More Sea Turtles

I love their faces in these pictures.

Charleston Trip

This summer we took a trip to Edisto Island, SC to go to the beach, and since Charleston was on the way, we decided to spend one night there.

We hit the kids museum right off the bat and then headed downtown to a doll store for Adison. Right next door was this amazing Kapla Block store that we all fell in love with. They had built some amazing things, including the Eiffel Tower! We left with a box of blocks and ended up playing with them quite a bit.

A Moment in the Day

Summer 2012

Caught this sunflower reaching for the morning light.

Mountains with friends

Late Summer 2012

We spent a lovely weekend with our friends Skitch and Jenny in the mountains. It ended up being too chilly to tube down the river, but we did hike for almost 3 hours. That was an amazing meal that night, I'll tell you that. We had such a great time with these sweet friends who moved to Greensboro over a year ago.

New Goalie Gear

Sometime this summer Uncle Dean rolled into town and gave Cole a lesson in putting on goalie gear and also taught him some sweet ready positions.

Cole-ism

After several years of hemming and hawing, we are signing Cole up for a hockey league. Kevin has bought him goalie pads and he puts them on for an hour at a time, takes out a bouncey ball and a baseball mitt throw it and block it, over and over and over again.
I got this text from Kevin last night when I was out. It pretty much sums up the essence of Cole, which is, if you're going to do something, you had better do it right.

My sweet boy

Cole's been fighting a bad sore throat this week and when I told his teacher he'd be out today she said a kid in his class had strep last week. So to the doctor we went.

The nurse was drilling me with 100 questions and simultaneously handed me a form of equally as many questions to fill out "at the same time." (thanks, nurse).

When she finally left the room Cole told me he'd made a note about how he felt so he would remember when the Dr. came in.

I love this note.

This is my little boy: smart, articulate, precise. Also, if you're going to write anything down, label it. Period.

He does have strep and is on his way to recovery thanks to modern medicine.

Adison-ism

Right before I turned off the light in her room tonight:

Mama? When I get a husband I'm gonna tell him how we snuggled together when I was a little girl and I'm gonna ask him if we can get a house close to you after we get married.

Easter 2012

We could not have asked for a more beautiful day to celebrate Easter. Sunny, cool breeze, high of just about 70.  We had a wonderful time at church followed by some delicious pancakes at Courtney's. Easter is always such a great reminder to get some good family pictures and this year I'm just blown away by how old Adison and Cole are getting. When I look at them I feel like I can see the future a little, their faces are starting to take on that big-kid look which is both exciting and sad at the same time.

I love the pictures of the two of them. They really do love each other. They aren't mushy about it. They aren't particularly tender to each other a whole lot but they play together a lot and they laugh together a LOT. Pictures like this remind me of the deep bond they have for one another, no matter how many little disputes or spats they might have during the day. I'm so thankful for that, and so aware that it is God's goodness to me and them, because I'm simply not a good enough parent to create that. I'm enjoying every moment of this time in their lives. Young enough to still want to do things with their parents and old enough to do some really fun things like take them on trips and play games and eat at nice restaurants. Kevin and I have really enjoyed watching them take on some of the things he and I enjoy so much. Every year of parenting has its new set of challenges, but it has double that in rewards.

Adison-ism

"Mama? Do you have to agree to get a husband? (It usually works better that way). Did Daddy ask you or did you ask Daddy to get married? (Daddy asked me). Because he found someone reeeaaaaallly pretty and he wanted to ask you, right?"

Then she turned the conversation to what she calls "getting a baby".

Debut

What better day than Valentine's Day to debut the People Feeder Carine sent. Look at it. Ready to vomit M&M's at a moments notice. Can you think of anything better? Well maybe if you could put fondue in there...