Feed the birds, tuppence a bag...

That is one of my favorite songs from one of our favorite musicals, Mary Poppins... Every time I say or think the phrase "feed the birds" I usually cannot help myself but to start singing the song or at least sing it in my head. Anyway, we got to experience something that we have never done at the zoo yesterday. I did not even realize it was there, I guess. But we bought these sticks with bird seed and the birds fly and swoop over you. It was difficult to actually get them to land on your stick but once they did it was so cute. The bird that was on N's stick moved so her tail grazed his hand and he got scared that she would bite and almost dropped his stick, bird and all, so I quickly grabbed it and then M got nervous so I grabbed hers and guess what, I now was the holder of two birds. She finally got hers and loved it...

Annual fishing trip

The boys had a great time on their fishing trip. In just two full days of fishing they managed to catch 80 fish! That seems so unbelievable but with the help of a guide it is possible. N reeled in 9 fish on his own the last day. They would hook the fish and let him do all the work to reel it in the boat. Daddy caught a golden trout which are rare and the guide said that in the 15 years of fishing on the White river he had not seen one on a guided trip. Pretty neat. The last picture is of the golden trout. Now I have to find out how to cook them, because I have a freezer full.

Snowy Valentine's weekend (never said those 3 words together before)

scenes around our house over the past few months

I realize that I have been AWOL on the blog since early fall and I can say that I have felt bad for the few of you who check this site, especially grandparents but just too busy to update. Life took over with kids busy in activities and just wanting to "play" which kept us outdoors and busy. N is finally on his way back to a normal platelet level, praise the Lord, and viral ITP will soon be a distant memory of the prayer God answered for our little boy. M started gymnastics and loves it and N will begin tball in the very near future and he is so excited. So, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past few months. Christmas was a blurr with all the excitement that I don't feel I even captured the pictures but I captured the memories in my heart which is most important. Sometimes, to step back and enjoy the actual moments instead of watching them be played back on a video is so worth it.

costume parade

This is for the grandparents. So you can see that N did actually wear the superman costume to the costume parade and loved it but then refused to wear it the next day and so he wore scrubs. Unfortunately, I did not get great pictures because I was the crazy mom running between two classes trying to be there for both kids, when really I don't think I was at either?!? How does that work? This is M's class. All very cute costumes and M was shy. Not sure why, I think it was the wig...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tonight must have been M's special night because she was showered with a few gifts at church. The first is a picture of her with a small rose given to her by her teacher, Mrs. Julie. Mrs. Julie's daughter is Miss Annie, our babysitter, and last week we came home from a dinner and I brought M the orchid that was on my plate. She said she did not want to keep it but she wanted to give it to Mrs. Julie. Well, Mrs. Julie must have loved her orchid because she brought M one of her beautiful pink roses from her garden tonight. M was thrilled and all smiles! The second was a beautiful twin size quilt that a special friend made for her. They recently started quilting and said that since they made their family members a quilt they wanted to make one for M. She said thank you very politely and quietly and then when we got home she ran upstairs with it and spent time laying in out perfectly on her bed. She would not even let me take her picutre on it because she did not want to wrinkle it and she got mad at the dog when he sat on it, too. Such a sweet gift of love and a wonderful present she will have with her as she grows! Just when I start wondering what God is doing with our little family He reminds me that He has us right where He wants us and where we will be used to glorify His purpose. Thank you God for all of your many blessings!

Happy Fall!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon outside enjoying the beautiful weather. We bought a few pumpkins at a small, local produce stand and set out with bold enthusiasm to carve two pumpkins, one for each child. Well, this ended up with the kids losing interest within the first 5 minutes and Mom carving pumpkins for the next 2 hours in the silouhette of princess Aurora for M and a silly pumpkin face for N... We also saved all the seeds and roasted them which were actually pretty yummy.

Nolan took this photo... Not too shabby for a 3 yr old!

M & N this morning before church with their pumpkins. Don't they look so very cute. N is catching up with M in the height dept.

Princess M and her pumpkins

Two cute kids and their pumpkins

Our soccer star

M played her first soccer game this past Saturday after we returned from vacation and she was excited. She managed to score 2 goals in the game and she says that she had fun but I know she was still very tired from our trip. After she made her goal she skipped back to the center of the field and we could tell she was very excited about her score. We are looking forward to seeing her play the rest of this fall. There was a little girl who was pushing all of the other girls from the opposing team and even pushing her own teammates who may have pushed M a little during the game and she clearly did not like that at all. We have not stopped hearing about this certain little girl who will remain nameless. Lots of lessons in good sportsmanship already!!! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of our little soccer player and little brother was hollering from the sidelines "kick it Tissy!" So cute and funny! I will be glad when he can play because he wanted to be out there so bad.

Just a small peek at disney

Family vacations are what I remember most about my childhood. They were so much fun and there was great anticipation about what we would see and do, so I guess, I have not grown out of that because Disney was no exception. I was excited for my children because they were looking forward to this trip. We had a very busy, but fun week at the huge Mouse house. We saw almost every character that I can possibly think of that Disney ever had and some that I am still wondering who they were... We had breakfast with royalty, dined with the a spoonful of sugar's Mary Poppins, saw Everest, watched Gorillas run at each other in Animal Kingdom, went on a safari, met Tinkerbell and saw her flight from the castle, and so much more. Everyone was so tired because we were up before dawn (literally) and to bed well after we should have been. These photos were of our last night in the Magic Kingdom for the festivities. I took over 900 photos while we were there if you can believe that! You could say I saw the trip through the lens of my camera but I also managed to enjoy the sights and sounds with my own eyes. N had us in stitches with his comments. He asked Alice in Wonderland where was her cat which left us confused because we have not ever watched the movie but clearly he knows about it. He also asked almost every character if he could touch their eyes, shoes, nose, tongue, etc?!? So funny! M was on a hunt to find Daisy Duck, who appeared to be very elusive but she did show up the final night at the party which made for one excited little girl. Her favorite thing was to ride the tea cups over and over and over and both kids really enjoyed the toy story ride in Hollywood studios. We will look back on this trip with fond memories!

"To infinity and beyond" The 'ole if I had a dollar for every time I heard that one would make me a rich gal on this trip.

The much anticipated Snow White and the seven dwarfs. I was so afraid I would cut one out of the frame on accident!

Cinderella's Carousel and Castle lit up for Halloween festivities



Cinderella's Carriage!

HHS homecoming

Maggie & Caroline (Sweetheart and Queen)

so cute!

M giggling with Daddy about all the rain falling around her

The Guin Girls

M and Maggie (a.k.a. Football Sweethart)

Mom and M

N and Daddy

We had the chance to go to the HHS homecoming game and we certainly made some memories in the rain. The Bucs won but we left in the second quarter because the rain was so heavy. We did manage to snap some pictures before the game and the downpour of Maggie as the Football Sweetheart. We missed Caroline somehow... So beautiful and all grown up. I still picture Maggie as our little flower girl and that little 3 yr old girl who had a fixation with candy and freeze pops and said "lickstip" for the word lipstick. M was so excited to see Maggie. It was like she was star stuck! :) Congrats Maggie & Caroline! Both girls were beautiful! Lots of prayers for a wonderful year.