White Rock

John took the boys for a drive today to look for a camping spot for their upcoming "survival camp" trip. They stopped at White Rock and he got this picture - isn't it beautiful?! (I was at home enjoying a "mommy afternoon" of working without distractions, but next time I'm tagging along! :))

Silver Dollar City in the fall

We made a quick trip to Branson this week so that we could visit Silver Dollar City in the fall. The boys enjoyed visiting the little schoolhouse and we got to write on actual slates (like the Ingalls girls) which was really neat. I was surprised at how heavy they were to hold and they are way better to write on than chalkboards.


Josiah was tall enough to ride Wildfire this time and he was thrilled. There were no lines and he was able to ride this with his friend several times. He even rode it later that day all by himself. As I watched him soar through the air on his own, I felt an unfamiliar stir... just the beginning but realizing that we are actually in the process of letting him go and become a man. Certainly, the arrow needs some work before we can shoot it, but nevertheless, I realize that we need to have the bow ready, too. We saw some areas of real character maturity in Josiah on our trip and we were pleased.


This is what Josiah looked like every time he got off the roller coaster... he just grinned like the Cheshire Cat! It was fun to see him enjoy it so much.


Shepard was tall enough to ride this coaster in the kids' area and he especially enjoyed riding with his friend, Jared. Shepard has no fear of coasters, so he is anxious to be tall enough to ride them all.

Will got a little scared inside this ride... his favorite thing was riding on the train.

Such cute boys!

Tried to get a couple of pics of the boys in our front yard today...

Will's toothbrush head

We told the boys to go brush their teeth before bed and then out walks Will looking like this. You can see the culprit grinning behind him. Yes, that is a toothbrush stuck to his forehead!! I had to snap the picture quick with my phone so the quality isn't too great. These boys always seem to find a way to make us chuckle.

Dissecting Chicken and Eating Salad

Our new school curriculum is helping us learn how to incorporate school into our everyday lives... I think we are beginning to grasp the lifestyle of learning. So, we've been studying vitamins and minerals and at the grocery store last night the boys shopped for ingredients to make a healthy salad. My boys are NOT salad eaters, but when it's a project and they help make it, they suddenly are interested. They realized some veggies that they actually do like and others that, well, nope, they really don't. Shepard gagged on the grape tomato and Josiah spit out the cauliflower, but they both liked the raw squash.

John also got a coconut for them to try and that was a lot of fun.


The boys also tried squirting lemon juice on their salad instead of using salad dressing... they loved that. Here's Josiah squirting it in his mouth, too.


John took some time off work this afternoon to help the boys dissect a chicken. Isn't he a great dad?! The boys had so much fun and learned a lot. And I was extremely grateful because I'm just too squeamish for that kind of project.

Got a new camera

Oh yeah! I snapped a couple of shots of the boys while they were playing outside today - it was a gorgeous fall day! I can't wait to have a chance to take some more pictures. :)

Exercising during school

We are learning about muscles in school, so we did a lot of different exercises to see which muscles we were using. The first one we did was push ups and Will was excited to join in the fun, too.

Flowers from the boys

They collected all these flower buds for me at the store today while we were shopping for some new flowers... these were the ones that had fallen to the floor. Isn't it cute how quick they are to gather flowers for me... and honestly, it did end up making a pretty and colorful bunch of flowers. I'm enjoying them on a napkin on the kitchen counter... makes me smile as much as any in a big vase!

Last soccer games of the season

Here's Will ready to cheer on his brothers... it was cold outside. :)

Baking bread for school

We've been studying nutrition and stewardship in school lately, so when we were studying grains last week, I decided that we would bake bread together by grinding the wheat first to make flour. The boys had a lot of fun and I think they actually learned a lot.
Here they are rolling out dough for cinnamon rolls... yum!


Josiah and Shepard are spreading pizza sauce on their homemade whole wheat pizza crusts.


I found out that this is Josiah's "Han Solo" smile!

The mother of boys

Isn't life interesting?! When we came home from our camping trip last week late at night and I was finally crawling into bed, I found a little green snake on my pillow... it was rubber. Thankfully I figured that out quickly before I started screaming! The next morning, the oldest son said, "Hey Mom, did you find a surprise last night?" A couple days later the 2nd son came in from playing outside and reported to me that he had just placed his new callapitter friend (that's code for caterpillar) in the bubble gum bag on the kitchen counter - that's the bag of gum I keep handy for handing out little treats to the boys. I ran to the kitchen and sure enough, wiggling around in the bag was a little green worm-like caterpillar. I seriously got the heebie jeebies... it just wasn't right seeing that bug in a bag of "food" in the kitchen. I just shuddered again writing about it... the visual image is still there!

But, tonight when I got home from eating dinner with friends, the boys were all tucked into bed already... but they heard me come home and wanted to see me. So, when I went in their room to say good night I was met with squeals of "Hi Mommie!" and "we missed you" and lots of great big smiles which were followed by big bear hugs. (It's worth all the plastic snakes and wiggly insects!)

Shep's bday at MarVal

We had planned to celebrate Shep's bday with John's family while we were camping and it ended up raining that evening, so we all scurried inside and shared the birthday cookie and watched him open gifts in our cabin.

Camp MarVal

We had a GREAT time camping at Camp MarVal in Oklahoma with John's family this week! We had never been there before and we learned that it is a really fun place. We had the cutest little cabin right next to where John's family's RV's were camped. I told the boys that our cabin was just like the Little House on the Prairie cabin. How fun! The boys had a lot of fun playing and sleeping in the loft. We were so blessed to get to spend that time together with all the family. And we came home relaxed and rejuvenated! I didn't get very many pics, but here a few...

Josiah loves roasting anything in a fire!


Shepard loves wearing hat and started the secret hat club at camp. :)


Will kept saying "wanna ride" and we realized that he wanted to go for rides on the golf cart.


Thanks Mammie for the very fun and yummy fun dips! (And colorful, too!)

Shep's BB Gun

John took Shep out today to shoot his new BB gun. This was one very excited little boy!


This is my favorite picture! Shepard is so excited... it looks like he might have hit the target.


Here he is going to check the targets to see if his shot made the mark... aren't these targets that John made for him so cute?!

Shepard's 5th Birthday

It was a BIG day in Wasson World! (My sweet sis-in-law, Joy, coined that phrase... I love it!) Today was Shepard's 5th birthday!! The best way John and I have been able to explain it is that Shepard maximized every bit of joy and excitement that he could muster out of his special day. He literally skipped with joy all day long and he never stopped talking... he felt on top of the world! He was super excited about every single thing we did today and it was fun to share the day with him. He did eventually get to learn the lesson about why Joseph's brothers wanted to throw him in the big hole... after some of the brothers got tired of him playing KING all day. We had been planning a Robin Hood theme party... so when we found this little green hat at the party store this afternoon, Shepard couldn't have been more thrilled because he wanted to dress up as Robin Hood so badly. He wore it the rest of the day. We had a big tussle over his shirt - Josiah and I tried to dress him in one of Josiah's green shirts with a belt tied around his waist and it really looked just like Robin Hood, but Shepard cried and cried because he wanted to wear his own green shirt... well, he ended up looking like a little leprechaun. :) And he could not be swayed otherwise. So, here is our sweet birthday boy - the leprechaun Robin Hood. :)


Josiah made this little candle stand in VBS a year ago and he got it out and set it up with a lego Robin Hood for Shep. When Shep realized what Josiah was doing, his appreciation and gratefulness was so great that he ran to give Josiah a big hug and say thanks. My heart was full of joy to see Josiah's thoughtfulness and Shepard's gratefulness.

more birthday...

Shepard's gratefulness is so enthusiastic and genuinely comes straight from his heart. He opened his gift from Josiah - a Star Wars clone costume - and he immediately ran to Josiah and jumped on him to give him a big bear hug and say thank you. If you are on the receiving end of his gratefulness, brace yourself!


It didn't take him long to get his new outfit on!

Mmmmm... finally, the cupcakes!


Yikes! Does it stain... yep.


Gotta ride! Will gets a turn on the new scooter.