Shepard's Swim Shorts Comment

The boys went to their room this afternoon to put on their swim shorts before going swimming today... and Shepard came out in his yellow Hawaiian shorts and said, "I guess some girl is probably going to fall in love with me since I have flowers on my shorts." It was even funnier because he just sounded so serious and resigned to the fact! :)

This is the way we clean our room!

We were cleaning the house today and I gave Shepard the job of dusting his room because he wanted a job, too... Will went with him and they asked me to play some music for them while they worked. When I went to check on them, this is what I found! :) These two definitely make me smile with their fun personalities!


Sing it, Will!


A little air guitar for Shep!


Shepard asked me to take this picture of him in his "Bible Times Prayer Stance"... I'm not sure where that came from, but I thought it was cute. :)

Josiah's Standardized Test Results

Josiah's standardized test results came in the mail on Thursday... this was our first year to test because Arkansas doesn't require it until 3rd grade. Josiah felt like he did well on the test and... he was right! He scored a perfect 100 on the math section!! Way to go Josiah! He scored pretty well in the reading section of his test, too... the results for that section indicate that he's at 94% of all students who took the test. I know that test results can not give the full picture of a child's education, but it sure was reassuring to this homeschooling mom! The Lord has shown Himself to us in that He will provide what our children need as we do our best to raise them. Regardless of test scores, our main desire is that our boys learn to love and serve the Lord in all they do... and honestly, that requires a lot more teaching and training than math does. So... we're still on the journey.

Going for a Ride

Josiah is a great big brother!


The little boys are loving their ride in the wagon!
(I think they were supposed to be dressed up as commandos today... it's always something. :))




This totally cracked me up... Josiah was playing some Wii fit today and Will was not allowed on the Wii board. I was busy folding some laundry, but when I walked back into the room I noticed that Will had carried the weight scale into the room where Josiah was playing and he was standing on it as if it was his Wii board. Isn't he creative and clever?!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my #1 man! John is such a great dad to our boys and they are incredibly blessed to have him for a dad. John pours so much into their lives and always makes time to be available to them. I'm just so proud of him and I really admire the way he seeks the Lord's ways for our family. I love you, John!


Below is a picture of my dad with our boys... Pa' pa (with a french accent) is what they have all started calling him now because that is how Will says it... it's so cute. It was really great that my mom and dad could come down and have dinner with us tonight. I really enjoyed being able to see my dad for Father's Day!


And I'm so sad that I forgot to take my camera to the Hoelzemans for our lunch cookout today. :( We were rushing so much to get over there after church that I just forgot... but we enjoyed seeing John's family for a fun lunch cookout and swimming! We're definitely grateful for the legacy of Godly fathers in our families!

Wanna Ride!

We keep finding Will in the garage... where all the bicycles are! :) And we finally figured out his new phrase that he keeps repeating all day - "I WANNA RIDE!" The boy is determined to ride whatever he can get his hands on. So, daddy took him out tonight for a ride... John says they rode every toy in the garage and Will loved every one. He definitely has a fascination with bikes, wagons, cars... I got a few pictures of him on Shepard's bike and in John's old antique toy car.

Michelle Duggar's visit

Tonight was a special treat for me! I had invited Michelle Duggar to come speak to the moms in our homeschool group. She was so gracious and shared so much wisdom with us. (I'm going to be pondering and meditating on how to apply in my own life so many of the things she shared.) I've known Michelle for many years now and she is quite a treasure. She has such a strong love for the Lord and she really lives her life for God's purposes. I wish I could be around her more to glean from her wisdom. You may know her... she's the mom on the TLC reality series "18 and Counting". Yes, she has 18 children! It was really great to see her again tonight and I think our homeschool group enjoyed it a lot. Here's a picture of me and Michelle from tonight.

Here's a picture of Michelle's family...

Little Robbers

Shepard was getting all dressed up (as usual) and this time when Will saw his bandana mask he wanted to join in, too. He brought me a bandana and asked to wear it like Shepard. I thought they were so cute...

A Very Eventful Day

What a day!

The first memorable thing that I remember is walking in on Shepard in our bathroom and he comments about liking that cool "brush". So as I'm wondering what he is talking about I see him set down John's razor. I explained to him that it was not a brush, but a razor, and that he could not play with it or use it. But I could tell by looking at him that he had done something, so I asked him where he used it and he showed me his face. Then I looked at the razor... which was FULL of peach fuzz. That little guy had tried shaving his face and has a patch without any baby peach fuzz now. (He thinks he's ready for whiskers... he wants to have a goatee like his daddy!) I think we're just grateful that he didn't cut himself with it.

Will found the little paint set in the craft cabinet today... I still can't figure out how he got in there. But what was funny was that when I found him he was rubbing the brush on the paints and then putting it on his face... I think he thought he was putting on make up! :)

Next, Shepard had his first visit to the ER today! Notice I said "first"... John and I feel pretty certain that with Shepard this probably won't be the last time we end up there. :) (Especially when you consider that in his short life he has already poured gasoline into his eyes, gashed his head pretty bad and now this.) He was playing outside this afternoon and decided that he preferred to be barefoot and so he took his shoes off. But then he fell and landed on some metal landscaping edging and sliced up the bottom of his left foot. There was a lot of blood. Josiah was with him and yelled in the house for me to come... which I'm very glad he did, but that woke Will and he started crying because he was scared. And then Shepard was crying loud, too, which scared Will more. John came down and we got most of the bleeding stopped but decided that we needed a doc to look at it to see if he needed stitches. When Shepard found out that he was going to the ER to see a doctor he was SOOOO excited! Ever since John had his knee surgery a few months ago, Shepard has wanted to have his "turn" to see the doctor. He was one happy little boy! Apparently he charmed all the nurses and he came home very proud of his hospital bracelet. And, thankfully, no stitches!


While Shep was at the ER, Josiah watched a new episode of Gilligan's Island... with a beauty pageant for Miss Castaway. So, at dinner, Josiah is telling John and Shepard about the episode and we're all having a good laugh at Gilligan and how he was smart enough not to pick one of the girls to win. So, somehow the boys are now deciding who they would have voted for. Shepard is our Mr. Decision-Maker... he immediately chooses Ginger. Then changes his mind and votes for MaryAnn. But, then no, he thinks he'll go with Mrs. Howell. But, then he really wants to vote for Gilligan. We remind him that it's a beauty pageant and he has to choose a girl. "Oh ya", he says... then he decides he wants to vote for Skipper! Or maybe Gilligan again... no definitely Skipper. We're all laughing and he's finally settled on Skipper... which makes no sense at all. Next it's Josiah's turn to vote. He very carefully considers all the options and comments that he's thinking through which of the girls would be the most useful... I guess since the other two would be mad at him for not choosing them. :) So, Josiah carefully chooses MaryAnn. We asked him if it was because of her looks or because she was useful. He says she's the cutest, but then he explains that she usually fixes breakfast for the others and Ginger fixes lunch. And then with all seriousness he says, "And I've heard it said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day." Oh boy... we couldn't help but laugh!


Little tidbit about Shepard... he bumped his head today and I asked him if he was okay. He looks me in the eye and says, "I think I hurt my brain" and then he just bursts out laughing. He finds himself hysterically funny. Lately he gets very tickled at all our meal times... mostly because he finds the smallest things amusing and then he just can't stop laughing about it. So, when John decides to regain order, Shepard just struggles to stop giggling. Shepard is so much like me and I understand how he feels and so I'm always sitting with my face covered to hide my own laughing, but as soon as John looks at me I just lose it and we all start laughing all over again.

That's enough stories for one day! :)

Josiah's Birthday

Josiah is 10! He designed this "race car" cookie to go along with his favorite computer game, Track Mania. :)


Enjoying some birthday presents!


Riding his new bike! This happy picture was taken just before the unpleasant crash in a mud puddle.

Josiah's 10th Birthday Party

Josiah turns 10 tomorrow... so he had some friends over today for a LAN party birthday party. I think we had 10 computers set up in John's office and they played all afternoon. Josiah was LOVIN' it!


Shepard was all smiles when they came downstairs and he could hang out with the big boys.


Pizza time!


Lighting all 10 candles...

Happy Birthday, Josiah! I'm so proud that you're my son!

Together Again Quotes

I couldn't wait to see the boys again after being away for six days and I was anxious to hear all their cute little comments. My all time favorite came from Josiah... after he had seen me for a while he came over and said, "You are shorter than I remember." And then he sort of chuckled. I thought that was hilarious!

Tonight we were running some errands and went to eat at this new pizza place in town. The boys could watch baseball from their seats and at one point Josiah said, "Man, this is paradise!" He was actually laying down on the bench slurping down some pickled okra and watching the tv. So, Shepard was not to be outdone... he immediately laid down and chomped on his pizza while watching the tv and he said, "I'm paradising now!" Too funny!

Traveling Adventure

Why was our trip to Atlanta such an adventure? Because we missed our flight on Saturday morning! The sad thing is that we didn't even know we were late for it... we thought we were early! (Yes, my dad and my brother wonder how in the world I could have grown up in the home of an airline captain and not know how early we should arrive for a flight. My excuse is that we always flew standby when I was a kid... this time I had tickets! :)) Our small airport had all the lights turned out at American Airlines when we got there... we had to wait quite a while to even talk to someone. Finally, a friend working security at the airport helped us come up with the plan to drive to Dallas and try to catch another connecting flight to Atlanta. I thought I would have a heart attack because John was driving so fast... but we made it... barely! We arrived in Atlanta much later than we had planned, but we really didn't miss much of the convention and from my perspective I could see that the Lord's favor was on us in so many ways. It was exciting! We were sure that the trip home would be uneventful, but no... we couldn't find our luggage. The same person working security who helped us on the first day pulled a few strings and helped us again... I've never enjoyed unpacking as much as I did this time... I was just so relieved to have our clothes and my camera again. John and I have decided that from now on if we can drive to our destination we will choose to drive instead of flying. But I still LOVE to fly... it's just so much fun!

Here's a picture of Stone Mountain in Atlanta. John and I enjoyed visiting there on one of our vacation days. I took these pictures with my new iPhone... a flash would have been nice.

NACEO Convention

Our trip to Atlanta for the NACEO (National Association of Consignment Event Owners) convention turned out to be quite an adventure! And it was wonderful! We had a great time and even though we had a lot of travel difficulties - I'll have to write more about that later - we felt the Lord's favor on us in a very real way. Below is a picture of John during his My Sale Manager workshop at the convention... I was so proud of him! He had quite a following at the convention... there were lines at times just to speak to him. (I think I married a famous software developer! :))
We finally got to get the boys back tonight and it was soooo good to see their sweet faces again. They each greeted us with their special personalities and it was awesome. Will just couldn't quit looking at us and smiling. Josiah had a big tender bear hug for me that just about made me cry. Shepard shouted greetings and gave a huge smile and just brought us right into his social/ sanguine world again. Ahhhhh... it's good to be home!

I love John working at home!

I feel so incredibly blessed and grateful to the Lord that He has provided the opportunity for John to work at home. It is so wonderful to get to be involved more with his work and feel like our family is a team in supporting John's business. I just love it! And John adds so much to our days... today he was able to have lunch with us and he solved the boys' sweet drawer dilemma that has plagued me for months! :) Sometimes it's just the little things, but it's just so great to have him here all day.

Here's a picture of the boys' assembly line as they were working on putting together some of the items for My Sale Manager that we are taking to the convention in Atlanta this weekend. It's exciting to be able to incorporate the boys into the family business!


And a BIG SHOUT OUT to Alex Botero! He created our brochure for us this week and it turned out awesome! We're excited to take the new brochure with us to Atlanta! I feel so proud to know Alex... who is now a big-time, upscale and very talented New York City graphic designer... and one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. Thanks, Alex!

Shepard can't sleep

Yesterday evening my sweet hubby let me go shopping all by myself... what a wonderful treat! When I got back home the boys were all tucked into bed and the kitchen was clean! Ahhhhhh! So, as I was putting some stuff away I was surprised to see Josiah and Shepard come into the kitchen, but they were having a little squabble and were coming for some parental help. Apparently Shepard couldn't sleep and kept commenting about it which was also keeping Josiah awake. So, I was about to just send them back to bed with instructions to be quiet and try to go to sleep when Shepard started talking about a commercial. At first we thought he was just trying to change the subject and find a way to stay up longer... but, he was actually trying to explain the sleep situation. Here's what he said... "You know that commercial where daytime comes in the middle of the night?? And the chicken starts saying TaDaDaDaTaDa!?" (Already I am amused at his description of this commercial... it's really a rooster and he should say CockADoodleDoo.) Shepard goes on to explain, "Well, that's me!" As I'm trying to take in this amusing information Josiah pipes up and asks, "You mean you need some Ambien CR?" I am quite sure that if anyone had asked me what medicine this commercial was for I wouldn't have had any idea... but Josiah sure did. So then Shepard's face lights up and he sort of snaps his fingers together as if Josiah has found the answer of all answers... you can see him start to pump his head up and down and then he very seriously, but excitedly says, "YES, I need some of that 'amnesia' stuff!"