Other Birthday Events

We had a wonderful time with friends at the birthday party...they decorated shakers with crayons and stickers and then we sang Little Bunny Foo-Foo (thanks Mrs Kim - I didn't remember the words) and then Happy Birthday.

the children got to ride "Lucky"
and the new pony "Flowers/Lightning" down the hallway to eat apples out a bucket.


Papa and Grandma came and were a big help - THANKS Papa and Grandma!

Lucy

Lucy's 3!

Yesterday was Lucy's 3rd Birthday and we had a big celebration at our little house. Princesses and Knights enjoyed the afternoon with Princess Lucy. Here are the girls who attended - Princess Lucy and Mama (I had to get in the celebratory spirit too!)

Lucy's Princess cake in the garage
Here is the cake (after I started to cut it) Lucy helped decorate and I think it was a hit. Lucy said it was her favorite part of the day. "Lucy what was your favorite part of the day?" ----"eating my cake!"

i'll post more later -

Twirling, twirling

The kids are spinning around and around and around in the living room until they fall. So far - no run-ins with the wall but I am dizzy just watching them. We are going on about 12 minutes now - make that 13. Oh the whirlwind of days with little ones enjoying the simple things in life.

Fun with Friends

When Connor or Jordan come over it is a party. The children enjoyed playing together last week and they always make sure my house is full of colorful characters. Samuel, the knight, with dagger and belt; Lucy/Annie Oakley with her dress, doo rag, pop gun and dagger; and Connor/Spiderman with belt and sword!
The battle between Spiderman and Annie Oakly
Annie go get your gun!

Spring is Here...

...So bring on the fudge-sicles after dinner!

The Chaos of war

Pictures taken by a reporter embedded with infantry soldiers in the Medieval Wars...

Easter is coming

Today the children and I went outside and played for a while when I got home. I forget every year how much I like spring, how much winter just makes me want to curl up on the couch (and do not much of anything else) and how much the changing seasons are refreshing.

I am enjoying the taste of Spring we've had in the last two weeks and I've been slowly trying to get ready for Lucy's birthday (this coming Sunday) but haven't been able to do much to prepare us for Easter. I'm not talking about pastel colors and crafts (I have some cute crafty spring things to do) but ways to make the Easter story a part of our celebration in the weeks leading up to Easter. I mentioned at Christmas the idea of saving the Christmas tree, cutting the branches and using it to make a cross. Well, this afternoon the children and I made a cross, used Samuel's purple cape as a drape and hung it on our front door. The children remembered the wood was from our Christmas tree - and I think it helps tie in their minds the two holidays. That Jesus came into the world as a little baby, lived a perfect life and then willingly died on the cross in our place and rose again so that we might have abundant life (from Christmas to Easter though it could be from the garden to the cross). I know for me it is a concrete reminder. I don't think I've ever had a cross as an Easter "decoration" (for lack of a better word) but I like it.

I plan to put a black cloth on it for Good Friday and Saturday and then figure out how to put some flowers on it for Easter Morning!

March Madness

This is how the kids watched March Madness with Daddy this past weekend - Lucy is just chilllin'

2010 Census

Last night at dinner (cheese quesadillas with green beans and some of Grandma's homemade/canned salsa), Jeremy had a good idea to fill out our Census Form together as a family. It made for a lively dinner discussion and reviewed some of the things we've been teaching the children.

First we talked about what a Census is "a gov't counting of the people". And asked them if they remembered a Bible story they have read that talks about a census - the Christmas story. Lucy said "Yes, mean King Herod"

Then we asked them if they knew our names - middles names and ages. When I told Samuel my middle name was "Kinsey" - he said - "That's Grandma and Papa's last name!" He was also glad Daddy's middle name starts with the same letter as his first name.

When asked to guess our ages - Jeremy was 10 and I was 20 (I attributed that to my wisdom not my 33 year old body). We asked them "Is Daddy, male or female?" To which Samuel replied "He's a male because boys are males and girls are females." Yep, right-o buddy - where did he learn that? Lucy remembered when it got to her name that she was "female, because I'm a girl"

We asked them our phone number. Samuel has been learning our address and phone number and can say the phone number to the tune of "Where is thump-kin?" (it is a repetitive song and the children can repeat after you and then eventually they sing it all themselves).

Samuel then said our address. Lucy remembered her birthday (this Sunday she will be 3!) and we were finished with the Census and a pleasant meal together. Just a friendly reminder (as if you haven't all ready gotten 5 reminders in your mail box) to fill out the Census Info - and maybe make it a family event.

Happy St Patty's Day

Here is a little Irish jig to wish you a Happy St. Patty's day! (Grandma and Papa sent the kids a singing card with this dancing music - and we've listened to it atleast 117 times in the last 3 days - thought you could share in the joy)



And for breakfast we had green smoothies!

Wind Blown Cutie Pie

She's finally getting little girl hair and it is wild and crazy but she is is cutie pie. And those boots are just permanently attached.

To Grandpa Noonan

The children enjoyed a couple of days with Grandpa Noonan. They love to visit and can't wait to go back - thanks Grandpa Noonan!

Here they are getting ready to head to Grandpa's last Friday.

The masked man

Samuel asked for a red mask for three days before I finally went and bought some red fabric and made him a mask. I think I need to make several more - he loves it!

And Lucy is becoming more and more of a story-teller (in the good sense of the word). She now does more than just play along with Samuel's make believe worlds. She is now "Super Running Girl" and can run super fast. They are such a delight!

A wild ride

Children bring such adventure and imagination into your life. This was one day last weekend when Samuel was pretending to be a Kickapoo Indian (we read about the Kickapoo briefly in a book we read on Buffalo Bill). Jeremy so sweetly agreed to be the buffalo so that Lucy the cowgirl and Samuel-Blue-and-Yellow-Bald-Eagle could joust in the hallway.

The fearless Kickapoo Indian Brave - Samuel-Blue-And-Yellow-Bald-Eagle AND buffalo

Lucy the Cowgirl and her pony "Lucky"

The Joust!

Wishing for the greatoutdoors

Yesterday -
Samuel had an emotional break down this afternoon because he hadn't been outside all day. I mean a real break down - not a "pitched a fit to get his way" but an emotional breakdown. His plea wasn't "I want to go outside" it was "Mama, I haven't gotten to go outside all day - I just have to go outside." I can feel his pain - can't you? I have that same longing most days - to feel the warm sun, breath fresh air and just breath in peace. (We would normally go outside on a rainy day but it was lightning and thundering most of the day)

Today -
Right after "rest time" we went out - bathing suits on, long sleeve shirts and rain boots. The children splashed and splashed, ran and laughed and we took in our daily vitamin D. It felt so good to go outside - it's like a medicine to my soul. Well as we were enjoying the day - sucking up ants in our bug gun, playing the the neighbor children, hitting the baseball and riding bikes I couldn't help but wonder why I have to live in doors. Then, I saw the children and the neighbors pull out the croquette mallets (isn't that what their called?) and try and hit the ball...they missed the ball but were good at hitting shins. It turned into a polo match and just as I shouted "children, let's put this up before someone gets hit in the head" - Lucy let out a wail...I'll post pics if her battered eye turns into a full blown black eye.

The flames

Written Monday night -

Last night I opened my eyes at 2:17am to hear my neighbor ringing our door bell and yelling "fire, fire". The two story house kitty-corner and behind our house was blazing by the time I peaked out my blinds. The flames were roaring over the house and the embers, ashes and smoke were blown into our yard by the wind. We dressed and ran outside to see the house quickly consumed and the houses on either side catching fire. I grabbed our water hose and watered down some of the embers that landed in our yard and we called 911 to get the firemen to make it to our side of the hill. Our house is fine, only ashes on our cars this morning and in the yard but an eirry feeling looms with the lingering smoke smell. A harsh reminder of the dangers in the world we live in - and how quickly it can all change.

In moments like these I remember how precious and fragile life is. I remember the important things in life - the ones we love. I thought about how there are so many forces/ that are seeking to destroy us....and how I am helpless to stop some of them and some I could drive myself crazy trying to prevent and still not be 100% sure - life is just full of risk.

After I saw the flames died down I went inside and looked at my kids. I covered them up, kissed their foreheads and thanked God for them. I prayed over them - that the Lord would protect them from the things in life that seek to destroy them, hurt them - physically, mentally and spiritually and that I would have wisdom to be their mama, courage to face this life full of uncertainties, trust to still let my children enjoy life abundantly (not fearfully) and strength to trust in the only ONE who is certain.

So this weekend - as I recheck my smoke detectors and talk to my children about our fire plan and meeting place I will be reminded of how fragile life is, how much I have to be thankful for and that for better or worse, my life in the Lord's hands.

Uncle Casey the K-9 cop

Uncle Casey was on the local news this week for a training he had with his k-9 dog Rock. Yippee! Proud of you Uncle Casey - you can watch the link to the local news in Tallahassee

http://ww2.wctv6.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipId1=4586383&flvUri=&partnerclipid=&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=K-9%20Training%20in%20Perry&d1=43767&redirUrl=http://www.wctv6.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=flv

Birthday Celebration!

This past weekend the weather was beautiful and Wyatt celebrated his birthday with a real John Deere tractor party and some family and friends. Aunt Erin did a great job with everything and I think the "kid crowd" would especially approve. Wyatt LOVED the cake and the other kids - he particularly liked hugging/hanging on Lucy - so sweet. He also started walking a little bit last week! I thought it was so funny to watch him stand up outside and try to decide whether to walk or clap ot the baby he saw on the ground (his own shadow). He is such a cutie. If you want to see Wyatt digging into cake and my kids having fun check out Aunt Erin's blog. Here are a couple of pics I got from the day -



Hey cousin Lucy - can I have some of that
Hey, can I get up there too.

One funny thing - Lucy wanted to share her food with Ruger (the three or four times she sat down to eat). I looked down one time and saw her drinking sweet tea out of her glass and then holding it down for Ruger to lick out of it too AND then return to drinking out of it herself. She didn't miss a beat and loved sharing her food and drink with the dogs.

Celebrations

This weekend will be a weekend of celebrating. Hopefully I'll be able to celebrate finishing my paper by midnight tonight BUT there are more joyful things to celebrate - like my nephew's first birthday! Can you believe Wyatt is 1? His birthday was the 16th and he has a big weekend of celebrating to do with lots of friends and family who love him.

Samuel and Lucy have been down on the farm for a few days and I hear Lucy has gotten a little too good at wrestling with Wyatt. Lucy isn't much bigger than Wyatt but the real wrestling will have to wait until Wyatt is a little older - may in a couple of weeks when he's bigger than she is - HaHa!

Here is a cute pic of him from this past week -


We will also be celebrating Abbey's new baby at a shower for her in Tally - just lots of things to be happy about. Hope your weekend is full of joyful celebrations too.

The numbers

1131 - number of emails in my inbox
164 - number of unread emails in my inbox
3 - number of pages left to write on this paper
8 - hours spent trying to write those 3 pages
6 - number of data reports to include in the above mentioned paper
2 - number of exams next week
- number of pages left to read for these exams
2 - celebrations I'll be attending this weekend for family members (nephew's 1st birthday, cousins baby shower!)

Swagbucks

I've mentioned to some of you the search engine swagbucks.com a friend told me about. It uses Google and Ask.com information but allows you to earn points for searches you make on the web. SwagBucks.com even has a toolbar you can add to the top of your screen to do fast searches. For every few searches you do you earn points - for example, for every 45 points you earn you can trade them in for a $5 amazon.com gift card. My friend Jessica has earned over $300 in gift cards for their family. Thought I would share this info with you so that you can share in the money making and saving.

AND - it helps if you have people sign up under you because you get "referral" points for their searches.

You can click below to sign up if you want -

Morning Snow

4 inches on top of the car
Our leaning snowman
He really got covered in snow throughout the night!

Lucy conquering the hill...

More pics for Papa to see the snow this morning.

Lucy in the Laundry basket

Lucy had a great time sledding in the laundry basket (the cookie sheet was a little hard for her to steer). She was most excited about making snow angels and eating the snow but here is brother helping her down in the laundry basket.

PS - Note to self - teach children how to put on gloves before it snows the next time - southern kids don't get much practice and my children have a hard time with those gloves!

Samuel on the Sled

Samuel's cookie sheet sled was a hit. He was pretty good at getting down the hill with stick in hand - we had lots of fun. He even laughed at me when I made it down the hill on the cookie sheet.



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Sledding

The snow was so blindingly white this didn't turn out very well but you can see the fearless Samuel sledding down the hill on the cookie sheet. Most of the time he also had a stick in his hand!