This isn't Kansas, you know!

This June in Colorado has been wild & crazy!   Lots of thunderstorms & rain...& a couple tornado warnings.  Last week, we had one of those warnings.  Bergen heard it on the radio.   He immediately gathered all the kiddos & the dog & went to the basement.   I was upstairs & suddenly they were gone.  He'd be a great Boy Scout.  

He had also grabbed his 'special' things & stuffed them into his pillowcase.  I was curious what he would have grabbed.  I wonder what I would have grabbed. 

He had his 'animals,' his library books (don't want those to get damaged!), his pillow, his Snoopy bag & his dictionary.  His dictionary!?   I asked him about not having his Bible....."I forgot," was his response.    I wonder if that would have been something I would have forgot also?

What would you have grabbed?

Spring has sprung & then some....

No, I haven't forgotten how to post a blog....we haven't had 'nothing' going on....I just haven't felt motivated. GASP! How can that be? Well, with four kids roaming around this house, blogging (& facebooking, for that matter) have taken a WAY back burner.

But today, I have decided to jump back on the wagon....ha ha. Spring in Colorado has been nice (& a big stormy with a couple of tornado warnings to sit out). The green has returned to Greeley & I love it! Our garden is planted & the grass is getting mowed on a regular basis. Here are some pictures of what has happened up until now to catch you up on The Jacobsen Nation.

We went to the park to play...a park in Loveland. Bergen is posing here on the cannon at the park...DJ used to play on it when he was a kid....

We got LOTS of snow on our daffodils....

We had a wacky April Fool's breakfast.....eggs & toast? I think not! I got all the kids with this one!

We acted silly....

We colored eggs....

This was Melissa's first egg ever to color....or "balls" as she called them...

Much to the chagrin of the boys, we dressed up....

We did school.....

Mallory's reading skills improved SO much! She started reading to her brother.

We acted silly some more.....

We licked a beater...

Hatch played soccer (when the weather would let us).

Mallory posed pretty....

Hatch took Melissa for a ride on our cousin's ATV......

DJ & Jynelle went for a ride of their own....

DJ looked cool....always.

Hatch ate cake & got a soccer trophy...

Bergen played soccer.....& itched his ear!

Melissa ran around.....

Hatch gave me a good shot....

Melissa hung out with Ohmi LeeLou

Hatch went "swimming"...notice the size of the pool to the size of his swimming gear.....

We planted our garden....

We played in the mud!

We went & saw a very cute play where Bergen played Olley Oak Tree!

& some of us wrestled with Papa Doug....

We also sanded down our wood floors, stained them, sanded them again & stained them again & finally covered them with varnish......LONG story......painful too, but I'm sure DJ would LOVE to tell it....(yes, it was my fault).

Spring has been fun & there is more fun to come this summer.....& maybe I'm back on the blogging wagon for awhile.....or maybe not.

Hatch the Little Man...

After getting to spend the day with Papa Doug, Hatcher came home with the perfect flowers for me....he was so proud of the fact that he picked them out all by himself....it was so cute seeing him at the door with them....it made me smile & just want to gobble him up! I am a blessed Mommy, indeed!!

Silliness is good for the soul...

On many occasions, when people have learned that I have four kids & that I choose to homeschool them, the question coming is usually, "how do you do it all?" Well, I don't.

But we all have our moments, our days, our weeks.....those times when you wonder why in the world you are doing what you are doing & you think you may go crazy while trying to accomplish what some may see as the mundane.

In those times, what do I do? Do I scream? Drink heavily? Eat chocolate? (I should pray, shouldn't I?) In those moments with my kids, I try to catch them off guard with silliness....Hatcher even told me earlier today, "You are more silly than Dad, Mom!" For those of you that know DJ, & on the converse, know me, know without a doubt that could NEVER be true!

Last week we had some of those above-mentioned "moments" that make me want to cry......but instead of crying, this is what I did:

I drew on my kids' stomachs....& the giggles that came out of that lifted my 'moment' & I was able to smile again.....

Pea Girl...

When I open the freezer & pull out the Sam's bag of frozen peas, chaos the size of Melissa Jack ensues.....why, you may wonder?  Because the funny girl LOVES to eat frozen peas (she has a thing for cooked broccoli too)........so, when she gets fussy while I'm making dinner, I pull out the frozen peas & all is peaceful in the Jacobsen world again.....

 

Always thinkin'....

It amazes me to no end that the brains of my children never seem to stop. Every corner you go around finds another idea, thought, question, invention, etc. I mean, if we adults used our brains half as much as our kids, think of the possibilities!!

Bergen is always thinking of something. Writing comics & stories, making up games, building things out of any piece of cardboard we haven't thrown away yet, leaving Lego & tinker toy structures everywhere for me to trip over or step on, & everyday there seems to be a new superhero walking around our house. The ideas never stop. He is like Kramer inventing a restaurant where you make your own pizza pie....or the oil tanker bladder! Don't even get me started on the coffee table book!

Recently, I found one such tinker toy invention & couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was. It wasn't the normal space craft or jet plane....no, this one was different. I had to get Bergen to explain it to me....here is he holding it up so you can see where it would go in his body.....

See.....he's always thinkin'...

Sacked out & oh so cool...

Not many people I know are as cool as Hatcher.....I mean seriously, with a name like that, you have to be cool, don't you? He always has his hands in his pockets & he LOVES to dance....as you can see here, he even looks cool while taking a snooze....

Notice how the earphones aren't even on his ears?

Go ahead.....ask....

What in the world am I doing??

Cutting onions, of course.....isn't this how everybody does it?

V-Day

So, I know Valentine's Day 2009 is over & gone, but I had to share a couple pictures...it was fun having it on a weekend so we could do family stuff...I made these most beautiful pancakes.....

Then, this picture of Melissa Jack looking at a card she got from her grandparents is just too sweet to not share......she is our honey bee...& here she is, in all her chocolate glory....this girls LOVES her sweets!