Swiming Lessons!!

We are so excited to finally have Savnanah in private swim lessons! It's been two years since she took lessons and never really learned to swim . . . mostly due to the group setting. So when my friend Elaine recommended her neighbor who does private lessons we quickly called and signed Savannah up! She has been for two lessons (out of 5) and absolutely loves Ms Doris (or Miss Dora as Savannah calls her). We still have a long way to go, but honestly, I love that Doris is going so slowly with Savannah and not rushing her into learning strokes when she's still a little afraid of the water.

Double Well Visits

Today Dave and I took both Savannah and Preston in for their yearly well visits. Thank God that Dave went with me because, as my friends had cautioned, there is no way I could have done it alone! Each kid was due for four shots and Preston had to get a finger prick too. I decided at the last minute to postpone a couple of Preston's shots since he has to get another one at 15 months, but the finger prick was pretty traumatic for the little guy. :( We survived and Dr. Baker assured me once again that my kiddos are perfectly healthy and normal . . . it's nice to hear that from a doctor once in awhile. Here are the stats:

Savannah is still holding strong in the 90th percentile for both height and weight. She's over 3 1/2 feet tall now!!

Preston dropped a bit in weight (definitely fooled me) at only 23 lbs, 11 oz ( 50-75th percentile)and his length was 31 inches (75-90th percentile). Of course his head was still big, Dave says because he has a big brain. :)

Praise the Lord for two beautiful, healthy children!

Bike Boo Boo

Yesterday was the first day we actually got Savannah out to ride her new bicycle! It's just been sooo hot and we knew it'd be a lot of work trying to teach her to pedal so it's taken us awhile to get outside with the bike. As I was finishing up the dishes from dinner, Dave and I had a quick conversation about the helmet. We decided that even if she was just in the cul de sac, we needed to start off teaching her ALWAYS to wear her helmet. So, helmet on, she "rode" for a few minutes before I finally got out with Preston. Long story short, some how she got the bicycle on the bottom, uneven part of the driveway and suddenly fell completely over on her right side! She was screaming as the bike was laying on top of her. What a scare! I quickly got her up and thought that she just had a scrape on her arm, but at bedtime we realized that she has quite a little scrape above her eye too. Thank God we had her helmet on her!!

Preston Is ONE!!!

Preston, it seems like just yesterday when you were born and here we are already celebrating your first birthday! You are such a blessing and have truly been an easy baby so far. I think you are very much like your daddy, laid back and easy going. Just about everyone we leave you with comments on how happy you are, always smiling and never really making a fuss. Although we know that the fussy days come (especially when those top 4 teeth were coming in) overall, you are one content, happy little guy. Thank you for the joy you have brought into our lives, for being a gift of life straight from the Lord. We are so excited about the fun that awaits us with having a little boy in the house. Happy Birthday, Peanut!!!

A Very Special Man

Saturday Dave and I celebrated our 6th anniversary! Our sweet friends the Grahams took our kids for the afternoon and we headed to dinner at Maggiano's. It was nice to just sit and talk without having to cut up food or continuously pick things up off of the floor. :) Although our first six years together have been amazing, I have to say that I never imagined we face all that we have so soon. God has definitely used Dave to get me through some super hard times. I'm so thankful for a godly husband who loves me just as I am . . . who supports me, listens to me, and enjoys having fun too. I can't wait to share lots more years with you baby!


Not only is Dave an amazing husband, he's also a terrific daddy! Today we have celebrated what an awesome dad he is too. We started the morning with chocolate chip pancakes, polished off leftovers from Maggiano's for lunch, had big fat real hamburgers on the grill for dinner, and finished the day off with Baskin Robbins sundaes and some cookie cake! WOW! Honestly, I have to say Dave is much better at parenting that I am. He somehow knows when to wait out the cries, when a no nap day is okay, and most of all, how to let the kids have fun. Savannah says to me yesterday after church "mama, you can go run your errands. Daddy and I can take care of ourselves." What she meant was mama please get out of here so we can make a big mess and have some fun! Ha! I love Dave even more just watching him in action with our two precious children. I think his Father's Day card says it best:

Whether it's putting shoes on little feet

or reading bedtime stories with all the right voices,

it's there~

your commitment to being the best dad you can be.

And that's just what you are

the best Dad ever!

Happy Father's Day, Dave!!

From one lucky mom and an especially lucky wife.

One Crazy Week

This week has been insane! Right after the party on Saturday, Bible school started on Sunday night! I volunteered to teach so all week I've been getting up at the crack of dawn to run and get ready to be at church by 8:30 a.m. (we didn't actually make that once this week, but we tried hard). The hardest part was Preston missing his morning nap every day and being quite fussy by the afternoon. Whew!

To add to the fun, on Sunday night we discovered that I had a flat tire so we borrowed my neighbor's air machine and re inflated it. Well, by Monday morning it was flat again so we refilled it again and Dave took it to work to be fixed. Thankfully it was an easy repair and we didn't need a new tire. However, while the car was there somehow Preston's car seat was taken out and reinstalled a little unstable. Sooo, being that it was only a few days early I decided to go ahead and flip it around. He is LOVING it!!! Seriously, I'm amazed at how much happier he is in the car now!

Preston's first trip forward facing! Mom are you sure this is right??

On Tuesday we celebrated Savannah's 4th birthday! It was low key with opening gifts and dinner at Chick fil A (see previous post). Thursday we again celebrated her birthday and the end of Bible school by going to Coldstone for her birthday ice cream treat! Yummy!!!

By Friday I was completely exhausted, not to mention way behind on a lot of household chores and to dos. Soo, I pretty much let the kids watch TV and play together while I was on the computer. Bad mama I know! Anyway, here is what I found when I did emerge from the computer desk . . .

Savannah's favorite thing to do now is take the couch cushions off so Preston can climb up! He loves being able to get on the sofa and crawl all around. You can't see it in the picture, but I've trained her to put the cushions right below the sofa incase he falls off. We ended the week with daddy coming home early and we hit the pool!

Needless to say we all slept well last night after such a crazy week. Today we'll be celebrating our 6th anniversary and we're going to dinner alone!!!

The Carnival

Last Saturday we had a big carnival to celebrate Savannah's 4th and Preston's 1st Birthday!! It was much, much fun and we are thankful so many of our friends could come. We had a bounce house, face painting, balloon animals, games, sno cones, and even cotton candy. Preston was a little unsure of his cake at first, but it didn't take him long to figure out how good it was! :)

2 A.M. Wake Up Call

I don't think I've ever been as scared as I was last night. Somehow our house alarm went off at 2 am this morning! Now just think about it . . . you're sound asleep and suddenly your alarm is going off in the wee hours of the morning. Of course we were scared to death, but my first instinct was to get it shut off so it didn't wake the kids. In hindsight, had it been a real emergency, that probably wasn't the smartest move, but thankfully everything was okay and the kids slept through it all! After Dave checked the house, I called the monitoring station to make sure they weren't sending the police, but today I have a few other calls to make to figure out what happened! Let's pray that never happens again . . .

Happy 4th Birthday Savannah!!

I can hardly believe 4 years have gone by since God blessed our lives with Savannah. It seems like just yesterday we were holding her in our arms for the first time wondering what in the world to do and here we are today celebrating her fourth birthday!! All day she kept asking when her friends were coming for her party. I explained each time that today was just a celebration with mommy, daddy and Preston. So tonight after eating at her restaurant of choice, Chick fil A, she says to us, "this is the best birthday party ever, mom and dad!" Oh how we love her sweet spirit. :)

Savannah loved her ice cream with special chocolate syrup!

Savannah you are such an amazing little girl. You have a huge heart and love to share, you are very smart and are a great big sister to Preston. We are so proud of you and love you to the moon and back!

Stolen Fries

Yesterday I had a mystery shop at Lone Star so we met Dave at the restaurant for dinner. As usual, I brought Preston's baby food because the kid simply will not eat table food other than crackers or cheerios. After our entrees were delivered, the funniest thing happened. Dave and I were talking and the next thing we knew Preston just reached over and grabbed a fry off of Dave's plate! He started sucking it and then actually chewed off a piece or two . . . and then reached for another one! It's almost like he's been planning it for awhile he did it so quickly. I can see his little mind at work, "I don't want that nasty sweet potato, give me those fries!"

Visit with Aunt Kathy

Aunt Kathy has been in town all weekend for a quilting forum and yesterday we were able to have dinner with her! What a treat to have a nice dinner out and enjoying catching up with her too. We hate that we don't get to see our families often, so when the chance occurs we make sure to make it top priority! Here are a couple of pictures from last night.

My Awesome Husband

I have to do a little brag post here . . . and give credit where credit is due. Yesterday was totally chaos for me. I spent pretty much all morning dealing with trying to get our digital phone installed and trying to get our air conditioner repair expedited, so after a quick trip to Target my morning was done! I had a retreat to go to for the weekend, here in Charlotte, but away from home for the night and I was honestly scared to death to leave Dave with a teething infant, needy toddler, and NO AIRCONDITIONER!! I had to leave before he got home from work so my precious neighbor came over to watch the kids (who I thought would be napping) until Dave could get home early from work.

All I could think about was what a disaster my house was, how I left Preston naked and without a nap, and that I was comfy in a hotel and I left Dave at home, hot, with 2 kids!! I skipped out a little early on our lunch this afternoon and quickly came home to find . . . . two super happy kids and a husband who had everything under control. I didn't doubt that he could handle it, but I sure felt guilty for leaving him in such undesirable conditions. Anyway, I have to say that not once did he give me any grief about being gone. According to him, everyone slept well, ate well, and was super well behaved.

God knew exactly what I needed in a mate. He blessed me with a husband who is super patient, loving, considerate, and great with kids! Did I mention laid back?? Thank you Dave for being so willing to let me escape for a night, for being such an awesome daddy, and for being just what our family needs!!

Summer Has Arrived

This has been our first week with no school and honestly, I think we're going to make it!! Despite the daily humidity that is outrageous and frequent downpours, we've managed to make it almost a week with no breakdowns. The biggest reason is probably because it's been a short week, but never mind that.

Dave and I decided that we'd join the YMCA for the summer mainly just to use the pool and I can already tell it's going to be the best money we've ever spent! The kids and I went for a trial run yesterday and they had so much fun that it completely wore them out. By the time we got home (about a 10 minute drive) they both were asleep!! So, I quickly put them down for naps and they slept about 3 hours. Yep, this is finally the life I've waited for as a stay at home mom. A morning at the pool and then good naps for mommy to do some work!!!

I can hardly believe that in less than 2 weeks my baby girl is going to be 4 and my baby boy 1?! Where has time gone? We've been busy planning the carnival party and trying to gather all of our gifts for birthdays and Father's Day too. Whew! Preston is getting so big and has 4 top teeth coming in right now. Last night was the first night in probably over a week that he hasn't been up in the middle of the night crying with teething pain. And just when I was thinking I might be as lucky tonight, today our a/c breaks upstairs! Great! Oh well, I've already placed the home warranty call. I just pray they can come sooner rather than later!