The Gates Family

Christmas Tree Adventure

2011-12-06T23:53:00.000-05:00

When we went to find our Christmas tree, we decided go to part of the farm lot that had the (cheaper) "imperfect" trees left that would soon be cleared. We found a tree that was really full, but was a tad bit lopsided with some gaps.

Everyone took their turn helping cut down the tree. The trunk was huge. We counted 13 rings!

TIMBER!! Chuck was exhausted after cutting through that huge stump.

The tree was so big, it took some work getting it to even fit through the door.

If you look really close on the bottom right picture above, you can see the duct tape holding branches to the trunk. We also used bungee cords, twine, and then had to strategically string the lights in order to keep the branches up and fill the gaps.

Charly's turn to put the star on top.

Grand Illumination

2011-12-03T23:40:00.000-05:00

This year we decided to watch the Grand Illumination in downtown Richmond from afar. The last two years we were right in the middle of it all. I really liked this new view point.

We took a picnic dinner, including hot chocolate, and went to the VA War Memorial for a great view of the city skyline. We got there just in the nick of time to watch the city light up. It was fabulous. NO crowds, literally on two other people on the hill by us.

We briefly walked around the memorial.

Then we headed to the Jefferson Hotel to see the Christmas decorations.

Jumping Bean

2011-12-01T23:22:00.000-05:00

Charly likes to jump off of everything. Off the bed, stairs, out of the car, and pretty much anything more than a foot off the ground she wants to jump off of. She can stick the landing pretty much every time.

November Happenings

2011-11-26T23:20:00.000-05:00

Leland came home one afternoon so excited with this "new" game that a friend made for her. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. She was a little shocked when I told her that we used to make them when I was younger too. What do you call it anyway?

This picture is for my sister, who says that blogs are only for people to brag about the good things, so I decided to take a picture of what my family room often looks like. Toys scattered and a overflowing laundry basket of clothes that need to folded. After I snapped the shot, Leland asks, "Mom, why are you taking a picture of a dirty room? Who wants to see that?"

We always love when Nana gets to visit. We are so happy she is retired now and we get to see her so much.

We like to play dress up. There is usually only one princess and two super heroes in our house.

I cooked my very first Thanksgiving dinner and had lots of helpers in the kitchen. My dad, his girlfriend, and my lil sister, Layni came for dinner. I didn't get any good pictures, but the food was delicious and there was enough to probably feed 25 people. Good thing we love leftovers.

The girls had a dance party after dinner.

Fall Leaves

2011-11-21T22:29:00.000-05:00

I love fall and the beautiful colors all around. We had a great time playing in the leaves and even had fun trying to clean them all up.

This tree is in the yard across the street. We took these gorgeous pictures of this tree one foggy fall morning. After taking the pictures, our neighbor told us that us he planted that tree after their first child was born and now they have uprooted and moved it to three different homes. We didn't realize that it had such sentimental value, but now they have some fun pictures of it.

Each of the girls had a great time taking turns using the leaf blower.

Then they decided to just have a dance party while Chuck and I continued to work.

Charly was so cute shaking her hips back and forth.

Richmond Zoo

2011-11-08T21:34:00.000-05:00

On a teacher workday back in November I took the girls to the Richmond Metro Zoo with some friends. The weather was fabulous and we had so much fun.

Feeding the giraffes and the goats were a huge hit. The giraffes tongues were so long and they would just reach and reach for that food. Notice the goat standing on the donkey's back in the top right picture. He obviously didn't want to fight the crowd on the lower end of the fence. What a nice friend that donkey is.

These kids see each multiple times a day and cherish every minute they get to spend together.

The fall leaves were gorgeous.

Proof that I can overcome fears for my children and purposely walk inside an inclosed space full of birds. My heart starts racing just thinking about it.

I love this zoo because you can see a lot of animals pretty close up. It was such a fun day.

Virginia Beach

2011-11-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

We went to Virginia Beach for the weekend for me to attend a seminar for work. We decided it was a great chance for all of us to have a mini vacation. Howard, my boss, rode down with us and we all stayed at hotel on Friday night.

Here's a little synopsis of the first night of our trip:

During the drive down, we stopped for a quick bathroom break and right as we walk into the bathroom, Lucy starts throwing up in the trash can. She must have been car sick, but never told me so. I was so grateful that she found a trash can.
It was ridiculously windy when we arrived. Like crazy blow-you-over wind.
We went swimming at the hotel pool that evening and had a lot of fun.
I took the girls back to the hotel room while Chuck and Howard went out to get some food. Our ceiling light in our hotel room was burnt out so we had asked for someone to come replace the light bulb. Apparently, the entire light fixture needed to be replaced so there was a man standing on a ladder in our room soon after we returned to our room.
As he is fixing the light, rewiring the new fixture, some sparks fly from the wires, our lights flicker, then after a few minutes, all the lights go out. The man thought he had blown a circuit on the floor, but it turned out that the entire hotel and actually a few blocks were all out of power! Including the restaurant where Chuck and Howard went to get food.
Now I have to get the girls ready for bed and put them to bed by myself and in the dark. The lights remained out for over an hour. Since where Chuck went for food was out of power too, it took them so long to come back with the food the girls had already fallen asleep.
The man who was fixing our light felt bad about it for some reason, even though the power being out wasn't his fault, and he came back to our room apologizing for there being no lights and gave me a $15 gift certificate to the hotel restaurant for breakfast in the morning. Awesome!

It was still seriously windy the next morning. The girls ran up and down the ramp and when they would reach the end and they were out of the protection of the building the wind would hit them almost blowing them over. They thought it was a hilarious game.

Trying to get a picture by the beach proved to be very difficult because of the wind. We didn't make it any where close to the water. It was much better sitting inside with a great view

While I went to my seminar, Chuck took the girls to First Landing National Park and Nauticus.
Chuck can add more about what they did later.

NC visit

2011-11-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

We went to NC to for a weekend while Tiffany and Ryan were visiting from CA.

We went to their ward's Trunk or Treat which included a family dance with a bubble machine. At the time, three of Chuck's sisters were all in the same ward. One moved that weekend to a different ward.

Tiffany and Ryan blessed Zelda Kate while we were all together.

The best we could get of the 12 cousins + 1 honorary cousin.

Since the McBrides moved into their house that Saturday we were all together, they did not have any TVs set up yet. The boys watched a Stanford football game all huddled around an iPad. It was hilarious!

Halloween

2011-10-31T17:07:00.000-04:00

We use Mr Potato Head type pieces to make pumpkin people. I found the pieces a few years ago, they are awesome. The girls can do it all themselves, no mess to clean up, and they are interchangeable.

Trick or Treating was very short. It was raining so the girls only went to about 7 houses before they were ready to come home.

Leland - Cupcake Fairy Princess
Lucy - Spiderman pirate
Charly - Snow White

October

2011-10-29T14:04:00.000-04:00

Tiffany (Chuck's only sister left in CA) came to the East coast for a few weeks. She and Char (who recently moved to NC) came up to Richmond for a few days.

Our newest niece - Zelda. Crazy picture of her, but great of Tiffany.

Brooklyn and Charly had so much fun playing together.

I love this picture of Charly. She loves babies so much.

Char, Tiffany, and I went to Time Out for Women while they were here. I took a picnic and had lunch on the top of the parking deck with a fun view of the city. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Chuck and Wayne who took care of the girls so that we could go. It was great.

September

2011-10-23T18:39:00.000-04:00

First day of school was a rainy, dreary, mess. Leland loves her new school and classmates. The bus stop is right next door with about 10-15 kids getting on the bus.

It's obvious that I let my children totally pick out their own clothes. Lucy has a mind of her own. Chuck once said that I should have my girls wear a button that says "I dressed myself." I told him that I think it's pretty obvious.

Messy hair - purple dress - red and black socks - brown shoes - oops! (Name that book)

I love this picture. We were opening up our weekly produce box from Dominion Harvest and I asked the girls what their favorite item was that we received. Charly picked the red peppers and Lucy picked the goat cheese. The way Charly was holding the peppers made me laugh.
"You're the cutest thing I ever did see. I really love your peppers. Want to shake your tree." (Name that song)

Charly (plus my other girls) love to use an umbrella. So much so, that they have broken or bent 3 umbrellas in the last month. Charly was so proud of herself getting the newspaper for daddy with her umbrella.

The love of Spider Man had been passed down. Lucy already grew out of the pjs that she got for Christmas just 9 months ago. Charly was so excited to get to wear the coveted pajamas.

Start a tradition of Christmas service in your family!

2011-10-20T12:22:00.004-04:00

We really need a new family photo!

In 2009, the family of Ed and Kriss Gates started a new family Christmas tradition. As we prepare for our third year of this tradition, we invite all readers to consider starting a similar tradition in your family. This tradition has helped us focus on serving our communities and one another during the annual celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

For years, the six Gates children and their spouses exchanged gifts every Christmas. In 2009, with families spread across five state throughout the country, we realized we were spending nearly as much money on shipping costs as we were on gifts.

For our new tradition, we decided to perform acts of service in the name of the sibling whose name we were assigned at random. A friend drew names and notified each of us of the person we were to use to inspire our service. On Christmas Day, we revealed who we had and how we served on their behalf by posting our stories on The Gates Family Season of Service blog.

We invite you to come back to our blog on Christmas morning to read this year's service. If you would like to read about past years, here are two links to guide you:

2009 Season of Service | 2010 Season of Service

A few friends have started this tradition in their family. If you do, we would love to hear about your experience. And if you allow, we will link to your blog and ask you to link back to ours.

Rafting down the James (the second time)

2011-10-15T21:56:00.000-04:00

Our second trip rafting down the James was an entire different experience than the first. The water level was twice as high, so the rapids were twice as intense. We did two of their usual trips together since the water was moving so quickly, so we covered a lot more of the river.

The best part of rafting more of the James was that we went under my favorite bridge in city. It was gorgeous.

The river was a nice chocolate milk color.

I love this angle of the city. It's so unique because you can only see it from being in the river.

We shared the raft with a great group of ladies. They were so much fun and we laughed all the way down the river.

Two of the ladies fell in the river on two separate occasions. The first was bumped out when we went over top a rock that you couldn't see from the surface and it popped her right out of her seat and into the water. The other was a bit scary. She fell in when we were going down the 2nd of three class IV-V rapids. Chuck tried to grab her and she was pulled under the raft by the current. Luckily, she popped back up after a few seconds (which felt like forever!) and Chuck was able to grab her and pull her back in.

Rafting down the James

2011-10-02T22:39:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Living Social (and Riverside Outfitters) we went go rafting down the James River. It was so much fun!

One of the great things about Richmond, you can go river rafting through the middle of downtown.
We got a completely different view from the river of our favorite parts of the city. Did you know that Richmond is the only major city in America with Class IV rapids going through the city?

The best part of the trip was the very end, where we stopped and "surfed" the Pipeline Rapids (my favorite place in the city and home to the blue heron rookery). We had used up our camera by then, so no pictures. That's what happens when you are used to unlimited digital picture taking.

Even better is that Riverside Outfitters offered another deal through Living Social, so we are going again in 2 weeks. Next time we are taking more water cameras.

Duck Race

2011-10-02T22:25:00.000-04:00

Every year there is a rubber duck race down a canal off the James River. It is a fundraiser for the Big Brothers, Big Sisters organization. Thousands of little rubber ducks race to the finish. It was cool to watch them drop out the container, but the water was low and the wind was blowing the opposite direction, so the "racing" was assisted by kayaks. We didn't have the winning duck, but still had fun.

Virginia Beach

2011-10-02T22:09:00.000-04:00

We spent a day in Virginia Beach while Chuck attended a conference. Our trip was shortened due to my discovery of lice on the girls literally minutes before leaving on our trip. I stayed home to de-louse our heads and home, while Chuck left for the beach. We joined him later that night and the next day got one full day at the beach.

Appomattox Courthouse

2011-10-02T21:54:00.000-04:00

On our way home from Smith Mountain Lake we stopped at Appomattox Courthouse National Park, which is where the surrender meeting occurred to end the Civil War. It was a really interesting place and gorgeous.


McLean House where Generals Lee and Grant signed the treaty to end the Civil War.

Leland's a total Gates girl and loves to use a map.

Sweet Daddy

It was HOT and they were done with the picture taking.

Smith Mountain Lake

2011-10-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

Back in July we spent a few days at a house on Smith Mountain Lake. This is the third year (2010, 2009) we have gone together and we always have lots of fun.

This year, my dad was able to come on the last day to hangout with us.

The ice cream boat is always a hit.

We love having our own beach area to swim in.

Playing game on the phones.

So glad I went on this round with Suzanne....

...and not this one. Andy took my place at the last minute.

This is Chuck "taking it easy" because of his back.

Village Fair - September

2011-09-15T21:48:00.000-04:00

Natural Disaster week

2011-09-04T23:19:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, August 23, an earthquake shook Richmond. It was recorded as a 5.8 magnitude quake, the strongest recorded earthquake in Virginia in over 100 years. Crazy, to say the least. Granted, it's strength was not much compared to other places in the world, but since the epicenter was about 30 miles from us it shook our house really hard.

Much of the east coast felt the ground shake as well. For many who have lived on the East coast for the majority of their lives, myself included, this was the first earthquake we've experienced. Chuck called me in the middle of it and told me not to worry "it was just an earthquake and it was not that strong."

The girls and I were all together in their room reading and the quake was over by the time I got them ushered out of the house while trying to stay calm. Since no one I personally knew was affected by the earthquake, I was very grateful.

Then just 4 days later, on Saturday, August 27, Hurricane Irene slammed the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. Richmond experienced wind gusts stronger than was anticipated, which blew over massive trees and ripped down power lines. I was a bit overwhelmed with the amount of destruction so close to our home.

In the days leading up to the hurricane, Chuck would send emails to all of our family on the East Coast to help them prepare for a hurricane. Now with 3 of his 5 sisters in NC, he felt he needed to help them prepare. Lucky for them, the hurricane winds did not hit Raleigh as strong as they hit Richmond.

We lost power at about 3:00 in the afternoon on Saturday at the start of the storm. The power had been flashing on and off all morning. Inside our house, the winds and rain did not sound very loud, so the girls were not very nervous about the storm. Around 6:00 PM, Chuck went out to fill up on gas on get a few bags of ice and already saw the earliest downed trees and power lines.

On Sunday morning, Lucy woke up at 6:30 AM, so the two of us decided to drive around the neighborhood. I woke up feeling so relieved that we lived in our current house and not in our old house that we had just moved from 2 months ago. I had dreamed that a tree fell on our old house, and the dream was so vivid that I wanted to drive over and see how the old house was. When we started to drive just two houses away on both sides of the street large trees had fallen in our neighbors yards barely missing their homes. I was overcome with emotion and gratitude that our home was safe that I started to cry.

As I continued to drive, more trees were down some blocking the roads making them impossible to drive through. Even some areas had power line poles and power lines in the road blocking the road. I was overwhelmed. I cried more.

I drove back home, never going to the old house to "check on it" and picked up Chuck and the other girls who were now awake.

We drove to friends' homes to check on them and offer help. We came to one friend's home who had a tree fall on their carport and blocking their cars. (Funny side story: We looked at buying this house when it was for sale just a few months ago. Later, the owners decided to continue renting it and our friends moved in there just last month.) Luckily, no major damage was done to the house. Chuck stayed to help cut down and remove the tree so they were able to move their cars and I went to a friends house for a little while.

We managed for a few days, trying to eat as much refrigerated food as we could before it spoiled, sharing it with others. On Monday, the power came on for some, including Chuck's office. They have showers in his office building, so we took showers there, the girls watched movies and Chuck and I worked. After realizing it could be several days for the power to be restored, the girls and I went to NC.

On Thursday afternoon, an old neighbor called to see how we weathered the storm asking, "A tree didn't fall on your new house, did it?" She then proceeded to tell me that a tree had fallen on our old house. I could not believe it. My dream and feelings of relief the morning after the hurricane were justified. That's right, a tree had fallen on our old house, as well as on one of the houses we contemplated buying.

I drove over that afternoon to see the damage to our old house. Luckily, it is still empty. The damage was minimal, but still fairly bad. The tree had fallen on the back porch and broke through the crown of the roof. I'm sure there was water damage in the attic. Even though there wasn't complete damage, I think, emotionally, it would have been hard for me to see that on Sunday morning. There were lots of massive trees down on our old street. I am glad a few days passed before I drove over there.

We remained without power for 6 days (about 128 hours).

What I learned from natural disaster week:

Do laundry the day before - I knew the hurricane was coming, so Saturday morning I washed every piece of dirty laundry in our house. That was a lifesaver. Especially, since our power was out for 6 days.

Get ice - We tried to transfer as much food as we could to our coolers. We had some ice, but not enough. On Sunday, Chuck went to over 2 dozen stores, who were all out of ice. He finally got the idea to go to a hotel. He went up to the 3rd level to the ice machine room and filled up a Rubbermaid tub full of ice and brought it home. (He says not to worry about his crime because the evidence is melted away now.) We still had to throw away about $200 worth of food.

A generator would have been nice - just to plug in our fridge and deep freezer. That would have been worth the cost savings of all the food lost.

You can make lots of yummy food on a grill - I reheated a lasagna, made ham and cheese omelets, quesadillas, and the usual chicken, hot dogs, and veggies.

Great excuse to visit family - After realizing that we would be out of power for several days, I went to NC to visit family. It was nice visiting sisters and cousins before school starts.

It was a nice break from TV and internet - The girls and I played hide and seek and other fun games together. We read lots of books. After a few days of Lucy begging to watch TV, I would tell her, "If you can figure out a way to turn on the TV, you can watch it all you want." She eventually quit asking.

Headlamps are a must - When dealing with diaper changes, dressing and washing children, reading, cooking, everything...two hands are better than one. Headlamps are a lifesaver. If you do not have them in your emergency kits, now is the time to go buy them. Totally worth every dollar. Quality crank flashlights are great too. The kids always want their own and you don't have to be crazy about "wasting batteries."

Water is a blessing - Being without power was pretty manageable. Being without water too, would have been really hard. I am so grateful for our water. (Especially when you read this.)

Earthquake VS Hurricane - With experiencing both in one week, it's easy to compare the two. With the earthquake (an above average strength 5.8 magnitude earthquake), the damage was considerably less than the hurricane (a minimal category 1 hurricane). But with an earthquake, you get no warning, no days to prepare, no news to watch about predictions on when it will arrive, you only realize what it was once it is over. I'm not sure I prefer either, but as for last week, the earthquake had a lot less impact on us than the hurricane.

This is the second major hurricane that Chuck and I have experienced together. September 2003 with Hurricane Isabel and now Hurricane Irene. What's up with the I's?

2 years old

2011-09-04T19:48:00.001-04:00

Charly turned two at the beginning of July, but she thinks she just turned six. She thinks that she is big enough to do anything her sisters are doing. Most of the time she does pretty good at keeping up with them. I am amazed at how strong she is.

I can't believe how much she has grown recently. When we went to her two-year check-up and she sat there in her diaper on the table waiting for the doctor, she looked like a little girl with actual rolls on her legs. None of my girls were ever chubby babies with rolls. I could hardly believe that she was the same child that weighed a mere 14.5 lbs from 4 months to 10 months old or that I had to take her in for weight checks every two weeks. I remember being so stressed when she fell off the growth chart and would just cry and pray that she would grow. It was so exciting when she finally hit the growth chart again when she was almost one. Well I'm so excited to say that she has caught back up! She is in the 75th percentile for height and weight!!! The doctor asked, "Is this really the same child we were so worried about this time last year?" We never figured out what was causing her lack of growth, but we are glad that her body figured it out on its own.

This little girl is such a joy to our family.

She has no fear and loves to jump onto, off of, or into anything. (I had some great pictures of her jumping into the pool, but I can't seem to find them and think they may have accidentally gotten erased. Oh, well.)

Her favorite phrases to say are: "I do it!" and "Watch this!" which usually is followed be her jumping off of something. I'm amazed every day at the new things that she says and talks about.

When our other 2 girls where at this age, we were in the "lack of sleep from a newborn fog" and I really don't remember how much fun a two year old can be. She is hilarious and so excited to learn new things and new words. She is so in love with her sisters and loves her independence. I think I allow her to do some things I did not let my older girls do because she usually has her older sisters there with her holding her hand.

She is was one lucky girl to have such wonderful sisters and I am one lucky woman to be their mother.

Fun with the Dittbrenners

2011-08-21T23:26:00.001-04:00

We had a great time with the Dittbrenners for about 10 days. The kids had a blast playing together at Vacation Bible School and at our house while I packed up the old house and Wayne helped Chuck at the new house. Darcy and Dixie were a huge help with all the little kids so that I was able to get a lot of work done. We celebrated Charly's birthday busting open a pinata.

Once the pinata was busted open, Charly stood in the corner still cheering instead of going after the candy.

The best was the facial expressions. Check out Amy in the bottom two pictures.

Amy and I took the kids to Maymont one afternoon. We had fun even though we were all sweaty. It was so stinking hot but the kids loved pouring water on their heads and running up and down the huge hill.

After the long day it was nice to turn around and see my sweet girls holding hands walking up the hill.

Wayne worked so hard with Chuck on the house and the one thing he said he wanted to do while in Richmond was swim in the James River. We took him and the kids to Pony Pasture to swim and play. Our visit was cut a little short when a thunderstorm quickly rolled in.

Thanks Dittbrenners for visiting and all the help with the houses.

Elder Bednar Youth Fireside

2011-08-15T11:19:00.001-04:00

A few people requested wanting to see my notes from the youth fireside with Elder Bednar in Richmond last month. I finally got around to typing them up and it was a nice reminder of the fireside. It was a Question and Answer session. Remember that most of these are my rough notes, not direct quotes.

July 17, 2011

Elder Bednar – Youth Fireside Richmond, VA

Sis Bednar wouldask different apostles “What is one thing that I could teach my children, if there isonly one thing?” The most common answer –teach them to come to know who they really are.

· Study your patriarchal blessing – it is your“book of possibilities”

Elder Bednar

· We can only teach you what you are prepared tolearn. You may not remember words that I say, but you will remember thefeelings you have as the Holy Ghost teaches you.

· Faith in Jesus Christ takes ACTION first, andthen the POWER will come.

Question: Why isthe dating age 16?

Answer: Becausethe Brethren said so! We could make an argument for 14, 18, or 21. Consider theprinciple vs. the rule or application. We are blessed when we follow theProphets’ counsel.

Question: ??

Answer: God canhelp us do things we are not prepared to do. He will send help. The Nature ofChrist is to turn outward and look at the needs of others, not focus on ourselves.

Question: Can weuse our talents to share the Gospel?

Answer: Do notdevelop talents to say “Look at Me”. You won’t have help from God.

- Sis Bednar shared a story about being called tothe ward organist and did not know how to play the organ. She practiced everyday and had lessons.

Question: What isthe worst sin I could commit?

Answer: The oneyou think you can get away with. Your question should not be how close you canget to the edge, but how can I stay as far away as possible from the edge.

- Story about hiring a new truck driver out of 3prospects. Which one will you hire?

o Driver #1 says “I can go down the windingmountain road and my truck tires can go over the edge, but I’m such a greatdriver I can keep the truck in control.”

o Driver #2 says “I can go down the windingmountain road and my truck tires will go on the edge, not got over, but I’msuch a great driver I can keep the truck in control.”

o Driver # 3 says “I will not get close to theedge at all and can drive safely down the winding mountain road without everlosing control.”

Question: What isone thing I can do to strengthen my testimony?

Answer: You knowthe things to do: pray, study scriptures, go to church…But you need to do allthose things because you want to growcloser to the Lord. You will be able toreceive the strength to do things you did not think you could do.

Question: What isthe most important Article of Faith?

Answer: They areall important and build on each other. You could not have one without theother. Think about each Article of Faith and think of a one word theme for eachone.

#1 GodHead #2 Atonement #3 Obedience

#4Ordinances #5 Authority

Now go find the pattern withthe remaining ones

Elder Bednar then invited the girl that asked the questionup to the podium, gave her his business card and asked her to write him aletter when she completed the invitation to study the Articles of Faith and howthey build on one another.

You can use the Articles of Faith to answer any Gospelquestion.

Question: How canI make prayer more meaningful?

Answer: Thinkabout your day specifically. Don’t get caught up in the proper language, saywhat you feel. The intent of your heart matters more than the actual words thatyou say.

Question: ??Something about friends.

Answer: Choosegood friends that are trying to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. They maynot necessarily be members of the LDS church.

Elder Bednar askedwhat did you experience during this Q&A?

The Holy Ghost is the only way to learn. You must invite the Holy Ghost to be the teacher.

If you are bored in a class, you should pray to ask aninspired question.

You have the responsibility to learn for yourself. AfterJoseph Smith experienced the First Vision, he said to his mother, “I have learnedfor myself.” INVITATION: Find thescripture in Pearl of Great Price where Joseph Smith says this.

Agency enables you to ACT, not be acted upon.

Go find your answers to your questions, don’t sit and wait.Did you learn today that you don’t need an Apostle to answer your questions?You can find your answers yourself through the Holy Ghost.

The world is only going to get worse. Do not be afraid. Thedarkness will come. Don’t sit in the darkness waiting for the light to come, BEthe light.

We moved

2011-07-31T18:20:00.003-04:00

Moving makes life busy and crazy. Most days I try to laugh, but some days I cry. But in an attempt to document our lives, here is an abbreviated rundown of our summer so far. I will add pictures and other posts later.

- We bought a house. A tree fell on it a week later. Luckily, no major damage. That is just one of many home-ownership fiascoes we have had to deal with after owning a home for only a few weeks.

- It poured down rain one of the days we moved most of our stuff into the new house. We had 2 younger boys who had come, that helped wipe down items with a towel when they came into the house. All the men that came to help were soaked from head to toe.

- The upstairs in our house is hot and stuffy (rarely colder than 78 degrees). The downstairs is freezing cold (usually about 64 degrees). Our AC runs all day. I'm sure our power bill is going to be outrageous.

- We are still living among boxes. Two rooms are still completely unlivable based on the number of boxes stacked in them. I really wish half of our stuff would have fallen off the back of the truck. That would have made unpacking easier.

- We do have a guest room set up and ready for you to visit.

- Chuck ruptured a disk in his back in April and was in pain pretty much every day since. He was pretty much useless during all the packing and moving. He recently got cortisone shots in his back and is starting to finally function again. He says he feels three quarters better.

- We all had birthdays. Charly didn't even blow out candles or unwrap any presents on her birthday - poor third child gets the shaft. But, I did get her (and her sisters) a pinata to bust open.

- This is my first summer with "kids home from school". It has been fun having Leland home all day, but I can't wait for school to start, so I can feel productive again. All three girls will be going to school/preschool this year. It's going to be glorious.

- Lucy started complaining of headaches every day, so her pediatrician suggested getting her vision tested. To my complete shock, she needed glasses. To quote the eye doctor "She is the most near sighted 4 year old I have ever seen." She has quickly taken to her glasses and is becoming very responsible in caring for them. My older sister has glasses and as teenagers, when we were fighting, I pushed her against our fridge, her head slamming against the door, and her glasses broke. At the time I don't think I felt bad about it, but now I do. Glasses are expensive!

- The girls have had lots of fun playing with cousins. Leland spent a week with Nana; Lucy with the Morris'; and Charly with the Benner's while Chuck and I worked on packing the old house. We had the Dittbrenner family play with us here for a week. They were a huge help with the move to the new house. Then all three girls spent a few nights with Nana and Aunt Zebra in Charlottesville.

- The whole family also spent a few days at Smith Mountain Lake with my sisters, mom, and dad.

- We got lice. Seriously disgusting. Chuck says that it's some sort of right of passage of being a mother to so many girls. This is one of those "I wish I had boys, so I could just shave their heads" moments. One day in the next life, I will be asking "What were you thinking when you created lice?!"

- The whole family spent two days at Virginia Beach. Chuck was in a conference, but me and the girls played at the beach.

- On my calendar, August is not so jam packed, so hopefully I can spend more time blogging and lounging by the pool. Although there is no real "lounging" by the pool for me. Charly has no fear of the water and would probably jump off the diving board if I looked down at my book for too long.

Promised Land Pageant

2011-06-30T10:53:00.001-04:00

Leland was in The Promised Land Pageant in June with my mom, Larry, and her cousin Leah. She has looked forward to it all year, since she was in it last summer. She was in a few different scenes this year, but felt like a pro since this was her second year.

The Hocks came to see the pageant too (with cousin Denim). We enjoyed a walk in Washington and dinner before the show.

We took a boat ride with cousins.

We went to the NC Estuarium.

We loved our weekend with cousins.The Benner family, Morris family, and Layni were there for the weekend too.

Family fun night

2011-06-16T22:22:00.000-04:00

We took the girls to play putt-putt and bumper boats. Those girls were awesome at maneuvering the boats and soaking Chuck.

We all ended up getting at least one hole-in-one during our round of putt-putt.

This is how I feel it is with pictures of kids. There's always someone not ready and looking.

Our Spider-Princess

2011-06-15T14:25:00.026-04:00

Lucy turned 4 years old a few weeks ago, but is often mistaken for a 6 year old. She still towers over most friends her age, but fits right in line with Leland. Her obsession with Spider Man continues, so it was fitting to have a Spider Man themed birthday. She also insisted dressing like a princess for 2 days in celebration of her birthday.

This is the first "friend" birthday party I've done. We have always seemed to be with family during birthdays, so we do the family thing. It was great and very simple. She invited the kids from her class at church and their families to meet at a local park for cake and Popsicles.

A little bit about Lucy:

loves SpiderMan, Wild Kratts, and Princesses
loves to READ! Yes she just turned 4 and she's been reading for a few months.
determined. She wanted to read so badly, and she worked so hard to learn.
the wavy hair, just throws me for a loop. She reminds me to put spray gel in it so it doesn't get "crazy"
a collector. She loves to carry things around in her hands. I've tried to get her in the habit of carrying a purse so she's not walking around with her hands full all the time.
easy going. Definitely our most easy going child.
peacemaker, usually
shy and outgoing at the same time

Memorial Day in Historic Varina

2011-05-30T23:30:00.026-04:00

For Memorial Day, we headed out to Fort Harrison, part of the Richmond National Battlefield Park. We enjoyed the visitor's center, walked around the paths, and the girls completed the Junior Ranger booklet to earn a Junior Ranger patch. It's such a great way to help teach our girls a little US history.

Fort Harrison is one of a bunch of Civil War forts in the rural and beautiful Varina area of Henrico County. More Civil War battles were fought in Henrico County then in any other county in America. These Civil War forts exchanged back and forth between the Union and the Confederacy and were involved in both the 1862 and 1864 campaigns. The first Union soldiers to march into Richmond after Petersburg fell were stationed in Fort Harrison.

We also stopped by the Fort Harrison National Cemetery. We were pleasantly surprised to remember how awesome it is to see all the American flags placed by headstones in national cemeteries on Memorial Day.

One of the tasks the girls had to do to earn their Junior Ranger patch was a headstone rub. We looked up in the directory and found a solider with the last name Gates.

While trying to take pictures, I got the girls laughing so hard and it was so hilarious. We have very few pictures of the girls, especially Charly, with their true smiles.

We were so hot and exhausted by the end of the day, but it was so much fun. It was a great way to spend Memorial Day and remember all those that fought and died for the wonderful freedoms that we have today.

Maymont

2011-05-30T22:55:00.000-04:00

After weeks of spending every weekend lying around the house since we were either sick or Chuck was in so much pain from his back and leg problems, I convinced him that we needed to go do something. We finally felt like the real Gates family that we are, dragging our kids around in the heat making family memories.

The Maymont Gardens were gorgeous! We had a picnic, strolled around, and took lots of pictures.

It looks like we are the only ones there, but it was crowded. Chuck just did an awesome job taking the photos.

This tree was impossible to resist a little photo shoot of the girls and their dad.

Watch it Grow!

2011-05-29T23:39:00.001-04:00

end of April

end of May

A list of what we are growing this year (really so I can remember later):

italian basil (3)
cinnamon basil (2)
lemon basil
cilantro (2)
chocolate mint
golden bell peppers (3)
violet bell peppers
sweet banana peppers
tomato (3)
cherry tomato (2)
strawberries
baby carrots
onions
purple beans (5)
squash (2)

So glad it is portable, so we can take it to our new house next month.

Mother's Day Notes

2011-05-29T23:14:00.001-04:00

Lucy's Mother's Day note from school. (click on picture to enlarge)

I think it was so sweet that she put that my job was taking care of my friends. She brought this home on a day that my friends were really taking care of me, so it was perfect.

Leland's "A Book About My Mom" with commentary by the mom.

Leland said she drew me wearing "your church jewelry". Sunday is the only day I wear jewelry (and makeup too for that matter)

I thought...she makes me look like a healthy eater...salad, carrot, orange, chicken...

then she breaks out the Cheeburger, Cheeburger.

Pretty accurate picture with the red boxes too.

They also picked me a beautiful bouquet of flowers all from our yard. Sweet girls.

Look on the bright side

2011-05-15T17:53:00.000-04:00

Being sick has its advantages. I have an excuse to ignore my dirty house, the dirty dishes piling up and the mounds of laundry to fold and just sit at the computer (coughing up a lung), sorting through pictures and blogging.

I have asthmatic bronchitis. Think bronchitis, but when you start coughing you have an asthma attack. Not Fun. Oh and I had no voice for 2 days.

Chuck hurt his back and has being laying on a mattress on our living room floor for over a week. He finally got some medication. Now every few hours he's in this silly euphoric, singing state. It's pretty amusing.

Our poor children have watched so much TV in the last few days. I'm sure they have loved it. I just hope they don't get sick.

Victorian Day

2011-05-07T17:46:00.001-04:00

We all love a good parade and last week, we went to the Bon Air Victorian Day Parade and Festival. There was a great "small town" feeling in our historic area that is so close to the city. One of the things I love about living in Richmond is, even though we live in a fairly large city, there is a small town community feel to many areas.

Leland says, "The pollution from the fire truck stinks and makes it hard for me to breathe." The environmentalist in her has kicked in. It is very fitting that she was born on Earth Day. She is always reminding us on how we waste energy or water and tries to recycle everything.

The girls loved going down the slide "like a penguin". There were several concerned parents that there was a "baby" in the bounce house. I thought, if she gets hurt, she will realize she's not one of the big kids, but Charly could hold her own, she loved it and never cried despite getting bounced around.

Chuck hurt his back and spent the few hours out of the house laying on the grass like this.

Blessing and Birthday

2011-05-01T17:14:00.010-04:00

Abigail Kate Morris

I am so grateful for my
parents and my sisters.

I love my family. (Chuck and
Charly were at home sick)

The Morris' have a fun back yard.
The kids caught some fish, too.

Being with family was a great
way to spend my birthday.

We love our cousins!!

2011-04-26T16:04:00.001-04:00

We are so grateful that more cousins are being born and more are living close to us. It allows for moments like these:

Watching Tangled

Sarah and Charly holding hands

I love this one of Tara, Leland, and Connor!

Charly and Houston

Leland and Nick trying to calm Abby

If we didn't have siblings, there wouldn't be cousins.

Spring Family Pictures

2011-04-24T15:43:00.008-04:00

Show us how you really feel about taking family pictures.

Easter Hunt #2

2011-04-23T13:14:00.011-04:00

Our next Easter Egg Hunt was with the McBride's. A local church put on an awesome free event.

Paparazzi at every angle. (Chuck in the orange above. Mitzi in the brown below)

Catching air on the bounce houses.

Face painting - a butterfly and a spider for Mrs. Spiderman

We also flew kites, but didn't get any pictures.

Happy 6th Birthday

2011-04-23T07:17:00.000-04:00

Leland turned 6 years old. I can not believe my girl is growing up. She is...

losing teeth
has almost completed Kindergarten
loves school
says she has a boyfriend
ties her own shoes
Oh the drama!! the tears, the sobs, the kicking and screaming all over what clothes to wear to school
knows so much about the Gospel of Jesus Christ
corrects me when I sing the wrong words to a song
is a huge help with her little sisters
says she wants to be a librarian when she grows up, so she she can read stories to kids for story time
is really smart
loves to cook and is always ready to help chop, stir, or pour
loves Taylor Swift and some Katy Perry and Lady Gaga thanks to her dad

We sure do love this girl. She is a joy in our home and are so grateful for her example to all of us.

The Cupcake Faces

2011-04-22T12:52:00.001-04:00

Easter Hunt #1

2011-04-22T08:23:00.001-04:00

We went to a community Easter Egg Hunt with the Morris girls. Leland and Lucy knew the drill and were on the run to get as many eggs as possible. Charly just stood there watching the craziness. Even when we showed her candy was inside the eggs, she still was not interested.

The girls showing off their loot (that I would later throw away).

It's funny how the girls are so different in little ways:

Just dump 'em all out

line 'em up one by one

Then the Easter Bunny came for a visit. He was kind of creepy looking if you ask me.

We then checked out the beautiful flowers...

and baby chicks at the local garden store. As much as I hate birds, I really wanted to take some of these home to have chickens and fresh eggs.

Jungle Party

2011-04-12T17:17:00.000-04:00

Leland's kindergarten did a musical show called Jungle Party Tonight. It was so cute. You could tell they had practiced so hard.

She even had a small speaking part.

Monument Ave 10k

2011-04-06T18:01:00.001-04:00

On Saturday, I ran in the Ukrop's Monument Ave 10K along with over 41,000 people. It was so much fun running on such a historical course (along the only street in America that is a National Historic Landmark) with such a large crowd. There were 35 bands along the 6.2 mile stretch. I'm not a big runner and did more of a jog/walk combo, but I beat my goal time by 7 seconds. I guess it was a realistic goal after all.

A little after the 5 mile mark, I saw this guy standing in the middle of the course. Just standing there! Everyone was swerving around him like a stalled car in the middle of the freeway. I was thinking "What is that crazy dude doing?" As I got closer, I realized it was my husband waiting to take pictures of me. What a sweetie! He would snap pictures, then turn around and run a little ways in front of me, then snap more pictures.

I'm so glad my sister Christine came down to run it too. We started together, but she went a lot faster than I did. It was a really fun experience to share with her, since it was the first race for both of us.

We had a great cheering section for us. They even made signs.

There were 10 of us friends from church that all started together, but we all ran at different paces. I'm so glad so many friends decided to run it "with" me. My mom even came up from NC to cheer us on. The race was the morning of VCU playing in the Final Four and the race started and ended in the heart of VCU campus. Needless to say, the city was excited.

It was a fun time and such an iconic "Richmonder" thing to do. Chuck's already planning on running it with me next year.

Rock Climbing Wall

2011-04-03T21:02:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to a Summer Adventure Expo by Richmond Family Magazine. It was at an indoor rock climbing center. During the Expo, kids could climb the wall inside for free.

It made Lucy a little nervous. She wanted to come down and as she was being lowered she knocked her forehead on one of the grip/foothold things and ended up with a huge bruise in the center of her forehead. Poor girl.

Leland loved it! She did awesome.

Nutzy the Squirrel from Richmond's AA Baseball team the Flying Squirrels.

Running a 5k

2011-03-20T23:22:00.000-04:00

I'm not a runner, I never have been. It just always seemed so pointless to run just to run, with no purpose. Well several weeks ago, I decided to sign up for a really popular 10K here in Richmond. I even convinced some friends and my sister to run with me. Now when I say "run", I mean a jog/walk combination. That 10k is coming up in just 2 weeks and I'm really excited about it.

To help prepare, I ran a 5k that was a fundraiser for Leland's school. Leland and Layni (my lil sis who was visiting for the weekend) ran in the kids 1 mile Fun Run. The girls had fun doing it and did really well. Leland was the first place girl for her grade level. She was so excited.

The 5k was fun for me. The course had more hills than I expected. I finished under my goal time so I was pleased with how I did.

I for sure had the best cheering squad. Thanks for all the support.

Celebrating Lucy

2011-03-20T19:25:00.044-04:00

Since Lucy's birthday is after her school ends for the summer, her teacher asked if we could celebrate her birthday in her class back in February. We took in heart shaped cookies and jell-o to share with her friends. They still sang Happy Birthday and had her blow out candles. She was so excited about her "pretend" birthday party.

Chuck came in to her class too. That's a huge benefit of "living where you work" and her preschool is 2 mins from Chuck's office. He can come do fun things in the middle of the day with the girls. He read the kids 2 of Lucy's favorite books - Spiderman and Here Comes the Shapes.

Lucy's preschool also recently had an Art Show. She was so excited to show all of us some of the fun things she made at school.

She is still growing like a weed and catching up quick with Leland. Any day now, she will be taller than Leland. People are always amazed to find out she is only 3 years old. She still loves all things Spiderman, but wants to only wear skirts or dresses. Lucy loves to collect rocks, and will say "this is for my collection" any time she wants to bring a new rock home. She is learning to read and is doing really well. She loves looking at/reading books. All day long she asks to play games on my phone or play games on the computer. Lucy has such a cute sense of humor and keeps us laughing all day.

Info on Blue Heron Rookery at Pipeline Rapids

2011-03-11T15:25:00.001-05:00

A number of people have asked how they can go see the blue heron rookery on the James River. I have posted some links y'all might find helpful below this great video from NBC12 (my favorite Richmond local news).

On the Blue Heron Rookery:

James River News Hub's has lots of posts tagged "blue heron", but I recommend "Best Times to See Activity at Pipeline Great Blue Heron Rookery" and "Sex on the James as Great Blue Heron Return to Rookery for Spring".

On Pipeline Rapids:

Richmond.com site description | video of the Pipeline Rapids

Richmond on the James | Pipeline Rapids: Downtown Richmond’s best kept secret? - Great "travel book" description of the Pipeline Rapids walk.

Map of Pipeline Rapids location:

View James River Park System in a larger map

Blue Herons at the James River

2011-03-06T23:13:00.002-05:00

A few Saturdays ago, we took advantage of the beautiful spring-like weather and went to check out the blue herons nesting on an island in the middle of the James River. We checked out the blue herons in this same spot last year, but, with a better camera and older children, we got better pictures of the birds and our family.

The birds are best seen from the area known as Pipeline Rapids .Unfortunately, as we were walking to the pathway, Chuck rolled his ankle pretty bad and was uncomfortable the whole time.

The girls had a blast playing in the sand while Chuck and I had fun playing with our camera and taking pictures.

Enjoying the first warm Spring-like weekend

Chuck "icing" his ankle

Why we came - the blue herons

It's always fun to watch trains go by

Pipeline catwalk and the beauty of the James River

Me and my girls

nice family picture attempts with Charly searching for and enjoying a "snack"
(click to enlarge)

Family Pictures

The blue herons should be around till April or May, so if you are in Richmond, go check them out. At about 12th and Byrd St there is a small parking lot by the flood wall. Park there and walk along the dirt road until you see the the steps to the ladder going down to the pipeline catwalk. There is a large sign about the blue herons and it is there that you can duck under the rails to the sandy beach area to check out the rookery. You could also continue down the catwalk to the end and, if the water is low enough, walk out on the rocks.

Haircuts

2011-02-18T16:00:00.001-05:00

Evidence that the girls were playing salon this morning. Luckily the only hair found is pink and belonged to a My Little Pony.

Lost tooth

2011-02-16T12:14:00.002-05:00

Leland lost her first tooth. She was so excited. She's been wiggling it for days and finally this morning she let me tug a little and it came right out.

Lately

2011-02-06T21:40:00.001-05:00

Lately I feel like not much has been going on in our lives, yet every day seems to be busy, busy. Between running the girls places, work, my church calling in Young Women, volunteering at Leland's school and training for a 10K. I feel like some days I don't have time to sit down at the computer for blogging.

Chuck and I recently both got Droid phones which I love, totally love. Leland and Lucy love them too and ask to play games on them all day long. Lucy is improving so much in regards to her speech. She also loves wearing band-aids for every little thing. Leland recently decided to stop sucking her thumb, which went really well this week. She made the goal she set and got her reward of going to the local indoor inflatable bounce house place. I realized that I really just needed to wait till she was ready and actually wanting to stop, and she did it. Do know you remember that little joke "Hi. My name is Chubba. My daddy's Chubba and my momma's Chubba....One day my daddy took my on a motorcycle ride and I said "faster daddy faster.." Charly loves that joke and wants to do it all day long. She's hilarious.

One morning while getting ready (waiting for Daddy to be ready) for school, the girls were watching the squirrels in the backyard. They are such cute sisters. Lucy was actually yelling "Die squirrel, die!" Not sure where that came from.

I spent this last Saturday visiting a farm for work. It was so much fun. I was bummed that it was muddy and rainy, so we didn't stray very far from the house, but it was fun planning the items that they will be planting for Dominion Harvest this year. Farmers are just awesome down to earth people. Most of them just love what they do and are trying their best to grow good food. The best line of the afternoon was "We just do the best we can, and we take what the Lord blesses us with."

Massanutten Resort

2011-01-30T16:21:00.002-05:00

For a few days between Christmas and New Years we went to Massanutten Resort. We had so much fun and it was great to hang out with the Benner's who were also there for the week.

We spent a day at the indoor water park. The girls amazed me with their bravery - going down all the big slide and even doing the pipeline.

Leland

Lucy

Chuck

The girls couldn't catch their breath,
so Chuck gave them puffs of his asthma inhaler.

Chuck and the two big girls went snow tubing.

The snow tubing group

It's always fun just being in the hotel room together.

Family pictures.

Massanutten ski slopes
in the background

Christmas Service

2011-01-16T20:20:00.000-05:00

Last year, Chuck's family decided not to exchange gifts for Christmas, and instead, we exchanged names to do service in the name of that one person (read the details about it here). Last year, was such a wonderful experience, we did it again this Christmas. We all post about our experiences on a blog that we wait to read on Christmas morning. Once again it was amazing.

I think one of the best things about doing this type of "gift" exchange is that I have felt so much closer to those members of the family that I am performing my service for and who is serving me. Many of us do not live close to one another and some I haven't ever really gotten to spend a vast amount of time with, so I love feeling connected to those family members.

Serving others is also a great way to feel closer to your Heavenly Father and your Savior, Jesus Christ. It allows us to feel the true spirit of Christmas and celebrating the birth of Jesus, instead of getting caught up in the commercialization of it all.

Please feel free to read about all of our gifts of service.

Ashley's gift to Hock

Char's gift to Ashley - woohoo!
Chuck's gift to Mitzi - be sure to comment on that blog if you want to be a recipient of his service
Ryan's gift to Chuck - totally worth the long read and if you know Chuck you will know how much this meant to him.

Some friends and family members have told us that after reading about our family's experience last year, they decided to do it with their own families this year. If so, we would love to hear about it. If you have a blog that you would like us to link please let me know.

As a twist for next year (Christmas 2011), we decided to draw names now, so that we can have all year to think about and do a service for our recipient family member. I'm excited!

Also read about Chuck's parent's 18 months of service on a mission in Congo, Africa. Check out their blog here. They just posted about an amazing experience of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Christmas Morning

2010-12-25T22:07:00.045-05:00

We spent Christmas morning at my Dad's house in North Carolina. It was fun to have one more kid around for the excitement.

Leland - the year of princess and barbies

Lucy - KA POW! this girl loves Spider Man

Charly - the impatient eater

Check out the chunks of skin missing from the orange she just couldn't wait for me to peel. I finally captured real smile not the usual crazy picture face.

Dad and Layni

It was fun to talk to Grammy and Papa on Skype.

My southern boy's t-shirt and opening his NASCAR gift

Cutting down the tree

2010-12-21T13:16:00.042-05:00

Cutting down our own Christmas tree is a tradition that both Chuck and I want to do with our family. This year, we found a great tree farm not too far from home called LaRon Tree Farm. Unfortunately, the owner said he is retiring and will not be open the next few years to let let the rest of his trees grow.

The picture on the top left was just moments before the tree fell, and notice the proximity of Charly there... I had to grab Charly and yank her quickly out of the way before the tree crashed on top of her.

It was an awesome place to get our tree. They even had these great tree sleds invented by the owner to transport our tree and children.While our tree was being wrapped and tied to the van, we roasted marshmallows, made s'mores, and drank hot chocolate.

The girls loved decorating the Christmas tree and made me sing my favorite Christmas song, The Happiest Christmas Tree by Nat King Cole, while we decorated.

Chuck also put some Christmas lights up on our house after Lucy's sweet, yet persistent, request. It started raining when he was about half-way done, but he kept going and finally finished in the dark and soaking wet. We had a remote to turn the lights on and off and I was able to convince the girls that the Christmas lights turned on only by them yelling "Merry Christmas!" as loud as they could.

Richmond Christmas Festivities (Part 2 of 2)

2010-12-20T13:25:00.031-05:00

The Miracle Of Christmas is a free, live Nativity presented by the Richmond Metro Zoo. It is a wonderful way to feel the true meaning of Christmas by watching a reenactment of the events leading up to the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We love to take our girls every year. This year, my mother joined us again along with her friend who presents Back to Bethlehem in Bath, NC.

After the show, picture op with some of the cast and animals.

We took a long way home in order to drive past a few of the homes on the Tacky lights Tour. Here are a few of our favorites.

Richmond Christmas Festivities (Part 1 of 2)

2010-12-20T12:05:00.009-05:00

At the beginning of December we went to a few Christmas festivities that are Richmond traditions to help get us into the Christmas spirit.

First up was the Grand Illumination in downtown Richmond, where they turn on the lights to the Christmas tree, other trees, deer, and all the buildings downtown at one time. We went last year and had a lot of fun. This year we didn't get great pictures, so you can check out last year's pictures.

The girls were able to meet some of the stars of the Nutcracker.

We saw Santa a few times throughout the night and he was of course willing to listen to all the wishes from 2 little girls.

We also went to the Main Street Station open house. I love that building so much. None of our pictures turned out there, either. We were really frustrated with our camera that night. It was recently repaired from when I dropped it in the sand over the summer and it's never been the same. Luckily, I got a fabulous new camera for Christmas, so my frustrations are over.

Update

2010-12-16T17:00:00.002-05:00

I recently looked at my blog and realized that I only posted 2 times in November. I have a lot to catch up on. I started working for a company called Dominion Harvest back in the fall and I love it. It has kept me very busy but, we are in the off season right now, so hopefully I can catch up. I like to date my blog posts according to when they happened, so they may be a little out of order.

A note from Leland with instructions on how to get to her hideout.

Chuck has sleep apnea and he finally got a c-pap machine. He no longer snores like a freight train, which means I don't have to elbow him in the side or kick him in the middle of the night to roll over, so we all sleep so much better. The first night he slept with the machine I seriously thought he was dead in the middle of the night. He usually is such a loud and fitful sleeper and he was so still and silent while he slept. It was a little creepy.

Lucy is in such a fun stage. She is adamant about dressing herself most days, which leads to great ensembles. She still loves everything about Spiderman and hyperventilates at the sight of anything remotely resembling Spiderman.

We recently switched the big girls from toddler beds to twin beds. Poor Lucy was complaining about her "small" bed and we would hear her banging against the frame at night. The picture on the bottom right is how we found her the first night in the twin bed. That bigger bed and she still was hanging off the edge. I think she will soon be taller than Leland.

Charly has a ridiculous smile when the camera comes out. She really is a cute girl, but I may not have many pictures to prove it.

Charly has recently discovered climbing. These two pictures were taken literally minutes from each other. I think she will be my first child to break a bone or get stitches.

Traditions Start Now

2010-12-03T10:17:00.001-05:00

Lots of people around Christmastime like to know what others' traditions are, as they develop their own traditions. Last year, being in a new city for Christmas, we decided to dive into the long lasting Richmond Christmas traditions. Tonight, we kick off our month long 2nd annual Gates Family Christmas celebration.

James Center Illumination – Tonight 6pm (Last year’s blog post)

Main Street Station Open House – Tonight 5pm

Christmas Parade – Saturday 10am

Lowes Build and Grow train set – each Saturday in December

Tacky Lights Tour – all month (Last year’s blog post)

Miracle of Christmas – Richmond Zoo (Last years’ blog post)

Check your local paper and find out what's traditions your community has for Christmas.

Wedding in NY

2010-11-27T00:55:00.072-05:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving we all headed north to New York for my cousin, Cody's wedding. It's been a long time since all of my cousins have been together at one time.

My grandmother was an only child and she had 3 daughters (3 son-in-laws) and now has 7 grandchildren (plus 4 spouses) and 9 great-grandcildren. She was so cute and excited about all of us having our picture taken.

The whole family

Leland was a flower girl in the wedding with her cousin Nick as the ring bearer. They were so adorable. She was so excited about it but, looked so nervous when she actually came down the isle.

My cute uncle wore that same cowboy hat on the day that he and my aunt were married. When I was a teenager, I spent the summer in New York with my uncle and cousins while my aunt was helping with a sick family member. That was one of my most memorable summers. One of the friends I made 15 years ago were at the wedding. It was fun to see her.
We hired a babysitter to watch all the kids, so it was a fun date night with my sisters and their husbands at the reception.

Poor Chuck got a little teary listening to my uncle talk about his only daughter getting married. He says "and I have to do this at least 3 times in my life, geez!"

Cross Women

Taking family pictures in freezing cold temperatures.

All the kids had so much fun together. We rented a large lake house so we could all stay together. It was a blast.

enjoying chocolate cake and yummy root beer

Nana was in heaven with all the grandkids in one house.

play-doh creations and playing in the light snow flurries

We miss our cousins!

Thanksgiving Singing

2010-11-25T23:58:00.001-05:00

We traveled to Maryland to my sister's house for Thanksgiving. It was great being with family and just relaxing. The kids and the boys played Rock Band literally all day while Thanksgiving dinner was cooking.

We had a wonderful dinner, but just before bed Chuck started to feel sick and he spent the night leaning over the toilet. Not fun. He was luckily the only one that got sick, so we have no idea what made him so sick. Lucky for everyone else, not so lucky for poor Chuck.

Weekend in NC

2010-11-20T22:07:00.000-05:00

We took a quick trip down to NC. Some girlfriends from here in Richmond went down to visit another friend who recently moved to Raleigh. It was nice to go to the temple with friends and have my mom and sister join us. We then went to dinner and chatted away. It was a fabulous day.

Chuck loves a good revitalization project or low impact development ares that he will go out of his way to see and get pictures. So, on our way back home we stopped in Durham, NC to walk around an area that his boss here in Richmond told him about. It was an old Tobacco factory close to the Durham Bulls baseball stadium that has been revitalized. I have to admit that it was pretty fun to walk around.

We actually got a good picture of the girls too.

Enjoy and Enrich

2010-11-19T12:13:00.005-05:00

[FYI - Chuck recently edited this post and added more.}

There have been a few things on my mind a lot lately - 1) Enjoying my children and 2) enriching my children.

I want to help them grow and develop into strong, confident, kind, loving, intelligent girls. But I want all of us to enjoy the process.

I have been reading a parenting book called 1..2..3..Magic. I'm about half way into it and agree with the concept. Like any "self-help" book, I implement the parts that I agree with and adjust any other parts I don't 100% agree with. I have been completely impressed with how well the 1, 2, 3...Magic concept works. I have noticed a change in the girl's behavior and especially my behavior. One of the big ideas is to not let personal emotion get in the way of disciplining your child. I get less frustrated and irritated, thus enjoy my children more.

As I think about my kids, I have thought a lot about public school lately. We are about 3 months into the world of public school and in one word it's just... interesting. You want your child to learn, be enriched, make friends, learn social skills, and have fun. I keep asking myself, "How do I make sure my child is getting the guidance and instruction she needs without somebody accusing me of not letting my kid just be a kid?"

In Leland's class, there are 18 kids for the teacher to be concerned with. We love her teacher and have always had positive experiences with the school, the PTA, the principal, the specialist teachers (librarian, reading specialist, and music teacher). But ever since our parent-teacher conference earlier this month, Chuck has been in my ear about something.

At the parent-teacher conference, Leland's teacher raved about her. She explained how Leland got 100 out of 102 on the PALS test. The target score for kindergartners is 28.

Now, if you have heard Chuck's view on making progress through life, you can guess that we like to make sure that we properly appreciate the positive, but be aware of the things that we should be working on. He is constantly balancing those two sides - pride in the girls' successes, while seeking opportunities for further growth and learning opportunities. So in that mode, he said, "That's great she did so well... can you show us what were the 2 things she missed so we can be sure to work on them in the future?"

Of course, we were very pleased with our sweet little girl. We are not the kind of people who push the girls too hard without recognizing their successes. But we also talked with her teacher about some of our concerns that Leland may be getting bored with school.

Chuck keeps saying that she needs to be challenged in life. He says, he wants his kids to be smart, but not so much so that they are the smartest in their class and don't have to work for their achievements. Some day, the girls will come up against academic challenges and we want them to be used to overcoming them through study and diligence.

He says that as we teach Leland, he keeps thinking back to a few times in his life when he came up against academic challenges and didn't handle them as well as he should have because he wasn't used to having to work hard to get good grades. He talks about his first year at Stanford being a real eye opener for him. So, you can see why he is so concerned that Leland is starting her educational "career" by getting into the habit of things being easy at school.

After the parent-teacher conference, the teacher worked with us to have Leland tested for her reading and phonetic skills. For a few days, she spent a short time doing a reading test with Leland. She tested at a 2nd grade, 8th month level for reading.

(By the way, Lucy is on the same path. Her preschool teacher says she's the only one in her class that knows all the sounds letters make and knows her numbers. She is on track to be reading consistently before turning 4, just like Leland was. Yesterday, Lucy actually read the little books that Leland brought home from school.)

Can you see why we love Leland's teacher? She cares about Leland and really tries to stimulate her, but she is constrained by the needs of the other 17 kids, not to mention the budget cuts which did away with teacher's aides.

Our school is a great school, but we are concerned that the teacher is having to teach at an extremely low level simply due to the makeup of the class. 10 of the 18 students in Leland's class are ESL. Very few of the kids entered kindergarten at the basic level of preparedness. Because of this, the teacher is having to focus on unbelievable remedial lessons that Leland was learning over the past two years in preschool and are more applicable for our 3-year old Lucy.

The teacher and the reading specialist were hoping to find other kids at or near Leland's level to form a reading group at her level. Sadly, they came back and said that after asking all 5 kindergarten teachers, they realized that there is not a single other child even close to Leland's level. So what happens when your child is above the learning level that everyone else in her grade at her school is? How do you make sure she is still enriched?

I want her to be challenged. I do not want her to develop the habit that school is easy and not want to take on challenges. Her teacher is doing well at trying to give Leland instruction to take her work to the next level, but I know she is capable of so much more than the simple worksheets she is bringing home. Let's face it, if a teacher has a child preforming above grade level and a child performing below grade level that needs extra one-on-one time, the below grade level child is going to get the attention.

I'm not really an advocate of skipping grades, but Chuck has spent the last 3 months wondering if we should move Leland up to 1st grade. It might be fine now, but on a social level I just don't think it's best as teenagers. I do not want my 15 year old in class with 16-17 year old kids who are driving and dating.

I only have 3 hours with Leland each day between the time she gets home from school and the time to get ready for bed. I try my best to make that time with her enriching, but I 'm making dinner and she is just worn out. Do we move to a school where there might be other kids her age at a similar level? The gifted program in our district doesn't start until the 3rd grade. It is an immersion program, so not every school has a gifted program. Do we make sure we buy a house in a district that has a gifted program, so she does not have a 45 minute bus ride to and from school?

Let's just put it out there - I do not want to home school. I believe in the public school system. (Both of parents were school teachers and Chuck says he pays tuition for school every April 15.) I just need to figure out how to make it work for my child and our family. I can do all I can with her during those 3 hours in the evening, but realistically, she is at school for 6 hours, that's where it needs to happen.

I need to be an advocate for my child. I am trying to find that balance between enriching my girls and letting them enjoy being a kid. Any suggestions?

This is us

2010-11-11T15:36:00.002-05:00

School pictures

Since I have no professional pictures to share of Charly, I'll share a video of her most recent accomplishment. Don't you just the love the tongue poking out just like her Daddy does when he concentrates?

Chuck and I loved watching the Country Music Awards last night. I love all the performnaces, but this Brad Paisley one is the best. Chuck loved the "Wanna get scrappy?" bit between Jeff Gordon and Brad Paisley.

Halloween

2010-10-31T16:42:00.001-04:00

For Halloween, we had an M&M, a super girl (or Spiderman's wife), a bride, Chuck Bartowski AKA Agent Charles Carmichael, and General Beckman (both from the TV show Chuck).

We had fun at our church trunk or treat on Friday night. We also went trick or treating on our street on Sunday night. Chuck and I also went to an adult Halloween party the weekend before. We all had fun and got way too much candy. I love our Mr. Potato Head style jack-o-lanterns. They are so cute and so easy.

My favorite part of Halloween is the after Halloween sales to get more dress-ups. Lucy's choices were Spider man and Buzz light year. Leland chose two fairy dresses. We also picked up a few wigs and tutu skirts.

Friends Forever

2010-10-30T12:51:00.001-04:00

It has been about 2 years since we have seen the Cumberworth Family. Between our two families, there have been 3 babies born, 2 law degrees obtained, and 3 moves since we saw each other last. We were so excited when Adam had an Air Force JAG training at UVa so we could get together.

I picked up Shana and the kids and brought them to Richmond for a few days. Her kids are so stinkin' cute.We had fun just hanging out at the house, going downtown, and walking around Maymont.

Eli loves to give kisses. Charly and Eli were so cute all week just hugging and kissing on each other. For the bottom right picture, I balanced a cookie on top of the camera to get them to look at the camera. It was pretty funny and kind of worked. One of the last times we saw them our girls wore the same t-shirts, but it was Leland and Lucy. (Those t-shirts were actually my 9 and 11 year old nieces' shirts. Those hand-me-downs have definitely gotten their use.)

We only got to see Adam one night. We all went to Charlottesville, walked around the gorgeous UVa campus and the historic downtown mall. No late night game playing like the old days, but still lots of fun just hanging out chasing after all the kids. Having 5 kids in tow instead of just the one (Leland) like we had years ago was quite different. It was so fun to see Adam and Shana as parents. Thanks for coming to VA. We can't wait to come visit you in FL.

As we walked around the lawn at UVa, Chuck and I kept telling the girls that this is where they were going to go to college. The fall colors were amazing.

10 Apples up on Top

2010-10-28T22:49:00.001-04:00

We went apple picking at Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville. It was gorgeous weather - sunny and warm., not exactly fall feeling, apple picking weather - but great nonetheless. I kept reminding Chuck that this was for the experience, not necessarily to get a ton of apples, but the girls just loved it so much we ended up with 40lbs of apples!

We were very excited that Aunt Zebra was able to join us.

I love the bottom right picture below with the girls in their "ta-da" poses and Chuck - our pack mule - with our 40lbs of apples.

Zebra took the big girls on a hay ride. I tried to get some pictures of the girls on the pumpkins, but everyone was just worn out. Isn't the view just amazing in the picture of Lucy. We were literally on the top of a mountain. Breathtaking views.

After the apple picking, we met up with our friends' the Crofts and headed to Downtown Charlottesville for dinner (Eppie's and Marco and Luca's) and dessert (Splendora's and Sweet Frog). The downtown open air mall is fabulous because you can stroll around and all get food from different places, then all sit together outside. We love it. Charly wanted to be just like dad and lick the gelato sampler plate clean. Then Charly also got frozen yogurt from Zebra. She's quite the mooch.

Wondering what I did with 40lbs of apples? Applesauce, canned apples, dipped them in caramel and nutella, pork chops with baked apples, apple caramel sauce on crepes, apple turnovers, and waffles with apples on top.

Almost 3 weeks later I still have some in my fruit bowl and they are still delicious. That's what happens when you buy fresh and buy local!

Notes from Leland

2010-10-28T00:17:00.002-04:00

Leland has started typing notes on the computer, printing them out, adding a picture, then mailing them to cousins and friends. She is very serious about it. She asks me how to spell only a few of the words, but is getting pretty good at spelling.

Notice the 2 ways to spell going in the note below. For the first use, she asked me how to spell the word. Later, when I saw her note, I asked why she spelled going g-o-w-e-n. Her reply, "'Cause when you say it, that's how it really sounds". I guess my southern accent is back.

We love our cousins!

2010-10-19T23:39:00.002-04:00

We feel so lucky to get to see cousins so often even though none live in the same state as we do. The McBrides are on year round school, so they came to play with us for a few days while "tracked out".

(clockwise above from top left) Holding hands walking home from Leland's bus stop (reminds me of this visit in 2008). Connor was so cute hanging out with Charly so much. Watching movies. Lowe's Build and Grow. Playing instead of eating.

The kids all got along great and had so much fun together.

Ready. Set. GO!!

Trying to take a group shot after the Build and Grow. Hilarious poses. Word of the day was, "Awesome!" Poor Zetta was not happy about all the picture taking.

Mitzi, of course, got Charly's hair in pigtails. She also provided Leland with a humongous bow for her to wear to school one day. Wish I had a picture of it. When I'm with Mitzi she always makes sure my girls have pretty hair-dos.

Talking to Grammy and Papa in Africa on Skype. They each sang a song for them. I'll get some video up soon.

Awesome weekend! Thanks for coming to visit us.

Cape Hatteras

2010-10-17T22:50:00.006-04:00

After packing up after camping, we headed down Highway 12 to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Our family loves lighthouses and Chuck had never been to Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which is the tallest in the United States and tallest brick lighthouse in the world!

Since we were only one hour away, we thought it was the perfect opportunity. As we pulled into the parking lot of the old site of the lighthouse on the beach, it was pouring down rain. So we headed to the current site and thought we would at least walk through visitor's center. Luckily, the rain had completely stopped by the time we got out of our car to walk in to the visitor's center.

We were also excited that our tall 3 year old barely made the height requirement to walk to the top of the lighthouse. Chuck took Leland and Lucy to the top, while I waited with Charly. (You can not carry children while climbing to the top and there is a height requirement for climbers, so Charly could not go.)

Chuck said he was so nervous climbing to the top and on the balcony with the girls, but they did great. They enjoyed talking with some of the rangers and learned lots of info about the lighthouse. They loved being able to take pictures of me waiting at the bottom. I'm in both pictures on the left on the walkway by the house. It was really windy at the top too, but a gorgeous view.

We love lighthouses!

Then, I got my turn to climb to the top while they waited at the the bottom. I climbed those stairs so fast, I was sore for the next 2 days. It made me realize how I really should exercise more.

Ashley at the top of the lighthouse (girls waving to mom)

Since we were married in 2004, we have climbed the following lighthouses:

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the Frisco, NC (tallest in U.S.; tallest brick lighthouse in the world)
Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla, NC (Chuck's favorite because it was his first)
Ponce de Leon Inlet Light Station near Daytona Beach, FL (tallest in Florida; 2nd tallest in U.S.)
Absecon Lighthouse in Atlantic City, NJ (tallest in New Jersey)
Old Point Loma Lighthouse in San Diego, CA (not much to brag about "climbing," but hardly any Californians have climbed any of their lighthouses, let alone the one with the most beautiful view of San Diego)

We have also visited, but not been able to climb:

Bodie Island Light Station near Oregon Inlet, NC
Cape May Lighthouse in Lower Township, NJ

Whenever we go to a National Park, we always love doing the Junior Ranger programs (thanks to the Dittbrenners who got us hooked). Leland and Lucy were so proud of their Junior Ranger badges that they both pinned them to their school bags when we got home.

After spending a long time at the lighthouse, we headed even farther south to Hatteras Village. We drove through flooded streets and saw how much damage water really can do. Since the ferry was not running to Ocracoke Island because of water levels in the sound, we could not go any farther south and had no choice but to finally head home. We made one last stop for dinner at a yummy restaurant, Sandbar & Grille, with a gorgeous view of the Pamlico sound. (An amazing comeback after their old location was destroyed by hurricane Isabel)

We could not have gone to the Outer Banks with out driving through a Brew Thru a few times. For those of you non-Southerners, a Brew Thru is like a 7 Eleven you drive into like a car wash. You do not even have to get out of the car and you can get your drinks and snacks for the road. There are only a handful of them on the Outer Banks and are well known for their t-shirts.

The Outer Banks is Chuck's happy place. He loves it there and I do too. It's where I fell in love with him over 7 years ago. We can't wait to go back.

Laugh out Loud

2010-10-16T16:52:00.001-04:00

I love this Old Spice commercials...

but, this Sesame Street version is just as funny..

My favorite shows that make me laugh out loud (my husband says it takes a lot to make me laugh out loud).

Modern Family
Community
Big Bang Theory
The Good Wife (not a comedy, but a great lawyer show)

Not a funny book, but a great book that I'm reading right now (only halfway done, don't ruin anything for me!).

Mockingjay - the third (and last) in The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

Camping in the Outer Banks

2010-10-15T15:59:00.008-04:00

A few weekends ago we went camping in the Outer Banks. I've talked about my love-hate relationship with camping before. I love it while we are camping, but the aftermath is what is hard. I had camping gear and dirty laundry piled up in most rooms of my house for over a week after we came home.

My sister, Suzanne, who is not at all a camper, organized the trip and we were excited to go with her family. This was their first time camping as a family and as we were saying good bye at the end of the weekend, I asked if she would do it again. She replied, "Give me a year to think about it."

Nana came for both nights and Larry for one and it was great to have them there too.

On the first night, we slept without the rain fly so we could look at the sky and it was unbelievable! The stars were amazing and it was fun to wake up and see the sunrise from our beds. Since we got there in the dark, the morning was exciting for the girls to discover that just over the sand dune was the ocean.

Gorgeous sunrise

We camped at Oregon Inlet on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, just about a mile south of Bodie Lighthouse. The campsites were next to sand dunes and tents were set up in the sand which was nice. We are used to camping on gravel sites. One pain, literally, were sand spur plants that were everywhere. Everyone had to be very careful about walking through the brush areas.

Our campsite. Lucy chasing off the birds (Top right) .

All the girls just loved playing in the sand the entire weekend. For some reason, that never gets old.

Loving being at the beach

Saturday was a very windy day, which is typical for the area. We headed to Kitty Hawk Kites, picked up a new kite, and went to the Wright Brothers Memorial for a picnic and kite flying. There was a stunt kite competition going on, which was kind of cool to watch and there were a lot of kites flying around.

Flying kites at Wright Brothers Memorial, Kitty Hawk

Later that night the wind really picked up. We attempted a fire on the beach to cook s'mores, but it wasn't as pleasant as I had hoped. The wind just really made it hard to do anything. After Chuck created a wind shield for the fire, we each had a s'more, and then we called it quits.

Attempting to roast marshmallows by the fire on a very windy night.

It rained during the second night, so we had to put our rain fly on, which meant no falling asleep staring at the stars. Suzanne's poor family slept in the car because the wind and the rain made their tent leak. Luckily, we stayed dry inside our tent.

Charly loves to give kisses. Charly's goofy "say cheese" smile.

I can't remember a time that we've gone camping that it hasn't poured rain (twice), been really windy, or unexpectedly cold. That just happens when you are outdoors - you are in nature. No matter how often you look at the weather report, it can quickly change.

It was a fun weekend with family and enjoying the outdoors. We can't wait to go camping again with the Morris'... whenever Suzanne's ready to do it again.

Spiderman's wife

2010-10-14T22:18:00.001-04:00

A conversation between the girls after Lucy finished saying our family prayer tonight...

Lucy: "Mom, when you and Daddy die, I want to go live with Spiderman."
Leland: "You can't. I think he already has a wife."

Just Pictures

2010-10-10T21:20:00.003-04:00

Leland wearing Chuck's Hawaiian shirt for picture day. This is the same shirt that Chuck wore for his kindergarten picture day. Her favorite past time - dressing up for performances.

I love that top right picture of Lucy. She looks like a model. These pictures are from a local art festival we went to a while back.

Charly just cracks us up every day. She loves raspberries and loves making a big mess while she eats. She still can't walk that well but she loves to climb!

Our Bear - 15 months

2010-10-06T11:36:00.006-04:00

Charly's new nickname is "Bear" for no real reason that I know of (see Chuck's edit at bottom), but sometimes we also refer to her as "Clifford." Do you know the story of Clifford the Big Red Dog? He was the runt of the litter, then a little girl named Emily Elizabeth, loved him so much and prayed that he would grow. Then in a day he grew, and grew until he became the BIG red dog. That's a little how we feel about Charly.

She was just a little bitty thing that we were so worried about and now she is just growing and growing. She can also pound down some food. She puts a death grip on her high chair tray when I try to take her out when she wants more food. She wants anything and everything that anyone in sight is eating, which is why another nickname for her is "Mooch." She still only has 2 teeth, but she can gum anything you put in front of her. Her top two barely poked through this weekend.

We love our little Charly Bear - big or small. She is in such a cute stage, but she also has quite the personality. She holds a grudge if you do something she's not a fan of. She will look at you with this scowl and grunt at you. It's hard not to laugh. It's usually when I tell her, "No!," so I have to try hard to stand my ground and not laugh. I would love to catch it on camera.

This summer, Charly's favorite places were the splash pads at Stony Point Fashion Park. She would crawl right to the middle with no fear. Other kids and parents would point and laugh. Since she would crawl all over the place, I had to always make sure she was wearing pants even though it was the dead of summer.

Charly loves to help unload the dishwasher, even if they are dirty. We put all of our kids dishes on a bottom shelf, so the girls can reach their own stuff. Charly will actually put bowls and cups away.

One afternoon, she found a box of chocolate sandwich cookies. She was quite proud of herself. Look closely and you can see the chocolate smeared all over the oven.

She's taking steps with her walker, which is awesome. I think she's finally realized that maybe walking could be fun. She turns everything into a walker - doll strollers, the clothes hamper, step stools, boxes, pretty much anything she can lean on and moves. This video is from a few weeks ago, she is much more stable now.

15 month stats:
weight - 22 lbs : 25^th percentile
height - 29 ½ in : 50^th percentile

Her growth chart looked something like this:

Chuck's background on "Bear": I am not quite certain when I started calling her "Charly Bear." When she was little and had her tummy issues, she would cry in pain lots and loved to cuddle and fall asleep in my arms. She really liked it when I would pull her close so she could feel my breath on her cheek. There were a few times that I fell asleep with her by doing deep calming breaths on her cheek for so long. It was then that I began calling her my "Charly Bear" because she was just like a teddy bear that was so nice to cuddle and fall asleep with. Plus, she never grew bigger for 8 months, so that was like a stuffed teddy bear, too.

Once I started calling her that, I always thought of my uncle Mike Bodell who always calls Jared, his third child, "Bear," which led us all to call him "Jare Bear." Growing up, I always knew that Mike's kids were so important to him and to this day, I enjoy hearing him say "Bear" to his son. So, after using it more and more frequently, Charly has become "Bear."

Daddy Daughter Duet

2010-09-30T13:11:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago Chuck and Leland sang "Teach me to Walk in the Light" as a duet in church. They did a fabulous job. I recorded their rehearsal.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

One more NASCAR post!

2010-09-26T22:37:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, the whole family went to the race. The girls (and Chuck) had fun showing me around to all the fun stuff they did they day before.

Nana came up for the weekend, so she got to experience the NASCAR craziness too. I think we may have worn her out with all our quick walking from place to place. Chuck calls it "California style." (For any of you that are a Gates, or have traveled with a Gates, you know how the "gotta see it all" time line works.) Nana is used to "Southern style," where you take your time to stroll through life. She was a trooper and the girls loved having her there. (Until it was time for her to take them home - while Chuck and I stayed for the race - when there were lots of tears.)

Top left: Chevy tent announcer pretending to interview me for our photo. His microphone was on and the entire tent area could hear us chatting.
Bottom right: Dancing for free t-shirts.

The highlight of the entire weekend was when Jimmie Johnson was scheduled to appear at the Chevy tent for an interview. On Saturday, the girls kept telling Chuck that they wanted to see Jimmie. When he said, "We saw him racing," they said they wanted to see him and talk to him.

So, we planned our day to be at the Chevy tent early enough to get a spot to see Jimmie. We waited by the gates where the drivers came in and out, but we were about three deep back from the crowded gates. Both girls had on their Lowe's Build and Grow aprons ready to show Jimmie all their patches and hoping to have him sign.

Chuck was chatting with some of his fellow racin' fans, and the extremely nice people suggested our girls work their way up front. They even hollered at the people up front to let Leland and Lucy up there. Chuck became buddies with a guy who is in the Air Force, who said, "I love Jimmie, but if he doesn't stop for your daughters, I may have to choose a new favorite driver."

While we waited, Lucy ended up on my shoulders in the back of the crowd while, Leland was right up front with a group of really nice race fans. When Jimmie came out, a guy lifted Leland up and over the railing, while all those around her yelled for Jimmie to sign her apron. Jimmie walked up, saw her apron and started signing! She was so excited, and her daddy tried to contain his excitement as he fired away at taking pictures.

Then, the guy put Leland down so she could come show her Daddy, and he yelled back to me, "Give me your other daughter!" Before I could respond, the guy next to me grabbed Lucy off of my shoulders and passed her to the guy in front. (It was really amazing how calm the girls were with all of these strangers, but I guess they could feel the excitement as they were blown away that they actually got to meet Jimmie.) By this time, Jimmie had gone down the line a bit signing autographs. Then the crowd started yelling "Go back to sign the little girls apron!" Jimmie replied "I already did." A few in the crowd said "No, this one is her sister, go back!" So, he came back to sign Lucy's apron too.

It was awesome. The girls were absolutely thrilled! Their sweet Daddy cried. (You read that right - Chuck cried. After Jimmie left, he was sitting on the ground packing up his backpack and Leland came up and give him a huge hug, and tears started running down his face.) He said it was because he could see just how excited the girls were. (It's happened before when his sweet dream for his little girls come true.)

The crowd around us were so sweet, helpful, and excited for them. (Chuck also calls this "Southern style.") When his Air Force buddy said, "We should've gotten you up there to take a picture with him and sign your hat," Chuck told him that all he wanted was for his girls to meet Jimmie, so he was excited to be taking pictures for them to remember. He's such a great Daddy for little girls.

Seriously, do you now see why he is such a die hard fan of Lowe's?

Jimmie Johnson signing Leland (pink hat) and Lucy's (pony tail) Build and Grow aprons

We felt our day was complete at that point, yet we still had so much more to do. We headed to get our green screen family photo with Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus (pit crew chief) and then walked Nana and the girls back to the car to say good bye.

Holding up 4 fingers with the 4 consecutive Sprint Cup trophies, Jimmie, and Chad.

The race was awesome. We ended up sitting in the Family Section which was no smoking and no alcohol. It made a huge difference in the atmosphere around us and made the race much more enjoyable. I really enjoyed it way more than I ever thought I would enjoy a NASCAR race.

I love the patriotism I felt when all the fans waved an American flag while "God Bless America" and "The Star Spangled Banner" were sung. I love that a prayer is said before every race. I loved the rumble of cars as they sped around the track. I was so glad that I was able to fulfill this dream for my husband. I think it made me the most happy just watching him enjoy every moment.

The winning burn out - Night 1 (Chuck's additions)

2010-09-23T17:37:00.004-04:00

As you can see from the previous post about the Friday night race, Ashley posted it before I could get to it to add my comments.

But come on! She forgot to post the video of the burn out, baby!

The winner was Kevin Harvick, driving the #33 (my lucky number!) Chevrolet.

Ashley also forgot to mention that not only did the girls make it through the entire race, but they were angels! They were so cute together! They played with their "prizes" together for a while. Then, they decided they would be independent and sat two rows away from me by themselves, cheering and watching their little TV. The two women and their husbands behind us thought they were so cute.

(The top left picture shows how much junk I was carrying after I had already dumped 3 other bags and the sleeping mat in the car!)

Around lap 200, Lucy got really tired and I asked her if she wanted to go home. "No Dad, we stay here," she said. "I lay down on the bench for a minute." She lied down on the grandstands, used her seat cushion as a pillow and watched the rest of the race with her head next to me.

At lap 230, Leland climbed into my lap and put her thumb in her mouth. I thought perhaps we could beat the traffic and leave with 20 laps to go. Nope, they wouldn't let me.

When we were finally walking out at 10:30 p.m. after 8 hours of NASCAR fun, I heard the very first, "I'm tired." But instead of being a whiny complaint, Leland said it like, "Whew, I am so tired... that was a fun day dad!"

I was so pleased with them. They never complained about sore feet or tired legs. They were perfect.

Virginia 529 College Savings 250 - Night 1

2010-09-22T21:43:00.003-04:00

(Be sure to read about the activities before the race.)

Chuck had learned from his earlier experience inside the track. He got the girls' headsets ready to go before entering. He also packed his stuff so that they could set up quickly once they got to their seats. Still, he still figured the girls would only last about 50 (out of 250) laps before they were ready to go home.

I asked Lucy what she was doing in the top right picture below and she said, "I'm saying, GO Jimmie GO!" You can see Leland the bottom left picture below holding the Sprint Fanview (handheld TV).

The girls lasted the entire 250 laps of the race and absolutely loved every minute of it.

You might want to check your volume before you hit play on this video - it shows you just how loud it was and why the headsets were a necessity.

Of course, hundreds of pictures were taken. After hearing about all the fun they had, I was so excited to go with them on Saturday.

Let's Go Racing Girls! - Day 1

2010-09-19T17:15:00.017-04:00

It's official, we are rednecks. The first step is to admit it, right?

(Note from Chuck: I have openly aspired to being a redneck for some time, so I am offended at the pejorative tone of saying we should "admit" it.)

Remember back in May, when we went to see the Lowes' 48 live? Chuck was giddy with excitement just to see a previously driven race car. Last weekend, was NASCAR's return visit to Richmond International Raceway. Can you imagine Chuck's excitement when I got a pair of tickets to both nights of NASCAR for free? I was so surprised how easy it was to get the free tickets by continuing the same purchases we already make. Thank you Richmond Times-Dispatch for Friday night tickets (value $30 each) and Kroger for the Saturday night tickets (value $40 each)!

We had the absolute best weekend, EVER! If you have never been to a NASCAR event, you absolutely must experience it. It is like a combination of a county fair, corporate trade show, and college football game. What was really surprising was how much of it was totally free! Kids were free on Friday, so Chuck took the 2 big girls to the events, practice sessions, and qualifying during the day and then to the Nationwide Series race that night (like Jr. Varsity to the Varsity racers in the Sprint Cup Series). I stayed home with Charly and gave my ticket to a friend who took his son to the race.

Chuck even took Leland out of school at lunchtime, so she could be there all day with her daddy. When her teacher came to the office with Leland, she said "Have fun at the races, Leland!" and Chuck said, "Ummm, you mean our southern heritage social studies field trip, right?" She thought that was hilarious.

After they drove away, Leland was a little sad to leave school early because it was her first Friday, which is computer class day. Chuck told her he could take her back if she wanted, but she was so conflicted with the dilemma that she started to cry. Chuck told her that she could go to computer class every week, but that the race was a special thing that only happened twice a year. After less than an hour at the track, she said "Daddy, you were right, this is way more fun than school!"

When they got there, they made their way through the Midway fairly quickly. The Midway is basically the fair of NASCAR, mixed with a dose of a corporate trade show and a whole lot of southern culture.He was trying to hurry so they could get inside to watch the last hour of practice for the Sprint Cup racers, but even in a hurry, it took about 45 minutes to get through. He said they skipped a ton, but they stopped at the Sprint tent to take pictures with the Sprint Cup trophy and Miss Sprint Cup Monica Pulombo and at the Jimmie Johnson merchandise hauler (18-wheeler trailer). They also stopped at a booth where they played a game to get free seat cushions.

When the cars are on the track it is INCREDIBLY LOUD. It is absolutely necessary to have ear protection or you won't last long. Chuck had brought professional grade ear protection he bought the night before, but he also decided to rent Sprint Fanview - a little handheld interactive TV (only $50 for the full weekend) - and it was the best decision.

(Ashley's sidebar: This is what really made watching the race so much fun for me on Saturday night. You could watch and listen to the race as you would on TV at home. The best part was that you could change your camera view to any camera that was on a race car and you could listen to the communication between the driver and crew chief. That was really cool to watch, especially when they would go into the pit and you could watch the team close up running around changing tires and stuff.)

(Chuck's description of Sprint Fanview: Not only can you watch live race video, but you can scroll through 7 in-car camera views. And, you can pause or resume coverage at any time! Then, you can listen to the race broadcast, or any of the drivers' communications. You can also see crazy in-depth race data with real-time updates. Seriously, why hasn't every sport started this? Imagine how much money could be made doing this for football!)

Unfortunately, Chuck wasn't really prepared for how much the loudness and the ear protection would cause chaos because he couldn't communicate with the girls. He said it was really hard to help convince them that the ear protection would help because they couldn't hear him trying to explain. They kept wanting to fiddle with their earmuffs and Chuck was probably a little too rough, but sure enough there was a few tears at first. Once they got up to some seats right at the start finish line, things didn't get much easier. He broke out their lunches and the cooler, but the girls were not too interested in what he had. Getting them settled in their seat cushions wasn't easy and trying to wire them up to the Sprint Fanview was difficult. It wasn't long before Leland started screaming, "THERE'S JIMMIE!!!" and he realized why he was so excited to share the experience with his girls.

Chuck was surprised that the girls actually kept the headsets on for as long as they did, but eventually they got worn out sitting in the sun. After more than an hour of watching practice, Lucy took a tumble off of the grandstands and started to cry and say that she wanted to go home. Chuck was exhausted, but didn't want to go home without going out in the Midway. He scooped up all of there stuff (1 cooler, 3 backpack/shoebags, three seat cushions, and one sleeping mat which he had originally planned on using as the seat cushions) and got the girls out of the track and to someplace where they could talk. Once there, he calmed Lucy down and convinced them to go do the fun things in the Midway.

The Midway is gigantic. And it is free because it is outside of the ticketed area (at least at Richmond). We recommend you go by when NASCAR comes to your area. Each of the racers have their own merchandise hauler where you can buy souvenirs. Some even have two (and if you are the son of a legend, you get three haulers because an unfathomable amount of people are die hard fans even though you never win races). They also have all of the standard food booths you would find at a county fair. But while those options to spend money were very plentiful, they were far outnumbered by all of the free and fun stuff!

All of the major sponsors of NASCAR set up huge tents with all kinds of free giveaways. Each of the major tents had stages for driver appearances, free race simulators, interactive games, and competitions for free prizes. There were innumerable giveaways and games. They came home with so much stuff - cups, hats, t-shirts, shoe bags (backpacks), matchbox cars, lanyards, keychains, and all sorts of trinkets. Leland calls them all of her prizes that she "won" at the race.

Some of the coolest giveaways were (#1) the green screen photo opportunity in the Chevy tent were your photo is placed in a picture with your favorite Chevy driver (see us with Jimmie, Chad, and the 4 trophies above), (#2) the free Denny Hamlin Fed Ex #11 baseball caps (not the cheap kind, but ones you would pay $15 for, but they were free because Denny is from Richmond), and the free large-size bottles of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce (our favorite BBQ sauce!). With all of this free stuff, Chuck was extremely loaded down with bags and bags of stuff. He said each of the girls had their own shoebag/backpack with stuff, but he was carrying another 4 bags of paraphernalia, the sleeping mat, the 3 seat cushions they won, and the cooler loaded with drinks and ice.

(Chuck's addition: I was exhausted and looked like a pack mule walking around! Everytime I would bend over too far, the cooler would spill ice water down my back and I would quickly straighten up. I think I frightened some retired military men when I got too excited when I saw the National Air Guard tent was giving away carabiners, so I could clip some of the bags to each other. The larger tents had announcers/hosts with microphones and a few commented on me being "father of the year" and telling people to "take a look at that dad over there bringing his little girls to the race.")

Have you seen this "Design It. Enter It." commercial by Toyota?

Well, we saw that car, which was actually driven for the only time during the Richmond Nationwide Series race! Here are some pictures of the girls inside the M&M #18 (Kyle Busch's Sprint Cup car) and next to the pink #18. Even though we really don't like Kyle Busch, we love the paint scheme on the M&M's #18 and think the ads are hilarious.
A funny story about that pink car with bunnies, kittens, baby seals, hearts, and rainbows on it. Well, when we go to crowded big events, we will write our phone numbers on the girls, so in case they get lost, someone can call us. When they got home that first night, Leland says to me "We had so much fun and someone only had to call Daddy once cause we were lost!"

(Chuck's defense: Okay, it wasn't really that bad. While I was giving the Toyota people my mailing info to get the girls more free stuff, they were drawn in by Kyle Busch's pink car with the horses and cats on it that was displayed. When I turned around, after less than 30 seconds, they were gone. I started to panic as I could not find them and started making circles in an outward fashion. finally, I found them on the other side of the pink car and behind a Toyota SUV on display. They were talking to two Toyota people and one was already calling me on the phone. Evidently, Leland realized they were lost and walked up to them, stuck out her arm with my cell number written in Sharpie on it, and said, "We are lost, here is my dad's phone number." So, even if I am a poor father for losing them for less than a minute, at least I had them trained well enough to know what to do.)

They walked around the Midway for nearly 4 hours, in the heat of the day and with Chuck carrying all of that stuff. Chuck said he was so exhausted he kept trying to convince the girls to go home (he was going back on Saturday for the Sprint Cup race anyway), but the girls kept refusing. They never complained about being tired, but every once in a while, they would trip and cry for a bit, but when he would say, "Okay, maybe we should go to the car," they would cheer up really quickly. Finally, at 6:30 p.m., they went to the car to drop off all of there stuff and take a breather.

Chuck fed them some food and was hoping they would get tired and ask to go home after having spent 5 hours in the sun. Well... they were a bit tired, but as Lucy said, "Dad, I go to race, not go home." His reminder of the loud noises didn't deter them at all. So, he packed up the stuff they needed and headed into the Nationwide race - the Virginia 529 College Savings 250.

If you didn't figure it out - Chuck added quite a bit to my original post.

Lucy Luba

2010-09-18T08:44:00.013-04:00

Our Lucy started preschool this week. She absolutely LOVES it! She runs right in to her classroom and hangs her bag on her hook with out even looking back. I have to make sure I get a goodbye kiss before we are in the building or it won't even happen.

She's a whole head taller than most of the kids in her class, even though she's one of the youngest. Have you ever done those height predictors for your kids? You enter their age and height and each parent's height, then the child's adult height is predicted. I tried it out with Lucy the other day. Her predicted adult height - 6 ft. 1 in. Crazy! I need to start teaching her basketball and volleyball.

She knows all her letters and the sounds they make. She wants so bad to be able to read like her sister does. Her teachers were impressed that she knew how to spell her name and could recognize it written down. She also has mad scissors skills. She learns pretty quickly and always feels the need to keep up with her sister.

I love her excitement for life. She gets so excited about things and then her deep voice will turn to a high squeal. She's a little like her dad in that she has limited volume control to her voice and loves so talk loud. She has started going to speech again once a week, but improved a lot over the summer. She loves the fact that she goes to two schools.

She loves to play with my cell phone and type messages to people. She usually just types her name and the number 3 for her age. She also takes tons of pictures on the my camera phone. It's always interesting to look through the pictures to see what she thinks is worthwhile of a picture.

We rearranged the girls sleeping arrangements, so Lucy now has her own room. It has worked out really well. However, she is a bit of a collector. Her dresser next to her bed is usually piled high with stuff that she "needs in order to fall asleep". It's usually books, blankets, dolls, and cars piled up. She also collects rocks and sticks anytime we are outside and she always says "these are for my collection." We have had to establish a rule of only one rock per event (talk about a cheap souvenir).We love our little Lucy Luba.

Back to some Summer Fun

2010-09-13T17:46:00.007-04:00

In August, we checked out a new extension of the Children's Museum of Richmond in Short Pump. We met my Aunt Barbara there to check it out.

It was a fun miniature version of the big downtown museum. A few great things about it were 1) it was just all one big room, so I could sit in one place with Charlotte while she played and still felt like the big girls were in view and 2) the TRAIN! It was awesome and it ran every 30 mins in a small circle. You would have thought we were at Disney World the kids were so excited about it.They had great dress ups and puppets to play with, too. Saying Lucy was excited about the Spiderman costume would be a gross understatement. I think she was hyperventilating and shivering with excitement. To be honest, I have no idea where her recent Spiderman obsession came from. She also got new sunglasses this weekend and she chose Spiderman. There was no talking her out of them. They have spider webs on the lens. I'll need to take a picture, she looks hilarious in them.Charlotte loved sitting in the big throne chair (upper right). I think she feels like a big girl when she sits in a chair. It cracks me up.

Bear Creek Lake State Park

2010-09-09T15:12:00.005-04:00

On Labor day, we met some friends from Charlottesville at Bear Creek Lake State Park for a fun filled day. The park was less than an hour drive from our home.

The Crofts are friends of Chuck's from undergrad and from some reason we haven't seen them for over a year. We had so much fun with Tyler, Cecia, and their 3 boys.

We went on a short hike.

We played in the sand.

We played in the lake.

We went kayaking.

We pretty much wore our girls out.

New Territory

2010-09-08T09:27:00.005-04:00

Leland started Kindergarten yesterday. Public school is an entire world that is all new to us. Riding the bus, massive school supply lists, PTA, volunteering, eating lunch at school, and an entire 7 hours where I do not know what my little girl is doing.

It's weird. I wasn't sad or emotional. It was just this weird feeling. I was 2nd guessing all of my parenting up to this point. Have I done enough for her to be a confident, positive student? How will she handle conflict? Will she eat all of her food, so she is not hungry? If she is sad, who will comfort her?

The whole send off was so easy, because she was SO excited. She lined her backpack up with the big kids at the bus stop, and barely gave us each a kiss before darting onto the bus. She waved, climbed on the bus and didn't look back. She was all smiles!When I asked her why she chose this outfit over any of the new ones we got for school she said, "If I wear this shirt, maybe my teacher will call me Miss Sunshine all year."

All day, I kept checking my watch to make sure I wasn't going to be late to meet her at the bus stop. I started checking my watch at noon. Her bus didn't drop her off until 4:15 pm!

She survived. I survived. She had so much fun. I actually had a lot of fun, too. And to top it off, Lucy starts preschool next week. For 3 hours, 3 days a week it's just going to be Charly and I.

Maybe it will make me think I could handle another baby right now. Probably not.

Pony Pasture Picnic

2010-09-04T22:52:00.009-04:00

Last Saturday afternoon, we decided to go on a picnic at Pony Pasture, which is an area of the James River that is known as a great "beach" for Richmond. We were out running errands when we decided to do this and were totally unprepared, but had so much fun. We grabbed some food "to go" and headed over. We wanted to eat out on the rocks, but were trying to figure out how to get all three girls and all of our stuff out there.A nice man who was there with his family came over and in his broken English said, "I help you", picked up Lucy and some of our stuff and helped us out to a perfect spot. It was great and so nice of him to help us. I love that Chuck can speak Spanish in times as these, where he could really thank this man for his help.

The girls love playing in the river. They didn't seem to care that they did not have swim suits on and still had lots of fun.
Chuck and Leland went out to explore the rocks farther out.
Lucy, Charly and I hung out splashing our feet. Charly loves the water and is fearless in situations like these. She kept pulling at my hand that was around her waist, so that she could get farther into the water.

I love this city! This fabulous spot is only about 15 minutes from our house.

Bowling

2010-09-01T22:25:00.006-04:00

We took advantage of Kids Bowl Free and went twice recently. Leland really got into it and drastically improved (as much as you can using a ramp). Lucy had fun her first game, then quickly lost interest. She had more fun hanging out by the video games playing with the guns from the hunting game. Charly hates missing the action. She tried as hard as she could to pick up a ball. I let her "push" a few balls down the ramp and she would just squeal with delight.Notice how the scores improve. Lucy bowled the very first game, then the rest are Leland's scores. Her only game and she got a 97!
Can you believe the very last frame of Game 4? Leland got a spare, then with her bonus turn, a STRIKE! Leland was ecstatic!

Freaky Birds

2010-08-26T10:00:00.001-04:00

Some people know my weird fear of birds. I don't like anything about them. I don't like the sound their wings make when flying or the unpredictability of their actions (at any moment they could swoop down and peck your eyes out or poop on you). In open skies, I'm not as freaked out, but in enclosed spaces like inside a big warehouse type store or a bird show, I am not a fan. Chuck always tells me that I can not push my fears onto my children, so I agree to go to things like I'm about to tell you.

We read in the paper about a Purple Martin Roost in downtown Richmond.

In August, a flock of purple martin birds gather in a small group of trees in downtown Richmond before migrating to Brazil for the winter. They were first noticed a few years ago and now the number of birds keeps rising. The reported number of birds ranged from 4,000 to 16,000 each night. It was unbelievable! It's one of these events you have to see with your own eyes to believe. What's crazy is that they have chosen a row of about 8-10 trees in downtown close to the interstate to gather. Why in the world are these trees so attractive to these birds?

The birds gather every single night at dusk (around 8:00 p.m.) for about a month. First, they gather in the sky, circling around, until groups of a few hundred dive/swoop down into the trees. This continues until all the birds are in the trees for the night. Apparently, one night some hawks attacked the purple martins. That would have been awesome nature in progress to witness (and a few less birds in the world).

On that evening, bird experts said there were about 14,000 birds. This gathering in the sky and diving into the trees lasted about 30 minutes. The under 2 min video below shows some of the action. Be sure to watch it until the end to see how loud the birds are in the trees.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It was insane! One of the craziest phenomenons I have ever witnessed. I've had friends have a similar thing happen on a smaller scale in their neighborhood. Check out here and here.

Law School Friends

2010-08-24T22:11:00.000-04:00

A few weekends ago the Rufener's, some friends from law school, came down from DC for the weekend. Abbie is a photographer and came down to shoot a wedding. It was nice to have them at our home and take them around Richmond a bit. See, I knew the "see you soon" works, but for all of you that moved west, when are you visiting VA?

We went to Maymont. It was HOT! I love Ella's look on her face staring up at Leland. The girls all played well together. It was fun to see Ella grown up. She was under 1 when we lived by each other last.On Saturday, both Abbie and Chuck worked for most of the day. I took Scott and the girls to feed the ducks, then down to the walkway out onto the James River. We also did a quick tour of the Civil War Center at Tredegar National Park. That evening we went to delicious Bottoms Up Pizza and walked around Main Street Station waiting for the attack of the birds at 17th Street Market (more on that later).I love Main Street Station. Even before we moved to Richmond I have loved this building. Every time we drive by Leland will yell, "There's mommy's favorite station!"
Be sure to check out a museum for free on Museum Day, Saturday, Sept 25th. Find a participating museum here.

Dance Party

2010-08-23T19:21:00.000-04:00

Since the girls and I were in NC after my trip, we spent a day with the McBrides' before heading home. The girls LOVE being at their house with all the dress ups and dance parties.Lucy said "Look Mom,I'm a mean princess!" then she growls. Her sense of humor cracks me up.

The Fun

2010-08-22T00:44:00.000-04:00

While I was having fun on the West Coast, Leland and Lucy stayed with my mom and Charly stayed with Suzanne. I am so grateful for their willingness to watch our girls, so that I could enjoy my time with my girlfriends. It allowed me to enjoy my time much more because I knew the girls were having so much fun.

Suzanne said that Sarah and Charly had fun chasing each other around the house laughing and giggling. I took Suz's camera to Seattle, so I don't think she has any pictures.

My mom had a packed schedule for Leland and Lucy.

Playing at her school
Fashion show and Kid Fest at Belk department store
Swimming
Walking around the Marina
Promised Land reunion where they got to watch the entire show

I love that Leland has friends that she loves to see when at my mom's house. She adores Hannah and Emily. They are about the same age as Leland and Lucy. Emily is blind and Leland just fell in love with her during her week at my mom's at the beginning of the summer. Leland even learned how to write her name in Braille.
The girls got to each pick out a new outfit that they would then model in the fashion show. Lucy's facial expressions are hilarious. Apparently, Leland and Lucy also sang impromptu solos.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these pictures. (Disregard the fact that Lucy is in her nightgown and Leland's shirt is on backwards.)
Thank you again Mom and Suz for making sure my girls were taken care of while I was away.