Mosaic Shop Fun:

Earlier this month, the kids and I did a fun Saturday morning activity. Some friends of ours got together at the local Mosaic shop and the kids got to put their creativity to work. The idea was to make Christmas ornaments, but since the twins have done that already 2 years in a row at school, I let them pick what they wanted for their rooms. We had a really fun time and of course my camera was in attendance! ;)

Mosaic shop is this really cool place where you get to choose from all sorts of broken glass in different colors. You glue it on the shape of your choice and then they grout it and glaze.



Meredith chose a soccer ball ( surprise)!





Scarlett, Meredith, and Annelise



Madeline chose a peace sign ( again..no surprise)





Madeline and Allie:



Finished:



Noah made a stocking ornament:



Whole Gang:



Fun Day!!!!

Twins Christmas Choir Concert

Hi everyone!!! So much for posting regularly.....I will try for 2010. I am still trying to upload my Christmas pics. My Mac Iphoto is giving me troubles so until I get them loaded, I am going to backtrack. I have a few other events to share. First up is the Twins first Middle School Choir concert. They did a beautiful job and I was so proud. I was also incredibly grateful to be reminded how blessed we are to live in an area where the public schools celebrate CHRISTmas. All the songs they sang were beautiful Christmas songs and most mentioned God. Here are some pics:

Friends:



With their choir teacher...Ms. Bruening!



No choir concert is complete without a trip to Chik-fil-a afterwards! We closed the place down and it was still a school night! YIKES!

Meredith's Very First Christmas Band Concert

Back in August when I went through the headache of finding and buying a flute, I wondered if it was truly worth it? Would my child like it? Would she want to quit after the first semester? Would she lose the flute? Well I am happy to report that we have only positive things to say about our flute experience. Meredith LOVES it. She even goes early to school for extra practice. Last night was her very first concert....a wonderful long 10 minute concert!!!! The 6th grade band did such a FABULOUS job and we were all so impressed. It is amazing what they can learn in 4 short months. Here are some pictures:

Waiting to get started:



Meredith and her wonderful flute teacher..Ms. Nick!!!



Casie, Meredith, Kaely, and Abby



Best Buds...Ally and Meredith



Meredith and Sehee ( I teach Sehee ballet)



Kayla, Meredith, and Sarah

Back to blogging and Thanksgiving 2009

I had no intention of taking such a long blogging break. So many of my friends have been very faithful with their blogs, but I can't say the same. However, I am going to try to start being a regular poster again. I love looking back at my pictures and the accounts of our daily life. I hope I will have a few people drop by from time to time and keep me accountable! That being said, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We drove to GA and spent time with my family. It was a very relaxing five days but it went by so fast. We spent our time hanging out, watching movies, watching football, cooking, eating, and working on the girls animal projects for school. My mom and my SIL saved me by helping with those. As soon as they get them back, I will post pictures. We are hoping for 100's!!!! Here are some pictures of our visit!

The darlings and me:



Me and my daddy:



Our family photo ( minus my sister who couldn't be there...we missed Kiki sooooooo much):



Being silly:



Taking our family photo for the Christmas cards ( this isn't the one I picked but you get the idea):



And here are a couple of pictures from Noah's Thanksgiving feast at school:

He was an Indian named 'Red Arrow'. We had so much fun. I thought it would be a slow day and the food would be disgusting. Surprise...it was fabulous. They had all sorts of stations they went too. It was so much fun. The food was DELICIOUS and I think I had one too many lemon bars! ;)



Yum Yum! Cookie making station:



They were supposed to roll the pumpkins in relay style but Noah decided it was like a soccer ball and he kicked it the whole way...ha ha!!!

Happy Birthday Noah and Thank you Sedu!!!

Noah just turned SIX years old. We had his party at the Jump Zone. Here are some pics!

Noah and 2 of his friends from school:



The cake...can you tell what he LOVES:



The birthday boy ( a sweet friend of mine gave me this cute Lego shirt for him):



Blowing out the candle:



I didn't get many pictures because it was CHAOS!!!!

One more thing and this is for my mom. I just celebrated a bday ( no need to tell my age). I decided to order myself a gift and it was between a really nice flat iron or an external flash for my camera. I went with vanity and chose the flat iron....I will ask for the flash for Christmas. If you know me, you know that I have very curly hair and because you always want what you don't have, I long for straight hair. After much research I decided to purchase the Sedu pro flat iron instead of the Chi. The reviews for it were tremendous. Well....I am hear to say that I heard angels singing "hallelujah" when I first used it. It really works well . Please Please excuse the fact that I need a highlight badly!

I.MISS.SUMMER!!!

I can't help it but I do. We went from lazy (L-A-Z-Y) mornings, fun filled days, and late nights to a bunch of running around, schedules, early mornings, and utter craziness!!! I am feeling overwhelmed. There seems to be so much to keep up with and I find myself living for the weekends. I know that isn't what I am supposed to do, but every single Friday I have such a joy knowing that the weekend is upon us! Then by Sunday night, there is a heaviness that sets in. Hopefully, I can get my life organized and begin to sinc with our new routine! It is sooooooooooo hard!!!! Anyone else feel that way???

Noah's First Day of Kindergarten

Noah started school the day after his sisters did. They break the K classes up according to alphabet and his name fell on the second day. We were all very excited and also a little anxious ( well mommy was).

I had to remake the same "first day " breakfast:



My big boy:



We had to bargain about the backpack. He wanted 'Star Wars' and I wanted his name monogrammed on it. The Star wars backpacks are made of a plasticky material and couldn't be mongrammed so........he got a Star Wars lunch box and thermos and I got the plain blue backpack. He did pick "lightsaber red" for the color of his name!



Silly boy:



Who wouldn't want to teach this little guy?



Noah, I hope that you have a wonderful year. I have been praying all summer that God would give you the teacher that he wanted you to have. I am trusting that you will learn so much with Mrs. U this year. I hope you always keep your happy and fun personality. I LOVE YOU!

First Day of Middle School:

Wednesday was the big day. Madeline and Meredith started Middle School. This is such a big turning point for us. So far, they LOVE it. I think they feel quite grown up. Here are some pics of the day:

Our traditional first day breakfast ( cinnamon rolls and scrambled eggs):





The backpacks they had picked out. You only put initials on your backpack when you are in middle school! No full names!



Meredith



Madeline



My beautiful girls:

Navarre Beach Part 2

The rest of the week just seemed to speed by. Of course it was not without its share of drama. I will not go into detail, but lets just say it involved things that were out of my control and I probably failed the test of going with the flow.

Mom and the girls



Went shopping in Destin and met up with the Embrys ( Meredith and Ally are best friends)



Noah and I on the balcony



Greg and I got to go out on a date because my mom volunteered to keep the kids. We had a very nice evening.



All in all, a very nice vacation. I can't believe the summer is almost over. We are on school countdown here. We are under 2 weeks now. Part of me is not ready, but part of me is READY! I think the kids need some structure and so do I!

Navarre Beach Trip 2009 Part One

We arrived home safely this past Saturday after a 10 day trip. It was alot of fun, but there is truly no place like home. I was so happy to sleep in my own bed. I am slowly getting things unpacked, washed, and put away. I don't have a ton of photos which is so unlike me. I left my CF card at home for my good camera so all I had was my Canon Powershot. Most days, I just didn't feel like dragging it out and as you can see, I have little people who do not like to cooperate. Here are some pictures of our trip that I did manage to snap:

We actually stayed in Daphne, AL for 2 days just to go ahead and get closer to the beach. The kids swam in the hotel pool and I did some shopping. Friday night, we drove to Gulf Shores to meet our friends The Smiths at 'The Hangout'. I Heart that place!!!! We also got ice cream at 'Scoops' and played a round of miniature golf. It was lots of fun!!!

Our Kids



Rebecca and Me:



Our Family:



We stayed in Navarre Beach this year. I did lots of research and found that this beach is known for being less crowded and commercialized. Truly, there are only 2 places to eat across the bridge and it has alot less condos. I still thought the beaches were crowded though and we ran across some snobby people who thought they owned the stretch of sand! The condo was nice. We had lots of space and the view was gorgeous. My parents joined us for the trip and we had a great time. It went by so fast though. We spent most of our days at the pool and/or beach. There was a very short walk to the beach which was probably the best thing. The funniest thing was that there was a lady who my mom and I nicknamed "the hawk", who sat under a covering near the pool and watched everyone as they went by. You had to have a bracelet on to be in the pool area and boy did she make sure that everyone followed through with that rule! It was annoying.



Noah ( the water was GORGEOUS)



Most of the nights we cooked in the condo or got pizza. One night we went to a place called 'Floyds'. It was ok!

Yep, this is what I get when I try to take a picture!!!



Part 2 tomorrow...