Honoring Bill's Mother

Bill's mom was recently surprised with a party to honor her 70th! Doesn't she look beautiful! Sadly, Brian was out of the country and couldn't make it, but look who jumped in the photo....

Ready for some Football?

We have taken JT to a couple of games this year and now he is going to be a football player. The #1 item on Christmas list is a complete (helmet and pads) Wolfpack football uniform! Mom is not so sure of this decision!


The future of football?

Halloween and such

I am so far behind on my pictures, but I have to publish Halloween photos before Christmas is here!

A fun day at the zoo.

Andrew still isn't into dressing up - so we went with what we had. We did love to hear him say, "I'm Bob duh Bidda."

Like so many boys his age, J wanted to be Spiderman this year, but unfortunately, we couldn't ever find one to fit. I was very happy about this Dash the Incredible costume!

I did a Halloween 5K and Dash won the prize for best costume!

The fun run was a "Trick or Trot" and the boys got lots of candy. By the time I had finished the 5K - little pumpkin was on his 3rd sucker, and I ran fast that day!

I love the way you eat a cupcake

Joshua turns 4!!

The day begins with his choice of breakfast (Poptart) on our special day plate. At least for dinner he chose "that orange fish (salmon), broccoli, green beans, and potatoes".

Then he was off to preshool for party #1. I had to purchase the cupcakes for this one, but the blue icing made for some very cute/messy kids. By the way, he wore the hat ALL DAY! After school we headed off to Chuck E. Cheese with Papa and Granny J which we have done for the previous 2 years.

Saturday was party #2 with some family friends. I made these pumpkin shirts for all the kids since we were going to the pumpkin farm.

His cake request this year was a football cake. I had seen this done at the grocery store and thought my model turned out well! Too bad is was so windy we couldn't get the candles lit!

Our kids are getting too big too fast! Joshua is still a very smart and well behaved child. He seems to be more gifted in words than numbers at this point and it will be interesting to watch him develop in the coming year. We love you, JT!

Tweetsie Railroad

We got a great deal for tickets and hotel, so off to Boone we went. The activities at Tweetsie were perfect for our kids, but I was not so impressed that we will spend the $$ to go back again. I'd rather go to the State Fair! Joshua became a cowboy on the trip and has now acquired a cap gun and toy riffle. He is constantly on the lookout for Indians!

Happy Birthday Bill!

Bill celebrated his 37th birthday this year, but he thinks the accident has added age to his body, so it was really like his 40th! I am just so thankful that he was here and HEALTHY for the celebration! Joshua thought Bill should have a bike or parachute cake. This is my attempt at the bike.

Blowing out the candles - too bad it looked better than it tasted! I tried a new icing recipe and Bill thought it was like eating shaving cream.

I scraped the icing off and tried again. This time the icing got the stamp of approval!

Bill wanted me to take the boys to the bike shop to pick him something out for his birthday and this is the jersey that was chosen! Bill has actually worn it, too. What a good sport!

Andrew turns 2!

Our little boy is 2! He celebrated this year with several parties and enjoyed all of the attention. He is a sweet, loving, strong-willed little boy and we look forward to watching him grow in the year to come!

Race Day

I have been trying to run myself back into shape. I've done area 5K's but this was my first attempt at a 10K since Cooper River in 2002! It was a tough course, but my training partner and I both won our age groups!

Andrew was a trooper - and was rewarded with lots of chocolate cookies from Mimi!Daddy and Joshua gear up for the 1 mile fun run.

They finish in a little over 13 minutes!! Go Joshua!
My legs were dead and my head was dizzy!

First Day of Preschool

It was tough to get a shot of the boys together on this, their first day back to preschool. Andrew did not want to cooperate! They are doing great and I am relishing in my few hours alone each week!

Haircut for Andrew

Try as I might, I could not keep Andrew still for cuts at home. He did much better for the stylist and now has a bowl cut which I never ever thought I would go for on my children, but it is so cute on him!

Labor Day in Lake Country

We returned to the land of our courtship for a long weekend and had a wonderful time. Bill has worked such long hours lately, he needed the break mainly to sleep and rest. We found a beautiful place and now plan to try for a week next summer!

Labor day (continued)

J testing daddy's reflexes! He loves to jump off the back deck.

Our house had a great view and sandy beach that was perfect for the boys.

I found this swim set at TJ Maxx this summer and it is great. One piece that wraps the stomach and back and then swimmies. We call it his "turtle back".

Yep. He is.... this is the way he wanted to be on the "beach". Can you imagine the sand!

More great ideas

I am so glad that I don't get to participate in so many of dad's great ideas. A couple of weeks ago he and J made it the whole night out in the tent. Joshua was so excited the next morning that he had slept outside all night (and I was so excited to have had the whole bed to myself!).

Puddle Play

So my boys love to play in puddles and each time it rains we get a couple of great ones a few houses down. Andrew has finally gotten the "hang" of it. Now if only he could figure out how not to fill his diaper with puddle water!

Time to go home for a snack!