At the beach...

Here are the pictures from Tuesday of our trip to Florida. My mom and I took the kids to Clearwater beach to take pictures by the pier. Of course they stayed dry for all of five minutes. Most of the pictures are of the girls splashing in the water. Penelope was reluctant at first to step into the water. Before long she was diving under the waves. We had so much fun. It was the perfect day.

Meet Dora...

Noah is dressing up Dora in Luke Skywalkers Jedi robe.

I mentioned Dora in the last post, so I thought I would introduce her to you all. The newest addition to our family. Dora the rex rat. The kids love her. She is a very friendly little critter. Noah named his brother so it was only fair to let Emma name our rat. Thomas has only seen her once. The other night she was making noise in her cage. Thomas jumped out of bed to run downstairs to see if someone was in the house. I told him it was only the rat. He had forgotten that we even have her. Out of sight out of mind. It's better that way. He doesn't want anything to do with her tail. It's actually soft. She's like a tiny dog.

Florida or bust...

December 9th I decided to pack up the car and drive down to Florida to visit the parents. We are staying home for Christmas and I thought it would be a nice Idea to surprise the grandparents. I had a great plan to get lot's of pictures of the kids at the beach. I have the pictures blown up in my dining room and I will share them in a later post. Last minute trips are always great. With four kids it only took me four hours to pack up the car and clean the house. I am pretty picky about everything being in order before I leave so this put me on the road at 5:45pm. The kids passed out at 9:00pm watching Finding Nemo and I drove without stopping until we reached Gainsville and needed gas. All three of the kids were pretty silent the entire trip. All but my fire craker. Nele made sure to ask me the same question over and over again for about an hour straight. "Mommy what are you doing up there"? I replied 210 times "Mommy is driving Nele". Every now and then she would say "get me out of here" or "I'm all done". My favorite was, " Where are we going"? I would reply, "To Florida Penelope". She would say " oh mommy, but where are we going"? Eight hours, four kids and one stop. Not too bad. We arrived at my moms at 1:30 , she was in such a deep sleep I could not get her up to come to the door. We packed back up, Dora and all (that is our pet rat) and we headed 10 minutes down the road to Thomas's parents house. They were so surprised to see us on their doorstep. Thomas's dad peeped through the peep hole, opened the door and said " I looked out and saw little children and thought they were lost in the dark". Thomas knows me well, so he wasn't as suprised as everyone else to hear I was in Florida Monday morning. On Monday Thomas's mom and I took the kids to Busch Gardens. Oh what fun! Perfect day, perfect weather. Thanks mom for such a great time. We had so much fun! Thanks for watching the kids so I could ride on a roller coaster. Thomas's I missed you so much. We will have to do it sometime when you are with us! Here are the kids on their first ride. Nele's face when it was in the air was priceless. She grined so big!
Thomas's mom fastening the kids in.
I can't believe I gave birth to such a fair skined child. This was the first time I have been out in the sun with a baby and been really concerned about getting them sunburned!

Emma came to life in the water. We spent over half an hour standing in the splash zone of this ride so that she could get soaked when it passed by. She would stand their and scream with glee when it came roaring by. Then she would say " again mommy, again"! She drew an audience. I looked over at one point and atleast a dozen people were standing there saying "look at the little girl"!
Emma would not leave Dragon Land very willingly. She hiked up her pants and away she went jumping from rock to rock in the splash zone. It wasn't too long before she had soaked her clothes.
Emma again...

Whoa these guys are soooo tall...

The bird atrium was fun. Everyone loved this but Nele. She still talks about how the bird bit her on her finger. She say's "that birdy was not kind to me mommy".

We traveled back home on Wed. We didn't make such great time on the way back. Stop after stop and one child screaming "get me out of here" (guess which one:) and I realized why I don't make the trip more often!

I will post the pictures of Tuesday's beach trip later. To all my friends in Florida who I did not tell I was in town, I am sorry. I did not bring my contact book with me and we were visiting for such a short time. I will try to see you guys next time. I did think of you all! Love you all!

Everyone say Turkey...

I am very behind on my posts. A big thank you to Thomas's parents (gramo and poppy) for coming up to stay with us over Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed having you here. We had so much fun playing I spy at the table and going around telling each other all we are thankful for. We are very thankful for you guys. A side note to anyone else reading this, observe the big vase behind Penelope. Guess how long that took to come down?:) We had a great time!

The boys and Poppy

Thomas's parents came up to visit over Thanksgiving. One of the highlights for Noah was going into the wood's behind our house and shooting his airsoft gun at targets on the trees. Noah was so excited to get all geared up and venture down into the woods with the big boys.

"Thank's daddy and Poppy this is great!"

Can't really tell this is grandpa hun?

Madd Hatters

The other night after bathtime the girls got into my closet and pulled out these hats. It was Penelope's Idea to dance around with the hat's and sing song's. They were so cute together. I didn't post the pictures of Penelope going nut's when she stepped on her hat and it got smushed. The pictures were so funny. She ran around the room with her hair in her face screaming "Help me my hat's broke. Oh no mommy, oh no!"

Tea Leaves and Thyme

This is a picture from a couple weeks ago. My neighbor Lizzie (center) celebrated her birthday October 31st. She turned four. She took Emma, Anisa and us moms to Tea Leaves and Thyme in Woodstock for an afternoon tea party. It was so much fun. Emma went to the tanning bed for the occasion. No, just kidding, but I did think it was funny how dark she looks in all the pictures. Emma is so thankful to have other little girls in the neighborhood to play with. As I am typing this the two girls are outside my house waiting for Emma to wake up from a nap so that she can come out and play. Thanks girls for being her friend.

Funny friend

This is Luke on Halloween night. He looks a little spooked. I think the flash was a too bright. He loves this little creature toy. I can't figure out what it's supposed to be. It is cute how he pulls on the legs and sucks his thumb while he holds on to it. He tries to talk to it like it's his long lost bud. I'de love to call it something other then creature.
Any thoughts on what it is?

Katie's wedding

November 3rd my cousin Katie was married to Randall Keele in Tulahoma Tennessee. Thomas and I drove up with Luke and attended the wedding. Katie looked beautiful. This is my mom with Luke. He did not do so well during the wedding. He seemed to enjoy the reception.
Me at the reception. It was a lot of fun catching up with family. I enjoyed seeing you all. Thomas was so great to come along with me. He was such a great date:) We both had a good time.
My cousin's wife Meagan with her daughter Peyton the flower girl. Meagan just had twins. She looked so great. Peyton and Penelope have the same birthday June 8, 2005. Peyton danced during the entire reception!
My mom and Aunt Helen with Meagan and Jason's twins Devon and Nolan.
Katie at the reception. Katie it was so awesome to see you on your wedding day. I hope for lot's of joy and happiness in your marriage. You make a beautiful bride.

Rock City Gardens

These are pictures from our trip to my cousins wedding in Tennessee. Thomas and I took Luke and had a weekend getaway. We stayed the night in Chattanooga and spent the afternoon and evening at Rock City Gardens. This place is beautiful. Thomas and I love being outdoors. The leaves were the perfect back drop for photos. We took the kids two years ago, so it was fun to go back and walk through the gardens and reflect on where we are now.

Here is my hubby walking along the swinging bridge...
This is a picture from the top of Lover's Leap. We are standing at the top of the water fall. You can see all of Chattanooga behind us. It was a little cloudy, but the view was still beautiful with all the leaves changing colors.

Carmel Apples

I am going to try and play catch up. This is a fun project we did last week before Halloween. We had a blast making candy apples. Noah ate the whole apple down to the core. Nele ate the carmel and nuts. Emma ate the sprinkles and nuts. She was very picky to not get the carmel stuck in her teeth. We saved an apple for daddy, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. I know that it will be a great treat when it pops up. Isn't that gross!!!!!!!

Don't eat the paint...

I had to post the conversation that I had with Penelope about the paint on her face.
The conversation explains why I have very few brain cells left at the end of each day:)

While pumpkin painting I look over and see Penelope licking her paint brush.
"Penelope, Mommy said no eating the paint". Penelope eagerly responds, "Okay mommy". I look over at Penelope again and see her face all blue. I say "Penelope you are eating the paint again. Mommy said no eating the paint." She replies "I not eaten the paint mommy." Finally I say "Penelope why is your face all blue?" she looks at me a little puzzled and smiles "Because I eaten the paint mommy."

Penelope was so proud to pick her pumpkin out by herself.
Here is Penelope painting her pumpkin before she started eating it!
Emma painted a pretty pumpkin with lots of Polk-a-dots. I couldn't tell the pumpkin was originally orange by the time she was done painting it.
Noah painted a Star Wars pumpkin. Darth Vader on one side and Luke Skywalker on the other.

Hide-and-go-seek

These pictures are of my little guys playing hide and go seek. We can spend hours doing this activity. Four things always happen during hide and go seek.

-Noah always hides in the hamper first, and I always pretend like I don't know he is there.

-Penelope follows Emma wherever she goes.

-Emma always leads them under all the beds and then moves to the closets.

-This is the only time Penelope is quiet other then when she is sleeping:)