Merry Chirstmas!

I know it has been awhile but here are some pictures from the last month of activity. We have been busy. School parties, christmas shopping, family guests, and long driving trips. Last week we had Cheri and Dave, Ben's dad and step mom, over for a few days and had a lot of fun. We went to Rock City, Opryland in Nashville, and also just hung out and visited. After Dave and Cheri left we had to get ready for our road trip to Gulf Port MS to my Grandma Ladnier's house. My mom and her husband, Bob flew out from CA, and my Aunt Jennie and her husband flew out from Alaska. We had the weekend to visit and celebrate my grandma's 70th birthday and Christmas. We had a great time and only wish we could have stayed longer. We headed back Christmas Eve just in time to get home go to bed and wait for Santa to come. Here are some pictures of the last few weeks. I still need to get MS pics from my mom. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and New Years!

Halloween 2007

Well... all I can say is that we made it through Halloween. Loryn started out last week with strep throat. The boys followed on Sunday, and by Tuesday Elijah thought he would spice things up a bit and get a tummy virus (lots of thowing up) on top of his diaria and other stuff. Trunk or treat was fun for Loryn and Caleb but not for mommy, as she had to tote around a sick 2 year old. The things we do to make our kids happy.

By Halloween night Elijah hadn't thrown up all day and seemed a lot better so we took him out trick or treating. We went to a local church who puts on a huge trunk or treat then hit up a few houses on the way home. We have waaaay to much candy! We were supposed to have my best friend Julia and her family over for BBQ and trick or treating but because of Elijah's illness nobody wanted to take a chance. It was probably a good thing since Caleb threw up this morning. After a hurried pumpkin cutting minutes before eating and trick or treating and last minute planning it all came together and the kids had fun.

In Memory Of Grandpa

I was going through and cleaning out some of the old documents saved in our hard drive from my college days and ran across a class where I had to write a journal. One of the journals I opened described my conversation via email with my Grandpa Ladnier ( my mom's dad, who passed away a year ago March). This took place in February 2000. I thought most of you would appreciate what my grandpa had to say regarding his experiences with war. The following is an account from my journal:

I wrote my grandpa and told him I was taking this class. I asked him a few questions and he responded with delight that I am interested and said that he had always wondered why I had never taken interest before. I thought about that and came to the conclusion that I was not confronted and was not aware of war or the effects of it. I never thought to ask. He mentioned how when his uncles returned from wars he “as a youngster, ‘hung onto’ every word they said”. He went on to say that what you learn about in history books is just not all the facts. Here is what he wrote to me:

Thinking of Vietnam I can't help but recall a statement that
General S.L.A. Marshall made during a luncheon. General Marshall, of
W.W.II fame; I introduced him as a guest speaker and afterwards we had
lunch - he was 86 years old then! He said, "...we will lose our next
war because we have become too civilized". I learned from my tours in
Vietnam what he meant - - the Vietcong beat us because "we were too
civilized". They didn't play by our rules - - i.e., they routinely used
children and women as weapons against up. Try to imagine seeing a young
girl, like Marie, walking toward a dozen of your friends and you KNOW that she
has a bomb and if she reaches your friends they are all dead - - but, if you
shoot her, you save your friends! We as Americans, could not handle
this! We would go into villages and rebuild them - - set up schools
and give them everything so they could have the advantage and freedom that we
all knew. When we left, the Vietcong would come in and select the mayor of
the village, hang him by his feet, slit his stomach and force his family,
children, wife and all the villagers to watch as the pigs eat his hanging
intestines - - we could not compete with this cruelty! Yet, we saw more
and more of the American public, the News Media, Hollywood stars, like Jane
Fonda, supporting the Vietcong. We became the enemies and not the
Vietcong! It was more painful for me to travel to and from Vietnam in the
US than actually being in Vietnam. I clearly remember my uncles returning
from W.W.II and their reception. The people understood the sacrifices they made
to insure that they and their families forever would enjoy the freedom that we
enjoy in this nation. When Vietnam veterans returned they were only met
with hatred! Waiting in a California airport, in Green Beret uniform, I
was approached by this nice looking young lady. She said, "I just want to
show you how much I appreciate what you are doing for our country by treating
you to the best breakfast you have ever had". Since I had time
before my flight home I agreed and we went into the nicest restaurants there and
she ordered for both a dream breakfast - - steak, eggs with all the trimmings.
She finished eating before I did and grabbing the bill said she had to rush
for her flight. When I finished and starting walking out the cashier
stopped me said that the young lady had not only not paid the bill, but had got
a considerable amount of gum/candy saying to add it to the bill and I would pay
on my way out! That was her way of expressing how she felt about
Vietnam Veterans!
I was in RVN twice as a Special Forces,
Green Beret, operator. The first time in the mid 50s, in civilian clothes,
after the French had been defeated. I suspect history will
show that our mistake was not supporting them against the Vietcong (Vietnamese
Communist). Their last stand was heroic and deserves to be
remembered. I met, worked with and partied with many of the French
Legionnaires who were there and survived. My home base was Saigon and I
lived in an upscale hotel -- then a beautiful city.

Returning in the 70s, this time in Green Beret uniform, we were involved in
establishing and operating intelligence networks and in recruiting locals,
training, equipping and leading them in battle against the Vietcong. It
was an economy of force operation - - a 12 man A detachment would recruit and
lead a local Army of up to 5,000 soldiers. We were convinced that it was
our duty to help the Vietnam people know and enjoy the freedom that we had known
all our lives. I was following a long family tradition of going to War and
believe that one has never lived until they have almost died - - the comradeship
and trust that you develop for your fellow soldier is close to
love.
There is a community of Vietnamese here in Gulfport
that was forced to leave their country when we left. They are good
citizens and becoming productive members of our nations. The
irony is that they were provided more US government help, money, training, etc.,
to get resettled that Vietnam Veterans were given!

The real heroes of Vietnam were the wives that stayed home and took care of the
children. Alice did wonders. Even our children made sacrifices - -
your Mom did - - but when I came home and Karen would put her arms around me and
say, "I love you Dad!" that made it all worth while.

Our nation will continue to be challenged by
aggressors throughout the world and there will always be a need for someone to
sacrifice to insure that we all can keep this great freedom we
have.

Water Water Water

If only we did have a lot of water via rain this summer my grass would not have practically died nor my other plants struggle to survive. With the cooling temperature we have finally been able to get out and get wet.


Car Wash - the kids helped Ben with washing his car the other day. They had a lot of fun. Of course Ben would get frustrated because they liked to keep washing the side that was already done or kept dumping out the water bucket with soap in it. Caleb pored almost the whole bottle of soap in and pretty much washed the driveway. But they all had fun!



Sunday the kids had fun playing in the pool. It was perfect weather!


Elijah's face is all healed up. He has a little scar on his cheek that I hope will eventually fade away.

Crazy

Things have been a little crazy around here. In the last 3 weeks I have started my new Bradley classes, seem to have every kid in the neighborhood over, of which I am either actually officially watching or just over to play. Last week I babysat a little 18 month old and kept extra kids. Some of those days I had more than 7 kids I was watching. One of those days I had to keep the house clean for my Bradley class that was starting that night. You ever try to keep a house clean when 7 kids are running around? Close to impossible! I am also Caleb's homeroom mom, so I have already had to do some work for that. So I have been busy and when something has to go, unfortunately it is things like my blog or laundry, which is piled to the garage roof right now.

Caleb still loves school and so does Loryn. She asks me everyday if she has school today. I think she wishes she could everyday. According to Caleb's teacher is doing great, is always helping others and is one of the most well behaved in the class.

Caleb read his first book by himself!!! Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss is Caleb's first real read. The other day he sat out back on our porch and just started reading it. He only needed help with a few words but mostly got it by himself. His teacher was so proud of him too that she let him sit in her rocking chair and read to the whole class. He was so excited and now he just loves to read. Ben and I had tears in our eyes when we listened to him, we are so proud of him!

Caleb started playing soccer. So far he has won 2 games and he is making lots of goals. He is definitely more confident than last year. Elijah wishes he could play. He goes with Ben to the practices (Ben is assistant coach), and dribbles the ball back and forth between the nets. We have had comments such as "can he teach the other kids to do that", and "he is going to be really good when he starts playing". That's our little athlete. We will probably let him play next year.

Well, that was an attempt to catch up. We are all doing well and starting to enjoy the cooler weather. I have never looked forward to fall and winter so much in my life! This summer was for the records, no rain and extreme temperatures - yuk!

Saturday Outing

We decided on Friday it was time to go out to Acworth and Kennesaw and visit the Fam. We started out at my dad's house in Acworth and hung out a little. Him and his wife got a cute little puppy Dautson (sp?), so we got to have the honors of giving her more reason to be scared. Just kidding. Actually the kids did really well with her and she seemed to warm up a bit by the time we left. Dad took us out to lunch for pizza, thanks dad! and then later we headed out to Kennesaw to visit Chris and Aimee. Aimee just had a birthday a few weeks ago, Happy Birthday Aimee, belated. We went to visit with them and had lots of fun. We played Wii, which Caleb kicked butt in bowling, scoring 188, but had to sing Sponge Bob song, a consequence to a bet, as he lost another game to Chris. After dinner time us big kids played Risk while the midgets wrecked havoc on the rest of the house. We got out late but not before we got a call from our neighbor, Wendy, asking if we were home because a co worker called her asking if her house was OK because there looked like a house was on fire near ours. Course, I only had about 100 heart attacks as I called our other neighbor to make sure none of our houses were on fire. Lucky for us it was not on our street but the street over, a house did catch fire. By the time we got home the fire trucks were just leaving and as we passed we could see that most of the house was burnt to the ground. So, keep that family in your prayers. It is soo devastating and scary to think that could happen to you.

Tomorrow Loryn starts her first full day of preschool. I will be taking Elijah to the doctors to get his face x-rayed, only as a precaution, I think he is feeling and doing great.

More car trouble...again my check engine light has come on. We have not been able to keep a car out of the shop for almost the last month. First it was my car, the idle motor sensor, then Ben's car, the high air sensor (?) I think, and now who know with mine, may have to do with the same thing as before. Hope the car can last through the week. I have Caleb to get to school as well as Loryn. Does life ever get any easier?

Ouch!

My heart hurts when I look at my little boy perhaps feeling too much the pain of what you would imagine he feels with his face so bruised like that. I left my Bradley classes early last night due to a call from Ben telling me of the accident that caused Elijah's little face to look so beaten up. He wasn't sure if we needed to bring him to the hospital or not. When I got home I wasn't sure either, fearing that he may have broken something in his cheek or jaw. After a little bit he started settling down and his eye didn't look as swollen. We asked our neighbor who is a nurse to come over to look at him and tell us what she thinks. She didn't think it was a must to bring him and that he would be fine over night. Ben brought him down to watch TV and he stopped crying and after a little bit began playing with us and laughing and giggling. We decided he was probably OK or at least that the doctors would not be able to do much more than we were doing. We kept him up a little while longer and gave him snacks which he ate just fine and he finally went to bed. He he doing great today. His face looks more bruised but he is playing fine and doesn't seem to notice. I am sure this is the first of many big accidents with the no fear attitude he seems to have.

Today I am getting ready for my OAMC class I am teaching tonight at church and trying to get the house in better order. I look forward to do a little more managing and delegating choirs rather than having to do them all my self. I am sure it will happen way too fast and with it we also lose some of that precious behavior that makes this age so sweet.

Preschool for Loryn!

Sent one off to kindergarten yesterday and then one to preschool today. Well, actually today was just open house for Loryn to meet her new teacher and for us parents to sit in a boring lecture on rules and expectations etc etc. She had no problem going to class. Right when she walked in she spotted her best friend Emma who lives right next door to us. They both ran to each other and gave big hugs smiling and talking with each other. She got to stay there while Me, Caleb, and Elijah went to the chapel for our lecture. I missed half of it because Elijah decided that it was more fun to climb the stairs and run throughout the ailes. I had to keep taking him out on the account that he would scream if I stopped him from doing anything that he wanted to do. Don't you love the age 2!

Loryn's teacher seems nice and when we got home she kept asking me if she could go back to preschool. I told her she was going to get to go 2 times a week - huge open mouth smile erupts from her face as she fling her arms around me in the most genuine show of gratitude. My daughter has to be the most gratuitous individual alive! You should have seen her face when I added the cherry to the top, that her friend Emma and Leah would also be going and that she would be able to play with them in music and the playground - "playground!" she exclaims with excitement, as if you are describing heaven to her. I dread the day that this wonderful easily brought on show of appreciation in the things she is aloud to do, fades to a mere memory. Maybe we will get lucky and she will hold on to that attitude. We can only hope.

Caleb had a wonderful 1st day. He is only sad that he has to wait another week to go, and then mostly upset that it will not be until Friday that all his classmates are there at the same time. Caleb is very much the social bee (instead of butterfly - more appropriate for boy?). They read stories, played on the monkey bars (his favorite), made his name with beans. He saw his neighborhood friends Emily (our neighbor) and Bricen. He was disappointed that he could not ride on the bus with the argument that all the other kids got to ride the bus. I should count my blessings that he is accepting this change so well. I have friends that their new kindergartners are having a hard time. Maybe the trick is to get them real bored at home for months before school starts where they are eager to get out of the house (familiar feeling - have I felt that? - we won't go there).

Other than Ben's car being out of commission and depending on friends for rides all is going well. I will be teaching my tenth Bradley class tonight and have only 2 more to finish the series, Yeah! I already have one couple in line to start my next series and am hoping to find at least 2 more (keep me in your prayers). I have to prepare my lesson for enrichment on Once a Month Cooking for the other ward in our area. Somehow I have become known as the expert on OAMC which is not the case at all, I just seem to be the few who actually continuously do it. Anyway should go so I can prepare that and as always clean the house. Until next time - no promises when that will be!

Kindergarten - Here we come!!!

It has arrived. The day we, as parents, never think will happen. Our little baby starts school. Caleb has been so excited! Last week we went to registration and met his teacher and visited his classroom. She seemed very nice and Caleb really started looking forward to starting. I think he has been getting bored at home.

Today is his first full day. Well, actually his first full regular day with all of his classmates will be next Friday. Today is his first phase in day where him and 3 other children go for the whole day to get acquainted with the school and teacher and I believe they asses them to see where they are at. We also had to turn in our huge list of items like paper towel, wipes, notebooks, 4 things of glue, crayons, markers, erasers, etc, etc. I felt a little better about having to get so much when one of the moms had to hurry off because she had two other children to turn in their things. She had triplets, so you can imagine her list.

Caleb had to meet in the gym where they lined them up by class. There was a mix of older kids as well. Ben made a comment that it felt like prison. Poor Caleb, I was just telling him the night before about keeping his hands to himself because a friend told me about a 6 year old kid last year in a Chattanooga school was hauld away in hand cuffs for hitting a kid on the butt. Can you imagine how tramatizing. This no tolerence thing can get out of hand. A little scary too. Anyway, Caleb can be real sensitive and take things to heart sometime and I just told him about the kids and he was worried all morning. Maybe its best so he will remember to keep his hands to himself. He does have a tendancy to touch other kids (just in play).

I think he was just fine once the teacher came and we all walked to class and he got to hand up his backpack and sit down to play some playdoe. The teacher asked us to put the stuff we brought on the table and then said "Well, thanks, see you later". So we left. We pick him up today at 3:00pm.

Normally it would be a problem the whole dropping off and picking up but our cars decided to break down. Two weeks ago I had my car in the shop in hopes of getting it done in time for this week. It was but Monday morning Ben's car wouldn't start. Firgures! Well, we figured it all out thanks to Ben working around his schedual. Well I will let you know how Caleb's first day went. Tomorrow Loryn has her open house for her preschool. She has Mrs. Michelle as her preschool teacher and will be starting next Monday going Monday and Wednesday from 9am - 2pm. She is excited as well.

My babies are growing up!!!

Catching up: Kathi's visit, Ben's birthday, and our Anniversary - Oh Yea and 4 of July!

I am going to try to catch you all up on what has been happening in The Life of The Doolittle's.... Oh, so exciting. I know... you have all missed my exciting entries of my exciting life. (That was an attempt at sarcasm) Truthfullly though a lot has been going on but the exciting part is all relative. We have had a good time having Kathi coe to visit us. The kids looooovvveed grandma being here to spoil them rotten with lots of love! We honestly didn't do very much as there usually isn't much motivation to go many places when you have 3 children under the age of 5 and its hot and sticky outside! We did visit Gattlenburg which is like a Solvang (I probably spelled both of those places wrong, sorry) and walked around and stuff. Caleb was sick the whole time, poor guy, so we couldn't really do to much there. When Kathi originally arrived we met Ben for dinner and went to (drum roll) ... CPK. If you couldn't guess, you probably don't know Ben as well as you thought.(JK) For the most part we hung out at the house. Had a great BBQ for Ben on his birthday.

Ben has finally reached the big 30! How time flys. It seems to be speeding up the older we get. Ben got a set of golf clubs and all the gear to golf his little heart out. Kathi left on Wednesday after Ben's birthday. We were sad to have her go. It never is enough time with our mommy's. Thanks Kathi for comming out! We miss you already!


Ben and I had our 7 year anniversary on the 29th of July. Ben never has an excuse for not knowing how many years we have been married because we were married in 2000, so if he can't get that then... well ... we have a problem. We really didn't do much. Our friend watched the kids and we went out to lunch and a movie (we watched Harry Potter). It was nice to get with each other but I was sick which by that night started getting a fever which turned out to be step throat. Lovely way to spend our anniversary. We still had a good time though.

Oh Yea! Almost forgot about 4th of July. We had a great time with my dad, Lisa and Aimee coming out for lunch. We set off the sound firworks while they were here. They had to leave before it got dark so missed the exciting big fireworks. Our neighbors were having tooo much fun whith theirs. We had one incident were they tried to set off 7 or more big fireworks all together and placed them together. One fell over which in turn knocked over all the others and the started flying across the lawns at us and the houses. It was scary! We all survived and we did not have to call the fire department so all was well. We ate watermellon and just hung out with neighbors and watched the show. We had a great time. Poor Emma (see picture little girl in dads lap) had fallen asleep but her dad didn't want her to miss the show so he brought her out. Only about five minutes later did that incident with all the fireworks shooting at us happen. He had to take her in - she was terrified!

Remembering Elijah's Birthday

Well . . . I could use the excuse, "I already did that", as to why I have not updated my blog, or maybe I should just say "I did a Lisa", because that seems to be what I am all about anymore. Any projects or the like are rarely done on time. Will I ever figure it out and get my life together? I envy all you who do soo well keeping up with blogs, routines, and laundry! All I can promise is I will never stop trying. So here we go at an attempt to get back on track with blogging and updating all you who care. I apologize for my lack of attention to these things and hope you'll understand.

Remembering Elijah's birthday! Yes! Now 2 months later and tons of other things going on but I still wanted to honor our little guy for turning two and letting you all in on the birthday celebration even though it is belated.

For Elijah's birthday we went to my dad's house in Acworth GA and had a great time. We ate at 5 Brothers, a burger joint, and had cake and presents at the house. Elijah gots lots of fun things and the kids had fun playing. Here are some pictures. Thanks dad for having us!

"I already did that"

Our precious Loryn has a new saying in her life - "I already did that". If I ask her to go to the bathroom, she says it, even if it has been more than 3 hours. If I say that it is time for bed, she says it, even though it has been a whole day and it is yet again bedtime. Doesn't matter, to her she has done it before and therefore it is not neccesary to do it again. Don't you wish we could all think as innocently as that again. When I think about that I begin to wonder, when did we lose our innocents? A point to ponder...
I have been getting behind with my blog and I appologize and part of the reason is that our office is so messy that I don't even want to go in it. But it should all be cleaned up by the time Kathi comes which is this coming Tuesday. The kids are very excited. Loryn keeps saying that she has to wait to do certain things or this is this or this is that because grandma is coming and then she'll ask when is grandma coming. Soon, honey, soon. Time to children is a hard concept to understand. Anything that has already happened is yesterday and if it seems like a long time ago it was 40 years ago or even sometimes a 100 years ago. If is going to happen it is tomorrow. Don't even try to explain how long a month is our a year. Caleb keeps asking when fall is because that is when kindergarten starts. Actually I don't think it will look or feel like fall when he starts which is August 8th. Or atleast that is when he registers and gets to meet his teacher. I believe the real date is that next monday the 13th.
I thought I would go ahead and write a little post to try and keep up. The whole wait till I catch up thing is not working and what I will do instead is add it as soon as I can. I have some cute video and pics of Elijah's birthday and 4th of July.
Well Caleb is yelling for me... so I must get back to life.

Elijah birthday weekend! Friday

Friday we had a fun day. We had to do some errands - the chiropracter, target (to get birthday gifts for Elijah, and yes he was with us), Walmart, and blockbuster. Our friends Julia and Sean and her two girls Alice and Nichole were coming to visit, a little pit stop, in the middle of their 12 hour drive up north to visit family. We haven't seen them in awhile and were very excited to have them over. We BBQ and the kids played. When they showed up Elijah had been playing in the water next door, so he was all wet. They brough him a present which he loved, some balls, a cute t-shirt that says "I do all my own stunts", and a ball catch toy. Thanks Julia and Sean, you guys are the greatest! Julia has been my best friend since sophmore year of Highschool. She only recently moved to GA from CA and is only about 2 hours away. Even though she is so much closer, its still not close enough.


When Elijah was first opening his present he thought the tissue paper was it. He still thought is was cool with all the poka dots. We had to urge him to come back and really open his present. Then he realized he was given some balls, and that made his day! That boy is obsessed! Here is a video:

Where do I start. It has been several days since I last posted so I need to do a little catching up. Sunday, Father's Day, we went to church. We had to leave a little early because the stake President called and asked to see us. We both thought, "Uh Oh!". Ben was called in and asked if he would except the calling of 1st councilor to the Elders Quorum.(I think I spelled and said it right) Ben is excited about the calling just a little overwhelmed. We have faith he was called for a reason and that if the Lord thinks he can handle all of what is going on in his life (new job, school, family, and church calling) than he can. We ended up having to leave early because Elijah decided he would give daddy a little gift and throw one of his top ten tantrums. I took him out in the hallway and he just let it go throwing his body around and screaming. Ben said he could hear him in the chapel. I couldn't settle him down so we had to leave. Then Ben and Caleb went and helped our good friends Sean and Kellie move into their new house. Caleb had fun because they had a pool and so the boys all went swimming. I stayed home with the youngest two.

Monday I had Emily and my 3. We ran a few errands and went to McKay books store, a used book store in town. I always turn old books in and get credit. So I went to look for a book for me and the kids got to pick out few. They had fun. Loryn picked out a few Dora books, Caleb picked a few Thomas train books (of course!), Elijah didn't care but we got him a book with a little piano on it. Also found some classics, had to get Dr. Dolittle, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables (my favorite movie!), and some others.

Monday night we went to Marci and Derek's house for a little BBQ and swimming. Charlie and Adrienne went to and all the kids including us had a great time. Elijah went swimming with Ben and in no time wanted to copy the oldest and jump off the diving board. He kept throwing his arm floaties off and kicking them away just to show us how much he liked them. We ended up leaving late and I let Elijah stay up till we left which was past ten, with regret. An hour and a half after we got home and he was asleep he woke up and was up for hours. Laid back down for a few hours then was up again. Miserable! He does that every time I don't put him to bed close to his bedtime which is normally around 7pm. And of course what day is this. Monday! The night before my Bradley Class. I'm telling you it happens every time.

Tuesday wasn't too bad except for being tired. I finished preparing for my Bradley class. Thanks to all of you who prayed for rain for us. We finally received some rain! Yeahh! Hopefully we will get some more soon. Classes went well. I taught about 1st stage labor, how body works, and labor rehearsal. Caleb stayed at Emily's house to help Ben out with the kids because they all had to stay inside with the rain. He also had an extra little girl Marni who is very cute but not used to playing with other kids. I think he was ready for class to be over.

Wednesday we went to Marci's just me and the kids. She was sick and needed to go to the Doctors so I went over and watched the kids while she went to the doctors. She has three little ones 7, 5, and 3. We all played in the pool from 10:30 until 3:30. Elijah took a 3 hour nap and the kids had a blast. By the time we left, it was getting late so we picked up some food on the way home. Ben had enough time to eat, change, and head to his first meeting in his new calling. The kids played outside and a few of the moms were out so we all chatted while the kids played until 8:15. Got the kids to bed and relaxed for a bit. Earlier in the day Loryn tried to brush her hair using my brush on her own. Here are the results. Poor girl, took me a little bit to get the tangles and the brush out.

Today, (were finally here) was nothing exciting (not that the rest of the week was but...) we ran a few errands, to the Car Tag place, bank, $ tree, Walmart (I feel like I live there!), and blockbuster (you know you go there too much when all the employees know you by name). Headed home, Elijah nap, I cleaned, and here we are. We are expecting Julia and Sean and her 2 girls this afternoon. They're driving somewhere and are stopping through. We haven't seen them in awhile so are looking forward to their visit. Here is what happened to my living room in the few moments I turned my back. This is a normal sight. Oh yes and this morning started off the day with egg carpet a la mode. Elijah decided to take the eggs out of the fridge and crack them open on my carpet! I was livid!( I bought a fridge lock at Walmart today.) Well I need to go do some laundry and re pick up the house. It never ends!

Crazy Week!

Well I am already starting to not write as much. It has been a crazy week. All I can say is kids, children, little people, kids, little people, and oh yes dogs, cats, and 4 wheelers. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I watched Tasia who is 6, my 3 (Wed we added Emily), as well as other neighborhood wanna be Doolittle children Emma and our new neighbor Dylan, oh yes and Rachel another little girl was here as well at one time and also two other boys. So there were times when I thought I had died and gone to ..... oh heaven, of course. No actually it wasn't too bad and the kids had fun. I just spent the whole day running after everybody cleaning up and making sure noone got lost or hurt. Wed we had some stray dogs scare the kids up on top of the playground. Today, we noticed signes that they were missing. I called and the lady called back to say she had found them. But then only about 30 min after that did I see the same dogs again. So I called back and she had to leave work to come get them. They were nice so it was ok, atleast for us... but not for Raza (our black cat). Raza thought she could take them all on. I tried to get her in the house but she decided to attack them, she ended up getting cornered by all three and barely escaped first under the car and then ran out back and up a huge tree. She was waaayyy up there. And there she sat for more than 3 hours, I think. Poor girl. She is still a little frazled... don't touch her!

Tuesday night I had my Bradley class and that went well. We learned about drugs and myths and coaching. Watched a great video on good coach/bad coach and I didn't go over too much. The kids were outside with Ben the whole time. Then all played with some neighbors, mainly our new neighbor Dylan (he is Caleb's age). Dylan and Caleb like to wrestle on the trampoline. Well, I was told that at one time Dylan hit Caleb in the head. Don't worry... caleb had back up. Elijah came running at Dylan and punched him hard in the stomach (doubled Dylan over). Ben said you could here it... poor Dylan - I guess he learned not to mess with the Doolittle children - they stick up for one another. Dylan is a nice kid and gets along very well with all the kids. Today we let Caleb stay and play with Dylan while we ran an errand and I was told by Dylan's mom Beth that they had a great time playing monster truck rally ramming each other with there two electric four wheeler and truck, she says as the you could hear giggles echoing around the whole neighborhood. They have fun together.

I have recently come in contact with some old High School buddies. It's been fun to see what they have been up to all these years. Kind of weird how all our lives have taken such different turns.

Well, the weekend is on us, our grass is continuing to die and most of my annuals are dead. I usaully pride myself on our front yard and how pretty I can make the beds but now just feel hopeless about it. I am about to start doing the rain dance, anything to make it rain. I think God is making fun at us because we are continually getting rain clouds over us and it just passes right by. A little south of us gets a down pour but not us. And we need it badly! So everyone pray for rain!

Saturday and the Braves Game

Ben and I had a great time Friday night on our date night. We went out to Big River Grill and then for some ice cream. We felt like such losers because we didn't know what we should do after that and ended up making it an early night. Kids were still awake when we got home which was still close to eleven except for Elijah. But it was nice to get out on our own.

Saturday I spent the whole day making cookies. We have a new neighbor that moved in across the street and I thought I would bring them some yummies to welcome them to the neighborhood and introduce myself. I ended up making a double batch and spent hours cooking them. Had so many cookies all my other neighbors ended up having some cookies as well.

Ben and Caleb were the lucky ones as they got to go to a Brave's game. Ben said Caleb had a great time. He had two sodas two ice creams star burst and other treats. So you can imagine how still he sat during the game. I believe Ben had to take him out in the third inning because he kept bouncing back and forth in front of a lady next to them. The guys Ben went with were silly with Caleb which I believe Caleb got a kick out of. Overall they all had a great time.

Today was church day. Didn't do much till this afternoon went outside to water the flowers. Gave the hose to Elijah to help me water and he ended up having too much fun watering the kids and himself instead. He has figure out how to stick his finger in the water to make it squirt further out. Well I need to round up the kids and get them to bed.

Yesterday tried to exchange my dead flowers but I guess I have to actually bring in all the dead flowers to get reimbursed. I have about 70 something little ones. I had asked originally when I bought them if I had to do that and the lady had said no so it was irritating that I packed up all the kids and wasted 3 dollars in gas with no result. I'll have to try again tomorrow.

Tonight is date night! YEAAAAHHHHHH! Oh - did I say that with too much enthusiasm. I pick up the babysitter around 5 ish. She seems to be a good one. She even cleans up after them and last time even dusted the piano. Wow! It might just be Ben and I tonight or we might go out with our friends Derek and Marci. There one of our best friends we have in town and always have such a good time together. They have three kids as well all around the same age and their all friends too. We usually do so much together that I think our kids think we are related. Its cute and we love there kids as well.

Here is a funny picture we got emailed to us from a friend. Thought all you LDS (mormons) would get a kick out of it. Ben and I thought it was funny because our perspective is - well yeah you pray and get an answer - so is this church saying you shouldn't pray? I don't quite get their perspective, maybe someone can clue me in. Anyway thought it was funny. Well I better get to cleaning up the house. It is mouse heaven right now (lots of cracker crumbs and goodies all over the floor and couches) As they get older the messes get bigger. Comes with the territory.

Just another day

Today is just another day like all the others. I don't have Emily today but she usually isn't hard to have around, she actually keeps the others busy. I feel almost a 100% now except for being a little tired since Elijah decided to throw a fit last night and keep me up till almost 1am. I don't know what was wrong with him.

Ben got home last night and after dinner played with the kids. He has to be careful because if he lays on the floor or is anywhere near it the mob squad attacks him. I think he likes it until someone jumps on his stomach without him being ready for it. I have a lot to prepare for this week. Sunday I have my sunbeams lesson and I also have to teach the teacher workshop class and then of course Tuesay is my Bradley class. Going to Lowes today to replace my dead flowers. Last night Ben discovered that Loryn and Elijah's feet are about the same size. Big feet Elijah!

Tuesday the kids played with the playdoe and in the evening Caleb and Emily got to go swimming in the neighbors above ground pool. They loved it!




Here is Elijah playing Dentist with a playdoe dentist kit.

They love playdoe and I wouldn't mind it either if it didn't get everywhere including the carpet.