Bye, bye bottle....

Well, I'm trying to get him off the bottle! Just as always....it's a fight to get this boy to drink. A friend suggested I let him hold the straw cup. The other cups we use he can disassemble and make a royal mess. THIS on eis from Kaitlyn and doesn't come apart easily for a toddler. He thought he was Big Stuff drinking all by himself...I had fun snapping pictures of the event! Here he's drinking...15 1/2 months old!


Now he's playing...


Here we have him swallowing (important details for a mom concerned with his fluid intake)


And finally just being cute!

Basically I give him a 4-5 oz bottle of juice watered down in the afternoon and at bedtime he gets a 4-5 oz bottle of milk...the rest is through the straw cup...God only knows how much he drinks, I can tell you how much he doesn't drink! But, during temper fits (he's really living up to being the "pistol" and losing his "angel" status) he has real tears...so he can't be dehydrated :)









NO, I don't let him ride this way all the time, just a few times a week...hehehe! Seriously, he was at my neighbor's house up the street and I didn't have his carseat and it was a little chilly out so I swung by in the Mustang to pick him up! Kimberlyn and I decided he had a fun ride!

One cute boy....

in a cute shirt his Mama bought him!Tommy 15 1/2 months old!

Cutest Pet Contest....

Don't know if the kids will win or not....but here are some of the pictures they submitted for the school Cutest Pet Contest! How fun...the kids paid a dollar per entry and then the students pay 25 cents per vote! I wonder if moms can vote too....hmmm :)

Crayfish...not the ideal family pet!

So on Tuesday Larry took Kimberlyn to gymnastics, I was cooking dinner and the older kids ran over to the pond behind our house to "fish." They took their net with their hopes of catching something. Tommy and I took a break from the kitchen to go see what was going on...


In Okahoma they DID in fact catch minnows and crayfish...we still have 2 crayfish (cray and Baby Cray --to Kimberlyn Baby Cray is Nemo) and FOUR minnows. They are actually pretty, they were small and transparent when the kids brought them home. Yes, if you don't recall we drove cross country with a fish tank last August during the move!

Cray got big and bossy and actually attacked Baby Cray....now we have TWO tanks. What next...

Good question....this is what was next real fish in my KITCHEN!! I think Larry said they are Blue Gills??? Not sure if that is what he called them or not.


So Dad got home and yep, we'll put them in the tank with Cray. I just shook my head, what else could I have done??!??!
Happy in their new home?? I guess.



Cray not so sure about the intrusion of privacy....



Cray letting the fish know exactly how he feels about the situation...



Poor shocked fish made my decision final (the kids went on a bike ride with Dad)...poor thing shocke dout of his mind about to be a gourmet dinner for Cray! Cray is a domesticated crayfish that gets fed very well in his home....he's not going to eat these poor tortured fish the kids brought home!

As a matter of fact yesterday (Wednesday) I had to do some online crayfish research as the kids came home and realized Cray was GONE! I figure he was mad about the incident and Mom taking his gourmet dinner away the day before he was gonns high tail it outta here!! The kids and I tore up the room where Cray's tank is....NO CRAY! 35 minutes or so have passed....goodness I thought, I wonder how long he can live out of water? Which brought me on my research mission. First thing I found is most crayfish live 1-2 yrs...ah, goodness, no pity for the dead guy...he's lived almost 2 yrs with us! Finally as long as their gills don't dry out they'll be fine out of water. This info would be helpful if I had a clue when he bailed and if his gills were drying out :) We gave up on the hunt...and I prayed his dead body wouldn't smell too bad....

An hour after we realized he was gone I noticed the cat go into the living room out of the corner of my eye. I just thought somebody should check in there. This was practically the farthest place from cray's tank...yep...THERE WAS CRAY....ALIVE!
We're assuming he had help along the journey by the cat or something? NO IDEA...he's back in his tank for the time being, this was his second escape, I bet it's not his last!

Oh, the fish the kids brought home were kindly released back to their proper home....the pond!

Please pray for the Booker Family....

I have a dear friend, Glenda Booker whom is in her final hours/days with a nasty cancer. Glenda and I formed a very close relationship while I lived with her as she insisted I stay at her home instead of a hotel while Tommy was in the NICU. Those were some of the hardest days of my life, yet they are filled with some very precious memories of our long talks and visiting in the evenings. She is the most inspiring, encouraging Christian woman I've ever met, and I am blessed to have lived with her for 6 weeks!

I know she has touched many more lives than mine and my family's....I'm sad to see her life coming to end but so blessed to know she is going to be healed VERY SOON!

Please pray with me that she can be pain-free and that her family has strength during this difficult time.

A quick funny...

Driving on base this am...

Gate guard: Howdy!
Kimberlyn: (as we pulled away) Mom, did he say howdy?
Mom: Yes, he did.
Kimberlyn: Is he a cowboy, only cowboys say Howdy and we're not in Texas. Isn't Texas where the cowboys are with their horses?
Then I did my best at explaining cowboys and their horses live everywhere.
Kimberlyn: Are there cowboys in this city?
I just laughed....kids are so stinking funny!

All is well here, we've had a few spring days and Kaitlyn has sported some extreme summer appearal already! That girl loves summer to wear her halter tops and shorts!

Robby's first soccer game was on Saturday and it was cold, no tthe 40 degrees like his first practice, but yet it was still chilly. The next game was a bit warmer. He's won both games and even has had the chance to play goalie...in the past the coach picked where you played and that was that. This coach ROCKS! He plays all the kids everywhere to give them experience. Robby enjoyed it and did a fabulous job doing the job! Robby is remembering how much he enjoys soccer and I think is going to choose soccer over football in the Fall! I enjoy soccer watching better too :)

Kaitlyn got to ride this past Monday for the first time in a few weeks due to the wet weather creating a mud pit out there. She really enjoyed it. We are so blessed to have such an amazing riding instructor for her! Kaitlyn has her first piano lesson tonight! She's excited!

I MUST start taking the camera. We've forgotten it for Robby's soccer games so far...

Tommy is showing us his attitude...boy oh boy! I tell you the kid doesn't like milk! I'm trying to switch him from this toddler formula to whole milk and well he's not a happy camper! I'm even adding ovaltine to it!! Today was better than yesterday, which was Day 1! So, I'm pleased about that!

Oh...here's a quick picture for you....last Saturday Larry went flying with our neighbor. He had fun! He even flew over the corn maze we went to last Fall when his Mom and Dad were visiting!





While I was looking for the above airplane pictures I found these too....first is Tommy last Thursday hanging out with Mom while the others were at Robby's soccer practice. The kid loves his blankies! He finally was feeling better and kicked that bug he had!
Next two are from the stinker fishing in the box of candy filled eggs the Easter Bunny left! He shakes the eggs to find the candy filled ones and then OBVIOUSLY showed me he could open them too! After the first picture with candy in his mouth I started taking bites off of the candy to make it small enough bites for him....we had fun sharing a treat!!

Poor, poor Tommy....

This isn't the first time....Kimberlyn has had him wear a tiara when he was too young to even bat it off.
What a face saying "HELP MOM!" Kimberlyn and Kaitlyn are in girlie-hog-heaven with all of my Mom's hair accesories I brought home.

Here is Tommy being driven around by his big sis whom doesn't have a driver's license as this must have been taken just moments before she DUMPED him out of her Jeep.....oh, the fun they had while I was away last week!


Here's our one-armed Tommy Boy (his burn bandaged up)....at the doctor this past Monday they gave us a different type wrap to protect the burn, it's more breathable....WOW, his burn is totally dried up and ALMOST healed now. We quit wrapping since there's no open wound. As you see it didn't slow him down.


Here's the sign they made me....how sweet!!