The Weekend

We went out for a date night with a few friends. It was lovely to eat dinner in peace and go dancing!

We stopped for a play break after the yard work was completed.
Family picture at the Goldsboro triathlon this weekend.

Ben, JT, Kelly, Dan, & Aaron pre-race

What happens when you ask your husband to clean your son up after dinner.

Playing dress-up with my favorite girl

Show us your life...reception and honeymoon

Hey all! Kelly's Korner did another Show us your life yesterday. I didn't have time to do it so I thought that I would post it today. You are supposed to post pics from your reception and honeymoon. I don't have a whole lot that are scanned on this computer so please bear with me! Hope you enjoy :-)

Ben and I at the GrandCanyon. Part of our honeymoon trip after our elopement.

The end of the reception
My lap dance from my silly hubby
Groom's cake....Aggie bonfire

He got me first I swear!

Little smoosh for my honey

Puerto Rico....our second honeymoon

More videos from the archives

Cherry Point Triathlon 2009

HMLA 467 Flight Suit Party 2009

The fox family that lives behind us

Flying the kite on the beach is so much more fun than the backyard!

Kendall the wild driver in the Jeep with Isaac

Friday Fill-ins

And...here we go!

1. Benny grilling is my favorite summertime Treat.

2. My favorite John Hughes movies is either 16 candles or the breakfast club.

3. My children's freshly bathed skin is something I love to touch.

4. The full moon is very neat to see.

5. I am so hungry right now.

6. When daylight fades it is time to tuck the kids in bed.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to small group, tomorrow my plans include going to Ben's triathlon in Goldsboro then a date night and Sunday, I want to play around the house!

Before I forget!

So I told you a few days ago about getting all of the videos downloaded....here are a few of the older photos from the video camera too. Sorry for the quality....like I said it is a video camera not a regular digital one. Hope you enjoy!

More of the horses from Shackleford Island

A sweet moment between the kids

Kendall loves her little brother!

In their pirate shirts from Charleston

Flight suit party

The kids at the Cherry Point Triathlon

Hannah and Kendall

Waiting to start the triathlon at Cherry Point

Tired of me yet?

We have been our usual busy selves & while I have been catching up on old videos and pictures (....yeah there are some more posts scheduled with those!)I have also taken new pictures!
We are anxiously awaiting Ben to be done with his EWS class because that will free up all of our evenings without him going straight from work to class one evening a week! (Or 3 evenings a week which is what this week has entailed!)

Ben has been playing with Kendall and teaching her some Wrangler dance moves.

She is very into doing gymnastics right now too so here Benny is helping her learn some new tricks.

We invested in some educational books for the kids from Southwest. They were delivered this week. Kendall is very excited about them!

Ok so let's see what else is new since it is already midday on Thursday!

• I am finally able to eat some more solid foods & I am learning how to work with my braces. My next appointment is on my birthday so we will see how I feel after that time!
• Monday....I had my normal prayer group/book review with my friend Kelly then I went to the orthopedic MD. He is playing it conservative right now (which means no surgery. YEA!!) I got a steroid injection into my knee. OUCH! So far I am not seeing any improvements but I am optimistic. I also will be starting PT when I get back from my trip to PA.
• Tuesday....we got the southwest books so we had to hang at the house most of the day but that was good because I got a lot of things done & tried to rest my knee a little bit.
• Wednesday...we went to laptime at the library. It was a fun time as usual minus the fact that this was our next to last time with our friend, Rani & her children. (They are moving to VA next week.)
• Today...we went to time for 2's at the library. Kendall was actually excited that the lady that does the class was dressed up as a clown. She even gave her a kiss! I am debating on taking the kids to the museum this afternoon. We will see since I actually have a girls night out tonight with the ladies from church too!
• Tomorrow I think it is off to the pool for Mommy & Me time in the morning.

Stay tuned for some more adventures :-)

Personality unveiled

I found this on a fellow blogger's site and I wanted to pass it on because I think it is kind of fun and cool! Check it out and see if you want to do it too! (the original one only had 7 personality traits but I couldn't narrow mine down so there is 10 in my list!)

1. Loving.....Once you gain access to my heart there is very little that you can do to remove yourself from there. Family, friends, animals, perfect strangers are all suspectible to this!
2. Loyal.....to a captial T. If you have married, befriended, oh heck just become my family I will defend you to my dying day. It hurts my heart to have anyone mad at me.
3. Dependable....There is nothing I hate more than to not get a job done that I have promised someone that I will do. Therefore, I will almost kill myself to do something if I have promised to get it done.
4. Friendly.....I like to meet people, learn about their lives, and stay friends with them. That is a good reason for blogging, email, snail mail, phone calls, facebook, and myspace so I can keep up with everyone in some form or another!
5. Talker....so Ben would probably tell you I just like the sound of my voice but I geuninely love to talk. For the most part the kids take the brunt of my verboseness....until they can do something about it :-)
6. Organized.....I love my LISTS, where I have items placed on bookshelves, where certain cleaners go, how the towels are folded, etc. I guess maybe I should have just said OCD but organized sounds so much nicer!
7. Over-reactor....yeah my daughter gets her flair for the dramatic from me. In any given situation, I am going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
8. Sensitive....I know that it is not a well kept secret but I end up crying at the drop of a hat. If someone is in pain, I can normally be found crying with them. I hate to see anyone upset even if it is just a commercial or tv show!
9. Clean Freak....so some things slide like dusting but I have to have the house picked up, things in proper order, the kitchen scrubbed, bathrooms neat & tidy or I just feel BLAH! It has become a slightly less important part of my life with the kids but I still feel the need for it!
10. Quirky....some have called my bubbly, excitable, airheaded, you name it! It is a big part of my personality so I couldn't leave it off!

There you go....my 5 minute assessment of my personality. For those of you that know me well... how do you think I did?

Time for videos

Since I am going to PA in 9 days, I decided that it was about time to download the videos from the camera so that I have room for more. Boy am I behind! I figured that this would give you faithful viewers something to chew on while we are gone :-) I have a few more to come too! Hope you enjoy.

Kendall's Birthday party at Emerald Isle

Kendall's birthday party at our house

The pinata

Kendall with her cousin Gabrielle

Kendall's Korner and Isaac's inch by inch

This is what happens when you let daddy dress the kids

Mommy's choice...much cuter I might add!
What happens when you let your 3 year old dress herself!

The kids are doing great! Isaac is very close to standing on his own without holding onto anything. He is walking with holding onto us and to the furniture. This little daredevil also has been climbing the stairs & getting into everything else. (Including demolishing my plant out in our foyer!)

Kendall is excited about "big girl" school. We went to get a few of her school supplies so I think that it is making it a little more real for her to motivate her to continue her potty-training. She has been doing awesome with the potty. The only thing that is a concern is nighttime which is perfectly normal at this age!

Stay tuned for more news later!

Shackleford Island

We had a great time on Saturday at Shackleford Island. We opted to stay just 3 hours out there before our ferry cam back to get us but I think that with the kids that was probably just the perfect time! We had to hike a bit to see the wild horses but it was so worth it!

Of course we had to play in the sand and water some.

Isaac and I waiting for Ben & Kendall to scout out where the horses were.

Flowers along the dock in Beaufort

Ok,ok not shackleford but I wanted to show you what my sweet husband brought home last week for me!

More pictures for you guys!

Blog hop......Encouragement

God didn't promise days without pain, Laughter without sorrow, Nor sun without rain, But He did promise Strength for the day, Comfort for the tears, and Light for the way.

God determines who walks into your life, it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go. I carry your heart in my heart always.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

"In everything you do, put God first and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success." Proverbs 3:6

Not me Monday!

It's Monday again! So share your funny, embarrassing stories about life and what you are not doing! Head on over to MckMama's blog http://www.mycharmingkids.net to see the rules on what to do & to celebrate the fact that her son, Stellan, is coming home!

I most definitely did not drink out of my son's sippy cup (with the lid on) in the middle of lunch traffic because I was desperately thristy.

I did not enjoy my daughter thinking that my braces were so cool because her father told her that they were mommy's new jewelry. (And now she wants some!)

I didn't get all choked up when my sweet hubby brought me home flowers last week the day that I got my braces....NOT Me....I never cry!

I absolutely didn't cry at yesterday's Army Wives then explain to my daughter what was going on & why I was sad.

I did not laugh at Kendall on Saturday when we were on Shackleford Island & she refused to pee in the ocean. (The only inhabitants on this island are the horses so the ocean really is the bathroom!) Poor potty-training toddler!

Hope you had a good laugh at all of the things that I am NOT doing. Now go post your own!

And we are off....

To Shackleford Island to hopefully see these wild horses. (And Kendall has requested that we bring home a baby horsie too!)

The beach at Shackelford Island.
If you have a craze over wildlife and adventure, Shackelford Island offers fantasies unusually found in regular beaches today. Deserted and exclusive, it would be hard to believe that an island like this is actually not inhabited by humans but by wild mares and ponies. They are the treasures, the main feature of the island.Wild as you would expect, the horses are innocent species living in a rich island that men discovered at the coast of North Carolina. They are sometimes called water-horses because of their freedom to roam around the dunes and marshes. They have the privilege to hop from one small channel between an island to another. Their home is such a free place that you would enjoy watching them once you decide to land and witness what their daily routines are like. Shackelford is an admirable place and the horses are the stars to look up to. People always said they have always been there, that even before humans near that area came forth, they were already there. They were thought too to have swam ashore, cluelessly seeing ships that have sunken from nature’s tough moods. They are believed to have weather past the test of time, leaving them alive, strong and healthy in the island, enjoying life and continually bringing forth more new ones.

show us your life....wedding party and flowers

So last week was show us your wedding dress in the series "Show us your Life" from Kelly's Korner http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/ I had so much fun with that so I decided to play along with this one as well :-) Go check it out!!

This is one of my favorite shots....strange I know since you can't see many people's faces but.....

With the girls of the group....

Our groomsmen loved picking people up that day...Gig Em' Ags!

This is on my college campus

goofy boys....

my lovely ladies

Like I said they were picking everyone up that day....whose idea was this anyway?

maybe showing their best sides?