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!

8 Years and Still Kickin'

It was a sweet day 8 years ago, March 27th, 2004, when I married the love of my life. I need to figure out how to scan a picture in of our wedding day, which would be more appropriate. Here we are tonight, Esther snapped a picture of us as we were headed to dinner. Walking out of the Olive Garden Steven told me "I didn't know I would be this happy being married to you." At first I was like, "thanks, babe," but he went on to explain that marriage is a little scary and intimidating before you get into it. We had both seen many marriages fail, and as Christians we don't believe we could just walk out of it. Thankfully, neither of us want to, and I pray we never will. The Lord is gracious and I am so blessed to be Steven's wife, to enjoy our day to day routine and also special dates like tonight.
A little tradition we have is to watch the "trailer" of our wedding video - a 3-4 minute video collage to "Come Away With Me" (Norah Jones) that plays at the beginning of the DVD. Esther and Sadie watched it with us, then I went upstairs to put the kids to bed. It was still rolling when I came back down (the actual video is pretty long) so I finished watching the reception. I danced a lot at my wedding, probably too much, but it was such a fun night. If you think you can't get anyone to dance at a wedding without alcohol just come over and I'll show you my video. Just kidding, I would never do that to anyone (except Esther, I think she watched the whole thing... sweet girl). It was fun to see the people in my video tonight and think of all that has happened in 8 years. Several of those friends have since married, and probably close to 20 babies have been born to our wedding party alone! I actually registered Sadie for Kindergarten for the fall, at Pleasant Garden Elementary. I can't believe my baby will go to school in a few months! She will love it. We were playing the animal game the other day (you give a clue to have the other person try and guess the animal you are thinking of) and I said "my animal is extinct." Immediately Sadie said "skunk!" I laughed a little then explained what extinct actually means. Eli is getting better at the animal game, he used to always say "my animal has a long neck....can you guess what it is?" again, and again. He also loves to play "honey and babe" with Sadie, their version of husband and wife. And his favorite food currently? Pampakes.
Oh! I forgot to report, I did pretty well with my "no sweets" diet (Sadie called me on it last weekend when I tried to eat a chocolate-covered donut for breakfast....is that really a sweet?). I went to the Rush today and was down 6 pounds, supposedly. Olive Garden for dinner, including dessert, probably negates at least 2 of those pounds, but that's OK, the donuts dipped in chocolate were totally worth it.
Another report....I have been couponing. Triple couponing, this week. I thought I was doing pretty good until I read some other people's blogs, but my receipt says I'm saving almost half. Hopefully I'll remember what I bought and eat it so it's actually worth it. Somehow I feel like I've been cooking less since I started couponing so that's not really going to help the budget. And after 2 very carefully planned Harris Teeter trips this week (1 with all 3 kids...ahh!), somehow we're almost out of milk...oops. What's that saying, you can't win for losing? Or trying? I can't remember it. But couponing is kind of fun, so I'll stick with it for now.
I need to go to sleep, somehow I am again awake at midnight. Maybe this will be one of the rare nights that no one wakes up. Either way I will sleep well, thankful for my snoring hubby beside me and the 8 sweet years we have had. Goodnight!

Yo-rick

The fish died. The next morning after I blogged about it....go figure. I had to go to work that morning and didn't have the time or the stomach to deal with it so I told Steven to take care of it without Sadie knowing. He was supposed to talk to her about it but unfortunately she noticed the fishbowl was missing. Her knowledgable cousin Turner filled her in....and showed her where her Daddy had thrown it in the bushes. Not exactly how I had planned to break it to her...but she recovered. Steven keeps talking about getting another one, including a real tank, so she's pretty excited about that.
I wasn't planning on blogging about the fish, again, I've actually been lamenting Eli's improved vocabulary and wanted to record some of the cute things he says before he quits saying all of them. The title of this post is what he has always called yogurt, one of my favorites. He also uses "d" in place of a lot of letters. "Dadie, let's listen to our dongs!" His favorite show used to be "me-me-mo", now it's "Max and Ruvie." Sadie loved "The Soot Book", for Eli it's "The Doot Book." He also likes "Ham and Cheese" (Green Eggs and Ham). Steven loves for him to tell a story, it almost always starts with "Once upon a time, dere was a man walking in the woods..." It usually involves a deer, here lately he talks about crocodiles from Sadie's "peeschool" pond, and how they eat people. Steven tells him stories at night too and Eli's favorite is about Captain "Huk". Not sure where the accent comes from, but when he says marshmellow he sounds British. His reasoning needs a little work, too. The other day he took a toy out of David's hand and I said "Eli, don't do that, he was playing with that ball." Eli answered "He likes it when I take it from him." Real believable, buddy. He is actually still sweet, most of the time. Last night we had a 10 minute conversation about Jesus. I pray he keeps his sweet spirit as he grows up, and is sensitive to the Lord's calling. That's actually my prayer for all my children. Sometimes it seems impossible as the sin natures are blantantly obvious. Like right now, as I realize they are both still awake at 10:30!? I best end this blog and go deal with this....goodnight!