Birthday Beach Pictures

In September we were all able to go back to my hometown in Florida.  It is rare, but Andrew was actually TDY there so we just came along with him at stayed at my Mother's house.  It is really the perfect time of year there.  Still hot but not as bad as summertime and the crowds of tourists are gone.  We didn't get to see Daddy much, he was really working...go figure!  But we were able to catch up with friends and spend some time at the beach.  Since M&M's birthday was the end of September we thought we'd take the opportunity to do beach portraits (photographs by us!) to commemorate.  They really turned out great but it is always an ordeal.  It took us two nights to time the sunset right and for each good picture there were at least 10 that were NOT.  But as you can see, it was worth the effort...

We Love Papa!

Papa and Mama Jo (Andrew's parents) came to babysit while we went to the Fort Jackson Military Appreciation concert on September 11th.  Kid Rock put on the concert for free and it was really AWESOME!  Not to mention it was nice to go out to dinner and have a fun evening with my hubby! 

M&M love Papa!  We took this picture before we went to church the next day.  They love to get their picture made with Papa!  Boy is it nice to have grandparents close.  Not only for the extra help, but mostly for the relationship M&M will get to have with Dee and Papa and Mama Jo!

Big John Deere

Yes, I definitely have country kids now.  When you know the name of most tractor attachments and you see as many horses as businesses on the way to town...that's what I call a country kid!  Of course, that comes from a decidedly city raised Mama.  Andrew thinks it's all oh-so normal!  So when we heard and spotted the big John Deere tractor, yes Michael knows the difference between a John Deere and any other, we got excited.  The land owners FINALLY came to mow the big field next to our house.  It had gotten to tall we couldn't walk through there anymore...it was about waist high to me in some places.  So they had this big John Deere with a bush-hog sent over to do the job.  Needless-to-say Michael and Mary Ellen were thrilled to watch this big tractor in action.  When he finished for the day we decided to go take a looksie!   

Michael wanted up first.  He loves to sit on our "tractor", that is our little riding lawn mower, so you can imagine how excited he was to sit on this one.

Mary Ellen got a turn too.  They loved to turn the steering wheel and even tried to do the gear shift.

Love this last shot of them in the front end loader with the sun setting.  You can see our house in the background.  We were sad when he finished his work the next day and the tractor left.

Swamp Fox Celebration

All the Swamp Foxes got together to celebrate on Labor Day this year.  Of course, this was really a celebration that everyone was back from the Iraq deployment safe and sound.  Deiter had a BBQ at his house on Lake Murray.  There was skiing and swimming and lots of great food.

This was Michael and Mary Ellen's first time swimming in a lake and they were a little apprehensive.  They've been to the beach in Florida and of course been to several different pools, but the lake water took some getting used to.  Mary Ellen kept saying, "The water is dirty Mama"!  And the bottom was squishy and a little slimy.

They really didn't love walking around in the shallow part so Andrew put them in this little boat and pulled them around.  They LOVED it! 

I think they ate their weight in BBQ, chips and cookies.  It was a fun day to be together as a family...the Thornes, and the Swamp Foxes!

Michael's Hair Cut

My poor little babies have been SLOW to grow hair.  Now with Mary Ellen this has been slightly distressful for me; wanting to constantly put bows in her hair that would not stay.  With Michael it hasn't been that big of a deal.  Boys are supposed to have short hair, right?!  Michael first started getting this rat-tail-thing that was easy enough for me to trim several months back.  We took pictures and I saved the hair.  But then it just started getting long and really unruly.  So I decided to take him in with me when I got my hair cut and let Debbie trim his up before I had my hair done.  Better than me trying to hack away at it, with who knows what kind of results.  I was so proud of him!  He sat as still as a soldier and didn't once complain.  Of course he did have a beautiful lady cutting his hair...what was there to complain about?  Debbie did a great job and now he looks like such a little man.  Who knew he'd be almost 3 before he got his first real hair cut. 

My little man...thanks Debbie!

Flying Airplanes

We had a traumatic doctors visit earlier this week where we learned Mary Ellen had a double ear infection.  She never once complained about her ears hurting.  Although, I've learned she rarely ever does and have to look for other signs which is usually an attitude shift!  Now the ear infection part wasn't traumatic in-and-of-itself.  The traumatic part was that she had lots of wax build up in her ears and they had to spend a considerable amount of time irrigating them.  To put it mildly, Mary Ellen did NOT enjoy it!  But two free ice cream cone coupons were given...yes, Michael also benefited from Mary Ellen's traumatic doctors visit..so we decided to go to Sonic for lunch and the free ice cream.  I guess that's a long story to say we got these GREAT gliders as the free kids meal toy.  Because we don't often eat out at fast food places these toys still hold great excitement for the Thorne kids.  We waited until Daddy got home to put them together and fly them.  I think Michael was in hog heaven; they both were really.    You can just see the pure bliss on their faces!

Daddy helped throw them a few times and if they wanted to watch it fly high, but they did most of it themselves.  They'd run after each other flying the airplanes and spent a considerable amount of time just throwing it on their own about 2 feet, usually behind them!

This last picture is one of my favorite.  What joy it is to watch my children so carefree running through our backyard enjoying life!

        

New Tractor

We finally had to break down and buy and riding mower for our 1-acre-monster-of-a "yard".  Michael and Mary Ellen call it our tractor and want to ride it everyday...especially Michael.  This was right after the Sears truck delivered it.  They had a ball just riding around.  We love it too and cuts a two day project of mowing the yard down to about 3 hours!  Hooray for Sears!!