Here are the stories of our busy life. We hope that you see God's Hand at work in our various adventures! Running/Flooring Vice President Al, Teacher/Photographer Lisa, Swimmer/Writer Addie, Master Mischief Maker/Swimmer Alden, Jewelry/Hello Kitty Lover Annalise, and Water-Obessed/Car Expert Asher.


Sunday, May 9, 2010

FRIENDS!!

I think it's safe to say that Addie and Alden's love Grayson and Avery. They got to spend so much time together while we lived in DE- a friendship was forged that is still going strong! On Friday, Grayson and Avery were going to be about 1 hour away from us, so we drove up to meet them. What better place to meet than Chick-fil-A! When the kids saw each other, they squealed with delight and gave big hugs- no hesitation, just jumping right back into their friendships like no time had elapsed! The kids had fun playing, the adults had fun catching-up! Fun was had by all!

The Kid Table! They were SO happy to see each other!

Addie in still in love with Grayson- and he tolerates it pretty well!

Attempting to get a decent picture of the 4 of them together.... At least they are super cute even if they are not all looking at the camera!


Good friends are treasures! We are so blessed to be friends with this sweet family!!

Church Picnic

This weekend we attended our churches annual picnic. It was our 2nd one to attend- but the churches 4th one. It was fun to see the changes- meet new people- and explore the area as the last time we were there, Addie hadn't even mastered sitting up! The kids had a blast eating hotdogs, running around outside, playing in the little playground, and of course exploring the various docks that surrounded the lake that we were nearby!

Alden showing off his good manners and love of food!

Miss Manners!

Watching the big kids run relays!

Playing FOOTBALL! We were glad that he wanted to play- we had a scare before coming that he may have broken 3 of his fingers after they were slammed in a door....

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Adventures, Dress-Up and Rewards

Fun is always around the corner when you have kids! Here are few random happy and fun moments from just the last few days....

Sunday after naps, we took the kids to Belle Isle- a Civil War prisoner of war location- right smack in the middle of the James River. It was fun to take the kids to a place that we used to go to all the time before they were born. We did take Addie a few times, but she was too small to remember!

So excited to be on the Isle and climbing on rocks!

They LOVED getting their feet in- splashing, jumping, etc. Note to self: Make sure you bring a change of clothes for everyone, and put kids in swimsuits!

Can you tell who fell in? Addie decided that she wanted to splash 1 extra time after she had been told it was time to go- excellent lesson! She has been super prompt to obey since this incident!

Addie loves to play dress-up- and sometimes Kierke becomes a victim.... Here she is as the Easter Bunny- she wore the ears for well over an hour!!

Alden pretending to be Daddy!

SO happy to have his reward of a coveted Choo-Choo. He had to have 5 days without any accidents (it was actually 4 days, but I couldn't make it out yesterday). Yay for Alden!!

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Some Day We'll Laugh About This...

(WARNING-- Poo is talked about, a lot in this post)

I'll start this post off by letting you know that Alden is infact, still alive- it's a good thing he is so stinkin' cute and knows just when to kiss his Momma and flash his super-sweet grin.

It all started Friday afternoon when he wouldn't nap- he just sat in his room "reading" books. Then, that night after baths, he just couldn't calm down and go to sleep- you could hear him getting in and out of bed, flipping pages of books, talking to his Ah-Ah, etc. I had let Addie stay up late- she's been dying to see Where The Wild Things Are and it had finally come from Netflix. At 8:30pm, as the movie was coming to an end, he came creeping out of his room to snuggle with us. I put both kids in bed and thus began my evening with Alden. He got too many spankings to count as he refused to 1)stay in his bed, 2)be quiet, 3)not throw books, & 4)keep his lamp turned off. Finally, at 10pm, he crashed- whew!

At 6am, 6AM! I hear the pitter-patter of his little feet coming into our room and to my side of the bed. He crawled in silently and snuggled with me. This is not acceptable at our house- you stay in your room until Mom or Dad gets you- and then you may be invited into bed to snuggle. I picked him up, changed his soaked diaper, and put him back in his bed with a firm and yet loving reminder that he needed to stay put. He could read books if he really wanted to be awake at this ungodly hour. I then went back to bed.

7am I hear his pit-pattering again- but this a more acceptable hour- but he doesn't come into our room- and this is where he makes his 2nd almost-deadly error (the 1st was getting up at 6am). He went and opened the door to Addie's room. Before I can hop out of bed to stop him from waking her, I hear her screaming "Poopy Boy! Get out of my room! Yucky!"

This is never a good sign....

The scene that greats me, even in my groggy state of mind, is one that will haunt me forever.

From my doorway, I can see into both kids rooms. In the doorway to Addie's room, I see a little boy with brown hands, naked and brown from the waist down, and the most guilty expression ever, on his cute little face. From Alden's room is a smell of poo strong enough to knock you off your feet- or as in my case- totally wake you up. Several "lumps" of poo are on the wooden floor with tale-tail signs of it on his area rug, 2 books have been ripped apart and balled up all over the floor, and the icing on the cake- Alden's footstool is covered in poo.

This scene brought a gasp from me and Al flying from his bed. The poor guy had had 5 hours of sleep so I sent him back to bed and proceeded to clean up all the poo. I am very thankful for wipes- they clean and disinfect.

I asked Alden what possessed him to do this- and he told me that he hadn't wanted to poo in his diaper.... Now THAT makes perfect sense!! I quickly informed him that I would much rather clean poo out of a diaper than off the floor, off him, off his stool, etc....

As I cleaned the poo off Alden, I discovered areas of him that I probably haven't scrubbed since he was born- he was THAT covered. His rug and floor, I am pleased to say, are perfectly clean and possibly the most sanitary place to eat in our house at the moment. All of this was done under Addie's careful watch and an occasional "This is DISGUSTING!"

Like I said, some day I'm sure we will laugh about the morning Alden attempted to make Mommy happy by NOT pooping in his diaper.... Some day- but for now, I'm just realllllly glad that God made him super cute and that it happened before I was fully awake.....

Friday, April 30, 2010

A Week in Review

We have had a fantastic week!

We have had plenty of snacks and plenty of quality time with our newest member- Ah-Ah (previously referred to as Tito). He now travels with Alden just about everywhere- here he is actually sharing his pudding with Ah-ah!

Addie and her pudding- a fav post-nap snack. And notice the Dr. Pepper water bottle- all this time I have been spending money to get them nice cups- and all they really wanted were used Dr. Pepper bottles filled with water =-)

Wednesday we had Baskin Robbins for dinner- they had their annual 31cents a scoop event with all the proceeds going to charity. It was a win-win-win situation- the kids got ice cream for dinner, charity was helped, and since we drove to where Al works, we got to have "dinner" with him!

It turns out that Addie picked the exact same 2 scoops as her cousin Kuda, all the way in KC!

The kids think the chore of picking-up Kierke's poo is FUN- and they are pretty good at it! As Addie's new favorite show Wonder Pets says, "What's it gonna take, TEAM WORK!"

Fri found us at the local fountains- and we invited some friends to join us. Since the first week of school for Addie- she has been talking about her friend Molly- who isn't in her class, but the class across the hall. Today, the Mom got their acts together and got the girls together outside of school. They had a BLAST together!

Here are most of the kids- Addie was beside herself- she had Molly AND Aiden- two of her favorite people- at the fountains with her! Having Molly's brother and Aiden's sister- as well as her little friend Ava and her brother- well, Addie was a very happy little girl!

They sure are sweet to a very tired Ava! Alden insisted on pushing the stroller all by himself- I got quite a few "Ahhs" and even a "What a sweet family!" I didn't want to burst their bubble and tell them that the one in the stroller was borrowed....

This should be a commercial for Honda- I love that I can get 3 BIG carseats in the middle row!


It has been a fantastic week- we are truly blessed!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Beach?

As many of you know, we lived near a beach for most of the kids' lives. To them, it's perfectly normal to just up and decide that you will have dinner at the beach- and bam- 30 min later, that is where you are! Living in Richmond has been a bit of an adjustment for them.

I opened the shed to get out their sidewalk chalk, and when I looked up, this is what I found. Do you think it's time to take them to the beach??




Playing Outside

It's been glorious weather- as I believe I've stated before! Here are some fun pics of just today and the discoveries we made!

Silly Addie!

Showing off her boo-boos for the day- scraped elbow and knee- she couldn't show both at the same time, so she decided to show off her elbow....

Daddy was taking the 4-wheeler out for the day, so he let the kids ride around the back yard- they LOVED it. And before you chastise me, Al went SUPER slow and held on to both of them!

Alden discovered he likes caterpillars- sigh..... This poor guy I'm sure, lost a good amount of his life Alden held him so much.... He was gentle and SO excited that the caterpillar crawled all over him....

Showing me

I love the look on his face here!

And here he is talking to him- telling him how cool he is!