Recent Happenings

 Celebrating mommy's birthday with a little competitive bowling...you can ask Kurt who won.  (Please do :)  I haven't aged out of my competitive spirit. 

 Kurt went on a field trip with Reilly's class to Charleston.  They had a great time!

 "Fanny Packs" were REQUIRED.  Unless your parent was there.  WHEW for Reilly!  The sweet boy on the left...didn't live through the 80's and has no context for understanding the awesomeness of his rockin' pack. 

 Grandpapa came down for a visit and took us all strawberry picking.  Since the kids had gone with Kurt and I a week before, the novelty had worn off, and so Grandpapa and mommy did all of the picking while they ran races down the rows of strawberries!

 We're still working on this.  But I think we're on the home stretch!

 The girls baked a cake for me on my birthday (I know, it's out of order) and I didn't even enter the kitchen.  They did a great job! 

 We spent a day at Hart Square.  A complete, pioneer village that Dr. Hart has put back together from various historic places he's been.  It is absolutely amazing. 

 The homeschool group of kids that we spent Mondays with this year, in front of a Cotton Gin (I think- hey, I'm not a student!)

 The simplicity makes me sort of want to go back in time.  Every home was amazing and unique.

 Sweet siblings.  They do love each other.

Precious Cam-o splashing in the lake in the middle of the village.

Happy Birthday Sweet Baby Dax

Today we celebrated Dax's THIRD birthday!  Wow.  Unbelievable.  Time to take a moment to list a few things that we love about our sweet boy.
1.  The way he grabs your face and pulls it to his for a smooch
2.  How he shouts at the top of his lungs from his bed for mommy or poppy to tuck him in
3.  The way his top lip pooches out when he's sleeping (I smooch it over and over!)
4.  How he snores as loud as Macy when he's tired
5.  How he loves to be "the match!!" with Reilly (clothes)
6.  The precious excitement and hugs he gives and gets every morning when his face peeks into the hallway
7.  The fact that he loves to jump.  Jumping in place, on the trampoline, but mostly off of the tallest thing he can climb up.  Sometimes he makes people nervous.
8.  How he loves everyone.  He runs to greet so many people at church with the sweetest squeezes.
9.  His precious funny faces.  He wrinkles up his nose, furrows his brow, then breaks out laughing.
10.  His love for stories.  He loves to hear any story that you want to tell.  Fiction or non.
11.  His unashamed singing.  He sings to himself and has such a happy way about him.
12.  His love for Disney's "Cars".  He adores all things Lightning McQueen and Mater.  He screamed when he opened his present.
13.  How he loves sports, namely, baseball.  He used to wear two mitts to all of Reilly's games.
14.  The way that he will sit in the corner with his cars and books and quietly play for hours.
15.  The bantering we do regularly when we say to each other over and over, "You're the best, you rock!"  He comes back with, "NO, you're the best, you rock!!"
16.  The fact that he can't pronounce the letter "L" or "R".  It's, "I WUV you."  I think I'll say that to him for the rest of his life.  It's the cutest. 
17.  How badly he wants to be a big boy.  If I call him my baby, he always corrects me and tells me, "I'm a big boy!"  I'm trying to use that in potty training...
18.  The charming way he compliments people- mommy, poppa, the kids, and even my friends at church.  I've heard many stories of how he has been stroking someone's head, then just says, "I wike your hair."
19.  The cute way he runs.  So determined, chest out in front, arms dangling behind him with that cute waddle making his hair bob.
20.  How he loves to be dressed up...by the girls in princess dresses!!  (Kurt doesn't think this is all that funny)  He's been seen in a tutu dancing in circles or riding the pink Barbie car.
21.  His love for "Deedee" his blanket.  He's always concerned to find deedee for bedtime.
22.  The most precious, priceless moments are when you're just sitting together and he snuggles up close, and with all sincerity looks right in your eyes and says, "I wike you, mommy."  

Catching Up...

We went to sing with the old folks that live in a nearby retirement home. We had a great time singing carols and playing Bingo!
Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit after Christmas- which means we really had two Christmases! Lots of fun.
Our little happy guy. Always fun to be had around him. Doesn't that face make you smile?
A day trip to Blowing Rock- what a blast. It was absolutely frigid, but we could not forgo the park. Then we had to go get ice cream at Kilwin's.
I know I'm really late posting these...but life is busy. What can I say? I hope you had a lovely Christmas.

Camdyn's Field Trip (Yes, this was last year)

So I've become a HUGE fan of sending a camera to school with my kids on days that they go on field trips. I love the pictures they bring home, and it's always amusing to see what their photo-taking tendencies are. I HIGHLY recommend doing this for the sake of precious memories and just for fantastic laughs. But first: 1) make sure you have a camera that you don't care much about. 2) get a long strap and attach around their neck (see Camdyn's above). 3) threaten them about removing that strap under any circumstances. I would also recommend that you give them a couple of suggestions before they leave- like make sure that you're in at least one picture! And, "snap away till your heart's content!!" (I love the world of digital cameras!) Isn't this a sweet pic of Cam?
I doubt that anyone captured this moment besides our animal loving Camdyn. Of course we have about a hundred pictures of the animals and only ONE of her. Oh well. Better than Shea's field trip when she took about a hundred pictures of her feet with her friends' feet! (and not ONE picture of the place they went to FOR their field trip!!)
Animal food. So glad she captured this. I was wondering what the turkeys ate.
Here is her first grade class. Great job Cam! And we still have the camera. It's probably lasted through 10 field trip days with four different children!