Please Summer, don't go yet...

And yet another extended break from my blog -- I guess moving will do that to you. Yup, we moved, again...make that two summers in a row, and boy howdy, does it take up valuable fun summer playing time. We love our new home, and having a pool right down the street was amazing. We went at least 3 times a week, and I finished 3 or 4 books I had been wanting to read. Here's our new home:
It's taking a while to get settled, figuring out where to put things and hang pictures. Having a party a couple weeks ago actually helped me make the downstairs look like we live in it. :D Oh well, it come with time. I just finished working on two desks I needed for the bonus room - I'll post pictures of those soon, one was wood; the other an old metal drafting desk.

So back to the summer that is now fast leaving this area - we were pretty busy, moving took the better part of June, and then July was a blur unpacking boxes and swimming, August we went to visit family in Massachusetts, then school started after Labor Day. It flew by. Some adventures:

Utah friends came to visit right before we moved.

End of school bonfire/hot dog roast in our park-like back yard before we moved. We truly miss that amazing space, but just thinking of mowing it again is exhausting. I was grateful to finally get rid our Christmas tree...it made an amazing fire.

Daddy and the kids on his "causeway" during his annual field training exercise. His Army unit builds portable piers wherever they are needed -- go 331st Causeway!! "Causeway or no way!

Corben and one of the [four] fish he caught at Cub Scout day camp. This boy loves to fish -- too bad his parents can't stand it! ;]

One of our favorite stops in New England, Hot Dog Annie's. I highly recommend going there if you are ever in the area. Mmmm.

The whole family at another favorite eatery -- Wright's Chicken Farm. Going on vacation is about hitting all the favorite food stops, right?

We spent a few days on Cape Cod, and had fun playing in the sand and riding bikes. We tried to catch the ferry out to Martha's Vineyard but we'll have to save that for another time.













After returning from up north, we ventured down to one of the beaches near us - Madison jumped the waves, and Corben "boogied."

The Summer of 2010 was a great one, even though it flew by. I'm enjoying the fleeting moments we have left especially with the cooler weather - when I can throw open the windows and revel in the fresh air. I guess after Thursday it will be time to drag out the fall decorations and start thinking of costumes. Wow, time really marches on! See you soon.....[much sooner than last time] ;D

Don't Remind Me

Yes, please don't remind me of how long it's been since my last post. Lots has happened including finding out we have to move, again! The owners of the house we're living in are selling, so we are out. We are so VERY blessed though, and already have a great home to move into right when we needed to. Our Heavenly Father is so mindful of our family and we are very grateful!!

So let's catch up then, okay? :D First, Spring arrived here on the Peninsula...


Spring for us means adventure walks and taking all the beauty that the flowers bring.

Second, Corben's happenings:




Corben won the big prize at a recent pack meeting, earned several belt loops, competed in the Pinewood Derby with his Nasa Spacerocket Car, and again realized how much he loves to ride dirt bikes and eat dust! :D He has also been playing soccer and is taking a boys gymnastics class. (and yes, that crazy excited look Corben has in the first picture was before we told him he couldn't eat all those M&M's....)

Third Madison's excitement:

Maddie took ballet, swimming, gymnastics and got to wear a beautiful pink cast for 3 weeks. Watch out for those piggy back rides ;) The third picture shows her very dirty foot after getting her cast off. Eeew!

Fourth, I've been busy:
I finally made a quilt for Madison - it's really a duvet cover with a sheet on the bottom so when it's cold in the winter I can slip in a down comforter. She loves it!

Fifth, we traveled and spent time with FAMILY doing what we love :D :
...which is just being together! We had a great time at the desert, playing together and going to JPL in Pasadena.


Lester has been busy with work as he will be taking command of a Causeway company here at Fort Eustis - they work on the water building portable piers. Once he changes command next week, he'll be even busier! We're so thankful for him and his hard work!

Okay, so now I'm pretty up-to-date with our "busyness" and as we head into late spring/early summer I'm sure we'll have more adventures to write about. Watch for new posts :P

Birds of a Feather

I'm a couple days behind in getting my post on here....I'll just attribute that to the house of sickness we had this last weekend. Maddie started it on the eve of our "Opening Ceremonies" get-together [after having acquired the "bug" from a text...***], then passed it on to Lester for Sunday, then Corben enjoyed an evening of it that night as well. I figured I was next, but thankfully I'm still on the good side of it [now that I've said that.....hmmmmm]. All I can say about the weekend is that I'm so very thankful for our recent purchase of a portable Bissell carpet cleaner. That thing rocks! :D

Anyways, this post is definitely for the BIRDS! Since we moved here to this home, we've had so many birds coming to our yard. Our old house, as great as it was had only one tree on the whole property. I couldn't get a bird in our yard to save my life, well except for the bluebirds. I even had two different feeders, but no birds, in fact the mice enjoyed the food before the birds did. Boooo!

So, on to the birds here - well it's like night and day -- there are birds everywhere, and I love it. I have 4 different feeders [with more planned] and have identified more than 25 different birds thanks to my bird watchers book I got on Christmas Eve :D [and hence one of the many reasons Patton the cat continues to be an indoor cat!] Here are some of my favorites:




























Bird identification:
Row 1 - White Throated Sparrow [White striped], Northern Cardinal,
Row 2 - Red Bellied Woodpecker [female], Yellow Rumped Warbler
Row 3 - Mockingbird, White Breasted Nuthatch

I'm trying to take pictures of all the varieties of birds we see in our yard, and as spring comes we will have the birds that come home from migration. Look forward to more "for the birds" posts! :D

***We had some friends text us prior to our "get together" and say they had a sick child, but that one of them could come with the other child that wasn't sick -- but if that would be taking too great a chance in exposing us, that they would just stay home. We agreed that was the best idea - since none of us had been sick "yet." So much for that......Maddie was throwing up within three hours of that text. See? It was the text! LOL

"Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes..."

I'm thinking it's extremely appropriate that I've placed the snowman background on my blog, since living here in VA has brought more snow in any one season than the whole time we lived in NC. I am loving it! Well, let me rephrase that just a little -- I love the snow, and one or two snow days is fine, [getting in all the snowmen, snowballs, snowcream, and sledding in] - but more than that causes a little bit of stir craziness at home if you catch my drift ;]

Here are some fun pics of the snow from last weekend and this weekend:

Last Saturday and the "big snow" - totaled about 8 inches that we got here.

Sledding at a friend's house during the storm
Church was canceled last Sunday since all the roads looked about like this, so we went on a winter wonderland walk.

Our house in the snow

Monday, a teacher workday = no school, so sledding we went. And when all the stores are sold out of sleds, break out the summer inflatables...they work even better than sleds! :DTuesday = snow day #1, friends over and snowmen.
Wednesday = snow day #2 [really #3, since no school on Monday] but it's shopping day, so no snow play...
Thursday = 2 hour delay for school (really? ... really?)
Friday = YAY, back to school, but there's another storm coming in...
This is the snow that came yesterday....so lovely! It snowed just about all day - from around 10am until 8pm.... The roads weren't too bad today, it's been very sunny and bright, so we instead of church being cancelled, it was just at 11 and Sacrament meeting only.

I sure love this beautiful weather, and maybe that's because we don't have it from October until March....I don't know if I'd love it as much if it were that frequent but I'll take whatever I can get. Sheesh...I wish I had my skis here ;]

The Weather Outside Is.....

"OH" you thought I'd get that one weather song stuck in your head right? Maybe I did, and maybe I didn't....but due to the fact that it's been raining off and on all week, the weather has been 'on my mind,' but not in a frightful way. ;] I realized that one of the posts I wanted to do last year and never did, was with the changing seasons. We have seen the gorgeous fall colors, "almost" hurricane-like rain/flooding, and snow. It's been pretty fun. Enjoy the pics!

First the fall[ing leaves that are soooo much fun to rake and bag]....

[at Mount Vernon, VA]Maddie disappearing into one of the many
leaf piles....

Then all the rains....

The water level is usually 25-30 from where they are standing... This one is for Andy, this was our "beach" last August...
you there was no sand even visible.

This too is for Andy, College Creek - where you were catching the tides...

Then came the snows...two different times...