About Jace and Brett...Tag from Bryn!

I'm cheating...4 things about each boy:

Jace:

1. Jace loves science. He is really good at filing away facts in his head and pulling them out as they apply in random situations.

2. His favorite books are science books...totally into nonfiction for the most part. Both his parents are nerds, so we can't really say anything!

3. Jace loves to draw with his box of 96 crayons...usually the same picture...a car with a spoiler and lots of tail pipes and usually equipped with some sort of explosive device! Oh, and building paper airplanes!

4. His teacher loves him because he is quiet in class...just his nature...we think he might be teachers' pet...

Brett:

1. Brett's newest thing is to wee in the wild...he loves to pee on trees. While we were fishing the other day, I turned around to see him with his pants around his ankles aimed at a tree! We had to have a talk with him about when it is OK to do that!

2. He loves preschool...if he could, he would go to school every day.

3. Brett's a pretty smart kid...things just seem to make sense to him. Like, you don't really have to explain things to him, he just knows! It's kind of freaky...

4. He loves to do Grandma's alphabet puzzle all by himself. He puts the picture down, then the letter (he goes in order) and then sings the song up to the letter he is on, then adds another picture and letter and then sings it all over again!

I tag...whoever reads this and has kids or nieces or nephews or kids they babysit or whoever that they want to share random facts about! :-)

Fishing and Canoeing with Linz (Spring Break)

Hey again...it's the end of spring break and we get to have Lindsey (Matt's sister) come stay with us for a few days. She apparently loves to fish (which I never knew), so yesterday afternoon we took the boys out behind the house for a little fishing. We had pretty good luck yesterday (using lunch meat and cat food for bait...just a little tip, pepperoni doesn't work), so we decided to go again this afternoon and added a little canoe trip, too. Here's some pics of us and our fish:

Linz is such a good aunt:

Jace with his first fish:

Brett with his first fish:

Jace, Linz, Brett and Matt waving at the camera from the canoe:

My self-portrait of me and my fish (I decided to take a turn at fishing while they were in the canoe...I caught 2 and took this picture of myself with the 2nd one...pretty good, eh?):

Linz and one of the fish she caught...we finally remembered to take a picture:

Matt with one of the fish he caught...he didn't want to feel left out:

Spring Break at Grammy & Pop's (Odessa, TX)

Hey everyone! This week is spring break for us, so we took a little trip to Odessa to visit Matt's family and it's such a bonus for us that Heather, Phil and Kade live in Midland. We got to see a lot of them this trip, too! We had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the boys with Grammy and Pop:

Quiet Time with Grammy:

Playing with Pop after church on Sunday:

Easter Time with Grammy and Pop:


Playing on the mail box:

Brett's Easter Party

Brett's school had an Easter party today. He got to have an Easter Egg Hunt and wanted to know if we could play Easter when we got home! Here's a picture of him with his stuffed bunny from Mrs. Elliott:

Jace's First Grade Open House & Science Fair

Well, we went to our first open house this week. Jace's school had their open house in conjunction with a science fair. Jace was so excited to get to take us to his classroom and see all of his projects and then over to his favorite subject, PE. He also participated in the science fair. Thanks to Uncle Julio, Jace was able to display a gemstone collection (his original collection somehow made it into storage). I was so proud of Jace doing his project. He learned how to use an index to look up each gemstone and find the hardness. Then he typed up his findings (with a little help from me) and made a poster, as you can see in the picture. He did a great job.

At the Science Fair:


Jace, Brett and Jace's teacher, Mrs. Garcia (Brett wanted to be in the picture, too!):


PE is Jace's favorite thing about school...his favorite part about PE is playing basketball:

Canoeing with the Mascorros

On Saturday, we had our friends the Mascorros come over for canoeing and pizza. We had a really nice time! Here are some pictures of the canoeing excursion:

All the kids ready to go (Hannah, Joshua, Jace, Matthew, and Brett)



Everyone canoeing except the moms



Jace and his friend Matthew (they met in preschool)



Cheesey Brett

Tagged--All about Matt!!!

How long have you been married? It was 10 years last August…can you believe it???

How long did you date? That gets tricky…we were best friends that sort of melded into dating. So, I guess you could say officially about a year before we actually tied the knot…but unofficially, I’d say more like 18 months to 2 years.

How old is he? 31 (32 in April…I can’t wait! Then he’ll be as old as me!)

Who eats more? Matt…hands down.

Who said I love you first? Matt

Who is smarter? It’s all relative, isn’t it? As far as financial savvy-ness, Matt…as far as common sense, probably Matt! If you’re talking school, I’ve got that one in the bag…and practical knowledge, like how to defrost a freezer (NOT with an iron, Matt! – as a disclaimer, he was in college then and it was probably more like “let’s see what happens if…”)

Whose temper is worse? Mine

Who does the laundry? ME ME ME!!! He’ll switch it out if I ask him to…and fold stuff if I leave it in the place he wants to sit!

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Matt…and we used to change all the time but now we pretty much sleep on the same sides every night.

Who cooks dinner? ME…Matt only makes tacos…breakfast tacos, brisket tacos…

Who pays the bills? Matt…used to be me until I found out that he actually WANTS to do it and LIKES it…now he does it!

Who is more spoiled? I’m so more spoiled…

Who drives when you are in the same car? Matt…even though I’m the worst back seat driver and he always threatens to make me drive next time…

Who is more stubborn? I guess it’s me b/c I think I really do get my way most of the time!!!

Whose parents do you see the most? We used to see mine more since we live in the same city, but for the next 18 months while mine are on their mission, we’ll be seeing Matt’s family more…but we see them pretty often anyway, I think! And I like it!

Who proposed? Matt

Who has more friends? Probably Matt…but neither of us are lacking…

Who has more siblings? Me (there are 4 in our family, 2 in Matt’s)

Who wears the pants in the family? Me…and he would admit it…

I tag anyone who would like to share embarrassing pictures of their husbands…

Our boys looked just like this:


Superman sacked out:


Ping Pong Champ...nice shorts!


So tough, Mr. Karate:


Freshman in HS:


Us at the Phantom Ball in Lubbock, TX:


Our wedding day...I know, I know...90s hair:

Tag to you Kat!

One Word Monday (I stole this from Bryn):

Your Weekend: crazy
Smelling: lotion
Annoyed By: people
Your Face: zitty
Your Pants: jeans
Something You Want To Create: dinner
A Favorite Old Movie Star: Astaire
Not Looking Forward To: cooking
Hearing: fan
You Wish You Could: sleep
Last Thing You Cooked: lunch
Your Breakfast: cereal
Your Driving Record: clean
Last Illness: cold
Want To Be: napping
Mind Keeps Wandering To: Mrs. Elliott
You Despise: sneakiness
Unprepared For: FHE
Favorite Part Of Spring: warmth
Your Toenails: red
Proud Of Your: kids
Not Proud Of Your: thoughtlessness
How You Decompress: cleaning
Your Kitchen Table: clean
Something You Want to Accomplish Today: dishes

Toothless Jace

Last week, I posted pictures of Jace's missing front tooth...well, he lost another one Saturday night. Now he's missing one top one and one bottom one...he says he's saving his dollar this time because his other top tooth is pretty loose, too, and he wants to have more money to spend (probably on hot wheels cars...which I've learned you can never have too many of)!

In Memory of Neil Elliott

Saturday afternoon, Matt and I had the privelege of attending a memorial service for Brett's preschool teachers' husband, Neil Elliott. We have known Kay and Neil Elliott for 3 years now since Kay was Jace's preschool and kindergarten teacher. Now Brett is in preschool 2 days a week at her school.

Mr. and Mrs. Elliott have 9 children. I know 2 of them just from going to and from school and we got to meet a few more at the service. All of them are just good people. I can't imagine raising 9 children not to mention the fact that they all turned out so good! Their oldest daughter shared some cute stories about bedtime rituals and hunting with her dad (which was not the thing to do in the 1960s...to take your daughter hunting). The pastor shared some really amazing things about Neil, one of which was his good-samaritan adoption of a stretch of IH-10. If anyone was broken down along that stretch of road, Neil would stop to help, including a church bus full of children on a trip which took 3 round trips to transport to his home for Kay to feed and entertain while the bus was being repaired. These stories reminded me that there are good people in the world, really good people, who do good things. Some of Neil's last words to his children were to take care of each other, which they already do so well from what I've seen. They were all able to be around their dad when he passed away.

Although we didn't know Mr. Elliott very well, I did get to have dinner with their family last year as traditionally Mrs. Elliott feeds the Fiesta Committee after they decorate the backyard for the school's Fiesta celebration. A couple of easters ago, Kay and Neil came to an Easter Oratorio that I played and sang in. It was a really nice program and Neil made me promise to invite him to the next one. Well, we never had a next one, but I did make sure I invited them to church when I played for Christmas the next year.

I know Mr. Elliott's example has and will continue to reach far beyond the limits of his own family. The Elliott family has already set a great example for our family to follow, and I hope this little memorial post will help some of you try to be better people as well.

Working at the land...

So Saturday morning we went out to the land to do a little clean up. We had piles of mulch sitting around from chipping all the stuff Matt and his crew cleared, so we needed to get out there and spread most of it but we left some for the neighbors to use in their yards. The boys had a blast out there as usual...here are some pics of them and Matt...





We also found a really cool lizard that we had to take pictures of: