Full House

The first day of school

Our kids started back to school last Tuesday, September 1st.  They are all enjoying their classes and teachers.  We have only experienced a small amount of morning grumbles and the whines have been kept to a minumum at homework time.  I have loved being in a regular routine again, and thankfully Brady doesn't seem to mind being left alone with me all day.  I'm enjoying this next few days, because this next week we start into soccer and dance for some of the girls.  Let the madness begin....wait, did it ever stop???

Cooper is now the top dog in Middle School.  8th grade should be interesting.  We found out at the Open House that he will be taking two High School courses that will be credited to his HS record.  What a smarty pants!  He is such a great kid!

 

Can you tell he's thrilled to be having his picture taken?  I have been instructed not to post this picture of him......oops!

Hailey is all ready for 4th grade this year.  She is really growing up on me...literally!  I can't keep this girl in shoes that fit!  They're exploding!  I think the term "tween" describes her so well.  She has Mrs. Smith for a teacher this year and has already made even more friends to invite to her 10th birthday party in a few weeks.

Sadie is loving 2nd grade with Mrs. Trehern!  She was so jazzed about her new backpack and cook high top Sketchers.  There is only so much pizazz you can get when you have to wear a uniform and use a clear or mesh backpack.  You go girl!

Ella gives a big "thumbs up" to being in Kindergarten!  Her teachers Mrs. Malluck and Ms. Johnson are fantastic.  She was is so excited that she is able to go to "specials" this year like her big sisters.  Her favorite so far is art.  Good times for a good girl!

My girls........aren't they a beautiful sight?

 

Lay it down Joe....

Lay down the tile that is.  Joe has finally had a few days where he could start into the big project of tiling our kitchen (plus the hallway and downstairs bathroom).  He leveled the floor in the family room and in the breakfast nook several months ago, so our poor kitchen table has been sitting on concrete since then.  We decided that it would look best to lay the tiles on an angle, rather than square to the walls.  With that decision came a lot more cuts and a lot more time, but I think it will turn out great.  Here is a look at what Joe has accomplished so far......

A close up look at our tile choice

Setting the anchor tile

Getting a good start...bye, bye old ugly vinyl!

Trying out the tile saw

Setting the edges in the breakfast nook

He still has the bathroom, hallway and work area in the kitchen before we can grout and seal.  Wish us luck!

 

 

Happy 7th Birthday Sadie

On Monday, Sadie celebrated her 7th birthday!  Oh what fun it is to be seven!  Sadie is smart, fun, sassy and toothless.  On her big day, she got new clothes, Disney Sing It for the Wii, a pair of fancy shoes and some money from Grammie.  I also took her out for a special shopping day like I did with Ella and she had a blast.  The last place we went was to Build A Bear Workshop so she could spend her money from Grammie.  She picked a darling Hannah Montana bear that was white with sparkles on it. Mom and Dad also pitched in for a new outfit and pair of shoes.  For a fun family activity, she choose Chuckie Cheese.  Surprising how much fun you can have for $15!  She was queen for the day and she loved it!  Now onward and upward.......watch out 2nd grade, here comes Sadie!

Modeling on of her new outfits

It's cake time!

Belting out a few tunes!

Don't get in this girls way when she's trying to sing!

 

What happened to our summer???

I have really neglected this poor old blog this summer, but I have good reason.  With the kids home, I have a lot of competition when it comes to computer usage.  Plus, I have really tried to limit my time with uselss stuff and spend more time with the kids.  Some days are better than others, but all in all it has been a great summer.  

So, what have we been up to this summer?

On our anniversary (clear back on May 28th) we took the kids to a John Berry concert at the Sand Gnats stadium.  I forgot how many of his songs I loved.  We even fell in love with some of his new works, including "Give Me Back My America".   (Click to hear song)  The kids had fun and Joe won a great pop-up book all about Nashville. 

Lots of trips to the pool.  The kids once again have brown legs and white bums! 

Joe and Cooper went to Boy Scout camp for a week and had a fun time. 

Brady learned to love popsicles!

Made multiple trips to the library.  I have read a lot of Dean Koontz books including Odd Thomas.  I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.....if only the library would get the next two installments in!

Hailey had her cute friend Anna come and spend a few days with us here in Savannah.  The girls have known each other since they were two and it was fun for them to be reunited again.

After working really hard to get our rental house over in Columbus ready to sell, we have now rented it out again.  Things just fell into place last week.  On Wednesday it was still on the market and on Saturday we were over in Columbus with renters moving in.  Big thanks to our friends the Pittman's and the Keddington's for their help with everything!

Tried out a few new hair-do's on the girls.

One of the biggest changes at our house has been getting rid of cable TV.  Yes, I finally bit the bullet!  Project Runway starts tonight and I'm hoping Hulu works so I can see it all.  I do miss watching trash like The Real Housewives and being able to turn Fox News on whenever I want, but it has been a great change.  The kids don't fight over what channel to watch, I no longer have to hear re-run after re-run of Hannah Montana and it doesn't hurt the wallet either!  One less distraction in the house has made a big difference.

The funniest and possibly the most scarring thing the girls enjoyed this summer was dressing poor Brady up!  Yes, that it Brady in that pink, frilly dance costume running away from his sisters.  Poor kid.......how much therapy do you think he'll neeed by the time his sisters are done with him? 

Soon, it will be time for the kids to go back to school and we will have to say goodbye to the summer joys of sleeping in, lazy days at the pool and hopefully all of the other "extras" life threw our way this summer. 

Sweet Ella Rae....

What would we do without that sweet, crazy girl???  Ella adds such a spark to our family and we are so thankful for her.  She is the "girliest" girl we have and she loves to have fun.  Her little giggle is infectious and she is quite a joker.  One of her favorite activities is drawing and she learning how to read.  Her favorite drink is milk and she won't touch anything if it's been near ketchup. 

I realized that I never posted any pictures from her end of year parties or her 5th birthday (bad mom!). In an effort to catch up, here are a few highlights.

Pre-K Day at the Beach.  She loved her para-pro Mrs. Love and her teacher Mrs. Brown and will miss her friends Ava & Korrine.

Pre-K Water day was also a big hit with the kids.

Graduation day was lots of fun.  The kids performed some fun songs, received certificates of achievements and had a pizza party.  The highlight of Ella's day was spending time with her "friend" Enrique.  You should see the way this kid looks at her....just like she was the most beautiful princess!  such cute kids!

For Ella's birthday, we had a little family party.  She choose a fance cake with purple flowers.  Because we were in Columbus working on the rental house, I took her out shopping for a special day when we got back to Savannah.  I told her that she was being spoiled that day and she said "I AM???", like it was the most amazing thing ever!

Dirty houses and good friends

CAUTION:  This turned out to be a rather lengthy post and there are but a few pictures I had to steal from my friend.  Stick with it if you dare risk the boredom of our lives.....

I have completely given up on the dream of having a regularly updated blog.  Our first few weeks of summer vacation were fairly relaxed and filled with free movies and daily trips to the gym and pool.  The last few weeks have been anything but relaxing.  We are praying that our efforts pay off.

What took us so close to the Alabama border you ask?  Well, we still own our home over in Columbus, GA (Ft. Benning area).  Our renters broke their lease early, leaving us once again in the dilemma of renting vs. selling.  After loading up the kids and what seemed life half the house, we headed over to find what damages were waiting for us.  Thankfully things weren't nearly as bad as we had anticipated.  After spending the first few days cleaning (after promising to leave the house cleaner than they found it, it was FILTHY) we had to make a decision.  We decided to try and fix the house up to sell, rather than rent.  It will just be one less burden on my plate when Joe deploys again.  New carpeting was installed today, and hopefully the house will be listed within the next couple of days.  Wish us luck!

In order to make myself feel better, here is a list of some of the things we accomplished in a short week and a half time span. 

• Repaired one small roof leak on the main house and fixed the roof on the screened in porch.
• Painted one bedroom, along with numerous base boards
• Patched and sanded bunches of holes in walls and one on the bathroom door
• Installed 4 new ceiling fans; 1 in the Master Bedroom, 1 in the Dining Room and 2 on the porch
• Moved fridge back into the kitchen from storage room.
• Painted kitchen cabinets and installed new hardware
• Installed new laminate kitchen counter-tops, which proved to be the trickiest job of the trip.  It proved that Joe is in deed "the man"!
• Installed new flooring in the Master Bath.
• Installed outdoor carpeting on the porch.
• Painted ceiling of the porch
• Removed literally hundreds of staples from where they attached plastic sheeting around the porch and carport.
• Pressured washed the house
• Painted exterior window moldings  (the crappiest, and most tedious job because of the window type)
• Replaced and painted several pieces of eaves and trim on the exterior.
• Cleared the yard of months of leaves, overgrown hedges and scrub-brush.
• Replaced lots of outlet covers and one actual outlet
• Ripped up old carpeting and pad in 80% of the house.  The original hardwood floors underneath looked better than we thought they would, but we just didn't have time to refinish them.

And the most impressive, or pathetic feat of all (you decide)....Our family of seven consumed a full

14 DOZEN DUN-KIN DONUTS IN A WEEK AND A HALF!!!!

 

During our time in Columbus, our schedule was completely messed up.  We worked hard all day, finally got cleaned up enough to go eat dinner around 9 PM on most nights, just to come back to the house for a crappy nights sleep on an air mattress, and then repeat the entire process over again the next day.  Thankfully, we were able to see some old friends which made things enjoyable.  Our neighbors over there have four cute boys and were more than happy to play with my little girls.  They would go back and forth between each other's backyards and they played like we had never moved.  Aren't kids amazing like that?  The funniest part was listening to Avery (he was born 5 days after Sadie) and Sadie talk trash to each other while they played basketball in the back yard. 

Cooper was really bummed out that he was never able to meet up with his friend Bobby John, but Hailey was in heaven the entire time we were over there.  My good friend Kim has a daughter named Anna that is only a few months older than Hailey.  The two girls were inseparable the whole time we were there.  Kim was so gracious to let Hailey spend the night at their house multiple nights.  She even allowed them to do silly things like wash their hair in the swimming pool and make crazy videos.  We were able to go to church at our old ward, which was a lot of fun.  Hailey and Anna's old Sunbeam (Sunday School class for 3 year olds) teacher was overjoyed to see her two girls back together again.  We also spent the 4th of July with their family, just like we did several years ago.  On Sunday afternoon, Anna was feeling sad that she was separated from Hailey, so she made us a yummy batch of brownies just so she could bring them over to us.  Another time, Kim and her clan brought ice cream over because they knew we needed a break and a treat!  They are all such good friends are we are blessed to know them.

We realized how much we loved living in Columbus and how much we miss our neighborhood and friends over there.  Driving in Columbus is a breeze compared to Savannah and we love that they use the country prisoners to collect trash and leaf & limb, which leaves the city much cleaner and puts energies into positive places.  We've made several quick trips back to Columbus since we moved to Savannah, but this was the first time we really been able to spend a good amount of time in a place we moved away from (other than home).

When we left on Sunday afternoon, it was very bittersweet.  We're sure we'll be back again, but we love so many things in Columbus.  We came with doom and gloom when we pulled into our dirty, somewhat broken home and left it a clean, fixed up home and our hearts were filled with the joy and love of good friends.  After our drive back home, we were so blessed to see that our fantastic neighbors and friends watched over our house, watered my flowers, mowed our lawn and collected our mail while we were gone.  This is the hardest part of military life.  We love every place we have lived and wish that we could just take all of the good parts and our friends and create our very own hodge-podge of a community.  I guess we'll just take all of our experiences and hold them near and dear to our hearts. 

Our current challenge...... the house that was dirty is now clean.  They house we left clean is now dirty!  Even so, our good friends remain no matter what.  Thanks to everyone.  We love you all!

Morals and Clean Living Pay Off

I just happened to run accross this article today while I was checking my email.  It upholds many of the principles my church and other traditional churches teach.  Who knew......having morals and living a clean life actually pay off!!!!!  What might the world do if they got a hold of this info???????  See what ya think.

In love? It's not enough to keep a marriage, study finds

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) – Living happily ever after needn't only be for fairy tales. Australian researchers have identified what it takes to keep a couple together, and it's a lot more than just being in love.

A couple's age, previous relationships and even whether they smoke or not are factors that influence whether their marriage is going to last, according to a study by researchers from the Australian National University.

The study, entitled "What's Love Got to Do With It," tracked nearly 2,500 couples -- married or living together -- from 2001 to 2007 to identify factors associated with those who remained together compared with those who divorced or separated.

It found that a husband who is nine or more years older than his wife is twice as likely to get divorced, as are husbands who get married before they turn 25.

Children also influence the longevity of a marriage or relationship, with one-fifth of couples who have kids before marriage -- either from a previous relationship or in the same relationship -- having separated compared to just nine percent of couples without children born before marriage.

Women who want children much more than their partners are also more likely to get a divorce.

A couple's parents also have a role to play in their own relationship, with the study showing some 16 percent of men and women whose parents ever separated or divorced experienced marital separation themselves compared to 10 percent for those whose parents did not separate.

Also, partners who are on their second or third marriage are 90 percent more likely to separate than spouses who are both in their first marriage.

Not surprisingly, money also plays a role, with up to 16 percent of respondents who indicated they were poor or where the husband -- not the wife -- was unemployed saying they had separated, compared with only nine percent of couples with healthy finances.

And couples where one partner, and not the other, smokes are also more likely to have a relationship that ends in failure.

Factors found to not significantly affect separation risk included the number and age of children born to a married couple, the wife's employment status and the number of years the couple had been employed.

The study was jointly written by Dr Rebecca Kippen and Professor Bruce Chapman from The Australian National University, and Dr Peng Yu from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affair.

Click HERE to see webpage/article.

 

More Freebies!

Some of my friends let me know about MORE FREE SUFF being offered this summer.  Check them out.

FREE LUNCHES:  This is for all kids 18 and under living in the city of Savannah.  Lunches are given out Mon-Fri. at White Bluff Elementary from 11:30-12:30.  The gal sits on the side of the school under the awning and she usually has a baby in a stroller with her.  You have to fill out a quick-one time-form stating name, address and date of birth for each child.  Once that is done, she will hand you a bag lunch for each child (children must be with you).  You can go every day.  She also mentioned that they are working on some field trips.  They have one scheduled for next Wednesday to go to the recycling center.  They are also trying to get some sort of skating field trip arranged.  This program is put on by the city in an effort to keep kids busy this summer.  My kids thought is was the greatest thing ever to go and get their lunch.  If you go to the free movie, you can swing right over and get yourself a free lunch......doesn't get any better than that!!

FREE BOWLING: This is available all over the country.  Click on this link to find out if there is a participating bowling alley in your area.  If you live in Savannah, the one on Tibet Ave. is a participating location.  I think you sign up online and then they send you coupons for two free games per day, per child, for the entire summer.  The only thing you have to pay for is shoe rental.  Worth checking out for sure.

Happy Summer Everyone!

Happy 2nd Birthay Brady!

We are all so lucky to have you in our family!  You bring such a special spirit into our home.  You are sweet and funny, wild and crazy!  It is so much fun to watch you learn and grow.  There was a time we didn't know if you could survive all of the extra "love" one of your big sisters would regularly dish out, but you did!  Along the way, you have learned to love trash and trash trucks, Elmo (pronounced mel-mo), doggies, ketchup, hot dogs and playing "chase".  We are so excited to see what the next years bring!  Have a great day B-man!  We love you!

Free Summer Movies

For any of you in the Savannah area, Regal cinemas is offering free summer movies again.  I took the kids to see "Journey to the Center of the Earth" today and we all loved it.   I say nothing is better than free!!!  Click on the link below to check out schedules in Georgia or see if there is a theatre in your area.

http://www.regmovies.com/nowshowing/familyfilmfestivalschedule.aspx?state=GA