Three Kids Reading...

... In A Tree.

This is what I found when venturing outside while making dinner tonight. I guess reading in a tree is better than not reading at all. I really shouldn't complain, my kids are avid readers. I know they got this from me, since the only thing Gregg reads is Intel or The Economist Magazine.

Payton is on the final (fourth) book of the Twilight series. She started the first book around the end of December, and at an average of 500 pages each, she's really flying through them for a 10 year old. Austin also reads a lot, but I try to push physical activity more with him since he's so lethargic most of the time.


Payton, Brooklynn (a neighbor girl), and Austin, reading magazines in our tree.

They look quite comfortable there don't they?

Just Two Wheels

I finally said enough yesterday evening & took off Austin's training wheels. I told him that it was time to figure it out and there was no going back.

So I spent about an hour teaching him, and then when I was completely wore out, Gregg took over. I know there are no photos of me teaching him, but it seems that I am the only one that knows how to use the camera around here.

There are no photos of me teaching him, so I'm sure Gregg will get all the credit when he's older. . . Oh well.

Anyway, he's doing great with it. He had a few falls after Gregg took over, but he's fine. Hopefully today he feels like trying some more.

Austin taking a rest. Learning how to ride a bike (and being the teacher of said student) is hard work.

Austin in action. Now if we could only get him to understand the steering part has to happen at the same time as the pedalling part.

Random Randomness

I have a ton of random photos on my cell phone and thought I would share them with everyone... enjoy!

Anyone seen pancake batter in a Redi Whip spray can before? I certainly hadn't until today. The back says that it makes 29 pancakes, I'm skeptical. Every time I use a mix to make pancakes it makes about half what it claims.

I happen to like my pancakes made with eggs and butter and real ingredients, not chemicals, so this can will stay on the shelf at my local grocery store until some lazy fool buys it.

I was following this lady in town yesterday. She sounds like a real interesting one, who wants to be called "The Lint Lady"? In case you cannot read the whole thing, this woman uses dryer lint to make "realistic paintings." Whatever floats your boat...

These next few photos (and the one above) were taken in Key West. Gregg took a bunch and sent them my way this morning via text message. It sure looks pretty there. If I remember correctly, this is the southern most point in the United States.

He's there on "official military business". Meaning: our government sends personnel a thousand miles away to say "HI" face to face. What a waste of our tax dollars in my honest opinion. Or maybe I'm just pissy that I don't get to go on vacation in Key West for a week too.

This is a pier looking back at the hotel where Gregg is staying, the Waldorf Astoria in Key West, Florida.

Here's a random beach shot; that hammock is calling my name. I'll take a pina colada too.

And, a shot of some pool guy there on the grounds. Reminds me so much of Mexico, I need a vacation STAT!

April Showers Bring May Flowers?

Or maybe it was just a lot of hard work. Getting a house ready to be placed up for sale is a big job. Hopefully it will be well worth the effort.

Our perfect picture of a traditional colonial style home here in Virginia Beach. I know that colonial isn't everyone's style, but it is pretty much all you have to choose from around here.

Gregg took this awesome panorama of the back yard today, click on it and it should open up big for you.

Here's my beautiful girl hanging out in the backyard on this wonderful day. I just love the background in this photo.

I know he's up to something, I can just tell.

She looks so sad here, it makes me wonder what she's thinking about. I do not think she's actually sad. Though she might be thinking about having to go back to school tomorrow, spring break is over, what a drag.

Flashback Friday

Just look at the cheesy grin (Austin @ 11 months).

Spring Break '09

The kids decided to play outside today. It looked like they were having fun, but Austin had other ideas...

Payton got a new haircut two days ago, and obviously she's been playing in the makeup too much today. I promptly made her wash it off.

Here's Austin before he decided to "run away" today. He made it a block and a half before he gave up and sat down on the corner.

I'm SO going to miss the beautiful weather here in Virginia. Check out how green everything is.

A Sign Of The Times

Payton was at a sleepover birthday party last night and this morning, after texting her good morning and asking her how things went last night, the conversation got funny. We went to text her again and this is how the conversation went.

I thought it was just too funny not to share...

Text to Payton: "Call me."

Text to Payton: "Give me a call."

Text from Payton: "Hold on. were playing hide and go seek, I cant make a sound. Please."

Text to Payton: "Ok"


Anyway, I hope you all got a kick out of this post. She did give me a call soon after, apparently the texting helped the other girls find her easily. Who would have thought?

Science Fair 2009

Earlier this week Rosemont Forrest had its annual science fair. I took a few photos while we were there.

Here is Payton and her science project. She did trials on which water solution (saltwater, sugar water or plain tap water) plants preferred. The saltwater plant died immediately, which was pretty interesting, the sugar water and plain tap water grew at the same rate. She won fourth place on this project, she did a great job.

Here are my kiddos leaving the science fair. I enjoy taking photos of them walking for some reason, I don't know why.

I don't know if you can tell, but Austin is definitely growing at a faster pace lately. He's on both IGF1 and HGH (human growth hormone), which is totally experimental to be using at the same time, but if it helps I'm all for it. A few weeks ago we found out that he also has some issues with his thyroid, but it isn't a really big deal now that he's on some medications for that too. Speaking of science projects, Austin could have won this fair himself, with all of the experimental stuff he's on.

We did a lot of standing around and waiting while there, but it was neat to see the creative science projects, not so much on the M&M Math type projects, those get boring after you've seen them a dozen times.

On a side note, Gregg has been gone this whole week to a Piracy Conference in DC. It's ironic because of the Norfolk ship that was taken over by pirates off of Africa's coastline just a few days ago. Gregg has had a few run-ins with pirates in the past few years, you should hear the stories... the USS Cape St. George even had a shoot out with some pirates while on deployment a few years ago, pretty interesting stuff.

Anyway, here's hoping that the weather stays nice for the weekend!

Funny Faces Of Austin

I took these while we were waiting for Payton's concert Monday evening to start. We were there for more than an hour waiting, so you could say we got more than a little bored.

I thought they went quite well together.

Pyramid Concert

This evening was the Pyramid Concert for some of the local schools. Fifth grade through High School participated. The kids did a great job and the audio from the video below is REALLY good, be sure to check that out!

Here are a few photos:

Ode To Joy (turn the sound up)

We're Getting Ready...

... to put the house on the market. With school in Nebraska starting mid August (a month earlier than school here in Virginia), we'd better get the ball rolling. Here are a few photos from our busy weekend.

Once again, here's my favorite handy man, fixing the flashing.

It's a long way up there, I'm surprised that he will get on that ladder, he isn't much for heights.

Yesterday we cleaned the deck, here's how it looked before the staining.

I got this photo of Jolie in the yard. If you open it up larger, you can see she's doing something odd with her mouth. To me it looks like she's talking, I thought it was just too funny not to post.

What a pain, Gregg sprayed the stain/sealant/waterproof on and then had to spread it with a brush. Needless to say, he was not a very happy guy.

After the deck was completed, Gregg mowed the lawn. Hopefully prospective buyers are impressed with the deck. It is the biggest deck in the neighborhood.

It was a beautiful day today, too bad we couldn't just sit back and enjoy it.

Jolie, Out On The Town

It's been a slow week. I've been sick and now I think Austin is getting sick too. So I'm going to post a few photos from last weekend when Payton and I took Jolie to the Petsmart store.

Here are my two girls. Jolie walks quite well on a leash, she enjoys looking at each of the fish tanks separately, spying on the birds and trying to intimidate the dogs. Payton had a good time too, so I didn't make her wear a leash on this trip.

Jolie sat in Austin's car seat on the way to the store and just watched outside, she loves watching the cars go by.