Jon Jon

A couple of you asked why Jonathan didn't have any individual pics with our family ones. There is an actual reason. Melissa was also the photographer for our preschool this year. I LOVED the photos she took of Jonathan....they melted my heart. Benjamin really wasn't in a very picture-taking kinda mood that day, so I asked Melissa to take those individual photos of him on the day we had our family pics.

Here are the ones that Melissa took of Jonathan from the BCP shoot. I seriously have no clue which ones I want order...actually I want them all. Decisions, decisions.

Shooting the Eagles

Our good friend, Melissa took our family photos again this year. She is so fun to work with and a wonderful photographer.

We booked her for last Saturday after Benjamin's flight. I was a bit worried with how eXhAuStEd the kiddies were after the big day, but, leave it to Melissa to take some great shots despite that....and in enemy territory! ; )

We decided to take our photos on the Ellison campus this year....and sweet Melissa (being a rival Killeen High teacher) came on over to our side of things to work with us.

Check our preview out on Melissa's site:

Melissa's Photo Blog

THANK YOU, MELISSA!! You rock!

Flying High with Benjamin....the Photo Story

Last week, I received an amazing phone call. On the other end of the phone was one of the directors of Hope Therapy in Temple. She was calling to tell me that Benjamin had been nominated to be a part of the Flying Vikings program. We felt so honored and thrilled for our little guy. The Flying Vikings is a very generous program that puts together flights for special-needs kiddos. The children go up in a plane with their pilot and a parent and then are even able to "take control of the plane" and fly on their own.

Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early to head to the airport in McGregor for Benjamin's flight. 

Our Little Aviator

While we were there, a photographer from the Waco Tribune followed Benjamin around for a bit. Sunday morning, we found this photo in the paper! So cool! 

My four favorite guys....my parents drove up from Marble Falls for the big event! We had some time to kill while waiting for the clouds to clear, so we took a little walk around the airport.

We were in the group of flights that went up first.

This was Benjamin meeting his pilot, James.

Watching James prep the plane for our flight.

Ready to go!

I got to ride along in the back. 

What an incredible experience to be a part of with Benjamin.

This was right before take off....getting excited!

This is a short video of our take-off:

Flying high over McGregor and Waco. 

Benjamin said his favorite thing to look out and see was the "little swimming pools".

"Okay, James....ready to take over from here."

This is my FAVE video-- it's of Benjamin landing the plane! Look at him go!

Being presented with his First Flight Certificate and his Little Pilot's Wings

Woohoo!

Getting his wings pinned on.

This was the plane we flew. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. We really did enjoy it. Although, I felt like an old lady when James asked if we wanted to try some "zero gravity tricks"... he pushed some buttons and it felt like we were free falling for a moment. A little much for this mama. I have grown into such a wimp!

Jonathan was well occupied while we were in the air! 

There were bounce houses, face painting, crafts, pizza and more. 

He had a great time, too!

Benjamin's therapists, Shana and Rachel came out to cheer him on. 

LOVE these ladies so much! 

They are the ones who nominated him for this incredible day!

Jonathan flew his own plane, too! ; )

Doing a few crafts and connect-the-dots before we left.

This was a day that will live in our hearts forever. What incredible people the folks are who put so much time and effort into making this day so amazing for us. Thank you, Flying Vikings, especially Paul Hansen who works tirelessly to run this organization and make it so incredible! Thank you to all the directors at Hope Therapy, especially Heather! And we couldn't forget Shana, Rachel and James, our pilot! You guys made the day for our little man. Thanks a million times over!

How To Take a Sick Day When You're A SAHM

For Stay-At-Home-Moms, sick days are hard to come by.

Take today for instance. I woke up with no voice, a pounding headache and little desire to get out of my bed. It appears to be the same killer cold that David (who had it last week) so lovingly passed along. 

Since the boys are a little bit older and able to *somewhat* handle themselves, I have a few more liberties than I used to when it comes to getting sick. 

But, in case you were wondering, and you must have been wondering or you wouldn't be reading this far into the post....this is how we've thrown it together today. It's laughable, really. 

10 ways we're "making it" through the day...

10. After dressing himself, Benjamin is wearing Jonathan's Santa Claus sweatshirt from last Christmas and camouflaged nylon shorts. He somehow managed to add an extra pair of underwear while getting dressed, too. Nice.

9. Today's diet has consisted of Os....Cheerios, Spaghetti-Os and I'm pretty sure I'll be phoning Domino's for supper. Healthy.

8. Jonathan let me hold his "Baby" while I laid around on the couch all morning.

7. Benjamin told me I sounded like Daddy. 

6. The candy dish magically emptied itself. I also noticed a small stool pulled up to the counter where the candy dish is located. This has Jonathan written all over it.

5. Midnight the dog was fed 15 Milkbones within a one hour span. She is now refusing them....maybe it was more like 50?

4. Benjamin learned how to help himself and his brother to juice boxes in the garage fridge. This fridge may have just become my Pandora's box since it's now become self-serve. Those juice boxes were a secret, but I gave in under the lack of desire to fix cups, lids, straws and beverages all day.

3. Both children now have random middle-of-the-forehead bruises. And refuse to explain how this came to be. I didn't hear crying, it must have not been that bad.

2. Caillou.

1. To a two-year-old, a glue stick also doubles as chap stick. I can't say there's not a small place inside of me that wishes he really had glued his lips shut. Totally kidding. Kind of.

Now back to my blueberry juice and fuzzy afghan. Six o'clock can't come fast enough.

The Longest Week Ever

...still isn't over!
It's been a fun week, but wooo....I. Am. Exhausted. And we still have Trick-or-Treating and David has the big Ellison Homecoming Dance tomorrow night. So excited about that extra hour of sleep tomorrow night. I hope my kids get that message, too.

Benjamin's therapy sessions have been moved around a bit lately to where we had therapy every day this week except Thursday. For some reason, that made things even wilder....we certainly burned up the road between here and Belton and Temple a whole lot!

Wednesday evening, our church hosted its annual FUNival... 

Buzz & Woody were ready for action.

These are our friends Bethany (the monkey) and her little sister, Landry (the banana)...Landry and Jonathan thought each other were pretty funny.

Our friend, Bat Girl....aka, Kylee!

Benjamin at the cookie-decorating station.

Benjamin in action at the ring toss.

This is our friend, Adam Stewart. 

Jonathan spotted him from afar, pointed and yelled..."It's Jesus!"

Indeed....King of all Kings.

I have to add that the Stewarts always have the best family dress-ups for Halloween. They all got in on the BK act, too! A couple of years ago, when there were just four of them, they came decked out as the Wizard of Oz foursome.

Benjamin (although his expression doesn't quite depict it) thought it was so cool that Emily came as June from Little Einsteins.

Emily's little brother, Ty, was Leo... Jonathan and Ty are a hilarious combination. 

They are a mess! Love these buddies.

Mmmm...orange frosting. 

Not great later since this costume was hand-wash only!

Jonathan toured the fire truck.

The boys were so excited all day (even more-so than they were about FUNival), that our friends Sara & Danielle got to ride home with us since their mom had class late and dad is deployed right now. This was such a treat for the boys! 

I tried my hand at treat toppers this year for the boys' classes. 

Thursday, the boys wore their costumes to school. 

Here is Ms. Mary with Benjamin. 

I love how sweet Cole is grinning in the background (he was one of my Busy Bees last year).

This week was actually H² for El Rancho Dominguez....

Homecoming & Halloween.

Here are the boys showing off their arm mums 

Friday night of Ellison's big homecoming game.

They thought they were pretty fun!

Before we met Daddy at the game, we stopped by our church's Halloween party for our class. Becky decorated and set everything up so cute! All of the goulish-goodies were so fun....I took photos of all of the goodies and hopefully will post them soon. 

We headed over to the game to watch Ellison win 21-0! This was the first game that the boys and I stayed the whole game! In the last minute or so of the game, we headed down to the field to take pics with Eddie the Eagle. Then after the game ended, the boys were able to run and play on the field! A fun way to end our last home game of the year!

And now, I am off to bed. SO TIRED!