Andrew ~4 years old

This trouble-maker stays home with me all day and I endure love every second of it.  Despite our struggles (ie. STILL having toilet troubles, groaning/screaming/falling on the floor when I ask him to do something, looking away and scowling at any and all strangers (unless they have candy to offer)), Andrew is a really funny kid.  You just never know when he'll pipe up with some thoughtful comment or kind action that helps calm the fears that he has heard NOTHING you have tried to teach him.  Here's some snapshots of our handsome #3 for the past year or so:

More iPad fun.

We had a little play date with some friends while the house was still under construction.  Which led to a large amount of available dirt that had turned to mud in the recent rain.  Andrew ended up in only briefs (because who wears dirty clothes??) , supervising the mud cakes that were being made.

When we told him he could take some cars to bed, we envisioned a couple.  Apparently he had other plans.

Andrew has joined the other children in our family in not staying in his own bed every night.  Dan is the one who doesn't wake up, so they go to his side of the bed.  Not sure how any of them get any sleep all smashed together.

The only way to keep him still during Caitlyn's softball games was to keep him eating.  Looks like the cantaloupe we brought made him a little loopy.

Perhaps the children watched a few too many episodes of "Gator Boys' because I kept finding the alligator with his mouth taped up.  At least the house was a safer place.

Handsome boy at church.  The tie got ripped off soon after Sacrament Meeting started.  Just like every Sunday.

Happy to have his Angry Birds pajamas.

Turning 4 years old.

How quickly we switch from happy to distraught to happy.  Keeps me on my toes, this one.

Caitlyn~6 years old

Apparently Caitlyn wasn't as involved as Jeffrey was, because I can't find terribly many pictures, but she's cute enough to earn her own post anyway.  Here is what Caitlyn has been up to for the past year or so:

Thanksgiving garb.  She loved making this t-shirt at school.

This picture is more about our nightmare trip to Memphis than actually about Caitlyn.  We made a trip over to Memphis to go to the temple and attend Stake Conference.  We decided to get a hotel even though it is only a hour and a half drive, so we could do the temple Saturday and Conference on Sunday.  So Sunday morning we were getting ready for Stake Conference in the hotel.  We went down for breakfast with little incident.  Dan left a breakfast with Eric a minute early to head back up and finish getting ready for church, but by the time I got back up to the room with the rest of the gang, all order was lost.  Eric had pooped out all over Dan's only church shirt.  So we had to dig through the dirty clothes bag to find something else for Eric to wear and a polo t-shirt for Dan (NOT our usual Sunday wear).  We also discovered at this point that the shoes I packed for Caitlyn were too small, so she had to go in tennis shoes.  We just had to believe that the Lord recognized our efforts to get there, even though we walked in looking like we were headed to a circus, rather than Conference.

Caitlyn turned 6 in February.  She really dressed up for the occasion, by not brushing her hair (a usual occurrence) and putting on her hat.  If I give her the choice between brushing hair or a putting on a hat, she'll pick the hat every time.  Crazy girl.

I imagine any parent with an "i-device" will find these pictures when scrolling through the camera roll, but they crack me up just the same.  Look at that hair...

I love her spelling.  The created a "pirate town" at some point, and these were the signs found around the town.

In the spring, Caitlyn played softball.  She had a few lulls, but overall did a great job and was one of the few hitters on the team.  It was fun to watch.

Caitlyn getting her double.  Exciting!

     

After scoring her run.  The only girl who wore a baseball hat during the games.  An FSU hat instead of a "Jonesboro" hat, but whatever!

Caitlyn the artist.  Love the "Yankee Doodle" spelling...  She played with these pieces of paper forever!

More art work.

Happy to catch a fish...not happy to hold it!

This sums up our opinion of fancy hair.  Obviously she's not happy to wear a hairband, and obviously I'm not proficient at putting it on her!

Ah, the Kindergarten program.  Probably too small to see, but Caitlyn is on the bottom row on the far left.  We wake up the morning of her presentation and she dresses in the typical t-shirt and shorts.  I try to encourage her to wear something a tad nicer because she is in a performance.  She really doesn't want to, and I don't feel like it's worth fighting her.  So she looks like herself, big deal, I think to myself.  Then we get to school and I notice all the other children are really dressed up.  I then recall the note that came home asking the children to wear their "Sunday best" to the performance.  I feel like such an idiot and I'm so embarrassed that I brought my child in a t-shirt!  Dan runs home to get a dress, but of course doesn't make it back in time.  I think, "Maybe they'll at least put her in the back since she's not dressed up."  Nope. Front row.  What do you do?

Caitlyn's AWESOME kindergardtn teacher, Mrs. Julie.  She really was the sweetest person and Caitlyn loved her class.  We had a great year at Valley View!

Jeffrey ~ 7 years old

I thought the other day, rhetorically, of course, what if a poor soul were months behind on their blogging, had given up scrapbooking (with the idea that the blog would suffice for recording family memories), and were way behind with organizing pictures, so the idea of blogging (or scrapbooking for that matter) seemed totally overwhelming?  I would feel so sorry for that person.  As I would feel sorry for myself, if I happened to be that poor soul.  Alas, I live that "poor souls" life, but haven't lost all hope.  Yet.

So, I wanted to take the next few posts to document what the individual kids have been doing lately.  You know, since my last post 10 MONTHS ago.  Here goes lots of random moments from Jeffrey's life:

In January, Jeffrey was in a performance with half of the 2nd grade called "3 of a kind."  He is the billy goat on the far left, which is exceedingly hard to see, but he's there. and did a fabulous job with his part, complete with a 'billy goat voice.'  He's not one to love performances, so he won't ever do it for us at home, but he did manage to do a great job on stage!

Daniel has ensured that the kids have a healthy love for ribs.  Love the bbq covered face.

For a very long time now, Jeffrey has had a hard time sleeping through the night.  He comes out a few hours after he goes to bed and wanders around the house, asleep.  He often comes out and sits with Dan, who is usually still up.  It's not uncommon to see that they have both fallen asleep.

Jeffrey with the awards he won after his 2nd grade year at Valley View Elementary School in Jonesboro, AR.  He excelled in school and continues to love to read.  He is always telling us random facts that he has learned from a book, ranging from facts about salmonella or the tallest mountain, largest body of water or longest bridge on any given continent.

Jeffrey with his teacher, Ms. Shannon.

We had a crazy moment during the addition of our house.  The day after we had the fascia put in, we heard what seemed to be little footsteps in the roof.  Sure enough, after taking down some of the fascia and siding, we found a HUGE birds nest between the rafters (the mother had built the nest, then gotten trapped in the roof when they covered the rafters).  There were 6 little eggs, which sadly didn't survive the ordeal.  It was exciting for the kids.

The kids discovered that it was really fun to blow air into cups filled with water and dish soap.  They looked ridiculous, but spent quite a while out blowing bubble beards.

Always looking for somewhere to play a sport.  Here he is throwing an old water bottle that he found on the ground into a basketball hoop at Craighead Forest Park.

This picture that came home from Primary cracked me up.  It is a drawing a "healthy" and "not healthy" things.  The lesson was on the Word of Wisdom, which usually turns my mind to food choices.  Not so for Jeffrey.  The "healthy" side at the top, includes your usual things like peas and asparagus (not a cigarette as it appears).  Included on the "not healthy" side include (but are not limited to):  a baby going near a pool, throwing a basketball at someone's knee, a large ant running over a person, drowning, falling off a steep roof, coffee, cigarettes, lollipops, falling off a cliff, elves standing on one another's shoulders in order to drop letters to Santa into a mail slot, jumping on a trampoline and breaking your leg, getting run over by a car, getting trapped in a television set, and punching someone in the face.  I think we can agree that these things are indeed, not healthy.

Jeffrey turned 8 years old:

Birthday boy with cake and presents

Trying to catch bugs to put in his new bug catcher.

He requested a water party of sorts.  We use the word "party" liberally as the only people there are family members.  But we were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Leckie there for his birthday, instead of the smaller crowd of just parents and sibilings.

Water balloon fight.  Fun until Caitlyn got wet...

Catching fish at Craighead Forest Park.  Lucky kid pulled out about 5 bream.  Grandpa cleaned them and we ate them up!

Jeffrey got baptized into the LDS church.  In preparing for his baptism, we talked about the Priesthood and who could baptize him and give him the Holy Ghost.  At first he wanted Dan to perform the ordinances.  Then he decided that he wanted to have his grandpas take a more active part since we were so lucky that we have 2 grandpas that were going to be there and could perform the ordinances.  At first the traditional side of me cried out that it had to be the father.  After taking a step back, and pondering the significance of the ordinances, rather than insignificant traditions, I was so happy to have Jeffrey be baptized by his Grandpa Milton and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost from his Grandpa Leckie.  I am so proud of Jeffrey and so many good things that I see him doing.  He's often collecting money to pack into a tithing envelope, helping out his younger brothers and sister, or quietly reading his scriptures so he could finish reading the Book of Mormon before he turned 8.  He is truly trying to follow the example of our Savior.

Jeffrey & Grandpa Milton

Three generations of Milton Men.

It was a super stormy morning when Jeffrey got baptized and not many people were able to brave the torrential rains to come.  But his good friends, the Chandlers, were there.  Here's a terrible picture of Eric, Caitlyn, Kebryl & Kovyk Chandler, Jeffrey & Andrew.

Proud parents with Jeffrey.

Jeffrey started scouts.  He wasn't too thrilled at first to go to the den meetings, because he wasn't sure what to expect.  He was quickly won over when he realized that nearly every den meeting ended with the boys playing ball in the gym.

He's a great kid.  We love him to pieces and are so excited to watch him continue to learn and grow!