Baby Love

GG cannot get enough of baby Brooke and baby Reese!

According to my phone...

This is what we have been up to...

A Laverne Black photography exhibition titled "Manescapes."  Very cool!

GG's last soccer game.  She was the only girl on the team this year, and had a great season.  She held her own and even scored some goals.

A rocket launch with Daddy.  The first launch was successful.  The second launch the rocket disappeared. We found it 6 days later in a tree.  It's still there and will be for a while because it is 40 ft up! 

Playing with new cousins, Brooke and Reese, or Reesie and Brookie, as CC calls them.  To say our 3 ladies are comepletely smitten and totally ga-ga over their cousins is an understatement!

GG's first bus ride.  She begged us and we finally gave in.  Two days a week she gets to ride the little bus to school with a handful of friends.  Saves time, saves gas, saves my sanity :) and gives her some independance.  Win-win...so far...

Happy 4th Brithday NG!

Our little spitfire turned 4 on November 3rd! I cannot believe she is 4 because she seems so much older to me.  I think it is because we often treat her the same as GG.  They are the same size so we, and others forget she is 2 years younger. NG is full of spunk every second of everyday.  To say she keeps us on our toes is an understatement.  She is determined, funny, strong-willed, social, brazen, athletic, and a born leader.  There is no drama with NG.  She is who she is, like it or not.  She is a take charge kind of girl.  The one who gathers the children at the playground and creates the fun, and get this...they ALL listen to her?!?! 
When we met with her teacher the other day our one concern was her behavior in school.  (She can give us a run for our money at home.)  Her teacher's one concern was that she is the youngest in the class, but way beyond her age in so many ways.  They, like us, just try to keep her busy, and challenged.  I foresee many years of this with NG :)
So for her birthday NG asked for a Princess cake and spaghetti and meatballs. The top pic is of her with her new basketball coach clipboard.  It is dry erase, which she thinks is really cool.  We are planning to attend a NBA game as soon as the lockout is over...hopefully soon.

Mischief Night

It's a tradition...
This year we froze when GG hysterically announced from the back of the van, "I cannot wait to tell my teacher about this tomorrow!!!!  Uh-oh...
Sorry for the blurry pictures.  They were so excited they could not stand still.

Pumpkin Carving 2011

Fairy Houses

Nana and PopPop gave the girls this book a while ago.  It's been in the car and the girls have been studying it.  A couple weeks ago they decided they really wanted to make their own fairy houses, so I gave them a bottle of white glue and they went to town.  They worked hard for over an hour, hunting for supplies and creating houses.  Here are some pictures of the process.   

This little one is growing too fast.  She melts my heart with her beautiful smile, crazy cool green-brown eyes, and go with the flow attitude. 

Lil' Astronaut

GG and NG have been studying space at school recently. "Star Lab", a giant inflatable planetarium, was in the school's barn for a week.  I loved hearing about each day that they got to visit "Star Lab" and what they saw or learned.  The other day NG brought this home. I thought it was so cute and creative I had to share.  

Snow in October ?!?!?!?!

It looks so funny to see snow on top of pumpkins.  As the temps have been dropping my husband has been grumbling about how he is not looking forward to winter this year.  He was not happy Saturday when this storm blew in!  The girls however love it.  They were very excited to sleigh ride, make snow angels, and eat handfuls of snow (GG's favorite).  Luckily, as I look out the window now it has all melted.   

Halloween 2011

GG was Hermione Granger
NG was Draco Malfoy
CC was a litt le cow

Don't have many pictures this year because we were too busy chasing the little cow, who wanted to keep up with her big sisters. 

White Done Right

 Historic Charleston, SC.  Lots of white done right there!

And what is whiter than just picked cotton from a field in Lynchburg, SC?  The girls thought cotton fields were so cool.  And then the concept that cotton makes their clothes...totally blew their minds.

Mud Run

On Saturday Eric and some of our good friends ran in the Marine Core Mud Run in Colombia, South Carolina.  They ran 5.2 miles and completed 32 obstacles.  They had 2 teams, each with 4 people, and with an age range of 14 to 57. They all loved it! 
I watched the 7 kids and we took lots of pictures.  It was definitely muddy, dirty, and disgusting, but actually looked like a lot of fun.  I am definitely in next year!  GG and NG were able to run the last leg of the race with their Daddy and go over the last obstacle (some kind of log thing).   They were thrilled!  Eric said he would do it again in a heartbeat.  All the money raised from the 9,000 mudrunners goes to the marine veterans, and at each obstacle there were marines cheering on the runners. Maybe I can get Eric to add his commentary on the mud run to my blog....  

RV Trip

We just returned from a week long vacation...in a 34' RV (pictured above)  Quite an adventure.  We covered 2,000 miles and saw 7 states.  We learned that traveling this way is ideal for families with young children who want to be constantly on the move and see / do a lot of fun things.  More details from our adventures to come...

Pretty...

A little simple country home inspiration.  I love Hunter boots and dutch doors!! Happy Friday!!