The Children's museum

We had company this weekend!

Meghan wanted to spend her birthday with family so we invited Memom,

Papa, Aunt Steph, Uncle John and Kayla.

We headed out Saturday to The Children's Museum in Greenville.

The question is....who had more fun??!!

Yummy lunch in the cafe in the museum.

Rob and John building a castle with blocks.

The girls driving the trash truck!

Working the pulleys.

Rob landing the space shuttle at Edwards AFB!

Jenna in the construction zone:)

The girls making scones.

The girls finally have jobs!haha

The Bi-lo market was fun!

Sarah and John shopping and Steph working the register.

The music room.

This was a fun museum and it had so much to do. We did most of the activities offered but I bet we could go back a few more times and still have lots of fun.

Happy 8th birthday

Happy Birthday Meghan!

8 years ago today was one of the greatest days of my life!!

South Carolina Botanical Gardens~ Clemson

9 months old

Look who is 9 months old!!!

Wow you sure have changed a lot this past month.

I always have a hard time remembering all the new things you have been doing.....but let's see if I can remember most of them.

You are tummy/army crawling all over...when we put you down.

Your sister's want to help you so much with everything I think you are a little lazy in doing things on your own.

You love to eat and have tried so many different things....you like to feed yourself.

You weight 18.14lbs and are still wearing 9-12 months clothing.

You are in size 3 diapers.

No teeth yet:)

You nurse 3-4 times during a 24 hour period.

You love going for walks in the mornings with me and Sissy (the dog).

You had a bad virus this month and broke out in a horrible rash.

You enjoyed swimming and a few hiking trips this past month.

You love to talk and have the sweetest smile.

You still have a very high pitched squeal too.

You love to wave and clap your hands and every so often you say "hi"!

You are a sweetie pie and we are having so much fun watching you grow.

Message from a friend

I have been following Angie Smith's blog for a few years and I have really missed her not blogging as much. I get excited when I see that she has blogged and can't wait to read it. I saw she had posted something and I wanted to read it this morning before taking the girls to school but stopped myself because I didn't want to rush. I'm glad I waited to read it.

I sometimes read things and think it was written for me.....well this was one of those time and I feel like this was written for me.

Life can't be planned out by ourselves. Things happen and we can't control it but we can move on and not dwell on the past. You never know where you might be a year from now but I know one thing for sure......my walk will always be with God by my side:)

I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I did.

http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/2010/09/pillar.html

eating "real" food

Sarah has figured out that "real" food is much better than baby food!

She does love the graduates puffs finger foods too.

this and that

I have had a pretty busy week and I'm exhausted because Sarah has decided to not sleep during the night very well. She only had one nap yesterday and she slept most of last night, so I only let her have one long nap today. I'm hoping we have another good night. I have to confess to say I do still nurse her at night when she wakes....I was told by her doctor she did not need night feedings....but she will go back to sleep so much faster if I just nurse her:) I am super happy that nursing has lasted this long and she will wean from my milk to regular milk around 12 months (if all keeps going well). I have let nursing go from month to month and at this age/stage it is super easy. She only nurses about 4-5 times in a 24 hr period so I don't have to work my day around her nursings!!

Meghan had grandparents day at her school and since no grands live near us she wanted me to attend. Rob was kind enough to say I might be the same age as some of the grandparents....but he was wrong:) Most looked much older than me.hehe I really enjoyed going because it gave me the chance to go and meet some of her classmates.

I took Sarah with me and the little girls in Meghan's class loved her! One sweet little girl asked me if Sarah got on my nerves..... I said no she was a good baby. The little girl (I'll call her K) told me her baby brother got on her Mom's nerves all the time when he was a baby and he still got on her nerves.... K then said her step-Dad was a jerk to her Mom. I was shocked I was getting so much information from K after I had just met her. I asked her why her Step-Dad was a jerk and I did ask if he was mean to her. Thankfully she said he wasn't mean to her, he just liked to yell at her Mom:( I asked her if her grandparents had to leave the party early and she said nope they didn't want to come. I don't like making excuses for people but I told her maybe they were busy.....

Another little girl told me that she lived with her step-Dad too because her other Dad moved away so he could drink beer, hang out with his friends and smoke......

I'm so thankful for the parents I was given because I didn't have to live in any environments like the little girls above speak about and my girls are so lucky to have a wonderful Dad. Having a stable home is not something everyone gets in life and it breaks my heart to hear how some kids live.

On a brighter note.....I have been cleaning out and organizing. I have had everything unpacked for a while and I put some things away and have started pulling things out and cleaning out. I have already taken a huge truck load to Goodwill and will have another trip to make soon. I think living in a small house in England has shown me I really don't need a lot of extras to just keep stored away.

I did decide to get rid of my dolls from when I was younger but Meghan and Jenna found them and wanted to keep them. I was telling them the names of my dolls this evening and they had the nerve to laugh at my dolls names!hahaha I think Tuesday, Tina and Timothy are very cute names for my three cabbage patch dolls:) Meghan and Jenna will call their dolls hairbow...pinky...and other crazy names!ha

Table Rock

Today we had our first family outing in the state of South Carolina (outside...not at a mall or shopping center)!

We headed up to Table Rock state park and we all five loved it!

We packed a picnic and ate lunch before heading out for an hour long hike. We picked the shortest trail because of the girls and me carrying Sarah....oh and because ECU was playing today and we had to be home for Rob to watch the game. ha

Rob is the kind of hiker that looks as you are walking but the girls are the talking, has to stop a lot kind of hikers. Me....I like to take it slow but I keep the girls moving so it doesn't take us hours to complete a mile hike.

We did the short hike, but that doesn't mean it was the easiest. At one point we were thinking I might not make it up the side of the trail because of carrying Sarah in the Moby Wrap. I did make it up and I tell you carrying 20 extra pounds is an awesome workout!!

We let the girls take their shoes off after we did the trail to get their feet wet and they both slipped on the rocks and got wet up past their waists. We thought Jenna hit her head, but thankfully she didn't (at least that is what she is saying).....she did have dirt on her cheek from the fall.

Rob getting a close up view of the falls.

Jenna holding a corn snake at the nature center.

I think we will be back for more hiking and adventure and will have to plan it on a day that there is no football!Ha

And this makes......

our third SV-650 and our 9th motorcycle:)

Welcome to the family, we hope you stick around a while!

no TV.....

Well the title isn't actually accurate:) We do have a TV...three to be exact but we decided to not have one in the living room. I have really enjoyed decorating the house and yes, I work fast. Why....well with moving every three years or so I don't have time to do it slow....if I did that it would never get done. I don't like living around boxes and mess. As you might see in my photos I am not a fan of a lot of knickknacks. I loved getting all my household goods from California and England together.

The large oak cabinet in the picture below is called a high board and I had it custom made in Romania.

I LOVE it and I think it looks beautiful in the living room. It actually could only fit in the living room, so I decorated the room around it. the kitchen/dining room did not have a wall big enough for the high board.

I'm so excited to start back with the show us your life home tours on Kelli's Korner:) I am using this post from a few weeks back because I haven't changed anything in the living room since I posted these pictures. So much has changed since last year. I have moved from a tiny little English house to a 2400 sqft house in South Carolina!

I love looking at all the rooms and get ideas from some.

Thanks for stopping by.