Soccer

Ben had his first soccer practice tonight.  He was very excited.  They started out in pairs kicking the ball back and forth.

Then they ran around the field practicing dribbling the ball.

 Lined up to play Red Light, Green Light.

When the coach said green light, they all dribbled.

 When he said red light, they stopped.

They finished with a game of Cops and Robbers.  Ben is the Robber.  All the other kids are running around dribbling their balls and he has to steal one.  And he was able to do it.  On the way home Ben said soccer is fun, fun, fun.  He said it's better than baseball because you're not "standing, standing, standing waiting for the ball."

10 Days

It's been 10 days since I last posted.  I've been working on my 2012 blog book and haven't even taken many pictures.  Mollie has, though.  I deleted 150 pictures from my camera, mostly taken by Mollie.  Here are a few I saved.

 

Ben took this picture of a block house he built Saturday morning. 

 John and Ben playing catch Saturday afternoon.  It will be time for t-ball soon.  But first, Ben is playing soccer.  His first practice is Monday evening.

 For some reason Ben decided to set up his own bathroom in the computer room one night recently.  He's brushing his teeth before bed.  The one problem was where to spit.  He had to run through the house to the bathroom sink.

Mollie loves to feed the birds.  She fills her bird feeder until it runs over onto the ground.  We have some fat squirrels that clean up all the seeds she spills.

PJs

Nana made matching gowns for each of the girls and their babies for Christmas.  Ben requested pajamas for Ted and Cat and a bandana (like Willie from Duck Dynasty) for Tidy.  Nana had these all laid out on the couch for Ben's friends when we got to their house Monday night.  Overall pjs for Cat because he's so floppy it's hard to keep clothes on him, an American flag bandana for Tidy, and pjs that match the one's Nana made Ben for Christmas for Ted. Ben has had outfits out of all these fabrics at some time or another. 

Nana and Grandaddy

 Ben and Mollie spent four nights with Nana and Grandaddy last week while I attended a children's ministry conference in St. Louis.  They had lots of fun and here are a few of the pictures that Nana and Grandaddy took while they were there.

Decorating the huge furniture box.  It served as a house, a restaurant, and a food truck.

 Water painting.

The highlight of their visit was snow on Wednesday morning.  I was so excited that they were with Nana and Grandaddy.  We didn't get any snow in St. Louis and it didn't stick at our house.  Ben has been wanting snow for months.  

 Working on a snowman.

 Shoveling snow.

 One of the snowmen that they built.

 Throwing a snow ball at Grandaddy.

Warming up with hot chocolate.  Tuesday night when they knew snow was in the forecast Ben had already devised a plan to play in the snow and then come inside and drink hot chocolate.

Hunting

John killed two bucks this hunting season.  He spent the weekend before Christmas hunting with his dad and most of the week after New Years Day.  We joined him at the camp for a couple of days last week and Ben went on his first hunt.

 John killed this buck the Saturday before Christmas.

 John and Ben going hunting.  Ben carried his BB gun and stayed on the stand with John for about two hours.  John said he was very quiet.

 The next morning when I dressed Mollie in a pink shirt with camo sleeves she said she had on her hunting clothes and wanted to go hunting.  After lunch, we bundled her up in camo and John carried her out to the closest stand for a few minutes.  As I was dressing her, she said, "I need a pink gun."

 I thought it was cute that Ben's BB gun was up on the gun rack with John and Grandaddy's guns.

 Mollie sitting in the "Condo" stand.

 John killed his second deer Friday morning.  He came back to the camp and got Ben to help him bring the deer out of the woods.

Playing with Presents

Ben and Mollie have enjoyed playing with the new toys they got for Christmas.

John put together Ben's basketball goal last Sunday evening.  Ben thought it was super cool that he got to go outside in his pajamas and play basketball.

 It took a few tries, but he scored.

 Coloring a Jake and the Neverland Pirates poster from MawMaw and PawPaw.

 Working a farm puzzle from MawMaw and PawPaw.

 Painting with his new art supplies from Olivia.

While John was putting together the basketball goal the kids and I were putting together puzzles.  We put together all four of the big floor puzzles Ben and Mollie got for Christmas.

Elder Family

These are a few pictures from Mrs. Elder's camera.