Marty and Kari

Camping Day 1

2010-10-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

In October, we went camping as a family with a few other families. It was our first time camping as a family so we were really hoping it would go well. The kids absolutely loved camping and Marty and I enjoyed it also. I know a huge part of it was the friends we were with. It was so fun to camp with other people you know and it also helped a ton that someone else was in charge of making all the food for the weekend!

The tent Marty and I have is 12 years old. Yes we thought it would be fun on our 2nd anniversary to go camping near the beach - in August. So we haven't done much camping since that horribly hot experience. My point is our tent was to small for all 5 of us to sleep in so we borrowed a tent (we didn't want to buy one yet until we knew how it went).

Here's where the boys spent the weekend:

Us girls slept in our tent, that is so incredibly easy to set up. When we buy a bigger one, I hope we can find one this simple!

We stayed in Silver Springs and rented out a whole huge area that had a beach in the lake. It was perfect and so beautiful. A picture of all the kids on the first night there.

The beautiful sunset on our first night.

Deana was the one that bought and made all the food. She bought these giant marshmallows and of course Marty thought it would be fun to show he could fit one in his mouth - so pretty:)

Of course the marshmallows were supposed to be for roasting and making smores. So yummy!

Green Meadows Farm

2010-10-26T17:19:00.000-07:00

Monday, Molly and I got to go to Green Meadows Petting Farm with the Northland Co-op. It was funny because Abbie was there the same day on a field trip with her school, but we only saw her walking in and then never again:(

But Molly and I had a blast. Molly was so excited to hold a baby chick. She kept asking me when we were waiting for our whole group to get there, "can we go hold the baby chicks now?" (in a impatient and excited voice)

But we didn't start at that, we started at the ducks so she was a bit disappointed. Then she got scared for some reason in the pen. I had turned to pick up a duck and when I turned to show her the duck she was crying - so I only held it for a very short time. And I didn't get any pics of us with the ducks since we got out right away. I did take a picture of the ducks before we went in the pen.

Molly quickly calmed down when she found a pretty feather on the ground:)

After we saw some llamas and ostriches, we got to hold the baby chicks! Here Molly and her friend Ariah are holding out there hands patiently and excitedly waiting.

Molly loved the chick! The baby chick was really sweet and was almost fell asleep in my hand.

We also got to hold a baby duck, but it had something on its beak which made it looked like it was trying to bite you, so of course Molly didn't want to hold it then. Oh well!

We then went to the pig pen and they warned us they might bite at your shoe laces or feet so Molly didn't want that either. It was funny watching some other people though that the pigs were chewing at their shoelaces.

Next we got to see the sheep. Molly absolutely loved the sheep last time so I expected the same, but this time I couldn't even get her to pet one. But Jennie and her daughter Jessie loved petting the sheep:

This was a huge water buffalo. Notice the caution sign, his horns were a little scary.

Then we went into a little house where they have some guinea pigs and birds. The guinea pigs were adorable. This bird was not happy about some of us watching him and kept making a really loud noise and spreading his wings. Guess he wanted us to think he was in charge!

Molly loved getting to ride the horses. Well, only because she felt the peer pressure to ride after her friend Ariah. I like when peer pressure makes your kids do good/fun things!

Molly and her friend playing on the firetruck. Love the way Ariah posed as soon as I said smile for the camera.

Molly loved this miniature horse, she went right up to the fence when she heard she could pet it.

She even milked a cow! I was so mad that my picture where you can see that she is actually milking it hides her face. I was so proud of her for trying new things.

I think she loved posing for pictures after all the animals just about as much as the animals. We took lots where you put your head in a circle and some at a butterfly and then even more at these fake horse.

Finally, we got to pick out a pumpkin on our way out. I think this is one of the probably 20 that she picked up. Molly was very serious about which one she wanted, she took a long time to decide which one she wanted. She would never tell me if she wanted small, round, big. I guess she just knew it when she saw it.

It was such a fun day at the farm. I loved getting to have so much time with just Molly. It was our first "field trip" without siblings. Fun and yes kind of sad at the same time!!

Museum of Art

2010-06-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Today, Marty was out of town (in Alys Beach at this really cool event!) but the kids and I went to a Target Family day at the Orlando Museum of Art. It was free admission and they had lots of fun things for the kids. We had some really cool balloons made. Then each kid made a puppet. It was the pigeon from "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus" book.

They had a storytime also in the children's area of the art gallery. Mo Williems is the featured artist right now, he's the one who wrote the pigeon book.

Then we also went and watched a few short videos based on some of Mo Williems books. They were so cute, I will have to make it a point to checkout some of his books from the library.

Then finally Mr. Richard was playing also. For some reason my kids have never really gotten into his music very much though. They love music and love dancing but never been interested in staying to watch him anywhere we have been.

I was so glad that I went with the kids today. I was a little worried that it would be crazy busy and I was by myself but I decided to just try it - so glad I did because it was perfect. We got a parking spot close to the front and it wasn't very crowded at all. The kids even thanked me for taking them when we left:)

Molly and her purple flower. I love the little "pollen" that she added to the middle, and smiley face. The kids loved it also!

Abbie with her pigeon puppet and pink flower. The girls are so funny. They love to have the same things but always want them to be just a little different. Abbie went first and then Molly wanted the same thing just all different colors.

Graham with his puppet and helicopter. It's hard to tell in this picture, but the body is the purple and the propellers are the blue. Graham's propeller part popped while we were walking around, but I was so proud of him because I told him if he wanted it fixed he had to go ask the lady if she would fix it really fast so we didn't have to wait in line another 30 minutes. He went right up and was assertive and got it fixed - and was polite about it:)

Posing in front of the museum

After dinner, we had some dessert and they were all being really silly. Molly decided to use the step, that someone had left in the middle of the kitchen, as her table. So, of course, the others wanted to join in also. It was so funny!

Memorial Day

2010-06-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

--I know it is no fun to read a post with no pictures, but sorry this is just really for me to remember:)

On Memorial Day, we went to Dan & Robin's house for a cookout. And they live on a lake and have a boat:) It was so nice to be around friends and just have a relaxing day. The adults had fun getting to actually talk while the kids had a blast in the kiddie pool. The funniest thing was the kids kept taking the adult sized rafts into the kiddie pool. It was hilarious!

After way to much delicious food, Dan took the boat out. Graham, Abbie and Daddy rode the boat while Molly and I hung out. Dan & Robin's sweet dog, Nilla, rode in the boat also. (Nilla made me want to get another dog sooner rather than later) Abbie did great not being afraid of him, she didn't want to get very close but she wasn't afraid.

I rode the boat with Abbie and Molly and then Graham went back out so he could ride on the tube! He was a little nervous at first but Dan rode with him and he did great. Dan actually got tossed off the tube at one point but Graham held on. Graham started to get scared and wanted to stop but Marty had him stay on a little longer and then he loved it again. When Graham got back the first thing he said to me was "I held on but Dan fell off!" He was pretty excited!

Then it rained for a while so we hung out and ate some more I'm sure. Earlier when Graham was tubing we asked Molly if she wanted to go and she said yes. We asked Abbie also and she said no. So we went back out when the rain stopped so Molly could go and Abbie would watch. Dan once again rode with Molly and was so sweet. Chris did a great job driving the boat pretty slow but Molly loved it. She said her favorite part was the bumps! We were so excited that she just did it no questions asked pretty much.

Well, after Molly went Abbie said she wanted to go! Marty and I were excited and fearful at the same time. We knew she would love it as long as she didn't fall or get hurt. Dan once again rode with Abbie and she really liked it. Chris started off really slow but Abbie wanted to go a little faster. We went I guess medium speed, but she enjoyed it. It was just so fun watching our kids try new things with pretty much no fear. I loved it.

Graham even wanted to go again after Abbie but we couldn't. We definitely need to get them back out on the boat and tubing soon. I need to get out and tube also! I haven't been in forever and was to afraid to be on with the kids.

Marty and I both commented that night on what a great day it was. It was just relaxing, fun to be with friends and just such a rewarding day with our kids!

**There are no pictures, because once I get out of the habit of taking pictures it is sooo hard to remember. I know Robin's dad took some pictures so maybe he has some I could steal.

Picking strawberries

2010-04-22T11:54:00.000-07:00

Shuttle launch

2010-04-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Monday morning, after Easter, the space shuttle launched. It launched at 6:21am. Marty, Graham and I watched it from our backyard. You could see it perfectly and so well since the sun was just barely coming up. It made the smoke stream look like it was glowing! I took a few pictures of the smoke stream after the launch and when the sun was up even more. These pictures barely show how beautiful the sky looked! I love being so close to the space center:)

up close of the glowing part,

with some more smoke stream,

seeing the reflection in the water. So beautiful!

Easter

2010-04-13T18:46:00.001-07:00

So after Abbie's birthday part of Easter, we sent the kids upstairs to play with Abbie's presents. Then Marty and I got an Easter egg hunt ready for them. We decided this year to combine the baskets and the egg hunt. So we put an initial on each of the eggs and then inside some of the eggs where numbers that went with their prizes. We put some candy and quarters in the other eggs. The kids thought it was fun to have to find their initial. We opened all the prizes and by that time, Marty had to be back at church and I had to start getting myself and the kids ready for church. Right when we were getting ready to leave I thought about taking a few pictures. This is the one that is right on front of our bushes that have pink flowers on them right now - what was I thinking? Actually, I was thinking I don't care I just need to make sure and take at least one picture of them in their Easter outfits and to do it quickly or we would be late!

Then after church I tried again, not much better! It was bedtime by now. I think my favorite though is the one where they almost look like Charlie's Angels:)

The kids were really cute when we were going to bed. They asked if we could have some more Easter tomorrow, since we didn't get to celebrate it all day. They ended up hiding their eggs for each other, it was really sweet.

Abbie's 5th birthday

2010-04-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday was Abbie's 5th Birthday. It was difficult to have another birthday on a holiday since Graham and Molly's are December 26th and 27th, but what a great day to celebrate. We got to celebrate Abbie and the fact that Jesus died for us and rose from the dead! What a way to celebrate our physical life and our spiritual life in Christ!

I had asked Abbie for a while what she wanted to do for her birthday. The only thing she kept telling me was that she wanted us to have balloons and to decorate for her birthday - that was easy enough. Saturday night she was so excited to go to bed. When she saw that it was dark outside she actually started jumping up and down! After she got in bed she told me that I needed to make sure that Graham, Molly and I (daddy was going to be at church) were awake before she was so that we could tell her "surprise" in the morning:) It was really cute. Here's the "surprise" she woke up to:

Her bedroom door, she was really surprised to have streamers and balloons in her face...

Then they were all the way down the stairs...

A "Happy Birthday" sign in the doorway to the kitchen...

and finally streamers and balloons in the kitchen. (Abbie is in the picture because at this time she was running circles under the streamers - she really liked them!)

Daddy had to be at church for the morning Easter services so we let her open her new Barbie movie so she wouldn't be asking mommy all morning long to open her presents:) It was a good distraction for a few hours at least. She was very patient and absolutely wanted her daddy to be there when she opened her presents. She loves her daddy that's for sure!

Hard to believe our princess is 5!

We used the candles where the flames are colored, the purple one was pretty cool, but they had a ton of smoke when she blew them out.

I have a cute video of her opening one of her presents that I will try to post.

After lunch, presents and cake we had our Easter day activities that I'll post about later. It was a fun filled day!

Abbie's comments

2010-03-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

Abbie said two really cute things today and I wanted to make sure and write them down.
Molly, Abbie and I were at Publix today, grocery shopping obviously. At the check out, Abbie immediately asked if she could have a balloon. Molly has decided after our last trip when her balloon floated to the ceiling that she doesn't want balloons anymore, even though they gave her another one:) I said, "Abbie you just got a cookie." But of course she still wanted a balloon and the sweet grandma cashier really wanted her to have one, so I said "yes, you can have a balloon as long as if it goes to the ceiling you don't get upset."

While the cashier was ringing our groceries up, we all noticed that there were a lot of balloons on the ceiling. I asked the girls to count them - there were 7! Well, as you can already see coming Abbie's balloon slipped off her wrist and up to the ceiling. She immediately got upset and when I leaned down to talk to her she said through her tears "mommy, there were 7 balloons and now there are 8!" It was so sweet and helped me not be that "I told you so" mom.

Graham has started getting the mail everyday after school and everyday he tells me who each piece of mail is for. Him and Abbie usually ask "where's my mail?" Well, today Abbie got a piece of mail and she was SO excited! She was literally jumping up and down and clapping her hands. She said "I have waited my WHOLE life for a piece of mail." Love that girl. (She was even more excited when she opened it and it was a $3 gift card for Toys R Us. It is from Toys R Us if you sign up online for their birthday club.)

Daddy Daughter Dance 2010

2010-03-23T17:40:00.000-07:00

This year was Molly's first year to be part of the Daddy Daughter Dance. Abbie and Molly LOVED it and continually ask when they get to go again. Who wouldn't love getting dressed up, face painting, coloring, hot dogs, chocolate, strawberries and most importantly getting lots of attention from their daddy!

Pinewood Derby race

2010-01-29T13:34:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Graham's Cub Scouts had their Pinewood Derby Race. Graham wanted to make his car look like one of his Hot Wheels and I think Marty and him did an amazing job!

We weren't sure how well his car would race since we've never done this before, but Uncle Mike gave us a few pointers. Graham kept telling us how much he wanted a trophy and we just kept telling him what a good job he did making it and that it is about having fun.

His car ended up being the Grand Champion though!! He was undefeated! Obviously he was super excited. He was so funny when they were giving out the trophies because even though he won every race, he didn't know (like Marty and I did) that he was the Grand Champion. And now he gets to race his car in the regional Derby race in March.

A bunch of the cars lined up, some of them where so fun. There was a hummer, a skateboard and a block of cheese just to name a few.

Graham's is the black one with yellow wheels in the middle.

On the starting block, this was the first of five races. We were all nervous since we had no idea how well it would do.

Abbie and Molly did fantastic for the two and a half hours. They would watch a little and then play with their Barbies, watch, play Barbies - they were very patient!

Graham and I during a break

Graham and some of the other Tiger Cubs

Abbie entertaining herself with a Capri Sun:)

The builders with their winning car and trophy.

Graham, Daddy, Abbie and Molly all proud of the trophy

Amy Grant

2010-01-24T11:07:00.000-08:00

Our church, Northland, had Amy Grant in concert Thursday night. When I first heard that she was coming I was excited and really wanted to go since she was the first concert I went to as a child. Then once we looked at ticket prices and then paying a sitter, we decided not to spend the money now. I was disappointed but knew it was for a good reason. Then on Thursday night around 6pm, my friend Amy called me and asked "want to get out of the house for a few hours?" I of course said sure, and then asked what for? She had an extra ticket to the Amy Grant concert! I called Marty who was picking up dinner and made sure it was fine. Of course he said yes, so I hurried and ate when he got home and then met Amy at church.

What Amy didn't tell me was that she also had "meet and greet" passes for after the concert, even better! It was amazing to me how I remembered every word to songs I hadn't heard in about 20 years. But I did listen to them A LOT back then. It was so fun to be reminded of certain memories pretty much every old song she sang. For example, when she sang "Father's Eyes" I had this vivid memory of sitting at a table with my dad at a church Daddy daughter dinner listening to a girl my age sing that song. And on another song I remembered baking chocolate chip cookies listening to Amy Grant on my awesome pink Walkman. It was just such a fun night remembering and also a fun night getting to finally hang out with my friend Amy (not Amy Grant, the one that gave me the tickets). Thanks Amy for inviting me it was such a fun blessing!

I didn't even think to bring my camera which was sad, but I did get some pictures with my awful camera phone.

David (who got us the tickets - Amy Grant used to babysit his sister's kids), Brieana (Amy B.'s daughter), Amy, Amy Grant and myself

Kite flying - take 2

2010-01-23T13:26:00.001-08:00

Many months ago, I blogged about us trying to fly a kite. You can look here if you want. Well, last Sunday afternoon we tried again. This time we used a better kite and it wasn't as windy as last time. We realize now it was way to windy last time and we were using a $5 kite.

We brought lunch and had a picnic on the little trail behind the park. Graham was so funny saying that this was his first picnic. In his mind the other many times we have eaten outside don't count because we weren't all sitting on a picnic blanket in a field:)

Then after that Marty figured out how to get the kite up and keep it up. Then Graham and Abbie both got to fly the kite for a while. Graham especially loved getting the kite up in the air. Abbie preferred to just take it from you once you got it up. But they both did great at keeping it up and both had a blast! Molly never was interested but she watching some and definitely loved the park. My arms were sore the next day from pushing her so much on the swings. It was a perfect day to spend the afternoon outside as a family! We will really have to do this again soon and not wait 9 months like we did last time!

Graham was way to small for this but loved making it hit the ground.

Molly playing peek-a-boo.

Graham once again being silly (and Molly swinging also). Can't believe that my 7 year old still can still fit in the baby swing?!

Graham excited about getting the kite up!

I took this while I was flying the kite.

Everyone watching Abbie.

Abbie flying the kite.

Lego Buzz

2010-01-19T09:37:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to go back and catch up on some blogs so this is old:

November 15, 2009

I found out that the Lego store here was having a day where you could help build a Lego Buzz Lightyear. So we decided we definitely needed to be a part of this. They have each person build a block that the Lego designer then adds to the huge Buzz. They had each person wait in line for one person to give you instructions on how to build the block and then tell you what color. Then after you were done, you waited in another line for someone else to inspect your block to make sure it was done right. Then you waited for another person to give you a "Lego store Model Building certificate."

When we saw the model Buzz, he was built up a little past his black belt, but will be about 7 feet tall when finished. But this is what he'll look like when he's finished:

Abbie all finished with her block.

Molly did pretty good and did it almost all by herself.

Graham in the middle of his. You can see the instructions in front of his block. That's what every person did, just in different colors.

Me, Abbie, Molly and Graham squinting from the super bright sun.

Graham, Abbie and Daddy waiting in line for our blocks to be inspected.

Graham, Mommy, Molly and Abbie with our certificates. Marty got one also:)

Graham telling the Lego designer there that he wants to be a Lego designer when he grows up.

Abbie with a Lego person outside the store. She loved the pink and flowers.

Molly loved the doggies.

After we finished at the Lego store, the girls got to be a part of the "Princess Parade" but I will post about that later:)

Citrus Bowl Parade

2010-01-17T09:13:00.000-08:00

Part of the reason our trip to Virginia was so short was because Marty needed to get back to work on the Citrus Bowl Parade, he was the producer. The kids and I didn't get to go last year when he worked it also, because I wasn't feeling well. This year Katie went with us which was so fun to get to hang out with her some.

There were a bunch of these types of floats that used oranges (obviously because it is the Citrus Bowl Parade) attached to the floats. They were really pretty and the kids thought they were so cool and would point out everyone saying "wow that's a lot of oranges!"

This particular float sat in front of us for about 5 minutes, since they were taping the parade it would stop every once in a while. And right after it stopped in front of us started playing "Funky Cold Medina" really loud - not the most kid appropriate song! I just kept talking over it and praying the kids weren't listening.

This was the "Princess and the Frog" float. Princess Tiana is in the carriage, obviously Abbie and Molly loved this one:)

Graham and Abbie with some beads they got from the parade.

Molly and Katie enjoying the parade.

The Shriners riding their motorcycles. They also had motorized coolers that some of them rode that were really funny looking!

There were a lot of different marching bands, but this one was by far my favorite! They were from Mexico. I thought their uniforms were way better than ours and their music was fun also and oh yeah they broke out into dance in one part - very fun.

The kids loved being able to watch the parade on tv on New Years Day. They thought it was really neat that they were at the parade that they were watching - and even better that their daddy produced it!

Virginia - part two

2010-01-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Virginia had a lot packed into it. On Saturday when we go there we played in the snow most of the day then that night we had Christmas with everyone. That meant 10 adults and 7 kids opening presents at the same time in a really, really tiny room. It was crazy but nice to be with family. The next day was Grandma Great's party. We spent all morning getting ready for the party and then all afternoon at the party. Then of course as soon as we got back home the kids all wanted to play in the snow. They played for a while outside and then when it got dark Uncle Todd turned his car lights on so they could keep sledding. Graham loved getting to play outside when it was dark and in snow!

The next day we had a birthday party for Graham who turned 7 on the 26th, Molly who turned 3 on the 27th and Luke who turned 7 on the 2nd of January. Uncle Mark also had a birthday on the 30th but didn't want it recognized:) Then that evening we headed back to Orlando. It was a short, jam packed trip. We were so glad to get to celebrate Grandma Great's 100th birthday with her, and it was a fun bonus to have so much snow!

Molly showing me how old she is now!

Some of the cousins watching a movie during one of the short times they weren't outside in the snow.

I know these pictures aren't any good but I was still excited to use my new video camera so once again barely took any actual pictures!

Christmas in Virginia

2010-01-16T09:51:00.001-08:00

As I said in my previous post we got to Virginia early in the morning the day after Christmas. We all took a short nap on the living room floor until everyone else got up, then the kids wanted to go play in the snow immediately. There was probably 12 inches left over from the snow storm, of 18 inches, a week before! The kids had so much fun playing in the snow and sledding. I knew Graham would love it no matter how cold he got, but I didn't except the girls to love it so much. I figured Abbie and Molly would say it was too cold but they loved the snow.

The snow had a layer of ice on top and Molly kept picking up big pieces of it and carrying them around. She would get excited at every piece she picked up! She had a pretty hard time walking in the snow because it was ice on top. She would step and then a second later the ice would give way and she would sink past her ankles and so every few steps it would make her fall down. Sometimes she could step on it and not sink though. It was pretty difficult to walk in but she sure was cute trying.

Abbie enjoyed getting to sled down the hill by herself. Her sweet cousins (all boys and older) would help her carry her sled back up the huge hill. She did amazing and I was so proud of how she just tried everything new and wasn't fearful. She kept asking to make a snow man, but the snow was so icy on top but then powdery underneath that we never could figure it out:(

Graham would have played outside the whole day if we would have let him. He loved sledding down the huge hill and even got to sled down on Marty's back once or twice. I know he also loved being with all the other boys! He was a little disappointed that it didn't actually snow when we were there. He said he wanted to catch the snow with his tongue.

Grandma Great's 100th birthday party turned out very nice. She looked beautiful in her favorite color, purple. She was having a hard time hearing all that went on but the rest of us really enjoyed celebrating her life. She is a wonderful, Godly woman and has been blessed to live 100 years!

Molly after playing the snow. She loved the boots Aunt Melody found for her.

Caleb and Graham, with the green sled, on the hill.

Grandma Great lives in a beautiful hillside. I wish I had taken more pictures because the snow just seemed to go on forever and was so beautiful!

Christmas Day

2010-01-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve Marty gave me one of my presents. It was a new video camera - yeah! I am so happy to have a new HD camera and it is at least half the size and weight of our old camera (and way better quality). But since we were so excited to use it, we didn't take one picture on Christmas day:( But we did have a fun morning. Marty was up before me (well he actually fell asleep downstairs on the floor when he was supposed to be wrapping presents, so he was already down there!) so he let the kids open their stocking when they came down stairs. I came down a short time later and we opened our presents. I love the way we have done presents as a family. We let each person take a turn opening and everyone else watches. I feel like it makes it more special and then we all get to see each other's reactions.

Abbie just got so excited at each and every gift opened. She was usually more excited than whoever was opening the present. It was sweet, a little overwhelming at times, but I sure love her excitement!

Graham was hilarious when he got to open his big present that Marty brought out afterwards. He kept saying "I have no idea what this is" even though it was the one thing he kept telling us he wanted. It was a remote control car, actually a huge off road one. I guess since it was so big he had no idea.

Molly still opened her presents very slowly and carefully, making sure she got all the wrapping paper off it. Abbie kept yelling out what it was before Molly had a chance to realize what it was. She didn't seem to mind though. She just kind of slowly soaked it all in.

Then after presents our friend Chris came over for a huge breakfast with us. His mom was supposed to fly in from Oklahoma on Christmas eve but got snowed in from their huge snow storm.

A funny part of our day was when I super glued a plastic Barbie sword to my finger. Yep, I sure did! Somehow I glued the sword to the top of my middle finger. Chris and Marty sure thought it was funny. Did they offer to help me get it off? Nope they just laughed at me. Graham kept saying "it's not funny. it's superglued to her finger" until I explained I could get it off, then of course he was lauging at me:)

Then after Chris left we packed up and left for Virginia. We didn't end up leaving till about 8:30pm, but made great time and made it there around 6:30am. The kids did amazing in the car. Molly woke up crying around 2 but we just put on a movie for her and she was fine. At one point Marty stopped so I could drive but it wasn't at a gas station so there weren't many lights. Once we told Graham that the huge pile in front of us was snow he was even more excited to get to Grandma Great's house.

Co-op Christmas Program

2009-12-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

Thursday, the 17th, was Northland Co-op's Christmas Program. Abbie was part of the big choir but Molly's class sang just right outside her classroom.

Molly was so adorable. She walked out in line with her class and then stopped, turned and then for the rest of the time held onto the chair in front of her.

Of course, she got so excited when she saw me and yelled out "mommy." That always melts my heart when she does that. And she does it almost every time I've been away from her for a little while. She does it when I pick her up at Sunday school, co-op or when I come home. I love it!

The classes then sang "Twinkle, twinkle" and "We wish you a Merry Christmas." She sang only one or two word of each song and I mean whispered not sang. It is so funny to me because at home when she is just playing or singing to the radio, she will sing super loud. But when she sings even just in front of me, it is a whisper that you can barely hear.

I did get a picture of Molly with both of her wonderful teachers. Molly really loves going to class and I am so grateful for both of these women who love on my sweet girl!

Ms. "Mez" as Molly calls her, it's really Tamez, close enough right? Molly will run into class to Mrs. Tamez like she is going to give her a big hug but then usually stops right in front of her like she is shy. It is so funny.

And Molly with Mrs. "Ham" again as Molly calls her. Her name is Mrs. Hale and Molly really does love her but I guess wasn't to sure about taking a picture.

After Molly was done, her and I went over to the auditorium to watch the older kids program. Abbie was hilarious when they were walking to their places, because she would barely walk at all until she found where we were sitting. Once she saw us she yelled out "Mommy, Molly" and then walked quickly to her spot. Then a few minutes later she noticed daddy and got even more excited, it was very sweet.

This was the best picture I could get of her on stage. She is to the left of the boy in the bright green shirt. She did a great job singing and doing the hand motions. The cutest part was when they were supposed to snap in one song. Mrs. Vonk told them if they couldn't snap to just flick your fingers. I didn't notice what anyone else was doing but Abbie was hilarious. It was more like jazz hands and rubbing two fingers together every once in a while. I am just really glad we got video of it!

We did get some pictures of the girls together but once again none with us parents in it. Which always frustrates me. I think that is going to be my new years resolution - to be in at least one picture every month and at big events like this I (and Marty) have to be in one picture:)

The best one of my girls - we are so blessed by our kids!

(even though they can't smile for a picture)

M&K Wedding

2009-11-23T08:53:00.000-08:00

Funny Graham comment

2009-11-10T17:23:00.000-08:00

This morning when Graham was eating breakfast, he was telling me something and ended it by calling me "little lady." I kind of laughed at his silly name for me and then said to him, "well, at least you called me little" thinking that it was at least sort of nice. Well, his response was "yah, your not big. Big people are tall and skinny!" Nice, thanks for helping me out Graham!

Home Depot Safety Day

2009-10-21T17:21:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning all of us went to Home Depot for their Annual "Safety Day." We only knew about it because they postponed there Kid's Workshop this month until then. You are supposed to be 5 to be a part of the kid's workshop but we let Abbie try it out this time. She actually really enjoyed it. Marty said she did great at following the instructions and also at hammering in the nails.

Here Abbie and Graham are getting started:

Abbie intently hammering in some of her nails:

Graham just knows exactly what to do after doing so many of the kid's workshops. I think he has done somewhere around 14 now.

After they finished there firehouse banks and Molly and I got some free popcorn they were handing out, we went and looked inside the firetruck and ambulance. It was the Casselberry Fire Department and they were so nice and showed the kids around the trucks and answered lots of questions.

Abbie, Graham and Molly

All smiles on this cold (yeah!) Saturday morning. It's hard to believe the night before we were wearing shorts to the Fall Festival, it was really chilly especially since this was all in the shade.

Graham just loves to make weird faces for the camera. I don't mind, at least he still let's me take his picture!

The fireman was telling them all about the truck:

and showing them some things inside of it.

It was so nice to have a cold day in Florida. The kids and I played outside for pretty much the whole day. We had to enjoy it while it lasted!

Northland Fall Festival

2009-10-20T18:03:00.000-07:00

Friday night we went to Northland's Fall Festival. That afternoon it was sort of rainy and humid so they moved a few moon bounces inside and all the games into the classrooms. It was so nice to not be outside the whole time because it was super humid!

We started out eating some burgers and as Graham said "the best hotdog he'd ever eaten." Then Abbie and Molly had some cotton candy and Graham had a snow cone.

Abbie eating her cotton candy. She ate the whole bag, which wasn't that much, all by herself. Molly wasn't super interested and only ate a little of her cotton candy.

Graham and his snow cone. He had a really loose tooth and had a hard time eating his because it kept moving his tooth around:)

Then after all that junk food, we went and did a little line dancing. Abbie and Molly really tried to follow what he was teaching, and Graham just really wanted to dance to rock music so he mostly just stood there. We got a cute video of the girls trying to dance.

This must have been right at the beginning because Graham is still out on the dance floor.

After the dancing we made our way through lots of different games they had set up in the classrooms. The kids played mini golf, bean bag toss, ring toss, a fun game where you tried to knock the floating balls down and a few others. Then Graham was eating some of his York patty and his tooth bent all the way back and was bleeding a lot! He was really upset because it was bleeding and he said it hurt. He said to me "I can't eat anything tonight. I really want to eat some of my candy." Well, we got his tooth to stop bleeding at least so we could go on the moon bounces and go to the petting zoo. And while we were getting it to stop bleeding someone pointed out that now he will look like a Jack-O-Lantern:)

Abbie bouncing on the moon bounce.

Molly and Abbie jumping. It was nice they had one for 4 and under and one for 5 and up.

Graham petting a duck and Molly loving all the animals!

Molly petting two ducks at once. Graham is petting one also.

They had little sections fenced in where the kids could go in and pet the animals and Abbie wouldn't go in the first one she would only reach in and pet them. We were so proud of her for going in the second one though. Abbie can be pretty fearful of new situations and also of animals so we thought that was a pretty big deal!

Graham kept saying how soft the ducks were, this duck kept running away when you would pet it so he had fun chasing it around a little.

Molly absolutely loves animals but she seems to especially love goats. I know she loved them also when we went to Green Meadows last year.

Molly so happy after all the animals. They also had pony rides but the line was crazy long! When we were waiting in line for the moon bounce outside you could see the ponies going by and Molly just kept running over closer to them saying, "look ponies, ponies Mommy." She sure loves animals.

All of us had a great time at Northland's Fall Festival. Then when we got home Marty pulled out Graham's tooth, the first one that he actually let us pull. He was glad about getting some money for his tooth.

Ace Gymnastics

2009-10-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

I am so far behind in my blog, but want to go back and do a few that I missed. Last month, on September 9 Abbie, Molly and I got to go to Ace Gymnastics with our Moms4Moms group. Graham was very disappointed that he didn't get to go. He keeps asking if he can take gymnastics lessons! We will eventually let him take a few we just haven't gotten around to it yet:)

Abbie and Molly had a great time running around the huge gym space. I have so many more pictures but they are mostly of there back:) Ace had a few instructors around the gym and one that was doing different activities as a group. The girls weren't interested in doing the group things pretty much at all. They just wanted to explore and do it on there time, which was fun and lots of others did the same thing.

The girls loved this it is a really long trampoline that goes into the foam pit. They would bounce all the way down it but I never could get them to jump into the foam pit.

Jumping on a big piece of foam!

Abbie really liked the balance beams. They had quite a few at different heights.

Molly had to take a turn then.

There were these huge fans that kept us all cool while we ran around.

The one group activity that Molly did was swing on the rope, she loved it! She had a huge smile on her face while she was swinging and then when she got down yelled, "I did it." She was proud of herself.

Then Molly tried out one of the big balls on the trampoline.

And Abbie rolled this around for a long time.

The other thing the girls really loved were the bars. They loved just hanging on them. They have low ones that they could reach and they just really like swinging themselves and hanging.

Molly was tired out! She never takes naps anymore but I had her rest afterwards and this was how I found her, almost curled into a ball with her feet up on the floor.

Such a fun time we had at Ace Gymnastics, we were so thankful that the Moms4Moms scheduled the playdate. And we found out about an Open House that they had not long after this so Graham got to go also. I have a few pictures from that day that I will post in my catching up:)

Abbie's First Day (and kind of Molly's)

2009-09-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Abbie started her first day of Pre-K on September 2nd. The day before, Tuesday, we had an open house at the school. I only took one picture of Abbie and Molly at the open house. I was a little preoccupied having to go to both of their classrooms by myself because Marty was out of town unexpectedly at a funeral. I also had missed the orientation meeting because we went to see the play Grease so I was getting all the information also. But here is the one picture I took of the girls both doing puzzles in Molly's classroom:

Then on Wednesday, Abbie had her first full day of school. I have to say preschool isn't as exciting to make sure you get a bunch of first day pictures when your kid has been going since she was 2.

After class and after we picked up Graham, we celebrated the first day with ice cream just like we did for Graham's first day. Abbie wanted to make a silly face when I took her picture:

Molly is just messy when she eats ice cream:

And Graham, well, Graham was just being the way he always is for pictures - silly:

Graham wanted to use the camera on my phone so this is the picture he took?! :

Then the next day, Thursday, was Molly's first day of her class. And unfortunately we have absolutely no pictures from that day. Abbie had to have some dental work done and that was the only day available for a while. I was disappointed Abbie missed her second day of school and that I didn't get to take Molly to her first, but it all turned out fine. They are both loving going to school and it is amazing how much Molly tells me about what she did in class - I am loving it!

Oh no...

2009-09-25T15:10:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I finally got around to changing Abbie and Molly's "Diamond Castle" Barbie batteries. See this post. Yes, two weeks after they got the Barbies they had played the songs so much that the batteries ran out and yes that was in January. I enjoyed the break for a while and then just never really thought about it until recently, because I found some Alexa and Liana costumes (they are the two Barbies they have from Diamond Castle) for the girls for Halloween.

Well, I am so sad to say that Molly's "Alexa" Barbie still doesn't work all the way!! It only lights up and won't sing the songs. Molly was so excited when she saw the new batteries and then her face was so sad when I told her it still wouldn't work. She looked at me so sadly with huge tears in her eyes. She handled it really well actually but it made me very sad for her. I have to say it made me pretty angry at myself for not changing the batteries when it stopped working. It may have been broken then and we could have either gotten it fixed or bought another. I know it is just a Barbie but the girls absolutely love playing with them. The Barbies dresses are actually starting to kind of fall apart because they have been played with so much over the past 9 months.

I looked on EBay also to see if I could get another one. And I can if I am will to pay $50, um don't think so:( And to make it worse (in my mind at least) they have plenty of the Liana dolls Abbie has for only $20, which is what we paid in the store, and we saw two at Marshall's the other day! Marty says they must have made more of the Liana since she is the blond haired Barbie with a pink dress, funny and true I'm sure. Alexa has brown hair and a purple dress. I guess even little girls prefer blonds to us brunettes, oh well!

So if any of you very few that read this know of anyone who has a "Diamond Castle" singing Alexa Barbie, I would love to buy it - for a reasonable price.

*** And yes at some point I will get around to blogging again. Lately I just haven't been up to it. There are just so many other important things. I guess I thought if I started with a small blog maybe it will get me back in the swing of things. We'll see!

Good Golly Miss Molly

2009-08-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love my Molly. Her laugh is contagious and she knows how to make you laugh also. Her big brown eyes are beautiful. And she absolutely adores her big brother and sister! So here are a few pictures that show some of the funny and adorable things she does.

Molly can make you smile by singing you a song.

She can make you laugh by using socks as gloves and then insisting she wears them out to the store!

She can have fun letting her brother slide under her legs while they are dancing.

She can show you how much she adores her siblings by being sad without them while they were playing in the IKEA play area:(

Make you sweat just watching her dress up in her winter coat when it is 90 degrees outside.

And then she can make you say "WHAT?!!!" when she decides to do this:

I thought I had made it through three kids without the drawing on the walls. I have only had one other minor crayon drawing with Abbie and it was barely anything! Yes, I gave her the crayon and asked her to take it downstairs and put it away - somehow she heard draw a picture all the way down the stairs and then put it away.

I have to say I felt a little bad for Molly. The second she saw me, while she was still coloring, she burst into tears. She was SO upset.

So then this was what Molly was doing for a while - using a magic erase sponge.

And in case you are wondering, no we didn't get it all off. It would have taken probably 2 or 3 sponges and we are planning to paint our staircase anyways, so if you visit soon there will be lovely red crayon drawings displayed!

First of 1st

2009-08-24T18:50:00.000-07:00

Today was Graham's first day of 1st Grade! He was absolutely so excited to start back at school. He has been counting down the days for the last few weeks. Graham has such an amazing confidence, I am so proud of him. Marty and I decided to just have Marty take Graham to school, because we knew that Graham would want to just be dropped off at school and not walked into his classroom (just like last year). I have to say I was fine with it until after they left and then I was a little sad to not be there. But it was truly just because of me not wanting to miss anything - Graham was absolutely fine and just so excited to be back at school!

Here he is already to go with his folder, no backpacks this year - which I don't really like.

Abbie telling Graham she is going to miss him while he is at school:)

Molly, Abbie and Graham. As you can tell from the girls still being in their PJ's I wasn't planning on taking a picture of all of the kids but the girls actually asked to take a picture with Graham, which I thought was so sweet.

Marty told me that when Graham was walking into class (from car line) the coach saw him and said "Graham, you look different!" Graham looked at the coach and said "Yeah, because I'm a First Grader now!" Ya, of course that's why! - or it could be Graham's long hair, maybe.

Then after school when Graham was telling me about his day, he told me "mom, I saw how small the kids where in Ms. Sumrall's class (his kindergarten teacher) and I have grown a lot." I guess now Graham's a big 1st grader!

After school we celebrated the first day by letting Graham choose where he wanted to get a snack from - he chose ice cream, of course. So the girls made messes with there cotton candy ice cream (way to sweet in my book) and Graham loved his cake batter ice cream (actually really good).

Graham wasn't up for many pictures, but I got a little smile from him.

Molly and Abbie with mouth wide open for ice cream. I think this is such a funny pic.

I wanted proof that I was there. I am rarely in pictures, so I decided to take it myself with my phone. Didn't even think of having Graham take the pic for me until just now!

Abbie being crazy with her ice cream. You can kind of tell that immediately after this picture big drips of ice cream came out onto her skirt and the floor - maybe not such a good idea to encourage by taking a picture.

I am so excited for all my sweet boy will be learning this year. I know it will be much more work then last year was but the fact that he really does enjoy learning makes it so much fun!

Yearbook Pictures

2009-07-30T17:48:00.000-07:00

The other day, when I had been at home for three solid days because Abbie was sick, I got a little bored and played around at this website www.yearbookyourself.com When I tried to do this months ago the site was down for a while and just never remembered to go back. It was definitely the fun part of my day after having dealt with the stomach bug for three days. I thought the pictures were hilarious. Here are a few of the best or the worst not really sure!

This one is my 1960's look:

This is my mom in 1958! Pretty similar I think. (Which is so odd to me because I think I look more like my dad most of the time.)

Another picture of her around this same time. Same hair just no glasses. I just put this up for fun because I love this picture of her!

How I would like in 1964:

How did they get the back so big, it reminds me of the "bumpits" infomercials:)

1970's look or the brown Farrah Fawcett look:

Another geekier version of the 70's:

when Graham saw this picture he asked me who that BOY was. It is pretty ugly!

My personal favorite, 1984:

I was only 8 at this time so I never got to have hair like this. I did wear bows in my hair then, but again I was 8 so that was normal.

The one that is the most realistic picture, from 1992:

See here is proof that I actually had my hair just like that. Yes, Glamour Shots in 1991! What were they think ratting your hair like crazy, putting on so much makeup and making you wear tubetops under the "costumes." I think besides the braces in the picture I do not look 14.

This one is pretty much the same pose and everything! I loved this picture at the time. And somehow the proof got ink on it, so sad (or something like that).

So now for the one or two of you that reads this blog, I would love to see your pictures also. If you do "yearbook yourself" (is that like "googling yourself" Brittani and Brandi?) do a post about it and leave a comment for me, I would love to see them!

Jesus Loves Me

2009-07-26T18:21:00.001-07:00

Today after we got home from church, I was asking the kids what they learned today in their classes. Then I started making lunch and Molly kept saying "Jesus loves me." I thought it was sweet and said to myself "how great is that, she learned more about how Jesus loves us in her class today."

Well, then Abbie came in the room and said something like "yah, Molly, I know, Jesus loves me also." Molly's response was not what I expected, she said "NO, Jesus loves me - not you!" How quickly her sweet comments turned into nasty ones?!

So we then spent all of lunch explaining to Molly how Jesus loves each and every one of us and as Graham said "even the ones who are bad." She seemed to understand or she at least wasn't being mean about Jesus only loving her.

Why a (or at least my) 4 year old shouldn't have lipgloss!

2009-07-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

I let Abbie have her lipgloss in the car the other day and when we stopped this is what I found.

Virginia

2009-07-13T07:01:00.000-07:00

We went to Virginia over the 4th of July weekend to visit Marty's family who lives in the beautiful mountains. Marty's family, except his brother Mark, where all there. Marty's Grandma, who will be 100 in December, recently had to go into a nursing home so we wanted to visit her. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, who are all boys and ages 6, 9, 10 and almost 14. (Yes, we have the only girls on Marty's side. Marty's mom was so excited when we had our girls. Actually, both Mike and Melody's families love getting to play with our girls also.) We hung out at the house the whole time so I didn't take a whole bunch of pics, but I did get a few of our kids at least. We did take a group pic of all the cousins, but I couldn't find my camera so I will have to get the pics from Mike or Melody.

Aunt Melody bought some fun toys to play with outside. This was one of them. You sat in it and rolled down a hill. The boys loved it! Abbie would never try it and Molly just loved playing inside it. She thought it was her own little fort.

One of the other games Melody bought was a ring toss game. The kids never played the game but they played with these parts the whole time, pretending they were light sabers.

Abbie and Molly absolutely loved picking all the "flowers." They kept asking me to hold them so this was what was in my pocket pretty much the whole time. Molly actually asked me this morning about her "flowers from Memaw's house" and so I had to tell her we left them there for Memaw to enjoy:)

The first two days there was a nest on the porch with three baby birds in it. The kids loved watching the mommy bird come feed the babies, so did us adults. The boys also thought it was really funny to watch the birds poop out the nest! The third day when we came out they had flown away and somehow in the process knocked down the nest.

This is right behind their backyard. In the evening the cows would come up the hill and graze. Molly loves animals and really enjoyed going out and watching the cows. There were also a few calves that she really liked.

Another view of some of the cows that came up every evening.

Memaw and Papaw gave the girls matching dresses for the 4th of July. (Notice Abbie carrying one of the "lightsabers." They had them in their hands the whole time.)

Molly and her Daddy making the Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles nervous:) Molly loves it though!

Graham and Aunt Melodie (there is an Aunt Melody and an Aunt Melodie, confusing I know) went and found trash around the yards and the kids made some fun "trash robots" out of them. I really wish I had pictures of what they made because they were all so different and fun!

We all went to see fireworks in Wytheville, which is a very small town. They were great fireworks though, which really surprised me. I expected "small town" fireworks but the adults and kids both loved them. Molly on the other hand missed all of them because she fell asleep on the way there. (I guess 9pm is too late when she has been playing hard all day) We tried to wake her up but we couldn't.

The kids have already asked when they can go back to Memaw and Papaws house in Virginia. They just love getting to play outside all day with their cousins. It was cooler than normal when we were there so it was perfect to play outside all day! The first night we got there we were cold and the next night Graham actually wore a long sleeved shirt - it was so nice to not have hot and humid for a few day!

Swimming

2009-07-11T18:09:00.000-07:00

I am way behind on posting but two weeks ago Sunday (on the 28th) we went swimming again at Chris' house. The kids love swimming (or for the girls just being in the water)!

The first time the kids and I went swimming this year, Molly fell in the pool. She was only in the water for a few seconds and was kicking like crazy trying to get herself turned over, so now she only likes to play on the steps. She cries and screams when you try to hold her in the water. It is frustrating because last year she had absolutely no fear of the water (and I mean NO fear). Oh well, she will learn eventually!

Abbie has been nervous in the water and not wanted anyone to bring her out into the water also. But this time she let Marty bring her into the water and swim around for a while. This last week she actually went to her first private swim lesson and it went alright but she was just very nervous and cautious.

The fun thing this time was that Graham just all the sudden wanted to swim on his own! Brittani had worked with him some the first time we went swimming but when Marty and I tried to help him it didn't go so well. So this time we just let him be and he eventually just tried it on his own. We were so proud of him! What was even more amazing to me was that he was swimming with only one arm because he insisted on plugging his nose:) Here is a short video of him swimming:

Here are some pics from the day:

Molly took a little break from playing to sit with Bean.

Graham resting also.

Abbie playing on the steps.

Molly really wanted Bean to come out again and swim.

Graham started out practicing with a kickboard.

Then Marty pushed him around for a while.

Molly got back in the water. She wanted to wear the floatie but only on the steps:)

This was how the girls were almost the entire time. They had no problem only playing on the steps. They would even lay on the step and practice swimming. Notice Molly got Bean back out at the pool.

Then Marty got Bean to surf a little. Bean stayed on the board just like this for a long time. Not sure if he liked the water or was just to scared to get off of it. Earlier he did get in at the steps on his own and swim for a second.

Fun with yogurt

2009-07-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

The kids must have been really hungry the other day at breakfast:

Graham thought it was so funny to pretend that this was his yogurt container:) He was also joking around about it being yogurt for a giant.

Then of course Molly wanted to pretend also.

Abbie wasn't into it quite as much. I thought it was funny though.

Molly adores her "Beaner" as she calls him and so I let her hold it while Bean licked some of the yogurt out.

Then Graham wanted to take a turn. Notice Molly's huge smile in the background.

I am so glad we have such a great dog! Graham shoved it all the way on Bean's face and he didn't really mind at all.

I guess his licks weren't enough. He was trying to get more from Abbie later. Abbie's PJs make me laugh because she loves wearing them even though they are baseball PJs that used to be Graham's. She usually only wants to wear girly things so I'm glad she is liking something else:)

We really do have a wonderful dog. Molly was playing in a toy bin and kept trying to get Bean to join her, so I put him in there with her. He stayed for a while actually. They are so funny together!

Bowling Birthday Party

2009-06-29T18:17:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, the 20th, the kids were invited to a friends birthday bowling party. We have been bowling as a family a few times and they always love it. They especially enjoyed it this time with friends, pizza and cupcakes!

Abbie posing with her bowling ball.

She has quite the form!

I love the reaction. She missed all the pins, yes even with the gutter gates up you can still do that?!

Graham would start all the way back at the seats and run with the ball. He won on his team. He was very proud of himself!

Showing Marty how strong he is! (I still can't get used to the missing teeth.)

Even Marty got to bowl, here Molly was giving him a hand.

Daddy and daughter bowling.

Molly got to bowl some herself also. Here another Marty is helping her bowl. Molly did insist on carrying the ball to the lane by herself every time though!

A group shot, and yes I have still given up on getting a good one with all them in it:)

Can you see the bowling ball? It is hard to see because it is in the air! It was the funniest moment, C threw the ball and it went flying and then bounced really hard and would have gone in the other lane if the gutter gates weren't there. We all laughed so hard, but not to hard because we didn't want sweet C to think we were laughing at him:)

Second Tooth

2009-06-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

Graham lost his second tooth on the 16th (yes almost two weeks ago). I was so surprised that he lost another one so soon. And he has another one (on top) that is really loose also! His second tooth was just as loose and almost falling out like the first one.

Just barely hanging on. Don't you love the mouth?

This was how he sat watching a show in case his tooth fell out.

He was so funny again because the tooth was just barely hanging on when it was time to go to bed. I called Marty and asked what he thought, should I just leave it or pull it because I could feel that it was definitely still attached by one little piece. I was really afraid it would come out while he was sleeping and swallow it. Marty offered to pull it out when he got home, while Graham was sleeping! So I said I'll just tell him why I have to pull it and he will agree. He especially agreed when I explained if I pulled it now he would get his money from the tooth fairy tonight instead of tomorrow night:) Pretty smart 6 year old boy!

He did great and I really didn't have to pull to hard. I was a little nervous though. But now after this being the second tooth I feel like I get it and I won't be so cautious to pull the next one:)

Missing both bottom front teeth.

The second tooth on his box for the "tooth fairy."

8 out of 13 grandkids

2009-06-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

As you all know my brother, Brent and his family came to visit last week. We had a fun filled week and got to go to lots of great places around Orlando. We did take lots of pictures throughout the week but not of the whole group. So Wednesday morning before they left we took a group picture of the kids. Marty took the picture and we were both shocked that all 8 kids are looking at the camera and smiling. Yeah!!

It was great to get to spend time with family! We really enjoyed it. Thanks for making the long drive Brent and Susanna! We love you all.

Monday

2009-06-10T19:33:00.000-07:00

We went to the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford in Monday with my brother and his family. I had never been and was excited about it because my kids love animals. Molly especially loves pretty much ever animal. On our drive over I asked the kids in my car what one animal they really wanted to see. Graham said a giraffe, it is his favorite animal. Rachel (one of my brother's daughters) said a giraffe and a lion. Abbie said a pig, I'm pretty sure that's her favorite animal and only because it is her favorite color, pink. Molly wanted to see birds, which she loves to point out to us all the time while we are driving. She also points out squirrels and pretty much any other animal she can find. Erin (one of my brother's other daughters) said she wanted to see snakes, which was surprising since usually girls are afraid of snakes:)

The zoo was interesting but not near as good as the zoo in Oklahoma where we are all from. Graham was really disappointed there were not giraffes. He got excited at the cheetahs though, since his school mascot is a Cheetah.

You could get really close to the cheetah's through a "secret" path in the butterfly garden. (I really need to learn to use my camera better, I could only focus the plants not the cheetah)

We found a cute little elephant also:)

This elephant was so funny because it kept standing with it's back legs crossed. I know this was the girl elephant also. You can see it a little in the picture.

The kids were getting so hot and tired by this time. I'm honestly not even sure what they are posing in front of since I can't see it.

We went through the "nature walk" and got bitten like crazy from mosquitoes but also saw a dinosaur. Molly looks like she is pretending to be scared or something with her mouth open.

The kids were so ready to cool off at the zoo's splash pad. It was pretty cool. They had different animals that shot water out of them and fake palm trees with water coming out. It was a great end to a very hot day.

Here Naomi is sitting on the frog squirting Graham in the head while Molly watches:)

Hannah, Abbie, Naomi, Rachel and some other girl. (I felt so bad for the other girl. Immediately after I took this picture she fell of the rhino and bumped her head)

This was by far Molly's favorite thing at the splash pad. When she first sat on the frog and the water stopped squirting she starting to get really upset. Once she realized it would come back on in a minute she was OK. She sat just like this for quite a while and would put her finger over the stream to make the water go everywhere.

Molly must have been inspired by all the animals at the zoo. She was pretending to be a lion that night roaring at all her cousins.

Beach Sunday

2009-06-08T13:55:00.000-07:00

We planned with my brother and his family to go to New Smyrna Beach on Sunday. We knew that there was a chance of rain but were fine with that. Well, we ended up leaving later than we had planned. We were on the beach for about 30 minutes to 1 hour before we saw it storming in the distance. The lifeguards made everyone get out of the water and then about 10 minutes later made everyone leave the beach. So we sat in our cars and ate our lunches. We were concerned about the storms, but only about 30 minutes after we left the beach we were able to go back on the beach.

It was still overcast and you could see lightning way out in the ocean. But the beach was not crowded anymore:) I enjoyed that it was sort of cloudy and not so hot because I don't like salt water so I don't get in the water very much. The kids were a little cool when they would get out of the water though. But they all (all 8 of them) loved the beach!

I was trying to take a picture of my girls and Abbie decided to show me her booty instead, so Molly decided to do the same. They can be so silly:)

Graham posing next to some seaweed.

Daddy with his girls and their (well really his) sand castle.

Abbie, Molly, David, Naomi and Graham playing in the sand.

They were building up walls to keep some water in it. They said they were making their own town.

Molly helping fill the bucket, while David worked on the walls.

Abbie was then dancing in the water of their "town."

After a fun drizzly day at the beach, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant and headed home to bathe the kids and get them to bed. (And have the men go vacuum out all the sand in our cars!)

Friday afternoon

2009-06-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Friday afternoon we hung out with my brother and his family. They are vacationing here in Orlando and we are excited to finally have some family visitors! I mean we do live in one of the best tourist destinations of the world!

The kids had fun playing the Wii.

Molly had fun wearing her daddy's shoes:)

Friday was also "Donut Day." So of course we had to celebrate with a free Krispy Kreme donut. So yummy! And even better, they were hot & fresh when we got there.

Some of the kids watching donuts being made.

There were 8 kids and 4 adults. We took up most of Krispy Kremes.

One of the yummy hot & fresh (and free) Krispy Kremes, Marty took this picture:)

Graham being silly with his donut.

Later that night after our kids finally came off their sugar highs and were sleeping, us adults played some card games and had a blast. We played "swap" and I think there may still be some scratches and/or bruises from the slap cards:)

Last Day of Kindergarten

2009-06-06T11:56:00.000-07:00

Friday was Graham's last day of Kindergarten. He wasn't excited about school ending since he won't get to see his friends every day but he was excited for their kindergarten program.

Graham has absolutely loved this school year. His teacher, Ms. Sumrall, has been wonderful. The other week she sent home a note because Graham had gotten a yellow warning star (instead of a green which means you had a great day) and even though it was about him getting in trouble she was incredibly sweet and supportive. Her words were something like "Graham, what is going on? I guess everyone has a few bad days every once in a while. Graham is such a joy to have in my class." I don't usually cry but it brought tears to my eyes because it was just so sweet and sincere. She has definitely made a positive and great impact on Graham.

At school the Kindergarten classes put on a show for us for their last day. Graham did a great job and actually sang all of the songs AND did all the hand motions. He has been excited about singing and has even practiced some of his songs. The other day he told me that he was going to go in his room and practice his songs and asked me not to come listen so it would be a surprise.

Molly loved looking through the hymnals while we were waiting for the program to start:)

Abbie was having a snack while she waited.

Graham is on the top right.

Doing some hand motions during a song. (I'll have to see if Marty can fix the eyes, they just looked even weirder when I tried.)

Then after they sang songs they had a slide show of the school year. It was fun to see all of his classmates and Graham was excited to point out who everyone was.

Abbie, Graham and Daddy during the slideshow.

Then after the show Graham wanted to take pictures with his friends.

Graham and his friend Dathan

Graham, Ava and Faith

Graham and the best Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Sumrall

Reese, Faith, Graham and James

Abby H. and Graham

Graham and Sheridan

I love the face his teacher has here. She was making a wow face to something Graham said:)
What a great school year it was!!

First Tooth

2009-05-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

Graham lost his first tooth today! He has one or two other teeth that are loose also. This morning he was playing in Abbie and Molly's room. Then he came into our room saying his tooth was bleeding. Well after many questions, we found out he had been playing on the top bunk bed and hit his tooth on the railing - the tooth was barely hanging there at all. Here is what it looked like:

He was so nervous of us pulling his tooth and that it would hurt his stomach started to hurt. He really thought that he was going to throw up. I felt bad for him because he never gets that upset. He does have a difficult time trusting that it will be ok if he hasn't experienced it before though. Which I know we all understand to some extent:)

His tooth would move really far but you could still feel it was attached, so we decided to wait to pull it out knowing that Graham would play with it. Only an hour or so went by and Marty wanted to look at it again. I asked him "are you going to pull it out, if so let me get the camera." He told me he was just going to look at it and as he was looking I went and got the camera figuring the tooth would need to be pulled out. Well, it was so loose it just fell out into Marty's hand!!

Afterwards Graham said "loosing a tooth was fun after I got over being afraid and all."

Here he is minus one tooth (and minus a shirt)!

This afternoon he had some fun putting his sucker stick were his tooth was gone!

He also was pushing some of his food through the hole at lunch. I'm glad he is excited to lose his tooth! I think what he is most excited about is the tooth fairy coming tonight:)

Such sweet sisters

2009-04-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Molly decided she wanted to push Abbie on the swing tonight. I love watching my girls play together.

Molly pushing her big sister.

Molly looks so small pushing her sister.

Then Molly started pushing Abbie by holding her shirt. Abbie thought is was so funny.

Molly pushing (or pulling) Abbie by her shirt.

Then Molly had her turn to swing.

Easter

2009-04-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

I have been lazy in my blogging lately and haven't blogged about our Easter yet. Well, Sunday morning Marty left early to work at church but this is what the kids and I came downstairs to:

Marty made these out of poster board and construction paper! Notice the eyes-they are the same color as which kid it is for. Man, Marty is so creative!!

The kids looking at their prizes. Saturday our neighborhood had an Easter egg hunt that was really lame. They let the younger kids go first and so by the time Graham went he only found one egg. Abbie found four and Molly had two eggs and then inside each egg they had a piece of paper that said "I owe you ten cents." Our kids were quite disappointed. So we told them they would get a prize the next day, that's what the bunny baskets were for.

After our surprise morning, the kids and I went to breakfast with the Doss' at Steak N Shake. And we were once again surprised with Easter baskets. Our kids loved them!

Looking through their baskets.

Brittani had a hilarious app on her iphone called SmackTalk. It is only a little hamster that repeats everything you say but is so funny. Molly thought it was so hilarious.

We sure love this family! Thanks for sharing Easter morning with us.

My and my kids, we were laughing at the SmackTalk hamster.

All five kids together.

We decided to go to church on Monday night. Sunday night Molly had extremely bad diaper rash so we didn't want to take her to church. I took these pictures before we left for church Monday night.

The best I could do with all three.

Abbie and Graham hugging, they were being so sweet with each other.

They got these windmills in their Easter baskets and were playing with them since it was extremely windy when we were out there.

Funny things about my day

2009-04-21T17:45:00.000-07:00

This afternoon the kids and I were playing outside and our dog, Bean, was outside with us. I heard him whining a little and just figured it was at our neighbor's dog. Then I walked over and saw this:

He tries to chase geckos and they love to try to hide in this sandbox (that is now toy storage since I don't trust my kids to keep the sand in the box and not put it all over our backyard). He could barely get out by himself so I'm not sure if one of the kids (i.e. Molly) moved the lid on him or it just happened.

Then tonight Molly was looking at this cool book we have called "gallop" where it shows a bunch of different animals and it looks like they are running or flying or whatever they do.

So when the kids were going to bed, I told them to tell everyone goodnight. Molly then decided she wanted to give kisses to every animal in her book!! I laughed when I saw what she was doing so of course she continued and made sure I saw every kiss she did:)

Abbie's 4th Birthday!!

2009-04-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

Abbie turned 4 on 4/4. (yes over two weeks ago) We had a fun family celebration Friday night and had pizza and cake. When I asked her what she wanted for her birthday meal, she actually told me she wanted pizza, hot dogs and hamburgers! I thought that was a little much:) She was so funny when I was trying to ask her favorite food. I was asking about her favorite restaurant and her favorite food but at first she just kept telling me she wanted to eat "good food" at home. She asks me at every meal "mommy, are we eating good food or gross food?" We have actually had to tell her she isn't aloud to say food is gross if she doesn't like it. So back to her birthday - we had a fun little family party at home and Abbie opened her presents.

Here is Abbie blowing out her 4 candles! It was cute because she blew out each candle individually.

Then on Saturday, her actual birthday, Abbie and I went to breakfast at First Watch with Brittani and Anna. Here are the girls waiting to be seated:

Then we took the girls to pick out matching dresses. They were so adorable trying on their dresses. The girls were jumping around in the dressing room and we just kept laughing at how cute they were dancing around and giggling!

Abbie never gets to try on clothes at the store or even pick out her own clothes, so she loved this!

Birthday girl and the model:)

Then after they picked out a dress and a necklace, we went and took some pictures! I kind of just volunteered Brittani to take the pictures because she always does such a great job! Thanks for being so willing Brittani (even thought I don't know that I ever really asked), I love all the pictures!!

Mommy tickling her sweet 4 year old princess

Brittani was having Abbie do this same pose and Molly ran over and did the same thing so she could have her picture taken also. She loves her big sister and always wants to be a part of what she is doing.

I can't believe it's been 4 years!

Molly really liked swinging.

Graham decided he wanted to layout in the sun while us girls took pictures!

Anna and Abbie

When I first saw this picture, I had to look at it twice they look so much the same.

Cupcakes again. Anna kept asking where the cupcakes where. I love that kids have to have cake for it to really be someones birthday.

Why is she doing that?

2009-04-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

When I posted about our Moms4moms Easter picnic, I found a bunch of pictures of Molly with her tongue sticking out. She kept running away from me when I was trying to take her picture, so I was chasing her around the park being funny taking her picture. For some reason she has her tongue sticking out in every picture except the one I posted the other day!

Spring Break Day 3

2009-04-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was a great day. The Moms4Moms group had an Easter picnic, the kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt and then playing at Maitland Community Park which is definitely one of their favorite parks.

Look at all the eggs, these were only a portion of the eggs. There were lots of kids at the picnic.

Graham and Abbie were so sweet holding hands down the bumpy slide.

Graham such a sweet brother helping Molly.

Graham and Abbie counting their eggs. They could only get as many as we brought.

All three after the hunt.

Molly playing on the playground.

Abbie climbing.

Then later that afternoon Marty came home early and we took the kids bowling. Graham had earned some free bowling passes from his school. All the kids enjoyed bowling. Molly was so funny she would push the bowling ball down the lane and then immediately run back to get another ball. She didn't want to watch the pins knock over, she just wanted to do it again.

Here she is running back for another ball!

Abbie loved bowling once we had the little bowling ramp thing. She was so funny carrying the 6lb ball. She kept saying it was too heavy and really did have a hard time carrying it.

Graham did a good job bowling. We saw one of his friends from school there also so he had a blast getting to hang out of with her.

Aren't there little bowling shoes so cute?

Marty, of course, won the game but I didn't do to bad either.

Let's Go Fly a Kite

2009-04-08T19:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday it was extremely windy here. Marty had the idea for us to buy some kites. We got dinner and had a little (windy) picnic and then tried to fly the kite. Notice I said tried. Marty and I had a blast trying to fly the kite. It was just too windy, we would get it up and then the wind would either change direction or a huge gust would come and mess it up.
The kids on the other hand were only interested for about the first 3 or 4 tries. They did enjoy running and chasing the kite after it fell on the ground. But then they just wanted to play on the playground (which is pretty cool-it looks like a big pirate ship).
The one thing that both Abbie and Molly were interested in was a stick in the middle of the field:) For some random reason there was a stick in the middle of the field and our kids were more interested in that then flying the kite:) We will have to try again sometime soon to fly the kites!

Family Fun Night

2009-03-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night Graham's school, Choices in Learning, had a Family Fun Night. The Kindergarten and 1st grade classes had a little demonstration of what they do in gym class with the parachute. (I remember I always loved playing with these in elementary.)

Graham (in the navy shirt) getting ready.

Graham super excited about something!!

The kids making a "mushroom." It must have been so loud underneath there. We could hear them all squealing and laughing, it was very funny.

Abbie hugging her daddy.

After the parachuting, we (and I mean the kids and Marty) ate some hotdogs. They also had some cotton candy, popcorn and chips, you know the well rounded meal (I will eat these just not hotdogs). The funny thing with the cotton candy was that it was windy so it was blowing all over the people making it. Graham's teacher was helping make some and she didn't want to get it in her hair so she put a plastic bag, I think it was a hotdog bun bag, over her hair. Graham thought it was hilarious. Then the kids got their faces painted. I somehow didn't get a picture of Abbie getting her face painted, but she loved it and did great.

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Molly wasn't exactly sure what to think. She just kept scrunching her neck over when the person put the brush on her cheek. She sat there though with this blank look on her face while the lady painted her cheek, but smiled big when she saw her flower in the mirror!

Graham was telling her that he didn't want to have his face painted at first because he thought it would feel weird but that he doesn't think it feels weird now:) This is so Graham's personality, he is cautious about new things but usually once he tries it he likes it!

I have decided to just use the group pictures that turn out aweful that way when my kids are older they will know that I at least tried to get a picture of them all together:)

Molly's purple flower.

Abbie's pink flower, her favorite color. Her hair just kept sticking to the flower.

Graham got a lightning bolt on each cheek.

After we face painted, the kids played on the playground. I now understand why Graham has a huge pile of sand in his shoes and clothes everyday:) The kids were so dirty afterwords but had a blast. (I didn't think about the playground either so the girls were wearing sandals)

This picture actually barely shows all the dirt on Molly's feet. They were almost black they were so so dirty!! (The picture does show all the use we have gotten out of this carseat we have had since Graham was about 6 or 7 months old (almost 6 years ago). I believe, it has been used consistently since then.)

St. Patrick's Day

2009-03-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

This is the lunch Molly had for St. Patrick's Day:

Green apple, kiwi, string cheese (in a green package), PB&J with green peanut butter and some green juice (it is kiwi, guava, strawberry-so yummy!)

Graham only eats peanut butter on his sandwich. He wouldn't eat his sandwich with the green peanut butter. He said it just looked too gross and he couldn't eat with his eyes closed, like I suggested:)

Abbie ate every bite of her sandwich, which surprised me. She is usually the one that won't try new things.

I again attempted a picture of all three kids, here are a few:

Not one is looking at the camera!

Maybe if I cover my mouth or look at someone else.

Molly is done with this and I was done trying.

I believe that my kids win the award for worst picture taking ability. When I try to take a group picture they act as if they have no idea what taking their picture means or like they can't understand what look at the camera means, wow it is frustrating!

I did get a few other cute pics though.

Graham swinging

I love that Molly's hair is getting long enough to put it up in a ponytail.

Daddy with his girls!

Also, Molly has been having a hard time taking her afternoon naps since she moved into her big girl bed. On St. Patrick's Day she finally fell asleep, just not in the right place!

She is up against her door. I could open her door just enough to stick my arm in and get a picture:)

Our kids love him

2009-03-16T18:01:00.000-07:00

Our kids love our dog, Bean. Marty and I, it depends on the moment:) The kids were coloring pictures and decided that they each wanted to draw a picture for Bean. Later on this is what I noticed:

(He looks a little scared. I think the flash scared him)

To give the kids credit, they did ask Marty if they could hang the pictures up in Bean's house. Not many dogs have pictures hanging up for them next to their beds I bet!

My arms

2009-03-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

I usually make it a point not to complain about my weight, because I want my kids to learn how to be healthy not just not be overweight. Well, I made the mistake of commenting how my arms are "jiggly" like an old lady.

This is definitely not my arm but I found this picture and just couldn't resist posting it. Wow, is all I can say!

Abbie thought that was so funny and asked if she could jiggle them! Well, of course, then Graham thought that was so funny and wanted to be a part also. What??
Then this morning Abbie randomly asked me about jiggling my arms again! What did I do?
So now I just need to find some good exercises to slim my arms so my kids stop making fun of them. I would say lesson learned, no more negative comments about my body.

Dirty Moons and Chasing Cars

2009-03-12T11:22:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to watch the airing of Wheel of Fortune that our friends Brandi and Brittani were on. I was able to go to the taping but had a huge pole in front of me so I couldn't really see them on stage. They won every single quick solve puzzle (not sure what they are called). They did great!

On our way home it was late and the moon was out. It was a full moon and was especially low and big. Graham saw the moon and said how cool it was and that it was huge. Molly kept commenting that it was dark outside and then said "wow moon." Abbie looked at the moon and says "the moon is dirty." She was right it did look kind of yellow and dirty.

Here's a picture of the moon last night, with the shuttle that was supposed to launch last night.

As we were continuing to drive home the kids kept looking for the moon when we turned or when the road curved. Then Abbie looked out the back window again and said (in her oh no what are we going to do voice) "there's a car following us!" Marty and I just looked at each other and laughed. What are you supposed to say to that?

Daddy Daughter Dance

2009-03-09T07:52:00.000-07:00

On Friday night Abbie and Marty went to the "Daddy Daughter Dance" at Northland. They went last year and it has definitely become a tradition to go. Next year Molly will probably go also.
Abbie was so excited to get to have time with only her and her daddy. This year she got all dressed up and was so excited to go! I asked her right before this picture "Abbie are you excited to go to the dance?"

This was her super excited "yes" response.

She loves to spin in this dress.

Abbie and her daddy all ready to go.

Kisses!

Gracie and Abbie thought it was so fun that they had almost the same dress on. Molly wanted to put on her matching dress also.

Daddy giving Abbie her pink flowers!

Abbie, Marty, Greg and Gracie leaving for the dance.

They had a great time. They got there pictures taken at the dance that we can get next week. They got to eat some cotton candy and color and make a cute tissue paper flower. Then Pastor Joel spoke for a short time and they played a video with pictures from the night. Abbie got a goodie bag with a flower pot, seeds, candy and a few other little things. I don't think that they actually even danced at the dance but they had a blast getting all dressed up and just being together!

Screaming Girls

2009-03-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

On Friday Abbie and Molly were playing outside. I found this in one of their toy buckets:

I showed it to them and I think it scared Molly at first so she then thought is was so funny and kept running away screaming pretending to be scared of the gecko. She would run away and immediately run right back and ask to see the lizard.

They probably did this 20 times! They just thought it was so funny. You just never know what silly thing they are going to do!
This was actually the only time that they ran into each other:)

Graham's cards

2009-03-04T05:52:00.000-08:00

Graham loves to bring home cards and pictures for his daddy that he made at school. Graham absolutely loves his daddy and loves spending time with him. When we have gotten stickers, like at the doctor or Payless (we did just the other day), he always asks for an extra one for his daddy. He is so great at making notes telling his daddy how much he loves him.

All of this made it even sweeter that the other day he brought this home from school - for me!!

I love the "XO" on the envelope.

A while after I told him how much I loved it, he came back and was asking me about specific things he drew and if I liked them. It was so fun to listen to how much thought he put into it. He also told me that it took him almost his entire center time. He really wanted me to know how much time and thought he put into it!
I love my boy and his special bond with his daddy. I also love that he thinks I am "the best mommy in the world (to me)."

Ice Cream, You Scream

2009-02-23T18:29:00.000-08:00

This morning the Co-op went on a field trip to tour Hershey's Ice Cream store. They showed us how they make an ice cream cake and frost it. Abbie got to mix some of the frosting and really loved that part. We also got to watch them make a waffle cone.

Abbie finishing mixing the frosting. (she was actually really excited about it and was the first to volunteer)

All the kids watching the ice cream cake being frosted.

Watching the waffle cone being made.

The favorite part of the day was definitely getting to eat ice cream! Especially since it was before lunch. They thought it was so funny that they were able to eat dessert before lunch:) Abbie had "Superman" ice cream. It was red, blue and yellow and must have had a TON of food coloring in it.

Abbie and Molly eating their ice cream.

Molly was putting every last sprinkle back in her bowl.

Abbie eating her Superman ice cream.

Abbie got ice cream all over her face and eyebrow. The blue, red and yellow mixed together made a brownish black color.

It was a fun morning and I know we will be going back for ice cream there again as a family!

All at once

2009-02-21T20:08:00.000-08:00

The other day Molly spilled something on her PJ shirt at breakfast. I got her a new shirt from her her school bag. For some reason Molly does not like to just change one piece of her clothing. You have to change both, even if they are both PJs or both clothes. So she went on her own and got the pants out of her bag and then put them on over her PJ pants by herself! She then proceeded to go find her shoes (she absolutely loves wearing shoes, unlike me who hates wearing shoes) and put those on also. Here she is afterwards:

Do you notice anything wrong with these pictures??

If you look closely, you can see the pants are on backwards and the shoes are on the wrong feet:) I hated to even fix it because I was just excited she could get her pants on by herself!

President's Day

2009-02-17T19:12:00.000-08:00

Monday was President's Day so Graham had a day off from school. It was an absolutely beautiful day (and they were finishing our carpet) so I decided to take the kids to Maitland park. I told you we would be going back soon!

The kids loved playing in the sand of the volleyball court. When we got home they all still had a ton of sand in their shoes.

Can you tell that Graham was excited about the bumpy roller slide?

Ever since our vacation, Molly has really started to have a thing about sticks. She carried this around for a long time until I wouldn't let her climb up the ladder with it in her hand.

I love Abbie's little face in this picture. She is doing a great job learning to swing by herself. She almost has it, she just needs to realize that she can do it.

Molly is such a little daredevil sometimes. She was making me nervous while she was swinging like this, but she absolutely loved it! Graham was such a sweet big brother pushing Molly.

After our long day, Molly was worn out at dinner time. Notice she only ate about one bite of her food, she was exhausted!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

Since Valentine's Day was on a Saturday this year, we had a special "Valentine Party" breakfast together as a family. Marty put up some balloons and streamers around the kitchen table. We also made pink heart pancakes with strawberries and cool whip. I had bought these cute heart shaped plates that have sayings like conversation hearts do. (they were a little hard to eat with though since the words stick up on the plate)

The kids with their Valentine's breakfast.

All decorated for the "Valentine Party."

We gave the kids there presents from Memaw and Papaw, which of course they loved. They got a Bibleman DVD from them also and they have watched it many times since.

Then we each passed out our gifts. I had just gotten Marty something little but thoughtful. I bought him a Rock Em Sock Em Robots. He has commented many times about them and how he loved playing with it when he was younger, and since he still loves playing with toys what better gift could I give him?

Marty and Graham playing with the new toy.

Molly got a toy with Mickey and Minnie and had them in the boxing ring with the Robots.

Well, Marty ended up surprising me a lot. He told me on Friday he was excited to give me my present and that it was small. Well it was small but only in size. It was my mom's wedding ring! We had used the diamond from it for my original wedding ring (that got stolen) and had wanted to fix my mom's ring for a long time. And he surprised me and got it fixed for me to wear!! I, of course, started crying when I opened it. It is such a wonderful and thoughtful present!

Me wearing my Valentine's present.

My mom wearing the same ring while holding me.

Getting ready for new carpet

2009-02-15T23:05:00.000-08:00

Today we got the kids rooms and playroom ready for the carpet installation. We had to take everything off the floor, which meant taking the girls bunk bed and crib apart (so Molly is moving to the lower bunk bed). When I was putting their mattresses on the floor they all thought it was so fun and were excited to sleep on the floor that night. Well, Graham asked if he could bring his mattress in also and sleep next to the girls. He doesn't have school tomorrow so I said yes. Wow, I have never seen my kids be so excited to go to sleep! They actually asked if they could take a nap:) They never actually went to sleep but I didn't mind since that meant they would be more tired at night and go to sleep better.

Here they are getting ready to "nap" (Graham always does something silly in pictures lately). The three mattresses took up almost the whole room:)

Tonight they did great going to sleep. They, of course, talked for a short time but then they all went to sleep and there were no problems - yeah!

Getting the carpet installed has been a bit of a pain moving all the furniture, but it looks so great. Here is the difference:

We went from berber (the light color) to friese (darker one). Just an FYI, if you ever move into a house and don't like the carpet, figure out a way to change it before you move in. It will be so much easier!

Valentine's Day Picnic

2009-02-15T20:07:00.000-08:00

Abbie, Molly and I went to the Moms4Moms Valentine's Picnic on Friday. It was at Maitland Community Park. We had never been there but will definitely be returning, we all really loved it. It was great to get to know some of the other mothers better and for the girls to get to play with some friends.

You can't really tell what this is but Abbie was afraid to climb this at first. Then she just did it on her own, I was so proud of her!

The park has this slide made from rollers so it was bumpy when you went down. All the kids really loved the slide!

Abbie, Molly and Sarah. The three of them loved playing together. Sarah especially loved acting like Molly's big sister, it was very sweet.

Molly climbing up to the roller slide.

Molly sliding down the roller slide (notice Sarah helping Molly). I also posted a video of Abbie sliding and also of the girls spinning at the park on YouTube.

Not yet

2009-02-12T19:56:00.000-08:00

We were supposed to have new carpet put in downstairs and in our bedroom on Tuesday. Well when the installers went to pick it up, they didn’t have the padding?! Marty and I had gotten these rooms completely ready for install, which meant that we had moved everything out of these rooms. Since our living room was empty Abbie, Molly and I had a picnic lunch on the floor.

(Marty put the chair and table in the room so we could have a place to sit.)

Then Marty suggested we set up our tent inside for the kids to play in. They all had a blast eating dinner in the tent and playing.

The installers were able to put the carpet in Wednesday and it looks amazing! I will post some pictures later. We got rid of our ugly berber and now have friese (a type of shag). It is a drastic difference!

Monster Jam

2009-02-07T19:05:00.000-08:00

Graham and Marty went to the Monster Jam two weeks ago, on January 24. This year they went with some friends early to the preshow where you can get your picture taken with the trucks and meet some of the drivers. All the boys loved seeing the trucks up close. I think that Graham's favorite part about going early was that they ate ribs from a street vendor (Marty said they were probably the best ribs he has ever had). He has asked a few times when he can have ribs again!

All the boys before seeing the monster trucks.

Here they are with Graham's favorite truck, Grave Digger.

Graham looks so small on the huge monster truck.

Daddy and Graham, Graham loved spending the day with his daddy.

Graham with his stuffed Grave Digger that our friends bought him. He has been sleeping with it every night since! You can sort of tell in the pic that Graham and Marty were very close, about on the 4th or 5th row. When they first started Graham got really upset because it was so loud. Once they got ear plugs, actually double earplugs, he was great and loved it.

Graham's favorite truck, Grave Digger, after winning. He crashed right before this and Graham got really upset until Marty explained that sometimes they do that for the crowd:)

Monster Jam has definitely become a yearly boys tradition!

Here's a video of the silly boys killing time before the Monster Jam begins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9UBhlRLtXM

Vacation - Last day

2009-02-06T19:38:00.000-08:00

Our last day of vacation was mostly just getting ready to leave. The kids had a blast running around and playing outside. When we left, we followed Mat and Brittani this time so the roads weren't so windy. Much better on the way home, no one got car sick!

It couldn't go that easy, so on our stop for dinner we got a flat tire?!

One of our first concerns was that we couldn't drive all the way home on a spare. Wow, amazing how God helped us get it fixed and how quickly was amazing. First we couldn't drive the car at all, so we were pulled off in the grass under the bridge. We didn't have our Allstate Motor Club card with us, but technology was on our side this time (unlike on the way to the cabin). Allstate connected us with a Tow Company that called us immediately. And even better the Tow truck was only about 10 minutes away. Marty walked the kids and myself across the street to Sonny's, which we all love their food. As soon as we got across the street, the tow company called and they were at our car already. The driver had a friend that works at Tires Plus, right down the road, and had already called his friend to get them to stay open late for us! We were just blown away by the Tow driver and how much he went over and beyond what was necessary.

The kids did amazingly well at Sonny's. They were so sweet and helpful. I know they were glad to be out of the car and enjoyed coloring but they really made the experience so much better and so much easier.

(someone obviously took the picture because it was funny. We didn't have that special that's for sure)

So within an hour or so, we had a new tire and had eaten a yummy dinner at Sonny's. What an adventure!

Vacation- 1/22/09

2009-02-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

Thursday was a wonderful day. It was warmer this day and the kids loved being outside. After Breakfast, we all went for a short hike and had so much fun. The mountains were beautiful and it was great to be outside.

The whole group ready for our hike.

All the kids bundled up going down the hill.

Graham especially enjoyed the hike and collecting things to show his class.

Molly absolutely loved her "walking stick." She did not want to put it down.

Molly loved that Anna wanted to help her get unbundled.

After our hike, the boys made a fire and cooked hotdogs for lunch. The funniest part was that it took a while for the fire to get going since the wood was a little wet from snow. When the fire was finally ready to cook the hotdogs, we realized noone had gotten more hotdogs from the store. We only had 4 hotdogs! Here are the men cooking the (4) hotdogs. Graham is holding his nose from the smoke, not picking it.

After lunch we made smores by the fire though. They were so yummy! Here's Graham and I making our smores.

That evening we went to "Fun World" which is a huge arcade. On the drive, the girls were really quiet. Well, we discovered why when we got there.

We ate dinner there and then found out that they were closing in about 20 minutes! So we played as many games as we could and as fast as we could. We all commented afterwards that it really was a blessing and was fun. We didn't have to deal with overtired or whiny kids because they were to busy trying to play as many games as they could. And the kids still got some prizes and got to play lots of games. We (actually Brittani) had to stop and take a picture outside the "Fun World" sign.

Vacation-Second Day (1/21/09)

2009-02-04T07:54:00.000-08:00

Wednesday morning Mat made piggy pancakes for all the kids. They turned out great and of course all the kids loved them!

Anna, Abbie and Molly (in the background) with their piggy pancakes.

Aren't they so fun?

That day we hung around the house playing and trying to stay warm. Abbie and Anna loved playing together. Aren't they so sweet in this picture? I think it's sweet how Abbie's foot is wrapped under Anna's leg.

That evening we went to dinner at Rib Country with Mat's family. They had paper bags for the kids to color on, so Marty being the kid he is made a mask out of one of them!

The food was great and the dessert was amazing. Marty and I had a fried apple pie, yum! (there were no WW points counted this day) I don't know what to say about the sign, especially since Mat's mom works there:)

The whole group after dinner:

I love this picture that Brittani took of Molly in her jacket. Molly loved wearing her warm jacket and having the hood up. I guess she loves pink furry things?!

I already posted the video of the girls singing a Hannah Montana song in the car so I won't post it again, but man were they so funny to listen to in the car. All 3 of there little squeaky voices!

Vacation to Georgia-First Day (1/20/09)

2009-02-03T07:13:00.000-08:00

I decided to post about our vacation differently. Yes, I already posted pictures of Molly (sorry Abbie and Graham) and yes it was two weeks ago, I am just behind.

We had planned to leave first thing Tuesday morning which would get us there Tuesday afternoon/evening. But it was snowing on Monday and was supposed to snow all day Tuesday which we didn't want to miss. So we decided to leave late Monday night, which actually ended up being Tuesday (it was 12:30am when we left). The drive there went great. The only problem was we didn't have complete directions so we drove to where the map told us but there was no cabin. We realized the problem and tried to use Marty's GPS on his phone to figure it out but it wasn't able determine where we were. Then we tried to call Mat and Brittani for directions but no phone signal. We ended up having to drive about 2 miles until we got a signal! Needless to say, we learned to not just depend on technology to get you where you need to go:)

Also, before we got lost, Abbie was getting really carsick from the really, really windy roads. (We didn't take that way home.) Her face had absolutely no color and she kept saying how bad her tummy hurt. We were thankful she didn't throw up and that she ended up falling asleep.

When we finally arrived to the cabin it was snowing a little. The kids all thought that was pretty cool. Well, Graham was a little disappointed saying "where is the snow" because we had snow in Oklahoma when he was younger. The boys, Graham, Bradley, Marty and Mat, went sledding and had a blast. The girls stayed in the warm house and played instead.

Here's a picture of Bradley and Graham all bundled up to go sledding and you can see how much snow there was:

That evening we celebrated Anna's 4th Birthday with a My Little Pony party! Here's the birthday girl!

All ready to get some candy. And yes Mat is wearing a Pony crown!

All the party kids! (Molly loved that her PJs matched Anna's)

After the party and baths, now Anna and Abbie have matching PJs. We didn't plan it, we just both shop at Target a lot.

Molly on vacation

2009-01-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

I have so many pictures that I want to post from vacation. These are all of Molly. We thought she was just a little sick with a cold but ended up having a pretty bad ear infection (which we found out when we got back home). She didn't sleep well at all the first night but her energy during the day wasn't gone! Molly loved all of our vacation time. She loved hiking, going out to eat and even the campfire. She has no fear of new things.

Just today we were at the mall playing in the play area for a little while. She saw a man playing peek-a-boo with his little girl and so Molly just goes right over and starts playing peek-a-boo with them also. Then a few minutes later she just ran up and sort of hugged his leg! Wow, was he surprised! I love that she is so friendly but we definitely have to watch her. She isn't afraid of much.

Showing us her loot from "Fun World."

Putting 3-D glasses on a My Little Pony pinata.

Molly giving Daddy his phone, while I was trying to take a pic of him and Abbie. Molly does this all the time, she does not like peoples things laying around out of place:)

Anna helping Molly get her many layers off. Anna really wanted to help Molly and Molly thought it was so fun for Anna to help her (she doesn't usually let others help her though).

Bradley was kneeling waiting for the rest of us to catch up during a hike and Molly ran up and did the exact same thing next to him. She loves Bradley and loves to imitate him!

All dressed warmly and ready to go outside. It was really cold this day, for us Floridians!

3 Girls Singing

2009-01-27T13:42:00.000-08:00

On our vacation, Abbie and Anna loved getting to ride in the car together. I have to say 3 girls in a car is a lot of little high pitched voices, but was lots of fun seeing the girls interact with each other. This was just to adorable not to catch on video. Someone started singing Hannah Montana's Best of Both Worlds song and then they all joined in - too cute!!

Our Big Girl

2009-01-16T22:23:00.000-08:00

On January 5th, our little Abbie officially became a big girl. She slept on the top bunk! Yes our 3 1/2 year old is now sleeping every night up on the top bunk. I was nervous the first night that I wouldn't be able to sleep. But she was just so excited, it made me not nervous and I slept great. I love that Abbie has something that is just her own.

Getting ready to take a nap

Abbie and Molly playing together on the top bunk

Molly has known how to climb a ladder it seems like since before she could walk but on the bunk she didn't know how to get back down at first. The first day I left the room for a second and when I came back in she was just sitting up there crying to get down. But it only took her a few days to figure out how to get back down now:)

Time with just one

2009-01-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Graham and I hung out after school while Abbie and Molly took a nap. He wanted to bring his new race track outside and build a super cool awesome track (his words). He started off with his track going down the slide. He was so excited to try it out. Well, it worked a little to well and just kept shooting the cars off the track. So then he decided to take the track and drape it over a tree branch!? He was so funny, thinking that the car would go all the way up (pretty much 90 degrees) and then just come down the other side. He wouldn't believe me that it wouldn't work, he had to try it for himself. Then he moved on to our hill. It worked really well and he loved it. It was so fun watching him think through it all and really paying attention to the best way to put the track together. He is definitely learning from his daddy.

It was so nice to have some time with Graham!

THE track

I love this picture, even though it is blurry. He is running from me trying to take his picture.

Graham (again being silly with a cup on his head) and I. I'm not quite as good as Brittani at taking pictures of myself, but I'm getting there.

Two weeks

2009-01-08T18:06:00.000-08:00

Two weeks is all that it took for the batteries to run out of one of the Barbies I wrote about previously! (I am actually sort of surprised it took so long, I mean, they push the button all the time.) I have to say I am fairly excited, does that make me a bad mom? But today I have had to explain to Molly at least 10 times that it doesn't work. She brings me the Barbie and just keeps saying "On, On." Well, now let's see how long I can hold out to get new batteries for it:)

Molly and Abbie Christmas morning playing with the Barbies. This was the only pic I had of both of them with both the Barbies.

**Also, if you want to be added to my list of blogs let me know and I would love to add you:)

Gifts

2009-01-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

This video absolutely sums up Molly and also sums up what my life is like normally. Molly is dancing and singing, I have no idea what she is singing though, while Graham and Abbie are playing loudly in the background. I sort of wish you could hear Molly completely but then it wouldn't be real life:)

We bought Molly the Mickey for Christmas and the Minnie for her birthday and she loves them. I don't know where it came from but she totally loves Mickey Mouse. I wish that I had a video of her watching the Disney Christmas Parade, she kept getting so excited at all of the characters. We have really got to get around to taking her to Disney!

For some reason she calls Minnie - "Minnie, Minnie Mouse." In the video, she tells me that it is "Mickey and Minnie, Minnie Mouse" and "sitting on lap" since you probably can't hear it.

Here is Molly just telling me Minnie's name:

This song will get stuck in your head also..

2009-01-03T08:51:00.000-08:00

For the last week, we have heard these same two songs over and over in our house. We knew that Abbie and Molly would love the singing Barbies from the Diamond Castle movie, but we didn't realize how much they would love them. We are so glad they love their presents but we are really ready to take the batteries out of the Barbies. But I did get some adorable video of Molly singing along:

I will have to get one of both of them singing together. Abbie and Molly are absolutely adorable, I'm just wondering how to get the song out of my head:)

I also posted another video of Molly dancing and singing to the song on YouTube. Blogger keeps giving me errors.

Molly's 2nd birthday

2009-01-01T12:06:00.000-08:00

Molly turned 2 on the 27th. In some ways it feels like she was just born a few months ago but then it is hard to remember a time without her. Molly you were our surprise from the Lord. You have brought so much joy and togetherness into our family. Your nickname of "angel" really does describe you. Your laughter is contagious. I love the way you watch your older siblings, but your also not afraid to do things on your own. Molly, we are all blessed to have you in your lives!

We decided to have a day break from parties and celebrate Molly's birthday on Sunday. We had Molly's favorite people over, the Doss'. Molly will just randomly throughout the day ask about Bradley and Anna:) She loves them and is always thinking of them. Brittani thanks for always loving on Molly so much! And I think that after Sunday, Molly will be asking about Mat also, she loves playing with Mat. I hate that we didn't get a picture of the Doss' with Molly, but here we are with our two year old:

Molly showing us how old she is!

All smiles!

Enjoying her cupcake. Yes we had Hannah Montana plates - Molly thinks everyone that has long blond hair is Hannah Montana and she gets really excited.

Licking her lips, even though all she ever eats is the frosting.

Molly in her princess dress riding her new tricycle.

Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella showed up also:)

Graham's 6th Birthday

2008-12-31T19:31:00.001-08:00

Friday, the day after Christmas, was Graham's 6th birthday. Marty took him and his kindergarten friend to the Kennedy Space Center. Graham has wanted to go for a while and he loves to get to have "boys only time" so it worked great for his birthday. Marty has some fun pictures from this day that I will share when I get them. But here is a picture of the girls playing with Graham's lightsabers while he was gone to the Space Center.

When the boys got back I had put out all of Graham's presents, some balloons and some Star Wars plates. Graham was surprised and thought it was special, but I forgot to get a picture of it. We had some good Godfather's pizza and chocolate cupcakes and then opened his presents.

Graham with his birthday presents.

Graham with his green flame.

Blowing out his candle.

So hard to believe that it has been 6 years since you surprised both your daddy and me coming so early. Graham you have brought so much good into our lives. I am so proud to be your mother. You have such a sweet heart and strive to follow the rules. You are such a quick learner and a great friend. I love your desire to spend time with us, especially how much you love having one on one time. You are the best big brother that Abbie and Molly could have. Always looking out for them. I know that you will continue to become a wonderful man of God and continue to teach us also. I thank God that he gave us you, which is exactly who and what we need in our lives!

Christmas - the part I forgot

2008-12-30T11:33:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve day, the kids and I went to the Christmas Eve service at Northland. Marty was able to sit with us also. That morning Graham had been complaining that his ear hurt which I just thought maybe he had gotten some water in it or something. He didn't seem to bothered by it at the time, but when we got to church he kept complaining and asking to go to the doctor. And last time he went to the doctor, just a few weeks ago, he had to get a shot so I figured his ear must have really hurt. During the service, Marty got Graham some tylenol from my car and took Graham backstage where there was lots of food. Graham seemed to be feeling better after that and I couldn't decide whether or not to take him to The Little Clinic since our doctor was closed. I decided not to take him since he seemed to be better.

That afternoon we made our Christmas cookies for Santa but when we were going to decorate them Graham said he just wanted to lay down and rest. He went and laid down in his bed and fell asleep for a little while. But he woke up right before bed time and was so upset that he didn't get to decorate a cookie for Santa. He was better when I told him that I decorated one to give Santa and that he could decorate more tomorrow.

When he tried to go back to sleep, he was miserable. He couldn't go to sleep and when he came downstairs and told me he had liquid coming out of his ear I decided he definitely had to go to the doctor. So as soon as Marty got home from service around 9:30pm, he took Graham to the After Hours Clinic. The poor boy ended up having a bad ear infection AND strep throat (yes that's what he had right before Thanksgiving also). I was so sad for him and didn't want him to be feeling bad on Christmas.

By the time they got home, it was around 11:30pm. Marty went back out around 12:30am or so to get Graham's medicine. Thank goodness for 24 hour Walgreens. When Graham woke up again at 2am, Marty gave him his first dose of Antibiotics and some pain medicine. He woke up again around 4am and then slept until about 7:30. Well, it was amazing how much better he felt Christmas morning. He had actually cleaned up his room completely before he came into our room:) I had told him that we needed to clean his room to make room for his new toys, but we never got around to it since he was so sick. God definitely helped him feel better sooner than he should have. Marty and I were so thankful that he got to enjoy Christmas completely!! Really, I mostly forgot about it that's why I didn't put it in my last post.

Christmas Day

2008-12-29T19:09:00.001-08:00

Christmas day was especially relaxing and fun this year. We got up about the same time as normal and let the kids open their stockings and one present. Then we ate a big breakfast together. Then this year Marty had the idea of us each taking turns opening a present while everyone watches, and it was great! The kids did wonderful at waiting their turn and being excited for each others gifts. It did take a while for 5 people to open presents one by one - but it was worth it. After we opened presents we got to play with the presents for a while and then eat a small lunch. Then we played more and had our Christmas dinner, Honey Baked Ham - yum.

The kids waiting to open their first presents. They had opened their stockings already. The girls PJs say "I'm Santa's best gift." I had bought Graham one's that said "I'm santa's coolest gift" but they were too small.

Molly with her new teddy bear blanket from Memaw and Papaw.

Cinderella as a rockstar.

Molly trying out Abbie's new guitar.

Daddy trying out Molly's new towel.

Ironman decided to try out the Barbie house. (Graham was upset today when he saw that I had taken a picture of him playing in the Barbie house - wow he is growing up to fast!)

Graham was funny opening his presents this year because he kept asking "who is this from." He was very sweet about it. Molly got a surprised looked on her face every present she opened - so cute. Abbie was especially sweet about her Princess Wii game. She gave her daddy a big hug and said she wanted to play the game with him and that she loved it (in her sweet, sort of whiny voice). It brought Marty and I both to tears. It was just a wonderful Christmas spending time together as a family.

Maybe we should have used these

2008-12-22T19:58:00.001-08:00

We got our family picture taken last week and I couldn't help but laugh at all the pictures we decided not to use. So I thought I would share some of my favorite:

Not sure what they are all saying but they are definitely saying something.

Abbie was doing her princess pose I guess.

Not sure what face this is of Graham. Notice Abbie isn't looking anywhere near the camera and Molly is just sitting there with no smile at all.

Molly was done at this point and trying to get down.

Molly sneaking back on my lap while Marty and I were trying to take a pic of just the two of us. Guess she wasn't really quite done:)

I could have posted many, many more. But we did get a good picture of our family out of all of the ones we took. We also got a bunch of really cute pictures of the kids individually. I will post some of those later!

Doing something right!

2008-12-19T06:22:00.000-08:00

Here is Graham's picture that he brought home from school yesterday.

It says "This Christmas I would like to give"... and he wrote "luov to God." (love to God) I had tears in my eyes when I read that. I guess he really has been listening!

He told me the picture is of him "handing" God his love. He made his hair into a mohawk also. I can always use signs that something I am doing is right with my kids, because as you all know lots of times it doesn't feel like it. Just the other day, one of the many times we were in Target, they kept telling me all the toys they wanted and asking can we buy it. And we were looking for someone else's birthday present! I felt like saying "sorry no presents for Christmas this year - your being selfish." I realize this time of year they(us) are bombarded with toys and commercials and all the worldliness of Christmas and it is just hard for all of us to keep in check what Christmas is about. So hopefully we can remember to do what Graham wrote and "give luov to God" this Christmas and all year round!