Toby Died today

I woke up and was headed to feed the birds when I found Toby dead in his cage. Luckily Nick was home and he took care of him for me so I didn't have to. We've had him for 7 yrs. It's sad to not seem him in his cage anymore. :(

I love my three girls

It's quiet in my house right now, which is rare most of the time but very typical for this time of day. Capri is asleep in her crib, Sage is asleep in her bed, and Avery is sitting on my bed reading books. I love rest time! Today has been a bit hectic. I've been finishing up my pricing for an upcoming consignment sale, trying to keep the house clean while doing that, and trying to give my kids the attention that they need at the same time. Tonight is the first night of Avery's K-week and she is super excited. We've gotten all her school uniforms. On Saturday we went and picked out a lunch box and got her name put on it. Now we're ready for school. :) I am in shock that I have a child old enough to go to kindergarten. I'm also very excited for her. I hope she loves school as much as I did.

Not much going on today that's exciting to write about, just the same daily routine. But it's days like today, where I am feeling like I am being pulled in several different directions. That I like to just stop and Thank God for my wonderful family, and the many other blessings he has provided for us.

Several weeks ago Pastor Paul spoke to us at church on the Prayer of Jebez. He said to think of it like BELK, which is a local department store. So I remember

Bless me oh God, Bless me a lot
Enlarge my territory
Let not your hand depart from me
Keep me from wrong and the pain that it causes

It's now because my daily prayer. May God bless all of my family and friends.

Feeding time??

Capri is 4 months old now so she can start eatting solids if I want to start her on them. I was planning on waiting closer to 6 months but the last week or so she has been really interested in what we were eatting. So a few nights ago I thought I'd give her some cereal and see how she did with it. What do you think?

Forward roll

Avery and Sage are taking tumbling at the YMCA this summer. Avery is learning how to do bridges and backward rolls, Sage is learning how to do forward rolls. So of course they've been practicing all over the house. :) Here is Sage doing her roll.

Ready to move

Capri is lifting her whole upper body off of the floor now. She looks like she's just about ready to start crawling. She hasn't figure out how to get up on her knees yet, but she sure has a great time bouncing and scooting. I'm not ready for my "baby" to be on the move. :)

And here is just a couple cute pictures of my smiley baby. A friend of mine made this tie dye shirt, isn't it cute? Let me know if you want a link to her etsy shop.

God is in control

Do you ever have one of those days where you just have to repeat to yourself "God is in control" over and over again. You can't just say it once because it doesn't sink in the first time. You have to constantly repeat it to yourself. And then in the quiet moments of the day fear, frustration, panic, sadness, whatever it is that is bothering you creeps up again, and once again you have to say "God is in control".

During my prayer time when I am lifting something up to God, sometimes something major, sometimes something small, I imagine myself scooping up the problem with both hands and releasing it into the sky. Kind of like a dove or butterflies at a wedding. Something about the act or mental act of doing something physical helps me really feel the release within myself.

So today in one of those moments where I feel like I'm trapped and don't know the way out, I go to scripture and find......

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6

And I sing to myself "I cast all my cares up on him, I lay all of my burdens, down at his feet, and anytime that I don't know, what to do, I will cast all my cares upon him."

Key West Vacation Day 5--last day

We woke up and started packing up our stuff to go home. We got on the road about 10 a.m. The drive out was much prettier than the drive in because the sun was out and the water was beautiful.

The old railroad bridge

They cut out part of the old railroad bridge to let sailboats through and to stop people from being able to walk across it. Notice how beautiful the water is.

We had to stop on the way out to feed the baby so we pulled over and got a great view of the water.

Avery looking pretty next to the water

Last picture standing by the water

Good bye ocean!

We then stopped at Fairchild Tropical Garden. Nick has been here several times helping out at varies times, like after the hurricanes, but this was my first time visiting. It's beautiful.

Can you tell by the picture how hot and sunny it was. :)

Beautiful "Palm Garden".

We stopped in Miami and had dinner with Brad and Angela Compton, Nick's college friend. We drove home that night and arrived home around 2 a.m. The girls (and I..lol) slept the whole way home.

Key West Vacation Day 4

Nick woke up early on this morning and went on a snorkeling trip. He didn't take the camera with him so we don't have any pictures of that. He had a lot of fun. He saw a 5-6 ft nurse sharking sleeping in the water. A bit strange to see a shark in it's "natural" setting instead of in a aquarium. He also saw several intersting tropical fish. After snorkeling they went kayaking through the mangrove trees.

While he was gone I planned on taking the girls to the pool, but I got brave. :) So we headed out to see a Catholic church which is known for a Gratto built my a nun who said once the Gratto was finished the island would never be directly hit by a hurricane again.......and it hasn't.

The inside of the church

We walked around the outside or the church

The Gratto

We then went to the Key West cemetary and walked around. Very neat cemetary. Very old graves right next to new ones. Many of them are above ground because of the water level.

Navy Section

Just a shot of the a section of the cematary

Need Gravestone shaped like a tree trunk.

Next we were suppose to meet up with Nick before going to the beach but we had a little time to kill so we were just walking around downtown key west. Remeber it's just me and the 3 girls. We walked by the Light house which we had seen a few days earlier but didn't go inside. Sage started begging to go inside and see the lighthouse and climb up it. "Please mommy I want to climb the lighthouse". So for some unknown crazy "mommy of the year" moment I said sure and took all three girls to the lighthouse by myself.

The lighthouse

Getting ready to walk up. I strapped the baby to me in the sling, and up we went. Oh I also have to mention that it was about 95 degrees this day. The hottest day that we had so far, and there is no breeze inside a lighthouse. :)

View from the top. The girls LOVED it!

Self portrait of me and Capri.

We then headed down. I went first and Sage and Avery walked behind me. After a few minutes of going down I heard a "thump, thump" and turned around to see Sage hopping down the stairs....yes hopping. I said in my meanest mommy voice "we do not hop down stairs", and luckily she obeyed, and we made it to the bottom.

Yea! We did it. :) I've been in lots of lighthouses before, but never alone with 3 kids under the age of 5.

Now off to Zachary Taylor State Park and the Fort. Daddy meet up with us when we got out of the lighthouse.

The fort from the top.

Nick inside the fort.

Avery, Capri and I inside the fort. Sage was napping in the stroller.

Off to the beach! We rented snorkel gear and I got to do a bit of snorkeling around some rocks.

Avery playing in the sand.

Nick out snorkeling

View of the beach

Avery and Daddy walking on the beach. We tried to get her to snorkel but she wanted nothing to do with it.

Capri and I in the water

Sage woke up as we were getting ready to leave so I snapped her picture.

Notice the fan on the stroller. I just got a cheap $3 fan from walmart before we left, and hooked it to the stroller using a rubber band. That way as we were walking around Capri would have air blowing on her and not get to hot. We got SO many comments on how creative that was. Everywhere we went someone comment on the fan and the cute sleeping baby. :)

I had to snap this picture because this is what we did most of out trip........walked. We parked our car Monday and didn't get back in it until Friday. We walked a ton this day (probably 5-6 miles, including up the lighthouse) and the girls did so awesome. They didn't compain about walking or being hot. We just stopped and rest when we could. Capri rode in the stroller most of the time and just woke and slept as needed, getting out to eat or just get a few mintues of cuddle like when we were in A/C.
And finally the sunset. It had been cloudy a lot during our trip which was nice because it kept it cool. So the last night there we went down to Mallory Square to watch the sunset. Clouds started to roll in a bit, but they still let us get a nice view of the sunset.

The girls watching the sunset.

Capri and daddy watching the sunset.

The end of Day 4

Key West Vacation Day 3

We slept a little later this morning which was nice. We once again shopped and walked a lot. Then we took the Conch Train, which was a 90 minute ride all around the island pointing out famous houses (or the people who lived there), arciticture, and other fun "Island" info. I really enjoyed the tour.

On the train ride

A veiw of one of the local beaches

The Poinciana Tress were in full bloom.

After the train ride we ate in a cute little piarate restraunt. This was written on the walls and has become my favorite new saying. If you can't read it is says, "The beatings will continue until morale improves." :)

We then went back to the hotel and cooled off in the swimming pool. Avery meet a little girl who spoke French and she swam with her for awhile, which was cute.

Hanging out in the hotel before we headed out to get some key lime pie. :)

We tried to be back in our room by 8 p.m. every night so that the girls would get pleanty of rest. Plus the Key West night life can get kind of wild. Not so much fun with 3 little kids.