There is a season

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

It has been a rough couple of weeks for our family. On March 11, my grandmother, Veronica Elizabeth Cavender passed away at the age of 84. Then on March 16, Ryan's father, William Allen Knight III, died at the age of 62. In the mists of these sad events, we welcome into the world our newest nephew.

William Allen Knight V (Liam)

On the road again...

The week following the cruise, business took me to Washington DC. Since DC was our old stopping grounds and I still have friends and family there, plus the rest of my family is in Pennsylvania, I thought I would take advantage of the trip and bring Elizabeth along with me. My best friend, Crystal hosted us at her house, and she watched Elizabeth for me during the days. This really wasn't a hardship for Elizabeth since she got to play with Crystal's kids Danielle(4) and Josephine(5) all day long. Plus she got to go to the zoo with Uncle Andrew one morning.

The three amigos playing some sort of silly game that they concocted.

Once my work was done, we headed up to Pennsylvania for the weekend to visit with my family. It was a whirlwind trip, but worth every moment. We spent the night with Oma and Opa (my dad's parents). Oma is still as spry as ever and enjoyed rough and tumble activites with Elizabeth as some quiet time.

Opa and Elizabeth shared some bonding time, building pyramids and counting eggs.

The next morning, my dad and uncle met up with us for brunch. Elizabeth was less than impressed with Uncle Neil's famous omlets, but the balloons that my dad's wife brought were a huge hit. After Elizabth was finished kicking everyone's butt in sword fighting, we headed over to my mom's house for dinner. My sister and her two kids make the 7 hour treck down from New York to see us as well. I think Elizabeth favorite part of the visit to Grammy's house is that her cousin, Sam was there. He kept calling her "Hey, stranger" but they did have a good time playing with laser flashlight rings. It was a surprise to both of us the next morning when we awoke to a dusting of snow on the ground. All Elizabeth wanted to do was go outside and make snow balls. Sam since living is upstate New York has probably had his fill of snow, but agreed to go outside with Elizabeth. I went out to supervise, and froze my butt off. Luckily, the snow all melted by lunch time and Elizabeth and I pack up to head down to the airport. On our way south, we stopped by my grandmother's house (mom's mother) for a visit. She was the perfect hostess as always and made sure we were fed and entertained. She showed me be all her new pictures of the family, and lectured me on wearing a coat. Elizabeth showed her all of her treasures that she had collected at Grammy's house. This was my first trip back east since June, and I felt very lucky to catch all of my family for a quick visit and to bring Elizabeth with me. We wished we could have stayed longer, and remember you are alway welcome at our house in San Antonio.

Elizabeth is 4!

Don't believe me, well we have birthday party pictures to prove it. First, there was a party at school. That is the great thing about sharing your birthday with Valentine's Day, there is always a big to-do at school with lots of cupcakes, candy, and cards.

Then we took our cruise, which is a pretty nice way to celebrate your birthday. To top off all of that, we had a joint birthday celebration (BBQ and bouncy house) with her friend Joshua(3) and all their friends from our military playgroup. Ryan made the cake.I did some face painting. She did have a pirate eye patch also, until she wiped it off. Next big milestones... Casey turns 1 and Ryan turns 30.

Sorry to keep you waiting.

Sorry to leave our all our loyal fans hanging, you have all been waiting so patiently for a run down of cruise madness, birthday fun, and family visits. Our travels have concluded, illnesses have left the building, and finally I have a few minutes to myself and the energy to put into messing with the computer. Bear with me over the next few days and I will bring you all up to speed.

The Knight Family Vacation

This pretty much sums up our vacation.

Tired, uncooperative children, never sleeping in past 7am, hand foot and mouth disease, and the list goes on. Okay, maybe it wasn't all bad, but it was certainly memorable. We started our trip when the alarm clock sounded at 4am, and piled everyone into the car to the airport. American Airlines charges $15 to check each bag, so we decided that we could do a five day cruise with just carry on bags, so Ryan was loaded down like a pack mule, and I looked like Old Mother Hubbard with the kids. We flew to Miami to jump aboard our ship. The flight was uneventful, finding a cab driver to take us to the pier was a little trickier since we didn't bring the car seats for the 15 minute drive to the port. At least embarkation went fairly quickly, since we were all pretty frazzled after a long day of travel. Once on board, we got the girls tucked in for a nap. Their bunks were a bit tight, but they didn't seem to mind. Everything is tiny on a ship. Actually, we reserved two rooms with connecting door, and that worked out perfectly. We bolted the door to the kids room and just kept the connecting door cracked while they were sleeping. Casey's crib was wedged between the closet and the bathroom, and the girls had their own twin beds. Our rooms even had windows, so that we had some sense of night and day. After getting a nap in, we were ready to find some food. I think that is one of the main reasons people come on cruises. We were on Norwegian Cruise Lines, home of Freestyle Cruising. We took that to heart and did meals a bunch of different ways during the cruise. We had some family dinners in the main dining room, so nights we fed the girls early in the buffet line and Ryan and I (plus Casey asleep in a stroller) went to dinner on our own later, we mixed up breakfast and lunch as well with some sit down and some buffet. The buffet worked really well, until the ship instituted additional sanitation measures due to a reported outbreak of a GI virus. Here is my band of misfits practicing their modeling faces...Blue Steel while waiting for dinner to arrive. We had a day at sea before pulling into Grand Cayman. So took the girls for a swim and let them play in the kids club for a few hours. Ryan and I did some trivia and beer tasting where we walked away with 1 quart beer steins and both won t-shirts. Casey was too young for the kids club so he was a long for the ride, literally, we borrowed a little umbrella stroller and Ava push him all around the ship. We also saw a great show that night with the ship band and dance troupe. All three kids were amazed. I think it is the longest I have every seen the 3 of them sit still. Our first port of call was Grand Cayman Island. The girls have been asking for the last 6 months to go to the beach, so they were very exited to get off the ship. There isn't a deep water port on that island so we had to use tenders to get to shore. Even that didn't curb their enthusiasm. Casey was still along for the ride, his mode of transportation just changed. He switched from stroller to backpack. They had a blast on the beach, building sand castles and playing in the ocean. Even Casey got into the fun, and remembered not to eat the sand this time. However, after a few hours of fun in the sun, the youngest two were wiped out. Casey was smart to nap in the shade. I ended up with a nasty sunburn on my back. Side bar: When we got back from the beach and were hosing off the kids we noticed a rash on the kids legs and butts, and Casey seemed rather warm and crabby. We gave him some Tylenol and chalked it up to teething, sand fleas, and possible ear ache. The next day the ship stopped in Cozumel. This was my 3rd time to this island and Ryan's 2nd, so I wanted to do something other than just the beach. So I signed us up for a 7 hour shore excursion to see Tulum (Mayan ruins) on main land Mexico. By this point in the trip the girls were suffering from the cumulative effects of lack of sleep, so they were whiny, argumentative, and just plain difficult. Casey who is typically the happiest baby on the face of the earth was absolutely miserable and refusing to eat, drink, or take his pacifier. I really can't tell you a darn thing the tour guide said but here is a picture of Tulum. Tulum over looks the ocean, and all the girls wanted to do there was go to the beach, so we hiked down to try and salvage this shore excursion. Looking back on my decision making, I shouldn't have spent a ton of money on the trip to Tulum, we should have just taken a $10 cab ride to the beach in Cozumel. After our two stops, we had another day at sea. Casey was still absolutely miserable. The girls were relatively well behaved. They took a nap every day, but didn't go to bed until 10/11pm every night, and were up before 7am every morning. Plus, when we need a break from they, we could send them off to the kids club for a few hours to be entertained with movies, crafts, games, and a jungle gym. Then Ryan and I could escape for another round of beer tasting. On the last night, the ship put on another fantastic show with aerial acrobatics and some other amazing stunts. The kids were enthralled again, and I even took Elizabeth to the show twice. The flight home with three whiny, tired kids was not very enjoyable. It made you ask yourself why you every bother leaving the house in the first place. However, we survive it and I don't think we annoyed our fellow travelers too much. The day after getting home, the girls stared complaining that their mouths hurt and they didn't want to eat. When I took a look inside, their mouths were plastered with ulcers. Finally, putting two and two together. The doctor in our family came up with hand, foot, and mouth disease (rash, fever, mouth ulcers). It still didn't make it any better that Casey, who were were banking on being a perfect angel on the cruise, was a miserable mess, but at least it gave us a reasonable explanation why he didn't want to eat, drink, or be consoled. Ryan was spared, but Elizabeth, Ava, and I spent the following week miserable because our mouths hurt so much. At least I lost any weight that I might I have put on during the cruise. I don't think we are going on another family vacation anytime soon, maybe not until the kids are all over the age of 7. And as much as we love Chaos, Destruction, and Mayhem, ( I mean Elizabeth, Ava, and Casey) we are still dreaming of the day that we will take a vacation without them.

Rodent problems?

I wish we could take credit for inventing this device, but think we might steal the design. We have some squirrels that continuously tease Sam and ate holes in our American flag.

Fishcapades

Merlin II didn't make it. I found him floating upside down under the filter yesterday morning. I was a bit worried about him, since like Merlin the First, Merlin II was always hiding in the corner. I did see St. Nicholas bullying Merlin II around even though they were the same size. Well at least, Merlin II died with in the one week warranty program, and I can get a free replacement. More importantly, I am glad that my kids get along (slightly) better in our 2400 square foot house, than 3 fish in a 5 gallon tank. There is still some bullying, stealing of food, and hitting, but no one ends up missing or dead.

The end of an era

As mentioned previously, we have had a lot of birthday parties to attend this month. I think 5 was the final count. We have done rollerskating, bouncy houses, treasures hunts, cake, cake, and more cakes. I wouldn't want to forget to mention ice cream also. Between the two girls I think I counted 15 pieces of cake and 6 cups of ice cream. Our final birthday party was had a "Once a upon a time" theme. Elizabeth was quite worried that she was going to have to suffer through another princess party. But I assured her that a couple of her guy friends were going, there would be pirate ship and a treasure hunt, and that she wouldn't have to dress up like a princess. Elizabeth is still not fond of princesses but she doesn't hate them anymore. I will give all the credit to my sister-in-law, Lauren, who got her the book "The Princess Knight" for Christmas. It is about Princess Violetta who is raised by her father and three brother to joust and fight. When her father holds a jousting tournament to find a groom for his daughter. Princess Violetta enters the contest in disguise and wins, knocking all the men off their horses. She decides that none of the knights are good enough for her, she travels the lands and finally settles down with the gardener's son.Ava on the other hand had no problems with princesses, and has declared herself Pinkalicious after receiving that book from my mom this Christmas. For those of you who don't know the story, it is about a girl who turns pink (then red) from eating to many pink cupcakes, and the only way to return to flesh tone is by eating green veggies. Despite the two girls being polar oppisites there are times that they get along surprisingly well.

I know, it isn't quite as funny as Ava's robot dance.

New Addition

I was waiting to share the news with all of you until the time was right. I wasn't sure they were going to make it, but now enough time has passed that I think things are going to be alright. No, I am not pregnant, but recently, we have adopted 3 fish into our household. One of the kids Christmas presents was a fish tank. Ryan's idea, not mine. I thought we had enough responsibility with three kids and a dog without adding fish to the mix, but he said the girls would enjoy them. He was right, and fortunately they seem to be a pretty hardy group and we haven't had to have any fishy funerals (yet). Due to Ryan's work schedule, I got take the kids fish shopping. Elizabeth picked out a big blue fish which she named St. Nicholas. He is always hanging out at the top of the fish tank looking for his next meal. Ava picked a medium sized pink fish which she calls Pinky. Her fish is a super fast swimmer and never stays still. We tried to get a green fish for Casey (his assigned color), but the pet store was out of green fish, so we took home a little tiny blue and red neon fish home and named Merlin. He is the most timid and hides most of the time. I also let the girls pick out a few decorations for their fish tank. True to form, Elizabeth picked out some blue plants and a pirate skull. Ava picked some pink plants and a pagoda, which she calls a castle. Since Casey couldn't have a green fish, Elizabeth picked out green frog statue for him.The girls were fighting over who got to feed the fish, so we worked out a schedule. Ava in the morning and Elizabeth in the evening, which I think is more than we remember to feed the dog some days. The girls get a kick out of watching their fish eat and swim around their watery play land. Slowly, Ryan is winning me over that the fish tank was a good present. Update: I wrote this entry on 1/19, but hadn't published it because I was slow in uploading some pictures to go with it. Around 1/24 we noticed that Merlin had pulled a vanishing act. After a thorough search of the tank, we came to the conclusion that most likely became dinner for St. Nicholas (aka Fatty Fish). So over the weekend, the girls and I picked out a new fish for Casey. This time they had some green ones, and we chose a slightly larger fish. Merlin II is about the same size at St. Nicholas. We are hoping that Pinkie is not now at the bottom of the food chain. I will keep you updated on how everything turns out in our 5 gallon fish tank.

Social Butterfly

Where as Ava keeps a bit more to herself, Elizabeth is quite the social butterfly. If you ask Elizabeth who her friends are she will rattle off at least a dozen kids she knows from daycare and playgroups. If you ask Ava her her friends are she will respond Casey and Sissy (even though the girls fight like cats and dogs quite often). Ava still has no real inclination to widen her peer social network and can't name any of the kids in her class, but she is fond of her teachers and knows their names. However, Elizabeth has informed me that Ava has a friend named Sara. I haven't been able to confirm this rumor yet. As for Elizabeth, she has been in daycare less than a month, and she has received 5 birthday invitations. Two weeks ago it was roller skating with Mandy. This past weekend was a bouncy house place for Ignacio's party, as well as party for Rylee (Ryan's stepbrother's daughter). Next weekend is filled with parties on both Saturday and Sunday again. Lets not to forget to mention that Elizabeth has her own birthday party coming up in less than a month. I don't think I can stand anymore cake, but the girls are still going strong. The girls think home and school are pretty boring. They still get excited to go to the grocery store, but it is really a special treat for them to go to the birthday parties. I like to make the weekends fun and exciting for them, since now their weeks are relatively routine compared to when I was staying home. On a side note, Elizabeth blurted out her first bad word this weekend. At Rylee's party, her mother was running about snapping pictures. Ryan makes it a point not to smile for pictures, and wasn't about to cave for his sister-in-law, Cyndy. Cyndy's response to his pouty face was, "Smile dammit," which Elizabeth promptly parroted. Cyndy was a ahgast and promtly apologized and gave Elizabeth a lesson on language. Ryan and I were still too busy laughing. Check back next week for more birthday antics. I think Elizabeth needs to survive another princess party, but at least this one involves a bouncy castle and a treasure hunt...much cooler than a tea party. Ava is all about princesses and the colors pink and purple, so she is really looking forward to it. Elizabeth can't quite understand why some girls aren't as excited as she is about pirates and Spiderman.

2024 Olympics: Here we come!

Okay probably not, but Elizabeth did have a good time putting on her gymnastics show. Which is a good thing, because I was pretty worried about her. She didn't have gymnastics class for over a month because of the holidays. Plus, since starting daycare she has had some separation anxiety, and spent 20 minutes of her first gymnastics of the new year crying/sulking, even though I was watching her on the other side of a glass window. Ava on the other hand has not had some of the same fears as Elizabeth and absolutely loves gymnastics and her big sister. She can't wait to turn three and sign up for gymnastics with Elizabeth. Ava being a bit impatient couldn't wait for the summer and put on her leotard in order to sneak into Elizabeth's gymnastics show. It worked for a bit. She was able to participate in the activities on the big red mat, but I did have to corral her for the individual routines. She still probably ended up in many other families' pictures, because I was trying to take pictures myself and entertain Casey.

For the show, the whole family (minus Ryan due to work) got to come into the gym area and participate in some group activities plus watch Elizabeth perform her individual routines. Her routines were a bit rough since she has had such a long break from classes. Plus plenty of distractions with 16 wild kids and all their families in the room. Listening and good manners were hanging on by a loose thread. The instructors were spotting heavily to ensure no one got hurt and trying to encourage the kids to do at least a couple of the skills that they have been working on the last 16 weeks. You have to give the parents their money's worth.

Elizabeth loves the bar and could swing from it all day. The balance beam is a favorite also. Not for walking on, but for jumping off of it. She made it through all of her routines and got a medal at the end of class for a job well done. (Note the Spiderman hands!)

The most important thing is that she had a good class, mostly because Ava was in the room with her and the two of them tumbled around like a couple of little puppies. The next session starts up in two weeks, and even though Ava won't be there to join her. I am hoping she will get back into it like before, because she will be in a class with two of her friends.

Roller Mania

The girls are adjusting to daycare. Elizabeth still cries every morning when I drop her off, but she is making friends. On the other hand, Ava's teachers told me they were worried that Ava wasn't playing with the other kids. I told them that is just who she is. Ava marches to the beat of her own drum. Elizabeth's new best friend, Mandy, invited us to her 4th birthday party held at a local roller rink. This was the 1st time the girls got up on skates and for Ava it didn't last for more than about 3 minutes, but Elizabeth got the hang of it and had a blast hanging out with her new friend Mandy (girl in green in the videos). In fact, both girls proclaimed that it was the best birthday party ever. Ava had a blast dancing, and Casey was mesmerized by the Disco ball. Included are three videos for those of you who have the ability and inclination to further investigate our adventures at the roller rink.

The first is of Elizabeth getting the hang of her roller skates.

The second is of Ava getting her groove on. I think she went the Milo Knight School of Dance. This is a much watch video. Absolutely hilarious! (or maybe that is just her mother's opinion)

The third is of Casey chasing after the disco ball lights. I think these are the first action shots of Casey crawling that I have posted. He is really zipping along now.

Happy New Year!

Greetings to all, as you can see we are ringing in the love this year. The kids promise me that there will be no more fighting, whining, or crying.

Their resolution was broken about 10 minutes into the new year, but it was a nice idea anyway.

Roommate

Lucky for me my college roommate and best friend has a brother that lives in Austin, TX (about an hour up the road). I got to see her when I was in Washington DC for job training, and again when she was in TX visiting family. What a great holiday treat! Crystal and I have been best friends for the last 11 years, and we were fortunate enough to spend the last 4 years living nearby in DC. During that time our families grew closer together also. Her two girls, Joey (5) and Dani (3 1/2), are close enough in age that it made for fun social gatherings. It has been 8 months since the kids have gotten together, and it was so great to see them form even stronger bonds because they are a bit older and can play better together. I think Crystal and I will do our parts to help encourage their friendship. I am not sure where Casey will fall into this whole mess, but hopefully the four girls don't cause any permanent physical or physiological damage. P.S. Ava started the whole no shirt thing. I pray that won't continue into her teenage years.

Santa Claus

Thank you family and friends for helping make the kids' Christmas wonderful. They are blessed with so many grandparents, great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends that there is always a plethora of good things under the tree. There is nothing like the wide eyes and bright grin on a child's face Christmas morning. Obviously, they had you all fooled, because they probably didn't deserve anything other than coal this year. There are definitely some rough days trying to keep up with 3 kids under the age of 4. Christmas week was no exception when all three kids came down sick. Thank goodness for Tylenol, Motrin, and cough syrup...and lots of it. We were able to get them a point of medicated bliss, so that they could actually enjoy the holiday.

Ava looking a little out of it, but trust me, the see-saw is one of her favorite toys. She doesn't even like to let her sister use it.

This will probably be our last mellow Christmas. Elizabeth is now at an age where she gets pretty stoked about Christmas.

Another masterpiece!

She starts her list early in the year, and loves the whole concept of Santa Claus. She was the one who called out with glee upon seeing scooters, motorcycles, presents, and a picnic table under the tree on Christmas morning. At least, she remains grateful and wants to call Santa and thank him for all the great presents. (I told her she has to write him a letter.) Ryan even heard her and Ava a few days later chanting "thank you Santa" while riding their see-saw. Next year Ava will be three and we think Christmas will be a flurry of wrapping paper and screams as Captain Destructo really gets into the action.

Despite their illness, there was still some holiday cheer. My little mermaids checked out their stocking stuffer, color changing tablets for the bath tub.

Elizabeth is still a fan of pirates. With costumes, ships, and action figures for Christmas, what more could a girl want. Casey even got into the action. He thought the fish tank was pretty cool. Actually just to bow which he kept yanking off and eating.Ava's favorite gift was pink and purple underwear. I can now say with some confidence that she is potty trained. We have been working on it for the last month and a half, and I think she finally has it. She is just so pleased with herself to be wearing undies now. That and pink glitter shoes. Happy New Year!