Disney November 20-25th 2009

Steve and I took the kids to Disney again this fall and it was so much fun and exhausting!! We visited all 4 parks and even had lunch inside Cinderella's Castle and meet the Princess's. We rode all the rides.....some 4 and 5 times. I think the favorite ride of the entire trip was the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom. The kids also liked Peter Pan, It's a Small World, The Barn Buster rollercoaster, Grand Prix, Toy Story Mania, and many many more. It was not crowded until Tuesday and then people were everywhere. Ride wait times were 2hrs on some rides. YIKES!! That was ok, since we arrived late the week before we hit all the main attraction first before the crowds arrived. It was so much fun that if I had the chance to pack up and leave right now I would do it without even thinking about it!! I am already counting down until we leave for our next trip!!!

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Halloween

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Teacher's Pet

In a previous post, I had mentioned that I had begun watching our niece Valerie during the day while her mommy and daddy are working. She really enjoys playing with Luke and Alex and I think they enjoy bossing her around just as much. As with all kids, the little ones always want to do what the big ones are doing. Valerie tries her best to keep up Luke and Alex.

Alex loves to play with flash cards. If Valerie is around Alex will pretend to teach her the colors, but she is not allowed to touch the cards! Teachers rules!!!!

Luke has also joined in to teach Valerie a few things.

As you can see Valerie has broken the class rule of not touching the cards.

Boy, is it funny to watch them play everyday!

Who said women can not drive!

Christmas '08 Alex got a Barbie Jeep from my parents. She was still kind of small to drive so Luke jumped in and drove her around. (Luke loves to drives...anything.) Late this summer Alex jumped into the driver seat and began driving. At first she would struggle because she did not understand holding the gas pedal down, she would pump it. These photos were taken with Miss behind the wheel going high speed in the Barbie Jeep. She wanted to drive her baby around so I said "Lets put her in her car seat so she will be safe". Boy OH Boy!!Then Luke wants to jump in and Alex makes him hold the baby.

She never watches where she is going. Watch out!

The Diva Driver!!

Here is a close up of her and the baby.

And shortly after the last photo, she hit the pole at full speed. I thought that Alex and Chloe (baby) were going to be thrown out of the seats, but they made it.

So if you see a pink jeep headed your way, be on the look out because she is probably not looking at you!!

Happy Birthday Luke!

I can not believe that Luke is already celebrating his 4th birthday! Time seems to be going by faster each year. This year Luke wanted a hotdog party for his birthday. Our original plan was to have a cookout at our house, but that was the beginning of the flood in GA and we ended up moving the party to our church fellowship hall which made things so much easier.

The birthday boy. The theme was Batman. He still loves Cars, but Batman is a close second to Lighting McQueen.

The Batman Cake!

He loved blowing out the candles. Notice dad in top right trying to help him out!



My parents made homemade icecream which was the hit of the party.


On to gifts, he got so much stuff this year. Here he is looking at his new Batman helicopter while Alex swoops in to try to get something for herself.


This shirt is so fitting because he loves outdoors, tractors, trucks, and dirt.


He could barley hold onto his new tractor trailer.


We decided to give in and get Luke a Nintendo DS for his birthday. Kade has one and it is always a fight over who is going to play. Luke has played Kade's alot and is already very good at the games. Here he is opening the last gift. Can you tell he likes it!!

Here are all the kids that made it out to he party!

And you can tell that the photo opportunity was over very quickly!

Happy Birthday Luke!
We love you!!

All-Star

On September 14th Kade had his first baseball game. He was very excited to play even though he does not have that much experience. He played left field that night and had one ball hit to him which he fielded perfectly. His batting that night was awesome!!! He had 2 RBI's, a triple, and a single.

His first time up to bat.


After the game was over, the coach got everyone together for a quick team meeting. He stated that after each game he was going to give the game ball to the player would played the hardest, made a game changing play, or showed great improvement. Kade got the game ball at the first game because of his batting. We were so proud and he was so excited. Here he is showing off his gem!

Go Rockets!!!

First Day of School!

I believe that this summer went by the fastest of any in recent years. Kade began 2nd grade this year!! Can you believe it!!! He is turning into a little man. He actually started back on August 10th. He has Ms Kelly this year as a teacher and we are so excited. She is very challenging and devoted so I know that we are going to have a great year.

Here he is the first morning .

Showing off his new bookbag. That is one of the most important things about back to school.

Kade loved his first day of school. He has about 5 kids in his class that he knows....which is always a bonus. As of today Kade has been back in school about 6 weeks and is doing well. It was challenging getting back into the homework routine, but we have adjusted. He has about 1hr of homework each night.

Luke and Alex began preschool on September 8th. Luke's teacher is Ms. Linda and Alex's teacher is Ms. Cindy. They are both so nice.

Luke giving us his best smile before school.

Alex was also excited about school. She really had no idea what was going to happen. She just followed Luke's lead.

Here they are with their bookbags. Alex was so excited to carry hers like a big girl. What girl does not like accessories!

Once we arrived at school they both jumped out of the car and walked right in like "big kids". No tears from either one. I did get a little teary eyed as I drove away. They are growing so fast!! When I arrived to pick them up, they had so much to tell me. Snacks, painting, chapel, music, friends....so much to cram into 3.5 hrs. They loved it!!

They were so tired it only took about 2 minutes once they laid down to pass out.



Have a great week everyone!

The Weekend!

We had such a great weekend just being a family. Even though we did not do to much it was nice to hang around the house and do nothing! We did grill out, sat on the deck and enjoyed icecream and drinks, and we watched the kids go cirlces in the yard.

Alex pushing her Dora bike in the grass. She does not like to pedal.

Daddy calming her down after she decided to go down the hill on the Dora bike and put her feet down, which caused her to flip over. Oh the drama!!!

Luke wearing his safety glasses while he rides the gator.

Daddy and Alex taking a walk.

This was actually my brothers bike that my dad just put new tires on. It works great. Kade loves it. He thinks it cool because Cory had it when he was a little boy.

Kade sporting his scooter. He loves this thing.

Alex once again pushing her bike....not pedaling.

Steve was finally able to find Luke a left handed glove that fits. He was so excited to finally be able to play ball like Daddy and Kade.

Kade's action shot.

Here is Alex having tea party in her room with her bears.....and yes she is wearing her bathing suit. Can you say DIVA!!!

Only two more days until the weekend. Can not wait.

The Tall Mountain

Today we headed over to the Sawnee Mountain Preserve to walk up the Tall Mountain. I guess all Dora fan's can tell where Luke got this from. It was about a 3 mile hike. The kids did great. Alex had be to carried a little bit, but overall they were angels!! Of course, once we reached the top of mountain I had to get some pics. Enjoy!

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All About Alex

I decided to try to catch a few cute shots of Alex in our yard by my blooming trees. It started off well and then soon turned into craziness!

Here she is showing me her "Princess of CareBear Land" pose. She loves Care Bears and so that is what we call her.

Just being silly here.

This was one of my favorites!

Steve says that this is the true Alex. In true princess fashion she had a "moment" during the photo taking. She always makes this face when she is in trouble, did not get her way, or is feeling a little overwhelmed.

Love her smile. Everyone has been calling her "Little Angela" lately.

Rain Out!

After all the kids were loaded into the van we headed off to Stone Mountain. We stopped at KFC along the way to pick up dinner. The park was very crowded so we ended up parking about 1/2 mile away. Once we arrived we found a nice spot on the grass and began to pass out dinner. About 5 minutes after we arrived it started raining really hard. At first we thought that it was going to be a passing shower so we just sat there and kept eating. Boy were we wrong!!! It rained for about 5 minutes really, really hard. The kids were screaming like crazy people so Scott and I decided to try to find them some shelter, while Steve and Natalie tried to save some food and supplies that we had taken with us. To late.....we were all soaked!!!!

Here is a photo of the mountain with all the water running off.

Natalie and Steve gathering all of our stuff to go home. We were only in the park about 10 minutes.

Scott trying to calm Alex and Gabby down after the rain storm.

Natalie and Gabby waiting on the car.

Luke and Alex.

Me and Luke.

Steve and Kade.

Here we are in the car. Half of us were stripped down to the bare necessties. I had a puddled of water forming in my seat.

Parking......$10

Food.....$32

Laughing so hard you can not walk......priceless!!