Status updates from facebook this past week...(reverse order)

will--"mom, i need you to come kiss my face." (i did.) will--"don't i smell like yummy chocolate and peanut butter?" yes, he sure did. i guess he found the valentine's candy i hid but how can i possibly be upset about this?

after our yummy vday dinner @ macaroni grill we dropped off my car for service at the toyota shop down the road. following conversation ensued...syd--"who has the fastest car in our family?" katie--"probably dad." syd--"well, God's in our family and i bet His car is faster AND bigger." katie--"yeah, i bet God's car is silver and gold and has pearls on the wheels." syd--"yeah, and i bet every seat has it's own dvd player and there's probably pretty jewels on the lights." katie--"cool, i wish we could have a car like that!"

and finally...

me to kids--"okay guys, time to clean up so we can go to dinner." syd--"where are we going, mc donalds?" me--"no, somewhere nicer for valentine's day." syd--"chick-fil-a?" ha ha...we have our kids well-trained.

Merry Christmas, 2 months late!

My sister in law and I made this collage to give the grandparents for Christmas. We had a lot of fun with the kids--the dads helped--and it was a very memorable gift!

A first for our family...EVERY kid WANTED to see Santa and all were smiling!

One of my Christmas highlights was going out to a fabulous dinner with some of
my favorite people. Last year we did pot luck...having someone fix it and clean it up
is going to be a new favorite tradition! Love you, girls!

NEW MOON

I love Twilight. I am not ashamed of it. I went with about a dozen of my favorite people to see the "New Moon" premier at midnight opening night. We had a wonderful dinner at Cheesecake Factory beforehand and then loaded up and all of the wonderful movie treats while we sat in our seats for 2 hours before the movie started. At least we were sitting in the warm theater and not standing in line outside where it was freezing! It was an awesome girls night out, absolutely no calorie counting! Only 131 more days until "Eclipse" comes out!

California

I do believe it is the happiest place on earth. Especially as the kids get older
we can really go and have fun with fewer meltdowns and more rides together!

Katie LOVES the dolphins. She got to touch one which was super exciting
and she is hoping to swim with one in Hawaii...stay tuned!

Will practiced building sand castles (as opposed to stomping on them last year!)
Coronado is our favorite beach in the continental U.S. We absolutely LOVE it here!

Syd was Mom's sand dollar buddy. We spent several hours over the course of our time
there searching for them, I think we have figured out how to get the best ones!

The last 4 years we have visited San Diego I have wanted to rent the surrey and ride
around Coronado with our kids. This was our lucky year!
Umm...I would not recommend this activity unless your kids are old enough to help
pedal (none of ours had legs long enough to reach the pedals!) It was very fun
(we stopped halfway around the island for ice cream,) but a
LOT of work! PS. A Chinese tourist stopped us and asked if he could take a picture--
for himself--he wanted to show his friends back home an American family. He
kindly offered to take one with our camera, too. I hope we don't show up on
some billboard in Beijing!

Well, here we are just 45 minutes after school got out...we are in for the night, wearing our pajamas, and sipping hot chocolate--with marshmallows, of course!
Bring on the snow!

(Actually, I could do without the snow for a bit longer; but I am definitely a fan of pajamas during the day and chocolatey drinks!)

Oh boy...

And now it is SNOWING! Will just declared, "It's Christmas!"
If so, then where's my peppermint white mocha?

Rain, rain, go away!

I have no idea where the summer went? We had a lot of fun this summer, mostly stuck close to home and played outside with friends. The kids had a blast and I pretty much collapsed into bed at the end of each day--exhausted from the exertion from entertaining three small, busy children. Right before school started we took a last minute trip to OKC to meet up with some of my family, as I had a cousin competing in the AQHA Junior World Championships. We only had one full day there, so that meant a good portion of the 5 days we were gone were spent in the car. The kids did super--we did give them the incentive of hotels with pools for their good behavior--and it worked! On our last night we were blessed to find a BRAND NEW Holiday Inn Express in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma. Not kidding, brand new! Love this picture of the kids all sharing a bed!
Sometimes Lance asks one of us to walk on his back, it cracks a lot but he insists that it feels good. I guess on this particular morning one chiropractor was just not enough.

Katie on her first day of 2nd grade. Where does the time go?

Syd & Will on the first day of preschool. Fun times!

Up until this morning, we have had consistently beautiful weather. We didn't have one single day in triple digits this summer, what a nice change! This morning at about 4 am it started to rain. It is still raining and it is only forty degrees outside; it was 75 yesterday. I'm not quite ready for fall...

Family Camp

Our family is blessed to attend the most amazing family camp in the world each summer! Here is our "family portrait," taken on "medieval night." Some lovely ladies in waiting and a knight in shining armor!

Will's first horse ride!

The "Red Rascals."

My very own Robinhood got called out of the crowd to shoot the bow & arrows for our team!

Syd not only got to ride a horse, she got to paint one with paints and markers. Patient horse, bewildered children!

American Idol 2024

His very own rendition of "How much is that doggy in the window?"

She's HOT!

My amazing hula-hoopin' daughter...

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Dad, you're the best! We miss you! Be safe & come home soon!

(forgot my fill flash, sorry!)

Marie Antoinette

Half of my lifetime ago I was fortunate enough to go on a 16-day trip all around France to practice speaking the language I had studied, and to and learn about the culture. I was inundated with art & history; I was overwhelmed by the experience. I quite frankly don't remember much of it but what I do remember is that I loved Marie Antoinette's Estate at Versaille. It is magical. It is like stepping into a fairy tale. A brief history lesson is that this place was created for the Queen so that she could have an escape from the rigidity of royalty. It was a place for resting and having fun. (I'm sure there's much more to it than that, but we'll stick with the basics.)



Just as magical as the first time I experienced it. I literally took hundreds of pictures and couldn't even select 5 (the max it will allow me per post,) so I just picked a handful of different ones to give you a sample of the fairy tale.

Versailles, ridiculously opulent and excessive; but beautiful.

Here we are at the gold gates to Versailles. Seriously, it is hard to imagine anyone even wanting to live this extravegantly, but it is a sight to behold! It even has it's own breathtaking chapel inside with a gorgeous organ, amazing artwork, and gold leafing everywhere, and well, see it for yourself:
This is rounding the corner to head into the famous "Hall of Mirrors." I got a decent shot of the hall itself, but there are literally hundreds of people in it, which kind of takes away from the grandeur. I loved this shot because you can get a good idea of the dozens of matching chandeliers that hang from the hall's ceilings, and you can even see one mirror directly below the chandelier. Just imagine hundreds of those lining the wall opposite of the arched windows you see. It is brilliant with light!
Check out Louis XIV's bedchamber. The top of the bed with its plumes you can see, what I really wanted to capture was the art above the bed. I really cannot even imagine having this stuff over me while I was sleeping. Not to mention a gigantic crystal chandelier with candles.
Directly across from the kings bed, the windows opened up to this view of the gardens. Now this I could so live with. The grounds at Versailles are truly like a slice of heaven. Here you can't even see the fountains and flowers!

Paris Miscellaneousness

The carousel at the Tuileries. They were also giving pony rides through the gardens...I know 3 small children that would have really enjoyed this park! This made me miss my kids!
I actually think the picture was taken at St. Pancras in London. We took it for Will because he is so interested in trains these days. As a side note, I was terrified to take the Chunnel from London to Paris. But it was really cool. As you are leaving London you go through so many smaller tunnels that when you actually go under the water, it just seems like it's another tunnel. Then it dawns on you that this must be the tunnel and before you can get too stressed you're in the sun again. Very fast; very cool.
Place de la Concorde at night. You can see Cleopatra's needle in the foreground and the Eiffel Tower in the background.
And what would a trip to Paris be without a visit to the "Tour Eiffel?" Well, the first time I went to Paris we skipped it altogether, if that says anything. However we decided we wanted to see it, and it was pretty neat.
After we left the Eiffel Tower we were walking near the Seine and I had a wonderful opportunity to practice my French and asked a nice couple to take a picture of us. They pretended to understand me and smiled politely, and the man held out his hand for the camera...and voila! Not bad.

British Museum & Museum of Natural History in London

The British Museum houses some of most famous pieces of World History, including the Rosetta Stone and pieces of the Pantheon. Like the art-counterparts in Paris, it is overwhelming. One of my favorite discoveries on this day was this gorgeous gold clock which was once housed in Martin Luther's church. It's old and it still works. Really, I heard it chime with my own ears.

One of the things I found most fascinating is that for such a liberal country, they proudly displayed many beautiful pieces with biblical meaning, and described them in detail on the cards next to each exhibit. It truly moved me.
Not so far away is the Museum of Natural History. Every child's dream come true with the life-sized, reconstructed, animatronic dinosaurs. Perhaps the greatest dinosaur exhibit(s) in the world.
There are several rooms and floors with a variety of exhibits, but honestly the dinos steal the show!

Sainte Chapelle et Notre Dame

Sainte Chapelle is often overlooked, as it stands less than one hundred yards away from the magnificent Notre Dame. In my opinion, it is equally as magnificent. There are over 1000 stained glass windows that depict stories from the Bible. They are beautiful. The windows seen above are contained in the upper chapel, where only the king and his guests were allowed to worship. The lower chapel, as seen below, had beautiful gold-guilded arches and statues of Christ's disciples.

A stone's throw away is Notre Dame. Here is a rare shot of me in front of the camera. We had just climbed about thousand steps to get to the top to view exterior aerial views of Notre Dame, as well as the city below.
Of course Notre Dame has many well-noted features, including it's own stained glass windows. I personally enjoyed looking at the stone depictions of the many saints and biblical persons that are placed throughout the church.

Le Louvre et Musee d'Orsay

It is truly impossible to describe the feeling(s) one experiences when you come so close to the famous masterpieces housed in these two museums. It is simply overwhelming. Equally as fascinating to me is the opportunity to "people watch," and listen to words of others as equally overwhelmed as myself, in other languages!
I took countless pictures of the actual artwork, but the buildings themselves are works of art, which is why I'm posting these pictures here. Want to see artwork? Go to the library and check out a book. :)
I did thoroughly enjoy the Napoleon exhibits at the Louvre, I don't recall seeing this part of the museum the last time I was there. Here is a picture of his crown, well, one of them at least.

The grand hall at the Orsay.

Poor, poor Lance. We did both of these museums in the same day and it was a bit exhausting. But even he admitted gladness at seeing all of the things we did...