the end of this blog

ahem, life is complicated, why have multiple blogs??? I am importing this blog into www.growinrays.blogspot.com. If you would like to see updates and posts from our family ventures come join us there. Our RV ventures will still be at www.roknsons.blogspot.com unless I decide to import that one too :)

Update

I guess it has been a while since I posted. So many things have happened.
We just returned from a week at http://www.carolinacamp.com. It was a blast. The kids were mini campers, made new friends, had some fun experiences and learned some new things.
We stayed the week in our Avion for the first time camping as a family. I absolutely LOVED it and was happy to finally park it on our Lake and spend the night in it. It was a bit sad to leave, and I am looking forward to going back!
The kids are all growing and learning so much. Both Charmie and Mardie are now readers! They are learning new sound combinations each week, and doing well. They both have made it through several of their beginning reader books. They are also loving some of the science experiments that we have been doing lately.
Zuri now has many teeth, though not all of her baby teeth yet, and is quite the talker. She says new words daily, and has started to combine words into mini sentences. She is very active, and emulates her brothers in most that they do. We often find her walking around with a Darth Vader Mask, or weilding a Nerf blaster like they do.
My sister and her family are moving away to Seattle :( We found out in May. By the 12th of August they will have moved away. The time has flown. It went away too quickly, as I feel they have. It is a good move for their family as it has been obvious that God is blessing their move, yet, it still is sad. I have never known a period in my adult life with out my sister close by.
It's hard to believe that in a few short weeks another summer will have passed and we will be quickly approaching the fall and holiday season.

First tooth, only tooth

This has been here for a little over a month. These pics were taken on March 4. Zuri has gotten her first tooth

Finally

It's her only one. She's been teething for so long, I wish for her sake the rest would join in and cut through.
(pardon the crazy pics, she's like her brothers in that she doesn't sit still, unless she's alseep!)

MOV02292 Zuri the Drummer

MOV02292, originally uploaded by mom2rays.

. . . climbs stairs and can ride a bike!

The gates have been installed, but they have to be actually latched or wonder baby, I mean Zuri, can find a way to get where she wants to go. This time around it's up stairs. This picture is from the 2nd time in as many days she figured it out. We are in deep trouble. She's quick, quiet and quite good at getting into places she isn't supposed to be. Earlier today on multiple occasions she tried and successfully climbed into her dollhouse! She also successfully climbed onto her catterpiller all by herself. She has had the dismount down pat for a few months.

Rocky found this oko Italtrike on craigslist and we picked it up for when she's substantially bigger but I had to give her a chance to check it out! She loves it. If she had her way we would not put it into storage and save it for later. Rocky predicted, but I didn't want to believe it, she has a natural inclination for things that go maybe as much as Charmie and Rocky do. . .

Zuri can walk!

MOV02207, originally uploaded by mom2rays.

Zuri started walking Thursday 12/04 but she's sneaky about it. Whenever I turned my camera on she would sit down, start to clap her hands and refuse to walk until I turned off my camera. Well I caught her unawares today, she was busy playing by herself and interacting with daddy!

O' Christmas Tree

Rocky did such a beautiful job decorating our tree!

Rocky finishing cutting, and the boys "helping" with their swords.

Charmie gets a turn by himself. . . he learns weilding the saw isn't as easy as daddy makes it look!

Mardie getting help from Daddy to cut a bit of the tree.

Christmas Tree Day at Pinetop Farm 2008

Last year we didn't get around to doing this. I just wasn't up to it at the end of my pregnancy with Zuri. We made the mistake of buying a tree by the roadside. We paid for it with dropped needles all over the place. This year we returned to our family tradition and drove out to our tree farm of choice. Due to the previous years of drout he only opened 4 days this year. This made us very sad. The selection was sparce but Charmie right away picked out this 8 ft. beauty. It isnt' as full, especially at the bottom as some of our past trees but it's still very lovely.

Patternson Farms Pumpkin Patch Field Trip

School Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

school field trip

Charmie's and Mardie's first school field trip

We went to the pumpkin patches at Patterson Farms. The boys had a ton of fun.

Water Park Gatlinburg

Water Park

Water Park

Ripley's Aquarium Gatlinburg

Whenever we go to Gatlinburg we love to visit this Aquarium. It is the nicest Aquarium we have been to thus far. It has some incredible displays and specimins. Zuri even really enjoyed herself. Here are some shots of our visit.