Seeing Santa

The other night we took the kids to see Santa in downtown Mooresville during their Christmas festivities.  After a LONG wait to see him, we were able to take this short video.  Afterwards, Ginny was super-excited to try to  take a carriage ride, but they closed that part down early because the horses had gotten tired.  We didn't hear the end of that for the rest of the night!  "Horsey! Horsey!  Horsey" Horsey!"  Still, Santa has quickly became a rock-star to Ginny.  She gets excited at the mention of His name.

Nate is Eight.

It's hard to believe that Nate (Well, we never call him Nate) is eight.  Time flies.  He had a Pokemon themed birthday party at our church this year.  

Princess & Ninja

Here is a pic of our family at our church's Fall Festival.  Nathan went as a ninja this year, and Ginny went as Snow White on her first Halloween with us.

Uh, I have no idea who this is or how this picture got on my blog.  I'm sorry if this disturbs anyone....

The Olan Mills collection 2011

Our church is using Olan Mills for its picture directory this year (which I'm helping to oversee), and this gave us a good reason to have our first family picture since adding Ginny.  Here is the set of pics they took.  (And yes, we have permission to post these - I checked!)

Best of Nathan 2011

I was doing some organizing of pictures today, and after gathering some good ones of Nathan, I decided to experiment with a video collage feature in Picasa, and here's what I came up with...

Tater head

Ginny's Picaso-like Potato head creation.

Thrill Seeker

Yesterday, Nathan and I were invited to Carowinds by a friend.  We didn't have a full day there, but it was still a blast.  Most significant about this visit was that this was the first time that Nathan has been big enough to ride any of the "adult" coasters in the park.  I had thought he would be quite skiddish, but that wasn't the case at all. We entered into the park at the south entrance, and after riding a smaller ride first, we walked by Thunder Road.  Nathan points at it and says "I want to do that one!"  Nervously I consented, but my parental worries were soon stilled when after getting off, Nathan was laughing hysterically and begging to ride it again.  Which, we did.  He also rode his first steel upside-down coaster, The Carolina Cyclone, which he says is his current favorite.  He also tackled the Gold-rusher and Carolina Cobra as well too.  So, I guess I have a thrill-seeker on my hands....

Nathan after conquering the Carolina Cyclone

Ginny Crash Course

After Ginny's birthday party and an evening out at KFC with Memaw & Pepaw, both Ginny and Nathan wanted to ride their bikes in the driveway and road in front of ours house.  Nathan is actually getting very good with his balance and can ride a good distance on his own with his bike.  Ginny went back and forth between riding her two tricycles in the driveway, and would get into a giggling fit every time she would crash into something.  Here's a little bit of that action.

Ginny's First "Happy! Happy!"

Today we celebrated Ginny's fourth birthday, her first birthday with us in her forever family.  Her actual birthday was a few days back, but we had a small family party here at the house this afternoon.  Because of Ginny's early fascination with shoes, Becky Briggs from our church made her a "flip flop" cake, which was beautiful and very yummy.  She was showered with gifts too as you might imagine, including a stuffed horse with it's own carrying case/purse, a phone she could record her own voice in, a princess tent, shoes, clothes, and other toys.   It was a great day but a tiring one, and as evidence of that we just put two cranky "youngins" in the bed a bit ago.  Here is a video of the highlight of the party for Ginny, the Birthday song, candles, and cake.  And like the other video collage I made featuring scenes like this, this one I'm sure will be requested to be played over and over by one spoiled little girl.

Pierced!

Sharon has been really wanting to get Ginny's ears pierced, but for one reason or another we have not been in a big hurry.  Since we were in Concord most of the day today, Sharon took Ginny to Claire's in Concord Mills to have it done.  Sharon asked her several times if this is something she wanted to do, as to not force it on her, but she kept saying she wanted it done.  So, below is 15 seconds of action-packed footage from the event:

  

Up on Yonder Mountain

This has been one of the busiest summers on record for us.  Therefore, I've been a bit delinquent on the blogging.  We just got back from a wonderful get-away up in the Gatlinburg area, where we met up with some friends from church for some fun mountain activities which included a day in Cade's Cove, river tubing, shopping, putt-putt, time around the campfire, and many games of pool.  Here are a few pictures from our trip, one of the most fun family vacations to date.  Now, as has become cliche, I need a vacation to recover from my vacation.  Still, no rest for the weary, as its back to work tomorrow.

Pony up

Ginny and Nathan got to ride on the pony at our friends Debbie &  Jacob's farm.  This was Ginny's first time on a horse, and she did great.

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Ginny's Choir Good-byes

The other night as I was finishing Sanctuary Choir practice, Sharon brought Ginny to say goodbye to me.  However, after she finished that, she wasn't satisfied with just saying goodbye to me, she had to go around to every individual choir member who stayed for prayer time and give each one of them a hug, each individual person.  It was a very cute moment, so I quickly grabbed my phone to shoot video of the last half of her rounds.

Lake Norman Fun & Fishing Outing

 Nathan's been a busy young man his past week.  He got to go along with Mommy to an end of year school party at Lake Norman, where he got to ride a jet-ski for the first time.  And yesterday, the little guy and I went with the church RA group to Tommy & Phyllis Caldwell's pond for some fishing.

One of the two turtles Chris caught

Double catfish!

End of School Fun

As the school year comes to a close, Nathan has had some opportunities for some fun activities. Recently, his class took a field trip to Tweetsie Railroad.  This especially warm spring has also given us much opportunities for just hanging around outside and trips to the park for the whole family.

Nathan "in jail"

Sharon also got to go on the "field trip"

GInny "helps" Dad fix his new bike

New splash pad at Hope Park

Nathan buys a vintage Transformer from the Comic book convention

Monkey see, Monkey do.