Peeking in to say we are still here...

I am committing to getting back involved in the blogging world. I am going to take it slow at first. For the first time in our families history, both kids had to stay home from school today due to illness. We were so proud of the perfect attendance they both received last year, now that is gone, but we are glad that they seem to be feeling a little better. It never fails, every Halloween one of our children seem to get sick. Hopefully one day we will break the trend.

Snow Days well played!!!

One of the great things about snow days is the wonderful opportunity I get to play with my kids. I took the opportunity to play with each of them. With M, we sat down and played with her many Princess Barbies, plus one Jesse Doll.




It really is amazing the things Princess dolls can do. They can fly, jump real high, and even stand on each others heads. It is amazing the things you will do just to spend time with your daughter and watch her smile and laugh. We had a blast together.



I guess after a while I wasn't doing a good enough job with the princesses, so I was reduced to just being Ken, whom all the princesses don't like and just want to beat up and throw him out. It doens't help that he only has swimming trunks and doesn't quite fit in. However, if my little girl thinks that you are suppose to throw out hot guys who try to mess with you, then that is fine with me :)

The next day I took my son on a daddy/son adventure. We ate lunch at McDonalds, because he said he wanted to eat at "Old McDonalds". Then we went to the rec-center where we played air hockey, which the little man is good at, and foosball. Then we went and shot some basketball. It was a little hard for him since they only had adult size balls and the 10' baskets. He made a few shots, but then he got tire of having to throw the ball so hard. So we borrowed some racquettball equipment, went into the racquettball room and hit the ball around. HE LOVED IT! He thought it was so cool you could hit the ball as hard as you want and don't have to worry about loosing the ball or breaking anything. We did that for at least 40 minutes. He was sad we had to leave and continues to ask me when we can go play again.

With more fun times like this, I say, BRING ON THE SNOW!!!

Sledding

This is part of my resolution to keep up with the blog better. We will see how long it lasts. :) We had a blast going sledding as a family. I went down once, but Melinda did not. I went down uninjured so I figured I better not push my luck and go a second time. Both kids went down by themselves, but I thought that this was the cutest of the videos. It was also really fun watching them trying to walk back up the hill. One time "N" got almost to the top and dropped the sled which went all the way back down the hill. I was about to go get it when another sledder brought it up. It was very funny. This was "M's" first time sledding. She was reluctant at first, but when her big brother went with her, she became brave enough to go on her own. Big brothers are awesome.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I can't believe I missed blogging of all the major holidays that I love! I mean, seriously, I LOVE Halloween, I decorate for Christmas as early as I can get away with it, Noah turned 5...and the list goes on. And what does my blog have to show for it? NOTHING! I could write down excuses, but, I know them,they make sense to me and it's just not my thing...And, I wouldn't be on here right now, but one, DUKE isn't playing, and two...I want to let my husband know how much I love him.

So, here is another holiday and I want to take time to let my husband and friends know how much I love him! We went out last week for an early Valentine's date. A movie and Wendy's! Classy, huh? I can't put into words just how much my dear husband means to me! Thank you Richard for being my best friend. Thank you for putting me first, for loving me (even during college bball season), for supporting me, for working hard to make our family what it is ( and I think it is great). I never thought I would have someone love me as much as you do, but I am grateful that Heavenly Father opened the way for us to find each other. So, my gift this Valentine's Day is simple...I LOVE YOU! (and happy valentine's day to all of my wonderful friends...I'll try to blog more, but I don't make promises...)

Look at our creation.

We have been having problems with our basement flooding and it all came from the drain outside our basement door getting clogged during a really hard rain. So first my father and law and I built a tiny wall under the deck to stop gunk from flowing down the basement stairs from under the deck, but we were still getting stuff in the drain because it would fall from our tree.

Finally, my father in-law and I were able to spend the good part of the day today building an awning over the basement stairs. My father in-law had the plan, but we worked together to build it, and I am happy to say that I actually did a lot of work. I will be the first to admit that my talent in building things is small but with the help of my father in-law it is sturdy and looks good and I learned a lot. Now we just need a good hard rain to see its effectivness.

Thanks Paw-Paw for your help and vision. It was a successful day and I am really happy at the job well done and for the things I learned. Your guidance and expertise was amazing. You truly are a talented man. We kept saying that we better be careful people might actually believe we know what we are doing.

Before anymore time goes by....our most recent big adventure was the family (and when I mean family, I mean the WHOLE family) vacation to Topsail Beach! Neither N or M had ever seen the beach. N loved it. Or should I say, he loved to run up to the water, and then run away from it when the waves crashed. By the end of the week, he was getting brave! M on the other hand was not fond of it at all. The first time we walked to the beach, she screamed and wouldn't get down. Then, by Friday, she was more brave. She said it was "too loud."


The week was spent at the beach, going to Wilminton to the battleship (I leaned 2 things--- 1- don't wear a skirt when touring the battleship and 2- I DON'T like closed in places!!), cleaning up sand, looking for sharks teeth, cleaning up sand, Richard and I going out for a lovely lunch, cleaning up sand, shopping at the only grocery store around (oh how I missed you Kroger), cleaning up sand, watching a fabulous fireworks display thanks to mother nature, cleaning up sand, N getting everyone to play hide and go seek, cleaning up sand, going to the aracade, cleaning up sand, going putt-putting...oh, and did I say that there was a lot of sand to clean up!!!

It was a great time! Some of our favorite times when it was just the 4 of us. No offense to the rest of the family, but those few moments that it was just our small family was priceless. All the other times were great and fun-filled and we were just glad that we were finally able to go on a vacation that lasted longer than 1 day in our almost 6 years of marriage. In the words of N, "when can we go back?"

Trip to the Zoo

When our family took went to the temple it was an interesting experience. The temple itself was great, it was everything else that wasn't so great. M got sick on the way up and threw up in the van, at the hotel, at the temple, the van again on the way home and didn't get better until the next morning at home. We must thank my sister who was a lifesaver. She took care of the kids while we were in the temple and was a big help while M was sick. We did get to go to the zoo, however it too was somewhat disappointing. What we didn't know was that many of the good exibits close at 4:00 and we didn't get to the zoo until after 3:00 thanks to mapquest and its terrible directions to the zoo. Lets just say that driving through D.C. by going through crowded neighbor hoods was not fun. So, because of our late start we missed the big cats, the rhino, the monkeys, the reptiles and others. There was one good part about zoo however. There was this seal that took a liking to M. There were a whole lot of people around but he or she (I am not sure what gender the seal was) for some reason decided to do some tricks for M. I am not the greatest cameraman so please excuse the shakyness, but it really was cool. You also have to put up with the cheesy clapping, "oooooooh's" and baby talk. But it really was pretty cool.