The Awesomeness of Chuck Norris and Other People

First of all, I don't know why I decided to write this post. I also am not Chad, so that means that this must be Corinne and I will be writing stream of consciousness.

I was reading an update on facebook that caught my eye. A friend of mine teaches seventh grade and was doing a trivia game. She asked her students who died at the Alamo. Of course, she was expecting someone to say Davy Crockett, instead the answer came, "Chuck Norris".

I had to laugh because I have spent a good amount of time listening to my brothers, my husband, my son and all of his friends (at different times, mind you) talk about the awesomeness of Chuck Norris. So, I know that if any person could travel back in time, be killed, and then come back to live in the present, it would be Chuck Norris. I mean the man has counted to infinity -twice. One day a rattlesnake bit Chuck Norris, three days later the snake died. The man is awesome, and strangely humble.

I know a lot of people - a lot of very interesting people. A lot of them, like Mr. Norris (I mean, would you really call the guy Chuck to his face without being invited to do so?), are awesome, and strangely humble. They wouldn't toot their own horns, and unlike Mr. Norris, they don't have a lot of people to do it for them. So, I would like to give a shout out to my family members and friends that have gone about living their lives, being a great example to me, my kids, and anyone else who gets the blessing of knowing them, in short being awesome. Thank you for being awesome.

So, we have not posted for ten, almost eleven months. It's not that we don't care or that we are out having so much fun that we couldn't possibly take time off of from that fun to post on the blog. It really is just pure procrastination and defeat. We look at the blog and are a little bit disgusted (okay, maybe that is a little strong of a word) with ourselves for not keeping up. Then we think," what is one more day, week, month?" and then all of the sudden it is almost a year.

This past year has been, for the most part, awesome. We consider ourselves insanely blessed! Our children are healthy and they make us laugh. We have running water and indoor plumbing, the furnace and air conditioner work, our roof is not leaking and we even upgraded to cable this year. Not bad for us.

We stuck pretty close to home this year, but had our share of adventures. We have frequented the zoo, and hit many local attractions with a season pass. We have spent a lot of time with just our little family and we have loved it. We hope to do more of the same this coming year.

My facebook page is much more complete with pictures and such - but I know that not all are on facebook and it can be a time drainer.

Just couldn't stand to see that our blog had not been updated for so long. We went on our annual trip to the bird refuge to see bald eagles and couldn't leave the last bald eagle trip up anymore. We only saw one from a distance, but there were dozens of herons, and other birds of prey. We were a little disappointed because this past Thursday Corinne saw nine bald eagles between Centerville and our house. I think there may be two trips to the bird refuge this winter.

Family Field Trips

Last year we started a goal to find really cool things to do nearby our house. We have found that there is a lot available really close to home. We don't know the names of all of the places, but we know how to get there. This past weekend we hit the ponds just off Legacy Highway in Centerville.

It was a beautiful day and we didn't want to waste it.

We saw a lot of birds (even two bald eagles - both on the drive home from the pond), a huge dead fish and tons of animal tracks. Ethan is checking those out below.

Most of the tracks were from raccoons and pelicans.

We also checked out the new lambs at the little farm just up the street from us.

Recent "Body Art"

Aubree standing in front of the wash basin at all hours is a common occurrence in our family lately. She has taken to a form of body art. This has always been "a thing" with her, but used to be limited to portraits of her dad on her belly and arms - you know, something we could always cover up with clothes.

Lately, the girl has decided that her face is a great blank canvas. In the above picture, she was washing off her clown face. It didn't come off for a few days. Below is part of the remains of her werewolf art. I scrubbed her for over an hour and it faded nicely enough that you would really have to look to see it.

There are a few things that I know for sure. As long as we have Aubree, we will know to always expect something new and "exciting". As much as Aubree can wear us out, we love her spunk and the crazy ways that her mind works.

We have been having so much with Samantha/Sammie lately. She has developed quite the little personality. She doesn't cry very much, unless she does not have mom or dad. Then, our normally even-tempered child shows that she does have lungs.

She loves to eat - pretty much everything that we have tried. It's no wonder, the child is growing quickly. She is 98% and perfectly porportioned. The outfit that she is wearing in all of these pictures are ones that Aubree wore when she was 14-18 months old. (Granted, Aubree was 5% at 5 months and at 14-18 months.)

Sammie is now able to sit for about 5 minutes unsupported. She also has three teeth and a few more coming in. She is growing up too fast. Although Ethan and Aubree tell us that they can not wait until she can crawl and walk so they can play with her more, Chad and I feel that it is all going too fast. We are really enjoying this little one.

My Boy - Just some photos

I should put them on Slide, but I don't want to right now. Having Sammie had made me realize just how fast they grow. One day they are just cute, little lumps of need and the next they are so big you wonder where the time went. We are so happy to have Ethan and the joy that he brings to our family.

Long Time, No Blog

Well, originally this post was started just for fun and abandoned for a year.
Then, we decided to blog to keep in touch with a few out of state relatives. Then we found out that the blog was not viewed by them at all because their internet collection was so slow.

As anyone who checks this blog can see, we were blessed with a wee one (okay, she is not so wee, but she is still young) four months ago. We are enjoying her so much, and holding her so much even when we are not enjoying her that we really aren't having a lot of free time to update the blog. (And when the mom does get a few minutes of free time, she is usually checking out your blogs (but not leaving comments because that took time) or playing on facebook (also not updating or commenting).

So, we have struggled with what to do with the blog now. I had, at one time, thought this would be a great place to vent my feelings, but discovered I really have quite disturbing feelings that could really get me in trouble if they were ever expressed and fell into the wrong hands. This is nothing that would get me fired, even if I was still in the work force. I guess I am just a wimp. I want to have my thoughts with no repercussions, and once you voice them, there can be some bad consequences.

So, I guess that I am venting the feelings that wont get me proverbially grounded and wondering why I do it. I am also appalled at how awful my grammar is, and how little I care to correct it.

Anyway, we are taking lots of pictures, we just are having them printed in photo books to send to those relatives in far away places. Since we have uploaded over 500 past pictures (and some current) for a Christmas project, I think maybe we will share some soon.