The wheels didn't fall off...

It was a success!!!  Cade had his Scout Pinewood Derby this past weekend and by all outward merits he didn't do so hot. The boys had a bit of a difficult time getting the car to look the way they wanted. The "skin" wouldn't stick and kept peeling off, the wheels wouldn't go on just right and ended up being poorly balanced. Curt was frustrated and Cade didn't really seem to be interested - it was just a disaster from the get go.

However, we choose to look at the glass as half full and though Cade didn't win a trophy and came in last in every heat his car was in...THE WHEELS DIDN'T FALL OFF!!!!!!!  That was our goal going in and we met it! Yippee!!!!!!

Somehow, I never managed to get a picture of our awesome Grubb-mobile. I can't believe it!  Just envision a magnificent red,white and blue swirly flag-motif flag that was masterfully designed by Curt and you've got it. Hahaha!

Cade and his best buddy Christian (and Easton hiding behind)

Goofy kiddos. Unfortunately Caden has gotten into this phase of goofing off and making a silly face in every picture. Mama is NOT happy about this!!

This is the best pic I have of Cade's car. His is the one on the far right side.

We had a lot of fun this year and learned a lot! This year we are in a different Pack than we were last year. This pack is the largest in our area and they are SERIOUS about the pinewood derby. We have this awesome track with electronic time keeping and a huge TV screen to keep track of all the (extremely) organized heats, making sure that each car runs at least one time on each lane so everything is fair.  Holy cow! When we looked at the other "kids" (ahem, dads, cough, cough) cars before the races started, we knew we were majorly out of our league. Some of these cars were works of art! I should have taken pictures of them!!!

Oh well, we had a great time and next year Curt, oops, I mean Caden, will do a much better job ;)

Who's child is this?

We made a cookie cake for Cade's birthday since his party wasn't going to be for a while. (It's this weekend, more to come on that soon.) I thought this was going to be a nice video of us singing happy birthday to him while he blows his candle out. In usual Caden fashion, he had to add his own flare to it!  Goodness I love that kid. He keeps me laughing ALL THE TIME!!!! I really hope all of you enjoy your kids as much as I enjoy mine ;)

My favorite part is him TOTALLY missing the candle when he tries to blow it out and then the evil cackle at the end. Seriously, tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.  He is soooo his father's child!

OCHO!!!!!

I CANNOT believe Caden is eight! Where have the years gone? I thought in honor of this amazing occasion, I needed to take a trip down memory lane to birthdays past. For some reason, this birthday has got me a little sentimental, needing to look back and remember all the fun times we've had.

Here's my boy!

Caden's BIRTHday. He's finally here!!!!!!

One

Two

Three

 Four

Five

 Six

Seven

Eight!!!!!!!!

I heart Arkansas weather

Seriously. I mean, where else can you have record snowfall on Wednesday, record lows of -21 degrees on Thursday, and 60 degrees on Sunday. We were out playing in the snow in SHORTS!!!

The kids had been cooped up a lot for the past 2 weeks with the weather and snow days from school. They love each other, but...they love to push each other's buttons too. It's been a little testy around here for a while. Not today! A little sunshine and warm weather and they are the best of friends, building a "fort" on the front porch, stocking it with supplies and coloring on rocks. What?? Don't those things go together? I know, not to me either, but for them, it's been 3+ hours of blissful, no fighting fun. Heaven for them and their Mama!!

This is their fort complete with their supplies. They said they are all ready to have a campout out there. The red heart cup has "food" (i.e. candy), Keira's boot is their trash can (I have no idea why), they have a lantern, some water bottles, and a few toys. What more do kids need on a camp out?

 FORE! Curt practicing his swing in the snow.

 Caden decided to make some rock pets. Scott is on the left on his bed and Freddy is on the right. Sooo funny!

Here are Keira's creations. She is definitely a girl in every way! On the left is a rock that is a picture of Keira as a big sister (she's narrating for me). Top middle is a baby rock, underneath is the baby's bed. It also has a heart on it for her covers. On the right is the big Momma who takes care of the baby and the big sister.  These are her words when describing her rocks.I'm telling you, this girl lives and breathes hearts, flowers and rainbows. She comes home from school every day with a minimum of three drawings of girls and flowers and rainbows and hearts that she created during centers. She loves to draw and redecorate her room and change clothes at least 3 times a day. I think today alone she's already changed her clothes 4 times, and once she changed her shirt after a few hours "just because it was prettier." Hilarious!!

Here they've moved on and are now creating a wheel of fortune-type game. Love these kids!!!

Channeling my inner Redneck

I'm sure you all are getting tired of seeing pictures of our snow, but I want to record these moments to help me remember. We may never have a snow quite like this again and we have taken full advantage of it.  Friday afternoon we took the kids sledding at a hill near the mall. They had gone last week with the previous big snow, but I didn't get to go with them. This time I came and took a TON of video. Here are a few of our favorite moments.

Curt and Keira tandem sledding. A few minutes before Keira had gone down the hill and hit the ramp that someone had made, which she normally loves. Unfortunately she stopped herself with her face and gave herself some nice road rash near her left eye. Needless to say, she became a little more wary about going down the hill after that. Riding with Daddy became MUCH more appealing ;-)

Caden going down the hill solo. He gets some serious air then wipes out. Of course, he loves every minute of it. I especially love watching his "ears" on his hat flapping in the wind. Priceless!!

My other favorite moment of the day I didn't catch on video or even get a picture. I don't know what I was thinking!! The Northern girl in me was absolutely cracking up as I watched a family sledding...get this, with an inflatable mattress. Seriously, it was genius!  The kids could lay down and stretch out on it, which was good since there was nothing to hold on to. Hahaha. They had a great time for about 10 or 15 minutes until the Dad went down the hill, over the ramp and popped. End of fun.

On Saturday we went over to our friends house and had the ultimate Southern snow experience. The weather was warming up, so the previously powdery snow was now getting wet with a nice crusty layer on top. They had a four wheeler, an inflatable island for the lake, and lots of land. What do you get?  SNOW TUBING!!!!  Seriously, so much more fun than tubing on the lake. No water to spray in your face, no wet hair and especially no worrying about losing your swimsuit. LOL!

This is Keira and Easton on their turn around the track. This was Greg's third or fourth time around with the kids and he'd gotten the hang of where to go fast and where to slow down so you don't swing them into a tree. He did pretty good, the kids only had to bail once to avoid hitting their porch!  With the two lighter kids on the tube, they were flying and having a blast!!!!!

All four kids on the tube.

Easton in front, Christian, Caden and Keira

Caden having the time of his life on his solo trip around the track.

I even took a turn. LOVED IT!!!

 

Caden and Keira loving their chance at country life. Doesn't seem very likely that we'll ever have the need for a four-wheeler, but thank goodness we have friends who do!!

Little Princess

The snow was PERFECT for building snowmen. Caden got his first real chance to roll huge snowballs and play on them. Ahhh, made me reminisce back to my elementary school days where we would roll snowballs across the playground until they were so big several kids had to work together to make them move. Good memories!

Aren't they so cute!! Curt was totally in his element out there.  By this time, the tube had been popped (so sad!) and we were just taking four wheeler rides and building snowmen.

Our snowmen

Cade's Scout Den is having a snowman contest. This is our submission for best Scout Snowman.

 Wonder if we'll win!!

Happy Winter Ya'll. If any of our northern family want to come south for the winter, we know how to show you a Redneck good time!!!

What's that you say?

Since the roads were so bad and we couldn't make it to a hill to sled, we improvised and used the abundance of snow piles to make our own sledding hill. I especially love the kids comments after each ride down. I never knew what I was going to get. I think at one time Caden made up a song and started dancing.  Here are a few of my favs.  Oh yeah, no making fun of us, we did shovel the road!  It was necessary if we ever want to get out of our drive once the plow comes down our road in about three days.

These are our gigantic piles of snow in the afternoon around 4:00. Notice how high the piles of snow are on top of the roof and window ledges. CRAZY!!!  I thought we had moved to the south to get away from this much snow in the winter! Curt and I were both having not-so-fond memories of our teenage years in the Midwest.

We had to shovel again after the morning since we got another inch or two after the first shoveling. This time the sun was out and had started to melt some of the sidewalk and drive. Which was great, but the snow was a little heavier this time around. :-(  I have a sneaking suspicion we are both going to be VERY sore in the morning.

Keira on our neighbors pile of snow. I think she was Queen of the Mountain for one brief second.

Is this guy handsome or what??  He LOVES snow days!

 And yes, I am pretty sure she is destined to be a cheerleader. I don't have to say a word. I just pull out the camera and voila -insta-pose!











Snow fort number two, complete with camo on top thanks to the bush that died this summer.

Snowmageddon - Feb 9, 2011

Holy cow!!!  We got sooooo much snow today. The forecast was calling for 4-10 inches here and 6-8 in Little Rock. I assumed that school would get cancelled in LR, so I jetted out of there Tuesday night before the storm hit. I knew if I waited until they called inclement weather at school, I'd never make it home. Wow, was I right!!!  By the time the snow stopped early this afternoon we got at least 16 inches, maybe more. It's hard to tell since it was blowing so hard and we have major drifts in our yard.  The pic of Reggie in the back yard was taken around 8:00 in the morning. It'd been snowing for about 6 or 7 hours and we already had a good 12 inches of snow.


Curt is standing by Reggie's dog house. Reg doesn't usually go in his dog house, but even if he did he would have to work to get in it!!  Some of the snow on the dog house was from the blizzard (yep, that's what the news called it) we got last week, but most of it is from this morning. It's hilarious, the 8 inches we got last week was a blizzard. So what does that make this 16 inches we got???  Snowmageddon, snowpocalypse, etc, etc.

Thanks to all the snow, Reg got to spend a few hours this morning in the house. He does NOT like being in the house (which is great b/c I don't like having a dog in the house) and has to be dragged into the house. He is pretty cute though!!!

Around 10:00 we went out to shovel the driveway. This is just the beginning of the pile that we'll probably still have in April! And yes, that is my very silly husband posing like...well, I don't what he's posing like. So crazy!

Cade "resting" in his snow fort that now has 3 foot wall around it thanks to this new snow ;)

Keira playing dead after she "cannonballed" into a pile of snow.

Reggie giving Keira kisses. He's such a good dog! He loves the kids and is always watching out for them. Keira had fun getting kisses from him until he pretty much laid down on her and took a rest.  I think he weighs more than she does, so she was stuck in the snow with a fur blanket on her!

Once we had finally cleared most of the driveway, we had quite a pile for the kids to jump in. I think the video speaks for itself.