Consequences

Jarred and a couple of his friends from the neighborhood thought it would be a good idea to have a plum fight at the park (with all the plums that had fallen off the trees). Boys will be boys right??? There is nothing wrong with a plum fight but then they thought it would be fun to throw them at the fence and smear them on the slides. Well, they learned that with choices come consequence. As soon as we found out what happened, we filled a bucket with soapy water and made them scrub it all off. It wasn't fun, but I think they learned their lesson (I hope).

It wasn't all horrible. They did such a good job cleaning that we made a "water slide" for them when they were done.

Independence Day

All dressed up for the 4th of July!!!

Red, white and blue fireworks on their cheeks (it seems that this is becoming a tradition)

 Starla, a couple of the Perrys, and the Yoshikanes joined us for the festivities this year at Brad and Jen's house.

 My man grilling us up some dinner.

 More "tattoos"

 Waitin' for the fireworks

"Ella, I have a surprise for you..."

Once upon a time there was a sweet little boy named Jarred. He loved his baby sister very, very much. As he was wandering around the neighborhood one day, he happened across a yard sale. As he took a peek at all the treasures to be found there, he spotted a gently used fairy bike that was just the right size for his sister.  But alas, he had no money. But wait! What did he see? A sign was upon this little bike and thankfully, Jarred knew how to read. "F R E E" said the sign. What?!?! Without hesitation, Jarred asked the lady who was having this sale if he could have the bike for his baby sister. "Of course" she said. So Jarred walked that bike home (which was not easy since he had his scooter with him also) and walked through the front door and announced, "Ella, I have a surprise for you!!" It was a perfect fit (it just needed a new seat)! And everyone lived happily ever after!!!

Family pics

The last time we got "real" family pictures taken, Jarred was 1. Isn't that sad? Poor Ella had never been in one. We attempted to take some ourselves when Ella was a baby and well, let's just say they didn't turn out like I hoped they would. 

See?

But, I thought this one turned out great. At least everyone is looking at the camera. And, Jarred doesn't look like...well, I'm not really sure how to describe how Jarred looked in the other one! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the old one, but it will be nice to print this new one and not laugh every time I look at it. Besides, look at how much Ella has grown. Yep, it was definitely time for a new pic.

I love these kids!! 

So pretty!! I have always loved her eyes. Since the day she opened her eyes for the first time, I have been amazed by them. All her emotions come out through her eyes. Just by looking at them you can tell what type of mood she is in. Sometimes it is obvious (like when she rolls them to show that she is annoyed with me) but sometimes you have to look a little deeper. I have seen joy in those eyes, I have seen love in those eyes, I have seen anger in those eyes, and I have seen sadness in those eyes. 

This little dude is my favorite little dude in the whole world. His mind amazes me. He says he wants to be a scientist when he grows up and I have no doubt that he will be. He is always experimenting and creating new things out of nothing. He has the biggest heart and gives the best hugs in the world. I can be in the worst mood and somehow he senses that I need a hug or an "I love you, mom". He can definitely be a handful but the good in him by far outweighs the bad.

This little princess (and when I say princess, I mean princess, just ask her) is an answered prayer, literally. I prayed for her for 2 years. But, of course, the Lord knew when it was time for her to come and he was right. Every once in awhile something will happen and it is like He is saying "See, this is why I made you wait". She has a way of reminding me that this life is supposed to be fun, not boring or miserable. Things that I used to get REALLY upset about don't seem so bad when she says (in her sweet little 3 year old voice) "It ok, we can fix it." or "hmmm...we better queen (clean) that up."  

 We also took a BIG family picture with my family. It has been about 5 years since we had one (1st time since we were kids for a professional one). 6 little ones were born within that 5 years so it was time for a new picture.  

Here's all the girls!

And all the boys! (as you can see, us girls definitely outnumber the boys!)

Ella got her hair cut!!!!!

My baby girl got her first hair cut today. If you have ever heard me talk about her hair, you know what a big deal this was. She has the cutest little curls in her hair and so I have been terrified of cutting it because I didn't want them to disappear. She is 3 1/2 years old and has never had even one hair on her head cut. She has gotten gum in her hair twice and I still refused to cut it. Well, my fear of cutting her hair kinda rubbed off on her. She was terrified of getting it cut. She thought that it would hurt. I told her that it was like cutting her fingernails. She wouldn't believe me. I tried taking just one tiny strand of hair and cutting it so that she could see that it wouldn't hurt and before I got the scissors anywhere near her head, she started screaming like someone had just tried to cut her big toe off. The look of terror on her face made me want to cry. I had never seen her so upset. Well, I asked a bunch of people what I should do to convince her to cut it. Most of the things suggested, I had already tried. So, Rhea suggested that we have a "hair cuttin' party". As soon as Ella heard "party", she was intrigued. As soon as the words "balloons" and "ice cream" were mentioned, she got excited. So, today we went over to Rhea's and Ella and Emma got pampered. Rhea washed both of their hair in the sink and put special spray in their hair and then Ella got to watch Emma get her hair cut. Apparently, that was all she needed to see. She had a huge smile on her face when Rhea took the first cut of Emma's hair. When it was her turn, she jumped up into the chair and didn't even flinch when the scissors came out. We only took a tiny bit off of the ends (cause I still want to hang onto the curls) to help keep the tangles at bay and to just clean it up a little. All the curls are still there and Ella did awesome!

 Ready to make the first cut!

 There it goes!!! (see the extra hands? Those are Emma's hands. She was trying to help Ella hold still.)

 Apparently Emma thought a choke hold would work best.  

Field trip to the Fire Station (and other random pics)

The theme for Preschool this month was "Heroes" so we took a trip to the Fire Station to meet some local heroes.

It may not look like it here, but she really did like seeing the fire trucks.

Inside the fire engine

The preschool group (plus a few extra)

Inside an Ambulance

Before heading to the Fire Station, we met up with some friends at the park.

This is Ella and her friend Kirsten sharing "treasures" that they found on the ground.

Looking for more interesting things to play with.

I just threw this one in for fun because she is so stinkin' cute. 

Funnies

I love it when the kids say funny things, and I think to myself "Self, you should really write this stuff down so that you don't forget it". And then of course, I get busy doing other stuff and those funny things that they say get pushed back into the very deep, dark corners of my brain and get forgotten about. So, I am setting a goal for myself to not let these moments disappear into no man's land but instead be recorded so that one day my kids will know what goofballs they really are.

Kylee and Jarred have been taking cold lunch to school all year because we thought we could pack their lunches for less than the cost of hot lunch. Well, food prices have gone up and it no longer is cheaper so we told them that we would buy them hot lunches from now on. Jarred's response was "YES! (insert fist pump) I don't have to sit with the nerds anymore!!"

Kylee has been struggling in math so we have been having her bring home her math homework so that I can check it and have her fix any problems she misses before she turns it in. Well the other night, after checking it, I informed her that she needed to fix half of the problems. With a look of shock on her face she says "WHAT!?! That means I got them all wrong!!" Yikes, the fractions chapter is going to be a nightmare! Just kidding, she is actually doing much better in math.

Jarred had his "Great to be 8" night at church last week. He was super excited about it. When I asked him why he was so excited, he said "because they are going to have refreshments". I asked him what refreshments were, and he said "I don't know but they sound awesome!"

Ella is a genius! This kid can get out of trouble better then anyone I have ever met. The other night she comes into my room with lipstick all over her face. I looked at her and said "Ella! What did you do!?!" She looked up at me and smiled and said "I wuv you, mom." See, genius. It works every time (and she uses it about 30 times a day).

I have been in a co-op preschool since last September. For awhile I didn't think it was doing Ella much good but we kept with it because it is fun. Ella has made some friends and so have I. Well, we have really been working with the kids to recognize their names and we also have them practice writing them. Whenever I write Ella's name on something I ask her "What does this say?" She says "Ella." I say "How do you spell Ella?" She says "E. Ls. A." I love it!! It is so stinkin' cute.

As you can see, there is never a dull moment at the Terry house!