Marcus and William's Birthday Party

After we went to Grants Farm we came back for Will and Mark's birthday party at Grandma's!

William spent the rest of the time at Grandma's playing his new Wii game. :)

And Marcus fell in love with his Nerf gun

The whole gang

(minus Grandma and Papa) At Grants Farm (above) and Cici's Pizza (below)

Grants Farm

We went up to St Louis the day after Mark's birthday. While we were there we went to Grants Farm! I think Marcus loved it.

We saw the "Elephant show"

During the "Animal Show", they needed volenteers for a "Rat Race". William got picked! The rat was supposed to race across his arm to the arm of the boy next to him. First, the man doing the show put the rat on Will's head. Then... he put the rat in Will's hat and put his hat on his head!

This was my favorite part- the rat crawled into Will's shirt!

Marcus loved the sprinklers over the sidewalk. I played with him in there, and I got SOAKING!

*drumroll* A TURTLE!!!

Papa and Addie

Little Marcus is 2!

Baby Marcus is no longer a baby- he is even starting to potty train! (and just barely 2...) He is fasinated with balls, cars, and trains. When Mom bought the shirt he is wearing in the picture, he stook stock still and stared. "Do you like it, Markie?" Mom asked. Immediantly he ran forward, grabbed it, and cried, "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba!!!" (Ball ball ball ball ball!!)
He loves to ask what things are, and repeat what you say. (in other words, he is finally talking) As I was pulling up pictures to choose what should go on the blog, he climbed into my lap and said, "Me-me! Me-me!" (Me) and "Ba! Ba!" (ball!). Then he needed to see pictures of everyone else: "Daddyyyyyy! Daddy!" "Ad-uh-enn" (Adelynn), etc. He is so cute!

He LOVED the basketball net. In the past he would make you lift him up to the real basketball net outside. The downside of that is that, once to started, he would never let you stop. Now he can play basketball all day long without straining people's arms. :)

CAKE!!! When he saw this picture, Mark started rubbing his stomach and then energetically jabbing his finger at the computer monitor. I think he likes cake. :)

Blowing out the candles... we had to do it twice, because he blew it out as Dad was in the middle of lighting it.

William's 11th Birthday!!!

I can't believe how old William is! Well, actually, I can, because he is acts older than 11, but still! He wasn't home on his birthday (Boy Scout Camp) so we celebrated it a few days late.

That hat is tradition- he got it at Trish's wedding a year ago and will not stop wearing it!!!

Lets see.... William is big into Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (as always). His favorite colors right now are red, black, and orange, and he loves being goofy. :) I think that runs in the family...

Chocolate cake with chocolate chips, chocolate icing, double chocolate ice cream, and chocolate milk. Guess who loves chocolate?

Playing his new game- Wii Sport Resort! It's amazing!

Will in his Gryffindor scarf I crocheted for him.

Chesterton Quote in Agatha Christie!

I'm reading a book called "Passenger to Frankfurt" by Agatha Christie, and there was a quote from G.K. Chesterton in it!!!

Me is a veddy bad blogger

My apologies for not keeping my blog updated very much!

Well... yesterday we celebrated Will's birthday. He got WiiResort! It is amazing. The Wii Motion Plus sensor is- you guessed it- amazingly sensitvie.

Today we had people come look at the house! *crosses fingers* Let's pray they'll buy it!

We babysat Michelle the entire day. Bob is in the hospital getting the same surgery Mom had gotten.

Erm... I'm starting school this week/next week. This week is freshman orientation week- for a homeschooler, that just means listing to a bunch of CDs with someone droning on and on in a monotonous voice... Once you get past that, I guess they are talking about interesting stuff.

SO! Thats about it.

Little Bits of Random Randomness

Random Bit Number One:
     This past week was Vacation Bible School. Theme: The Sorrowful Mysteries. For the first time in my life, I was not a crew leader! I helped out with Skits. One of the best parts of that was dressing up in random things from the costume boxes. :) See, I am still a little girl at heart. I love dress up.

  

/\ Two pictures from VBS this year

Random Bit Number Two Which Partially Pertains to Random Bit Number One:
     At the closing Mass for VBS I read the first reading. Normally I wouldn't comment on that but I have been off the lector list ever since we found out we were moving, and I miss it, since its about the only public speaking I get to do. :)
     Part Two of Random Bit Number Two
          Marcus was very funny during that same Mass! When we went up to recieve Holy Communion, he walked nicely behind Mom and recieved the blessing from Father. But he just stood there and stuck out his hands. He wanted to get whatever it was that we all were getting! I gently pushed Marcus to the side, and told him to follow Mom back to the pew. He made a pouting face and drooped his head.

Random Bit Number Three Which is Only Slightly Related to the Two Previous Random Bits:
     For VBS I made a quick painting on a peice of cloth for Veronica's Veil. It has been months since I've painted, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. So, this afternoon I spent half and hour and got started on a new painting. At the moment I am waiting for my background to dry so that I can paint the foreground on. This is a pencil drawing of what I am painting.

Random Bit Number Four:
     Ben and Will are off to Boy Scout camp for a week! This is Will's first time. As extremely annoying as they are, I will actually miss them. I won't know what to do when I only have three siblings to play with! Dad leaves to commute to work this week. The house is going to feel really empty. William will be at camp during his birthday. Mom has planned a surprise for him- she gave his leader a few small presents to give to him on his birthday (good camp stuff- a new hacky sack, a frisbee, chocolate). We will celebrate his birthday as a family when he returns.

Random Bit Number Five:
     Today I had to babysit Nick, Addie, and Mark while Mom and Dad went shopping. Instead of letting them watch TV, I decided to read them a book out loud- The Magician's Nephew by CS Lewis. It is the only Narnia book Nick hasn't read yet. They didn't seem to happy about having to listen to a book instead of watching TV or reading the book themselves, but they just asked me to read some more to them, so I guess they enjoyed it!

Random Bit Number Five:
     Nick randomly came and asked me to teach him how to crochet! He has nearly mastered the chain stitch.

     

Stuebenville

This past weekend I attended the Stuebenville Youth Conference. It was so amazing to be with so many other Catholic teens- I think there were nearly 2,000. They had lots of fun music, interesting talks, and general craziness. :) It was very charismatic which was a bit annoying during Mass. On Saturday they had Adoration and Benediction. It was beautiful. The priest processed all the way around the theater carrying the monstrance. Mark Hart, a Catholic comedian (obviously hilarious), had us in stiches with laughter.
The bishop did the homily on Saturday. As he adjusted the microphone on the podium (or is it lectern?), we heard a "click" and he opened a laptop! He had forgotten his notes and brought his computer! The funniest part was that he was elderly!
I have so much I could say about it but I both don't have time and don't know how to phrase it. So... pictures.

The theater

So... it was kinda random the way Joia pulled up the picture of Edward during her talk (this was during the womens' talk). I'm not a huge fan of the books but it was really funny and brilliant the way she pulled it all together.

Jacob and Mrs. Willy and their WarHeads contest!

Deacon Shrader and Fr. Dave jumping the battery of the cars. :)

Jacob and his pet cicada. BLECH

Fr. Dave and his 5th cup of coffee. Apperently it wasn't enough.

I have more pictures on my Facebook photo albums HERE

The "official" blog (note that we were in Week One) HERE
Stuebenville offical site HERE

The Fourth of July in Taos

Rachel and Hailea racing to catch a parachute

Dad and Marcus stole Will's parachute! It helps to be tall.

LtoR: Adelynn, Mary, Rachel, Grandma's neighbor Brooke, Sarah, and Andi.

Mary and Ethan. The "St. Louis Rackers" (soon to be "one of the St. Louis Rackers") do foster care.

Left: Mary, Emily, Andi, and Racel (and I think its Kaleb on the ground) cheer about something.

Bottom: Nathan, Will, and Kaleb chase a parachute.

Guys talking!