Christmas Pictures

For the first time in a long time, I am going to be very organized about our family Christmas photo. I heard about Shutterfly's great deal for bloggers and my mind started creating a plan. We are going to the beach for Thanksgiving and I thought it would be wonderful to have our picture taken on the actual beach - white sand, blue water...and lots of little Wrights around! I can't wait to have the perfect picture to add to the perfect card design. They have so many to choose from! They sell so many products but the greeting cards are my favorite - especially the 5x7 sizes http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/5x7-folded-greeting-cards. My dad is so hard to shop for so we like to get him personalized things w/ the kids' pictures on it. He loved the last mug we got him so we are probably going to do it again with an updated picture http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts/photo-mugs. I am planning on hosting a Christmas ornament exchange too. I love entertaining and I thought these invitations would be perfect for me to use http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-invitations ! Half the fun is poking around and looking at all the wonderful possibilities. And Shutterfly is making it so easy for bloggers to get free cards this year. Go to this link to get more details about this great offer http://blog.shutterfly.com/5358/holiday2010-blog-submission-form/. Thanks Shutterfly!

It's been a long time

I had meant to keep this blog updated as often as possible. Life happens. It happened and I haven't been able to update like I've wanted to. I have a ton of new pictures to share, not sure if I can upload all of the great ones at once. We'll have to see how the computer does.

Alex had a birthday! He turned 8 on February 14th. His birthday was on a Saturday so we had his party on the big day itself. We decided on doing a tae kwon do party at his martial arts school. I was a bit worried about it even up to the day before the party but I am SO glad we decided to have it there. Master Choi did a fabulous job and the kiddos had a great time. His Mimi MaryAnn gave him a Wii Fit and the whole family has really been enjoying it. Mary especially loves the yoga part of the game. She looks so cute doing some of the moves. The entire day went very well. Alex invited some friends over after the party to come and play for a bit. Alex Noblett spent the night which just made my Alex's day perfect.

His birthday cake - and yes, I made it myself! I think Delia would be sooooo proud, don't you? I took the picture from an actual photograph of him and did the buttercream frosting transfer. I think it looked fabulous.

Master Choi had a ninja sword for Alex to cut his cake. How cool was that?

Look at that kick! Mary doing her yoga.

The next weekend, we had belt testing. Alex's school has belt testing just about every two months. This time he was testing for a green belt. He knew his form, he had earned five tapes (very good), and he nailed his board breaking technique. It was all good! The following Wednesday was the belt ceremony -it felt like it lasted forever but we were very proud of him.

I like wearing my tutu to belt testing too. It must makes me feel right.

Mary's best friend invited her to attend her sister's bowling party. She was so excited! We have been trying to set up a playdate w/ Emily forever and this was perfect. I met her mom and dad, and the rest of her family. I bowled, we had cake and pizza, and we all had a great time. The two of them are so cute together.

Mary and Emily...BFFs!

Mary, Emily, and Selena - Selena was the birthday girl!

Today was the first day of March. It "roared in like a lion..."! 3 inches of snow - and it snowed all day long. It was absolutely beautiful. The kids had a blast playing outside, there was hot chocolate and chili for dinner. Good times. The only one who wasn't happy was Otis. Poor Otis, didn't want to go outside and was dying to go out and do his thing. He doesn't do well in storms in general...he didn't know what to think of the white stuff.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments!

Guess what?

Yesterday was a big day in a little girl's life. Little Mary lost her first tooth! Talk about milestones! It was our last first tooth and to be honest, it made me a little bit sad. But her excitement was very contagious and we were all very happy for her.

When you've lost your first tooth, you must absolutely lick the bowl clean when your mom makes a red velvet cake!

Congrats May May! Now on to tooth #2 (which by the way is VERY loose!).

Sick Kids

Well, we have had our share of germs around here this week. First it was Liv, then Alex, and now Mary. The younger two had strep. Poor Alex - he had to have the throat stick but I am so glad I took him in to the doctor. He got his meds and was better within a day. So I went back to work and wasn't there but thirty minutes before I got another call from the school. This time it was May May. Poor little angel (like my dad would say). She was so sick. And pretty unreasonable too. She could not understand why she couldn't play with Ashlyn even though she was sick. Ugh. But after 24 hours she, too, was better. In fact, she kept me super busy all day painting, crafting, and playing. When she went to bed she said, "whew, it was a long day!". Can you imagine?

Tomorrow we will have a great day - we will all be healthy and we will laugh a lot. I guarantee it!

Mama's Birthday

Well, it's been another year since we all got together and celebrated Mama's birthday. Is it just me or is time really flying by? I wish we could have done it up bigger but I guess the important thing is that we did it. We met my brother and his family at Red Lobster and had a family dinner in Mama's honor. She loved to order the Ultimate Feast - she wouldn't eat half of it but she'd order it every time. Mama loved her seafood! It was bittersweet to not have her there but like I always tell my kids...absent from the body means she is present with the Lord. And what could be better?

Olivia enjoyed her crab legs. My girl likes her crab legs! And she cracked them all by herself this time. I was impressed!

Guess what Alex had?

Chicken fingers and french fries. What else?

And Mary enjoyed a fabulous dish of Macaroni and Cheese - the same kind we have at home that is made from a box. But this plate cost $5. I hope it tasted good!

Here are the Wrights.

Fred and Alex. And NO! They don't look a bit alike!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mama. We love you and miss you more than ever. We never thought we'd be okay without you but somehow, we are good. We are living and we are thriving. One look at those little faces proves that "One smile shatters a thousand griefs". And we are smiling!

Happy New Year

So far the new year has crawled in very quietly. We spent the big night at some friends' house w/ our other close friends. The kids were all playing and running about - very kid friendly atmosphere. There was lots of food! It has been cloudy and rainy ever since. In fact, I think it has been this way for the entire break, except for two days when the sun came out. Kind of depressing.

Alex has been enjoying the heck out of his Wii. Jay likes it too - the girls have played but are not nuts about it. Mary has been doing a lot of drawing and coloring. Liv has a fascination w/ gmail right now so she has been IMing w/ her friends. Why not pick up the phone if you have so much to say? Although I can't complain too much. I love FB and the freedom it allows to just drop a note here and there w/out committing to an entire conversation. Who has time for that?

I am learning to play the guitar. It is a very painful process. No one ever talks about your fingers hurting so much you think they are going to fall off! They are on fire. But, I have been assured that it is only temporary and that as soon as I develop some nice attractive callouses, the pain will be gone. We will see. So far I have learned three chords that I have memorized and am now working on switching between these chords w/ ease. Not that easy! But I am sure it will come.

I have also already failed at my other New Year's goal - to take at least one picture a day. Since I haven't gone out of the house in two days, it really limits my options of what to take a picture of. It will get better. I have to get a camera bag, then I can take the camera out and about w/ out worrying about damaging it.

So, today is Saturday. We are enjoying the last remnants of our vacation - just lounging and relaxing. The kids go back to school on Monday and I go back to work on Tuesday. I think THAT is what I am most dreading. I think my excitement about being a Spanish teacher has ebbed and now I wish I could just stay at home and do my thing around here. Laundry, cooking, cleaning, going to the gym...all in English. Alas, no es posible.

So, I'm off to enjoy some time w/ Jay. A Bientot! Wait .... that's French.

Stone Mountain

We spent the day at Stone Mountain Park yesterday. It was sunny for the first time in forever so we took advantage of it and headed out. We stopped at Chick-fil-A for lunch first - can't go wrong with that, right? So we entered the park around 1:30 or so. Our plan was to climb up to the top of the mountain. My kids had never done that before. And I know Lorena has never done it.

I used to do it as a child many times - my Uncle Renee used to take us most every weekend, we would take Chico the dog and climb up to the top. We'd stop at our "cave" and have a picnic, head to the top and then climb back down. Those were fun memories. Anyway, the kids were excited about giving it a whirl. So we started out. Alex fell down and skinned his knees right away. I thought it was all over at that point. But my boy brushed himself off and started on his way, despite his injury. Way to go Bubby!

We had a great time. The kids climbed on every rock they could find. They climbed trees when they could find them. Mary had an incredible amount of energy and would run everywhere. Everywhere.

We made it almost to the top, when we saw the rails on this super steep spot. To the left of the rails was the "cave". I was unable to enjoy it at all because my kids suddenly became crazy kids and were climbing all over it and jumping off and in every possible way trying to give me a heart attack. Apparently I have a fear of heights and it was raging yesterday on that mountain! I could just picture any one of the kids falling off the cave and rolling down the mountain. Yikes. Thank goodness no one did.

At one point, we went off on a trail and were able to see a great view of Mount Carmel. The kids were excited about that.

Liv saw moss everywhere and was particularly interested in it. For some reason, Lorena thought it was gross so Liv would tease her by touching it all the time. Here's a shot of her moss.

We finally made it to the top!

It was c-o-l-d!!! The kids were shivering and dying to get down. We decided to take the tram down to the bottom of the mountain and take the train around to our car. Well, long story short, the tram cost $30 for us to ride and when we reached the bottom, there was no train to take us to our car. So we had to walk! All the way to the other side of the mountain.It was getting colder and darker. Mary was whiney and we were all exhausted. Praise the Lord we finally made it before anyone fell out! We were so thankful to see the car! So our adventure ended w/ four very tired kiddos but some wonderful memories made.