4 For Me

School Pics . . .

2009-11-09T12:26:00.001-05:00

These scans aren't the best, but here's Noah and McKaylie's school pictures this fall. They both look much older to me.

I'm feeling old . . .

2009-11-05T07:32:00.001-05:00

McKaylie and I were listening to Carrie Underwood's song, Cowbody Cassanova. She was singing along and then stopped short and asked, "What's a record machine, mom?"

Cowboy Boots

2009-10-30T09:49:00.001-04:00

My aunt emailed me this little story and I had to share it on here

Anyone who has ever dressed a child will love this one!

Did you hear about the Texas teacher who was helping one of her kindergarten students put on his cowboy boots? He asked for help & she could see why.

Even with her pulling and him pushing, the little boots didn’t want to go on. Finally, when the 2^nd boot was on, she had worked up a sweat.

She almost cried when the little boy said, “Teacher, they’re on the wrong feet.” She looked and sure enough, they were. It wasn’t any easier pulling the boots off than it was putting them on. She managed to keep her cool as together they worked to get the boots back on, this time on the right feet.

He then announced, “These aren’t my boots.”

She bit her tongue rather than get right in his face and scream, “Why didn’t you say so?” like she wanted to. And, once again she struggled to help him pull the ill-fitting boots off his little feet.

No sooner had they got the boots off and he said, “They’re my brother’s boots. My Mom made me wear ‘em”

Now she didn’t know if she should laugh or cry. But, she mustered up the grace and courage she had left to wrestle the boots on his feet again.

Helping him into his coat, she asked, “Now, where are your mittens?”

He said, “I stuffed ‘em into the toes of my boots.”

Her trial starts next month……..

Noah's 7th Birthday!

2009-10-29T10:56:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday Noah!

Yesterday was Noah's 7th Birthday. He had a great day, I think.
He loved having cupcakes at school. He's such a sweetheart (when he wants to be) and our family is so much better with him in it!Here's the cake we had at home. It says, "We're all wrapped up in you, Noah! Happy Birthday
He asked for one vampire cupcake, so I made 6 vampires. He didn't seem all that impressed by them, though.
He seemed happy with all his presents. That's always nice. The guitar is going to make me nuts, though. Blowing out his candles . . . making a wish! This is a blurry picture, but here's the inside of his cake.
Happy Birthday, Buddy! We love you!

New Navy Uniform . . .

2009-09-20T13:06:00.005-04:00

I know that alot of you navy people out there have had this uniform for a long time but Chad is stationed on a base that is closing soon. So, the priority for this base to start wearing it is low. The base isn't officially scheduled to be wearing the uniform until Oct 2010, but the captain put out that he wants all personnel wearing it by Oct of this year. The blue camo is only one of the new uniforms. I'll post the others when I get pictures.

Naughty Dog . . .

2009-09-20T12:56:00.003-04:00

It's typical to see Vanilla this way in the morning's now. She's walk through the wet grass, then through the patch of dirt and then into the house. She really is a naughty dog!

Noah Lost His 1st Tooth

2009-09-20T12:44:00.002-04:00

. . . . Finally!We were beginning to wonder if he was ever going to lose his front teeth. We noticed about 10 days ago that his permanent tooth was coming in behind the baby tooth. That happened to McKaylie and the dentist ended up having to pull the baby tooth. Luckily, though, Noah's tooth went from not be wiggly at all to barely hanging in about 5 days. He was very excited to get it out and to get money from the tooth fairy. It hardly looks like he has an empty spot, because you can clearly see his permanent tooth. He lost this tooth on Tuesday and the permanent one is already moved into place.

They're all gone . . .

2009-09-01T10:44:00.004-04:00

Today is the first day that all my kids are back in school! It's hard to believe Myshel is a senior this year. She doesn't look old enough to be a senior but then, I don't think I feel old enough to be the mother of a senior! I can't say that I'm too upset. Yesterday seemed to be a good day for the other kids. Everyone seems to be very happy about their classes and teachers. I hope it stays that way.

My two high schoolers . . .

It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year . . .

2009-08-31T11:20:00.005-04:00

School started today!!!!

at least for Vance, McKaylie and Noah and Vance's nerves were kicking in . . . Myshel's first day is tomorrow (freshmen go all by themselves on the first day of school at the high school here!)
Yikes, I have 2 kids in high school now. That seems insane to me.

McKaylie is starting 4th grade and Noah is starting 1st.
Here they are waiting for the bus.
Yay! The bus . . . I love the school bus!

Swimmin' with friends???

2009-08-26T10:30:00.004-04:00

The little friends that Myshel's swimmin' with are small and green and like to hop around! I couldn't believe she had the frogs in the pool with her. There's actually 2 frogs swimming in front of her. The frogs didn't seem to mind too much. After awhile she gave them something to sit on . . . just in case they wanted out of the water. I swear, sometimes I wonder if these kids are mine!
Vance, Noah and McKaylie were sliding on the pool cover and then running into the side of the pool. They were having a good time but it didn't seem like it would be that fun to me.
Here's Noah and McKaylie in the pool. The boys where their t-shirts so that they won't get sunburned. I've tried to explain that sunblock works well, but they insist on their shirts.

Thomas Point Beach . . . again

2009-08-26T09:46:00.010-04:00

When we first moved to Maine (Winter Harbor), I was completely fascinated with the tides. I'd never seen such huge differences between high and low tide. It was just awesome to me that at low tide the water would go out so far. Every where we'd been there wasn't such a drastic difference between the two.

Last week we took the kids out to Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick. We knew it was low tide and decided to just wait for the tide to come back in. I took some pics while we were there, because like I said, it just fascinates me for some reason.

This when we first got there. It's not right at the lowest tide, but you can barely see the waterline way off in the distance. All the clam diggers are out doing their job. They stayed until the very last minute, too, most had to wade through the water to get back to shore.
(If you click on these pictures, you'll be able to see them so much better!)
Here's Vance checking things out with Myshel and McKaylie. I wouldn't go out there, because the mud just sucks your feet into it--besides the fact that it stinks. There's a bit of a "river" that ran right by where they were.
The water's starting to come back in. You can see the "river" more now. It's starting to spread out more and get much deeper. There's a clammer on the far left of the picture. He was on somewhat of an island and was able to stay there for a lot longer than the other guys.

This was about an hour after we got there. The water came in faster than we thought it would.
About 1/2 hour later the kids were out in it with Chad. It only looks deep. The kids were actually laying on their stomachs in these pictures. It was never more than a foot or so deep where they were.
While we waited for the tide to come in, we played in the sand, I read, the kids explored a lot. Thomas Point is a breeding ground for Horseshoe Crabs and they found lots of shells. This is only some of the ones they found. It was fun even though they didn't get to swim very long . . . except for the bugs, which ate me something terrible. My arms and legs were covered with some kind of bug bite and I itched like never before, for days. I think it must have been something I was a little allergic to because it was terrible and no one else had a problem with it at all.

Boothbay Harbor

2009-08-17T18:40:00.002-04:00

Maine State Aquarium

2009-08-17T17:27:00.008-04:00

We visited the Maine State Aquarium in BoothBay Harbor. It was really small, but very cool. There was a tank that had sharks and skates in it that you can touch. Very Cool!

And it had a big touch tank filled with all kinds of little creatures that you can find off the shores of Maine. Lobsters, sea urchins, starfish, sand dollars, sea cucumbers (they were gross and squishy!), scallops, crabs, snails. We could pick them all up and check them out. It was very cool. We had a hard time getting the kids to leave.
The also had a HUGE lobster.
A blue, yellow and red lobster. I didn't realize there were yellow lobsters or that there were red ones that hadn't been cooked. (hee hee)
You can click on the picture below and read about the largest lobster ever caught!!!
Unbelievable!

Eartha

2009-08-17T17:01:00.003-04:00

If you drive down I295 by Yarmouth, then you pass by this globe. (This picture isn't the best, but is you click on the link below, you can see a picture of it all lit up) We always thought it was cool, but never really thought about it much. I've come to learn recently, though that it's the world's largest revolving and rotating globe. So . . . we had to go see it up close, just to say that we've seen it, right!? It was pretty cool. You can see it at 3 different levels, too. It's at the DeLorme Headquarters in Yarmouth, Maine. Click here to learn more about it. Delorme-Eartha
There were some little boys running around it on the bottom, floor and Chad said, "look that little boy just ran around the world." The kids thought he was hilarious!

Chocolate Moose . . .

2009-08-17T16:53:00.004-04:00

This is Lenny, the world's only life-size chocolate moose!
Only in Maine . . .He has two little buddies, the cocoa bears, which are actually made out of dark chocolate and I think they weigh in around 800 pounds. They live in Scarborough, which is really just down the street from Sam's Club (which is where we were headed!)

Alpaca Farm

2009-08-13T15:53:00.002-04:00

We went to see the alpacas in Wiscasset yesterday. They were so cute, especially the baby one!

Nature Bugs . . .

2009-08-13T15:44:00.002-04:00

Three of my kids love being outside!! But, can I just say . . . enough with the snakes and frogs, already!!! Chad let the kids walk home from the commissary and they found this little snake on the way home. They were very excited. Whoo hoo . . . not! This one, I admit, is very cute. Noah caught it. He thought it was a grasshopper until he caught it. McKaylie's holding it in this picture. It would jump out of her hands and hang on her shirt. I guess these little guys live in the trees. This is the biggest frog they've caught this year. He doesn't look that big in the picture, but he was good sized. I think they should have left him in the pond they found him in. They did let him go shortly after this, though.

I don't have a picture of it, but the other day the kid's went to the park and brought home 6 frogs that they found in a puddle from the rain the day before. Yuck!

New England Aquarium

2009-08-10T12:43:00.005-04:00

Our last stop in Boston that weekend was the New England Aquarium. It was really fun. Noah thought the sharks were great. We all loved the touch tank. They turtles were awesome, too. The big one is named Myrtle. I love that, Myrtle the turtle!We enjoyed the penguins the best but our pictures didn't turn out very well. We were there to see them get fed, which was cool. They had a great jellyfish display. The seals out front were really fun to watch. We saw some other seals perfome, soo. McKaylie loved them!! I think she would have styayed there all day.
It was just a lot of fun. (The parking . . . YIKES! . . . don't park downtown!!!! It was super expensive!)
We have a great time going to see Boston. It's nice to be able to make smaller trips and enjoy different things each time!

Bunker Hill Monument

2009-08-10T12:33:00.002-04:00

We also visited the Bunker Hill Monument. Chad and the kids climbed all 296 stairs to the top to look out the little windows on top. I gave up really quickly, though. It was took hot and muggy and too closed in for me! not to mention 296 steps up . . . 296 steps down . . . Yikes!
Everyone was sore for several days after that!

We were there just in time to see a demonstration of the flint firearms that were used during the revolutionary war. It was very cool and the kids were impressed to learn that's where the phrases "going off half cocked" and "lock, stock and barrel" came from.

It was a fun day, but we were glad to go back to the hotel and enjoy a swim in the hotel pool before we ate dinner!

USS Constitution

2009-08-10T12:23:00.003-04:00

We went to see the USS Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship, afloat. It was pretty cool. I'm amazed that a ship that was build almost 212 years ago can still be around and working. I was amazed at how low the overhead is, too. On the berthing deck, I couldn't even walk around without ducking and I'm only 5'2". I loved the uniforms, which are official navy issued uniforms for this command. Wouldn't you love to see Chad wearing that! Those sailors lived in insane conditions. Absolutely amazing, really. The kid's got rather tired on the tour --- it was hot and muggy that day but in the end, we had a good time and it was worth it to see and hear all about the ship.

Boston Temple and Myshel's Artistic View

2009-08-10T12:15:00.003-04:00

We spent the weekend in Boston last week. We had a great time. I love family weekends like that.

It started with a youth temple trip and of, course we took all the kids to the temple to be there together as a family.I love this picture of the kids in front of the temple!!!
Myshel loves to take pictures of all the flowers there. She has a great artist eye!

Swimmin'

2009-08-10T12:09:00.002-04:00

We finally had some really nice weather and set up our pool. The kids were loving it. I'm not sure why the boys still have their shirts on. I think Noah might have had sunburned shoulders. They had a lot of fun even though it's not that big. They can still cool off!

Kid Update . . .

2009-07-23T09:40:00.004-04:00

Myshel went to camp as a youth leader and had a great time . . . even though she'd never admit it!

Vance took a summer math course and passed with a 90%, which means he can skip Algebra I next year and take Geometry.

Noah is in a summer club at school and doing really great with his speech. I'm just proud of him for being so willing to go.

McKaylie is reading like crazy lately and busy with lots of birthday parties.

Flying Frogs

2009-07-23T09:29:00.007-04:00

Vance, McKaylie and Noah were playing outside the other morning. I knew they had their frogs and tadpoles and didn't think much of it. When they came in Noah told me they were throwing the frogs up on the roof and watching them jump off. I thought I'd misunderstood him, but no, they really were doing that.

I told them that wasn't nice and they assured me that all the frogs hopped away . . . except the one that stayed on the roof.

So, now I probably have a dead frog on the roof . . . nice!

I think the discussion about being kind to the Lord's creatures is in order!

Portland Head Light

2009-07-12T15:10:00.005-04:00

Chad and I took the Madson's to the Portland Lighthouse on Saturday before taking them to the airport. It was really pretty to see first thing in the morning. Keeley asked me to take a picture of her by the bell.Debbie, this is the picture that you wanted. I wish it wasn't date stamped, but Brent will be able to take that off. You can click on it and get the bigger version of it. This is the lighthouse from the trail we went on.We had tons of fun with Madson's and miss them a lot! We wish we could have seen Brent, too, though! We missed you Brent!