Fun with Photos

Let me introduce you to my beautiful friend Christi.

Not only is Christi beautiful, but she is sweet, talented, extremely smart, well spoken and an absolute delight to be around.  Actually that explains all my best girlfriends (you girls know who you are) but we'll focus on Christi for now.  Let's add to all her great attributes the word PATIENT.  Since Sarah & I are loving this photography thing we are avidly seeking fantastic places for photo shoots (which we found yesterday-YIPPEE)  as well as willing subjects to play all our modeling reindeer games.  

Sarah & I kind of figured out quickly that we are not the best models (okay I'm not the best model---Sarah is a doll!)  I've decided I much prefer being behind the camera- thank you. 

So here are a few of my favorites from our little outing with Christi at our fabulous new location.  Thanks for being such a trooper Christi!! 

Christi & her sweet hubby Josh

What I learned on vacation

Our vacation was absolutely blissful!  The beach was beautiful, the house we stayed in was adorable and most of all I thoroughly enjoyed the time with my family.  I learned something very important as well. Okay maybe I already knew this but..............WE HAVE TOO MUCH STUFF!! 

Here is a picture of our basement playroom on any given day.   Looks like a Toys R' Us war zone.

 When we went on vacation I packed not one toy or even a book for that matter.  We didn't have space in the car and I didn't want to worry about keeping up with all of it on the trip.  Of course there was the beach to keep the kiddos occupied and they spent most of their days with a shovel & pail (we did buy them a few beach toys) digging in the sand.  However in the evenings and time away from the beach there was not much in the house in the way of toys.  So what did these poor children do??  Amazingly they occupied themselves with the 3 items that were available to entertain them.  Those were a pack of Old Maid cards, a pack of Go Fish cards and the Sunday comics.

Some family before us had left the Go Fish & Old Maid cards (thank you nice family).  The kids LOVED these games.  They wanted to play everyday.  They would laugh & jump up and down when the Old Maid card got passed from them to one of us.  They were thrilled to play Go Fish and Nana was usually their patient and willing opponent.


They read the same Sunday comics over and over again for a week.  They even had them memorized and started "reading" them for themselves.  Snoopy was a big favorite as well as Blondie.  In the latter one Dagwood kept getting the boot out of his boss' office and that made the boys crack up laughing every time they read it.

When we got home I realized how much time, effort and energy I spend just keeping up with stuff.   My day is spent either tripping over "the stuff", trying to organize "the stuff" or yelling at my kids to clean up "the stuff."  I don't spend time reading the Sunday comics with them or playing Go Fish because my time must be taken with "the stuff."  Sad isn't it!  It was a real eye opener for me.  So begins my quest for getting rid of a lot of "stuff."  I know for certain if we cut down on the toys, the DVDs, my own endless knick knack collection and so many other things that our family life will be immeasurably enhanced.  I'll let ya know how it goes but I do know this-------getting rid of stuff is always a difficult task but our trip taught me that all the things that we think we NEED are truly only clutter that gets in the way of what's important.

Field Trip

Today was very overcast and calling for showers so we thought we'd take a break from the beach and head into downtown Charleston for a fun excursion.  We had decided to take the boys to the Children's Museum of the Lowcountry.

What a neat place this turned out to be!  It had perfect activities for the ages the boys are.  There was a water area where they could play and float boats,

a pirate ship where they could dress up as pirates and look for treasure,

a garden to tend to and water

a huge toddler play area

  and a really cool kids grocery store where they could do their "grocery shopping."

We spent the better part of the morning at the Children's Museum and then headed out for lunch.  Paul and I wanted to take a walk down memory lane so we had lunch at a restaurant called Sticky Fingers.  It's a local BBQ place where our rehearsal dinner was held.  It was neat to be able to tell the boys about why this place was special to Mommy & Daddy.

After lunch we took a short walk down the street to the Mills House Hotel.  Paul and I had our wedding reception here.  The little couch we are all sitting on is one where we had some wedding pictures taken.  I'd post that one but I don't have them on this computer.  Oh well, I'll save wedding pics for another post.

It truly was a fantastic day!  Now back to the beach for more fun in the sand tomorrow.

Happiness is......a beach vacation

YIPPEE!  We finally got to Charleston on Friday and the boys have been thoroughly enjoying the beach ever since.  They spend hours just digging and playing in the sand.   I am happy just sitting, reading and relaxing!  What a great way to spend a vacation.  I'm thinking we'll be making this a yearly event.  I have forgotten how much I enjoy the beach.  The sound of the waves,  the sand between your toes and the beautiful sunsets.  We are looking forward to a fantastic week away.  Here's some of the fun things we've been doing so far.

                   Looking for seashells

Lots of digging in the sand & splashing in the water

                                                         

Walks along the beach with Nana

and plenty of relaxing!

Ahhh-Ice Cream

Well, here is proof that Spring has officially arrived.  Last evening right around dinnertime we heard the bells ringing and the happy music playing. You guessed it- the pied piper for all children- the ice cream truck was driving down our street.   Ahh yes, sugared happiness delivered right to your doorstep.  Fortunately the kids had already eaten dinner and even more fortunate Paul had just arrived home so he could buy.  I never have cash on me and I'm pretty sure the ice cream vendor doesn't take AMEX. 

 So the kiddos made their selections.

Josh and Connor chose the same thing.  No surprise!  What little boy wouldn't LOVE this?!

Spider Man even had gumball eyes except Connor didn't like them so Mommy got to eat them.  Frozen gum is very interesting. 

We didn't forget about Luke.  He got his own treat.  No crazy super heroes here- just straight up chocolate.  YUM!

Here's the boys in all their sticky glory.

Bye Bye ice cream truck.  We'll see you again soon!!

Tim's 40th Birthday Celebration

Today our sweet Tim would have been 40.  We wanted to have a celebration of his life and the beautiful gift he gave us all by knowing him.  There were plenty of tears but also a lot of fun and wonderful remembrances of him.  We miss him so much and not a day goes by that we don't think of him and long for just one more bear hug from him.  Although our hearts are sad we know that Tim is having the most fantastic birthday celebration ever in heaven!  I mean who wouldn't want to spend their birthday walking streets of gold in the most magnificent place you could ever imagine.  I'm pretty sure that God knows how to throw the very best party.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM!!

A friend of Janey's from work made this beautiful cake to celebrate Tim's special day.



Janey & Dave had been wanting to repot some of the plants that were given by friends and family for Tim's home going service so the boys helped.  Anything that involves dirt is exciting for them.

The boys went for a ride in Uncle Tim's mustang.  When they got back Josh said he saw the most incredible thing he's ever seen- it was the sunset.  He said "Mommy I wish you had been there to take a picture, it was soooo beautiful." 

We sang Happy Birthday to Tim and ate some yummy cake.  Josh said we all had to look up when we sang Happy Birthday because Tim was up in heaven.  That made me and Janey cry our way through the song.

 At the end of the evening the boys all got to release balloons up to heaven for Tim.  The wind was blowing just right and the balloons floated their way right up through the sky and for sure Tim was able to grab them from heaven.

Bunny Cake

Yesterday we celebrated Daddy & Nana's birthday together.  To add in some springtime Easter flavor we decorated a Bunny cake for them.  My Mom used to make this cake at Easter and we always loved helping to decorate it.  Thanks for the great idea Mom!  It was so much fun.  The boys mainly enjoyed eating all the candy as we were putting it on the cake just like when I was a kid.  It turned out pretty spectacular and yummy too.

                                                HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA & DADDY!!