Book Review

        So, before we moved, I read a free book from Bethany House so that I could review it.  It is called In Too Deep (The Kincaid Brides) by Mary Connealy.  Let me start off with the plus side:  I enjoyed reading it... but then again, as long as the story is easy to follow, the characters are interesting, and the book is "clean", I'm a pretty easy sell!  Now, the minus side (which isn't really fair, but anyway)... When I opted to review this book, I didn't realize it was the 2nd book in the series.  So, I spent the first few chapters pretty confused, because, apparently, it picks up right where book 1 ended.  And, apparently, I had not read book 1!  This book did not go back and review certain facts so I was a tad lost for a while, but I caught on and made up my own stories where necessary :)  Another minus... Like most Christian Romance stories, you basically know the end result, so, in that way, this book was fairly predictable, but it was fun to read the journey anyway... and I am actually a little intrigued as to what will happen in the next book!

Gracious Gobstoppers

Obviously, it has been ages (or feels that way) since I posted last.  And, since I found the connector cable for the camera, I have decided to do an update :)

Mr. E was crying one morning, I found him "stuck" up here... boy am I glad J insisted upon anchoring the bookshelves to the wall :)

Mr. E also found a non-washable red crayon and colored the wall in many places... and I used up all my Magic Eraser to no avail... so we painted...

Smaug helped :)

The others played in the "girls" room!

We released Annie in anticipation of moving :(  TW was sad.

The Saturday before we moved, we had our Sunday School class over for a final BBQ/get together... everyone had a blast!

This is Easter morning... egg hunting :)

Cute, Huh?

Our group photos turned out so-so... but this shot turned out A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E!!!

Some kids have a blanket or animal... this one has a shovel :)

Here are the kids watching The Packers (inside joke, Uncle MP will get it) :)

And enjoying a chocolaty treat (outside)!

Smaug had one last Dr's appointment... while we waited TW (and another boy, not pictured) did math facts... too funny!

OK, I hope this video works... we don't let our kids sleep in the jump up... but we put him in there, and instead of jumping, he went straight to this... so now you can hear (I hope) why his name is Smaug :)

On J's birthday we went to our friends house.  They had a big birthday cookie and hung the Happy Birthday banner in his honor!

We were parked somewhere along our journey to Jacksonville :)

In our first few days in our new home, we ate out a bit... here we are at Cracker Barrel!  Unfortunately, J had a cold, and the meal just wasn't the same :(

We distracted the kids with PBS before church our first Sunday!

Instead of hanging out in a hotel room, the kids and I drove J around as he checked in.  Sometimes we had to wait quite a bit... the small guys napped while TW climbed a palm tree ;)

Here are the kids cheering on Smaug as he practiced crawling!

Oh, here we are waiting again!

TW took this picture... it's a wood peckers hole!

:)

Our new house has cats roaming about (outside of course)!

There is a playground a short field from our front door!

TW has been practicing standing up with Smaug!

In Other News:  We have finished our Bible studies for the school year.  In science, we are in our last section on growth and development.  As part of this, we did a height prediction quiz for TW... according to it, he should be a whopping 5' 11" as an adult... somehow, I think he might end up a bit taller :)

New Orleans, or Part 2 of Yesterday's Post

Okay, so here is part 2 of this weeks blog update... actually, this post only covers this past weekend, our great Adventure to New Orleans to visit some good friends that we knew in Virginia!

Bing went with us, he was very excited!

On the way, we stopped in Biloxi, MS and Daddy showed us where he went to school for a few months ages ago.  We took potty breaks here... I liked that the store was called a "shoppette" :)

So, we had one full day of New Orleans fun, and we went to the Aquarium.  What we didn't realize when we planned the trip, was that the Final Four of March Madness was occurring in the same area... there were people everywhere!!!

Smaug wore his fishy hat, it went with the aquarium theme :)

The penguins...

Feeding the parakeets...

Our friends have a boy (TW's age) and a girl (the triplets age)!

After feeding the birds, we fed ourselves some ice cream!

It's blurry, but Berry was so proud of herself up on the frog!

The otters...

Petting some stingrays...

Crossing the busy street... I can't believe he can still do this!!!

A big Walgreen's for Grandma B!

We had a late lunch at the Parkway Bakery and Tavern... home of the Po'Boy... J had alligator!

And what is a trip to New Orleans without a ride on the trolley?

TW and his friend where like two peas in a pod!

There is in alligator in those trees...we saw several on our drive "home" from church!

We headed back to our real home Sunday afternoon... Smaug fell asleep and TW put his hat on him :)

The kids were WILEY... and wind swept!

As we unpacked, the Littles got into my make-up bag... and primped... Mr. E had mascara in his eyebrow, Berry had some gloss on her lips, and Pretty Girl, well...

It turned out that our friends decided to take an impromptu mini-vacation to... Pensacola!  So, we met them again on Monday for dinner (at that same date-like restaurant J had just "drug" me to)... and then said another good-bye with the promise to visit again in another 5 years!

In Other News:  Since we are probably going to be packed up next week for our new Adventure in Moving, I'm not sure when I'll blog again... Grammy, I don't think we'll make it before our move... but you are still only a few hours away :)

The Past Few Weeks, Sort Of

So, I noticed my camera had not been downloaded in quite some time... there were so many pictures, in fact, that I have had to break them up into two groups!!!

We went to a superhero birthday... for two of our superhero friends!!!  Everyone got a cape and mask!!!

Including Smaug :)

We are still wearing our capes!  In this picture TW was showing me his balloon submarine... the straw is his periscope :)

We also discovered that we can fit 4 of the kids in one toy and spend 50 cents one time!

Smaug got shoes... a totally unnecessary but FUN splurge... and yes Grandpa C... they are camouflage :)

In math we talked about reading an analog scale... since we only have digital at home (and the doctors office), we practiced reading and weighing ourselves using the fish scale! (that's sorta punny... fish scale)!

We NEVER get Mr. E smiling in a picture, but he really thought the spinny thing in the car was great!  Our new dollar toy made it home and then was broken... but the smiles (and video we got) was totally worth a buck!

Our little toy stopped working... we discovered that being trained in electronics comes in handy!  Daddy saved the day and re-grounded our toy with his solder gun!!!

And Smaug is very happy that his toy is fixed!

We planned on a trip to New Orleans one weekend (which was moved back a week)... anyway, I pulled out the kids backpacks... they liked that :)

J "made me" eat out one evening... it was almost like a date... the kids played and we got to hang out just the two of us (and Smaug).

And then, Smaug sat in his first restaurant high chair!

This is how Daddy takes the kids to wash their hands after dinner... "Hands up!  Don't touch anything!"

We treated the kids to Krispy Kremes... TW could have watched the machine make donuts all day!

Pretty Girl did this... she told me everyone was eating breakfast too.

You can't tell, but Smaug was given (unbeknownst to me) a graham cracker, which he gummed and snaggle toothed to death, and loved, and screamed when I took it away :)

And so, to wrap up part 1 of the past few weeks, we grew some bacteria on homemade agar... it was gross... not sure if TW learned the importance of hand washing or not, but he was impressed!

In Other News:  In case you didn't hear, we will be moving to Jacksonville, FL next... very soon!