Tip of the Day

Here is my tip of the day . . . speaking from experience!

Never be in such a rush that you accidentally take the lid off of a container of orange Juicy Juice BEFORE you shake it!!

Josie and Jack

This weekend we have celebrated with several of our friends and their children, Josie and Jack. It has been a blast! We started our Saturday by meeting Baby Josie Sellers. It was so much fun to hold her as she is very tiny. Byron and Scarlet are doing great and adjusting well to life with a newborn.

Then, we headed to My Gym to celebrate Jack's 2nd birthday. Savannah had a wonderful time with all of her friends and played hard! As usual, Elizabeth did a wonderful job with the perfect party. The theme was balls and trucks and each kid took home a huge beach ball. Here are some fun pictures from our weekend.

God's Blessings

Today has been such a full day . . . full of God's blessings all around for us and some of my dearest friends. Let me share with you a glimpse of His blessings:

First of all, my precious friend Scarlet just left the hospital with her newly adopted baby girl. She has been so faithful and patient in waiting for God's timing and received a call Tuesday afternoon that her baby was being born. Just like that, out of the blue, she became a mom. I just talked to her and found out that she is on the way home with Josie Renee Sellers!! Welcome baby Josie!

Then, my dear friend Elaine called to let me know that the procedure went perfectly this morning with baby Ethan. You may have read her Caring Bridge page linked to my blog, but just in case you don't know, Ethan had a trach put in just about a year ago to the day. He has had many ups and downs and countless emergency trips to the ER, but today he will begin a normal life! Elaine says "It was all worth it to see how God has used Ethan in the lives of so many people." WOW!! She is simply amazing.

There's more . . . another friend (unnamed as of now) called to tell me that she might be having twins!! She'll know for sure on Monday, but for now the doctor's pretty sure there are two babies in her tummy. Hooray!!

Lastly, there's my own precious child. Words cannot even express how much joy she has given me over the past week. Life seems so much easier now that she can communicate so clearly. I love watching her little personality develop as she is learning so quickly. Here are her latest accomplishments: she beginning to count, recognize several different letters, recognize our "church" as we are approaching, say welcome when we say thank you, and also helping to pick up things and put them in the proper place. As for her new expressions, there are many, but my favorites are "No problem" and "A Man". I love her!!!

Thank you Lord for the countless ways that you are working in my life and the lives of my closest friends. Today it has been quite evident what an awesome God you are and how perfect Your timing and plans are for us.

Happy Easter!

Playing at Alyssa's birthday party

Sliding with daddy

Savannah and the birthday girl

Getting ready to hunt some eggs

Sorting through the loot

Look at daddy's tie!!

I love candy!!!

I love my new purse too!

This has been a very full weekend! We started off on Saturday with a trip to Greenville to celebrate our niece Alyssa's third birthday. It just happened that Mr. and Mrs. Weninger's church was having an Easter egg hunt that morning so we made it in time to participate. I was a little worried about what Savannah might do, but she had a blast and knew exactly how to hunt eggs and put them in her basket. She collected lots of goodies including some cool hot pink sunglasses. Then, after the egg hunt we headed to the birthday party. Savannah loved playing at PlayNation with all of the other kids. After visiting with Grammy and Papa we head home to Charlotte so the Easter Bunny could come.

Savannah was so exhausted we had to wake her up for church this morning! So, we didn't get to the Easter Bunny basket until after church. We let her rip into her gifts and she mostly just wanted to eat the candy. (I guess she gets it honest!) Anyway, I have to say that Easter without my family just isn't quite the same, but we tried to make up for at least the lunch part by heading to Cracker Barrel for lunch. The wait was long, but well worth it for the yummy biscuits. Afterwards, Dave and Savannah played for a long time outside. Now it's nap time and time for mommy to rest!

Happy Easter to our family and friends!

. . . and more shopping!

Today has been a very busy day for the Bachmanns! We started the morning with our annual tax filing appointment with our accountant who is AWESOME. She knows taxes like the back of her hand and always finds plenty of extra deductions for us to take, especially since my tutoring income has picked up this year. Thanks to Charlotte, we ended up owing about $1000 less than we thought. Yippee!!

After our appointment, Savannah and I headed up to Concord Mills to find her some Easter shoes at Stride Rite. I didn't purposely wait until the last minute. I thought at least one of the 5 pairs of shoes that I bought at the consignment sale last week would be perfect for Easter until I tried them on her and realized that I bought the wrong size! So, I listed them all on eBay and have already sold one clearing over $17 in profit. The others haven't ended yet, but I'm enjoying watching them get bid up! Anyway, after several hours of shopping, we ended up with quite a bit more than shoes . . . we purchased or exchanged items in 13 different stores. Savannah was quite a trooper today, especially since her forgetful mommy forgot to change her diaper and she completely soaked her pants and the stroller! oops.

Now it's time for dinner and all of the chores that got neglected today while we were out . . . stay tuned for some Easter pictures this weekend as we travel to Greenville!

The Birthday Parties

This weekend was full of fun with two very special birthday celebrations. We started our day on Saturday with my friend Marie's 30th birthday party. Her husband, Adam, managed to plan a great surprise party in a state 8 hours away and it was wonderful. I loved meeting her new baby, Brody, and so did Savannah. She helped take care of Brody with making sure he always had his pacifier and even attempted to try to change his diaper at one point! It was such a sweet, sweet time to spend with Marie, Adam, and little Brody as we don't get to see them very often. We spent lots of time talking about the good old days. I find it hard to believe that we're both turning 30 this year as it seems like just yesterday we were graduating from high school! Marie is such a special friend, one of those that you truly cherish and will have forever.

Then we rushed off to Madison's 2nd birthday party. Although we totally missed the gift opening, food, cake, etc. we did make it just in time to say hello to all of our family. The kids played hard on the swing set and enjoyed the balloons too. Savannah loved seeing her pawpaw, granny, great grandmaw, and Deborah. It's hard to believe that Maddie's already 2!!! Sorry we missed everything Kristin, but we enjoyed the little time we had with you guys.

Savannah was completely exhausted and slept most of the way home . . . thankfully because it was pouring rain the entire trip. We really enjoyed our day in Burlington though!

Shop til you Drop . . . and then some!!

Well today was the first day of the biannual Matthews Methodist Church consignment sale. I have to admit that I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited about the sale . . . I was up from 2-3:30 this morning. Then in order to shop early I had to volunteer tonight from 6-10 pm at the sale. Talk about exhausted, I'm about to collapse, but I couldn't go to bed without sharing my loot and of course a picture of my crazy friends who also shared in the chaos. Dave had to turn down two tickets to the ACC tournament Clemson game tonight and take a vacation day, but it was all worth it!!

I ended up with way more clothes than Savannah could ever possibly wear in one season: 11 dresses, 12 short or skort outfits, 2 capri outfits, 4 extra pairs of shorts/skorts, 5 pairs of shoes (4 which are barely worn Stride Rite), a bathing suit, overalls, and 3 toys (check out Savannah's new doll play pen and vacuum). The picture just doesn't do it justice and if I had more time before totally collapsing I would take more pictures . . . want to guess how much this entire season of clothes cost???

$158.19!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Freedom to Play

Savannah and Jack playing in the sand

Jack is such a sweetheart, always wanting to give hugs and kisses!

Aren't they the cutest?! They love to walk holding hands!!

Today was one of those days where I had most of the day planned . . . all with boring chores, a mystery shop, tutoring, and lots of other things that I wanted to get checked off of the to do list. However, after my workout this morning I quickly checked the computer and found an e-mail from Elizabeth (a.k.a. Jack's mom) inviting us to join her and Jack at the Charlotte Nature Museum. I hesitated at first thinking of everything that I "needed" to get done today and about how crazy my afternoon was going to be, but then I realized that I was crazy for even thinking about it! Of course we were going to join them!!

The freedom to drop everything and go on a play date is so refreshing. What a wonderful time we had just seeing real animals, playing in the sand, sliding down the slide, and of course our lunch treat at Chick fil A. Savannah and Jack played hard and seemed to enjoy touching the big black bear the best. I think the butterfly exhibit would have been my favorite if it wasn't so hot in there! Whew. I'm so thankful to live in a great city with fun things for children to do and for friends willing to invite us along. Thanks Elizabeth and Jack, we had a swell time! :)

Lesson Learned

Well, after a long night with Savannah that included several rocking sessions before she finally crashed for the night after midnight, we woke up early this morning and headed to aerobics. I woke up with a sore throat so I thought I'd be smart and take a zinc lozenge to ward off any possible cold coming my way . . . only I forgot to eat before going to my hour long step class. By the time I got home I was quite sick feeling and ending up throwing up a few times. I ate applesauce all day and managed to make it through tutoring and caring for Savannah until Dave arrived home early. So, lesson learned, never take zinc on an empty stomach and then go to aerobics. I'm feeling much better now, but it's been a day . . . whew!

On a side note, Savannah continues to amaze us with her phrases. On Sunday she was watching the Clemson basketball game with Dave when she surprised us both with a "Go Tigers!" She keeps us laughing for sure!

New Swing and Phrases!!

We have thoroughly enjoyed the weather the past two days! Savannah loves being outside and even woke up yesterday morning asking to go outside. Trying to explain to a 20 month old that it's too cold just doesn't work very well, but thankfully by lunch time, after I had finished some errands, we made it outside for some fun. I had put a toddler swing on her birthday list, but realized it would be nice to have it sooner. So, yesterday while we were out I stopped by our favorite Babies R Us and picked one up. After her nap I hung it and she loves it!!! Usually she is in her bucket swing a maximum of 10 seconds before she starts saying "out" or "down", but today she swung for over 10 minutes!!! I kept asking her if she wanted down and she'd say "NO!" Here is a picture of her in her new favorite swing . . . it's not really cold, she just insisted on wearing the red mittens!

Also with the swing came her biggest accomplishment which has put my mind at ease for now . . . she starting to put two words together, finally!! Our neighbor's dog, Kasey, came running over to see Savannah and she laughed so hard it made me laugh. Anyway, soon Kasey ran off and Mrs. Marlene couldn't find him. Savannah started saying "Kasey gone" and shrugged her shoulders. Then she'd say "Kasey, R you?". I'm sure she's learned this phrase as we're always looking for her bib going around the house saying "B where are you?" Nevertheless, I've enjoyed a day of phrases and can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Daddy and Daughter Time

In preparation for end of the month long hours, I have given Dave lots of one on one time with Savannah this weekend. Since the weather has been so beautiful they have spent tons of time exploring outside both yesterday and today. Then, after church today, Dave had the great idea to have lunch on Savannah's picnic table. So here are the two cuties eating their lunch outside today. They are planning to watch some Clemson basketball on the "T" tonight too!