Natural History Museum

We had a special date with BB today to go to the Anniston Museum of Natural History. I LOVE having BB in town! (Here she is showing Charlie the lovey we had to buy at the museum- we'd forgotten his bear)-


Having a bear helped him take a nice rest- (p.s. I LOVE his thighs!)



Marc and Tucker on the earthquake machine-



Leave it to Sissy to care more about a stuffed animal puppy than the science facts- she loves critters so much-



Tucker told us the names of all the planets...again...and again...



I kept losing him and had to make him sit in a stroller, "Trouble? Who me?"



Digging for fossils-



I just adore these big kids-



Off to see the animals- these are the real deal-





Then it was off to "Ancient Egypt"- the real reason we went. Here are the kids on a mosaic of the Nile region- I quizzed them on the map and they did well-



Then we saw the two REAL Mummies that the museum has. It still blows my mind that we were looking up close to two deceased Egyptians from 2,300 years ago. Just amazing-


After getting home and having naps we met Daddy for Lenten approved Cheese Pizza at one of our favorites. Tucker was extra affectionate and kept hugging Marc's arm- it was precious. We love our little muppet boy-









Thank you, Lord, for another lovely day with the ones I love.

Because the boy plays sports....

...we live at ballfields. And now that I have two more boys on the way to sportshood I think I am going to be living at ballfields for the next 20 or so years. :) It's okay- it's a lot of fun. And I'm definitely an "encourager" (a rather loud encourager at that) from the sidelines. :)





Got my eye on you, blue-



Yay! Go Big Bubba!



And Frick and Frack stay at the playground- (and yes, Sissy lost a tooth this morning)-

Charlie's Fairy Godmother

Left Charlie in the den to make my bed and when I came back he was enchanted by a beautiful fairy, who happens to love him to pieces-

Little Flowers- Piety

We had our Little Flowers meeting yesterday afternoon and studied the virtue of piety and St. Cecelia- the flower was the forget-me-not. We started by letting the girls color a picture of St. Cecelia, while I read to them the story of her life in this book-




Cecelia and her husband Valerian, whom she converted to Christianity on their wedding night.


Then we studied what piety is and how we can achieve it. We colored the "rainbow of piety" sheet.









Then it was time to work on our piety album page. One of the big sisters taught them the memory verse song while they cut and pasted their album page. We also reviewed our other memory verse songs.









Then it was time for our snack!







I just love Little Flower days. After our work the girls play in the yard while the moms sit on the porch and talk. Even the Big Flowers need encouragement! :)

Florida Trip

Well we just got back from a trip to see Marky's favorite person in the world- his cousin Noah- (these pics are awful- we used the blackberry the whole time)-



You all knew he had a seizure last week and is in a scary place in treatment right now where there seems to be more questions than answers. We knew we had to get down there. Marc's selfless sister Amber flew us down at last minute's notice. The flight was great- I said that we are going to make Charlie a shirt that says, "If I were any easier, I'd be a stuffed animal." He is the sweetest, most laid back little fella and was NO TROUBLE for us at all-



We got to Noah's house and just hung out-





He and Marky still love to do legos and have battles-


This little crew of Landin, Sissy and Tuck Tuck hung together a lot- here they are coloring-



They swam all day Thursday- even Noah swam a little-





Coolest pool ever- the plants are so beautiful they look fake-


All that swimming made for good naps for Tuck Tuck-





Noah's favorite thing now is gemstones- you can ask him any birthstone and he knows it. He knows all kinds of gemstone and crystal trivia. He sat outside and looked at his gems while we swam in the afternoon-


Noah and Charles hit it off- Noah would just sit and look at him smiling.



Charlie would smile back-



We were all excited that they'd gotten a trampoline and put it INSIDE the screened area- so no bugs!




The girls with an unidentified female-




They have a park one block down from the house. We walked there everyday.



Zipline






Amber COMPLETELY suprised us by remembering the kids' birthdays are coming up in two weeks and had a BIRTHDAY suprise party for the kids! How she can manage to think of others when she's walking through this nightmare is beyond me. She went out of her way to take us on a suprise trip (we didn't know where we were driving to) to Disney's Fort Wilderness so Julia could ride a pony and play. Walking in- Julia was so excited- she and Landin are BEST buddies and love each other so much-







After riding ponies (Landin, Julia and Tucker all rode) we walked around Ft. Wilderness and played on the playground and had popcicles-





Big Granpda and Tucker-



Then we took a boat ride over to Wilderness Lodge to play on the beach and have lunch- Tucker talking to a duck-










When we got home from Ft. Wilderness, Aunt Amber had a birthday cake and we sang happy birthday and had cake and ice cream-


Then the kids opened way too many presents and had a blast. We got up early this morning to head home.






Tuck lacing pretzles onto his apple juice straw-

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Noah was sweet and happy, but tired and still recovering from last week. We were all sad to leave. The kids just love their cousins and I love my sister and brother in law. It's so hard to see them suffer like this. We know God is in every detail of this journey, but it's still scary and heartbreaking. Please pray for God to show everyone involved the next step to take. Jesus, we trust in You.