennis lesson. The ease of that won over her desire to do soccer again. We've been swimming a lot and she just finished up her group swimming lessons. She LOVES swimming and has been trying so hard to learn how to really swim that we've signed her up for some private lessons. We'll see if that helps her learn some strokes.

Pierce:



Pierce has really developed an interest in learning his numbers, letters, letter sounds, and writing his letters. This has all just happened in the last month, but he knows all of the letter sounds, even if he can't think of the name of the letter itself. So, if I show him an "F", he'll sometimes tell me it's an "F", but he will often just say, "FFFFFFFFFFFFF" (saying the "F" sound). Pierce also just finished his swim lessons. Those did not go very smoothly for the first few lessons, but the last few went very well. We've also signed him up for private lessons and he did fabulously with the first one. He loves going to the pool, too, and as I mentioned, he's taking tennis lessons with Madelyn. He is still very sensitive and almost always shows concern for others. He's really showing a love for Isabel except when she ventures over to his trains. Then, he usually says, "Mom, I think she's hungry." He loves to play with his trains and is very creative. I won't be surprised if he decides acting/drama is his thing.

Isabel:



I apologize for the quality of this photo, but this is what most pictures of Isabel look like. I think a nice camera might be on my Christmas wish list. She's just gotten over her first stomach bug. No vomiting involved, but there were definitely many interesting diapers. Her upper gums are bulging right now, but I can't tell if a tooth has broken through or not. She won't let me investigate very long because she clamps down on my finger as soon as I start feeling around in her mouth. Weird. I don't know why she doesn't like that. Oh, she loves eating paper. I don't think the other kids liked it as much, but I feel like it is always in her mouth. I really do try to keep it out of her reach, but it's just harder with Madelyn and Pierce always using it.

Father's Day Conversation

Madelyn: What are blessings?
John David: Blessings are good things that God gives us, like mommys or daddys or brothers and sisters.
Madelyn: Toys are like blessings, except that God doesn't give us toys.
John David: Well, God gave me a job, and that job gives me money and we can use that money to buy toys.
Madelyn: Yeah, except you give all that money to mommy and she buys the toys.
John David: That's probably more true than you know.