Atlanta Zoo

We were blessed with some really awesome warm days and decided to make the most of them by going to the zoo. Everyone in Atlanta had the same idea! Even though it was a little crowded it felt so good to be outside and enjoying the sun! Just look at how happy the kids are!

Surprise!

Take a peek at our newest little surprise! Baby #4 will join us some time around September 12.

After School at Our House

This is what our house looks like after school:

Luke hard at work writing sentences.
Miriam drawing.

Eve just trying to be like the big kids. (Don't mind the bedhead hair. She doesn't always look that rough!)

When Luke has homework to do, the girls like to have their own homework to do too. I love how even 15 month old Eve wants to be a part of this time.

Happy 4th Birthday Miriam

Miriam is now 4 years old!

We had a "Tangled" birthday party...the new Disney Rapunzel movie.

When the guests first arrived they decorated little bags that would later be used to collect the candy from the Mother Gothel pinata. Here's what the pinata looked like before it was bashed to tiny pieces:

We played Pin the Hair on Rapunzel, Musical Towers (like musical chairs but with pictures of towers to stand on), Frying Pan skill test (popping bubbles with cardboard pans), and a Crown Treasure Hunt that led us to the evil Mother Gothel. The children defeated the evil Mother pinata and enjoyed gathering their reward- CANDY!

We then were famished and headed to the kitchen for Pascal the Chameleon cupcakes.

Our Birthday Girl



Our party friends.

Time for presents...Of course, my camera batteries died at this point. Trust me when I tell you that she got a lot of great gifts from her friends and family. Thank you all very much.

This year we decided to get Miriam pre-ballet lessons for her birthday gift. Stay posted for dance updates.

Miriam is turning into such a unique and animated little person.

She has a very sensitive heart.

She always tells Morgan when he gets home from work that she missed him.

She loves to dress up and look pretty.

She loves to carry a copy of The Book of Mormon around and asks me to read it to her.

She likes to play princesses and has a very active imagination.

She gets upset if Luke tells her she is not a big girl.

When Morgan had been away for various rotations or interviews, she tries to keep me company at night by sneaking in my bed.

She is not shy.

I love watching her talk to me. Her facial expressions and body language are Emmy award worthy.

Miriam is my helper and little friend. I am so grateful to have her in our family.

Happy Birthday Miriam!

Our Valentine's Date

For our Valentine's Date we hired a babysitter (that is huge for us!) and made reservations at Medieval Times. Medieval Times is a castle restaurant/show arena designed to take you back to the 11th century. There are six knights that competed for the honored title of King's Champion. We got to eat with traditional 11th century cutlery...our hands. We sipped tomato bisque soup from a pewter bowl, drank Pepsi (don't ask me how that fit into the time period), had garlic bread, chicken, rib and an apple dessert. We were able to see jousting, horse tricks, and of course a princess pine for her captured prince.

But most of all, we got to have an evening ALONE! That was priceless.

Frozen in Georgia

So very, very cold here! Tomorrow will be the 4th day that Luke's elementary school has been closed due to the snow and ice. It just isn't going away!

During Eve's nap on Monday, the kids went out to play in the snow. We had great plans to make a snow family but there was too much ice mixed in with the snow. So we had fun throwing it at each other and the trees.

Take a look at my little snow bunnies:

The world has completely stopped here. The Atlanta airport has cancelled thousands of flights, the government offices are all closed, parts of the freeways have been closed and when I finally braved the grocery store today, there were very few items left down the bread aisle and barely any produce. Let's hope for warmer temperatures soon!

Christmas 2010

Christmas found us this year in NC with my parents. Luckily Santa found us in NC too! The kids were a little worried about this at first until we explained that we had already written to Santa and told him where we were going to be. Whew!

Eve mostly enjoyed watching Luke and Miriam open presents and then she would try to play with them. We had to keep opening her presents and showing her that she was getting things too.

Luke and Miriam got these horses and have had so much fun riding around the house pretending with them.
What better gift than cash? Great Grandpa and Grandma Fife sent these Christmas cards with cash to the kids. They were sooooooo happy to go shopping with their own money.

Thanks Grandma Shelley for Rapunzel and Flynn! These are two of Miriam's most prized toys right now.

Santa brought Luke a Hot Wheels race track that he can re-create over and over. It has kept him so busy over the winter break from school. Thank you Santa! It's fun to watch Luke create the perfect track and problem solve when things don't go as planned.

Santa brought Eve this musical play table and she has really gotten into exploring all the different sounds. I love to watch her dance to the tunes when she is playing.

Morgan was so happy to get a new brown coat from his mom. He looks seriously cool in it.

Santa also brought Eve this corn popper. She really likes things to push and things that make noisy. It's not to hard to find where she is in the house...just listen for some noise.

Luke and Miriam exchanged gifts amongst themselves this Christmas. The day after Thanksgiving, Morgan took Luke and I took Miriam to Target and let them pick out a gift for the other sibling. They were so cute picking out the gifts and then insisting on wrapping them as soon as we returned to Georgia. Then the hard part of waiting for Christmas to come without telling the other what they had bought. Luke got Miriam a Polly Pocket doll set...

and Miriam bought Luke a helicopter Lego set.

See they do love each other...

In an effort to be better prepared for emergencies and for our future camping purposes, we got the kids headlamps for Christmas. It was so fun watching them wear them as they played with their Christmas gifts. Now when they lose something, they always ask for their headlamp so they can see if it is under their bed or hiding elsewhere in their rooms. We also got Luke and Miriam real sleeping bags that are designed for temperatures down to 30 degrees. They weren't too excited about those but I have some indoor camping ideas that will hopefully make them more excited about them.

This year I tried to be super crafty and make each of the children and Morgan a homemade gift. Call me crazy and over ambitious. I made Luke a Captain America shield.

Miriam and Eve got tutus. Eve looks like she likes the tutu, but actually she was screaming in this photo. Eve's not a fan yet, but I have visions of my girls spinning in them hopefully by next year. We don't have a picture of it but I made Morgan a photo book for our anniversary (which is 3 days before Christmas) and a coupon card for him to redeem evenings of video gaming with me on his new Goldeneye video game. I figured that he would appreciate that more than an apron.

Around noon on Christmas Day, the family came over to Maw Maw's and we had lunch. Then we had our Nativity play performed by the grandchildren. Luke was Joseph, Miriam was Mary, Connor was a Shepherd, Kaitlyn and Madison were angels.

Thank you all so much for the great gifts and the time that we were able to spend together. We love you all and hope you have a very happy New Year!