House Hunting in Birmingham!

We had a fun time in Birmingham looking for houses last weekend! We left the kids with friends and looked at 30+ houses in 2 1/2 days!

Matt's new company put us up in a hotel, provided a rental car, paid for meals, and stuck him with some needles and stuck him in a small box for a hearing test (torturous for a claustrophobic man!).

Andrew's Roadtrip!

Andrew started his first music book with me on Monday! This is the first time I'm using this young beginner piano book, and we have both had lots of fun. He asks every few hours if we are going to do some more piano yet.

Just Chillin'!

Building Marble Runs

It's been months since we've had the marble run container out. Gabe, Liam, and Andrew were thrilled with it, and Peter was, too!

Peter was so excited he danced around squealing while the marbles rolled down.

Duets!

Peter and his friend Hope took over the piano and improvised some duets!

Daddy Gets a....Backrub?

We made this for Matt's Father's Day gift a couple years ago. He hadn't used it yet, and the kids remembered it this afternoon and dug it out. So he got a form of backrub with cars and trains zooming around "Merrellville", complete with a hospital and it's helicopter pad, on his back!

(Peter got in on the action later on, and turned out to be Matt's favorite because he pushed harder than the other kids. In this picture, you can see his back; he's seated at the piano.)

 

On My Birthday!

A quick picture from my birthday, sandwiched between tubing down the Chattahoochee and heading to dinner and games with friends! It was an ideal birthday!!

Unauthorized Pudding Picnic

I took a 3 minute shower today. There's a chance it was only two minutes. It was short. When I came back out into the living room, this is what greeted me:

COMPLETELY unauthorized. But they were two COMPLETELY happy little fellas!

Early Morning Scripture Study!

This is the first year we've done scripture study in the morning before school. I think it's great! Usually Peter is still asleep, but he joined us this morning. 

Andrew is Bored at Home.

Andrew (with chocolate pudding on his chin) devised a new game today. It's called "build something on the Lite-Brite and then give Mom false clues as to what it is while waiting for her to guess". We had a fun time with it. My favorite one was Indiana Jones jumping on the trampoline!

The one below is Peter with a purple shovel which he banged on the frog and made the frog bleed (green thing with red on it)...a bit on the dark side...

The Morning We Left Monroe

This morning, I am missing our family, so I decided it was time to dig out some of our trip pictures!

Here's a favorite: our family on the monkey bridge my dad put up for the kids in his front yard in Monroe, UT. The kids loved it and did laps on it! I wish we were there this morning.

Just After Back to School Blessings from Dad!

First Day of School Shirts from Grandma (and Grandpa!) Merrell!!

This package showed up today:

The kids thought it was exciting to have a title similar to The Fantastic Four! And I had no idea they had realized this, but they remembered that Grandma Merrell sends them a shirt before school starts each year. When they realized who had sent the package, they started cheering about their "First Day of School Shirts" and dancing in excitement! 

Thanks, Grandma (and Grandpa!) Merrell! Hopefully this shows you how they felt about their shirts!

She truly loves her lizard.

I can't document this enough, because this is literally how you will find Naomi almost daily!

Foot Massage Services!

Matt returned home Tuesday night from a long day of interviews for a job in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by hours of driving home. His feet were sore, so Gabe rubbed them for awhile. I'm unsure if there was any bribing involved...

Patient!

Waiting at a friend's house while I teach piano lessons...in bathing suits because we're doing water music activities for lessons this afternoon!

Mirror!!

It was unclear if Peter was more excited about the monkey backpack (which he hasn't seen before), the Batman pajamas (which he hasn't worn in awhile), or the mirror (to which he hasn't previously paid any attention). He alternately squealed "Mirror!" and "Monkey!", so perhaps not the pajamas...

After hearing the click of the camera, though, he demanded that I turn the camera around and show him the picture. "Turn around, Mom! Turn around!"

Pictures from May

The boys reading while all the furniture is moved to the edges to allow for a big group lesson:

Naomi filling out an Earth Patrol application:

Library Haul

This picture is for my mother. While we were in Utah during June, we went to the library. She was curious why I took a large bag with me. It turns out the Monroe Public Library allows 10 books per account. (Atlanta gives us 75 per account.)

The librarian graciously upped the limit to 13 for us. After we checked out our 13 books and then returned every day for the next three days to check out 13 new books, they set my parents up with a VIP account so we could get 30. And they told me we were doing wonders for their circulation numbers. :)

This, Mom, is why I take a bag or crate. This supplied us with reading material for a few days!

Piano Recordings

Matt is recording me weekly for the Piano Pronto music teachers' challenge. He consistently pushes the wrong button first and takes a picture instead of recording. (I do the same thing when recording on that device!)