The Vote

Yesterday, I went and voted. On the way out the door there was a lady passing out stickers. This is the sticker she put on my shirt. I am not 100% sure but I think it says "I voted"

Short Stuff vs. The Giant

Today I took Gates back to the Endocrinologist. It was a good visit. For those of you who don't know, Gates is extremely short. I think it runs in my side of the family. If any of you know Betty Perkins and her sister Glenda Tipps (from the A & M church of christ) they can confirm it. They are my grandfathers sisters and short. Very sweet though. Anyway, his pediatrician sent us to a specialist to make sure there was nothing wrong. In fact, after tons of tests, there is nothing wrong he is just short stuff. At our last visit, he was pushing it to be in the 5th percentile. (It looked more like the 3rd percentile to me) This visit, he had jumped to the 10th percentile. YEA!!! Gates!!! He grew. The doctor did some calculations and determined that his growth velocity is in the 75th percentile. Which means he could easily catch up to all the other 4 year olds if he continues to grow at this rate. While we were there, I had the doctor put Beck's measurements in on the chart. He is almost exactly the same height as sweet little Gates. He is in the 95th percentile for height. He is the opposite of Gates and a GIANT. This means that they will be wearing the same clothes for at least another year. People are always asking me if they are twins. I hate to give people too many details but it is hard for people to understand unless I do. Argh....So now you have it. Two brothers+15 months apart+one short and one tall=same size.

Thank you God for good news!

Trunk or Treat

We dressed up the kids for Trunk or Treat at the church. They had loads of fun and got TONS of candy. Elisabeth was Hanna Montana. I totally regret letting her be that but there is no turning back now. The boys were all pirates...they were nice pirates is what I kept telling them. They still wanted to have sword fights and Argh..at each other, though. Sing it GIRL!
Handsome Pirate

Silly Pirate

Cutie Pirate

He posed behind this tree so I had to take his picture.

These pictures loaded out of order so here it is out of order. The kiddies got tons of candy and these two little apples. They made me laugh for some reason.

This is the truck load of candy they got. I put a soccer ball in there so you could see the size of this HUGE basket of candy.

I am going to get rid of three fourth of it while they are sleeping. This could feed a whole country.

This is the sweetest little pirate in the whole world.

...and Beck actually let me take his picture this time. I took a lesson from my sweet friend Amy's (also known as Josh's cousins wife) blog. It must have worked because he smiled and everything.

Sea World in Random Order

Since it was fall break, I decided to take the kids to Sea World on Friday. We went with two other families from school. It was a blast. Josh and I like to get season passes and typically go several times a year. This was the the first time I had taken all the kids by myself. The kids are so familiar with the place that it wasn't a problem. I wish we lived in SA. I would take the kids all the time. Here are the kids after getting soaked by Shamu or "shampoo" as Beck would call him. Sorry for the poor quality of this picture, but I had to include it because of the shear joy on her face. She was so proud of her wet self.

Here are all the kids getting soaked. Those whale tales can really push some water. I have to confess that I usually never let my children get in the splash zone. I am too much of a control freak to let them get wet with all that nasty salt water. I always think they will get sticky with all the salt water. However, I made myself let it go and it was so fun.

Here they are telling the whales to splash.

Getting ready to ride the "shampoo" express.

Little booties checking out the alligators.

These is our friends Hope and Avery with Hogan and Elisabeth. Hope's mommy teaches Gates at school and Avery was in Elisabeth's class last year.

Season passes for all of us: $378.00

Pizza and drinks for lunch: $55.00

Gas to SA and back: $82.00

Seeing your children shriek with pure joy: PRICELESS

The weather was beautiful!!! We all had loads of fun. The animals remind of God's magnificent creations. All is good. If anyone else has a silver pass and wants some company let us know we would love to join you.

PS. I got peer pressured into riding the Great white roller coaster. Let me just say there was nothing great about it. I am so not a roller coaster person. I am pretty sure the whole park heard my screams. I should have known to bow out when the man made me leave my flip flops with him. The first thing that happens all that ride is the floor drops our from under you. That began the screaming and it did not stop until the roller coaster stopped. That thing turned me every which way. SCARY! I will stick with the shows and the Shamu express next time.

Fall Fun!

I bought a bunch of these beautiful apples at the grocery store. My intension was for the kids to take one to their teachers because they were HUGE and BEAUTIFUL! However, this crazy mom forgot that she had purchased them and we didn't give them to the teachers last week. This week is fall break so we don't have school. I was afraid the apples would go bad so we made an apple pie instead. The kids had a great time using the "apple, peeler corer slicer." I hightly recommend them. Elisabeth is peeling. As she peels she is munching on the extra peel. The little boys weren't much help. They mostly ate the already peeled apples.
See what a fantastic job that gadget does. It works great for potatoes, too.
Hogan is holding a pile of peel. The kids had the best time playing with the peel and eating it. Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of the finished pies. They were ugly anyway. :) I am not a Martha Stewart. They tasted delicious, though.
Today, we went to the pumpkin patch. It was very picked over but still fun. Sweet kiddies!


Sweet BIG boy.

Only little girl.
Poser!
Then there was Beck. He was not wanting his picture taken. Argh....there is always one.
Have a great day!

Looser

Tonight we had family Wii night. It was lots of fun until.....Elisabeth hit a homerun. She ended up beating Hogan at baseball 5-0. Not good. They had the following conversation:

Hogan: "I am just a looser! (insert stomp, stomp, stomp off towards his room) From now on everyone call me looser!"
Josh: "Looser get in here. What's the matter with you?" (I did get on to him for calling him that. If you don't know Josh he really means no harm. Those of you who know Josh well...nuff said.)
Hogan: "I'm just a looser! Sissy always beats me!" (Which is totally not true. He is actually much better than she is at bowling.)
Elisabeth: "He is just being a B."
Me: "What does that mean?" (What in the world surely she doesn't mean what I think she means)
Elisabeth: "You know.... a baby." (I was muched relieved that she didn't say the word that rymes with itch. Then quickly told her not to say that anymore)

Spirit Day! Go Warriors!

The kids had spirit day today at school. This is the first time the school has done something like this and I think it was a big success. They usually wear strict uniforms that get boring and old. So this was a fun change for all of them. The school did not have spirit shirts so the kids were told they could make them. Well, you know what that means. I love to create...and create I did. Josh thinks I went overboard. I think they are just right. Here they are all spirited up. The front of Elisabeth's shirt says "I heart recess at ACA". The "at" is in BLING. The other letters I made out of fabric and I appliqued them on. (actually the I heart recess was already there I added the at ACA part) I couldn't ressist the the opportunity for her to wear rain boots and polka dot sox. This Mommy is cuckoo for little girl stuff.
The back says "WARRIORS" going down and "Annapolis rocks" in BLING going across.
Hogan's shirt says "annapolis" going down and "warriors" going across. Boy shirts aren't near as fun. They have to be too cool. His shirt was so hard because I didn't want it to be dorky for a boy.
Sweet Gates. Well his was an after thought. Bad 'ol mommy. The pre-K kids don't wear uniforms so he jumped at the opportunity to wear a uniform shirt. He was so happy.