I know she’s not quite 4 months yet, but I just had to share her cuteness…off we go, shall we?
Sleeping so peacefully at the splash area near our library!
Her serious look!
Again, teaching Megan and Ceili Rain how to be best friends. They saw each other and just grinned…already starting!
Okay, so this isn’t Ceili Rain, her best bud making the funniest face in her mama’s lap!
While on a search for candy molds to put on Josiah’s birthday cupcakes last week, we were able to travel thirty minutes away and close to Mark’s work. Since we can’t actually go to Mark’s work, he met us for lunch at a local barbecue place. The kids had fun with this special treat.
They took the opportunity to read the signs all posted on the walls (typically for locally owned barbecue joints). I pointed to the “exit” sign and asked Liam what it said. He knows the exit signs just from sheer memorization…not reading.
He looked up at it and in all seriousness said,”Dat says, Do. Not. Explode.”
and a lot of times it’s not. I’ve been trying to think of what to blog on here, as life as just been crazy and so weird normal. Monday, that all changed.
Let’s start at the beginning shall we?? I have been involved with a small group study of a book called Creative Counterpart by Linda Dillow. The book’s been around for over 30 years, but it’s probably one of the best books I’ve read about being a wife. Our wonderful leader gave us an assignment to be done before our last meeting. We needed to plan a romantic date for our spouse. No problem, if my nursing/hormonal/post pregnancy brain still wasn’t in full effect. So, I spent two weeks trying to figure out what to do when I didn’t want to do anything “romantic (thanks to nursing).” I finally figured out what I wanted to do…ice skating…but because of our crazy schedule, I didn’t get it finalized to do until Monday.
So here’s how I wanted to do it:
Get Mark to come home early and meet me at a designated place to go to the ice rink…from 4 to 6. Eat really bad ice rink supper and then head to the house to feed Ceili Rain. Leave out and head to a coffee shop to sit, talk, and visit. Back home early to put kids in bed and, well, you know.
I texted Mark that morning, “Roses are red, Violets are blue, I’ve got a special surprise for you.” Don’t you love my poetry! So original…I digress. Anyways, when he got it around lunch time (fortunately he checked his phone then)…he pondered what was going on. I didn’t tell him anything. It was later on the date that he told me he thought I was either pregnant or we had gotten a referral for a child. He hadn’t even suspected a date. Shows how much I needed to do this and how much this book has helped us.
So, my friend, Tracy, came over to watch the kids. I was nursing Ceili Rain when she came (so far my plan was going good…and on schedule). I finished feeding Ceili Rain and was propping her up on my lap while Tracy and I finished our conversation on marriage when Ceili Rain grunted. And then exploded. Out of the diaper. And on to my jeans. Now, because my baby belly is being stubborn, I can only wear one pair of jeans comfortably. And that was them. And now they were completely covered in baby poop. I mean completely. I started to cry knowing the date was going to be different than planned. Then I just had to start laughing. I handed Ceili Rain off to Tracy who held her out and carried her to the changing table. I went to my room and changed, washed off, and called Mark.
We made it out but not ice skating. We went to the movies and enjoyed over buttered popcorn and a large drink. After we got the kids in bed, we ordered Steak Out and just visited. A great night (not sure how romantic though)…even if I got pooped on.
Let’s start with our adventure to find cupcake toppers. I felt cupcakes were the easy way to go but I wanted to add a “train” theme to help celebrate his fascination with all things that go “toot toot.” Wednesday, we traveled from one store to another until we ended up near Mark’s work which resulted in a great time out to eat with him (he works an hour from home). We (being me and the five kids) loaded up and headed to Hobby Lobby in the local town and purchased train candy molds. All told, that trip took around three to four hours…but, alas, we found them.
I’m not kidding when I say this kids is all about trains (and sports balls…but we focused on trains for the big day). The balloons were a hit. As were the napkins, plates, and cupcakes…he choo chooed everything he saw on party day.
He tried to blow out the candles the minute we sat his cupcake in front of him. We managed to hold him off long enough to sing the “Birthday Song” and then let him have at it. I’ll post the video in another post. For now, enjoy his birthday pictures.
“Sugaaarrrr!”
You can’t tell, but this is a friend who is an avid University of South Carolina fan with a nice Alabama pillow positioned behind him…Thanks John for fixing that up!
Mark “tricked” out this tricycle that I purchased at consignment. Once again, I did not get a “before” picture. Someone had painted it white with a faded purple basket in the back and a pink and white basket in the front. It also had faded purple wheels. I thought he did a great job on it…Mark was at least excited.
This was Josiah’s response at first. He had six “new” Thomas books and was enthralled with them. How to get him on the back???
More presents…more Thomas…lots of fun!
Happy Birthday my little man! We have so enjoyed seeing how you have grown this past year. Can’t wait to see the little man God is creating you to be!
I thought I had posts ready for Friday and today, but when I looked yesterday, I didn’t see any. We are around. Just been busy. We are getting ready for a trip to see Mark’s family as well as celebrating Josiah’s big boy 2 year birthday!
So, here ya go something to appease the grandparents while I go to the pool sort through Josiah’s birthday pictures and pack. And here’s the story behind the pictures above.
Ace has been telling us for quite some time that he does not go to sleep at night. At all. So, Mark finally got the camera out to show him that he does, indeed sleep. Then he had to show him the difference between his eyes being opened and them being closed.
His response: I just closed my eyes. I didn’t go to sleep.
We took time out of the ocean to play in the sand. By far, one of Josiah’s favorite things…
We have a nice little sunshade tent that is open on three sides so it was a nice get away for the sunblockless girl (no sunblock until 6 months). Since I don’t want to stay in a room all day, and we’ve had children before who were too young for sunblock, we bought this sling, which has been wonderful! It’s made of solarveil material that has UVA/UVB block on it. Ceili Rain stayed snuggled in it in the ocean and in the pool and didn’t get a drop of sun to hurt her!
We didn’t play at the beach upon our arrival on Friday because we wanted to take the kids to hear Gregg Russell. He’s been singing on Hilton Head for over 30 years. He sings mostly children’s songs. What we didn’t realize is that Friday is typically the last night for most vacationers and so they all jam in going to hear Gregg Russell…it was very packed! The cool part was there were a ton of other free activities before the concert including, our kids’ favorite, puppets.
The big oak tree where Gregg Russell sings.
Gregg lets the kids get on stage but Ace, Liam and Josiah were very hot and very tired and opted for the steps near mom and dad. It was extremely humid with no breeze…making for a long wet night.
What Ceili Rain did…surprised???
Zoe, of course, sat on stage and made friends. Those homeschoolers are sooo anti-social!
Saturday, we hit the beach. The kids (including Mark) had a wonderful time actually getting into the water.
Liam was “holding back the water.” He told Mark, “I’m doing it daddy…Look!”
Josiah and I were walking back up to the tent when we spotted this. A starfish! This is the first time I’ve seen one at the beach. Josiah touched it but by the time the rest of the kids got out of the water, he was curling up and they didn’t want to touch it. So, Mark scooped it up and we had a quick Science lesson on why it was sand colored and how it ate and felt around. Then, Mark threw it back in the ocean.
Josiah tried to figure out where it went. While we were all out in the water, a man came up and handed us a few sand dollars to look at. That was neat. I’d never seen them up close. After we looked at them and put them back, Zoe informed us that she had picked up one when she was scooping sand up and promptly screamed and threw it back in the water.
This was Josiahs’ first time to the beach…well, his second actually, we went when he was negative three weeks (aka, he was in utero). He doesn’t remember that much, so, this, he can enjoy.
Mark got a pretty rockin’ Father’s Day this weekend! We went to Hilton Head in South Carolina. Just a weekend trip…one of the perks of living only a few hours away…It was a ton of fun. On Sunday, we surprised him with these shirts from Union28. In case you can’t tell, they say, “My Daddy Rocks (Mommy’s Right!)!” He got a good kick out of that. I’m so blessed to have a wonderful husband who does late night bad dreams and has walked our children enough to have walked around the earth (or at least the moon).
Stay tuned for even more pictures of our weekend trip!
