Wii Love It!

So I never posted that we got a Wii about a month ago. I was determined to find games that the kids could play and interact with. We got Mario cart for it and that's kinda fun they think. Then we got the Wii Fit because I'm determined to get "fit" (ha! who am i kidding, i have three kids...my body is no where near getting fit...) Anyways, i found that there are actually other games that you can get that go with the Wii Fit board and that the Wii Fit didnt come with just exercise stuff. There's a fun game with marbles that you have to get in holes. That's fun. Brendens a professional at it. Anyways, we've also learned to play Baseball on the Wii and mom and I are professional golfers and I myself have become a professional DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) Master - actually, the game says "Nobody moves like you!" and I'm thinking "Ha! No Kidding!" It's fun and a great stress relief. So, i figured that I'd post some picks of the kiddos playing with the Wii.

anyways, tomorrow i plan to get some time and post some of our "fun in the sun pictures"...but as for now, we're having too much "fun in the sun" to get em off the camera...

Pictures Pictures and more Pictures...and a little bit of what's going on...

Well it's been a few. We had some rough news last week beginning a few weeks before Good Friday (read: the friday before easter). Anyways, my "other half" and BFF whom some of you may remember from my college days AND the maid of honor in my wedding named Jen recieved some terrible news. About 2 weeks before, she had gotten a call that her brother had been in an accident. HIs names is Elliot (30 years old) and he was a member of the Intelligence section of the United States Air Force in charge of briefing piliots before their missions. He has been to Iraq two times and has been an asset to our country being in contact with the Pentagon concerning the war in Iraq and other issues. In his spare time, he works at a golf course. The news that Jen had recieved was that Elliot was at work and had fallen backwards out of a truck onto the parking lot. He had hit his head but immediately gotten up and began talking to his friends. Instantly he collapsed, falling back to the ground. He was life-flighted to a well known hospital in Miami, close to where he lived in Florida. The doctors found a blood clot in his brain. They were able to remove the blood clot but they also had to remove part of his brain and skull. They removed his skull because his brain is swelling a lot and this way the brain would have room to expand. For the week and a half following, Elliot remained in critical condition and in a coma. On the 8th of April, he went into Cardiac Arrest and after 19 minutes of working on him, they brought him back. They werent sure of the cause of it but they were doing all types of tests on him to figure out the cause. The following day, Jen was able to fly down to see him and she and his long time girlfriend were on their way back from lunch. When they returned to the hospital they were greated by the staff treating Elliot and were informed that he had again went into cardiac arrest and this time, after 30 minutes of working to bring him back, they just werent able to do it. On April 10th, Elliot Lonz joined his father (who passed away in 2006 due to a blood clot in his lung after recovering from a terrible motorcycle accident) in heaven to watch down on four of the strongest people I know. My heart goes out to Jen, her mother Sandy, Elliots girlfriend Pat, Jens husband (and a good friend of mine as well) Brandon and the rest of their family. Such a great loss they have had and I can't imagine going through this. This is a main reason that I havent exactly posted b/c I have been in Norwalk, Ohio for the services for Elliot. Elliot was an avid golfer and after the service by the US Airforce, there was a 21 Golf Ball Salute for him (the services were held at a Golf Course that Elliot worked at in this area). It was a beautiful day for the services.

In the midst of all of that, Easter came and went and I didnt get to post about it. So, here are some pictures from Easter.

Brenden Finally Found his Easter Basket...after searching all over!

The boys try to figure out how to eat this candy that was left lying around.

Peyton thought that is was pretty cool to wake up and find toys hidden all over the place.

Before we could even blink, Peyton was eating a chocolate covored marshmallow egg...

We also had to take time out to find the eggs hiding around the house...
Aside from that, we've been enjoying the nice warm weather. We spent some time on the back deck playing with the bubbles that the Easter Bunny left us. I think the neighbors especially like the bubble whistles that the lovable easter bunny left us. Nice and high pitched, that Easter bunny must have really been thinkin!

Peyton learned to go up the slide on his own finally...so he keeps going up and down and up and down.I also captured some great pics of the boys sleeping - they're so close when they sleep...lol. Really, they each have their own beds...

We've also spent some time playing with Emily, my friend Ambers daughter. She's turning two this summer and is pretty close to the boys. While they weigh 30 lbs, Emily keep up with them and definatly weighs 34 lbs. We spent time riding four wheelers with her ( I dont even want to picture this when they're in their teens where this could be leading.....) and the twins even picked her flowers - which she graciously accepted and then threw to the ground.



So....that's about it for pictures! That's like a few weeks worth right there. So..check in later for more..when i get them!!!

Georgia on my mind....

So, there we were, in beautiful Georgia. We visited in SC for a few and then drove another 4 hours to Georgia. I can see why they say "Georgia on my mind" - because it's so nice there, then I headed back to Ohio and the cold weather, Georgia is definitely going to be on my mind. Anyways, i have a few pics from the past few days so I thought I'd share.

Would you believe that we saw a train?! It was right before we got on the turnpike and Landon freaked out.
Our first break to eat. We had already made a potty break and this was our second potty break and we needed to eat at this one. Worked out great!!!!

So, I was so excited to get to the tunnels for the boys to get to see them. Obviously we missed them. Above: what the boys were doing.... Below: What we were driving through.....
Yeap, we missed both tunnels but that's aweosme b/c that meant that we were taking great naps and the trip down to see my friend wasnt as bad as everyone thought it would be.

The second tunnel in Virginia...missed that one too...
Our plan...divide and conquer. We started in South Carolina at Shawnas house....

And moved on once that was conquered to Laurens house in Georgia...
We love Laurens dogs ("you have two dogs lauren?" said brenden....)

Landon liked the Thomas the Train couch (Mommy said "smile pretty Landon for me")

And our plan worked - or so it seemed. Anyways, we spent one day at Tybee Island. It's an Island off the coast of Savanna, Georgia. We took the boys to the beach for the first time. They were so excited to see the beach and the lighthouses (like in Thomas the Train!!!) So, we left promply at 8:30 to get their in time for low tide b/c I guess Tybee Island has alot of sand dollars. Then we promply went back to the house b/c I forgot my debit card - now that wont get me far. Then, we were on our way with a few oops stops and turn arounds by Shaun - Laurens husband. Hence the annoyed look and sleeping kid in the next few pics.
But finally, we made it to the beach. Tybee Beach was beautiful! We got there and the tide was out so we walked out to find sand dollars. I carried Peyton the whole way b/c I didnt realize that we had to walk through the water and that far out to get them so I didnt bring a change of clothes for the boys. Brenden and Landon walked most of the time...
Then Lauren and i decided that 3 wet kids wasnt going to work because the water was too deep towards the middle.
So we carried them...well Lauren carried them from one sand bar to another (her walking back in the picture, Shaun standing with 2 of them.) Keep in mind how far the walk is - in the far back is Shaun and that's how far we went out.Now, you see how far we've walked out there. He's what happened. We walked out onto the sandbars (see pic above) and were looking for sand dollars. We found some, they're beautiful. Well, after a little bit, i asked if we should start walking back before tide came in. We all decided to so we began walking back thinking that it looked that after we passed through the knee deep water that had filled back in, we'd be able to walk right onto the beach. We made it to the sand bar and realized that there was a lake inbetween where we were and the beach. Great. Just great. Now, 3 adults, 2 two year olds, two one year olds and a 4 year old...and all trapped on a sand bar. So...Shaun carried two one year olds back and Lauren slowly made her way with Cameron, her 4 year old son. Then, Shaun came back for one of the twins and we waded through chest deep water at points...mainly stomach deep. What a time, i was freaking out. The boys were freaking out - i later found out that it's because Landon dropped his shells in the water on the way over to the beach. Other than that issue, we were lucky but we had a great time!
Above is the boys and I standing in front of the sign that says do not go past here yada yada ya. The sand way out there, that's where we were stuck.

Here's the boys before we left. Landon was crying and Peyton was finally able to walk on the sand...just like the big boys. Finally we went to eat and then got to see the lighthouse. There's only one on the island, which after reading a little about it, i found that it's the 4th built and it's used to navigate around the island. By the time we got there, the Peyton, Natalie and Cameron were all sleeping so Brenden, Landon, Shaun and I got out of the car took pics and went right back into the car. Before we could pull out of the parking lot, all of the kids were sleeping.

Anyways, we're back now finally. I'm missing the 80 Degree weather and sun but it's nice to be back home. The trees were green down there and the boys noticed that and also mentioned that the trees (palm trees) looked funny to them.