David's Week at C3 Camp

David with his Golden Arrow Award

Last week David attended C3 Camp. It is a camp that Chick-fil-A coordinates and sponsors at churches throughout the country. Chick-fil-A has set up a Winshape Foundation that offers residential Biblical based camps for children, marriage enrichment programs and foster homes in Georgia. C3 Day Camp is a break-off of their residential camp so they can minister to children around the country through local churches.

Pop, Jacob, Brad and David at C3 Camp

Last week, a church in Lafayette hosted the camp and David attended and then slept over with Brad's parents at night. On Monday, David called us and told us all about it. He was very excited and especially enjoyed the archery! On Wednesday, Brad's mother e-mailed us some pictures of how he dressed for Wacky Wednesday. She helped him dress up like a rock star!

David the Rock Star

On Thursday, they had a decorate your car competition. They were suppose to decorate the car to reflect their group name. David was in the Ocean group. Pop and G'ami live in the neighborhood next to the church, so they decorated their golf cart and ended up winning the competition for his group! As you can tell, they spent a lot of time and effort decorating it! David was in the blue group, so he ended up dressing in all blue and they even spray painted his hair blue! He LOVED it!!

Pop and the Ocean golf cart!

Friday was Chick-fil-A Family Day so Brad and I and the little boys met them at camp. Christopher saw the big inflatable cow in front of the church and was scared that the other cows would be there. He was so scared and wanted to be held constantly so Annette ended up bringing him back to her house. We were able to follow David around to his group break-outs. They offered a choice of many different activities like archery, soccer, dance, cheer leading, wiffle ball, wacky science, basketball....

David with his egg drop contraption.

We went to the wacky science group with David and they were having an egg drop competition. They were given four straws and a roll of tape. His group had to use those supplies to keep the egg intact from the drop. They kept it from breaking during the drop on the grass, but when they moved to the concrete it broke! After that we watched him play wiffle ball and then archery. He really enjoyed the archery and ended up winning the golden arrow award on Friday!

Jacob eating Chick-fil-A on Family Friday at C3 Camp

After the activities the minister of the church preached for a little bit and then the church band played their camp songs while the kids sang and danced. After that it was Chick-fil-A lunch time! David had so much fun, I am planning on enrolling him for a session they are having in Lake Charles later this summer. If you'd like more info on the camp or the Winshape Foundation, check out their website http://www.winshape.org/. They are also looking for churches that want to host the camp. Click on the camp link!

David dancing for Jesus

Christopher's First T-Ball Game!

Yesterday Christopher asked me at least a hundred times if it was time for T-ball. He was so excited to be big enough to play t-ball. I am one of the coaches so we went to pick up the uniforms to bring to the other players. As soon as we got the box of uniforms he wanted to put his on. Jacob was upset that he didn't have a uniform, he is not old enough to play this year. It broke my heart to see Jacob so sad, so I went and got David's uniform shirt from last year and he ended up wearing David's. When it was finally time to go to his first game, they both fell asleep in the truck! I woke Christopher when we arrived at the field...not really a good idea. He was sooooo grauchy and did not want to participate in the game. He stood out in the field but refused to put his glove on. When it was his turn to bat, he didn't want to do that either. He just sat on the side the entire game! He did not participate in the game until it was snack time...then he was a real team player!

David is playing t-ball again this year too but he is missing his first two games. This week he is staying at Pop and G'amis for church camp. Chick-fil-A cooridinates and sponsors a bible day camp. The closest one to us is in Lafayette this week. Yesterday he called and told us all about it. He is shooting "real" bow and arrows, doing Science experiments and playing wiffle ball. Yesterday after camp, G'ami was bringing him swimming. I miss him when he is gone, but he really enjoys staying at their house. Last time we went to visit them, David asked if Brad and I were staying. When we told him yes, he was disappointed. He likes it when we don't go because G'ami and Pop bring him to do fun things.

Want me to make a red beaux beaux so you can have a band-aid?

So a few months ago, the kids were going through boxes (yes, plural!) of band-aids in just a few days. Instead of wasting band-aids, I bought a bunch of stickers for the kids to put all over themselves and made a rule about band-aids. You must have a red beaux beaux for a band-aid.
Today Christopher had a red one and needed a band-aid. I gave it to him and Jacob threw a fit because he could not have a band-aid too. Christopher felt bad for him and got down in his face, put his hand on Jacob's and with such a sweet voice said, "Do you want me to make you a red beaux beaux right here? Then you can get a band-aid!". It was the sweetest and funniest thing. He wanted to make Jacob happy by getting him a band-aid and knew just how to do it....by making a bloody sore for him!

By the way, Jacob said yes!


P.S. What is the non-cajun spelling for beaux beaux? :)

May Update...

Ok, so now the May update...

David graduated Kindergarden - wow what an accomplishment! :) He had a little ceremony on his last day of school, he was chosen to be a reader. He has come such a long way since the beginning of the school year. I didn't realize how much farther behind The Dunham School was academically until he started kindergarden. David was behind in reading and math. He was able to catch up and on his final report card he had all AP (above averages the best you can get!). The first part of the year his teacher told me he would rather hang out with the girls. This was a new school to David and most of the boys (and other students) already knew each other from being in Pre-K together. By the end of the year his teacher said he was best buds with the boys. On the last day of school I had planned a fun day to bring David to Chuck E. Cheese. He enjoys going there but we don't go anymore because Christopher is terrified of Chuck. The little boys were still in Mom's Day Out and I was looking forward to spending the day with David alone...until I got dumped! One of the boys in his class invited him to go swimming after the program. I have to admit, I was kind of sad that he would rather hang out with them instead of going to Chuck E. Cheese with me. I allowed him to go and offered to bring him over to the boys house but he would rather ride with his friend!! Since I was dumped and already had child care lined up for the little ones, I had a little pitty party for myself and then ended going to hang out at work.

David reading during his graduation program

David and Julie after his graduation.

David excited to go to his friends house after the graduation program.


After David was finished with school we decided to take a vacation before it got too hot and all of the other kids around the country were out of school. We packed up the truck and luggage carrier and headed to the Smoky Mountains. The kids and I made a list of things we wanted to do and things we wanted to see. The only thing I really wanted was to see a bear. We stayed there for about four or five days hiking in the national park and doing all of the touristy things. We went to Ober Mountain. It is a ski resort in the winter and in the summer it has tobogganing, water slides, ice skating and other amusement park type rides. All of us rode up the ski lift to the top of the mountain to toboggan down. When we reached the top Brad and I just looked at each other like duhhhh...what did we just do!!?!? We realized we have THREE kids and only TWO adults. Every child must go down with an adult. Something we should have thought about before reaching the top of the mountain. Even if Brad went down with one of them, he would have to leave a child at the bottom to come back up and go down with another one...then this really nice stranger offered to go down with David. Brad and Jacob went down first so they'd be down there to meet David and then Christopher and I went after to make sure she brought David. The lady was super nice! After that, I stayed at the bottom on the playground and Brad would bring them one at a time! :) As we were leaving Ober Mountain we saw a bear in the parking lot!! That really made my trip...I was ready to head home after that, but we didn't! :) After spending some time in the Gatlinburg area we headed over to the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina for a few days. We went to the Biltmore (really cool!) and on our last day we drove over to bring the boys to Tweetsie Railroad, a neat amusement park that is railroad themed. They have a real steam engine train that goes around the area. In the beginning they had a cowboy on our car. During the train ride some indians came on horseback and tried to climb on board and steal some of our loot. Christopher and Jacob weren't too crazy about it, but the rest of us really enjoyed the train ride and being able to participate in the cowboy and indian show. They have all kinds of cowboy and indian stuff. The little boys enjoyed the rides.

Brad, David and Jacob going up the mountain to toboggan down...Julie and Christopher tobogganing down.

Tonya Harding just walked by :) Jacob (not happy), David and Christopher going to attempt ice skating

I had enough... :)

David and Jacob did too!!

Disclaimer: we were never in any danger...the land was flat on the other side of the fence even though it may not appear that way!

Hear no evil, see no evil. Christopher and Jacob did not enjoy the train ride too much! :)

Easter Update...a little late

Well it seems as though I am a couple of months behind. I'll start back with Easter.

Christopher had an Easter program at his little Mom's Day Out. He did GREAT. I was worried that he was going to have stage fright, but he didn't. He was up on stage "hamming it up". He is the one wearing the khaki pants and white shirt with the tie. He did get a little distracted by the stage props and tried to pick some flowers. After his program I brought him a special treat...a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (his favorite!!).

Christopher is on the top row in the middle (white shirt with tie).

This year for Easter, we went and spent the night with Brad's parents. His brother and his family stayed the night too. It was fun having five boys under the age of six! Needless to say it was very loud and entertaining too. On Easter, we went to celebrate the safe return of cuz Jacques from serving our country in Iraq at Brad's grandmother's house. They boiled crawfish and had an Easter egg hunt for all of the grandkids.
Andrew, Bailey, Christopher, Jacob & David (the Arton grandchildren...notice ONLY boys!!)


bedtime (minus David)

I guess I should mention what happened to David. As you tell by the Easter pictures he got a little roughed up. It seems as though he has more confidence than skills in some areas...biking and skateboarding are two of them! He just took the training wheels off of his bike and was ready to do some cool bike tricks. Unfortunately, he flipped over the handlebars on landed on his face. Our neighbor is a doctor and looked at him, he thought he probably broke his nose and as you can tell by the picture, he lost a another tooth! He was pretty banged up for a while, but thankfully everything healed perfectly and we don't have any permanent reminder of the evening David flew over the handlebars (other than this picture!).


Here is a picture of the boys decorating Easter eggs at our house.

I just convinced a 3 year old that a McD's hamburger is really a PB&J sandwich with a cookie in it!

We have been having a hard time with Christopher eating lately. The only thing he wants to eat is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. His pediatrician had told me that I should not make special accommodations for him - even if he does not eat anything for dinner. I have been trying to get him to at least try other items (he won't). Today, I was running through the McD's drive thru and Christopher didn't want any of their items. He threw a fit for a PB&J sandwich so I kinda fibbed and told him that the hamburger was PB&J and the patty in the middle was a cookie. It worked!! He is really hard core about this peanut butter and jelly kick! A few days ago after dinner, I asked the boys what they wanted for dessert. Instead of ice cream, cookies or strawberry shortcake...Christopher wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!


Earlier this week David found the kites that the Easter Bunny was planning to leave behind...Does this remind you of the Christmas post when he found Christopher's bike!?! Since he found them, we decided to bring them down to the neighborhood park. The park is located on an underground pipeline so it is a wide open field with plenty of room to attempt to fly a kite. As we were about to leave the driveway, Jacob yells WAAAAIIIITT...





he wanted to bring the weed eater to the park with us! :) This is his favorite toy. He'll play outside for hours just dragging it around humming pretending he is doing the lawn.

Last weekend was the LPCF Tennis Tournament and Gala fundraiser. We ended up making over $120,000! That will be able to help out a lot of families. We appreciate everyone's prayers, contributions and support!

This past weekend was the American Heart Association's Heart Walk.

After the Heart Walk, we brought the boys to the Air Show at Keesler Air Force Base on Saturday. They had a bunch of airplanes that we could walk through and activities for the kids. The Air Base would not allow people to park on property so we had to park about a mile away and ride a military shuttle bus onto the base. That was Christopher's favorite part of the day. The Thunderbirds performed and were extremely loud. Christopher was so scared he wouldn't even open his eyes!

Jacob checking the plane for stability. It is strong enough for him to hang on!

After the Air Show we headed over to play in the sand for a little while at the beach.

Jacob asking, "Mom, Can I eat this?"


The boys running after the birds!

David and Christopher pretending to be birds.

Yesterday we had Easter Egg Hunt practice. David and Christopher have parties at school this week with egg hunts. Christopher's was today. It is amazing to see the difference between the boys. David is always aggressive, fast and competitive. He goes all out for the egg hunts...and always has. Today, Christopher just sat back and watched his class go out and get the eggs and candy. I walked over to an egg and tried to get him to pick it up, he didn't want to! I ended up putting one in his basket for him...and that is the only one he ended up with! On the way home Jacob wanted one of the candies that were inside the egg. Christopher gave him one and then saved the other one for his "bruder" (David). He has such a care free and laid back attitude, but he cares so much for his "bruders".

Master Egg Hunter Sir David with his apprentice Christopher.

Jacob found something more fun to do in the middle of the egg hunt...fill the basket with rocks!



Christopher and Jacob on one of their Egg Hunt drills.

LPCF Tennis Tournament and Gala THIS weekend!

We have been extremely busy these past few weeks, I guess that could be the reason I haven't had any recent posts. The LPCF Tennis Tournament Fundraiser is this weekend. We had so many participants we had to move into three venues. All of the events/festivities will continue to be at the Country Club of LA, but in addition to using all of their courts we have had to reserve more courts at Bocage and the Manship YMCA. It is amazing to see how much this Foundation and fundraiser have grown in just three short years. Last year we had the most profitable fundraiser in Baton Rouge - even more than the Cancer Society!! (and they are really good fundraisers!) I am super proud that it is all moms and dads of heart patients that are doing everything. We don't have a paid marketing/publicity person or any fancy office - it just parents coordinating everything! We are thankful to have such talented families that work well together and are able to accomplish this sucessful event! I am even more proud to live in a community that really helps each other out -our sponsor are wonderful! ...and yes, it IS Christopher that Supriya Jindal is holding on the commercials. We used the same commercial as last year and just changed the dates! But it is him!! If you would be interested in joining us at the LPCF Gala, we would LOVE it and so will you! The tickets are $50 each. It will be a fun night with good food, drinks and a fun band. The silent auction items this year are great, as usual. Brad is eyeing quite a few of them - mostly the signed sports memorabilia! :) The Jindals have donated dinner for two at the Governor's mansion to be auctioned off. For the ladies, there are quite a few spa treatments and gift certificates. I'll update after this weekend and let you know if we were the high bidder on anything. Christopher had his first dental visit. He was pretty excited about it too! He went with David last month to observe and see exactly what happens when you go to the dentist. We pumped him up and told him how he was such a big boy, this is what the big kids do....We arrive at the Pediatric Dentist's Office completed all of the forms, then head back to the "special chair". The cleaning lady (my mind just went blank for her actual job title) noticed his "cool watch" aka medical bracelet and asked about his medical history. Dr. Brumund (his pediatric cardiologist) had warned me that some dental visits would require antibiotics prior to the procedure because Christopher has a VERY high risk of getting endocartitis (an infection of the heart valves). Well, his dentist is so cautious, he wouldn't even let her clean his teeth without him being on the antibiotics! :) He'll have to get a note from the cardiologist before his next visit (in six months) clearing him for dental care. I know that Christopher will probably have limitations in his life because of his little heart...but dental care. I never really thought they would deny cleaning his teeth! I guess in some way I am glad he is being cautious... A few nights ago I was heading to bed and peeked in on the little ones. I don't usually do that, but noticed that Jacob was not in his bed. I panicked...until I looked over and he was in Christopher's with him (on top of the covers!). Jacob has been sleeping in Christopher's bed ever since.

Last weekend we planted a garden. I'm not sure how successful it will end up, but we had a good time planting it. We planted some strawberries and tomatoes!

David had his last Basketball game for this season. He played very well and was a great team player. It was amazing to see how much he really matured just over the past year! Christopher started tennis this week! He is the one in the red shirt standing while everyone else is bending down. David has lessons at the same time on another court, so since we are already there - I signed Christopher up too. I thought he would be too young, but he really did well. In the beginning he was always one step behind (as in the photo!) but he warmed up. When it was his water break he ran over to me (I had the water) and said, "Well, how am I doing?". That is what David says every time he takes a waterbreak. Christopher is trying to be just like him. It is so cute.

"Here dey IS!"

Jacob's Second Birthday!

Jacob fishing on his 2nd birthday


Jacob chasing the ducks

On my last post we were trying to decide what Jacob would want to do for his second birthday. He wanted to go fishing! So last Thursday, we packed up the spider man poles and headed to the LSU lakes. Jacob loves to "fish". He has a different technique than most and as of today, it has never been sucessful. He likes to just use the pole to hit the water and make it splash. He did a great job of scaring away any potential fish. We also brought some bread out to feed the ducks and he did a great job of scaring them away too! After fishing, feeding the ducks and playing in the sand on the LSU "beach" we headed to Cheeburger Cheeburger for dinner and then over to the pet shop. It was a fun evening. Arton Celebration season has officially ended until a brief August birthday celebration for Brad and then back in full swing in for birthdays, anniversary, Christmas and Valentines from December - February!

Jacob's special fishing "technique".


In the past few weeks, Jacob and Christopher have totally changed their little personalities. They are maturing and have learned to work together as a good team. We (well I) still have not totally potty trained Christopher. One day, he was wearing underwear and I reminded him to go and potty. He came back wanting to wear a pull up. I reminded him again that he is not wearing pull ups and that he needed to go back and get underwear. He told me he didn't have anymore. Christopher's underwear is one thing that is overstocked and under used! I keep them in the drawer in the bathroom for him so I went to show him that he has plenty. When I opened the drawer, it was empty. My heart sank...my immediate thought was that he put them down the toilet! Thankfully, Jacob pulled the shower curtain back and said "Here dey is!" Christopher just wanted to wear a pull up!

"Here dey is!!"

Christopher's 3rd Birthday Party

Jacob's 2nd Birthday PartyLast weekend we celebrated Christopher and Jacob's birthdays together. We ended up doing it at the same place jumping place that David had his. It is just so much easier to let them take care of everything and not have to stress about cleaning up the house before, organizing games and stuff and then having to clean up again after the party. The kids had a good time (well I think they did...at least mine did!) and it was fun to jump and slide too!

Note to self: NO MORE party horns!!!!