Little Performers

We went to the town festival a few weekends ago to watch the Parade and see Santa!  The kids had a great time, I’ll post some pics later!  While we were there the singers on stage asked if any children wanted to join them in singing Jingle Bells.  Of course Ryder ran right up there and grabbed the microphone!

 

 

It’s no surprise to me at all to see Ryder steal the show, but what surprised me this past Sunday was that Maisy & I were sitting in Church watching the kids perform the cantata and she knew every word and movement as she sat there following along in her chair.  So when it was time for the last song, I asked her if she wanted to go on stage and sing, she ran right up there!  Check her out in the little black & red dress up front!

 

Little Performers!

Mommy & Daddy Take A Vacation!

Alan & I have been wanting to take a trip back to the Florida Keys ever since we honeymooned there in 2008.  Having kids in 2009 and 2011 made that idea pretty much impossible.  But when my Dad emailed me in January to tell me he’d be getting married there in November, without hesitation I told him we would be there!!!  I had 9 months to work out the logistics and make it happen, and sure enough, we made it happen!  I’m SO glad we got to be there, the wedding was absolutely beautiful!

These guys are all old friends/bandmates of my Dad who knew me when I was a baby, it was neat to talk to each of them!

One of them was the manager of their band in the 80’s and is actually working on a documentary right now, so he interviewed me while I was there!  Pretty neat :)

The reception was a great celebration!  And I learned that I can’t even hang with my own Father!  Let’s just say the Duval Crawl after the reception was a little too much for this girl! 

 

What’s crazy is that the National Power Boat races were going on in Key West the same weekend we were there so we actually ran into some friends!!

The day after the wedding I slept in longer than I have since I became a Mom!!  Then we met back up with my Dad & his new bride to spend some time together.  I don’t get to see my Dad much so I was really excited that they didn’t mind sharing some of their time with us!

 

  

It was sad to say good-bye because I never know when we’ll see each other again, but I’m just so thankful everything fell into place and we were able to take the vacation.  But our vacation wasn’t over!!  Alan & I were headed to a different key, Islamorada to spend a few nights in the place where we honeymooned. 

  

We shopped, laid by the pool, ate romantic meals (the water and sunsets make every meal feel so romantic!), found wildlife (because I did marry Nature Boy), and just spent some good quality time together!  Being on this trip was kind of a reality check for me.  When we were there 5 years ago I really didn’t have much to stress about.  I was just a girl in love, totally consumed and excited about this new path my life was headed down!  Five years doesn’t even seem like that long but WOW have our lives changed.  We have a home and children and careers and bills, oh boy do we have bills!  We are SO very blessed to have the things that we have in life, but all of those things bring heavy responsibilities, which for me translates to stress!  Being away for a week really brought me back to the basics and allowed me to reflect.  I love my husband and I love my children, I want them to have the best of me, they deserve it.  So I’m trying not to stress my way through this stage of our lives, but to embrace it and enjoy it.  I’m a work in progress!

Shout-out to my AMAZING mother for keeping the crazies for us while we were away!!  She said she will no longer make fun of me for being in bed by 9pm or not being able to carry on a phone conversation!  She did such a great job with them though.  They are definitely very suspicious of us now though, grilling us if we’re just running out somewhere really quick, they need to make sure we are not going to Florida anytime soon!  Ryder informed me that I am NOT allowed to go back to Florida, the ONLY way I can go back is if I’m taking him to Disney World.  I’ll get right on that!

October Fun!

As soon as October rolls around I get excited about all of the festivities that come along with the fall season!  We started with a trip to the pumpkin patch one evening.  We’re lucky enough to have one within miles from our house, so we went during the week and were the only people there! 

We fed the goats and picked out pumpkins then headed home.  I had Bible study that night but was so surprised to come home to this on our porch:

The kids were so proud of the “Bat Cat” Daddy made for them!  Our pumpkin was carved and we were READY for Halloween. 

 

 

Good thing because we had LOTS of activities leading up to it.  Friday we went to a Halloween carnival at Ryder’s school.

Saturday we went to a Harvest Festival at our Church!

     

After that we went to another Harvest Party at Penny & Joe’s house!  Then Sunday evening the kids got dressed up again to wear their costumes to Awana.

      

Halloween wasn’t until Thursday so they spent their days wearing crazy masks leading up to the big trick-or-treat day!

And finally Thursday came.  Daddy got bails of hay and loaded up the trailer, decorated it with halloween lights, and hooked it up to his truck to drive us around our neighborhood!  Terry & Peyton came down with Aunt Dee & Michael, plus we had Cameron with us and then several friends from the neighborhood jumped on our awesome trick-or-treat hay ride!  The kids got lots of candy and had a blast!

   

 

So fun! Each time someone asked Ryder what he wanted to be this year he would add to it, first it was a Ninja Turtle, then a Ninja Turtle Cowboy, then a Vampire Ninja Turtle Cowboy, I had to cut him off and tell him NO MORE IDEAS!  We’ll see how much he can build up in his head for next years costume, so far it’s a King & a Wizard!

Totally Unacceptable!

When one of the kids does something that I think is just ridiculous, how dare you, how could you, what were you thinking, why on EARTH would you do that, I usually exclaim to them (before punishment) “This is totally unacceptable!”.  That could explain how I feel about my blogging behavior right now!  But please don’t punish me, I’m here, ready to catch you all up on our Marsh Madness!  If you follow us on Instagram or keep up with the pics that are constantly updating on the side bar then you probably haven’t missed much but my last actual blog post was school starting TWO MONTHS AGO!  Totally Unacceptable.

So what has been going on since school started?  I’m sitting here asking myself the same thing!  I guess I better go through pictures and then just narrate!  Sound like a good plan??

We went to a Birthday Party at a firehouse, Ryder was more interested in being in the part where the firemen and trucks were, so with all of his charm, he got himself (and his tag-a-long sister) a grand tour!

   

The fall weather had been (past tense, now!) so good to us, we spent many evenings and Sunday afternoons at George Washington’s birthplace having picnics, playing in the water, looking for sharks teeth, and we caught some beautiful sunsets!

 

 

(oh and fighting, we don’t do much without that these days!)

This girl and all of her randomness just makes me laugh!  One day she wanted her shirt off like brother, and is sight seeing in the wrong direction.  Next shot, yup, she’s peeing.

  

I changed my hours at work so that I could be there to get Ryder on the bus each morning.  Best.Decision.Ever! I absolutely love these few minutes in the morning hanging with my kids before our days get too crazy.

 

 

 

Most of the pictures on my phone are bus stop pics!  I probably have one from every day! They are just so sweet and loving in the mornings, and it’s the only time we get to just sit and wait together! 

Ryder’s school had a literacy night where the kids got to wear their pajamas to school and have story time with milk & cookies.  Cutest thing ever! 

Awana started back up again in September.  This is Ryder’s last year in the “Cubbies” group and Maisy’s first year!  They love going back to Church every Sunday night for Awana.

 

Random yoga shots, just because they are adorable, and really good yoga partners if I might add!

      

Maisy loves to put on make-up now.  She cracks me up how instinctually girlie she is!  She watches me intently and then I’ll catch her in my stuff trying to be just like me.  Warms my heart!

 

In October we took the kids to the Virginia State Fair!  We love going there each year and this year definitely did not disappoint!

      

We had a few sicknesses scattered in, those germs love us when school starts!  We went to a few Birthday parties.  Daddy had a Birthday too!!  Needless to say, we’ve been busy!  Life is overwhelming but looking back at the smile on these kids faces, all of the chaos is worth it.  Even if it takes me two months to get some quiet time to sit down and blog!

Next up…Halloween!