Georgia Aquarium

We took a trip last week to the Georgia Aquarium. It's great to be able to do these little day trips with the kids....we were back early afternoon after three hours at the aquarium. Will had the best time of all, he did NOT want to go home and started crying when it was time to leave.

Open tank with hammerhead sharks and sting rays you could touch.... Annely Blake checking things out......(my mom was able to meet us there too!)

Meeting Depot, the mascot fish of Georgia Aquarium

Underwater tunnel with sharks and sting rays swimming above....

Sting ray..........

More deep sea fish.....

Part of the tropical divers section......fish from the coral reef (my favorite...the colors were amazing)

Sea otters.........

Sitting pretty with KK....

On the way home....

A Christmas Story...

....as told by a rooster named Will. (Warning- this post will be low on inspiring words. The pictures should make up for that though. We just had the stomach bug tear through our house with a vengeance. Yes, all four of us. Fortunately we are on the mend now.)
The following are a few pictures from Will's participation in our Church's Christmas Nativity play this past Sunday.

Enjoy!!

Will as the rooster... I have not laughed so hard in a long time. Quite possibly one of the funniest things I've ever seen :) back view...

Some of the barnyard animals......note Will and best bud Luke were roosters together. Hilarious!

A couple of cows and a cute little mouse....

Rest of the animal crew......

Tomorrow is our family trip to the Georgia Aquarium. Can't wait! Pictures to follow!

My two groovy elves!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Getting in the spirit....

The Christmas spirit, that is. Tree decorating, house decorating, parties....it's all begun! Here are a few pictures from our trek downtown last week for Columbus' first annual "ring in Christmas" production. It was quite comical how our town decided to do that. "Reindeer" promised turned out to be a fenced in area of grazing deer. "Snow" was dispensed in 5 second spurts from a "snow-blower" (if you could call it that), spraying the kids with minuscule specks of some unknown white substance. A huge, lit, Christmas tree, with a nearly five foot section of lights missing from the top. Ahhh, Christmas Columbus style. It made us laugh :)

Annely Blake posing in front of some sort of light display. Please notice the hazardous wire and electrical cord. A nightmare when you have Will and his friend Luke running around at full speed. Snow. Can you see it? We couldn't either. But the kids thought it was great!

Posing in front of the tree. A near miracle we got them to hold still and smile.

Our small group kids. Or most of them. Maggie dashed away at the last minute, and Klein was taking a break. We're adding two more in January...making the adults officially out-numbered. YIKES!!

And finally, our tree. I love how it fits in the corner of our small but cozy dining room. I love that when we eat Christmas dinner it will be just feet from us, with all of it's smells and colors. We are staying put this year. My parents will be joining us for a few days, and our dear friends the Zevacs will be eating Christmas dinner with us. I can't wait! Merry Christmas everyone!

Room Reveal

Well, it's finally here. The moment I've been putting off since we found out baby #3 was on his way. Moving Annely Blake into Will's room. The unknowns of putting the world's best sleeper together with the child who gets sick every two weeks and sleeps as light as a feather was terrifying to me. Unfortunately, with a 3 bedroom house, we didn't have much choice! So, several months ago, the work began. Paint was applied, mattresses purchased, a hand-made bookcase completed, and finally it was done! Last week we took the plunge and Annely Blake and Will spent their first night together in their new room. We've had a few rough nights since then, but are hoping most of the kinks get worked out before the baby gets here. Here is the progression of the room change:

primer going on....goodbye hunter green walls! new paint up, mattresses in

completed bookcase with 4 coats of white paint!!

their little reading corner

the beds all made up (I'm beginning to see that I must like bright colors :)

Annely Blake all tucked in for her first night....she looks so small in that big bed :(

nighty night!

Stay tuned for additional pictures of the beautiful black and whites my mom did of each kid hanging over their beds!

Thanksgiving 2008

Yes, I know Thanksgiving was last week. Please forgive my tardiness in blogging about it. I'm 8 months pregnant...cut me a little slack! The week started off in Athens visiting my parents for a few days, then we headed to Savannah for the rest of the week. Thanksgiving dinner was at Matt's sister's house (Lori) and was delicious as always! Will and Annely Blake had way too much fun with their cousins that they don't get to see nearly enough. And, we had the pleasure of getting together with some old friends from high school (matt's) and college (ours). Unfortunately I was a do-do and didn't pull the camera out to take one single picture. :( We got back Sunday afternoon and it's been a whirl-wind of a week since then. I'll be blogging more about whats been going on around here.....including the completion of Will and AB's shared room, moving her over into the big girl bed and all the fun that came with that :) and our Christmas decorating. Our weekends from now on are pretty much consumed with getting last minute projects done and cleaning and organizing closets, clothes etc....all in preparation for baby #3 who is arriving next month!

Here's the link for Thanksgiving pictures...

http://picasaweb.google.com/katmaxey50/Thanksgiving08

Wiggly Party

Matt and I took the kids to see The Wiggles in Atlanta on Sunday. We made the trip with the Trammell family. Whew! What a day! 2 hour trip there, 1 1/2 hour show, dinner at a Mexican restaurant at 8pm, 2 hour ride back, (did I mention all 8 of us crammed into the minivan?) Kids to bed at 10:30. Then, 20 minutes after we got Will down he threw up all over his bed, den carpet, and kitchen floor. We spent the next hour washing sheets, mopping the floor, scrubbing carpets, and bathing him. A little too much Wiggly fun for him! Here are the pictures from our day:

Patiently waiting outside for Wiggles to start-

Trammells-

Getting a little antsy-

More waiting-

Here they come! Toot toot chugga chugga big red car! Fruit salad- yummy yummy

On the way home......all wiggled out!

"mommy, will you take our picture?"

will I take your picture? are you kidding....of course!

Sewing Storm

My latest creation for Annely Blake. I really took my time on this one and focused more on "quality" versus "getting it done fast." (For those who don't know me well, let's just say I don't have a whole lot of patience :)) If the finish line is in site I'm usually in a race with myself to get there. It's all about completing the task for me. So, anyways, I really pushed myself this time to slow down and be a little more precise in my cutting, pinning, and sewing. I think it paid off. I'm overall very please with the results. This pattern was one of the more difficult ones I've done and I also sewed my first zipper (not as hard as I thought), used interfacing for the first time and did more difficult tucks and gathers. I'm not sure if it's the cut of the dress, or the color fabric but Annely Blake looks like a little prairie girl in it :) I'll have to post some more pics when I actually have her in it. Since taking these I also added some ribbon trim to the sleeves, and tacked the collar down since it was sticking up when she wore it. Also, just so you know, in the second picture it looks like the left sleeve is a whole lot bigger than the right...not so. It's just the way the camera took the picture- I promise, they're even!

back view front view.... (only thing I'd do different next time is choose lining fabric that wasn't white :)

Carpenters

I'm super impressed with my husband and his friend David's wood-working abilities. Here is a picture of the bookcase they built yesterday for the kids' room. Impressed too, aren't you? I'll post another picture when it's painted and up in the room. Contact David Zevac to order yours today :)