Car Show

While we were walking around with Erin we saw a car show in the parking lot of TGI Friday's so we decided to stop and take some pictures.

Visiting Erin

Micah's sister, Erin, is in Master's Commission so we decided to stop in and see how she was doing for a couple days. She goes to a church called the Relevant church so we decided to go to it. It was way cool although there were a whole lot of teenagers and early 20s people there. The girls had a blast in the children's church and came home with masks of a bat, I think, and a monkey. They were so cute.

After church we decided to walk down and get something to eat. We stopped at Steak and Shake since it's pretty cheap. We had to stop at Wal Mart and buy some anti-freeze because we got our oil changed at Wal Mart before we left and they were suposed to have checked our fluids but they didn't let us know that our anti-freeze was way low. Lucky for us our engine light came on before our car broke down.

Alyssa's monkey mask.

Samara's bat.

Nattie wanted the monkey mask really bad. She would get really mad if you took it away from her. She's always been independent but she's getting even more independent. SCARY!!!

Apartment or hotel???

I love Residence Inns by Marriott. They are so nice, pretty expensive, but very nice. We were able to have a nice breakfast every morning we were there. On Monday night we also were able to have hot wings and "watch" the football game. We didn't watch anything since we had the girls and football only interests Micah's grandpa and he would rather watch it in the hotel room. We had a suite that had two rooms with a kitchen and all that in it. I recommend them to anyone especially if you are on a long stay. You better have the money for it though!

The maids came every day but this was before they came the first day.

Meemo and Old Grandpa's room. Notice they made their bed.

The "living room".

The "kitchen". The girls loved it. Nattie thought we were going to leave her at the hotel so she was very clingy while we were there.

THE DRIVE!!!

Nattie did not sleep the whole way but this was a very cute peaceful picture of her. Nattie did sleep quite a bit but this picture gives you the false sense that she slept the whole way. My three were actually pretty good travelers. We had a few big, not huge incidents, such as the girls in back writing on my seat in the van with pen. I haven't tried to get it out but I hope it comes out. Any suggestions???

We decided to pack sandwiches for lunch so we didn't have to spend a lot of money stopping at restaurants.

For dinner we stopped at restaurants so we didn't get sick of sandwiches. This is a small pizza place next to a gas station.

Tattler's with the family. And by the way I'm not in any of these pictures because I'm the one holding the camera or I wouldn't have gotten any pictures.

We Are Here!

We have finally arrived. We are somewhat settled in our new apartment. The girls are still getting used to how things work. Micah doesn't go back to work for a little while so we get to have him around. We are going to be house hunting for the next couple months. Our apartment is okay but I don't want to stay here for a long period of time. I will post pictures soon hopefull but just so you know we are safe and ready to get some of our stuff sometime soon.

The Three

Famous Dave's

One of our favorite restaurants since moving out here is Famous Dave's. We went last night and the kids were so hungry. I put pics of Micah and I up to be sure that everyone knows we were there too.

Micah didn't want me to take a picture of him.

Their french fries are so good. They are really thick and crispy.

Nattie with a happy face because she got some corn bread. She made a huge mess with it too.

Mara eating a lemon. This is all the face that she made. She didn't do the sour face like I do when eating a lemon.

I love it when my kids do weird things and then say "take a picture of me like this mommy". This was one of those moments.

Alyssa was awesome! She ordered ribs, which at first I thought she wasn't going to like them and then we would've wasted that money on her getting ribs and she'd still be hungry. Well, not the case. As you can see she ate the one clean pretty quick.

Here she is on her second and eating her corn on the cob.

Look at that face! She ate both of them and loved every bit of it. She ate every last bit of meat from the bone. We definitely have kids with good taste. The taste for BBQ!!! Mmmmmmm.

Nicknames

Alyssa and Samara have made up nicknames for themselves. Alyssa's new nickname is Blondie. When Samara was a baby Alyssa called her Goonar. I don't know why! So, now that Alyssa made up her own nickname Mara wants to be called Goonar again. Nattie's nickname was Snotikiss. Hopefully they don't remember that but chances are they will. Anyways, I thought it was funny that they all of a sudden want to be called different names. Is this part of their independent streak coming out?!? Is it only going to get worse?!? They are my cuties that's for sure.

Bible Verses

Mara has been doing "school at home" since Syssa's in school. We do lots of fun activities, lots of coloring, and she's learning Bible verses (along with some school-type stuff like drawing lines and that type of stuff). These are the three Bible verses that Alyssa and Samara have both memorized. I'm so proud of her. She's only three and I'm sure she knows the Bible better than some. ;-) I'm going to type what she is saying after each video because you can barely understand her. I told her to talk loudly so the camera could hear her. Here's what I got.

In the begininning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalms 119:11

Thus Noah did according to all that God commanded him, so he did. Genesis 6:22

Dinner and Triathlon

I had my second triathlon on the 27th. It was awesome. Even more awesome was that I was able to do it with my sister, Angela. It was a 500 yard swim, 16 mile bike (which was quite hilly), and a 5K (3.12 mile) run. I clocked in at 1 hour 47 minutes and 10 seconds. My sister got 1 hour 46 minutes and 22 seconds and got second place and her chain on her bike even fell off. I forgot my number on the run so I had to go back to the transition area to get it. If you're going to forget something at a triathlon don't let it be your number. I got 17th out of 32 women and 4th out of my age division. I think I did ok for not training very hard. Watch for me next year I'm going to the olympics. Oh wait the olympics aren't next year. I guess I won't be going to the olympics after all. ;-)


We went to Applebees the night before. This was not a very big town so they didn't have any pasta places around. Angela and I both had pasta at Applebees though. We almost didn't get to eat there because their gas line blew up or something. I guess it was a small explosion because we didn't hear it or know anything about it until our waitress came and told us. Our food was already done though so we got what we ordered. Some people had to change their orders.


My sister and her boyfriend, Gary. He's a really cool guy.


Look at how happy Micah looks. It might have been the 2 hour drive with the three girls. I think we were all tired at this point.


We are so beautiful!

The swim. I am the one with the blue goggles on.


Transitioning to the bike.


Getting ready to get on my bike.


I think this is the end of the run. I was kind of embarassed at this point that I had forgotten my number. One of the ladies was pretty ticked off but the other one took my name down and told me to get my tag off my number. I was very grateful that they didn't disqualify me. So that's it for triathlons this year. My next event will be my 5K for the Susan G. Komen foundation. Wish me luck on that one.

Me and Angela

So I have to mention my sister, Angela's name in this post a lot as she was offended that I didn't mention that I talked to her on the phone yesterday. So Angela and I are going to be doing a trithlon on Saturday. It's supposed to rain in PA where we're doing it but I hope that it doesn't. Wish Angela and I good luck. ;-P Love you Angela!

Fun Day!!!

We had a fun Tuesday today. It was jam packed full of things to do. First off, Alyssa went to school today after not feeling well yesterday and staying home. It seems everybody but me got sick this past weekend with tons of congestion and coughing. Only low grade temperatures though so praise God for that. We got home from dropping off Syssa at school and Mara had her "home school". Then it was off to Romp N Stomp. (pictures below) Then after Romp N Stomp Nattie took her nap and Mommy decided to do the same just for an hour though. We went and got Syssa from school after that and headed to piano lessons. The girls stayed with Miss Sarah for piano lessons while Mommy went for a swim. When Mommy got back it was 5:30PM, time to EAT! The girls were hungry and Micah's been working late the last couple of weeks so I decided to take advantage of the free kid meals on Tuesday deal at Chik-Fil-A. The girls played on the play toys there while waiting for their food. Then a clown came in and made Alyssa and Samara butterfly balloons (also pictured below). Nattie didn't get a balloon because she usually chews on them until they pop. By the time we got home it was already 6:30 and bedtime was at 7:00 so it was jammies on and to bed after talking to Grandpa Al for a little while. We had a fun day and I hope all yours were the same... FUN FUN FUN!


Nattie in a car at romp n stomp.


Mara loves this car. She's able to pedal it really well.


Ready for bed with her smiley face slippers on.


Butterfly balloons they got at Chik-Fil-A.

Memories

I don't normally do stuff like this on my blog but I thought it might be fun! Try to be nice!

1. As a comment on our blog, leave one memory that you and I (or any of my family members) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you remember! 2. Next, re-post these instructions (if you haven't done this already) on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

The Thumb!!

We had quite an eventful morning this morning. I went to the gym this morning to work out like I've done many times before. We had just dropped Alyssa off at school so it was just Mommy, Mara, and Nattie. I put the girls in the playroom and got on the bike and started to ride. About 15 minutes into my 45 minute bike ride I see Nattie going towards the door which is just fine because I always shut the door before I go into the workout center. Before you know it I hear screaming. I think, at the time, that Nattie wanted me so she was crying for me but when I went to see what was going on Nattie's finger was in the door; the hinge part of the door. When I looked at her thumb right below the knuckle it was flat. When I asked Mara what happened she said that the people that left right after we got there had left the door open so Mara was trying to be helpful and shut the door before Nattie got out. I'm sure she had no clue that Nattie's thumb was in the door. My heart broke for Nattie. I didn't know if it was broken so I ran home and called a friend of mine... THANK YOU... who watched Samara while I took Nattie to the ER... just in case.!.! On the way there I called Mama Jay to ask them to keep Nattie in prayer and myself for that matter since I was a little nervous. She prayed for her right then on the phone... thank you Mama Jay. I got to the ER and they took X-Rays and said that it wasn't broken "whew". Thank you, Jesus. I know that to a lot of people this wouldn't be as significant as an experience as it was for me. In the midst of my troubles I had friends and family that would help out and pray for me and my family. What an awesome thing that God has given us to be able to love and care for people and to feel loved and cared for. I know that it was Christ who gave up His life for insignificant events like this. I believe that God healed my daughter right there in the car. If you would've seen the smashed thumb before and then the after of just swollen you would think a miracle happened too. I'm glad that my Jesus is on the throne. Praise be to Him. (Sorry for sounding like a sermon but I wanted everyone to know how I feel today.)


In the car getting ready to go to the ER. It's pretty swollen.


In the waiting room in the ER. I don't know about everyone else but I can tell a significant difference between the two. By the time I got her into the car and had the 20 minute drive to the hospital... with a ton of praying... it was already less swollen.


Daddy came from work to see if his baby was ok and by this time she was cranky because she had skipped her morning nap.

Thanks again for all that prayed for my baby. My mother's heart is getting weak. I remeber when this type of thing wouldn't effect me this badly but when it's one of my own it affects me a lot more. For those of you who arent' mothers, this is what you have to look forward to. ;-)

I FORGOT!!!

I was looking at my posts and realized that I had forgotten to put Nattie's first birthday cake pictures up. Opps. Oh well better late than never.


So excited for cake!


Trying to use a fork and when that fails... use both.


Or just shovel it in.


MMMMMmmmmmm. Finger lickin' good.

Alyssa's brilliance amazes me!!

I'm going to be bragging about Alyssa a little bit just to warn you. When Alyssa goes to school she loves it. She loves meeting new people and coloring with her new found friends but this year I've been troubled by the work that she's been coming home with. No, their not teaching evolution to Kindergarteners... yet. But with how smart Alyssa is and with the knowledge that she gained last year, she really is at a first grade level. The work she brings home from school right now is tracing one line of the A the other two are drawn in for them. Now, if you look above at the work that Alyssa does at home this is why I am concerned. Alyssa writes full sentences! She reads short chapter chapter books, she can add as long as it doesn't go over ten and she's learning how to add one digit numbers that add up to more than ten... at home. I've been debating for a long time about whether I should bump her up to first grade but that's just not possible given her size and maturaty level. She wouldn't last in first grade. Not because she wouldn't know how to do the work but she wouldn't be able to sit for a long period of time and she would want to talk to her friends all the time. So my other option was to homeschool. Micah thinks I push the kids too hard sometimes and I think I do too. I know my girls have great potential and I don't want to see that pass away. I also know that she loves school and if I pulled her out she'd be heartbroken. I don't know what to do. Another mom that had a daughter in Alyssa's class last year that has her daughter in Alyssa's same class had the same issues as I do. So we went to talk to the teacher yesterday. She said they were going to start the "real" work tomorrow where they will be tracing the A instead of just tracing one line of it. Again if you look above Alyssa already knows how to write an A with no help at all. I wrote the date on top to show her where the commas go and the order to write the date in. I will probably do this for a week then stop and she usually will do it almost perfectly after that. Anyways I know that God's protection is over her at school and that she probably won't forget stuff I just don't want to see the talents that she has (intellectually) to not grow for a whole year while we are here. Please be praying for this situation and what we should do as it's a big deal to us that she continues to learn and not stay stagnant for a whole year. Thanks for listening to me brag on my daughter! She truly is remarkable... she must get that from her Daddy!! ;-)

Alyssa's Pictures

We got a new camera for Christmas and our old one was just sitting in a drawer collecting dust. It wasn't a cheap camera but we decided better to be broken by a five year old than to be collecting dust in a drawer. Here are some of the magnificent pictures that she has taken so far. Micah thinks we should start a blog for her so that might be coming but as for now it will be put on this blog. We also have been doing a little homeschool as well as her going to a public kindergarten class. In our first two weeks we are learning about the letter A. Here is our kindergartener's perfect (almost) coloring in the lines. She never ceases to amaze me.


Here is A is for Apple and A in sign language.


She was writing Bs when she got home from school because that's what she wanted to do. She wrote one be with a line that went out the bottom for some reason. Daddy laughed and said it was a kick stand so she went back through and gave a couple of them "kick stands". She thought she was so funny.


Her hand. Yes, she took these pictures.


Her foot. Well, I will be posting more of her crazy photography sometime later. In the meantime, enjoy.