Tales from the GodseySix...

All in a day's work.

2011-09-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

7:45 AM
9:15 AM
10:57 AM
12:03 PM
1:35 PM

2:15 PM

It's hard work, but someone's gotta do it. :)

Back in the Saddle (for a minute)

2011-08-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Well, here I sit. Again. Looking at this pitiful attempt of a blog with only one entry for last month, one entry for June, two entries for May and two for April.

And I wonder:

Is the blog even worth keeping up with at this point?
My conclusion: probably not.

Am I going to shut the blog down?
Probably not.

Am I going to try to do better about posting?
Probably not.

Is that the best I can do?
Probably not.

But, you know, it's not like I'm being paid or graded for this here online journal or anything, so if I only wrote in it once every 6 months, then what does it hurt, ya know?

But speaking of grades and online journals and stuff, allow me to take this moment to share with you, my only reader, a few things we have done lately for grades. :)

We have:

Visited S. Korea, Japan & India and we have stamped passports to prove it! :)

We have learned about the Itsukushima Torii Shrine and made our own out of clay.

We have learned about place value and inequalities in Math.
We have read and tasted some great books lately. Well, not all of us have tasted the books. Mainly just Raya. But the rest of us are enjoying the words on their pages. :) We have had some great visitors who we love and who love us enough to stay long enough to read a story (from a book that hasn't yet been tasted) before leaving. :)

We have learned how to diagram sentences with compound subjects and compound predicates and aced tests that prove our mastery of such topics.

We've learned phonics, practiced a little cursive writing, memorized some catechisms and learned new hymns that the children can now sing in unison.

The other day we enjoyed a play date at the park and the kids were singing (at the top of their lungs) "I am His and He is mine" in it's entirety as they swang and climbed around the jungle gym. I'm telling you, it nearly brought me to tears hearing my babies sing a song like that while playing on the playground.

So as not to paint an inaccurate picture of our home life, I will also share that we have shed a few tears over the struggles that come with learning a new concept both for the teacher teaching it and the student learning it. However, I can say that I am more excited than ever when I see my children actually "getting" something that we have been studying. The past few weeks have been a most amazing journey for our family. All six of us have accomplished more than we ever imagined we could and the struggles that we have endured through the process have been worth every tear shed when we see the growth in our children both spiritually and educationally.

The other day while we were studying India, we closed class in prayer for the missionaries in that country and Bryan, who was leading us in prayer, prayed the following:

"God, please help the people of India to know that you are the only one who can wash away their sins. And help them to remember the first commandment, that they should have no other Gods before You. Amen."

How can anyone say that they struggles in educating the future generation aren't worth growth like that! I am not only enjoying watching my children learn and grow, I am blessed to have been given the opportunity to do something like this with my children before I have to release them into the world. God is good to me!

Science Fun

2011-07-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the kids started their Science lessons. We are using the Answers in Genesis curriculum which we love so far! Yesterday's lesson was on vertebrates vs. invertebrates and at the end of 'class' David had the kids charade out vertebrates with the only rule being that they couldn't choose from the mammal class. The videos were so funny. Here are a couple that I was able to upload. If I have a moment I will post the rest. See if you can guess what they are!

Bryan was a........

and Elysa was a..............

and Dylan was a........

Expedition Earth: China

2011-06-29T09:05:00.000-07:00

Ni hao! And welcome to our Expedition Earth: China week. The kids and I had a great time this week "travelling" to China and learning about the people there.

Here are some of the things we did this week while "in" China:

~ We learned about passports and how to use them.

~ We got our passports stamped when we entered and left the country.

~ We located China and pointed it out on the map (along with the 7 continents and the 5 oceans).

~ We read about and learned interesting facts about the Great Wall of China.

~ We built our own tiny replica of the Great Wall.
~ We learned how to say "hello" in Mandarin Chinese, the official language of China.

~ We learned about China's geography, climate, crops, capital city, population & government.

~ We learned about how Christians have been persecuted in China and how God is Sovereignly growing the Christian population in China despite the Communist government shutting down the country to Christianity and forcing missionaries to leave the country.

~ We learned about tooth fairy traditions in China and how they are completely different than our traditions here in America.

~ We learned about a few of the animals in China, and completed a lapbooking component for that lesson.

~ We completed a mapping activity and learned about the flag of China and what it stands for.

~ We had a Chinese dinner of fried rice and ate (or at least we tried to eat) with chop sticks.

~ We learned about the Huang He and the Yangtze Rivers and how the continental divide on each continent determines which direction the rivers will flow.

~ We completed prayer cards for China, its government, and its people to remind us to pray specifically for them each day.

Will you join us in prayer for China? You can pray that:

1 - Many people in China will come to know Christ.

2 - Schools and seminaries there would be equipped to teach young pastors Biblical truth.

3 - Bibles would be made available to all who desire to have one. (China is now printing Bibles in their country, but there are not nearly enough for everyone who wants one.)

4 - The leaders of the government would come to know Christ as Lord.

And this upcoming week...we're headed to South Korea! :)

We've Adopted!

2011-05-22T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is Jefferson. He is the newest 'member' of our family. :) We've adopted him! He's our Compassion child.

No, he won't be coming to live with us, but we have introduced him to our children as our newest addition as today we pledged to support this little guy until he completes his schooling. That's gonna be another 12-16 years from now (unless something changes in his family situation which moves his family beyond Compassion's reach)! But for now, we are excited and committed to a long-term relationship with Jefferson as our family provides financially for his social, physical, emotional, & spiritual needs.

Compassion is so great because their mission is a direct response to Christ's Great Commission (Matther 28:16-20). Our Compassion child will have his physical needs met as well as and so that he can have his spiritual needs met! Not only will our sponsorship ensure that Jefferson recieves clothes, shoes and a meal, it guarantees that he will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel!

At what cost to us? About $1 and a quarter a day. For less than the price of my new-found daily Starbucks addiction, we can reach a soul on the other side of the world for Christ! That, my friends, is a great return on the investment!

Jefferson's birthday was May 12. We missed it, but the kids are excited already about making him some birthday cards. They are excited about learning more about their "Compassion brother", his country & his culture.

I will be sure to keep you updated as we grow this new relationship while seeking to be in God's Will. We are so excited that God has led us to Jefferson through Compassion. If you are interested in joining us in this journey to care for God's children, click on the link to Compassion's website on the navigation bar on the right side of my page. If you do decide to sponsor, or if you already sponsor, please be sure to leave me a comment so we can pray for your family & your Compassion child by name!

"Whoever shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard."
~Proverbs 21:13

Tour de la Schoolroom

2011-05-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

i thought it might be fun (or at least awe-inspiring) to post a quick run down of just how much God has blessed our decision follow His lead as we begin the journey to homeschool.

just as a point of reference, it was only 2 short months ago that this room was Dylan & Bryan's joint bedroom. it looked kinda like this:

since then, we have been scouting, collecting, painting, organizing, researching, and studying homeschooling options. and while we have been doing all of that, God has provided us with a nearly fully-furnished schoolroom. it has been unbelievable to say the least!

here's the current view of the schoolroom as you look in from the door:

and here's the view from the back of the schoolroom looking back towards the door we just walked in (the door is outside of the view of this picture, but it's just around that corner on the left of the pic).
So here's what we paid out of pocket to transform this room into what you see now:

The desks were donated to our schoolroom.

I found some here for $30.10/each (plus $103.85 for shipping)
Total savings: $224.75

The teacher's desk was purchased off of Craig's List for $35.

I found one here for $319.00 (plus $117.75 for shipping)

Total savings: $401.75

The Encyclopedias (both sets) were donated to our schoolroom by my wonderful mom!
I found a set here for $408.07 (although I'm sure it can be found cheaper)

Total savings: $200-$400

The book case was donated by my mom. Not sure how much it cost her back when she bought it, but we are so very grateful to have had that donated to our room. :)

The globe was a gift (for a birthday I think) when I was a child. It's been at my mom's house ever since I moved out, so it felt like a donation when we were recently reunited. (like me & the globe, not me & my mom. We were never un-united) :)

The chairs? You guessed it! Another donation.

I found some here for $23.88/each (plus $59.59 for shipping)

Total savings: $155.11

The white boards you see were both donations. In addition, I have one other one that was donated, but I am currently working on that one. (It will be our Expedition Earth board).
You can find white boards all over the internet, and they are not cheap. So for our sake, I'll say

Total savings: $Hundreds (you get the point)

The Utility/Media Cart in the picture was donated by a dear friend.

I found one here for $169.23 (who knows how much shipping)

Total savings: More than $169.23!

The wall art (ABC train, Parts of Speech posters) were all donated by church family.

The clock over the door...free with Toy Story 3 Disney DVD BluRay combo pack.

The Scripture over the teacher's desk we actually paid for, but I hosted a party so I got a nice little discount on that purchase. It says, "Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it." Proverbs 22:6

In all, we paid for the paint colors, the teacher's desk, the ABC mat you see on the floor by the reading corner, and the curriculum.

God is so good!

Hope you have enjoyed taking a peek around our beginning-to-come together schoolroom!

My Cup Runneth Over

2011-04-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

Apparently, so does Raya's!

Patience ~ A Fruit of the Spirit

2011-04-06T11:24:00.001-07:00

We are still waiting on word from the Superintendent regarding our appeal of Dylan's suspension. We were supposed to have heard from him by Friday of last week, but there is a lot on his plate right now with the school consolidation issues (our city school district has surrendered their charter and the county schools are now, all of a sudden, responsible for the children in both districts) and then earlier this week we had a mega-huge storm blow through that resulted in damage to some of the schools, so I think God is really trying to teach me a little about patience through all of this.

I am beginning to teach my children that patience is a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), maybe I should focus a little more on holding myself up to the standards of behavior that I expect from them! Wow, that was hard to say!

Speaking of fruits of the Spirit, I have started a new accountability thing with the kids (especially when I am by myself with them, because that seems to be when they act up the most). Whenever we are having disciplinary issues, I have them recite Galatians 5:22 (this is not one of our ABC verses, so I have to help the girls out with it). Then we take a look at the behavior that was unacceptable, and the offender has to tell the rest of us what fruit of the Spirit they are not showing when they behave that way. For example, when Dylan hit his sister in the car, I asked him what Galatians 5:22 says, he recited the verse, and then when asked, he tells the group that when he hits his siblings, he is not showing kindness. Sometimes, several fruits are hidden when we misbehave. I used this opportunity in particular to ask the others what fruits they felt like are hidden when we hit someone and they chime in: self-control, gentleness, love, kindness. Then we discuss why said action is sinful (which is really easy for them to understand since we just finished discussing how Scripture tells us we should behave) and we say a prayer of repentance. And then I explain how God is a loving God and forgives us when we ask for forgiveness. By the time we are done discussing the situation, the kids are calmed, the behavior has been addressed/reprimanded, Scripture has been sought for correction (2 Tim. 3:16), repentance for the trespass has been made, forgiveness has been assured, and everyone is ready to start over with a refreshed heart and mindset. Oh, and in this case, the pizza was ready & daddy had returned to the car! :)

So that was a random tangent that really was not the intent of this post. I was trying to get into the schoolroom transition a little bit, but since my thought process went way off in left field, perhaps I'll just save the schoolroom update for another day! :) And now you, too, must learn how to demonstrate patience! Funny how that works, isn't it!

Why we are choosing homeschool: A reminder for myself

2011-03-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

So, lately I've been so into the curriculum, planning, schoolroom makeover mood that I have had little time to just sit and simmer on the idea that we will soon be taking full responsibility for our children's education. The overwhelming nature of this task has somehow evaded my thoughts until this week. And then I panicked. Well, not really panicked in the sense of running around, panting, breathing in a bag, but more along the lines of second-guessing our commitment to this new chapter in our parenting adventure. After talking with David about it, he agreed that things will be tough but then he reassured me of our decision by reiterating why we chose this for our family. So, for my own peace of mind - and to have a post that I can always go back to for a reminder- I have decided to write this post to remind myself of the reasons we set out on this adventure to begin with.

1 - We feel that God is calling us to be a homeschool family. The circumstances which led up to this decision, which you can read about here, left us in a survival mode. After Dylan was suspended from school, we knew we did not want him to be in a reform school (because, well, he doesn't belong there). We also knew that because of the crazy new blemish in his school file, many of the private schools in our area would have declined him as a prospect for their school. Our only other option seemed to be homeschooling, which I refused to consider at this point. But God has a way of turning you around when you're headed in a direction that is contrary to His Will for your life (and I mean that in a very literal way, like with Jonah & the great fish). And that's exactly what He did in our situation.

Dylan was suspended on March 2 (a Wednesday) and on March 3-5 (Thursday - Saturday) there was a major homeschooling convention right here in our city. When I say major, I mean mega-HUGE! I mentioned it to David in passing and we continued on about our business, neither of us really pushing the homeschooling idea at this point as we were both still hoping to have Dylan's suspension overturned and to get him back in public school. Friday night at midnight, David and I were sitting together and we decided to take a look at the website for the convention being held in our city. When we got there we noticed that Ken Ham was one of the speakers and, out of pure excitement at the idea of meeting Mr. Ham in person, we decided to go to the convention the next morning at 8am.

The next day, we met Ken Ham in person and sat front & center for his presentation. And then it happened. Everything that Mr. Ham said was as if he had been in our home for the past 3 days and knew everything about our situation and he had scripture to support a decision to homeschool as opposed to allowing the state to teach our children. It was incredible. David and I left the auditorium and got back in the car to go home without speaking barely a word. And the minute we got in the car, the floodgates of conversation opened and we both began pouring out our thoughts on the presentation we had just heard and how it impacted our thoughts on the whole situation and the idea of homeschooling in general.

After the convention, we began researching and asking friends and church members all kinds of questions about homeschooling and the more we learned, the more our hearts began to align and the more opportunities we saw God opening up to us in order to make homeschooling our children possible. We now both feel that God is leading us towards homeschooling our children and we fully intend to submit to His Will for our lives no matter how hard the journey may be at times.

"Feed the flock of God that is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but voluntarily according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but proving to be examples to the flock." ~1 Peter 5:2-3

2 - We like the idea of being in control of what our children are presented to learn, knowing that we can teach them truth as truth and error as error. Of course while we would love to teach our children nothing but truth, we understand that at some point in their life, they will be exposed to filth and untruths and we don't want them to be caught off guard when those situations arise. Therefore, we have decided that it is important to teach them things that they would have otherwise been learning in secular school ( i.e. evolution, age of the earth, big bang, creation myths, etc) so they are not unwise to the ways of the world, nor the teachings of the world. The great thing about this is that we can debunk these teachings as soon as they are introduced so that our children are not influenced to question the Bible's inerrancy or infallability. We can show these faulty teachings to our children and then teach them how to search the Scriptures to find for themselves how they are contradictory to what the Bible teaches us about God's creation. Not only will we be able to teach our children science, but we will be able to incorporate apologetics into the curriculum, further developing their faith and confidence in the Lord.

"But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence." ~1 Peter 3:15

3 - Our kids crave and need quantity over quality. And yours probably do, too. Do you remember that old addage "quality is better than quantity"? Well that's a bunch of bologna! We moved to a 3,500 square foot house abotu two years ago because we thought we were cramped and do you know what we learned: we are still cramped! Because where ever we go, the kids follow. They crave our attention. And 15 minutes of "game night" or "movie night" just isn't enough for them. So, what better way to ensure that the children get as much attention from us as they need than by being their parents and their school teachers! It's a win-win! We get to spend lots and lots of focused time with the kids and at the same time we are accountable for teaching them their studies. No more evenings wasted in front of the tv with minimal conversation! We are incorporating 'quantity' family time which is bringing with it 'quality' family time, and in the end, our children will walk away with something much more valuable than just 'good family memories'. (Although we hope they have a few of those too!)

"Hear, my son, your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching; Indeed they are a graceful wreath to your head and ornaments around your neck." ~Proverbs 1:8-9

4 - We, as parents, need quantity over quality. Our kids are not really 'ours'. They are God's children. We have just been afforded such grace, that He has entrusted them into our care for a little while. We will not be here forever, and sooner than we are ready they will be headed out on their own to embark on whatever journeys God has in store for their lives. Knowing that, I look back on our children's life and see that their short little lives have flown by so quickly. So many nights we have all sat on the couch, side-by-side, watching tv, being lazy, and I have lost out on those opportunities to really get to enjoy these children that God has blessed us with! Homeschooling our children will enrich our family time and afford us many more opportunities to recognize, embrace, and help shape their thoughts, ideas, strengths, weaknesses, emotions, uniquenesses, and so much more!!

"Children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them." ~Psalm 127: 3 - 5

Tonight, at church, our pastor preached from Genesis 13. The message focused on choices. In his message he made one statement that hit me like a ton of bricks. He said (and I paraphrase) "The choices we make will affect the direction of our lives and those of our children and our grandchildren. Therefore, we must be sure to make good choices based on God's Word."

Homeschooling is our choice but, as I wrote earlier, it is a decision we made because we felt God leading us in that direction. We have searched the Scriptures and we believe our decision to be one that was made based on God's Word and we are very excited to be leaning on Him for guidance, wisdom & strength as we follow His lead for our family.

SONday Snippets: March 27

2011-03-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

Happy SONday to you! Today we celebrated the Lord's day by:

Going to church, Dylan had "Sundae Sunday" in his Sunday school class this morning, so he was pretty excited about that!

Participating in Bible drill! Dylan did great for his first time ever. He "passed"! And he knew so many verses & key passages. We are so proud of him!

Rewarding Dylan's hard work with a trip to TCBY! (his choice)

Working on the rearranging of our home in preparation for the new schoolroom.

Moving Bryan into his very own bedroom!

Reading about Abraham's journey to Canaan and discussing how God's promise to bless all the nations through Abraham points forward to Christ.

enjoying a home-cooked meal made by Daddy.

This week in review

2011-03-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

So I've become completely ~~obsessed~~ excited about the upcoming school year. This week on Wednesday, our Math curriculum came in the mail. We bought the Alpha, the Beta & the Primer for the kids. I'm hoping that Elysa can handle the Primer so that she can hop right in on the learning with the rest of the kiddos. Then on Wednesday night, we got some boxes of curriculum, classroom materials, and a dry erase board from some friends at church. David and I had a great time going through all these goodies and it was definitely a big help on deciding which curriculum we would be using for Spelling, English, and Reading!

We have not yet decided what curriculum we will be using for Bible. So we are open to any suggestions, ideas, websites you might have to offer on those.

And from Thursday until last night, I spent hours putting together our geography curriculum, which is going to be a compliation of different ideas/activities I have found along the way, but the core of it will be based around Expedition Earth: A Journey Through God's World which I downloaded from Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler. I am truly, truly like over-the-top-school-geek excited over this curriculum! It looks like it is going to be so much fun!

So today, I decided to take a break from the curriculum and spend a little time focusing on the actual room that is going to be our schoolroom. We will be taking the large room over the 2-car garage (which is currently the boys bedroom) and be making it our schoolroom. I am headed today to pick out a color to paint. We are trying to decide between a light yellow or a light blue and I have probably ~~been over-analyzing~~ gone overboard on this decision as well. I have been researching the effects certain colors have on moods/learning/attention/etc. for a majority of the afternoon. So, that's where stand on our preps for homeschooling. And since I'm such a fan of before/after pics, this is a sneak peek of our schoolroom in it's "before" state. Wish us luck as we begin the schoolroom makeover!

The View from Here:

2011-03-15T06:53:00.000-07:00

We're still trying to decide on curriculum. This is just a tiny bit of the literature that we collected from the Homeschooling Convention we went to last weekend. We have our Science and Math curricula pinned down, now we're just trying to decide on the other subjects. We are so thrilled to be able to teach our children what is important to us!

Suspension suspense

2011-03-12T18:26:00.000-08:00

D is for Dangerous~How they describe my baby boy.

Y is for Year~The punishment for disassembling this toy!

L is for Livid~My reaction to this.

A is for Absolute Ridiculousness!

N is for Never again~which will be the next time

Shelby County Schools will wrong this baby of mine.

If you're not on facebook, first let me say: "Get out from under that rock!" ;) J/K, J/K. But if you have somehow missed our situation, the short version is this:

Our 8-year-old was suspended on March 2 for "Possession of a Weapon on School Property". His weapon of choice: A broken pencil sharpener (since when the pencil sharpener is broken it contains a tiny "blade" that is used to sharpen the pencil tip). Dylan was never seen nor caught with the blade, but the little boy who was caught with it, told the teacher that Dylan was among many students that passed it around the room that day. When questioned about it, Dylan did admit to having had the pencil sharpener pieces in his desk at one point in the day and was therefore suspended for 180 days for a "crime" he was never observed committing. The lesson my baby boy learned in all of this totally contradicts everything his father and I have taught him about telling the truth. He has learned that it doesn't pay to be truthful. Another student who was observed by a teacher with the "blade" was suspended but her parents have since had some political connections argue on her behalf that she "was never in possession of the pencil sharpener pieces" and her suspension was reversed the very next day. It was expunged from her record and she was allowed to go back to class! We refuse to take the dishonest route. God's Word tells us in Psalms 34:13 to "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies". Honesty has always been a basic principle in our family and it will continue to be. Since this school system rewards dishonesty and punishes those who are truthful, we have decided to take over schooling our children ourselves. We have worked very hard to instill biblical principles in our children's hearts and we do not intend to send them off to be taught otherwise by the government for 8 hours a day. I will do my best to update this blog regularly as an advocate for homeschooling and as we transition from a government-run, secular education to a God-fearing, Bible-centered education. We appreciate your encouragement as we make this enormous transition.

All for HIS glory!

Best Friends: Bryan & Alex

2010-12-14T14:57:00.000-08:00

Whether the day is good or bad,
Whether I'm feeling happy or sad,

If I have a need, you'll comprehend

You'll be there to share and be a friend.

Other people may fill my day,

But never in such an important way,

We support each other round all life's bends,

It feels so good that we are friends!

Say Ch-Ch-Ch-Cheese!

2010-12-08T11:09:00.001-08:00

Last weekend our good friend, Shonna, met us out in Arlington to have some family pictures made.

It was cold.
Elysa didn't really cooperate. I think it was because she was cold. We were all cold, actually. Which is why all the boys had their sweaters zipped up to their chins! Which is a shame really, since I shopped for weeks for coordinating outfits and they end up covering up their matching red undershirts. But that's okay, I suppose. Since it was like 30 degrees with tornadic wind gusts. I think they did pretty good pretending not to be cold. And we did get this one great shot right off the bat, so who can really complain when you walk away with a pic this great?!

Because I'm so, so tired...

2010-10-31T19:57:00.000-07:00

I am only posting a teensy little snippet of our Halloween fun. Tales of said fun along with more pics to come. :)

Nothing's changed!

2010-10-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

Remember this post about Lydia's shenanigans? Well, don't think I haven't been blogging for lack of interesting media, because she's still going strong! I've just become kinda ::cough:: addicted ::cough:: to Facebook and have consequently neglected this here blog. But some things are just so great that they simply cannot go un-blogged. Like this most recent episode when Lydia came home from ~~Cosmetology School~~ daycare with this note and corresponding lock of hair:

Okie dokie! Looks like she's mastered "cutting skills"! LOL! Some things just never change! :)

Since Monday.

2010-09-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, he's been out of town since Monday.

Since Monday, I've changed all the dirty diapers by myself. No paper scissors rock to see who the lucky one is. I miss paper scissor rock. And the person I always play against.

Since Monday, I have done all the homework monitoring by myself. And I've been terrible at it. I don't have the patience to be a homework monitor. And I miss the person who does.

Since Monday, I haven't driven the truck once. But today I wanted to and when I went to get in it, I found that 4 days of 100 degree temps is terrible for a half eaten taco in a sealed & locked truck. I don't really miss that smell. But I miss the person who left the taco in the truck.

Since Monday, I have been the sole disciplinarian. I stink at it. The kids don't take me seriously, probably because I really dont take myself seriously. But I miss the one they do take seriously.

Since Monday, I have had to feed the dogs every day. By myself. And I suddenly realized that I dont know how much food they are supposed to eat every day. I never feed the dogs. I miss the person that does know how much to feed them. And while I'm sure they do too, I'm also pretty sure they aren't complaining about the surplus they have been getting this week. ;)

Since Monday, I have been late to work. Every day. But, well, that's nothing new.

Since Monday, I have spoken to my beloved hubby for all of 5 hours total. I miss the typical 5 hours a day.

Since Monday, I haven't gotten into the bed a minute before 11pm. I think I'm going to change that right now.

And in less than 24 hours, my friends, I am going to see him. For the first time since Monday!

Disney Day 5 ~ Epcot.

2010-09-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

Seriously?! A month! Has it been a month since I last posted about our Disney vacation? Oh. my. stars!

Moving on.

Disney Day 5. The day we I realized that we weren't going to see it all. We got a late start. The exhaustion was beginning to settle in. The blisters on our feet began to~oh wait, that might be gross. Ahem.

We got to Epcot a little later than normal. Which is late, if you know how we roll. But it worked out nicely. We arrived and as became our routine, we got our group photopass picture at the entrance.And then David and Dylan took off to get us some fast passes for Soarin'. While we waited, Uncle Thomas gave the kids some change to toss into the fountain & make a wish. It was a great idea. The kids loved it! And I'm pretty sure we left an extra $10 for Disney in the fountain that day! :) David and Dylan returned with the Fast Pass tickets and we headed over to Test Track. We rode Test Track and then onto Mission: Space. Unfortunately, Elysa was just a bit too short for the rides, so she and I (and Woody) settled in for a snack while we waited on Lydia and the boys. She didn't mind a bit. She enjoyed her snack

while I played with my camera.

And even though the stand-by line at Test Track said the wait was 35 minutes, the crew was in and out in 10! So, I hopped in line and rode and then we headed over to Coral Reef where we had lunch reservations.

After lunch, we headed back to use our fast passes for Soarin'. We must have picked the best day ever to go to Epcot, because there was minimal wait time at every ride we passed, including The Seas with Nemo & Friends. There was no wait. Elysa was ble to ride. We love Nemo. The ride simply was a must!

It was a very neat little ride. No cameras were allowed on the ride (as with most) but before the announcement came over the speaker, I was able to snap a couple of pictures.

Yes, yes, I know. I am that irritating person on the ride that attempts to use flash photography. I promise I stopped when they announced no flash photography. But I was so glad to get the above picture because it totally explains Elysa's expression in this picture which is still one of my favorites!

After we left the Nemo & Friends ride, that Elysa was disappointed that we couldn't ride again, we had our pics taken with Nemo & Friends.

And then it was off to Soarin' which proved to be everything everyone raved about and more! It was amazing! David, our most conservative thrill seeker (aside from Bryan) afraid of heights and not a fan of roller coasters, loved it. Bryan even loved it after we finally convinced him to ride it!

After we left Soarin' we rode the Living with the Land tour. Twice. (Not my choice, by the way. lol!) But Bryan was insistant on riding it a second time. He acted as Lydia's tour guide the second time and to this day still talks about the cotton he saw

and the enormous pumpkins.

Afterwards we stayed long enough to see some Lion King Circle of Life show before deciding to call it a day. That's right, we never even made it to the other side of the park with all the country pavilions. Didn't even head that way. My family needed a rest and I (the one who absolutely had to see & do EVERYTHING while we were in Disney) obliged.

So we stopped by one of the gift shops and ordered all the kids some Mickey ears and let them spend a little of their spending money before heading back to the busses to the hotel, stopping only to stare in awe of the shimmery pavement that looked as if it was made of gold

and to take one last pic of the huge Epcot ball as we passed under it for last time.

Well, for the last time at least until our next Disney trip!

You Know You Are A Mommy of Many When...

2010-09-08T20:26:00.000-07:00

...you order your dinner at the Chick-fil-A drive through and when you pull around to pay, the lady at the window informs you that they have party platters which might be easier to order and more affordable.

Toy Story Mania Continues

2010-09-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

...mainly because I realize that it's been nearly a month since I last posted!

You've Got a Friend in Me!!

2010-08-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

A Free First For All.

2010-08-09T10:16:00.000-07:00

Today was:

Everyone's first day back to school.
Dylan's first day of third grade. (He seemed right at home.)
Bryan's first day of first grade. (He was terrified!)
Lydia's first day in pre-K. (She couldn't have been happier!)
Elysa's first day in daycare. (We won't even go into how she felt about it.)

The Calm...

2010-08-08T22:30:00.000-07:00

The calm...before the storm. I better get some sleep for tomorrow's FIRST days of school!

In the meantime, how are you liking the photopass photos? You like them one at a time, like I'm doing? Or would you rather just see them all in one entry and get it over with? I dunno, I'm kinda liking putting them out one at a time. Little surprise-ish, eh?

Happiness, Defined.

2010-08-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

Finally, after months and months of watching Disney princess movies...

You finally realize you are holding Cinderellas hand. In real life!

True Love: Disney PhotoPass Style

2010-08-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

Elysa's in love with "He Haw Cowboy" (aka Woody)

And I'm in love with the photographer that captured this moment!

This Little Wasp Sting Light of Mine.

2010-08-03T20:26:00.000-07:00

Elysa got stung on the thumb yesterday. She was...ummm...trying to pick up a wasp with her bare hands. (??) Clearly, she's not a momma's girl when it comes to fear of bugs and her lack thereof.

Anyhow, poor baby girl was crying and her little thumb was beginning to swell up and I know it had to be throbbing considering that the wasps rear end was nearly the size of her tiny thumb.

She didn't want anyone to touch it, even if it meant that it would help the pain to go away. So the whole family came together to "trick" our littlest Godsey into letting us help her feel better. We mixed up some baking soda paste, put some on our thumbs, and began to sing "This Little Light of Mine", one of Elysa's favorites! She just loves to shout "NO!" after we sing "Hide it under a bushel". After a couple of verses and a little persistence from Daddy, she let us put some on her thumb and she joined right in.

And today, she is doing much, much better. =)

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow ~ A Countdown of Sorts

2010-07-27T21:58:00.001-07:00

Ever heard that your child looks just like you and think "no way" but then see pics and realize that he/she really does look just like you? That was the case with me back in May 2009 when I posted these pictures of me and Lydia:

Awe! How cute is that, right?

Well, recently while cleaning out the garage, I ran across a few pics of myself from wayyyy back when and have decided that this is the last of my sweet daughter and I looking alike. I'm taking matters into my own hands. No more looking alike.

What am I talking about you might ask. Well, I have composed for your viewing pleasure, or for your daily laugh~whichever the case, a short countdown of reasons why my daughter and I will cease to look alike in our childhood photos from the age of 4 & beyond.

Those reasons are (in no particular order):

Reason # 8: The Bowl Cut. A haircut that was never intended for girls.

Reason # 7: The poof-top-side-wing-flyback. A haircut that was never intended, period! LOL!

Reason # 6: The "Look Mom! No ~~Hands~~ Hair!" Enough said. (Does anyone else think there is a resemblence between Bryan & me in this picture?")

Reason # 5: The Mullett Perm Combo. I don't think anyone sported that combo as well as I did. Come to think of it, I think I was probably the only person to have ever sported the mullett perm combo!

Reason # 4: The Hot Mess. How else could you define this style?

Reason # 3: The traditional mullett. Just wrong on so many levels.

Reason # 2: The traditional mullett. So wrong, in fact, that I had to include it again in my countdown because apparently it was one of my favorites!

And finally.

Reason # 1 as to why I will have to insist that my daughter not follow in her mother's fashion footsteps: The Mix-N-Match Chop Chop. A haircut perfect for those who can't really decide what style they want. This bargain cut comes complete with miniature bangs (perfect for spiking), lady sideburns and the long layered look in the back. This style combined with the high water jeans, the braces, and the siler slap bracelet creates a look that is sure to have you nominated as "Best Dressed" in your class! Don't be jealous! ;)

So take a good look now, fellow bloggeranianites as the days of my sweet daughter and I looking alike are coming to a close. (that's me~at Lydia's age~ in the center on the back row):

Summertiiiiiiime

2010-07-26T02:46:00.000-07:00

And the livin'

Eeeeeeasy!

Happy Belated 4th!

2010-07-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

I just realized that I never posted anything about the 4th of July! But we celebrated. I'm just a horrible blogger.

We celebrated with each other... And with co-workers...

And with fireworks.

Lots and Lots

of fireworks!

Hoping everyone had a happy 4th of July with good food, great friends, lots of fireworks and tons of fun!!

Disney Day 4: Part 1 ~ Hollywood Studios

2010-07-19T20:11:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Studios. Day 4. The Day that will forever be remembered as "Remember that one time, at Disney...."

Every memory that our children carry with them from our Disney Vacation somehow revolves around this theme park. It isn't the biggest. It isn't the most "magical". But it was the most comfortable park for us. There was something for everyone and we all had a blast!
We started by getting our money's worth out of the Photopass Photographer by posing for this little family snapshot. Before immediately turning around and making a mad dash for the Hollywood Tower of Terror you see in the background. In the days and weeks and months leading up to our vacation, the Tower of Terror was Disney. Everyone was talking about the TOT, how tall it was, how fast it dropped, how many stories it fell, how tall you have to be to ride it, etc, etc.

After we rode Tower of Terror, we got fastpass tickets to Aerosmith's Rockin' Roller Coaster. 0 to 60 in just a matter of seconds. And it climbed the charts as one of our favorite Disney rides in the same amount of time! We ended up coming back and riding it several times throughout the day.

We made our way through the park taking in the scenery, the shows in the middle of the street, the floats and the parades...

Before settling into our seats for the Beauty and the Beast show.

We got there very early and got third or fourth row seats! Well worth the wait! Everyone enjoyed the show. It was quite impressive!

We left Beauty and the Beast and headed back to use our Rockin' Roller Coaster fast pass tickets and the little kids took advantage of the down time to rest their little feet and have a snack.

Then it was off to the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show. All I have to say is that these Disney folks know how to entertain a crowd! Even us girls enjoyed the show. These cars were skidding on two wheels, spinning in circles, turning down alley ways at mach speeds & jumping over semi trucks. People were falling from buildings, laying down motorcycles & catching on fire! They even got members from the audience involved in some of the stunts. To say it was impressive would be an unjust understatement!

After the stunt show, we ::sigh:: took another bathroom break. I just simply cannot blog all the bathroom breaks we took because, well, how fun would that be to read? But we did. We used the bathroom in Hollywood Studios. A lot.

And, of course, we posed for a few camera shots.

We rode a few more rides, like the Star Wars ride.

And David wandered off and got lost. And then when wandering back, he got delayed by a parade which he decided to stop & take photos of. Too bad the rest of us missed it! :)

Once we were all reunited, we headed towards our dinner reservations at Mama Melrose. The restaraunt was delicious compared to our Tusker Huuse visit the day before, but it was still a little too fancy for our liking. Uncle Thomas ordered the "Sausage and cheese platter" and this is what he was served.

You can tell by his expression that he was just dying to dig right in! LOL! And the kids ate okay, although they probably would have eaten better if they weren't so incredibly exhausted!

Luckily, after dinner, they all perked up a bit! Because there was still a lot to do, including meeting Woody, Buzz & Andy which I wrote about here and more that I'll write about a little later. But for now, I feel about like this sweet pic of Lydia. So, until next time: Toodles!

Shhhhh....

2010-07-19T20:02:00.000-07:00

It's a secret!

What's not a secret, however, is how very much I love my (not-so-new-anymore) camera. I was able to take this sweet little snapshot from all the way on the other side of the yard!

Disney Day 3 ~ Animal Kingdom

2010-07-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

Day 3. Animal Kingdom. Success! We had a great day at Disney's Animal Kingdom, we saw a lot, did a lot, had lots of restroom breaks and minimal tantrums.

Our first stop in Animal Kingdom was to get fast pass tickets for Expedition Everest. After that, it was on to Kali-River Rapids. One of Bryan's favorite rides in Disney!

The stand-by line was not too long when we got there, so we decided to wait.

Elysa was sound asleep, so Uncle Thomas waited with her while the rest of us rode the rapids.

Everyone loved the ride. Uncle Thomas already was waiting to the side with his rider-swap ticket and we were planning to let the boys ride again with him since they liked it so much, but as Bryan stepped off the ride, he told the attendant "That was so cool! Can we do it again?!" To which I smiled and replied, "Come on Bryan, we have to let others ride, too."

But the attendant had an even better response! She looked into her apron and gave our sweet boy FIVE more fast-pass tickets for the ride!! So we hopped off the ride and whipped back in line and went for a second ride, courtesy of the ride attendant!

After we rode our second time through, Uncle Thomas, David and the kids rode a third time! We were big fans of the Kali-River Rapids!!

We posed for a couple of pics near the ride of everyone soaked, and then we moved on...

We made our way through the Maharajah Jungle Trek,

and then made a quick pit stop in Dinoland, U.S.A. where the boys rode the Dinosaur ride

and the girls took a ride on the Tricera Top Spin!

After a very brief visit in Dinoland, we headed back to Expedition Everest! On our walk back towards the roller coaster, we were stopepd by a couple of ladies. They gave us two of what appeared to be credit cards and explained that they had just joined the vacation club and that these two cards were each good for 3 free fast pass tickets. (A total of 6!) They told us that they were not going to use them and that they wanted to make sure they got used by someone and we were the lucky ones! :) We gladly accepted and used them (although we held them until tomorrow~Hollywood Studio day).

We finally made it to Expedition Everest. First, Uncle Thomas, Dylan, and I rode the roller coaster. Then, we convinced a very nervous David that the ride wasn't bad at all (it SO was!) and that he should at least give it a try. Dylan was even in on the coaxing. David agreed. He was no a happy camper when he got back. LOL! David is not a roller coaster person and he is not a fan of heights. This ride was an extreme combination of both! Hehe! Ahem. Sorry, not laughing.

From Expedition Everest, we headed towards Tusker House for our lunch reservations. Guess who was late for their lunch reservations? Yes, again! But we got there and we were seated only after a short wait. The restaraunt was different, the server was great, the food was, er, not. But it came with guaranteed seating to the Nemo show, so hey! Who's complaining, right? (Here the girls are giggling with their Uncle while waiting to be seated for lunch.)

After lunch we had a little extra time to spare before the Nemo show, so we went on Kilimanjaro Safari, which the kids absolutely loved and I'm quite sure that Bryan was convincing Lydia that he knew more than the tour guide.

Luckily, the tour was only 2 weeks long, so we got off with plenty of time to spare before the Nemo show. So we posed for a few more pictures,

enjoyed our stroll,

and happened upon Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade.

The kids were very impressed and for the first time Elysa began to dig Mickey. I mean really dig him! ;) We finally (and barely) made it to the Nemo show in time. It was fantastic. Superb! Totally worth the Tusker House visit, even though no one really ate there. LOL! But it was truly, truly an awesome show. No flash photography was allowed so I wasn't able to get very many pictures since I am still a photograpy amateur. :) It was probably better that way. I actually was able to put my camera away and just enjoy the show!

After the Nemo show we headed back to Dinoland where we spent the rest of the day riding rides and playing carnival games to our little hearts' content.

Oh, and we also met Goofy and Pluto just minutes before the park closed!

After posing for an oh-so-cute photo we headed out for the day. After all, the park was closing. And as we were walking out, I realized that we forgot to do "It's tough to be a bug!" I was a little pouty. BUT, as has been the case with most of our trip so far, we lucked up. The cast member at the admission to the "ride" told us we had 5 minutes until the park closed and she let us in. We walked right in and sat down!

We watched the Bug's Life show and headed out. The kids were happy, Uncle Thomas was happy, Mommy & Daddy was happy...Disney Day 3 ~ Animal Kingdom. A family vacation success story! :)

The Blame Game

2010-07-10T21:54:00.001-07:00

I haven't been the greatest blogger lately, but it's not really my fault.

I blame Shutterfly. For having such a great deal on prints that I absolutely had to upload 300-and-something old, old pictures to print off!
I blame the Disney Photopass photographers for taking so many great pics that I had to spend days upon days editing and re-editing pics in order to finally order my Photopass CD.

I blame the month of June, which is oddly about as expensive and hectic as the month of December in our family as we celebrate lots of special birthdays!

I blame t-ball parties, even though I may have missed them because of work.

Aha! I blame work! Because I'm there way more often than I'd like to be!

And speaking of work, I blame this little painting project

that started out as fun, but quickly began to feel very job-esque as it has taken nearly a month to complete (and by complete, I mean run out of paint, not that it's actually completed yet).

I blame the 4th of July and all the cookouts, fireworks, friends and fun that go along with the holiday

because let's face it, who can turn down a grilled burger with friends under a sky full of beautiful fireworks?!

I blame pregnancy.

Ahahahahahaaa! Not mine, sillies! But all of my friends (and some bloggers I stalk) that are with child (or children in one case) keep posting fun ultrasound pics and blog posts that just suck me right in & detain me for hours!

So before we move on, let me clarify...I am not pregnant.

I blame swim time, $2 movies, exercise plans, and lunch dates with friends.

And I blame cute little packages in the mail from friends, because sometimes, inside of these cute packages comes something so treasured that it can be watched over and over and over again and it never gets old. So as you can see, while I have been t-terrible at the upkeep of the blog, it is by no means any fault of my own! :)

On the flip side, I have been working on a post about Day 3. Hopefully it will come to fruition soon! And just in case, something else is to blame that slows me down,...here's a sneak peek: A sneek peak. Proof if you will, that I am working on a blog post about Disney's Animal Kingdom. :) IIn fact, it probably would have been done by now if I hadn't stopped to play the Blame Game. And do you know who's fault that is??!!

Why, The Blame Game, of course!

(I am way better at the blame game than I am at blogging! What do you think?) :)

Day 2 ~ Magic Kindgom Meltdown

2010-06-21T21:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Disney World Newbies...I'm getting ready to let you in on a little secret, you ready? Listen good, now, because this is verrrry important:

There is more to Disney's Magic Kingdom than Tomorrowland.

That's it. That's the big secret. Unfortunately, I didn't know that until after we got back to the hotel room after Disney Day 2! Are you laughing? Because I am! If you know anything at all about Disney, you know that Tomorrowland accounts for about 1/7 of the Magic Kingdom, and we spent our entire first day at a Disney theme park just in Tomorrowland!

Want to laugh even harder? How about this...after about the 2nd hour in Tomorrowland, I started crying because it "was all too much to do". It was too much in my mind and I hadn't even grasped yet how much larger the park was than I was thinking it was! Thank goodness for that! I don't think my dear hubby could have handled a meltdown any bigger than the one I was having right in the middle of the "most magical place on earth"! Oh, how funny it all is in retrospect.

Anyhow, moving on past the little 'meltdown', when we walked into Magic Kingdom, we immediately walked down Main Street USA and on the steps of the castle they were having this show (Dream Along with Mickey, I think?) but it was absolutely fantastic! It is our first impression of Disney since we saw it immediately as we walked in and is still one of our favorite shows that we saw.
Everyone was in awe!

After the show, we moved on and rode Stitch's Great Escape. It was cute, although Bryan started panicking when the lights went off and did not want to ride it again. Elysa was too short and had to wait outside with us. And it was so hot! I felt so sorry for her.

After everyone had a turn to ride, we left the Stitch ride and guess who we saw! (And guess who is the proud new owner of not one, but TWO, Stitch stuffed animals?! How crafty are they with their marketing!)

Stitch gave Lydia a kiss...How sweet is that?!

From there we took our first (of wayyy too many) bathroom breaks and tried to get together a game plan.

We rode Space Mountain, which Dylan loved and Bryan, well, not so much.

And the kids found some pay phones that they were entirely to sad to break away from in order to get their pictures taken with Chip & Dale who were posing for pictures nearby. Luckily, we were able to convince at least half of the kids to get their picture taken with them. :)

And then we headed over to Tomorrowland Indy Speedway which was a hit with all the kids.

So much of a hit, that when we tried to get a family picture afterwards, this was the best we could get because of all the pouting because we couldn't "do it again".

We took another bathroom break, got some ice cream, and had a brief conversation with a talking trash can,

before moving on to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

Which clearly made everyone happy!

By now, it is 15 minutes until dinner time, we were all hot & sweaty and Elysa had ice cream and orange juice all down the front of her Mickey shirt, so we headed to the hotel to clean up a bit. By the time we were all cleaned up for dinner we were nearly an hour late and I panicked again. And I cried again. (And now I laugh about it all.)

I made a call to our wonderful (ask me about our) travel agent, Angela, who did her best to help me calm down. She called Chef Mickey's and celled us back and told us to go ahead and give it a try despite our being so late.

When we got there, we showed them our reservation card (again printed up by our fabulous agent) and they showed us right to our seat. Did I mention that there were about 50 people waiting in the lobby?!

We went on to have a FABULOUS dinner.

We got to visit with all the characters as they came to each table individually to spend some one-on-one time.

The kids had fun.

The adults had fun.

Donald had fun (with Elysa & Bryan's Woody dolls).

We all had fun!

After dinner, we hopped on the monorail and headed back to the park (planning to go back to Tomorrowland because at this point, I still had no idea there was more to Magic Kingdom).

We didn't make it far, though. Right as we walked in everyone was lining up for the SpectroMagic Parade. So we grabbed us a curb and had a seat. Just in time. We may have waited for 5 minutes before it started!

And then Wishes.

And then we waited...and waited...and waited to see Tinkerbell fly across the sky!

We took a few more pictures of Cinderella's castle

and then headed back to the Shuttle (along with the other million people in the park).

We finally got back to the hotel about 1130 and got a wink of sleep before Day 3 ~ Hollywood Studios, which was when we really started to figure Disney out! After today, there would be no more spending 10 hours in one corner of the park for this brood!

"Thank you, God, for my new glasses so I can see."

2010-06-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

7 years has flown by, and if it wasn't for all the pictures I take, I would hardly be able to remember the many milestones. It would all be such a blur. 7 blurry years. Unfortunately, for our son, the past 7 years has been nothing but a blur in the most literal sense.

For many months now, Dylan has told us about having trouble seeing the chalkboard at school and I would just write it off as him wanting a little extra attention. Then on Sunday at church, I slipped out for a moment and I asked Dylan to write down any preaching points I missed while I was out of the sanctuary. When I returned, I noticed that the preacher had preached through two more points and Dylan had not written down anything. When I asked him about it, he told me that he couldn't write it down because he couldn't see the screen. This led me to realize that he more than likely was not needing extra attention at all. He needed glasses!

Today, I took Dylan to the optometrist and as I sat and watched him struggle through the eye exam I felt absolutely horrible. He couldn't even see the first row of letters! How horrible that I didn't take him to get checked out sooner! Hello again, Mother of the Year! :(

After his eye exam, we learned that he is very near-sighted and his prescription for his glasses was more than double what mine is! The doctor explained that everything he sees from a distance has probably all been a blur for him and that he needs to wear his glasses at all times, unless he is sleeping or "rough-housing".

Suddenly the straight A's he received on his last report card of the year has become all the more impressive! He went all year without being able to see the chalkboard at school (his mother's fault) and still managed to swing all A's!!

Anyhow, we took him to get his glasses and we shopped for 2 HOURS! He was worse than a girl! Hehe! It really wasn't that bad at all. Aside from feeling extreme guilt for making my son go all year with fuzzy eyesight, I had a really fun time shopping with my baby for those "perfect" glasses. We went to 3 different stores before we found some we both liked!

The lady who helped us pick out his glasses was amazing! She was so patient and when she saw his prescription, she even told us that that was the exact same prescription she had, which was great because she was able to describe to me what she (and my son) see through their eyes!

And then tonight, as we said our bedtime prayers, Dylan prayed "Thank you, God, for my new glasses so I can see."

Oh, how I love this sweet boy!!!

The Buzz on Woody & Buzz. And Andy!

2010-06-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

I want to tell this story so badly. So, for the record, I am skipping Day 2 & 3 and part of Day 4 just to tell it! I'll go back to the other 2.5 days & revisit those memories a little later, but for now, I just really wanna fast forward to the highlight of our Disney Adventure. Having prefaced with that, here we go!:

Day 1 ~ We fly into Disney. Elysa takes sweet Woody & buckles him into the plane seat to make sure he gets there safely too. :)

Day 1 ~ We go to Downtown Disney. We find Buzz Lightyear & take about a gazillion and four pictures with him!

Day 1 ~ Elysa goes to sleep & refuses to lay in her crib without Woody. Bryan pouts because it is his Woody that he brought from home.

Day 2 ~ Magic Kingdom Day. We wake up to Bryan wailing "You've got a friend in me! You've got a friend in meeee!" Lydia & Elysa sing along. None of them were in tune but it was the best rendition that I think I've ever heard!

Day 2 ~ We head out to catch the Motorcoach to Magic Kindgom and stop in the gift shop to buy another Woody doll in order to avoid any other Woody chaos in the hotel at bedtime! Elysa carries the doll with here everywhere for the rest of the trip!

Day 2 ~ Out of all the characters we saw today, Elysa refused to have her picture made with any of them unless we held her in the picture. That night, Elysa & Bryan head to bed, each with their own "HeHaw Cowboy".

Day 3 ~ The whole crew wakes up singing "Some other folks might be a little bit smarter than I am, bigger and stronger too! But none of them can ever love you the way I do, it's me & you!"

Day 3 ~ We head out to Animal Kingdom. Elysa passes out in the stoller before we ever make it through the gates. Guess who she's clutching tightly as she sleeps? You guessed it!

So as you can see, we have a little Godsey obsession with some Toy Story!

Day 4 ~ Hollywood Studios. Each of the boys have a t-shirt that matches either Woody or Buzz Lightyear. They are so excited to be able to wear them on the same day that they get to meet Buzz & Woody!

Day 4 ~ As they get dressed, again they sing "Just remember what your ole pal said, yeah, you got a friend in meeeee!" Again, I smile at their sweet excitement & anticipation.

Day 4 ~ Meet Buzz & Woody (available from 11:30 - 7:30). Oh boy! Oh boy! Oh boy! The kids are gonna love this!! The plan: do x,y,z, eat dinner, & be back in time to see the Toy Story Heroes!

Day 4 ~ What happened: we did x,y,z, ate dinner, did a,b,c and remembered about Buzz & Woody at 7. Gasp! Quick! To Andy's room! Hurry before they leave!

We made it to Andy's room at about 7:15 only to find that everyone who was not in line as of 45 minutes ago was being turned away. Buzz & Woody apparently had about an hour's worth of wait at 6:30 and the cast member had to shut the line to make sure they got out of there on time. I was devastated. The kids were devastated. We took a couple of pictures through the window & we waited by the exit door and each time a kid walked out we tried to snap a picture of Buzz & Woody before the door shut back. The kids had their noses pushed to the window. Elysa was as excited as a kid at Christmas, shouting and pointing at "HeHaw Cowboy" and there was nothing I could do.

So we left. But after about 10 steps, I stopped & went back to the cast member, who ironically enough was named "Andrew". I showed him the brocure that said that we could come until 7:30. He very politely explained to me the long line explanation, and then took one look at my kids: Bryan in his Woody shirt, Dylan in his Buzz Lightyear shirt, Elysa holding her Woody doll and he asked if we could "hang out for 10 minutes or so".

Andrew, who we like to refer to as "The real Andy", disappeared for a minute and then he returned to our side and said nothing. We all patiently waited, along with scores of other Buzz & Woody fans who were trying to take the same lousy pictures through the window & doors that we were taking only minutes earlier.

And then....

Buzz came to the window and pointed to Dylan & motioned "come on"! Andy opened the doors and let us in! We were on our way to Andy's room!!

We were the last family of the day. We took our time walking through the empty hallway, taking picture after picture with all the props. And then we heard a girl from behind the wall say, "Where is this cool family we keep hearing about?" How. Awesome! We turned the corner & Elysa ran straight for Woody and showed him her doll!

There was no one after us, so we spent a good 15 minutes or so with Buzz & Woody. Uninterrupted. Not rushed. It felt like they were really happy to see our kids! It was the absolute best moment of our whole trip! Buzz knealt down and "chatted" with Lydia & Dylan, Woody thought Bryan's shirt was the coolest! Elysa gave Woody a hug! I was in tears. Thankfully, Elton John sized sunglasses are the "in" thing now, because I sure needed to cover my eyes so no one saw me crying!

The PhotoPass photographer was amazing! This one little "visit" guaranteed a PhotoPass CD sale for this family!

Buzz & Woody then motioned for the big kids to get in a few pictures, and of course, me, David & Thomas jumped right in!

I think you can see me wiping tears from my eyes in this one. :)

And as if that wasn't cool enough, Buzz & Woody walked our kids to the door as they left!

And just when they thought they were in the clear, Elysa turns around for one last goodbye. And they didn't just wave goodbye, they came to the door to bid her farewell. AGAIN!

Now, you tell me. How stinkin' cool is that story?! Plucked from a huge crowd to have a private "party" with Buzz & Woody! Yeah, I'm grinning ear to ear just looking back on that moment.

To Buzz & Woody ~ Thanks guys! You really are the greatest!

To the real Andy ~ YOU are my hero!! :)

Until I get a chance to blog more about Day 4, check out these pictures that Crystal made into a video for us. Just so you know, this would be the first time she heard this story too, and check out the second song she included in the video. How awesome is she, too! :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

In the meantime

2010-06-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Well, I'm back to working again, so I don't have nearly enough hours in the day to get everything I need to do done. Including update my blog properly. My friend, Crystal, however, has been a busy little bee when it comes to making these videos of our trip & I just had a moment to sit down and look at Day 3's video. This one has got to be my favorite one so far so I thought I'd go ahead and post it here for you all to see until I get a chance to sit down and blog a little more about the trip.

If you are having trouble vieweing the video on the blog, you can always click here to be redirected to the video.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Enjoy! And THANK YOU CRYSTAL!!

Not a Disney Post

2010-06-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

I had to interrupt our Disney trip report to tell about a little adventure we had today. Hehehehe. Today, I took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens at the theater in the local mall. We met some friends too.

The movie was great (meaning it captured the attention of all 4 kids) and afterwards we went to the food court for lunch.

Then we went for a spin on the carousel.

And then, just as we were headed for the door to leave, we spotted this bad boy. It's a Hurricane simulator. LOL! You simply insert 2 bucks & whole bunch of kids, shut the door, and voila! Instant entertainment! :)

The kids even seemed to love it.

Until the winds hit about 65 miles per hour, which was when their fun stopped and ours started. Elysa wanted out. And she began crying. I was so afraid to open the door because I didn't want to trigger some sort of emergency "off" switch and ruin the hurricane for the rest of the kids. lol!

Luckily it was over as quickly as it started and we let Elysa out.

And left the rest in for another go around. Two hurricanes in one day! Ahahahahaaaaa! These pictures still make me laugh til I cry!

As Promised: Day 1 ~ A Photo Recap

2010-06-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: If you are having trouble viewing the video, try clicking here to be redirected: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=b0b80c46245a6d4613de56&skin_id=701&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

As promised, here is the video montage of our first day in Disney created by our lovely blogging buddy, Crystal. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have! Thanks again, Crystal! :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Day 1: Part 2 ~ Dinner & Downtown Disney

2010-05-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Once we arrived in Orlando, we hitched a ride with Disney's Magical Express to our resort. Upon arrival, we were greeted & were given a red carpet entrance. Haha! No, seriously, they had a red carpet that was roped off for us when we arrived. We arrived 3 hours before check-in, but our room was already ready for us. And so was our stroller rental. So we dropped off our carry on bags, grabbed one of our 2 strollers and headed out for Downtown Disney!

We had a fun time. We shopped.

We took advantage of some great photo ops (which turned out to be a good thing since Elysa refused to have her pic made with any of the characters in the Parks, EXCEPT for Woody!).

We had dinner at T-Rex Cafe. Delicious!! And very entertaining!

We took advantage of some more photo ops.

We played in the water.

And we rented a boat for about an hour and we all took turns driving. It was so relaxing and the kids LOVED it!

This guy (I can't remember his name) showed us to our boat. I asked him if he would be so kind as to take a picture of us together and he said "sure!". So I gave him the camera and he turned and gave it to David and sat down beside me and put his arm around me as he said to David, "You mind taking a picture? She asked if I would take a picture of us together." It was so funny & I love the picture!!

After enjoying much of Downtown Disney, we decided to head back to the room to get rested for Day 2 @ Magic Kingdom. We ended up at the pool.

It was very late, and very cold, but I am happy that we decided to hop in for a few minutes. Little did I know, we wouldn't make it back to the pool for the rest of the trip!

This is a (very) brief summary of our first day at Disney. I'm sure I will share more detailed stories as time passes and I have more time to reflect back on the trip, but for the time being, this will conclude day 1 and I'll move on to Day 2 next time.

What? You want more? More of day 1? What's that? More pics? Well, you're in luck. And so am I!!! My friend, Crystal has made for us a video of the first day of our Disney trip with lots of extra pictures that are not included in this blog post. I'll post it tomorrow, so be sure to come back and check it out! I LOVE IT!!!

'Til then...Toodles!!

Day 1: Part 1 ~ Flyin' High!

2010-05-30T10:30:00.000-07:00

That's right. Day 1, Part 1. I told you I was gonna be bloggin' for weeks about our trip!

Ahem. So anyhow.

On the 23rd, we headed to Memphis International Airport at 5:30 to catch our plane to Disney! It was a first for the kids and they were so excited!!

We made it through check in, security, and on to the gate fairly easily. Actually, aside from Elysa's screaming fit about taking her shoes off to walk through security, it was all surprisingly easy! I haven't flown since September 11, so I was completely expecting to be pat down, wanded, luggage rummaged through, and everything else, but none of that happened. They didn't even ask us to open our carryons! It was a very pleasant experience. We saw our plane as we walked towards the gate. Of course, I took a pic. LOL!

And we stopped some random passenger to take our group pic in front of the plane. She obliged, although I think we stopped the wrong passenger. She apparently didn't have much experience in taking pics. Or maybe she did. She might just like having her pics off centered. ;) But it's a great picture of us, so who's complaining, right!? =)

Shortly thereafter, we boarded the plane which was the exact moment that everyone on board knew we were on vacation and that we were rookie flyers. I was a picture taking momma! I know I had to annoy everyone around me. lol!

Dylan preparing for takeoff:

Bryan anticipating the flight:

Lydia cheesin' for the camera:

Elysa getting ready to land. Gotta make sure "HeHaw Cowboy" (Woody) gets there safely too!

And we did get there safely. All 7 of us. And HeHaw Cowboy! Keep in mind that Elysa brought Bryan's "Woody" doll with her from home and watch in the pics to come and see how many he is in. It helps build the scene for the coolest story about what Woody and Buzz did for our kiddos! Be sure to check back so you won't miss it!! It was so. neat. :)

'Til then...Toodles!!

We're Baaa-aaa-aaack!

2010-05-29T23:26:00.000-07:00

And I took 1,527 pictures. So brace yourselves: I may be blogging about Disney for weeks!

Way-Fewer Words Wednesday

2010-05-18T22:33:00.000-07:00

Speed Limit Strictly Enforced!

If I could just figure out how to make this thing go!

I love my job!!

A Few of My Favorite Things!

2010-05-17T21:35:00.001-07:00

Sweet little girls and burgers half bitten

Lots of little kids around a table & they're sittin'

Playing with our friends outside on the swings

These are a few of my favorite things!

Looking at pictures and things my kids doodle

Knowing that I am the mother of oodles

Clouds up above near the birds and their wings

These are a few of my favorite things!

So many cameras you get lost in flashes

Fun little glasses with a fake nose and lashes

Play dates outside with my friends in the spring

These are a few of my favorite things!!

Field day relays

Favorite teachers

Friends from years in the past

These all are a few of my favorite things

Why must they go byyyyyyyy so fast?!

Way-Fewer Words Wednesday

2010-05-11T21:47:00.001-07:00

In light of our upcoming Disney trip, Lydia tried to teach her Daddy how a princess should behave.

He wasn't very receptive to the lessons.

Which made Lydia laugh so hard she cried.

I'm thinking we don't have enough time left to teach Daddy OR Dylan how to behave like princesses. From the looks of it, it might take a while!!

It will only take about 27 more years.

2010-05-10T22:10:00.000-07:00

But, if we continue at the rate we're going, we will have celebrated every day in May as a Mexican holiday with our dear friends, the Noes, in about 27 years!

It's a tradition we started back in 2007, when we took our families out to dinner together on a day that, by freak chance, happened to be Cinco de Mayo. Since then, we have not been able to get our schedules right since. Which is totally fine with us.

Because in 2008, we celebrated el Cuatro de Mayo with the NoeFour and then in 2009, we celebrated el Nueve de Mayo with them. But this year...this year was the biggest celebration to date. Tonight we celebrated el DIEZ DE MAYO! Aye, Aye!

That's right, my friends, we are venturing out into double digit territories, here. DIEZ ~ 10 ~ de Mayo! You know what happens on Diez de Mayo? Well, let me tell you. You ready for this: On Diez de Mayo, you will find the exact. same. thing. that happens on Cinco de Mayo. People eat Mexican food. I know! I was equally as surprised to see that we were not the only ones bending the rules a bit. But that's neither here nor there, so let's move on, shall we?

This year's festivities had much to be compared to considering that last year Mamacita celebrated her birthday more than a month early with a mariachi band wailing in her ear and serenading over her sopapilla.

But we were able to create new, more toned down memories this year. All we needed was a hat. No, no. A sombrero! And of course, a great group of friends!

And while we're on a post titled, "It will only take 27 more years"...I'm beginning to think that could be the case for me understanding blogger and it's layouts. Seems like if the picture isn't BIG and "centered" then they just place it wherever they find a spot that it'll fit. Arg! I give up for tonight. It's late and as I look at the clock I realize that it is no longer diez de mayo! Once de mayo will be here before you know it! Thanks for stopping by! Goodnight!!

Friday's Featured Family Foto Frenzy

2010-04-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart

"May your paths always lead back to each other."

You'll always be my sister; I only ask that you be my friend, too!!

Llama, Llama, Lunch With Momma (and Daddy)!

2010-04-21T19:00:00.000-07:00

So up until now, it may seem as if I haven't enjoyed being Mother of the "Star of the Week". Please, don't get me wrong! I think the "Star of the Week" concept is a really great idea, I just wish that there was a little more time for preparations. Being a mommy of 4 and working a full time job, I sometimes find myself frustrated at the extra activities that the schools come up with to make the children feel special for a week.

Finding out on Friday afternoon that you have a huge project like "Star of the Week" to complete before Monday is a big, hairy deal when you have to work all weekend. Finding time to take 4 young kids out to entertain a stuffed toy when you have to be at work in 3 hours is no easy feat, either.

On the flip side, "Star of the Week" gives me a reason to take some time off work to go to the school and make my kiddos feel extra-special.

On Friday last week, David and I took off from work and together we went to have lunch with our precious Star. It was absolutely fabulous! I don't take time off from work often, and when I do, it is usually when the kids are already out of school. So to take a day off simply to go to school and be with our Bryan was a very special treat for my hubby and myself as much as it was for our Star.

We also had the joy of being able to read some of Bryan's favorite books to his class. I think he was the only Star of the Week in his class to have both parents come read to the class. His smile was beaming from ear to ear and you could tell that he was so proud!
We read "Llama, Llama, Red Pajama" and "Llama, Llama, Mad at Mama" both written by Anna Dewdney. They have been some of our family favorites ever since Dylan was small. Looking back at last week, I have fond memories, as I'm sure Bryan will too as he gets older. The worry and frustration that I experience each time one of these "special" assignments come home is far outweighed by the joy and happiness I feel each time I see the pride and sheer delight on my kiddos faces. I love my kids with every fiber of my being and appreciate any opportunity I have to create special moments & memories with them.

It makes me a Llama, Llama, Happy Momma!

On "Star of the Week", Buddy Bear, & Custodial Arrangements

2010-04-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

So, as I mentioned here, Bryan was the class "Star of the Week" last week at school. And that's nothing to sneeze at. Especially if you're the Mother of the "Star of the Week". Nooo, no.

Being the Mother of the "Star of the Week" is quite a task, let me tell ya! First you have the mega-fabulous "Star of the Week" poster that you have to make on moment's notice. Assigned on Friday this masterpiece is expected to be due in the classroom bright and early on Monday morning. Complete with a pictoral timeline of your little star from birth til now. Quite the task, if you ask me, since no one seems to have hard copies of pictures on hand anymore. Or is that just me?

In addition to the posterboard masterpiece, you get the joy of having "Buddy Bear" join you all weekend. Buddy Bear is the class mascot, or something like that. He goes home with a different student every week and probably gets this kind of treatment

at every house he goes to, making him extra tidy and 100% germ free!

On Monday, you are expected to write a journal entry including pictures of the Star and Buddy Bear telling/showing what all you did with Buddy Bear on your weekend.

Strangely, this Buddy Bear business seems a lot like a warped cutodial agreement, whereby you have visitation with the class stuffed animal and it is your personal duty to make sure that you show this toy more fun than any other student in the class has shown him so far. It can be quite exhausting, I assure you! However, I do think that during our visitation weekend, Buddy had a good time. We took him to the "Memphis Loves Kids" celebration. It was nice. Nice and hot. Buddy didn't even break a sweat, though. Come to think of it, neither did any of the rest of the kids. But I did! Must be one of the joys of being the "Mother of the Week". Anything to have a good journal entry, right? Ah, the things we do for our kids! :)

Here are a couple pictures of Buddy and Bryan at the We Love Kids celebration

Lots of pictures and a 4-page journal entry later, you'd think our "Star of the Week" responsibilities would be nearing a close. But wait! There's more! Oh, yes, there's more and it isn't in the form of a homework pass. We couldn't get off so easily. More on the rest of our "Star of the Week" adventures to come! (I actually enjoyed our final Star of the Week task.) So, stay tuned!

This Little Girl

2010-04-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

This Little Girl

~*is our smallest (but not youngest) child*~

~*has the BIGGEST personality of anyone you will ever meet*~

~*could talk to a wall about ants for 20 minutes*~

~*uses "shanipoo" to wash her hair*~
~*~

This Little Girl

~*never meets a stranger*~

~*loves to have her hair in ponytails*~

~*can recite Ephesians 6:1, James 1:22, and Joshua 24:15 word for word*~

~*loves the color pink*~

~*~

This Little Girl

~*is the spitting image of her momma*~

~*LOVES going to school*~

~*can eat her weight in Vienna Sausages*~

~*knows to bat her eyelashes when she wants something*~

~*~

This Little Girl

~*makes it her business to turn on every light in the house*~

~*shares a bedeiom with her little sister*~

~*sits on her knees in her chair at every meal*~

~*loves some sweet tea*~

~*~

This Little Girl
~*begs to wear lipstick*~

~*loves to watch Biggest Loser and eat popcorn*~
~*loves being tickled*~
~*recently told her Daddy that she wants to "kiss lots of boys"*~
~*~

But for tonight

This Little Girl is still just a little girl.

She's my little girl.**

And I couldn't be more proud of her!

**While she is my little girl, that picture is certainly not of me. But as I was running across old pics tonight I found this one of my aunt, and I loved it! So congrats, Aunt C, you get bloggy time tonight! Love you! :)

Trolley Rides, Festivals, & Such

2010-04-18T16:50:00.000-07:00

It's warming up in Memphis, which means hugely fun things are going on in the Downtown district! Like the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival. Which is fabulous, if you like beer, crawfish and lots of crowds.

I, personally, am not a fan of any of those. Especially the crowds. No, rather than fighting against the chaos that goes with most crowded venues, I prefer to have all my ducks (and their friends) in a row.
We did, however take a little tour of downtown Memphis today with our friends via the trolleys which took us right past the festival.

Everyone was having a great time.

So were we!

We had a great time visiting with the Noe brood, trolley riding, and sightseeing.

We had so much fun, that most of us fell asleep in the car on the way home. Not me, of course. That would be a little dangerous considering I've never been a good driver with my eyes closed. Ahem. So, as I was saying. We had a fabulous time and are now just flat wore out!

Four days and Two WEEKS ago...

2010-04-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

I asked you to formulate a translation for my sweet 5-year-old's drawing that I posted here. And you did!! And then I went MIA from Bloggerville for ~~a teensy-weensy bit~~ entirely too long. But I'm back!

There were some very good guesses! I was really impressed. And according to Bryan, and his translation, there were a few correct guesses! Can you believe that?! Did I mention how impressed I am with the guesses?!

So, holding true to my word, I said that if there was a correct guesser, I would post a link in my next blog post so that my bloggy buddies could swing by and visit the blog.

*
*
*
*
*
The first person to correctly guess my Bryan's translation was:

Heidi from Purrfect Change!

Heidi correctly translated the sentence as "The puppy had a dream of sausage."

Congratulations Heidi! And thanks to everyone for playing along!!

Last week

2010-04-17T21:34:00.000-07:00

~went by entirely too quick.

~I did not get nearly enough done.

~I decided to quit seeing a chiropractor.

~I started the no sugar, no flour diet and lost 3 lbs in 3 days.

~I quit the no sugar, no flour diet and gained the 3 pounds back in 1 day.

~I got to see my best friend, Amanda, even if it was for only 15 minutes!

~I learned that I must be allergic to mowing the yard.

~Bryan was "Star of the Week".

More on that coming up this week. Boy! Do I have some thoughts on that whole "Star of the Week" business!

A Good Laugh and a Guessing Game!

2010-03-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

Boy, are we on a roll with Bryan's take home folder lately. This next piece is a one-of-a-kind original from the one and only "Bubba G". I spent nearly a quarter of an hour trying to translate this one before I had to give up and ask for our sweet son to clear it all up. And man was I all out in left field with my guesses. I bet I'm not the only one, though. Let's hear your guesses. What do you think the sentence says? Please! Use the picture as a guide to help you on this assignment.

IF (and that's a big 'if') you can correctly guess the sentence by leaving your translation in the comment section, I will post a link to your blog in my next post so that all 6 of my readers can visit your blog. Hey~I go for quality over quantity when it comes to my bloggy readers. I HEART my readers. They are the 6 greatest readers in the world! This is a huge prize! :)

Okay friends, so it's all in fun. Just post what you think the sentence says (so we can all get a good hearty chuckle) and enjoy reading the other guesses. I am almost positive you won't guess what it is, so dont be afraid to post a wrong guess. It's just for fun, remember! :) I'll post Bryan's translation soon!

***a hint to ~~confuse you even more~~ help you guess: Bryan sometimes gets his letters backwards. p's can look like q's, d's like b's. Oh, and sometimes he can get them upside down. p can mean b, etc. etc.

It was an enormous, thunderous storm.

2010-03-28T20:21:00.000-07:00

And there was no room at the inn.

They all look so scared, don't they? :)

Of Bees and Hives

2010-03-22T06:02:00.000-07:00

Never say never. It's true! Because you never know what you will never do. I have learned that as a mom I say lots of things that I told my parents I'd never say "when I grow up".

Like this one: If you don't stop that crying, I'm going to give you a reason to cry! That was probably my least favorite parent-ism one when I was a kid.

Followed closely by this one: If you two don't cut it out, I'm going to tell your father when he ~~gets home~~ wakes up.

But it's the things that I never even thought I would say that surprise me the most. The things that I could never dream of that, in retrospect, make my heart smile. Like these:

"Oh, I'm sorry, I've got to get off the phone. The girls are throwing cans of ravioli at each other."

"No, baby. I don't think your doll wants to eat her diaper."

"It's just not nice. You wouldn't want someone peeking over the stall while you were taking care of your business would you?"

And perhaps the oddest parent-ism to date, and strangely enough, it happens to be the one I say the most often.

"Bryan, if you come home one more time and tell me that your bees did not stay in their hive, there will be no Gameboy for 2 weeks!"

You see, Bryan is in Mrs. B's Busy Bees class at school. And if you misbehave, rather than moving a conduct clip, or pulling a color-coded card, Bryan's class has to move a bee from the hive each time they are reprimanded in class. Bryan's bees are constantly buzzing all over the place. So much so that we have had some pretty interesting notes sent home, some of them all-but-begging for help, for us to help get Bryan's conduct under control. And up until now, it has been really hard for us to understand why our sweet soft-spoken little Bryan has been having so much trouble behaving at school. I say *up until now* because yesterday he brought home something that could explain everything. Instructions: "Draw a picture of yourself at school." Apparently our precious baby boy transforms completely once he gets to school! At least he keeps his precious green eyes! :o)

~The runs~

2010-03-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today was too pretty of a day to just go for a walk in the park.

It was more suitable for, say, a jog in the park.

Or a race in the park.
Or maybe it was just the perfect day for some fun 'running' pictures.

Thankfully, my kids thought so too.

Because they ran forever

while I just snapped away with my camera.

I don't think all the running bothered them one bit.

Of course, we did do other things at the park. Like picnic,

throw frisbee,

and take group pictures. But of all the things we did at the park today, I think it was "the runs" that they liked the best! :0)

T-minus-74-days and counting

2010-03-10T20:53:00.000-08:00

Oh, yeah. The count down is SO on! By the time Disney gets here you will want us to go more than I will want us to go, just so you don't have to hear any more count downs. :) But since we have less than 3 months until the trip, I will be very busy with a lot of thing that probably won't include regular-basis blogging. I just have too many other things to get together. Like shoes-we all need good walking shoes. And summer clothes. And a stroller. Luggage. A tan. Some snacks. Swimsuits for all. Oh, and I've seriously got to get to work on my body if I plan on wearing a swimsuit...because as it stands, I have some very serious competition in the house regarding who is gonna look the hottest in their swim suit.

She's even hired a personal trainer.

Sure, he may only get paid with kisses but it appears he agreed to the terms, no?

So now I must go; I've got to hire a personal trainer of my own and I think I have just the person for the job:

**The story of my "trainer's" dash for the gold coming up soon on Tales From the Godseysix.

Bryan

2010-03-05T21:15:00.000-08:00

Bryan finished his basketball season tonight with the league's annual "Fun Night". I love "Fun Night"! There are snacks for the kids, balloons everywhere, and inflatables for the kids to jump on.

They have music playing over the speakers while the kids warm up and they start the game by observing the National Anthem.

They have an announcer during the game and a grand introduction of all the players before the game starts.

And when the game is over, they have a reception area where the teams go for a small "banquet" and the kids get their trophies

and the mommies get their pics of the kids with their trophies....

...before the kids chunk their trophies across the parking lot as they leave to "see if it will roll".

Or maybe that was just my child.

What can I say? I learn a lot from my Bryan that most parents never learn from their kids. And now I can add to my bank of senseless trivia that trophies DO NOT roll. But they ARE more durable than they appear to the untrained eye! =)

To my Bryan ~ Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you! You did a great job this season and it has been a joy to watch you play! You are an absolute sweetheart and we love you so very much...from here to the stars!

You Know You Are a Mommy of Many When...

2010-03-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

So, my very dear friend, Amanda, has a little bloggy bit she calls "You Know You Are The Mother Of Boys When..." that I just think it is too fun so I thought I'd introduce a little spin off here on my blog.

You know you are a mommy of many when:

In order to conserve hot water and keep the hot water tank from running out, each person in the house is scheduled a specific time of day that they can bathe.

Assigned seating at the dinner table, in the car and on the couches in the living area is a normal aspect of your day-to-day operations.

You refer to everyday life as "day-to-day operations".

You have more than one child with the same nickname.

Dinner at a drive-thru window costs you more than a full tank of gas.
You are unloading the kiddos from your family vehicle and people stop and watch to see how many more will jump out.

Two of your children get into an argument and when you can't figure out which one is fibbing, you send them into another room to "get their story straight" reminding them that whoever is at fault will be punished. When they return, they have both come to the conclusion that it was the child who was sitting beside you on the couch the whole time that was responsible for starting the fight.

Deep down inside you are proud of your two children for being able to come up with something so brilliant in order to keep one another out of trouble.
You go to work in order to "have some me time".

You return home from work and receive so many "welcome home hugs" that it takes you nearly 10 minutes just to take your shoes off!

Way-fewer Words Wednesday

2010-03-03T19:13:00.000-08:00

Only 80 days

Left

'Til Disney!!!

But who's really counting?!?!

Star-struck

2010-02-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

Twinkle, twinkle our four Stars

How we love just who you are.

Deep in our heart we'll always be

So proud of each of you, your daddy and me!

Shine very brightly sweet little Stars

We love you just as you are!

Time will tell.

2010-02-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

For the past twenty minutes, I have been on the hunt for Elysa's morning sippy cup. She has put it somewhere, because she decided she didn't want milk this morning and refused to drink it. She wanted juice. Now, I can't find it anywhere! I'm sure I will be able to find it in a couple of days when it, ahem, starts smelling. Oh, the joys of parenting.

Speaking of the joys of parenting, I would never claim to be an expert in the field, but you would think that after 4 I would learn that you can't reason with a 2-year old.

Me: Elysa, where is your drink?

Elysa: Drink-it!

Me: No, sissy, where is the cup?

Elysa: Drink-it!

Me: Okay guys, the first one to find Sissy's sippy cup gets a treat!

Elysa: No, no, no, no, no drink-it!

So here I sit, typing, still not knowing where my beloved daughter's "drink-it" is. But one thing is for sure: Time will tell!

It usually does.

Just like how time will tell if our baby girl will grow up to be a doctor.

It's Not Plagarism if You Cite, Right?

2010-02-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

So, I completely stole this from MckMama's blog, where she cited it from an article in the National Catholic Register by Matthew Archibold. No joke. I didn't write this. Not one word of it. Which is very odd, because I totally could have. Really. I just haven't yet. Maybe because I'm not all that ~~eloquent~~ hilarious with words. But anyhow. I'm citing my sources and having done all that, here we go!

Why big families are easier:

Patience. I never have to teach patience. My children know that I can’t drop everything for them if I have a baby in my arms.

Work Ethic. My children have learned to work because there are always chores to do in a small house packed with little messy lunatics. And they all learn quickly that sometimes they have to clean up a mess even though they didn’t make it.

Humility. My children have learned it’s not always their turn. They’ve accepted they can’t always get their way because other people have to get their way sometimes. They’ve learned that some children are better at certain things than they are.

Foreign language skills. You can learn a lot of Spanish by watching ten years of Dora the Explorer that you just can’t pick up in two. And now with the Diego spin off I’m practically fluent.

Laughter. The children have learned to laugh at the insane non sequiturs of younger siblings. They’ve learned that laughing just feels better when seven people are doing it along with you.

Competition. Do I really need to go into this? Everything is a competition in big families. The children compete over who reads faster, who drinks their milk faster, who gets to the bathroom first…etc. Everything is a competition and they’re all keeping score.

Balance. The floor of the front room of my home is a minefield of toys and childhood paraphernalia. Just walking through the room requires great skill and balance. I’m absolutely convinced my two year old will be a favorite for Gold on the balance beam in the 2016 Olympics. (She might have to lay off the cookies a little but I’ll deal with that later.)

Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you just give it to the baby because you want a little quiet. Not all the time. But sometimes.

Just say “No.” Being able to say “no” may be the most undervalued skill in this world. The need to be liked is pervasive. The need to be cool even more so. Having brothers and sisters teaches children to say “no” about 143 times a day. It’s a good skill.

Praying. They learn that nothing beats praying together as a family.

Nature/Nurture. Having many children has taught me that nature has a lot more to do with who my kids are than nurture. This is helpful, especially when your children misbehave you don’t have to feel bad about it. Just say “Stupid nature!!!” and blame your spouse’s genes.

Namecalling. You can occasionally call your child by the wrong name and still not be considered a terrible parent. They know who you mean just from your tone. Sometimes if you need something done you can call the wrong name and someone will still show up. That helps.

Spying. My children have learned that they can’t get away with anything. I have spies who look a lot like them who are willing to drop the dime on them for anything. Even at school I’ve got a child in just about every grade. If they do something I’ll hear. That keeps them nervous. And I like keeping my kids a little nervous.

Friendship. The children have many friends. They’ve got girly friends, crying friends, fun loving friends, consoling friends, and crazy friends. And they all have the same last name. And they’ll be there forever for each other. No matter what.

Love. I think my children have learned to love because there are others around them to love and who love them. I honestly can think of no better way to teach children to love than siblings.

Not me! Monday

2010-02-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

I've been a little short on the blogging front, but it's Monday, and anyone who knows me (in bloggy life) knows I'm good for at least one post a week. On Mondays. Becuase while I may find it easy to share what I did do this week, it is wayyy easier for me to just blog about what I did not do this week.

And without further adieu, I bring you this week's edition of

This week, on Tuesday, my husband and I took our sweet ~~little~~ family out to eat at a local steakhouse. Kids eat for $4 on Tuesday nights, so it was about as cheap as a car-full of happy meals would have been, but it tasted way better and it got us out of the house.

We enjoyed our night out. The kids behaved. Our steaks were delicious. There was no dishes to do and no messes to clean. It was a nice delightful evening.

Typically when we go out to dinner, I sit with Elysa, our youngest, next to me at the table, but on this night in particular, my dear hubby decided to take both girls on his side of the booth-a very nice change of pace for me.

Everything went well as far as our seating arrangements went, but at the end of our meal, while David and I were talking and the kids were talking and giggling with one another I looked over to see our 2-year-old slide out of her booster seat and grab ahold of the table in front of her to keep from falling to the floor. I know my husband saw the look of terror on my face because he immediately turned to aid our falling daughter.

I watched as my husband tried to pull her back into her seat and, feeling helpless, I peaked under the table to make sure she was okay.

AND THEN...

I did not laugh so hard that tears came to my eyes

as I peaked under the table

and made eye contact with my terrified daughter

who was swinging from the table

like a gymnast on the uneven bars,

with eyes as wide as saucers.

and knuckles as white as snow from clenching the table with all her might

as she ever-so-calmly said to me, "It's okay, mommy! I'm okay!"

I don't know who all those other diners were flashing those looks of disgust at. I was not the momma laughing at my infant child as she swung helplessly from the table to keep from falling. No, not me!

Regrets

2010-02-21T11:07:00.000-08:00

When our first-born, Dylan was born, he weighed a whopping 7 lbs, 3 0z. I remember lying on the operating table and my mom saying, "He's SO tiny!" To which, the doctor replied, "Oh, no he's not!" But relevantly speaking, he was small. Small to us. You see, I was born weighing 9 lbs and something like 3 ounces and my brother weighed an ounce more, 9 lbs and 4 ounces. I'm sure the pounds are correct. The ounces might be off a little, but the fact was both of my mother's babies tipped the scales at nearly 10 pounds. So, reletively speaking, Dylan was very small.

I also remember my dad, who never tells me things I should do unless I ask for his advice, making the unsolicited comment, "You should let me hold him up and take a picture of how small he is. So small that I can hold him with one arm." And me brushing off the comment and never taking the picture. I regret that decision.

The funny thing is, my dad probably doesn't even remember making that statement. But he might. But to me, it is a moment that I often reflect back on and regret. Oh, how I wish I had taken that picture.

Since then, however, I have been a picture-taking fanatic. So much so, that I recently had my brother pose for this picture with my first-born.

Which he thought was silly, but he obliged.

Why did I make him pose? Well, because I saw them doing this:

Which reminded me of this day.

Which was not posed, for the record.

And because when it comes down to documenting my kiddos and their childhood, I just don't want to have any more regrets!

Not me! Monday

2010-02-14T21:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to another Godseysix edition of MckMama's oh-so-fun blog carnival known as Not Me! Monday. After reading through my post, feel free to write your own, link up to her blog, and join in the fun! Be sure to leave me a comment so I can swing by your blog and read all about what you have not been doing!

And having said all that, let's get down to it!

This week, we had a double-whammy when it comes to losing teeth. Dylan, our oldest, lost TWO in one week.

We The tooth fairy was prepared for the first, but the second one kinda caught us her off guard. Consequently, I did not exchange the sweet little baby tooth under my firstborn's pillow with 8 quarters that I found in his own piggy bank! :GASP: Who would do something like that?! Not me!

What?!?! I paid him back! :) He'll never know!

And in the spirit of Valentine's Day, how about this one: David and I got each of the kids a little stuffed animal and a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day. This is our sweet 2-year-old Elysa's stuffed toy.

Since she adds her trademarked "it" to the end of every word, (like "bink-it" for blanket), she affectionately refers to the stuffed toy as "fwog-it". I do not think it is the funniest thing when she calls out for "fwog-it" and my husband snaps his head around and asks, "What did she just say?" LOL! I am way more mature than that. And, ahahahaheheheHAW, oh, excuse me, I just wouldn't laugh at something like that. Nope, not me!

And aside from the mid-week emotional breakdown that I did not have, I have been pretty good this week. Which makes this post one of my shortest Not Me! Monday's ever. But who's really keeping track anyway? Not me!

What have you not done this week?

It's the little things in life

2010-02-10T20:32:00.001-08:00

~~It was the best of days.~~ It was the worst of days.

If it could go wrong today, it did.

I sent Lydia off to school today not knowing until I dropped her off that today was her Valentine's party at school. She was the only kid in the class that did not bring Valentine's to share.
I left for work today without my jacket. It was 28 degrees today.
I had an interview for a training position today during which I broke down in tears and walked out of the interview.
I took the day off from work to finish crying. For the record, I really don't know why I started crying, but once I did, I couldn't stop.
I continued to cry off and on for the next FOUR hours.
Lydia "washed her hands" in scalding hot water which blistered and burned her little hands.
I cried some more.
I took the trash can to the curb tonight for trash pick up tomorrow. As I rolled the can towards the street a huge sheet of ice slid out of nowhere and left linear bruises across the backs of both of my hands.
Dylan hit Bryan in the face with the basketball.
I cried some more.
And despite my strenuous workout this morning, I ate 6 oreo cookies, 4 slices of pizza, 3 hot wings, and 2 pieces of dessert pizza tonight for dinner. With a Dr. Pepper. But that one kinda made me feel better. :/

And so did a perfect-timing phone call from my amazing mom, sweet little facebook messages from my dear hubby and my very dear friend, blog posts like this one from Eva's sweet (and funny) Momma, and these ten little piggies:

And I learn, once again, that it truly is the little things in life that can make a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day" a little brighter!

WARNING: Another Snow Post

2010-02-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

Once again, the area schools have closed. But this time, it was a little more understandable. We woke up to this:

Yes, yes, I know. Another picture of our house covered in snow. Big deal. But there just isn't much else to photograph around here. Except for maybe our truck.

Oh, and our beautiful kids.

And Sticky, our new Snowman.

And we just learned about an hour ago that the schools will be closed again tomorrow. Due to the rain. Regardless of the reason, I'll take another "snow day" with my babies. They seem to be growing up so quickly!

The Story of my Life. For now.

2010-02-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Saturday I was able to use some of my ever-so-tricky ways to convince the kids that it would be so fun to help me clean the house. For the most part, it worked.

These 3 did a magnificent job of cleaning up the play room

while this little munchkin kept herself occupied.

Two steps forward and two steps back.

Ahhh, the story of my life.

For now, anyway.But that's okay. I kinda like the story so far. :)

Early Intervention

2010-02-02T12:00:00.000-08:00

So, after the fourth kid (or the first for that matter) you learn that when you haven't seen them or heard from them in five minutes or so, they are bound to be up to something.

Or busy creating an 8-step-program.

To help you conquer your fear of....purses?

Not me! Monday

2010-01-31T20:15:00.000-08:00

Ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Bloggers and blogettes! It's Monday and I'm ready to roll...Not me! Monday is back and I'm in full swing. For those who may not be familiar (since I have been on somewhat of a bloggy hiatus for the past few months), Not me! Monday is a blog carnival created and hosted by MckMama, where fellow bloggers from computers around the world deny doing things that they did during the week. A sort of confession-type therapy, only we're not really confessing are we? Well you might be, but I'm not.

This week we got a little ice here in Memphis, yes we did. But we rarely get weather like this so I am not going to spend all kinds of money on snow toys that will not get their money's worth in use.

But I did take the kids out to play for a few minutes in the slippery mess. Yes, I did.

What I did not do was condone the use of the kids' toy box as a sled on the icy and very steep driveway we have.

That would be dangerous and very irresponsible and very much not something I would do. Not me!

And if, by chance, I did do something that risky with my children, which (bytheway) I would never do, I would certainly not put my two babies in the tub and then send them down the hill. No me!And I don't know what kind of momma would slide to the bottom of the drive to take pictures of her helpless children as they sailed out of control down the slippery slope. But it wasn't this momma!

It may not have been this momma that was nudging those babies down the hill, but after this great shot I can't deny that it was their daddy! No, not me!

And I did not smile with delight when I saw him not only encouraging their dangerous stunts, but join in with them! :sigh: Boys!

I did not think it looked so fun that I decided to join in the fun myself.

And I would never admit that I was too heavy for the dang bucket to move so I had to stage this here action shot! I am a petite little 110 pounds and would never weigh so much that I couldn't get a tupperware bucket to slide on some ice. Nope, not me!

So, what about you? Leave me a comment so I can visit your blog and read all about what all you did not do this week! Happy Monday to all!

Ice, Ice Baby!

2010-01-31T08:52:00.000-08:00

As pretty as it is, not even one teeny-tiny bit of it is snow. It's just one solid ~~sheet~~ block of ice.

The Self-Soothing Princess Makes Headlines Again!

2010-01-30T09:04:00.000-08:00

I know

It's probably only cute to me.

Because she's mine.

But this self-soothing princess:

Now shares her beloved bink-it with others!!

Forever 29.

2010-01-24T21:41:00.000-08:00

Because "thirty" sounds so old, I have decided that from now on, I will refer to my age as "twenty-nine-and-however-many-days". Today happens to be 29-and-366-days. But this picture was taken last night, when I was only 29-and-365-days old. I think it is a great picture of us. There is no way I look a day over 29-and-364-days old, wouldn't you say???

The Shield Virus.

2010-01-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

We got it.

From Facebook, of course!

The computer was 8 ways of screwed up!

I thought we lost everything.

Including a few thousand pictures.

But we didn't.

Thanks to my brother's fabulous idea to get us an external hard drive for Christmas!

Talk about perfect timing!

But we're back up and running now.

Let the blog posts resume...

I understand that this is not a photo blog.

2010-01-15T22:28:00.000-08:00

But I really can't help it just this one time. I have some cute (or at least I think they're cute) pictures of our sweet Bryan at his first ever Basketball game. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to the game as I had to work. But David took a modest 101 pictures, each with a cute story that I couldn't even begin to share, because, oh yeah, I was not there. :/ So, knowing absolutely nothing about the game I will not even attempt to bore you with facts and commentary~oh, wait! I just did. But just imagine that you did not just read an entire post about nothing and we should all be good to go, eh? Good! And we're off:

A Wii Little Update

2010-01-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

It's not much of a blog post, but they make me smile:

And now, I am a Wii bit tired. So I'm off to bed. Goodnight!

Beanie Babies

2010-01-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

from the creators of the Godseysix.

They give themselves "two thunbs up"!

Collect the whole set!

Bang! Bang!

2010-01-08T21:53:00.000-08:00

That's me. With bangs. After deciding on a whim that I thought I needed them to cover my rather large forehead.So I cut them myself. I thought they looked pretty good, er, kinda even. And then what I thought was my toughest critic saw my new 'do. And I waited, waited, waited to hear his negative this-n-thats about my new style. And all he could say was "Looks good."

Oh happy day! Hubby says he likes! Wahooo! Great. Then there was this:Not Elysa in the snow. But a pouty faced Elysa. All day. Pouty faced and refusing to make eye contact. Or give me hugs. Or kisses. And she wouldn't let me hold her.

Boy-oh-boy was she upset with me for trimming my hair! It was so very funny!

UPDATE: It's a new day and my dear Elysa seems to be more forgiving this morning than she was yesterday. She just told me she loved me and is letting me hold her now. Good times!!

The Great Dusting of 2010

2010-01-07T20:28:00.000-08:00

Just a quick reminder: For my wonderful bloggy readers from up north (or anywhere north of Memphis), try not to laugh too hard. We Memphians tend to over-react a little when it comes to any weather condition other than sunny and mild. Thank you and please enjoy the post. :)

So, here we go:

It was madness. Sheer chaos. Uncontrollable pandemonium. In the past couple of days local grocery stores have sold out of bread, space heaters have been flying off the shelves, city workers have salted all the roads, and gas stations have been lined with frantic drivers waiting to fill their tanks in preparation of the ultimate blizzard. A blizzard so bad that we were sure to be off from school and work for days. So scary, in fact, that the city itself has toyed with the idea of opening the convention center as a housing facility for those in need.

And then it happened. Today, we experienced in Memphis "The Great Dusting of 2010".

And the schools did close.

For this:Yes, my friends. A blizzard like no other. Only there were no snow angels. And no snowmen. And no need for road salt. Or the stockpiling of bread.But it gave me a reason to take some pics of the kids.And write a new post.And sleep in late. :) And to sleeping in late, I say Let it Dust! Let it Dust! Let it Dust!

The Self-Soothing Princess: A Sequel

2010-01-05T08:49:00.000-08:00

Remember this? Well, here we are more than a year later and not much has changed.Aside from the fact that she has developed a particular fondness for one blanket in particular~the one with "fly-flies" on it. We have graduated from diapers, but she still holds up the blanket to her nose and sucks her tongue. All the sweet time.Even when she's not ready for bed, the "bink-it" goes with her. Everywhere.It is really so sweet.

And so Linus-like.

Still not "Mother of the Year" material

2010-01-01T21:27:00.000-08:00

But I'm getting there. Our sweet baby girl turned two this week. Three days after Christmas, to be exact. I haven't quite figured out how to celebrate a birthday that close to Christmas yet and if any of you guys have any great suggestions, I am totally open to hear it. In the meantime I'll tell you what we decided to do this year to celebrate.

You ready for this???

We did...
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*wait for it*
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NOTHING!

That's right. Not a gift, not a party, not a cake. Oh, come on! I can hear you all gasping in disbelief even as I type this! :)

And that's okay, because it was my initial reaction too when her birthday rolled around. Which is why I had to do something...anything...to get some pictures to show her when she gets older. Pictures that would make it appear as if we had a major celebration planned.

So, we rounded up our kids and trekked across town to the local Chuck E Cheese where I was able to corral enough kids (that appeared to be 2-ish) into a corner. I tossed my sweet Elysa in front of them and-voila!-a "group picture" of Elysa and her birthday party guests.

Okay, so maybe that isn't exactly what happened either. Basically we just went to Chuck E Cheese. Me, my hubby, the birthday girl and her 3 siblings. And we had a wonderful time. We celebrated her birthday while we were there...just us...and we had a good dose of family fun. And I did snap a few pictures...just no group shots. Not quite bold enough to attempt the "fake" group shot yet. ;)

Happy Birthday my Sweet, Sweet Elysa! Mommy loves you from here to the stars!!!

And that's a wrap!

2009-12-31T18:26:00.000-08:00

2009 has come and gone and seemingly faster than any other year so far. I thought it might be fun to ask the kids what their thoughts were on the New Year coming in and this is what they had to say:

Me: Lydia, did you know that tonight is a special night?

Lydia: :nods head yes:

Me: Why do you think tonight is special?

Lydia: Because I think it's Christmas!

Me: Do you know what year it is?

Lydia: Ummmm....grandmommy's year!

Me: Do you want to make any plans for this new year?

Lydia: Ummm...ummm, I want to play like I'm at school.

Me: Bryan, what is special about tonight?

Bryan: That it's happy new year.

Me: What does that mean?

Bryan: That means we get to celebrate and I get to kiss you tonight.

Me: Do you know what year it is going to be?

Bryan: Happy New Year.

Me: Do you want to make any big plans for 2010?

Bryan: Ummm...Can we go to Disney?

Me: We will. Is there anything else you want to do this new year?

Bryan: Play at Disney.

Me: Do you know that tonight is the last night of 2009?

Elysa: I'nna go potty.

Me: Okay, dear, but can you first tell me what you want to do in 2010?

Elysa: I stink-it. (stinky)

Looks like 2010, just like every other year since 2004, will be another potty-training year for us. Crossing our fingers that it will be our last year that "stinks"! Happy New Year!

He Came...

2009-12-30T13:37:00.000-08:00

He dropped it off...and he left. What's up with that???

Santa came Christmas Eve night, and he did not come empty handed, so we know the kids must have been on the "nice" list. But he left all these goodies in the garage for mommy, daddy, and Uncle Thomas to put together in mere hours before the kids got up, which leads me to believe we somehow wound up on the "naughty" list. Hmmm...

So, needless to say Santa's "elves" were up for a majority of the night assembling these toys for the kiddos. And making oh-so-fun memories all at the same time!

It just doesn't get any better than this!

Tales from the GodseySix...

All in a day's work.

Back in the Saddle (for a minute)

Science Fun

Expedition Earth: China

We've Adopted!

Tour de la Schoolroom

My Cup Runneth Over

Patience ~ A Fruit of the Spirit

Why we are choosing homeschool: A reminder for myself

SONday Snippets: March 27

This week in review

The View from Here:

Suspension suspense

Best Friends: Bryan & Alex

Say Ch-Ch-Ch-Cheese!

Because I'm so, so tired...

Nothing's changed!

Since Monday.

Disney Day 5 ~ Epcot.

You Know You Are A Mommy of Many When...

Toy Story Mania Continues

You've Got a Friend in Me!!

A Free First For All.

The Calm...

Happiness, Defined.

True Love: Disney PhotoPass Style

This Little Wasp Sting Light of Mine.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow ~ A Countdown of Sorts

Summertiiiiiiime

Happy *Belated* 4th!

Disney Day 4: Part 1 ~ Hollywood Studios

Shhhhh....

Disney Day 3 ~ Animal Kingdom

The Blame Game

Day 2 ~ Magic Kindgom Meltdown

"Thank you, God, for my new glasses so I can see."

The Buzz on Woody & Buzz. And Andy!

In the meantime

Not a Disney Post

As Promised: Day 1 ~ A Photo Recap

Day 1: Part 2 ~ Dinner & Downtown Disney

Day 1: Part 1 ~ Flyin' High!

We're Baaa-aaa-aaack!

Way-Fewer Words Wednesday

A Few of My Favorite Things!

Way-Fewer Words Wednesday

It will only take about 27 more years.

Friday's Featured Family Foto Frenzy

Llama, Llama, Lunch With Momma (and Daddy)!

On "Star of the Week", Buddy Bear, & Custodial Arrangements

This Little Girl

Trolley Rides, Festivals, & Such

Four days and Two WEEKS ago...

Last week

A Good Laugh and a Guessing Game!

It was an enormous, thunderous storm.

Of Bees and Hives

~The runs~

T-minus-74-days and counting

Bryan

You Know You Are a Mommy of Many When...

Way-fewer Words Wednesday

Star-struck

Time will tell.

It's Not Plagarism if You Cite, Right?

Not me! Monday

Regrets

Not me! Monday

It's the little things in life

WARNING: Another Snow Post

The Story of my Life. For now.

Early Intervention

Not me! Monday

Ice, Ice Baby!

The Self-Soothing Princess Makes Headlines Again!

Forever 29.

The Shield Virus.

I understand that this is not a photo blog.

A Wii Little Update

Happy Belated 4th!