Monkeying Around

Anybody who is anybody around the Wahl house these days is climbing trees.

When I call out to check on the boys, many times they answer from far above my head. I'm trying not to freak out. I mean boys climb trees right?

At my house, girls climb trees as well...

with their brother's shorts on.

At least she does it with painted piggys.

I have heard Christian tell the story of how one of his elementary school teachers had to call his mom because he climbed so high up a pine tree at Westminster during recess and refused to come down.

Like father, like sons.....

AND daughter!

The View from Here

I was trying to tackle a laundry pile the size of Mount Everest, when I happened to glance out the window to see this going down....

Of course I started banging on the window like a crazy woman yelling at Sarah to get down. I just knew that I was about to spend the next hours of the afternoon in some medical professional's office. At this point in life, she has not been blessed with grace and coordination...bless her heart.

To her dismay, Aaron was on top of things.

So it seems that climbing trees is not dangerous enough...but climbing trees while someone is trying to knock you out with a broom? Adrenaline rush...

Who Knew?

Who knew that ants had so much personality?

Caleb was very happy that he had his very own pet...a pet ant.

He told me that the ant was very happy because he had rescued it from certain death. Levi was drowning a bunch of ants and he saved the day for this little guy. He was letting it crawl all over him exclaiming, "Look mom! He won't even bite me!" I assured him that the ant would certainly bite him at some point, but he paid me no attention.

He played with the ant. He petted the ant. He took care of the ant for a while. Soon, he came back and said, "Mom, the ant is taking a nap." It seems that he put the ant in his underwear drawer for a while and when he came back it was "napping".

I was trying so hard not to laugh and then he said, " I don't think he is going to wake up." And with that he opened the back door, tossed him out, and ran off to play. He took it pretty hard...

Happy Birthday to Me

My boys took good care of me on my birthday earlier this month.

Jackson brought me breakfast in bed.

Toast, banana, and coffee...

A present from Levi and Caleb...wrapped in camo with a pink bow.

It was....um, beautiful!

I'm now on the slippery slope to 40...BRING IT!

Wedding Slideshow

We are easing into school and it seems like the days are flying by.

It is going quite well. Jackson is in 5th grade, Aaron is in 3rd, and Levi is in the 1st. Caleb is technically in PreK and totally not interested. I'm totally not worried about it.

Here is the slide show from Anna Grace's wedding...enjoy!

http://www.shareitvideo.com/watch.php?v=241555705969809

Keepin' It Real

A friend of mine and I were talking the other day about pride, specifically pride in the homeschool community. We want our kids to be perfectly dressed and well behaved, our houses immaculate, delicious organic homecooked meals on the table every night. We must have the most educated children that participate in every single activity under the sun.

Why do we do this to ourselves?

In an effort to keep it real....

I swept this up off of my kitchen floor today. This isn't really keepin' it real because it is usually way worse than this. Sometimes things crawl out of it.

My children do things like this all.the.time. Not too terrible...I'd rather it be this than a booger on the wall (or REFRIDGERATOR HANDLE!!). 'Your welcome' for sparing you that picture.

This laundry IS clean. This Brady bunch needs an Alice ASAP!

There is drama around here all the time! Very LOUD drama, I might add.

I do try to cook healthy meals, but sometimes you just have to fry some fish, hushpuppies, and fries for dinner. Hey, at least we had some blueberries on the side!

Mr. and Mrs. Brent Hamilton

It's official....

All of the planning and laboring over details paid off. It was a beautiful wedding. I will have MANY more pictures soon.

It was a very hectic day for Katie and I as we tried to make sure that all ELEVEN children were there dressed and on time. We were also in the wedding (can you pick out the 2 old people in all of those pretty young girls:), so this made it especially difficult. Thankfully, my sister-in-law Jordanne helped me with Rebekah, and Katie had a sitter to help her with the twins. Christian was in charge of getting Jackson, Aaron, Levi, Isaac, and Andrew to the church dressed and ready to go. Caleb and Joshua were ringbearers and were at the church with us. Sarah was with me the whole time, too.

I had borrowed and bought things for the boys to wear. Our church is pretty casual, so our "church" clothes weren't nice enough. I borrowed a few jackets and ties. I borrowed some bow ties and seer sucker pants. I was just planning on a riot when it came time to get dressed. To my surprise, the boys were totally on board with all of the clothes. Christian called me when they were on the way to the church and said that the boys were all so excited about their outfits. He said that they were actually planning their entrance for when they arrived! I can't wait to get pictures back of all of them.

The next morning they all wanted to wear their outfits to church. Jackson was able to, but Levi and Aaron had most of their food from the reception down the fronts of their shirts. Levi was breakdancing during the reception and did a spin move right over a piece of the grooms cake. Needless to say, laundering was necessary before these outfits could be worn again. I'm still waiting for a call from Simon's to identify what exactly is on the sleeves of Calebs rental suit.

The newlyweds are honeymooning in St. Lucia. I really feel sorry for them, don't you?