Tag Archives: The Kids 2010

On the Hunt…

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With all the hustle and bustle and indecision on our part about whether to pack up five kids (two of which were sick, remember???), we did manage to squeeze in a few of our Spring/Easter traditions. 

One of which was the kids receiving their spring baskets (and not from a mutant rabbit with a bow around his neck) on Saturday.  Not sure if I’ve mentioned this (but I probably have for the past three years) but we give them baskets full of about three things on Saturday instead of Sunday.  It’s easier than wrestling chocolate away from them…they have plenty of time to play with/watch/remember what Resurrection Sunday is about…Resurrection Sunday is reserved for the actual celebration of Christ’s resurrection not chocolate and food (oh, and traveling six hours away to watch a shuttle launch).

Another tradition is dying eggs and adding those to our Resurrection eggs and hunt them.

At the time, Liam was drugged with acetemetophin so he was good to go. 

Josiah was not on the other hand.
Ceili Rain enjoyed the swing.

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Sea Turtles

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Still in Jekyll…we got up on Tuesday morning and after eating, we headed out to the Sea Turtle Center.  Every one seemed to be perky and fever free this day and it was time to celebrate and educate.

Zoe’s not quite as tall as the tallest known living turtle. (And these are turtles not tortoises…ask the kids.  They know the difference).

The center is basically a rescue/recovery/education facility.  They have a turtle hospital and have vets/marine biologists etc., that do research and care for the sick turtles that are brought to them all over the east coast.  This turtle’s getting a spa treatment by having his shell scraped to fight off infection from the keratin (I think that’s right) that builds up on his back.  He seemed to be enjoying it.

You can’t tell…but this was a big sea turtle.  Most of the turtles at the center are not there because of human related accidents/ issues.  The ones we saw most of were cold-stunned…where a sudden drop in the temperature in the ocean forced them to be stagnate (since they’re cold blooded animals) and wreaked havoc on their body systems.  Just another issue to deal with in global warming.  I’m kidding.
Peeking up to say hello!
And as we were leaving…what did the kids want to look at in the gift shop???  Yep, books!  I love our little book nerds!

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CeiRai-isms

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She’s a bit quirky…

(umm, that’s how she drank from her cup on the trip to Florida)
…and a tad bit apprehensive about much of anything.  She’s the first to actually not like being thrown in the air.
Oh, and sometimes…when you’re in a hotel room with five kids…she’s the one…
That has to sacrifice a bed*…
But she’s okay with that!
*No, we did not make her sleep in the nightstand console.  She just kept crawling up into it.  And when I told her to go nite nite, she cuddled with her giraffe and laid her head down (but she didn’t really go to sleep).

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To the Beach

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After watching the shuttle blast off into space at 6:21 a.m. (no more than 10 minutes of our life and almost an hour to get back on the interstate), we headed to the hotel to change the kids out of their pjs and eat a free breakfast (which felt really weird since we had been up for several hours at this point).  We checked out and drove about halfway towards home and then made a pit stop.  As we were driving the kids asked where we were going.  Mark just casually mentioned that he thought they would enjoy a day at the beach.  Four resounding “YES!” were yelled from the back of the van.  So to the beach we went.

I’ve been to Jekyll Island, GA several times now.  I love it there.  It’s small, peaceful, and full of some rich history.  And it’s beautiful.  Now, I’m not talking white sand, Gulf of Mexico beautiful but Spanish moss hanging from every oak tree, waves crashing up against the rocks beautiful.  The whole island is virtually flat which makes it a great place to go on casual bike rides (and you can bike the whole island in one day easy).  We didn’t bike but I so wish we had had the time to do it.

However, we did hit the beach…

This was the last day of Josiah’s bug and just didn’t want much to do with the ocean.
Ceili Rain was about three months old the first time she went to the beach.  Having no recollection and not being the daredevil of the bunch…
She didn’t much care for it.  And as for the crashing waves…
she preferred mommy’s secure arms.
I can already imagine how much this therapy session is going to cost her!
She did manage a smile when she saw daddy had the camera.
And when she watched her brothers and sister in the water.
You can only imagine how much fun these three had in those waves.  Liam tried to talk Mark into going in so they could get deeper.  He, respectfully, declined (honestly, playing in the ocean in April in Georgia…it’s a little frigid).

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Craftiness at work…stand back please!

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With a new little boy coming in July…comes a new set of logistical challenges…sleeping arrangements…clothing arrangements…van seating arrangements, etc.

Last month, we focused on the clothes arrangements.  I found a used, run down chest of drawers for Josiah and Bryant to share and we purchased it and brought it home.

This is part of the “Before.”  As usual, I forgot to get a good before.  The knobs were coming off and the off-white paint was peeling.

I put the boys to work sanding it down one afternoon.  That lasted through almost all the drawers before they lost interest and waited on me to finish what I was doing so they could paint.

I used four shades of blue.  Lest you think I spent a ton of money on that.  Lowes (and I’m sure Home Depot does too) has these extra small sample cans of paint that you can purchase for $3).  So, I bought four of those and used the brown “Cloak & Dagger” that Mark had used on the steps to the bonus room.

Here’s the result:

This should hold the boys clothes for at least three to four years along with the other dresser in their room.  I’ll get a picture of the room/dressers after we work on the sleeping arrangements.

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To Ge and Granddaddy’s House We Go

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A weekend trip to Granddaddy and Ge’s kicked off our travels for several weeks.  This was the first time we had traveled since Thanksgiving.  If you know us well, then you know that’s unusual for us…Mark says our family motto is “Go!  Go!  Go!”  But, God had other plans for a few months.  We were home in December trying to make sure Bryant stuck around to full term.  Then January and February brought illnesses and snow.  Finally, March has rolled around and with the pollen came a chance for us to visit family. 

Aside from the drama of a not so daring Ceili Rain having to endure a puppy yelping at her (which caused her to cry which caused the dog to yelp more), we had a great visit (and the dog and Ceili Rain got used to each other and she only fussed at the dog one time later on when the dog took a toy away from her).

Escaping…from the barking dog!
Granddaddy had the best spot to view the game.  He was also a great lap to cuddle into after playing outside all day!
This was the first time the kids really enjoyed the Wii.  Ge and Granddaddy have all the cool toys!
On the way home, Mark indulged my cravings and we ate at the number one place to eat for processed foods!  The Varsity!  Yep, I thoroughly enjoyed my fried onion rings and chili cheese dog and frosted orange.  Yummy!  Of course, we all payed for it dearly on Monday…but this was the first time we ate here since before we had kids.  Moderation people…that’s what it’s all about 🙂
We’re making her a spokesperson for yummy chili dogs!

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Caught!

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One of the first things Josiah asks me in the morning is if Ceili Rain is up.  Most of the time it is because he can hear her chatting and playing in her crib.  The other morning he told me he wanted to go see Ceili Rain…which buys me time to get breakfast finished while he entertains her through the bars in the crib.  This particular morning I peeked into the girls’ room to get Ceili Rain and found this:

Actually, when I first saw them, they were both sitting up and Josiah was entertaining Ceili Rain with the duck he’s holding (it flaps, sings and makes noise…which she loves)…this is what I found when I got back to the crib with the camera.  Yep, that’s pretty sweet.

And this is their busted look!
When Josiah gets up from a nap, if he can see Ceili Rain right off the bat, he is not grumpy at all.  He loves his little sis and she is equally enamored with him!  It’s safe to say that if they slept in the same room, he’d be cuddled up with her every night.

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Meet our new sons!

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Mark and I had the wonderful privilege of loading up a bunch of teenagers in our home for a weekend a few weekends back.  Our community has a weekend each March called DNow…which is short for Disciple Now.  This is an intense, fast paced weekend that is hosted by several churches.  High school and middle school students descend on unsuspecting willing homes where they participate in Bible study and crazy activities.  There’s a late night activity on Friday night to welcome the kids and kick things off.  Saturday night, our church hosted a worship rally and concert for all the students participating.  We did this several years ago…when Liam was a baby.  It was a ton of fun!  And honestly, we tried to sneak our way out of it this year…making excuses and such…but Mark and I both felt God reminding us that’s why we have a home.  The last time, we had senior girls who were a ton of fun.  This time we had freshmen and sophomore boys! 

I was a little apprehensive that they would not want to be in a home without a tv or wii or other game playing device.  And that they wouldn’t want to be around our little kids.

They walked in and, while waiting on the other guys to get there, asked to go play with the boys in their room.  They then went outside, found the marshmallow guns and played “hoops” on the baby basketball goal!  They also did this on Saturday:

And this:

And this:

They were an unbelievable group of guys.  We had nary a problem with any of them!  They loved on and wrestled with our boys the whole weekend.  And our boys grew quite attached to them as well.

I think Mark and I did too.  It was a great chance for us to get to know some of the amazing guys who God is raising up to lead our church!  We can’t wait to see how He’s going to use each of these young men to bring Him glory…

Blue hair and all.

*By the way…in most of these pictures, they’re hanging out in our updated playroom/schoolroom/office/craft area.  Isn’t the carpet awesome!?!  It stood the test of five boys and one college student!

*Sorry about the quality of the group shot.  I was hoping to get  a better shot from one of the guys but somehow his pics got deleted off his camera.  This was the best shot…with out CeiRai that we could get of everyone looking at the camera. 

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Such a Pretty Girl

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*

She is a busy little girl these days.  She crawls to find her brothers and sister (well scoot crawls).  She loves to pull up on things and is trying to figure out how to climb up on them.  So far, she’s only mastered our two steps up from the playroom/office/schoolroom/craft area/library.

I was trying to get her to sit in the Pooh chair.
She took the opportunity to stand up and dive towards my lap.  This is a fun game that we hope will turn into a step and then dive…and then a step, step and dive, etc.  
*My grandmother would freak out if she could see that hair in her face!  Trust me…I’m working on training it to comb over…these were just taken when it wasn’t!

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