The week's recap

There has been a lot going on this week, so I thought I would make one larger post with lots of the highlights. The kids and I are all over the crud we have had, but Jack has been sick for the last few days. Hopefully he gets over it soon! The weather here has really been nice, albeit pretty chilly! I went the other day and bought all of us some sweaters and long sleeved shirts to help keep us warm. I didn't own any, and the boys only had a few each. I know I have been losing weight. All of my clothes are much looser.... in fact, I only wear the smallest ones that I have now, and even my belts are too big. But it still caught me by surprise that when I tried on the sweaters, I was two sizes smaller than the last time I bought some new shirts. I am looking forward to going and trying on some new jeans to see where things stand there!

Beth's eye was watering the other day, and she wanted it taken care of, so I gave her a cool washcloth to hold over it. I came back in the living room a couple of minutes later and found her sound asleep with that cloth carefully balanced on her face.

Soccer: Faith and Kyle started soccer practice Thursday. They both did pretty good, and we are going to spend time practicing at home too. Their first games are this week.

Football: Matt played two games this week. Unfortunately, his team seems to be on a losing streak, but there have been good things for Matt. He is playing more, and his position has been changed from Tackle to Noseguard. The cheerleaders made signs like this for all the players on Thursday and hung them on the gates. After the game, the girl Matt has a crush on waited outside the locker room to deliver it in person to him. In fact, she made his specially for him... LOL.

Here they are waiting for the other team to come back to the field.
Critters: We found this stickbug on the porch the other day. There are all kinds of these, as well as praying mantis and other cool bugs around the yard. I love the animals we see too. I was driving down our main road the other day, and six deer were running across a neighbor's property. Very cool to see. Jack found horse hoofprints in our yard this week, and a fox was standing in the road when I was taking the kids to school on Thursday. Maybe it sounds silly, but it still amazes me to see all the cool things the Ozarks have to offer.

We laughed the first time Jessica blew her candles out. I always take pictures of the kids as they blow them out, but she didn't know that. So she took a big breath of air and blew them all out before I could get the shot. So Jack and I said in unison... "oops... gotta relight them!" and she and Tony thought we were joking. Nope.... we relit them and got the pictures... LOL

Todd and Beth helped me wrap her presents, and Todd decided he was in charge of decorating them with some flowers I brought home from a show. Beth wanted to be in charge of something too, so she drew happy faces on the flowers. Jessica kept one to use on the scrapbook page she is making with the new supplies she got for her birthday.

Just a shot of Matt leisurely mowing the yard by the pond.
Chet didn't want to relight his candles, so he actually asked me if I had all the photos I needed before he blew them out... :0)
Since he can't play contact sports, he has been interested in taking up archery. He got a small compound bow for his birthday, and he has loved just practicing with it.
After all of Chet's birthday stuff on Friday, the kids stayed the night and we were planning on watching movies. Then the thunderstorms became tornado warnings, and our area was advised to take shelter in case a tornado formed. The power went out for a few minutes, which sent the kids into an uproar. I got all the little ones into the downstairs closet, and made them laugh when I got the camera. To keep them calm we sang some songs, and the warning was over within fifteen minutes. I thought this shot came out kind of cool, but I couldn't tell you how I got it. Probably had something to do with the big booming sounds the thunder was making around the house!
And this is one I caught at the beginning of the week when I saw Todd walking down our dirt road.

It is going to be another busy week. I will post again when I can!