"Take Me Out To The Ballgame!"

Friday, our friends from church called and asked if we'd like their tickets to the Astros game that night! To be honest I wasn't to excited but Jonathan thought the boys would like it so off to the game we went!

The boys were so excited we got to park in parking garage in downtown Houston and walk to MinuteMaid Park.

Lots of pictures of us and the game!

Dragging the field was very exciting to the boys!

Rock, Paper, Scissors....a little down time in the action!

Dancing and Clapping with the Music

It ended up being lots of fun seeing the boys experiencing a real game and all the things that go along with it. They did really good, we made it through 8 innings before Jalyn and I just couldn't take anymore! Jonathan and Jon Michael were disappointed they missed the walkoff homerun! Today they were already asking when the next game is.....I didn't tell them that there's games almost everynight....at least it seems like it!

Tooth Torture

This is how the evening was spent at our house last night!!!!!!

His front teeth have been loose all summer and the adult teeth are coming in and trapping the baby ones so we had to pull the loosest one last night.

I'm sure soon we'll have pictures with no front teeth. I'm also sure it will be much rougher than this experience (which he thought we were killing him!) because now he knows what to expect!

"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year.....SCHOOL TIME!!!"

Such a big kid, walking to school!

Back to school! Today was the first day of 1st grade for Jon Michael. We met his teacher, Mrs. Hugg, last Friday and he had a few kids from last year in his class so he was excited. When he got home he couldn't quit talking about how he was surprised that 1st grade was more fun than kindergarten. AND he was STARVING, he's a big kid now so no snacktime!



My grandma called around 10 am and asked what I was doing....I had already gotten breakfast made for everyone, bath for the boys, Jon Michael walked to school, front yard mowed, shower taken, dishwasher loaded, and kitchen cleaned!!!!!!!!!!! Although it was nice to have a lazy summer, it is so nice to be back on a schedule.


Jonathan was home today so Jalyn had a great time with his daddy. They went to the local pond and fed ducks. Jalyn got to practice swimming with no floaties. He loves having time where he doesn't have to share his daddy.




Now that we've got the blog rolling I'm sure that we'll have lots of posts about what's going on with Jon Michael and school, so be sure to stay tuned!

Already talking to a girl on the phone!!!!!!!!

(Just kidding, its his cousin Anika, asking her how her first day of school went.)

"Who Do I Look Like?"

"Ninja Warrior"

"Fisherman and his loyal dog"

(Poor Samson....not sure how loyal he is!)

We get to see Jalyn do things while playing that we never got to see from Jon Michael, since he was so sick as a baby and toddler. Jon Michael never sat and played with toys, he never made up stories with superheros, and he never dressed up, all things that Jalyn does. Sometimes we still stop and watch him while he's playing because it is something we're not used to seeing.

"Spiderman"

"Buzz Lightyear"

"Kung Fu Panda Style"

He loves to dress up in costumes and ask us, "Who do I look like?" So we wanted to show ya'll just a few of his costumes and alter egos!!!!

"Kung Fu Panda Warrior"

"Cowboy in Papa Grover's Boots"

"Pirate"

"Fireman"

The other day he was watching a cartoon with superhero's that could fly and he was begging me for a superhero cape so I made one for him and his teddy bear out of some old t-shirts of mine, we'll have to get pictures of that to post. He was so excited and even went to Sonic in his "cape".

Natural Cleaning

Ok, so for awhile now we've known the difference that natural and clean products have made with Jalyns skin and have been amazed. I was just cleaning the kitchen and was thinking about it again and had to do a little post.

Well, I've been doing research in to my health issues and natural cleaning and foods, etc.... So I decided to slowly start replacing my household cleaners with natural ones that I could make myself.

I have been AMAZED at what's happened. I used to have headaches daily....it took me aback when I would have a rare day without a headache. Since I've been using the natural cleaning products at home I can only remember two headaches, and I have to think hard to remember those! I used clean the kitchen and bathrooms and I would be wiped out for the rest of the day, I'm not sure now if it was b/c the chemicals and smells would give me such a headache that I needed to shut down and sleep or what. But since using these I'm not looking for a place to close my eyes when I'm done cleaning.

A few weeks ago in our church nursery we cleaned the toys with a bleach water solution and my head started hurting within minutes and didn't stop until that evening...I couldn't get the smell of bleach out of my nose or off my hands.

I'm gearing up to start more research into the things I'm eating and drinking to see if that will help with my other health issues that aren't being resolved or even helped to much with the 7 medications I take every day! I have started taking less of the medicines to see what I can do about taking more natural supplements so we'll see what happens with that also.

If you want any info on the things I'm making and using let me know....I'm loving it and would love to share.

Going For The Gold!!!

Jon Michael with his Gold, and 2 Silver Medals

Taekwondo Tournament Katy, Texas

Saturday Jon Michael competed in his very first Taekwondo tournament. There were 3 in his division, yellow belts, age 5-7 for patterns and sparring. For board breaking the first round was against the same division and then they had a break-off against 3 more boys.

Patterns

Silver Medal for Patterns!

He competed in patterns, sparring, and board breaking. I'll post some pictures here and put some video up in the next post...if I can figure that out! We weren't fast enough with the camera to get his board breaks but we got them on video.

Sparring-The judge is, Mr. Webre, the owner and 4th degree Black Belt at our school.

Bowing and showing respect to Mr. Webre.

Gold Medal for Sparring!

I know a lot of you comment in e-mails to us but the boys love to see comments posted here on the blog. If you need to know how to leave them here just let me know.

Silver Medal after two rounds of Board Breaking!

I had to take a picture of this amazing lady getting her bronze medal in sparring. She is 72 years old!!!!!!! They mistakingly said she was 73 but she was quick to correct them! As you can see she's a green belt, 1/2 way to be a black belt....amazing.

Jon Michael had a great time and is already asking to compete again. Stay tuned for more taekwondo updates!

"Papa Grover"

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As most of you know we've had a rough summer in our family. First, serious health issues with my brother, second the death of my grandpa, Papa Grover to the boys, thirdly the death of our infant niece, and then stomach viruses and strep throat in our home. Through all of this we've been reawakened to the fact that family is so important and life goes by so fast. I'm so thankful for a Grandpa that made sure his girls were in church and loved his family.

Jalyn periodically says that he misses Papa Grover and doesn't want to forget what he looks like. So I'm going to post some pictures of his funeral and family. Later I'll scan some old pictures in of him with the boys and other times.

Although it was very hard to be at his funeral I'm also so glad that I'll always have the memories and stories that were told about him. I love that the boys have memories of our family all together and the stories they told about Grandpa as we laughed, cryed, and joked while going through his personal things...his personal things...that's an entirely different post!!! I'll just mention a few things, belts, flags, knives, guns (all kinds), pipes, canes, I mentioned guns right? Because if you knew Grandpa you'd know I really can't mention weapons enough!!!! I know its strange but memories of weapons and Grandpa and that night with family looking through them all makes me smile and almost laugh....good memories.

Grandpa was so proud of being Native American, the United States, his service in the military, and his family. Thank you Grandpa for being proud of this and so much more and teaching us about them.

Thank you for your prayers for our family this summer....they were and continued to be cherished.

Zeke in Grandpa's childhood chair

The girls in Grandpa's cowboy hats

"Our College Friends"

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(Sorry about the dancing for the Freewill Baptist family that's seeing this!! Ha, Ha!)

(Nick, where are you? Taking the picture?)

This week Jalyn and I have had a stomach virus and the last few days I've been totally stressed trying to catch back up on the housework. To add to the stress the boys ripped down our 9 feet tall curtains yesterday and at PetSmart today Jon Michael stepped in dog poop, thank you mister whoever who didn't pick up after your dog, IN HIS NEW SCHOOL SHOES!!!!!!!!!!!! So my wonderful husband took the boys to Jon Michaels TKD sparring class so that I could have some time alone!!!!!!!! I wasn't sure what to do, besides laundry, dishes, picking up toys, clean toilets, etc....so I decided blogging would be the perfect thing to do!!!!!! Yeah!!!!

I was looking through our pictures and some of the ones I love the most are of the boys with "our college friends". That's what the boys have titled this special class of friends that we made while at Living Hope. Our family loves them and can't imagine life without them in our lives. They were at our home weekly and for the longest time I didn't think Jon Michael knew how to play with kids his own age, only college age guys.

So I'm gonna put up some pictures that the boys love looking at and talking about the memories they have of them.

Matt and Erin's Reception

Brad and Haley with Jon Michael

Hugs with Erin before the wedding

Pictures with Matt

Just hangin' out

Being so cute wore him out!