From the mouths of babes...

So as you've noticed my poor blog has been abandoned for at almost 4 weeks. (more on that later)
Today I took Matthew to get a very needed hair cut. He climbed onto the stylist's chair and proceeded to talk to her about everything going on in his life. (EVERYTHING!)
When she was almost done, he told her that he was going to have a birthday very soon and that he was thinking about getting a new pet. She asked what kind of pet he was thinking about getting, to which he answered very seriously:
-Well I was thinking about a goat but since my mommy says that we can't have goats at home I'm thinking about going with a reptile. I'm not sure yet... But what I'm sure of is that I don't ever want to have a pet KANGAROO- and before she could ask why? he said,
-Because you know...kangaroos kick people in the crotch-
The lady gave me a look and trying to contain a laugh she said -Who told you that?-
and Matthew replied, -Well My brother told me about it a loooooooong time ago and I didn't believe him, but then I saw it with my own eyes one day on America's Funniest Videos-
That's how I know that kangaroos kick people in the crotch.

Hurring up....

When we found out that Josh had to take off back to California we immediately knew that we had to DO a few things before he left.
The first one was to go to the Atlanta Aquarium!
So we went last weekend. It was Awesome! our whole family loves animals (especially Jr) and being the biggest aquarium in the world we got to see creatures that we've never seen before, the biggest hit with the kids was the Whale Sharks (they have 4 of them...wow!) and the other one was the Manta rays, (they have 2 of them) We enjoyed every minute of it.
A big THANKS to Grandpa Danny and Pilar!(Since this trip was a Christmas present from them:)


The second thing we HAD to do, was to have an Authentic Southern Meal!...
Some of you may wonder why we had not for the past 8 months?...Well... our plan was to live here for many many years so we thought that we'd have plenty of time to do that. Yes, we have tried some things here and there but not the whole thing...
So...we headed during the week to a well known place in town. And order as it follows; Fried Catfish, Collard greens, Coleslaw(which is sweet),Hush puppies, cheesy grits and sweet tea!
The fish was delicious so were the Hush puppies(I chose not think about the amount of fat we were consuming in ONE meal, so that I could enjoy it!) the rest of it was so so, neither of us is a fan of sweet tea but wanted to have the whole experience so we drank some of it. The only thing that was soooo hard to swallow were the cheesy grits(or as they called them Georgia Ice cream)
I actually though about changing our family rule about never spitting out food when trying it. Needles to say that the grits were send back almost intact.
We had a good time!
And yes...I have to go back for some more catfish and hush puppies!

What a day!

We had an incredible day yesterday. Even though the news had been announcing that we were going to have snow, we were very skeptical about it. I decided not to send my boys to school since they were going to be dismissed at 12:00.
So they got up in the morning and waited in front of the window for a few hours until the first flakes of snow started to fall, at which they threw on their robes and ran outside to taste said snow. It took hours for it to start sticking on the ground and because everything was closed down due to the weather, Josh came home at 2:00 from work, and that was just what we needed since his schedule has been changed, and now he has to work some days 12 1/2 hours. (because of the Toyota recalls)
After having a treat of "Black Bottom Banana Bars"(it's basically banana bread with unsweetened chocolate) my kiddos favorite, we cozied up with our snow gear and headed outside to play.
One of my best friends(she grew up shoveling snow in the winter...) told me once that she thought that God gave us the beach and the snow to see us play in it. And I whole heartedly agree.
We played outside for about 3 1/2 hours, from snow ball fights to making snow...figures and topping it off with my hubby's favorite thing to do. Offroading in the mud (but yesterday was more like brown slush) until our jeep was producing black exhaust smoke and there were no more huge puddles of mud...
We were reminded that there are a lot of hidden blessings in the common every day things that we take for granted.

NOW YOU SEE IT....

AND PRETTY SOOON YOU WON'T
I love simple thinking, and it's not because I'm a simpleton haha.
Jr -Mommy could you shave my head?-
Me -How come hon? Are you tired of your hair style?
Jr -No! I'm just tired of dealing with it, combing it in the mornings, drying it after taking a shower, too much work!
And so I did. It was a little hard to cut his nice soft hair.
(That took months to grow)

In the proces we had to play around with it and he also asked for a Samurai hair style...which lasted long enough for me to take a picture of it, and before his dad had a heart attack:-)


And here he is, the way most of you remember him since he was 3ish.

What's going on at school...

A few days ago Matthew celebrated the 100th school day! That means the school year is a little more than half way done!(and also that they recognize and know how to count to 100) He loves to read (just like big brother) And he is doing so at a 2th grade level. He got an outstanding achievement award in November, and he was student of the month in December. As some of you know he has had very bad anxiety and although it's getting a little better we have to deal with it one day at the time. What a little trooper!

Jr is working extra hard, he is on the Math team that will represent his school in a Math competition the 1st of May.
And on that note I realize that I have forgotten all about Algebra...this is only pre-algebra, and I've already had to say -I think Papi would be happy to review you homework today.(I'm sooooo glad my hubby's brain understands Math better than mine)
Jr. has been on the honor roll and the principal's list for both quarters so far. He is an avid reader! A few weeks ago one of his uncles (uncle Steve) sent him a box full of Golden Guide books,(they're full of facts about a specific subject) I believe there were around 50 books, and oh was he excited! I mean really really excited about them.

Every day life

As most of you know my oldest son has had a passion for reptiles since he was two and could barely talk. And because of this we go on in life listening about these creatures a lot more that Josh and (especially) me would care to other wise.
But sometimes I have to pause and look at him to make sure that the person who is talking to me is my little Jr.
When I picked up both boys from school today, I handed to Josh Jr. his monthly REPTILE magazine that I had just picked up from the mail box and pointed at a picture of a lizard like (that I had never seen)and said: -Look at that rare lizard on the cover- to which he responded with out blinking -Uuuh...first of all that is not a lizard and second it is not rare, it's a California Red Bellied Newt-
So I realized today that I'm not a cool girl. There are only a few of those in Jr's life, and they actually enjoy catching lizards and looking at reptile pictures with him.(Maddi one of his best friends and Erica, his cousin)
And I'm very glad they are that way other wise he'd probably grow up thinking that all girls HATE snakes and lizards.

Seriously!!

It is COLD!! Out here, it was in the teens "yes" the teens this evening (and the forecast said it felt like 9 degrees) Seriously I can't believe I grew up in cold like this, and with no heater! But even though we've had to scramble around finding gloves, jackets and cozy beenies and socks, we have been able to enjoy the kind of things we didn't in SoCal, like...leaving big chunks of ice outside on different spots to see which one gets thicker and bigger, and how thick the ice in different containers gets and peeling the ice off the plants, not to mention the warm soups, hot cocoa and all day long pajama (and COZY robes) days we've had, as well as the endless boardgames!
(We have no cable so our board games and books get their job done:-)