Emily's birthday... it keeps going on and on

Along with a party, we always try to do something special for the girls on the day of their birthday. Usually Jay takes the day off but he was unable to this year. I had promised Emily that I would take her to Water Country on the day of her birthday. We woke up to dreary weather and the high was only to reach 80. Not a day that I would like to spend in the water.

With it being so chilly, I had to think of something else that is relatively cheap. Since we have passes to Water Country and Busch Gardens, we opted to spend the day at the theme park. It was mild making it a great day to be there. The lines weren't long and since their daddy wasn't there to take them on the roller coasters, they were able to do the kiddie section- something they hadn't been to in over a year. They were able to climb in the tree house, do the carousel, and play in the water with the little ones. We did lots of rides including the swings, katapult, bumper cars, Cork Screw Hill, the flying machine, tea cups, skyride and others that I can't think of at the moment.

Afterwards, we went home to pick up Jay and then had a late night dinner at Friendly's. It was a long day and we were all exhausted by the time we got home. Only one more thing to do... open presents. We held off our gifts to her until the day of her birthday- trying to make it special. All in all, she had one family party, one big party with lots of children and then a day out at Busch Gardens. Shew. That's enough isn't it?

I'm not sure why but I try to do something big each year for their birthday. Maybe I'm making up for the lack of extravagant parties I didn't have as a child. Who knows... We're already planning Rebecca's birthday for Dec. It's going to be something she'll love but we're going to keep it a secret for now.

Enjoy the slideshow.

Fun day spent with the Cravey's

The Cravey's invited us to their pool one day last week and we all had a great time. I enjoyed talking to Darla, Emily played on her own for the most part and Rebecca went off the diving board for the first time.

Here she is scared to let go all the while, Andrew is coaching her from the other diving board.
Scared, she takes a leap off the side for the first time.
Then the children all took turns to see who could make the biggest splash. Here they are huddled together making their choice.
Emily's arm started to hurt so she got out and put her brace back on.
Don't they make a cute bunch?

Trying to catch up

I have posted several things below this in trying to update this blog. Be sure to see all of them as they include pictures. I have 2 more days worth of pictures to upload later. We have had a very busy summer- much busier than I intended but it was all good. We all had a great time. I can't believe it is over.
We have a few activities planned for the fall but for the most part, I want to stay home. This running all over the place has been fun but I'm glad it's over. This will be the very first time in 10 years that I have not watched any other children during the day and am quite excited to spend each day focused on my girls. It'll be the first time in our homeschooling that I can put 100 % of my attention towards them. They deserve it and have earned it!
Anyway, check back soon as I will add more in the next day or so.

Emily's 6th Birthday Party

My grandma and August birthday's

My grandma came for a weekend to spend time with us as well as to celebrate the August birthday's. Harry, Emily and I each celebrate our birthday's within a few days of each other. It was nice to have the "whole" family together. I laugh at that because we have such a small family! There is my grandma, mom, her boyfriend Harry, us 4, sister Misty and brother in law Brandon. I do have an aunt, uncle and 2 cousins that I'm not close to also. We're a small family so our get togethers are small- not like Jay's side of the family.

My grandma resting in her favorite chair. The whole trip here exhausted her but I know she enjoyed it.

Saturday morning, Jay and I like to sleep in a bit. The girls played air hockey first thing making that a bit hard. I heard grandma played some too but then they settled on the floor with a game of monopoly.

Grandma with mom and Harry

Misty with Emily

Rebecca teaching her grandma how to play Webkinz online

Mom giving them a bug sucker. They enjoy going out back and collecting bugs.

Rebecca helping Emily read the cards

One of her favorite gifts- glitter glue pens

mom reading Harry's cards to him- I think he didn't have his glasses

Em waiting patiently to blow out the candles on the cake

Jay playing Webkinz while Brandon plays with his new camera

Rebecca even got a new Webkinz- a lil' bluejay. She was happy!

Emily has her cast removed

Here are the girls prior to the cast removal.

sawing it off
Her left wrist was bruised and sore but other than that, it was fine. She never itched or was uncomfortable with her cast. Other than getting in trouble for hitting me on the head (because the Preacher told her to- which he got fussed at for!) it wasn't really any sort of inconvenience.

She now has to wear a black brace and that is an inconvenience. But for only 2 more weeks from today. She has to take it off when playing in the water and couldn't use the slip-n- slide at her birthday party. Now we have to build her muscles back up so she can get back to where she was in gymnastics.

My Baby Turns 6 today!

3 months old
10 months old

18 months old
2 years old

2 and a half years old at Ocean City, MD

3rd birthday party

3 and a half at Universal Studios

4th birthday party

4 and a half

5th birthday
5 and a half
6th birthday party

We're still here

It has been a fun and busy last couple of weeks. I have photos of our family birthday party from this weekend, photos of my grandma's visit and photos of Emily getting her cast off that I will post next week. We have been busy preparing for Emily's birthday party this weekend as well as today being my last day of babysitting. I'm working on a special project for Brysen's mom and have all of today to get it done. (yikes!)
Our computer is down due to a virus that completely wiped it clean. Jay just has to reload it and we actually only lost files from the past month. I have my laptop and the girls computer so I am still connected but I prefer to not use those computers unless I have to. I am finding that without the convenience of the other computer, I'm not on it as much and am getting a lot more done.
I'm going to take Brysen out for lunch now and then get to work on that special project. I only have until 4 p.m.

My 2 favorite pictures of the day

We went to Halley and Brysen's grandma's today to go swimming and the children had a blast!

I'll put a slideshow together tomorrow of all the fun.

I just wanted to share these two pictures. They are my favorite!

gymnastics

Yesterday, the gym was practically empty and I had my camera with me so I took a bunch of pictures and videos of Rebecca. Emily still has her cast and isn't able to participate in gymnastics yet. Her time will come again.

on the high beams
team work
wasting time doing back walkovers until her turn
getting instructions
having a race of going under/over the beams

Here she is doing walkovers and then wasting time until her turn again.

Here she is doing a back handspring on her own. She can do them without fail on the tramp but lacks the confidence to do it on her own without someone spotting her. I am so proud of her!

Is 8 too young to be receiving phone calls? Is this a sign of what's too come? Rebecca and her best friend are spending lots of time on the phone lately. What do they talk about? Webkinz!!! They play on Webkinz while talking on the phone. It's quite funny to listen to them. Sometimes there is just silence and I ask, "Is she talking?" Nope.

She has this one special friend that she has known since birth. They grew up in the nursery together, same Sunday school class and now they don't see each other as much as they like. She is the only child that Rebecca has really clicked with (that live in this country now that Samantha moved away) that I have absolutely no fears of her being with. It's the only person whose house the girls are allowed to spend the night at. And they love going over there!

Now that Rebecca doesn't get to see her that often since we changed churches and she's on a different gymnastics schedule that Bec, we have to make time to see Christine. Yesterday, I was taking the girls to play at (removed), by far the best blow-up play room type of thing. So we invited her friend to come along and they had a blast.

*I won't post any other pictures because I'm sure Rebecca will want them on her personal blog.

Afterwards, we ended up back here and guess where the girls ended up...on the computer. We tried to figure out how to let the 2 of them interact online but it wouldn't let them so they ended up playing the games together, sending each other mail and buying things for the other persons' pet. I'm glad Rebecca has had fun playing with this stuff this summer. It'll just be an added incentive to finish her school work in the fall!
Shew, she's off the phone now...

Where are your priorities?

Cell Phones vs. Bible

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat ourCell phones.

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it as we traveled?

What if we used it in case of an emergency?

This is something to make you go ...hmm...where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing, unlike our cell phone, we don't ever have toworry
about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

Makes you stop to think "where are my priorities?"

And no dropped calls!

Just checking in...

I didn't realize that a whole week has almost gone by since I last posted. We've been busy with activities such as running errands, going to Water Country, Chuck E. Cheese, girls having an activity at church one morning, meeting some homeschoolers for lunch one day, followed up by a lazy day on Friday. It felt so good to do actually nothing! Today, I've spent the day cleaning. I think I'm done purging/decluttering what I can. Now I am trying to sell the rest and have a nice clean home.
Rebecca posted a couple pictures on her blog of what the girls did with Daddy while I was in the house cleaning. I actually got the better end of the stick for the day.

And the drama continues...

My poor Emily has had it rough the past 2 weeks, I tell ya. Since breaking her arm, she had an on again-off again fever for 3 days and a sprained finger.

She was playing in the playroom Saturday morning and the 2 folding chairs fell on her pinkie. It was swollen and bruised. Since she had to miss church Sunday due to the fever, Jay took her to the dr. just to make sure it wasn't broken. After her arm incident, I didn't want to take any chances.

While Emily was in a vegetative state on Sat. (from the high fever), Jay worked outside in the yard and I continued on my gutting the house. I have completely cleaned out 9 closets and all the cabinets in the house. They are all organized and looking oh so neatly. The problem? I have junk in every room on the floor now. So now my house looks worse than it did before I started cleaning. Now I need to get rid of all the junk from the closets.

We need to move. That would force us to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff, right?