Guitar Hero

Last night we went over to Dave and Amanda's house to eat a Pre-Thanksgiving meal with our friends that we haven't seen in a while. We enjoyed a great meal together with Dave and Amanda and Rebecca and Josh. So I never thought I would say this but I had a fab time last night with everyone playing Guitar Hero. Now, I am still glad we do not have this very addicting game in our home...but it sure was a hoot to go over to our married "without kids" friends' house and play with all their gadgets. Guitar hero is on the Wii which is a gaming system for those that don't know. Players hold a guitar that acts as a controller that has specific buttons to play the song that is on the game. The same goes for the drum set, bass guitar, and microphone. It is all a simulation. You do what the screen is telling you to play the song and you "rock the band" or you get kicked off stage. Well Dave put on some '80s and '90s rock songs that we all grew up hearing and well we all turned into thirty somethings that were trying to be rock stars playing this game! It was hilarious. My kids weren't quite sure what to think of their parents. They both played too but the older boys became a little competitive over the game and didn't want to get kicked off the stage for J.D.'s 5 year old bass playing....so they gave the kids Popsicles instead. Anyways, I played the bass and did a little vocal performance (after having a little wine). It was fun and quite amusing. Josh Cummings was way into it!!! It makes you feel like a rock star for a moment! You end up moving around the living room playing your instrument as if it were your stage! After I left to bring my kids home and put them to bed....John, Josh, and Dave stayed up till 1 am rockin the band!

Latest Happenings

Some of our latest adventures.....

J.D. is playing soccer for Warner Soccer and seems to like it. This is his second year and he has really improved since last year. His coach is Coach Bev and she is a large, Australian brut of a woman but is so wonderful with the kids.

John Daniel had his annual Thanksgiving feast at school where all of the classes gather in the gym and eat together dressed in Indian Costumes. All the kids have an Indian name. John Daniel chose Chief Fire Dragon.

CCS hosted their annual Grandparents Day. Emily's grandparents attended a breakfast, a program where Emily's Chapel Choir sang and signed a beautiful song and recited scripture and took a tour of Emily's class. It is always very special and the grand mamas always end up using lots of tissue.

While the boys were on their camping trip, Emily, Molly, and I had girl time. Emily planned the evening. We went to Learning Express, Borders, and to Olive Garden for some spaghetti. Then we went to Justice which has become her favorite clothing store and to Michael's to look at their Christmas stuff. We came home and snuggled up in bed together and read some of Anne of Green Gables. Today NeeNaw kept Molly while Emily and I went to Millennium Day spa to have our nails done. Then we had lunch with the Connells and watched some football. It was a great two days!

Tonight John and I cooked something we have never cooked before....crab legs and boy were they yummy!

camp out pictures

John and John Daniel had a grand time at Lake Seminole together. They did a lot of fishing and John Daniel caught his first bass and a brim on the lake all by himself. He was just full of stories when he returned. I think John likes his little camping buddy!

The Boys Camp Out

We were suppose to go camping with my parents this weekend. Reservations were made and campers were ready and then my parents and me for that matter wimped out :) On my end it seemed like a lot to get ready for before a very busy week...I have to admit I don't like the packing and unpacking of camping and it felt like we just got back from the last trip. We always have a blast when we get there but I was not looking forward to the getting ready part! And it was suppose to rain all weekend. We couldn't get our money back so John decided that he and John Daniel would just go tent camping! What a fabulous idea! They did this last year together but only went over to Water Oak and slept out on the property for a night. This time they are driving over to Lake Seminole (GA) and going tent camping for one night! The reason I write this is I laughed at how EASY it was to get them ready! They both took a back pack and put there one change of clothes in the backpack with a towel, some 2 in 1 body/shampoo soap, a toothbrush, a clean pair of socks, some underwear, a hat, and a sweatshirt. They took two sleeping bags, two pillows, a sleeping mat, the tent, some flashlights, a gun, a knife, a lighter, a lantern, some rope, two fishing poles, a fishing box, an ax, a small cooler, and one little dry box of food. We ran to Wal-Mart this morning to grab their grub. They plan to have hot dogs, chips, carrots and dip for dinner with some cookies for dessert. For breakfast they will eat bananas and sweet sixteen donuts and for lunch they will have PB & J sandwiches with chips, and oranges. They took some small cartons of OJ and some Gatorade and waters. That is IT! Can I tell you that we had them packed and ready to go in about 45 minutes. Now that is what I call a Man's Kind of Camping Trip! And I know J.D. will have a blast! He was so excited about going fishing and sleeping in the tent!

8 months old already!

Molly will be 8 months old on Friday! Already!!!!! I cannot believe it. It has flown by so fast. It makes me sad if I think about how fast it has gone too much so I have to concentrate on the fun and sweet little person she is becoming!

Molly is crawling and if there is such thing as speed crawling...well she is doing it! She chases the big kids all over. I need a pen for her because she is NOT happy with being still and sitting calmly playing with toys. She is ALL OVER the place..down the hall, in the bathroom, over by the fireplace, tries to get in the dog cage, and on and on.

She is pulling up on everything. Now she dances while standing which is most adorable. She is trying to clap but hasn't quite gotten in down just right yet. She knows that saying "bye-bye" is suppose to mean doing something with her hand but doesn't yet do it all the time. She loves music and is now drumming on things and rocks back and forth when she hears it.

We just moved her out of her baby car seat. She sits in the grocery cart at the store. She stands up in her bed. She doesn't care for Baby Einstein Movies. She likes the stroller if it is moving. She loves to crawl around and loves the grass.

I haven't bought a jar of baby food yet! We are now making butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, avocado, pears, apples, bananas, and peas. She loves it all. The pear gave her the chills at first like it was sour but she likes it mashed with banana. She eats the peas frozen and picks one up at a time and puts it in her mouth. I think the coldness of it feels good to her. NO TEETH YET!!! But she is good at gumming stuff.

She smiles so big when she sees any of us. She is a very happy, playful, energetic baby. The ladies in the nursery love her! She sleeps pretty good. I do let her get away with a little more than the first two in that I will wake up and feed her once in the middle of the night.

We love her to death and can't get enough of her smiles, kisses, giggling and babbling. She is so fun and so cute! I am so thankful for such a precious baby girl!

Quote of the day

John Daniel said, "Mommy, can I unload the dishwasher?" I said, "I guess so." John Daniel said, "Yes! You are the best Mommy in the whole world!"

Should I be concerned about this?

What she will be when she grows up

My precious first born...My Emily...I love her so much! I have realized lately that the baby part of child rearing is easy..it is what comes later that is much harder and much more stressful. I feel like everything I do these days effects how she will turn out. I feel like the words I say, the way I act, the facial expressions I give, the physical touch that I share is all going to shape her into the kind of adult she will be...I will be honest...It totally stresses me out. I feel like I am going to screw up and say the wrong thing or not give enough hugs and someday she will be on Oprah talking about how I nagged her about picking up her dirty clothes too much! I am thankful for God's grace and honestly sometimes I need to depend on HIM to raise my kids more often! All we can do is pray over them and pray for HIM to help us say and do the right things. Emily needs lots of attention. She needs snuggle time, she needs words of affirmation, she needs me to look at EVERY picture she draws and say "good job." She has to be playing in the room where we are. She LOVES her daddy! She is sensitive and thinks of others' feelings. She would never want to hurt someone. She loves her little sister and will play with her, feed her, watch her....she really is a big help! While John Daniel and I vacuum under the couch, she watches and plays with Molly and sings songs to her!

Right now Emily says she is going to be an Art Teacher. I can see that she would be really good at this. She loves Art at school. Mrs. Hunt is very good and Emily has brought home some beautiful art work. She loves to instruct others and "play" school. She is creative and is constantly drawing or making something. She drew and cut out all the leaves for our Thankful tree. She loves ballet and dancing. She wants to try out for the Nutcracker next summer. She has rhythm and I absolutely LOVE watching her play piano. She bounces to the rhythm as she plays and it is so cute! I don't push her too much to practice because I don't want her to get tired of it but I really do think she has talent. She is reading music already and already knows more about it than me and I was in the band 7 years. I think it is because she is truly getting the basics down. She has a really great imagination. She wants us to be happy with her. She wants her teacher to be happy with her. My mom gave her a weaving loom last weekend....one of those that you make pot holders with. She has made four potholders since Saturday and took one to give her teacher today as a present. She loves making notes and pictures for John and I. When John was away on his business trip she wrote "love notes" to him and put them in his sock drawer. She is certainly gifted with creativity but has surprised me in that she is really enjoying soccer right now. I, of course, think she is very well rounded and believe she will grow up to be something great! I see her as such a sweet, moldable, loving, precious, angel just spreading her wings....I see such a sweet spirit that I hope I can help form and mold and not mess up!!!! If only I could get the child to remember to pick up her dirty clothes and put things back where they go......that is for a totally different post!!!! I love my sweet Emily!