Island Christian School Christmas Festival

I was sick leading up to the Christmas Festival... pneumonia and strep throat (though the urgent care doctor said I had H1N1, whatever - he didn't test me for it). Anyways, I was on antibiotics and tamiflu and praying I was well enough to make it out! I felt great Saturday morning when I woke up and I was so happy. Kourtney and McKenna could not wait to go! We worked their classroom booths and they had so much fun. I didn't get a picture of me and McKenna working the booth though, :(. If only it had been a little cooler that day. I never thought about getting a sunburn at a Christmas Festival, lol!

The parade!

Go Eagles!!!On the Ferris Wheel

View from the Ferris Wheel in the Florida Keys!

Stuffed Animals

Here we are trying to get a handle on our baby dolls and stuffed animals... 3 mesh bags full. I told the girls they could each fill one bag and the rest we would give to the rummage sale at Island Christian. We made "keep it" and "give it away" piles. There were tears, bargaining, wheeling and dealing. In the end, we accomplished our goal. The sad part? We probably have another 2 bag fulls at our "sick house."

Brisk morning in the Florida keys

We shaved Blake's head

I can't believe after all I went through to have Travis let me "trim" Blake's hair a couple months ago that today Travis said, "let's shave Blake's head!" Woah! So we went for it. Blake has gorgeous blond locks and they will grow back soon... and hopefully not be so puffy looking as his last hair cut. His shaved head does make him look older. I will miss his blonde curls but they will grow back quickly. Maybe I will do a progression of his hair growing out every Wednesday... if I can remember!FYI: shaving a toddler's head and lolipops do not go well together. I had to keep rinsing it off.

Travis said it was in honnor of vets day and of my brother joining the marines. I think he was just bored on his day off ;) Daddy loves his boy having the same haircut as he does though!

Punk Rocker!

When you ask him what happened to his hair he says, "Daddy do that."

Youtube

I've uploaded several videos but never posted them. Here are a few...



This was the Sunday morning that it was cool out on our way to church. My poor kids never get a break from the heat. They were so excited.



Here is day 2 of "cooler" weather. Travis is gonna hate this because the grass in the yard is so long. Our lawn guy's mower broke for a couple weeks :).



Pumpkin Patch with Island Christian School



On Blake's actual birthday... singing to him and running screaming. I'm posting this despite the embarrassing state of my house. We were getting ready to tile the next week and it was a mess.



Blake opening "playdoughs"



Blake riding hotwheels on his birthday



All three kids riding and poor Kourtney on the bike that is way too small for her.



The puppet show

Joe and Lisa's wedding

We had a great time at Joe and Lisa's wedding Saturday. LPC rocks! What a great church family we have. I love them all!Trouble times 4I made the cake

Blake was being a ladies man all night
McKenna and daddy

Sorting, Organizing, Counting...

Kourtney LOVES her sweets. She was thrilled when she came home with way more candy than is normal to get on October 31st. She went to a trunk or treat our church had. Sunday after church at Papa and Nana's house I found her with the candy dumped out. She was acting like her mom... sorting the candy by what kind it was and counting how many pieces she had. 197 pieces to be exact... and that was just HER bag (which she later found out she could not eat all of it herself). I have decided to be noble and donate the candy to the church... just as soon as I eat all of the chocolate pieces.

trunk or treat

Cars with decorated trunks, costumes masking true identities (that freaked out Blake), speakers, a dj, the funky chicken and electric slide, a costume contest, a tattoo station and WAAAYYYY too much candy. Fun times!

Kids Life...

I have one in every venue at church... except the nursery. This is after the signs were taken down for the day.

Blake's 2 year old football birthday party

Seems like birthdays are always stretched out. So Blake's birthday was on October 21st and his party was on the 31st. It worked out nicely because the kids had something to do on Halloween. We set up bounce houses, threw out some face paint, and let the kids run around the church. It was fun. Thanks to everyone who came!

underoos!
yeah, on an iPhone at his party
hut, hut, HIKE!
Go Canes!
The Clarks celebrating Cooper's birthday
The Barrs celebrating Gideon's birthday!

I cleared the table and then someone blocked the cake view at the last minute while someone else was taking pictures!

Awe, how sweet!
Jumping high in his new shoes
Be afraid
those three!
I believe in arranged marriage - even if she is a Patriot's fanPizzie!
Yum!
Bouncy, bouncy!

Cakes

I made all three cakes for the birthday party. The star tasted good. The footballs, not so much. They were not baked right or something. Anyways, it was an easy cake mold and it was a good thing because I had to make all 3 cakes at my in-laws house and had to transport them 45 minutes to the party in a car with three kids! It was funny.

It was a long day. I had never done this to a cake before! LOL.
I love that they help with their cakes

Costume Parade

So my camera died at the beginning, but ICS did a cute costume parade for the little kids. They got to walk through the high school classrooms waving at the kids like they were in a parade. So darn cute. I was a bit annoyed at myself for following the rules though. The letter sent home said for the kids to wear their costumes over their clothes (or at least thinking back on it that is what it said). So my girls were among the few with their shirts on under their pretty costumes :(. Oh well. They were still adorable.

Pumpkin Patch

Island Christian School took the Kindergarten, K4, and K3 to the pumpkin patch. Perfect photo op! Here are the best ones...

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

Blake's actual 2nd birthday (party and cake pics to come later)

Blake turned 2 on October 21st. His party is on October 31st along with 2 other boys that are turning 2! It is going to be fun. But we couldn't resist making a birthday dinner and letting him open the presents we had for him. We had a great night. He is so precious and so 100% boy it has been a wonderful 2 years with him in our lives!

dinner
Making cards
Since the moment he came out of my belly we have talked about how big his feet are!
1st remote control car
playdoughfun outdoors
New ride - a Diego hotwheels that talks to him!

Crystal Clear

McKenna finished out her week of breathing treatments, but not without mommy having to get creative. My friend Danielle told me to let her put stickers on her machine and have her dolls get breathing treatments. That was genius after the novelty wore off. At her follow up visit Wednesday Dr. Dones said her lungs were crystal clear! PTL for a good report!

Time for a post

I can't believe I haven't posted all week. It has been a crazy week. We are tiling the house this weekend so we have been gearing up for that by packing things away this week. Also, just being on facebook helps me keep up with my friends so well and pictures are so much easier to put up that the blog has sort of taken a back seat. But I love keeping it up because it is like my online scrapbook! I have a few posts to get up so here is my first! This is from last Sunday... One of the most challenging things on Sunday is keeping up with everyone's stuff! at the end of service Here is a pic from the PK campus at the end of the night!

Nice cool morning. Homestead campus.

Blake having fun

Ritz hosting

Chris hosting... had he been on FACEBOOK he could have seen these on Monday when I posted them. I even thought about holding them hostage on Facebook, but I'm not mean.

Blake in boots

My brother leaves for boot camp...

Kevin's blog is back up again (it was down for a while). He leaves October 19th for boot camp at Paris Island. He is joining the marine reserves. Here is his post, "The Real Heros In Our Country"

I love you Brittany and will be praying for you! We will miss you Kevin!

A (n almost) perfect Friday night

Travis is the chaplain for Coral Shores High football team. He loves it. I love it for him. So most Friday nights he can be found under Friday night lights. That leaves me with the kids and I have rediscovered the joys of realizing everyone can relax on Saturday morning. Kourtney reminds me all night that she gets to sleep in on Saturdays.

So I decided I wanted to make tonight fun. I told the girls it was girls night. That we were going to put Blake to bed and stay up late together. We went to K-Mart (I keep K-Mart in Key Largo in business) and shopped for some things to do. We got chocolate, fake little girl nails, and a craft project. I ordered a pizza while standing in line at K-Mart and we picked it up on the way home. I let the kids each get a big bottle of Sprite (they thought that was so cool)

We did a candy hunt (like an easter egg hunt)

It was so cute when it was time to put Blake to bed. The girls acted like it was some big secret like we were tricking Blake into thinking they were going to sleep too. So they crawled in bed and waved goodnight to Blake. Then we moved on to girlie things. We put fake nails on. Kourtney took hers off before bed tonight, but McKenna kept them on. I hope she doesn't wake up in the night to tell me to take them off.

We painted hangy window things.

The only thing that would have been more perfect about tonight would have been if Travis were home. But I will settle for a perfectly relaxing night with my kiddos. They are growing way too fast and I want time to freeze. Since it won't I will try to capture every moment I can.

Kourtney was star of the week in her class

Here is her board

Paging Dr. Kourtney

Yesterday I had decided McKenna's constant coughing was enough to make me take her to the doctor. I still have not looked for a new pediatrician here in the keys because I love Kingsbay so much I think it is worth the drive. Dr. Dones has been our doctor since Kourtney was born and she is the best pediatrician EVER. We didn't get to see her yesterday because she wasn't on the sick side, but we will see her for our follow up next week. A visit up there means an hour, 15 minute car ride one way. It is near the Falls. Worth every minute. I love them. They said she had a mild case of asthma. Prescribed some breathing treatments for a week and a follow up next week. My mom is also looking into natural things we can do for her. The picture above is her getting a treatment in the office. Don't you just want to hug her?
Kourtney has been very concerned about the whole thing. Such a sweet, caring big sister. She keeps asking questions. Then yesterday when we did the breathing treatment Kourtney pretended to be her doctor and wanted to get her things and make sure she was comfortable. I love my kids so much. Praying for a healing for McKenna!