Happy Birthday Tallman!
Thirteen years ago today, after so much waiting and hoping and praying, I finally became a mother. And Tallman finally arrived, after uncharacteristic dilly-dallying! :-)
It's hard to believe it's been thirteen years, and I'm now the mother of a teenager. It was just the other day I was carrying him around and people were stopping me and exclaiming about his eyes and his soft blond hair that stood straight up.
Anyway, Tallman arrived on Pearl Harbor Day, 1993, and weighed in at 10 lbs. 15 1/2 oz.
Happy Birthday, Tallman, you're the best!

Cheery took these two "pizza cakes" to the Cub Scout cake auction and did very well, earning $65 for his pack.

PMM in his cool new dinosaur jammies!

This is Cheery, marching with his Scout group on Saturday, in our community's Oktoberfest Parade. He's in the middle of the picture, looking to his left. There was a campout, parade and many other events here this past weekend. We nearly always miss it because it usually falls on the same weekend as October General Conference. It was an eventful parade this year. Many people usually walk by with the floats and other things, throwing candy to the kids. While this must once have been meant as an "extra", now it seems to be the reason a lot of people GO to the parade. He with the most candy wins. Kids were everywhere, screaming and pushing others out of their way. They wouldn't stay on the sides of the streets, but kept crowding INTO the streets, and not leaving the floats and trucks enough room to drive by. One kid got a foot run over by a truck, and a woman on a fire truck, throwing candy, tried to toss it farther back to give some to the less aggressive children farther back, and she fell off the truck. The driver behind her didn't see her, because of the crowds of kids on the street, and ran over her. When the PMM tried to go pick up a piece of candy, a little girl stomped on his hand, then grabbed the candy. Sigh.

These are my guys! Saturday our state geocaching organization had a terrific all-day event at a local lake and state park. We had to be back at a decent time so I could attend the dinner and Relief Society broadcast at my ward building, but in the meantime we had a terrific day! The organization had 48 caches out, and we located 14 by 1:00. If we could have stayed another 5 hours we would have found more! We met a terrific family from about an hour away with whom we "teamed up" to find several caches. This is a favorite family activity of ours. See www.geocaching.com for caches in your area, then grab a GPS, some insect repellent, a few little trinkets to leave in the caches, and off you go!

Well, here is our First Day of School 2006/07 picture! Tallman is in 7th grade this year, Cheery in 5th, and PMM in 1st. We began on Monday 08/07, so we have an entire week under our belts as I write this, and it went fairly well. The new books are being enjoyed, we got done most days in pretty good time. We have a few bugs to work out with PMM's work, as there were a few days his work wasn't done until evening time, when I could spare some more time for him. Tallman reports that he likes all his science books and programs the best, Cheery asserts that Shakespeare and his Leonardo da Vinci biography are his favorites so far, and PMM loves his MathUSee and The Great Eight Spanish. My, I'm starting to look SHORT when standing next to my kids!

Wow, where on earth does my blogging time go? If I get any slower at updating the blog, it'll be Christmas before I finish my we-just-started-school posts. Argh!
This is Tallman at Scout camp. He had a terrific time; it was a fabulous experience for him. He loved camping, he talked and played and made friends, he got three merit badges, including archery, which I understand is difficult to qualify for in one day--there are proficiency requirements. But Tallman did it! He must have some of my mother's archery genes, and they obviously skipped me. :-) But it was a great week for him, and I am glad he had a good time---and even more glad he is home!!!

Tallman at his first Court of Honor last night. He advanced to Second Class and received several merit badges. Tallman does not like to swim, so had been sort of "stuck" in advancing but he has worked very hard at something he does not like, and is advancing now. It won't be long before he qualifies for First Class. He reports to his very first Scout Camp on Monday! He is getting so grown-up. :-)

This is so funny! I was telling a funny PMM story on an email list I recently joined, and the list/website owner created a Purple Crayon Award in his honor! Look here to read all about it! (you'll have to click on "Purple Crayon Award on the left-hand toolbar)

Yes, we did it! We produced three bookworms in a row! Yippee! Of course, in our house, it's probably a self-defense mechanism--they have to figure out SOMETHING to do when Mommy and Daddy are reading. :-)

You've had a birthday, shout hooray!
We'd like to sing to you today.
One year older, and wiser, too.
Happy Birthday to you!
The PMM is six years old today! Will upload a couple of birthday celebration pictures later. I can't believe my baby is six!
He's been very excited and especially cute lately. We have two fun stories from the last few days. One evening, I told him to take off his clothes while I kissed the older boys goodnight so I could put him right in the bath. Dh says when he came out, PMM was on the floor, bare-bottomed, but had somehow gotten feet and legs and clothing in a hopeless tangle. PMM looked up and said "Daddy, I'm having technical difficulties." ROFL
Then, apparently lately we've been saying a little too often to the children "What would Jesus do?" LOL PMM has learned to play many of our games, and he tends to follow us about the house nearly nonstop, plaintively begging someone to play a game with him. Well, the other day, after hearing one too many refusals, he fixed Daddy in the eye and said, "Would Jesus play another game with me?" Oh, how we laughed. And yes, he got his extra game. :-)

Tallman enjoying how tall he is in the gift shop at Natural Bridge, VA.

Cheery and PMM feeding chickens at Frontier Cultures Museum

PMM feeding the ducks at the Frontier Cultures Museum

Cheery and PMM, wrassling a concrete gator at the zoo at Natural Bridge.

We took a field trip to the Nelson Pioneer Farm and Museum near Oskaloosa, IA. It was a great place to visit. There is a cabin, home, farm, barn, post office, church, schoolhouse--an entire restored town, with a costumed tour guide. We had a great time. Don't Cheery and the PMM look like they are enjoying sitting in a school desk? The guide is passing around a Braille book, since one child who attended this school before its closing was blind.

Cheery blowing out the candles on his "snickerdoodle" cake. It was delicious! Cheery thinks it is great fun to be in "double digits" I'll try and post a Cheery baby picture later. :-)

HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY, CHEERY! We hope you had a terrific day!

Blowing dandelions. Just what our yard needs--MORE dandelions. It is already the disgrace of the neighborhood--other lawns are green--ours is yellow. :-)

Cheery and PMM take aim at a castle (which Tallman made) with their new homemade catapults. We're having a LOT of fun in the Middle Ages!