The Office

Chase and Delainy spend many an hour and many a ream of paper in the "dining room" which I now call the "Kid's office." They have access to markers, crayons, dot paints, and stickers and love spending loads of time drawing.

Ode to Emma

Matt's cousin Shelly has a daughter, Emma, who is rather famous for the locations and positions where/how she can fall asleep. Here's Delainey's tribute to Emma:

She sneaked out of her room after being put to bed to do a little reading in the living room:



This one is when she got stung by what we think were japanese wasps and she was incredibly uncomfortable and would only sleep with her legs at a 90 degree angle:



Asleep on mom (not a flattering picture of mom I might add):



And finally, with a buddy, on the way home from school:

Cousin Sighting

Matt's cousin Paul, and his family drove over for church and then dinner while they were in Orlando for a Disney visit. Delainey quickly took to her girl second cousins, showering them with hugs when they left:

Hail to the Honey Crisp!!!

I am an apple snob....there's no way around it. Living in Michigan, to some extent, ruined apples for me. Michigan has so many varieties, and when you can just go pick grapefruit sized apples off the tree BEFORE they are waxed...ahhh bliss!!! My favorite of all time is the Honey Crisp, a relatively newer variety. It tastes just about how it sounds-especially the "crisp" part. We left Michigan and I feared that I would never have Honey Crisp apples again.

In Pennsylvania I found them in the grocery store!! Bought them two bags at a time in spite of their slightly higher cost. Worth every penny, although still not as good as right of the tree. My friend, Stacy, was terrific-ly kind enough to send me a batch via the USPS.

So, now we're in Florida, the land of citrus. Apples anyone?? Every year in early September (where fall may be showing up in someplaces) I think of apple picking in Michigan. The first two weeks of September are when the Honey Crisp are ready. (note that I do NOT know when any other variety is ready) I depaired, but today, in a Super Target 20 minutes from my house I found Honey Crisp apples!! I'm still gleaming with excitement!! I also bought them out!! (there were only 2 1/2 pounds) Are they as good as Michigan apples-Yeah Right! But I'm excited nontheless and I think I shall refuse to share with the lesser mortals in my house!!!

Yeah for Honey Crisp!!

You can never go home again....

We've moved a lot. People have moved more, but we've moved a lot. We have met some of the most amazing people and have such wonderful friends. I've been spending probably too much time browsing through blogs lately. (it's great how you can link from one to another and find all kinds of friends) As I have I must admit that it breaks my heart a bit. It's a privilege to know all our friends, but so amazingly sad that we can't see them anymore except on blogs.

So as you all "drive by" know that I miss you all terribly and love that I know you all at the same time!!

Little Ballerina

The pictures aren't that great, but it's a little glimpse into our little dancer!! Hope you enjoy and I'll try to get some better pictures (for Grandma's sake!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Delainey usually stays home with Andrew while I take Braden and Chase to school. Yesterday when I arrived home, Andrew greeted me with "Mom, did you know that three plus four equals cat?" Delainey had been busy teaching him all kinds of facts.

Chase had to have some fairly major dental work this morning. His pediatric dentist is about 45 minutes away and does these prodcedures outpatient at the hospital. I had to be up at 4:00 this morning to arrive at 5:30. When I went out to the car to leave the house it was raining, courtesy of Tropical Storm Hanna. As we were getting close to the hospital I heard this little voice (who I thought was sleeping) say, "Mom is this Gustav or that Hanna thing?" Welcome to hurricane season Chase..

And finally, for all the more geeky people...This afternoon Delainey was doing some art work at the table repeating to herself "Don't try this at home" After a few times Chase jumped in and said "Hey mom, I'm Adam!" Delainey quickly jumped in with "I'm Jamie!" Chase proceeded to proclaim "and you mix milk with water and BOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!" to which Delainey replies "Seriously folks, DON'T try this at home!" Are you stymied? That would be from Mythbusters on the Discovery channel. (we only have like 36 hours of Mythbusters on our new DVR)