Aug 27

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Today our sweet little Charlotte turns 1! I am always amazed at how fast it goes and yet it feels like she’s always been with us. In her new stage of life things are moving quick. After learning to crawl (well, scoot around on her bum) she moved onto things like unrolling the toilet paper, toothbrushes in the toilet, dog water exploration and adventures in stair climbing.

A few weeks ago she started walking! There’s no stopping her now. She is ready for the world.

She loves a good snuggle and playing with mamas hair, and baby dolls. She clicks her tongue to give kisses, makes some pretty crazy faces (especially when she’s mad) and loves anything that plays music for her to dance to.

Happy Birthday to our Sweet Charlotte!

Off on another adventure!

Apr 28

Milestones

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Oliver hit a new milestone today. Two wheels! And already he is trying his hand at tricks.

Mar 27

Spring Party 2014

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Don’t you just love a last minute party? And a last minute party with friends that are all about last minute too is even better. We quickly planned out this party with a focus on simple but fun. I even set up decorations! (something I tend to avoid)

We made our springy snacks. Deviled eggs, rainbow fruit kabobs, and cupcakes.

And set up our springy games. We had pin the tail on the bunny and pin the stinger on the bee. We ended with the safest bee around…no stinger! Zeke ended up closest and actually hit the wall. The kids were absolutely thrilled with this game. Our next game was outside for a butterfly hunt.

We had fabulous spring weather that helped make this party a huge success.

After the games the big girls painted flower masks out in the sun and the younger kids played outside looking for beetles, spiders and worms. We had a craft planned for them (just in case) but we were not about to drag them inside for it. We just saved it for another day and the moms were able to enjoy a peaceful (read quiet) latte with chocolate cupcake while the kids played in the sun.

Feb 04

The Newest Addition…..

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Declaimer First: I, Greg T., don’t often enter a entry into the family blog but since Merriann is still recovering from the hard work of Labor. I thought I would try my best. Since many people in which this blog was created for are looking for baby pictures, I am “maning” up. So please enjoy the “non” professional pictures. Merriann will return soon to give you what you have all come to expect.

We have a new addition to our family….

Charlotte Hadassah Thames

She was born on Jan. 31, 2014 @ 6:01 am. She was 6lb 15 oz and 20 inches long.

This was a first “relative” home birth experience. The reason I say relative is because it was at some friends of ours home. And not ours. We wanted to have a home birth but the distance from our house and the hospital had our midwife’s a little concerned when playing the what if games. So when relating this concern to our friends they said, “Use our house!” It was such a blessing. God has a amazing way of working things out.

These are our Midwives, Dr. Kim, and Dr. Tamar. They are both naturopathic doctors and midwifes. They are awesome. I must say they brought more to the table than I originally thought. They were informative, to the point, funny, and just good people. A-plus

And since we had the birth of Charlotte at a friends house and the stomach flu hit our house (that is a whole other story) there were a few days between the kids meeting their little sister.

Zoe and Oliver were so excited to meet her. Zeke was a little less sure about the whole thing. But he wants to play with her now and I am not sure he gets why he has to be so gentle with her.

Our Newest Family Picture, and look Merriann I even smiled for you!

Dec 19

Christmas Cookies 2013

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As some of you know I (Greg) am learning the fine art of motion video. Yes it is true, and with that said I have been doing some small projects to better learn the craft. Well, today Merriann, the kids and some of our friends came over to make Christmas cookies. So I saw a chance to do a little video and get some practice. So here is a little short video. I hope you enjoy.

Mar 12

New Projects

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Today was a beautiful sunny day around here. Last minute a friend asked if they could could come play. Of course! Having friends over always means more time playing outside and I told her I had a project for us to do while she was here. I was so excited to do this one. It was one of those Pinterest posts that I wasn’t sure I would ever complete but today we did!

It all started with an outside dining table that was here when we moved in. I liked it at first but soon got it he way on the porch and became one more flat surface it had to keep clearing. For the last year and a half or so it has been moved from one place to another just trying to keep it out of the way from our many other projects. It finally it landed in the “for the dump” pile. But then Pinterest. I had a new purpose for the now slightly rotted table.

We took it apart, cut it up, and pieced it back together. It has now become our sensory table. We have plans for water play, rice play, corn play maybe even noodle play! The possibilities are endless.

Some of our methods may have been a little unconventional but in the end it is just what I was wanting and it saved the table from the dump. All the wood was reused and the only thing I have to buy is totes. (The ones pictures go in our playroom). Another exciting day completed.

Jan 05

And On To Anaheim

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We left Legoland and headed to Anaheim. Right across the freeway from Disneyland. What this meant for us was being able to see the fireworks show each night. This was a shorter 2 night stay for us. The first night was just getting the trailer settled, dinner and bed for an early morning. We were relatively close to Grace Community Church where John MacArthur is pastor and we were excited for the opportunity to visit.

After church we were in need of refueling and headed downtown Hollywood looking for this…

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I was first introduced to Chick-fil-a in Louisiana. Mmmmm. With our stomachs growling and the kids eating their arms off we started to drive into the lot. They. Were. Closed. NOOOOOO!!!!! Of course they were. It was Sunday. It had been so long and we had forgotten. Next time Chick-fil-a. If you haven’t head Tim Hawkins Chick-fil-a song you must check it out.

The next main attraction for this area was Medieval Times Dinner & tournament . This turned out to be way more fun than I was expecting. This was not just a tournament between knights but an entire theatrical production.

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Upon entering you are assigned a knight to cheer for. I’m sure you guessed it right. We were given the Red Knight.

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Abigail, Sweet little Abigail would not sit down. She was too busy standing on my lap screaming for our knight.

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During dinner there are performances by a number of different people, horses and falcons.

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And because I know some of you are wondering. This was the main course of our dinner. Served Medieval style.

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Then there is a huge gap in pictures and you now see us at the end. It was really hard to take pictures during the actual jousting. Oliver and Abigail were on our laps and there was so much cheering and action we had to put the camera down. No one got bored at this event.

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Zoe and Ezekiel were excited to meet the Red Knight and the “bad guy.” Oliver decided to opt out of this one. He was, understandably, a bit sceptical.

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Zoe was excited to see the Red Knights shield had a lion on it. Just like Aslan.

Jan 02

Carlsbad, Ca AKA LegoLand…

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We left our campground in San Diego and headed to Carlsbad for a day at…

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Ezekiel was not convinced these giant Lego people were OK

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This was the ‘line’ for the rides. Parents held places while kids created. The kids loved it!

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Benefits of having a tall sister.

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Both Zoe and Ezekiel went through the Legoland Driving School. Zoe was very careful except for driving on the wrong side of the road but she realized quickly and corrected. Ezekiel decided it was safer to follow the yellow line like a train. He was very focused.

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We headed back to the trailer for lunch and to change into our swim gear. Then it was off to the water. On a side note…they have a whole water park section we thought was included in our tickets. Turns out we were wrong. It would be extra. Decked out in our swim wear and melting in the sun we decided to visit more of the park before deciding if we wanted to enter the lines of the water park. I am so glad we did! Just around the corner was a whole water section and only a couple of the rides had lines. Most of it was more of a Great Wolf Lodge type structure. A majority of our day was spent here.

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It took a lot of courage for Oliver to make it over to this slide. Like the Great Wolf Lodge they have a bucket that dumps water. He freaks out over that. When the bell dings before the dump he is on guard. Greg got him over to this slide a little ways from the bucket and down he went!

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