Cornelius Chronicles

Maeve doing one of her favorite things, coloring! Cute Maeve-Isms: Maeve says, " MmUhm," in a cute little high voice when telling you "yes" to a question. When she is ready to go  she waves her little hand, stands by the back door, and says, "Bye!  Bye!" until you open the door and let her out to play. "Hi" is her favorite thing to say.  She loves greeting new people and welcoming them into her circle with a friendly, enthusiastic, "Hi!" Xavier watching Loyd's soccer game through backwards binoculars. Funny Xavier-Isms:   When asked to clean up his room he comes to me and says, "I can't.  I'm allergic to cleaning." He says, "Last time later," when talking about something that happened in the past. He is the master of "Chicken Butt!" He sneaks up on any and all unsuspecting victims, smacks their bum, and then hollers "Chicken Butt!" This is always followe...

Grandma Zoie with Jenny, Audrey and Lizzy   A little conversation Rebekah and I had at the library on a recent Thursday: Rebekah:   Mom, do you know how to tell the difference between an old lady and a young lady? Me:  What's the difference between an old lady and a young lady? Rebekah:  It's the hair.  Old ladies have white hair. Me:  Is Grandma an old lady?  She doesn't have white hair, but she's your grandma.  Rebekah:   She's not that old.  Besides, old ladies have lots of curly hair too. Me:  Grandma has curly hair.  Rebekah:  Her hair isn't that curly yet.  She's not that old.   It has to be lots of curls close to your head.  Me:   Ok, sounds like a pretty comprehensive method for telling the difference between young ladies and old ladies.  So there you have it.  An old lady has white hair in a tight perm.  Case closed.  :) Grandma Great Cornelius an...

This last week was Spring Break for us.  I did my prep work for having all the kids and Dustin home.  I gave up on house work, bought double the amount of groceries I usually do, and lined up free, fun activities and play dates for everyday of the break in hopes of keeping the natives occupied.  Yea for library programs, great friends, and perfect park weather!  Here's some pictures of the fun we had this week. Petting Zoo at the Freeman Memorial Library  Pete the Cat visiting the library.  Can you see how many buttons Pete has?  Face Painting and Balloon Animals.  What more can a kid ask for at the library?   Snack Break at the Park It was fun to do so many fun things together.  We all enjoyed sleeping late and getting ready at a leisurely pace too, especially with Daylight Savings.  But, it sure will be nice to get back to our regular schedule and weekly grocery consumption.  :)...

Rebekah as Joy Adamson with Elsa the Lion (the Webkin kind since it is in an elementary school) This week Rebekah took part in the annual Second Grade Living Museum.  Each of the children were able to choose a famous person from world history.  Then they researched that person, wrote and memorized a short 30 second monologue about the famous person's life, and dressed up in character on the day of the museum activity.  They presented their character at the Living Museum activity in the school library on Friday.  Parents were able to walk around and listen to the children's speeches.  It was really fun to see all the work the kids put into their presentations as we walked around listening to each of them.  Rebekah chose to be Joy Adamson of Born Free fame.  She did a fabulous job memorizing her part and doing the research to learn about Ms Adamson.  Here is a video of her at the Living Museum.  Sorry for all of the back groun...

Loyd has been doing some fun art lately.  He works very hard coloring and drawing in his room after we tuck him in for the night.  Often I have to turn his light back off and remind him to go to sleep so he isn't too tired for school the next day.  It's such fun to see him excited about and exploring his new skills he is learning.  He is such a bright, inquisitive boy.  He really is a lot of fun, even if I have to nag him a bit.  ;) "Cave" by Loyd Cornelius (age 6) The library had a program for elementary aged kids about cave painting.  The kids learned a bit about early human cave paintings and why they are important.  Then the kids were given an opportunity to make their own cave paintings.  Loyd made this spectacular cave painting of a...Cave!  I love the literalness of his subject.  :D Loyd also loves to draw portraits of people he knows and loves.  Here are a few recent drawings he has done of his family.  Can...

We went to the Moody Garden's Aquarium Pyramid in Galveston this last week with Xavier's preschool class.  Rebekah and Loyd got to skip school and come with us because I know how much they love stuff like this.  It was so much fun to see all the fish and seals and penguins.  We had a great trip and wanted to share some pictures of our underwater adventure.  :)   Loyd by the stingray tank. Rebekah totally got photo bombed! Xavier loving the penguin exhibit. Maeve watching the fun penguins swim in the water. I took the most pictures of Maeve at the Aquarium, but I think that has more to do with her being tied to me via her monkey backpack leash than anything else.  She adored seeing all of the fish and other aquatic wildlife.  I had a hard time getting pictures of her face because she was too enthralled by the animals to take a second and look at me with her big beautiful smile....

This past week we celebrated Loyd's 6th birthday.  Happy Birthday Son!  We are so blessed to have such an energetic, charismatic, loving little boy in our family.  Loyd has a great way of figuring out how to get the people around him to smile.  He is also terrific at finding the fun in any situation.  He always has a smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eye (sometimes that's good and sometimes I have to worry) :P.  He's my most loving and snugly child, always ready and willing with a kiss and a hug to let you know how much he cares.  Loyd is a special little boy.  We count our blessings to have such an amazing Son of Heavenly Father as part of our family.  We love our mischievous little man and can't wait to celebrate many more happy birthdays to come!  We love you Loyd!