Ally's Going To Jail...According to Emily Anyway

It's been a little while since I put on some recent pictures. The three in their dresses are of this past Sunday before church. I can't believe I had time to take them before getting to church. But as you'll notice, Em's hair is still wet. But at least I got some cute pictures. The one on the bathroom floor was so cute. Emily has this Dora that dances and sings. But she is on rollers so she really only works on hard surfaces. At our old house she worked great, now here we have mostly carpet. So Emily was wanting to Show Ally how her Dora doll worked. She coaxed Ally into the bathroom and sat there showing her how to use the doll. It was so cute. This was how I found them. They play really well together for the most part.

It's not always hearts and flowers though. The other day Em was rolling around with Ally and I guess Ally grabbed her and she got scratched. Emily came into my room whining that Ally had scratched her. But then she got really serious and said, "but it's okay mommy, I called the police and they are going to come and get her because she was mean to me." And then she just turned around and walked out. So today, we were all upstairs when the doorbell rang. Mike and I headed down to answer it and Em stood on the top of the stairs and asked who it was. On a whim I said it was the police that Em had called and they were there to take Ally away. I thought she would laugh since it was a joke she had created. But instead she started sobbing that she didn't want them to take Ally away. It was heartbreaking, (but funny).

Ally has now figured out the stairs. Lovely! Keeping me really busy now. Plus she now has a tooth on the upper right. She is so cute. The other a.m. she was sitting in my bed before I got up and I was letting her play with a wooden coaster. I was putting it on her head until it fell. I did it 3-4 times and then just let it drop. She waited a second and then picked it up and tried to put it on her head. It was so cute. It's amazing how much they drink in at this age. She also waves and says bye bye.

For those of you who haven't heard, Emily is no longer in Pre-school. No, she didn't get kicked out! We found out that she misses the kindergarten cutoff by 6 days so she'll go when she is five. So we decided that since she was 50/50 about it anyway we would stick her in next year for five half days to let her do pre-kindergarten. I'm not sure who wasn't ready, her or me. But either way, she gets to stay at home again. And she actually hasn't said anything about not going other then she still prays for her teacher. But she still gets to interact with kids her age, she is in children's church this year at church and has just started a Wednesday night program at church. She is loving both of them.

A new look...

We've changed the background on the blog to do something different. Jeremy inspired the change with his new lime green look. Hope you enjoy it. If you want to be added as a link on the side, let us know. I lost all the links in changing the background and want to make sure we didn't miss anyone.

Heaven

Hello All. Recently my good friend Jenn, showed me a blog of one of her friends daughters patient, (did you catch that!). Anyway, her patient is this cute little boy with a disease called Trisomy 18 also known as Edwards downsyndrome. Most babies don't make it to birth, the ones that do usually pass away a few days later and a small percentage live to their first birthday. This amazing christian family had their baby boy, Elliot July 20th. They just celebrated his 2 month birthday. And it is definitly a real celebration. He is on feeding tubes and has a hole in his heart and needs 24 hour nursing. But he is really cute and so far has a lot of spunk for someone so sick. Every little thing he does is so important to this family and as I was reading their blog today, below is what the dad had to say about how his son has taught him to long for heaven. It is very touching and I hope it stirs your desire to be in heaven with God. Not sometime in the future, but longing for it NOW! I've always personally struggled with wanting heaven. I keep saying after I get married, after kids, after I raise them, after after after. But that isn't what we are supposed to feel like. Anyway, enough from me. I hope you get as much out of this as I did!


Eliot continues to teach, and we continue in our pursuit to pass on the lessons learned. I must admit that, until recently, I have never longed for heaven. Don’t get me wrong, it has always been somewhere I eventually wanted to be; it sounded great and all, but, honestly, I enjoy the here and now just fine. I looked at heaven as through a telescope. It was a nice place, not too distant, the surface of which reminded me of my current surroundings.Scripture describes the feelings that we as believers should have for the afterlife with these words: longing, burdened, & groaning. Whatever my affections for heaven were, these words would not be an apt description for them.Enter Eliot…he is my reminder, my illumination. This world is out of kilter. Not quite right. Eliot’s head bobs with each breath. His heart has a hole in it. The list continues from there. For the first time, I long for heaven. I want to be there. I want it worse than any desire that I have ever experienced. This world will no longer suffice. I am restless for that which lies beyond. Eliot has revealed the distance from earth to the afterward. He has taken my telescope and fashioned a magnifying glass- and the true distance from here to home has been exposed.so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life…We…would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. II Corinthians 5 Matt & Ginny Mooney

What a Day!

Thursday Evening will have an awesome line-up...

Bunko Starts for the ladies (and little children) at our house at 6:30 in the garage!

Risk Starts for the men at our house as early as possible inside the house!

My Name is Early Starts at 8:00 PM

The Office Starts at 8:30 PM

ER Starts at 10:00 PM

Hope to see many of you there!

Risky to Let them Play...

I came accross another blog where the game Risk seems to be a hot topic. This photo came accross and I thought this would be a classic photo to include. Do you see her reaction when she lost?

I think the recent comments from the previous post really highlighted one thing. Why in the world would we want the wives to play with us? Do you see her reaction losing a game she probably got forced to play? Not pretty when everyone goes home!

We might as well be real with each other avoid the trouble that comes along with letting the ladies play. Is it really worth getting their cards like I took from my lady friend Joel? On a positive note, if our wives came dressed like her, it could make the game at least a little interesting. So maybe we should let them go shopping before the game since that is what they really want to do.


Here are some comments from the web-site on Risk. I'll share a few of them here: http://www.funagain.com/control/product?product_id=07838

"That game that starts us all off"
"Simple, Fun, Timeless"
"The best game ever"
"We are a family addicted to Risk"
"Risk is one of the best boardgames ever invented"
"This is a classic"

So when does this tournament start without the ladies. What is our budget for them to go shopping, $5 to $7? Maybe we should just give them slurpie money for the kids and send them to the park while the credit cards stay with us? -Mike

And the Risk Champion is.....

At Last we got to play Risk at the house. Jed and Joel came over for the challenge. The ladies watched the husbands suffer.

It was a great victory and I have to provide many thanks to Joel for letting me have your cards!

Can't wait to stick it to you again :) Now if we can only get the ladies to learn how to play this game. Sure beats the board game that forces us to get our feelings out.

Pictures of the New House

The long awaited photos of our new house!

The outside of the house from the front. Notice my clean and organized garage!

The Kitchen. Loving the Granite. The Dishwasher is so quite that you would never know that it was on. This makes it nice to watch a Giants game in the evening as the only noise you hear is Barry Bonds hitting HR's! We have some taller Bar Stools on order.



Our Dining Room with the Tall Table and Tall Chairs. Great for playing Texas Hold'em! Looking forward to Winter with the Fire-Place and Leather Couch! The only thing missing will be the Giants games on TV this Winter. The good news is that we have the TIVO to watch all 162 games over again this Winter. You think the players only watch video to get better? Wrong, as I have to watch video of the Giants to learn how to become a better fan!




Up the stairs we go! Make a Left and you'll see as much as the loft as we could get in the photo. Great to relax as we have a nice computer area up here.



Emily is very proud of her room that she put together all by herself :)

Ally's room looks almost exactly like the old house!

Our Bedroom, Walk in Closet to the Right of the bed. The TV is mounted on the wall. The cords will be hidden behind the dresser.

Below you'll see the Master Bath in our room and then Emily and Ally's Bath-Room to the right.

Come by and Visit Anytime. We have room for two to sleep upstairs in the loft or Two to sleep down-stairs in the living room!

All moved in!

This past weekend we were finally able to move in to our house. We got our keys Wednesday and started slowly moving stuff. My mom and I came in Wed. and Thur. night and painted the girls rooms. They turned out really cute. I'll post some of Em's room soon. Ally's room looks the same as it did at the old house.
It was a little crazy because Emily got sick on Wed. and then Ally and Mike on Friday. So We were all running around with colds but Everyone seemed to do okay so we moved on. But it was worth it because all the boxes are unpacked and everything is in its place and we are just enjoying it now. It was nice to move on a holiday weekend as we get an extra day to relax before we get back to the routine of day to day life. And yes, it must be said, I never want to move again! Although I'm sure we will, but I can pretend that we never have to pack and unpack a house again. And by the way, the only bad thing about having a house with stairs is moving into a house with stairs. Up and down for three full days is exhausting. If it weren't for all the fast food we ate during the weekend I would have lost 5 lbs!
We also just want to give a quick shout out to those who helped us move. There was no way Mike and I could have done this by ourselves and your help was wonderful and we are so thankful to have all of you as friends and family. Thanks again! And to any of you who move in the future, count us in! Just not in the next week or two.