Happy Birthday Carson!

We are so blessed by our sweet son Carson! It's so hard to believe that he is 7! Where has the time gone!? He has been such a delight to us and our family. I can't imagine life without him. We love you sweet boy and we are so proud of the young man you are growing to be. Happy 7th birthday!

So this year Carson had some specific requests about his birthday. He wanted to mainly celebrate at breakfast and open his gifts then so daddy could see (I think he's just smart and knew that would mean he could play with his new things all day!). He also had specific food requests for all 3 meals that day. So I took a picture of each plate so you can see what he ordered in from his "short order cook" mom for the day:)

For breakfast: pancakes, eggs & bacon

For lunch: he wanted a "brunch" with french toast sticks, sausage & cantaloupe (the boy loves some breakfast!)

For dinner: pizza hut pineapple & ham pizza and a salad.

And he wanted a Clemson cake! Done! I have a feeling the menu may get a little harder over the years;)

He got this hoodie from Amy! Thank you Amy!

A week in Virginia

The kids and I were in Virginia for a week and had lots of fun visiting family! We headed out on a Friday morning and drove to my sister's house for 2 nights. A big reason for our trip was so I could go to my brother in law and sister's couples baby shower. Here is a review in (lots of) pictures from the week....

we got to go to Owen's soccer game (he's the one with the blue ball between his legs)

Mom, Andrea & I before the shower

Their friends, Joe & Jill, threw the shower and it was so nice! It was a great party!

The girls playing dress up (sorry my pics are out of order)

At the shower they had cute things around like this....here you were supposed to write down name ideas in the basket. Notice the fun napkins...love it!

...and these candles were the party favor

Jill & Andrea

On Sunday Mom, Dad, the Clarke family and us headed to The Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg for one night and 2 days at the indoor water park. It was SO fun! We are so thankful for this treat from Mom & Dad! Here are the boys at IHOP before going to the water park.

The hotel is very kid friendly. They have a coloring station that the kids loved.

At 8:00 pm they had pajama story time in the lobby

Carson got some early birthday gifts

After one night at Great Wolf Lodge the kids and I headed to Yorktown to stay for 4 nights with my parents. We had a good visit and enjoyed visits with GG & Raggie in the nursing home, getting to see Michael's new house, a date alone with Mom, and lunch date with Dad, and Mom took the kids and I to a fun Children's Museum in Portsmouth. Here are some pictures from the Children's Museum.

Carson in a giant bubble

Playing in the grocery store area

playing doctor

Mom and the girls at the park

GG & the kids

Raggie and I after a sweet moment together telling her good-bye. I love this woman and it's so hard to see her this frail.

oh...and at the children's museum they had this neat chair that made the kids shrink! Amazing!

Thanks for a great week Mom & Dad! We were blessed! And I'm SO thankful to have survived the 9 1/2 hour drive on Friday by myself with the kids! Whew, that was a doozy!

Mama Chasteen

On September 13th Ellen Chasteen, Jeremy's grandmother and otherwise known as Mama Chasteen, went to be with the Lord. She will be very missed but the family is celebrating her faith in Christ and the comfort of knowing that she is with Jesus where there is no more sorrow or pain. Attending the funeral of a believer is so different because there is such peace and comfort knowing where she is. Jeremy was blessed by being able to be in the room with Mama Chasteen when she passed away. His mom, dad, sister and aunt were also there. It was a sweet time for them all. Here are a few pictures from the visitation and the funeral.

There was a slide show of Mama Chasteen with her family running at the funeral home for the visitation.

Kolson and Carson were asked to be honorary pallbearers. They walked in front of the casket and they both did a great job.

You might be a redneck if...

A couple weeks ago we had gotten home from a fun double date with the Finleys and realized that an animal had gotten into our trash in the garage and Jeremy found it under the workbench in the garage. I had already gone inside to see Krystal (our amazing babysitter!!!!) when Jeremy came in to inform us that a possum was in the garage. We both came out and I got on my hands and knees to look under the workbench and saw a black furry tail and some white fur.....it was a SKUNK!!! That changed everything! Krystal and I hopped in the van which was parked in the garage to watch the entertainment because we were not willing to risk getting sprayed by a skunk. So we watched and watched as Jeremy tried to make that skunk move, to no avail. Krystal finally had to leave but we (meaning Jeremy....I was the photographer from the van) stayed at it. He lifted up the workbench to expose the skunk (see video 1). Then the skunk walked out of the workbench and went under the lawn mower (at this point Jeremy is on the workbench). Then my smart husband realizes he could push the lawnmower out with the skunk underneath. He had his shotgun on the rocking chair outside the garage ready to go once the skunk ran out. I was so glad to get it all on video (see video 2). It was entertainment for sure! He ran after that skunk but the gun misfired.

Game Day

This Saturday we all went to the Clemson football game. I just love living in a college town especially on game day! It's so fun and festive! We were given 2 tickets and a parking pass from a couple in our church so we had to only needed to find 3 more tickets before the game. Jeremy is really good at this so I just followed behind and watched him work;) The kids have learned from Daddy & Aunt Amy how to hold up their fingers to let people know they need tickets. And it worked....right outside the gate we got 3 tickets for $10 so we all got into the game for $10! We had fun and the kids did better than I expected. This motivates me to go again.

Spencer's first football game

a few favs from the week...

Bryn with Nathan & Spencer

snuggling with Bryn at bedtime

Lydia & Spencer having a snuggle moment on the counter. This moment made me wonder what their relationship will be like. I'm sure as Spencer gets older the dynamics in our family will change. I love watching their relationships with each other (most of the time...).

we've enjoyed a few rounds of Sorry lately....love that my kids are getting to an age where we can play boardgames!

Writing the ABCs on Little Hearts

I've been trying to incorporate Bryn and Lydia into our "school time" lately and when I found these free downloads here I thought they would be great for us to do together. So each day we each color one of the pages. There is a character quality for each letter of the alphabet and then we hang them on the wall of the stairwell going to the bonus room.