Black and White

Saturday was beautiful here and Daddy had to work so I took advantage of the nice weather and snapped some black and white picture of the kids. They are getting huge by the way. They are getting huge very fast. Too fast actually. Maddie will be 6 in about 6 weeks. Really? Was it six years ago that I had her? She is definitely growing up. She is a huge help with Megan and I have seen her mature this year in lots of ways. She loves to help me in the kitchen. She still has a very active imagination. Loves to play with Sam and loves to laugh. She always wants her toenails painted. She wants her hair to grow all the way to her bottom and it almost has. Wasn't it just a minute ago that she was 2 and she barely had any hair? She makes me proud in so many ways.

Sam will be 5 this year. Yes I said that right...FIVE! I can remember being on bed rest with him wondering if he was going to make it. I can remember how long those 7 weeks felt. They felt about as long as the past 5 years. I can remember having him in approximately 45 minutes. I can remember about 20 people rushing into the delivery room ready to whisk him away to the special care nursery. I can remember looking at Troy and feeling so much happiness that we laughed when they all left the room and told us he was perfect and could stay right with us.
Sam has made us laugh everyday since.

This is our little Joy. She definitely carries her name well. She will be 6 months old in 2 days. Holy Cow...six months old already? She loves Maddie and Sam. Her face lights up and she tries to grab them anytime they come near her. She pats my back now every time I pick her up. When things get tense with three kids it actually helps calm me down. She pats my back letting me know it will be alright. She also loves her Daddy. She buries her face in his neck when he picks her up. It makes him smile. Which makes me smile. She has definitely brought 6 months of Joy to our family!

Outside with a little whine....

The weather is beautiful this weekend so I kicked the kids outside. They needed the fresh air and mommy needed the quiet. Sam: "Mommy can I please come in now?"

Me: "No you need the fresh air."

Sam: "I already had fresh air!"

Sam: "I'm getting cold." (it was in the 70's)

Me: "No"

Sam: "My knees Hurt."

Me: "No"

Sam: "I really want to play PlayStation."

Me: "No"

Then Maddie got in on the act.
"Please!?!?!"
Me: "Do you want to play bubbles?"
Kids: "Yeah!!!!"
They stayed out for another hour or so blowing bubbles and chasing them around.
I'm so thankful for the nice weather, and so thankful that the kids can be entertained for an hour with bubbles.

Carrying on the Legacy

Mom used to dress us girls matching quite a bit. I couldn't find much photographic evidence of this, but it is ingrained upon my memory for sure! We usually always matched at Easter....I thought this was very normal until I was married and pitched the idea to Troy. I guess he didn't know that family's have to match or at least coordinate for this sacred Holiday. Sometimes mom bought the clothes to match and sometimes she sewed them. This is a picture of Melissa and I at my 2nd birthday party. I love the fact that we are matching down to our little pigtails.
Melissa, Melinda and I on Easter 1990. Melinda would have been 9, I would have been almost 11 and Melissa would have been 15. I guess that is why she didn't have to wear an Easter bonnet.

This is a picture of Maddie and Megan last night before church. I found these tunics on a great sale at Old Navy. I thought they looked just like baby dolls! Maddie thought it was so much fun to dress just like Megan. Megan didn't really care. I'm sure some day though, she will look back on these pictures with fond memories and appreciation!

Rolling!

Megan is now rolling from her tummy and her back! She is really interested in toys and this is her motivation for rolling most of the time. She can also scoot to reach what she wants. Checking out the toys.
Aha! She got the teether!

And straight to the mouth.

She is pretty proud of her new tricks and so is her Momma!

Nerf Darts

They are everywhere!

And look who is to blame!

A Resolution a Little Late....

I have never been a big one for New Year's resolutions. I'm pretty goal oriented most of the time and since I have had kids pretty much any goal I set can take up to a year or so to accomplish. This year however, I have set a few 'goals'. Three to be exact. I am posting this with the realization that I may never meet these goals and I'm ok with that. I have realized that life can take funny turns and flexibility is very important. I do however think that is important to have some goals. My main goals in life of Loving God more, being a Godly wife and mother are still primary and these little goals will hopefully draw me closer to that main goal. The Bible says that if we don't have a vision we perish...so with that being said, here are three things I'm shooting for in 2011.

1. I would like to run the Disney Princess half Marathon in February 2012. I used to run quite a bit and really enjoyed it. I realize that this goal is for 2012, but it will take me this year to get the endurance up I'm sure!

2. I would like decrease our monthly grocery spending by $50 a month by using coupons. I have been using the site http://www.southernsavers.com/ to learn how to do this and so far it's working out pretty well.

3. I would like to start selling some of my sewing on etsy.com. I'm going to start by selling pacifier clips and see where it goes from there. This type of creativity is a good outlet for me and if I can sell some in the mean time it would be fun I think.

So there it is! These are some of the things I'm shooting for this year. Have any of you made goals or resolutions? I woul love to hear what they are!

The Peacemaker

This week a boat called the Peacemaker was docked at the Panama City Marina. It was open daily for tours so Troy and I took Sam and Megan on a tour while Maddie was in ballet on Monday. Sam loved it thinking the whole time it was a pirate ship. He actually got to talk to the Captain and asked if they had killed any pirates, to which the Captain answered 'no'! It was a very neat looking boat with old time sail rigging. The inside was beautifully done with lots of woodwork. Kind-of an interesting group manning the ship. They sell handcrafts to support themselves and sail around from port to port giving tours of their ship. It was kind-of like walking back in time seeing how they were dressed and seeing the beautiful crafts they made. The boat was very large, but since I'm not exactly a sea loving gal, there is no way I would want to be on this thing in open waters! It is a true sail boat and they depend on the wind to make it go.
Here is Sam in front of some ropes. He loved running all over the boat trying to locate the treasure chest he knew must be aboard.

Megan and Sam in the galley.

It was a pretty interesting experience. The group that manned the boat was part of a religious group called 'the 12 tribes'. They have separated themselves from modern culture and taken on some of the old Jewish traditions. They live plainly like the Amish. They were pretty cool to talk to. It was interesting to be exposed to a different culture right here in our own city.

Terre Haute Children's Museum

While we were up in Indiana over the Holidays we went to the Terre Haute Children's Museum with alot of our Amis cousins. (Some of the cousins couldn't come due to some sort of mutated stomach virus we all seem to get when we are together....it's a pretty big bummer) We have been to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis many times, but this was our first time to visit the one in Terre Haute. It was very nice, but on a much smaller scale as compared to the one in Indy. The kids had a great time and maybe even learned something!One of the favorite exhibits was this huge bubble maker. The kids could step in on the black circle and then pull the string and a very large bubble would come up all around them. This is Maddie just as her bubble popped. There were about 6 adults watching around 11 kids in our group and at one point I looked over and Liberty and Maddie were in this exhibit together and had quite a long line behind them with a few parents in the line that were giving the "Who is supposed to be watching these kids!" look on their face. I'm sure they had been in there for quite a while so like any responsible Mother I sent Troy to get them out!
Here is Sam with his bubble around him.

They had a pretty big emphasis on agriculture- we were in Indiana after all!

They had tractors and combines to drive and augers the kids could operate. They also had cows that they could milk. I would like to brag on Maddie a bit who could milk the cow with out being instructed of the "pinch-squeeze" technique. Obviously another talent she has had from the womb. We won't tell her Papa Amis or he may put her to work!

They also had lots of hands on play like a big water center and a place to dig for dinosaur bones. It was pretty economical for us too since pretty much anywhere we go with our Amis cousins we can finagle some sort of group discount!

The kids all had a great time. I love how they get to make so many good memories when we are all together.

Oops!

Man we have been busy this week! The Acadia is in the shop so I've been having to take Troy back and forth to work. Troy also started classes this week for three hours three nights a week. These extra hours in the car got me a little behind...... The laundry piled up The dishes are still stacked.

This one had to be taught.

This one had to be fed.

And then I lost the baby!

I'm looking forward to when life will slow down a little, maybe in about 18 or 20 years?

5 Months

Sweet little Megan is 5 months old already! She is getting big so fast. She is still such a good baby. She took her second trip to IN for Christmas and did very well in the car. She loves getting attention from Maddie and Sam and is easily entertained. She weighs 15 pounds and is in the 90th percentile for height and weight. Her new tricks include rolling from her stomach to her back and letting out high pitched squeals when she get excited. She is really working on some teeth and we will all be glad when they come through. She has been seeming a little unsatisfied with nursing only so Maddie and I made her some homemade rice cereal to mix with breast milk tonight. She loved it! She gobbled up the 2 Tbs pretty fast and didn't seem confused at all with the spoon.Maddie helped me make the cereal (which had to be stirred for 10 minutes so I was very grateful!) and took all these pictures. She is really turning into a big helper!
I'm so proud of my little girls!

SNOW!!!

We just spent the last 10 days or so in the North visiting with friends and family and celebrating Christmas and New Years. It was a lot of fun and we made lots of fun memories! (We made some not so fun memories, but I'll save that for another post...) Every time we talk about heading up for the Holidays we get the same questions over and over from the kids... "Is it going to snow????" This year they decided to pray for snow and their prayers were definitely answered! This may seem funny to people up North, but since it hasn't snowed in Panama City since 1989...people state that fact all the time around here...it is a once a year adventure for our kids. Christmas Eve it started snowing and it really was a perfect and beautiful snow. The kids went out and played in it with their Teipen cousins and had so much fun! Maddie and Josie with Sam Beau the dog trying to catch snow flakes on their tongues. They sledded and made snow angels.

And even jumped on the trampoline; which proved to be about as dangerous as it looks.

While we were there they got many more opportunities to play in the snow.

Posing for a picture is not near as much fun as jumping from a mound of snow, but I'm glad he humored me

Maddie loved every minute of it!

Daddy took them out to play most of the time and I stayed in with Megan. Maybe next year she will be old enough so we can all get out in it!