Treaty Oak

Our first stop Monday morning was Treaty Oak in downtown Jacksonville. Stephen and the kids had never seen it before. It's quite large! I wish I could have taken more photos of the kids, but they were ready to go see dinosaurs and the big tree just wasn't that interesting to them.

A rare photo of the sissy and brother together!

The photo does not do it justice!


I have two other posts from the day so please read on!

Friendship Fountain

What ALWAYS happens when I try to get a picture with my children!

MOSH

Monday morning we took the kids to MOSH. They recently opened their new dinosaur exhibit and we thought Grant might enjoy it. The first exhibit, in the museum, is one on the human body and you must enter in through the big open mouth. Grant wasn't so sure this was a good idea. He reluctantly let Stephen carry him through the set of giant teeth. Stephen said he was shaking the whole time!

The second exhibit we went to had several aquariums of fish. Grant and Erin both enjoyed this one!

Then came the dinosaur exhibit!!! The whole reason we came to MOSH. Of course, Grant was terrified! He's scared-y cat! Erin seemed to like it and even tried touching some the dinosaurs.
Grant preferred to peek over Stephen's shoulder.

After touring the museum, we had a picnic lunch down by the river. We enjoyed watching the boats go by, but Grant enjoyed the pigeons most of all!

He really wanted to hold a pigeon! Wonder what he would have done if he'd actually caught one?

Quick Teaser...

...of what we did yesterday.

Blast From the Past

Rain, Rain Go Away and More

It's been a few days since I posted last and I have a lot to tell you. First, it has been raining buckets for days here. We were in desperate need of rain, but I am sure we have made up for the deficit in just a matter of days. Our rain gauge has overflowed a couple times, but I am estimating that we have received about thirteen inches so far. We live off a dirt road and it's almost impassable. The worst part about the rain is that the kids have been stuck inside ever since Saturday. This does not bode well for children that are used to getting outside everyday. We are getting cabin fever here!



To pass the time we have played a lot of Thomas the Train and I got out some old sheets and made the kids a tent in the living room. Grant really likes this!

Grant calls the tent his "tunnel."

This occurred this evening as I was cooking dinner. Grant traveled the whole house in the walker while Erin pushed him. They are so bored!

We painted this morning.

Yesterday, Stephen and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. I worked all day, so we planned on putting the kids to bed early and spending a quiet evening together. Our plan was coming together. Stephen had Erin to sleep and Grant was almost to sleep when someone knocked on our front door. Now, we live out in the country and we don't have many people knocking on our door. Especially, the front door at 8 o'clock at night. When I opened the door it was a sheriff's deputy and he was pointing his gun at me. I was shocked! I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. He told me that someone had called 911 from our address and hung up. My first thought was that one of the kids had done it, but they hadn't been out of our sight for the last hour or so. I told him that there was no problem and he lowered his gun (thankfully). He told me to check our phone lines to see if there was dial tone. There was just static. The officer (who conveniently used to work for Bellsouth) told me that this was a common problem and that the line was shorting out due to the massive amount of rain we have received. He apologized for disturbing me and asked me to call Bellsouth to have the problem resolved. By this time Grant had gotten out of bed and had gained a second wind. Hunter, had ran out in the rain, gotten covered in mud and tracked back it into the living room.

Somehow, Stephen did not hear any of this and remained in Erin's room rocking her to sleep. (How he didn't hear it I don't know? I think he had fallen asleep himself.) I went and got Stephen to call bellsouth (after I filled him in on our surprise visitor) Erin woke up and it was ten o'clock before we got them to sleep again! Talk about a great evening.

On another note, I wanted to share a recipe I cooked for dinner tonight. A few weeks ago we went out to dinner with some friends to Buca di Beppo. We had the Chicken Carbonara and it was delicious! I frequent The Pioneer Woman's website and ran across this recipe earlier this week. I added sliced chicken breast and frozen peas to the recipe and it was wonderful! This is definitely one I will make again and again.

Sorry this post ran a little long. I hope everyone is having a good night!

Water Fun

It's been hot here lately so we have been enjoying playing with our water table and swimming.

The kids love throwing water on Rusty, Stephen's Grandmother's dog. He loves it too!

The kids were soaking wet in a matter of minutes.

I made Erin a hooded beach towel. I found this tutorial and decided to give it a try. I think it turned out cute.

Erin liked it too. Especially while she was eating an ice cream sandwich.

Mother's Day 2009

We had a great Mother's Day weekend and enjoyed celebrating with our moms and grandmothers. I am so blessed to have these two little ones in my life. There is never a dull moment around here, and even though life gets stressful sometimes, I wouldn't have it any other way!

This picture was taken earlier in the week one morning. I let Grant (and copycat Erin) run around in his diaper after breakfast before we get dressed for the day. They crawled up into my bed and were goofing off together. I love moments like these (pink pacifiers and all!)

Yesterday morning before church. Grant refused to be in the picture because he was mad at me for making him get dressed. (Life with a two year old!)

Erin playing with Hunter yesterday afternoon at Stephen's parent's house. Hunter had a birthday this week. He turned seven on May the 5th.

My special gift from Grant. He made this in his Wednesday night class at church. The painting is on canvas and I plan on framing it to display it. He was so proud of his work.

Sewing Project: Erin's Backpack

I recently made Erin a backpack to bring to church so that she (who am I kidding? I) can carry her books and toys she plays with during worship. The diaper bag was just getting too heavy! I purchased Grant a cute toddler backpack that is personalized with his name on it when he was Erin's age. We usually pack his stuff in this. However, I was not completely satisfied with the backpack. It was very cute, but it did not have a zipper. It closed with a drawstring and with the weight of three or more books it would come open.

I came across this pattern on a blog that I frequent. The blog is Made by Rae and if you like to sew, or like to buy homemade items check out her blog and etsy shop. The pattern is perfect for my little ones! I purchased the pattern from Rae and went to work. The pattern is well designed and the instructions are very clear. I think Erin's backpack turned out nice.

I ordered my fabric online from Fabric.com. They have a large selection of fabric and it's much easier for me to order it than to haul my two little ones to the Joanns. The only drawback is that I can't feel the fabric before I buy it. (Stephen says I have to touch everything I see in the store. It's true. Erin does the same thing.) I plan on making Grant a new backpack as well. However, I am going to enlarge this pattern because it would not hold the standard coloring book. I will also put interfacing in the bag to give it a little more shape. I am still looking for the perfect fabric for a little boy's backpack. I might have to go with a solid and applique something on it.

I hope every one's having a good week. We are having the pine trees taken down in the front of our property and Stephen's parent's property. It's a mess out there! (and we are stuck inside) The machines that take these pine trees down are amazing. Grant thinks it's pretty cool. Maybe I will post pictures of it when they are finished. The clean up is going to take months!!! The results will be worth it though!

Family Picnic at the Park

With mother's Day coming up in a few weeks I wanted to get photos of my grandmother, mom, myself and Erin together. You know a mother/daughter shot. So, we planned a trip to the park for some picture taking and fun for the kids. We packed a picnic and had dinner while we were there. It was a beautiful evening, but it was very windy. So windy that we didn't get a good shot of all four of us because our hair (especially mine) was blowing all of the place. The picture below is actually my favorite of the bunch. The evening was still successful because I got some great shots of little Erin and a bunch of Grant on the play ground. I thing I took over 300 in all. Here is just a sampling of them.

My mother, Erin, my grandmother and myself

four generations of girls
I was so excited to get a few photos of my kids together!

I love the big trees!

Grant is growing up so quickly

Precious!

I love this one

I love these guys so much!!!

I might post more this week. I am worn out and I am turning in!

Pool Pictures

We have had beautiful weather here in the Sunshine State this week. I decided, on a whim, to take the kids to my parent's house to swim this morning. Grant woke up begging to go swimming, which made me want to go too. After we bought groceries this morning I bravely headed up to my parent's house for a swim. I have never taken them swimming by myself before. Last year was just too hard with Erin being a little bitty baby and Grant needing someone to be stuck to him like glue in the pool. He's definitely more careful/afraid of new things than Erin. She LOVES the pool!!! This year Grant will venture off the steps and "swim" around the shallow end by himself. Erin even took herself for a ride in a float. She'd kick her feet and float around the pool. She will even hold onto my neck while I swim around. (I can get a work out while they play!) It was a successful trip and I plan on many more this summer.

A rare picture of the two of them together

I can't get enough of the ruffles!

Big Boy!

This was Erin's float. She's smiling underneath that hat!

Here she is with the hat off, but the sun is too bright!

Potty Training

See my little guy. He's such a good big brother. He loves his sissy very much and hugs all over her. He also amazes me with all the new things he does daily. He's 2 1/2 now, and while I am trying to wait out potty training him until he is "ready", I am getting a little impatient. I have been told by many people to not to push the issue until he's ready. The problem is he's afraid of the potty. Not just the big potty, but the little potty too! He knows when he needs to go, but prefers his diaper. He won't even sit on the potty fully clothed.

Today, as we got ready to go outside, I decided to put big boy under ware on Grant just to see what would happen. Of course, he resisted it at first, but finally gave in. We did not even make to the swing set before he had wet himself. He realized what he had done right away. So, we went back inside changed into new big boy pants and tried again. He ran around outside for 45 minutes no problems!

When we went inside to have lunch he told me he needed a diaper. I tried to get him to use the potty instead, but it's like trying to give a cat a bath. I wish you could see it. He grabs hold of me with every ounce of his being. There's no forcing him to use the potty. After several minutes of this and lots of tears I gave in and put a diaper on him. He relived himself immediately. Poor guy.

So we will try again. My question is: Has anyone else out there had a child that is afraid of the potty and how did they get over it? Just need some advice.

Lads to Leaders Convention 2009

I have attempted this post a couple of times this morning. The kids have turned the computer off twice while I am trying to post. It's rainy and I think it's driving us all a little crazy!

This weekend we had the privilege of attending the 40th annual Lads to Leaders Convention in Orlando. I have been to 17 of the last 19 conventions only missing because of clinic one year and Erin's birth last year. It was a busy weekend, as usual, made even crazier with two toddlers along for the ride, but we survived.

We arrived late Friday afternoon because Stephen had to go into work for a few hours that morning. (I have decided that this will never happen again!) He had to leave us as soon as we pulled in because he had to go upstairs and judge puppet theater. Luckily, my dad met me downstairs and parked the car for me while I got us checked in.

Friday evening we went to the awards ceremony. It always begins with the Parade of Winners. They play Chariots of Fire and turn the lights down while everyone claps and cheers for the kids. Grant did not like the loud noise and we only lasted 30 minutes before we called it a night. Grant referred to the ballroom as the "loud room" for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday morning I had the chance to go and hear one of my girls give her speech she did a great job. In fact, she won first place this year!!! She has been such a joy to have in class and is such a great example to her peers. I will miss her next year when she moves up to the high school class. Saturday afternoon it was my turn to judge song leading.

We took the kids back down to the swards ceremony Saturday night. (why? I don't know) When we got down there Grant did to want to stay and there weren't any seats for us. We stood in the back for a while and then some of the men got up so that I could sit down with Erin. About thirty minutes into the ceremony we ended up going upstairs and putting the kids to bed.

Grant got his first shiner Saturday afternoon running around with some of the kids from the youth group. He ran straight into the wall!

I went back down to cheer the kids on while Stephen stayed upstairs with the kiddos. This is what I found when I came back to the room after the devo Saturday night. So cute!

Sunday morning the Easter bunny had come to our room. This kids enjoyed their Easter baskets.

This is Erin "smiling" by the way.

Grant all tuckered out on the way home.