Posting Video's

I can not for anything, figure out how to post a video on here. If you know, please comment on here and let me know. It's probably extremely simple, but I'm not that computer savy. I would like to share the video's of my kids saying it how it is. They will tell you what they know, which they think is everything. Someone please help. Thanx.

Creation

I have started a new curriculum with Jameson. I didn't want to wait until September, because he needs something to do during the day, besides watching TV. I need to keep him busy. He loves school. He loves writing letters and numbers, and practicing sounds. We are learning to read. The thing he loves most though, is memorizing his Bible verses. He does really well with the verse, but forgets the reference.

The curriculum I started is called Bright Beginnings. We have only gone through the first couple days, but I really like it. The first part of the school day involves reading from the Bible. It started in the beginning, with Genesis 1. We went into the bathroom and turned off the light to show what it was like before God created the world. Then God said "Let there be light!" Jameson loves that part. He now wants to play the creation game all the time.

Because of going through these verses in the Bible and teaching their meaning to my 4yr old, I have been thinking a lot about the topic of Creation vs. Evolution. I know this topic has been discussed so many times that everyone is probably sick of hearing about it. Well I have a different twist. I wholeheartedly believe in Creation. I believe that God created the world and everything in it in 6 - 24 hour days. Then on the 7th day he rested. I believe that was approx. 6000 years ago. I do not believe that the dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. Every time a read a dinosaur book to my kids, I leave that part out and say "a long time ago" instead.

There are so many reasons as to why I believe this, but it would take too long and take up way too much space to mention them all now. I suggest, if you are interested, watch the movie "End of the Harvest". It is a great movie

The Pool

We went swimming in the pool today. Scott got home from work at about 4pm and we all changed and headed to the pool. There is a kiddie pool about 1 foot deep that the boys love playing in. When they get tired of that, we put their life jackets on and go to the big pool. Lately the boys have been jumping into the water from the side of the pool. They both don't like water in their faces, so this is a big step. Teagen is afraid of being in the water by himself. He clings to either Scott or I the entire time. He doesn't trust the life jacket. I suppose that is a good thing. We are trying to teach him how to swim, starting with the kicking. He does it for a few seconds, then stops. He really likes it when we just drag him around the pool. Today Gavin came into the pool with us. He really loved it. He had a huge smile on his face, and was moving his arms and legs a lot. Going to the pool has kind of become an evening tradition here. It's our way of getting some energy out of the boys before dinner and bed. They do end up sleeping better.

Gavin has started to do a lot of babbling. It is really fun to just sit and talk to him. Jameson does most of the talking. I am going to try to get it on video, cuz it is adorable watching a 4yr old talk to a 2mo old. Jameson asked me the other day, "What happened to Gavin's teeth?"

Teagen has really gotten into the Terrible Two's. He has become extremely defiant. We are relearning how to control a 2yr old, if that is even possible. Teagen can also be the sweetest kid around. He loves to snuggle, and will be the first to give you a hug. You don't even have to ask for one, he's the one who always wants to hug someone.

Pictures

Gavin is now 2 months old. He started smiling recently. I love it. His smiles are hard to catch on camera. He smiles with his whole body. Arms and legs get extended and everything. It's really cute. I will try to post a video of it later. He's a joy to have around and the other boys always want to help out with him.

Jameson loves his little brother. He is always asking if he can hold him or play with him. Jameson can usually get Gavin to stop crying. He is a big helper. He helps with laundry and dishes. Now if I could only get him to change diapers.

Teagen is still a big trouble maker. He teases his big brother all the time, but when you get down to it, he just wants to be like Jameson. He is a big copy cat. He does exactly what Jameson does, and says what Jameson says. Yes, he still sucks two fingers too.

Oh no! We have another finger sucker. It's not very often that we see this though. Usually he doesn't want his fingers or a pacifier. He does just fine without either. He doesn't cry much, only when he's hungry.

The boys got a hold of my camera and took some pictures. They are not supposed to be on top of that dresser. If I had walked into the room when he was up there, he would have jumped down and ran to me asking for a hug. It's great how kids know they are in trouble, and either they are asking for forgiveness, or they want to distract you from punishing them. It makes it harder to punish them when they are sooooo cute.

This is called a Spiny Backed Orb Weaver. We saw it on a massive web a few feet from our front door. It looked so freaky that I had to look it up online. I found out that it isn't poisonous, but I am still going to keep my distance. I hear that these spiders are common down here.

Cars

I am not good with cars. When we drove down to Florida from Minnesota, we had some difficulty in the mountains with our van. We started to have trouble accelerating and going up the hills. After arriving in Florida, I brought the van in to have it checked out. They told me it was the transmission. It wasn't changing gears. It's approx. $2000 to fix.

One car down, now for the other one.

Scott has been using the car to drive back and forth to work. We didn't think there was enough room in the back seat for all three boys and their car seats. Somehow we managed to fit/squeeze them all in. We were so happy that we were going to be able to still have one vehicle to use.

I was driving, with all three boys squeezed in back, to pick up Scott from work and go to a church group meeting. About half way their, the car wouldn't accelerate anymore. I managed to get to an exit, and off the freeway. However, I was not able to make it to the gas station that was maybe a few hundred feet from the exit. The car just stopped running. I couldn't start it either. We think it may be the battery/alternator.

Well the boys and I sat in the car for about half an hour in the intense heat without air conditioning, while we waited for Scott to come pick us up. He finally got there and we unloaded the kids from the car and loaded them up in Scott's work van. We pushed the car to the gas station, and left it there overnight. We continued on to our church group meeting.

Once we got to our meeting, my mood changed. I am in awe over how caring everyone is. We have never experienced a church family that is so close knit. They really are a family, and have been accepted us as part of that family. We thank God for that.

Now our prayer request is for WISDOM. We need to decide what to do with both of the vehicles.

All three boys were so amazingly well behaved during this whole ordeal.

Today

Scott didn't come home last night because he worked really late, and then had another shift really early. When I woke up this morning, Jameson and Teagen were both in my bed. We got up and went into the kitchen to get breakfast. I wasn't in the mood to cook anything, so we had cereal.

The boys found a spider on the wall. They both ran and got a shoe to smash it, then just sat there watching it. They kept returning to me, updating me on the progress of the spider. Then, Teagen was done watching it, and smashed it. Jameson didn't like that Teagen had killed it. He wanted to know if Jesus would bring the spider back alive.

Teagen got into my pens again. This time he didn't color on anything but paper.

Jameson has been begging me all day to do school stuff with him. I am not in the mood today, and we were supposed to take today off of school anyway. I know I should let him do it when he is that interested, but I just didn't feel like it today.

My dad had knee replacement surgery today. The surgery went well, and he is in recovery now. I will hear more later.

Teagen got to the salt shaker in the kitchen, and decided to empty it all over the floor. Jameson took apart all my post-it notes. Both the boys are really wild today. Time to put a movie on for them.

Vaccines???

Way to go Bill Gates. I, for one, will be thinking twice about what vaccines, if any, my kids will be getting. There are vaccines being introduced into other countries, and the sterility rates are raising in those countries as well. He just opened up a whole new can of worms. Why does the world need to be "depopulated"? God said to go and multiply. You can fit every person in the world into one city in norther Florida. (I can't remember which one.) There is plenty of world left out there to fill. As far as CO2 goes, isn't that kind of necessary to have? We exhale it, plants devour it and make oxygen for us to inhale. CO2 does not need to be down to zero.

Star Spangled Banner

Popeye

Jameson has been into watching some black and white cartoons. Some of them don't have any talking, just music. He loves them. The ones he likes the most are the Popeye cartoons. He has been running around the house all day trying to save Olive Oyl, and punching Bluto. I think the best part about Jameson trying to be Popeye is that he has asked me for spinach for lunch.

Everyone has told him that if he eats his veggies he will "grow up big and strong". He doesn't believe it until he sees it on TV. Popeye gets mega strength when he eats his spinach, so now Jameson needs to eat spinach. I wonder if he'll like it.

Guess what we're having for lunch tomorrow.

Reading

Jameson knows all his letters and the sounds they make. Because he has reached this very important mile stone, we decided to start trying to teach him to read. We started explaining that when you put letters together the sounds they make form a word. He didn't get it. We started with an easy one. MOM. Jameson sounded it out. MMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM. We asked him what does that say, what word is that? Jameson said, "Toilet."

Thanks Jameson. He doesn't get it yet. That's okay, we will keep working at it.

Florida

Okay, we are now in Florida. We left good old Minnesota on Tuesday, May 18th at about 6am. We drove the minivan, while my parents drove the Budget rental truck. We are so thankful to them for helping out all they have. The first day, we made it to southern Illinois to a town called Effingham. Yes, you read it right. Effingham. We stayed the night there and left early the next morning. The next day we made it through the mountains with only a little trouble with the vehicle. Our vans transmition doesn't like the mountains. We stopped that night in a town just south of Atlanta, Georgia. We arrived here in Boynton Beach, Florida, on the third evening. It was about 8pm Eastern time. Scott called a few of his employees, and they had the truck unloaded in about an hour. My parents stayed and helped us out with unpacking and arranging things. They flew out of the Fort Lauderdale airport on Monday, May 24th. We are definitely going to miss everyone back in Minnesota.

We have gone to the beach down here a couple times, and plan to go about once a week. We would like to have the boys enrolled in swimming lessons, but they are expensive. I think we will just end up teaching them ourselves. Swimming is key when you live ten minutes from the ocean. The kids love the beach. It is one huge sandbox, and the waves are really fun.

Scott has been working a lot, but there are many compliments on his accomplishments. Hopefully soon he will be able to spend a little more time at home.

We found a church that we really like. We have only been there twice, and some of the families have already wanted to make play dates. Everyone there is so extremely nice. I know I will become really good friends with the ladies there. This is definitely where God wants us to be.