Funny E Videos

Our little E is funny.  She seems to be silly and like to make the kids laugh, but as soon as she knows we are watching, she'll stop doing whatever she's doing.  I have to be sneaky when I try to video her.  Over the past few months, I've been able to catch her doing funny, silly, or gross things and I wanted to document those here.

She's 2.5 years old and the youngest of 4 but she's got her own little personality shining through!

Halloscream (Sea World) & Abe's 6th Birthday

We didn't have a party this year for A's birthday but I sent cupcakes to school for his class.  We had cupcakes for breakfast as well. 

I told A his birth story in the van on his way to school and loved and kissed on him that morning.  It's very different going from spending all day with the birthday boy (like last year) to just the morning and evening since he's in school now.  But I guess that's what most parents are used to.

A's doctor visit was great.  He's 47 inches tall (1 inch too short for the Steel Eel) and 48 lbs.  His height is above average and his weight is average, which we knew because he's a skinny thing but very strong.  His vision was questionable so I made an appointment for him at a real eye doctor, Dr. Gee, and his eyes are fine.  It's just a matter of time before one of our kids has eye problems.  A seems to have a more sensitive stomach than the other 3, and if someone is going to puke, I'd bet money that it would be him.  He's missed school twice already because of a stomach bug and he even threw up at school once in the nurse's office.

Currently as a 6 year old, A is into anything Pokemon, Star Wars, or football.  He's my football buddy and keeps me up to date with the scores and downs while I'm cooking in the kitchen and can't see the TV.  He's recently become interested in Pokemon  from boys at school and used some of his money to buy Pokemon cards from the dollar tree.  I'm glad he likes Star Wars and eventually we will show him all the movies.  When asked what kind of cupcakes he wanted, he wanted Star Wars cupcakes.  I couldn't find any, so he settled for Mario, but Star Wars was his first choice. 

A decided he wanted to go to Sea World for his birthday to see Halloscream.  We saw it advertised while we were there in August, so since we had tickets, a free hotel room (thanks babe), and live in dog sitters, we decided to make it happen.  We left Friday afternoon after the kids got home from an early release day of school in October and ate at Sonic per A's choice.  We were at Sea World from 5-10 pm and saw some creep stuff.

Our clan after Shamu Halloween show.

  B took R into one haunted house, but that one was enough, so we saw the shows and look at the creepy workers all dressed up in their scary costumes.  That in itself was fun.  We made it back to the hotel and within minutes of laying down, the kids were asleep.  Saturday we ate the hotel breakfast and took it easy in the hotel room, since Sea World didn't open until 1 pm.  We checked out of the hotel and headed to Sea World, to find they had closed down for the day due to bad hurricane rains.  We weren't too surprised, but really bummed to find out, so we rented a red box movie and headed home to Richmond.  

Birthday boy knocked out!

We saw Buccee on our way home

Fall Visitors

Living in Texas has its perks.  We've had more visitors living here for a year than we would have living in NC.  
In September, Nana and Tata drove over for the weekend to help celebrate Lorenzo's 25th birthday.  They arrived late late Thursday night but it was good because the kids did not have school Friday and Bryce didn't have work either.  We enjoyed a fun Friday of normal stuff like the library and playing outside in the cul-de-sac and Keegan even came over for lunch.  Friday afternoon we had a birthday party for a boy from SCBC, so Nana and Tata went to visit Lorenzo for a while.  We had a great weekend with them that included a steak dinner for Lo's birthday and they came to church with us Sunday morning before driving back to MS.  Having them in town is always fun and never stressful because they are both very laid back people.
 A week later, Gran and Papaw came for 10 days.  These tickets were purchased back in June when SWA was doing their $50 one way special rates.  It was so cheap, they couldn't pass this chance up.  We actually didn't see them the first few days because they stayed in Katy and then went to College Station, but we got the at the end of their visit.  It was lovely to have them both in town and we went and had lunch with B one day and we had lunch with the kids at school as well.  They came to church with us and celebrated with us for A's 6th birthday.  We served at Second Mile with our ABF group while they were here and we were thankful they could come serve with us.  As Christians, we are called to serve, and what a great example for our kids, to see their parents and grandparents serving others like Christs commanded.

We miss our friends from NC and they were family for 10 years!  But it's very nice living closer to family and only being an 8-10 hour drive away (or a 1 hour flight) instead of a 14-16 hour drive.  God's plans are always better than we could ever imagine.

October Date Night

We finally went out on a date and it had been a while.  I think the last time we went on an official date was in February, but surely we've gone out without kids since then right?  Either way, it was long over due, and I was very thankful for Joe and Suzan to offer to keep the kids.  Joe & Suzan have become good friends of ours and I'm very thankful for their friendship.  They live pretty close and have kids that get along with our kids quite well.  Faith is also in second grade, and she and R are very cute together.  Joe Jr. is in Kindergarten too and he plays very well with both A & W.  Sometimes while R is at dance, I'll go over to Suzan's house and let the boys play with Joe and E will play with Faith.  Both Faith and Joe have come to Awana with us and enjoyed it and we've had sleepovers with them.  We really bonded while we were in Orlando together for the SACS conference, but our friendship has grown.  So they offered us a date night and we took them up on it for October 30, Friday.  We dropped the kids off to them around 5:00 with some pizza and we went out to eat.  We hadn't picked a place, but decided to try Razoo's since we both like seafood.  The food was really good and we want to go back to that place again.  We thought about doing our Christmas shopping since we wouldn't have the kids with us, but we just walked around First Colony Mall instead with all the young-ins on a Friday night. 

We already have another date night scheduled for December to celebrate our anniversary so at least it will only be  6 weeks instead of 6 months this time!

Halloween Block Party

I LOVE our cul-de-sac. 

We have great neighbors and a friendly block.  Just like what we did for the fourth of July, we planned to do something similar for Halloween.  We set up tables, and split up the responsibilities like before except I think more people came since more people were out and about walking around.  We played in the cul-de-sac for a while before trick or treating.

 JuJo was still living with us, so they joined in as well. 

Frank cooked burgers and hot dogs, and we had a ton of sides like chips, cookies, cupcakes, and plenty of drinks too.  We joined all our candy is one big bowl and gave out to kids that were coming to our area to trick-or-treat.  Derrick played music again, and the kids requested the 'whip and nae nae' over and over again.  It was a great time and rain held off, thank you God! 

Neighborhood Friend

Back in September, one afternoon we were all outside playing in the cul-de-sac, and Keegan came over.  A & R seemed to know him, and Keegan wanted to play with A.  They rode bikes and scooters as well as kicked the soccer ball around.  After playing outside for a while, all the kids came inside so I could cook dinner.  I sent Keegan home before dinner so he could eat dinner with his family.  He wanted to stay, but I said "no" and he reluctantly went home.  That was a Thursday night and he came over Friday afternoon as well and I sent him home just before dinner as well. Friday afternoon, they kids played inside and they played memory, candy land, and other board games at the table.  Conservatively, he was over at our house from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm both nights.  Saturday Keegan rang the doorbell, but it was while the kids were resting, so we didn't wake them up and he didn't come back.   We didn't see Keegan Sunday, but he came back over on Monday around 5 after we got home from R's dance lesson.  Both A & W enjoyed playing with Keegan and he was really sweet with E too.   I was cooking pancakes and decided that if Keegan wanted to stay for dinner, he would have to go home and ask his grandma if it was alright.  He did, and she said yes, (according to Keegan) so I let him eat dinner with us Monday night.  After dinner, we decided we would walk him home hoping to maybe meet some adult at his house.  Tuesday was a very similar situation, except B and I decided we would try and meet his grandma, so when we walked him home, we asked him to ask his grandma to come out and meet us.  Well she wouldn't come out, so that was strange, but we tried not to make a big deal of it.  Over the past 2 months, Keegan has come over lots and he always rings the doorbell twice.  He's come with us to Awana and we've even met his mom.  We've just come to love him and accept that he's going to pop on over to play and if it's not a good time (like rest time), then he'll probably leave and go play somewhere else.  I get the feeling that there's not a lot of supervision at his house, so if he enjoys our structure, then he's welcome to come on over anytime. 

Skeeters Fun!

We've been blessed with tickets to see the Sugar Land Skeeters play a couple of times.  Our first game was in August with the Bentley Family from Awana.  They were able to get enough tickets for both our families for a Saturday afternoon game.  We were excited because we really like live sporting events.

free Fanta samples outside the stadium

I got the brunettes

He got the blones

Our next opportunity to attend was a few Friday's later and we brought the Marsh family with us.  Mr. Mark from Awana works for ESPN at the Skeeter's stadium and he was able to get us tickets for a Friday home game.  We were really excited because on the Friday home games there are fireworks after the game. 

Skeeters Tattoos!

yummy ice cream on a hot night!