BAD TO THE BONE

Duh nun a nun a, buh buh buh buh buh buh BAD, Bad to the bone........ that's my littlest loves theme song--at least some times. He can be the sweetest little thing. At night, I ask him, "who loves Colton?" and he'll say, "mommy, daddy and Jesus." Then I'll ask him, "Who loves mommy?" and he'll say, "I do." So sweet right?

Well that sweet little buddy also has a little strong willed wild child side (he gets it from his daddy :-) that has from time to time manifested it's self in the form of creative writing-----only not on paper.

Yep-that's permanent sharpie on our leather recliner, wall and wooden entertainment center.

We had been playing dentist and practicing for Rahel's first cleaning (she had been to the lab the day before for blood work and lets just say that didn't go well). So I thought a little game of "dentist" would be helpful. I had labeled all their little flossing tools with their initials so we wouldn't have any mix ups and mistakenly left the black sharpie on the "dentistry table." After we finished, I went into the kitchen to start dinner while a few of the kids continued to play. Well, it wasn't two minutes before my little reporter (aka Caroline) came running in saying, "mom, Colton colored on your wall."

I was less than impressed with his artistic creation. We did thankfully get most of it off (something called goop off Nick went and got).

Anyway, we figured that we'd have a little fun with our 4-wheeling free spirited guy this summer.

And got him a hair cut to match his personality.

He loves it!

Good news is you can brush that mow hawk right down if need be.

He sure keeps us on our toes.

Well Fund Update

Thanks to all of the generous donations and bracelet purchases made on this blog, I was able to donate $1075 to the Trees of Glory well fund today!!!!

Karen updated the overall total in her post here. So far, we are over half way there with just over $12,000 left to raise!!

Click over to her blog for further updates on Trees of Glory and remember I still have lots of those very attractive Ethiopian bracelets for sale. For every bracelet purchased, $10 goes directly to the TOG well project. Click on the button on the top left of this page to get yours today.

First Beach Trip

My younger three girls all have birthdays within weeks of each other, so my parents gave them a combined birthday weekend at the beach (super generous and a treat for the whole family). I love that kind of present because it doesn't take up any space, but still leaves great memories.

Here's a shot of all the kids on our balcony (it took about 10 tries to get one with everyone looking).

The hotel had a great pool with a water slide, splash park and lazy river.

Rahel wasn't too sure of it at first (she even backed out the first time and had to walk all the way back down).
But once we got her on it, she wanted to go again and again.

All the KIDS had a great time on the slide :-)

I wish I could have had a picture of Rahel's face when she saw the ocean. It was complete awe and joy. She smiled ear to ear and said, "look mom" and pointed to the ocean. She grabbed a boogie board and headed right in. She's done an amazing job learning to swim in less than 2 months. All of the kids except Colton are now swimming fairly well, but I still insist on life jackets in the ocean for everyone. Caleb said, "but mom, that's going to embarrass me." (his cousins were there and he wanted to be cool) I said, "Caleb, I'm not concerned with your coolness factor, I'm concerned with coming home with all 6 children intact." He got it and finally got in WITH his life jacket on--I just have too many kids to watch in open wave filled water--not going to risk it (sort of a phobia of mine--lakes are even worse than oceans--can't see the bottoms--whole thing freaks me out).

Caleb chillin in the sand

Meron completely melted after we came up from the beach and crashed in under 2 minutes (protesting of course and saying that she wasn't tired...) in a lounge chair. She slept by the pool for over an hour-that girl can sleep anywhere (and don't miss that nap time or you'll be sorry b 4:00 :-)

There was also a great indoor playground that just happened to have 5 slides in all of my kids' colors (well, except for a yellow one for Hermela, and Caroline is really pink, but red is her alternate....). Our kids are all assigned a color for their cups, toothbrushes, towels, wash clothes....to keep things straight around here and avoid using 30 cups a day and to keep laundry down a little. They all happened to be wearing their colors as well which made for a fun picture.

We had a blast! Thanks Gee Gee and Paw Paw