March 4

The Halls came to visit us!!!! When they were visiting at Christmas time, we couldn't get together because of sickness. So, we made up for it this week. We had dinner together on Sunday and Wednesday, then on Tuesday I hung with Maegan all day and Saturday the adults went out for dinner. Lots of fun, with our dear, sweet friends!!

Acting silly, like always!

Two very cute and sassy kids.

Ryan has been asking for a letter that his Uncle Ryan had written to him on his 1st birthday. I finally got it out of his album for him to read it this week. It was a very timely letter! Lots of wisdom from Uncle Ryan and a good talk for Ryan and me that night,

Breakfast at The Broken Egg

Just because I don't have girls, doesn't mean that I don't have to help fix hair every morning before school:) Two faux hawks and a partial spike!
All the Hall and Johns kids (Arabella was not too happy about taking this picture - hee hee)

Happy Birthday Anderson!!

Seven years old. . . WOW!

Cai and I went and had lunch with Anderson on his birthday. We brought in a balloon, McDonald's and some treats to share with his friends.

Anderson wanted a cheeseburger with ketchup only.

He asked Gramma if he could help decorate his cake. When she asked him what he wanted, he had a very specific plan: candles in the middle, then m&m's and finally suckers. He chose white cake with white frosting and on the big day. . . he didn't even want a piece!

This year we had a family only birthday party. Anderson chose beef stroganoff with green bean casserole for dinner. He gets SO excited for birthdays and holidays!!! Here he is opening his Darth Vader Lego set.

The finished product. . .

March 3

Trevor wanted this shirt . . . yellow. I would have picked the brown one. It is so fun to see their little personalities and preferences coming out. Well, except when I pick up things that I only have to return because they HATE it and I LOVE it!


Having a little St. Patty's day fun. Kris is Orange Irish.

Cai and I took Mexican in and had lunch with Ryan at school. It was great to sit there and hang with his little classmates. They were all so grateful to share our chips and white sauce! Ryan was so happy we came. I met one of the lunch ladies and she went on and on about how great of a kid Ryan is and how much she enjoys him. (I agree.) Glory to God!!

Katie's shower

Soccer games starte on Saturday. It was a perfectly beautiful spring day! We had 4 games and were at the field for 6 hours!! Very relaxing day with the family. Here is Cai with his buddy, Liam.

March 2

SWITCH DAY - - teachers dress like students and students dress like teachers. Ryan didn't want to participate, but here's T dressed like his favorite teacher, Mr. Bergey.

Wooo whoo! T's losing teeth. Our poor tooth fairy forgot about him several nights in a row and then when she finally did show up, she left him dental floss!! (money was left, too - - just trying to keep it real:)

I love when Anderson comes home from school with a new wealth of information about something he learned in school that day. This week it was the Statue of Liberty. . . love his pose. Too cute!

Ryan has started the Harry Potter series and I thought that I would read it with him, so we can talk about them together and share the experience. I am trying to be one book ahead of him. I've been reading like crazy! Here I am making dinner. Hee hee!

Friday night dinner with our dear friends, the Bouchers. EIGHT boys!! (their youngest is missing from this picture.)

Cai doesn't like to take naps anymore! The only problem is he still needs a couple of them a week, or else he'll fall asleep just before dinner time, like he did this night!

Anderson has made a little friend in our neighborhood and he let Anderson borrow his DS. Anderson was sooo thrilled, since he only has a leapster. He enjoyed many games of Spiderman that day.

MARCH

I'm behind!! Last week I uploaded my photos for the first week of March and then my internet was not working. Thankfully, my smart hubbie came home from his work trip and fixed it. It was a simple problem. Anyway, I didn't get a chance to get back to the blog.

Well, March came in with a SNOWSTORM in Virginia!! Here is the view out my bedroom window, which made me think, "Yes! No school!" But, no, I was wrong. We had school. . . crazy! Well, not until I remembered that the 5th graders had SOL testing.

We're having a baby shower for Katie. She's having a girl!! This will be Annie and Chad's first grandaughter, they have 6 grandsons. She will also be Grandma and Grandpa Host's first great-grandaughter, they have 9 great-grandsons! Here are the invites I made.

Fun with Laura and Isabelle!! Laura serves us once a month for care group and whenever we need a babysitter, she's our first phone call. She has been coming over and helping me out for 6 years. We all love her!! The other day Kris asked Cai if he was going to be daddy's babysitter. (He was teasing.) Cai responded, "My name's not Laura."

Ben and Liam. These are Katie and Sean's boys. They will be one at the end of this month. We love when they come to visit - which is at least once a week :)

The basketball season came to an end on Friday evening. It was a lot of fun. Both Ryan and Trevor's teams were in the championship tournament. I was a nervous wreck watching their games. I can't imagine what I'll be like when their in high school!! Ryan and Trevor played great, but only Ryan's team came away with the win. It was a good season! Here's Ryan with his trophy.

The next morning, we were off to get the boys ready for soccer. We needed to pick up a few things... like MEN'S size shoes for Ryan! I can't believe it! They look huge! It was a fun morning. Here are the soccer boys.

After church on Sunday, we went out to eat as a family. We went to Salsarita's. Ryan and Trevor used their free kids meal tickets from being on the Honor Roll.

Fourth Week of February

This week Ryan read a 380 page book in one day!!! Why, "Because it was SO good, there was so much action, things just kept popping up!" He loves to read! Every month he earns 10 more points than his AR goal. He already has 150 points!
This is the timeline that T created. It is about his life. It has 7 events on it ranging from being born to becoming a big brother and then there's my favorite, going to the GA Dome. (I thought that was so cute he included that in the major events of his life! Such a boy :) Then below his timeline he fills in blanks about his house and things he likes to do. My favorite line: "Something I want everybody to know. . . that I am really good at football." I love this kid! Look at his size!! He may by small but he has drive!

This is Anderson's 100 day project in its beginning stages. I can't find a completed pick. . . oops! Hopefully I can take another one. It is 100 pieces of bubble gum. He is going to share with his class once they are done displaying their projects. We eventually ordered the sticks in rows of 10 with 2 big and 2 little ones being our pattern. We covered the box and added a label. But in our rough draft below, he wanted to randomly place them and even created one area that represented the Washington Monument (a big stick surrounded by little ones, representing the flags around the monument). So creative and cute!!

Our Wednesday nights have been pretty crazy as of late. Kris gets home from Richmond, after staying the night there on Tuesday, just in time to take the boys to basketball practice. He helps coach and he referees their games on Saturdays. Here they are getting reading to leave for practice.

Saturday was their tournament. If they lost, the season ended. If not, they get to play in the finals on Friday night the 5th. Both Ryan and Trevor's teams one!!! They played really well, too. Here's Ryan's team getting reading to "break" after their big win.

Sally and I did a little kick boxing on Saturday night. I thought it would be fun to get a picture of us afterwards, it was hard to get that kick out at just the right moment for the timer on my camera. We had many a good laughs over that! Afterwards we watched, "My Sister's Keeper" and bawled our eyes out! I am so thankful for Sal's friendship - - 20 years and counting!!

We had to finish up Trevor's diorama of a Pond Habitat. He did all the work on his own, including coming up with the ideas of what his food chain would be and how he wanted to create the items represented. I stressed at many moments and thought about cursing the teacher, but in the end it all turned out well. Trevor really enjoyed the project - - he is a crafty little guy.