I cannot believe how hectic life has become. We are in full-blown soccer parent mode. Work has been busy for both Nathan and I so we haven’t been able to take the kids to the parks as much as we have wanted to. Sundays we go to church and then Samantha has CCD classes until 8:00, Monday the boys have CCD classes until 8:00, Tuesday the boys have Cub Scouts, and Wednesday all 3 kids are taking ballroom dance classes an hour away from where we live. Right now I am sitting at our annual CV3 Conference that is being held this year in Orlando, FL. Since I do not have any school to teach I may actually get some updates in.

We ended up having another CV3 meeting at the house. This time had 10 people. The kids lost their beds. 2 slept on the futon, 1 slept with grandma. While the employees were here we went out for the night for a Pirate Dinner. Here is a picture of all of us with the pirate captain and his wench…

After that adventure we had a few educational outings including a tour of one of Disney’s fire stations. Here are the kids posing with the dalmation statue….

The firemen set up a burning house display for the kids to put out with the hose and each child was able to take a turn spraying the hose. Here is Timmy…

Here is Josh…

and here is Samantha…

Next in our adventure this fall/winter was a trip to Disney for one of the Not So Scary Halloween Parties. We didn’t go on the actual Holloween night because we wanted the kids to be able to trick or treat at the neighborhood this year. Here is a picture of the kids posing with Belle…

And here are the kids and grandma posing with Aurora…

We were also carrying a Flat Stanley with us for one of Nathan’s employees so here is Timmy with the Flat Stanley on the Jungle Cruise…

Anyways…. we have had a lot of fun this Fall/Winter and are enjoying the new house. We ARE missing the neighbors at camp although we have entertained many of them at the house this year. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas tables were graced with family and camping friends. The kids had a BIG Christmas this year with a tree and lots of presents because they haven’t had that for the last 4 years. Timmy and Josh both celebrated their birthdays in Florida this year and both are excelling in Cub Scouts. They both have earned their Light of Christ Award and Josh has been awarded his Tiger patch. Timmy is being awarded his Wolf patch this month. Samantha is loving dance and they have their first BEGINNING competition this May. Our plans right now are to head up to camp around Memorial Day and we will return to the house near Labor Day. It is cutting the camping season short but the kids want to be back in time for CCD classes to start next year so they aren’t the “new kids”. I think Samantha will also want to get back to dance. I will see if I can edit some more pictures while at the conference tomorrow so I can put a few more updates on our adventures.

Well… we bought the kids two Guinea Pigs for Christmas. Unfortunately, right before Christmas Dawn died and Twilight got sick. Because Twilight was still under warranty she went to the vet for Christmas weekend and then was on antibiotics for two weeks after. We waited until after Disney to purchase another Guinea Pig. At that point we decided to get 2 more so there was enough for everyone to pass around. So we picked out two new Guinea Pigs and named them Brownie and Oreo.

What we didn’t realize was that Brownie must have been pregnant when we bought her. We were a bit surprised when we came home from Chicago and this is what Brownie looked like…

This picture does not do her girth justice. The poor girl has looked ready to pop this week. I have been Googling all over trying to figure out when we would know it was time. Friday night I couldn’t sleep and I checked her every half hour and it looked like aliens were in her. You could watch the babies moving. Saturday morning came and I had some errands to run. I looked in on her and she looked like she was about to go into labor. I just knew it was going to happen in the next couple of hours but I left for my errands. While I was out Nathan called me to tell me that Samantha had just looked in and the babies had been born! Everyone missed the birth!! I knew I shouldn’t have left. Brownie had 3 beautiful babies… one is albino, one is tri-colored, and one is brown and black. We will keep one if there is a girl but I can’t tell what they are. My guess is that the brown/black one is a boy and the other two are girls. I am hoping I am wrong because I love the coloring of the brown/black. Here are a couple of pictures of them while they were hours old…

Everything I have read says I need to get any boys out by 3 weeks so we don’t have more babies. I am checking them but if there is any question we will take everyone to a vet in the next couple of weeks and make sure what gender they are. Hopefully Petco will take the other two that we do not keep. Otherwise I don’t know what we will do!!

Joshua turned 6 this year while we were at Disney. He wanted to go to the Sci-Fi Drive In for his birthday lunch. Here is a picture of everyone seated in the car…

We also tried out some new things at Epcot this year. This is a picture of a experience where kids carry a piggybank to different stations and learn about saving money…

During our trip to Disney this year Nathan had to take a side trip to Vermont. While he was in Vermont we decided to try a restaurant we haven’t gone to yet, Coral Reef. It is a restaurant in the Living Seas where you can watch the fish swim. Unfortunately the lighting didn’t allow good pictures of the tanks. I wish it had because there was a huge sea turtle that kept coming down and sat watching one of the diners while he ate. It was quite humorous to watch. Here are some pictures of the interior and my mom and the kids at the table…

One last picture of the kids with Chip and Dale…

And a picture of the boys cuddling in one of our recliners with my mom…

For some reason the kids still like to get pictures and autographs with the characters. Here they are with Flik…

With Meeko…

and with Thumper…

We had a great Safari ride this year. We had two animals that came so close to the bus that we could have touched them. One of them was an ostrich that actually followed us for a bit…

Next was a white rhinoceros…

And I was able to get a decent picture of the lion…

A picture of the kids with Baloo…

Timmy was finally tall enough this year to ride ALL of the rides. This means that he rode Rock-N-Rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios and the Dino Spin ride at Animal Kingdom. Here is a picture of Samantha and Timmy in the dino vehicle…

Since the boys were in desperate need of haircuts anyway we took them for their annual trip to the Main Street Barber Shop. Grandma got her hair colored too with pink streaks. Here is my mom’s hairdo…

Samantha’s hairdo…

Joshua’s new haircut and color…

And of course Timmy’s haircut and color….