An update!! (are you shocked??) ;)

For some reason, I just can't seem to keep up with this blog!! I visit my own blog daily so that I can check on my "friendly places" links and see what others are doing, but somehow I don't ever update! Shame on me! Maybe with the holidays approaching, I'll have more newsworthy things to blog about! We shall see!

Not much has happened since my last update. The kids are all doing great in school and seem to really enjoy it. Audrey and Amy both have some wiggly teeth, but none that are close to coming out anytime soon...maybe by Christmas they will come out.

On Wednesday we went and had some family portraits made. The last time we had pictures made as a family was November of 2003!! Audrey was just a baby and I think it was just days before I learned I was expecting Amy. Needless to say, it was long overdue. We went to the Peachtree City Library and took advantage of the beautiful scenery and lake for our pictures. I'm hoping to have the professional pictures in the next couple of weeks to share with you. We were able to snap a few while our photographer was working and then while we were all dressed (and the kids were still willing) we took a few more pictures after our session was over. The picture at the top of my blog is one that we took with our own camera. Here are a few more.....



I can't believe how quickly the year is coming to an end! Tomorrow is Halloween and then before you know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us! It's my favorite time of year!!! I have so much to be thankful for! I hope to do better at updating....stay tuned!!!

"Fall"ing behind again....

It seems as though I am always playing catch up on this blog! It's been just over a month since I last updated. Where does the time go?? Audrey recently got a visit from the tooth fairy...she lost her first tooth on September 2! It had been really wobbly for several days and we finally decided to pull it out. I was afraid it might come out at school and get lost before it found its way underneath her pillow for safe keeping until the tooth fairy came. Audrey was very brave and probably wouldn't have cried at all had she not been so tired when we did the pulling. She really wanted to pull it herself, she just couldn't get a good grip on it. She finally let mommy give it a tug and out it came.




The girls are really enjoying school and are doing very well. Progress reports came home this last week and all the girls had excellent reports! Amy is doing very well on learning her sight words and is really working hard on her handwriting. We think she has finally "picked a hand" when it comes to writing. She's always been ambidextrous when it comes to using her hands...never using one more than the other. Here lately though, when we do her homework, she most often writes her letters with her left hand. I still sometimes catch her coloring and doing other things with her right hand, but I think she will be left hand dominant.

Audrey is getting much more fluent with her reading and is a whiz at math. She is definitely her mother's daughter and has to be reminded every now and then not to talk during class. She has been getting excellent grades and we are very proud of her.

Emma is doing GREAT in the 4th grade! She is very concerned with her work and always wants to do her best. We have a great homework routine and she is making awesome grades! She recently did her first project on the Kwaikutl Indians for Social Studies. She was required to recreate the habitat of her tribe. She had to include landforms and also represent items her tribe was known for. We had a great time working on this project together. My parents also chipped in with some help. Nanaw helped Emma make a basket and Angaw cut some pieces of my grandmother's cedar tree to make a totem pole. The project turned out great! Emma was very happy with it.

I am staying busy during the week with two Bible studies this year. I am going to the Ladies Bible study at Berachah Bible Church on Tuesdays with my best friend LeighAnn. We are doing Kristie Gant's study on Heaven. Last week was our first week and it was great...I look forward to completing this study. On Thursdays, I go to Mom to Mom at Dogwood Church in Peachtree City. This is similar to a Bible study in that we reference God's word, but it is so much more than that. We are given a place to rest our burdens and be encouraged as Mothers with hearts for God. It has been such good medicine for my soul! The Lord is so good to me.

Well...that pretty much sums up our last month or so. We are looking forward to some cooler weather...Fall is my absolute favorite time of year. I love the rich colors and the crisp breezes it has to offer. Hopefully I will do a better job of updating this blog....thanks for checking in on us!

I feel better after I imitate....

That's what Emma said to me today when I caught her in "tree pose" in front of my mirror. She's learned a few yoga poses from doing Wii Fit. She said she was doing some imitating while she was sitting down...and then she decided to imitate while standing, too. She explained that when her sisters get on her nerves, sometimes she just imitates for a little while and feels much better.

I promise I will tell her soon that the word is "meditate"...but for now...I like to hear her talk about imitating.

Back to School....

As I sit here typing this update, my house is quiet with the exception of Good Morning America on in the background. There are no giggles from little girls, no fighting amongst sisters, no messes being made....just quiet. The girls started back to school this past Friday. I do miss my girls during the day...sometimes it's too quiet. So far though, I have really enjoyed the quiet time for myself and my house staying clean for longer than 3.2 minutes. :)

We went on Thursday last week to meet the girls' teachers. Emma is in Mrs. Freeland's 4th grade class and will be switching classes with 2 other teachers for some of her subjects. Emma was disappointed that the teacher she was hoping to get had moved to teach 2nd grade. However, she soon forgot all about that when she discovered that her BFF Brianna was in her class! Emma and Brianna have been in the same class since the 1st grade. I'm so thankful Emma has such a sweet friend. Here they are modeling the "Best Friends" shirts I bought for them this summer.

Audrey is in Ms. Hutchings 1st grade class...I was really hoping Audrey would be in her class this year. The teacher Emma had for 1st grade is now the permanent substitute at the school. Ms. Hutchings was teacher of the year just a couple of years ago, and she is one of the sweetest teachers I've ever met. My little Audrey is a sweetheart and I really wanted her to have a gentle teacher. I think they will be a great student/teacher match. Here is a picture of the two of them from the first day of school.



I was disappointed when we found out that Amy would not be in Mrs. Deemer's kindergarten class. Both Emma and Audrey had Mrs. Deemer for kindergarten. This year, however, all class placement was done by computer. Teachers had no input on which child would be placed in any class. Amy is in Mrs. Underwood's class. Mrs. Underwood is a great teacher...and has been teaching in the same county for her entire career. We are looking forward to being part of a different kindergarten environment. Mrs. Underwood is already working with us to see about Amy getting speech therapy at school to reinforce the therapy she is already getting on a weekly basis. We are thankful to have such a willing teacher! Amy is excited about kindergarten and loves her classroom. I can't believe how quickly my baby has grown! Here is Amy with her teacher....



Our other new change this year is riding the bus. The girls really wanted to ride the school bus to and from school. David and I talked about it and decided if that's what they wanted to do, there was no reason for us not to let them. It would save him from having to drop them off in the mornings and me from picking them up in the afternoons. I did drive them on the first day of school....I didn't want to miss out on those sweet pictures...but I let them ride the bus home that afternoon. They started riding to school on the bus on Monday. The bus picks up right about 7:05 in the morning and so far has dropped the girls off right about 2:50-3:00 in the afternoons. The girls are enjoying the bus rides...as they each have friends on the same bus route.



I'm so thankful for a wonderful start to what will hopefully be a fantastic school year. We are slowly but surely adjusting to our earlier bedtime and have developed a good afternoon homework routine as well. Here's to hoping the school year continues as well as it started!

she's definitely a blonde!!

So...this past weekend we celebrated Amy's 5th birthday. Her actual birthday was last Wednesday, but we had her party on Saturday. Well, today, Audrey came and asked me when it was going to be her birthday. I told her not for a long time...and she said she wanted it to be tomorrow. I said, "Sorry Audrey, but your birthday is not until April and that's a long time from now." The rest of the conversation went like this...
Audrey: April 2??
Me: Yes, your birthday is April 2.
Audrey: It keeps doing that....April 2, April 2
Me: every year?? (acting surprised)
Audrey: Not every year, just 2 times.

Shortly after this, Emma asks me why I'm crying...I was laughing so hard my eyes were watering! Maybe you just had to be there, but for me, it was hilarious. I tried to call David and my parents to tell them, but I got David's voice mail and my parents' answering machine....the blog will have to do for now! :)

Hello....is anyone still out there?

Goodness Gracious I just climbed out from under my rock and realized I have not updated this since last month... You would not believe that I actually have a life. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness.

I am distracted with discovering time doesn't stand still, commitments, just generally being the life of the party to anyone unfortunate enough to cross my path. My day is passing in a blur from the moment my children manage to unlock my bedroom door and use me as a jumping castle to well after sun-down. I am not complaining though. Life happens.

I hope that one day I will write something that makes sense. Well, I'll try. This is for my ever faithful, devoted public.


Hee hee....while it has been a while since I have updated, I "wrote" the above post sort-of "mad libs" style from this website. http://www.aussiebloggers.com.au/blogpost.html

I have been busy...and neglecting this blog. This summer has gone by in a blur and doesn't seem to be slowing down. School starts in 2 weeks....maybe then I'll be able to slow down. I doubt it.

So....it's been a while.

Well, here I am, finally updating the blog with a "real" update. I guess I'll start with our New York trip.

For Valentine's Day, David surprised me with a trip to New York scheduled for our Anniversary weekend. We left on Friday, the 24th of April, bright and early in the morning. We met up around 10 o'clock with our best friends, David & LeighAnn to hang out in the city. (David & LeighAnn went on the trip too, they went up a day before). We took the subway to Brooklyn and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. We had lunch at Grimaldi's Pizza (which was fabulous!) and then made our way back to the city by cab. We saw Mary Poppins that night and then went to Carmine's for a delicious late-night dinner.

On Saturday, our 11th Anniversary, we went to Breakfast at Norma's. They gave us a fruit tray for our anniversary that was both beautiful and delicious! We had a celebrity sighting there as Deion Sanders was eating there too. We assumed he was in town for the NFL Draft. After breakfast, Leigh & I got surprised by our favorite guys...they got us tickets for "Behind the Emerald Curtain" which is a behind the scenes tour of the musical Wicked. It was fabulous! We got to see a lot of the original costumes from the show and learn about what goes into the production. We were planning on heading to lunch after that, but David (Leigh's hubby) managed to surprise us even further. After the tour, he spent some time talking with one of the actors and told us we could go ahead to lunch and he'd catch up in a few minutes. Well...when he caught back up with us, we found out he had managed to get us a PRIVATE tour of Wicked. We went back to the theater and were able to see the dressing rooms, try on a few costumes, meet some of the actors and get pictures with some of the cast members. It was amazing! After that, we grabbed a quick lunch and went to see our Matinee of Mamma Mia. After Mamma Mia, we made our way to a nice dinner and then, our favorite part of the trip, we went to see WICKED! That has become our favorite show! If you haven't seen it yet, you should!! I don't want to give the story-line away, but basically you can think of it as the pre-quel to the Wizard of Oz. As one of the tag-lines states, "So much happened before Dorothy dropped in!" It's truly an incredible show! After Wicked, which was much more fabulous now that we had seen backstage and learned more about it, we headed to the Carnegie Deli for cheesecake. (You really have to have an appetite to visit the city!)

On Sunday, we went to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for church. We didn't get to stay for the whole service...we only got to stay long enough to hear the choir sing. We had to head back to the city for lunch and to pick up our luggage so we could head to the airport for our flight. The Tabernacle was beautiful and the choir did not disappoint! We had lunch at John's Pizzeria and it was so good! It was a great way to end the trip! All in all it was a super busy weekend, but it was a great one!! I absolutely love going to New York City and love hitting Broadway for a show!

I still have to blog about end of school year activities, Audrey's Kindergarten Graduation and Emma's birthday party....so stay tuned!!!!