photos {hanging out in the street}

This is one of the reasons I am really enjoying our neighborhood...sometimes, for no reason and without warning, we all end up just hanging out in the street - talking, drinking, kids playing...sometimes it even leads to eating together (I think this night ended up with a group pizza order). The pictures don't do the 'crowd' justice because we actually had about 6 houses worth of folks. But most of the pictures I took were of the kids. And bless Spencer's heart...he gets stuck playing with these youngers kids and he does so well with them!

link {crop photos}

I forgot to post this here... photos from my fundraising crop can be found on the crop's blog.

photos {father's day}

I just realized that these pictures from Father's Day never got posted.

Do you like our matching outfits? It was an accident!

3 Generations... Matt's parents in the middle - Matt & Spencer on the left - Matt's brother and nephew on the right (Matt's niece wasn't there)

update {spencer's new world}

Since I went into such detail on Spencer's new "rules", I thought I should give an update. So far, so good. He isn't doing a great job of keeping track of what he has earned/used, but I think that will come with time, as it becomes more of a habit. But the last weekend that he was at our house, he spent more time outdoors than I think he ever has in one weekend at our house. He actually has several hours of video game time built up right now that he hasn't used. So...I think it's working...

photos {proud aunt}

Here are two pictures of my nephews shooting last weekend (the adult in the photo is their dad, my brother-in-law). My older nephew (2nd picture) won the under 15 competition!!! Look how they are in the exact same stance in the 2nd picture! Like father like son!

{a whole new world}

Last night we introduced Spencer to his "new world". Though I confess that I'm the driver behind this, I did manage to get Matt in my corner. Now, we'll get to see if we can execute it as a team...

There are two main things we addressed with Spencer (who will be 9 in a few weeks). The first area is chores. Obviously, up until now he's been expected to do certain things. However, he has not gotten an allowance from us and we've never specified anything in the way of chores. I know there is a general debate over paying or not paying a child to do things. They need to learn the value of working to earn money, but also need to realize that there are responsibilities that come as just being a family in a home, etc.

I think we have found a happy medium. He has a list of things he's expected to do because he's part of the family and needs to help out. Then he has a list of things that are considered additional "chores". He has to do these, but is paid for them. Since he's not at our house all the time, he is paid per chore, not a set salary each week, so to speak. I think this will also help him learn the value of earning money for what you actually do. And finally, we've given him a list of things he can do to earn extra money. This will give him some options, especially if he's saving for anything in particular. We told him we'd pay him when his tally reaches $10 (to keep it simpler on us so we don't have to pay $4.80 or something random). For each $10 he earns, he has to put $3 in savings and set aside $2 for charity. He wasn't thrilled with that, but oh well. I also added that part w/out consulting my dear husband. He's not a huge "charity" person which really bothers me. I don't want Spencer to pick up on that, so I'm going to try and brainwash him.

The other part of his new reality has to do with video games. We have a Playstation 2 and he has a PSP. He loves playing them and I just feel it's time to put a little control on it. So, now he has to earn video game time. He can do this by doing various "good" activities - like reading, writing stories, playing outside, educational computer games, charity work, etc. Whatever time he spends doing these other things, he gets in video games. There are a few exceptions and other rules associated, but that's the general concept. Right now, we pretty much have to make him read and he rarely goes outside voluntarily. We also told him that he couldn't automatically just watch a lot of TV since he couldn't play the games. We aren't putting specific limitations on it yet but if it gets to be a problem, we will.

We broke the news to him last night but will actually start tomorrow for the weekend. We'll see....

Two other small things...

- One night a month we are going to have a "tv-less night" where we hang out as a family with NO television at all. Sad to say, but this rarely happens now.

- Once a week we will have 30 minutes of family reading time where the TV goes off and we all read together (separate books). I like this idea because Matt's not a huge reader and I think if Spencer sees both of us reading and enjoying it, maybe it'll make a good impression on him.

Sorry to ramble on...

{walk for autism}

Each year, Autism Speaks organizes its Walk for Autism all throughout the country. Myself and others associated with the Dalton Help Foundation have put together a team to walk in Charlotte this year. My personal goal is to raise $150. Your help would be greatly appreciated! If you're interested in donating online, click here. You can also donate by cash or check to me, or by check to Autism Speaks directly. If anyone local is interested in walking, we'd love to have you on our team!!

altered item {letter h}

I purchased this letter at a local scrapbook store - it's pretty much just a white, heavy cardboard. The general idea of my scrapbook studio is that I want to keep the cowboy/western theme that I've had, but add more colors - I really love color! So, I tried to combine both here.

layout {4th of july}

This is a 4th of July layout from 2005 (based on a sketch at PageMaps). I like that I was able to fit plenty of photos but it doesn't seem overwhelming. It's hard to see but there is some fun glitter glue and whatnoton here.

layouts {school}

Woooohooooo! I am officially caught up with 2nd grade in Spencer's school album (and he's less than a week into 3rd grade). Considering how far behind I am in regular pictures, it feels good to be caught up in something. Anyway...this is the last batch of layouts. The "pile" I did last week and the picture of two was done last night.