Last Stop

On the way home today, we detoured to Winston-Salem to see my college friend and her family!  C and I had met up with her and her 2-year-old this past May when she was pregnant, but we had not yet met her newest addition born in September!

We caught up over lunch with the big kids played and the baby slept!  Oh it was so nice to see her again!!

Being that she is only 3 hours away, I'm hoping we can visit with her again soon:)

Fish Camp Friday

Instead of the guys playing golf and the girls taking the kids to see Santa today like we've done in the past when we were in New Bern, we went to a fish camp!

We started the morning playing over at cousin Dylan's house and riding his 4-wheeler which the kids LOVED!  At lunch time we made our way to the fish camp for BBQ, fishing, boat rides, s'mores, corn hole, football and Settlers!!!!  It was a full afternoon of relaxing, eating, playing and generally just enjoying being a family!

On the way back to the hotel, C fell asleep(I haven't mentioned it yet, but we did not sleep good on this trip and we were all running on about empty by the time we left the fish camp!) so I asked M to stop at the mall across the street from our hotel so I could run in "real quick"(on Black Friday, HAHA!) to grab one thing!  OH.MY.GRACIOUS!!!  I have never been shopping on Black Friday before and I will never go again - not even for one little thing that wasn't even on sale!

We opted to bring dinner to the hotel and eat in the lobby so in case we had a meltdown we could escape fast to the room:)

The kids did fine, ate a decent dinner and went to bed without too much talking for the first time since we arrived!

It was a great day of memories!

Cousin Dylan's 4-wheeler

S's turn to drive.

Lucy, S and Kate playing Bingo

Jennifer entertained us all(here, Connor) with a magic show!

S Fishing

Our Family

M and C going out on the boat.

Kate and S hopped on too!

And they are off - it is amazing that C didn't go in the lake!!

C fishing

S playing corn hole with Uncle Bobby

Thanksgiving Day

This year was our first year without my Papa!  We had to decide what we were going to do, since Thanksgiving has ALWAYS been at his house.  We all agreed that Raleigh would make the most sense and made the plan to have lunch at Boss and Chaney's house.  IT.WAS.PERFECT!!!

The kids had an absolute ball and there was such a great layout with the kitchen and two living areas, that we could all hang out right there together and catch up while the kids played in the playroom in the basement and the backyard!

I loved every minute of our time today and wouldn't have changed anything about it!  We all had a very relaxing day and made wonderful memories with the best family ever!!

Gobble, gobble!!!

C and Bo

Kate(holding Libby), Lucy, S

S holding Libby

Ready to eat!  He was sitting here for no less than 15 minutes
with a fork in his hand waiting.. and waiting... and waiting
for lunch to start:)

Dress up time!

Princess dressed up!

Driving... poor kid always gets stuck driving pink Jeeps!

S, Kate, Lucy, Mary Mac

Dress Up - Kate, S and Lucy

The Boys - C, Charlie, Jack, Connor and Baxter

Posing with the turkey (S and Mary Mac)

Gigi, S and Mary Mac

Grandpa and S

Ben, Dylan and C

Me, Chaney and Joanna

C and M

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Program

Today was S's Thanksgiving program at school and it was very cute and extremely entertaining!!

All of the kindergarten classes participated and were each split into Indians and Pilgrims.  Some had speaking parts, some acting parts.  S had a speaking part (see video below) and did a great job!!

Each class also sang a song(see video below) and S has been practicing and practicing and practicing some more!  C and I both know it too:)  There was one little boy in her class who sang so loudly that I was laughing too hard to keep my phone steady!  It was a riot!!!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching my little Indian on stage!!

Mommy distracting the kids from the story their teacher
was reading them:)

Pretty Indian princess!

S and Liam

S is in the back row with the blue headband on just to the right of the
microphone.

Singing their songs.

Gearing Up for Thanksgiving

We really haven't done anything worth blogging about, but I still want pictures of stuff, so this post is just to get everything posted before Thanksgiving gets here and I do have something blog-worthy!!

My cutie Starbucks date:)

We drew LOTS of chalk pictures on this particular
afternoon!!

This kiddo has been very fussy lately - and I think this is why, he is tired!

Every night after the kids are in bed, this is what we've been doing for HOURS: window color,
brick color, mortar color, soffit color, column color, and on and on and on!!

Proud of his haircut - he was perfect for the lady who cut
it and didn't move the entire time!!

This is what I get when I tell her to go put her shoes on - it is in
the 40s!!!!

Superheroes:)

Her turkey placemat - this is how she colors all of her pictures -
no white spaces!!!  Even her schoolwork, I guess she finishes early
and is board, is completely colored on the back!

C's turkey shirt from last year!  Still fits and he is VERY proud of it!!

Zoo

Our playgroup today met at the zoo and it was COLD!!

Thankfully, a friend had her husband's toboggan in the car and C was able to use it before it got "too hot"(I was still cold when he made this claim!)!

C's favorite is the giraffe, but I have a feeling he says this because he hears me say it!  I think his favorite part is the playground:)  His least favorite, hands down, are the howler monkeys!  I have to carry him by this section even if they aren't showing out at the time.  But today, they were LOUD!! I don't think I've ever seen them this crazy!  Maybe because it was a chilly day they were more active!?!?  Whatever the reason, they were going nuts in their cage!

Before we headed home, we played on the big playground outside of the zoo with one of the other little girls and then called it a day!

We do love our perfect preschool-sized zoo!!

Elephants

Stare down with the iguana!

Loved his huge leaf, and then fed it to the goats and they loved
it too - which was quite funny to watch!!

C and Mary Blair

Another Girls' Night Out!!!

Tonight I scored another night out with friends:)

WOOHOO!!!

And, as I was walking out S says,"You ALWAYS leave us!!"  Oh they learn guilt trips early, don't they!?!?

It was a fun night with sweet friends!

Baby Shower

Since I am unable to go to bible study any more because of S's dance schedule, it has been a very long time since I have had any girl time!

This afternoon our Sunday School class had a baby shower for my sweet friend and her miracle baby boy!

It was a great time with these girls that I don't get to see nearly enough, celebrating God's special gift!!

24 Hours in the Life of.... US!

First off, let me start by saying we are sooo exciting!  This post is riveting!  LOL!

S loves playing with our neighbors and poor C gets left behind quite often.  Yesterday afternoon we all went across the street and played.  C and our littlest neighbor who is about 19-months-old have a a love/hate relationship with each other!  He would drive crazy and she would love it, and then she would get scared and we would get her off, then she would cry to get back on and he would floor it to get away all the while running over her toes as he sped away!  HAHA!!  It was a working play date for the mommies:)

Last night we cashed in on a couple of the free pizzas S has received from school for reading and attendance!  S got to choose which one she wanted and Brother got the other one - M and I were the lucky ones who got stuck with leftovers:)  They were super excited to each have their very own pizza and be able to hold it in the car on the way home - it truly is the little things in life!  We had to go to Pizza Hut and Papa John's to get them, but it was worth an extra 2 miles in the car for the joy it brought them!

For Christmas last year I got S a craft box kit that comes once a month, Kiwi Crate, and she has really loved doing all the different crafty things.  Since school has started, though, we don't have as much time to do it.  Finally this week we finished September's box and did color block art.  Both kids got into it and enjoyed painting their crosses!

This morning, during my devotional time, one of the verses that was focused on was Psalm 89:15:

Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you,
who walk in the light of your presence, Lord.

It was one that I was really studying on this morning!  Then, at the church gym while I was running before I took C to his class, I saw on the wall one of the scriptures they have on the wall was the same one.  I read it who knows how many times this morning... 50!?!?!  Every time I went around the track, there it was again!  It got the day started right and my mind thinking about the important things, not the petty annoyances:)

While the kids were at school today, I stopped and picked up some books at the library.  S was thrilled!!  She came home, set up camp in the garage, and went at it reading away - she really can read some of them!:)  C was in the car sleeping, so I left them both out there and came inside to enjoy some quiet!  Loved it!!!

It was pj day at school if you are wondering why she is wearing
her jammies!:)  I forgot that she was wearing this when I picked
her up from school today to go to her 6-year-old appt!!!

Here are her stats from her appointment:
Height - 45.25in (47%)
Weight - 38.4lb (11%)
BMI - 13.18 (3%)