Sock Holder

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my dad if he could design a loose sock holder.  I briefly described what I needed, and away he went.  In his retirement years, he has been enjoying wood working, so I knew he'd have a cool design.  This is what he made, minus the socks.  I added those, as they are true loose socks. I think this is awesome and now have it hanging next to my washing machine (installation from Dad was even free!).  Dad has sold a lot of his wood pieces (benches, bookcases, and such) at local consignment type stores in Wilmington.  I think this may be a new project design for him.  Thanks Dad!  It's already getting great use. 

Samuel

This is Samuel, our new kitten.  We found him at the Humane Society on Saturday and brought him home today.  He looks a lot like Tiger, which is not why we picked him, but we really liked his personality.  More importantly, he wasn't phased by the personalities of three kids.  The vet thinks he is about five months old.  We also really liked a tiny, eight week old kitten, but we thought that might be too small for the little people at our house (specifically one two-year-old little person).  We hope Samuel will be a good fit.  The vet gave him a clean bill of health today.  The name was picked by Madison and voted on by all of us.  She wanted a name from the Bible.  Luke liked Max from "Max and Ruby," which came in second. So, we opted to make Max his middle name for Luke.

Ober Gatlinburg

While in Tennessee, we took the kids up to Ober Gatlinburg. To get there, you ride a tram up the mountain, and at the top, they have skiing (wanted to ski, but 50 degrees), a carousel, ice rink, and alpine ride.  We had a great day.  Edward's parents went with us, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

On the carousel

Ice skating!

Madison is really good for this being her third time on skates.  She skated a lot on her own.

Alex didn't skate this time, but he has.  He hung out with Nana and Pop.

On the carousel again

 Riding the lift to the alpine ride

 This ride was so much fun.  I felt like I was an Olympic bobsledder!

 Alex even got to ride the alpine ride and chair lift.

Here they come down on the alpine ride.

 In the tram, on the way back down to Gatlinburg

A "fake"alpine ride display outside of the entrance to Ober Gatlinburg

The Titanic

I wish we had pictures, but they weren't allowed in the museum...

This past weekend, we visited Edward's parents in Tennessee.  Just a few days before that, Madison had her school book fair.  She became obsessed with getting a book on the Titanic.  She'd never heard about it, and she's into history (her grandpa, a retired history teacher is pleased).  So, she bought the Titanic book (with her own money-she was even more excited), and she read, and read, and re-read the story to us.  It was a very fact-based book, and she loved it.  She even spent the six plus hour drive to Tennessee telling us more about it. 

Since we left for Tennessee after school, we didn't get there until late into the evening.  The kids had fallen asleep, and just as we were about to get off at the exit, we saw a huge billboard advertising the Titanic museum. Edward and I looked at each other and said, "Yeah, we have to go."  So, Sunday after church, Edward and I took Madison to the museum while the boys went home with Nana and Pop. 

Madison LOVED the museum.  We spent two and a half hours there. It's the largest Titanic museum with a similar one in Branson.  The link is:  http://www.titanicpigeonforge.com/

It was a really cool museum, shaped like half of the huge ship (as the ship split in half as it was sinking).  Like the Holocaust Museum, you get a card with the story of a person on it.  At the end, you find out if your person lived or died on the Titanic.  Madison was impressed by that, and she really enjoyed the room where the air conditioning was turned way down (to simulate the cold air), and you could stick your arm in 28 degree water (temp of the ocean water).  That was incredible, and it really made you understand how horrible things would have been.

We all enjoyed the museum, so if you have a young history buff as we do, check it out.  We didn't feel the audio headsets for the adults were necessary, but the one for the kids was great. Madison read a lot of the fact boards, but she enjoyed getting extra info from her headset.


If you didn't know, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic is April 10.  Madison is ready.

At the gift shop, she bought three books.

We have always joked that she's really obsessed with natural disasters. She loves learning about hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, avalances, and the like.  Now, she's broaded her interest to "disasters" of any kind.  Oh, she was also very interested to learn about the avalance that happened over the weekend.  It was a good "learning" weekend for Madison.

Guy Time with Pop

We drove over to Tennessee this weekend to see Edward's mom and stepdad.  All of us enjoyed the trip, and we had a great visit.  It was full of activity, as seen here.

Alex has been trying to drop his nap, which hasn't been fun around here.  We wore him out on Saturday that he finally crashed with Pop on Sunday afternoon.  This is not a kid who likes to sit still, so this was a huge feat!  It doesn't look like a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Blocks

This little boy LOVES blocks.  He loves them so much he decides to play with them all over the house, even outside the playroom.



The Garden-Winter Update

 We planted broccoli, carrots, and onions in August, and here's what it all looks like today.  Look at that broccoli!  It's almost ready to be picked.

Left to right-Carrots, onions, and broccoli.  I'm so excited that this stuff has grown so well over the winter. We haven't done a thing to it; we haven't even touched the garden, so I guess I'm growing organic veggies, haha. 

The Caped Crusader

I didn't realize Batman had snuck into my kitchen to color while I was running the vacuum.  I guess that's why he's Batman, slick and undetected.  Oh, and my house was safe from the Joker all afternoon because I had Batman around.

A Loose Tooth

It has been loose for about three weeks now.  When will it finally come out?  Who knows.  Madison has been working on it forever!  She lost two on the bottom about a year and a half ago, about a week apart, and since then, nothing. This one is on top, and that will help out a lot.  She needs more room. She has to go to the dentist in two weeks for a cleaning, and I told her he might just pull it out  :)

Working on Valentine's Day Cards

The boys worked on their classroom Valentine's Day cards this morning.  Well, I should say, they picked out the card, and I wrote it out. 

 Luke had Spiderman cards, and Alex chose Buzz Lightyear cards.  Both picked the ones that come with pencils.

 I had the boys decorate a bag to collect their cards here at the house. I was going to use shoeboxes, but I sent them all to the kids' schools for projects.

Luke was very proud of his name.  He wrote it himself, and he is getting better and better at it everyday!

Cookies

Edward was at a class most of Saturday, so the kids and I stayed at home and made Valentine's Day cookies.  We all love this recipe, especially that it makes about five dozen cookies.

The kids were "helping," but as you can see, all they were really doing was trying to eat the batter.

 Madison got the camera and took a few pictures.

 Luke really couldn't wait for the cookies.

 I have no idea how Luke's cowboy gun got into the pictures.  I guess he wanted to protect his cookies.

 Then, Madison put headbands on Alex.

 Now, for the important stuff...cookie sampling.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Ahh, I'm sorry this is so blurry, but I made this delicious bundt cake the other evening.  It has been so good, and I think it tastes a lot like the chocolate muffins from the commissary or the chocolate muffins my family used to get in Maine every summer.  The recipe was super easy too:  http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,166,150179-255205,00.html

Instead of the chocolate pudding mix, I used vanilla because that's what I had, and I think it's awesome.  The kids love it too.  My bundt cake only had to cook about 48 minutes too.

Daddy's Little Soldier

Alex wants to be just like Daddy all the time now that Edward is home.  He was all dressed and waiting for Edward the other evening when he came home from work.  I guess he needs to change out the Marine helmet :)

The Wii

We bought a Wii for our family this summer, but it wasn't until recently that the kids really seemed to get into it.  Even Alex is able to score points on some of the games.  Right now, the kids are really into the Wii Resort games.  Madison loves wakeboarding; Luke loves swordfighting, and Alex loves about anything.  He scored a ton of points in wakeboarding the other day, which was really funny, as he really doesn't know how he earns points.  Edward loves the archery, and I must agree that archery is a lot of fun.  I also enjoy the bowling.

 Alex is trying hard.  Edward discovered if you are sitting behind him, call his name, he turns around, which turns the remote enough for him to jump in the wakeboarding (that scores points).

 Luke beats all of us over, and over, and over in swordfighting.  I finally beat him the other night, and then Edward beat him tonight, and sadly we got so excited.  Luke wins all the time; it's so funny he is so good at that game.

Madison and Alex have discovered they are a decent match at the sword fighting game.

Next, we are going to attempt Mario Kart, a family Christmas gift from Carin, one of my oldest friends.  Stay tuned...

Fishing

Edward has been trying to spend some one-on-one time with each of the kids.  He took Luke hunting (no pictures because it was dark and cold, but they are going to go again).  He took Madison ice skating, and he took Alex fishing.  Alex has been wanting to go fishing forever.  He's never been before, but he got a fishing pole for Christmas and hasn't stopped talking about it since.  Edward told Alex he would take him fishing, and finally, the time came.

 Edward caught one on his pole right away, and he let Alex reel it in.

Then, Alex caught one on his pole!  Yea Alex!!!

 After that, nothing.

 Alex did find some geese.

So, he chased them.