Portraits Of My Girls

Since Eliza just turned four, I took the girls in for portraits. We got some fun ones of the girls in their new Halloween costumes too.

Awesome Labor Day Weekend

This weekend our family got away to my home town. It was so fun. Four families got together. I have been friends with these ladies (Katie, Alisha, and Jenny) since I was 13 years old. We went to Church together. In our young adult years we ended up living spread out all over the country, but recently we all ended up back in Virginia . I think we are lucky to have been able to keep in touch and maintain a friendship despite the miles and time between us. Jenny posted about it and some of our old adventures here. She even included some fun old adolescent pictures of us. :) (Really, Jen, is that how I used to dress?)

Katie was our wonderful host. Her awesome parents went out of town for the weekend and they let us use their beautiful and spacious home for out get together. We had tons of delicious food to eat. Katie had planned activities for the kids. My two girls had SO much fun! They loved water play and sidewalk chalk drawing. They were scared of the tractor rides but their Daddy enjoyed taking the tractor for a drive. I was a little apprehensive about how my kids would behave sleeping in a strange place, but they did great. They had so much fun and they still k me if they can go back to Katie's house. Eliza loved Alisha's older boys. That little one always loves the big boys. Katie's four year old, Ada, took great care of Sadie and always showed her around and included her in fun things to do. They loved it. David and I loved the conversation and the great company.

Sadly, I didn't think to take pictures of us when we had some natural light. This picture turned out awful but I am posting it anyway. Here we are: (from left to right) Jenny, Katie, Me, and Alisha. The babies are Jenny's twins, Madeline and Issac. Here we are with our offspring.
Here are pictures of the offspring enjoying water play.

Happy 4th Birthday, Eliza

Today my little Lizie turned four years old! She belongs to Toys R Us's Birthday Club so she had received a birthday card and a gift card from them in the mail. David took her to Toys R Us last night to pick out a toy and spend her gift card. They gave her a balloon and a crown. David reported that Eliza walked all through the store showing minimal interest in most of the toys. He just followed her. Then she spotted the skate boards. She ran to them. He tried to show her the cheapest skate board but she said it was for boys and insisted that she get the pink one for girls. She came home and so proudly showed me her new skate board.

This morning when she woke up she came into my room and woke me up. Then she went back to her room and took her jamies off and put on her clothes. Then she made her bed and explained to David that she is a big girl now and she wears panties and makes her bed by herself because she is four now. So grown-up...

This afternoon my sister and her two boys came over for lunch and to celebrate Eliza's big day. Eliza got a fun box of princess dress up clothes from Grandma and a Play Tent from Mom and Dad. She is wearing her jamies in many of the pictures because when we set up the tent she immediately went and put them on. She gathered up pillows and blankets and set up camp inside. Later, after her cousin went home, she and Sadie were playing in the tent and had a dance party, something they often play when they dress up as princesses. What surprised me was when Eliza stuck her head in the window and said, "Mommy, we are having a dance party and all my boyfriends are here!" Oh dear! I didn't even know she knew the term "boyfriends." How many does she have? Does it matter? One is too many...

She had a hard time winding down for bed tonight. She took her My Little Pony to bed with her that her cousin, Wyatt gave her. She has been a little obsessed about the name of this pony all evening. I had thrown away the box. I finally looked it up. She'll be happy to learn tomorrow that the pony's name is Party Cake.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Great American Quotes and A Little Liberal Humor

I believe that our Nation's Founding Fathers were inspired by God when they formed our new Government. The Constitution and The Bill of Rights are inspired documents. The creation of the United States of America has blessed the whole planet. No other government like it existed at the time of its formation. Now liberty spreads throughout the earth. Many other nations have patterned their own constitutions after ours. I think that our Founding Fathers beliefs are still relevant today. I thought I'd post a few great quotes from our Founding Fathers. Its important that we remember the intentions of those men who worked to form this new government.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it." -Thomas Paine

"Liberty must at all hazards be supported. We have a right to it, derived from our Maker. But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood." -John Adams "

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." - Benjamin Franklin
(Have we not all seen how frighteningly true this is? Wise Mr. Franklin knew the danger we could face)

Our Founding Fathers on The Redistribution of Wealth

"To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers have acquired too much, in order to spare to others who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equaled industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'to guarantee to everyone of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.' If the overgrown wealth of an individual be deemed a danger to the state, the best corrective is the law of equal inheritance to all [his descendants] in equal degrees; and the better, as this enforces a law of nature, while extra taxation violates it." -Thomas Jefferson

"I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading them or driving them out of it." -Benjamin Franklin

"The Utopian schemes of leveling [redistribution of the wealthy] and a community of goods [central ownership of all the means of production and distribution], are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government, unconstitutional." -Samual Adams

"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them ohterwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvements, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government." - Thomas Jefferson

"The only encouragements we hold out to strangers are a good climate, fertile soil, wholesome air and water, plenty of provisions and fuel, good pay for labor, kind neighbors, good laws, liberty, and a hearty welcome; the rest depends on a man's own industry and virtue. Lands are cheap, but they must be bought. All settlements are undertaken at private expense; the public contributes nothing but defense and justice." -Benjamin Franklin
(Wow, how far we've come from the public providing only defense and justice... now the public has to provide a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and payments to fictions students and colleges for student loans).

Our Founding Fathers on The Second Amendment

"No free man shall ever be de-barred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -Thomas Jefferson

"Are we at last brought to such a huiliating and debasing degradation tha we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms under our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" -Patrick Henry

Our Founding Fathers were very concerned about the government becoming too powerful. They truly intended for "We The People" to hold the power. The right to bear arms was not only included in the Bill or Rights so that one could defend his own property and life, but so one could defend himself against the government should it become tyrannical.

A Little Liberal Humor

lib·er·al (noun)
Someone so open-minded their brains fall out

"It isn't that liberals are ignorant; its just that they know so much that isn't so." -Ronald Regan

Preggie Sisters and My Silly Girls

This is my preggie sister, Molly, and me. Its been fun being pregnant with my sister. She is due 13 days before me. Yesterday we went to have our hair cut and we were riding in the car. I looked down and thought about my round pregnant belly and then I looked over at my sister and noticed how much bigger her tummy is . We are expecting that she is carrying a BIG baby. Her last baby weighed 9 lbs 2 0z. She weighed 10 lbs 5 oz at birth and her husband weighed 11 lbs 9 oz at birth so she may be a little destined to have big, adorable babies. Another fun fact about Molly's birth... Molly scored a 10/10 on her Apgar Test. The nurses in the hospital called her "Bo Derrick," after the actress who starred in the 1979 film , "10." The hospital staff kept coming by my mom's room to see the perfect 10 baby. Apparently not much has changed. Molly has continued to have a stunning appearance throughout her life. Here is Eliza working. She kept telling me to ask her to come play with her. I would ask her to play with me and then she would answer, "I'm sorry, Honey, not right now. I am working on my project." Hmmmmm....where did she get that from?
The other night I tucked Eliza into bed. A few hours later I checked in on her and saw that she had gotten out of bed and collected some animals and dolls and tucked them all back in. It pleasantly surprised m e so I sneaked back in her room for a little pic.
Over the last two weeks the girls have beein playing princesses everyday in their "real princess dresses" They never tire of playing princesses.

On The Farm

Yesterday our family went to the farm. We took a hayride out to the blackberry patch. This was probably the girls favorite part. Eliza loved the "bumpy ride.....weeeee!"
David took berry picking very seriously. He wanted to fill up our basket!



Eliza didn't care much for smooched berries on her fingers. She was so relieved when I removed them with a leaf.Now I just have to figure out what I will do with 6.5 lbs of delicious blackberries.