Tag Archives: The Kids 2008

Yee Haw!

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While visiting with family this past weekend, we also got to visit with my side of the family. My niece has been riding horses since she was in the first grade. She’s in fourth now. I can not begin to express how proud we are of her. She’s so good at it and my girly girl niece can muck a stall with the best of them! She’s an animal lover and horses seem to be a passion of hers. They’ve also been a great therapy tool as she continues to miss her best friend who passed away a year and a half ago. All that to say, J we are seriously proud of how well you ride and how much you know about horses!

J took the kids on a walk around with the horse in turns. Ace wanted to ride by himself. He had a look of discontent the whole time and we asked him several times if he wanted to get off, but he kept saying no. When it ended, he told us he didn’t like it…his reason: it was too bumpy.

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A House Full…

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This past weekend we were able to descend upon Papa & Grandmere, Mark’s parents, and spend time visiting with them and with Mark’s brother and family. So, again, for those who didn’t pay attention when invaded in September, here’s the run down stats:

Ages: 8, 6 (turned 6 while we were there), 5 (but will be six in two more days…so I’m reminded), 4, 4, 2, 2, 1, 6 mths, 6 mths
Gender: 3 girls, 7 boys
That’s six on B&B’s side and four on our side.
No, we’re not Catholic (not that there’s anything wrong, etc…I’m just saying, I know people wonder)

On to the pictures shall we! I will say that Ace was as sweet as he could be with the twins. Probably his favorite time, hands down. I think he really enjoyed that they played on the floor and he could entertain them. Zoe loved having someone her age to giggle and laugh and play with. The boys loved jumping on their big cousin. It was a wonderful time for us all.

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Alas, Poor Freddie

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It seems our sweet beta fish has bit the dust…or is swimming with the fishes…okay, he’s dead as a doornail (to quote Dickens). Mark discovered he had “met his Maker” this evening when he got home and Liam went to feed him. Oddly, he’s laying on the bottom of the fish bowl not floating toward the top.

He made it a long eleven months and my sporadic feeding and Mark’s sporadic bowl cleaning has left him gone.

We’ve sorta kinda told the kids and I’m sure I’ll have the pleasure of explaining it tomorrow…and this, dear brother-in-law is why we don’t need to get chickens right now 🙂 Maybe later, when we can keep a beta fish alive for more than a year, we’ll see! Although, we do see an advantage in having our own eggs…I digress…this is supposed to be a eulogy for poor Freddie the Fish.

Farewell Freddie Fish (love the alliteration)…we loved casually glancing at you when we remembered you were there.

(Hey, at least I haven’t killed the cats, dog, or kids…course they remind you when they need to be fed)

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Georgia Aquarium

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Last Friday, we were able to attend the Georgia Aquarium, and this is how we did it for under $50! With a mommy & me ticket that got the kids (four kids five and under) and me, and paid for parking as well as a regular adult admission! So, if you have free time and can get over to Atlanta, this is so worth it for $20! We even managed to make it through the gift shop with only six dollars less. It helped that Zoe used her job money to buy her souvenir. It was a really nice aquarium. This was the first time that we had to rush the kids through without them running from exhibit to exhibit. They really enjoyed seeing all the fishes (that’s how they had it written throughout, so I guess the grammar rules have changed).

I handed Mark the camera, so we got lots of good pictures (I’m just good at getting one or two, he keeps taking until it’s full or the battery is dead). So, without further ado…

This is the otter that came over to tell Zoe hello! It scared her because she was turned away and Mark said, “Look!” When she did, this is what she saw pressed up against the glass…pretty funny…she jumped about a mile!
I’ve never seen a sting ray this big…it was bigger than me! These were in the huge tank that you walked under…very neat!

My favorites, the Beluga Whales. Liam was fascinated with them too. He had to ask the aquarium man what their names were and everything. They are absolutely beautiful creatures. I was just blown away with how beautiful God had created these animals. They were so graceful too. Sorry the picture isn’t much clearer, they were cleaning the tank and kicked up all sorts of stuff.
Hiya Crocodile!

Zoe doing her “posing” thing.

Mark was “petting” shrimp…Josiah was playing in the water!

Zoe petting a stingray. I’ve never seen a girly girl so into petting sea animals…she had to touch and pet all of them she could.

Very cool Jellies! They remind me of Shark Tale (the movie) but the kids thought of Finding Nemo.
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The Girls’ Room

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The girls’ room is painted and the crib is in. I still want to get bedding, new curtains, a lamp, and Ceili Rain’s changing pad and we’ll be set in the girls’ room. Zoe and I really had a good time painting the canvasses. They turned out better than I had expected. I kept my hands off of hers to “fix” it and they look great!

My canvasses…first time I’ve ever really painted and add to that that it was on canvas! I’m glad my grandmother can’t see it…she’d probably be embarrassed, painter that she was!

Zoe’s canvasses! Didn’t she do great! I pretty much let her do whatever she wanted.

Zoe’s side of the room…notice Raggedy Andy sprawled out…Raggedy Anne is on the other side…looks like they’ve kicked the bucket to me. The dresser is what I did for her room before. Mark and Zoe agreed that I didn’t need to change it for now…fine by me but I would have loved to repaint it and put flowers on it to match the room.

Ceili Rain’s crib (that was Josiah’s, that was Liam’s, that was Ace’s, that was Zoe’s, that Mark made…”and this is the house that Jack built…”). I don’t have any girly bedding or bumper pad, but hoping to pick that up soon.

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First Words…for the Granparents

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So, in the past 18 months, Josiah’s words have accumulated into “ba” for ball, brother, bye. belly and bath. No mamas, no dadas. Just “ba” and a few others.

Over the past few weeks he’s added more words and today he melted Mark’s heart. I was talking to Mark and holding Josiah and I asked Josiah if he wanted to talk to daddy.

“Daaad-da” he said and grinned wide. Mark got to hear him too!

Here are a few other recent ones. Sorry, no video…but we did finish most of school today, so there’s a plus!

“Go Coug!” for “Go Cougars!” That’s actually on video and he says it anytime he sees football or some other sport on tv. The Cougars are my dad’s team that he coaches for.
“Aaace” for “Ace” He started saying this word just over the past couple of days. When I can get him to say it, he takes off in search of Ace and then tries to tackle him.
“Teee” for “tree”

That’s all I can think of now. He’s getting to be so cute and full of fun. Still loveable too.

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Kid Cuteness Time…Family Worship

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*During family worship[ a couple of nights ago as we were singing, I kept hearing Liam saying something like, “You be quiet, quite singing…shhh. Stop it.” He was sitting beside me on the floor looking straight out and pointing his finger saying this. When we finished singing, we asked him what he was doing.

“Mommy, your foot was singing and it needed to be quiet!” He was fine once I explained that I was tapping to the music.

*For Ace’s birthday, he received a Narnia sword that makes noise when you swish it, etc. As you can imagine, Liam absolutely loves it as well as Ace. There’s been some coveting issues, of course. Liam’s asked several times for a Prince Caspian sword like Ace’s (he has King Peter’s sword). I told him maybe for his birthday. We had already purchased Liam’s presents when I realized that we hadn’t gotten him the sword he’s asked for. Ge to the rescue!! It’s been hunted down and purchased and waiting gift wrap and Liam’s birthday party. With no mention made to Liam, every once and a while during prayer time, he will pray for his sword in detail. “Tank you God for my Narnia sword for my birthday that has buttons and makes noise when you swish it…”

*Tonight Zoe’s prayer time included this, “Thank you for Christmas, God. Help us to remember it’s not about the toys but it’s about you.” From the mouth of babes!

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Black Friday

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Oh yeah, count me as one of the “crazys” getting out at the crack of dawn (actually around 5 so it was before dawn) and maneuvering my way through the crowds to get deals and things I needed for Christmas and beyond. At least I wasn’t like the people I saw Thursday night camped out at Best Buy (with tents and all).

Anyway, I got some good deals and finished up some Christmas shopping. I was flying solo as Mark stayed home with the kids (I’m crazy but not crazy enough to bring them out that early) and my family was away, far away from our germs!

My prize finds were vaccum cleaners for the kids at $9 a piece. I’m not talking about play vaccuums either. These are the real deal. I thought about wrapping them up and giving them to them for a Christmas gift, but then wondered how they might look back on that when they get older and realize it was for work, not play. There were three different colors too. My only regret is not getting Josiah one. He got pretty testy when everyone else had one and he didn’t. I told him not to fret, they would all get to use them.

When I brought them in, the kids thought it was Christmas and got all excited. They had to vaccuum and continued to do so while I took a shower. Ahhh, my floors are so clean now. They haven’t gotten to vaccuum today but have been asking for it all day.

Child labor…nah, it’s all for fun right?!

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And back to Ace

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Happy Thanksgiving first of all! We’ve had a nice time at home. The kids were all well enough to enjoy our meal of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, watergate salad, and green beans. They all ate without complaining and even got some apple cake for dessert. After lunch, we headed out to get our Christmas tree in anticipation of being out of town this weekend for dad’s football game and visiting family.

However, after naptime, Ace started looking puny and his temp was going back up. Needless to say, our plans have changed and we’ll enjoy a weekend at home getting the house ready for Christmas and finishing up “the girls’ room” for Zoe and Ceili Rain (except when I went to Micheal’s this evening, I couldn’t find three ‘i’s for her name on the door…that’ll come later).

We’re flexible and pretty much used to someone getting sick on the holidays…so it’s not that big a deal.

I hate missing my dad’s game. If they win, this will be his 300th career win. This is also the team that knocked them out of the playoffs in the quaterfinals and this is the quarterfinals. It should be a really good game and a good challenge for his team. I told my mom to call me after every quarter so we can keep up with the score! I’m also going to try and find a way to listen on line. Ain’t the internet great!!?

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Next Up…

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Zoe’s turn. She’s been complaining all morning she was cold. While we were working on canvasses (small ones…hello all, I don’t paint!) to go in her room, she was breathing funny and kept taking deep breaths, a sure sign her temp was rising…and it was. I sent her to bed to lie down and told her the paintings could wait. Up until I realized she had a temp, she kept painting away insisting she was alright. Poor girl…she’s just like me!

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