What We've Been Up To....

We've had a busy last couple of days. A week ago Rick and I celebrated our 9th anniversary with dinner at Flemings. YUM! My birthday was Thursday, and I got to spend the morning at the dr with Andrew (who had a virus, it turns out). Mom was here and got us Panera for lunch and a Ukrops cake. YUM YUM! That evening I had book club. We discussed The Shack so we had a big group.

Shoes I got for my birthday. Aren't they cute?

Friday and Saturday I went on a retreat with the FLO (For Ladies Only) Crew in Williamsburg. We had a blast and got to eat at Chowning's Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg for lunch on Saturday. I came home and enjoyed some down time (Rick and the kids were in Emporia). Later in the evening I went to Ukrops and the cashier told me I looked flushed. I had noticed that it seemed hot in there, but she said it wasn't. So when I got home I took my temp and of course, I had Andrew's virus. So I missed church on Sunday morning. By Monday I was feeling better.

The kids and I have started our "summer activites" this week with Romp N Roll, swimming lessons, and storytime at the library.



The kids all dressed for church on Sunday.

Terrible

You may have noticed that I have deleted my post about little April Rose. As it turns out, it was all a scam. This woman invented the story in order to bring traffic to her site and earn more money through BLOGHER. I am sorry to have mislead anyone. This woman, B, obviously has a lot of issues and does need our prayers, even if it's not in the way we thought.
Check out Angie's blog to learn more. www.audreycaroline.blogspot.com

31 Things I Love

Notice I said THINGS, not people....

1. books
2. pictures
3. scrapbooks
4. Sundrop
5. hymns
6. my house
7. jewelry
8. Panera food
9. kids clothes/Gymboree
10. a long, hot bath
11. Baby Grace perfume
12. birkenstocks
13. Cherry Coke
14. chicken and dumplings
15. strawberries
16. Vera Bradley purses
17. ceiling fans
18. baskets
19. blogs
20. Beth Moore Bible Studies
21. my church
22. cookie dough ice cream
23. anything that helps me organize
24. facebook
25. painted toenails
26. country music
27. ink pens with fine tips
28. peppermint gum
29. my i-pod
30. peanut m&m's
31. yes, I'll say it....my mini-van!

9 Years

In honor of 9 wonderful years of marriage, here are 9 wonderful things about Rick....

1. He's a great dad.
2. He helps around the house--vacuuming, cleaning up after supper, and anything else I ask him to help with!
3. He's great with our finances.
4. He's ambitious and successful with his business.
5. He understands the importance of me staying at home with the kids, and he also understands why somedays I'm on the verge of insanity.
6. He is always concerned about my health and knows that sometimes I just don't feel good.
7. He's fun!
8. We've been together almost 18 years and he still loves me--now that's a miracle!
9. He loves the Lord and his family.

Show Us Where You Live Friday--Children's Rooms

My Daughter's Room

For Christmas last year (2007) she got stuff for her "big girl room". One weekend in January we sent her to her grandparents and while she was gone we painted and set it all up. She was so excited to see it! It is painted a light lavender and has lots of Disney princess stuff. These pictures were actually taken awhile ago, can't take pics today because it is too messy!

My grandfather made her bookshelf, dresser, and night stand (the dresser and night stand were mine) Yes, she does have a TV in her room but she only watches movies in there, we don't keep the cable hooked up. The little orange thing is a baby doll swing.

Her bed. I don't have pics of this but she has butterflies hanging from her ceiling!

My Son's Room

He actually had more of a "nursery" look when he was born and until recently. I was going through his closet and his sister saw the Elmo stuff she used to have and wanted me to make him an Elmo room. So we did! Luckily he loves Elmo!

My grandfather made the bookshelf, and the rocker was in my dad's nursery

when he was a baby!

Looking in from the hall. We have those Sesame Street wall decals all over his room.

His crib with his name ANDREW over it.

His dresser and his Sesame Street toy bin.

Busch Gardens

My parents and I took the kids to Busch Gardens last Saturday (thanks for the tickets, Lindsey!). We mainly went to check out the new Sesame Street "Forest of Fun", which was a big hit. Abby was a little shy about the rides and characters at first, but as the day went on that got better. Of course the first thing she saw was the water play area and she immediately wanted to get in. I had brought a change of clothes but not a bathing suit, so we made her wait until the end of the day. If you are taking your kids...bring a bathing suit and towel. They get soaked in the sprinklers :)

Abby (Andrew too, actually) enjoyed seeing the characters come out and dance and sing. We went to "Dining with Elmo" which was great. You make reservations beforehand so there is no wait. They have a kid and adult-friendly buffet (that day they had mac and cheese, nuggets, pizza sticks, pork tenderloin, fajitas, and grilled veggies). The characters come out and sing, then they call everyone up by table to have pictures with Elmo and Big Bird. Bert, Ernie, and Cookie Monster walk around the tables. At one point Ernie and Bert did a little musical number. You can take as much time as you want meeting the characters and they serve cute Elmo and Cookie cupcakes for dessert.

We also enjoyed the "Land of Dragons" kids area, the carousel, skylift, and train. We went to the Sesame Street 3-D movie, which I thought was cute but Abby got a little scared of the stuff coming out at her.

All in all, a great day and I highly recommend it!

On Grover's roller coaster

Andrew LOVED Cookie Monster.

I have more pictures posted on the shutterfly site....link is on the right.

One year check-up

Andrew weighed in at 25 lbs and is 30 inches long. 75th percentile in both. I checked Abby's baby book to compare...she weighed 22 lbs and was 28 1/2 inches.