Tabitha's Tales

Back to blogging?

2011-07-18T22:48:00.002-04:00

Ok, so I kind of gave up blogging. I lost interest, didn't have the desire to post for a long time.

Now, I feel the need to post as a means for coping, venting and sharing what is happening in our 'new' life. I hope my blogging audience will be happy---Mom, Mom, Tay, Kami , Robin and Misha :) This may be a one time thing, who knows.

Tuesday, 7/12/11, Sarah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I feel like our whole life has changed in this one short week. I also feel as though I could write a long, rambling post, but instead I think a few bullet points can better relay my thoughts.

-Sarah is an amazing, strong girl. She takes the injections so well. I know it can't be easy, yet she seldom complains. We have had some tears, but not once did she try to get out of what was required. After each one we share a little hug. I know it will get easier for her....at least everyone tells me that.

-Mark is a great dad. When our kids were little, I nursed them all. This meant that Mark didn't have to do any of the late night feedings. He would of if needed, but just didn't have to. Right now, we are checking Sarah's sugar levels 2 or 3 times a night. He hasn't hesitated once to get up. He also does his fair share of injections and is helping make/plan meals that meet her carb requirements. I think we have always been a good team, but this week I don't know what I would have done without him by my side.

-We have wonderful friends and family. During our hospital visit we had a steady stream of well wishers. I felt so loved and prayed for, now and then. Sometimes I don't take time to sit back and appreciate how good we have it. God has truly blessed our family. For that I am grateful.

-It is hard to sleep at night. I know I need to get more sleep and I will. I fall asleep imagining that I pull the injection pen out of her arm crooked and she cries in pain. I don't want to hurt her.

-My Bible Verse for the day:
James 1:12
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Fun Getaway!

2010-12-10T23:30:00.009-05:00

We just got back from a fun, but quick getaway. Started off by going to see the Christmas Show at Word of Life in Hudson, FL. It was a new show and just as wonderful as years past. Then we drove to a Tree Farm and cut down our Christmas Tree. We hadn't told the kids about this ahead of time and they were just thrilled. At this place we got to ride on a hayride, find a tree, cut down a tree, ride a horse/pony, eat yummy kettle corn, go through a maze, ride a zipline and ride a train. After that we went to our hotel room. The next day we woke up to go to the ICE exhibit at Gaylord Palms. It was a chilly 9 degrees! The place was just gorgeous. Everything in there was ice including an ice slide, ice walls, ice snowman, ice santa and best of all a complete ice nativity scene. The place was beautiful, but very cold.

It was a wonderful time. I have always wanted to take our children out to cut down our tree. Sometimes as a parent I plan something and it becomes more about me, then about the memory with them. This wasn't one of those things. The kids were all so excited to pick out the perfect tree. Tomorrow we will decorate it.

I'm slowly, but surely working through my Christmas 2010 list. Here are some pics of our fun.

December To Do List 2010

2010-12-03T21:20:00.003-05:00

Tay had a Christmas To Do List, so I wanted to have one too!

This December I plan to:

-take Christmas card photos and send out cards

-Run a December 5k (have one set up to run with a cousin in Boca Raton)

-quick trip to Tampa/Orlando for some holiday fun

-train ride

-Christmas shopping with Mark

-Christmas shopping with Mom

-red and green meal with kids

-keep up with our advent boxes

-Christmas cantata

-Make one homemade gift

-Drive Thru Nativity

I love this time of year and don't feel like the busy-ness takes over. I want my kids to always remember the fun stuff we plan and do for them, but most importantly the reason for this season.

I didn't want to post without some pictures.

Here is Mammaw with some of her favorite great grandkids. Her other favorites are the ones not pictured. :)

Last Sunday we went to Hod Rod Chili Drive In at the Diplomat Wesleyan Church. We were invited by Grandpa and Grandma D. We had fun looking at the old cars, playing games, face painting, free food and good fellowship.

Enjoying Grandpa's new car

Turkey Trot 2010

2010-11-26T22:01:00.006-05:00

This year we started off Thanksgiving by running the Turkey Trot in Cape Coral. I ran the 5k, Emily and Sarah the 1 mile and Ty and Katie did the Tot Trot.

I ran with Jenna, Kelly, Kelly and Tanya. It was such a nice way to start off Thanksgiving day. I am thankful for each of these good friends and so glad to have them as part of my life.

A cheering section is very important. I love starting off a fun and hearing, "Go Mommy!" My mom is always very supportive and loves to come cheer us on. The route was around my in-laws house. Two times while I was running I saw them waving and cheering. It was great! My wonderful father in law even heated up the hot tub for me to enjoy after race. It was over 100 degrees and so, so, so nice!

Emily, Sarah and Brooke in the 1 mile.

This is the start of 2nd heat of the Tot Trot. I am standing behind Ty and Logan. Ty is in his running stance. He practiced that many times to prepare for the day.

It is a little blurry, but you can still see the two cute little girls holding hands while running. Awww. (Katie and Chloe)

Katie turns 3!

2010-09-11T22:27:00.003-04:00

Our little baby is growing up! Today was Katie's 3rd birthday! We celebrated all day.

This evening we had friends and family over for a puppy party.

Katie is such a wonderful child. Being our youngest, we try to treat her like the baby, but she always wants to be the big girl. As of late, she has started to sing a lot. Her favorites are the ABC song and This is the Day. She is a tough girl and defends herself well. Mark jokes that she will be a UFC fighter one day (I pray not) She enjoys doing things herself and likes to help those that are younger. Happy BirthdayKatie Jensen!

Katie at three:

-likes to be independent

-loves Charley and is learning not to pull his tail

-talks very well

-is potty trained (as of just 1 month ago)

-likes to jump off of things

-great at putting puzzles together

-loves to go to church and King's Kids

-eats broccoli, salad, veggies----ok, anything on mommy's plate

-likes to eat

-loves Team Umizoomi

-loves her brother and sisters

Her First Birthday!

Her 2nd Birthay

Her 3rd Birthday

catching up

2010-09-03T13:38:00.003-04:00

I was without my computer for 1 week. It was torturously difficult, but we all survived! I am so grateful for the tech team at work. It is so nice to mail it off and get it back working in pristine condition.

We are so pleased with how school is going this year. I feel like we did a good job selecting curriculums that meet the needs of each of our kids. They are all challenged, but not overwhelemed. This is a very good thing.

Today, Emily, Sarah and I made homemade chia pets. I got the idea off of another blog. We hope they work.

Grandma was over visiting and enjoyed helping the kids with school. You can see that Charlie is on Emily's lap. He loves to take a long nap during school, that is if he can escape the clutches of Katie.

We were working on the letter i, so Sarah read a book about ice cream to Ty and Katie. After that they made ice cream cones and of course ate an ice cream sandwich. Emily and Sarah each have to read a book and plan an activity to do with Ty and Katie for the week. To start I am helping them plan the activites, but eventually they will be in charge of it all.

Our 4 kiddos before church. They all love to go to Sunday School and Church. I am very thankful for the wonderful, faithful Sunday School teachers that we have at our church.

Last week we had a Geo Trax party. We invited some friends with younger children over for dinner and a good time. The adults participated in a great game of Apples to Apples. Surprisingly, the most relucatant participant won. My Dad!

We had all of the geotrax set up and there were plently of other toys to play with, but I thought this picture was cute. Ty is demonstrating the awesomeness of the iphone to his friends. :)

one more

2010-08-26T08:51:00.001-04:00

Katie wanted me to add this.

Katie

2010-08-26T07:47:00.003-04:00

Katie loves to have her picture take....I mean Katie loves to look at the back of the camera to see herself after she has her picture taken.
She got a haircut this week. It looked so cute with no finger twirls so I had to snap a few shots. She sure has a lot of faces.

Mama's Mission

2010-08-25T07:06:00.002-04:00

I got this idea from Mama-Jean's blog.One good(maybe) thing aobut putting your missions on the internet is you will have loads of accountability. My goals for September:(I know it is August still, but hey a headstart never hurts!) -Finish our Family Vacation book and have it ready to publish on MixbookI have already started loading pictures and making pages, but having a deadline will keep me focused. -Run 3-4 days a week every weekI plan to run my first 5k in October. I am loving Couch to 5k, but with the run for tomorrow the times start to pick up. I know I can do it, but sometimes mentally I try to talk myself out of it. -Have Katie's birthday partyThis is in the works and since I absolutely love to have birthday parties I know it will happen. There is a lot of little things to get done including invites ready for church on Sunday. -Organize the school roomWe are off to our smoothest start of school ever. At the end of each day I seem to have piles of items to put away, organize, hole punch and file. I just feel like there can be a better system. I just need to figure it out.
Now....off to get busy!

First Day of School

2010-08-18T08:38:00.002-04:00

School has started and the kids are thrilled! We opted to start this week with a 1/2 schedule and then next week we will do a full schedule. I thought this would ease us into the routine. So far it has worked beautifully.

Sarah's Curriculum for the year

Bible-Rod and Staff

Spelling-A Reason for Spelling

Math-Horizons 4 and Rod and Staff 4

Writing-Writing Strands

History-Rod and Staff 4

Science-Eagles Wings-Considering God's Creation

Vocabulary-Wordly Wise 4

Penmanship-Rod and Staff

Grammar-Growing with Grammar 4

We also do a Daily Journal for all 4 kids, famous paintings study and art and music activities.

So Sarah is off to a great start. Her favorite subject is Spelling. We used the same curriculum two years ago and was thrilled to be using it again this year.

Ty is a K4 student this year. He misses the cutoff for K by just a few weeks. We opted to use Rod Staff Grade 1 Math and Rod and Staff Beginning Reading. My plan is to take this year and next year to complete these two curriculums. I would add more to next year to make sure he was getting enough 'stuff' in his Kindergarten day.

So far things are going very well. He loves doing school. The first day he snuck out his math book and did 5 additional pages!

I thought the curriculum started out too easy, but it is good for him. He has so much confidence and is taking pride in his work. If we stay on task he will be reading basic cvc words by Christmas. Right now he is working on a page of the letter A that he wants to give to Grandma (Dillehay) because she has apples in her kitchen.

In addition to the curriculum we add in lots of hands on activities and learning centers.
Katie is modeling her bead necklace she made on day 1. She is doing journal activities with us and also begs to do Ty's work. I am including her in as much as she wants to do. I have made a few 'tot school' things for her to do too. She loves being a part of anything the other kids are doing.

Her primary goal for this week is potty training. We started last Monday and let's just say it was a long week. On Saturday something clicked and she started telling us when she had to go. Things are going very well this week. She has had a few accidents, but is doing great! Whew! We will soon be diaper free!
Emily is a GULP middle schooler this year.

Her curriculum:

Bible -Rod and Staff 6

Science-FLVS

History-FLVS World Cultures

Language Arts 1 with FLVS

Math-FLVS Math2

Career Education-FLVS

Vocabulary-Wordly Wise

Grammar-Growing with Grammar 6

Penmanship-A Reason for Writing

We also add in the extras like daily journal, music, art and other activities. This will be an interesting year with her taking 5 FLVS classes. I know she can handle the load, but it shows make her seen so grown up to me. We chatted with all of her teachers on Monday. She is so personable on the phone. That will help as she has to do a phone quiz with them after each chapter. It will be neat to be on the other side of FLVS this year.
I think this is going to be a great school year! We have 4 wonderful students and it is a pleasure to teach them.

Katie's ABCs

2010-06-14T10:35:00.003-04:00

Mini-Vacation

2010-05-15T20:48:00.006-04:00

After church on Mother's Day we left for a quick getaway to Orlando. We haven't taken much time off lately and it was so nice to getaway from the normal swing of things.

Arabian Nights was running a special Homeschool Rate so we attended the show. All the kids enjoyed watching the horses. They have changed the storyline since last time we went there. We were very glad about that.

Katie had a mouth infection during the trip. The poor thing could hardly eat and was quite miserable. Luckily she started to feel better on the last day.

We used our Give A Day, Get A Day passes that we had earned back in January. All we had to do is buy a ticket for Ty. What a great deal!

Emily and Sarah got started in Pin Trading this time. They loved trading pins with castmates and were always improving their collection.

Emily's new boyfriend?

Emily and Sarah used to hate 3-D attractions. They were terrified to watch them. This time I made them try Philharmagic and thy both loved it!

I was driven by Katie! (We hit the rails alot)

Ty enjoyed being the navigator.

We had a great time and can't wait to go back to Disney.

King's Kids Jamboree

2010-05-07T21:58:00.004-04:00

Tonight was one of my favorite nights of the year.

King's Kids is our Wednesday Night Program at church. Mark and I are in charge of the program and it has been such a blessing to us. Most years Pastor Sutton runs a Jamboree where we compete against other area churches. It is an all day Saturday event. Due to some scheduling difficulties it was decided we would not be having it this year.

After some discussion we elected to have our own Jamboree. It was a different not to have 3 or 4 other churches, but still turned out to be a very nice night.

Here we are with our King's Kids. Emily won 1st place in the Bible Memory Contest. She was thrilled! This is an event that she spent a lot of time on. Sarah was heartbroken to finish 4th. (She forgot a 'the'. ) She had about 30 more verses ready to go. When we got home she told me she was so happy for Emily to win, because she still has 3 more years to try to win it and Emily only has one.

We work with several amazing helpers. They make our lives so much easier. Our King's Kids workers tonight were Patty, Scott, Bonnie and Gina. Jenna and Angie always work with us, but were unable to come tonight. Here is our group from tonight.

Emily, Sarah and Hannah were awarded journals and pens for memorizing all of Psalms 96. These are 3 hard working girls!

Alison and Baileigh did a great job! Allison won the Quiz Bowl Competition. It was a hard fought match. Emily ended up 2nd and Sarah 3rd.

Here are our 5 quizzers. I don't think Mark ever finished one entire question. They were up and ready to give the answer quicker than most of us processed what he was saying. I'm so proud of all of them.

We did 6 different relay races. 3 were Bible based and 3 were just fun.

Sarah on the scooter relay.

Brooke working on the Beatitudes Matching.

We invited the parents and family to join us dinner before the Jamboree started. It was a good time of fellowship.

One of our races was the Jelly Bean Race. The kids had to use a straw to carry a Jelly Bean to a bowl. Many of them ended up on the floor and the kids had to get it from there to the bowl.

Our King's Kids Girls (we are missing Bethany. She was unable to make it tonight.)

This is the the poster we made to memorize Psalms 96. I had planned on learning it with them, but I didn't quite make it. The girls put lots of time in to preparing for the Jamboree this year. We are so happy to see their dedication.

Mother Daughter Banquet

2010-05-04T10:46:00.002-04:00

Last night was our church's mother daughter banquet. It was an extra special one for me. Mrs. Judy started by reading a letter that was given to her. Little did I know that Emily wrote the letter. Here is Emily's letter:

Dear Mrs. Judy,
Hello! As always I am sure you are going to have a Mother of the Year and I would like to nominate my mother. She loves and cares for us kds with all her heart. I don't know what I would do without a mom like her. Whenever I need her she is always there. Not just that, she also teaches us so that we can have a good education with a bible based meaning. She is also a very Christian women who loves God and her church. So the Dillehay children hereby nominate Mrs. Tabitha Dillehay for the Mother of the Year.
Love The Dillehay Kids

I was surprised and thrilled to get the beautiful letter. It is always nice to be honored, but I think the letter is what I will treasure the most.

Unexpected Treat

2010-04-30T21:32:00.002-04:00

Tonight my mom called and asked if all 4 kids come over. We hadn't ate dinner yet, so she thought Mark and I could go to dinner. We were thrilled and jumped at the chance.

My dad took Ty and Katie to indulge in their favorite cuisine. McDonalds! They had a good time with grandpa. I guess he had to finish their ice cream cones because they wanted to play. Sorry Dad!

My mom took Emily and Sarah to JoAnns to buy fat quarters and buttons. She brought them back to her house and helped them cut out and sew a purse. They turned out great! How neat to say that you bought fabric and made a purse all in one evening! I'm glad my mom likes doing fun stuff like this with my girls. I know they enjoy it.

Mark and I went to Roadhouse and had a delicious meal, but best of all we got to talk uninterrupted the whole time. What a treat that is!

Now we are settled in and watching a movie. What a fabulous Friday night and great way to start the weekend!

Headed to the Library

2010-04-29T10:31:00.002-04:00

A basket full of books and headed to the library. Our family use the library a ton! All 4 kids love to go and check out books. Ty especially likes to ask the librarian for help. He is so thrilled when she is able to find a new space, robot or dinosaur book that we haven't seen before.

Normally I would be the on taking the kids to the library. Today I am loaded with appointments, so Mark is headed there. I love it that he has the freedom to be able to take midday trips with them. I know the kids enjoy the daddy time.

As a homeschooler it seems like most of the educational 'burden' is on the mother. While this is true, I enjoy having a husband that steps in and helps with anything that is asked. He is such a great Dad!

pics by the kids

2010-04-18T18:17:00.003-04:00

We have a small camera that we let h kids use quite often. I love to look at it an see what pictre they take. Emily snapped this one of 'pirate ty'

You never know what you are going to find when the kids have the camera.

A Quick Visit to Orlando

2010-04-16T20:57:00.006-04:00

Mark had to be in Orlando on Friday, so the kids and decided we needed to get away too. On our way up we stopped in Dinosaur World. They are running a special this month for homeschoolers, so we figured this would be good time to go. We all had a fabulous time. They have over 150 dinosaur sculpures and many other exhibits to see.

Sarah is sifting sand to look for fossils. We found lots of different kinds of teeth and some bone fragments.

While Mark was in is meeting the rest of us went to the Orlando Science Center.

Emily and Sarah in a flight simulator.

Hoping for a prince?

Katie-future mechanic?

We found a beautiful tree in downtown Orlando. It is a couple of hundred years old. The branches are so long and heavy that they lay on the ground. It was so beautiful underneath the branches.
On the way home, we stopped at Plant City to pick up strawberries for $2.99 a flat! Yum!

Book Club and other ramblings

2010-04-12T22:32:00.009-04:00

We have been busy as usual here at the Dillehay household.

Tonight I attended my first book club meeting. We met at Melting Pot and had a wonderful time! I feel like we have a great group of ladies and will definetly enjoy our monthly meetings.

I've never made a 'bucket list', but on my list of "Grown up Things to do" I'm sure _Be in a Book Club_ is on there. I can't wait to pick up the next book and get started reading.

I dressed Katie for church in her adorable blue and white dress with a big white bow in her hair. She picked out the Ruby Red Slippers. I love her style.

Saturday at the Soccer Field

For part of our Spring Break we went to Carl Johnson Park. I remember going there as a kid with my mom. We always had so much fun at the beach, but my favorite part was the sandy, sleepy ride home. Naps after the beach are surely the best.

Wednesday we went to Grandma and Grandpa D's house to meet Kathi and family and Cousin Mike and family for lunch and swimming. The kids swam for hours and had fun with all of the cousins.

Ethan-4

We attended a birthday part of Julianna. She is 6 and had an awesome, messy birthday party. My kids had a blast and were glad to be invited to join the fun.

Easter at Mom and Dad's house

As Keela pointed out, Emily is moving to the 'older side.' Used to she would run off with Sarah, Kaylie and Kiara. Now she is hanging out more with Jonathan. My girls keeps growing up on me!

As we took pictures of the grandkids, we were trying to people on laps to fit everyone in the picture. Katie was so kind and offered her lap to Ty. Now logistically that doesn't work as he has a good 7-8 inches on her. We had to at least let her try and she was proud of holding her Ty.

The cousins-- This is the Easter that Chloe wore a Pull Up :)

My attempt at some Easter Pictures. The oldest 4 were very cooperative. Katie was...well she was acting like a 2 year old.

I love this picture!

We had an Easter Egg Hunt with our family and friends at Lakes Park. What a wondeful time!

Egg Hunt at Grandma June's house

Camera card....

2010-03-05T13:20:00.003-05:00

Well I just downloaded pictures for the first time in 2010. It is nice that they now make affordable camera cards in such big sizes. 2g, 4g.... But now it seems like I can take pictures forever before I need to download them.

I downloaded today because Emily's birthday is next week and I know that will involve lots of pictures. I can't believe she will be 11.

Soccer starts tomorrow. Our Saturdays will be spent at Gateway Soccer field. We are looking very forward to this time spent outdoors playing and hanging out with friends.

Here is one of my first pics of the year and too cute not to post. My wonderful mother and equally wonderful mother in law. Love you too!

Christmas at our house

2009-12-17T16:05:00.002-05:00

I saw this on Kami's blog and I thought it was fun, so here's a little about Christmas at my house:

About the TREE....
1.When do you put up the Christmas tree? sometime the 1st week of December
2. Real or fake? Real. Mark and I wanted to get a fake one this year, but Emily was adamant that we get a real one.
3. Lights? What color? Multi colored and white
4. Garland? Yes, we have silver garland.
5. Theme or no theme? No. We have a lot of snowflake ornaments, but mostly kid-made ones are on our tree. We have started to buy personalized ornaments at the mall every year. We love those.
6. What kind of topper? A star,
7. What's your favorite ornament? The one I bought this year. It is a Christmas tree with 6little faces on it. Each face is wearing a Santa Hat with our name on it.
8. What does your tree skirt look like?It isn't even visible, but it is blue and silver.
9. Where do you put your tree? This year we have two. One is all white and pre-lit with multi colored lights. (Target 90% off last year) That is in the front window. Our real tree is in the family room.
10. Who decorates the tree?we all do.
11.What's "under" the tree?Presents!
12. Do you put candy canes on your tree?No. Katie is a foodie and would be asking for them all the time.

About the FOODS....
1. What's your favorite Christmas cookie? I like Mrs. Lopez's Christmas cut-out cookies with her delicious frosting. (Is that too specific?)
2. Do you bake cookies and give them away? Yes! We will be working on that tomorrow and Saturday.
3. Any candy or food you only have at Christmas time? Not really
4. What do you eat Christmas EVE? We are having family over for Christmas Eve, so we better figure this one out soon!
5. What do you eat on Christmas day? Ham at mom's house!
6. Do you like Eggnog?no!
7.. Do you like candy canes? Yes! I

1. Where do you hang your stockings? On the plant shelf in the living room.
2. Do you put lights on your house? Yes. All blue this year.
3. Got any outside lawn decorations? No
4. Do you put up a nativity? Ours broke and we haven't replaced it. I would like to get a Willow Tree one.
5. Do you hang mistletoe over the door? yes
6. Got a wreath on your front door? Two. One for each door.
7. How long does it take you to decorate? A week. We do a little each day.

About the movies
1 . Favorite Children's Christmas TV show/cartoon?Hmmm Not sure
2. Favorite Christmas Movie - Elf!

1. Do you go to church on Christmas or Christmas Eve? 6-7pm on Christmas Eve.
2. Have you ever gone Caroling? Yes, but no plans for it this year. I may wrangle up some friends and family and go this yera.
3. Favorite Christmas Carol? God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
4. Do you believe in Santa?Not sure what this one means?
5. Do you leave Santa cookies? Yes
6. Do you make a "list"? a list of what to buy everyone-yes. I make lots of them.
7..Do you shop on Black Friday? Are you kidding me? One of my favorite days of the year!
8. ARE YOU READY FOR CHRISTMAS? Yes, but I want to enjoy every minute until it gets here!

Google Books

2009-12-04T13:04:00.002-05:00

We are starting a new unit in Science next week and I need a copy of John Audubon: Young Naturalist. I neglected to order it over the summer and just found our library doesn't have a copy of it. We need the book for 4 weeks of Science.

I was telling the girls of the dilemna. Emily so wisely suggested I check online as you can read lots of books there. Lo and behold, one quick google search and a click later I have an online copy of the very book that I need.

Isn't technology amazing!
http://books.google.com/books
Lovin' Google Books for now!

Where have I been?

2009-11-15T22:16:00.016-05:00

I love blogging, but lately I just can't seem to find time to work on it. I know that I don't have to stay up to date and included every single thing we do, but it still seems hard to get on here.

I don't want one of my New Year's Resolutions to be: I will blog more often....so I'm starting this week and getting back on track.

Here are tons of pictures from our past month or so. They are probably totally backwards. I could rearrange the order, but I'm going to let them stay the way they are.

Our neighbors got a new dryer and Mark ran and grabbed the box. With all the wonderful weather our backyard has been used a ton! The neighbor girls have some sort of alarm set up. The moment our slider door opens they peak around the corner. I'm so happy that we have the 'fun yard' to play in. (They know how to spell Skyline, but Emily wanted to avoid any copywrite violations.)

Our homeschooling group has been really, really busy lately. We did a Christmas Card making class. Lots of fun for our young girls and the moms too.

This past Saturday was our last weekend of games. Emily's team won the U12 Girls Championship. We were so impressed with how hard Emily worked and improved this year. We love watching her play. Ty had a good time at soccer too. The U4 league players are so cute. You never know how many are going to get out there and play.

This was at his last game. After halftime he pretended like he was a robot and marched around the lines on the field. He thought it was hilarious.

We had an awesome field trip to Shell Point Retirement Community to see their Train Room and Stamp Room.
The Stamp Room is a wonderful ministry. The workers collect cancelled stamps. They trim, organize and sort them. Then they sell the stamps in various places. The money is used to buy Sunday School materials to countries in South America. It is a wonderul ministry.
Ben and Treva Crump are a wonderful retired couple from our church. They are both so intelligent and interesting people. After an explanation of how the whole process works they let the kids try. They loved it and kept asking for more stamps. If you don't already, save your stamps! We would be happy to collect them and pass them on to the Shell Point Stamp Room.

The Train Room at Shell Point is a huge area and the tracks make up the State of Florida. Many of our state landmarks are included on the layout. There are many interesting details to check out. Ty loved seeing all of the trains. He wants to go back next month and see it decorated for Christmas.

Cake Boss is my new favorite show. I'm hoping for a road trip to Hoboken to buy a scone. Yum!

This show has prompted many hours of Playdoh work. Emily and Sarah even coerced Mark into a midday Walmart run to pick up new Playdoh.

Did I mention we had a lot of soccer games recently?

We were able to reschedule the Super Hero Party and it was huge success.

We had a super hero obstacle course. Here is Ty in motion with the Hulk gloves and getting ready to knock down the brick wall!

Katie loves to twist her hair. At first I thought it was cute, but now the back of her hair is incredibly uneven. I know she will outgrow and of course we need to document. :)

With the fabulous fall weather we have had the cousins over to play. Katie things Logan is incredibly funny!

Sarah wanted to go to Golden Corral for the birthday. She is 9 years old now.She invited some friends over for a party. We did crafts, played games and ate. She wanted a cheesecake and it was delicious!

We had a scavenger hunt to find the cake. They had to open all the green balloons and find clues.

They had to put a puzzle together for another clue.

Ready for a meal!

Earlier in the morning, (remember these are way out of order) we went to SunSplash. This was one of the last days and the weather was very chilly. Luckily the water temp at SunSplash was great! The park was nearly empty and we got to go on all of the waterslides that we wanted to. We had a wonderful time for Sarah's birthday weekend!

Just cute and needed to be posted.

We love our Fall Festival at King's Kids. Mark and I enjoy setting up the games and making the plans. The people that we work with are so wonderful. It seems like whatever crazy idea we have they just join right in.
Here we have some guest booth workers! Mark decided to put his parent's to work and they both ran a booth. Katie liked going to people she knows. Grandma was doing a sucker pull games. Katie eneded up with a lot of suckers!

Here is mom working her booth!

For you northerners--This is how we get into the season. We buy bales of craft hay at Michaels and spread it around the floor. The kids throw it around, make piles and jump in it (like leaves) and then they make hay angels (similar to snow angels). Our younger group loved playing in the hay.

I love all the happy faces!

Halloween! Here is our Trick or Treating group!

Emily-artist

Sarah-movie star

Ty-policeman

Katie-genie

More soccer..... (yes, I take pictures at every game. ) :)

Aren't they a tough looking bunch!

Pumpkin carving time!

I tried to get everyone to pose with a pumpkin. Katie seems to have her own ideas. She is really developing her own personality more everyday. Katie loves to talk and is quite good at it. I think she just says things to hear her own voice. When we are making pumpkins she would say, Mom where my pumpkin go? (She is standing there with her hand on it. ) Then a second later, "Oh! There it is! Where you go pumpkin?

We went to Hunsader Farms to see the farm and petting zoo with some of the homeschoolers.

Katie talked to all of the animals. She loved them.

2 sisters with their younger sisters! I just love this picture.

I also love this picture. Sarah got a camera for her birthday. She uses it ..... alot! I love that she is into photography like me. Emily also loves to take pictures.

We also went on the Halloween train at Lakes Park. Actually, Mom, Katie, Emily and Sarah went. Poor Ty got sick moments before we going to go on it. That started a string of 2 weeks of off and on illnesses at our house. Fortunately, we are past that now.

Starting this week, I will...

-post once a week at minimum

-not feel the need to post every event in our lives

-read other blogs

Ty's hospital visit

2009-10-11T21:07:00.002-04:00

What was planned to be a busy, birthday party weekend turned in to a overnight hospital stay.

Ty woke up Friday morning with his right eye swollen shut. It looked pitiful and we called right away to get him to the doctor. The doctor gave him an antibiotic shot and asked that we watch it closely and come back first thing Saturday morning.

Saturday morning the swelling had gone down a little bit, but now he was sporting a red ring around his eye. The doctor said this wasn't a good sign and sent us straight to the hospital. When we got there they were waiting for us and admitted Ty right away to start IV antibiotics.

He had periorbital cellulitus or preseptic cellulitus. They mentioned both names. It is the inflammation of the tissue surrounding the eye. It is dangerous because if it isn't caught early in can drain to the back of his head. We caught it time to get the proper treatment.

They administered antibiotics and steroids throughout the day. Since we had to cancel his Superhero Training Party we went ahead and had a little gathering at the hospital to celebrate. We plan to still have the party in another 2 weeks. (otherwise we will have 12 red shiny superheor capes!)

He was released Sunday after he took another dose of antibiotics. We see the pediatrician tomorrow to recheck the eye. The swelling is pretty much gone and all that remains is a little pink around the eye.

Praise God for a speedy recovery!

Here he is during one of the rounds of anitbiotics. The swelling has gone down quite a bit in the picture. As you can see the eye didn't diminish his enthusiasm.

Happy Birthday to Ty!

Cupcakes and a pitiful look! Poor guy!

Labor Day Project

2009-09-07T22:56:00.002-04:00

With the help of Mark and my dear Mother-in-law, I recovered our dining room chairs. We have had the chairs for almost 5 years, but only started to use them for our everyday eating chairs about 6 months ago. 6 months of white seats was all we could take. Emily helped me to pick out this fabric and we also covered them in plastic.

I am very pleased with how they look and can't wait to pick out paint next. Our kitchen and dining area will feel brand new very soon!

Here is the before picture. If you want to click on it you can really see how horrible the seats were.

Katie's Party

2009-09-07T22:28:00.007-04:00

We had a great time celebrating Katie's 2nd Birthday. We planned an outdoor Luau, but due to rain it turned into an indoor Luau. We invited family and our friends the Driskells and had a fabulous time!
In the past few weeks Katie has become enthralled with Dora. We bought her a small Dora cake just for her!

Katie got lots of cool gifts! Her favorite was probably the cell phone. After she opened all of her gifts she had to take several calls. She is a busy girl.

Ty was very proud of buying her a gift. He picked out a little Dora house.

Being goofy with the big sunglasses....

She did a great job blowing out her candles!

We had a Hawaiian themed menu with Steak, Ham and Chicken Shish-ka-bobs. They were delicious. The ambrosia was delicious and sadly there was none was leftovers. :(

I love this picture. My girls and their 2 grandmas.

Start of Soccer Season

2009-09-07T22:17:00.002-04:00

This was our first day of soccer games for this year. Wow! It was hot!

Ty is playing in the under 4 league. It was very humorous to watch and as you can see below he has an adoring fan in Katie.
Emily played in the under 12 league. The field seemed huge! This is her first time playing since Kindergarten. She is doing a great job getting the hang of everything. She is #8 in Lime Green.

Ty is getting direction from his coach for the kick off.

Sarah is a faithful supporter and is eager to get as many of the 50 cent snocones as she can! They really hit the spot.

Rollerskating

2009-08-27T15:47:00.002-04:00

Emily and Sarah had the best time last night. We went Rollerskating with the Roberts. The girls got skates for Christmas and have been skating outside with our neighbors alot lately. They were so excited to go to a real rink.

Jenna and I had the best time chatting and remembering when we both skated at the same place when we were younger. It is so interesting that we both grew up and did so many of the same things in Fort Myers and never really knew each other. We probably have crossed paths more times than we realize over the years.

We plan to hit Homeschool Skate next Friday and Sarah even wants to have her Birthday Party at the Roller Rink. I guess next time I will have to skate too.

School is in session!

2009-08-24T21:28:00.003-04:00

Today the students at Dillehay Christian School happily reported back to work! Yay

We had a great day for our first day back. It makes me happy that our kids enjoy school and are eager to learn. I think we are going to have a wonderful year! We started off with a family prayer time and then headed into the school room. Mark and I had stayed up last night and 'spruced' up the room with new posters, name tags on their desks and set out their new supplies. The kids were excited with the new touches.

Emily is in 5th grade this year. She is taking two courses online with FLVS. She is very excited about being an online student. Emily is a great writer and I always look forward to reading her essays and journals.
Sarah is in 3rd grade this year. We are using a program from Heart of Dakota and I think it will be a great fit for her. Sarah and I enjoyed doing her science work today. She is a good student and loves to keep her work organized.

Ty is very thrilled to be in school. He was so ready to be a real part of our school. I am using a preschool program from Heart of Dakota and we also are working through "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." He loves letters and is good at identifying their sounds.

Katie is our newest student and is making her presence known quite quickly! She loves to be right in the mix of the things. We plan to have her follow along with some of the things that Ty is doing. Today we used window chalk and that kept her busy for a long time.

Emiy and Sarah hard at work with the globe. Very studious faces!

Ty and Katie working on a matching games. I was so excited about my file folder game, but it took them less than a minute to match them up. They loved it just the same.

I am so glad that I have the opportunity to homeschool. At times it can be difficult to have both of us working full time out of the home and manage homeschooling and other activites we have in life, but I cherish the time we have with our children.

And lastly, You know you are a homeschooler if........

you can wear rollerskates while you do your math!

King's Kids trip to Wannado City

2009-07-03T11:40:00.005-04:00

This Wednesday I had the special treat of taking 6 wonderful King's Kids from our church to Wannado City in Fort Lauderdale. The kids had a chance to earn the trip by passing 12 sections in March, April and May. The books are very challenging and sometimes (depending on the book) one section can be 7-8 verses. Each of these kids worked very hard to get to go on the trip. The kids who went were: Emily, Sarah, Brooke, William, Kevin and Ethan. Originally, I planned on going by myself, but Brooke's mom, my friend Jenna, decided to join me. We had such a good time. We talked and talked the whole way there and the trip went by sooo fast!

This was Emily and Sarah's 4th visit, but we still found many new things to do. This is the acting studio. They video the kids and tell them what to do and then we had to come back later to see the video. The video was of them being chased by candy through a candy factory.

We tried to get all of them to do things together, but eventually it was eaiser to split in groups and let everyone pick what they wanted to do. This was our first activity, the fire station.

For lunch the kids made their own pizza.

The Crime Lab was great! Kevin solved many, many crimes during the day. I would definetly say it was his favorite.

Sarah wants to be a cashier someday, so she was thrilled with her position at Publix.

When the kids do jobs they earn Wongas. They can spend the Wongas to do different things. For 60 Wongas they can go rock climbing. William spent alot of money here!

We saved money by coming as a Birthday Party. It was a nice break to sit down and have cake.

The girls at the nursery

Ethan as a police officer.

Emily, Sarah and Brooke loved the acting studio. Brooke also was chose to be one of the models for the modeling studio. She did great!

Emily as the rather mean Queen of Hearts. "Off with her head!"

I'm so glad I got to take the kids on this treat. It was nice to reward them for their hard work. I always suggest for people to take their kids here because it is so much fun. As Kevin put it, "This place is like a piece of Kid Heaven."

broken finger

2009-06-28T23:23:00.002-04:00

Sarah broke her finger playing (of all things) hide and seek. Apparently, she is quite the agressive hider!

Intially she was excited, but a cast in the summer is not a fun thing. Here she is wrapped up to swim at G and G's house. Mark had bought a new snorkel and mask and Sarah was determined to use it. Of course she had her arm poking up in the air while her head underwater. It was quite a sight!

She is drinking from a Chuck E Cheese cup that we got on Friday. Sarah and I enjoyed a mommy/daughter date. We had planned on going to Miniature golf, but the rain led us to Chuck E Cheese. We had a great time trying to beat each other in tickets. In the end, she won!
We pray that the next 3 weeks go quickly for Sarah.

Emily at camp

2009-06-23T22:25:00.003-04:00

Emily left yesterday morning for Venture of Faith Junior Camp in Georgia. She was so excited to go to camp this year. Three of her good friends went too and I know she will have a blast! The female counselor, Nicole, was one of the campers when I went as a counselor to Venture of Faith. We had a great time and I know she will have fun with the girls. We miss her, but glad she is getting the chance to go.

I have great memories of going to Teen Camp, but never had the chance to attend Junior Camp. Mark loves Junior Camp because he was saved while attending Junior Camp at Covenant Hills in Otisville, MI.

I pray that she will be blessed spiritually while at camp and make lifelong decisions for the Lord. We love you, Emily!

Ty and Katie

2009-06-12T22:13:00.002-04:00

Ty was so excited when we got the blocks out this week. He loves to build and especially likes to knock them down too. Katie loves to copy her brother!

Matching Towers by mom

I asked for a hugging picture and this is what I get.

This time I said to hug gently. They just think that is too funny.

I tried to get a casual hug, but Ty just couldn't figure out why Katie is looking up. He kept asking her,"Katie, why you looking up?"

Ty showing off his letter T. Katie still in peek a boo picture mode.

birthday and stuff

2009-06-10T22:16:00.006-04:00

I had a very nice birthday thanks to my wondeful family! The day before we celebrated with my parents, Grandma June and Tay, Randy and fam. (Keela and William were invited, but they were already busy with a motorcycle ride.) :)
We have really enjoyed our backyard lately. It is so nice in the evening when there is shade enough to relax.
4 generations

On my actual birthday, (no pictures oops) we went to Mark's parents house after church. They fixed a delicious meal. Ribs on the grill, yum! Elizabeth even made yummy cupcakes. We swam for the rest of the afternoon before heading back to church. It was a great day.

We have found our new favorite place to go. Caspersen Beach in Venice.

We have been twice in the past week and a half.

The first time if was just our 6. We brought our boat and the waves were perfect for it. Here Sarah is riding with a boy that became our buddy.

Katie enjoyed the sand. She has a knack for putting sand in every possible place. So special.

Poses by Ty.

Emily loves looking for shark's teeth. She has a great eye for it.

For our 2nd trip, Mom and Dad Dillehay and Elizabeth joined us. After the beach we went to Dutch Heritage for a delicious Amish buffet. Elizabeth bought a huge jawbreaker. It may look big, but it fits! :)

Aunt Mary lives nearby and joined us for the meal. It was good to visit with her.

Ty 's buddy Miciah (Or Ciah as Ty calls him) is moving away. His Dad is going to be an Army Chaplain. We got to have Miciah over to play for a bit before they have to leave. We are going to miss Miciah and his family.

Today we went over to swim at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Chandler and Holly joined us. I think we are off to a very fun, wet summer. Loving it!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-06-10T22:14:00.000-04:00

Memorial Day Weekend

2009-05-27T21:32:00.004-04:00

We had a productive and fun Memorial Day Weekend. For awhile now Mark has wanted to redo the playset in the backyard. We built the original one before Ty was born and felt we needed to reconfigure it to better fit the needs of the kids.

This time around we had more help.

We had 1 cubic yard of sand delivered to add to the sandbox. The kids and I moved all of it from this pile to the sandbox. Let me tell you that is very hard work.

(Kathi-I thought it was cool when I saw that you had sand delivered too.)

Here is our finished product. You can't see the swing side very well, but we have one long beam with 3 spots for swings. We may add a roof of some sort to the top, but haven't decided yet.

For Memorial Day we had the family over. It was Randy's birthday too, so Taylin brought a cake. It was a hot day, so we also set up the slip n slide.

Katie loves the yellow slide. She climbs up, slides down all the time.

I wish I had a picture of Logan and Ty to add, but they were too busy playing to pose for me.

Tonight was the last night of King's Kids until September. We will miss working with the kids every week. I think the adults have as much fun as the kids sometimes.

I took a group shot tonight. This pictures makes me laugh. Ty is rather rambunctios and as you can see he has a partner in crime. I do have a better one with their hands down, but this one makes me laugh.

a nice treat

2009-05-20T21:28:00.002-04:00

Another food gift post!

Tonight at church a friend told me that I had a yummy gift on the Secret Pal table. I'm not doing secret pal this year, so I was surprised to find something for me.

Loretta Lopez is a wonderful lady of our church. When her and her husband lived up north she had a baking business. I'm not sure what all she did, but I know she made many, many wedding cakes. I have sampled many of her creations and everything has been wonderful.

A few weeks back I saw that she had made cinnamon rolls for someone. The person didn't pick them up right away and I made sure Loretta knew that I could take them off her hands if need be.

Tonight she gave us a tray of delicious cinnamon rolls with a very nice card. This was an unexpected and very appreciated gift.

Now...off to indulge in a delicious snack!

Thanks, Aunt Keela!

2009-05-20T09:57:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, Keela had the ladies over for brunch. She made a yummy Noodle/Sausage Casserole. I knew my family would like it. I asked her for the recipe and viola!...she gave me the recipe and a bag of ingredients to make it. Wow! That is nice.
(Makes me think...hmmm... William keeps complimenting my Sweet Potato Casserole....hmmm.)

As you can see it was a big hit. Thank you, Keela! You are a wonderful sister!

Mark (with the help of the rest of us) is rebuilidng/remodeling the kids fort out back. Ty is enjoying working with Daddy. This is his new pose. What gang is he in??

We had a great time at William and Keela's pool on Sunday. Thanks for having us over!

Stuff

2009-05-15T23:37:00.013-04:00

Mark blogged again, so it got be in the mood. Over Easter we had a nice visit with Kathi, Michael and kids. We rented the bikes at Lakes Park. Mark is a brave man escorting 11 kids around the park. They all had a great time.

Katie looks like such a big girl sitting up front by herself.

We spent a lot of time swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Katie and Ty are both doing great with arm swimmies. Katie loves to jump in and seems to be working on her diving form.

I bet the neighbors thought it was loud! :) Lots of laughter and fun times.

We seem to have fallen into a routine of Donuts and the newspaper on Sunday morning. Emily and Sarah love to read the comics.

We took Brenna with us to a "Cooks in the Kitchen" program sponsored by the Junior League.

They had all kinds of things for the kids to try. Emily and Sarah loved the Yoga Class. A couple of ladies asked me if I had the kids enrolled in yoga somewhere. Ummm, no. :)

Mark spent a few days in DC for the National Math Conference. Before he left, he took the kids out for a daddy day. They went to lunch and Chuck E. Cheese.

Ty likes to plan his own outfits now. Many days that means PJs, but now he is exploring other things.

Here Sarah is preparing for the King's Kids Jamboree. The girls worked very hard this year.

When Mark packed for DC he took a bunch of tracts to pass out. I thought that was a great idea.

My mom planned a Tea Party for the cousins and their dolls.
Ty and Katie got to come by default. I knew Katie would get messy so she went topless!

The King's Kids Jamboree is always a fun time for our family. Mark and I work with the kids on Wednesday nights to get them ready for the big day. We also have practice the night before.

Here are Mark and another worker, Scott.

Emily and Sarah were 2 of the 5 people on the quiz team. They won 2nd place! We were very proud of all 5 of them. The team that beat them have 3 6th graders that are amazing. Our team only lost by 2 questions.

Grandma, Grandma, Grandpa and Abby all came to watch. Tay, Logan and Chloe were there too. Tay was a huge help because she volunteered to watch Ty and Katie during part of the time where Mark and I both had to be in the sanctuary. Thanks Tay!

This is the lineup for the Memory Verse Contest. Sarah worked so hard this year and got 3rd place! She was beat out by 2 of the 6th graders I mentioned earlier. She had over 50 verses prepared word perfect. This was a very stressful moment, but so rewarding to see the hard work that was put in to memorizing Bible Verses.

Part of our Winning Team.
This is the Great Missionaries Relay Team. I love practicing the relays with the kids. They are so fast! I would have loved this as a child.

Ty isn't part of the team yet, but he ran up to get in the picture. Such a poser!

I love to see Kiara in there. This was the twins first year and they both did a good job.

Sarah came away with many ribbons and 1 book. She and Emily both memorized Psalms 75 and were awarded a book. She also got first prize in Story Telling. Great job, Sarah!

Emily also won several ribbons. She won 1st place in Bible Storytelling. She told the story of the 10 plagues. I was so impressed with her stage presence and how she interacted with the audience. She is going to be an awesome Sunday School Teacher or Teacher one day.

Afterwards we took Alison and Baileigh with us to the beach and to Dairy Queen. The Huxley Family is heading back to Michigan for several months. I think we are all sad to see them go.

Matching Batman(Batman?)

Ty has a thing for PJs.

Mark and I spent 3 days in New York. We love the city and found loads of new places to enjoy. We saw 4 shows and ate way too much pizza. There are so many place in New York to get pizza, so we sampled many.
This is a restroom in the middle of the road. Hmm.

This was for Emily. There is a HUGE billboard advertising Sims 3 in the middle of Times Square.

I love the hustle and bustle of Times Square.

Spring was starting to ...spring in the city. Tulips are my favorite so I had to get a picture of this in Battery Park.

We traded picture duties with another couple.

We also toured the Tenentment House Musuem. It was the best historical tour I have been on. I highly recommend it.

We went on the boat to see the Statue of Libery and Ellis Island. We go there early and were able to get a Pass to tour the pedestal of the Statue of Libery.

Here is the inside with the spiral stairs that lead up to the crown. They are closed right now, but that would be very exhausting!

At the M & M store we found out that Mark was in a pink mood.

We bought the kids a few souvineirs. We went to a comic book store and were able to buy a bunch of cheap Archie comics. The girls love Archie Comics! They spent most of the day reading them. I wish I would have thought to pick up some Richie Rich for them. They don't know him ... yet.

We went to the Mother Daughter Banquet with Grandma June, Mom, Keela, Kiara, Kaylie, Tay, Chloe, Grandma and Abby. The girls sang 2 songs with the girls choir.

I was the lucky receipent of a delicious Mother's Day breakfast.

Ty is in the 'giving up nap' phase. Yuck! The other night it was about 10:30. I thought he was asleep and I look down the hallway and see the picture below. He had changed into different pajamas and was now sporting a Batman mask.

Emily and Sarah enjoyed playing in the rain recently. We are so glad to have at least a little rain. We need it so badly here.

Sarah at the beach

2009-04-13T23:00:00.001-04:00

Tonight, Sarah and I met Kathi's family at the beach to take their pictures. I couldn't resist snapping just a few quick pictures of her. We had fun chatting to and from the beach. I had to take a few work calls during the way and Sarah had a play phone and pretended she was working too. She wants to be an online teacher one day!

scrapbook page

2009-04-10T10:20:00.002-04:00

I guess I have caught the scrapbooking bug again. It started when I saw the Husted family blogs and the fun scrapbook weekend they went on recently. Then I was at Keela's sorting pictures and couldn't wait to get creative again.

I guess I will take a break from facebook, twopeas, welltrained mind and all the other non-work computer stuff I have been doing. Scrapbooking has always been a nice retreat. My goal is to finish all of December and get it sent off to make a book by the end of April.

Here is just one page of Katie playing on the steps at Mammaw's house in December.

Wicked

2009-03-28T23:51:00.002-04:00

Tonight, Emily, Sarah and I went to see Wicked at Barbara B. Mann. It was wonderful! If you get a chance to go see it, definetly go.

We loved Galinda and Elphaba. The story line tells the true story of the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz and what happens before Dorothy arrives in town.

I love that Emily and Sarah enjoy doing things like this with me.

Katie 18 months

2009-03-25T00:55:00.003-04:00

Katie is officially 1 1/2 years old. She is now closer to 2 , then 1. :( Our 'baby' is growing up.

She is still a delight and a very good child. We have had to discipline her over her diaper antics. Mark vows to make the girl wear pants until she is potty trained. If I see her smeared in poop again I might agree!

She is getting more and more verbal each day and we love to hear her little voice. Lately she is into her babies and likes to wrap them in blankets and look at books with them. I love it! She loves animals, especially neighborhood dogs.

Jeff Kinney

2009-03-25T00:39:00.002-04:00

This weekend we attended the Southwest Florida Reading Festival with Chandler and Holly. We had a chance to see Lois Lowry and meet Jeff Kinney.

Jeff Kinney is the author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We got lucky and were able to find him hanging out under a shade tree signing autographs. He was a neat guy, seemed humble in the face of his rising popularity. When it came time to go into the auditorium to hear him speak it was chaos. The scene was similar to Black Friday at Walmart. Craziness. He talked for about 20 minutes and then they started the autograph process. Imagine 1,000 people crowded in a room that should hold less than that, all wanting autographs.....except for the six of us. We happily stood and strolled out the door with autographed books in hand. Nice moment. :)

Emily-Double Digit!

2009-03-12T21:37:00.010-04:00

Hard to believe, but Emily has hit double digits! On March 10th, she turned 10 years old. We celebrated and had a great time!

On Friday before her birthday, she invited some of her friends over for a party.

They started off in the backyard with silly string, squirt guns and a water slide. They had loads of fun and there was lots of high pitched, girly screaming! I'm sure the neighbors enjoyed it. :)

All the girls made flip flops to take home. Emily picked out the fabric and I think they looked great.

On her actual birthday we decided to head to Fort Myers Beach to go Parasailing. I just love this picture.

This is the reason I am chicken to go. Makes my stomach turn, but Mark, Emily and Sarah loved it!

Smiley Sarah! Emily is hoping we do this for Sarah's birthday too! She wants to reap the benefits.

While we waited for them to finish, Katie, Ty and I just hung out on the sand. Katie thought that would be a great time for a sand facial. She patted the cold, wet sand all over her face. She loved it. Several people passed me and told me she had sand in her face/eyes. The girl was all smiles and didn't seem to mind. I just let her play.

She was a teeny bit excited.

My mom had planned to go with them, but my Grandma June was feeling sick so she bowed out to go check on her. Grandma is in the hospital with pneumonia. Please keep her in your prayers.

That evening we headed to Lakes Park to fly kites and have cake.
I had to put this picture in. I couldn't believe I didn't have another one of Mammaw. She was at the beach with us and Lakes Park and the only picture I have is of her untangling kites. Sorry Mammaw. We did keep busy with those kites!

Some more kite fliers! Tay, Randy, Logan and Chloe were there too! I think I chased too many kites and didn't get enough pictures.

Our four sweeties! 10, 8, 3 and 1.

Here are some more pictures of our 10 year old.

recently...

2009-03-03T21:07:00.004-05:00

We went to the Annual Edison Festival of Light 1 1/2 weeks ago. The Roberts Family joined us and we had a great time. I have been going to this parade since I was a kid and I love to take my own. (They are watching fireworks in the pics below.) I always appreciate my mom going early to save our spots. Thanks mom!

Brooke, Sarah and Emily

Parades are Katie's thing. It means sitting and watching fun stuff and.....eating! Yum. I think she sampled EVERYONES snacks. She also enjoyed waving to everyone. She waved with such devotion. I think she thought they were all waving at her, not the crowd, just her.

Katie and Chloe are so cute together. Chloe is getting used to the very affectionate hugs that Katie gives her.

Katie is also our thumb sucker and hair twirler. Emily and Sarah just being goofy.

My latest garage sale find is this wondeful Library cart. I love it! The man I bought it from got it from Edison College Library. He works there and they were getting rid of the awhile back. I love it because it is compact, rolls very easily and fits all of our homeschooling books.
I seriously love this cart.
Here it is in action. This is a typical morning at our house. Mark working. Emily and Sarah schooling. Ty and Katie coloring. Me taking pictures.
Here is another day. This is pre-cart days, so notice the messy pile of books on the table. (I just love my cart.)

Sarah got her hair cut and looks so cute! She went for a layered look and takes pride in fixing it herself. I think she looks much older!

We enjoyed having Mammaw over for lunch and to play games. She loves to play bananagrams, 300 wishes and Blokus and so do we!

Just wanted to share my youngest students!

Nice cheese smily from Katie!

Geotrax Party

2009-02-23T19:43:00.004-05:00

Ty is quite the Geotrax fanatic. We have amassed quite a collection since his birthday in October. We bought some pieces used from Kari, found some on Craigslist, hounded the nice ladies at Once Upon a Child and faithfully checked Kohl's to combine discounts to get the newer pieces cheaper. Needless to say, it has been fun to collect geotrax.

We are lucky to have a great group of 2 and 3 year old boys at our church, so we decided to get together and have a Geotrax party. Ty was thrilled, as was Mark. (Sometimes I think it was more for Mark than Ty. :) )

Here are the party guys.

Sarah is awesome at setting up everything. She meticulously places each sign and tree in just the right spot.

Emily loves her little Ty. On a side note, Ty is finally potty trained. We were frustrated just before Christmas because he just didn't seem to care about the whole diaper thing. He was content to be a 'baby'. Our doctor said to just wait and try again in a couple of months. Last week he said he wanted to wear underwear and it is going great! Still a few accidents, but no complaints here! Emily and I were watching him running around in his underwear and she said that she is just so proud of him. I love how she loves her brother.

Mammaw and Mom stopped by to visit for a bit. Katie thought Mammaw was so funny.

Katie and Chloe enjoying the house.

Grandpa and his train loving boys.See--doesn't it look like Mark's party! I wonder what is so funny! :)

Fun Times

2009-02-07T20:45:00.007-05:00

I can't believe 2009 is a bit over 1/12th of the way through all ready. It seems we have already packed some much into such a short amount of time.

Last night 24 of my family members went to see a rodeo at Germain Arena. We had a good time being together.

Emily, Sarah and I had fun planning for the kids to dress up cowboy style. I think they look absolutely adorable! We bought the 3 older kids' shirts at the Thrift Store for 1.99 each.

You can't see Katie's boots very well, but they are little red boots. These were some that we bought for Emily for her 2nd birthday. (Barnyard Birthday Bash) Sarah also wore them and now it is Katie's turn.

Katie has been getting into trouble lately. She has tapped into her artistic side. I like art, but we have asked her to try finger paint rather than finger poop.

Emily, Sarah and Ty hung streamers and blew up balloons for Mark's birthday celebration. He was in Orlando on his actual birthday and we missed him so much.

We brought pizza over to Grandpa and Grandma's new house to celebrate for Grandma's birthday. The kids love to visit the house. There is so much to do and explore. Now if is would just warm up and we could swim!

Family Time at the Park

2009-01-29T15:18:00.004-05:00

We have company visitng from Michigan. That is always a good time to get to the park. I'm already looking forward to the time change. I hate it that it is dark by 630.

I guess I didn't bring enough toys. Katie resorted to using her shoe for entertainment.
Robin bought Mammaw the Corn Hole game for her birthday. We are having a great time with it.

Ty in Katie's car. The whole pink is for girls means nothing to him! He loved having Kaylie push him around. Thank you Kaylie.

This was Silas' first visit to the park with all of us. I think he had a blast!

Nema and Dick have been enjoying their time on Fort Myers Beach. They leave on Saturday to return to the snowy state of Michigan.

Jonathan is getting so tall! Makes Keela look like a shorty.

Hannah is also visiting from Michigan. She is enjoying going to the beach every morning. Glad we got a chance to visit and catch up.
I just really like this snapshot of my Dad and Ty. I caught them throwing sand at each other. My first thought was to tell Ty to quit throwing sand, but if Grandpa is doing it too do I tell Grandpa to quit? They have a lot of fun together.

Aunt Kristy's Visit

2009-01-24T09:22:00.002-05:00

Aunt Kristy was here to visit for about 3 weeks. We had a wonderful time and all of us are missing her already. I think having someone in your house for 3 weeks could be a little crazy, but not with Kristy. All the kids adore her. She was a huge help around the house. (I think I will have to start doing laudry again!) She changed more than her share of diapers and is just plain fun to be around.

Thanks for visiting! We love you!

I know I have been out of the blogging loop lately. With being on the computer so much for work, I just needed a break from all other things digital. Now off to check up on everyone's blog.

:)

Gift for my Dad

2008-12-23T22:57:00.001-05:00

This year we made my dad a photo collage for his car lot.
We printed and framed the pic above. We went to his carlot one evening and took pictures off all kinds of things. When we got home we cropped, trimmed and rotated to make Willoughby Auto Sales.

It was a fun gift to plan and make.

I think I might make one for us next.

Santa meets Jesus

2008-12-23T20:38:00.000-05:00

Christmasy Stuff

2008-12-22T22:07:00.007-05:00

I love Christmas time. We have so many traditions that we 'must' do each year.
Tonight we went to Lakes Park to ride the train. It was freezing cold. (60, but it was high 70's earlier in the day). We sang (alot) along the way. I wonder if people wished they were on a different train, or were they happy to be with happy albiet loud people. Ty and Logan walked right up to Santa. Ty hadn't wanted to go near him any other time this year. Ty asked for Team Geo Trax. Who would have thought? :)
Logan said he wanted Money. (Randy taught him that.) When they were done Ty told me he wasn't afraid, he is a good boy. He knew I was proud of him.

The big girls got their turn too. Emily told Santa she wanted a warmer blanket. Smart kid. (Remember it was freeezing!)
Somehow they convinced Grandma to push them. They were so cold.

Ty said this present was his bed and wanted to take a nap on it. Katie thought that sounded fun. They think the wrapped presents are fun. Wonder what will they think on Thursday when we unwrap them all.

Emily is so excited about everything Christmasy this year. I love her spirit.

These are out of order. Arrgh.

After the Christmas dinner at church we went out to Briarcliff to see the lights.

Ty and Logan loved the jack in the box. I love their happy smiles.

Tay and I bought Katie and Chloe matching dresses. I thought we would get the perfect hair, perfect dress, black patent leather shoes picture, but.....well sometimes life is more like this picture. No shoes on some kids. Only tights on one kid. Dirty faces and dresses. Oh well. They looked adorable! :)

Our little foursome looking might cute! :)

I was teasing Isaiah and Sarah. When these two were younger they were the noisiest kids ever! I used to tell Keela she should get Isaiah's hearing checked. The boy didn't know how to whisper! We were glad he could join us for dinner.

The girls sang with the other girls. They did a beautiful job.

I taught Junior Church in Ty's class Sunday Morning. The Christmas Tree hats were begging for a picture.

I think it is kinda funny that Ty is holding a GeoTrax magazine. He doesn't leave home without it! :)

Our Visit to Michigan

2008-12-18T22:30:00.012-05:00

Better late than never that I get these pictures posted.

We had a great time in Michigan. It was a quick, jam packed trip with lots of snow!

Sarah loved the minivan we rented. We went through the drive through and she paid and picked up the food through the back seat roll down window.

We rented a motel in West Branch with Kristy and Kari's family. Santa was there on Saturday morning, so some of the kids jumped out of the pool and ran to get their picture taken with him.

There was a great open area that we used for meals and game playing.

Katie did get to swim, but was always wanting to get in for more. She loved having a little freedom to walk around and explore in the indoor area.

Emily is sharing her vast pool knowledge with Elizabeth. Sadly, I must admit that they beat me.

Umm. I don't think you are supposed to be up there Emily.

The pool was very nice. Warm and big enough for all the wild and crazy kids! Our kids had a blast visiting with their cousins.

We also had a chance to visit at Kristy's house.

Sarah loved their dog, Chloe. She now says she wants a pug for Christmas. Santa doesn't do dogs.

Kristy was gracious enough to let the girls take a turn on the horses.

I love this picture.

Katie enjoyed Mammaw's steps. She would torment me by wanting to climb up them. She was a little nosy at Mammaw's. house. She even reset her answering maching so that it is now set in a different language. Oops.

The girls loved the snow!

We went to Greenfield Village with Robin, Mary, Ethan and Sadie. We were all determined to go, but it was very, very cold. Mark, Mary, Sarah, Ty and Sadie left early. Robin, Emily, Ethan and myself braved it to the very cold end. There was ice skating, warming stations, model T rides, Santa and lots of other fun things to see and do.

We exchanged gifts with Mammaw while we were there. Ty and Katie loved her tree. I think they managed to do some redecorating of the lower branches.

Sunday night we went to Shaun and Mary's house for dinner and games. Ty still talks about wanting to go back to Ethan's house.

We also visited with Robin for Pizza and Holiday Charades. Lots of fun!

Mark took the girls sledding in downtown Ypsi. My mom and Uncle Ron took us there when we were little.

We had a wonderful time at the Lions game. Mark is a big Lions fan and is trying to convert E, S, T and K. Sarah loved the claw and I must admit we do have some awesome cheerleaders that were showing their Lion Pride.

Ty enjoyed mimicking the concessions people. It caused quite a few laughs in our area.

One last one for fun! This was at a rest stop and the snow was so irresistable that we had to take a picture!

Dillehay elves

2008-12-12T20:48:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

posting again...

2008-12-04T00:53:00.005-05:00

Wow! I can't believe the lapse in posting that I have had lately. Things have just been busy. My free time is consumed with Christmas plans, not blogging. I just finished by card tonight and I am quite pleased with it. I can't wait to get it back from the printer.

I thought I would share a few picks from the month of November.

Grandma Sherry bought Ty this tool set at a garage sale. Great deal and he loves it.

Emily and Sarah had friends over to play. They had a great time! They are all holding wax balls from dipping their hands in hot wax.Emily and Sarah are great helps around the house. They are learn lots of new things and really pitching in with the work around the house. Mark was out of town for work for a couple of days in November. I appreciated all the help I got from the girls. They are great workers!

Katie is enjoying the American Girl Magazine. She is turning into quite the independent girl lately. She loves to do things herself and is working on mastering the fork. She does pretty good as long as there is no ketchup on the plate. She prefers licking ketchup as opposed to using it for dipping. hmmm

Mammaw came to visit for a week and Kami is also in town too. This picture was taken on Mammaw's first day. We had a picnic at Lakes Park. Other than the bees we had a great time.

Emily and Sarah are studying the Egyptians. We learned about how they made papyrus and practiced by making homemade paper. It was a fun process.

The girls had their first cheerleading competition this month and earned first place! Way to go girls!

Sarah is on the far right holding up a girls leg. Emily is next to her, holding up the girl.Emily is one of the bases for this stunt.There group has two teams. Both teams won first place.
I could do without the lipstick, but the girls sure loved getting to wear for the competition! :)
We surprised them by going to SeaWorld while we up in Orlando. Sadly, this is the last time SeaWorld is doing the free passes for teachers. We plan to use ours as much as we can between now and 12/09.

Emily and Sarah enjoyed feeding the dolphins. (Thank you for the passes Andrea! We appreciated it.)

Ty wasn't into the masked people, but the girls were happy to pose.

They have way more rides than last time we were there. The crowds were slim, so the girls rode a lot!

They loved the Shamu roller coaster. I think they rode it 5 or 6 times.

We spent Thanksgiving week enjoying Grandma and Grandpa Motorhome (Dillehay) and ate dinner with everyone at my Mom's house.

We are looking forward to December. My goal is to not be consumed with all the activity, but to sit back and reflect on the reason for the celebration.

We head to Michigan tomorrow (well now it is today). I talked to Mammaw today and she said it was 20 degrees, but it would get cold tomorrow. What! I think 20 is pretty cold enough!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-11-19T06:43:00.001-05:00

Out of my comfort zone.....by miles

2008-11-10T13:53:00.002-05:00

Today I had the honor of participating in NDLW(National Distance Learning Week). I was asked by my supervisor to present, alongside a good friends, the Algebra 1 course for our school.
I was quite nervous at the idea, but honored to be asked. Naturally I said yes, she is my boss.

The session went very well. Thanks to those who prayed for me. I wasn' t nearly as nervous as I thought I would be.

It was fun to work alongside a teaching friend of mine. Her husband teaches at our school and her son takes classes with us full time. Kinda neat that we are similar, Mark works for the school and Emily will begin taking courses with us next year. I guess you can say our families are true believers!

Below is just a clip of what the online session looks like. It was a great experience, but I am so glad it is over!

Pictures, aargh!

2008-11-09T22:29:00.002-05:00

Before church tonight, when the light is just right, I tried to get some pictures of Ty. This is quite a daunting task. He doesn't look at the camera much. Drives me batty.

Here is his pose. Can you see that he is laughing?

I am somewhat happy with this one. It was another of his poses, which makes it more special to me. It does showoff the fact that he is overdue for a haircut. I call him Shaggy Boy.

Open Gym

2008-11-07T20:32:00.005-05:00

Today we joined the Driskells for a day at the gym. It was an open gym time for ages 5 and under. Ty and Katie had a great time.

Our favorite spot was the foam pit. Ty loved to swing on the rope and land in the pit and he like when I threw him in the pit. I was a little uneasy of Katie in the pit at first. I didn't want her to sink in, but she loved it! (and she never sunk in too deep)

Thank you for inviting us Kelly, Carter and Nate!

Random Stuff

2008-11-07T08:52:00.004-05:00

This has been a really good week of school. The weather has been nice, so we did a lot of our school time out on the patio. The fresh air was good for all of us. Katie and Ty have enjoyed playing with the kitchen set and the slide while we work.

The girls are doing very well with their studies. We have made a few changes this week in our science curriculum and restructured our math time a bit. For history we are in the process of making recycled paper. Sarah plans to post our work on her blog next week.

Mark and the girls started our Thanksgiving tree this week. We have had a good time adding leaves on the tree. Each leaf stands for something that we are thankful for.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-11-05T07:30:00.002-05:00

20 minutes well spent

2008-11-04T14:32:00.002-05:00

Today, Mark and I, with kids in tow, exercised the right to vote. Gotta love the 19th amendment!
I love it that we have a chance to make our choice known. Our precinct seemed to have a really good turnout. They said it had been steady all day. We had heard that Chick-fil-a was giving away free sandwiches to anyone with an I Voted Sticker. We went there for lunch, but found out it was cancelled. Apparently that is illegal.
Emily and Sarah wore their McCain/Palin shirts today. As Emily puts it, she is voting in her heart. :)

Spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Motorhome

2008-11-02T14:40:00.005-05:00

We had a fun week with Grandma and Grandpa here to visit. They came Monday-Saturday. They were a big help as usual. Grandpa did some painting and helped Mark with most of a playhouse. Grandma did laundry and helped whenever needed including homeschooling.

We also enjoy our visits with them.

Here are G and the girls making Caramel Apples.

Oops. How did that get here?

The weather turned a bit chilly while they were here, but we enjoyed being outside anyway.

Grandpa and Dad hard at work.

We also went to Chuck E Cheese. We went at lunch time on Thursday, so the place was really empty. Ty raced cars against Grandpa and ...Grandma was the skee ball champ! Who knew she had this hidden talent? Go Grandma!

They had been working on this online Name That Tune and kept getting stuck on the section of 80's music. They thought we might be helpful...me, not so much. Mark was very good at it. Between the 3 of them, they finished the whole game. Yay!

They were also here for Halloween. Here the kids are at a halfway time for trick or treating. Katie, with bottle in hand, is heading to bed none the wiser that the rest were going out for more candy.

Grandma and Grandpa manned the door and passed out candy for us.

Thanks for coming to visit. We had a really good time. :)

Happy Halloween

2008-11-02T14:12:00.005-05:00

We had a wonderful time picking out Halloween costumes. I love entire process of deciding what everyone will be each year. The girls are now on board with that and like to come up with creative ideas. For awhile they were all going to be characters from Peter Pan, but we switched that (several times) and here is what they decided on.
Emily is our Woodland Fairy. You can't tell it here, but she has a good deal of hair and body glitter on. That was very fun and I feel like we will be seeing remnants of glitter for weeks to come. :)
Sarah is a 1920's Dancing girl or Flapper Red as she likes to call it. :) She had planned to go as Sarah Palin, but gollygee those glasses are hard to find. :)

Ty ended up as Peter Pan, minus the hat. Many people thought he was Robin Hood.

Katie was a very cute, black cat. Our first stop for the night was Grandma June's and she was so cute. We met up with Grandma in the dining room with her friends. Of course, with 8 cute, dressup kids we got a lot of looks and oohs and ahhs. Katie just sauntered right in with a big smile like she owned the place.

Hanging out with Daddy.

Kaylie, Kiara, Logan and Chloe joined us for part of the trick or treating fun.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-25T21:19:00.004-04:00

We had fun taking the kids to the pumpkin patch. We went to our usual place at Cypress Lake United Methodist Church. I love this time of the year. I heard on the news that we are expecting a cold front this week. Yeah! I can't wait to open sliders and enjoy the breeze!

We haven't carved our pumpkins yet. In Florida we find that we have to wait until the day or two before Halloween or else the pumpkins rot before the big night.

Instead of carving, Emily and I have an idea that we might try this year.

High School Musical 3

2008-10-24T23:01:00.002-04:00

Today was a good day. We went to the Firestation with our homeschooling friends and then to lunch afterwards. I enjoyed a good political discussion with my like minded friends. Good times!

Tonight, the girls and I went to see High School Musical 3. We enjoyed it very much. Yes, it was a bit corny at times when they instantaneouly break into song, but still a very good story. I am usually not a movie crier, but this one had me in tears at the end. I can't believe Troy, Gabriella, Sharpay, Ryan and Chad won't all be together in college!

The movie got me to thinking about my high school days and then realizing that the girls will be there before we know it. I wish I could freeze time for a few years, but alas so is life.

pictures coming tomorrow...when I am not quite so tired

Wordless Wednesday- Deja vu

2008-10-22T13:57:00.001-04:00

Tag

2008-10-20T12:40:00.003-04:00

It looks like I have been tagged by Amy at crackerbox.typepad.com.
So Here goes:
10 Years ago I ...
1. was pregnant with Emily
2. was teaching at Heights and coaching basketball at Cypress with Mark
3. Thought a dirty house meant we hadn't dusted. Ha!
4. thought I would return to back to teaching 6 weeks after Emily was born.
5. drove an Eclipse. (no 4 seater now!)

5 things on todays to do list ...
1. Pay bills
2. Take Emily and Sarah to Cheerleading
3. Do blog post about DC and Fall Festival
4. Take care of the pile of mismatched socks
5. Print off papers for homeschooling

5 snacks I enjoy...
1. Coke
2. Hersheys with Almonds
3. Pecan Pie
4. Reeses
5. Zero Bar

5 places I have lived...
1. Fort Myers, FL
2. Cape Coral, FL
3. Spring Arbor, MI
4. Ypsilanti, MI

5 jobs I have had..
1. Teacher at FLVS
2. Teacher at ECS
3. Teacher at Heights
4. Fort Adventure
5. McDonalds

5 people I tag...
1. Kami
2.Sarah
3.Jenna
4. Kathi
5.Kelly

Katie's 1 year pics

2008-10-19T16:10:00.002-04:00

Katie was finally somewhat bruise/bugbite/scratch free to take some one year pictures. I am happy with how these turned out. My favorite is the last one.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

2008-10-17T21:26:00.002-04:00

Sarah turned 8 today. Why does 8 sound so old? She is so excited to be 8 and I asked her why. She said, "Mom, I'm 8. That is a big age!" We had a great time celebrating her special day.

I took Sarah and Katie out on Tuesday for some pictures. Below are some of our favorite shots of Sarah. She is becoming such a beautiful eight year old.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-15T22:30:00.000-04:00

Wannado City for Sarah's Birthday

2008-10-12T22:14:00.007-04:00

This year we decided to visit Wannado City for Sarah's Birthday. We lucked out and were able to go on a Friday when Chandler and Holly were out of school. It was nice to go on a weekday when it isn't quite so busy. The kids love this place!
The last time we went was 1 1/2 years ago. E,S,C and H have grown up a lot since then. At that time they loved the Publix and we went to it 3 or 4 times. This time they tried it just one or two times. I think the favorites this time were the acting classes, theater, news reporter and crime investigator jobs.

Oh yes! The modeling was a big hit.

Ty admiring Chandler while waiting for the Modeling show to start.

For each job the kids earn Wongas. They can use the Wongas to ride rides, pay for the rock climbing wall, make jewelry, cook in the bakery, make a Chocolate bar or deposit them into the bank. The older kids shared their Wongas with Ty and Katie so they could ride the rides.

There was some fighting in the streets. The police need to step up their game.

The Animal Doctor was a new exhibit. The kids enjoyed it. The dog was very life like.

Katie is wishing they would let her in. She would love to help.
We took a break and went to Rainforest Cafe for Lunch. The atmosphere is so much fun.

We ordered the Lava Cake for Sarah. She was surprised and loved it!Wow! 8 years old! I can't believe my little Sarah is that old.

Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese

2008-10-12T21:38:00.008-04:00

We decided to have Ty's party at Chuck E Cheese. They just opened this summer and we enjoy going there so much! We figured this would be a great place to celebrate. Note to party planners: Take the group shot in the beginning. You can see that our younger participants were not to interested in the group photo. Some are crying, distracted by the bright lights, or not anywhere to be seen. Ty is raising his hand because I am raising mine. I was trying to get everyone's attention. I guess he thought I was waving.

Playing with Daddy.My dad likes the show Deal or No Deal, so Mark wanted to make sure he played the Electronic Version.

Here is the gang ready to eat.

Chandler is Ty's Boy. At least that is what Ty calls him. Chandler is great with Ty. He does the guy things like making funny faces. :)Ty had a transformer cake. He loved the cake topper.

He made some funny faces when we were singing to him.

He is trying so hard not to smile. I love his little smirk.
Some people get soooo messy. :)

Happy Birthday Ty! Mommy and Daddy love you!

When people asked what Ty would want for his birthday we told them Transformers or Geotrax and that is pretty much what he got. He was in toy heaven!

Grandma and Grandpa bought him the Geo Trax Grand Central Station. Several other people gave him additions for the set. As soon as we got home we put it together. We love Geo trax. We are already plotting for what we want next.

Ty is 3!

2008-10-08T21:50:00.004-04:00

Today Ty celebrated his 3rd birthday! It is hard to believe he is 3. We started off with breakfast at Chick-fil-a with Grandma. Ty loves to tell everyone he is 3.

We went home and started to make the treat bags for his party on Thursday. He told Emily, Sarah and me--Thank you. He was acting so appreciative that we are planning his party. Trying out the goodie bag stuff.

This was his 2nd time in the Wednesday night program, but the 1st time I was there with him. He seemed like such a big boy.
We made cupcakes to share for the snack tonight. His class sang Happy Birthday and Mrs. Gina made a special birthday hat for him to wear.
I think he looks like a cutie in this picture. This is a common stance we see. He is all boy! Emily and I were talking today and we think he should be in Karate. We feel like we are karate chopped all day!
Ty and his buddy Miciah.

Ty and friendsHappy Birthday Ty! We love you!

Govenor Sarah Palin in Fort Myers

2008-10-06T21:13:00.005-04:00

Today was an awesome day! Emily, Sarah, Taylin and I went to see Sarah Palin! We arrived at the arena and saw this guy in the midst of the throngs of people driving a fork lift loaded with water. It was Randy!

After that we took a moment to stock up on election t-shirts and buttons. As you can see Emily was quite excited. The line was unbelievable. It wrapped around the building and then snaked around several more times. We thought it would never end.

Taylin was able to deliver her mail very quickly and join us at the rally. She is great for anything that requires screaming. I was glad to not have to sit in front of her! :)

The place was packed! There were two huge banners. The one below and another that said Victory in Florida.

Sarah picked out 2 buttons. She loves the one that says-- Yes, she can!

Here we are. Tired and sweaty, but finally with a seat! Yay!

There were lots of people with signs and t-shirts. The crowd was an experience in itself.

We were in the middle of the row, but we really wanted signs. We had to yell at the 'sign guy' several times to get our signs.
The pictures on stage of Sarah Palin didn't turn out so well. We basically sat behind where she spoke. That means we had huge lights blaring on us.

This picture is when she was getting ready to walk on stage. I just loved all the people with their cameras and camera phones taking pictures.

Gov. Palin did a wonderful job. She didn't say a lot of the 'folksy' phrases that she said at the debate. I was a bit surprised by that. She did do a great job of promoting John McCain and what he stand for. There were a couple of protestors at the rally. One was yelling things at her when she was trying to talk. She paused for a moment, put her hand on her hip and said , " Sir, I just want you to know that my son is over in Iraq right now fighting so that you have the ability to come here and protest at our rally." We started cheering and these blue shirt people just whisked him away.

Her message was very clear and I know where my vote will go come November 4th.

This is a picture that I took of two people in front of us. I just like the way it looks. :)
Afterwards she signed some signs for people. We would like to have been up there, but the people in the front got in line last night.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. However this goes come November, it will go down in history as a very important election. I am so glad that we were be able to be a part of it.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-24T21:03:00.001-04:00

NBC Studios

2008-09-19T21:11:00.002-04:00

Today we went on a great homeschooling field trip. We were able to tour NBC studios. Thank you Jenna for setting this up.

Here is our group ready to go!

They enjoyed seeing themselves on TV. They acted like...well...they acted like kids. How fitting.

Here is Emily with Heather Turco. Heather is the morning news anchor. She very graciously stayed late to give us the tour. She did an excellent job and had a great knack for sharing lots of information, but never talking above the kids. I think all of us learned something during our visit.

We watched part of the noon broadcast with Craig Wolf. It was really neat to see a live show. Right before they went to commerical, he mentioned that we were in the studios watching.
Here are our future news anchors behind the ABC desk. The facility is shared by NBC and ABC.
Here there are at the news desk for NBC. I thought they looked pretty newsy. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-16T21:23:00.002-04:00

Busy day tomorrow, so I decided to post it 3 hours early...with words.
This is how Sarah practices her King's Kids.

2008-09-16T21:17:00.002-04:00

We celebrated the 19th anniversary of my mom's 37th birthday on Monday. Keela will be 37 this year. Interesting that you two will be the same age. :)

We went to Steak and Shake last year and this year. New tradition?

Sarah dressed up Katie. She thinks she looks like a lady from Nanny 911. Sorry the picture is blurry. Katie was rushing off to some nanny emergency!
Katie looks a lot like Sarah did as a baby. They had such a fun time playing together today. Love it!

Katie and Chloe's Party

2008-09-13T22:37:00.008-04:00

Today we had a great time celebrating Katie and Chloe's party at Lakes Park. It was a hot day, so we were very grateful to all of our friends and family that joined us to celebrate.

We had a great time on Thursday and Friday making these signs to line the path to the party.

1st-a welcome sign

I think Katie is looking at Chloe wondering what this craziness is all about.

Chloe was the first to ride in a plane. She flew to a wedding in South Carolina in April.
Chloe enjoys brushing her teeth.

Katie went to Disney for a quick family getaway when she was 5 weeks old.
Katie likes to sit in all chairs that she can get in.

Trick question! :)

Here is Mark with his little girl. She loves to say Dad. Mom has now become MMMMM.

I talked Grandma June into coming to the party. We were so glad to have her. It was quite miserably hot for awhile, but she toughed it out. Thanks, Grandma!

Emily and Logan hanging out.
I just like this one. :)

Here are some of the kids from the party. We couldn't convince all of them to join for a picture, but at least we got most of them.

This is our trusty wagon. Emily got it as a gift for her 1st Christmas. It has been to every party since then and it is stilling working great!
Logan and Ty relaxing with a cold juice box.
G and G with their two youngest granddaughters

We had two cakes and sang Happy Birthday two times.

Our birthday girls! Katie was one on the 11th. Chloe's birthday is on the 19th.

Katie really enjoyed the cake.

She always eats with her toes like this and I was sitting watching her eat I realized I don't want to forget those little toes pushing on the high chair.
Almost done...at least Katie is. She even has some to share. Chloe is just chilling in her chair. She did get pretty messy too.

Present time!

Thank you to everyone that was able to come help us celebrate. We enjoyed having you with us on this special day.

Our good friends Steve and Lucy helped us by cooking all the food. They have the ultimate servant's heart. They arrived at the park before we did, picked up the meat and grilled it to perfection. We so appreciate their friendship and help.

Happy Birthday Katie!

2008-09-11T11:09:00.015-04:00

One year ago today, Katie Jensen joined us!
It is hard to believe our baby is 1 year old! This has been a wonderful year and I wanted to include a few (ok--tons) of pictures of our little girl.

Bet you didn't think I would start this far back. :)
This picture is from the 3d ultrasound. You can see her hand in front of her face.

I love her little scrunched up face in this picture.

In Daddy's arms. Awww.

This is probably my favorite picture of Katie as a baby. We used it for her annoucement.

This was her 2nd Sunday at church. I just like this picture. Not sure why, but it has always been a favorite of mine.

I just find this picture funny. Katie was a great sleeping baby. We took her to Disney at 1 month old and she slept through must of the days we were there. When she was 8 months old we took her to Cedar Point and she slept through a lot of that too.

Long about this time I decided I like the sideways face shot. Hint: You will see this again in a few pictures.

Love this one! She was a thumb sucker for awhile, but when teeth came along she decided to give that up. Funny that so many people told me it would be hard to break her of that habit.

See told you we would see it again.

She briefly switched from thumb sucking to finger sucking. She fell asleep between bites for this picture. I told you she was a good sleeper.

7months old

These are from today. We stayed home most of the day so we could just play/
She loves her pink car. I love the little expression on her face.

We went to Dairy Queen and met the family to celebrate. Thanks for coming!

Happy Birthday Katie! We love you!

Wordless Wednesday

2008-09-10T15:01:00.000-04:00

Katie's new shoes

2008-09-09T21:03:00.004-04:00

It is a tradition that my parents get each grandkid their first pair of shoes for their 1st birthday. Today Grandma took Katie to buy her shoes at Snydermans. This is a local place that all of our kids go to for their shoes. I remember going there as a kid. Katie picked (with Mom's guidance) an adorable pair of pink Stride Rite shoes.

Here she is getting sized. 5 1/2 wide! Emily and Sarah were both 4 1/2 wide and Ty was 5 wide.

Even though it was Katie's special moment, all the kids came along. (everyone needed shoes, so it was good to get them all at once.)

Trying them out. She went right back to crawling at first, but we have made her practice a little and she is walking in them now. They seem so big on her. Proudly showing off her new shoes!

Party on Saturday

2008-09-07T23:30:00.004-04:00

It is hard to believe Katie and Chloe will both be 1 in the next 2 weeks. This is from one of our first photo shoots. We couldn't get good eye contact.

I personally like this shot. :) Believe me I have pics of both of them crying, but this is the cutest.
and then they got tired of holding their little heads up.

Here they are when they were dedicated. They were kinda sitting up, just not perfect yet.

Here is the picture we used for their invite. Where has the year gone?