Poser

I ask for a smile, but this day, he was all about the

pose!

"Here Mom. Take my picture like this!"

:)

:)

Can I tell a secret?

It took a lot of work to get this picture that looks like it just "happened" :)

Let's just say that Reese was tired of Mommy trying to take pictures...

what a good sport!

Please, Tooth Fairy, For The Love of Pete....

Please come snatch this snaggle tooth from my son's mouth....

Because I don't know how much longer I can handle the

Dangly-Tooth-That-Can-Stick-Out-Of-His-Mouth!!!

Please help!

Random Pictures From The Past Few Weeks :)

Working hard at homeschool....
Family picture, Thanksgiving 2009

Jessie, Reese, & Austen, Thanksgiving 2009

Brothers!!

The Christmas tree is decorated & we're excited about Christmas!

BINGO!

I am so glad we are home together,

learning & playing...

I am lucky to spend my days playing Sight Word Bingo

and skip counting by 5s and 2s...

I'm happy that learning to read means snuggling on the bed

and digging into books of poetry, history, wonderful classic literature.

I love that getting ready for school means

brushing our teeth; pajamas welcome.

And I'm most happy that I get to spend all day, every day

with my son and my husband.

I feel so blessed...beyond words...

Oh Snap!

Oh Sometimes I just feel like I could sit and snap photos of my boy all day....

He was swimming & not paying much attention to what I was doing...
Except when I asked him to smile for a picture & then he turned silly...

Lying next to Mommy on the warm patio felt so good....

Does this silly boy know he carries his Mama's heart wherever he goes?

Seeing Red

Found this picture that Mom sent a few months back...

That's Reese & Uncle Jeff with a red finger nail. I was getting ready for the day & my little brother, Uncle Jeff, decided he would yank my chain and paint my son's fingernail red.

Well, Uncle Jeff's is red because I painted it when he fell asleep on the couch the night before.

But he thought I would get my feathers ruffled about him painting Reese's red.

Meh. Life is short. Rock a red nail now & then son!

Picking Flowers...

For whatever reason, Reese has become a

Flower-Picker-For-Mama Extraordinaire!

For the longest time, he had no interest in giving me any flowers...

when other friends were picking flowers for their Mamas,

Reese could have cared less.

Then all the sudden, something clicked and

now we can't pass a flower growing without Reese trying to pick it for me.

I have collected Dandelion blooms galore...

even a special dandelion flower that Reese valiantly protected...

during his baseball game...

when he should have been paying attention to the BALL...

instead he was making sure he didn't step on my flower...'

Usually, these picked jewels are always welcome.

Unless they're from the EPCOT Flower & Garden Show display...

Or the lone flower growing on Mama's new moss roses...

Ah, well...

there will be tons more blooms growing through the summer.

How could I get upset about him plucking off the only bloom so far?

It came from the heart :)

"Does he ever get to see other children?"

I took Reese to the pediatrician this week & he asked me this question...
"Does Reese ever get to socialize?
Does he see other children?"

I wish he understood the greatness of our friends.

And the fact that we come together to learn & explore.

Wednesday, we gathered to play outside & then

Learn about fractions...

They took turns, shared, played together, discussed, participated.

They were not confined to a classroom to accomplish this.

We gathered in a garage

(which was insanely clean & organized by the way!)

and sat around the group table...

learning with our friends.

Does Reese ever get to see other children?

Why, yes he does.

And what a group of wonderful children it is!!!

Where, Oh Where, Has This Blog Gone?

I think this officially the longest stretch of time I've ever left the blog un-updated! Wow...

Of course, we've been busy. Disney World at the end of March, lots of baseball games, Disney World coming up again next week. Fun at CoOp, outings & field trips, days at the park, plugging along through the last of our Saxon Phonics lessons for the year. Mommy's birthday, a surprise visit from Austen, Easter Weekend. We toured a private Christian school this morning that offers a 2 day at schooo/2 day at home model for education...glad we toured, but I don't think it's the right fit.

So we've been up to plenty. Mommy has just been super-unmotivated to post anything :)

The latest & greatest....last Tuesday night, Reese won the game ball for making three outs at base (2 at 1st base and 1 at 3rd base). He's having a blast & seems to really be picking up on what to do at different positions! And he's great at making contact with the ball while at bat, so it's been fun watching him play. Not that I'm biased or anything... :)

We're heading out tomorrow for a trip to the Dallas Heritage Museum with our homeschool buddies, the Whitakers, and then going to Grammie's Saturday to see Uncle Jeff while he's in town. Sunday we'll come home, head to a birthday party for Reese's buddy Nicholas, & then Monday morning we're off to Orlando.

I think I need to put all the blog pictures on my travel laptop so I can update the blog while we wait for our flight at the airport Monday~

In the meantime...I hope you're all doing well & enjoying the spring weather!!

Get Thee To SmallThreads!

I stumbled upon Small Threads this morning & I just had to share! These handmade tshirts, onesies, undies, & such are the most adorable designs ever.

I love the rough edges of the stitching....
And how cute are these skivvies? They make equally adorable skivvies for little girls, but since I live in Boy Land, I love these...adds a whole new meaning to Pirate Booty...
Hello, Father's Day!
Go check out the Small Threads Etsy Store and see what goodies you can find. I want to do some serious shopping....

Let Your Imagination Run...

Can I just say how much I love the ideas over at Bent Objects?

The artist, Terry, takes any object, uses his wire twisting skills, & creates these really neat pieces of work.

You never know what he'll display...right now he's got a "Firebug" up his page. Made with a matchbook. Get it?

My favorite work of his is to the left...the carrot Mama & Baby.

Just goes to show what a little creativity and simple materials can become!

Texas T Shirt Quilt Giveaway!

We all have t-shirts that hold memories, right? Kid's jerseys...vacation souvenirs...you name it.

So what do you do with all of them after they're no longer wardrobe-worthy?


Hope over to BurbMom.Net and enter their contest! The winner will receive a quilt, made from tshirts, to keep forever. But that's not all...check out the examples on the Texas T-Shirt Quilts website. Number 6 is my favorite...check it out!!

Sharing A Secret....

Driving around Maui two weeks ago, Jeff & I were talking about who-knows-what as we took in the beauty. Reese was in the back seat, buckled in & kind of quiet. As we stopped for gas, & Daddy got out of the car, Reese decided to confess....

Reese: "Mommy, if I tell you something I did wrong, will you not punish me?"

Mommy: "Well, I might get mad, and we'll talk about what you did, but I won't punish you. You know it's important to tell Mommy the truth."

R: "Remember when we were at Disney World and the Space Mountain man said I was too short to ride?"

**Side note...this was THREE Disney trips ago...about six months ago...nothing recent!**

M: "Yes, I remember. You were really sad."

R: "I was. Then I gave the Space Mountain man the middle finger behind my back. I'm sorry."

It was all I could do to stop myself from giggling! He's a very good boy, and he was so frustrated because he couldn't go back on Space Mountain after someone else had already let him ride.

He full well knows it's a "cuss word" with your hand.

He promised he wouldn't do it again.

But what on Earth made him feel the need to confess after all this time? I was proud of him for telling the truth, when he absolutely knew it was forbidden to put up your middle finger & telling on himself might get him in trouble.

I think *that's* the important choice in the whole scenario, you know?

Leave It To Daddy...

Leave it to Daddy to come up with the perfect method for "dipping" your pasta!

I'm A Swap Mama, Are You?

View my page on SWAP MAMAS
Come check out Swap Mama! Noooooo...it's not a swinger site. Dirty.

It's a brand new site for moms to swap all their unused stuff! You can post what you have, take what someone else has, or swap if you both have something the other needs.

SwapMama says they're "smarter, greener, & kicking the economy to the curb!" How cute is that?

There are all sorts of categories...clothing, household stuff, holiday things, items just for Mommy. I think this is a GREAT idea & I can't wait to look through the posts and see what's offered!

If you want to join, go check out Barking Mad because she's having a contest to spread the word about SwapMama.

Happy Swapping friends!

Live Giraffe Birth

Check out this live giraffe birth video. What an amazing sight...and the poor baby's attempts at standing are so adorable!

A GreatGrandma's Love

GreatGrandma brought a baggie of these cookies all the way from California,

just so she could spell

I Love You Reese.

Beyond sweet.....

Come Escape Suburbia With Me!

Come check out Escape Suburbia ! It's a new blog written by author Tammy Kling who is a homeschool Mama, a woman of Faith, & is full of interesting thoughts. Mrs. Kling says:

"I write in hopes that something I say will change a life. Books saved my life, as a child who read and read and read, after school, and all through college. I devoured novels and luckily found mentors inside books who wrote things I needed to hear. Sometimes the words we say will be the only opportunity for mentorship in someones life. When I’m working on the street with the homeless the power of words is enhanced, and I carefully measure the words I say. I know that I might have something to offer that will help them get into a new mindset, get out of their current state, take baby steps towards a brighter future. I don’t think that is too lofty for any of us to think - because I know that you, and that me, have the power to change lives through the words we say to others. "


The author's latest project is The Compass...the companion book to the movie, The Compass, about discovering your purpose of life & living it! I'm sure you'll find lots of inspiration within the book & movie....

Head over to Escape Suburbia and get a glimpse inside an author's mind!

*Tammy Kling is an international author and literary coach to the world’s leading CEO’s, celebrities and individuals who want to pursue their dreams of writing a book. Her work has been featured in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Dateline NBC, Extra and Primetime.*

Making The Holiday His Own...

Last year, I found some little turkey place card holders on clearance & I pulled them out for our Thanksgiving dinner this year.



Reese was really excited about making the place cards with everyone's name, & I was shocked when he worked through all of the writing! Needless to say, he was very proud of his work, & Mommy took a picture of every single one like a Mad Woman. And then I dated the back of them, and put them in his Memory Box. Obsessive with capturing everything much?