Feedback please!!!

I'm trying to get some info for Christmas. Carter wants a gameboy... no problem, it's in the works. However, I do have 2 boys that fight over everything. We are leaving this morning to go on vacation to Pigeon Forge for a few days. So I asked a friend of mine if I could borrow her Vsmile Pocket for the boys, primarily Carter, to use for the ride up there. Carter doesn't care much about watching movies, but he loves our V-smile that hooks up to the tv, so i thought that would be a good entertainer for him when he's bored with movies. Well, Chandler wants to play it too and they've fought over it. So I asked Chandler what he wants for Christmas & he says one of those... meaning the Pocket system. The problem is, I've read horrible reviews about this thing. We have about 8 games already for the v-smile, so it would be wise to get something I can already use games with without having to invest even more in Gameboy games. Rather than buying two of the same thing, I figured that they could trade off... one use the Gameboy and the other the v-smile. I just don't know what to do.

So I need your help...
If any of you have or know someone who has the V-Smile Pocket, please comment & let me know how it works for them.

I've read very good and very bad and a lot in the middle. I need a swing vote from actual people, not people I don't know who have commented on random sites.

Where is your promised land?

My friend Heather came and spoke at the Women of Faith night for the YMCA last Thursday. Props to her, but mainly God for using her to touch so many women... particularly me. I so needed to hear what she had to say. One thing that has stuck with me most is this. She talked about what our "promised land" is. Yes, as a Christian, our goal is to live our life so that we can reach the ultimate Promised Land. However, where are living in until we reach our final promised land? Right now, I'm living in the land of fighting siblings, bad attitudes, homework, squirmy baby, constant house work and cleaning. I often feel overwhelmed and tired and I just don't want to deal with the present. But I'm also living in the land of a sweet baby and loving boys, lots of hugs and kisses and teaching my children. I need to learn to be happy with what I have NOW...not focus on the "could have's" and "wish I had's." Sometimes I get so frustrated and angry and what I'M going through. It's all about me, me, me and what makes ME happy. I'm not looking at the bigger picture and seeing what I am doing to shape my family. That's what really grasped me that night. What am I teaching my children about the real Promised Land and how to get there? What kind of example am I being for them? Sometimes, it's not a great one. Ooooo... that hurts. All I need to do is go to God... pray... it's that simple. So, I just need to deal with it. This is what God has given me now... good or bad, frustrating or fun...live in the moment and share God's love with the people who I am closest to.

Siggy

**see mine in my new page header***
This is the coolest thing I've been excited about in a while. A friend of mine introduced me to "siggys"... I had never heard of them, but she emailed me hers and I had to have one.

Isn't that the cutest thing ever! Ah...I want another one with a Christmas theme. I got mine from here

How cute are they!!

I must admit, I'm a little prejudice...my kids are the cutest in the world! (At least in my book) These are the pictures that I made for Halloween. I think they turned out so well.


These pictures are some from Kensley's 1 year pics.

A bunch of loons

My boys are crazy. They are constantly making up stuff...noises, faces, acting silly, laughing... ya know, being kids. Kensley is taking right after them. She cracks us up all of the time. She is very vocal and gets her point across even though she's only 13 months old. I've told you about her eating habits before... how much she likes to eat. Her new thing the past couple of days is when she's ready to eat, she puts her hand to her open mouth and makes the "ah-bah" sound over and over until you acknowledge what she wants. It's so funny! It's almost like she's saying give me some food to put into my mouth... NOW!

She's getting a little better with standing, but on her terms only. I've tried over and over to coax her into it so I can get a picture, but it doesn't work out very well. Here's one picture I got, but the quality is bad. It's good enough to see her expression which is so cute. She's so proud of herself when she does it.

On a different subject, Corby is home... YAY! We are all so glad he returned safely.

Happy Birthday to You!

Today is my honey's birthday. He's in Jacksonville, FL at a conference, so babe if you are reading my blog today... here's a shout out for you... uh-hmm
Happy birthday to you
you live in a zoo
you look like a monkey
aaaaaaaannnnd you smell like one too.

hee, hee! (birthday song from the movie Madagascar.... it fits him well... JK)

Standing up

Well, Kensley turned 13 months old today. I want to hold on to the line "she just turned 1" but I'm a month out now, so I guess I'll revert back to the month age system again. She hit another milestone today... she's stood up on her own. We were laying on the air mattress in the floor at my parents house & she was off & on for a while until she decided she wanted to stand up. She would stand up, keep her balance for a few seconds, then drop to her butt. Once we clapped and "yayed" a few times, she would try to do it even faster and fall even faster but laughed every time. The longest she stood was probably 20 to 30 seconds. I know that's not much, but she's that much closer to walking now... and I'm not looking forward to that. It's so cute when they do walk, but then the baby is gone... they are officially toddlers then. I'm trying to hold on to my "baby" as long as I can since she's my last. Of course as soon as I left to go get the camera, she quit doing it.

All the kids have the "crud". We had a jinx last year that every time we went to my parents house one of them would get sick. I know it's just bad timing, but it all came out Saturday morning when Chandler woke up with the barking cough, Kensley had a green crusted nose and red, runny eyes and Carter sneezed all day. I really hope we don't start that again this year. It's really not my parents house, because I know they've picked up whatever bug they have before we get there, it just always seems to hit them after we get there.

We are waiting for Corby to come home. He's been in Jacksonville, FL since Thursday (that's why we went away for the weekend) at a First Tee conference. The boys ask everyday, "how many more days til Daddy gets home?" We will all be very happy to see him on Tuesday.