Who stole the jelly beans?

Everyday, yes everyday, I refill this candy dish with jelly beans.
Where could they all be going?



I know it is not "just" Hewy. Liam gets his hand caught in their several times a day. Noble doesn't like jelly beans. Alec likes them, but he isn't home all that much.

A delightful Spring treat.

This Week

Some of what we did this week...

These can were an experiment the boys did with Lisa. They heated the nearly empty cans up on the stove and then submerged them in ice water and this is what they looked like after that adventure.




The boys and I read Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride this week and then I gave them this large piece of paper and let them make a mural of it. They ended up drawing Paul Revere riding his horse, the bay, the Church on the North Shore with the lanterns hung, the farms and country with farmers hiding behind trees and walls waiting for the Red Coats. Very Good!



The boys made these nests with yarn, glue and a balloon.




When they boys pulled the top rack out on the dishwasher today it broke and fell down. I fixed it, but I think our cheap dishwasher might be on it's last cycle!

Too cute not to post

Liam after he had been working in the yard.
Those freckles.
That grin.
Those eyes.
The messy hair.
The casualness about him.

LOVE HIM!

"The Dirt"

The Dirt on our family was literally dirt this week.
We had 13 yards of dirt delivered to spread over our grass.

It took us two days to get it all moved where it needed to be, by days, I mean evenings after Alec got home from work. Tuesday my parents were there, and Dell came to help and then our hometeachers came. That was nice.
Tuesday it was just our family.



This was day one and the first pile of dirt, or about half.

Noble was a real helper. He did everything from load the wheelbarrow to push and deliver to raking it out. What a great helper he was.

And honestly what more could a little boy dream of, a huge pile of dirt in his front yard. It kept him happy for hours.

Liam loved it too. Loved the idea of messing around in it, not the fact of working, and as soon as he was done "working" (read: goofing off) he wanted to shower. Once he was clean, he would come back to "work" some more. I don't know how many showers he took over the two days.

I shoveled about half the dirt total and raked a good portion of it too. I got lots of comments, are you sure you should be doing that if you are 4 months pregnant? Obviously these people had never met my Grandma and don't have a clue that I come from Nebraska Farmer Stock. :)

Enchanted Rock

Last week we took a break from normal school work and took a side trip to Enchanted Rock State Park. It is a large Granite Dome that has been there for a billion or so years. You can hike it if you are up for it.


Here are the boys at the base. It really is not that far to the summit, but it is steep in many places.

On our way up.
See that tree? That is where I decided to sit and wait while the boys and Grandpa went the rest of the way up. (it was shady) :)

There they go leaving me - set to make it to the top!

And then they came back to me - all Champion like for making it to the top!

Don't say I never let you. . .

Is it all people that recall not being able to blow bubbles in their chocolate milk or stir their ice cream until it was soupy when they were kids? Or is that just me? Well, just for proof, when my kids are all grown up - here ya go. . . you all blew bubbles in your chocolate milk, at a cafe no less - and I not only let you, I took pictures!




Love ya all bunches.

Rather Sweet

How long have I lived in San Antonio?
I finally made it to Frederickburg (69 Miles North of SA) this week and ate at Rather Sweet. Rebecca Rather is the owner and awesome baker of the Rather Sweet Bakery. I own her cookbooks, I have made her food. . . but boy oh boy is being there in person even better. Lunch was awesomely good and the sweets were to die for. It was hard not to get one of everything!


People still say that Noble looks like his Dad -
are you kidding me, this is my kid!

Grandma and Liam

Grandpa and Hewy

The wishing well outside the bakery.

Hewy learned to ride the scooter

I have no idea when he learned to ride the scooter, but yesterday he said to me: "I need to go practice my scootering." The older boys and Alec were gone golfing so I went out with him and sure enough, he was scootering.

Listen at the beginning he says "I going to stay here and wait here for Dad." and then I love how at the end he says "Thanks you!"

Oh - and the front wheel wobbles a great deal. Maybe Grandpa can fix that.

Another great video

I hope my boys can be like this young man.

Mom's Big Day

March 14, 2009
Pat Simpson was baptized and confirmed a member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Universal City, Texas
Schertz Ward


Our Family


Liam said the Opening Prayer.
Lois Kristensen gave the baptism talk.
I gave the Holy Ghost talk. (Liam, Noble, Hewy and Alec all had a part in my talk)
Alec baptized my Mom.
My Dad and Bishop Miller witnessed the baptism.
Bishop Miller confirmed her.
Alec, Brad Tobler, Dell Dunn, 3 missionaries were in the circle.
Noble gave the closing prayer

Alec, Dixie, Pat and Dick

The missionaries.
I can't remember all their names.
I do know that the missionary to my Mom's right was leaving in five days - this was a highlight to the end of his mission. The missionary behind her was the missionary that had the most influence on her - he had gone home 5 weeks ago. He made the trip back just for the baptism.

And as if the baptism alone was not gift enough, my dear friend Lois made the trip from Utah for the sacred event too. Words alone cannot say what that meant to me.

brotherly love

Too cute to pass up a picture!


Hewy and Noble snuggle on the couch.

What grows at your house?

What do you grow at your house?
We grow kids and bacteria! :)

Here are some of the results of our little experiment from last week.

That really gross black mass - that's the kitchen sink, the other half of the same dish - that's the downstairs toilet! I have always heard that kitchen sinks were far worse than toilets, but WOW!
The second grossest thing in our house (that we tested) but isn't pictured here: Hewy's hands. Liam's nose didn't even come close to what Hewy's paws carried. The phone was probably the next worst thing that we tested, and then the front door knob. We also tested the back door knob, the remote and kitchen table - all of which were about the same.

Temples

When I logged on to lds.org today to look up a reference for a talk I am preparing this video was the first thing on the page. The LDS church encourages us to use our blogs to share our message and faith, in hopes that people will come to know and understand us and our faith better.

I hope you enjoy.

Super Kid

Why yes he is.



I hope he makes you smile as much as he does me!

Which is a lot. :)

I know you know. . .

I know you know by now that Lisa rocks.
Today was the boys Lisa day, every Tuesday she comes and "tutors" the boys.

But this week was Spring Break, so they didn't have assigned work.
So instead they did all kinds of fun projects.
Including making stained glass cookies.
She came up with projects to keep them busy for FOUR hours!
click here to view the homeschool blog for other fun things they did.



At the end of the time with Lisa Noble asked, so are we going to do anything fun today for Spring break or was our Lisa time our fun for the day?" And it wasn't in a complaining voice, it was like he had really had fun and didn't need or expect anything else from the day!

The Green Basket

We have a "job" at our house. Noble and Liam rotate who does it day by day.
It's called "The Green Basket."

FYI: The Green Basket is actually brown. It used to be a green canvas basket that was smaller than the brown canvas basket that has replaced it. Too many boys, too much stuff would be the reason for the change. How ever the name is stuck in our brains and we all still call it "the green basket," even though it is brown. We really confuse some people when we talk about.

The purpose of the green basket that sits on my kitchen counter is to collect "stuff" that needs to be put away. It started as my relief from pick up and putting away little boys things that get left laying around. And also a relief from going up and down our 21 steps to get to the bedrooms or playroom.

Sadly, many days, the green basket gets neglected. Not that I stop putting things in it mind you! Boys forget that it needs to be emptied. I have even seen them "put something away" in the basket. Like I say: "Liam go put your reading book away" and he picks it up off the table and puts it "away" int he green basket. ABUSE of my system!

So on Monday, which is our lets regain control of the house and do our best to keep it picked up, day. I cleaned my room and bathroom, they cleaned theirs. We cleaned the gameroom together. We all worked on the downstairs, often in different rooms, but working together. We all worked on the kitchen together. The house looked great and for the most part we were DONE!

Except.

I asked the boys if they knew what "the elephant in the room" meant. Surprisingly, they did. So I asked them to look around and see if they could see any elephants! They both ducked their chins, smirked and said, "the green basket?"

"YES the GREEN basket!" you sillies!
It was over flowing, on to the counter and on to the floor!



This is Noble loaded up with some Green Basket goods to return to their homes. You can see the green basket on the counter behind him. It shouldn't be piled!

When I took the pic of Noble, Liam said "take a picture of me!"

Green Eggs and Ham

Noble had been wanting to make Green Eggs and Ham for awhile now. We hoped to do it for Dr. Suess' birthday - but we didn't get that far that day. One night last week he asked what was for dinner and I (in my worn out I really don't want to cook plea) suggested he make Green Eggs and Ham. I really am a lucky Mom that my boys like to cook. And they are willing to cook, and help, when needed. Look how tall Noble is getting! What a great Future Missionary!



Everyone ate their green eggs and ham!

"little big boy swing"

I mentioned to Hewy a couple weeks ago that we should switch his baby/toddler swing to the big boy swing that we had in the garage waiting for him. It's even yellow. Admittedly, once I said it, I thought, no - my baby is not ready for the BIG boy swing! What was i thinking?

But that's all he could talk about from then on.

One night this week he convinced his Dad to switch his swing out for "the little big boy swing."



He does pretty well. He has stayed on it so far and loves just as much as ever to go out and swing.


As you can see, everyone likes to swing. Noble can get pretty high.

Reunion

The Nielsons had dentist appointments in San Antonio this week.
They came a little early and so the Roberts and Dunns met them at a park to have lunch.

it was all fun and good times until after-the-fact...
all the Moms were Sunburned!
My kids were fine, I hope the other kids were fine, but I got a good burn out of it.



l-r: Tanner N., Samuel R., Hewy D., Liam D., Aubrey N., Kaitlyn N., and Noble D.