VBS and the Zoo

Vacation Bible School was last week, and it was quite the success. This is Lucas modeling his craft from the first night. The best part of it, was that Matthew and Lucas were able to put their faith into action. They had invited four friends-two from school and two from the neighborhood, and all four of them came! It was so exciting to see the boys excited about sharing church with their school friends. The theme was Joseph this year, and we had a huge tent up in the worship area for the "marketplace", opportunities to create things with hieroglyphics, and they even made bricks from mud and straw for an activity on one of the evenings.

Since we've moved into our new house, we've done a lot of entertaining...more so than we used to. We had the Hurst side over for grilled pizza last Saturday. It was possibly the BEST grilled pizza Derrick's made, yet. While they were here, we had the sprinklers going, so the boys took full advantage of running through them and getting as soaked as possible. Not to mention the pop up thunderstorm we had, which of course Auntie Darragh took them running through puddles afterwards.
Natalie also had her feet in the grass for the first time. She loved it! She sat so nicely, for quite a little while, watching the sprinklers and the boys ride their bikes.



Today was our first zoo trip of the year. We went to check out the polar bear exhibit, and it was very cool..very crowded, but there is an area where you can walk down a ramp, and see them swimming from underneath. There were two of them swimming around, and it was very fun to watch. Of course, we had to go to the snake house, touch pool, and see the Asia Quest exhibit. They even found a little kid to trade silly bands with..only my kids!

Last night, it was very cute..Natalie has an interest in Lucas lately. She wanted up on the couch with him, because he was sucking his fingers. She pulled his fingers out of his mouth, and put them in her own...She is getting so big. She's pulling up on furniture, she wants everything the boys have (including their toys which drives them crazy), and she wants to sit with them.

Disney World-Vacation 2010

Well, our vacation has come and gone, and now we have all summer to look forward to. It was fabulous! We left on the 4th, and drove to Columbia, SC to spend the night. We were up at ready to go around 9 the next morning, and continued on to Disney World. How'd we do it with a baby and two seven year olds...lots of DS games, videos, snacks, and mommy in the back to entertain the baby...It was a fairly uneventful drive and when we got to Animal Kingdom Lodge-Jambo House, we were very excited. It was a beautiful hotel. Some of the rooms viewed a savanna, with giraffes, zebras, and other animals roaming around. The lobby had a huge totem pole in the lobby, and our view of the pool was very gorgeous.

We unloaded at the hotel, and got settled. About an hour later, we headed to Hollywood Studios, formerly known as MGM. It was Star Wars Weekend, so of course we hit the Star Tours ride first. There was Star Wars music playing all through the park, and Stormtroopers guarding the entrance. There were also many characters from the movies to sign autographs. The boys were totally in their element. We walked around and they rode Star Tours twice, and then we hit Pizza Planet for dinner. I wanted to eat there last time we went, and we couldn't. But this time we were able to. Afterwards, we did Toy Story Mania-a VERY cool 3 D ride, and we did the Studio Backlot Tour. We also saw Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, which was very good. After all that fun, we headed back to the resort. I took the kids to the pool while Derrick finished settling our room down and ate.
The next day, we headed back to Hollywood Studios. We did Star Tours two more times, as well as the Toy Story Mania ride again. We saw the Star Wars Motorcade..complete with an Annakin Mickey and many other Star Wars characters. It was HOT! So we got Buzz and Woody's autographs, went back to the resort for some rest and pool time.
Monday was our first day at Magic Kingdom. We did a lot of rides, like Aladdin's Carpets, Space Mountain, The AstroOribter, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. When it was time for some air conditioning, we hit the Carousel of Progress to cool off and give Natalie a bottle. After lunch, she started to melt a little, so Derrick took her back to the hotel and let her rest while I took the boys around Magic Kingdom. We did Dumbo, the Tea Cups, and the Tomorrowland Speedway, as well as Stitch's Great Escape. We met up with Derrick and Natalie at the hotel later and then went to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and to eat. We went to the LEGO store, and also to the Christmas shop to get some ornaments.
Tuesday we went to Epcot off and on. We did the Spaceship Earth ride, got some autographs, and rode The Land. We did lunch and walked around Innoventions, where the boys and I starred in our own video game. It was very cool. Epcot is so fun, if you let it. It is all about learning. We also did the Nemo ride, and saw Turtle Talk With Crush. We also rode Figment's Imagination Ride. We took a break from the park for a few hours, and headed back in the evening. We did the World Showcase, like the 3 Cabelleros ride in Mexico, and I had to have a German pretzel in Germany.
Wednesday we went to Magic Kingdom again. We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and when we unloaded the right, which of course was right into the gift shop, Lucas decided he was going to pose like Jack Sparrow..or his version of Jack. We also rode It's a Small World and saw the Country Bear Jamboree. We did the Jungle Cruise, and Matthew got chosen out of the audience to drive the boat. He thought that was WAY cool. We rode Aladdin's Carpets again, and this time Aladdin and Jasmine were on our ride. Afterwards, Natalie got to meet Jasmine..her first Disney princess. We walked through Frontierland and had lunch at Pinocchio's Haus in Fantasyland. We did Mickey's Philharmagic..which is VERY cute. Then we head to Mickey's Toontown Fair to go through Mickey and Minnie's houses, and to meet Mickey and Minnie of course. We had lunch and rode a few more rides again. Then we went back to the hotel for a rest and pool. After dinner at the resort, we went to Magic Kingdom to repeat any rides and for the fireworks.
Thursday was our last day. We went to Animal Kingdom. Here we saw the Festival of the Lion King, rode the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, and the boys dug in the Boneyard. We also scored some great autographs from Terk, Baloo and King Louie, and Flick. After lunch we headed to check out from the resort and started our way home. We made it home Friday afternoon, around 4 pm. We stopped for the night somewhere in Virginia, and then made our way home Friday morning.
It was a great vacation, and there is so much more I could tell....can't wait til next year!

And She's Off

Well, Natalie is crawling. In the last three weeks, she's mastered sitting on her own, very confidently, and now crawling. I'm not saying she's a crawling master yet. It starts as scooting, and pushing her toes into the carpet and lurching forward. In the last few days she's been putting the crawling motions with a little more speed. Today when I got home from work, she crawled to me..albeit slowly, but she did it. Yesterday she was sitting, leaned into the crawling position, then sat herself back up...the time's a coming....baby gates will reign.

She so wants to be where the boys are, and has developed a fascination with paper and tags. The boys didn't crawl at 7 months...not sure if she's a bit ahead of them because she's a girl, not a multiple, or not behind from the get go like the boys were...but needless to say I think I'll have a walker on my hands before her first birthday comes around. She especially likes to have the boys read to her...she pays great attention to them, and they love it that she'll sit and listen to them read to her.
Matthew Reading to Natalie

Lucas trying to read to Natalie..while she crawls around!

The boys are almost second graders! They have 9 days left of school, and are so ready for summer. Admittedly, so am I. I am ready for a lesser schedule, staying up late, and being outside a lot. Lucas was asking me yesterday if we can have Tuesday and Wednesday be "water days"...we'll see. They are starting "Camp Northwood" today, complete with tie dye shirts, bug journals, and trail mix for a snack. They were allowed to bring their sleeping bags to school for reading time and store them in their cubbies. Everyday they have mail call, and get letters we wrote from home. Sounds very cute, and definetly an end of the year activity.
What's next for the Hursts? Vacation and VBS...Daniel's graduation from HS and send off to basic training, as well as all the other fun summer stuff like the zoo, parks, etc.

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

We've waited and waited, and we are finally in our house. We moved in on April 23rd. I had to sacrifice going to the twin sale..after I had tagged and sorted all my items to sell...to move into our new house. This has been such a great lesson in patience for us. Normally, for us, God's lessons in patience involve frustration, hurt, irritation, etc. This one came out on the positive end...with a lot of answered prayers. We are SO thankful for our new house, and all the space it is affording us.

Matthew and Lucas tested and passed for their yellow belts. They had to answer a series of questions in front of Sensei. Then after class, they were presented with their belts. Glad they both passed...can't imagine the drama if it had been just one. We celebrated with blizzards after karate, then on Derrick's birthday, the 30th, we celebrated with blizzards again. I don't think that I had two blizzards all last summer...and we had them within one week of each other..

We went to Bowling Green last weekend for Darin's graduation. It's so cool to watch younger siblings/siblings in law...graduate. Derrick's other brother, Daniel is going to graduate from Fairbanks in about three weeks. Can't believe it! Then it's off to basic training for him and the National Guard.

Mother's Day was a celebration of Darin's BG graduation and mother's day. We went to the Hurst's for lunch, then to my parents to visit for a little bit. After being gone ALL day Saturday at BG, and Sunday for Mother's Day, it was nice to come home. I did some cleaning, and Derrick worked out in the garage a little bit. We can finally get our cars in the garage, with lots more room than we had in our old garage.

I had Lucas to the pediatrician yesterday. Thinking he had strep throat, but the test came back negative. Then, she sent us to have bloodwork done to test for mono. That rapid test came back negative, so who knows what is going on inside that little guy's body. He was home from school Monday and today. On the way home from Children's Close to Home, after several minutes of silence, Lucas informed me that they have 9 more birthdays until they get their driver's license...guess he's started a countdown already! He also thanked me up and down for taking him to Children's "because the needles at Marysville Hospital are probably a lot bigger". Too funny.

We are looking forward to the end of school, and vacation of course. It's a surprise for the boys. We aren't telling them where we are going, until we are in the car leaving. We are heading out the day I get out of school. Derrick and the kids are picking me up at work, and off we go!

Spring Break 2010

Our spring break started on Friday. Derrick and I ran errands while Joey and Kristin took the boys to the LEGO store to spend their gift cards. We picked them up and went home to have pizza and relax. Saturday was fairly normal, with Derrick and I working on cleaning stuff up and packing. I dread packing. I hate packing...it puts my home in disarray, and that is something I'm not comfortable with. Nonetheless, it needs to be done. The best part, for me, is the purging and pitching of things we don't need. Not only are we packing to move, but I am pricing and tagging stuff for the twin sale on the 23rd, AND we are packing for PLI in St. Louis..which also means packing up the kids for a week at grandma's. Anyway, we had Ladies Night Out for church on Saturday. We went to Casa Fiesta, while the dads and kids got together at a family's house to play and have a cookout. It was Matthew and Daddy night, because Lucas stayed home with my parents after complaining of having a sore throat all day and a fever. That leads to Sunday...I skipped church to stay home with a sick Lucas, and ended up taking him to Children's Close to Home for a strep swab, which came back positive. So, he was down and out for a few days. Finally on Thursday, the weather broke nicely. It was in the 80s! We were outside ALL day. I think the boys thought it was the only day of summer...they picnicked, rode bikes, played in the sandbox, we went to the park, had popsicles..everything but got out the slip n slide.


Easter we had church in the park. We had about 30 people or so. It was sunny and beautiful. Then we had a balloon launch afterwards and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. We came home and changed, took some pictures, and headed off to my grandma's for lunch. We had ham, noodles, salad, etc. It was fabulous as always. Then it was time for the egg hunt. The little cousins-Matthew, Lucas, Mabry, and Charlie, lined up and on "Go!" they were off to find eggs. After they collected them, they sat on the blanket, and had to do various tricks, sing songs, etc. to collect prizes. The hit was the kites. Matthew and Derrick and Lucas and my mom flew kites for what seemed forever. They did a really good job with them. After playing outside for awhile, we headed over to the Hursts' for dessert and more Easter baskets. Over break they spent a lot of time doing crafts. Earlier in the week, Matthew made all 8 creations out of his bendaroos, and then they got these kits to make a frog and a cat out of foam. Very cute, and kept them VERY busy!

Matthew's Dreams

Matthew had a cute dream the other night. He dreamed he saw Jesus. We were all in church, "the Hurst family" he said. Jesus looked like he had dark hair and a beard. Everyone else was crouched behind their chairs because they were afraid, but everyone in the Hurst family was sitting there looking at Jesus. He was up by the altar in church. How sweet!

Life Changes....

Well, what we've waited and prayed for has finally come. On Monday we got an offer on our house, and we accepted it. We had it on the market this past summer/fall, and took it off when it didn't sell. After much deliberating, we decided to give it another shot and put it back up at the beginning of February. We had several showings, but each one had something to complain about, or it wasn't the house for them. Selling a house is stressful. Sitting around, keeping it clean, and waiting for someone to schedule a showing, THEN waiting to hear how they felt about it is stressful. Saturday, we had two showings scheduled. Sunday morning, I checked my phone for emails, expecting the usual weekly deals from Target, an update from Money Saving Mom, etc. Along with those, I saw a feedback email from the showing company. The first agent to submit feedback from Saturday had nothing to say. I debated on scrolling through the rest of them, not wanting/caring to see more that say they aren't interested. But I checked anyway. It said, "Could the listing agent please call me? We would like to make an offer....etc." So, our realtor took care of it, and Monday the offer came. We deliberated....it wasn't quite as much as we had hoped, but it was reasonable. We took it! They want to close on April 15, with possession a week later. We need to start house hunting! We've found several that we like within the parameters of our neighborhood school that we like so well. It's so exciting to house hunt, but I didn't realize how stressful it would be. My insides feel all jumbled up...excitement, stress, we are going to be at PLI the week/day they want to close, so that means we want to be fairly packed up before we go to PLI...Easter, getting the kids packed for a week at grandma's, putting an offer on a home for us to buy....waiting for acceptance of that offer, it's so much to think about! Finally, yet another life change for us. We must thrive on those....or so it seems!