Fourteen years ago...

My firstborn arrived


long, skinny...and with really long feet.

He's still long and skinny...and he still has really long feet. :)

Wiiiiiiii! We now have a Wii. :)

And he has loved Star Wars and LEGOs since they first met...

I thought since I posted a video of him last year playing his guitar on his birthday I would post one now. This was from a recent music recital both boys played in (I'll post Josiah's soon) and Robert played "Eruption" by Van Halen.

Happy birthday, Robert!

Vacation: Part Three...Quirky photos

Photos of the beach(es) we went to on vacation are coming soon...honest! That's what you're really wanting to see, right? In the meantime, I thought I would share some of the quirkier photos I took on our trip.


At the Jacksonville Zoo:

My children being "attacked" by a jaguar


and yet this one didn't seem a bit interested in them.


How many times do you think well-meaning patrons informed zoo employees about a dead bird before they posted this sign?



At the baseball game:

I think Grace was trying to scare Jason into getting her some baseball food treat

with her "fierce" face.



Driving around:

Home of the Camel Rider? (Thanks to Google, I now know what that means.)


A church with a lighthouse (and two parking decks!)


A dashboard Jesus (like this one) alongside a skull that sits in front of the steering wheel. Hmmm...No comment.


OK, show of hands...who has taken a picture through the drive-through window at Krispy Kreme? Oh, just Jason? (He was driving, so I handed off my camera to him at his request.) "This is where the magic happens," as Jason says. :) YUM!


And last, but not least...we saw places we'd only heard about in the Monopoly game, like Atlantic Avenue (plus Kentucky Avenue, but this is the only shot I got of street signs). Interesting church at this corner, too!


Want to see more of our Jacksonville vacation pics? Check out these posts:
You Capture: Smiles
Vacation: Part One
Vacation: Part Two...The Zoo
Vacation: Part Three...Quirky Photos
Vacation: Part Four...The Beach(es)!

Wordless Wednesday: Releasing butterflies

Each year, my dad and stepmother give the kids caterpillars to watch and to take care of until they transform into butterflies and are ready to be released on or around Easter.

This is when Grace (5) decided Josiah (8) was getting more butterflies out of the butterfly garden than she was, so she's complaining to him here. ;)




Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

Vacation: Part Two...The Zoo

One of the things we did on our recent (yet oh, so far away now) vacation was to check out the Jacksonville Zoo.



It was a really awesome zoo--reasonable admission (all five of us got in for under $55!) and it was beautiful. Plus, it was large enough that we spent hours there and decided to leave to get lunch rather than seeing every exhibit. Because of this, I was glad we stuck with the general admission tickets instead of getting the ones that included a ride on the train.

We spent hours walking through


and looking at all the huge birds nesting in tall trees


and flying overhead as they made seemingly constant improvements to their nests.



There were plenty of large animals throughout the zoo...


some of whom didn't seem to care whether I got a good shot of them or not.






There were also giraffes you could feed.




Josiah (8) and Grace (5) loved feeding them!






I liked taking their picture. :)


Grace enjoying spotting the babies, like the baby zebra you can barely see in the middle of this shot.


One of the most unique animals there was the okapi, which has a reddish-brown body with black and white striped legs and eats leaves from trees like a giraffe...with a much shorter neck.


The flamingos! There was a sign posted about the particulars of their diet at the zoo, and explained that their diet includes dye to enhance their bright color. That just seems like cheating...




Want to see more of our Jacksonville vacation pics? Check out these posts:
You Capture: Smiles
Vacation: Part One
Vacation: Part Two...The Zoo
Vacation: Part Three...Quirky Photos
Vacation: Part Four...The Beach(es)!

You Capture: Pink

Pink! That's pretty easy around here. You see, I have a little girl who loooooooves pink. And she usually has her pink things scattered around the house like she thinks she's in charge of decorating. This week, I've been constantly picking up eggs...and, yes, mostly pink ones.

Seriously, after an Easter egg hunt last year, she had only a dozen eggs in her basket, and all of them were pink. I was watching her during the egg hunt--she would glance down and pass by all non-pink eggs. "Blue? I don't want that one. Green? Nah. Pink? Oh, yes!"

This year, she wasn't quite so particular with her eggs. Still, they ended up being mostly pink, purple, and orange...her favorite colors ever since she could respond with "pink, purple, orange!" when asked, "What's your favorite color?"

Grace, age 5, with her Easter basket filled with eggs

It seems I've been participating in You Capture long enough that my children have stopped asking me why I'm getting my camera out to take random pictures at, for instance, the post office. I'm slightly amused by this since I became so used to hearing, "Mom, what are you taking a picture of?"

Wordless Wednesday: Trees

These were taken along a quiet country road near our house...



Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

Wordless Wednesday: Sleep

I figured it's been nearly a month since I've posted a photo of Grace sleeping, so here you go--Grace sleeping with Emily, Emily, and Emily!


A few days ago, as Grace was lining up several of her baby dolls, I asked her if Emily [well, one of the Emilys] was her favorite baby, since she was her first baby. She stopped what she was doing to look at me and said, very diplomatically, "They are all my babies and I love all of them."

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.