march and april

Emmy is very diligent about reading minutes!  In fact, she is very concerned with doing everything just so when it comes to school work.  I never have to remind her about getting homework done, papers signed, or turning things in.  She is very good at keeping track of it all, which is great because I'm not so good at it!  I laugh (sometimes) because she is also very aware of time.  She hates being late to anything, and is always aware of what time it is.  She figures our time down to the minute, and gets pretty anxious if she thinks we're behind schedule.  I hear a lot of "we have sixteen minutes until ballet starts", or "activity days is starting in one hour and seven minutes, are you sure we'll be ready?"  She makes me smile.  She is also a fantastic help with the younger kids, and I appreciate her help so much.  She is a born mother, this one!  I love her so much.

Ryenne wasn't feeling very good one weekend, and Sam came to the rescue.  She commented, "if you ever feel sick- call mister sam to the rescue!"  He cheers us all up whenever anyone's down.  Not too long ago, I asked Courtney, "What are we going to do when we don't have a baby around anymore?"  There's just something about soft, squishy cheeks, cute little voices, and sweet little personalities that takes the grouchy edges of all of us!

Dad went into work one Saturday to fix an emergency, and so Claire, Sam, and I took lunch to him and his "worker".  Sam was so sad to leave (he needed a nap!), but daddy let Claire stay and help.  She was thrilled to pieces!

(I loved her "laptop" made out of magnet tiles!)

Claire and the girls spent conference weekend setting up shop.  Claire was the proud owner/operator of her very own art studio, while Kate and Emmy chose to operate a Rainbow Loom shop.  I love watching the kids do things like this!  They were very diligent, in fact Claire left her artwork "in studio" (our windows) for weeks, pitching a sale to anyone who would come.  She made phone calls to all of her grandparents (who were great sports and each bought a painting or two), and was quick to grab the attention of any visitors.

 (Making a sale to Grandma and Grandpa.  She was successful, of course.)

(Sam gets awfully sad in the mornings when he wakes up too late to see his dad before work.  When this happens, he typically refuses to get out of bed for quite a while.  He backs into the corner and cries for a while before he finally gets ready to face the day without daddy.  I feel the same way some days, buddy!)

Other March/April happenings:

1.  Courtney finished most of the trim in the addition and I finally got it painted!  Hooray!  One more project checked off the list. . .only a hundred and ten more to go!  (One day, while I was nagging reminding Courtney about the trim that needed to be finished, I could see the burn-out in his eyes.  Trying to cheer him up, I exclaimed, "Just think, this is our last hurrah!"  (Meaning, the last part of the house to remodel).  He looked at me and said, "There will never be a last hurrah."  We both laughed.  The beauty of home ownership, eh?

2.  Court and I took a trip to Savannah, Georgia and loved it.

3.  Ryenne turned 14.  Fourteen!  We're having heart attacks around here!  (Especially dad!  You know that part about dad's finding it hard to have boys getting interested in their little girls?  Yip.)

4.  Kate spent one gazillion hours on her Middle Ages project for school and I said a few bad words about it.  Sorry, Mrs. Jones.  (She earned the coveted "Queen for a day".  I'm not sure "Queen for a century" would be enough. :)

5.  We started the back yard (it's been on our list for about ten years, and yes, Courtney was right about the "last hurrah" thing. . .)  We killed the back lawn, and Courtney moved the swing set and monkey bars with his backhoe- the redneck way.  My grandpa built those when my mom was a little girl and I've never seen the back yard without them.  We're going to put them in a different corner of the yard when we're done.  I can't wait, although it may be a long few months until the seed grows in.  No grass equals lots of dust, muddy dog feet, and dirty kids!

Before we know it, it'll be summertime!  Hooray!