He's A Bobcat

John was super excited to get into Cub Scouts.  He worked hard and got his Bobcat award at the Blue & Gold Banquet.  I just couldn't get the pin on his pocket while he was upside-down.  Ah well.  He did his good turn anyway and is so proud of his patch on his uniform.

We are so happy to have John as a part of our family!  He made the train that decorated our table at the banquet.  He did a great job with the skit too!  Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Kelsey's Finished Quilt

Several years later...and several blog posts later...and we have a finished product to show!  Kelsey finally got her quilt!  It probably could have been ready for her at Christmas had Linda worked all night for a week or so to hand stitch the binding, but it didn't happen.  That's all right since the days were colder and she needed a warmer blanket in December.  For now, it's going to work just great through the warmer spring and summer Texas nights.  Enjoy!

John's Baptism

We had a wonderful day with John on the 2nd of February!  Friends and family showed up to support our boy get baptized!  John was super excited!  He could hardly stand still long enough for the pictures.  He wanted to run circles around the church...but he was able to contain his excitement through the brief talks and songs.

Once in the font, his happiness still couldn't be dampened by the bit of chill to the water.  Ah well.  He did get the fun experience of being immersed twice (darn toe poking above the surface). I am told that's just what happened to Daddy.  Oh...like father like son.  It's not a bad thing.

We did think this picture would be kinda fun...maybe a little sacrilegious...but still makes us laugh at the mergers you can get when you position things just right in photos (see the hands on Shawn's head?).  Shows the personalities of our boys.  Congrats, John!

Eight Years and Counting, John!

Eight years ago, we welcomed our first into the family!  Happy birthday, John!  He's gone from announcing himself as "John John Man" to "Just John."  Big steps in a short time.  But we've enjoyed watching him grow and develop into a boy with great potential and enormous energy!  Mom made a rocket birthday cake and John was able to blow out the "rocket" candles in one breath!  Way to go!

Here's some highlights from his birthday.  He got to take some Cocoa Puff muffins to school and reported that his teacher loved them...well, not as much as the homemade chocolate cookies she got from him on her birthday, but still a great treat!

He loves the new box of LEGOS!  So do all the rest of his siblings.  We have some great days of building ahead of us.
 

Thanks to Mom and Dad, John now has his own set of scriptures.  He was so excited!  He says he doesn't have to go to the church library to borrow a full set every Sunday!  And the bag they will be stored in fits just perfectly.  Oh, and they are blue too!  Wow!  Such an excited boy!

And I nearly forgot, the last but not least present came from his siblings.  Kelsey made sure the kids colored some pictures for John.  That horse on the left is from Joe.  Crazy!  But they were so excited, and so was he!  I love little things that cause such reasons for gratitude from my kids.

Quick Look Back

Okay, so these are MONTHS older than what I'd thought.  But here goes in my effort to catch up.  So sorry.  I'll try to explain them as I go.

We decided at the end of August to send Kelsey and John to Texas to stay with Shawn until he found a house for us. That way, they'd start school with the rest of their class should we not find a home in time.  Well, we stopped by Billy the Kid's grave in New Mexico.  The kids thought it was pretty cool to see lizards crawling over the gravestones.  And they didn't quite understand why the stone was in bars.  I guess that's fitting for an outlaw.

But during our brief visit, we visited the Alamo.  They don't allow pictures inside the structure so we had to settle for the ones we got of the grounds.  Pretty cool.  Actually, it was SUPER hot and we didn't quite have enough water to keep everyone's mouth wet.  But the kids enjoyed seeing the sights.

Our kids' first experience with a prickly pear cactus.  Macher tried picking a fruit and came to find that the fruit has teeny spikes all over them.  I guess by the time they make it to the grocery store, the distributors have rubbed off all of the spikes.

But John thought it was great fun to walk up and touch the cactus leaves, pointing out that if he went in between the spikes, he was okay.  Yes, that's true, but probably not a good idea since Joe and Jack don't have the greatest sense of balance and they'd inevitably poke themselves.

 Bekah had to try anything that John did.  Me, I was content to wait in the shade.  Like I said, I'm not opposed to heat, but it was oven intense this particular day.  Maybe someday I'll get used to
115 degrees.  Naw.  Redheads don't belong in the sun.
 

 We loved seeing the trees and fountains.  Some of the communities around Austin have small splash parks where the kids enjoyed cooling off.  They have shaded areas for mom and dad too!  The kids had loads of fun playing with our friends' kids.  It was hot and it was only 10:00 am.  Boy!  We have a lot to get used to in Texas summers.

We had only brought with us John and Kelsey's swimming suits, believing that the rest of the kids wouldn't need them during our brief visit.  Well, they didn't.  Clothes work just fine in splash parks.  At least I didn't have to worry so much about getting sunburned in their regular clothes.  They had a great time!

John's New Look

Love the new look, John!  Recently, John's been growing up and starting to get a bit more mature.  He's changed from being "John John Man" to "just John."  And we got a letter from school mentioning he needed an eye exam.   Well, a couple of weeks later and the boy is now exclaiming,

"Trees aren't a blob?  They have branches and more than one huge leaf!"

He's loving being able to see clearly!  We love the new appreciation of sight.

Our Family of Builders

John has been building great little models for a long time with his LEGOS.  Recently, Jack and Joe have tried to get in on the action as well.  Unfortunately, that means after the older kids are off to school, Jack and Joe raid Kelsey or John's supply of blocks.  I found them building these trucks and was quite impressed at Jack's ability.

His little truck had a trailer and a little house for the rabbit.  It was functional and neat in it's appearance.  Way to go, Jack!

Now, if only I could get more LEGOS for the boys to SHARE, there would be less fighting and more building.  Ah well.  We'll see what birthdays bring.  Maybe Goodwill or the other thrift stores will have some cheap bags of blocks laying around.  Hah!