Christmas in Virginia

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!

Northland Fall Festival

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.

Swimming

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.

8 out of 13 grandkids

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

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

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!)

Spring Break Day 3

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.