Still Away

Just wanted to post a hello since the blog's been quiet for a while. Addie went to Busch Gardens on Friday while I got things ready for the shower, and the report is that she was quite the dare devil. She rode the Battering Ram multiple times and refused to hold on - she rode with her hands up in the air! Granddad H. got a great picture of her on the ride - she's in the middle in pink with her hands up!

My sister's bridal shower went well and she received lots of nice things to start setting up her kitchen. Addie was thrilled because our little competitor won one of the shower games and picked out the prize she's had her eye on for a week (vanilla scented bath gel and lotion). All the kids are still kind of sick - one day they seem fine, the next day throwing up again. It's crazy. Ellary has been waking up crying multiple times each night, and she knows I'm in the room, so she just stands in her crib crying and saying "all done, all done" until I get her out. She is really feeling under the weather today, so I'm staying at the house with her while Geof, my mom and the kids have a day at Colonial Williamsburg. Anyway, I'll be glad when all this sickness is gone and I can get a good night's sleep again. It's exhausting being out of town! :)

THIS BLOG TEMPORARILY TAKEN OVER BY "THE GUYS"

With Laura and the girls in Williamsburg for the weekend, Kellen and I are on our own for what he's been calling "Just the Guys Weekend". We've got a long list of things to do before we leave to join them Sunday night, including:

• Clean some stuff
  
• Mow the grass
• Take clothes to GCF
• Frisbee golf
• Buy drinks for basketball party
• Mini golf
• Bike ride
• Soccer game
• Church
  
• Kidz Praise concert
• Host basketball party
• Buy new propane tank
• Get haircuts

So far we have gotten a fair bit done ... Kellen went to school this morning and I got in a round of frisbee golf (+9), we've both gotten haircuts (including a rather dramatic change for me), set up for tonight, moved the Wii to the kitchen table, went for a bike ride together around Lake Lynn, and bought supplies for the party tonight. As soon as I upload this post we're off to Frankie's for a round of mini golf!

The Buzz on Bea

Now she has the stomach bug, so we're 3 for 3. A and K are better. A is at Busch Gardens today with Grandma and Granddad H, and Kellen's back home with Dad and went to school. Hopefully EB will shake this bug today. Neither one of us got much sleep last night, and there's not much more pitiful that a sick baby!

Check your Batteries

Just a friendly reminder to those of you who check this blog - check or change the batteries in your smoke alarm if you haven't done it in a while!!!!!! Ours are all hard wired together, and if one gets a weak battery, they all start going off. And then the fire department comes with big loud trucks and men in big scary gear and the terror your little boy experiences is awful! So spare yourself the drama and change those batteries and mark your calendars to remind yourself to do it every year.

Boy did I feel like an idiot this morning!

Happy Easter!

Easter day was a little different this year. Geof and his dad had tickets to the NCAA basketball tournament Friday and Sunday, so I planned to take the kids to Danville after church on Sunday to spend the afternoon at my grandmother's house. Addie kept waking up sick Saturday night and was still not feeling well by Sunday afternoon, and Ellary had a slight fever, so we canceled those plans and stayed home. I had not planned an Easter dinner since we were to be out of town, so we had Moe's! I always have an egg hunt for K&A and my cousin when we go to Danville for Easter, so since I had the eggs all ready we did the hunt in our front yard. I managed to get a few pictures of the gang in their Easter clothes, but Addie wasn't feeling very well to cooperate. And Ellary is not really in a posing for pictures stage of life. :) We'll have to try it again outside next week.

Went with yellow this year. :)

Examining all the goodies in their Easter eggs

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!"... When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body... But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen!"...

Mark 15:37-39, 16:1, 4-6

Another Egg Hunt, A Billion More Pictures!

Heather hosted an Easter party and egg hunt this afternoon, and it was so much fun! The kids made crafts, decorated cupcakes, and of course, hunted for eggs. I won't write anything else - just post a ton of pictures. :)

making a craft and hunting for bunnies

cupcakes!

addie finds an egg

babies!

play time!

more cuties

friends

Busy Day!

Usually Thursday is our day for downtime. Not today. Geof came home around lunchtime (yay!), and then all the fun started! Some friends from preschool came over and Addie and her pal Katie headed out to a birthday party at My Gym with Katie's mom. Geof and I stayed home with the boys and Ellary. Addie had been looking forward to the party all week, especially since she got to ride in Katie's car and go to the party without me! Thanks to Beck's mom for sending pictures from the party!

Addie and Beck - we hear about him a lot! :)

While the girls had fun the gym, Kellen, Robert and Patrick played in the backyard. They spent most of the time exploring the woods behind the house, following the many paths that the kids have built back there. At one point they were trying to build an elephant out of scrap lumber and branches, but for some reason that idea changed to building a barge. Building the barge came to an end when Robert fell into the creek.

Patrick was my little buddy in the backyard. What a cutie!

Kellen and his best buddy Robert

Later this afternoon Grandma and Granddad H arrived for a long weekend visit. Dave and Cindy stayed with the kids and Geof and I got to go out to dinner. We went to the Melting Pot to celebrate Geof earning his Fellowship designation from the Society of Actuaries, something he has been working so hard on for the last 10 years!!! This is a huge accomplishment in his profession and it's so exciting that he is finished. Studying for actuarial exams has been a major part of our married life together. There have been so many nights of me quizzing him with stacks and stacks and stacks of flashcards and us having to relinquish our free time together so that Geof could study. It's so exciting that he is finished and I'm very proud of my man! Anyway, while we were at our fabulous dinner (the Melting Pot's Big Night Out is our favorite dinner treat!), the big kids got to go to the playground with Granddad. Thanks to Dave for some great pictures to share!

Riding down to the playground - Addie's new favorite thing to do is ride her "big bike"

Not hard to see that they were having a great time!

And after a long solo parenting week, I am exhausted and think I am going to go drop into bed. G'night!

20 hours until Geof comes home...

What could be making her so sad, you ask? Does she miss her Daddy? Did she get in a fight with Kellen? Did she lose her favorite toy? Get a boo boo?

Nope. She ran out of dental floss and has been crying for an hour. I'm not kidding.

Addie is SHARP!

While Geof is away the kids have to exercise a bit more patience during things like dinner and bathtime since they don't have two parents helping them out. There was lots of clamoring going on as I was getting dinner on the table, and I said they just had to be patient because Mommy can only do one thing at a time (though we all know that Mommies can do MANY things at one time!). To which Addie replied, "yeah - you can't split into two Mommies to do two different things."

This morning as I was getting them ready for LAMBS I told Addie she needed to go potty. She insisted that she did not and I insisted that she needed to try. To which she replied, "well, you can't climb inside my body and know that I don't have to go potty, but I don't!" I think she's going to be the smart one of the bunch. ;)