Jeb's family awards

Jeb's Awards

Jeb’s Family Awards!  (He requested that I type his misspelled words correctly. If there was any confusion on his paper I asked him to clarify, so this is totally HIS doing!). One fun thing about having a kid this age is that you never know what he'll come up with!

Best cook—Ashley

Best Nursing—Nana

Best Sporty-Ben

Best Worker-Daddy

Best Worker Also-Papa D

Best Crafting-Jenny

Best Guns-Jess

Best biscuits-Bob0

Most Generous-Nana Mac

Good Uncle Award-Jacob

Good Mom Award-Abby

Most Country-Caleb

Best Princes-Carson

Super Mario Queen-Kristen

Best Aunt-Great Aunt Jeanie

Best Husband-Dave

Most Smart-Noah

Best pincher-Molly

Best Dentist-Paul

Best USC Fan-Libby

Calmest award-Sarah

Rough award-Kyler

Most Demanding-Meggie (originally spelled “amaning”)

Most Sharer-er—Samuel

Best Artist-Bradley

Big brother 

Cay and I built this hotel with garden and pool atop. 

Daddy's helpers

Jeb's Farm house with pool, garden, garage and many more features! Of course, Bailey is always right with the kids!

The last day of summer...boo hoo and other exciting happenin's

If you don't think this Guernsey calf is sweet something is wrong with you.  

 The last day of summer we went to tour the Clemson University Dairy farm!  The boys thought it was cool to see how “trained” the cows are to come, give their milk, and saunter back to their cooling mist fans, soft-bedding “rooms”, and water tanks brimming with clean, fresh water.  One cow even had a fistula so students can see “the inside” of what is going on with the cow.  Crazy.  Caleb is still talking about why they put a hole in the cow.  Then, we learned a lot about how long they milk, what breeds give the most milk, and how often they  have calves.  The calves were the best part for sure.  We went back to the calf barn and there was a 1 day old Holstein calf.  I turned to look at the Guernsey calf and when I turned back Cay was KISSING the little thing.  They were the softest, sweetest specimens of calves I have ever seen.  I guess their moms get all the grain they  want during pregnancy and so they had the most gorgeous coats.  Their stalls were perfectly groomed and they were used to being bottle-fed so the boys enjoyed their docile personalities.  The jersey calves looked like little deer to Jeb.

Nana Mac went with us to the farm!

Chip showing Caleb the ropes at the farm.  Yes, we had to wear plastic booties to keep the place clean!

One day old Holstein.

The Jersey calf warms up to Jeb.

One happy boy.

Besides creek fishing, we’ve been doing a load of swimming.  Cay is diving to the 5-6 ft area and getting things off the bottom. I am amazed!  He is working hard to keep up with big  brother.  Jeb can swim the entire width of the Olympic size pool and back these days with pretty good form.  It comes in handy to have a former swim instructor for a father.  That and a mother who loves to go to the pool and swim as well!  I don’t get all these Moms on the side with dry hair and a book?

First day of 1st grade!  He loved it!  

1st grade has begun!  Classes have started for both J and I. Soccer has started as well for Jeb.  He chose to play up this year with the older kids so this should be interesting since they are twice his size!  Still, we went to a Clemson soccer game this week so he could see how small and fast some of the players were.  He was encouraged! 


In thinking about back to school-- Randy Alcorn wrote this this week on twitter (I am a BIG Alcorn fan): 

In many classrooms, those who believe Scripture are routinely accused of arrogance. Jesus said God’s word is truth (John 17:17). It’s not arrogance to believe what the Bible teaches. It’s the opposite. Arrogance is when we believe whatever we want to, as if we are qualified to judge truth. Then we end up tailoring truth to fit our preferences. (from The Grace and Truth Paradox.  If you have not read this book—it is AWESOME and it pretty much sums up why I love my church.)

Celebrating the long-awaited rain! Thank you God!

Caleb loves his pup.  He loves on her EVERY morning.  

Carson and Cay enjoy a cool day!  

The boys are practicing up. 

 Jeb lost his first tooth!  He was so brave and just yanked it out one night before the shower. His face says it all.  He was so excited. It seemed like everyone he knew had lost a tooth or two or three and he was still windowless so he is pumped that he’s one of them now!
 The BEFORE shot of the teeth!

 The after shot with his 1st window!  Is he thrilled or what?

That is one small tooth.

The boys had a fun summer together and to be fair for posterity--they also fought a lot!  

One of our chickens really outdid herself this week.  This egg is enormous.  

Creek Fishing and Questions

We went fishing in our own creek recently and though I was skeptical about catching much the boys caught one big crayfish and 6 minnows.  Two of them really weren't that small!  

The garden has been fun this year. Our watermelons are yummy and we have enjoyed adding honey dew to our harvest. It seems like every year we have too much of something (this year Okra and collards) and too little of something else (this year squash and cantaloupe).  Last year, we were ridding ourselves of cantaloupe!  We did enjoy adding honey dew this year!  We just can’t seem to get it right!

Our states we'd covered by the end of July.

Jeb chose to learn his states and we have had a great time. I am really ashamed to admit that he knows some of them better/faster than me. I can’t wait to see what he decides to learn next year.  Having his buy in was KEY to happiness. 

  

I can’t remember if we had put up pics of Cay dressed up as Billy from Where the Red Fern Grows.  He LOVES to hunt and says he wants to be a hunter Halloween. Billy loves to catch anything that is moving these days especially grasshoppers. 

 Messes like these are why I HATE cooking. I recently made an Enchilada meatloaf with a nice cornbread crust and it was great, but after I cleaned up the mess I thought, "NO food is worth that mess."  I wish that I could take a food pill and move on.

 The cousins had a sleep over this summer and the boys enjoyed bed bounding until late.

 No teeth were lost in the process of this game Dr. Paul.

 The fam-Summer 2011

Caleb has really been stumping me asking questions lately. I was driving down the road one day and out of the blue he asked, "Momma, how does the Dr. get the babies out. How dooo-es the baby get in there?" Jeb was quick to explain a vaginal birth as well as a C-section with all the details--YIKES. Thanks animals for teaching my children so many lessons on reproductive health.

Then, this week he asked me "how does Jesus get into somebody's heart."  I said, well, he doesn't come in with a physical body like arms and legs but you have a spirit and a soul inside your body.  He said, " I HAVE A SPIRIT????"  Well, then I got on the Holy Spirit and how he comes when you invite him, and when you sin you'll hurt and feel bad if you have God's Spirit living inside you.  I think he was more confused when I got done discussing the trinity!  Hopefully, one day he'll get it!

 My sweet, sweet Billy.  One more thing--he requested an ax Birthday theme this year? I don't think that is going to happen.  If we invite small children that could be scary.  Who's ever seen an ax cake?

I was only slightly embarrassed when my kid told the pediatrician we let him play with an ax. Try explaining that is an old, small ax that is not really that sharp and is used under close supervision.