What a great mini vacation...

Well, we are home from our little get away to the mountains.  Clothes are washing, Emma & Evan are napping, Justin is working and instead of napping like I'd like to be doing...I am going to update the blog!  If any of you are looking for a quick little trip I HIGHLY recommend going to Blowing Rock, NC and the Tweetsie Railroad.  We had such a good time.  This was the neatest...cleanest little town I've seen in a long time.  There were tons of little shops and parks and all kinds of things.  The Tweetsie Railroad was a great time too!  I can't believe I'd never heard of this place.  I was looking through my pictures trying to decide which ones to post and I have over 120 pictures but I won't share them all.  So, we arrived about 9:00 Friday night.  I thought nothing could be worse than traveling on the interstate until we started up the mountain to our cabin!  Winding mountain roads aren't my favorite but I REALLY don't like ones that are only big enough for one car.  Thank God we never met another car.  I really would have had a panic attack.  The cabin we rented was tucked away in a gated community up on top of a mountain.  It was perfect though.  It was a two bedroom two bathroom house...with an upstairs...so you can imagine what Emma & Evan did the majority of the time we were at the house!  So, Saturday we headed to the Tweetsie Railroad.  We rode the chair lift, the small train into Mouse's Mine, fed deer, goats, and lots of other animals, watch a magician, ate lunch, watch cloggers (& it brought back lots of memories), watched some of the dog show, and ended our trip with a ride on the Tweetsie Railroad.  No one informed me that on this ride...they stop a couple times for a Western shootout and a gun fight with the Indians!  Thankfully Evan was ok with it.  Emma will still say...Momma I scared of the Indians.  It was a lot of fun though.  We did grab a funnel cake before we headed out.  Then, we went by the outlets stores for a little shopping and back into blowing rock to walk around for a bit.  Like I mentioned before...there were tons of neat little stores down there.  After walking around for a while...we got some ice cream and headed over to Blowing Rock Memorial Park.  This park was located right across the street from the shops.  Evan tried to climb the rock wall.  He didn't get very far with that though.  Then, they both headed over to the play ground to play.  It was a very family friendly place.  There were families playing basketball and swinging and walking their pets.  It was just neat.  Can you tell I like it??  Then it was time to head back to the house for supper.  Matt & Justin grilled us up some charcoal burgers.  I love a charcoal grill.  After supper...we watched a little TV and headed to bed.  Sunday we loaded up stopped in Gaffney at Cracker Barrel for lunch and made it home by 2:30.  Katie had to get home to go to a baby shower at 3:00.  Too bad we didn't get to do any shopping in Gaffney.  Maybe next time.  Overall...it was a fun time.  Like I said...if you are looking for a little weekend getaway...try Blowing Rock and the Tweetsie Railroad!! :)

We are here!

Group shot with our shades on!

Evan got a gun so he could shot the Indians or ininans as Emma calls them!

       

Us riding the chairlift!

And on the little train...Mouse Mine!

            

Here go into the mine and the show you watch while inside!

Then on to Deer Park...we have our food (& gun) ready for these deer!

                

                

Evan had a blast feeding the deer, goats, donkey's, miniature horses, llamas....etc.

                   

Watching these girls clog bought back such fun memories!  I miss being a Dixie Delight Clogger!  :)

                        

Waiting for the dog show to start and the pool where they dogs did tricks!

Then it was time for the Tweetsie Railroad experience!

And we were off!

One of the shootouts!

Here came the Indians!

A quick little picture while Daddy went to get our Funnel Cake!

And it was YUMMY!!!

And a family shot before we headed home on Sunday!

Reid comes home...or to MaMa's!!

Well...I am all packed for the weekend and my two are napping so I thought I'd update the blog before we left!  Since Reid decided to enter this world a month early...his house is still under construction!  They hopefully will be done completely by Sunday and will be able to start moving stuff back in by Monday afternoon!  That's the plan anyway!!  So, for the time being Reid, Alison, & Nick are staying at MaMa & PaPa's!  They didn't get to come home until today because little Reid's jaundice levels were high and he had to stay under the lights for way too long.  It was pitiful watching him just lay there and bake and not be able to pick him up.  Thankfully he won't remember that sad time but his aunt Marcie will.  So, here are our coming home pictures!!

My dad made a sign just like this when we brought Emma & Evan to their house for the first time only it just said Welcome to PaPa's house.  My mom added MaMa's to it though before we got there.  So...it's become a tradition with our family.  Little Laney had a sign and now Baby Reid has a sign.  

My wreath may get some use after all.  It never made it to the hospital...but that's okay too!

Momma and her sweet newborn! 

Daddy and his sweet little fella!

And another momma with her sweet pea!  She slept through the whole coming home!  

One more of Reid...he slept through most of the coming home too!

And of course...we had to take some pictures together.  Laney looks so much bigger than Reid to only be about 4 pounds bigger.  How cute are these two???  I am a little partial though...since they are my niece and nephew!  

Sweet Baby Reid

Sweet little Laney!

Laney saying...I'm here!

Look how tiny he is!

And all the Reid girls with their babies! Seems like mine were just the small yesterday!  

So, everyone is home and doing good!  We are loving these sweet little ones!  

Happy Friday!!  

An Unexpected Surprise...

As most of you know...little Reid made his grand appearance on Monday...exactly one month before his due date! When my phone rang at 5:00 Monday morning and I saw it was my mom...my first reaction was, "what's wrong with daddy?" Alison and baby Reid never entered my mind! However they were at the hospital. Alison had started hurting at 11:00 Sunday night! I'd seen her just a few hours earlier and she was fine! So anyway...she was having contractions and they gave her medicine to slow them down but since she was 35 weeks they weren't stopping the process! About 8:30 I headed on to the hospital...I wasn't doing anything productive at work anyway! They checked her again at 9:00 and she was 4 cm. At 11:00 she was 6-7cm. She was moving right along and we knew that baby would be here shortly! At 1:45 she was 9.5 cm and they planned to start pushing at 2:30. Little did we know that would be the longest toughest four hours we'd ever witness! Granted we were in the hall...but we could hear everything going on! Even I was starting to get mad at them for telling her she had to keep going! I don't see how she did what she did for as long as she did it! Everyone in that room said they'd never seen anyone work as hard as she did! She gets a true trooper award! So, he was born at 6:28 weighing 5 lbs. 14oz. and is absolutely perfect! He looks just like what I'd imagined he'd look like! Dark skin and a head full of dark hair! Him & sweet little Laney could be twins! Our family is so blessed to have welcomed two healthy happy babies in less than two months! Oh how the Reid clan is growing!! So, here are a few pictures of our sweet little fella! Aunt Marcie loves him to pieces!

A quick picture during the waiting game!!

He's here!!  Alison hates this picture but I love it!  Isn't he precious???  He was brand new here!!

And now he's all clean and his skin is getting it's color!

Look at all that hair!  You can tell here how little he is!  The preemie diaper looks huge! 

Aunt Katie found him some preemie outfits!

Such a sweet little face!

And one picture with his proud momma and proud aunt Marcie!

All I can say is that God is still in the miracle working business.  You can't witness the birth of a child and not believe in miracles!  Welcome to the world sweet little Reid!!  We love you!!

Just a little treatsie...or Tweetsie should I say...

I know my title is corny but it's cute!  Can you guess where we are going next weekend??  That's right...we're going to the Tweetsie Railroad!  Have you ever heard of it??  I hadn't!  But we found us a neat little cabin in Boone, NC to rent for the weekend and it's right near the Tweetsie Railroad theme park.  I think it will be a great place to take Emma & Evan. They have amusement rides, a chair lift you ride up to miner's mountain where you pan for gold, deer park zoo, and of course a train you get to ride.  They even have restaurants and a funnel cake factory!  The Saturday that we will be there they will have a dog show...which Evan will LOVE!! They also have live shows but since they are western shows and probably will have guns...I don't see us watching that!  There is a lot more to do according to the map on their website...but I will go into detail more once we've been!  I'm excited!  But as for this weekend...we just hung around Greenwood and did a lot of celebrating!  Saturday night we celebrated Baby Laney one more time with Matt & Katie's friends.  They had a couple baby shower and dinner at Jason & Elizabeth's.  Then, today...we celebrated Baby Reid again.  We hosted a shower for Alison and Baby Reid at Katie's house.  Life is going to be so dull now that all these parties are over!!  Who am I kidding...life with two newborns is never dull!  Trust me...I know!! :)  I didn't take a single picture of either event.  Well...I did at Alison's shower but they were with her camera!  We decorated with gray & blue because those are the colors she's using in Reid's room.  I did buy her some blocks to decorate with and I do have a picture of those.

Next time...I will just make these myself and save a lot of money! I did make her a wreath for her door as well...but I don't have a picture of it.  And of course I have a picture of all the burp cloths I made Alison. 

How cute are theses?  

Too bad I didn't have this monogram machine when my kiddos were babies!!  So, I know you are wondering how the home improvement projects are going??  Well...the kitchen floor is FINALLY finished.  Grouting all that tile took us forever.  Well...it went a lot faster once Matt showed us a better way of doing it!  Doesn't the finished product look great??

Now...we just have to get our shoe molding back down.  I have come up with a project I am going to tackle.  I wanted a old cabinet in my kitchen that I could distress or antique the colors I am wanting it.  So...I found what I think will work at a local store...Granny Said Keep It.  I am not a fan of this place because it just mainly just junk...but I'm going to try my hand at being super crafty!  I'm not sure when I'll attempt this but you might see pictures if it turns out like I hope it will!  Emma & Evan's new bedding for their toddler rooms has been ordered and that change will be taking place once it gets here!  And...Evan has used the potty one more time since my last post and he did that at school!  So, he knows how to do this...he just doesn't want too.  We are still working on it though.  Emma is still doing great!  Well...that was our weekend!  Hope yours was great!  Have a good week and come back for a Tweetsie update!

Saturday Fun!

This post is going to be short and sweet!  I am one tired momma!  We have been going since 8:00 this morning.  Let me first share a picture of my princess and knight from last night!

They had such a good time.  They painted fingernails (for the girls), has races down the halls, ate supper, make a princess hat & a shield, watched a movie and had popcorn & pretzels.  That was as much as they told me about anyway!  We had a good time out by ourselves too.  We went out for supper and then to the BBQ festival with Katie & Matt.  I finally got my funnel cake!  Today we headed back out there with E&E.  It was SO HOT!!!  We got there about 10:45 and walked around for a little while.  We got us some BBQ and then headed home.  It wasn't worth it to me to stay out there in that heat.  Plus, my little pale skinned children were getting red!  So, we headed home for what was hopefully going to be an early nap time.  We had planned to grout the floors while they slept.  Well...neither of them went to sleep.  So, after about an hour...we decided to go ahead and play outside.  Here are the few pictures I took of the afternoon!

              

 Slip & slide fun!!  

  

And some more fun!  Emma thought Evan needed a push!

          

They love the water gun swords they got from Friday night!  Even the big boy joined in playing with them.  Evan thought it was fun to squirt Daddy until Daddy fought back!

We had eaten supper and had baths by 7:15 and they were both OUT by 7:30.  So...they were tired!  That was out fun Saturday!  Hope yours was great!!