as the world Turns...

DISNEYWORLD!!!

2012-03-05T18:34:00.006-08:00

I don't even know where to start!! The DISNEY trip was absolutely wonderful. So so fun. So so special. But, NOT NEAR long enough!! The surprise was pulled off without a hitch!! Shawn and I stayed up late on Friday night (despite Braxton's repeated entertainment sessions by coming out of his bedroom after bedtime!) and got the car all packed up. We woke up early on Saturday morning to get showered and dressed and get our bags packed up without the kids knowing about it. We had made Braxton a haircut appt. just to give a reason for Shawn to take Reilly and Braxton out so I could get the last things in the car and be fully ready for the "reveal" once they got back! After they got home, around 9:00am, we sat them down on the couch and just asked them what they wanted to do for the day. Reilly said she wanted to build a new train track on the train table and Braxton said he wanted to build a fire with Daddy!! About that time, I started playing a song from my iphone that they both know is connected with Disney world (it's the song I have playing on the video I made from our last trip!). They both looked at me confused, knowing what the song was! Shawn and I looked at each other and just yelled, "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!!!" They didn't know what to do! Reilly immediately got excited and Braxton started shouting "I see Buzz Light-cheer!" SO so so FUN!!! Reilly didn't quite know that we were really going...like RIGHT THEN! After calling DeeDee and Poppi to tell them the news, we all piled in the car and were OFF!

The trip to Jacksonville was awesome. Reilly and Braxton really are great travelers, and for that we are so grateful!! Layton did pretty well, although he had about an hour of fussiness and crying. We got to Jacksonville about 4:00 and went straight to the pool for some swimming!!

Sunday morning, we pounded down the awesome Embassy Suites buffet breakfast and jumped back in the car to continue our trek to Disney! It only took us about 2.5 hours to get to Disney from there. We pulled in right around 1:00 and luckily, they were able to get us right in a room!! As we were unloading the car in front of the Wilderness Lodge, the Magical Express transportation that Mom and Dad took from the airport was pulling up!! PERFECT timing! Mom and Dad came around the corner and surprised the kids. They went crazy!! It was awesome. We did some exploring around the resort, which was amazing! IT was chilly and pretty cloudy on Sunday, so we couldn't go swimming. We had to pick up our tickets for the parks at Will Call so since we had some time before dinner, Shawn and I took Reilly and Braxton and went on a little adventure! We took the boat over to Magic Kingdom and got our tickets, and then took the monorail to the Contemporary Resort and then caught the boat from there back to our Lodge! So fun!! Dinner was at the Whispering Canyon and it was really yummy! It was a loud and fun place and since Reilly and Braxton had birthday buttons on, they were surprised with cupcakes and singing!

We got up early on Monday morning so we could get to Magic Kingdom in time for the ribbon cutting ceremony! The one regret I have from the whole trip was not having a video camera on Braxton when he first saw the characters. During the ceremony, the train came pulling in with Mickey and several other characters on it. Braxton was up on Poppi's shoulders and just began bouncing up and down, screaming "HEY MICKEY!!!!!" It was absolutely priceless!! I had a pretty good touring plan laid out for us and thankfully, it proved to be a perfect plan for allowing us to see all we wanted to/needed to at Magic Kingdom! A couple highlights....Braxton seeing Buzz Lightyear and showing him his little Buzz toy. Seeing Reilly's "awe" when she met the princesses (she just recently watched Beauty and the Beast for the first time, and since this is her first real movie, she is all about Belle!). After we left the princesses meet and greet, I pulled Reilly over and told her that while we were in there, Cinderella invited us to come have lunch with her at the Castle!!!!! (I needed a creative way to tell her we were going there, so I came up with this plan!! and it was perfect!) She was beyond exited. I then told her that we had to go change because she had to have a fancy dress to eat lunch in the castle! I surprised her again with a Cinderella dress (from consignment sale! hello!), fancy shoes, and a tiara for her hair. We ran into the bathroom and got all dolled up and off we went for our reservation! The castle was awesome. We first got to go and have a formal picture taken with Cinderella and we even got a print package as part of our lunch reservation! Once we got upstairs in the dining room, we were treated like royalty! The girls all received wands and the boys got swords. Our lunch was super fancy and really yummy! One at a time, we were greeted at our table by Belle, Ariel, Aurora, and Snow White. Another highlight for me was watching Reilly and Braxton on the Magic Carpets ride. They asked if they could ride together, so we decided to sit in front of them so I could take pictures, obviously! Their faces and excitement was absolutely priceless. On such a basic ride. Awesome. The best part of the whole day was by far the blessing of the weather! There was 70% chances of scattered storms ALL.DAY.Long and not a single drop of rain fell on us until AFTER we left the park to head back to the resort! And one other huge blessing....LAYTON!! He was so great. I was worried about how he'd do b/c I literally had NO time planned for him to take naps at the resort! He was as happy as he could be. When he got tired, he just fell asleep on whoever's shoulder that was holding him and I would lay him the stroller for a short nap! He even went on all the rides except a few! So precious. What a blessing that was, for sure!! Thank you, God!

Tuesday morning we started off at one of our favorite places...Chef Mickeys!! Such great food and always so fun to have some one-on-one time with the main 5...Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto! We went to Hollywood Studios and saw the kids favorite friends...the Little Einsteins and Handy Manny! We also saw the wonderful, Broadway like show of Beauty and the Beast. It was super hot and gorgeous so we headed back to the resort around 2:00 and hit the pool!! Mom and Dad offered to keep Layton at the resort and allow us to take Reilly and Braxton back to Magic Kingdom for some special time. Reilly and I rode Space Mountain while Shawn and Braxton rode Buzz Lightyear over and over!! The best part was eating dinner on a patio right under the castle...lit up in the night sky! It was awesome. We got to ride the Astro Orbitor and watch the fireworks from way up high! We took our time leaving the park, had some cotton candy and browsed in some stores to find Reilly some fancy Mickey ears with a bow :)

Wednesday morning was super sad pulling away, but we were on the road by 9:00 and headed straight to Chick-Fil-A for some chicken biscuits and SWEET TEA!!! Holla! The drive back was looonnng, but again, Reilly and Braxton did great! It was me that was a bit antsy and Layton was exhausted. Of course, before we even got out of Disney World, we already were faced with the question..."When can we come back?!!!!"....and it was coming from Shawn and I!! Hopefully not too long before our next trip :)

my little leader.

2012-03-02T19:16:00.002-08:00

I was telling my friend, Johnna, that Reilly was so excited to get back to school (after our trip to Disney) because she knows that her friends missed her! Johnna proceeded to tell me that she overheard her son (Asher) and Gia talking earlier in the week, and one of them said, "Well, if Reilly isn't here this week, then who will be the BOSS?"!!!! Wow, isn't that just special. I have NO IDEA where she gets that from!!

A funny from tonight...

2012-02-24T17:53:00.003-08:00

I have to blog this right now before I forget it because it's one I definitely want to have documented!!

Shawn and I are surprising the kids with an out of control surprise tomorrow....we're going to DISNEY...and they have NO IDEA!!!!! so tonight, after we put the kids in bed, we were in the garage strategically planning the packing of our car and what needs to go where. All the sudden, we heard Braxton's voice, "Hey, dere you guys are! I hear you!" I look up to see him standing naked at the doorway to the kitchen. (side note....he has been getting out of bed lately so we just had a talk about NOT getting out unless it was an emergency or he would be punished) I calmly walked over to him and said "why are you down here and where are your pants?" "dey upstair on my bed" "Why are they up there?" "cuz I want them dere" "why are you down here? did mommy tell you you would be punished if you got out of bed? Do you have an emergency?" "Yes! WEEE-OOOO, WEEEE-OOOO, WEEE-OOOO (siren sounds!!!)"

Oh.my.goodness. I immediately looked at Shawn and he burst into laughter, after which I did too, and then Braxton started laughing with us. As Shawn carried him upstairs, he continued his "emergency" with siren sounds, "Weeee-ooooo, weeee-oooo!"

That guy keeps us laughing, that is for sure!

More to come on the DISNEY ADVENTURE!!!!

2012-01-26T18:41:00.001-08:00

Yes, it's been a while. What can I say...I sorta take a break in the winter months from blogging...not a good habit to get into b/c then I'm always stressed about getting caught up again! But, never the less, here is our Christmas post :)

We are so grateful and so blessed to have so much family so close ! (how about that for some "so" in one sentence!) but it definitely means that we have to spread our Christmas celebrations out a bit so the children are not completely inundated with presents all in one day!

We had a great time up in Greensboro with Poppi and DeeDee, and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Angel. Mom made an awesome dinner, like always!, and then we had a sweet time of sharing gifts with each other.

We had some time with Grandpa and Nanny during the afternoon on Christmas Eve. Since the plan was for Braxton to receive a big Chuggington train set, he received several "pieces" of the set throughout the gift exchanges, so it was fun to watch it all come together!

We had to take some "family photos" in our Christmas outfits after we got home from the awesome Christmas Eve service at church! It was so fun to have the kids in the service with us, singing along to all the songs and being a part of the spirit of the season!

Christmas morning couldn't come fast enough for these two!! Though, I must say, we are SO grateful that our children sleep (for the most part!) til 8:00am!

Nana and Aunt Kelly and Shauny came over Christmas morning for brunch and more present sharing!

And Christmas night, the door was still open for more!! Memama, Uncle Clarke, Uncle Watts, Carson and Cooper joined us for a night Christmas dinner.

Layton's first Christmas was a big hit for the little guy....tuckered out at the dinner table.

3rd Annual Christmas Party!

2012-01-07T08:04:00.000-08:00

Well, our annual Christmas party proved to be just as entertaining as each year past!! It actually seems to keep getting better and better...I think mainly due to the craziness that always ensues with the Gift Exchange game we play. Ah, the memories :) From last year when our dear friend Bert decided to steal a picture from our house and use that as his gift to enter the game to this year when Shawn and I wrapped up some live goldfish in a bag of water with a fish bowl as one of our gifts. The laughs never stopped! Especially when Bert and Holly were the ones who would open that bag of goldfish and would end up at the end of the night with 3 dead fish, 2 live fish and a beautiful beta fish we also included in the gift as a "backup" if the goldfish died. If it wasn't funny enough, the pranksters came out and Bert and James decided it would be funny to leave the dead goldfish in our master bathtub. Oh, let the pranks begin!! Can't wait til next year! It's always so much work but it's oh so worth it after all is said and done!

Twelve Days of Christmas, 2011!!

2011-12-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

We have had so much fun this Christmas season with the kids. Reilly and Braxton are getting to an age where they really seem to "Get it" and it has been so cool to do some real intentional things with them to help instill the true Spirit of Christmas, as well as some other just fun things!

For our 12 Days of Christmas this year, we started off at the Kannapolis Village Park. This was our first time there and it was so neat! Definitely something we'll have to remember for next year. There's a small train that goes around the whole park and they had lights/lighted scenes all throughout. There were singing bears, and amazing light show set to Transiberian Orchestra-type music, and Santa...for FREE! :) The kids had a blast just running around, dancing to the music, riding the train in the dark through the lights and watching the singing bears.

The next night we created a family Gingerbread house together. Always an adventure to see how much candy actually ends up on the house vs. in someone's mouth or just on the floor!

We did some homemade Christmas gifts the next day and then celebrated a friend's birthday and spent the night with Grandpa and Nanny the next day! Monday was by far my favorite day and something we will definitely be doing more of! We called it "Invisible Angels" day. In the morning, I talked to the kids about the angels in the Christmas story and how Angels help people and take care of them. We also talked about that angels are around us and we can't see them, just like Jesus is always with us and we can't see Him = invisible. Then we talked about celebrating Jesus' birthday and how we can't wrap up gifts to give Him but we could give Him other kinds of gifts... "Loving others and doing nice things" is what Reilly came up with! So, that's what we did! We set out on a mission to be "invisible angels" and to do some "random acts of kindness" for Jesus's birthday presents. Our first stop was the Dollar Store. I gave the kids two $1 dollar bills each and they had to hide them in the toy section so that a little boy/girl would find a $1 one day and be able to buy a special treat while there. The next stop was Chick-Fil-A where we were set to pay for the car behind us. As we were in line and saw a car pull up behind us, we said a prayer that God would bring them joy when we paid for their lunch. When we got to the window, I paid for the lady's order and told the guy to tell her we said "Merry Christmas!". Reilly was so excited and got out of her seat to turn around backwards and watch as the lady pulled up to the window. We saw her hold her money out of the window and then just stare at the guy who was obviously telling her we paid. Reilly got so excited and said, "Mommy! She just looked at our car and smiled!" Precious. Our next stop was Walmart. We had to get a few groceries and then we stopped by the gift card kiosk and got a Walmart giftcard. After we paid, we walked up and down the row of registers, looking for someone to give the giftcard to for them to use to pay for their groceries. I spotted a lady wtih 3 kids and an overflowing cart and suggest Reilly give it to her. Her instructions were to just walk up, hand the card over, say "Merry Christmas!" and walk away. She was a bit hesitant (shy!) and so I took her hand and we walked up to the lady together. The lady took the card, looked very confused, and then smiled so big when we just said "Merry Christmas!" and walked away. The best part of the whole day came next....as we were walking away, I heard one of the little girls say, "Mommy, who was that?!" and the lady just replied, "I think it was an angel." Wow. Priceless. After dinner, Shawn took R and B out for a few more random acts. They went to a coffee shop and bought some hot chocolate and then delivered it to one of the Salvation Army bell ringers outside of Lowes Foods. Then they taped quarters, candycanes, and a Christmas card the R made to the vending machines. And the last stop was to take a candy cane and a card to the ATM machine at B of A. It was such a fun and special day.
(Too bad everytime we go to CFA now Reilly wants to pay for the person behind us :)
I didn't take any pictures to capture this day, though I wish I had!!

The next included our annual light tour around the neighborhood with popcorn. We sure saw some pretty lights in Highland Creek! Yesterday, the kids and I baked and decorated some pretty sweet sugar cookies...as if we didn't already have enough cookies in the house! The rest of our 12 Days celebration include a trip to celebrate Christmas in Greensboro with DeeDee and Poppi and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Angel and our super special family Christmas Eve church service/Jesus Birthday Party night. This has been a really fun season for us....just wish Shawn and I didn't have SO much else going on with work (both of us) and school (Shawn) so we could have enjoyed it even more.

2011-12-21T19:47:00.000-08:00

I know I just posted a gazillion pics of Layton, but I just have to keep posting them :) Afterall, he is my third and historically, the 3rd child hardly has any photos taken of them, so I just need to prove that wrong! These pictures were taken one morning when it was just he and I at home. I just wanted to capture some of his fatness (aka, cuteness!) and of course I got lots more smiles and precious expressions :)

Christmas Jammies

2011-12-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Definitely not my favorite of the Christmas jammies tradition. Don't know if having 3 kids made it more difficult or if it's just that one of them is only 5 months old :) But, I did get a couple cute shots of Layton by himself and only a couple shots of all three. I should probably just try again another day but who's got time for "re-dos" this time of year?! Next year will hopefully be better and easier with their ages :)

Layton- 5 months old

2011-12-21T19:03:00.000-08:00

Layton continues to be our chunkiest baby to date :) And I love all of those rolls and chubby cheeks! He is also super laid back and content and overall pretty happy most of the time! Such a blessing being that he is the third! He constantly has something in his mouth...either his fist, all four fingers, his thumb, a toy, a burpcloth, or anything else close by! He drools all the time and I'm pretty sure I can see a tiny bit of "white" under his gums at this point. He LOVES, and I mean loves, his brother and sister. He just laughs at them and almost always smiles when they talk to him! It's the cutest thing ever. He's still napping great...from 10-12 and 2-4:00 and will go without an evening nap if we are out and about or will lay down from an hour and then sleep from 8pm-8am. He has started waking up at random times and I'll hear him in his bed just playing around, talking, making sounds, and then sooner or later he's quiet again and fell back asleep! I've also found him on his back a few times and I've had to go in a turn him back over to his tummy :) He's really starting to play with things now and reaches for anything you put in front of him. He'll also make a choice between two toys if you hold them in front of him! Within the past week or so he's started reaching out and touching my face, which i LOVE! His little hands are just the most precious thing to me and I can't get enough of feeling them in my hands, on my arm while I'm holding him, or on my face. I'm eating him up, that's for sure!! Here's a bunch of random photos from the last month.

he DEFINITELY looks more like Shawn now! especially in this one:

look at that double/triple chin! holy moly!

love the serious face...and the vest is pretty cute too :)

The hunt for a perfect tree...2011

2011-12-21T18:52:00.000-08:00

What a difference it was this year!! Our last trip to the Christmas tree farm, it was 25 degrees with winds of at least 20 mph and our visit lasted less than 20 minutes. It was miserable last year!! But this year...wow, it must have been in the mid 50's or even close to 60 degrees and absolutely gorgeous!! A few weeks before we headed up to the tree farm, Reilly found Shawn's walkie-talkies and insisted that we bring them with us to help us on our hunt for the perfect tree. The kids had so much fun playing with those things as we got lost in the trees. Ahhhh..the smell of fresh Christmas trees. Nothing like it! This is one of my favorite traditions :)

Reilly couldn't wait to get that star up on top!!

Random thougths.....

2011-11-28T18:54:00.001-08:00

I need to blog a few random sayings and funny/cool things that the kids are doing right now so I don't forget!!

1. Braxton continues to be our little comedian. Last weekend, Reilly said something to him and without even skipping a beat, he looked right at her, repeated what she said, and then said, "you kidding me?!" She looked straight at me with the biggest eyes ever and we both just died laughing. It was so funny. So of course, Braxton uses every possible opportunity to say it again, hoping for the same eruption of laughter :)

2. Reilly has become such a good little pray-er. Almost every night at dinner for the past week or so, she has volunteered to pray. And that's not too out of the ordinary, but, the way she has been praying and what she has been praying has developed and changed and become so mature sounding! It's truly amazing. Shawn almost always says "amen" with tears in his eyes. There's just something so pure and so special about hearing your child talk to God with such an innocence and realness and such sincerity. It's also really fun to see how much she enjoys talking to God. I could listen to her pray all day.

3. After almost 12 full months of speech therapy, twice weekly, Braxton had his final session last week. I couldn't believe it. Thinking back to last year when I was 100% certain he was going to be diagnosed with Apraxia of Speech, which would mean years and years of therapy and lots and lots of work and still maybe never really having "normal" speech, and then seeing where he is now....I cry. Everytime I think about it. It's just amazing to me to see how God has brought us through this. From 12 weeks of Therapeutic Listening, twice daily for 30 minutes, to having to rearrange "my" schedule and plans so that we could be home twice a week for therapy sessions, we are blown away at his progress. And it's so funny to hear him talking like such a "big boy". He says the funniest things and some of the time, I still look at Shawn and say, "did you hear that?!" Tonight though, I had to laugh and thank to myself that this is what happens when you do speech therapy a little too long: Braxton was feeding the cat and accidentally dropped some food on the floor. He immediately looked down at the mess and said, "Dad-gum-it!!!" What?!!! Oops! Guess he's heard that too much...but thankful that's ALL he's heard :) And soooo thankful that he now has the ability to articulate himself so well :) Grateful!

Layton's Infant Dedication

2011-11-28T18:40:00.001-08:00

We had such a special service to celebrate our littlest guy earlier this month! We had both Reilly and Braxton dedicated at church around 4 months and the service was very sweet, but very short and not much to it. Well, this year, Meck totally redid the Infant Dedication service and boy was it awesome! We were able to have all the grandparents present which was also really special. Meck has really made the service into something so meaningful and really really intimate. They are requiring that all parents having their babies dedicated attend a "First Steps" class, in which they have the chance to learn about and discuss how they will raise their child to walk with Christ, how they will support their marriage, recognizing it as one of the most significant relationships in their child's life, and how they will grow and strengthen their own walk with Christ as they raise this child. Since we are not first time parents, we didn't attend the class, but did complete some of the homework, which was really really good. The one thing we had to do to prepare for the Dedication service was to write our exactly "who" we wanted Layton to be when he is 18years old; what kind of character we hope to develop in him. And then during the service, we actually shared this very intimate piece with our parents. It was really special. They started out the service with a slideshow of all the babies being dedicated, made from pictures that parents sent in. It was so sweet!

We love how intentional parenting is supported and recognized by our church!

Each family had our own cake to enjoy, with our baby's name on it! How fun?!

Thankful.

2011-11-28T18:32:00.000-08:00

Just one more post about Thanksgiving.....

Last year I found and purchased the coolest "Thankful Tree" from Pottery Barn. It's a tree that has 30 little pockets on it to fill with things we are thankful for. Starting on November 1st, we sit around the dinner table each night and go around and share what we are thankful for, either from that day specifically or just something in general. We write it on a card and then put the card in the correct pocket. And while it was fun hearing some of the things Reilly said she was thankful last year, it was way cool to hear the way her little mind and her heart has been shaped since then. Some of the things she said she was thankful for took Shawn and I by surprise. It's so fun to witness her develop this innocent faith. One of the things she mentioned one night was that she was thankful for "Daddy going to work every single day so that mommy can stay at home with us"...what? At 4 yrs. old, we were pretty blown away by that one! And to help B along, we would have him say, "Thank you, God, for....." Most of the time his thank-yous had to do with what one of us had already said or something concrete, which is to be expected at 2yrs. old! This is a fun tradition that we will definitely keep doing and the kids love it! We keep the cards in our yearly "box" so we can look back at them as the years go by.

Thanksgiving DAY

2011-11-28T18:27:00.000-08:00

We had quite a busy day on Thanksgiving. We started over at my Aunt Freda's house, over in Denver, with all of Poppi's family. It's crazy to think how many people cram into such a small house, and even though it's only once a year, it's good to see my cousins!

And then we hurried home to prep and finish cooking for dinner at our house!! Although I really thought I'd have a dining room table this year for the Holidays, the 12' folding table with 10 metal folding chairs around it worked out just fine :) We had all the grandparents, plus Aunt Kelly and Shauny over and had another awesome meal! We are so grateful. We have SO much to Praise God for and we have enjoyed being able to see so much family around this time of year!

Thanksgiving at preschool...

2011-11-28T18:08:00.000-08:00

Both Reilly and Braxton had Thanksgiving feasts in their classrooms, and lucky for me, they were on two different days. Being the overachiever that I am (I know, it's a sickness), I decided to sign up for deserts for both of the feasts since I had found some super cute recipes on Pinterest that I wanted to try!! (and since I have SO much "free time" these days...why not?!) I did have lots of fun making the creations and I think the kids enjoyed them both!!

First up, Turkey sugar cookies for Braxton's class feast (and why not go ahead and make another 16 for Reilly to take to snack in her class on the same day?!) :)

I was so bummed that the video camera died as soon as I turned it on....no worries, only ONE child sang...and it wasn't B :)

Braxton with his apple turkey! He was so proud!

Next up, TeePee cupcakes. So, you are supposed to cook a cupcake inside a sugar cone...this part was kinda tricky!! And definitely made quite a mess in my oven:)

but they did turn out pretty cute in the end!! not sure they were the best tasting things, but hey, it's all about the cuteness, right?!

Such a different experience in the TK classroom...all the kids sing, loudly, and so enthusiastically :)

Sophie and Reilly

Asher and Reilly

Ms. Rowland...we LOVE you!

Thanksgiving in Greensboro...

2011-11-28T17:50:00.000-08:00

We had a total of 5 Thanksgiving celebrations this year! The first of which was at mom and dad's house last weekend. Memama, Clarke, Carson, Cooper, Watts, Brandon and Angel and all of us were together for the afternoon. Mom made an AWESOME meal, as always, and then the kids couldn't wait to get the horses out and start riding. It's so funny to me that the horses just seem like some big dogs that the kids just want to get out and play with! They have no clue that most children may NEVER ride a horse in their entire life. What a treat it is to have time with family and get to do something so cool.

first, some time with Memama and Uncle Watts while the kids "patiently" waited for lunch :)

When Braxton was younger, he was so not into the horses! but in the last year, he has really developed a love for them and now wants to go to the barn with DeeDee everytime she's out there! Feeds, brushes, rides the horses like it's nobody's business!!

DeeDee and Poppi have a new baby.....meet Brayly (take 2 letters from each of their grandchildren's names...yes, mom is always creative like that). Reilly and Braxton are in love.

THUNDERROAD 1/2 marathon

2011-11-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

If you look in the dictionary at the word "determination", you very well may see a picture of Shawn. The guy is just full of it...and "it", I mean determination :) From a body-cast and the prognosis that he may never walk again to a state championship Cross Country year in high school to a lifelong goal of working towards a marathon.....he is such a model for our children of beating the odds, pushing through the hardwork, and never giving up! And I couldn't be more proud. The kids and I LOVE cheering him on during the road races he's been doing this year and we couldn't WAIT to get downtown to cheer for him in his first ever 1/2 marathon on November 12th! He trained all summer long, through the good days and the very hard ones, and in the end, he BEAT his goal of finishing in 2 hours by 10 minutes...with a final time of 1:49:49!!!

The race is all through downtown Charlotte and we were supposed to just meet him at the finish line but I couldn't stand not being able to see him mid-race, so mom and I loaded up Reilly and Braxton and "raced" against the clock to try to catch him, in the sea of 7,000 runners, as he passed by the corner of Sharon Rd. and Providence. It was such a surprise to him to see us and I was SO nervous while we were combing the crowd! Then we "raced" uptown to find a parking space and get to the finishline. It was so awesome and so inspirational to see all the runners, and especially our runner :) We are so proud of you, BABE!

nothing like a cold beer and a chicken biscuit for your celebratory meal!?!?!

First FIRE!!

2011-11-28T17:27:00.000-08:00

As tradition has it, we make a special night out of the "first fire" in the fireplace of the season! And back on November 2nd, we did just that! (and it just so happened to be on a Sunday, so the kids and Shawn are all decked out in their Panthers gear :)

the tradition includes hot chocolate and pop corn by the fire :)

"FIRE!!!!!!!"

Layton enjoyed staring at the flames the whole time :) We have NEVER regretted our wood burning fire place!

sleep tight!

2011-11-14T18:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, I had quite a surprise last night when I went to check on Braxton before I went to bed!! This is what I saw when I looked into his crib:

I about fell on the floor laughing and had to run get Shawn. And then of course we had to take a picture. Braxton has developed quite a strong attachment to this froggy blanket, which has a hood on it, and apparently he spent some time playing with it in his bed before falling asleep! It was quite a funny site.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

Shawn and I decided to be really intentional about things we chose not to do/to do this year around Halloween and after all was said and done, I think they were all good choices! The kids had fun dressing up as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, and "Pluto"....as Reilly and Braxton insisted for their costumes! Braxton definitely wasn't the most "masculine" of all costumes, but it's what he asked for, it's what he's totally into right now, so I think it was perfect for him (and, he's only 2yrs old!). Reilly would wear her Minnie Mouse costume every day if I let her, and now that Halloween is over, it's officially added to the "dress up box", so I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Minnie!

Reilly had "Pumpkins with Pops" at school, so we had to hallow out a pumpkin and prepare it for Shawn and her to carve in her classroom one morning. It's always fun seeing the kids faces when they reach in and grab a handful of the goop inside a pumpkin!

The kids got to dress up for school on different days last week for their classroom Halloween celebrations.

We set out for an abbreviated trick-or-treating adventure early on, while there was still plenty of daylight. The kids had a blast getting all the candy and Braxton only got tired of walking after about 40 minutes. Layton just rode along in the stroller, in his costume, and was as content as could be! After trick-or-treating, Shawn set up a fire pit in our driveway, along with the infamous projector on the garage, showing "Mickey's Treat", the Halloween episode. (and of course, after the kids went to bed, Monday Night Football was the main show!).

Sophie, Chloe, Reilly, Lucy, Marlee, and Braxton....

next-door neighbor, Max with Layton (they are 3 months apart!)

cutest puppy Pluto ever!

Braxton with the boys (Bailey, Carter, and Owen)

the Dreschers came by...Ellie, Ava, Reilly, Branson, and Braxton...in descending height order (R to L!)

visit from Great-Grandma and Uncle Dave!

2011-10-26T11:52:00.000-07:00

We had a special, quick visit the other weekend by Shawn's Grandma and Uncle Dave, as they were traveling back to Indy after having been in Hilton Head for 2 weeks. It was so great to see them, as we haven't seen Dave in several years and the kids haven't seen Grandma since February of this year. Of course, being a butcher and one who LOVES to grill some meat, Dave insisted we do a cookout for dinner :) And that we did!! Nana, Aunt Kelly, and Shaun came over to hang out as well.

our annual Blowing Rock trip....

2011-10-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

We headed up to Blowing Rock a couple weeks ago, just as we've done every October for the past almost 10 years!! This year we tried to nail the "peak" in the leaves as best we could and after checking the forecast, decided to go a bit earlier than normal, on October 14th. We were way surprised when we got up there and found that although we were a week or so early for when normal peak is, we had actually already MISSED it! Apparently, peak was really the weekend before and then there were some storms and wind that came through during the week, leaving about half of the trees completely empty! But, it was still beautiful and we still had an awesome time being there. We got up there right at noon and headed straight to Bass Lake where do our picnic lunch. When we got to the lake, the winds were so strong, that we literally decided to sit in the car and have our picnic!! First time for everything! After we ate, we got out and did our usual walk around the lake, exploring the fallen leaves, enjoying the COOL mountain air, and trying not to be blown away! The kids were so cute as they ran around the path having the best time stomping leaves and finding new treasures. It was a gorgeous sunny day even though the winds were about 25-30 mph! After we spent some time at the lake, we packed back into the car and took a short drive along the Parkway to try to see more leaves. Then we headed back to Main street, stopped in a convenient store for some fabulous hot chocolate, and strolled around to the playground. The kids played for a while and then we ventured into some of our favorite stores. After we were done visiting our usual places, we packed back in the car and headed for a carb-filled, comfort food dinner at Cracker Barrell!! YUM. It was a great day and we love sharing our favorite place with the kids!

last year when we were there the trees on the left of this path were covered in gold leaves....it was so sad to see them all bare already!

3 months old....

2011-10-24T19:17:00.000-07:00

Our sweet boy is already 3 months old! (well really, at this point, he's 3 1/2 months old, but who's keeping track!)

Layton definitely took a bit longer to settle into a good nap schedule than his brother and sister did, but finally, around week 12, he got it down! He's always been a fabulous night time sleeper, but the naps took a bit of work! It wasn't until a few weeks ago that he started taking solid 2 hour naps, 2 times a day, with a 1-1.5 hour nap in the evening. What a relief!! And even though we kinda tried to prevent with baby #3, it looks like he's going to be a thumb-sucker just like his big brother and big sister! He's super content and happy when he's awake and really only fusses to tell you he's ready to go to sleep! He's staying awake for about 1.5-2 hours in between naps now and he is smiling all the time! Last week, for the first time, he laughed out loud for me! I was tickling him on the changing table and he started belly laughing for the first time. Oh. my. goodness. So so sweet. He's still bald as ever, which makes his "cradle cap" stand out even more. Ugh, I'm so ready for that to clear up! There has been a couple times when I've gone in to his room when he's been crying and found him lying on his back! (we put him to sleep on his tummy) So, somehow or another, I guess he's has turned himself over a couple times! He's getting to the stage in the past week where he is putting EVERYthing in his mouth. Anything that his hands touch, he pulls up to his mouth. He's also drooling a ton and constantly sucking on his hands/fists. He is just starting to hold a toy in his hand (after I put it there!) and bring it to his mouth as well.

Here are my absolute favorite expressions from the little guy!

Soccer!

2011-10-09T17:41:00.001-07:00

Reilly has been playing in the Under 5 soccer program called "Mini Kickers". She's been having so much fun with it! The first 30 minutes is more of a clinic, where they learn different things about playing soccer, then they split up and play mini games of 3 on 3. I'm not so sure we have "natural born soccer player" on our hands, but she's having fun nonetheless. :)

Braxton, Layton and I went yesterday for the first time to watch. And, just as I suspected, we couldn't keep Braxton off the field!!! "DADDY!!" "REILLY!!" "SOCCER BALLS!!!!!" Poor guy....all he wanted to do was play too!!

OIB- October 2011

2011-10-09T08:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed back to Ocean Isle Beach. My mom and dad rented a house so that we (mom ,dad, Brandon, Angel and us 5) could all stay together. We had a great time and the weather was so awesome!! It was around 65 for the high and into the 40s each night! The house we stayed at was on a canal and had a great back porch with huge lounge chairs. Saturday night we just laid out on the chairs, staring up at the stars and talked, told stories, and cracked up laughing for hours. It was awesome. I even had my first cup of warm apple cider!!

I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a couple of Layton....

the annual 4 generation picture

one of only two "family of 5" pictures we have?? sad.

DeeDee, Poppi, Uncle Brandon, Aunt Angel and US!

looking more and more like Braxton these days!!

"Game Day"!

2011-09-25T18:48:00.001-07:00

Reilly and Braxton are so funny....they know that Sunday is Panther "Game Day" and they can't WAIT to get all decked out in their Panther jerseys! And they especially like it when Layton wears his!

Black Mountain and Apple Pickin'

2011-09-22T16:56:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we took a quick trip up to Black Mountain to visit with Mama Ree. She hadn't met Layton yet and the kids hadn't seen her since May, so we felt like we needed to go! It was a fun time and we definitely enjoyed being in the mountains where the temperatures were getting close to Fall temps! We took the kids to Montreat to play at the park for a while and then had an awesome dinner at My Father's Pizza.

(side note...Shawn is determined to start shooting weddings with me, so he's been doing some practicing with my camera....all of these shots at the park were taken by him! I'd say he did a pretty darn good job!)

Sunday morning we woke up, had a great breakfast, and headed over to Hendersonville to pick some apples! We decided to go to a new orchard this year, different from the one we went to last year. It was huge and very busy!! It was way more commercialized than the small, more hometown feeling one in Morganton that we visit last year, so I think we'll go back to it for our apple orchard trip next year! But, the kids had a blast and we came home with WAY more apples than we intended!! I made 6 loaves of bread right when we got home to give to the kids' teachers and only went through about 12 of the 75ish apples that we have! I've also made homemade applesauce and an apple pie!

LOVE this family picture....however, the downfall of handing a $2000 camera to a stranger even though I thought I had all the settings right for them, is that they don't realize when it's NOT IN FOCUS! ugh!! Such a pretty view...too bad we are all blurry!

After we did as much picking as we could, we then indulged on more apple products that I thought possible! We had a quick sandwich, and then enjoyed an apple cider slushie, WARM apple cinnamon donuts, a fresh sliced apple with warm carmel dip, and a jug of cold apple cider (basically like fresh "sqeezed" apples!).

Labor Day- O.I.B.

2011-09-15T13:27:00.001-07:00

I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous about how our 2nd, and last, beach trip of the summer was going to go. With an 8 week old who is not the best napper and who had never traveled before, the need to bring two pack-n-plays since Braxton is not out of a crib yet, and the temptation to just rent a U-Haul to make it easier than puzzle-packing the truck with all that was required for this 4 day trip, I was a little skeptical about things! After we literally packed up the whole house, and beach supplies, we got to Memama's house right at 2:45 Thursday afternoon. All three kids did awesome in the car and Layton slept almost the entire way down! Shawn took Reilly and Braxton straight to the beach for a quick stay while I stayed back to feed Layton and let him nap in a bed instead of a carseat. We had our traditional dinner at Sharkys with Memama to "kick off" the weekend, where Shawn got his routine flounder sandwich a ice cold corona and I got my routine grilled chicken sandwich with fries; yes, I food from the land vs food from the water :) The trip started out a little bumpy with Reilly complaining of a headache, throwing up twice, and sleeping most of the afternoon on day 2, all the while I was in the ER with Layton for an extremely high fever, running every test possible with all results being negative. We did hit the beach for a couple hours Friday morning before all the sickness started, but most of the day Friday was a complete wash. But we more than made up for it on Saturday when we hit the beach with DeeDee and Poppi and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Angel for a few hours. Shawn grilled some mean hamburgers on the charcoal Saturday night and we all just hung out! Sunday was the best beach day ever. We stayed on the beach for 5 hours! I don't think I have ever been on the beach that long, and I know my children have never made it longer than 3 hours before. We all had so.much.fun. The kids played and played, we got Sunset Slushies, the kids rode the waves, we had a big football throwing game going, we barried Cooper in the sand up to his neck, we built sandcastles, Braxton pretended to take a rest several times but never sat still for more than a few minutes or else he really would have fallen asleep, and Memama even stayed out for most of the day with us! We finally all headed in around 6:15 when we realized it was dinner time! It was such a perfect day. The weather could not have been better...mid 80's all day and not a cloud in the sky. It was a great trip and other than our rough start on Friday, we had a blast! Thanks Meam, for always opening your home to ALL OF OUR STUFF....and all of us :)

all Reilly talked about leading up to the trip was building a sand castle...

Braxton's FAVORITE was dumping a bucket over and then yelling at the top of his lungs, "I made san-casl!!!!!" He was so proud....every single time.

Uncle Brandon was the best "wave-jumper" and "deep water taker" ever!!

1st time riding the waves! They both LOVED it!

(I promise we have bathing suits on....even though we both look like we're naked in this picture!)

DeeDee lovin' on baby L

B was such a trooper!! He didn't nap once the whole trip b/c we were out on the beach so much and he did so great. He was covered from head to toe with sand, but he just kept on going!

Memama (great-grandma) hanging with Layton in the shade.

Layton is 2 months (and 1 week!)

2011-09-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

Layton had his 2month well check yesterday and I'm not surprised to say that he is 13 pounds and 2 ounces! He is continuing on track to be my biggest baby! He's at 75%tile for weight and height (23.75"). It's so funny to see his chunky little legs since I don't think Reilly and Braxton ever got rolls on their bodies as a baby! After the scare we had a couple weeks ago that landed us in the emergency room for 7 hours with our little guy due to a fever of 101.6 that lead to x-rays, blood work, urine samples, IVs, antibiotics, and him turning whiter than the bed sheet he was lying on, I'm grateful for all 13.2 pounds of his chunky self!! He has the yucky baby acne mixed with some eczema on his face right now.....every baby goes through it, I guess!! :(

I have NO idea how I caught this next expression, but it cracks.me.up everytime I look at it!!

Pictures of "Mommy +kids"!!

2011-09-15T11:55:00.000-07:00

I had a very sad realization the other week. Braxton's preschool teacher asked us to send in a picture of me and him together to put in the classroom so in case he was sad during these first weeks of school, he could go look at the picture of us and it would comfort him. As I was looking through our 5,000 pictures of family things, I literally could not find ONE picture of just me and Braxton, much less one of me with ANY of my children by myself. Really? Is that possible that I seriously am that concerned about capturing the moment that I don't ever GET IN THE MOMENT myself? That was a really hard realization for me to consider that my children will not have near as many pictures of themselves with mommy because I'm always behind the camera. So, I am committed to being IN pictures with my kids now!! And, coincidentally, my good photographer friend came to town this week and just so happen to teach me a little trick to allow me to get in front the camera while it automatically snaps a shot every second for as many frames as I set!! How cool is that?? So I've been playing with this new little feature today and was able to get some fun pictures of me with my kids! They may not be the most perfect pictures, but I am with my children and it's captured forever, and that's the point :)

1st day of preschool!!

2011-09-07T09:06:00.000-07:00

I will post about our adventuresome Labor Day beach trip later, but I wanted to go ahead and share pictures from the kids' first day of preschool!

Reilly started yesterday in the TK (transitional kindergarten) class. She has been SO excited about starting school, getting to see her friends again, and being in the "big TK class"!! And she had a great first day! Her teacher is amazing and just happens to be one of our neighbors!! Reilly is in for a treat this year with Mrs. Rowland!
this is something I want to do every year on the first day of school....have the kids write their name so we can watch how their handwriting changes throughout the years! I think this is such a fun idea! so, here's Reilly's name at the beginning of TK, 4.5 years old:

and here she is, ready to head to school!

Braxton's first day was today, since he will go on Mondays/Wednesdays. He has been excited about school for the past few weeks, especially when he backpack arrived in the mail a couple weeks ago! He wears it around the house, proudly showing it off for all to see! AT open house last week, he loved meeting his teachers and has practiced saying their names since then! I knew he wouldn't have a problem with this next chapter and sure enough, he went right in this morning, and started playing! I can't believe that he's already starting preschool!! I know he's going to have so much fun :)

waiting so patiently to go inside :)

all smiles!

he looks scared to death in this last one, but I promise it's just b/c he still doesn't always smile quite right! he was so happy!!

spiritual milestone tonight.

2011-08-25T17:02:00.001-07:00

Wow, Shawn and I witnessed a major spiritual milestone in Reilly this evening. She had a great day today (behavior wise!) and we had just gotten back from a short trip to the pool as a family. We were heading up for quick showers so we could eat oatmeal cookies and watch a little Panther football before bed and Reilly chose to argue and whine and complain about needing to take a shower. Since this is something we work on HOURLY in this household, I immediately told her she would not be having an oatmeal cookie due to the arguing and complaining. She then got super upset and carried on for the next 15 minutes. Finally she came to me and said, "Mommy, why is God not helping me have a good night? I prayed this morning before 8:00 (when she is allowed to come out of her room)and asked Him to help me have a good day today, but why is He not helping me have a good night?" She was so sincerely remorseful and was very upset that she had prayed for something but all the sudden it wasn't working anymore. My first reaction was awe. Did she really just say that? Did she really just ask that? Is she really understanding that God does help us if we ask Him to? She brings up such a good point, one that I too have quite often! I rattled off some answer that I'm sure wasn't nearly as profound as it should have been and tried to get her to calm down so I could go feed Layton. I took her and Braxton downstairs to start watching the game while I went to feed Layton and Shawn finished up in the shower. While Shawn was getting dressed in the bedroom he overheard Reilly downstairs, still very upset, saying to herself, "I just need to go to my room and pray. I just need to go pray." and then she ran upstairs and pushed her door to close, but it remained a few inches open. Just enough so that when Shawn walked over to see what she was still upset about, he could see her laying face down on the floor, praying: "God, please help me have a good day AND a good night EVERY night!" Wow. I'm so proud of her and I'm so amazed that a 4year old mind and heart is already able to have a glimpse of the Love that her Heavenly Father has for her....so much so that she WANTS to talk to Him and ask Him to help her make good choices!!

Dress up! ....oh wait.....

2011-08-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

So, this morning we had a playdate. The little girl next door who is only 2 months older than Braxton came over to play for a couple hours. The kids LOVE to play with Marlee and they all did really well together! We had just a little incident though. The girls, Reilly and Marlee, wanted to play dress up....like ALL girls do. So Marlee immediately grabbed a princess dress and threw it on. Well, this made Braxton feel left out, so he quickly ran to the dress up box, pulled out the prettiest, purple princess dress, and brought it to me to help him put on. I went along with his request, because, afterall, he just wanted to play with his friend! And besides, he's only 2...it's not like he's going to fall in love with wearing dresses all the sudden! Of course I had to capture this on camera....Braxton and Marlee, playing dress up together:

Well, after I called Shawn to share to "funny" story with him, he very adamantly asked me to get out the Police Office outfit that I recently bought at a consignment sale to give Braxton for Christmas to add to the "dress up box" for him to wear. I really wanted to keep it for Christmas present, but I guess now was an appropriate time :) Yes honey, I'll let him be something more "manly" for pretend play now.

I started AND completed a project!!

2011-08-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

I have officially been sucked into a new web-community thingy! Pinterest
is a fabulous way people can post ideas for anything from favorite recipes, home organization ideas, Do-It-Yourself projects, decorating ideas and so much more. I found this awesome growth chart idea that I just love! I have had a tiny measuring tape hanging inside the pantry door for the past 2 years that I have used to mark the kids growth on because I never wanted to mark it on a doorframe (as we did when I was a kid) since we wouldn't be able to take that with us if we ever moved from this house. So, we made a trip to the Home Depot, bought a few supplies, and off I went! I'm so excited about this!

and growing and growing and.....

2011-08-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I packed up the newborn onsies today. Layton is officially into the 0-3 months clothes. He's getting bigger and rounder every day! I think he is maintaining his status of being my biggest baby so far! He's almost 12 pounds already! HOLY COW! He's starting to coo and make super sweet baby sounds during his wake time and I swear he intentionally smiles at me almost daily! So stinkin cute. He's doing great with nighttime sleep....goes from 8p-8a only waking to eat once (after I feed him while he's asleep at 11p before I go to bed), BUT, the daytime naps aren't too great. Some naps are perfect and he sleeps for the full 2 hours, others are not perfect and he fusses for the entire nap. I'm hopeful that this will get better!

6 weeks old now!

Reilly is So great with her baby brother. She does so well playing/talking with him. It's so cute to hear her talk to him like I do! And she LOVES holding him, kissing him, and hugging him :)

yes, this is one of his smiles! so cute!

look at those cheeks!!

Happy birthday to ME!

2011-08-21T17:30:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my 31st (????!!!!!) birthday on August 12th. How did that happen? How did I get to be over 30 years old?! What???!! Anyway, Shawn surprised me by coming home from work early and sending me out for a super fabulous sweedish massage at the Spa down the road! It was fantastic :) And when I returned, the house was spotless and things were prepared for us to have a yummy dinner with the Dreschers! Streamers were hanging from the ceiling and the Happy Birthday banner was out! Shawn grilled some salmon and steaks and Karin brought some awesome salads. It was a great dinner and a fun way to celebrate my big day. Thanks babe!

of course I got to wear our fancy birthday hat....

look how many KIDS we have! and 2 of them aren't even in this picture! good grief! :)

one. month. old

2011-08-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

Reilly picked out the boys' clothes.....they both had on navy blue shirts with a small pocket. so cute.

big brother and the obsession

2011-08-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

It has been so fun watching Braxton in his new role as "big brother". He frequently looks at Layton and says, "Hi! I big bru-er!" He LOVES it when he thinks Layton is looking at him and he will say, "mommy! Lay-un oo-ing at me!" He loves holding him, though it's normally for no more than 15 seconds and he is so great about giving gentle kisses (this took some training!). Braxton also gets very concerned when he hears Layton crying and tells me, "I check on him!" In the car yesterday, Braxton asked for "Toby Mac" songs and as soon as the first one came on, he looked at Layton in his car seat and said, "Dance Lay-un, Dance!" So cute.

(take note of the green/white ball beside Braxton....it will make more sense when you read below!)

(apparently this is Braxton's new smile) :)

"the obsession".....
It started several months ago. I don't really know when. But the reality is this....Braxton is addicted, I mean obsessed, with balls!! Any kind, all sizes. Baseballs, Footballs, Soccer Balls, Basketballs, Golf Balls. He identifies them with accuracy. He notices them in logos, drawings, pictures, billboards, signs, commercials. He calls out when Daddy is watching SportsCenter which ball he sees. And the obsession itself isn't all...it goes so far that he evens carries a ball around 95% of the time as if it's his security blanket. Seriously. At any given moment, there is at least 3 balls in every room of our house. He constantly has a ball that he is toting around and continually refers to it as "my ball". It goes from room to room with him. It goes in the car with him. It goes to the bathroom with him. It even sits next to him while he watches a show. It could be a different ball from day to day, but the bottom line is, he always has a ball. He will even jump down off the couch while intently watching a show, just to find "my ball" and come back to watching. Reilly has her babies, Braxton has his ball.

this is seriously how he sits...one hand on the ball at all times.

Jokes!

2011-07-31T18:07:00.000-07:00

Reilly has been introduced to the world of jokes. We have been getting this magazine called Clubhouse Junior, put out by Focus on the Family, and the back page always has some kid-sized jokes. I introduced Reilly to them a couple months ago and now it's the first thing she looks for when the magazine comes in each month! And she thinks they are hilarious, even if the play on words are words she doesn't understand :) Here are a couple of her favorites:

1. What is a porcupine's favorite dance? ----> The Hokey Pokey!!!!!

2. What is a horse's favorite store? ----> Old Neigh-vy!!!!

3. What is the lion's daughter's name? ----> Au-ROAR-a (Sleeping Beauty)!!!!

a bunch of firsts...

2011-07-31T06:54:00.001-07:00

first full 2hour nap on daddy's chest.
LOVE how Layton's arms are wrapped around daddy like he's giving a hug!

first trip to a restaurant as a family of 5!!
--we went to Panera for lunch when Layton was 8 days old (July 16).

first bottle!
Daddy (and the kids!) gave Layton a bottle for the first time on day 11 (July 19). he did fabulous, although he did seem like he was drowning the whole time he was drinking!

first date night "post baby"!!
We celebrated our 9th anniversary on July 20th. DeeDee and Poppi came down to keep the kids so we could go out for dinner at 131 Main. We were so proud that everyone did great while mommy and daddy were away, including Layton taking his 2nd bottle! Such a gift.

first "tummy-time"!
had to keep him from going to sleep the whole time he was down there!

first family birthday celebration for Layton!
We celebrated Shawn's 32nd birthday on July 24th with a big brunch, fun "Hoops and YoYo" birthday cards and the fabulous birthday hat that Aunt Sandy gave the kids last year! It was a pretty low key day since Daddy wasn't feeling too great.

this isn't a "first", but I had to get this picture of my sweet sleeping baby.

not a "first" either, but holy cow, look at those lips!! To me, this looks just like Shawn!!

first time wearing an "outfit"
Memama gave Layton this super cute outfit in the hospital and Reilly picked it out for him to wear yesterday (July 30). It looks like his legs are 2" long but really the pants are sagging down! Presh.

he's growing WAY too fast....

2011-07-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, this is SO cliche, but it really is hitting me hard this time!! My sweet baby boy is growing WAY too fast! I can't get over how much Layton has changed in just 18 days! And I must say, every single night I just hold him while he's eating and praise God for how well he's doing. I'm amazed that in just 2 short weeks, Layton is on such a great schedule and in the past few days has even started falling asleep on his own in his crib WITHOUT sucking his thumb, like his brother AND sister did. He's basically taking 4 two-hour naps and eating every 3 hours...around the clock :) If there was one thing I wish I could change it would be for him to extend his sleeping at night a bit past the 3 hour mark, but if that's the only thing we're dealing with, I'm totally fine with it! He is like a perfect alarm clock and seriously wakes up within 5 minutes of the 3 hour mark. But, I am so grateful that even though he's still waking up twice at night, I'm back in my own bed and asleep within 30 minutes, having fed him and put him back down. Praise the LORD!

Reilly and Braxton are still over the moon about their little brother. They both kiss him probably 50 times a day and Braxton, thankfully, has learned how to do "gentle kisses" finally :) This is my first full week at home by myself with all three kids and I'm feeling pretty good about things. The only real challenges we've had have to do with normal behavior issues with the big two...nothing out of the ordinary :) I've managed to get out of the house once per day with all three kids, even if it's just up to the Chick-fil-A drive thru and back home. It's all about priorities people :) The morning/wake-up time is definitely the most challenging. Since we have set 8:00 as our "start the day" time since Reilly was born, it's a bit tricky managing all 3 kiddos wanting to eat breakfast and start their day at the same time. Braxton needs to be taken to the potty, Reilly needs help pouring milk, Layton wants to EAT and needs to stay awake so he doesn't just keep right on sleeping through the morning. I've definitely missed a few breakfast meals myself this week, but I guess that's just par for the course!! And, quite honestly, it probably does me some good to miss some calories, given that ALL of our friends/neighbors are spoiling us with some amazing meals and desserts which are really just packing on the pounds instead of helping me to get rid of this baby weight! But once again, we are so grateful. I will say that life with three kids means that there is ALWAYS something to do or someone to take care of! Holy moly. There's always a toy to pick up, laundry to finish, dishes to clean, something to put away, a child who needs me for one of 100 things. I literally don't think I stop moving from the time I wake up until the minute I lay down at night. I know this will just take getting used to and I know that this is just a stage....so that keeps me focused :)

The other challenge has been to find things to do for Reilly and Braxton instead of just letting them sit in front of a television set for hours everyday. We are trying hard to stick to our limited tv schedule but this summer has just been so.stinkin.hot that it's hard to keep busy inside! And now that we are more tied to the house, it limits our ability to go out to fun places. So, we're trying to get creative. I guess it goes without saying that I'm definitely ready for FALL right about now!

Here are some pics from our week.....

here is a picture of the 3 canvases I put over Layton's crib from his newborn pictures....LOVE them!

there's a baby in the house!

2011-07-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

We were SOOOOOOO blessed to have my mom (DeeDee) around for the entire first week of Layton's life! It was such a gift to have her here to help with Reilly and Braxton so I could focus on Layton! She was awesome about taking the big kids out every day to do something more exciting than just sitting at home staring at me feeding a baby :) We had lots of sweet times with baby Layton while she was here too.....here are a few shots from the first week:

first "bath"....he didn't seem to mind too much!

I swear I feel like you can see those chubby cheeks get smaller and smaller throughout the week! And now he looks SO different; now that all the swelling from birth is gone! EVERYbody says he looks just like his big-sister and we totally agree! It's really crazy how identical he looks to Reilly's first pictures....same lips, same shaped face, same nose, blue eyes. Crazy!

Layton's Homecoming!

2011-07-22T15:09:00.000-07:00

I don't know if it's due to my impatience to get into my own home with my own routine or just the simple fact that I cannot STAND to be "tied down", but once again, I asked to leave the hospital after just 36 hours of giving birth! And my wish was granted :)

Before we started packing up, Grandpa and Nanny stopped by for a quick visit to meet their new grandson...

had to get some shots of my sweet chunky boy during his first days since I knew he would never look like this again!

We were discharged just around 5:30pm and couldn't WAIT to get home! It's just so hard to constantly have people and nurses and nurse techs coming in asking how you're doing, what you need, can I check you here and there and how's the baby and when was the last time he ate, pooped or peed??!

getting in his car seat for the first time!

The kids, with the help of Poppi and DeeDee, were fast at work all afternoon on our welcome home banner and surprises!

Reilly seriously asked if she could read Layton a book within 5 minutes of us being home! She is quite excited about having a new baby at home :)

Layton's hospital visitors.....

2011-07-22T13:30:00.000-07:00

DeeDee and Poppi were troopers that stuck it out through the night while I was in labor at the hospital. Layton is named after Poppi and my grandfather, "Boyce", so it was special to have a picture of Poppi and his new grandson right away.....

Our 1st visitor was my good friend Alli....and I was almost in tears when I saw the amazing surprise she came in with....a GALLON of Chick-Fil-A sweet tea!! After being in labor for 8ish hours and delivering a babe that is one of the best things ever!!!! :)

So special to have Nana and Aunt Kelly in town to see the new baby!
one proud cousin!
1st diaper change....the best Daddy in the world!
Memama drove all the way from Ocean Isle to be the 1st visitor once we got into our post-partum room....she totally surprised me :) What a fun treat to have her there to meet and greet her 3rd great-grandson!

We couldn't wait for the kids to come up to the hospital since they have been SOOOO excited about having a new baby! They were so super cute and couldn't get their hands on Layton fast enough!! It was so sweet.

layton boyce turner 7.8.11

2011-07-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a whirlwind this last week has been!! Baby Layton tried to make his appearance several different times, well, at least that what WE thought!! Given that this was my third pregnancy, I thought for sure I would know beyond a doubt when I was in labor! Apparently, I'm not such a good judge of that, since we found ourselves in the hospital and back out of the hospital two times before it was actually the REAL THING! I have never spent so much time walking and doing anything else to help "encourage" this little one out of me! I had been praying and praying that things would work out somehow to allow my Dr. to deliver this baby. And wouldn't you know, God had it all worked out in the end! After a VERY discouraging and frustrating day at the hospital last Wednesday that ended with us coming back home and waiting some more, I found myself at the Dr. office on Thursday morning with MY Dr., confirming that I was in fact "ready to go" at any minute. He ensured me that if I had any more contractions, he was confident that they would be the real thing and I would find myself holding my baby boy at the end. And he was RIGHT! I started having 10min. contractions Thursday afternoon that were very consistent. They finally started getting closer and closer around 6:30 and got to about 4-5 minutes apart. The intensity was increasing to the point that I was in quite a bit of pain with each contraction, even though they weren't very close together. We finally decided that since Dr. Bland was on call Thursday night, we would head into the hospital since he promised to help my labor along this time!! So, we sat down with the kids for a "family meeting". I reminded Reilly that God has a very special plan for everything and we never really know what that plan is or what His timing is. I told her that a few times mommy and daddy thought we knew God's plan but had been wrong about when this baby would come. And then I explained that while we still don't know for sure what God's plan is, THIS TIME mommy and daddy had a pretty good idea. I told her that we were pretty sure we would have a baby either that night or the next morning. The biggest smile stretched across her face. We continued with our bedtime prayers with the kids (all the while, I'm having pretty intense contractions!) and I tucked Reilly into bed. As I was going to close the door to her room, she called out to me, "Mommy!", "yes", I said, "I hope we're right this time!" she responded. "Yes buddy, I hope we're 'right' this time too!!". So precious:)

Tom and Susan got to the house about 10:30pm, planning to just come and spend the night so we could head down to the hospital. By the time they got there, my pain level was pretty high and I was really having a hard time getting through the contractions at that point. We got to the hospital at 11:00ish and the best news ever was awaiting us...we didn't have to go to Triage!! We bypassed the WORST part about going to the hospital! Since Dr. Bland was there, he told them to go ahead and admit me. This was when I was SURE we were going to have a baby that night!!!

I got an epidural around 12:30am which helped a ton on the pain situation. At 1:00am, I was at 5cm and 100% effaced. Dr. Bland went ahead and broke my water to see if that would speed things up a bit. Shawn and I and mom and dad were just hanging out in the room and then they went out to the waiting room for a bit so we could try to rest. At 4:00am Dr. Bland came back and I was only at 6cm. He wasn't pleased with how slowly things were progressing, so he ordered some pitocin. The pit didn't get started until about 4:30 and wasn't fully in my system until about 5:00am. I was trying to dose off a bit but the contractions were so strong that I was feeling them through the epidural. At 5:45, my nurse came in to check on my and I told her that I was really feeling the contractions. She decided to check and see if I had progressed anymore. "Oh!!! You're complete!" was all she said! What?! I was at 10cm and the head was at a +2 station, +3 being fully out!! She said, "don't move"! and all I know is that within 60 seconds, the room was swarming with people prepping for delivery. Shawn had been sleeping on the chair next to me and he was a bit disoriented when things started happening so quickly!! Once everything was prepped and ready, I pushed TWICE and Layton Boyce Turner was born!! Exactly 18 mins. after I complained about my contractions being pretty painful. Amazing. It all happened so fast I couldn't even believe it! And the biggest shocker....he weighed 8lbs and 13 oz!!!! Holy Moly, what a big boy! It was so awesome having my own doctor there to deliver and even better that things happened so much quicker than with Braxton and Reilly's labor!

The best part is that I had a great photographer/friend "on call" to do some photography for us in the delivery room. She arrived about 30 mins after Layton was born since everything happened so fast! But, it was still amazing to have her there and the pictures she captured are beyond perfect!

FireCracker 5k & Kids run

2011-07-04T05:52:00.000-07:00

Ever since Reilly had her first running race experience, she's been looking forward to and begging for another race. We signed up for the HFFA Firecracker 5K and Kids Run and invited little Shaun to come run with her as well. DeeDee and Poppi came down to watch the race and participate in the cheerleading for our littlest budding runner!

pep talk from Daddy :)
The kids all lined up and waited so patiently for their turn to race!

just as I called it, Shaun busted off the start line with a full sprint and then stopped about 100 yards down the road.....and then he jogged with Reilly some :)

it's so cute to watch her in her own little world, not paying attention to anyone else around her....just doing her thing!

here she came, running along, hadn't stopped ONCE, about to finish her first 1 Mile Race!

crossing the finish line in 11minutes and 3 seconds!! Pretty awesome for the youngest runner out there! She is definitely following in her Daddy's footsteps!

2011-06-19T10:07:00.000-07:00

I got to experience something totally new to me this pregnancy that I hadn't had in either of the last two......a 36 week ultrasound! For some reason, my doctor's office has started doing 35-36 week ultrasounds to check on the baby's growth and fluid levels. I had no idea I would get to see as many details of the baby! Reilly came along with me since she didn't get to see either of the other ultrasounds I've had and she definitely thought it was pretty cool!! The baby's face was the clearest of anything, by far! It seemed as though we were looking at a 3-D or 4D ultrasound, but it was just a classic 2D image. The round cheeks and full, puckered lips were so clear! And so stinkin' cute. Makes me even MORE excited to hold this little guy SOOOOON!!!

and just for final confirmation, we are indeed having another boy :)

Big Sister "in training"!

2011-06-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was super special. I signed Reilly up for a the "Sibling Tour/Class" at the hospital. She and I headed down for her class and showed up to find out that she was only one of two children signed up!! And the other was a little girl, who was also named Rileigh. Too funny. The class started out with a short video showing a newborn baby who had just come home from the hospital. Then the teacher had the girls choose a baby doll and taught them how to swaddle, hold the baby in their elbow to protect the head/neck, and diapering. Reilly has had lots of practice with diapering since Shawn got her a pack of diapers for her baby dolls so she just flew right through that part!!

After the classroom stuff, we headed out for a tour so Reilly could see the special room that mommy would be in with all the fancy equipment. By far, the best part of the entire class was actually getting to go by the nursery and seeing all the sweet sweet babies. Ah, so precious and SO hard to believe that I will back there in no time!!

After the tour, the girls were presented with a packet of fun stuff and a "big sister" certificate. Reilly said it was so much fun and she loved every part of it :)

Summer Fun

2011-06-19T09:48:00.001-07:00

Since it has been in the high 90's so much lately, we have tried to do as much with water as possible!! Last weekend we set up what Shawn has so eloquently named the "Urban Beach" on the driveway, which consists of a 10'x10' blue tent with a water table and kids pool under it....yes, it's about as "red" as it comes, but we like our little urban beach style :) Some of the neighbors came to play in the water with the kids and they all had a blast.

Reilly, Kate, and Marlee

Last week, we headed up to Village Park Splash Pad in Kannapolis with Karin and "all the Drescher kids". The kids had so much fun! We started out with a picnic and then had quick trip on the choo choo train before hitting the splash park. Great times!

Ellie, Reilly, Ava, and Braxton

the girls insisted on riding in the very back so they could turn around and what "where we had been" instead of "where we were going"!

Branson, so excited.

Braxton and Branson just enjoying the ride!

Thank you, God, for lawnmowers, love Braxton

2011-06-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, this has been so funny lately during our nighttime prayer time with the kids!! A few weeks ago, when we were going around saying what we were thankful for from that day, Shawn looked at Braxton and asked him, to which he replied "mah-mor" (lawnmower). We all laughed and thought that was super cute, but Braxton was the first to blurt out while Shawn was praying that God had NOT been thanked for the lawnmower like he said. So Shawn quickly said, "and thank you God for the lawnmower". It has happened several more times, but tonight was the best of all. When we sat down to pray, I asked Braxton what he wanted to pray for and he immediately said "mah-mor". I said "ok daddy, make sure to pray for Braxton's lawnmower". Braxton quickly said, "daddy mah-mor", meaning he also wanted to thank God for Daddy's lawnmower. And then very quickly added, "Poppi mah-mor"! While Shawn was praying, Braxton did not stop saying "mah-mor", "Daddy mah-mor", "poppi mah-mor"! Shawn prayed and said thank you God for Braxton's lawnmower without also including "daddy's mah-mor and poppi's mah-mor" and Braxton would not accept the prayer. We all laughed and laughed, but sweet Braxton just looked at us with a straight face wondering what in the world was so funny?!! Love that little boy :)

Great Wolf Lodge!! June 5-6th

2011-06-12T11:50:00.000-07:00

There were a couple reasons we decided to make a special trip over to the Great Wolf Lodge last weekend for some fun family time. The first, and maybe the biggest if you ask Reilly, was to celebrate a HUGE milestone in her life......the ability to fall asleep withOUT sucking her thumb!! Shawn and I have been trying to encourage her for many months to stop sucking her thumb at night, as we have noticed the effect it is having on her mouth and are more concerned about preventing future orthodontists bills!! But, since this is a habit that she has literally had since the moment of her birth, and since it's something she only does while sleeping, it's not been easy to help her break the habit. We decided to use some special "gloves" on her hands at night to help be a reminder to her that her thumb could not go in her mouth. The first night we put them on was absolutely miserable. She cried and screamed for about an hour for us to please take them off. It was honestly the first experience as a parent where I knew what we were doing was for her own good but she did NOT see it that way and it was heartbreaking. But after that first night, she obliged to wear them every night thereafter and has now developed the ability to fall asleep on her own. What a HUGE accomplishment!!!!! We gave her the incentive that if she could stop, then we would celebrate by going to "The Lodge", a place she asks to go to at least once a month.
The other reason why we decided to have such a special overnight adventure was for the purpose of having one last "hoorah" as a family of 4 before the new baby arrives. And that's just what we did :) The kids had an absolute blast. I never imagined that Reilly would be so over-the-top excited to ride some of the water slides, but after she got started on the first, she wanted to do them ALL!!! And since she was just at the minimum height of 42", she was able to do everything except for the biggest slide, the Tornado. Shawn and Reilly rode the slides over and over and over and over and would have kept riding more if time wasn't an issue! Braxton had a blast on the "little slides" in the toddler area and he LOVED the wave pool too! He definitely tried to say "ME!" several times after Reilly got off a slide, indicating that he wanted it to be his turn, but unfortunately, he'll have to wait until he grows about 10 more inches to do that!!

Braxton loved getting knocked over by the waves...

the first time down one of the big slides....ALL SMILES!

Reilly's FIRST race!!

2011-06-04T17:55:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, this was an exciting day in the Turner household! Since Shawn has been doing much more running lately, and has done several 5k races, Reilly has been asking to do a kids run. This morning's 5k race had a 1k "fun run" for the kids after, so we decided this was a good option to give Reilly a taste of running if she really wanted one! Shawn and her had a special date night on Thursday to go pick up their race packets, which was super special! This mornings race was a bit early, so the kids had to get up a few minutes before 7:00 so we could get out there before the 5k started to see Daddy off. It didn't take long for Reilly to start asking when it was her turn to run! Shawn pinned her number on and then, as he was doing some cool-down stretches from his race, she joined him by doing some stretching of her own. She also started doing some random running around to "warm up" which was really cute. Daddy gave her a little pep talk/instructions about running all the way to the finish line. She insisted that she did NOT want Daddy to run with her...that's our independent little girl!

The 5k started at 7:30.....there were a TON of runners and several running with joggers...

pinning the number on.

little pep talk and pre-race instructions...

stretching on the curb like Daddy.

and they're off! (click below for a quick video clip of the start)

we thought they were just going around the traffic circle and then coming back up the hill, but they actually turned left behind the traffic circle and went out of sight for a few minutes! I was a tad worried when we didn't see them for a bit and and as soon as Shawn started to walk down the street, here came Reilly around the corner, just running along! He said she even started running fast when she saw him!

another video clip....

and here's a clip of the finish...

look at that precious red face!

Such a proud Daddy!!! He definitely confessed that behind his glasses were lots of tears, the whole time he watched his little girl run :)

Young Life Mini Golf Mania

2011-06-04T17:47:00.000-07:00

Last night we headed up to the new Lake Norman Mini Golf for a fun Young Life event. Instead of doing a traditional golf tournament this year, our committee decided to put together a more family friendly event and came up with the idea for Mini Golf Mania! It was a great event and lots of fun for kids of all ages.....just a tad on the HOT side! Reilly had a blast playing putt putt with her best buddy Evan, since Ali and Keith purchased a foursome to help support the event. Some of the leaders and high school kids involved in YL put on a mini Club so that the kids and adults could see a glimpse of Young Life. Again, Reilly and Braxton LOVED dancing around to the always crazy songs and laughing at the skits. It was a great time...

No YL event is complete without some ridiculous characters to add some humor...

Braxton is getting it, but may just need to work on his form a bit :)

Butterflies!!

2011-06-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

I am really mad at myself for not documenting this awesome adventure we went on as a family this spring better with pictures, but I did get the last part which was the coolest, be far!!

We decided to do a Butterfly kit with the kids this year and it was SO much more thrilling and exciting then I could have imagined!! I had ordered a couple books about butterflies for us to read as we went through this experiment and it really helped!! The kit comes with a postcard that you use to mail off in order to get the caterpillars via mail. So I sent it off and sure enough, a few days later, five caterpillars, not longer than 1/4" arrived in a small plastic cup with some gooey yellow stuff at the bottom that was supposedly their food. I was so nervous that I was totally going to screw things up and end up without a single caterpillar turning into a butterfly. But, alas, we put the cup in the middle of the kitchen table (I know, kinda gross, but there was no way for anything to get out of the cup onto the table) so we could see if and keep our eyes on things throughout the day. I was totally amazed at how fast these things grew! Seriously, I think they doubled in size every single day. They grew tremendously fast and by the end of one week were over one inch long. The kids LOVED coming down in the mornings to check on things and frequently looked in the cup to see the caterpillars moving around or "sleeping". We went out of town one weekend, and when we came home, one of the caterpillars had already formed his chrysalis, hanging from the top of the cup!! That was so neat! Within a few days, ALL the caterpillars had formed chrysalis' and it was time to move them into the net. This is when I was super nervous. I was so worried that one of them was going to fall off the paper that they were attached to and be all ruined. Reilly helped me very carefully move the paper with the 5 chrysalises attached into the net with some tape, just as the instructions explained. Not more than one hour went by and Reilly came running to me, "Mommy, the chrysalises are lying on the bottom! They fell down!!!" Great, now I knew I had ruined things and we were either going to end up with no butterflies, or they were going to have some serious malformations. I think they ended up falling down twice before I finally went and got a safety pin and pinned the paper to the netting. Several times a day for an entire week we checked the net for any sign of life, as the chrysalises really show nothing of what's going on inside! Again, we were out of town for the weekend. We came home super late and put the kids straight in bed. When I went over to the net to check on things, I couldn't believe it....a real live butterfly was right in front of my eyes!! We grew a butterfly!! Amazing!! So exciting. I couldn't wait to show Reilly in the morning. She was SO excited!!! It only took a couple days for all the butterflies to emerge and it was just as exciting as each one took flight inside the net. We had flowers in the bottom and put water+sugar droplets each morning for them to eat. After a few days of them all being in there, we began to realize that they needed to be set free. Reilly's plan was to put them out on our butterfly bush in the front yard so hopefully they would stay around. So that's exactly what we did!! It was so much fun and truly something that amazed me at each stage!

Stonebridge Preschool Program May 2011

2011-06-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that not only has Reilly completed 3yr. old preschool year, but that this means the next time we go to a preschool program, I will be starting at my daughter in the Pre-K class and my son in the 2yr. old class up on stage!!! Whoa, what is happening to time!?!?! The end of the year program was super sweet this year. They do such a good job choosing such awesome songs for the children to sing. This year, Reilly's class sung "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", "Deep and Wide" and my favorite part of the entire program was when the whole school (all ages) got on stage at the end and sang the "Lord's Prayer" with motions throughout. It was so so neat. And Reilly sang her little heart out! We were so proud of her :)

Ms. Jacobson sure was a gift and a blessing for us this year!!! We worked through some tough challenges with our little strong-willed child, but in the end, she has shown so much maturity and is definitely ready for the Pre-K class next year!

OIB - Day 3

2011-06-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

We had a busy day on Sunday at the beach. Reilly went with DeeDee and Memama to the beach church service while the rest of us got ready for another beach day. After a couple hours of jumping waves, running from waves, digging pools in the sand, looking for shells, going on walks, and eating lunch, we headed in for rest time.

I seriously cannot believe I am posting a picture of myself in a maternity bathing suit on a public blog, BUT, I just keep saying that it's all for the memories and documenting our family for our children :)

After naps, we headed out for a special treat at Sunset Slushie with Poppi and DeeDee....

And then a super stiff competition at the OIB putt putt....

The trip was super fun and the kids had a blast on the beach this year. They are at such great ages to just play and play for hours and hours. We are so glad we decided to make the trip for some fun family beach time before the baby comes. Our family will look so much different when we head back at Labor Day!!

OIB - Day 2

2011-05-29T05:36:00.001-07:00

Day 2's beach time was even more fun for the kids because they had DeeDee and Poppi to "jump the waves with" and attempt to catch fish with AND cousins Cooper and Carson to play in the water with. Reilly and Braxton could not get enough of playing with their "big" (2nd) cousins!!

Braxton and Memama being silly on the front porch....

Beach trip of 2011

2011-05-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

We decided that with a baby coming in early July, our one and only chance for a beach trip would be Memorial Day weekend! So, here we are! We got to Ocean Isle last night and went straight to Sharky's for Shawn's favorite flounder sandwich with a "cold beer" to kick off the trip! Memama met us there and we had a great dinner. The kids were super excited to get out on the beach today and boy did we have fun!! We got out around 10:00 and the weather was perfect! Low 80's and a great breeze and there was hardly any crowd at all. The kids were in absolute heaven. It was so fun to watch them play together this year as opposed to last year when Braxton wasn't too sure of what to do. They ran from the water together and jumped over the small waves. Then we went for a "shell walk" to collect shells. Shawn dug out a small pool for the tide to fill in and the kids loved playing in that too. It was so much fun and they are already super excited to go back out tomorrow, especially now that DeeDee and Poppi are here!

matching glasses with Daddy

it was also so fun to have Memama out there with us....

running from the water...

5k racing and celebrating Poppi's 60th Birthday!

2011-05-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

We had quite a busy weekend!! First, we started out at McAlpine Park where Shawn ran in a 5k race. This is the exact same course he ran in high school for the state championships where he came in 2nd place!! It was really cool for him to be back at the same course, however, he did have to realize that his body was not quite the same as it was 15 years ago!! Never the less, he did awesome and hit his goal for this particular race, which was to get below 22min. and HE WON 1st place IN HIS AGE GROUP!!!! (just for comparison, when he ran this course in highschool, his times were in the low 16minutes!!)

After the race, we headed to Greensboro over the weekend to celebrate Poppi's 60th birthday. The kids had fun riding horses, stopping at the Strawberry patch to pick some berries in the sprinkling rain, riding Poppi's fancy lawnmower (it's the small things people!), and eating Poppi's strawberry pie birthday cake!

Playing in the rain.

2011-05-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

Last night we were eating dinner on the porch and a big rain storm came in. It was fun to eat outside and watch the rain falling harder and harder. Reilly asked if they could go play in the rain and I said, "sure! go get your rain boots!" By the time she and Braxton got their boots on, the rain had completely stopped. But, they still had fun stomping in the small puddles and walking around the driveway with their boots on!! I didn't seem to think it was a problem that Braxton didn't have any pants on....just his cute little choo-choo big boy underwear :)

Pregnancy Brain at 31 weeks....

2011-05-16T16:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, today my daughter totally called me out!! Here's the story....

This is my week to pick up Reilly and her friend Sophie from preschool. They get out of school at 12:55. Last night I had a friend who is a realtor tell me she had someone interested in our rental house and wondered if I could show it between 12:00-1:00. I said that surely I could meet her there at 1:00, thinking I'd have enough time for Braxton and I to eat lunch and then get to school to pick up the girls. While we were at the rental house, they sent me a message saying they were running late and I told them I couldn't stay past 1:20, which would allow me enough time to get home for Braxton to go potty (he's potty training now!) and then get to school to get in the pickup line. The whole time it never donned on me that I was NOT thinking! We got home from the rental house at 1:05 and I stared at the clock for a few minutes and then finally it HIT me! HOLY COW! I was WAY past late to get the girls...surely they would be standing around waiting for me to get there! Wow. So embarrassing. So shameful.

Then, the kids and I were playing on the driveway and Reilly asked me for some lemonade. I started to get out a cup without a lid and she said, "no mommy, I want one with a lid so I can take it outside". I told her to get the cup that she had at school today for lunch and I would just refill it instead of getting a new cup dirty. She told me that she didn't know where that cup was. I explained that she unpacked her own bookbag so she would need to remember what she did with her cup. She responded that I didn't GIVE HER A CUP TODAY with her lunch!! No drink. Nothing. I couldn't believe her so I asked what she drank today at school. She said water....from the bathroom. And I asked her what she had with her lunch and she said NOTHING!! Holy cow, I didn't even give my child a drink to have at school for 4 hours that she was there! I started apologizing and she quickly replied, "Mommy, is the baby eating all your brains?"!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow.

So much truth comes out of the mouth of a 4yr. old!!

Mothers Day 2011!

2011-05-10T17:46:00.001-07:00

I had a fun Mother's Day with my kiddos! Shawn fixed a pancake breakfast and then we headed up to Jetton Park on the lake with a picnic made up of Bojangles chicken and fixin's!! We hung out at the park for a while, checked out the lake and trails and then played on the playground with the kids. We finished up the day at my favorite, On the Boarder, with dinner on the patio! I'm so blessed to have such an amazing family :)

Reilly's preschool class did a special "Moms and Dad" breakfast this morning to celebrate both Mother's Day and Father's Day since they won't be in school in June. It was so sweet. Reilly has been talking about it for over a week now, but insisted that everything was a "surprise" and would NOT discuss any of the details! It was so cute to see her so set on keeping the secret! She was super excited for Mommy AND Daddy to be in her classroom this morning. They had several cute crafts that they had made for us and they had a special "Mommy" song and one for "Daddy" as well that they sung. So super cute :)

Reilly and her friend Lilly

The kids dressed up in suit coats and ties and had their picture taken and framed for a gift for Daddy's. So precious.

Asheville- May 2011

2011-05-09T11:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we headed up to Asheville for the annual Chad K. Haynes Memorial Golf Tournament with all of the Turners and lots of other family friends. The golf tournament was on Friday and it was another great turnout to raise money for the endowment fund that was set up in Chad's memory to help provide financial assistance for a student to attend NCState. Reilly and Braxton couldn't wait to get out on the course with Daddy and had a blast riding in the golf cart with Aunt Kelly!

Shawn and Mama Ree

Reilly and her "2nd" cousin, Davis

On Saturday morning, Shawn, his dad and Uncle Stan all got up to run a 5k race that started just outside of the Hilton where we were all staying. This was the inaugural year of the race and there were 1400 runners registered!!!!

nothing like a live band at 8:15 in the morning to get ya going!

Shawn said it was one of the hardest courses he has ever run!!! He drove me on the course later that day and I couldn't believe how intense the hills were. I am so proud of him though!! Despite all of that, he finished 17 OVERALL and 3rd in his age group!!!!! You still got "it" babe!!
And then the kids and daddy took a little dip in the freezing cold pool/super hot hot-tub...

We hit a jackpot with this one!! O.P Taylors is this awesome, huge, nothing-like-it toy store right in the same complex as the Hilton as well. Holy moly we could have stayed in there for HOURS and could have spent HUNDREDS!! It is the coolest ever and we will definitely be making a trip back when it's time to buy some Christmas presents this year!!

And we finished up the weekend at Dave and Denise's house for a get together. Reilly LOVED the swing in their front yard :) The kids played, the adults ate, and then we all gathered to watch the Kentucky Derby after all bets were placed!

Park time!

2011-05-09T06:20:00.000-07:00

We took a trip up to the Kannapolis Village Park a couple weeks ago and had a such a great time on the awesome playground there. The kids loved all 20+ slides they got to choose from! We were hoping to catch a ride on the train that goes around the park after our picnic lunch, but didn't realize that it only runs on the weekends until after Memorial Day :) Mental note made!

check out the static in that baby fine hair!! So cute.

EASTER!! "It's Friday....but Sunday is coming!"

2011-04-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

Wow, we had such an amazing Easter this year!! So much to be grateful for and so much for the kids to experience! It has been so awesome over the past month or so as we've been preparing for Easter and what that really means, having the chance to share that more and more with Reilly this year since she is reaching an age where she wants to know and is able to learn more. We have talked about the real meaning of Easter and she continues to amaze me at how much she retains and how much she remembers from the things she learns at home as we read her Bible, talk, pray and from what she learns and hears at school. I have to say that one of the proudest moments as a parent that I have had may have come last night. We were outside on the driveway and the kids were playing with one of our neighbors. Carter is in 1st grade this year and he kept saying, "Reilly, do you know what tomorrow is??!!" After he said it a few times she very confidently turned to him and said, "Yes Carter, Jesus is risen tomorrow!" Wow! How cool is that? I'm not really sure Carter knew how to take that answer, b/c he surely didn't expect that to come out of her mouth! Shawn and I were pretty proud :)

Our Easter celebrations started on Friday as we died eggs with the kids.....

On Saturday morning, we were invited to Grandma Gibbs and Coach's house for their 12th annual Easter celebration. The kids had so much fun and this was Braxton's first official "Egg Hunt".

Reilly and Braxton with Ellie, Ava, and Branson and Pat's "Giant Duck!"

every year Pat has a group from her church come and do a puppet show for the kids. In years past it's lasted about 30 minutes or more and consisted of 8-10 puppets with tons of youth doing the show. Luckily :) she had the show condensed this year and it was just these two and one lady doing all the talking. The kids actually paid attention for the entire time!

And this morning, we start off by giving their kids their Easter baskets from mommy and daddy. They loved getting new fun surprises when they woke up this morning!! And then we headed off for a packed morning at "Easter at Verizon" for our church's 3rd year celebrating this day with a giant party! The weather could not have been more perfect.....sun and a light breeze. It was awesome. Deedee and Poppi, Brandon and Angel, Aunt Kelly and Shaun all came along with us this year. The kids had fun on the bounce houses and took the Easter Egg hunt very seriously before the service started! The service itself was awesome, with some amazing worship, and then a special treat mini-concert by NeedToBreathe.

Verizon Wireless Ampitheater: this place was packed to the max today!!

Braxton on the bounce house for little ones....

Reilly being all big and brave on the giant slide....

the EGG "Hunt"!

And they're off!! Reilly is just in the middle with a very determined and serious face!!

Braxton just wanted to pick up the "blue" ones and open each one as he picked it up! We'll have to work on his egg hunt strategy for next year!!

Uncle Brandon helping B put his eggs in the basket...

DeeDee and Reilly, proud after a successful collection of eggs and inflatables was acheived!

and then the service began.....

Shaun and Reilly, singing and dancing (until I put a camera in their faces!)

After the service, we came home and met Grandpa and Nanny at the house as well. We did yet another egg hunt in the back yard with just R and B so they could find some quarters to put in the "ice cream truck fund"!! :) We have a purpose with everything :)

And the kids finished up the afternoon with some water fun with the neighbors! They were so funny as they had the first experience with some SUPER cold water on a 90 degree day!

Praise the Lord for an awesome Easter!!

Reilly's NEW big-sister room

2011-04-16T09:04:00.000-07:00

Shawn and I like to make things hard on ourselves....that's something we've proven time and time again :) So why not go ahead and switch around all the kids' bedrooms instead of just moving Braxton in the empty room and keeping the nursery where it is? Well that's what we're doing! We moved my office out of the extra bedroom upstairs so that it could be transformed into Reilly's "bigger" big-sister room. The room she is (was) in is the smallest bedroom in the house and she just did not have any space to play. We figured that since she was going to be the big sister of TWO younger brothers, she would probably be spending a bit more time in her room doing her "girl" things so we wanted her to feel special with the bigger room. So, that meant painting PINK all over again and gathering a few "fancy" accessories to make her room feel fancy and girlie. We can't wait to reveal it to her tomorrow when she comes back from DeeDee and Poppi's house!

Next step....painting OVER the pink in her old room and transforming it into Braxton's NEW room!! Then we can work on getting the nursery ready for a new baby in a few months!!

"invisible mom"

2011-04-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

A friend just emailed me this awesome story that really spoke to me, so I wanted to include it on our family blog and eventually in the book that will be made of this blog so I could look back on it again and again....

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response,
the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone
and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see
I'm on the phone?'

Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or
sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because
no one can see me at all. I'm invisible. The invisible Mom. Some days
I am only a pair of hands, nothing more! Can you fix this? Can you tie
this? Can you open this??

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a
clock to ask, 'What time is it?' I'm a satellite guide to answer,
'What number is the Disney Channel?' I'm a car to order, 'Right around
5:30, please.' Some days I'm a crystal ball; 'Where's my other sock?, Where's my
phone?, What's for dinner?'

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the
eyes that studied history, music and literature -but now, they had
disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's
going, she's going, she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of
a friend from England . She had just gotten back from a fabulous trip,
and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was
sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well.
It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling
pretty pathetic, when she turned to me with a beautifully wrapped
package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great
cathedrals of Europe . I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me
until I read her inscription: 'With admiration for the greatness of
what you are building when no one sees.'

In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would
discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after
which I could pattern my work: 1) No one can say who built the great
cathedrals - we have no record of their names. 2) These builders gave
their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. 3) They
made great sacrifices and expected no credit. 4) The passion of their
building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw
everything.

A story of legend in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the
cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a
tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man,
'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that
will be covered by the roof, No one will ever see it And the workman
replied, 'Because God sees.'

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was
Almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you. I see the
sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.

No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake
you've baked, no Cub Scout meeting, no last minute errand is too small
for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral,
but you can't see right now what it will become.

I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As
one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see
finished, to work on something that their name will never be on. The
writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever
be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to
sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend
he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4
in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a
turkey for 3 hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That
would mean I'd built a monument to myself. I just want him to want to
come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend,
he'd say, 'You're gonna love it there...'

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if
we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world
will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that
has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible mothers.

Kids in Motion

2011-04-11T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after church, we headed down to SouthPark to the Symphony park area for a fun kids' festival put on by the Junior League of Charlotte. It's the Junior League's "healthy kids" initiative and there were tons of things for the kids to do/see there. Everything from huge tractors, to trucks of all kinds, to police cards/bikes, ambulances, s.w.a.t. trucks, bounce houses, LOWES building center, games, snacks, and lots of other fun things. The kids had fun climbing on everything and checking out some new stuff.