My Modern Day Good Samaritan

I had intended to blog about this story since it happened a couple weeks ago but never got around to it, however, it's too good not to share so here goes:
A couple weekends ago the kids and I went to Charlotte to see my parents and for me to work a shift at the hospital We did some fun Christmasy things including a horse and carriage ride around the Billy Graham library and making Christmas cookies. I had to work Saturday night and was supposed to get off at 9am, then drive to Winston-Salem to Parkway Chapel where Steven was preaching at 11. My parents got the kids ready in their Sunday clothes and Mom met me at work so we could switch cars and get on the road. We squeezed into Steven's car since my van was getting fixed (we hit a deer a couple weeks before that), 2 car seats and a booster in between is pretty tight in a compact car, however, I thought we were doing good as we cleared Charlotte without any traffic or kid fights. My phone rang about Concord and it was my boss from the hospital - she said "Good news, Sallie, we found your wallet!" Until that time I didn't even know I had lost it. I looked at my gas gauge and realized I wasn't going to make it to Winston, so I had to think of someone to call that wasn't already in church to get their credit card number. If I had only taken my late Grandaddy's advice and kept my "emergency $20" that he used to make sure all of his grandchildren had, I wouldn't have been in my predicament - but unfortunately there was no source of money in the car. Thankfully I reached my mother-in-law who texted me her card numbers, and the kids and I piled out of the car around Kannapolis at a gas station. I took my name badge with me as "identification" and thought for sure they would let me use the card number to put some gas in. The man at the counter, however, said no and wouldn't budge on the policy. I'm not sure if it was the situation itself, the recent school tragedy that had just happened in Conneticut, or being pregnant, but I just stood in the gas station with my kids and completely lost it. This kind man came up to me and asked me what was wrong - unfortunately I can hardly talk when I cry like that so it took me awhile to explain my situation. As soon as he realized I just needed gas he gave the man at the counter a 20 and proceeded to fill up my car. He talked to me about the Lord and knew we were headed to church - I told him I shared his faith and knew the Lord had provided through him. He wouldn't give me a phone number or address so I could re-imburse him but I do have his name so I'm going to try and look him up anyways. I loaded the kids up and cried about 20 more minutes on the road. Poor Sadie, she had tried to give me money for gas (she had about $1.50 in change in her little purse) and she started crying when I melted down. Through my tears I tried to explain how the Lord had provided for us in our need, and that my tears were happy tears, but it still took her some time to calm down. We made it to church with a few extra minutes and Steven opened his message with my story.
As I reflected on the day, the man did not have to come over and talk to me, much less give me 20 dollars of his hard earned money, and it spoke volumes to me about how we should help each other out in times of need. I hope I make the most of the opportunities that I am given to help others out the way he helped me, strangers or friends (maybe it's easier to help those people we don't know - but I'm pretty sure we're supposed to help both). I'm sorry this turned into a long story - but I wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget it. We had a wonderful Christmas, I'll post about it soon with some pictures. Goodnight!

You know you have a kindergartener when....

Tonight Sadie gave me a message from the bathtub, it was "Hey, M-O-M, I'm going to tell you something...I, finger space, L-O-V-E, finger space, Y-O-U." For those of you aren't familiar with finger spacing it is apparently the current method of teaching writing, Sadie very carefully puts her finger at the end of the word before starting writing the next one (or in this case, spelling out the message for me). She brought her first progress report home the other day and it appears she is perfectly average for her grade-level, which I am happy with. Truly, she is learning a lot and seems to love it, for me that's more important than what reading group she is in. My mom likes to read the John Roseman (not sure if I spelled that right) column in the newspaper and she cut out an article for me to read. He spoke of a school advertising the high grades of their students and also the colleges their students were accepted into, never mentioning anything about their character development focus. I know that the majority of character training is to happen at home but I think that education in general is losing the "well-rounded" emphasis it used to carry. Truthfully I think education is slightly over-rated, I don't intend to send my children off to a 4 year school for the experience of it. I pray that by that time we have helped guide them into decisions for actual careers, unfortunately a college degree alone will not get you a job anymore. I feel like we are just getting our feet wet with this whole school thing, as our first-born is just a couple months into school, so by no means have I figured this thing out. I often wonder, "should I be homeschooling? Should they be in private school?"  But for now my goals for Sadie, and hopefully the rest, are to learn how to learn, to enjoy the process, to be a good friend, to learn to respect authorities besides her parents, and (like I tell her everyday) to "shine as a light for the Lord."
As for my boys, they are finally starting to bond a little better. When David was born Sadie and Eli played so well together, but their personalities are night and day from each other. Sadie was bossy and Eli allowed her (and still does) to direct all play, so it worked well. Eli's favorite activity with David is still to touch his face, which now just irritates the fire out of David, so we have daily talks about "all having fun" and Eli has found a few other little games that make them both laugh. Steven apparently has said one too many times that Eli needs to get tough because tonight he was crying after getting hurt and I said "Eli, you're ok, you need to get tough," then Sadie replied with "Yeah, Eli, if you don't get tougher Daddy is going to sell you or something." Poor little guy. At this point it appears that David is plenty tough, too rough to be exact. Thankfully he redeems himself with sweet snuggles and his vocabulary is really growing, but man is he intense. It's amazing how different kids can be, I'm so thankful for the little boogers. I don't think I'll let Steven sell any. :)
Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you can count your blessings this week and enjoy the family and food! I know I will try to keep a thankful, joyful heart, remembering most of all my salvation. "Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift," (we read that today in church but I can't remember the reference). Goodnight!

A Halloween Tale

 Once upon a time there was a little girl named Cinderella who got to wear her pretty dress to school for "Character Day." Not surprisingly, there were several other Cinderellas (she had to bring in a book about her character as well which ruled out several other costumes). She got to have a party and of course bring home some candy. Her Nana had come for a visit the day before and she, Eli, and the cousins got to carve pumpkins for the porch. 

 While Cinderella was at school Mama, Nana, and Grandma took a Chicken, a BumbleBee, and Woody the cowboy to the preschool Fall Festival. Once the chicken found the basketball goals Mama couldn't get him to do any other games. He's a bit of a sports fanatic. Thankfully, there was a goal he could reach (if not he simply goes up to the nearest adult and reaches up so they will lift him up to shoot). He's a strong-willed little Chicken.

The Bumble-bee was just as sweet as ever, he enjoyed all the games and especially the candy. He didn't sting too many people but he does still have his face-touching obsession with the Chicken. The Chicken will soon fight back, I feel sure. 

On Halloween Cinderella had a Teacher Workday (now she is expecting to always be out of school on Halloween) so they enjoyed their lazy day with Mama and Nana, including a trip to the library and Walmart (it gets pretty crazy around here). Papa came up for a short visit, too, so they decided to show him their costumes. Cinderella turned into Little Red Riding Hood, a costume her Grandma had made for her aunt when she was a little girl. Precious!

 Since it sometimes proves to be a little tricky, the kids decided to practice their trick or treating with Nana before actually going out. 

 Was that a chicken in the house? A little while later the cousins came home and everybody ate a quick dinner so they could head out trick or treating. They went a little early, interrupting at least one family's dinner (oops!), the kids had a blast and the Chicken quickly figured out the deal and was crawling up the steps as fast as he could, then holding out his hands for candy. Instead of "Thank you" the Bumblebee just said "Trick or Treat" but the kind neighbors seemed to understand. It was so fun for the Mama to watch kids in this stage, when getting candy is about as exciting as it gets. They went out early so the kids could still go to AWANA, Mama didn't want to set a precedent of skipping church on Halloween, and the kids were happy to go. Mama seemed to be the only tired one that night, maybe she should have eaten as much candy as they did! 

Peace out! (aka...The End)

33 or 83??

I'm beginning to wonder how old I am, I'm afraid I'm starting to age really fast. As I've had more kids I definitely see the benefit in eating dinner early. If it's 6:00 and D hasn't eat yet it makes finishing the meal miserable, he epitomizes the old saying "underfoot" and drives me crazy. Today I went a little overboard, I was getting ready to call everyone to the table and realized it was only 4:57...I am officially a Senior Citizen. On Wednesday nights the big kids have AWANA until 8 so I bedtime is always a little hairy. I picked up the phone by my bed to call Steven's cell and see if he could come kiss them goodnight (I know that's lazy, but I'm pregnant). I called Sadie and Eli to join me in the bed so we could read our books and pray but when Steven turned the corner I was the only one under the covers. I don't know why but that made me laugh until I had to get up and pee, I don't know if it's hormones but I couldn't get it together enough to tell Steven what was so funny. I'll never forget one time in church Byron (my brother) and I were in college and we were listening to our Dad make announcements at the beginning of the worship service. He was putting in a plug for VBS and said "I'll never forget the potholders I made in Bible School 20 years ago..." (he was in his mid 40s at this point), I looked at Byron and whispered "he went to VBS when he was 25?" and the two of us got the giggles so bad we almost had to leave. Sometimes we need a good belly laugh like we need a good cry, and I guess the Lord knew I needed that tonight! 

Here are my babies at a corn maze we went to this weekend with my parents, it was fun....we actually found some corn, and barely found our way out. I can't believe it will be those 3 for just a few more months, Sadie and Eli are excited about the baby and tonight Eli gave me a hug but informed me that he wasn't hugging me, he was hugging the baby. Sadie, in her old age, has been shortening her bedtime prayers to "Thank you God for everything (or anything), except Satan, Amen." Eli followed her in prayer the other night and very sweetly thanked God for his cousins (certain ones always get mentioned twice), his Mom and Dad, then he said "and thank you God for nothing. Amen." That one made me laugh, too, but not out of control like tonight. Well, since I'm now an old lady and it's 10:08 I'm going to go take my dentures out and go to bed. Goodnight!

I'm getting married??

I was running errands today and I ventured into Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a couple wedding gifts. I came straight from the Rush so had a tank top on that clearly showed my growing belly, and D was with me in a buggy. I asked the ladies at the front if I could look at a couple registries. They starting paging someone named Mark and complaining that "the room" was taken. I walked around the Clearance section for a few minutes wondering whey they couldn't just print out a registry, like we do at home. But anyways, I didn't want to be annoying so I patiently waited (I can't say the same for D). Finally a nice man came and found me and we sat down in the registry room. I suddenly realized they thought I wanted to set up a registry for my own wedding, not just look for one, and quickly informed the nice man that I wasn't the bride-to-be...was it really that shocking? I mean, who would come in with a baby and another on the way to register for a wedding? It would have been fun, I must say, there are a million things in there I would love to put on a list and have people buy for me, but it's not my time. It was almost as fun buying things for the sweet couples that are getting ready to get married. It seems like a lifetime ago that I was in their shoes, not just 9 years. How quickly life goes! I wouldn't trade a minute of it, especially the last decade with my sweet hubby and growing family.
David is really enjoying hearing himself talk, and it is so cute. His favorite word this week is "uh-oh, spaghetti-o" and he really thinks he is something else. He doesn't believe he is a baby anymore, he jumps right in the wrestling play sessions with Daddy. It is amazing how much they understand at this age. Sorry for this choppy post, but bedtime is calling my name. Steven keeps telling me I look tired (I think it's just because I don't have any make-up on) so I guess I'll take the opportunity to go to bed early. Nothing I would have done as a bride-to-be, but like I said, times have changed! Goodnight.

Arizona and Baby Name :)

I don't think it's news anymore since I've made it public on Facebook, and my belly is growing at an alarming rate, but in case you haven't heard....we are expecting Harrell # 4! We had our ultrasound last Thursday and found out that it's a girl, which I am sooooo excited about. I have this thing with even numbers and I always wanted Sadie to have a sister, so 2 pairs it is! Yipee!:) 

I am blogging from a hotel room in Arizona tonight, Steven was awarded 3 nights stay at any Ritz Carlton through his work last year. We had tried to arrange a ski trip last February, but it didn't work out so we arbitrarily picked this weekend in September to come to Dove Mountain, Arizona, for 3 nights (the resort just looked pretty and we'd never been here before). Little did we know at the time that it would be a perfect time for a getaway, and we would have just had our ultrasound so we could pick our baby name while we're here. It has been a relaxing 3 days, enjoying the pool, eating out, a little shopping, and no responsibility. Here is a picture of our hotel room.

  Here we are before our night out tonight.....a little shopping trip to the mall followed by dessert at The Melting Pot....yum! I think I need to throw my scales away for this pregnancy, I feel huge already and am only 19 weeks. It's probably my last, though, so I think I've mentally excused myself to eat whatever I want (which I've certainly done on this trip). I'm sure I'll be mad at myself next Spring when I have extra pounds to lose, but frankly I don't care. 

  On our way back to the hotel tonight we almost hit one of these! We thought it was a wild pig but it's actually a Javalina - from the rodent family, and very common around here. We decided this is the animal that was in Princess Bride, remember the creepy animal in the forest scene? Thankfully we didn't get to close to this guy, we hear they can be vicious. 

The kids are at home with life going on as normal - Sadie is doing pretty well adjusting to school (she still doesn't like to wake up in the morning) and Eli is loving preschool. Here is a picture of him on his first day. I can't get many details about school, I finally did get a name from him, for the longest time all I heard was "the boy with the spiderman shirt" when asked about any new friends. I'm hoping his fine motor skills will improve, so far his artwork is not too impressive. He's my climber, I dread the homework days with him as he still doesn't care a thing about coloring (and that seems to be a big part of Kindergarten, which Sadie loves). Oh well, we have 2 years for progress. As for progress, my little man is starting to talk up a storm and loving his new abilities. He holds a phone just behind his ear and says "Ah-lo", he babbles all the time and is starting to stay a lot more recognizable stuff. The cutest thing right now though is to watch him dance, he starts shaking his hips or shoulders with any music or singing he hears. I'll try to get a video of it. 

 I should have a cute pregnancy picture here, but I haven't taken any yet. I need to, as long as I don't get too fat too fast. I enjoyed looking at the baby girl clothes tonight at the mall but I restrained from buying anything. I haven't seem them in a while but Sadie has so many clothes that I really don't need to buy anything. It's going to be so fun to dress a cute little baby girl again! As for her name, it's actually one we picked out when we were pregnant with David and didn't know yet if he was a boy or girl. My Mom's name is Mary and one of Steven's favorite aunts is Betty Jo, so we've decided to name (and call) her Mary Jo. A little southern, but she can shorten it to Mary one day if she wants. Sadie, Eli, David and Mary Jo. Can't wait till she's here!!!

Goodnight :)

My baby started school!

I have many excuses as to why it has taken me nearly a month to blog, again, but I wont bore any readers I might have with the reasons. Life is just life, busy, fun, and speeding on along. My sweet Sadie started Kindergarten this week! I feel like I have been preparing myself for her first day for a year now...I held back tears at Open House as she found her little desk with her name on it, I had a hard time sleeping the night before, and I jumped out of bed at 6:30 to get her ready. She was excited, Steven and I walked her to her room, she did great. Me too, I was emotional but didn't lose it, battle won! But later that day I was fixing lunch and realizing we had a lot of cheese, and the boys just like PB&J, so I thought to myself "I'll make grilled cheese sandwiches one day this week, Sadie likes those..." then realized that I wouldn't be able to do that. I was prepared for her FIRST day of school, but not for the rest of them. She's going to be there, most Mondays-Fridays, for like, forever! I'm going to cry as I write this but at least I'm by myself, and not in public. I'm so proud of her - which is a little silly because she hasn't done much yet, but those feelings are there regardless. She's growing up and I can't stop it, so I guess I'll cry a little and mostly try to enjoy it. I will definitely cherish our afternoons, weekends, and holidays a little more. Oh, I sound like those annoying strangers that always stop you in Walmart and say "enjoy this time, it's going to go by way too fast!". At the time I'm always like "really? this day has lasted forever already, but whatever"....THEY ARE RIGHT!
In other news, Eli starts preschool next week! He will go two days a week and he is excited, already familiar with the school since Sadie was just there a few months ago. Hopefully he'll make some new friends, he's already got one good one but he's not nearly the social butterfly Sadie is. I am also hoping he'll improve some on his fine motor skills - as of now he has NO interest. One day this summer I was showing Sadie how to sharpen pencils and I gave Eli some crayons and a coloring book and left them alone for a little while. Was Eli coloring when I got back? No, he was "dwordfighting" with 2 freshly sharpened pencils. What a boy. A sweet one, though.
My little D is coming into his own, too, with a fiesty little personality. I don't remember my other 2 throwing all out temper tantrums at this age, but I don't know what else to call it. He is one demanding 15month old! He finally said his first word besides "dada" the other day when he dropped his toy in Wal-mart...you guessed it - "Uh-oh". Now the big kid's favorite activity is to drop something just to get him to say it. Tonight he made an incredible mess at a Mexican restaurant (dragging his sippy cup through the refried beans at one point and dipping his own chips into the cheese dip), I stood him up to brush off his clothes and he looked down at the floor and said "uh-oh". You got that right buddy - that's why this Mama likes to go out to eat!
I think that's a good August update, although Sadie also learned to ride her bike a couple weeks ago without training wheels (her older cousin taught her - awesome) and she has been loving it. Her arms and legs are all scraped up... I should probably explain to her teachers that she isn't that clumsy she's just flying around on her bike and occasionally crashes into things (like the ground). I'm sure it is fun to be able to go that fast on something all by yourself. Hopefully she'll be a little more cautious when she gets her driver's license!
That's it for now. Go kiss your loved ones and have a good night!

Shaved ice and chickens

Steven took a trip to Hawaii in 1999 with his Mom and Grandma, about a month before we started dating. Since it's such a big trip (far away and expensive) I just assumed I might not ever get to go since he had already been....but the Lord often has other plans for us! Steven worked very hard last year in order to make this trip with Lincoln Financial....to the beautiful island of Kauai. The first 4 nights we stayed at the Grand Hyatt Resort in Poipu, it was indeed grand.  Below is a picture of our room.

Our 2nd day in Hawaii was my 33rd birthday, what a great way to spend a birthday! We slept late, according to our time (Hawaii time it was a little hard to sleep past 4am). We enjoyed the saltwater pools and ocean and a night out to the Beach House Restaurant (with Lincoln). The co-workers we ate with had quite a few glasses of wine before discovering it was my birthday, so needless to say I got sung to quite a bit. My favorite was the local guy driving the bus, his tune was very original. Despite much pressure I declined going up to the front for a solo, for me to do that I would have had to drink an entire bottle of wine (and for the record, I didn't drink any). The only negative part of my birthday was not seeing my kids, so I decided to Skype with them before they went to bed. It was a sweet time until I noticed Eli was crying in the corner of the screen, which made me sad. Thankfully he recovered pretty quickly, or so I was told. We didn't Skype anymore after that, I think it was too hard on my sensitive little guy.

The next day we got to pick our activity and I signed us up for a zipline tour, which was really fun. We went on 7 different ziplines that got faster and higher as we went. The last one we went down next to each other over the valley of a mountain, it was really cool. 

The last night at the Grand Hyatt Lincoln had a farewell party that included a concert by the Bacon Brothers...and yes that is Kevin Bacon in the picture below. Apparently acting is just his day job, he was in his element on that stage and has a great voice. We didn't get to meet him but it was fun to see him in person for over an hour!  

 The next day we checked out of the hotel and rented a jeep to drive around the last couple of days. We drove to see the Waimai Canyon which is the "Grand Canyon of Hawaii" and it was great, everywhere you look is a gorgeous view, either mountain or ocean, or chicken (for some reason there are a lot of chickens in Kauai, literally, on the side of the road everywhere). From the top of the Waimai Canyon we got a glimpse of the Napali Coast, which is possibly the prettiest view I have ever seen. That afternoon we checked into this quaint little cottage I found on Homeaway.com.  

 The cottage wasn't nearly as elegant as the resort but we loved the nature all around us, there were horses and roosters and this pretty peacock right in our backyard. There was a bathtub indoors but an outdoor shower, which Steven enjoyed more than me. One day he was showering outside and I heard a yell, apparently a rooster got a little too close for his comfort. 

 Steven quickly discovered another special thing about Kauai, they are famous for their shaved ice. It really is good, and I don't like that kind of thing nearly as much as him. He pretty much planned his day and meals around the next shaved ice encounter. :)

 While the resort was toward the south side of the island, our cottage was on the North Shore and really near Hannalei Bay (from "Puff the Magic Dragon"). It was our favorite little spot and this picture really doesn't do it justice. We found great little local dives to eat at and a shop with cheap t-shirts for the kids, a great beach to swim in, and of course shaved ice and ice cream for dessert. Steven even picked up a local real estate book....but quickly put it back down when he saw the prices. 

 It was a great vacation. I missed my kiddos and was soooo ready to see them after a week, but it was a great time for Steven and I to just be us, no interruptions, no daily life stress. Every couple needs that now and then, especially when you have kids and busy lives. 

 Thank you baby for our wonderful trip! I will always treasure it. 

Better late than never!

Our summer has been crazy, from mid June to mid July we were out of town 3 out of 4 weeks. I realized looking back that I never talked about D's birthday.  Poor little guy! He did get a big piece of homemade chocolate cake so he wasn't too upset.

I did my senior project in high school on the interesting subject of birth order - based on a book I had read. I know there is a lot more that shapes our personalities besides birth order but it is an interesting thing to look at. I was listening to Sadie and Eli's conversation the other day and thought about the "middle child." This was their conversation.
Eli "Dadie, come here!"
Sadie "Where are you?"
Eli "my room"
Sadie" you don't have a room."
Maybe that's why he ends up in our bed most nights.
And our 3rd child, that's even worse. When Sadie turned 1 we had a big party, a tailor-made "Ladybug Cake", lots of people. Eli had a big party too, with a camo cake and all our family. D got a nice dinner (that we enjoyed more than him) with his family and grandparents, who also happened to be there for Sadie's preschool graduation. We sang, ate cake, took pictures, then rushed off to Sadie's preschool for her ceremony. By the time he knows what's going on we'll have a big bash for his birthday.

Here's my "graduate"! I can't believe she is starting kindergarten in a little over a month! 

On our first trip this summer we went to Skyland Bible Conference in Dayton, TN, with the whole Harrell clan. It was a great conference, the kids all did well and were thrilled to be across the hall from their cousins. Above are the "three musketeers"  with Grandma in a rare calm moment, reading Dr. Seuss.

Eli is never far from his sword. Which brings me to other, exciting, potty training news. We were home from the conference and the beach (we left Skyland a day early and drove 6+hours to Hilton Head, where my whole family was. It was a fun day and a half and I was glad to get to see all my cousins and the many 2nd cousins running around together) and my mom came up with a brilliant idea. We took away the sword as punishment for accidents, then gave it back when he went all day in the potty. It worked! He is officially trained. Most of the time. :)

Our 2nd trip was to Hawaii, which deserves it's own post. A few days back from Hawaii and we headed to camp, where Steven served as a counselor and I was the camp nurse. Not the same lush accommodations as Kauai but I didn't have to prepare meals, so that was great! Steven's mom came with me which was a huge blessing, being the nurse with 3 kids to take care of is a little more than I can handle alone. Camp was fun but it was great to get home to clean sheets and my own kitchen. Other than small trips to Charlotte we are home for the rest of the summer. Check back soon for a post about Hawaii!

Belated Disney Pics

 About a month ago we took a trip to Orlando for 4 nights with our kids, Esther, and my parents. We rented a condo and had 3 full days of exhausting fun and 2 long car trips. It was well worth it and we were pretty smart to have 5 adults and 3 kids....almost a 2:1 ratio!

Here we are on the way to Magic Kingdom!

 D was happy most of the time, especially if he was with my Dad....and wearing his hat.

I told Dad not to drop David from the ride and thought it was funny that I captured this moment on film. Don't worry, he didn't drop him :).  

Again, taking grandparents to Disney is the best! They got to enjoy the kids with us, see their reactions, it was priceless!  

I captured D's reaction to the Winnie the Pooh ride pretty well....he is thinking "What the heck are these people doing to me here? It's dark and loud and this seat keeps jerking around!" 

But his absolute favorite was the characters. I could not get him to stop hugging Winnie the Pooh to take a picture. 

 This was Esther's first time behind the wheel! Wee!!!!

 S & E playing outside the Winne the Pooh ride.

And the highlight of the day...meeting Mickey and Minnie!! Pirate sword and all.   

 The next day we went to Blizzard Beach, which was awesome. Steven loves the waterparks and Esther loved it too. We were able to do a big family raft ride and the big kids did a few "big kid" rides by themselves. They also had a great Kiddie pool that David mostly stayed in.

 A pretty good family pic, except for D.  

 Sadie and Eli figured out that they could do this ride essentially by themselves, they carried a tube up to the top and there was a lifeguard that put them on the slide and another to catch them. Before I knew it Sadie had learned the boy's names and was, for lack of a better term, flirting with them. I didn't think I'd be dealing with this at such a young age! 

 Her favorite boy...most of the time.

Here's almost the whole crowd for a rare group picture!

 Our last park day we went to Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure, which I highly recommend. There was an entire section devoted to Dr. Seuss (pictured above) which my kids could have stayed at all day (and nearly did). 

 Esther loved the roller coasters and so did Sadie and Eli, we did the "Hippogriff" over and over with the big kids and it was a pretty fun ride - for me because I got to hear their happy squeals. Esther, Steven, and I got a chance to ride The Hulk (scariest roller coaster I've ever ridden!) and the Double Dragon one in Harry Potter. Pretty awesome.

 Here is the Caroseussel. 

Sadie was brave and did this ride twice! You have to look hard to find her little self in the picture, she was just barely tall enough.

Eli gave up and he and D took fairly decent stroller naps. We had a great time and the kids hung in there really well. I remember making a promise with Steven on our honeymoon (we went to Disney for one day) that we would never take kids in strollers to Disney. I've done it twice now and am looking forward to the next time I can do it again! Oh how we eat our young, foolish words. Thanks for hanging in, I know this was long and lots of pictures! Goodnight!

Fake Reality

We just took a fun trip to Disney and I'm going to post about it soon....but this subject has been on my mind lately to I'm going to talk about it instead. DISCLAIMER: I am guilty of most of the things I'm talking about, I use a blackberry for my phone and email, I surf Facebook, and I write on this blog. I guess I'm old school at heart, though, because I see how far technology has come and I don't really like it. I look around at kids, especially teenagers, and they are absorbed into their electronic device, usually with earplugs in which makes them completely out of touch with the world around them. I can't stand it. I'm not sure how I'm going to fight this with my kids, Sadie is less than a decade away until she's "old enough" for Facebook (I think you should be 40). All I know is I'm thankful that Facebook wasn't around when I was a teenager. At least the stupid things I said were passed around class on little pieces of paper and later thrown away, not posted on a news feed for 300+ people to read. My friend told me of a lady who quit Facebook because she says it was giving her a sense of closeness with her friends when she wasn't actually interacting with them at all. I have noticed that I do this, too. I scroll through the news feed for a couple minutes, once or twice a day, and feel like I've probably seen anything newsworthy in my friend's (and many other people's) lives....when actually I'm not connected to them at all, I have no idea what is really going on in their mind and heart. Who is going to put the really difficult stuff out there for everyone to see? If you do it's a little weird, honestly, because way too many people are reading it. We all put our best foot forward in front of others, everyone is guilty of this. Steven always laughs when the Christmas cards come out because if it's a family picture it is always the best picture of the wife...even if the husband looks like a goofball and the kid's aren't looking at the camera, because the wife is the one who picks out the picture and orders them. I am definitely guilty of saying "hey, I look pretty good in that picture, let's put that one on my profile so everyone will think that's how I always look." And of course the age-old fishing for compliments (Steven hates it when I do this), "do I look ok? do these pants make me look fat?", Facebook is the perfect place for this as well. As one of our friends wisely said to us last week "if your life looks great on Facebook you are most likely miserable." So, is there any worth in Facebook? I do like to read funny things from my friend's lives, see their pictures, read birth announcements, etc, so I'm not planning on quitting. I just want to remember to pick up the phone and talk to my friends, not just check their wall. I want my children to learn the value of face to face interaction and connecting with people through verbal communication. I do not want them lost in personal video game devices, cell phones, or i-pods, I want them climbing trees and reading books and talking to people, even if that means their friends are always here (probably making fun of them for their lack of technology). In order to teach this to my children I need to practice it myself...which means I'm going to get off this laptop and go have a conversation with my husband. And call 3 friends tomorrow. But first I need to post this to Facebook, ironically.....:)

Pirate Parties, Easter, and D walking!

 My little man is 3 years old! I can't believe it. He's still just as sweet as the day he was born. He is very into Captain Hook and pirates right now, anything that is close to straight is a dord (sword), including a pencil, a tower of legos, or a hanger. So....we decided to have a pirate party. If you know me, I don't do themed parties very well. It's usually kind of an afterthought, however, this one turned out pretty cute. I was in Charlotte a couple days before the party to work, and Mom and I found a tutorial on the internet (what can't you find on the internet?) on how to make the cake pictured above. I think I sacrificed taste since we used a cake mix and dollar store icing, but it turned out cute.

 Here's my little guy admiring his cake the morning of the party.

 Truly, the most exciting part of the party, was the cousin time He is a lucky little boy, he has 6 boy cousins, ages 2-11, so he's pretty much set.

 Another dollar store find - a version of pin the tail on the donkey including a map and treasure chests.

 Having a birthday near Easter means he always has Easter egg hunts (including the week he was born), here they are running for the candy eggs in my parent's beautiful backyard.

 Mom planned a treasure hunt with picture clues, a couple for each child, that took them all over the yard.

 The end of the treasure hunt....an amazon box painted black with ribbon stapled on. My creativity is close to 0 on a scale of 1-10 so I was pretty impressed with Mom and I's ability to pull this off. It's also not hard to please kids, have plenty of candy and some cheap toys as party favors (the girls got wands and the boys swords) and they are thrilled.

 My dear Grandma Nash loved bright, colorful and not necessarily valuable, jewelry...which made for perfect "loot". We added the party favors and a few pieces of candy which Wren (the youngest Nash cousin) is digging for here. Too cute she is.

 As far as our Easter goes, we were going to go to church with my parents but changed plans to go with Steven to Pembroke for him to preach on Sunday morning, so he wouldn't have to make an extra trip to pick us back up. A wise friend once told me that while you have litte kids, very rarely will one not wake you up in the middle of the night.That Saturday night, however, topped the charts. I had already been up with D for an hour and gone back to sleep when Mom came in at 4am and told us both the big kids were awake...wide awake. I'm not sure why they both woke up and how they got so wound up (my Mom heard them running around) but getting them back to sleep was not one of our finest moments, to say the least. Both kids wanted me, all the crying woke up D, Steven got frustrated, and I had to leave him with them to get the baby back to sleep. In hindsight, I should have taken them downstairs, turned on Nick Jr., and let Steven sleep on the couch. As it was they only got another hour or so of sleep because we had to leave at 6:30. Needless to say it was a long day and there were no posed pretty family pictures to be taken. The kids did amazingly well, however, especially considering we went to a country club, of all places, to eat lunch with a very sweet older couple. Praise the Lord, He gave us grace and lots of car naps to get through the day.   

Last but definitely not least....D started walking! This is his favorite way of course, holding onto someone's finger, but last Friday he took his first steps by himself! His record is probably 10-15 but he is getting more confident every day. I sound like an old lady in the grocery store, but time with these babies really is going fast. Ok, enough cheesiness, I need to go to bed. No telling who will wake me up tonight!