American Idol

Ok this is Courtney. My Mom let me do a little part on her blog.
I am curious... you have all watched or heard of American Idol right?
Well this season is season 7. The last contestents are Brook White, Syesha Mercado, Carly Smithson, David Cook, Jason Castro, and my all time favorite David Archuleta!

Who do you think should go? Who's your favorite?

Field Trips

Last Thursday Brady chapperoned a field trip with Meghann to Disney World's Animal Kingdom. On Friday I chapperoned with Courtney to Kennedy Space Center for her science club. Tucker is heading to Wonder Works (another tourist trap) then Courtney is going to Sea World for her big 5th grade last hoo-rah. These kids have it rough, huh?

This is the Disney Cruise Line charter bus we traveled on to Kennedy Space Center.

A New Smile

Here's Meghann before braces:

And here she is after:

She got her braces on yesterday morning. She's feeling the pain right now and not too happy with the kankers on the inside of her mouth, but she is discovering why the orthodontist said the wax would be her best friend for a few days. Poor girl. All for a beautiful smile! She can thank me later when she has to pay for her kid's braces! :)

Extreme Home Makeover

He's not Ty Pennington, but my husband has done a great job giving our home a "makover." I think all of the projects are finally done! It started last December with the cabinets (see previous post) and ended last weekend with the finishing touches on the paint job. Here's the details:

Here is a BEFORE shot of the house. This really is a before shot because it was taken even BEFORE it was our house, so it's a really old shot too. Anyway, it was the best before picture I had because I forgot to take another one before we started painting.
After the painting was all done! Brady's dad was a huge help while he was here but Brady did most all of the rest by himself. I wasn't much help at all, I admit it!

Brady hard at work.

Before shot of the north side.

After shot of the north side. Look - the azaelas are no longer in bloom!

Before shot of the south side - with a little concrete patch down the side in preparation for the paint.

After shot of the south side.

Okay, enough of the outside. Here's some work we did on the inside. A new chandelier in the entry way. I wish I had taken a picture of the one before, it was so ugly.

A new light above the kitchen table.

And TWO ceiling fans in the front room which was very hard to cool in the summertime. We used to have just one light where the back fan is so we added another light/fan at the front of the room, plus switched the back light to a light/fan. That was the best thing we have done for that room and wonder why we didn't do it sooner!

We have a new fridge! The other one was a small little one we bought with our first house in Snowflake so it was nice to upgrade to something bigger for this family of 7. Long story on the fridge, but the short of it is that we first had the "french door" style - stainless steel. I hated the fingerprints right away and as luck would have it, the fridge didn't work. So before we even got food in it, it went back to the store and we then bought this one. It's stainless steel as well, but a grade that doesn't show finger prints (it really doesn't!) AND it's magnetic! I love that. We were genuinely sad that the first fridge wasn't magnetic on the front. The front of the fridge is my life. I've removed the job chart, lacrosse schedule, school papers, etc. for this photo so it looks a lot cleaner than it usually is.

And finally, a new garbage can! I couldn't bring myself to spend $100 on a stainless steel one, but this little baby sure beats the lovely green one we used to have.

And if you made it to the bottom of this post, you deserve an award! Sorry it was so long!

A Florida Garden

Here's a picture of the only thing we have growing in our "garden." Pineapple. This is the second time our pineapple plants have given us fruit and we have THREE growing right now. Aren't they cute? They don't get as big as the ones you buy in the store, but it's sure exciting to grow pineapple on the side of our house!


It's hard to see but there is a pineapple on all three of those plants. If you click on the picture, it will blow it up nice and big.

Picture of a Picture

I had the kid's pictures taken just before Easter and finally picked them up yesterday. So this is a picture I took with my camera of the pictures that Target took with theirs. I thought when the kids got to be older, having their pictures taken would be a breeze. No more head stands to get someone to smile, no more worrys about timing it just right between naps, feedings, etc. Well, these five kids were not EASY to photograph. They thought it was one big party (especially the three boys) and they were having way too much fun. I'm not sure about the photographer, but I was exhausted by the time we were done. I told Brady no more family pictures until someone gets MARRIED!

Sick Day

I kept Jordan home from preschool today because he has a nasty cough. Here he is, sitting on the couch, surrounded by his teddy bears, eating cookies and smarties from a little treat bowl, and watching Star Wars. I want a sick day!

Pictures from Myrtle Beach

Here we are at Broadway at the Beach feeding fish and ducks.

We found a Spencer Lane and Jordan Road and couldn't resist taking a picture.

This HEATED lazy river was a life saver - the kids played in it every day.

Jordan and Brady racing on the beach.

Eating at Ryan's all-you-can-eat buffet was a highlight for everyone.

The boys LOVED this jaccuzi tub - actually everyone loved it. It had jets and when you added a little bit of shampoo, it made quite the bubble bath! The boys got into it so much they asked for their goggles.

Here is where we stayed.

There's No Place Like Home

We're back from Myrtle Beach and so glad to be home. It was wonderful to climb into my own bed last night after a day of driving. I haven't even looked at all the pictures on my flash card yet so I'll have to post those later, but here's three things I learned from our vacation.

1. Length of Stay - it's hard to get that one just right. When we went to Hilton Head we were there for two nights and three days and could have stayed longer, so I thought six nights and five days would be great, but it was actually about a day too long. I think a big reason it seemed too long was due in part to #2.

2. The Sun is Important - we only saw the sun for about 8 or so hours all week. Once was Wednesday morning and boy did we hit the beach! So did everyone else, it was funny to see everyone come out in droves to enjoy a little sun. The water was still quite cold and not too many people ventured out that far, but we enjoyed as much time on the beach as we could. I got a little sun tan and Brady got a little nap (that's about how it usually works for us), the kids had a great time at the beach and the pools. Mental note to self: don't go NORTH when looking for a lazy beach vacation during Spring Break - it's still WINTER there! We left the gorgeous Florida sun and found plenty of clouds, drizzle, fog and cool temperatures. No wonder everyone comes HERE for Spring Break!

3. There is No Substitute for a Good Old Map! I'm not sure what possessed me to hop in the car and take off on a 9-hour drive without my big Atlas that I love to travel with, but Brady had his GPS (we call her Leah - or Ms. Hona) so I thought we were covered. Well, the route we were supposed to take was also the one that a million other people were taking (I-95) and it was so congested we couldn't go over 20 MPH. It was funny to see all the out-of-state liscense plates heading back up North. I mean EVERYONE was on the road that day! What was supposed to be a 9-hour drive turned into a 12-hour drive, most of it done OFF I-95 on back roads. It was a pretty drive, just too long! All the time I was mumbling under my breath that I sure wish I had my map! The drive home was MUCH better - we made it in just under 9 hours including stops, no traffic at all.

We had a great time at the condo - we had three TV's for the kids to watch so they were in heaven! There were three pools (one indoor), five hot tubs, two lazy rivers, a game room, an exercise room, pilates on the beach (the one morning of sun - yeah!), and lots of other things for the kids to do. Our favorite place to eat was Ryans - a Golden Corral of sorts but not as expensive. It was a lot of fun to take five adults and 10 kids there! (We were with our friends the Roberts, plus Dina's mom). The five adults went to dinner a few times alone and saw some great shows - ONE at the Alabama Theater and Legends at the Legends Theater. We toured Broadway at the Beach as well as Barefoot Landing (both BIG tourist traps with unlimited shopping all connected by boardwalks over water), spent some time at the outlet mall, went for Italian ice (ours is much better here), and ate LOTS of popcorn! :) I brought our popcorn popper and donut maker - two essentials!

Pictures to come soon...as soon as my kids quit bugging me for the computer. There's a line-up right now.