handsful

So, my last post was a month ago.

Oops.  Getting major slack from my kids about this.

It’s not my fault!  Summer has sped by!  I’m still waiting for those lazy summer days so I can tackle a few projects.

(The kids dual enrollment classes and Abbey’s community college classes begin Aug 18th.  Our other courses at home will begin the following week.)

Who am I kidding about projects?

But, I’ll still share a few of our favorite pics from the last month.

Buckle up.  This will be long.

I think I mentioned that I took Marley and her friends Kylie and Kailee to Hilton Head for a weekend.  It was her 16th birthday wish, rather than a big party.  Since I got to enjoy a first-ever trip to HH, I whole-heartedly agreed!

This is Marley checking out the view from the Harbour Town Lighthouse.

I also took them to go para sailing.  Randy and I did this in Mexico last summer, I knew the girls would love it.

One of the girls was a little nervous, given the height and water thing, but she immediately said she’d do it again in a heartbeat.  I’m protecting her identity ;)

Coming in for a landing!

View from our balcony…Randy’s traveling = hotel points. Our stay was free.

It was a great weekend, despite a few too many clouds.  They had their beloved beach day, we ate some delish food, and we spent both nights taking LONG walks on the beach.  I had such a great time with these girls!

Another summer highlight was our Family Weekend Vacation.  Despite our best efforts, we could never find more than 3 days that we were all available..no one working, or had other commitments with friends, etc.  I’m learning that, as they get older, they have these LIVES that don’t always include us. Makes me happy (they’re becoming independent young adults..gulp), and sad at the same time. I find myself wanting to re-live when they were all little.

Hindsight, ya know?

We decided a nice weekend in Atlanta would hit the spot…especially if we included a Braves game.  That always makes us happy! We also visited the Georgia Aquarium, which was super crowded, but also really fun.

After spending 5+ hours (yeah…) at the aquarium, we decided we were hungry.  And, since the theme for the weekend was “follow the crowd”, we had no choice but to head here.

Where is “here”, you ask?

The Varsity.  The ultra-famous burger joint that serves 2 miles worth of chili dogs per DAY.  It’s been open since 1928.  I mean, Elvis used to order cheeseburgers to-go several times a day.  It’s a legend.

But, when Randy saw that line, he gave me that “are you kidding me??”  look.  But, being the great dad that he is, we ventured in and enjoyed our Varsity lunch!  The kids were thrilled, because they’d come here on Testify tour a couple years back.

We then fought the traffic (again), and  made our way back to the hotel, and got dressed for the game..

I LOVE going to Braves games.  And, we’ve been to about 4 in the last few years.

They’ve won all 4.  We’ve got a good record :)

How much do I love this picture?  A lot.  These are the “Braves Girls”…we asked Dylan if he wanted a picture with them.  He sauntered right up there and smiled big.  Heartbreaker.

Abbey-girl.  The girl is busy being a young adult these days, and isn’t around as much as she used to be.  They’re all growing up so dang quickly.

Sigh…I digress.

I call this one “Payton contemplating entering the scary crowd of people”.  Remember the theme?  Get over your claustrophobia, dude.

Before the game, we hit the Braves store (of course, it was crowded), and picked up a few new T-shirts, etc.  Payton bought this…fans of Evan Gattis (Braves catcher) call him El Oso Blanco.  It means White Bear.  Good luck getting this back, Tater.

Braves win!!

The required pic of Randy and me, after the game.

Back to the hotel, and then we headed home in the morning.  But before we did, Randy managed to find a few locations in Atlanta where the Walking Dead is filmed.  This is one of their fav shows.  I always wimp out and go to bed when it comes on.

Zombies, ewww.

They’re sitting in front of someone’s house.  Rick’s maybe?  I dunno.  But, they were pretty psyched, as you can tell.

Ethan would have been in the pic, but he’d been sick off and on since the day before, and was feeling pretty lousy that morning.

Thankfully, he made the trip home fine.

What else this summer?  Lainey and Dylan went to a week of Y camp. Marley and Lainey had a week of Acrofitness camp.  We all had an awesome week of VBS, where the big kids helped in elementary classrooms (Ethan and Marley), a group of girls learning a dance for the week (Abbey), and as skit characters named Zip Quick, Wormy, and Billy Bass (Payton).  Marley is currently in the middle of two weeks at the beach with Kylie, and Abbey left this morning with Daniel for a few days at the beach with his family.

As is usual for us, our summer was full.

Maybe Fall will be a better time to finish those projects?  :)

He’s still going to soccer camp again this year, but he’s developed a love for baseball lately.  And, he makes contact with the ball quite often.  Maybe next year we’ll try baseball?

Crazy cat.  This is Chili, rolling in the clover…

Found these growing on the side yard…never planted it.  Maybe the previous owners?  Not sure what it is, but it’s adorable.

Sunset…

one

two

three!

Life happens quickly.

In between doing school with the littles…folding a load of laundry…running the big kids to biology…feeding the cats…

Things happen, and I grab my phone camera.  I should grab my REAL camera.  But, it is what it is.

So, I thought I’d share a few moments in our days.

Marley took the above picture of the sunset.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  The heavens declare the glory of God…

Abbey and Daniel went to a dance put on at church a while back, called Love Redefined.  Marley went too, but I didn’t get a picture…she got ready at her friend’s house.  They were taught how to waltz, salsa, and swing dance.  They had a blast.

Like I’ve mentioned, Lainey and Dylan attend Classical Conversations on Wednesday mornings.  Parents attend as well, and I usually sit in on Dylan’s class to watch the tutor work with the kids, and help when I’m needed.  One of their subjects is Latin, and Dylan’s tutor uses a puppet named “Mr. Jiggles” to let the kids lead the latin memory work each week.  It was D’s turn last Wednesday, and he did great.  They both love CC!

Emily, a fellow adoptive mom friend of mine, makes pillow cases…Marley found a fabric she loved online, and Emily found it at her local fabric store…voila, pillow case with antique cameras all over it.  She loves it!  Emily also made Dylan (Batman) and Lainey (owls).  I’m thinking about what kind I want :)

Last Sunday, the kids were outside playing when they came tearing inside the house, yelling “MOM, come see this!!”  This was the first balloon to fly over our house, another followed soon after.  Very cool!

For years, Payton has had his own cartoon guy that he draws…Harry the Stick Dude.  Dylan decided he wanted to copy it the other day, so Payton drew it on the dry erase board.  Not a bad copying job, huh?  Maybe we have a budding artist on our hands…

Ethan plays the drums.  He’s never had a lesson, other than lessons he watched when Payton thought he wanted to learn to play the drums.  (Silly Payton, he’s the actor in the family, not the musician…) For about a year now, he’s been on the middle school worship team, playing every other Sunday for the 6th-8th graders.  Last night, he made the jump to playing on the Wednesday night team that plays for the high school.  He did great…he allowed me to come in a take pictures, as long as it was just my phone and NO flash.  Ha…

Marley will soon have a roommate.  Her name is Sochi, and she’s a 4 week old orange holland lop bunny.  We drove out to the breeder’s house yesterday, and she put her deposit down.  We have to wait till April 5th to pick her up.  She’s crazy excited.

Payton is waiting to hear if he received an acting part in an Upward Basketball campaign.  He auditioned for the role of Trent, and made it through the first cuts…he’s a finalist for the part!  He now has to tape the audition segments again, and send them in by Saturday morning.  He’s thrilled to have made it this far (there were MANY auditions sent in), and is hopeful he’ll hear good news soon.

Abbey has her first real job as of today.  She had her orientation at Bojangles :)  I promise to share a picture of her in her uniform as soon as she gets it!

That’s about it for now.  Life is busy.  Life is good…

Or rather, God heard my desire and decided to let it SNOW!

It started snowing Tuesday morning, and kept on till Thursday afternoon, with a few hours of sleet in between.

I know some people hate snow.  I can understand getting tired of it, if you live where you’re buried in snow all winter.

I love living in NC, where we have all 4 seasons…

We might get a snowfall or two, but it’s usually gone in a day.  Course, I’m writing this on Saturday, and it’s still pretty white out there.

I’m also thankful for a husband who was able to bump up his flight home, so he wasn’t stuck in Florida.

Thursday afternoon was our family Snow Day…even Randy joined in.  See above?  The boys dreamed that up.  A snow “thing” that apparently was hungry for a certain boy named Dylan.

How to get him out?  Push it over, of course.

“THE COLD NEVER BOTHERED ME ANYWAY!!”

Abbey’s version of Olaf :)

We live on about 19 acres, and our driveway is long, downhill, and winds around our shop building in the back.  Randy had the grand idea to tie our 2 person kayak to the back of his landcruiser and take us “sledding” up and down.

Genius.

After kayaking, we took the sleds to the hill behind our shop.

Pelted with a snowball, right before she went…

Dylan watches as Lainey goes down, head first!

Yes, I’m bundled up to the point of embarrassment.

Marley and Payton, racing…

It’s never dull with Payton around.

EJ and Dylan’s turn to race

Notice Dylan started out on the right…as they went down, he crossed in front of Ethan and ended up crashing on the right.

I’m so thankful we had our deep snow for the season!  If we get more, that’ll just be frosting on the cake.  Get it?  FROSTing…

Sorry.

It was the best snow day…ever.

Last week, it happened.

We got snow.  As you can see, we weren’t exactly buried in it.  But, it was enough that the kids could play and I could enjoy watching it fall and collect (a little) on the ground.

Jumping on a trampoline with snow on it.  Extra fun.

As you can see, the big girls had fun with the littles during our “snow storm”.  The boys had just returned the night before from an all-day snowboarding trip in the mountains.  They were snowed-out.

I can’t help it.  I’m still holding out hope for a deep-snow for us.  With only 40 or so days till spring, time is running out!

It’s Saturday evening around here, and I’ve gotta get the littles showered, Dylan’s hair cut, we’ve got 2 chapters to read in our Advent book (missed last night!), and we want to watch a Christmas movie before it gets too late.

So.

Rather than do a lengthy post, describing every detail of every picture – ya’ll just enjoy the shots.

We sure did enjoy the time…

In order…probably.

A few weeks ago, Lainey had braces put on.  At age 7.  Which, by the way, means I now have 4 kids IN braces right now.  Sheesh.

Lainey, because she was born with a cleft palate, will need lots of dental and orthodontic work.  LOTS.  And, it starts now.  She’s had 4 surgeries in her lifetime, 3 with us.  Her next one, to correct her gumline cleft, will be her biggest, and I’m told her hardest.  They will take bone from her hip and use it to fill in the bone that’s missing in her gumline.  Before that can happen, her palate needs to have an expander put in (weird, huh?  She had two surgeries to CLOSE her palate, now we’re trying to make it wider??).  And, before she can have the expander put in, she has one tooth that needs straightening (the expander needs that tooth to attach to), hence the braces.

Are you lost yet?  She’s done great with her braces, hardly any complaining at all.  I’m amazed, really.  But, I shouldn’t be.  She’s always handled medical stuff with ease.

Then, it was time for the NC State Fair.

Dylan’s footlong is becoming a fair tradition…

happy girl!

For the first time ever, I think, we left our nice camera at home, so all of these are off our phones.  I just decided I didn’t want to have to lug it around the whole time…I kinda wish I had better pics, but I did enjoy the freedom of less to carry that day.

October FLEW by for us.  I mean, I don’t have a clue where it went!  I guess that happens when you’re calendar days are all full.

We did finally find time to go pick out pumpkins as a family.  With the big kids getting older and busier themselves, it’s harder to find those stretches of time where we can ALL do things as a family without either missing some or having extras.

We’ve gotta do better at making that a priority.

taken before we saw the “don’t climb the tree” sign…oops

A few short days later, it was time for Trick or Treating.

Next post will be pics of all that fun…