Just a couple pics

I have been busy since we got back from Tennessee trying to pack for the move. We don't want to pack everything up tight, but just make it easier to get everything to the new place. I will just post some of my favorite more recent funny pictures. The one of Benjamin was how I found him sleeping the other night at my mom's, and the one of Avery was taken before I started getting her playclothes, because she kept getting into our dirty clothes hampers and putting on whatever she could find. Yuck. The booger picking is pretty funny, though.

Tracy's Visit

My sister Tracy and her family flew in from England to visit for a couple weeks. They arrived on Thursday and stayed here with us until Saturday morning. It was nice being able to spend time with them, we rarely get the opportunity. The girls are so sweet and took to all of us straight away. Tracy and the others went to Chattanooga to spend a couple days with my other sister Jennifer and her family, but since Sunday was Tracy's birthday we all got back together at a nice park on Sunday afternoon for a picnic. Everyone had a great time. Here are some of the pictures:

The Princess Party

Saturday was the day! I didn't get anything on here because I was too busy trying to get everything cleaned up and try to take a breath! We also did spend a good chunk of the day yesterday lounging watching the Bills go 3-0! Just a quick one for Elijah...they are now #1 in the AFC east! Anyway, back to the party. We started the cake on Friday night. I began baking around 5:00, and the baking didn't stop till about 11:00. It would have been done faster, but when we tried to move the base of the cake to flip it out of the pan, it was so heavy and dense that some of it hit the floor in the process so we had to redo that layer. It wasn't a total loss, we used some of that cake for the smaller layers. Avery did get to help mix some of the batter before she went to bed:

We started decorating after Amanda got there. We didn't finish it until Saturday because we didn't know exactly how it would turn out so we weren't sure of what candy to use to decorate it. It was actually pretty easy. We were all pretty proud of the results:

Amanda had to leave right after the party to spend her Dad's birthday with him, so we let Avery go ahead and open her presents from her Aunt Namanda. She was so excited because everything was so pink and girly! Benjamin however, was not. I think she did a great job because now he doesn't want to play with anything she got. Amanda got her a Belle purse, a princess phone, a ballerina puzzle, and a ballerina dress up set. She loved all of it. She immediately stripped of her pajamas and had to try it on and danced ballet with her Daddy:

I had told all the girls to come dressed as princesses. I have decided that I can either withhold the "princess stuff" from her and make her want it more, or I can indulge (somewhat) within reason and hopefully she'll just grow out of it. I will have to say all of the girls (and baby Aiden!) looked really, really cute.

Amanda did a great job with everything. She supplied all the goody bags, organized and supplied all the crafts, decorations, and so much more. So a huge thanks to the kid's godmother and a great friend! It was great that so many people were able to come, and especially for those that traveled with gas expensive and scarce! It was a great party and a great day! Avery told me that it was exactly the princess party she wanted, so that makes all of the work worth it! I'm just glad we're done with parties till May next year! Now to get ready for the move...

We have been trying to find a new place to live for the last couple weeks, and I think we finally found it! It is literally right around the corner and Benjamin won't have to change schools. This has been my biggest worry of late, how to dramatically cut our bills and not affect the kids too much. Yeah, they will have to move, but I think by now Benjamin almost expects it! Hopefully we will stay there until we are done in Georgia and then we can find something more permanent wherever we end up.

I have been very busy trying to get everything prepared for Avery's party tomorrow, but keep getting distracted by the fact we are moving in just a couple weeks and so I start sorting and trashing stuff. I need to just be cleaning!! I will try to take pics of us making the castle cake tonight and maybe, just maybe get to post them tonight or in the morning. Doubt it, but it's good to have goals! Here are two pics from Avery's birthday on Monday that didn't get posted:

Happy Birthday Avery! Well, yesterday anyway.

I just never made it to the computer last night! We left Knoxville around 10:00, then started home. We stopped and had lunch at Cracker Barrel where Benjamin pointed out that he never bought her anything, so we let him pick out something in the store for her. He picked the Webkin that he has been wanting. Of course. He has also convinced her that she wants to have it be a toy to share, not just hers. We have told him that's not how it works, but even right this second he's trying to tell her that even though her light saber is purple and he doesn't like purple, he'll play with it anyway. Good grief!!

We also stopped by and met up with a lady that had play clothes on sale from Craigslist, so got those and came home and had a nice dinner of spaghetti (Avery's choice) and red velvet cake from Publix. Here is how that went:

Notice how she went for the frosting first. It reminded me of Dad! After cake we did presents. She wasn't nearly as impressed as Benjamin. She was happy with the dress up clothes, but I think they are too small. Maybe because she had just stuffed herself with dinner and cake..."

"Is that my belly button??"

You've got to love the belly hanging out. The top is too small and the skirt is way too big. She loves it, though. Here she is after Daddy and Benjamin showed her how to hold the light saber:

And with the baseball glove and ball from Daddy. The inside even says "Girls Rule":

All in all I think she had a great day. She is really looking forward to her party this Saturday. Now I just have to find a princess outfit that will actually fit her! Again, Benjamin was less than enthused at her getting stuff and not him! (And I did stop and get him a Playmobil character at Smart Toys and Books, Mom! He just didn't like it!)

Here is the pic with the welts. I think I figured my camera out, the Kodak program on my computer isn't working right. I tried a different one and it's a bit better. You can see the welts by her ear and over her right eyebrow. They go across to the other side of her head but I couldn't get them all in one shot. She didn't have much patience for this anyway. They have faded even more now.

I took this picture of Benjamin last night. I guess he took Kung Fu Panda to heart:

Just an update

For some reason, my computer won't upload pictures from my camera. I am getting pretty annoyed by it. I have some I took last night when Benjamin decided to hit Avery with her jacket (they love to put their jackets on and pretend they are raincoats) and the seam with the snaps sticking out hit her across the face, over the forehead and over the other side of her face. It was a perfect hit, I suppose. It caused welts to come up and she screamed for quite a while. They have subsided some this morning, thank goodness. Hopefully they will have completely faded by her birthday Monday. I will go ahead and just post some recent pics of the kids. The one of Avery was taken at my friend Malinda's house. The crown is her daughter's, Maddie. The one of Benjamin was the football picture I decided to try to take because I didn't like the way the ones in the package turned out. I'm not too happy with this one, either, but we will go back down there and get it right soon enough.

Football

Benjamin finished his final game of the season last night...and they actually WON!!! He was so excited!!

He did really well, despite getting his head stepped on at one point when he dropped to the ground being dramatic. He's perfectly fine, but did say he's ready for tackle next year because then he'll have a helmet.

Here he is getting his trophy from the Coach:

And finally the whole team with their trophies:

It wasn't my favorite sports season that Benjamin has played, but at least they went out on a win. We are used to a much longer season, so now we are sort of at a loss at what to do with him for the rest of fall. Soccer is already full, but I may have to call today and see if we can't get him in. Football usually goes into October!!

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This week's antics

It has been a slow moving week. It was nice that Elijah actually had a day off. It has probably been 3 months since he had 2 days off in a row. He had to work on Saturday, of course, but we had Sunday and Monday. We found, completely by accident, a dollar movie theater and went to see Kung Fu Panda. The really, really nice part was that it was 50 cent Monday so it only cost us $2 to go to the movies! It was a cute movie, and Avery did okay, except 'needing' to go to the bathroom 3 times.
The kids are getting pretty creative. This first picture is of their 'house' that they build just about every day in the front living room. They rearrange the entire room and make it a complete hazard to try to walk in, but at least they are getting along! See if you can spot Avery...

Benjamin actually gave Avery permission to go into his room while he was at school the other day, which was nice for me because she disappeared for a long time and was quiet! Quiet at least until she figured out how to get up on his top bunk but couldn't get down. After that fiasco she was quiet again for a while then came downstairs dressed as follows:

She had gotten into his hamper and dressed herself in about 3 of his shirts. She was very proud of herself. She has just figured out how to dress herself and is adamant that she gets to do it. We had a pretty big fit yesterday because she did NOT want me to help her find the strap to her shirt even though she couldn't find it. She got very upset when she caught me doing it anyway. Oh well. Pick your battles! She wore that shirt backwards for quite a while yesterday.

Some good times

As the kids scream at each other for the third day straight, I thought I would be nostalgic and look back at a couple times when they were getting along and try to remember I want to keep these children!! Just kidding. I am fighting a cold and Benjamin decided to wake me up by screaming "GOOD MORNING" as loud as he could this morning right into my ear. Like his lips were actually inside my ear. I have been a bit irritable since. Elijah let me stay in bed until 10:00, but I was awake for a lot of it, trying to figure out how to scale out the window and still get away undetected. Hopefully this day will go better. I type this as Avery screams as loud as she can at Benjamin....