McKay holding a giant petal filled with water,from a huge, upside-down growing flower. Sorry, again I don't know the name. But, it was so beautiful and exotic.

This is called a cymbidium. They had lots of them and they're just beautiful, as you can see.

The BIGGEST cactus I've ever seen in my life. I could barely fit the boys and most of the cactus in this picture.

Brahm finally woke up and gave us a great laugh as he posed for this picture by this Century Plant. It is some kind of cactus, I believe. It took several tries to get him to just sit there. Then after this picture was taken he picked up the rocks by him and started throwing them. And people wonder why any person would ever use a child leash!

Matthaei Botanical Gardens

McKay and Emerson standing, and Brahm sleeping, in front of a Crab Claw Tree. It has giant, orange claw-looking things.

This tree was so wild. Check out these huge "sausages". It's called a Sausage Tree, believe it or not. I will eventually look it up on the internet and find out its origins.

I'll give you $1.oo if you can tell me what this plant is and where it comes from. It was so beautiful, but I couldn't find the sign.

McKay and Emerson showing brotherly love as they stand in front of an Indian Banyan. It was very jungle-like in this room, where they also had a real mangrove tree. These roots hang down from the tree and plant themselves in the ground or water. It's fascinating!

For Rick's 31st birthday we went on a date. Here we are driving to the restaurant for dinner.

Here we are at dinner. BD's Mongolian Barbecue...thanks to our good friends, the Brittner's, who gave us a gift certificate to go there. YUMMY....it was so delicious, we bearly had room for....

.....dessert...at Coldstone! This was a regular sized order of ice cream, and it was HUGE! Luckily, I love ice cream so much, that even though I was full from dinner and it was lots of ice cream, I ate it all! And I haven't regreted it, either.

Rick had a mango shake. In case any of you don't know, I hate Mango. But, it was not a bad shake. Add ice cream to just about anything and you can make it taste good! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HON! (Please feel free to email him to tease him about his old age. He loves it!)

Books, baths, and brothers!

Here Brahm shows great joy in this story daddy is reading him. He really gets into them and frequently looks up and smiles to show his gratitude. He loves books!

McKay and Emerson do, too. Here McKay is reading "The Flash" comic book to Emerson. They have spent many hours cuddled up to this book together. And McKay refuses to read it without Emerson because he doesn't want him to miss anything. So sweet!

Brahm is such a fish! So are McKay and Emerson. As you can see here Emerson is pouring water on Brahm's head and Brahm is totally laughing. Brahm usually does this to himself if no one else will do it for him. It's hysterical!

Brahm found this popcorn from last night's "movie night" and decided to decorate the family room.

Emerson decided to take the scientific point of view, and studied the popcorn with his magnifying glass.
I, of course laughed, took a few pictures to show daddy, and proceeded to the "undecorating" phase.

Here McKay and Emerson took turns pushing Brahm on our tree swing in the
back yard. They did "underdogs" and tickled him, and grabbed his toes to make him laugh.
It was so fun to watch. Brahm giggled and giggled for a good 20 minutes!

Some Great Classics!

Rick and I have decided that, for the most part, Classic Movies are the way to go! So, here is a list of Classics that we love and recommend. All are either G, PG or NR (not rated--most old movies don't have the violence, sex, and language of modern day media, and back then they didn't use the rating system) --and a few great newer movies that are classics to us! P.S. Anything with Gregory Peck is fantastic!

FOR THE ADULTS:A Bridge Too Far --war, not for kids PG
Double Indemnity NR (murder mystery, but nothing evil)
***Lawrence of Arabia PG
North By Northwest NR
**White Christmas (music)
**Gentlemen's Agreement NR (Gregory Peck)
**Roman Holiday NR (Gregory Peck, Audrey Hepburn)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea G
His Girl Friday NR
****The Scarlet and the Black (Gregory Peck--Great message!) NR
***To Kill A Mockingbird (Gregory Peck) NR
How Green Was My Valley NR
**Adam's Rib - funny! NR
Rebel Without A Cause (James Dean) NR or PG
*East of Eden (James Dean) NR
On the Waterfront (has fighting, not for kids, but good msg.) - NR
***Ben-Hur
Arsenic & Old Lace - funny! NR
*Khartoum NR
**The Elephant Man - Get some tissue! PG
Shenandoah NR
** The Miracle Worker (Abt. Helen Keller) NR or G
****The Great Escape (Not for kids, but very good, true story) - NR
*Grapes of Wrath NR

NEWER FILMS:Amadeus - PG
**The Lakehouse - PG
Warm Springs (About FDR) PG
Secondhand Lions PG
***Facing the Giants (Excellent message!) PG
The Color of Paradise (Get another tissue) PG
***Radio (One more tissue, again) PG
Miracle PG

FOR THE KIDS:
Fly Away Home PG
Willow PG
****The obvious: Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Sound of Music
Oliver Twist (several versions, 1997 was good, but old versions are better for little kids)
**Black Beauty G
*The Black Stallion G
**Labrynth
*Where the Red Fern Grows G

The finished product. It is really soft, fuzzy and will go great with my mom's red winter coat. Yeah!!!!

Just to relax...

Here I am knitting with the help of a powdered chocolate container. I used it to put the ball of yarn in so it wouldn't roll around and unravel, and so the yard wouldn't twist and would stay taut. Pretty "caveman-ish", but it worked great. Nice outfit and hair, I know!
Here's my new hobby...knitting! Yep, I finally found something worth setting aside other important things for---so I can relax! This is the beginning of my second finished project, which took me about 4 days. My first was a lovely bookmark for McKay (with lots of mistakes and holes in it)! Hopefully someday I will be good enough at it to call it a talent. Not there quite yet, but I love it! Here I'm making a ball of yarn from a skein of yarn. My first time I did it all by hand and with McKay's help. It took me over an hour. But, with this "stick trick" I devised, it only took about 20 minutes and was very easy!

Tooth Fairy?

McKay finally lost his first tooth today. He yanked it out with a piece of floss, after days of prodding from his mom, who just couldn't stand to see him wiggle it and not pull it out! I'm so impatient. He asked me last week if the tooth fairy was real. Now Santa is one thing, and maybe even the easter bunny, but a fairy? I couldn't lie. So, he immediately hit me up for a whole dollar. I gently declined telling him that the tooth fairy isn't rich. I told him the truth and my conscience is clear! Aahhhh. :)

Hi ya ya ya, hi ya ya ya. We studied different indian tribes and made these lovely Indian hats for school last week. The boys insisted on putting the feathers on the front of their foreheads, instead of behind. But, they did a great job of decorating! My great, great, great, great (not sure exactly how many greats) grandpa was a full-blooded indian. I'd have to check our history to find out what tribe he came from. We figure that must be where McKay got his brown eyes from. Ha ha!

Nothin' like a good snuggle!

Some precious moments with the boys. Mommy and Emerson, Daddy and Brahm--Just enjoying some cuddly time together.

Snow Fun!

McKay and Brahm could play in the snow for hours, regardless of how freezing cold they are. Here they are in the back yard and on the trampoline. One of the kids' favorite snow activities is to take their little shovels and clean off the trampoline and then jump/slide around on it while it's wet and slippery.

Brahm!

Have you ever seen such a pout? But he has the cutest dimpley smile, too! Here he was playing "run away from mom--and when you get caught you'll be tickled!" He was just giggling and giggling for about 20 minutes. It was super fun and made us all laugh.

School fun...

Here we learned about all the different kinds of snowflakes and how they form, and made some valentines for the holiday.

Domesticated Boy!

Emerson wanted to make his own scarf, so I cut 2 pieces of this lovely yellow material and he sewed them together and cut slits in the ends. He did it himself and now he wants to make one for McKay. Who ever knew my boys would want to be so domestic??