check out my new blog

No more slow uploading, its about time for a new blog. I've moved....

http://hookfamilync2.blogspot.com/

this post is dedicated to my friend judith who always reminds when i'm behind on my blogging. its nice to be missed jude!

so i have lots of catching up to do, she's right. i think i'm going to start a new blog though. early on i never posted my photos as small files so it takes forever to load.

the new one will solve that problem.

so Jude to answer your facebook questions. no sophia is not getting a puppy for her birthday, mainly because she battles with me constantly about feeding the dog she already has! plus jack has made a girlfriend 2 doors down and is back to his old normal self. i think he was just in a funk this winter!

oh and school, she's not loving it all that much.she's already on her first 3 week vacation though so we'll see how she does when it starts back up. she didn't mind switching schools at all, i just don't think she likes first grade! big change from kindergarten!

one things for sure she is such a little sponge. she is reading chapter books and amazing us everyday! Yesterday she read some sign to me, one of the words was policy, she said it perfect. so I asked her how do you know the word policy? She said well I looked at it and it looks like police but it has a Y which sounds like an E. OOoohhh! Thank you Mrs King. K teacher!

Logann is reading too I did a little test on her gosh I wish I could remember the name of it Amy. I'll look it up, anyway it is a test to see how many 1st grade words she knows. It is broken down into words she should know coming in through words she should know when she leaves. Logann knew about 75% of the words already! that kind of scares me.

okay enough bragging about my kids, they are pretty smart, must be the Hook genes.

here are a couple photos I took tonight at the park, it was 92 and humid at 7pm but we HAD to get out of the house. my children are so hyper lately and the fighting urgh! Give me back my non-speaking babies!

Sophia fell in love with my new pettiskirt for my photography clients. I may buy her one for her birthday she looked so cute in it!

i hate shopping

today is my last day childless (during the day at least). i took full advantage of it by going to panera and having breakfast with the paper and the sunshine! so relaxing!
then i went over to kohl's because sophia overnight grew out of all her clothes! she still only wants to wear dresses but the ones in her closet don't even reach her mid-thigh today! how does this happen?
having lots of time on my hands i was browsing around for me too. it got depressing though when i realized i shouldn't be shopping in the juniors section anymore. the shorts are just too short and the pants are too skinny. the shirts are made for busty teeny bops dieting on the hormone additive foods of today. right? that has to explain why all these teenage girls have such big boobs. we didn't have those girls when i went to school. it has to be the food?
anyway i buzzed through the juniors section and reluctantly headed to the misses (is that what its called?).shopping amongst the other old, frumpy, not so skinny ladies i started getting bummed out and realized i hate shopping! i wasn't in the mood to try anything on anyway so i just bought some earrings and left the store brainstorming ideas of how i can back into my short shorts oh yeah and later i'll begin researching what foods i need to eat to get those big teenage boobs. any suggestions?

kissing

tonight sophia and i went over to my friend kelly's house for dinner. she has two adorable boys Nolan almost 6 and Jonah 3. While we were there Nolan came downstairs complaining that Sophia said she wouldn't share the jellybeans unless he kissed her on the lips!!!!
What??? She is only 5. I see a scary future ahead of us.

love this one

Sophia doesn't really like having her photo taken. Yesterday I twisted her arm and finally got one I just love. I blogged it on my photography blog so here's the link.
Do you like it better in B&W or color?
http://mycreativeclicksphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-girl.html

A Day of Fun

Sophia and I had the best day Saturday! I let her plan the day. We started by going to Petsmart to watch the dogs in doggie daycare play. She is insistent that we get a new puppy for her birthday, so that seemed to help her puppy fix for the time being. She allowed me to run into Kohls for some sandals and then was able to convince me to buy her yet another stuffed animal. Because even though she has 400 animals, she doesn't have a lizard!! Leo the lizard has been with us the whole weekend!

Next we went to Michaels because they were having craft day. She got to stencil and decorate a tote bag, very cool! The funniest thing was when we were walking out of the store she said "mom thanks that was so much fun, and you know what best of all mom, it was free, not expensive! She knows me too well.

We had lunch at one of her favorite places and then headed to the NC State Museum of Natural Sciences. We learned lots of interesting things about all the animals of NC, plus we got to pet a real alligator.



Interesting Gator Facts:
i couldn't believe that this alligator was 5 yrs old. the lady explained it like the goldfish theory. an alligator in a small pond will only grow as big as his pond!
oh yeah and they still don't know after 5 yrs if its a male or female gator. when they get bigger their neck changes to indicate. females have larger necks, weird
female gators build a nest in the spring for her eggs. NC gators lay between 40-50 eggs every other year
all those eggs will be either be male or female babies. because alligators don't have X,Y chromosomes the sex is determined by the temperature of the nest. so she'll hatch 50 boys or 50 girls.


sophia couldn't get enough of it i think she wanted to take him/her home


outside the museum someone was selling mininature horse rides. it was so cute but after watching the horse do one run in the heat i told sophia it was cruel. and i didn't want us hurting the horse. poor thing!



we found this cute cupcake shoppe nearby because Sophia's favorite food is cupcakes. so yummy!


when we got home we went to the pool for our daily swim with friends. just before bed she begged to do the dishes, ok! of course they still had to make their way into the dishwasher after her wash but she had fun
.

Our Week Alone

Last Wed. John took Logann to NY for the week to visit family and t0 run his annual Boilermaker 15K race in his hometown. Because Sophia started school last week she and I stayed home. We were both really looking forward to this week. We never get to do anything just the two of us.
The first couple days were a little rough the first 3 days of our week she was in school. She didn't like that too much but I must admit it was ok for me. Having the whole day to do whatever I wanted was unbelievable. The first day I did a whole lot of nothing, I couldn't figure out what to do! I think I was too excited. So I just sat home listening to the silence, it was plesant.
The next couple days I did stuff though I'm not sure what it was. I haven't been very productive, had a bunch of to do lists going that haven't been touched. I did a little shopping, went out to lunch with a friend, worked on my Photography, took Jackson for walks. Its been nice. And man the evenings are so much easier with only one child. You can accomplish anything with one kid!

First Grade

Sophia starts first grade today. She's going to a new school this year, a year round school hence the July start! She is very excited suprisingly. So funny how ready she was for school to be over but lately she's been counting down the days til 1st grade! Her teacher is really sweet, she's been teaching 1st grade for 23 years!
Yesterday we went and got some new school clothes. She wanted to dress like she was 16 already! I had to veto many outfits. We finally agreed on this one. She still looks almost 16 to me. Look how much she's changed in less than a year


July 2009

Aug 2008

Our Fourth

We had a wonderful Fourth of July this year. In the morning John ran a 5K right near our house with his friend Peter and his daughter. Afterward Peter and his family came over for a BBQ at our pool.
Later that night we met back up at a local park/ampitheatre. We had a delicious picnic dinner while listening to the Cary symphony before the fireworks started.
It was such a fun, relaxing night, even with my loathing of crowds! the girls were entertained with their friends, the weather was cool for here and best of all the girls loved the fireworks. last year they were crying and taking cover.


Fourth of July Fido


us and a few other people hanging out on the lawn

5 girls!

check out those legs behind me, EEK!

a night on the town

a couple weeks ago, yes i am such a delayed blogger now, john had an idea to go to downtown raleigh for dinner. raleigh for those of you that don't know has such a dead downtown, i've really never even been there. we went to a funky place more of an adult place for dinner but the girls were great. we then walked around a bit which the girls enjoyed. we ended the night at the raleigh little theater and rose garden. someone was having a dress rehearsal for their wedding so while they practiced the girls ran around the rows and rows of roses, it was a very cool place. on our way out the girls treated john and i to a "show" on the outdoor stage.

yes i must admit i have thing for the the backs of people. i love the one at the end that has chopped off their head,it was intentional, but it speaks doesn't it? you may have to click on it to enlarge it, i hate how you can't post big pictures on blogger! the downside of free blogging

the girls were mesmerized by the big buildings. i think this was the first time they had seen such tall buildings. sophia stepped out of the car and went WOW look at those tall buildings they are in the clouds!

relaxation

on a whim john decided that we needed a bar for our screened in deck. he went out to lowe's one day and came home wanting not only a bar but all new furniture. i went back to help him coordinate it all, you know make sure it matched! so here are some pics of our new stuff. we absolutely love it and spend just about every night out here drinking wine, talking. we turn on our funky little lights, have with our candles going too, (we were inspired by Rob and Jude's nightly candle lighting ritual in Holland) we listen to our water fountain and all the crickets. Its so peaceful!

what you can't see is that the fern is resting on top of a wine cooler that keeps are wine/beer at arms reach, yes the Ironman has become that lazy!

my reading chairs, yeah right when i start reading again i may use them!

our deck is an L shape, this bistro set is on the other of the reading chairs. the kids were suppose to eat here but they never do. it fills up the space at least

the water fountain, best purchase

Play on

I redid the girls playroom awhile ago but for the longest time you couldn't see the floor with all the toys everywhere. After a recent cleaning I remembered to take photos. the playroom is now downstairs right off the kitchen. I originally had it upstairs because we have an extra guest room and thought if the playroom was downstairs they would drag all the toys out to the kitchen/living room. But having them upstairs didn't really stop them. they just dragged them out and down the stairs then we would have to carry it all back up! that got old.







still need to put up sophia's photos on the other side! love these michaels pink matted frames!




sophia and logann took art classes in the fall so we have so much to display, they also get good use out of these gaming chairs while they watch TV in here.





a few years ago they created these beautiful canvas pieces



we love our magnetic boards from ikea (thanks Grandma Hook) Logann is learning so many words

i just love these curtains they tie all the colors together so well. i'm emabarassed to admit i got them at walmart though : ) i do hate shopping there but sometimes you find something that makes it worthwhile.

The Battles

never in my life did i imagine that the constant fighting would startat such a young age. where did my sweet sisters go?the two little girls that are living and battling in my house are giving me such a headache! i hate this part most about parenting.
THANK GOD 1st GRADE starts Tuesday here!!! woo hoo to year round schooling.
yes that means i get to go back to entertaining logann all day but i actually think its easier than being a referee.

Father's Day

We had a really nice father's day this year. Our friends left early in the morning to head back to Phoenix. We were so busy while they were here that all 4 of us were content just to chill and relax all day. We made John breakfast, relaxed and went swimming. Then all 4 of us took a long nap. And cooked out for dinner. It was a perfect, uneventful day!



john taking a break

logann working on her suntan. the girls always say they don't want sunscreen because they are working on their tan!


yes that is sophia jumping in the pool with john


sophia has started putting her head underwater and jumping in. i never thought we would see the day. i don't really think she likes it but she sure is proud of herself. she has made huge strides this year. logann is still as always the fish, john is working to perfect her stroke and already has her aiming for the olympics or the local swim teams for the time being.

Froggy Bye-Bye

I gave it my best, I really tried to salvage these little frogs as pets. but food became an issue. I went to Petsmart to buy live crickets but they were too big! Then we went on a bug search and found tiny little bugs to feed them but by the time we made it back home the bugs had escaped our bag? The frog food pellets began molding from the wet mud in the house. So I made an executive decision and I let them go in our backyard. I really didn't want to watch them die or watch them bang themselves into the sides of their house any longer. The girls were sad but really only for about 2 mins.
So we now have a $20 moldy frog house, $5 frog food, and discussions of a new pet, a bunny! No thank you!

Frog Blog

Our friends Laura and Patrick are visiting this week from Phoenix. The kids are in their glory with all the fun things we've been doing. I think their favorite was our frog hunt. Laura and Patrick helped them catch 5 baby frogs in the greenway trail attached to our neighborhood. This was a first for them as catching frogs and bugs is something I would never do with them! Yuck!
3 of the frogs made an escape the first night so we are down to 2. Yesterday we went out and got them a frog house and bought some frog/tadpole pellet food which they don't seem to be eating. We've read you're suppose to feed them live bugs, crickets, etc. But finding crickets smaller than the frogs has been a challenge.
Any ideas, I'm feeling their death is coming soon : (

big frog, little frog

the tiny frog looks so small in Logann's little hand