New Year= New Things....Part #2

Well, last week was a busy one!  I can't believe how quickly time seems to be passing these days!  We had some beautiful spring like weather this week and I loved it!!  We got outside and played several days in a row and E&E thoroughly enjoyed being outside.  After weeks of what seems like being cooped up inside...the fresh air was nice!! I took a couple pictures one afternoon while they were playing.  They have become much more dare devilish in the past few months...and I am not sure this momma like that!  The like to slide down the slide head first now.  They also like to swing higher, climb up on the trampoline by themselves, and even stand on their bike handlebars and figure out how they can climb over the fence.  Yeah...there is no taking our eyes off them these days!!  

Making sand castles!

                     

Emma sliding down head first!!  This was before she got a mouth full of sand!

            

And Evan of course wanted to do this too!!

Friday afternoon, E&E spent the night with the Babb's and Justin and I went on a date!!  It has been a while since we have been out without Emma & Evan!  We dropped them off about 6:30.  Katie had a night full of activities ready for them.  They made pizza's for supper and even a chocolate chip pizza for dessert.  They also made play dough and of course sweet Laney watched the whole time.  They went to bed about 10:00 and it didn't go to well after that!  They went to sleep fine but it wasn't anytime Evan woke up crying saying his legs hurt and wanted him momma!  His legs hurt him lots of nights and I can remember mine doing the same thing when I was little.  Once Katie got him settled down...Emma woke up.  Once she got Emma settled down, Laney woke up.  So, Katie & Matt didn't get much sleep!  So, I told them we would keep Laney for them sometime soon and let them have a date night. 

Here they are with their packed suitcases and backpacks!!  I know...they were only going for one night but I had to make sure they had everything they needed a little more in case Katie & Matt needed extra entertainment!!  Emma & Evan had a great time with Aunt Katie!!  Then, this morning...we headed back to get them about 8:30 because Justin and Evan were heading to the Clemson basketball game!!  Katie even cooked us breakfast this morning!!  Once Justin and Evan left, us girls headed out to do a little shopping.  Then, me & Emma went to a little girl's birthday party in her class at school at Jumping Jax.  Emma had a great time and from the stories Justin has told...Evan had a great day too!!  Justin said he did well even being as tired as he was.  He went to be early tonight!!  Here is the one picture Justin sent me while they were there!!  

Evan looks like such a big boy here!! 

So, we have had an exciting weekend so far!  As for the new year=new things part 2...I have signed Justin and Emma up for the Father/Daughter dance in 96 on Feb. 7th!!  Emma had told me twice now that she wants to wear her pretty dress and go dancing.  She is going to love this night!!  We are hoping to get her into dance in the fall!!  Or maybe gymnastics.  She will be great at either!!  We are debating on whether or not to sign Evan up for T-ball next month!!  We were all excited until we found out all the games are on Saturday morning the whole months of April and May.  Justin is a HUGE fan of turkey hunting and Saturdays in April are always spent hunting.  He might just have to put hunting on hold for a while.  :)  So, this week...we are heading to the circus on Wednesday, we have Corley & Cooper's birthday parties in Spartanburg on Saturday morning and we are getting together with our 96 girls on Saturday night at KG's house.  So, this week will be a busy one too!!  Hope you all have a great week!!

A promise kept...

Well, our weekend started off with a visitor!!  I took Emma to the doctor Friday morning for her cough.  So, I went back and picked Evan after her appointment and we met Justin for lunch.  Then, we headed over to Jennifer's to pick up Laney for the afternoon.  Katie was out of town for a conference...so what a great time for us to keep this sweet girl.  She was a perfect little angel.  Emma & Evan took naps once we got home but me and Laney just hung out.  She watched me fold clothes.  We sang every song on my phone.  We played with all of her toys and once Justin came home and E&E got up from their naps...we went outside for a little bit.  She was so good and only cried one time probably about 15 minutes before Katie got to the house to pick her up and that was only because she was tired.  I went in Evan's room and rocked her and within minutes...she was out!  We had so much fun playing with her!! 

She looks like she is saying "Are you taking my picture again??" I just love this sweet girl!!

I can't wait until I get to take her & Reid places with E&E!!  They are all going to be so close...I know it!!  Now...as for Saturday...if you have ever met Evan, you know he LOVES animals.  That was actually something we tried bribing him with when it came to potty training. We promised him a trip to the zoo.  We thought we would be going during the warm summer months but as you know...that didn't happen.  Well, since he has had several good weeks with no accidents...we decided it was time to keep our promise to him. So, since this weekend was supposed to be so pretty and not cold and rainy like the last few have been...we headed to the Greenville Zoo Saturday morning.  A friend of mine's grandma died on Thursday so we ran by the funeral home to speak to her on our way to Greenville.  We got there about 11:45 and it was a perfect day.  Here are the couple pictures we took of the day.  (I'm not going to share all my random animal pictures!! :))

Checking out the monkeys!

The snakes were a little creepy but Evan enjoyed looking at them!

She wasn't too sure about the reptile center.  Me neither...sweet girl...me neither!!

My big boy on the lion!

And my big girl!

They were discussing these big turtles!!

The black swan that I was afraid might just come over and peck their hands!

And a picture of me with my big boy on his triop!!

After we left, we stopped for lunch and headed home.  I asked Evan on the way home if he enjoyed the day and he said he did.  I asked his favorite part and he said "All those animals!"  I think I have talked Justin into getting him a few chickens.  I know we don't live on a farm but that would be something we could have and actually benefit from.  Who doesn't like fresh eggs??  One day I know he is going to have a farm of his own!!  So, that was pretty much our weekend!  Our new flooring arrived on Thursday and we plan to tackle that project starting this week.  The sooner we get it started...the sooner we get it finished!! We are all getting haircuts and I am getting some much needed color this week!! Then, me & Justin are going to have a date night this coming Friday and E&E may spend the night with Katie.  Those details aren't definite though! :)  Next week, we have tickets to the circus...so that will be a fun treat too!!  So, for now...it's bedtime for two little munchkins!!  Hope you all have a great week!! 

New Year= New Things!!

Well, 2015 is off and running!  We've had a full week back at school and work.  And that week seemed to fly by!  I just knew it would drag by since I haven't worked a full week in a a while but it didn't!  I am not complaining though.  Well, I think it is finally safe to say that Evan is potty trained!  When we attempted this with them back in the summer...Emma did great and after just one accident on the floor...she was pretty much trained.  We put on big girl panties and never looked back.  With Evan that 1st attempt was a nightmare.  He was NOT ready for potty training.  He would just pee on the floor and think it was funny!  So, to pull-ups we went with him!  So, the week after Christmas we attempted the whole three day wear nothing tactic again and this time it worked!  The first morning we took off the pull-up and didn't let him wear anything.  He did GREAT that first day.  He peed and pooped in the potty all day long.  A couple times he didn't even tell us...he'd just go in the bathroom by himself.  So, I thought we had it whipped.  He even stayed dry during nap time and I was determined we weren't going back to pull-ups.  That night we put on big boy underwear and he stayed dry all night.  So, we just left the big boy underwear on the next day and that was a mistake!  I think in Evan's mind, the big boy underwear and pull-up were the same thing.  He peed in his underwear several times.  I would take the underwear off and he'd use the potty like he was supposed too. So, it took a couple times of peeing in this underwear for him to realize this wasn't how it worked!   I do have to note that he had never wet anything while sleeping...which is VERY rare!  Most all kids take a while to not go while sleeping.  So, for over a week now, he has had no accidents at home and he is wearing his big boy undies like a champ.  He did have a couple accidents at school last week, but even Mrs. Tina was surprised with his process.  But by the end of the week he was doing great and did great at church this morning.  So, today was my first trip in a LONG time to the grocery store where I didn't have to buy diapers or pull-ups!  We are officially past that phase in life!!  I will admit it was a little bitter sweet!  Since we on the topic of Evan...Justin took him squirrel hunting for the 1st time on Saturday.  I really didn't want him too considering it was freezing outside but trust me...he had on plenty of layers!  My dad helped get Justin's gun ready and I think he was just itching to try it out.  They didn't actually kill anything but at least Justin got to shoot the gun.  Here area  few pictures of my sweet boy!

                

Doesn't every boy own some camo and boots???

   

Couldn't you just squeeze that sweet little face???

                 

Apparently he wanted to climb under this limb!

And climb up the ladder stand.  This boy loves to climb all of a sudden! 

So, even though they didn't kill anything, they had a great time.  Evan will tell you they saw several squirrels and that they all ran away.  Justin says they didn't see any.  Who knows which one is telling the truth!! :)  Now on to some other new things!!  As most of you know...I am not the crafty one of the family...Katie got all those genes...but here lately...I have even surprised myself!  Remember a couple months back we redid our floors in the house.  We put new hardwood in the den, dining room, and hall and put down linoleum tiles in the kitchen.  I really love it and Justin did an awesome job but these tiles just aren't going to work.  The guy at Snead's told Justin to nail the underboard down, which we did...but the nails are coming back up and the floor is going to have to be redone!  So, we are going to just continue the hardwood through the kitchen.  Yes...I should have just listened to Justin because he wanted to do this from the beginning...but I wouldn't hear of it.  Now, we have more work to do.  But at least Justin is on board with wanting this!!  He was NOT on board when I decided we needed to paint before we put down our new flooring!  But being the sweet guy he is...when I started painting...he can in and helped me out!!  Well what goes better with new paint, than new curtains??  And it just so happened that the cloth sale in Williamston was this past weekend.  Me and momma decided to head over and see what we could find!  Here is where my new found craftiness is going to come in.  We found the most perfect fabric for my new wall color and got what we needed and headed back home to attempt diy roman shades!!  Momma helped for a while but had to leave so once again I called on my sweet hubby for help!  He again was not happy because he has just gotten his fire outside burning good...but he came in to help!  We worked and finally got the first one up!  What do you think??

I think it is going to take a while to get use to no blinds and how empty the wall above the window looks...but I love them!!  We didn't take down any of our curtain rod holders just in case we needed to put them back.  So, now that we like the new shades...we have two more to make.  Our flooring will be delivered probably sometime next week and our kitchen will have gotten a new makeover!!  This is the last time for a while...I promised Justin!!  That is it for now!  Hope you all have a great week!!  

Goodbye 2014...Hello 2015!!!

Boy 2014 when by in a flash!!  I can't believe it is already over!  This has been a great year for us!  We have been so blessed that we not only got to spend this year doing lots of fun and exciting things with E&E...but we also welcomed two new members to the family!  What a blessing those two sweeties are!!  Lets do a little recap of our year.  It snowed several times in January & February.  That was very unusual!  We had a great time playing in that, making snowmen, snow ice cream, & riding the 4-wheeler! In March, we all went to Charlotte for the Richard Petty Driving experience, we had a reveal party for Alison & Nick and found out their sweet baby was a BOY, & Justin & I celebrated 7 years of marriage!  Yay...statistics show the first 7 are the hardest and we made it!! :)  April was turkey season so other than our Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Easter...we didn't have time for much else!   In May, we took a trip to Atlanta to visit the Zoo and the Aquarium.   We also celebrated Mother's Day in May when we found out Katie & Matt were getting a baby girl within a couple weeks!  Then at the end of May...sweet Laney joined us!!  June was spent showering Katie with LOTS of showers and Father's Day!  July started off with the 4th celebrations and a shower for Alison,  The next day...baby Reid joined our family!  He definitely made a appearance no one was expecting!!  We visited the Tweetsie Railroad with Katie, Matt, & Baby Laney!  August was a pretty quiet month.  September we finally got to go on our family vacation and we had a ball.  We celebrated Justin's birthday while we were at the beach.  Then, hunting season, football games, & birthday parties took up our weekends for the next 4 months.  We went Denver Downs pumpkins patch in October and were a cowboy & cowgirl for Halloween!  Then came November and it started out with SNOW!!  We celebrated Emma & Evan's birthday on the 15th with an art party...which they still talk about on occassion!   We also went on a weekend trip to the mountains with the Fortner's and celebrated Thanksgiving even though we were sick and had to stay home!  In December, we celebrated mine & Katie's 31st birthday and then went to ride the Polar Express!  We had our first annual Christmas brunch with our friends and the kiddos and took family pictures we originally planned to take in October.  The weather was warmer in December than in October!!  We had LOTS of family gatherings, Christmas parties, & finally celebrated Christmas.  And that is just the highlights of our year.  We did lots of remodeling at our house, E&E started a new nursery, I went back to working full-time again, Emma was potty trained in a day, Evan is almost potty trained, Emma lost her paci and hasn't asked for it since...I could go on and on...but I will just leave it at that.  Since Justin & I both had to work on New Year's Eve this year...we spent this holiday at home!  So, we grabbed a pizza on the way from work, undecorated our house from Christmas, shot fireworks, & sparklers, roasted marshmallows, made homemade hot chocolate, played Hi-Ho Cherrio (Mickey Mouse version) and after E&E went to bed...Justin and I rang in the new year on the couch watching football!  I thought it was kind of sad that we weren't out at a party and then I remembered those who would love just one more night of being with their family and I decided it was okay!  We don't have to be out with a crowd to have fun with our sweeties!  So, here are the couple pictures I took from last night!

We were waiting for Daddy to get the fire going!

         

Sparkler time!

Evan wanted to help chop the wood for the fire!

And believe it or not...this is Emma holding a firecracker after it was lit!  Last year they screamed and screamed when we tried to make them watch fireworks!  And these are not very loud fireworks!!  So...this is a HUGE accomplishment!

And Evan did it too!

And one last picture of them drinking their hot chocolate.  Don't you just wonder what this conversation was about??

So, that is how we ended 2014!!  It was a great year and I know 2015 is going to be just as good!  We already have several things in the works that I might have to diclose later on!   I am fixing to go attempt my first ever New Year's meal complete with pork chops, collards, black eye peas, cornbread, tea, & cookies!  Sounds yummy right!! Happy New Year!! 

Lights of the South

In all my 31 years...I have never heard of a little place just about an hour away in Grovetown, Ga called "Lights of the South"!  I saw someone mention it on Facebook and decided we needed to check it out.  We love to ride around and look at Christmas lights, and we had nothing going on last Saturday...so we took off!  We had planned to just stop somewhere quick and grab supper on the way down.  Let me just tell you...there is nothing but one Hardee's in McCormick between Ninety Six & Grovetown!  We got there right at 6:00...when it opened...and you wouldn't believe the long line of people waiting to get in.  I now know why...it was so much fun!  The place is over 100 acres and has over 5 MILLION lights.  There were lights EVERYWHERE!  They had about 6 tractors pulling double trailers and they were moving non-stop!  So, we loaded up and headed down through the lights.  They had everything the manager scene & Noah's ark, to every kind of Disney movie you can think of, Just random scenes like a fire truck, and a barn with farm animals. (You know Evan LOVED that!) They had Santa's toy shop, the American flag with the Statue of Liberty.  They had all the symbols of the armed forces.  They had Christmas trees and Santa in the sleigh with reindeer.  Like I said...it was unbelievable how many lights there were!  You ended up in a HUGE castle that was so pretty.  They had a restaurant/grill there so we decided to eat there and it was yummy!  They had big fire pits for roasting marshmallows and they had a lighted maze to walk through. We didn't do the maze but if we get to go back...we will attempt that.  Plus, we will go before Christmas next year because Santa is there!  We had such a fun night.  Justin took pictures of just about every scene but some of them just look like a big blob of lights.  So, here are the ones that turned out pretty good!  

                

Here we are loaded up and ready for the hay ride to start!

And this was the beginning...

These were the three wise men and of course the manager scene!

                

Noah & the Ark and the rainbow!

A peacock!

The barn and some of the animals!

Spiderman!

The huge American flag

Statue of Liberty, planes and soldiers 

Arch into Santa's land

Santa's house and you can see Santa in the sleigh and his reindeer behind the house!

And this is where you ended.  Isn't it beautiful??  Reminds me of Disney World!  

So, maybe next year if any of you are looking for a quick little fun family road trip...I suggest giving the Lights of the South a visit!!

Christmas with the Turner's

This is going to be the first of several post today.  I have been slack and several "blogable" events have occurred! :)  Christmas has come and gone and boy did we have a good one!  Our sickness (croup) was gone just in time!  We started our celebrations with the Christmas Eve service at South Main.  They don't have nursery during this event...so that meant E&E had to join us in big church.  Last year...Justin ended up taking Emma out because she didn't like the loud singing.  We sat at the back in anticipation of that happening again this year but they both did great other than the one time Evan yelled out.  The preacher made mention of Santa Claus...and Evan looked at me and said in a rather LOUD voice...Santa Claus is coming tonight!  Thankfully he didn't interrupt those around us too much.  Then, we headed home to make our cookies for Santa.  MaMa & PaPa came over to help.  Well, MaMa helped and PaPa kept Daddy company watching TV.

 

               

Didn't they turn out cute??  E&E had a blast decorating them themselves!  So, we said goodbye to the grandparents, set the cookies & milk out, put out carrots for the reindeer, and sent two little excited kids off to bed!  After they were good and asleep...Santa Claus & Mrs.. Claus got to work putting out toys!

Then, we were off to bed because we knew morning would come early.  Wrong!!  We woke up about 7:00 and E&E were still sleeping so soundly.  8:00 rolled around and they were still knocked out!  They finally started stirring about 8:30.  We started our morning by reading the Christmas story and talking about Baby Jesus.  Since this day is truly about Him and not presents we didn't want to get carried away and not make time to celebrate him.  I love this picture of Justin reading the story to E&E.  

This year has been so much fun listening to them talk about Baby Jesus.  One night sitting at the supper table kept I asking them questions about Christmas and why we were celebrating. They both told me all kinds of thing they knew...some made sense and some did not! :) This is such an impressionable time in their lives and I sure don't want to miss any opportunities to tell them about Jesus!!  So, anyway...back to Christmas morning.  We finished reading the story and prayed thanking God for his son!  Then, we went into the den to see if Santa had come and he had!  Emma's first reaction was...I got a baby doll!  Evan was no where to be found.  I went back into our room and he was still sitting on the bed looking through the bible. 

I'm not going to lie...it makes me happy that be would rather look at the bible than new toys he has gotten!  Lets just pray that is always the case!! It took some coaxing to get him to come to the den without just telling him he had presents!  So, they were so excited to see their stuff and our den was destroyed in no time!  Both sets of grandparents stopped by to see what Santa brought.

          

 E&E played with their new toys (which included riding their new bikes inside), we ate lunch, took naps, and then we were off to my parents for supper and Christmas with the Reid's.  I have never in my life seen so many presents.  Granted some of the presents given this year were just big presents and they took up a lot of room...but it was borderline ridiculous!  I'm not going to even attempt to list all the things E&E got.  Friday morning...Justin and I spent the whole morning cleaning out old toys before we even attempted to put up the new toys.  Overall it was a GREAT Christmas!!