New babies! Nephew & Niece!

We added 2 new babies to the family this Fall/Winter!   My sister, Megan and her husband, Mike, and big brother Cooper welcomed baby Brooks Thomas in September.  Alaina and I were lucky enough to get to go visit them for a weekend and meet him.  I even got to take his newborn photographs!

Then in December, my sister Stacy, her husband Zach, and big sisters, Wendy, Serena, and big brother, Daniel welcomed Cecily Rose.  We haven't gotten to meet her yet in person, but my sister and I did a collaborative newborn photo session.  She took the pictures, sent them to me, and I did a little photo editing on them.  Here are a few of pretty Cecily . . . 

Isn't God's handiwork amazing?

End of School Year and Beginning of Summer

I can't believe we've already flown through the end of the school year and are into the second week of summer!

Just to recap a little from the last weeks of school and end of year activities . . .

Ethan finished up 3rd grade in Mrs. Moroz's class and did a wonderful job!  He received many awards for his hard work all year at the end of year awards ceremony.  He even received a medal with his name on it for receiving all A's for all years at BSES K5-3rd Grade.  We are so proud!  Caleb finished up 1st grade in Mrs. Satterfield's class and did a wonderful job!  He received many awards for his hard work all year at the end of year awards ceremony.  Caleb received all A's all year except for one "B" that was 1 point away from an "A."  As long as our boys do their very best, we are happy, and both of them did!  We are so proud of both of our boys' accomplishments this year.  It's still so amazing to me all the things they are learning this young, and how they already have to study so much and learn such hard skills to be able to keep up their grades.  We were blessed once again with great teachers this year for both.  I have been so happy so far with all of their teachers, and hope we will continue to be blessed with top caliber teachers for our children.

The end of year was also filled with fun times, such as field day - always a highlight of course!

The first week of summer brought a visit from my sisters and the kids' cousins.  They were able to come down for the week so that two of my nieces could participate in swimming lessons with Caleb (his 5th year taking) and Alaina (her 1st year taking).

Ethan was able to attend a basketball camp at the high school here, and really enjoyed it a lot.  (I finally let Ethan graduate from swimming lessons after 5 years! :-)  Who knows, maybe Ethan will continue loving basketball and play for the high school team.  He certainly seems to have talent, skill, and love of the game!  It's great to see him growing into a confident young man.

Although the week went by WAY too fast, I still enjoyed the time with my sisters.  We got to spend 4 days together, and it just made me wish we could live near each other even more.  Maybe some day!

Even though there was a lot of rain this week, the cousins still managed to fit in a lot of water play and fun together!

Now, we head into the second and final week of swim lessons, and are getting ready for our family vacation to the beach the week after that!  I really need a relaxing vacation.  Can't wait!

Until my next moment to blog!

Since Easter

I can't believe once again another month has passed since Easter. Time marches on! Things have seemed so busy since Easter, even though I can't quite remember why it seems that way? The boys finished up basketball, so they don't have practice or games and we also decided to take a break from gymnastics as well. So really all we have on the schedule is school and church on Sunday. I really love having a less "scheduled" schedule. I think it's great to have kids involved in extra curricular activities, but its also nice not to be so over scheduled and have time for family time in the evenings. Like last night and tonight the kids made a fort in their swing set clubhouse by covering the openings with towels and blankets. And tonight they played baseball and kickball in the culdesac with neighborhood friends. I love that they can find creative and fun things to do without being made to with an organized team. We are so lucky to have a great group of kids right here in the neighborhood to play with. There are times I would love to move to a bigger house, but I really can't imagine leaving all our great neighbors! It's not something we can do right now anyway, but I'm glad I can be content where we are for now.

(3 cuties after church one Sunday)

In other news since Easter, we made a trip to my parents' home in Williamsburg, VA a few weekends ago to visit with my sisters and most of their families. We hadn't seen them since Christmas so it was great to get together for a long weekend - still always too short and goes by too fast. The kids had great cousin time and I enjoyed spending time with my sisters.

(7 cousins - what a group!)

Last weekend I traveled to Surfside Beach (a little south of Myrtle Beach) for my once a year reunion with my best college girlfriends. We don't get to see each other but once a year, but we can always pick up right where we left off.

(Ginger, Kelly, Julie, Me)

I'm thankful to my husband for watching the kids for the long weekend and allowing me to have this special time with my girlfriends. Usually I feel like it really refreshes me, gives me some time to myself so I can come back a better mother and wife. This year I was happy to get back to my family, however I seem to be having a very hard time with allergies and sinuses since I've gotten back so I haven't felt great.

I went on a field trip to the Strawberry Farm with Caleb on Monday and I will go on a field trip with Ethan on Friday to Columbia, our state's capital. In between I'm trying to fit in working!

Busy, busy! Oh, and I'm trying to convince myself to really start potty training Alaina, who turned 2 at the end of January. I know it will be great once she is fully trained, its just all the inconvenience between now and then that I dread. Here's hoping she's a fast learner!

And a few other fun things we've done in the last month:

Ethan and Caleb went regular roller skating for the first time and both did great!

Ethan and Caleb both got all A's on their report cards and got to go and get free doughnuts for every A from Krispy Kreme

We went to a local carnival in town and all the kids had fun riding the rides ... Especially Alaina who got to drive a car for the first time!

Until my next moment to blog!

Back again!

I'm back again on blogger! I figured out how to delete tons of duplicate photos I had in google to free up some more space, I think. But since I've switched back and forth several times already between here and my shutterfly site, it could and probably will happen again. But ... I am just so attached to this blog. I love looking back over my family's history and I like the easy blogger app that I am now using to type this post on my NEW iPad! I got my iPad for Christmas and I just love it. I hardly ever get out my laptop anymore.

So what's been going on with us? Well we made it through the stomach bug hitting us all in one way or another over Christmas break. It was so strange. We would think we were over it for a day and a half and then it would happen again. It was especially hard on Caleb and Alaina who seemed to be passing it back and forth and took the longest to get over. But in the midst of it all we still managed to have a good Christmas with our family and my parents, parents in laws, and my sisters and their families who visited between Christmas and New Year's.

(The only problem with using this app is that I can't type below each picture to caption it. Just have to type the post, then add the pictures below.)

Enjoy the pictures below of our family's fun over Christmas!