Just had to share this great idea...

I saw on Pinterest the other day this helpful tip and I have already used it and love it.

When washing clothes you can use a dry erase marker to write a note to yourself, or if you are lucky and your spouse helps with laundry a note to your spouse, to remind you to check on something in the washing machine.  For example, I wrote myself a note to remember not to put a particular thing in the dryer.  Also, I have used it to check and make sure some grass stains came out of Reese's pants before I dried them.  I love this tidbit!!!

Just had to share!!!

12 things to do to create memories-from Andy Andrews

Mom sent this to me the other day, and I just loved it.  Had to share....


Go for an unexpected drive after the kids are already in their pajamas. (Remember how fun getting to ride somewhere in your pajamas was?)
Cook dinner together. Everyone is in charge of making one dish!

Gather in the living room and read something aloud to your family. Bonus points if it’s cold outside and you’ve got a fire going!

Spend one whole day with each of your kids or your spouse. Do all the things they want to do. (Within reason, of course. You are allowed to veto skydiving.)

“Camp out” in the yard or even inside the house. S’mores are encouraged, but not required.

If you have kids who are young enough to have never pumped gas, but also old enough to handle doing it with a little bit of guidance, let them put gas in the car! This may not sound like something very “memorable,” but a lot of times duties that are arbitrary to us are extraordinary to young minds. Side note: you will probably still end up paying for the gas. Ha!

Make a special dessert…and then eat it before dinner.

Every once in a while—teachers, please don’t get too mad at me…I promise this doesn’t happen that often—stay up extra late with your kids to do something special on a school night. Watch your favorite childhood movie with them, take them to a ball game, stay up for a meteor shower, etc.

The converse of #8, and one teachers may find a little friendlier, get up extra early and do something special before school! The boys and I recently went fishing before school and they had a blast. Convincing them to get up at 5 AM was well worth the effort!

Bake something and walk it over with your whole family to a neighbor you’ve never met.

Instead of playing a board game, make up your own game to play! (Surely this is how “Don’t Let the Balloon Touch the Floor” was invented.)

Do that one thing you’ve been meaning to do with your family. You know what it is. It’s what you’re thinking of right now. Seize this moment, and do it!

First Day of School....and yes, I am slacking on the posts.

We had an uneventful first day of school.  I feel like such a slacker for just now getting around to loading these pictures.  

Brooks started 4th grade this year.  He has such a great group of classmates and teachers!

Reese started 1st grade.  He is doing really well this year!  He just got his report card with all As!

Reese wanted to give himself bunny ears!

In his classroom!

And Brooks wasn't thrilled that I was taking his picture!

Legoland

Almost by accident, I discovered that there was a Legoland located in Atlanta.  We decided to take the boys there for their Birthday.  So, in July we set off for a surprise day trip for the boys.  Legoland is located in the top floor of a mall.  We carefully ate lunch, not far from the entrance, trying to keep it a surprise as long as we could.

This is the boys seeing where we were for the first time.

They were still absorbing where we were.

Brooks was checking out the scenery.

We watched two 4D movies.  It was really neat!

Reese enjoyed the speeder.

This was Brooks working on his racer.

Reese's finished racer, (with dad's help.)

The last thing we did, was go to a class that challenged you to build things out of the block legos.  This was our dragon.

Our kind of normal....

Brooks began not feeling well on Thursday of this past week.  He couldn’t really put into words how he felt; he just kept saying that he felt bad.  Brent checked him out of school and took him home.  He had been complaining about his head hurting and that he couldn’t see well, so I decided that maybe it was time for glasses.

Friday he seemed to be feeling better so he went to school.  In the meantime, I made him an appointment at the eye doctor.  Mom, Brooks and I all went on Friday afternoon.  After the normal dilation of the eyes, he began to complain that he didn’t feel well.  I kept thinking he was just tired or putting on.  When it was time to go pick out his glasses (turns out he did need them) he started shivering and when mom and I felt him, he was burning up.  I mean really hot!  (This is my child that doesn’t get sick ever.)  We asked him if he could just make it through picking them out and he said he could.  Mom gave him an Advil that he tried to just swallow without a drink.  Turns out Brooks needs a drink or said pill, stuck in the throat, makes him throw up.  Luckily he made it to the eyeglasses store bathroom.  We hurriedly picked out the glasses. 

           

Side note: if you take your child to pick out glasses when they feel really bad, they will let you pick out whatever you want, because they don’t care.

When we got to mom’s house his temp was 102 under the arm, and that was after drinking a large glass of coke.  Goodness, I felt bad.

Saturday morning we got up and he felt a lot better.  It was a good thing since we were going to North Georgia to visit with Brent’s grandparents.  We made it to Auburn for breakfast.  As we were eating Brooks complained that he wasn’t hungry.  I felt him, and he was burning up again.  We drugged him up and keep going. 

The plan was to go to a Memorial service for one of my mother-in-law’s friend while we were on the way to the grandparents.  When we got about 5 minutes away from the church, Reese, that’s right, the other child, throws up in the car.  NICE!  He had gotten carsick!  Brent, his mom, and Brooks (because he was feeling fine) went inside to the memorial, while Reese and I changed his clothes, right out in the front yard of the church, and then cleaned the backseat of the car.  We then sat in the car for an hour and sang and talked, because I hadn’t packed another set of clothes that were appropriate for a memorial service. 

Back on track we made it to Nana and Granddad’s house without any more incidents.  The weekend went on with Brooks’ temperature going up and down at different points in the day.  Other than that, he doesn’t have any other alarming symptoms.  He seems to feel pretty good.  Except for when he threw up on the floor in the bedroom last night.  Yes, that was a fun one to clean up too!!!  Sigh!  What a great Labor Day weekend :/

Swimming Lessons

Once again, I find myself trying to catch up on what we have done this summer.  Back in June the boys both competed another round of swimming lessons.  I noticed a big improvement this year, and am super pleased with their progress.

Getting Ready for the Final Test

Whew, that was a tough lap!

The tongue out helps.

Working on his dive.

VBS - Summer Soulympics!

This year Brent and I were in charge of VBS at church.  With the help of others, the title Summer Soulympics was decided upon.  In the auditorium, the kids were divided among their ages, as usual, but they were also grouped by countries.  All of the countries that we used, were ones that our church supports in various mission efforts.  


I will not even begin to thank everyone who helped make it all possible.  There are too many people to thank.  In fact, we had just as many volunteers to help this year, as we did kids.  And there were plenty of kids!

Taryn's beautiful artwork.

Sam leading the children.

Reese having fun!

Brooks at crafts.

I stole this picture and the one above it from Louise.  Thanks for taking this!

Happy 80th!

Over Memorial Day weekend we celebrated Brent's grandmother's 80th birthday.  We spent several nights at Rock Island State Park in Tennessee.  It was a beautiful area.

The boys enjoyed hiking around the waterfall!  It was very impressive!

I even contributed to the grilling by offering my hairdryer.  All our meals were wonderful!

Each member of the family "performed" for Nana.  Brent and I came up with a skit, and Brent played the roll of Nana.  It turned out really funny!

Happy Birthday Nana!

More DQ Blizzards

Brooks had a great year playing baseball.  It is amazing to me to see how much he matures and grows from one year to the next.

We still have our favorite helmet.

He loves being catcher!  Brent got him some cool gear this year to help him out.  They are going to have fall ball in Wetumpka this year, and Brooks will have to move up to the 9-10 year old division, which is.......KID PITCH!  We will see if he still enjoys catching then ;)

So happy to see that he was watching his third base coach as he rounded 1st.  (It wasn't always like this.)

Our wonderful team!!!

Brent did an awesome job coaching the boys!!!

This may be my favorite picture of all.  Love that boy!

DQ Blizzards

Brooks had a great year playing baseball.  The kids and parents all got along so well, that we were all sad for the season to end.  This was a slideshow I put together for the end of the year party.  I may post more baseball pics of Brooks this week.