Fishing

We went fishing again. This time we took Ray's sister, Yvette, and her daughter Jada. Toward the end of the trip we saw a cottonmouth snake in the water eating a fish. He had moved onto some moss at the side of the lake in order to swallow the fish. It was facinating! I took some pictures but I haven't figured out how to upload pictures to the computer from our new camera.

And Samara learned how to cast! Now she just needs to learn how to hook her own worms and take a fish off her hook and she will be an independant fisherman, umm, I mean, fisherwoman!

I Quit!

Ok...some say I'm crazy and maybe I am. But I needed a break from the long hours of employment before we move. So...I resigned.

And I have really been enjoying being with my husband and kids.

We have spent time out mowing lawns and/or handing out flyers and trying to get more yards to do. Trent even went out with us to do this. Trent had us all laughing because he was too afraid to knock on people's doors. The one time we convinced him to knock on a door he argued with us that no one was home. Then he rang the doorbell and walked about halfway back to the car with his back to the house and waited to see if anyone would answer. What was so funny was that he turned his head slightly and then cut his eyes back to see if anyone was opening the door! Ya just gotta love Trent. He's hilarious.

One day we went to Sonic to eat. We were all sitting in the car looking at the menu when someone spotted a duck. It was funny because we never see ducks at Sonic. We always see grackels or crows but never ducks. It was a beautiful duck with a green head. The kids took off their seatbelts and moved around so they could see the duck better. Then Malachi said, "Look, a chicken!" I told them it couldn't possibly be a chicken and looked where he was pointing expecting to see a crow, but there was a chicken! It was so weird. The carhops were just walking around like it was normal.

Samara has learned how to hula hoop! Her friend Jada, who lives across the street, let her borrow a hula hoop. I guess Jada showed her how to do it. Samara came home proud to show off her new skill.

We finished reading "James and the Giant Peach". It was the first chapter book that the little kids have ever finished listening to. Their favorite part was when the centipede had purple paint dumped over him and he said:

"The paint is drying! It's going hard! I can't move my legs! I can't move anything!"

At which point the Earthworm said, "You can still move your mouth, and that's a great pity!"

The kids asked me to read that part over and over and over again. They loved that part!

After we finished the book, we bought the movie. It was a terrible movie. It did not have any of the parts of the story that we were looking forward to seeing. The movie did a good job of casting for Aunt Spiker and Aunt Sponge though.

We have since finished 2 more books. "Old Yeller" by Fred Gipson was the next book we read. After reading it, we watched the movie. We liked this movie a lot more than the James and the Giant Peach movie. This movie stuck with the book as much as possible. We just finished "Hank the Cowdog" by John R. Erickson. The kids are already asking if there is a movie about this one!

We have really been busy since I quit. I know it's been forever since I last blogged. I'm trying to remember everything we've done.

Isaiah and Malachi have been going great with our schooling. I have more energy to put into it and I help make it fun.

We've also been going to parks and playing outside a lot! The kids ride their bikes everyday! Seth is ready to start learning how to ride without training wheels.

We have also been going roller skating. It was so funny at first because the little ones couldn't even stand up without falling. But we've been going every week and now they are getting pretty good at it! Well, Seth is still struggling...but Samara can move herself slowly, almost robotic-like. She doesn't bend her knees. Isaiah can skate fast now! Malachi can go around and around the rink without falling! Nehemiah always gets inline skates. I don't know how anyone can skate in those!

We've also been fishing a lot. We like to go to this place in Coppell. It has a great little pond that we get lots of bites. There is a nice walking trail all the way around the lake. The kids like to ride their bikes around while they take turns fishing. There is also a basketball court near the pond and we often bring our basketball. Ray has taught us all how to fish. The twins can't cast yet but they can catch fish! Most of the fish we catch are small perch or baby catfish that we throw back in. But one day we caught a big catfish! We caught a few others that were big enough to bring home. That night, Ray taught Nehemiah and I how to fillet fish. We had a fish fry the next night. It was delicious. There is just something special about catching your own food.

We have gone riding about 3 times. Nehemiah is almost clearing the finish line jump at Shady Grove! And Isaiah can jump high on his 4-wheeler!

The above picture is of Josh and Isaiah. Isaiah has looked up to Josh since he was about a year old. Josh can clear the finish line jump with no problem. He's been riding since he was little too. Isaiah wants to be just like him when he grows up.

The kids finally finished up their football seasons. Nehemiah played in a 7 on 7 touch football team. They played in a tournament at Ranchview High School and Nehemiah played quarterback. They played 4 games that day. His arm was tired after all that! Isaiah had a tournament that same day. Isaiah's team won the first game so they played for the championship later in the day. (Which means that we sat through 6 football games all in one day and I got a sunburn!) Isaiah's team was undefeated for the whole season but lost the championship game. Isaiah cried along with several of his teammates. :(

My best friend LeaAnn got married on the 18th in Austin. We took the whole family to the wedding. It was really nice. She looked beautiful. It was great to see her family and several of our friends from high school. LeaAnn got married by the pool. (Isaiah was ready to jump in!) The kids looked great all dressed up. I took some pictures but then lost my camera while we there. So I don't have any to post. Thankfully, my mom went too and took lots of pics so when she sends me some copies I'll add some.

Nehemiah plays percussion with the DeWitt Perry Band. The band played at the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. It was really cool! They played early in the morning so I left the kids at home asleep with Ray. My mom went with me to watch the performance. They placed 11th out of 30 bands. But about half of the bands were high school bands so they did pretty good!

One day Ray's sister Yvette came over and brought her daughter Jada. We decided to do something fun so we picked up our nephews Jalen, Trejan and Koda and took all the kids to Chuck E Cheese. That is a total of 9 kids with 3 adults! It was great to have them all together! We haven't done anything with all the cousins in a long time. I wish I had some pictures!

Malachi turned 6 on May 21st!!! It was a weekday so we were going to wait for Nehemiah to get out of school and then celebrate. But we forgot that Nehemiah had another band concert that night. So we went to the concert then came home and had cake and ice cream. Yvette and Jada came over to celebrate with us. So did Ray's mom. Malachi opened his presents and enjoyed the day.

Last Friday, the 23rd, Nehemiah didn't have school so we all went to Six Flags! It was the perfect time to celebrate Malachi's birthday as well as mine that was fast approaching on May 26th. It was so much fun. The kids are finally old enough to ride some rides outside of Looney Tunes Land. Ray doesn't ride anything at all. You gotta love him for coming anyway. I know it was hot and boring for him. Nehemiah saw some of his friends there so after he spent some family time with us, he left to go ride some bigger rides with his friends.

Saturday the 24th was the opening day for the Rosemeade Rainforest Pool so we HAD to go! The kids have been asking to go swimming for a couple of months. Ray didn't go because he had to put new tires on the Suburban and get an alignment. The kids played on the slides and jumped in the water and had a grand time! And the best part about it is that we won a family season pass to the pool! So we went for free and will be able to enjoy it all summer!

Life is good!