Family Fun

This past week, Jason's Uncle Bruce (or Unca Bruce as the kids call him!) and his brand new wife Aunt Jill came to visit us from Pennsylvania. They came with lots of neat little gifts for the kids (and a pretty t-shirt for me too!) and they even took the whole Arkansas family (minus Uncle Jeff who is still in Iraq) out to dinner at the Steak Inn. Yummmmmyyyyyy!!! I had the pan fried Walleye and I'm still thinking about that piece of fish. It was the best piece of fish I've had in my entire life. I can't wait to go back. Maybe for our next special occasion. Jason's 30th birthday is coming up... and my birthday too... surely we can find an excuse to come back this way and eat there!

We had a great time visiting with them and it was so cool to see their Jamaica wedding/honeymoon pictures. Oh, to visit the beach again someday... someday I will visit the beach again. Next time, hopefully to relax with my hunny in the sun and a cold drink in my hand ALL day! :-)

Unca Bruce and Aunt Jill

Jason and Erica while we were playing cards. The FAMOUS "Allcers" family game. No, we hadn't been drinking... it was late and we had been working and packing all day! :-)

Unca Bruce with Rhett and Gracie

Here's Bammaw Julie's "pet" racoon that comes to eat her scraps. The boys were so excited to watch it. It was neat because it made us all think about Grandma Kennett. She LOVED racoons. We miss Grandma!

The Kennett Clan at the Steak Inn. Thanks for dinner Bruce and Jill!! It was SOOO Yummy!

I love this picture of me and Jason! I'm so thankful that we're still so in love after all these years!

The Krazy Kennetts... Here is the first picture. Rhett has trouble taking a picture with a nice face... he's all about the silly faces. So, Aunt Jill told him if he'd take a good one, then we would all make silly faces and take another one.

Take One!

Take Two!

This is how we get the "Krazy" in front of our name!

Packing, Packing and More Packing

I have been in denial about my packrat ways... Jason is right... I am a terrible hoarder of junk... maybe the worst I know. Surely I must be the worst I know.
We are in the midst of packing. I have been going thru the house one room at a time going thru every cabinet, drawer, file, pile, etc. I don't even want to admit to how many trash bags I've filled up in just 2 days. And I'm barely half way thru the house!! I am recycling all that I can, but most junk just can't be recycled. If garage-sale-ing is considered recycling, then some of it could still qualify!
Julie has gotten lots of good sturdy boxes for us from the store, so that has been very helpful.
I have the kitchen all done, the bathrooms all done. The office is at least 3/4 done. Still have to tackle Jason's desk and the closet. Our nightstands in our bedroom have been gone thru. Still have to tackle the laundry closet- which should be very quick since it's so small! I cleaned and organized our master bedroom closet a few weeks ago, so it's going to be very quick to pack up. The boys' room is what I'm most dreading. I know they have too many toys, but it's so hard for me to part with them because I know how much they cost and how much they enjoyed playing with them (if only for a time). So, that will have to be done when they're no where around or they'll never let me get rid of anything. A lot of it will go to the garage sale pile, I'm sure. Last year when we did that, they were cool with the toys being sold because we told them that some other children who couldn't afford a toy like that would love to have it. And we told them they could have the money from the sold toys. They each ended up with $10, so they thought that was pretty cool! And we ended up giving most of the toys away when kids came to the sale, so they felt really good about that!
I'm a little worried that the stacks of boxes that are labeled to go with us to the apartment is getting too large... I'm worried about not having enough room. Although, I'm trying really hard to bring only what's absolutley necessary, or something that could be needed soon. Last thing I want to do is to go out and buy stuff (particularly bathroom, kitchen and office stuff) that I already have...
The house projects are coming along nicely. Jason and one of his employees put all new boards and hardware on the front of the privacy fence/gates. It looks so nice! He also removed the plants in the front yard landscaping that died this year due to the heat and our neglect in watering them. There were only a few, but it looks much better with those removed. We plan to get some new ones to replace them and it will look really nice. Jason's dad has come every day this week to help us finish up the sheet rock and it is almost done. Just have to do the texturing of the ceiling and walls and then we're ready for flooring and fixtures!
When I walk in and see it looking like it's almost done it brings tears to my eyes. For years, I've dreamed of having that extra space. We planned out every square foot very carefully to get exactly what we wanted. And now, after all of this hard work, time and money, someone else is going to get to enjoy it instead of me. I'll be living in a 900 sq ft apartment...
But, such is life and I will repeat that we're doing just what we're supposed to, and have faith that God has bigger and better things in store for us somewhere down the line!
The apartment is supposed to be ready sometime this week, so onward with the packing until the big move. I can't wait to get it all done and be able to relax a little bit... yeah right! School and fall sports are starting, so I'm sure my relaxing won't last for long. Good thing I like to stay busy!

We're Moving!

It's official! We're moving to Springdale. We signed a 6 month lease on a 2 bedroom, 2 bath apartment yesterday. It will be ready in about a week, then we'll start moving in.

The apartment manager said he would move out the washer and dryer and let us bring my good washer and dryer!!!! Thank you Jesus! We have to go by and measure it again to make sure they will fit, but I'm praying that they will. Even if I can't open the doors all the way, I'll take it! We'll see...

So, please keep praying for us because I'm afraid the fun is just beginning on all of this... we've got a long way to go before we're moved and adjusted. Is it weird to pray for packing angels to come pack up my house for me while I'm asleep?!?! Just kidding!!

Horrifying Poop Experience

I guess I just have too much on my mind to sleep these days... I haven't slept more than 6 hrs a night in the past couple weeks. For yall that know me, you know that if I don't get my 8 hrs, I'm not my best, to say the least. Glory to God, I've been decent, no crazy depressed moods or migraines... but I am so tired.
Sunday afternoon, I was lucky enough to get a pretty good nap, so come bedtime, I wasn't sleepy. I stayed up until 2:30 doing laundry. I got 4 1/2 hrs of sleep that night. Then Monday night, I laid in bed from 10pm to 2:30am trying to go to sleep but just couldn't. I tossed and turned and was up and down... Bad part about Monday night was that I had to get up at 4:45am because I'm babysitting for a friend this week and she has to be at work at 5:30am. So, I only got 2 hrs and 15 min of sleep. Then I had 6 children in the house with me all day. They were really great, but all you parents out there know that it will just wear you out. Plus, I had a few hours of paperwork that HAD to be done. The rest can wait until later in the week... The ages of the kids in the house are: 7, 2 that are 5 yrs old, 2 that are 2 yrs old and an 8 month old.
So, by the end of the day yesterday, I was wiped out. I made dinner early, got the kids ready for bed early and I was on my way to bed early. Jason had gone to town to run an errand and I decided to soak in the tub for a few minutes. I was too relaxed in the tub, and just before I nodded off in the tub, I heard Gracie (her crib is in my room and the bathroom door was open) saying, "Eeewww, Yucky" and "Stinky". I sat up and peeked around the shower curtain and she was standing there in her crib with her diaper off repeating the above phrases and waving her hand in front of her face (much like we do when we're changing a stinky diaper and we're saying, "Eewww, Shooeeeyy!") So, I blinked my foggy eyes (I didn't have my glasses on) and was pretty sure that I saw dark smears all over her body. I'm hoping that I'm just seeing things, but I was 99% sure I knew what had happened.
I was getting myself out of the tub and I kept talking to her trying to keep her from playing in the mess any more than she already had and she said, "Yucky". I looked at her and she said it again, but this time, she was pointing to her mouth and saying "Yucky". I said, "Gracie, did you put the poop in your mouth." She pointed to her mouth and said, "Yucky". I said, "Gracie was it yucky in your mouth?" And she closed her eyes, stuck her tounge out and did a little pretend cough a few times and said, "Yucky". I was completely horrified! As a mother of 3 children, I've pretty much seen it all, I've cleaned poop out of bath tubs at least a dozen times, but never this. The boys NEVER took their own diapers off, much less played in their poop or tasted it! SO gross!
I got out of the bathroom, and got my glasses on, and found a huge pile of it on the floor-- it was smeared all over the bedding and in every nook and cranny of the crib. And of course, it was all over her... even under her fingernails.
I could have just cried. Again, considering the lack of sleep and my current mental state, it's honestly a miracle to me that I just didn't break down. I left her in there for a minute and picked up the phone to call Jas.
He answered the phone with a chipper, "Hey Baby!"
I said, very flatly I'm sure, "I've just had the most horrific poop experience of my entire life."
He half laughed, and said, "What?"
So I proceeded to tell him what was going on. He knew I was exhausted and upset that I wasn't going to get to bed early, so he said, "I'm hurrying. I'll be home in a minute."
I picked her up and held her way out in front of me (think the scene from 3 Men and a Baby) and carried her to the kids' bath tub. I got her all washed down and then took her out of the tub so I could bleach and scrub the tub. Then I put her back in and bathed her. Then I put her in the living room and tried to keep her occupied with an Elmo dvd while I tackled cleaning the mess. I used almost an entire container of Clorox wipes and then I sprayed the whole crib down with lysol.
When Jason got home, he came running to the back of the house to help, but I had already done everything, so he fetched the toothbrush for me so I could clean her mouth and teeth (although I didn't visibly see anything, thank goodness) and he made the bed back for me and got her bottle and got her in bed.
As soon as she fell asleep, I went to bed and I think I was asleep by 10:30.
It was much easier to get up at 4:45 this morning and today has been a pretty good day so far.
Lesson learned, we're going to start keeping a roll of duct tape on the changing table and reinforcing the diaper so that she can't "houdini" her way out of them anymore.
And we'll get back to potty training when the move topic is settled...

Handy Husband and Move Update

I'm posting twice today because I felt like Gracie's Birthday needed it's own post...

So, I am ever so thankful, once again, that God blessed me with Jason. I told him that I was going to hire him out on 1-800-hire a handy husband!! Just like pretty much everything else he's done on the house addition, he's never hung sheet rock before. But, since we're trying to finish the house to get it ready to sell, here he is at around midnight one night last week. Hanging sheet rock. We both get silly when we get super tired, so I'll just say we had a lot of fun shooting pictures of him working! I'll spare him the embarrasment and only post this one of him in action. You can tell it was dusty and 150 degrees in there by looking at his yucky shirt!
An update on the move... every day it seems like God is sending little signs to us that we are doing the right thing. He sends people to say encouraging words to us that affirm our faith, things are working out step by step, so far. I am so thankful for that. I know none of this is going to be easy, but we are following in faith one step at a time.
While Braden was at the Community Center on Friday with his Summer Youth Program, Rhett, Gracie and I drove over to Springdale to meet Jason and look around some more. We went and looked at the apartment complex that we're considering moving into until our house sells and we can buy a house. The apartment manager was very nice and the unit was really clean, so my first fears were calmed.
I had another realization of how blessed my life has been as I was touring the tiny apartment. I was never completely happy with how small our house is, but after picturing us living there, our little house feels like a mansion! But, it's totally do-able. One of the other main concerns was having a washer and dryer in the apartment. As much laundry as I do, having to frequent the laundromat would be awful for me. I will miss my big, fast front loading laundry machines that I got for Christmas last year though... again, another blessing that I took for granted until now. With those small machines, I'll have to run them constantly to keep up. But they're in the apartment, so I won't complain. At least not yet... :-)
There's 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. The closets are surprisingly sizable. We will have to simplify and only bring in what we have to, but it'll be a good thing in the long run. We have way too much clutter in our home now and as Jason always tells me, "that's not good for the brain". He's right. My packrat ways will have to be gone. FINALLY! :-) Hopefully when we do get to buy a house I'll practice what I learned by living in the shoe-box!
So, nothing is set in stone. No papers have been signed. We're going to give it a few more days just to make sure. We hope to have something finalized by the end of this coming week. If I'm going to get the boys registered in school, I'll have to get busy on that. The school situation is really our main concern. At this time, we aren't going to be able to have them go to the private Christian school that we'd REALLY like for them to go, so they'll remain in the public school. Which is perfectly fine... I'm just a little anxious about not knowing the teachers, etc. I know I'll meet people before too long and it will be fine. We've done a lot of research and feel like we're getting them in the best public school that we can. At least we think...we don't know much of anything probably :-)
Thanks to everyone for praying for us. I know that's why we feel a peace about this whole situation. I know God is hearing those prayers!

Happy Birthday Gracie!!

Another year has FLOWN by and our baby girl is 2!!! Well, technically the bday isn't until Monday the 21st, but today was the party, so as far as she knows, she's now 2!

We had a wonderful, low-key birthday party at our house with our family and a few friends.

I haven't been this relaxed on a birthday party day in years. Thanks to my thoughtful husband who loves me enough to say NO to me making the birthday cake (which was a tradition I started a few years ago due to his suggestion). I was really sad, but you know what? I am so thankful now. The cake just got cut up and eaten anyway and I really didn't have the time or the mental or physical stamina to tackle a 3 day cake making marathon this time.

As always, I'm still working on letting go of feeling like I have to be the "super-mom". So, maybe it was good therapy for me! Ha! I need a lot more therapy sessions, but I have a feeling there are more coming in my very near future... :-)

Gracie loves her some "Melmo", so this party was all Melmo, all day. She was so excited! She got some wonderful gifts from all of our wonderful family and friends. We are so blessed to have so many people that love our children so much!

Here's the cake. Only reason the non-mamma-made cake wasn't a Robyn Capps cake was because she was out of town this week. So, Wal-Mart was our next option. Wasn't a good moment when I saw the cake, because I know I could have made her a much more awesome cake... but you've heard that story already! Bottom line, Gracie loved it. What else matters, right?!

Pa Pa and Gracie reading a book

More birthday party pictures!!

Gracie got GREAT gifts!! Thank you to everyone for thinking of her!!

Here she is in her cheerleader outfit she got from Nanny Aggie and Poppy Russ. The second one shows her with her Barbie shoes, purse and sunglasses from Bamma and Grandpa. She pranced around the house in those shoes! Here she is with her cake. She was so prim and proper and didn't even get messy with it! That's mamma's girl! :-)

Here's the boys being silly with the glasses out of their goodie bags. Braden kept speaking in a British accent and saying, "I'm Dr. Doofensmutz". SO funny. The kid comes up with the funniest stuff. Very creative. He'd make a great writer someday! Always following big brother's lead, Rhett put his glasses on and said, "I'm Dr. Doofus Needles". We were CRACKING up! I love those little boys!!!

A Big Move?

When I mentioned earlier life's been crazy lately, I didn't expound... other than life in general being crazy with 5 of us and a busy business, the big thing is that Jason and I are considering a big move to Springdale.
We've thought about it and talked fleetingly about it for the past couple years. As long as I was still working at the bank, it wasn't an option. Then when I started staying home (16 months ago) we didn't talk seriously about it much because we were busy trying to adjust to our "new lifestyle". Well, as if it was a strike of lightening from above, the topic became fresh to both of our minds a couple weeks ago.

For those that don't know, Jason drives to Springdale everyday for work. From our house, it's about 55 or 60 miles 1 way. With gas prices being what they are, just driving from our house to the yard where he parks his machines and from there back home each day costs us about $1,000 per month. Add in the cost of tires (which just cost us $2,000 to replace on the truck that they drive back and forth each day), oil changes and wear and tear on the vehicles. And that doesn't count when they drive 2 trucks home, which they do at least few times a month. Then, probably most importantly, the 2 and 1/2 hours or so Daddy spends driving/riding in a truck and not with us. Just wasted, idle time. Even he admits that he would, whole-heartedly, rather be with us. And we would certainly rather be with him. Maybe there will be less practices and games and Wednesday night church award assemblies that he would have to miss. Maybe we could have a more normal family life schedule. Eat dinner at a normal time, together, and get the kids in bed at the proper time, without them crying that they miss Daddy when he's still at work at bedtime. And perhaps Daddy would be able to stay awake for a few minutes after the kids go to bed since he won't have to leave the house at 5am AND work until after dark much anymore... (my eyes are filled with tears as I write this...) Our entire marriage, my sweet husband has worked LONG hours. He does work less hours now that he's self employed than he used to, and I know he'll always be a hard worker and will be working alot. For that I'm SO grateful. But to have more of an option for more family/couple time would be so wonderful!
Those are just some of the reasons for considering this move.
The reason we are thinking so seriously about it so quickly, is that we had the frightening thought that school starts in 1 month. The thing that concerns us the most about moving is the boys and school. We think it would be best to get them in a new school at the beginning of a new year, rather than in the middle of a school year. Right now the boys are really excited about moving, which kind of surprises us. We thought we'd get some resistance from them. I think it's because right now it's summer time and they're still young enough to kind of forget about their friends for a while. Right now, pretty much the only kids they hang out with are the neighborhood kids, and the kids they see at church. I think that once school starts and they make new friends in their classes and are reunited with old friends, it will be harder to move them. Then at the new school, starting after school starts means that they will be joining classes that have already gotten to know the routine and their classmates and their teacher...I know they're young and resilient, easy going children, so I know they would probably be ok, but we just think it would be harder on them.
But there are also risks to moving over there and getting them in school so quickly. We have a house in Berryville to sell before we can buy a home, so we'd have to rent somewhere... what if the house doesn't sell... on and on and on.
So, we're working on the house in BV, finishing the add on & will start painting, etc pretty quick. We are just taking it one day at a time, but the clock is ticking on school starting... so we know we can't wait forever to make a decison to go now, or wait. I have already done hours and hours and hours of research about the area, schools, churches, neighborhoods, sports and extra curriculars for the kids. We've already driven many many miles looking around and houses and neighborhoods. Now, we wait on divine intervention!

Please pray for us as we make this difficult decision. We are praying about it and feel that God has led us to this point. He already knows what happens next and what He has in store for us. We're just waiting on Him to reveal it to us. We know that if we listen to and follow his leading, we will be where we need to be. But ya'll know me, I'm just not good at waiting! I'm trying though! And thank God for my patient and understanding husband. I'm sure any other man would have been driven off the deep end by now after all this time!
Thanks so much for your prayers!!!! I'll keep ya posted!

The Zoo

So, it took me a few days to get to blogging about our trip to the zoo, but it's been crazy here. More about that in a minute...

The Tulsa Zoo was wonderful! The last time we went to a zoo was when Rhett was 18 months old and Braden was 3. We were in Louisiana visiting my family and we went to the Baton Rouge zoo. The boys loved it, but we were there in mid-July and it was H-O-T and most of the animals were out of view because of it. This trip to the zoo also took place mid-July. I'm not sure why, but that usually seems to be good timing for us to go places... Anyway, the kids all had such a great time. They've been looking forward to it for a while now and the trip did not disappoint!


We rented a little wagon/stroller for Gracie and it had 2 seats, so Rhett ended up riding in it most of the time. Gracie was so funny; everytime we got ready to "get on the move" to another exhibit, we'd tell her to get in and "go for a ride". She loved it and would get so excited and run over and climb in. Then if Rhett wasn't getting in with her, she would start yelling at him in her "jibberish/chinese/german/american/something-or-another" language and point feverishly to "his" seat. The only words we could actually make out were, "sit" and "bubba". He thought it was funny, and of course, loved getting all of that attention, so he would usually smile and sit down with her. So sweet!

Our first stop was the Elephants. That was what Rhett wanted to see most. The demonstration yard was being "refurbished" so it was closed, but you could still see them and walk through the educational exhibit. We even got to watch one of the Elephants getting her "bath" outside. Here's a pic of the kids and I in front of the giant mastadon statue, which Gracie wouldn't hardly take her eyes off of for a picture...

Next on the list was the Monkies....or the "unkeys" as Gracie would call them! For the few days preceeding the zoo trip, we were preparing Gracie for it. By the time we got to Tulsa, everytime we would say anything about going to the zoo, she would immediately burst into her best Monkey "oooh, oooh, ahhh, ahhh" impression. So cute! When we walked into the Monkey house, they weren't there... they were outside. We went outside to see them, but it was hot and sunny and most of them were hiding. We found out that they would be going back inside for their lunch in 25 minutes or so, so we went inside and got a front row seat right in front of the windows to wait for them. It was worth the wait. It was SO neat! The kids really liked them. There were 2 little babies and 1 of them ran right over to Gracie and got face to face with her. It freaked her out a little bit and she wanted to be held after that! Later in the day before we went home, we went back in to see the monkies again and we got to see a mamma monkey nurse her baby. And then my kids got a front row anatomy/biology/zoology lesson when the mamma turned the baby over (right in front of the viewing window, mind you) and "helped" it poop and then licked her fingers. (Sorry for the graphic nature of this blog, but I just had to give you the full story. It's so gross, but actually pretty funny when you think about it in the context of the looks on our faces when she did it and how we had to explain to the boys that we don't talk about this incident in public, etc. etc. etc. And Jas and I were laughing so hard we could hardly talk! :-)We've heard the story repeated several times since then. Only 1 time in public though. At KFC when we were eating lunch with Jason's parents and grandpa. Of all places! I was laughing so hard, I couldn't hardly get the words out to Rhett to "talk in your quiet voice" and "we don't talk about this at the dinner table", etc. Ahhh, memories in the making, right!!

Braden took all of the Monkey pictures!

The kids had a great time riding the Carousel and the Zoo train!

My little monkey boys!!

Next time we hope to go back when the weather is cooler so more of the animals will be out and about.Hopefully it won't be too much longer before we get to enjoy the zoo again!!

Leapin' Louie's Lagoon

We're here in Tulsa at the Radisson for the weekend. With only a few open weekends before the boys start school, we're trying to have a fun family weekend. So far, we're succeeding!! As soon as we got checked in to the hotel, we changed into our swimming suits and headed straight for Leapin' Louie's Lagoon. It's an indoor water park here at the hotel that is free to the guests. The kids LOVED it! And we loved it because it was inside where it wasn't hot and sunny. After a few hours in the water, we changed and went across the parking lot to Applebees for dinner. The kids were great and everyone got full bellies. We had such a fun day!! Tomorrow, we're getting up early to go to the zoo!!!!!

Here's some pics of our little water bugs.

Rhett was being silly after he went down the big slide

Gracie loved going down the Leapin' Louie slide. I was at the bottom to catch her!

Gracie and Mamma playin' in the water and having lots of fun!

Braden had the most fun playing on the rope bridge with the floating pedestals below. He stayed here most of the time. There is a baseball tournament in town this weekend and shortly after this picture, a bunch of kids around his age came and they had a blast in this area.

More pics from Van Buren

Good Bye Baseball and Van Buren

Before this game, after they called the players out 1 by 1, they had a prayer and recited the Babe Ruth Code. The picture above is of the team facing the American Flag while the National Anthem was being played. It was a touching moment and felt like big time baseball!!

After 3 long months of lots and lots of baseball. It is finally over. For real this time. It was disappointing for the boys to lose today after all of their hard work, but they did their best and they all did really well. We played the Washington County Blackjacks at 10am and we lost. After the game, all the kids swam in the pool while the parents packed up the hotel rooms. Jason and I decided that since we already had the room paid for, we would go ahead and stay another night. We swam in the pool with the kids for several hours, then we ate lunch in the room and we all took a little nap. When we woke up, we got our cold, damp swim suits back on and headed back

for the pool. We swam for about 2 1/2 hours and then we all came back to the room to change and we drove around downtown Van Buren. We drove down by the Arkansas River and over the bridge. We even got to see a train go through downtown. Gracie loved it. She kept saying "Choo Choo" and "Train".

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Braden's Big Bad Game Face


The Carroll County All-Stars were ready to play this 2nd game of day 1!! They played the Arkansas River Valley team. This was a very fun game to watch and the boys had a blast playing it. We won the game!!! Braden played great. The kids had fun. Our family was all together. What could be better? Nothing. Absolutely nothing in the world.

Braden got on base all 3 times he was up to bat this game. He had a few RBIs as well.

Here's Gracie's "I'm hot and I want to go home" face! Thankfully we didn't see it too much this game. Daddy did a good job capturing this for us.
Rhett is such a good boy. He is very protective of his sister these days. He tries to help corral her when we need him too.