Check Out My New Camera!

Being married to a photographer means that we have at least (and I'm not kidding) 5 cameras in our house.....none of which are small enough to carry to an amusement park or a birthday party where you just want to get a few shots of kids having fun. I love the fact that Ben can take great pics of people and places, but I just wanted a camera that I could carry with me and not have to worry about what lens was on it. Also, I wanted one that didn't require a backpack to get it to and from where we are going. I talked to Ben about it....it wasn't hard to make him understand my dilemma! So, yesterday after church we went camera shopping! I must say that they are much more expensive than I originally thought, but I have worked extra hours this summer making some extra money, so I spent it a little bit early! I think I deserve something nice every now and then, don't you? I have put up a few pics of my camera so you can see that it is small enough to fit in my pocket, still has a good sized LCD screen for viewing, and also takes videos! I am so excited about it....and now you will start seeing pics taken by me of everyday life around the Newton household!

I'm Still Here!!!

Hey! I'm still alive! In fact, I have just recently had a birthday, and I am a bit older now! I have been pretty busy this summer, but now I am officially OFF until August!! YAY!! Jacob begged me to set a blog site up for him, so for the past few days I have been working on that off and on. It is still underway, but there are posts up....typed by me, but voiced by Jacob! Check it out at www.jacobnewton.blogspot.com or click on my link on the side bar. If it is hard to read or too colorful for you, I am sorry...he picked it all out himself! Annalisa is now dying to have a blogsite too....thanks Lissa! It is hard enough for me to keep up with ONE, but now 4??!! Cole's is falling behind too! But, we will have plenty of interesting things to post this summer...so keep coming back! Don't give up on me yet!

Brin Brin

Brin Brin is my favorite cousin! Now, you all know that ALL of my cousins are my favorite in some way or other, so don't get your feelings hurt!! I am not being partial to one or the other! Brin was born when I was in 4th grade, and I remember making her a jewelry box before she was even born. I was so excited that Aunt Renee was going to have a baby, and I know she was too! I should have been jealous that she had a baby girl, because up until Brin was born I was pretty much Aunt Renee's baby girl! She spoiled me in every way that she would her own daughter (she didn't punish me too often so I enjoyed being at her house!!!). I can remember rocking Brin when she was tiny! She was always funny---and still is! I can always count on a good story and a good laugh from Brin. Even though she has been through some tough times in the past few years, she has always had something to smile about, and she has always kept her head held high. Now, she has graduated from college with a teaching degree, and is engaged to be married to a great guy! I can't believe how time has flown by!! Even though she is 9 years younger than I am, she always passed on her clothes to me!! She is a bit taller than I am! One of my favorite memories of Brin is when I went on vacation with them and we were at a drive-thru zoo. Uncle Rowland wanted Brin to look at one of the animals and she absolutely refused to look out the window. She kept telling Uncle Rowland she was reading her book. (She was only about 2 or 3 years old at the time and couldn't read!) Uncle Rowland got very irritated with her over that!! I was trying to coax her into looking out the window also. She was not going for it!! It is still funny to me! I know that Brin will be a GREAT teacher and a wonderful wife, and I can't wait until she has a beautiful baby of her own (I'm not rushing you on that though, Brin!) Windy and I (and whoever else wants to help!) are planning on having a wonderfully fun wedding shower for Brin when it gets closer to her wedding!!!

Whose Kid Is This?

Jacob has gotten in trouble several times before at school. Usually his teacher just takes care of it at school, and I never hear anything about it except for some weird story from Jacob. If it is bad enough though, his teacher sends a note home to be signed by either me or Ben. Jacob is usually pretty good about giving us the note, especially if his teacher has pinned it to his shirt! The hard part comes when we ask Jacob to tell us what happened. He never can quite tell us the truth...he only tells us what he views as "truth". It is hard to know what to do when it is "your baby" and you keep telling yourself "he is only 6 years old." But, when you find out that "your baby" has in all ways lived up to the biblical meaning of his name---conman, deceiver---then it puts you in a much tougher spot. Take for example yesterday. Jacob came home. I asked him if he got in trouble...he innocently said, "No, ma'am" and then proceeded to ask me if he could play the x-box. Since he didn't have a note and he said he didn't get in trouble, I trusted him and let him play for a few minutes. Today however when Ben picked him up from school, Jacob's teacher met him at the car with a note. Take a look:

Now, I know that everyone reading this blog notices something very interesting....Ben Newton written at the bottom in Jacob's very 6 year old handwriting. Also, please notice the date as 5-24-06 which, by the way, was yesterday! I was confused at first, not thinking my son to be into forgery at such a young age, and I asked Ben why Mrs. Anderson made Jacob write his (Ben's) name at the bottom of the letter. It was then that he told me that she had not made him do that....Jacob had signed it and turned it in believing that she would believe that Ben had signed it. I am laughing as I type this! Where in the world did he get the idea to do this?? What in the world made him think it even looked like his daddy's signature??? I am amazed at his higher level thinking skills in solving this "problem" that he had...but don't get me wrong, I am also disappointed that he lied and did something very wrong. It gets even better because when I asked Jacob where he was when he wrote his dad's name on the letter, he told me it was when we were at Wal-Mart. Well, when we had gone to Wal-Mart I picked Cole to go in with me and be my "helper" leaving Jacob and Annalisa in the car with Dad. Jacob informed me that if I had picked him to be my helper he wouldn't have been able to sign the letter because he wouldn't have been in the car! Well, that just earned him a couple of more spankings!

Swimming Fun!

On Mother's Day weekend we went to Riverside to see Ben's mom and dad and his sisters Jamee and Susan. The kids were sooo excited about swimming in Nana and Poppa's swimming pool. Annalisa got a new pink and green swimsuit with pink and green flip-flops, a pink towel with her name embroidered in green, a pink and green umbrella, green sunglasses, and a pink and green bow for her hair. Nana said she had a lot of fun shopping for pink and green things for her. Jacob got orange swimtrunks, orange goggles, an orange fan, and an orange towel with fish on it because we all say he is a fish--he loves to swim so much! Cole racked up with blue swim trunks, a blue fan, blue goggles, and a blue towel. I think they swam from about 10:30 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. Their lips turned blue a couple of times and I made them get out and sit in the sun, but that didn't last for long because they wanted to deal with the chills! Aunt Jamee and Aunt Susan swam with them, as well as Nana and Mom. I don't think you would have been able to get their dad in the pool even if you had offered him money....they know how he feels about swimming. He doesn't like it! Ben did help his dad put up a roof over their patio and it looks very nice. It was nice to see father and son working together so diligently on a project. Ben put the shingles up for his dad and worked until 10:30 that night, by spotlight. Cole and Jacob went on the roof to help dad out and give mom a heart attack! They did a great job! I have posted some pics from the swimming fun. I hope you enjoy them.