They have to work for it

If you all are like us, your kids have entirely way too much stuff.  I am sick of looking at all the toys they have, and am ready to give half of it away to goodwill.  So, lately when the kids ask for more toys, I automatically say "No!  You all don't need anymore, you have enough."  And then I start lecturing to them about all the kids that don't have any toys or clothes, and how grateful they should be to have the things they have.  Truth be told, I need to take my own advice.  I often find myself whining about wanting things that aren't a necessity.  I need to follow that old sayin "practice what you preach".

I am sure many of you have heard of Zhu Zhu pets (ugh!).  Avery has been wanting one since Christmas, and then when her best friend Hannah got one, it is all she's talked about.  I know they are not that expensive, but we feel that she doesn't need to get one just "because", Aaron and I felt that she needed to work for it.  Aaron came up with some chores for her to do.  When Deacon heard the word "work"  he was all in, and decided he wanted to partake in these chores also.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with how hard they worked.  They picked weeds for 2 days, restocked the garage refrigerator, and swept the garage floor.

*See those boots Deacon is wearing?  They are a size 8, and he wears a size 10!  He refuses to stop wearing his 1st pair of working boots (I've even bought him a new pair).  His poor little tootsies are getting all smashed, but it doesn't seem to bother him.

Baby Amelia turned 6 months this last week.  She brightens our little world, and has been such a gift to us all. 

Meet Chuck

Today Avery and Deacon finished their refresher ISR (infant swimming resource) course.  ISR is not your traditional form of swimming lessons.  There are no bubble blowing parties going on at these lessons.  No siree! They actually DO teach your children how to swim and survive in the water.  At 6 months old they start teaching infants how to float, and at 12 months on up they teach children how to swim, float, swim in order to survive.  It is an amazing program, and has already proven to have saved Deacon's life once last summer.

Our children have been ISR trained for 2 years now thanks to a very special man named Chuck.  He is a hero in our book.  He has taught thousands of children how to swim and survive.  Not only that though, he is specially gifted for this particular work.  He is amazing at picking out each individual's personality, and then adjusting the teaching style as needed.  I've never seen anybody that's better with that variety of children, and you know what else?  They all love him, and all of us parents love him too!  I'll never forget my first conversation with Chuck.  He warned me that my kids may cry at first, but that is totally normal, and he equated it with putting your child in their car seat.  "Are you not going to buckle your kid up in their car seat if they were to cry?   No, you are going to go ahead and buckle him up, because you know that if you were to get in a wreck that buckle could save his life."  Well, duh!  That made perfect sense.  I wanted my kids to be equipped with the ability to save themselves if they ever accidentally fell in the water.  Just like a buckle could save a kids life in the car, ISR can save your child's life in the water.  Check more out about them here.

Here are some pics of the kids with Chuck today at their refresher lesson:

We look forward to baby Amelia being the next ISR trained Junk.  Thank you Chuck!  We love you!

Easter with the White's

On Sunday we celebrated easter with my side of the family.  We went to church to celebrate the real reason for easter, and then went over to GrandMary's to eat a delicious meal, and hunt for eggs.  As always, everyone had a blast.  We also tried to get some family pics while we were together.  In the midst of doing the big group pictures for my family, and Aaron's family I decided I have no business of ever doing photography as a business!  I realized that I am more clueless with all this photo stuff than I thought. 

Easter with the Junk's

This Saturday we got together with Aaron's family to celebrate easter, and also try to get some pics of all of us!  We even color coordinated families.  Laura's family is in brown, Crystal's family is in green, and our family is in blue.  Ronnie brought his nikkon D3000, and I had my D90.  Unfortunately the vibrating reduction button got turned off on my camera somehow, and thus a lot of my pictures were blurry.  Ugh!!  

It was a great day, just hanging out as one big happy family.

My two superheroes

Spiderman doesn't have anything on these two!

Fun at the "farm"

Today my friend Ryan and I took the kids out to our land to take some pics.  We thought it was suppose to be cloudy (overcast days are the best days for pics), but there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  We still decided to go, and let the kids explore.  Ryan told her boys to dress in overall's because we were going to go to a "farm" (it was a technique she used to get the boy's to comply).  When Joshua said "This farm is really cool."  I thought to myself "How cute is he?  But our children are way too cityfied if they think this is what a farm is."  

It was really too bright to get great pics, but here are some of my favs from today. 

This is where we're at

 She's 5 going on 25!

He prefers working over playing.

And she is getting so fun, I can't hardly stand it!