Quotes from my weekend

I have no pictures for you.... I know, sad. For some reason my laptop is having problems. It is giving me this warning saying my hard drive is about to die. Thankfully it didn't just up and die and I was able to back up all my pictures on it. BUT, adding new pictures has become really slow. I might try later. My laptop is not that old, and of course this had to happen 6 months after my 2 year warranty ended.

Anyway, we went camping over the long holiday weekend. It was such a nice relaxing time together. We went to the beach and were expecting to spend lots of time at the beach, but it was crazy windy and crazy rough (hopefully I can post a pic of the waves later.) We did get to spend a few hours out there, but the wind would get strong and cause the sand to sting our legs, and I wouldn't let the girls in the water above their ankles because it was too scary to me. Kenny is in a cast from his knee down so it wasn't like he could take the girls out there and I don't trust my swimming skills that much. Thankfully, Kenny trusts my mama fears. Isabella got knocked down once (again water was near her ankles, but waves would come in quick) Kenny said he can't remember the last time I went that fast. Thankfully she got right back up, with her hair full of sand and small shells (again, I have a picture) They actually had one person drown down there this weekend, all they said was that a big wave came and knocked him and his friends down..... he was 19. You can imagine how strong the waves were. So sad.

So although the vacation wasn't what we were PLANNING, it was exactly what we needed. We were able to do lots of biking, and the weather was perfect for that. Isabella thinks she is big stuff now because she can bike without her training wheels and was "flying" through those trails. Who am I kidding, she is big stuff,... I'm so sad. And Keny even biked with his cast on - he refused for this to slow him down too much. :) We slept in every morning, sat around the camper, played games, cooked around the campfire, the girls played at the playground while I was able to cuddle up on the bench swing with my love, then we took the 4th and went to the aquarium and watched fireworks. A needed, restful time away.


So a little fun - here are our gathered favorite quotes from this weekend:

Isabella: "Daddy, did you bring my boogie board, so I can boogie?" I guess if you surf with a surf board it only makes sense that you boogie with a boogie board. :)

Isabella: "Mommy, I'm so glad I'm riding my bike to the bathroom, because my seat can hold it for me." (If that doesn't make sense at first, think about it....)

We were talking about July 4th and going to see fireworks -- Mommy: "We're going to see fireworks to celebrate America" Amelia: "We're going to AMERICA!?!!!"

We watched the "diving" show at the aquarium and they had a little spin the wheel question/answer game about fish, about 4 kids got to play the game. After the show was over, Amelia went over to the lady and said "I didn't get my turn yet."

While riding bikes: Amelia: "My legs are getting tired." She was in a bike carrier being pulled by Daddy. :)


Love my silly girls, they make me laugh!

My new favorite

Over at The Idea Room, they are doing a little photo challenge. The challenge was to post a picture of yourself. I think alot of mom's don't like to be in front of the camera and yet we will want our kids to have those memories, so we're just going to have to. Now you will have to go over there and see the really cute creative pictures they have - like the one that is a Got Milk ad. I'm feeling a fun photoshoot coming on with my girls. Isabella would get a kick out of that one since I don't drink milk and she is always sure to point that out to me.... and everyone-- guess I could use almond milk for me. :)

Currently, this is my new favorite picture of me and my love. There are so many reasons for me to NOT like this picture. First, the day we took this (and the family picture in the header) I had just wanted to go out and take pictures of my girlies. Then Isabella wanted to take pictures of Daddy and Mommy and then I said "Why not? And then lets take a couple family pics" (The wall was an added bonus since Kenny's leg is in a cast) To be quite honest, I hadn't showered that morning.... or the morning before. Yeah, I was 'stanky' with dirty hair. The only reason I even threw a headband and a necklace on was because I knew we told the girls we would grab them breakfast out. I didn't want to go into the restaurant stinking with dirty hair and not at least LOOK like I was trying.

Secondly, who really enjoys a picture of themself scrunching their nose up - I mean really, no one says "Ok, now scrunch your face all up, yeah, that's it, ....beautiful."

But I love this, its my profile picture on Facebook -- it might be forever. I love that my six year old wanted to take pictures of mommy and daddy (and did a pretty good job), I love that I LET my six year old use my D300 :), I love that she kept saying "now hug, now kiss....", I love that this was totally unplanned, and that Kenny knows that ticklish spot, and I love that after Isabella took this we were all laughing. As much as I avoid getting in front of the camera, I'm glad my girls will have this picture memory of their mommy and daddy loving each other. And boy don't I love this man!!

It has been so long that.....

.... I forgot my own password for this blog. :) One, of you many people, who I'm sure has been checking daily for 5 months, just recently asked me if I was done with my sabbatical. The answer is yes, I think, maybe, ok, definitely yes. I think I just needed a break from the whole blogging world for a little while. Blogging has changed immensely since I started this blog over 4 years ago. I mainly started this blog so that family out of state could catch up with us, funny thing is none of them ever comment so I'm not sure they even read it. Then it was fun reading other blogs about families - some were, in particular, adoption blogs. Then I started finding blogs about photography, crafting, cooking, organizing, adoption/orphan care,.... Then blogging took on this whole competitive nature, and it starts becoming a matter of "are my pics that good?; I wish I was that organized;their house looks like what?; they're so spiritual, they have it all together, she has HOW many readers; " not that those blogs are bad, I enjoy getting inspiration, encouragement, etc. But some of what was going on inside of me well, I didn't like it too much and I had to step back and rethink my reasons for blogging. Mostly, I just want to do it to make a little record, journaling if you will, about my family. I already love looking back at previous posts and reading the silly things my girls said or did. They are truly growing up too fast. It is also good way to keep in touch with people and I've quite honestly met some great people through blogging - many of which might have forgotten I have a blog but are at least friends with me on facebook. :) And every now and then its a good way to get myself motivated or organized (like those menu plan mondays.) And who knows I might even share a little inspiration like THIS adorable blog that shares so many pretty creative ideas. So my blogging might not be earth shattering, it most definitely will not be everyday, it might even just be a picture like this:

Because looking at these two faces always brightens up my day..... unless they are standing next to me eating cherries and just ruined their shirt and my picture mousepad with cherry juice..... (yeah, that just happened)

Hello?!?...... Is this Mic on?

Ok, so I've taken a long sabbatical from blogging. I guess I should have told all (three) of you that I was going to do this. It wasn't totally planned, but as our busy fun fall went along I just didn't feel like sitting down and blogging. Then along came the Christmas season and same thing, enjoying my family time far too much to be at the computer alot. I would say that I've kept in touch with some of you through facebook, but I think its been months since I posted new pictures on there as well. The last few months have been full of all kinds of fun stuff - honestly, I love fall and Christmas, but this year seemed even better. I'm going to post some pictures, but not alot because I only have 30 minutes to do this before I have to pick up Isabella from school. This fall, we loved the weather, Kenny put up a new swing for the girls, so hours upon hours were spent swinging -- them, not me, although I did give it a whirl, its just not nearly as fun when your butt almost drags the ground because you're.... well, you're more than 40 pounds. We tried to enjoy the pretty weather as much as we could - although we missed out on a couple things that we normally do every year, like apple picking, we were able to replace them with different fun memories.

I was able to go away one weekend for some girl time with my cousin, Alyssa. We went to the beach and had so much fun. I wish I could post a video from that time on here, but she might kill me. :)

Then, of course, fall brings Halloween and I just love dressing my girls up. This year Isabella decided she wanted to be her own version of Mulan and Amelia..... well would anyone would be surprised who she wanted to be.... Snow White - of course.

Then our friends who live in Ireland had come back to the states for a little over a month and we tried to snag up anytime with them that we could. It had been 2 1/2 years since we had seen them, but the girls didn't seem to miss a beat. We were able to spend an afternoon out in the beautiful weather, another day at the Children's Museum, and another afternoon Cindy planned a tea party for all the little girls -- such fun, fun memories! We're really hoping and praying that its not another 2 1/2 years until we can get to see them. We had so much fun, and it has made us miss them even more!

Ok, I'm realizing that I have far too many pictures to post, so maybe later I can post a couple from Thanksgiving and Christmas and then we'll be pretty much caught up..... so I can go on another sabbatical...... Just kidding. :)