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It's been a while!

I must apologize to my family and friends for not keeping this as updated as I would like. My last entry was while we were on an awesome family vacation of the east coast. I didn't even finish blogging from that trip and so much has changed in our lives since then. It is my goal to update our family's blog as Park and Mad are getting so big. I do post a good deal on Facebook but not all of our family and friends are FB users. Please keep checking back, like I said earlier, I would like to pick up from that vacation and share with you what's been happening in our lives since then.
Thanks to everyone for your patience and support of our little family!

Love to all,
Jill

My Madelyn

My Madelyn, one of the lights of my life, just kills me!! This morning she comes up and stares at my coffee cup, which means that she wants to take a drink, and since I still drink coffee the way Grandma used to make it for me when I was a kid, I asked her if she wanted a sip. She said, in her cute little way, "Yep!" As she picks the mug up by the handle, I say, "two hands, please," which she proceeds to put the tip of her index finger on the other side. Heaven forbid she actually put the other hand on the mug, oh hell no, we have to be difficult. She is so her mother's child!!

Parker has been attending Jedi camp at the Museum of Natural Science this past week. He graduates this afternoon so I'll be posting more this evening.

Love to all,
jill

Fourth of July

We have had a busy time since my last posting but it's late and we are going to be up early to head into Maine in the morning so I just wanted to drop a note to wish all of you a fabulous Fourth of July!! Hope all of you have a wonderful day with your loved ones and safe celebrations in your own special way. We are currently in Manchester, NH and their celebration is being cancelled due to rain so I am not sure where we'll end up but where ever we do it's going to be great!! Love to all and will update you soon on all the great things we have done over the last few days.

Love,
J

East Coast Vacation (days 1, 2, and 3)

The vacation has begun!!! Chris, Parker, Madelyn and I flew out of Houston International at 7:30 on Saturday morning. Daddy flew in from Nigeria on Friday night so we stayed at a hotel by the airport the night before our flight to maximize our time with him before we left. So here we are, the mommy, daddy, two kids, three suitcases, plus everyone's backpacks/carry-on's.....one would have thought that we were making a permanent move to the East Coast!!!! Thankfully we were checked in by a sky captain at the curb and we avoided some major lines checking in. The sky captain also directed us to an optional security area as we were cutting it pretty close to our flight time. Mind you this whole time Madelyn is not in the stroller so between her and Parker I felt like I was hearding cattle through the terminal. Got to security, fairly small line, and Madelyn has a major meltdown. She didn't want to stay in line, she didn't want to take off her backpack, she didn't want to take off her shoes, and she didn't want to walk through the metal detector. By this time I was sweating and really ticked off.....why couldn't we just get through this calmy?!? I must say that the guy checking our tickets actually smiled at us and went kind of fast in checking our tickets and the guy at the metal detector told me to go ahead and carry her through. Got through security.....shoes on and Maddie in stroller.....and headed to the gate (this is about 7:00, take-off is at 7:30). Get to the gate and it says that the next flight departing is to Mexico City.....pardon my language, but WTH? Mexico City is the last place I want to go!!! Check the departures only to discover that our gate had been changed from E to C. We all haul it over to the gate and get there as they were boarding our seats. Needless to say we got on, flight went well, kids did great, and we landed safely in Baltimore, Maryland.

Our first stop was to Williamsburg, VA to visit Nona Wilson, Chris' grandmother (Betsy's mother), whom we hadn't seen in a good while. We have missed her so much and we really wanted her to meet Madelyn so it wonderful that we could make this trip. She lives a Patriot's Colony, a retirement community for former military families. It is so beautiful!! We stayed in a guest apartment that was very nice....it had a very cozy feeling. On Saturday night we all went to dinner in the dining room. Dining in the dining room required a sports coat for men and dresses for women.....oy vey!!! Parker was already packing his sports coat because he wants to be ready to meet Barack Obama while we are in Washington (don't know if he's planning on wearing it the entire time, I'll get back to you on that). Everyone looked nice and acted great at dinner. Don't think that we embarassed Nona too bad. :) The next morning Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda came from Mathews, VA to join us all for bruch. We so enjoy spending time with them and were greatful to be able to see them. Chris later told me that Linda and Nona both told him that Parker and Madelyn were such well behaved children....I couldn't have been more proud!! After brunch we went to Colonial Williamsburg where we saw a reinactment of the British taking over something (can't remember what Chris told me they were taking over) and then drove over to Newport News, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach. We so enjoyed being able to spend time with Nona, this is time that can never go away and can never be taken back. We are fortunate!

Monday morning we picked mom and dad up in Baltimore, MD and drove to Easton, PA. It was great to reconnect with M & D, but we were all so tired that we had a pretty uneventful Monday night. Just to backtrack a bit..... We have a thing about visiting different states and taking our picture at the state line. Chris and I missed Virginia and Maryland......don't know where they were, but we got Pennsylvania, oh well, we'll keep trying! This morning, Tuesday, we went through the Crayola Factory where we learned how they make crayons and markers. It is a great place because there is every product available for the kids (and adults) to make all sorts of projects. Part of admission are free crayons, markers, and modeling clay....very cool!! We had a great time and left with a butt load of Crayola goodies! After leaving the Crayola Factory we headed to Princeton, NJ to see the Princeton campus. The drive to Princeton was absolutely beautiful, as was the campus. We had a picnic on the campus grounds and let the kids run off some energy. I sat there watching my kids run around the Princeton campus and couldn't help but think that maybe it wasn't me actually sitting there......it was a very surreal moment! After walking around the campus for a while we got back on the road towards our final destination of Milford, CT. We drove through New Jersey and New York to get to Connecticut and didn't get pics at any of the state lines......missed the darn signs AGAIN!!! Driving through New York City was so awesome that I just wanted to stay there, however, the traffic was horrible so I was pretty happy when we got through it all!! Parker kept trying to see if he could see the Statue of Liberty, but never saw her and it wasn't for a lack of trying!!

At the current moment we are in Milford, CT. In the morning we will visit the Yale campus, Plymouth Rock, eat lobster, go whale watching, and do whatever else we can squeeze in our day! :)

Parker's Yellow Belt

Hello to all, sorry it's been so long since my last post......our life has been CRAZY since summer began. Really, it's been a little crazy and the mommy has been a little lazy. :)

Parker tested for his yellow belt yesterday at Tae Kwon Do. I say he is a total natural and his instructors say that he has made such great improvement. In one of the pics posted Parker is posing with Instructor Cris (on the left) and Master Leider (on the right), Master Leider is Instructor Cris' dad.....it is a huge family affair. Parker started out as a white belt, progressed to an advanced white belt, and is now a yellow belt. The next belt he will test for will be a green belt. After getting his advanced white belt he started sparring....needless to say he (and all the other advanced white belts) get dressed up in their sparring gear and kick the crud out of one another. In tournaments only kicks count for points, slaps or punches do not get points, and the higher one kicks (specifically the head) the larget the point count. Full sparring gear includes a padded helmet, arm pads, chin pads, a padded vest, a mouth guard, and a cup (for the boys). Now imagine all these little boys, and two girls, full of energy, and in all this garb, trying to kick each other and not crack up laughing. There are some that have a conscience and will help their partner up when they fall down, but most of the time they just stand there bouncing around waiting for their partner to get up. Like I said earlier, the goal is to kick as high as you can to get the maximum amount of points. You can only imagine this mamma sitting watching Parker spar with another kid who is trying to kick the crap out of him and the instructor telling both kids to kick higher 'go for the head.' I have far too much Parker blood in me to stand behind the glass and watch my kid get kicked!! Parker is really good and is getting his fair share of kicks in, but I have to work really hard to not start yelling for Parker to 'kick higher, kick his head.' Sounds sick, doesn't it? It isn't bad at all because a) they have worked those kids so much before they start sparring and b) they are eight years old and under.....need I say more?

Again, sorry I haven't blogged in a while....Parker, Madelyn, and I have been in VBS all week and then packing for vacation on top of everything....time has been limited. I would really like to get a pic of all three of us in our VBS shirts, but just like getting a pic of Park at golf, it might not happen. :)

Chris, Parker, Madelyn, and I will be flying to Baltimore on Saturday morning and then driving down to Williamsburg, Virginia to spend a couple of nights with Nona (Chris' grandmother, Betsy's mom). We are looking forward to seeing her as she hasn't met Madelyn....hoping Mad makes a good impression first before she starts acting like her cute, two-year-old self!! Mom and dad will fly up and meet us on Monday and then we are off on a two week excursion. I will be blogging from the road so keep checking in with us.

Love to all,

J

Love is....

Love is going to bed with your husband....only two people in the bed......and waking up with two kids and a dog right in between the two of you. When I woke up to everyone in the bed I couldn't help but start singing (to myself, of course) 'there were four in the bed and the little one said, 'roll over, roll over,' so they all rolled over and one fell out, there were three in the bed..... etc, etc. Basically the little one is STILL in the bed and is fast asleep.

It is times like these that I sit back and reflect on my life and how lucky I have am to have such an awesome man as my husband and the father of my children, as well as, having two beautiful children. How could I ever lose sight of that? But sometimes I do.

Today is Park's last day of golf camp so I will try to snap some pics of my little Tiger.

Hope all of you have a great day!!!