The Wisdom of a 4 year old

Sophia: Mom, did you know that Jesus lived on the earth when he was little? Did you know he lived with Mary and Joseph?

Mom: Yes, I did know that. Did you know that he obeyed his parents too when he was a kid?

Sophia: Not really Mom. There was that one time that they told him to come but he stayed at the temple. See he didn't do what he was told and he is Jesus.

Priceless

This video is priceless to our family as you see the joy and excitement that Gracie had over It's A Small World . . . it might be a bit long (about 2mins) but for those of you who love my Gracie . . . I think you will enjoy it on video as much as we did live.

Tagged

Okay, since it is Monday and I have been tagged, I will participate in TAGGED . . . so here goes . . .

7 things I plan to do before I die
1) Skydive, parasail, hang glide, etc etc
2) Travel foreign countries with kids / without kids/ with spouse / without spouse whatever it takes
3) Take many mission trips
4) See my children come to know Jesus, fall in love, get married, and have children of their own (that I will proceed to spoil ROTTEN)
5) Go to the Daytona 500
6) Be debt free
7) Leave my children with great memories of their childhood

7 things I can do
1) play softball
2) throw out stuff that has no purpose any longer
3) love my husband and children with great passion
4) love teenagers
5) organize events, closets, rooms, etc
6) over think situations
7) ride roller coasters

7 things I cannot do
1) spin in circles
2) play golf
3) control my anxiety of situations not in my control (I am working on it , maybe that should be a goal for the things before I die)
4) dance cool
5) develop a routine exercise program
6) remember to take prescriptions until they are all gone
7) think of things I cannot do

7 things that attract me to my spouse
1) His quirkiness
2) His drive
3) His cuteness
4) His inner ornery boy
5) His laugh
6) His smile
7) His love for Jesus, me and our kids!!!!!

7 things I say most often
1) Stop tormenting your sister.
2) Stop screaming for no reason.
3) Grace Elizabeth come back her with your naked booty!
4) Times up! (this applies to many situations - computer time, time out time, I am waiting for you and you keep telling me one minute and it is making me crazy time)
5) Tarter sauce!
6) For real?
7) Are you stinkin' kidding me?

7 celebrity crushes (aw come on a girl has to have some crushes . . . but I still love MY man!)
1) Johnny Depp
2) Kasey Kahne
3) Orlando Bloom
4) Noah Wylie (I think that is his name - Dr Carter from ER)

7 people who I think should do this
I think everyone I would have asked has already been tagged in the BlogWorld. I am way last on getting this done. So here is just a universal tag for anyone that needs something to blog about on this Monday!

Fav Foto Friday

It is an oldie but still one of my favs. This is Dawson at about 20 months. This was a talent he executed quite often. Isn't he adorable?

Where does she come up with this stuff?

Sophia is our deep thinker. We are always having people tell us she is a four year old with an adult mind. She just really really thinks about things, and then asks the most thought provoking questions. She is famous for getting into deep conversations with adults, and then when she grows tired of them, she just cuts them off with some random other thought she has. This morning is a fine example of how her little brain can bounce all over the place.

As she is eating her breakfast, she lets me know that some kid at school believes that God is invisible. And how that isn't right since God is in Heaven and very visible. I try to explain to her that maybe her friend meant that since God was with us and we couldn't actually see Him that was what her friend meant by invisible. She just argued that God can't be invisible because he is real and no one can really be invisible. She loves to argue about what is real and pretend. This conversation went on for awhile and involved other deep questions such as 'When is God coming back to earth for real so that we really can see Him?'.

About 5 minutes later, she is watching the Power Rangers. Dawson being ornery says the Power Rangers aren't real. Them are fighting words. Sophia kindly explained to Dawson that the Power Rangers that she was watching on TV were indeed real, however the Power Rangers she met at Disney were not. Okay, how is that? Well, because the Power Rangers at Disney were not on the TV with their super powers, they were just people in costumes pretending. Really? So she had me wait three different times in five different lines to get autographs of people she knew were pretending? UGH!

If I have said it once, I have said it a million times . . . I am in deep trouble with this child! She is going to be the teenager who uses double negative logic on her old mom to get what she wants.

This is how Wii Roll!

Okay it is a corny line . . . but I couldn't help it! Our family has been having a great time TOGETHER with our Wii. I am cherishing this time that our kids are playing together and are encouraging one another and just having fun.

Dumb Chevy Traverse commercial

Okay, so as you are aware, Jeff and I have been watching the Olympics every night since they started. We watch until our eyes close or until Bob wishes a good night with his closing remarks. Last night, he spoke directly to us in talking about sleep deprived folks due to the Olympics. That would be us! Last night I felt even odder since I had already read the results of the uneven bars and knew what happened to Nastia, yet I stayed up long after she was done performing and watched her get her silver. I also know the results for the beam exercise tonight for Shawn and Nastia, but I will no doubt be staying up and watching them anyway.

The one thing that has driven me nuts for days now is this way dumb (dare I say the S word, STUPID) Chevy Traverse commercial. If you have watched at least one night of the Olympics, you have seen this bizarre commercial. It is of a man with big shiny white teeth and no shirt ironing while making reservations on the phone for some 6 month anniversary. The whole time he is smiling. At one point he holds up a cute little dress that he ironed. They then show the cool Chevy Traverse and how it is great for everything. Then they show this man (still shirtless) on the floor happily cleaning a toilet. EVERYTIME I see this commercial it completly distracts me and makes me wonder what its point is. And you know when you have a question you go to the world wide web for the answer. I found that many, many people found this commercial to be dumb and annoying. When looking for the meaning behind this mans actions most will agree that Chevy is trying to show us women the "perfect man" so that we will see that the Traverse is just like him and is the "perfect vehicle" for us. I am sooooo sorry but I missed that message in there. I honestly couldn't remember this morning what the name of the vehicle was. I just remembered that man's cheezy smile, ironing away in his nice clean living room with his dark jeans on that I would actually yell at my husband for cleaning a toilet in. I mean really can you say 'bleach stains'. Anyway, just venting away about how commercials have gone so far to try to reach us and make us want their product - that they have actually ended up confusing and frustrating this consumer to a point of not even caring what the commerial is for but what the commercial means. UGH!

Oh by the way, the meds the Dr gave Jeff seem to be helping some. However, it is still 4-9 days before we have official results on what might have been ailing him. Ah, sarcasm, gotta love it.

What is blog worthy today?

This weekend was just kind of a hang out and chill kind of Stahly weekend. No earth shattering stories. No side hurting tales of humorous child outbursts. Just a low key, yet busy, weekend.
Friday, we attended a surprise birthday party Friday night for a few hours, and watched the Phelp Olympics.
Saturday, we hung out around the house watching the Olympics. We attempted to get Gracie's 1 year photos taken. Yes, she is almost 15 months old. Yes, she is the fourth child. Yes, I was a bit behind getting the photos taken. She is just much much too busy to stand around and have her beautiful self photographed though. So by the time we were able to get her to stay in one place, she was worn out and just put her thumb in her mouth and sat there. Still looking cute, but with her thumb firmly stuck! We got about 5 fairly good pics out of the deal, and spent the least amount on photos I believe I have ever spent. We will try again at Christmas. After that, we bought the needed soccer gear for Sophia and Dawson for the coming fall season, ate some dinner, and headed home to again watch the Phelps Olympics.
Sunday, we lost our minds and bought our family a Wii. We have talked and talked about one. And Saturday we heard Toys R Us was getting some in Sunday morning. So after church we decided to just go see. And they had 2 left when we got there. One is now in our living room and was played for 6 hours yesterday. I will say it is a good family game system. Brandon joined us quite a bit as we played. And of course, we topped the day off with watching the Nastia/Shawn Olympics last night!
Today, my dear Jeff finally agreed to go to the doctor to see about this soreness/muscle aches, tiredness yuck that he has had since Thursday. They did chest xrays and did blood work. However, obvioulsy our town hasn't quite arrived yet because it will take 5-10 days to get the blood work back. Can it really take that long? What if something was really really wrong with him? Can we really wait 5-10 days to find out? I just am not sure I understand that. Anyway, they did give him some drugs for anything viral that might be occuring - so maybe that will help pep him up and get him back on his feet.
Okay, so my Monday ramblings are over! Not sure if I entertained anyone or not. Probably not. Just felt it my privilege to keep all my 10 readers up to date on the excitement that is our life here in the Stahly clan.

Favorite Foto Friday

It says "Baby Bottle Pop" right on it . . . so doesn't that mean it is for my baby????

PS Tell my mom I have shingles on the right side of my torso. Yes, shingles. Some old person disease. Like I wasn't already having a hard enough time with the birthday last week. Now I go and get some painful odd old person illness. UGH!

A Blog World Must

This post is probably considered a must in all Williamson County, TN homes today as our kids went BACK TO SCHOOL! This year I am doing the happy dance! My boys were ready to go back to school, and I was more than ready to send them! Next year, you will find me as the crying parent as my Sophia will go into Kindergarten. But this year, I am among those parents of older children doing the Happy Dance that today is the most wonderful day of the year!!!

This is my Fifth Grader / Big Cheese at Longview:

This is my Junior at IHS: (yes, he is giving me the poses that are probably required when a junior is asked to pose for his first day of school picture)

This is my 1 year old working hard at the job:

And Sophia is avoiding cameras today as we made yet another trip to the dentist where we came home numb and grumpy. Today we lost our bottom two teeth due to our deck dive a few weeks ago. She was not happy to have the camera in her face - so we just didn't do it. Just pray for her pain to go away and her attitude to be happy again. :-)

Final Disney Info

Okay, I am sure four posts on our trip are plenty. You have all realized by now what a great time we had and how we all really want to go back, and make it a bit longer this time, and in a bit cooler time frame. To really close out the posts about our trip, I wanted to pass along tips for any of you out there planning a disney vacaction . . . remember these are just my opinion, and if you choose to use them, you are also accepting that I am merely a flawed human and you might not agree with me. :-)

FastPass for rides is a must. Anyone can use this. You use your park ticket to get passes that tell you to come back to a certain ride after a time later in the day. They don't tell you this, but they don't expire. So if your time says 2:30-3:30 - it basically means anytime after 2:30. You just walk up to the FastPass line, and very soon you are on the ride. It worked great for us since we had Gracie with us. We could get FastPasses and then split into two groups to ride the rides. And the rides that Sophia couldn't ride on, we used her FastPass to let one of the boys ride twice.

Dining Plan is great! This is part of the package you can get when you stay at the Disney Resorts (which I also recommend). The Disney Plan was for everyone in our party over 3 and gave us a quick meal, a sit down meal, and a snack for each day we were at the resort. It was great just for the simple fact that you didn't have to see the bill and whip out a bunch of cash to pay for burgers/chicken/fries which can run about $60-70 for us at Disney. I didn't keep all my receipts or keep track of our expenses - but others have and said cost wise it is less expensive to do the meal plan. Just doing estimates on what we spent - 60-70 for quick lunch, 100-140 for dinner - I'd say it was worth it. Our favorite places were Tony's in Magic Kingdom and Sci Fi Dinner Theater in Hollywood Studios.

PhotoPass is a rip off. There are photographers placed about the parks. The first time you have your photo taken . . . say in front of the big castle with all 6 of your family members smiling with excitement . . . they will give you a card that you can then use for all the other photographers and all parks. You can then go online and look at and share your photos. However, if you want to purchase them to actually have in your home, plan on cancelling your next vacation to buy the photos from this one. I did not have anyone take a photo of all 6 of us except for this photographers so I did have to suck it up and buy them online after our vaca was over. I would just recommend finding those nice people in the parks who will take a photo of your family on your camera.

Stay in the resorts if you can. We stayed at the Boardwalk resort. We were a 5-10 minute ferry ride from Epoct and Hollywood Studios. We could take the ferry to Epcot and the monorail to Magic Kingdom and be there in 20 minutes. We did have to take the bus to Animal Kingdom but it was only about 10-15 minutes. Boardwalk, Beach and Yacht, and Swan and Dolphin are all very centrally located amongst the resorts. I think this helped us alot. I have heard staying over by Downtown Disney can make for longer rides to places. The valet parked our car Saturday when we got there and didn't see it until Friday when we left.

A warning . . . those commercials on TV that talk about how affordable Disney is are made for families of four. Once you get over that number you are into suites and villas and things get a little pricier. Just a warning - don't be fooled by the ads if you are a larger family. :-)

My last bit of "advice" would be go now! For so many years we put this trip off. And we thought about waiting another year. But we are so glad we did it this year! You will always find a too young or too old child excuse. But you know what they really do make the "magic" at all ages. We had such a great time as a family and I was reminded of each of my children's amazing qualities that I love. While Sophia and Grace might not have their own memories of it, Jeff, the boys and I can tell them stories for years of all the great times we had while we were there. It really was a "priceless" vacation for us and I highly suggest you go for it!

And here ends the recount of the Stahly summer adventures in Destin and Orlando.

Stop Two-Disney-Brandons View

Some were shocked to hear that our 16 year old son was actually choosing to go on vacation with us. For one, who lets their 16 year old choose if he wants to go on vacation? (my parents actually but that is another story). And secondly, why would I dare leave my 16 year old home alone? Actually it was never a question. Because deep down in places that Brandon won't always admit to . . . he likes us , alot! And he wanted to go on vacation with us. And he wanted to go to the beach and Disney!

Brandon's first visit to Disney World Florida occured in 1996 when he was four. He went with his grandparents and his dad. We lived in Nebraska at the time so they flew from there. While in Florida, Brandon broke out with the chicken pox. And not just a little, a lot! In his mouth, ears, eye lids, everywhere! Since Brandon had already had the chicken pox, we weren't initially sure that was what it was. His grandma took him to the Dr in Florida to confirm. And it was. Once they did this, the Dr said Brandon would not be allowed to fly home until he cleared him. So Brandon's first trip to Disney lasted about 5 days longer than anyone intended. However, he did still get to see the mouse and have some fun. Here is a picture of cute adorable four year old Brandon, his chicken pox, Mickey Mouse, and his Grandma Carr.

I asked Brandon what his favorite part about Disney was "Tie between Rockin Roller Coaster and Everest". I actually agree with him. They both were great rides! Rockin Roller Coaster took you from 0 to 60 in like 2 seconds. And it was in the dark with black lights and crazy grafitti stuff. It was way cool. Everest was face paced and unexpected (the first time you rode it - not so much the 2nd or 3rd time).

Brandon also served as family photographer on this trip. Brandon has always like snapping photos. And usually they are scenery pictures. Which explains why we had almost 650 photos of our vacation. And 25 photos of Lights, Motor, Action. And at least 10 photos of each parks landscape. And 15 photos of the Epcot Fireworks. The boy took him some scenery pictures. I did get him in a photo with his siblings every once in awhile. And I did make him take pictures of things other than scenery - such as his siblings and the Power Rangers!

When I asked Brandon what he thought of vacation, he said "it was rushed". I agree with him again. I think I would do a 6 or 7 day park hopper to be able to do it all yet a little more relaxed. I know you can pick and choose and do it all in a few days but we really liked doing everything. And it would have been nice to have more pool time or resort time to hang out.

If you wonder if your 16 year old can still enjoy Disney . . . I think Brandon would tell you they can! And really, I only have a few years left before he is an adult and he will have his own stuff going on. I really like taking my oldest baby places with me! He is a great kid!

Stop Two-Disney- Dawson's View

Dawson could not wait to get to Disney. He was the one counting the days, and asking how much longer it would be. He knew the fun in store at the home of the big mouse. And did that boy ever make the most of his time in Orlando!!!

Dawson has always, always enjoyed going on rides. When we went to California when he was four, he would get down right angry when he wasn't tall enough to ride on a ride. There were rides that 10 year old Brandon wouldn't get on that Dawson was determined to find a way on to. Anything that child could ride in California, he did. Well, in Disney, this brave 10 year old was tall enough to ride everything, and ride them he did. From park opening to park closing. When you stay at a Disney Resort, they have this great thing called Extra Magic Hours. This means that one park each opens 1 hour early, and 1 park stays open 3 hours later. Magic Kingdom already stays open until 11pm, so late hours for that park was 2am. And Dawson and Daddy did it. They were at Magic Kingdom from before 10am until 2am in the morning on our first day at Disney. They rode every ride that park had to offer. And some more than once. The night Epcot stayed open late, Dawson made the most of it by getting that one last ride on Test Track. While Brandon and I would sit with the girls exhausted, Dawson would drag Jeff from one ride to another making sure to get the most out of Disney.

When I asked Dawson what his favorite part was he of course said all the rides. "I loved the roller coasters, Tower of Terror, Everest, Haunted Massion, just all of them". Like I said he did it all. Dawson also enjoyed watching Gracie dance through "Its A Small World". He liked the Lego place in Downtown Disney and got him a big Lego set to bring home.

Dawson's second favorite part of being in Disney was turkey legs. That's right. My son is a turkey leg addict. Nothing like watching your kid tear into a big ole turkey leg. He even had one around midnight the night he and Jeff stayed late at Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, I never got a photo of him munching away on the goodness that is the turkey leg. He would constantly be on the look out for the vendor that would sell him his turkey leg of the day. (By the way, turkey legs are not part of the Disney Dining Plan . . . they are $6.95 for each leg you buy!)

We call Dawson Monkey Boy. The child is always sitting like a monkey, he climbs on things like a monkey, he is just a monkey. Anytime we had the chance to take a photo of him and a monkey, we did. I think he really does look like the monkeys from barrel of monkeys.

Dawson says my closing remark for him should be "I miss the turkey legs!"

Stop Two - Disney - Sophia's Viewpoint

The days leading up to our vacation, Sophia was constantly asking questions about Disney, Florida, where they were, what they were, etc. She couldn't quite grasp the concept of sleeping in a condo, she didn't quite get what a "Florida" was. She is our little analyzer of the bunch, and was just having a hard time getting it all to fit in the boxes of her mind.
We knew she would have no interest in any of the princesses, or breakfast with them, or seeing them. They just were not even on her radar. Yet, when we talked about Mickey, she wasn't quite sure that she cared to meet him either. (WHAT, is she nuts? Mama loves that mouse, how could she not?). But when we got to Hollywood Studios and ran across these five famous folks . . . Sophia loved Florida and knew why she had come . . .
Sophia will tell you that the Power Rangers were her favorite thing about our whole trip. She got all five of their autographs, and posed for pictures with them all. The Blue one was her favorite and she was happy to wait in line for him for 15 minutes. We had to make three trips back to the Power Ranger area in Hollywood to get all five photos and autographs. But it was worth it for the fact that it is her favorite part of vacation.

Sophia's second favorite part was "all those rides". If her little 40inch person could get on it, the child was on it. She didn't care if words like Terror or Big Thunder were in their names, she wanted to ride it. And when she wasn't quite big enough, she would be sad for a moment but then off looking for the ride she could get on. During some of the rides, she would say they were scary or she didn't like them. But when we asked her after, she would always say how great it was and ask if we could do it again. One such ride would be Sophia's favorite - the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom. The first time on it she screamed, she covered her eyes, she tried to crawl under my shirt . . . did not like it during the whole ride. Afterwards when Daddy asked her how it was . . . scary, but I liked it. She went on that ride 2 more times that day. Loved it!
Sophia would end each day the same way. She would crawl into bed and turn the TV on. There was this show on that repeated on this channel over and over again. It was the 7 greatest attractions at the Disney Resorts. It basically went through every park and picked something great out of it. But it was the same show over and over and over again. And every night Sophia would turn it on and watch it. By the end of the week, she could point out things that were on the show and tell us facts about it.
Sophia did end up getting quite a few other autographs and photos on the trip . . . but never a princess . . . and not even the mouse (of course to get to the mouse required standing in a line for at least 45 minutes). This morning on the way to school she asked if we could go back to Disney, and I told her that we would when she was older . . . she responded with "well I am three days older now than the last time we were there". Ah, if only we could go back already!

Stop Two-Disney - From Grace's viewpoint

Okay, obviously I can not interview my very sweet adorable 14 month old to tell you what she liked most about her time in Orlando in the land of the big mouse. I am thinking that I know her pretty well and can tell you what she enjoyed most about being without her regular schedule for 11 days. She was a trooper I can tell you that. If you have a 1 year old and are wondering if you should make the journey, I say go for it. Unless your 1 year old is cranky and unmanageable on a normal basis, then I might say no. But my go with the flow gal did amazing.

When she was tired she slept, when she was thirsty she would reach for the closest container (oh yes, my baby got Coke, Dr Pepper, Sprite, anything within reach), and when there was music . . . she would dance. Oh how this child loves to get her groove on. At home she can shake it with any of the Disney or Nick theme songs - she prefers Sponge Bob and Wizards of Waverly Place. I mean this child will leave what she is doing to run to the living room to shake it to either of these shows. It is HYSTERICAL!

I digress . . .

Grace would tell you that her number one favorite thing in all the parks was It's A Small World. While that may seem cliche, let me tell you this child would perk up the second the ride started. She would dance, she would sing, she would talk to the characters . . . it was precious. She rode the ride at least 4 times . . . maybe 5. And each time it was a new discovery for her. The rest of us just sat and watched her and laughed and smiled like we hadn't ever smiled before. To get my 10 and 16 year old boys to sit on that ride two times in a row, you know it was a special time.

Grace's next favorite things would probably be the goats in Animal Kingdom. Oh yes, the goats. She loves textures, especially fur and feathers. She had no fear of these animals. She walked right up to them and started talking to them. She laid her head down on them. She even kissed one on its side (ewwww . . . I know . . . I washed her well on the way out). Grace and the goats definitely bonded.

I would have to say that Grace had a great time in the land of the mouse. She never actually saw the mouse, or had her picture with him. But she was able to enjoy all the mouse had there for her. She showed us all the magic of Disney.

Stop One - Just Me and My China Friends

Okay, so I am sure you all missed me sooo much and can't wait to hear where I have been. Well, even if you haven't and weren't, I am back from 11 glorious days of vacation with my amazing super family. Really, they are pretty great, and it is pretty cool that after 11 days with just us - we still like each other, we really do. :-)

While we were on the road, we were unable to get a good wireless connection. I kept thinking that we would have it at Disney - but they filed me for free Wi-Fi. They wanted me to pay $10 for 24 hours of service. Are you kidding? They had Wi-Fi in our resort . . . by the pool . . . which I didn't really want to go to at midnight which was the only time I really had to connect. So with all that said, I am bringing you my post that should have been posted last Saturday, July 26th after we had spent 3 awesome days with Sophia's China Friends. Here is the post that would have been posted . . .and then tomorrow we will begin the recap of our meeting with the mouse (or lack of meeting . .. we really should call it the Its a Small Power Ranger World vacation . . . but that is for another time) . . .

Stop One on Stahly Tour 08 was Destin, FL where we met up with 4 other families that we traveled to China with in 2005. We are trying to get our girls together at least every other year so that they can have that special connection that we all feel. There really is not a way to describe the connection you feel with the people that are there with you when you receive your sweet baby girl. It is like having all these families in the delivery room with you experiencing every emotion that you are having. We have all traveled the same journey to come to that same place where we are blessed with a new family member forever.
The last three days have been filled with catching up, laughing, eating, swimming, and playing. The girls seem to feel the same connection we as adults feel as they all just act like sisters and just love on each other from the minute they meet up. It was amazing to watch and a blessing to experience as they all just seemed to know each other. Sophia really enjoyed the time she got to spend with her “China Friends”, as well as their brothers.
The beach was beautiful and the kids loved it. We could have named the experience “Jelly Fishing Fun”. Everyday the purple flag was out to indicate marine life present. We could stand at the edge of the water and just watch the jelly fish come up to shore. Most of the boys that were on the trip got stung at least once. Dawson, Brandon, and I all got to experience the sting of the jelly fish for the Stahly clan. It was painful at first, and then just annoying later.
Gracie loved the ocean. She seemed to love the feeling of the sand between the toes and the water splashing up on her. She would just stand there and laugh, and then try to run out further into the ocean.