Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year filled with tons of family activities. Of course the gift of giving is the best and one of my favorite gifts I made were these shirts for the boys.

the front: JARMAN
Self Appointed
"Assistant"
Coach

the back says:
In my humble
but
correct opinion

All my brother in laws got one including Tim B. From left to right is David, Robert, Tim, Eddie, Uncle Dan, William, Michael. The boys were good sports and we got a good laugh. Mike said "why did you put assistant?"

They were meant as a joke and I teetered over exactly what the shirt would say. I traced and then cut with a razor blade a template (I made a quite a few before I figured out that using them immediately before they dried was best) and I also only ruined one shirt by trying to spray paint it and just ended up using fabric paint because I had better control.

Pretty funny right? It was inspired by Hannah's past Cross Country season. It was comical to see the boys all serious in their running clothes and shoes figuring out the course so they could run around cheering (bossing & giving pointers) Hannah as she ran. Then I thought of all the wrestling seasons and Eddie being the oldest....ahhhh well words just don't describe how these boys are in action. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not a younger Jarman, the lucky little devils.

Family Pictures

Well we got them done. Family pictures once again. I actually really love getting family pictures. I look forward to it and have to plan MONTHS in advance to pull our outfits together, because fashion does not come easily my friends. Despite my fashion setbacks I think they turned out well. I will take this opportunity for a shout out to BETH because she is our amazing photographer, who without we would have a serious lack of quality photos in our lives. Thank you Beth for putting up with us for another session of family pics! Of course not every kid is looking at Beth AND smiling in any of them I think, but that's how we, appearantly, roll.

Johnny's wolf

All the boys who earned their wolf badge

Johhny getting the mark of the wolf

This summer Johnny got his wolf in cub scouts. He worked really hard & was very self motivated & accomplished it in 4 months. It was fun to do it with him and spend that time with him.

Annie turned 4!

Annie had her 4th birthday this weekend. Her ballet teacher offered t0 throw her a party. It was so fun and cute. Annie was really getting down with the music while her friends were arriving. So many mom's told me they have never seen Annie let loose like that. She was so excited.

Here they are, Adden, Eve, Emma G, Annie, Megan P and Shelby W

Then our family party at Grandma F's where she picked hotdogs and homemade fries with Texas Sheet Cake for dessert:

why not more cute pictures of the rest of the party? Sorry folks, if I don't take them Eddie, Mom and Shyla don't care much about pictures or care much to do the work so I can take the pics, I can't do it all you know!

It was a fun birthday for our birthday girl!

We love
Your quite nature around people you don't know or don't care about
That you want Dad to carry you out of the car or to bed
Your sweet moves when there's music
that you sing everything
you are comfortable playing by yourself but will play with us when you need attention
your a great big sister to Danny
you can laugh when he pulls your hair
bedtime has never been hard with you
You are very sweet and giving!
We love you!

Pinterest

Well folks, I finally discovered Pinterest. I don't know how I've lived with out it. All the cute ideas I see in a magazine at the dr's office or in someone else's house and say "I love that! What a great idea! I want to do that" but then forget as soon as I walk away now I can "pin on a board" and have forever. Now all I need is money to do all the great projects I see :P

This is just one thing I've found that I really liked, blog worthy I feel. I laughed out loud right here at my computer:

Just wanted to share the goodness.

Annie's eye surgery

I have been noticing for about a year that Annie's eyes would pull in an unnatural sort of way. No one else could see it though until recently. So I took her in the ophthalmologist and he said she had "wandering eyes", meaning the farther away something was to focus on, one eye tended to wander and that she needed surgery. I was expecting a lazy eye and having to go by a patch!!

So Friday we went in. I dont' know why, but I thought we would be there an hour since the Dr. said the actually surgery took 20 min. WRONG!! Try 3 hours. The doctor said it wouldn't be that big of a deal, which I think for out patient surgery he was probably right, but let's face it, Annie is "sensitive", and so it was kinda traumatic for the both of us, since I was not expecting her to have a hard time, and since she did have a hard time.

She was very darling before the surgery though, here is a pic of her and her doggie with ID bracelets and in the pre op room with her gown.




























The first couple days she tried to be happy...















But mostly felt like this over the weekend:
And this is what her eyes still look like and will probably look like for 2 weeks.
She is doing better now and many people have been very sweet and concerned. She is doing well, and gets better every day. The worst part is the gel antibiotic we have to put in her eyes. But she is playing and happy most the time. She's practically back to her old self telling me she can't help me clean and such after we have been playing.

We love you Annie and hope we never have to go through anything like this with you again!

Little helpers

Ahh yes, and here is our little 14 mon old helping Eddie rip out Beth's old cabinets for her new ones. If anybody needs 2 little extra hands, he's for hire!

aka June Cleaver

Strawberry Freezer Jam

Dinner started (spaghetti sauce)

Texas Sheet Cake for FHE

Nutritious after school snack prepared...
ALL BY 11:30AM!!!
Well just slap an apron on me and call me June Cleaver!

"well Ahh be.." Annie can work

Sometimes I think of Annie as a bratty little princess girl who never thinks to do anything for herself first, ie pick up something that dropped from her hand. She will do it when prompted (after she's done crying to listen), it just doesn't come into her head automatically. She is precious don't get me wrong. So when I saw her out here with Eddie in over 100 degree, I thought it was so cute.

first she waited patiently for him to cut...

then she'd pick it up the pole with her gloves (cuz it's stinkin hot)

And carry it over to her pile in the grass...

then make sure it's nice and neat (very Annie)

Moral of the story: if you stand outside while Eddie's working, he'll put you to work, even Annie!

First day of school

Well Katie I tried to do your cute little thing with the fingers and the grade, but you can see how well that turned out. Not nearly as cute as when your kids do it.

Next year I guess I need to be more peppy before I take their pic, look at their faces!

Well, Joe 1st grade, Teila 5th grade, John 3rd grade. The boys didn't really want me to drop them off, Joey just wants to experience all he can and do whatever his Big Brother (that's what he calls him) has done before.

Because both their schools I just had to drop off Teila early, all by herself. I know it's sad, but she wasn't sad, she was fine.

John, after they played for a bit on the playground I had to shake John to tell him bye, he wouldn't really acknowledge me... I wasn't even wearing my apron (Mothers Day: the silliest thing he's ever see me do)

Shyla asked me if they looked cute and I thought and then said "not particularly{". They just looked normal. Teila picked her favorite outfit and the boys grabbed the first shirt and pants they saw. I think they always look cute.

They had a great first day! And while I was ready for them to get back to school, life gets so busy as they get older that I really enjoyed this summer. I love enjoying my kids while they are at home and like so many people say "it goes by quickly, enjoy it while they are little" I try to do that despite the bickering, teasing, high pitched screams and messy house.