Completely up to date...

Shon I hope this catches you up on what has been happening around here...I know we talk about things in emails but it's great to put pics with them....I am wishing you a safe return we will be there waiting for you on the Pier...YEAH!!!!

Everyone else I am wishing you a happy wonderful new year...

I know we are looking at a whole new world with shon retiring from the Navy in the summer we are looking at where the civilian world will be putting us...either staying here or moving...we will be putting alot of stuff in gods hands....Hugs to you all From The Reynolds and I hope to stay more up to date with this since it was way too much work today catching up....LOL I have learned a smart lesson....

Activities while at Great Wolf Lodge

The kids were never lacking for something to do from riding waterslides, to magic quest, shopping, playing in the arcade...getting a manicure, flow rider training, to just having plain fun the kids wore themselves out each and everyday....

Chritsmas day

Christmas day brought lots of excitement....as they just couldn't sleep we finally all were up at 5:30 a.m. after waking the last one...which surprisingly was Pation....they all dug into their stockings and then their presents...all were satisified what santa chose to bring them...then it was off to the waterpark again for more fun.....Later on that night we had brought some gingerbread cookies and decorated them for dessert....

Christmas Eve at Great Wolf Lodge.... 2008

Oh no do we have a repeat from last year???that little stinker..always trying to sneak a peek at santa meanwhile jamisyn couldn't hold on any longer long day in the water park...



























We decided back in June when we found out shon was deploying yet again and would be gone












For his second christmas in a row...I really didn't want to travel to michigan on my own in the snow...so I booked Dec. 24th-dec. 26th at Great Wolf Lodge...which happens to just be a 45 min. drive for us up to Williamsburg, Va. Yeah so not alot of work on my part...yeah right I had to get really creative to make this a very special holiday for my kids...here is the kid cabin suite we stayed in that had a fireplace and a special place for 3 of the youngest to sleep...we also brought some decorations and made the place feel very christmas like we would at home...in all I think it all worked out great...I made my homemade caramel corn, brought some hot chocolate and marshmallows and candy canes and they had that as a treat after story time on christmas eve. before going to bed...This really was a special time for us all and so far they are really enjoying themselves....they even got snow this christmas INSIDE!!! after story time they were singing christmas songs and they made fake snow the kids loved it since we don't see it very often unless we leave the state....

christmas is coming.....

So christmas came upon us and we had alot of activities planned for this time...we first started by decorating some ornaments so that we had family and friends on our tree while we were away for christmas this year....we then took the time to take a christmas photo...they decided to do a pj shot with antlers on...LOL they are such a hoot......took quite a few shots to get a good one they were being so silly and laughing sooooo much...we then went to the oceanfront to watch the christmas parade for the first time...which is pretty funny since we have lived here almost 10 years....oh well they had a good time and it was cute to see their reactions...there was a sign on one of the stores which I have posted and the kids couldn't stop laughing...well soon christmas will be upon us and we all hope we have been good enough for santa to visit us....

Holiday programs....

The kids have been very active this year trying it all..Karlee is still in the Academy at Salem high school for Drama/Theatre and is loving every aspect of it especially getting on stage and doing stage makeup....Mackenzie is still in chorus and enjoys it very much, mae did Debate earlier in the year (sorry about no pics) and now is in academic challenge on which she was on the salem team when she was in 6th grade...this has been a great year for them all so far and here are a few of the pics and videos from around december..Enjoy

Abigayl having surgery....

Well this was an experience in it's self....I have never had any of my children go through a surgery let alone doing it by myself....but we were faced with abigayl having her Tonsils/adnoids removed since she was having such reoccuring bouts of Strep....(in the end she had it the last 3 times in 9 weeks...) so while going through this we had also decided to see a different eye specialist as the one we had been seeing for the past two years wasn't really getting us any results...so she went and had numerous tests done on her eyes and they concluded it was time for her to go through her first eye surgery..so in all she had a double eye surgery and tonsils/adnoids removed...Luckily she had her surgery performed at CHKD and I was really releived about that.....she went in and in all it took about 1 1/2 hours...I was on pins and needles the whole time but she came out of it just fine...the first night was rough and the week after she wasn't happy about the eye drops that had to be placed in each eye 4 times per day FUN FUN!!! so now we are thankful she has that behind her and she will go back in January for follow ups to see how things are progressing but I can say so far we have not had any strep...YEAH!!!! just her lovely asthma has decided to poke its ugly head and cause issues this winter....we are thankful for the doctors who performed the surgery that it all turned out as good as it did and for god watching over us all...this was as hard on shon as it was me as he was out to sea but I was able to send him pics via my blackberry and email him updates...THANK GOODNESS for technology....