Where have I been?

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

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

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

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

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.