Megan Elaine

I am happy to announce the birth of Megan Elaine Mincer. Born today Tuesday September 18th weighing 6 pounds 12 ouces. 19 inches long. A beautiful little girl with a head full of jet black hair. Mommy Susanne and Daddy Joseph are proud parents! Poor Michael has been really sick for 5 days with flu-type symptoms. Please pray for him as he has yet to see his new niece in person. The boys are really happy about their new cousin. Justin asked me if he could teach her some new things. I thought that was sweet.
Susanne is doing great. Lots of smiles. I hope she doesn't kill me for posting this picture but I think she looked pretty good for having gone through 15 hours of labor!

Hunting expeditions, odd creations, and glasses

Here are a few pictures... Michael took the boys squirrel hunting the first week of the season. They were so excited! Michael also took Justin dove hunting. I don't eat squirrels, but my boys love them. I do love dove meat wrapped in bacon or ham and cooked in the crock pot.


Sometimes Michael will take just one boy hunting at a time. This particular time Justin was being taken. This is great for one on one time, but usually the ones left at home are not happy about not getting to go. As a distraction, I found a recipe for homemade play dough and Jonathan and Ryan helped make it. They played with it for HOURS! I was really surprised they played with it for so long! Michael and Justin left and when they got home after dark, J & R were still playing with it! And then, I put it in a Ziplock bag and put it in the refrigerator and they played with it all during the rest of the week. Some great stuff! Here is the recipe...

Homemade play dough
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water
food coloring, if desired

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl and mix well with spoon. Next add water (little at a time), mixing as you pour to form a ball. Knead 7-10 minutes.

I got out some cookie cutters, a pizza cutter, a rolling pin, a canning jar lid ring and some other textured things. We also cut up some straws for arms and legs. Happy faces!



Justin is very creative. The picture below is of a creation he made the other day. It is a bent safety pin wrapped around a straw with a rubber band. He said it was supposed to be a wasp. I had to take it away from him because he was stinging his brothers with it!

Jonathan had to get glasses the other day. He has a slight case of astigmatism. He has been instructed to wear them while reading and during class. He is not happy about it and hasn't worn them to school yet (only because they still need adjusted). He is afraid the kids will make fun, but I think he looks cute. I am so glad he doesn't have to wear them all the time. He is so hyper, I hope they will last!

Catching up! August 19-20

I am so far behind on blogging! Lisa, thanks for staying on me about this! I apologize to those of you who may have been checking for updates. So.. here we go... I may have to do 2 or 3 posts to get the pictures updated and have room for all of them. A lot has been going on!

My boy is a BIG Kindergartener now, so I needed a big kiss to help my nerves :-)
Here is my sweet Jonathan on his first day of school. His awesome teacher Mrs. Holsapple has really gone the extra mile to do "boy" things for him since he is the only boy in his class of 4. She has even drawn baseball caps on his smileys. What a great lady! He cried at first when he heard he was the only boy. He said "I don't wanna go to a girl class!" Maybe he will concentrate better since there are no other boys to distract him. (At least until he becomes a teenager and then it may be a problem!). He has noticed a little girl named Anna in his class. I think it's because she is new, she is cute, and straight from his own lips "she wears STARS in her hair!" The stars were mentioned quite a bit that first week of school. Now he says she tells him what to do and he said "sometimes I obey her". Thankfully he gets to play with his brothers and cousins and lots of other little boys on his breaks. We don't want him to be hen-pecked before he even makes it to junior high!
Justin, the experienced 2nd grader who imparted lots of wisdom and advice for Jonathan. Doesn't he look relaxed?
This picture taken in the first grade classroom where I was a substitute teacher for 2 weeks. I think they were trying to see who could make the silliest face.

Here are some of "my" students. I still claim them :-) They were a lot of fun!
Here is a picture of my lone little Ryan at home now. Some days it can get really quiet while the big boys are at school. He loves to sit on the counter in the kitchen and "help you" as he says.

One day Michael came rushing in to get the camera. He said "I cannot believe that child can fit into that bucket!" My boys think these buckets and the square Rubbermade tubs are fun. I wish I had a picture of the time Justin tried to sit in one of the buckets and got his backside stuck. That is a great memory!

Quick post

I am so busy that I don't even know why I am posting. Maybe because a dear friend told me she had been checking and there was nothing. So here is a short post saying that I am still alive! I don't have any pictures. For some reason my crazy camera is giving me fits about transferring the pictures to my computer. I hope I can figure it out!
Tonight I was telling my boys a story. They have been struggling with fear lately and we have prayed about it and talked about Jesus' protection. But I thought I would also tell them a story to help them think about other things. I know it sounds really cheesy, but it was about a child who went to "Lollipop Land" and "Toyland". I described all of the things the child saw. (not very original but.. hey.. they loved it!). I told them that in the "Gingerbread House", they ate desserts every night for supper. Both of my boys looked at me with horror. I was thinking they would say something like "We would love that". But instead, Justin said "NOT GOOD" and Jonathan said in a very sarcastic tone "HEART SURGERY!"
Why would a five year old think of this?! Of course I had to roll with laughter for a few minutes before I could continue the story.
I was shocked, but -now that I think of it- I remember saying that if we eat junk all the time it is bad for our hearts. Because even though they might say something like this, they have begged and pleaded to eat that brownie before their good-for-them food is eaten!
Well, I better get back to the crescent rolls I plan to make for a funeral dinner that is tomorrow. The dough was left to rise too long, so it is really high and over the sides of the mixing bowl! If I don't do something with it, it may just decide to just get out of the bowl and run away!

Last week before school

Things have been really crazy this week and will continue being crazy for the next couple of weeks!
Last Thursday, the school had a cleanup day, then a cookout for the teachers. We have had family "get-togethers", and pitch in dinner and food pounding for the new principal of our school. Today I am planning on going over to the school to prepare & clean the classroom if needed. There is a staff meeting this week and a parent/teacher meeting on Friday night. Then for the next two weeks, I will be substitute teaching first grade. (The new first grade teacher is a missionary and won't be arriving until later). Thankfully my mother in law has graciously offered to keep Ryan. So if you don't mind, please pray for me that I will keep my head and be a blessing to the students and the new teacher. Here are a few belated pictures.... Justin and Jonathan in the mud after the water fight (pictures on previous blog... the water fight turned into this!), and some more pictures from Justin's August 4th birthday. We took him to Golden Corral for lunch and then, at his request, to Mr. Gatti's to play the games. As you can tell, the loss of his birthday cake (see last post) didn't leave him very deprived.

What a mess! A Happy Birthday Boy

Jonathan posed just for youRyan - a rare photo opportunity. He usually won't look at the camera

I think Daddy enjoyed the games just as much!

The Great Birthday Cake Disaster

Justin's birthday was on Saturday August 4. I can hardly believe that my cute little bundle has already grown up to be such a handsome big boy!

Here is my birthday boy age 7
(please excuse the red-eye... don't have time to fix it)
Here is a picture of his "treasure chest" birthday cake filled with candy treasures

Here is the "culprit" who pulled the cake off the counter into the floor. This was NOT how he reacted. He cried and said "I broke the cake!"

Here is a picture of the smashed cake after the boys "pilfered" the candy treasures from the inside
(Notice... the only thing left in the middle of the cake is the plastic wrap I had placed there to keep the cake clean and a few lonely straws I used to support the cake). It was so hard to throw that cake away. Even though I allow my boys to eat frog legs (see previous post), we do not eat cake off the kitchen floor.

Here is a picture of how my face might have looked (this is a very bad acting job). Imagine the world "NO-O-O-O-O-O-O" in slow motion... maybe that will help)
This is how I felt, but I made myself comfort the poor remorseful child who felt so bad that he had ruined the cake

Justin was not too upset. He had been asking me all day "Can I look at the cake?. I want to eat a piece of that candy in the middle". So the boys had fun "stripping" the inside of the cake (what was not on the floor) of all the treasures. Thankfully I had made a small lemon cake to go with so he was still able to blow out his candles when we went over to my in-laws' house.

I will end this post for now and next time I plan to add more pictures from Justin's birthday.

Early August happenings

I have been trying to stay home lately as much as possible. Sometimes, I think I could like being a hermit! Here are some pictures of some "happenings" here at home....

Water fight in the back yard! Muddy water! They had a kiddie pool, but being the rambunctious boys they are it is no longer serviceable (it has holes). So we are using the sandbox as a replacement.

I kept hearing a muffled "Mommy" and this was what I found in my dryer.... The door was shut but he was smiling

This is a picture of my "beloved" garden produce.. a zucchini. There are plenty more where that came from and I am planning on freezing some of them since I already made several loaves of zucchini bread, casserole, ect... I also have tomatoes but they aren't blog picture material because they just aren't big enough to brag about. I am hoping to get enough to do some canning this year.

Justin and Jonathan earlier (before the water fight). Justin has his very own home-made bow and arrow. He is really proud because his "arrow"(which is a stick) shoots all the way across the yard. Jonathan is a gun-lover. He wishes his was real but I don't want any dead children.

Riding bikes at a nearby park

And this is for my blogger friends who won't cook wild "critters". I love this one because Justin is waving "bye bye" to the FROG LEGS he helped to cook. Yes, you read correctly! And "gigged" by my own dear husband just for his little muchkins to eat.

and a close-up for your viewing ENJOYMENT :-)