Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Carving Pumpkins

We reserved tonight for out night of carving pumpkins. Since it is so very cold we had to do it inside this year!
Ryan really enjoyed scooping out the gunk in the pumpkin. He continued to play with the pumpkin insides for at least an hour!
Don't let Emma's smile fool you. She was saying," gross, ewe, I don't like this, this feels yucky" the entire time! She finally empties her pumpkin with help from Daddy.

Peter was a champ this year. No complaints from him except we wouldn't let him carve. Maybe next year.
Finished products! Check out last year's post....my little babies are growing up

The Fair

We headed to the NC State fair last Friday. The day was cold but enjoyable none the less.
This was Ryan's first fair ride and he even did it on his own! He's such a big boy!
This is what Peter and Emma chose as their first ride.
Philip's favorite thing about the fair is fresh corn dogs. We spotted this booth at 10:30 and dug in. They were really good! Better than the ones I made this summer.
The big pumpkins are always fun to see!

It figures...

Well, it took me a while to order my "digital/analog converter" coupon for out TV. Yes, we still use an antenna! After waiting about 4 weeks for the coupon, it takes me another few weeks to actually remember to buy the thing. So last night, we buy the converter and bring it home to a TV that is now on the brink. While looking through a screen of a million lines, we can see lots of possibilities of new channels! We even found a weather channel at least that's what it looks like it might be once we get a new TV.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Emma's future

Just a few mornings ago, Emma sleepily walked out of her room and found herself a spot on my lap in the kitchen. We were just sitting there; waking up; warming up and talking to the boys. Out of the blue she tells me.I have decided that I will have 2 job when I grow up. My first job will be to "tell people about God". My second job will be to work at the post office.
The man that I am going to marry will have 4 jobs. He will drive a train. His second job will be to be a stamp collector. His third job will be to fix trains and his fourth job will be to tell people about God in China. So together we will have 6 jobs. She also added that her children will have jobs. They will have to make their beds. Her monologue got a bit side tracked when Peter corrected her and said that children don't have jobs they have chores. She did continue a bit to include that either I or my mother would be caring for her children while she's working!

Wow- she really has been thinking. The train conductor deal comes from a story that my grandfather just told the kids a few weeks ago. Grandpa was telling them that his father was a train conductor. The stamp collecting comes from Peter. He has started to collect stamps.
China comes from one of our very first lessons last year. For some reason it has stuck with her all this time.
Now that I think about it, Emma really does like to talk about the future and make lists. I wonder if this is a an inherited trait?

Saturday, October 18, 2008

camping by pictures

Here are some of my favorites...maybe somebody who knows what's going on will add captions!
(This is the one who knows chiming in ---- I don't know all of it but I do know some of it). Here the siblings are hugging while overlooking the southern view from Pilot Mountain.
So this is a picture of all of us ---- that being (from Right) Daisy (puppy dog), Uncle Pete, Peter, Philip and Emma.
We had just been climbing some rock faces and that is what it looks like when you are showing your muscles. That is one tough fella. Peter and Emma both hiked about 8 miles in 2 days on trails that were described as strenuous. The first day we ascended about 1,200 feet in elevation and then descended that same amount. The second day we probably did that over again ---- give or take a few hundred feet.
I thought that their mother would really like to see them standing in front of this sign. They are so cute.
As you can see ---- all of that hiking really wore them out. We all definitely slept well.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

The Hilton

I think that was how Philip described their camping site. They opted to pay the $15.00/ night fee instead of hiking 1 mile into the "primitive" free camping site. When I spoke to them last night they were getting ready to dig into some MREs (meals ready to eat) for dinner and relax after a 5 mile hike.

I just had to chime in and acknowledge that this is still our 9th anniversary even if my hubby is off camping with the fellas and Emma! It's hard to believe it has been 9 years. I truly don't feel old enough to have been married that long!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

0 dark ...

Sorry about the subject line but I forgot how that little cliche' goes. However, sometime before the sun comes up Philip, Peter and Emma will begin their annual camping adventure. This is the first year in 5 (I think) that they will actually be going in a relatively normal time of year. This trip usually occurs in December! However, they are taking it easy this year and going in the fall due to scheduling conflicts. I think they have everything packed but I'm not really worried because Uncle Peter (and his dog Daisy) will be joining them upon Pilot Mt for the next two nights. Uncle Peter is the man when it comes to camping, wilderness survival, planning, preparing and well everything! He's a former Marine and an current Army man and very protective of his nephew and niece! I feel safe.

Ryan and I will manage our own survival camp here in Roxboro. I think he will be going through some major withdrawals. Our plans are to head to Burlington tomorrow and hopefully score some major sales for winter clothes. Other than that, we will keep the home fires burning and hopefully tackle my list of things to get done.

Pray for the campers!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

a fun find

A friend of mine pointed me in the direction of an easy picture editing site. I tried it out tonight and it was fun! This is my first creation. You should try it too!

http://www.picnik.com

unexpected day

Our Saturday turned out to be nothing like I expected. My first treat was to discover that Philip was planning on taking the morning off!!! That was exciting news for me and the kids. However, Ryan woke up with a high fever. He stumbled from his bed to the couch and remained their until about 5pm this evening. He was a pitiful site for the majority of the day.
I realized shortly into the morning that Ryan would be out of the picture and I should take advantage of this relative calm. I decided we would make cut-out sugar cookies. We had a good time although it was a bit frustrating at times.After the cookies and after lunch I realized that again, I should be creative and find something for us to do that we don't do often because of little toddler hands! This is what I found.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Happy Birthday

We love you and wanted to wish you the happiest of birthdays. I know you are going to blow the water out of your mid terms!!!! We are so proud of you and thankful that you are who we call daddy, friend and sweetheart.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Potty update

For those not interested in hearing details of potty action, you may just want to move on to your next blog read for the day! I am encouraged and I feel the need to share! I had marked my calendar about a month ago for this week to be the potty training week. The only thing we had on the calendar were the revival services in the evening which made for a pleasant time at home.
Ryan had been showing signs of being "ready" to train for several months so I knew I just needed to do it.
Day 1- Monday- Extremely frustrating to say the least. I am not sure what my expectations were but Ryan didn't jump right into the game. I was cleaning up accidents all day with no success in the actually potty. I remembered clearly having a similar first day with Peter so I committed myself to 3 days before I would give up.
Day 2- Tuesday- Mildly frustrating. It is so amazing how quickly his bladder muscle responded to not having a diaper. I won't go into details! However, we only had one small success with the actually potty but there were far less accidents to clean up
Day 3- Wednesday- A breakthrough at last! This boy currently has the bladder of a camel. He woke up with a full diaper and then didn't potty again until 11:30- I followed him around like a hawk all morning; we read on the potty, played games on the potty but no action. I finally relented, we went outside and I turned my back and the accident happened! It wasn't until 6:30 that he finally pee peed in the potty. We were forced to use the office bathroom. With a stroke of divine leading, I thought realized the candles. Ryan loves candles. I told him, "if you go potty I'll let you blow out the candles". It worked or he had no choice or he would explode. We had one more success before bedtime so I am encouraged! I think we might make it.

Wedding weekend

Well here are some shots from our weekend in Charlotte. Philip's cousin Noelle got married on Saturday and we had a great time being there.Here's the bride on their way to the car.
It's not too often we are all together and somewhat dressed up with a 6th person available to take the picture.

Where am I?

So where have my bloggy posts gone??? Oh where oh where can they be?

If you're looking for me- you can find me somewhere between trying desperately hard to potty train Ryan and at the Hertiage Revival.

Pray for a breakthrough; in both places would be fine!