1/365

I've been delinquent in blogging lately, partly to our camera having been misplaced for a bit and partly just busyness. I thought a good way to get back in the groove might be to join the 365 project. I think while I play catch up I'll do 2 posts a day until I am just down to one. :)

Below you can see C & M at a field trip we went to in December where they each got to make their own candy cane. It was very neat and he (Pete) uses all natural ingredients in his candy shop. The candy shop he opened is called Sweet Pete's and for those of you who know about Peterbrooke Chocolatier here in Jacksonville, his mother started that and named it after him and his sister Brooke. I thought that was neat. :)

Name Poll

So, over on my Facebook account I did a name poll recently. It's a little bit more easy to interact there than on the blog and I thought it would be fun. Charles mentioned he thought maybe we might have a girl again this time but who knows, it 50% one way or the other, right?! ;)



So we have pretty much had the same list of names since the beginning and have just used names off of it. Not really any new ones have been added he just doesn't have a whole lot that suits his fancy. Good thing is though, I love every single one on his short list. :)



So the choices for girl first names were:



Esther

Lydia

Felicity

Susanna

Margaret



The middle name choices were:



Elizabeth

Ann

Lyn

Ruth

Christyn



Overall the most popular name was Felicity. (which of course I love love love)

With a tie for a middle name between Ann & Lyn. (I'm a bit partial to Lyn since it's my middle name, I would like Ann better if it could be spelled Anne but it would be after Charles' mom who spelled it without the "e")



I told everyone that their choices wouldn't affect our decision (when I say our I mean whatever he decides he'd like to use this time, hehe). But I would be all for using Felicity Lyn. ;)



What is your favorite?

Our Trip to Pennsylvania ~ part 1

Hello Everyone, I trust you had a blessed Christmas. I thought I would finally post some pictures from our trip to PA, I'm going to do it in parts. :)

On our way up we stopped for a day and went to Mount Vernon in VA. It was very cold so we enjoyed getting to go inside to see some sites in between being outside. We would definitely like to go back some time when it is warmer and spend the whole day exploring the grounds, there is a lot to see!

Here is our little colonial family. :)

The White House Pastry Chef had made this gorgeous gingerbread version of Mount Vernon!

Walking up to the house.

The view off the back porch of the river, very beautiful but very windy!

They did not allow pictures to be taken inside the actual house but below is a picture of us in the lower gardens.

Look at this enormous tree!

George Washington planted it himself.

Then on the way back to our hotel we had seen a sign for the National Firearm Museum.

We stopped to see it and it was run by the NRA and had an amazing collection of guns and rifles from all time periods. It was very neat to see.

::smile::

She was running around everywhere!

Charis having her picture taken with Charleton Heston, lol. ;)

Family photo using the timer.

At the hotel Julia was having a difficult time falling asleep by herself in the pack n play so she had to stay by daddy and once she was konked out then we put her in bed.

About an hour away from our destination and getting very excited!

Yay! We finally got to Grandpa Terrizzi's house.

Notice Mercy is in pj's, we unfortunately found out that riding in the back seat of the suburban in the mountains and eating snacks did not agree with Mercy. I think she may be scarred for life (j/k) cause even now at home when we go places she starts saying, "My belly hurts." and I have to remind her that she really is okay. :)

Making friends with Grandpa T.

Somebody taking pictures, they all wanted to so I can't remember who took this one.

The first night we were at Charles' dad's house these two ended up in our bed before the night was over. Thankfully things got better each night we were there. :)

That's all for now, I pray you all have a wonderful week!

Back from PA

Well, we are back! Now we are in the middle of mountains of laundry but we had a nice time.

The children did get to see a bit of snow, here they are saying "SNOW!!"

{ Julia isn't happy she has to stand still for a picture, she liked the snow. ;) }

Planning a trip & Christmas Cards!

Hi there Everyone,

For a while there our camera got misplaced. It is now found for which I am very thankful but I just didn't post since I didn't have new pictures to go along with it. :)

As the title implies we are planning a trip, to Pennsylvania to see Charles family! The last time we went up there Caleb was 6 months old so it has been a while. The children are hoping to get to see some snow while we are up there but we'll see. I told them to pray hard since we'll be there the end of Nov/beginning of Dec which isn't the most common time for snow. So if you didn't mind joining us in that "silly" prayer request cause Mercy really wants to build a "towman" as she calls him. ;)

Next on the docket is Christmas Cards! I love sending them out this year but was trying to figure out how I was going to do this when we were on a trip. I had considered gathering supplies to have a work in the car project but then I never seem to get things done well in the car and I have to worry about them getting messed up. So I was very excited when I saw this offer for 50 free cards for Bloggers on not one but 3 blogs I read!

I have used Shutterfly in the past and most recently for having some hard and soft cover books printed. I love the way they turned out. I really, really enjoy sending out picture cards at Christmas. I keep all the photos I receive each year on my fridge so I am excited to send out photo cards again this year thanks to Shutterfly. :)

I am hoping that we will have a photo from our trip that I will be able to use for our cards but since I have no idea what that picture will be I am having a hard time deciding on a design! I have a hard time even when I do know. ;) But these are some ones I was attracted to:

Snowfall Flurry Christmas

Which is interesting because I'm not normally a red person, maybe it's the oval. :)

Joy Dots Chocolate Christmas

Simple, cute and y'all know I love brown!

Snowflake Wishes Noir Holiday

This one was crisp clean and different to me, they also had it in other colors.

Yule Bough Christmas

This one might be my favorite (again brown, is that surprising?!)

Snowflake Band Black

Was another neat looking one, I tend to gravitate towards blue Christmas stuff but it can be hard to find a Merry Christmas blue card, they normally stick Happy Holidays or something on it. But this one has snowflakes which is another thing I really enjoy. :)

So why don't you hop on over and browse around their Christmas cards to see if you see something you like! If I really wanted/could splurge this folded card is absolutely gorgeous. :)

Mistletoe Berries Christmas

*sigh*

Been absent lately...

...sorry about that! October has seemed super busy and full this year. One thing that did happen though, back on the 5th our Miss Mercy turned 3! We didn't do anything fancy or even dress in decent clothes for the day (you can tell by the pictures, lol) but she truly enjoyed having some cake. If you can't tell by her eyes and the close proximity she kept to the cake. It made for one happy little birthday girl.

Can you tell?

With pink and purple chocolate butterflies...

...yum.

It may have been simple,

...but she turned 3 just the same.

And everyone was glad for an excuse to have a treat. :)

Until next time!

18/52

We have been doing fairly well staying on our school schedule this year.
We've made it one month, whoo hoo! ;)

And even in that short month Caleb's reading skills have greatly improved and it is very encouraging.

Charis I have found to be an extreme perfectionist and she doesn't want to try something new if she's thinks she can't do well at it. (I wonder where she got that from?) Her coloring skills have amazed us all as she get down to shading and everything.

Mercy is loud, and busy and trying to keep her occupied during school is a challenge! :D

Julia sleeps for part of school (yay!) but with her shortening morning naps she inevitably wakes before we are done. I have to keep an eye on her as she eats crayons, marker tops and pencil erasers EVERY second I turn around!

School is a very busy time around here. :)