Island Life

This past weekend, while Greg was at a youth rally, our neighbors invited the kids and I to join them at their grandparents’ beach house.  Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity and had a great time.  This makes three weekends out of the last four that my family has spent in and around a body of water.  And it has been a different body of water each time!  We have a good life.

When we first got there, Luke, Anna, and Charlotte relaxed on the hammock on the back porch.  Then, we got dressed and loaded up to go to the boat:

The kids rode on the back of the golf cart with Charlotte’s dad, Kevin.

At first, Anna wasn’t too excited about the prospect of taking a boat ride while bundled up in a life jacked on a blazingly hot day:

She kept that expression for a little while, before coming over and laying down on my lap:

We headed out to a small island called Dewees Island, and on the way, we saw a bald eagle!

That was pretty cool. 

At first, Luke didn’t like all the bumps on the boat ride, but after awhile, he really started to enjoy himself:

In the meantime, Anna fell asleep:

Once we arrived at the island, Anna woke up, happy as could be, and both kids loooved playing in the water, a fact that shocked me, given Luke’s phobia of the beach.  The waves on Dewees Island were a lot calmer, and more similar to Lake Murray than to Folly Beach.

 

For her part, Anna plunged underwater, opened her eyes, and did not seem the least bit perturbed by the salt water.  It was just business as usual for my little fish!  Luke was not quite as much “one with the water” as Anna, but he still had a blast splashing and swimming about.  They also enjoyed playing in the sand and exploring the beach:

They learned some about beach wildlife when we found a dead horseshoe crab…

…as well as the shell of a much smaller crab.

Midway through our beach walk, Anna grew weary and plopped herself down to play in the sand:

Here she is playing with a shell that she would fill and refill with sand.  When Charlotte came running over to tell her that she had found a “sand cookie,” Anna replied cheerfully, “And I found a bathtub!”  She loved playing with her little “bathtub.”

Afterward, we headed back, gave the kids baths, and let them watch Dora while we got dinner ready.

We had hamburgers, hotdogs, grilled shrimp, grilled veggies, corn on the cob, and fresh fruit.  It was amazing!

This was an amazingly fun day to spend a Saturday.  Do we have great neighbors or what??

Lake Murray

A couple of weeks ago, we spent the weekend at Lake Murray with two other families from church.  It was a blast.  I haven’t written about it, though, because I wanted to get a video that one of the other dads made of the weekend and put it on my blog.  I still don’t have it, but I have another water weekend to blog about, so I’m just going to go ahead without it.

Anyway, we stayed at a rented lake house that had a great dock, a canoe, a tire swing, a fire pit, a hammock, and a great view.

We arrived on Friday evening, and the kids loved exploring the dock and the water’s edge:

Anna’s reaction to the lake that evening was typical of all the children.  First, she was content to play in the sand.

Then, she ventured closely to the edge and got progressively more excited about the water.

I think of wading fully clothed into the water as indicative of a mental breakdown, but apparently, it is also typical kid behavior.  I didn’t bother to stop Anna b/c at this point, all of the children were swimming in the lake, without bothering to change into their suits.  Clearly, all of us adults had decided that this was going to be  a laid-back weekend.  And it was.

We had a great time swimming, paddling around in the canoe, playing ping-pong, eating delicious food, making s’mores, and playing games at night after the kids went to bed.

I didn’t take too many pictures, mainly because I was busy relaxing and having fun.  However, I was also distracted by my first ever instance of lusting after technology.  One couple who came with us had iPhone 4’s, and they were amazing.  Caisson, the husband, used his phone to take all sorts of great pictures, which he could then edit to miraculous effect.  I still wasn’t over the fact that his phone camera had a flash, and here he was showing me all these different lenses you could put on it.  In short, he had a better camera than I did…and his could make phone calls, too!

He also took some video, and on Saturday afternoon, he hooked his camera up to the tv in the lake house to show us all an amazing, impromptu video he made on his phone, which included still shots, video footage, and many different editing techniques, complete with music playing behind it.  I think it was at that point that full blown technology lust took over, and I had to shut my eyes, plug my ears, and start singing, “This world is not my home/ I’m just a-passing through/ My treasures are laid up/somewhere beyond the blue” at full volume.  Okay, I didn’t actually do that, but it probably would have helped:).  Anyway, long story short, spending the weekend with them was like hanging out with Jetsons, and I spent most of the ride home justifying why we needed a iPad, and contemplating the switch to AT&T.  Thankfully, sanity has since set back in!

Cool technology aside, we had such a wonderful time with the Hogues and the Steeds, and it made me so thankful, once again, that we have been blessed with an amazing church family with whom we can share our lives.  It was a great, rejuvenating weekend for all of us!

Done with Diapers!!!

The era of diapers is over.  Done.  Finito.  Finished.

No Pull-ups at naptime.  No Pull-ups at night.  Diapers and Pull-ups are no longer a part of our life at all.

I have been hesitant to blog about it because I didn’t wan to jinx us, but I feel quite confident now that we are never going back.  We had tried to potty train Anna on two separate occasions earlier this year, to no avail.  When she didn’t immediately catch on, we decided not to push it.  We tried for a third time, beginning on July 19.  This time, we were a bit more determined, and we had much more success.  When Anna went the whole visit at my parents’ house in Macon (six days) without a single accident and several dry Pull-ups in the morning, we started thinking about doing away with Pull-ups all together.  First, we did away with naptime Pull-ups.  I don’t think we’ve had a single accident.  Then, last Monday (Sept. 13), we put her down at night without a Pull-up.  The next morning she was wet.  Since then, however, she has only had one more accident, and even then, she spent most of the night dry.  And though our house is certainly not an accident-free zone, I cannot remember the last time we had a #2 accident, nor can I remember the last time we had an accident away from home.  At this point, I cannot imagine going back to Pull-ups. 

I have to say,  I am sooo excited about this development.  I know that our period in diapers was short compared to most families, as we have two children very close together in age.  Still, 4 1/2 years of changing poopie diapers seems like a long time to me.  It is longer than I was at Lipscomb!  And now we are done.

As my children grow, there is a lot that I think is going by too fast.  I shudder, for example, to think that my baby boy will be in KINDERGARTEN next year.  And I’m not thrilled about Anna starting preschool, either.  Diapers, however, could not make their exit too soon:)!

So long, diapers!

Anna’s Room

The view from the door.

The side of her room to the right of the entrance.  You can barely see the doorway on the left.  Anna loves the little playhouse that my mom and dad got her for her second birthday.  Right now, I am using her changing table for extra storage in the closet, but I’m not totally satisfied with that arrangement.

Her kitchen set was her “big” Christmas present last year from Greg and me.  It was a totally worthwhile investment.  It is probably her #1 favorite area in her room.

This is her clothes storage. It consists of four pieces of furniture (from KMart) put together.   Her memory box is above the drawer on the left hand side.  The bottom left piece originally consisted of six cubbies, but Anna managed to break two of the shelves:).  On the plus side, her canvas totes now fit in there!

Here is her bookshelf, bow center, and the place where she plays with all of her miniatures.  I particularly love this corner.

This daybed used to be mine.  My mom made all of the bedding except for the two white pillows, which were from my last bedding set.  We are all lucky to have such a talented Gaga!

And since I included a “trashed” picture of Luke’s room, here is one of Anna’s.  It was taken back in April, after we had eight children over for a morning and afternoon!  (This picture was also taken before Anna had moved to a big bed.) 

Well, that’s Anna’s room….at least for now!:)

Luke’s Room

I would love to have pictures of my rooms from when I was growing up.  I loved all of my rooms, and my mom did a great job of making them very special.  One of my favorite pictures is of me when I was about four years old, standing in my room in front of the big, pink bookshelf my dad made for me.  I love seeing the books and toys on the shelf and remembering that little world.

Since we have had a few peaceful days at home, I have been able to give my house some much needed TLC, which included helping the kids clean their rooms.  While they were nice and clean, I decided to get some pictures.  I’d love to do this at least once every time their rooms undergo a major change.  I think it will be fun to look back on as they grow up!

Here is Luke’s room:

From the doorway, here is the right side.

And here is the left.

This how Luke likes to make his bed.  He always protests the chore, but then spends a lot of time artfully arranging all his stuffed animals, before calling me in to praise his creation.  Speaking of creations, I got the photo frames for like $1.50 each at IKEA, along with the wire (it was a little bit more).  Luke has been desperate for a way to display his art, so I figured that this would make a good rotating display.  We change out the pictures whenever he colors a new masterpiece, and he has now insisted that I get a “big folder” to keep all the old ones for posterity:).

The top of his dresser has his memory box and two photo boxes chock full of baby pics from his first year.  There are over 1,000 pictures, and those don’t include all the ones I put in his first year scrapbook.  We may have been a little enamored with him:).  The wall art is from my brother’s bedroom when he was little.  It says, Mike, but Luke’s first name is Michael, so we thought it would work:).

The bookshelf is a recent addition—and only $30 at Big Lots:).  Before this, we had kept most of his books in a drawer, which just wasn’t working.  It is also nice that Luke has a place for his puzzles and his Toy Story figurines.

This table was made by Luke’s great grandfather.  The timer is how Luke knows how long quiet time is.  He has to read in bed for 45 minutes, and then he can play quietly in his room for the last 30 minutes.

To the left of the table is a storage room that was converted into a playroom (complete with light and ventilation system) by Mr. Paul from church.

This is the wall to the left of the entrance.  My brother drew the wall art, and my mom painted it.  They made it for Luke’s first Christmas.  It was Mike’s idea to split the train cars between the panels.  Mom had envisioned one car on each panel, but we all agreed that his design was even better.  On the dresser are two baby pictures, a teddy bear soccer trophy, and a treasure box he made in Sunday school. 

And for contrast, here is what his room looked like a couple weeks ago after he and two of his friends got done with it!  We were downstairs having a cell group leaders’ meeting, and our only concern whenever we checked on the kids was that they weren’t endangered in anyway.  Although everyone was safe and had a great time, they did manage to wreak an impressive level of havoc, which took all four of us almost an hour to clean up the next day!

I much prefer the way Luke’s room currently looks:)