Hello Snakey Snake

Tonight, Freddie and I had a fantastic date night downtown at my fave restaurant with a wonderful couple and good friends, John and Cheryl. We came home and were greeted by a little friend on our doorstep.... who likes to climb walls, evidently (just like Spiderman says Joshua).

Shameless Link to Our Fall Photo Shoot...

courtesy of Kim DeLoach Photography... If you are in the area, I highly recommend her. I think she did a great job!

http://kimdeloachphoto.blogspot.com/

Click on that link and you will see her blog entry for our sitting. There is a link at the bottom of our entry where you can view the slide show. Two blog entries down you will see an entry for my adorable nephew, Canon Jay.

Enjoy! :)

Becoming a Woman of Excellence

I have not been spending time with God recently. I miss Him. He hasn't gone anywhere but I have become distant from Him. I am not ever certain why this happens. I make up all kinds of excuses for myself but the truth of the matter is there is plenty of time - even with 3 small children and a house to keep - to spend time with my creator and heavenly father. I mean, really... if there is time for anything or anyone there should be time for Him.

I was reading through a book a friend of mine gave me "Becoming a Woman of Excellence" by Cynthia Heald and was struck by something she said.

Am I trusting God with my life and do I allow my circumstances to dictate my behavior or responses?

Maybe this is a question you might need to ask yourself as well. Maybe not. I think I am going to meditate on that question and these verses for the next few days...

Matthew 22:36-39: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

1 Corinthians 10:31: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Philippians 4:8: Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Fall Festivities Continue

We have been living it up these past couple of weeks with all of the fall festivities. This past Sunday night we attended our church's annual Trunk or Treat. Small groups come up with creative ideas to hand out candy to children of the church and from the surrounding community like the Plinko game, Monopoly, fishing, camping, Willy Wonka, etc. So the kids go from trunk to trunk playing and picking out candy. My children were most excited about the bounce houses and slides. We had lots of fun. You can see in the pics below that Joshua and his good friend Samuel were dressed alike as the Dark Knight.

This past Monday a good friend hosted a Halloween party and the kids were able to get even more use out of their halloween costumes. The children were to bring a pumpkin to paint and decorate. We painted our pumpkins earlier that morning (which ended up a nice shade of black) so we didn't join in on that activity but the kids did enjoy batting at a ghost pinata and playing with the other children. You will see Sophia and her good friend Hannah in the pictures below.

Yesterday, Freddie took off work so we could go to the apple orchard in the NC mountains together. We finally got off around 10:30am anticipating a long leisurely stroll around the apple orchard and a nice picnic while the children played on the playground. We get to the mountain around 11:30am to see that it is snowing! Yes, you read that right. The first thought that popped into my mind was "Wow, the Bradford Pears are blooming and the white thingies are falling off the trees." Then, it dawned on me.. it is fall.. not spring. The air temperature according to our van was 36 degrees and with the wind chill it had to be around 20 degrees. It was FrEeZiNg to say the least. Poor Sophia was shivering and just miserable. We didn't come all that way for nothing though! We were determined to pick some apples. So, we headed out to the orchard to find that all of the apples were either squishy on the ground or high up in the tops of the trees. Never fear! Our Spidey Josh was there and he climbed those apple trees to pick some apples. :) That lasted all of maybe 10 minutes then we rush back to the playground and store area to find refuge from the wind. There was a play house that we all hid in to block the wind. It was probably a good 15 degrees warmer in there. Then, we quickly raced up to the store to purchase already picked apples, the five or so apples Joshua rescued from the top of the trees, a perfect Page pumpkin and a delish caramel apple that we all enjoyed last night. Then, we all raced to the van which was about 15 feet from the car but it felt like an eternity in the whipping wind. We were back home safe and warm by 1:30pm.

Carowinds Fall 2008

Today we traveled to Carowinds and met a great friend of mine, Crystal, and her family. Crystal and I have been friends since we were 6 years old! I moved away from Virginia when I was in the second grade and we have stayed in contact ever since. I vividly remember the night before our move, both of us sitting in my grandparent's living room crying and crying while begging my parents to either not move or to let me live with Crystal. In my 6 year old mind, both of those scenarios were real possibilities. However, we headed to Georgia the very next day. I did visit often and spent many summers with her. I have such fun memories at the pool during the summer, skating at Skate Towne in our brownie uniforms, sledding down her sloped backyard which ended in a little creek that would freeze in the winter, making up dances to Madonna's Material Girl with our hair in side pony tails, staying up all night long while changing clothes over and over again to prepare for what to wear to church the next morning, her oldest brother devouring cantaloupe, riding bikes around the neighborhood and creating paper "mailboxes" to put on our bedroom doors to leave each other letters using our aliases "Butch" and "Fletch". Yeah, don't ask. I have no idea where those names came from. Oh, I could go on and on. I just love her!

Our first born children were born within a couple of weeks of each other- Ava and Joshua. Sadly, sometimes we go years without seeing or even talking to one another. However, whenever we get together, it is like we have never been apart. It truly is special. Today we reunited at the amusement park. The kids had a blast! The day started off a little over cast and quite cool which was great because it wasn't crowded nor too hot. We splashed in some muddle puddles left over from last night's rain. In addition to riding the cool Nickelodeon themed rides the kids were able to trick or treat and pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. It was so much fun to see them have so much fun.

Here are some photos from our special day.

Fall Photo Shoot of My Girls

Boo in the Zoo 2008

Joshua, Sophia and I attended the annual Halloween celebration at our town's zoo tonight. It was lots of fun! The kids were obedient and pleasant and a joy to be around. Sophia is Elmo for the second year in a row (yes, her choice not mine although my budget appreciates it!) and Joshua is the Dark Knight from the most recent Batman. We have a plethora of Halloween fests to attend this year so all of the costumes will be well worn out by the time November 1st rolls around.

Happy almost Halloween!!

We Ain't 'fraid of No Spiders!

Our spider friend... difficult to see what he really looks like... so, here is a better picture of the black and yellow argiope:

We went to Freddie's parents' home this past weekend to visit an old friend of Freddie's from high school and to hang out with his Mom and Dad. We had a very nice time relaxing and eating (and eating and eating some more) and napping and watching football (I will leave it at that) and spending time with family. Yesterday evening we were outside playing hide and seek and kickball when we ran across this huge spider hanging from a web between two indian hawthorne bushes. It was a black and yellow argiope spider - commonly referred to as a writing spider because there is a conspicuous white zig zag of silk spirals woven into the center of the web. It has been theorized that these visible lines help prevent birds and other flying animals from damaging the web.* Far more info on spiders than you probably ever wanted to know. So, there you go.

Josh and Sophia were fascinated by this arachnid. Well, we all were, really. I kept having Arachnophobia flashbacks and thought for sure the wretched thing was going to fly through the air with sticky silk streaming from its abdomen and land on my forehead or something. Nevertheless, I couldn't keep my eyes off. The kids found a stick and were poking the poor thing which would cause the spider to start bouncing the web. I am assuming to ward off enemies. It didn't run these predators off. They thought it was the coolest. And, yes, the spider did survive.

*All educational information regarding the black and yellow argiope spider in the first paragraph did not originate from some useless knowledge stored in my brain... it can be found on wikipedia.com.*

Joshua ever so carefully disturbing the spider.

Sophia chasing Joshua after she scared him to death by tickling her fingers on his shoulder pretending to be a spider as he was concentrating on disturbing our spider friend. It was hilarious to see him jump.

My brave ones.

Come on Sophia... just one huggy picture with your bro, please? Great smile Joshua!

Beautiful Sophia bug. :)

Sophia's New 'Do

On Monday, I developed this wild idea to get Sophia's hair cut into a bob. You can't say it was completely impulsive because it took me until today, Wednesday, to follow through. And, I am very pleased with the results even though it ended up a weee bit shorter than I had envisioned.

Before...

During...



After...

Field Trip to Aunt Sandy's Park

For sweet Canon's birthday he received a nice wooden play set from some friends. It is complete with swings, see saw, rock climbing wall, plank, playhouse areas, picnic table, slide, trapeze and soft mulch to prevent serious injury. It is AWESOME! The kids and I hung out at Sandy's last week and they played all afternoon outside taking advantage of the beautiful weather. Josh asks if he can go and play at Aunt Sandy's park. :)

Trip to the Mall with my Munchkins

Sandy, one of my sweet sister-in-laws, has planned a fall photo shoot for our family in a couple of weeks. The shoot will take place out by her home in the country and I can't think of a more perfect setting. We have always had our pictures taken inside a chain photography studio so having some professional pictures taken in a natural setting is going to be a real treat. I can't wait to post the pictures!

To have nice pictures taken you need nice clothes which all coordinate nicely.... so off to the mall we went. The kids behaved marvelously. Joshua was decked out in madras plaid shorts, grey t-shirt and a batman mask. The other children in the mall loved that. Our first stop was Gymboree and we had success! I found a pair of jeans that fit Joshua well and two adorable pink plaid matching dresses for the girls. We headed to another shop and I found the perfect white button up shirt for Josh to wear with his jeans. I don't think I have ever had such a successful shopping trip where I found everything I had in mind to buy AND with no major meltdowns. Even Emily was pleasantly peaceful. As a reward for their good behavior we ordered a raspberry slushy for the older two to share and we trekked down to the mall's toddler play area. As we slowly meandered down the mall's corridor to the area, two young teenage boys come racing down the other side leaping over chairs. I stood in disbelief that anyone would actually think that was appropriate behavior but then I am interrupted by "but it's MY turn for the slushy!". We enter the play area, approximately 20ft in diameter where there are probably 8 other children 4 and under. I let them loose while I collapse on the cushioned bench and breathe a sigh of relief that everyone is contained and entertained and I sip my diet Coke. All of a sudden those two 14-15 year old boys enter the area and start wrestling. Like, real wrestling. Emily is probably 3 feet away from them at one point. I guess Mommy Hen kicked in but I immediately feel incredulous anger well up inside of me. Surely, SURELY, they know better? Then, I think, surely, SURELY someone else is going to say something to them.. you know, the whole sociological observation where no one takes action because they think someone else will... well, that was in full effect. I have this complete out of body experience and I find myself standing up and walking over to these boys (all the while thinking.. are you really doing this?) and I confront them and tell them they need to leave that it is inappropriate behavior and a danger to the babies. One of the guys had the audacity to ask me "what babies?" with Emily right behind me. Oh, I was mad. One of them leaves the area but the other starts arguing with me. What was I to do then? My heart was beating so quickly. If you know me, it is so out of character for me to confront anyone. I took a personality test through Freddie's company a few weeks ago and it said my personality type avoids conflict at all cost. Well, not when the cost could be my children's safety. I can't even remember what happens next. I know that I walk away because I am not going to argue with a 14 year old punk. They stop wrestling but then decide it would be cool to play on the equipment meant for children 40 inches or shorter. I could not believe that these boys were so impervious to authority and lacked any respect for other people. How does a child even get to that point? Finally another mother steps up and confronts then and they leave. It probably took me a good 15 minutes for my blood pressure to fall and my face to return to its normal coloring. I wish confronting others when justified didn't make me want to throw up. But, the story ended well because the kids were all safe and enjoyed their time playing and meeting new friends. Here are some pics from our outing...

My Soccer Star

#4 he's our man, if he can't do it... no one can! Whoo hoooooo!

(spirit fingers, jump, kick, swish pom poms)


Yes, I am so THAT Mom. :)

Just call me Spiderman...err, I mean The Incredible Hulk

Who can blame him for being fascinated by super heroes when they have cool toys like these Hulk fists available? A friend bought him these for his 4th birthday and they have been a huge hit in our home. Introducing.... Joshua Page as the Incredible Hulk. (Why do I always start singing "The Incredible...Edible Egg" jingle in my head when I say Incredible Hulk?) I digress....

Be afraid.. be very afraid.

Sophia parle un peu français

During our home school time I try to teach the kids a little french (operative word is little). They have learned basic greetings and good-byes, counting to 20, colors, how to say what their name is and how old they are, a few nouns along with a few fun idiomatic expressions (key phrases like Qu'est-ce que tu fait? - What are you doing? and Vite! Vite! - Hurry! Hurry! and Allez! - Lets Go!). Sophia has amazed me with her ability to learn french. She has an uncanny ability to memorize anything and everything. She will beat you, hands down, with the Shrek Memory game... I guarantee it! Today we reviewed some nouns that I went over with them probably a week or maybe more ago. And she rattled them off like I had just reviewed them with her. Another video of one of mes enfants précieux.

*Do I REALLY sound that southern? This camera accentuates it because I can't really sound like that. Yes, I will go with that.*

Baby Bye Bye

Little Emily is getting to be such a big girl! She turned 9 months old on the 30th... sort of. Her real birthday is on the 31st so she really didn't have a true birthday this month. She is cruising on furniture and can stand alone momentarily. She has three teeth - two on the bottom and one on the top with her other top tooth peeking through the gum. She is sleeping through the night - Praise the Lord! - from 7pm until around 6am. And, her first word is bye bye! She is an ok eater.. pretty much over baby food much to my dismay as it is so much cleaner than finger foods. So, I try to sneak in some pureed turkey tetrazzini (icko) and carrots here and there but her favorites so far are my homemade chicken tetrazzini, hamburger pie and macaroni and cheese. She is such a cute kid and has a very sweet temperament. Her brother and sister adore her. Here is a little video for your viewing pleasure. :)