overheard

Putting clothes away upstairs I could hear the boys and Brian talking downstairs today and caught bits and pieces of a conversation.

Elliott: "Ethan, there are lots of kids in the world who don't have _________ (I couldn't understand what he said). You should be more thankful for what you have."

So I'm thinking "wow, he's really getting what we keep trying to teach him" It always seems like we talk and talk about how fortunate we are and that there are many many people who don't even know if they will be able to eat each day, but they don't see to get it. So I was really excited to hear him say this even though I wasn't sure what they were talking about.

Later Brian came in to tell me the rest of the story. They were listening to jazz music on his iPod, and the conversation actually went like this:

Ethan: "I don't like this music!!"

Elliott: "Ethan, there are lots of kids in the world who don't have jazz. You should be more thankful for what you have."

Well, at least he gets the general idea, right?

7 years

This cute little 2 year old.........

just became a fun-loving 7 year old today!

Happy 7th Birthday Elliott!!!!!!

life after vacation

I haven't blogged in so long, but our lives have kind of felt like a whirlwind lately so I thought I would blog like that (enjoy!)

We went from this......

to this

(new scooters courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa!)

and then to this.....

(the line of cars trying to get out of our neighborhood

on the first day of school - I think this bus driver

was being very thorough cause he/she stopped for about 5

minutes each time a child got on the bus!)

to get to this

(he was about the last one to arrive - see above- so he

wasn't too keen on mom being in his classroom taking

his picture. You can't tell, but he was in the middle

of rolling his eyes)

and then this

(again, no cooperation with the pictures)

which meant this........

now looks like this......

and the counters now look like this.....

(papers from Elliott's school)

and this.

(reminders of my errands that have to be done

that morning)

But you gotta love pulling into the driveway to this.....

and then getting to see this....

(The Red Dragons are doing very well this year!)

and this.

(The Black Pumas are fantastic also!)

And it's not everyday that I get to see this....

(My cousin Tara dancing with her dad at her wedding)

or this.

(don't you love when you get surprise photos on

your camera after you leave it with someone?

Thanks Zach - I really do love these!!! Love

that we all got to see each other and need to do

it more often)

So loved seeing this.....

(Baby Eli is not so little and definitely a man

on the move!)

and of course THIS!!!

(Benjamin Gill Koertge born August 18, 2009. Look

at those sweet little toes!)

And then this.....

became this!!

(Elliott learned to ride a "two-wheeler" as the boys

call them. He finally just decided that he wanted

to do it, so he did)

This......

(there's not really much to say about this. Just kind

of speaks for itself, huh?)