No Braces Yet

Mary and Noah had appointments with the orthodontist today. Mary's teeth are pretty straight. He said she will not even need them at all. He did suggest a few cosmetic changes...like contouring a couple of teeth for a nicer look and keeping retainers on at night to prevent shifting with age. This was exciting news. Noah does not need braces for now. His teeth are still coming down and he will most likely need them as a teenager. But it's nice to learn that things are going well for him too and he will probably only need one phase.

Noah loves it when I take photos of him.

A lot of little things were completed with the pool today. Things are running smoothly. I anticipate that we will make our end of school deadline no problem. Exciting!

May Ladies

We went to lunch today to celebrate these beautiful May birthday ladies. They are so special to me.

On our way home from lunch, we learned that an older gentleman had crashed right into the power pole right across the street from our house. We actually arrived home just a few minutes after it happened. Rescue teams had not yet arrived and the man was not able to get out of his car due to the dangerous power lines surrounding him. He was okay, but was transported by ambulance. We ended up with out power for few hours and a lot of rerouting to use our road. It also meant that we got to go out for dinner. It turns out that there isn't much you can cook without power. And without our pump working, our water was off too.

Memorial Day Fun

Work in the morning
Hikes to waterfalls
Barbecue at Justin's

It's feeling a ton like summer around here. The kids played a lot this weekend. I have a feeling it will be hard to get back to life tomorrow. School really should end before Memorial Day. And I'm not quite sure why I didn't try these gorgeous hikes before. There was so much strong water from all the rain this winter. It was quite mesmerizing.

Cameron's Art

I love this boy's art. He even used this deceased lady bug as a model. We come home on Sundays with the most darling drawings.

Watch Out Paul Blart

The kids slept over at Tiffany's last night. Aaron and I had a nice dinner with friends and then came home and crashed from all this pool work (well, mostly Aaron). He's been waking up early each morning before work and digging sprinkler lines, wheelbarrowing dirt, and prepping the pool for completion. He is a hard worker that one!

Tiffany texted us this morning that Annie prayed over the pancakes and said, "We are so grateful that we have each other and that we are best friends". Melt my heart!!!

Cousin play time!

Following some work around the house, we all headed to Jacksonville to complete one of Tiffany's 40 by 40 tasks. Over the past year she has created a list of things she's wanted to do before she turns 40. With her birthday in just a few days, we scheduled to go on a segway tour.

Let me say that this was so incredibly fun! We had about 45 minutes of training, then a two hour tour, which was rather fascinating.

We ate lunch and got the kids from their weekend long play date. Following a few errands we took the kids to the marble store to cash in some of their first week's earnings. I'm glad they could experience a "spend day" so quickly after we started. Now they are even more motivated to keep working!

Nadauld Daily Five

We came up with a new chore system, inspired by our little brunch on Monday. We are paying our kids for their weekly chores. Hopefully they will get a better idea of how to save, budget, and pay tithing as well. So far, the kids wake up and cheerfully do their tasks. We named it the daily five, although Cameron just has four for now. They also are required to do regular family chores on Saturdays without payment. They have one chore each week that they choose from a jar (like garbage, dusting, setting the table, garbage, windows, bathrooms, etc.). This makes it pretty easy for them and it means that every two weeks my bathrooms are sparkling! Then they can spend their money on the last Saturday of the month...we can go to a store, shop online, or they can buy an "experience" (like a friend party or a trip to do go carts at the FFC) for a certain amount of money. If they do their daily five four or five days during the week then they get double their earnings. If not, they earn a dollar a day. Mary gets paid a little more because she has two instruments. She is really happy about that. It's pretty easy for me really and it is keeping our house very tidy. I'm loving it so far and I hope it continues through the summer.

Eddy's Angels

When Andrea pulled in this evening to pick up Mary for a play at the Britt, she realized that the bird she hit on her way into our driveway was a duck. After some prying, the stuck duck flew off in an embarrassed frenzy. Mary had the best night with her friend Eddy and his ladies. I think we should start calling them Eddy's Angels.