Kids at Play

 Rocky and I have some silly kids..they must get it from us. I enjoy looking at their unique personalities shining through each and every day. They are growing at incredibly fast rates of speed, and sometimes I secretly wish they came with a pause button.

But, alas...that would not be fair to them if I really could head over to an electronic store and purchase such an attachment. Seriously, watching them grow is amazing. But, kind of sad all at the same time. More happy than sad, of course. But, sad moments do creep in. I think that's normal for parents, right? To say that I will experience severe empty nest will be putting it mildly, I'm sure. ;-)

Anywho...on to some play time..first we start at our apartment. Gotta love the airplane. The kids sure do!

Mr. Firefly doing full airplane with daddy

Miss Sunshine doing a mini airplane with Mama

Exploring a new-to-us park in Gulf Shores

 And of course...Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have some very nice playgrounds for the kids...This one in Gulf Shores even has a skate park..which has Rocky, Mr.Firefly, and Miss Sunshine pretty excited. Maybe I, too, should consider taking up skateboarding. ;-) Hey, why not??

Mr. Firefly LOVES tire swings..

Slides are fun!

Rocky was happy to discover that there is a skate park here., too! Rocky can be really good at hiding his excitement. ;-)

Just a random sign at the park..

Smiling is contagious!

 Playtime wouldn't be complete without a good bath/shower at the end of the day, right? I think this is especially  true when the bath is finished up with a warm comfy robe. Am I wrong?

Miss Sunshine in mama's robe after bath time. ;-)

That's all for now...I will be posting soon what is going on in the world of homeschooling prep-work. Yep, Mr.Firefly will be "officially" starting school soon. Homeschooling is where it is at for this family. ;-)

Stay tuned for the homeschooling post.

Love, Kelly

Living Simply...

 Hello! Well, we are at another end of the week here in Gulf Shores. Life is keeping us pretting busy....

With lots of cleaning, yes...it is my goal to stay on top of the cleaning while we are here. I have heard it said many times that the longer you do something, eventually it becomes a habit...so, I'm trying to start wonderful habits. So far so good.

I'm also thankful for wonderful helpers... 

This colander was quite clean to say the least. She spent at least ten minutes cleaning it.

I am also thankful for this man. I love it when he comes home from work, and love the weekends even more because he is home.

We've also stayed busy going to the library/story time twice a week. We are being spoiled, for sure. We LOVE books and it shows...

Animal crackers make it even more special, wouldn't you say?

Craft times are fun...

So, it's Friday and it's our cleaning day. (I am working on eventually getting all the cleaning done throughout the week and just spot check on Friday, but those are details I am working on..we do lots of cleaning throughout the week already, but I guess I'm talking deep cleaning.) 

So,we are going to get the cleaning done early today and maybe hit up the beach later, and possibly a park, and Books-A-Million to top things off (like I said...we love books).

 I am thankful that we don't have a lot of "things" here in Gulf Shores..I prefer to live simply. In fact, when we return to Chattanooga I will be gutting the house as much as possible. I will be doing some serious Spring cleaning! 

 So, cleaning here in Gulf Shores has been much more manageable, which makes me happy. Having ADD makes it very challenging to stay on top of the cleaning scene if I feel so overwhelmed, so keeping the stuff to a minimum, in addition to spreading out the cleaning throughout the week, like Rocky suggested many moons ago, will help me stay focused.

  Speaking of living simply..check out our simple living room "furniture" set up. 

Love the simplicity of it...really!

Have a wonderful Friday and a blessed Sabbath!

Love, Kelly

The Seagull Surprise

Hello all! At this point I have not sent this blog to anyone, in fact other than Rocky..no one knows it exists. I am currently just having fun with it. Getting it all set up to my liking (so, in other words..I will change it around for awhile to come). Anywho, this was funny story and I had to share it (even if with just to myself for now). I should get a link out for this soon to all the family and will eventual share it with friends. Anywhoo.....

So...on to the seagull story. While Rocky was finishing up work at the airport one night last week..the kids and I decided to head to the Gulf Shores Beach to welcome in a pretty sunset. When we got there we saw a cute little elderly couple who had a bag of food for the birds..the seagulls have apparently seen this couple because as soon as the couple got out of their vehicle they were surrounded by lots (that's putting it mildly) of seagulls. When the couple started to share the bread...the seagulls became very happy.

Little Man helped feed them and he loved it!!

Little Lady was a bit concerned about all the seagulls flying around her head. ;-) It was a bit overwhelming.

Well, after all the excitement was through and the seagulls had flown close to shore with full bellies, Little Man wanted to see if he could catch a seagull (he sure does set some interesting goals for himself). So, we headed closer to the water and Little Man chased seagulls.

Little Lady meanwhile...not the least bit interested in chasing seagulls, put the sand tools to some use and kept herself busy "making cakes" out of sand and was quite happy with that.

So...here is the funny part. Well, after we had played, dug around in the sand, chased birds until we couldn't chase them any longer, and get a bit chilly I noticed something in Little Man's hair (sorry no picture). I asked Little Man what was in his hair, at which point he put his hand on his head. It was seagull droppings! He was NOT happy at this point. All he could talk about was a shower. We washed his hands off as best we could in the water, but Little Man was so grossed out. Me calling him a 'poopy head' (I know, not a "good mommy" thing to do, but soooo funny) did not make matters any better for the little man. 

The whole way home, Little Man kept saying..."Mom, it's starting to itch under the poop." But he was not about to scratch it. Hahaha, poor kid!

He was thrilled after his shower!

Half a Year on the Beach!

My very first post on my family blog!

I wanted a place where I could journal and such...mainly through pictures; a place where i can keep track of our experiences as a family. Also...we are starting a new year in a new location (at least for the next six months) So, this family blog was bound to happen. ;-) Oh, and because I adore photography so much, I am using this as a journal for my photography (in that i aspire to see progress as I learn daily about my most favorite hobby.)

I have been using Shutterfly for storing and sharing my massive archive of pictures and from time to time have posted updates on our family happenings...No need to worry,  that archive will still be there. I will still be posting the insane amounts of pictures there. The only difference: This will be where I post the family happenings and the various ramblings that I love to share. ;-)

So, it is a new year. Wow, 2011! I can't believe it! 2010 flew by. The new year finds us in a new location for the next six months. Rocky has a job in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  He is overseeing the expansion a n aiirport. So, the kids and I are having fun exploring the area while Rocky works.

What's so funny is I've been wanting to take the kids to a beach..as they had not (before this trip) had a chance to enjoy the beach. And here we are. God blesses, indeed. It's like having a six month vacation on the beach (well, sorta vacation as there is still work to be had), but it's on the beach. WOW!

The beach is lovely and thankfully we have not seen any damage sadly caused by the oil spill. The beach workers are amazing at keeping it clean. In fact, we haven't been to the beach yet when we haven't seen people out there working on it..keeping it free of oil. The sunsets are absolutely amazing!! A must see for sure!

Little Man has also been enjoying fishing with Rocky. He hasn't caught anything yet, but he is determined and thus, will. Little Lady has been enjoying playing in the sand and also enjoying stealing the hearts of the elder snow birds in the area.

The kids and I have also found two local libraries we love to go to (yes, I love story time as much, if not more, than the kids). Orange Beach has their story time on Tuesdays and Gulf Shores Library has their story time Thursdays so, we try to make it to both. This has been a great way for me to meet other moms and have already started making friends...that makes me happy. It's great to meet other moms with kids! Unfortunately, I haven't met many moms who homeschool their older children, which means the boys Little Man's age are usually in school during story time. ;-(

I'm sure someone has to be homeschooled in this area. I will keep looking.
Orange Beach also has a fabulous playground just down the road from the library and many moms head there after the library so that is nice.

So, this is where I will post updates to our family life. So, keep posted. I can't post everyday, but will try to post at least a couple times a week.