Halloween

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Myah just turned three years old! She has become such a sweet, funny, social little girl in the past few months, it's just amazing. She's also smart as can be! She was tested for a possible preschool program a month ago and she tested at a four-year old level. She is amazing!

Here are some pictures from her birthday. She picked out her own birthday cake (triple chocolate fudge complete with chocolate fudge icing) and got to pick her own dinner. She got to decorate her cake by herself and picked green and yellow icing and sprinkles. Both are traditions we started with Caleb when he turned three. Myah decided she wanted a waffle, a piece of cheese and a banana for dinner. We joined in on the waffles, but left the cheese and banana to her.

After dinner she opened presents. Caleb got her a Littlest Pet Shop dog and a pink fishing rod. We got her a big-girl bed, complete with sheets and comforter set, a wooden dress-up bear, a three wheel scooter (she's always trying to steal Caleb's big one) and a Jump-o-lene (basically it looks like an over inflated swimming pool with a bouncy bottom). She loves bouncing and now she can do it safely instead of climbing up on our bed! She was sooo excited about all her presents but the fishing rod and the scooter are at the top of the list. She even figured out how to cast her fishing rod all by herself within 30 minutes of opening it.

8-Year Old 'Bad Words'

I love the innocence of children. Caleb is getting ready to start the 3rd grade in a few weeks and we were talking about growing up and choosing to make good decisions. One of the discussions focused on 'appropriate' language and 'inappropriate' language. Caleb revealed to me that he knows some bad words but reassured me that he will never, ever use them. Here is the list of 'bad words' that my eight year old knows.

The 'S' word - stupid or shut-up

The 'D' word - dumb

The 'B' word - butt

The 'F' word - fart

If this is as 'bad' as it gets for a while I will be quite happy. :-)

Trip to SeaWorld

This past weekend we managed to get away to SeaWorld, Orlando. It was soooo hot but a lot of fun. The kids had a blast and we look forward to going back when things cool down a little bit.

The Zoo!

A little while ago my brother, his wife and my little nephew came for a visit. We visited five different beaches in five days, found tons of different sea shells, went to several different nature centers and somehow found time to go to the zoo. Whew!

The kids loved the zoo and the animals, but their favorite thing was the water fountains.

Backing-up to Easter

We had a great Easter! My parents came down from PA and we got to hang out and have a lot of fun. We had an incredible Easter service at church and an amazing baptism party at the beach - 97 people got baptized on Easter Sunday!

The kids enjoyed painting Easter eggs and of course, getting their Easter baskets. We waited until a couple of days after Easter for the baskets because Caleb has come to the conclusion that if you wait until stuff is 50 - 75% off, you can get a lot more for your money. Smart kid! We normally don't do 'presents' in the Easter baskets, but we found such great deals on different things this year we decided to forgo most of the candy and get other treats.

Playing 'Littlest Pet Shop' with Maw-Maw and painting toenails with Pop-Pop

What A Mess!!!

So I know I haven't posted in a looooong time, but I kind of have a decent excuse or two for it. In addition to out-of-town guests, camping trips and just being crazy busy, a month and a half ago my computer, very unexpected, died. It was determined that the logic board was fried beyond repair and the mourning process of losing a lot of my files took several days. lol

After a couple of visits to the Apple Store and their website, we determined that we were going to have to custom order a new Mac since I needed certain items in the computer to do my job. After several mistakes with the order, I finally got the computer delivered only to have to leave for a job in Atlanta two days later. When I got back a week later, I got it all hooked up, installed more drives and loaded all my software. Whew!

In the mean time, the kids kept growing, playing and acting silly - and I have pictures to prove it! I plan on spending the next week or two catching up on the blog and trying to get myself back in the routine of blogging on a regular basis.

Stay tuned!

Beautiful Girl

Daddy took these pictures this morning.

Rock-a-bye Bear

Myah decided to rock her baby bear to sleep today. She's singing her own version of 'Rock-a-bye Baby' to him. Very sweet!

On a slightly different note, she hit Caleb over the head with a baseball bat last night. You've got to love two-year olds.

Food

The other day I made authentic Chinese food. I prepared potstickers and Siu Mai for dinner. It took a while to make but it turned out really well. We ate it with a tangy soy sauce and edamame. Yum!

On another note, Myah is developing her own culinary interests. She does NOT like chicken unless it has ketchup on in.

The other day Caleb was eating some dried edamame with wasabi sauce and Myah insisted on trying some. We told her over and over that it was too hot and it would make 'boo-boos' in her mouth but she didn't care - brother was eating it and she wanted some too. Luckily the burn from the wasabi goes away quickly.

Turtle Hospital

On Saturday afternoon the kids and I went to lunch at Chick-fil-a and then visited the Sea Turtle Hospital at Loggerhead Marinelife Center. It was a little on the cooler side and we dodged rain showers but Caleb and Myah had fun and we got to see several of the 'patients'. The museum was also great for the kids and we had fun learning about sea turtles and other marine life. We will definitely be going back in the future when the weather cooperates a little more.

Catching Up

I just got back from another week working in Atlanta and decided to do something special with the kids over the weekend. We were going to go to a Chinese New Year's festival but ended up not being able to go. We decided to go check out a local nature center instead. The kids really enjoyed it and we will definitely be going back in the future. Sunday afternoon was spent playing in the backyard with Myah running all over the place. It's good to be back home. :-)

Myah insisted on carrying the Pac-pac (backpack) for a little while. She took it very seriously.