Guns & Church?

*Today's Memories*

Nate: holding up his plastic toy drill (which he thinks is a "gun") and asking me "can I bring my gun to church today?"

Me: Oh. My. Word....Um, NO!!!!!!!!!

Today's Memories

With inspiration my (incredibly talented and creative) friend Michelle (from my high school days!) over at Remember Today, I have decided to try and add a new section to my blog...

It will be simple and really just to help me remember, and share with you, the little things about each day with my children...

So for today...

*Today's Memories* Waking up, seeing the rain and making an instant decision to get out of the house and take advantage of the great (and cultured) city nearby! We headed off to the South Carolina State Museum, where we became members last month. They have a super fun "discovery" room for kids six and under and Nate and Juliana had a blast! The kids got to play with new and exciting toys (of course any toys that they don't have at home are instantly more exciting) and I got to hang out and talk to other parents. It was a perfect rainy day activity! I love living here!

*Today's Memories* Finding Nate's sneakers in the washing machine a few hours after I had told him they were too dirty to wear on our outing today!

Headlines: "Laundry Overtakes Suburban Family's Home!"

Oh Boy! I am on my 5th load of laundry today and I still have several more piles waiting patiently for their turn...


Between the Southern clay in our backyard...

Sudden and frequent vomiting from poor little Nate last night...(thankfully, he's doing much better today though!).

And endless cloth diapers from Juliana...

I am starting to feel like all I do is laundry! I am starting to realize how good we had it with our (free) well water in Georgia!

All About Jules

In attempts to be more creative this week, I decided to try sewing a pillowcase dress for Juliana!

Not bad for my first try, but I will definitely do some things differently the next time around!

And talk about hand me downs...not that we were, but anyway...this Raggedy Ann shirt was actually one of mine from my childhood! My mother saved a bunch of our clothing and recently gave me some!

And my sweet pea, plain and simple.

Ahhhhh, Spring....

Images of Spring from our neck of the woods...

Seeds that the kids helped to plant rise to life before our very eyes (these are now lovingly referred to by Nate as the beanstalks)!

Happy green boots equal clean sneakers

They could spend the whole day digging (and it seems like they do!).




Trees coming to life

Discovering all of the fun things others who've lived here have planted


I told you I liked to rake leaves! (And, no, I won't come and rake yours!).

Lots of wonderful color

Gotcha!!! Juliana helping to "un-plant" the seeds we had just put into the pot!

Reminders

As you may have noticed I have been a bit delinquent in my blog writing over the last week or so. I just haven't been feeling myself lately, and have been having bit of a creativity block as well. Pete had to leave again for Missouri on Friday with about 12 hours notice (after hardly being home from the last trip for less than a week's time). This of course comes after he had already been away on business for six consecutive weeks.

It has been hard, really hard at times. I am tired and in need of a good babysitter! Pete's travels have been stressful on our whole family and I know it it is taking a toll on all of us. But after some serious thinking and some great advice from friends and family, I am making an effort to take charge of my own happiness, regardless of how unhappy I am with the amount of Pete's travel.

So, on that note, I am taking direction from my friend Gwen over at More Lima Beans! and making this list...

What Makes Me Happy

1. Hearing my children laugh
2. Gardening
3. Sewing
4. Raking leaves (I know, I'm wierd)
5. A clean kitchen
6. Throwing the ball to Sophie
7. Sushi
8. Reading my friend's blogs
9. The great feeling I get after a good run
10. Going to bed early enough to actually get a good night's sleep
11. Taking pictures of the kids
12. Painting
13. Girl Scout Cookies-duh!
14. Spending time with my mom
15. Going out to dinner alone with Pete
16. Listening to good music while driving the car
17. Writing stories
18. Getting a new haircut
19. Decorating our house
20. Cooking

Not bad for some needed reminders...

What makes you happy?

I Swear I'm Not Sleepy!

All afternoon I tried (without success) to get her into bed to nap and she just kept getting back up, saying she wasn't tired...

Not tired, right....

Celebrating Life and Health

I've stayed busy all day, cleaning the house, (with the windows wide open!) doing laundry, raking (more) leaves, planting seeds for our garden, playing with the kids and baking bread. I can't tell you how wonderful it feels to be healthy once again and full of energy!

We had a great weekend celebrating Juliana's second birthday and spending time at parks downtown enjoying the weather.

We had a wonderful visit with Maggie, Auntie Krista and Uncle Michael, who all came up from Savannah, as well!

Juliana was beside herself over the presents and cupcakes and was so sweet with all of her "thank you's" (which by the way, were not even prompted by me!).

What made the event even more meaningful was to have Pete present via SKYPE on the computer! We also got Juliana's hair cut for the first time on Friday and she did a fantastic job sitting still.

We are really looking forward to Pete's return home this week! Finally, once again, we can start living as a whole family again!

Happy Second Birthday Sweet Juliana!

Of course I forgot to get a picture of The Birthday Girl blowing out the candle atop her blueberry pancakes...but regardless, she really enjoyed them, as you can tell!


Happy number 2 Jules!

Happy Second Birthday Sweet Juliana!!!

Home Again...

It feels good to be back home (with the exception that Pete is not with us and is still in Missouri) and back to our normal routine. Nate was really excited about going back to school and Juliana and I prepared ourselves for a morning of cleaning and organizing...okay, maybe just I prepared for this and Juliana played with play dough!

I can't even tell you how good it feels to finally be healthy again and rid of all of the Winter's awful ailments. I was seriously starting to think that I would never make it through another 15 minutes without reaching for a tissue! My energy is high, my sleep restored and I'm able to take deep, long breaths. And now that I am feeling good again my mind is racing a million miles an a hour with all of the things I need to do, prepare for and get in order.

When we walked into the house yesterday after being gone for nearly two weeks, I had the chance to see things with a different set of eyes. And what I realized is that this house still needs a LOT of work! Paint, curtains, rugs, shelving, art, pictures...more life in general. It felt good to be able to see that and I'm excited about getting creative and starting the process of making this house our home.

Juliana turns TWO tomorrow...I still can't even believe it! It feels just like yesterday that we were snuggled up in the rocker in her room late at night listening to lullaby's while she nursed. And now, she is singling lullaby's to me, and can't stay still on my lap in the rocker for more than 30 seconds! We are going to meet up with some new friends at the State museum's children's area in the morning for some fun. I hope her birthday is full of love and laughter...

C-O-L-D in St. Louis!

WOW...it sure was cold in St. Louis Yesterday!

We had so much fun visiting with our friends and getting to explore the famous Arch!

It was a great opportunity to expose our kids to more amazing things!

Moving Along

We are still in Missouri visiting with Pete while he's here for business. It's been a week of ups and downs- ups for having the fortune to be together as a whole family again and downs because of MORE illness that (now after a trip to the doctor) is finally starting to dissipate. But enough of that.

Despite feeling poor, the kids and I still made the most of our days here in Columbia (MO, that is) and visited a few really neat local attractions, such as the YouZuem and of course, the Candy Factory! The indoor pool here at the hotel has also been a big hit and it's been so much fun to see the kids go from tiptoeing onto the pool stairs to jumping in with no fear after just a few days. And of course, a trip down to the pool wouldn't be any fun without a quick dip into the "bubble machine" (AKA hot tub) as Nate refers to it!

Today we are off to St. Louis to meet up with some friends who lived in Dublin, GA while we were there, but now live close to St. Louis.

We're taking the kids to The Magic House, a really cool interactive place for kids.

On a note about the home front- it looks like we have finally received a settlement for all of the items damaged in our move! Now we can finally replace all of the dented lamp shades, shop for new stereo speakers and get our treadmill (which was dropped while being taken out of the moving truck) repaired, among a slew of other things!

Okay, we're off to breakfast, hope you are all enjoying your weekend...
Love, Kate