Trip to Cinci

During the girls "Fall Break" we decided to head up to Cincinnati (about 1 1/2 hour drive) for an over-nighter. We stayed in a great hotel and enjoyed swimming and a bar-b-que dinner.

Yes, that is Campbell and no, he did not break his head on the ceiling (but he was close).

Hallie was ready to scare the crap out of Campbell with this mask on.

Then the next day we went to the Newport Aquarium which we have heard so much about.

Everyone was right... it was great! The kids loved it!

Hallie and Megan especially loved feeding the Lorakeets. Campbell liked pestering the Lorakeets (one finally had had enough and bit him ;O)

The sharks were another favorite. We actually got to pet some of the sharks... seriously. They had a whole pond full of them, it was awesome!

They had some workers cleaning inside the tank while we were there. The guy in the back with the stick is supposed to protect the other guy from the sharks. Can you see the shark coming right at him?... I wouldn't want that job!

Why it is so important to vote

I've never said anything about politics on this blog, mostly because I don't have much to say... but, when I saw this I had to share it.

Candy, Candy, Candy

It's not even Halloween yet and the girls have dressed up in their costumes 4 times already in the last 2 weeks.

We had lot's of fun at the "Biggest Halloween Party" at the Louisville zoo.

Lots of games and treats at the "trunk or treat".

(I love this picture of Campbell begging for candy. )

A neighbor had a Halloween Birthday party and all the kids had a "parade" in their costumes around the court .

A cute and clever wizard. And a beautiful ballerina.

That explains it!

24 hour heartburn

swollen feet

waddling walk

puffy face... and hands... and feet

out of breath

charlie horses

side cramps

aching back

restless nights

exhausted

overwhelmed

scared to death of a newborn baby


Only one explanation...

I'm 35 weeks pregnant.

Vote for Amy!!

Okay, how cool is this... my friend up the street entered a costume designing contest for Dancing With The Stars (she was a BYU ballroom dancer who graduated in costume design and now is a stay at home mother of 3!).

Anyway, she recently received a phone call informing her that her designs were picked as one of the TOP 5 in the nation!!!

So here is where we come in... until Friday the public can go to http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancingwiththestars/index?pn=designvote08 vote for their favorite... VOTE FOR AMY!

If she wins, her designs will be used for two costumes on the show and they will fly her and her hubby out to sit in the audience!

The picture to the left is the girls costume (cute and modest too!) and there is a man's costume to match it. Her name is Amy Smith.

If you want to read more about how all of this happened go to her blog and read from her own words.

What do you see?

Oh, it's just our BRAND NEW FINISHED ROOM!!... nothing really exciting or anything.

(More pictures to come)

Need some gift ideas?

If you are interested in finding some new fun projects or sharing your own great ideas please join the "craft tag" on my creative blog. littlenannygoat.blogspot.com

Come on ladies, lets share ideas... you know you want to.

Megan's artistic interpretation

I found this in the pile of "artwork" Hallie and Megan created during General Conference.

Megan drew this picture.

Hmmm... Henry B. Eyring. Looks just like him.

A glimpse

It's funny how I go through life, day to day, wrapped up in myself... my family... my "world". So quick to find the obstacles in my path and sadly I'm often so slow to see the blessings.

Every once in awhile I feel like the Lord takes an ordinary moment and pricks my heart and opens my mind and gives me a glimpse of what I have and how blessed I truly am. I had one of those "glimpses" last night. It doesn't matter what I was doing because like I said it was an ordinary moment. What matters is the feeling I got... I hope I will always remember... I know I will forget.

So today I will be different.

I will hug my children more,

I will smile and giggle and dance and play with them,

I will think of someone outside "my world",

I will "feast on the words of Christ" and drink of the spirit which I am so blessed to have in my life,

I will talk with my husband and enjoy him,

I will praise more and criticize less,

I will see the joys in my life and remember who they come from.

I will be different today... and hopefully tomorrow.

How quickly I forget.

Hand-me-down Heaven

Can I just say, people are SO GENEROUS!
I remember as a young girl every once in awhile we would receive big black garbage bags full of clothes a cousin or neighbor had out-grown. It was like Christmas! My sister and I would sort through the clothes (fighting over who got what) so thrilled with our new wardrobe.

We LOVED hand-me-downs.
Recently our family have been the recipients of lots of hand-me-down treasures from dear friends and neighbors and I just wanted to share my gratitude on our blog.

These are just a few of the fun new-to-us treasures.

Thank you my friend. Thank you my friend.

Thank you my friend and my other friend. Thank you my friend.

Thank you my friend.

How blessed am I to have such generous friends! THANK YOU!
Don't you just love hand-me-downs?!

We've got grubs in our garden!

I don't know why but Campbell loves this patch of long grass in our flowerbed. He runs outside and sits on it like it's his throne.

I try not to think about the spiders and bugs that live inside the grass patch.

Creativity Blog

Okay, I started this blog awhile ago and I told my sister and a few friends about it so we could share ideas and show each other what projects we are doing.

Anyway, I think I'm ready to tell others about it but just be warned that it is nothing special, just a bunch of "stuff" I like to do.



You can click here or the link is on my left sidebar - "nannygoat"




Also, I'd love to hear about your thoughts on my projects and about your projects/ ideas too so leave a comment on my craft blog if you like. If we put all of our heads together we could really come up with some fun stuff!

Balloon Glow

My friend has been telling me about the Louisville Balloon Glow since we moved here over a year ago. Trevor worked so I probably wouldn't have braved it with 3 kids if Melissa hadn't have been here.
It was so amazing.

We got there early and the kids had a blast going down the blow-up slides and even walking into a hot air balloon.

Campbell was amazed by the balloons (he is the blur at the bottom of the picture on the right, he is a blur in most pictures... busy, busy boy).

When the sun started going down they started blowing up the balloons which was so fun to watch. We were just feet away from the big birthday cake balloon. Unfortunately it was a little windy so that balloon didn't stay up for very long.


When all of the balloons were blown up they "lit" them. It was so beautiful!

We will definitely be doing this again next year! (Hopefully Trevor will be able to come too.)

Melissa and Jeff come to visit

What a great present to have my sis and her hubby here for my birthday! Melissa and I are due ONE DAY apart, we couldn't have planned it better (and we definitely didn't plan it !). She is having a baby girl (it's their 1st child) and I am having a little boy (if you've lost count this is our 4TH!!!).
How fun to be pregnant together and have our babies so close in age.

We really enjoyed their visit! Here are some highlights:

Yummy birthday lunch at the Olive Garden.

Melissa and Jeff went to the Slugger Museum where Jeff got his own genuine Louisville Slugger bat (his name engraved and all).

I love this pic of my girls snuggling with Melissa. They love their aunt Melissa so much.

Jeff got tickets to the Ryder Cup and had a great time watching his favorite sport just feet away from his golf idols. Unfortunately he couldn't take a camera in but Melissa has a fun post about his experience here.

We visited the Louisville Temple (just a few miles down the road from our house) for a photo opportunity.
We love to head out to the Ohio River to play at the park and eat at the family friendly restaurant on the river.

We played lot's of games. Ticket to Ride is a favorite. I even won...twice! (You are only impressed with that if you have actually played Ticket to Ride with Melissa and Jeff, they are insane!)

Operation (without the batteries because it gives my girls an anxiety attack if the little buzzer goes off) and Othello where the favorites of Hallie and Megan.

No trip to Kentucky is complete without a drive up to Cinci to visit the GAP clearance center... oh, I love that place.

Melissa and I love to be crafty and we did some fun projects (I will post them on my creative blog soon) we also re-did her blog template, made "thank-you" cards, visited some fun fabric/craft stores, and created baby shower invites on photoshop... so fun.

We also went to the Balloon Glow... that experience deserves it's own post so I'll get to that soon.