Eugene, Shelly, Spencer, Heath, and Mason - April 2010
The NC gang - Grandmother Laura with her 8 grandchildren
With the KY cousins, on Grandpa and Harmony's farm - July 2009. 
SLICE OF LIFE:
Some of Shelly's Facebook potst from the past year:
8/8/2010: the boys have just made a giant paper airplane out of a map of the united states. they are in heaven playing with it - wondering how long this good fun will last. ... oops, just heard heath yell, "i quit!" ... oh well, that didn't take long did it!?
8/7/2010: on the way home from t-ball practice this morning, i tried to chime in on mason's "cline boys" cheer. he quickly informed me, "you're not a cline boy... you need to get your own club."
8/6/2010: took heath to "meet the teacher" this afternoon. after a quick look at the other kids, he is confident that he is going to be the best soccer player in his kindergarten class, because as he explains it, "nobody else who likes soccer has a big brother." :o)
8/5/2010: would somebody explain to my boys that water balloons before 8am is NOT a good idea!
7/29/2010: last night i slipped spinach into our grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches and the boys gobbled them up. later, as spencer overheard me telling mom that for dinner we had eaten grilled cheese, tomato, and spinach sandwiches, he said, "what?! those had spinach in them? i hate spinach!"... that's right... 2 points for mom. :o)
7/26/2010: usually a fan of the new-fangled sorry sliders game, heath (5) challenged me to a game of traditional sorry this morning before his brothers woke up. after beating me soundly, he remarked with great sincerety, "how can a game with a plain old board be that much fun?" :o)
7/23/2010: we're teaching our mason to play wii sports - he loves boxing as long as his opponant just stands still and lets him work and work and work at knocking them out. intentionally losing to a 3-yr-old takes a lot of patience, but his leaps of joy and primal shouts of victory are totally worth the wait. :o)
7/20/2010: driving out of the soccer park with mason after dropping the big bros off for soccer camp, i said, "i hope they have fun"... mason (3.5) added, "i hope they score some goals!"... gotta love the innate male competitive spirit!
7/19/2010: mason, sitting in my lap: "you are my comfortable, fluffy mom"... ok, comfortable is very sweet, but fluffy?!?!?!?! note to self - must do more crunches!!
7/9/2010: just returning from a week in kentucky on the cline family farm. lots of good korean food and big country breakfasts... it's kind of disappointing to realize i'm in charge of figuring out what's for breakfast this morning... hmmm...
6/29/2010: eugene left the house w/ the two older boys for a swim meet... as soon as they drove away, i heard thunder... then a little later, a downpour... hope they are having fun. mason and i are GLAD to be home!! :o)
6/27/2010: church, pool, art/journal time, dinner (if you call a few chips and lemonade dinner), sidewalk chalk, and soon comes blueberry pie, then bedtime. not a bad day for the cline boys! :o)
6/25/2010: our 5-yr-old son heath (on his first t-ball team this summer) recently asserted, "it must be called home plate because it's shaped like a home." -- how could it be that i've gotten this far in life without making this rather obvious connection?
6/22/2010: just got home from 5.5 hours of being a "kid pusher" (aka cat herder) for the 15 or so 7&8-yr-old boys at our neighborhood swim meet ... and i thought three boys was a handful! WOW! :o)
6/21/2010: yesterday was not only fathers day, but also our 18 year wedding anniversary. yeah, that's right - i got married at about age 12. ;-)
6/17/2010: have a lunch meeting today - the sitter will be here in 15 minutes. the boys are chomping at the bit for a caregiver with a fresh attitude. hurry hurry hurry!
6/12/2010: listening to eugene tucking the boys in, it occurs to me that he may need to google fresh ideas for bedtime songs. right now, he's very sweetly singing, "my bologna has a first name... it's O-S-C-A-R... " :o)
6/12/2010: After narrowly losing to Spencer (7) at backyard basketball this morning, Heath (5) shouted through tears at Mason (3), "You have no idea how hard it is to have a big brother!"
6/10/2010: mason (3) to older brother: "leave me alone, heath. i'm having some piece of quiet right now." -- if only I could get him to give ME some piece of quiet. :o)
6/9/2010: last night was our first (practice) swim meet. this will be our first year with TWO little swimmers, and man are they cute (um, i mean, cool). i am loving this year in which just doing the stroke almost properly all the way to the other side of the pool is a victory in itself!
67/2010: tonight's dinner included farmer shelly's back-yard green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cherry tomatoes, and yellow squash. doesn't that sound impressive?!?! i won't mention how few bites of each there were, but it made for a pretty colorful plate, and the boys pretty-much ate it up - anything is good dipped in ranch dressing!! :o)
6/6/2010: back from camping. it was fun. boys brought home a bucket of clay from the lake (like we don't have clay in our yard, but okay) and are happily creating clay volcanos under a canopy in the back yard. good clean fun... okay, well, good dirty fun, but they needed a bath anyway, what's a little more dirt gonna hurt at this point. :o)
6/5/2010: heath) beginning at 7:45 and ending at 3:15. spencer's team missed the medal game by a hair. would love to stay home and rehydrate, but we're meeting mom and tracy's gangs for our first ever night of camping at jordan lake. bleh. am trying to get revved up for this next excursion.
6/3/2010: this afternoon, discussing our dinner plans, Mason (3) said, "My mom and me like hot dogs, but my bruders love boogers." tonight when i reported this humorous quote to his brothers, mason laughed and then clarified, "no mom, i meant HAND boogers"
6/3/2010: Scripture Ref for the day - Titus 3:8-9: "...those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works; these things are excellent and profitable to everyone. But avoid stupid controversies, geanologies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless."
6/1/2010: after sinking his teeth into my first ripened cherry tomatoes this evening spencer had to write sentences using specific words for his homework. the "weak" sentence went like this: "My mom has a weak garden." --- what!?!? OK, next time I'M eating the first fruits of my labor!! :o)
5/21/2010: well, in the past few hours, i've endured one vomit and 5 poops-requiring-assistance (remembering i only have 3 kids!) - 2 of these were in the bathroom of a mexican restaurant, and one was in a strawberry patch's "very clean port-a-john". ahhh, the joys of motherhood! sheesh!
5/5/2010: eugene took all three boys to spencer's soccer practice, leaving me home alone ... and as if that wasn't enough, he's just texted me to say they are at kilwins and he'll be bringing me home my favorite ice cream. he's not perfect, but i must admit, he sure does have his moments! :o)
