Not Me! Monday ~ Stellan Style

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.



However, this week, in honor of MckMama and Baby Stellan, we're doing "Not Me! Monday - Stellan Style!"

This week, it's our chance to HONOR MckMama and Stellan with our Not Me! Mondays.


This past Monday, I did not head over to MckMama's blog to get my usual Not Me! Monday giggle only to find that baby Stellan was in the hospital sick. And I have certainly not, since last Monday, been telling everyone I see, talk to, email, instant message, run into, etc. about baby Stellan and his MckMama needing our prayers.

I also did not spend two hours (I am not technology savvy...that's John's department...we only need one of those in our house!!) trying to figure out how to get the "Praying for Stellan" button in my facebook status before finally giving up.

I most definitely did NOT leave my entire family sitting in the car in the driveway waiting to go somewhere while I checked MckMama's blog ONE MORE TIME for an update post and/or twitter about baby Stellan before I could leave the house...seriously...we were already running late and that would just be crazy!

I do not have fingerprints all over my computer screen from trying to reach right through it to touch sweet Stellan's little face while praying over him many, many times. And I of course did not wish that I could reach through that same screen and wrap my arms around his wonderful MckMama.

I did not laugh hysterically at the SOOO CUTE picture of Small Fry in swim goggles and I did not claim that it was my favorite Small Fry pic of all time! I also did not giggle about MckNugget eating McNuggets.

Finally, I certainly have NOT been obsessed with watching MckMama's blog counter since about 4:00 last Monday afternoon when it was 5,040,335. The fact that as I sit here and type this at 10:48 on Monday morning it is 6,227,440, is certainly not a testament to how many others NOT like myself have also been checking in quite frequently to see how baby Stellan is doing. To know that at the VERY MINIMUM, Stellan has been prayed for 1,187,105 times in a week is not truly amazing...oh to see what the angels see!

Oh, I almost forgot!! I did NOT snap a picture of said blog counter at 6,000,012...just in case!



btw...as i sign off this post now, the blog count is not 6,231,978...just in case you were NOT wondering....

Gone Campin'

On Thursday, we went camping with the Kennedy's and the Berg's. We had so much fun with them. Here are some highlights of our trip:

Valinda and I getting the kitchen set up and ready



John shooting skeet...he's a pretty good shot!



Valinda also took a turn shooting skeet!



Emily trying SOOOO hard to throw the skeet, but it just wouldn't cooperate with her!



Khris taught the kids how to build an A-frame fire. They loved getting to build the campfire!



Valinda and Emily cooking our very yummy dinner!



Joy and Kensey having fun taking pictures of themselves!! They're so cute!!





The beautiful sunrise on Friday morning!



Jared and me trying to wake up and stay warm!



The kids had fun exploring around on the land. They even found a cow skeleton (and wanted to bring the head home, but they settled for just taking a picture of it.)

Locks of Love

Today, the girls and I went with our friends, the Kennedy's, to get haircuts...and I mean HAIRCUTS!! Neither of my girls have EVER had short hair since they've had hair. So today was rather historical for them, and they look SOOOO CUTE!!! They both had enough hair cut off (over 10 inches) that we are donating their hair to "Locks of Love". I am so proud of them (especially Joy because she made the decision herself) for doing such a selfless act. Both Joy and Jenna LOVE their new hair styles, and AGAIN, they are SOOOO CUTE!! I can't believe it! Joy's friend, Kensey, even got her hair cut to match Joy's. They really are two peas in a pod!! Here are the pictures from before, during and after!! (Oh ya! I got mine cut again, too! I really like it this time!)

Jenna Rocks!!

The elementary school where Joy and Jenna go to school has an assembly every Friday called Rucker Rocks! Each week, the kids who've had birthdays that week, get to come up on stage and dance in front of the entire school. Well, today was that day for Jenna. I wasn't sure what she would do when she got on stage in front of her entire school, but I knew that at least she would have Joy's best friend, Kensey, up there with her because they have the same birthday.

Here are Jenna and Kensey when they got up on stage (sorry, it's a little blurry.)



Well...then the music started and Jenna wasted NO time!! My sweet, adorable baby girl can really GET DOWN!!! My jaw hit the floor (and I think Kensey's did, too!)





When I saw what she was doing, I immediately switched my camera to video because, seriously, who wouldn't want to watch that over and over again! Well, she only did the get down on one hand and spin around thing once so I missed it with the video, but here is the rest of her birthday "dance".

Happy 6th Birthday, Jenna!!

Today, our baby turned 6 years old! I was so sad this morning when she had to use TWO hands to show us!! How did we already get to two hands?? I wish I could dig up digital pictures all the way back 6 years ago, but unfortunately, Jenna was already a year and a half when we finally bought a digital camera. So here is a look back at her from age 2 to today.

Age 2



Age 3



Age 4



Age 5 (I love this picture, she fell asleep in my bedroom floor on top of her new book.)



And...here is our sweet baby, Jenna, TODAY!!





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BONUS POST!!!!

Okay, for all of you gazillion people who have been asking to see a picture of my new hair which is really just a shorter version of my old hair...have a good laugh at me on not one, but TWO different occasions trying to do a photoshoot of my hair by myself. AND...I'm not really liking it all that much so I have another appointment to get it cut again next week! Go ahead and laugh your heads off...I know I'm not photogenic and these pics prove it!!! :)

A pencil and paper and a sprinkle of Jenna's imagination

Jenna loves to draw, color, cut, glue...just create in general. Not a single day ever goes by that she doesn't create something. She is ALWAYS on mission looking for paper...any paper...doesn't matter. Today, she was all cozied up in the big round comfy chair with a sketch pad and a pencil. I glanced over at her from time to time to just see what she was up to because she was hard at work doing something. Most of the time when a child is quiet for a long time, you suspect they are up to something...not Jenna. When she is quiet for very long periods of time, she is busy creating. Today, she made wings. She even drew strips to cut out and attach so that she could wear the wings. Here is my sweet little bird!