Off to Kindergarten

Well, I knew this day was fast approaching and I really tried to mentally prepare myself for it, but sure enough this Mommy shed quite a few tears while dropping Joshua off at his 1st day of Kindergarten.

He was more than ready though and very excited about starting this "big boy" adventure.  He was so cute dressed in his school uniform and carrying his Iron Man backpack and lunch box. 

I was so thrilled that Paul was able to be there too!  This Daddy is VERY proud of his boys and happy to be able to walk Josh into school on his first day.

I even let someone else take a picture or two!

Josh's good friend Avery is in his class.  She was also just too adorable in her uniform.  Sarah had curled her hair & put it up.  Absolutely precious!

& then just like that----he was off. 

  

Have a great 1st day Josh!  We love you so much and pray for God's richest blessings to you in these school days ahead.

Happy 4th Birthday Connor!

It certainly doesn't seem like four years have passed since we welcomed this handsome little guy to our family.  He has grown & changed so much yet in many ways has stayed the same.  Connor entered the world quite loudly with some very dramatic cries---

and even now can still be quite dramatic.  His father claims that he gets that from me & I guess I have to agree.  I can be a bit dramatic myself at times.   So Connor knows that he has his Mommy's heart in the palm of his hand & could get me to do most anything for him.  He's our very determined, very independent, and very energetic precious middle son.  We are blessed beyond belief by him and his 2 brothers, Joshua & Luke.  

Happy 4th Birthday Connor!  You are a blessing to us all!!

Dad's Day

Happy Father's Day!

What can you say about such a terrific Dad?  

He is always patient & kind.

He is so much fun!

He always has time to read another bedtime story, 

or wrestle,

or give a ride on his shoulders.

Paul is the best Daddy in the world!!  


But it's no coincidence that he is.  The Lord blessed him with an incredible example.

& my sweet Daddy showed me exactly what to look for in a man who would be a great husband & father.

Thank you to all the Dads in our family who have given so much.  The legacy you leave is so powerful and will touch generations as yet unseen. 

Happy Father's Day!!

  

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!