Happy Birthday America!

The 4th of July we actually spent "at home" with our best friends CAS & Christy. The kids loved shooting off fireworks. M&M enjoyed watching from afar. This is Carly and Daniel doing smoke bombs of all colors.

While David and Daniel ran around with their super-duper sparklers, Michael was more interested in the plane flying over-head.

Andrew lit some small sparklers for M&M. Mary Ellen wasn't so sure about being that close. Especially after she burned herself on a smoldering one a little later.

The day before the fourth, we drove to the upstate to visit Andrew's sister Amy. Papa and Mama Jo were there too, so it made for a complete family reunion. We celebrated with a flag cake that all the kids were excited about! We went to the pool and played and generally the cousins got to know each other. They haven't seen each other since M&M were about 6 months old.

Michael and Mary Ellen are so much like how Andrew and Amy were growing up. Although not twins like M&M they are very close in age. Mary Ellen shares many physical characteristics with her Aunt Amy, as Michael does with Andrew. Great picture of the 4 of them. M&M are still waving flags around the house...they loved it!

I love these last two pictures of Andrew with M&M and Brygs. Brygs was born just 2 months before M&M. It will be so fun seeing them grow up together. I'm sure they will be great friends!

I hope everyone appreciates those who sacrifice for our freedoms this year and every year. Great weekend of celebrating with OUR hero :-)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Papa & Mama Jo Visit!

It's been so nice to actually live near family again! Andrew's parents came for a visit a few weeks ago to help out with M&M. The initial stages of building our house has kept us busy and having to attend several baby-free meetings. So thoughtful that they would drive across the state just so we can go to a few meetings. We did lots of the standard stuff while they were here, like going for walks and playing in the pool. But you can rest assured that if we were inside, you'd find Michael with the train set....

...and Mary Ellen with the books!

We did get to spend time outside in the water too. The pool, the sprinkler or just the hose are hours of fun.

They were both fussing over who got to sit on the sit-and-spin. So our solution was just to put both of them on it. They seemed satisfied and had fun trying to spin it!

Mary Ellen hated the sprinkler at first. I think it was just cold and startling to her. So we eased her into it by stepping on most of the sprayers until she got closer and then used to it. Now that's the fun game...to stop up the sprayer with her foot or hands.

That little girl loves sticking her face right in it now!

Now have you ever seen a happier little guy? Michael has always LOVED the water!

I'm telling you...we've been to some really fancy pools but this little blow-up one is a hit! The best $10 we ever spent...got to love Walmart :-)

Fun time with Papa and Mama Jo! We truly feel blessed to be back in the South and know that M&M will be able to grow up seeing their grandparents often. Life is good!

Riverbanks Zoo

We were so excited to make a day trip to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia a couple weeks ago. A really great zoo with lots of fun things for little kids. It was such a hot day but the zoo has lots of shaded winding paths which made it tolerable. This picture of all of us on the elephant statue was my favorite of the day.



The gorilla was right up against the observation glass. I'm sure he was trying to stay cool but it provided us a good look of him. We just heard yesterday that this gorilla escaped his enclosure after the park was closed and the worker that was feeding him was injured. The funny thing is about 5 minutes after he escaped he just walked back in and went back to his favorite spot to take a nap. I guess he realized he had it pretty good in there!

Michael and Mary Ellen loved the farm area. Of course those are the animals they know best. They had goats and cows that you could feed and lots of chickens and a turkey.

But hands-down our favorite thing at the zoo was the bird sanctuary. This enclosed area had dozens of colorful birds, we think they were parrots, that would sit on your arm and you could feed them. Mary Ellen's favorite thing lately is birds of any kind so this was by far her favorite part of the day. I have to admit it was pretty cool...as you can tell by one of the pictures above, I was truly awe-struck :-)

We LOVE the zoo! And because M&M get in free it's a pretty inexpensive day trip, even without buying a yearly pass. We are looking forward to going again before the summer is out!

Beach Fun!

We were able to spend a few days in Florida as a family before we made the trip back to South Carolina last month. We needed to get back to get started on the house build process but couldn't resist the free babysitter, thanks Mom, and the beautiful weather! We were able to take M&M to the beach for the first time. It was a perfect day and we had great fun even though we only spent about an hour there. Poor Mary Ellen is so fair skinned...sunscreen is going to be her best friend!

We stopped in Floyd's at the Boardwalk to have some oysters...well, Andrew and I did and M&M had juice and crackers. Then, we set up behind the Boardwalk to enjoy the sand and water.

Mary Ellen's favorite new thing is birds. She loves looking for them and exclaiming with out-stretched pointer finger, "buds". So needless-to-say the seagulls were her favorite part.

Michael, as you can see was headed straight for the sand toys. He loved playing in the sand with his shovel and bucket. He also loved the water, which freaked Mary Ellen out a bit. She just didn't like the feeling of the waves pulling her out.

Two great pictures of M&M with Daddy. Andrew helped them with their first steps into the Gulf of Mexico!

Such a fun day...and M&M loved it! We're looking forward to another trip to Florida in July and more time at the beach!

Eggs, Baskets, Sunshine, and Dirt!?

The day before Easter Mother and I took M&M to Uptown Station. OK, so what really happened is we got the time wrong for the Easter Bunny. But they still had fun running around the big grassy area even if we never did catch a glimpse of the Bunny. The first picture is typical with them right now; Michael just strolling around in the grass and Mary Ellen full speed toward the parking lot and the train. The girl has NO FEAR! She's just so dang cute when she "runs". And to think I was worried about them not walking, ha!

After we missed the Easter Bunny we got an invite to an Egg Hunt for the kids in the neighborhood. M&M really did have fun with the other kids. They liked the idea of hunting for the eggs, which were really just strewn around the lawn clear as day, but their attention span was pretty short. Now that I think about it, it was probably just TOO easy for them!

Sweet little Mary Ellen gave it the best effort. Dee helped her find them and add them to the basket.

Michael tried to get into it but the front-end loader looked much more appealing! Look close and you can see a blue egg hidden under the yellow bucket. I really don't think he cared much.

So after about 15 minutes of egg-hunting they both ended up in the sand with the toys. I guess it's more age-appropriate anyway!

They woke up Easter morning to their Easter baskets and were very excited. Mary Ellen has traded her lovie for the white bunny now. Michael loved to shake the plastic eggs with the jelly beans in them.

We did get it together enough to make it to church that morning. Early service , no doubt! They just looked angelic in their matching outfits. We were sad to not have Daddy with us. But are looking forward to seeing him soon. He arrived this morning into South Carolina and should be coming down to Florida to pick us up in a few days. Fun and memorable Easter. I know they won't remember it. But it's memorable to me. I am determined to enjoy it all. I see M&M becoming little people before my eyes every day and I don't want to miss a thing!

Fun At Dee's

At the beginning of April we travelled down to Florida (yes, another 10 hour trip...in the car this time) to visit my Mother. Andrew was having to fly back to the Middle East to transition his replacement and be there for the movers. But he was kind enough to help me take M&M and all our paraphernalia down to Florida before he flew out. Have I mentioned what a WONDERFUL husband I have?! The trip went fine thanks to CAS and Christy's portable TV. Now I understand why people have DVD players in the car!! We were able to take some time with each other before he left thanks to my Mother. I was also able to go for a few days with my girlfriends for our annual beach weekend. This was the first time I'd ever stayed away overnight from M&M. I did pretty good...I REALLY needed the break...but probably bugged my mom and Aunt Max to death with all the phone calls to check up.

My Mother retired on April 13th after over 30 years at her job. They had a nice celebration for her and we were able to be there.

It was still very chilly in Florida when we arrived but M&M could not get enough of being outside. So I went and got a few fleece items on sale, bundled them up and let them have a ball! The swings are one of their favorites.

Well, I'm getting caught up but still have more Easter fun to document. I've also taken some great pictures of M&M in Dee's yard with all the flowers blooming. They are still loving being outside especially now with the sunshine and warmer temperatures. We are enjoying being here in Florida but are anticipating going back to South Carolina soon to get stared on our house!

South Carolina

I'm still trying to catch everyone up on what's been happening since we arrived back in the States. The first several weeks we stayed with our best friends CAS & Christy while we house-hunted in South Carolina. We had such fun! Just living like one big communal happy family! The kids all played and we were able to share some responsibility so it worked out perfect. How wonderful of our friends to be so generous!

Michael and Mary Ellen's first bath together in the tub. What fun they had! Why did we wait so long to do this? Truly their favorite new activity.

David loved playing with M&M. You can definitely tell he's the big brother. So sweet with both of them. Mary Ellen took to David immediately. We loved to joke about David being her boyfriend. She would always get so excited when he came into the room.

Carly sharing stuffed animals with Mary Ellen. What a sweet sensitive girl Carly is! She also loved to show off her pet gerbil "Harry" to M&M. Wow, a living moving animal...they loved it!

Daniel also loved playing with M&M. And vying for some sorely lost attention. Poor Daniel, he was the baby and then instantly there were TWO more babies to compete with. He was so sweet putting Mr. CAS's hat on Mary Ellen.

Such a cute shot of Mary Ellen standing in Mr. CAS's boots!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day during those first several weeks back. No big holiday for us really. But another fun occasion to take cute pictures of M&M. We were happy to be back in South Carolina (have I mentioned that!) and loved going for walks. It was still VERY cold there so we actually were able to bundle M&M up. After living in over 100 degree weather for a year it was really such fun! Don't they look like the kid in "A Christmas Story"?

Such fun! And we're looking forward to lots more fun times with our precious friends...since we're building our house right across the street from them!!!