Halloween

We had our traditional halloween with the Maxwell family this year. We have been trick or treating with them for four years now and have officially named it a tradition. We began our evening with dinner together as we watched the rain fall outside the dining room window. The rain settled down just in time for us to head out, but we had our umbrellas in hand just in case. Just as we were finished with our last row of houses, it began to rain. So up went the umbrellas and off we went. Stephanie was a pajama girl Katie was Cinderella It is kinda hard to tell from this picture, but Cinderella is not so very happy. She had to trade her glass slippers in for pink tennis shoes as her Cinderella shoes were hurting her feet and not up for the journey! We call these the after Halloween costumes. As J. says, this was the result of too much candy! We had a great time and while the kids enjoyed the trick or treating, we adults just enjoyed the time together.

A tough adjustment

This has been a rough 3 months for us here. As everyone knows, Stephanie started kindergarten in August. What an adjustment that has been! We have had ups and downs since August, but recently I, and Chris, took a good look at the past 3 months and realized that we have really had a whole lot of downs and not so many ups at all. Ever since school started we have noticed a significant trend in rebellion for Stephanie, whining, crying etc. At one point I finally admitted that the hardest part of the day was the moment she arrive home from school. The question of what would set her off today was very prevalent in my ind and I never quite knew what to expect. She cried or whined about the littlest things, out right refused to do other things and was just rebellious. Getting dressed in the mornings was always a battle as was the evenings. I was missing my sweet Stephanie and experiencing a side of her that I really wasn't prepared for. All that said, I assumed that all of this was just the beginnings of a new stage, or just kindergarten in general. Now let me say also that Chris was out of town a good bit over the course of a month. This certainly didn't help with the attitude. That is not to say that I can't control my child, but there is definitely something to be said about a child who knows when they can press the limits! Well, as discouraged as I was, I refused to give up and just say that this was the way it was going to be. We recently decided after much prayer that it was time for Chris and I to step down from choir for a while. It was just getting too hard to be gone the extra night every week. I work on Wednesdays and it was just grueling on me to have to leave work, eat on the way to church and then wait until after church to see the girls only to merely bring them home and put them to bed. So we stepped down. Well, still after trying to slim down our activities and be home more I was still seeing the same response from Stephanie. So, I gave it some thought and talked it over with Chris and we decided to try and implement something else. We both agreed that while Stephanie denied being tired(I mean really, what 5 year old says they are tired?), that a lot of her attitude and rebellion had to be directly linked to exhaustion. We both agreed that as hard as this would be to do, we had to make a conscious effort to give it a try. So, we have now backed up bedtime to 7:30. This really means that most nights she is in bed by 8 with the occasional 830. But this is way better than 830-900 every night. Guess what? Yes, it has been successful. We have seen less temper tantrums, crying, whining, and much less rebellion. Now yes, daddy is no longer gone on trips which helps, but we both believe that a large part of the problem was just exhaustion. So, I say all this to say that we now have seen a return of our sweet, compliant Stephanie( for the most part!) and we are both so thankful. Now our challenge is to keep it up and make a habit before we throw a baby into the mix in just two short months!!!

GO Gamecocks

Chris decided that it was time for all four of us to go to a Gamecocks game together. He picked a great weekend. It was a night game and the weather was perfect. Chris had an overnight trip to Boston on Friday so friend graciously volunteered to give the girls and I a ride to the game, complete with a pit stop at a hotel to drop off our stuff. Thanks to our friend, he not only took us by the hotel,but also he and his daughter helped to give my kids a shoulder ride into the stadium--a life saver for me by far. The girls and I got to the game and were seated just as kick off was about to take place. We successfully climbed up to row 39(or maybe I should say I did) and had great seats in the lower level on a row with extra foot room. A major plus since we were cramming 4 people into two seas. The extra space gave the girls room to move around. Aside from being next to the visiting band the seats were pretty good. We only have 2 season tickets and so these were the extra tickets we bought. Chris decided to use these seats instead of our regular seats since ours are in the upper deck. I must say that this was a great decision on his part! Chris arrived shortly after the game started. The girls were excellent. As I said earlier, the weather was great and it was nice and cool. The girls made it thru the whole game and were dancing and everything else to the music. Stephanie even got into the gamecock cheer. After the game we walked back to Chris's car which was not a close walk(at least as far as the girls and I were concerned). Chris alternated piggy back rides for the girls while myself and the other girl held hands and walked the distance mostly down a rocky railroad track. No complaints whatsoever were uttered from their mouths. We were so proud of them and will definitely plan another game for next year.

Just like Uncle Ben

I found Katie in the sun room on Tuesday and this is what I saw. She loves to play dress up and sometimes she can come up with the silliest outfits. She is so much like my brother Ben it is scary. Her demeanor, character and her ability to just enjoy life is almost a carbon copy of Ben. All of these make her such a sweet and loving young lady and she is really turning out to be so much fun.

It's a....

BOY. Yes, in case you read this and didn't know we are having a boy. I am sure that this is not news to many as most who read this blog are just friends nearby anyway, but I thought I would share it anyway. His name will be Andrew Jarrett. The first name is a name that Chris and I have had picked out for years and 'Jarrett' is his mom's maiden name. We decided that since she has passed away we would carry on her name in him, whom she was never able to meet. Vicki made this. It is made from all the kinds of things you would find in a little boys pocket. My mom came up this weekend and helped me finish painting the nursery. She and Vicki moved the furniture and put the crib together. I am excited that this is all done and now all that is left is just little stuff like decorating etc. VIcki is working on a mural for his room which is a scene from Guess How Much I Love You. I am so excited and can't wait to see what it will look like. I have seen the drawing she did, but not the final product(she is actually making it on foam which I will then attach to the wall) The girls have these kind of pictures on their walls and it is very nice. My mom has again outdone herself and made the nursery bedding. All of it is done with the exception of the crib skirt. She is finishing that up. All in all we are close to being done with the exception of lots of little things. I am looking forward to having it done before the holidays. Helping mom make the bed. Look at how big they are! So hard to believe that this used to be their crib!

Sniffing it out

This one is just too funny not to share... On Monday when D. picked Katie up from school, Mrs. C. told her this story about Katie and told her to make sure that she shared it with us. Apparently, Katie came up to her teacher on Monday and told her that someone was stinky and had pooped in their pants. Mrs. C. tried to contain her composure and proceeded to tell Katie to go find out who it was and to let her know. So, Katie walked around the classroom 'sniffing' all the kids until she found the culprit. She then proceeded to to just look at Mrs. C giving her the eye that the 'stinkiness' had been found. Yes, that would be my Katie.

Katie's first week of Cubbies

Ok. We have embarke.d upon a new year of AWANA. Stephanie has been in Cubbies for the past two years and did wonderful. She memorized her verses and amazed us greatly over the past two years She has now graduated to Sparks where Chris has moved up with her to help in her class. Last year Katie was in Puggles, a new AWANA group for 2 year olds. I was one of the leaders in Puggles last year and grew so attached to many of the kids in there that I decided to move up with them this year to Cubbies. Now, Puggles was great, but there was not any scripture memorization for the 2 year olds. So, now that we are 3(almost 4 actually) Katie is having to memorize scripture. So, knowing what a challenge Katie is I figure that this will probably be a tough year, but I am definitely going to give it my best with her. Last week was our first week to actually have to sit down and learn verses and this particular week required her to memorize 2 verses(shortened) and the Cubbies motto. Katie already has real issues with sitting still and focusing. So, I am already thinking that is probably going to be a very touch year for us. The first day we sit down to work on our verses and what is Katie doing while I am trying to teach her the verses, just guess? That's right, she was hanging upside down on the couch and all I can think is how this child is so different from her sister and how this year will be the death of me! I just know that my child will never learn the verses and I will look like the worst mom/leader for not teaching my child the verses! So, maybe by now you are wondering how the week went since we are now in our second week. Well, I must say that I did keep working with her despite her constant inability to stay still and the result.....Sunday morning on the way into Sunday School, guess what Katie was doing? You got it, telling her daddy and I all her verses for that week. I was so proud. I guess that even if she does hang upside down on the couch she is still retaining something!

Katie's first day fo 3-K

I do realize that I am over a week behind on posting this. However, I must admit that quite frankly I somehow managed to let this important mile stone for Katie slip past the blog. I certainly did not meant to. Katie happily went off to 3-K last Monday and was very excited. She has the same teacher this year as Steffie had for 3-K. When I was called by the teacher just to give me the info for the upcoming year, her exact words to me were 'I can't wait to get my hands on her'. Since you are reading my blog, I will assume that most of you probably know about my sweet Katie Bug. However, I am sure that you also know that I have always said that she beats to her drum, wears me out etc. No doubt teacher wanted to get her hands on that sweet Katie Bug. However, while I have no doubt over the teacher's ability to handle my 'too much to handle girl', I am not sure that she knows just what she is in for. First day of school I dropped Katie off with specific instructions to her teacher that should Katie misbehave, for I knew inevitably that she would, that she was to write me a note. I get home from work that day and what do I find, but a note. I carefully and expectantly read the note and find these words. "Katie was pretty good today. The only problem we had was that I had to get on to her for being too bossy." Now, to that all I have to say is no way! Not my Katie. I can't imagine where she could have gotten that from! So, that was the first day and so far I haven't received any more notes. I just hope that we can keep it that way!

Finger?? Painting

This would be Katie's rendition of finger painting. I on the other hand would call this more of a hand/arm painting project. She had a great time though and did pretty good keeping her mess contained, thankfully.

Things they say

Today while Stephanie and Katie were playing, Chris and I hear Katie saying something to Stephanie. All of sudden Chris just busts out laughing. I didn't hear exactly what she said so I asked him. She proceeded to ask Stephanie if she wanted to 'wait until after Clark Howard is over?" For those of you who don't know who Clark Howard is, he is a financial gooroo that comes on the radio. He also has a tv show on Saturday and Sunday from 4-5pm. Chris always watches this show. I just had to share this because Chris and I thought it was hilarious. Oh the things they say.

Stephanie's First Day of Kindergarten

The day that I never thought would come finally arrived. I sent my oldest daughter to kindergarten on Monday. I cannot believe that time has flown by so quickly. I remember all the times people told me to savor every moment because they grow up so fast. I always thought to myself that I just couldn't wait to get to the point that they weren't under my feet all the time. Well I now understand all those words of wisdom. Stephanie was very excited about her first day of kindergarten. We woke her up and had her fed and dressed without any issues. We had decided that we would take her to school the first day and then let her ride the bus from then on. So, the four of us piled into the car and headed off. We got there and all was well. As we were hugging and kissing her goodbye, she started to cry(I am pretty sure that this was instigated by another little girl in the class who was already crying). Anyway, I took one look at my precious baby crying and I couldn't stop the tears. I decided that it was best at that point for me to kiss her and make my exit so as to to create anymore of a scene. So, I left her tender hearted, sensitive daddy to settle her in....For those of you who know Chris, you know that he is very tender and has a very special bond with Stephanie. He remained composed despite the tears that proceeded down his cheeks. We finally made our exit and all was well until we got in the car. It was at that point that I let the tears come. All Katie could say all morning was mommy don' cry anymore. I am happy that my little girl is growing up. It is just that all of a sudden I realized that she was no longer going to be under my watchful eye all the time. There was going to be someone else influencing her and others around her. I was no longer going to be able to steer her away from activities or conversations that I may deem inappropriate. I could no longer control what she said to others, the tone she used or whether or not she was being polite. So the lingering question was, 'Have I taught her what she needs to know up until this point?' Will she represent Christ? I know that she has not accepted Christ into her life yet, but would she remember to be a light for Jesus in the way that she knows how at this point? All of these questions ran thru my head and the only thing that I could do was to turn her over to GOd. I have always prayed for her safety and her salvation, but now I find myself lifting her up to Him many times a day. I think that yet again God is teaching me that I must do His will and teach my children His word and He will direct not only my path, but theirs as well. So, we are going on day #4 tomorrow and I believe that we will survive this difficult journey just as we have every other journey up until this point, but we must stay on our knees.

Vacation and a little education

We headed back to Amelia Island the third week of July for our annual trip. Chris and I are members of the Georgia Society of Health System Pharmacists(GSHP). They hold their annual summer meeting at Amelia Island and Chris and I have been attending since I was pregnant with Katie. The meeting is designed to be a family vacation and the programs are scheduled in such a way that it makes it very conducive to bring your families along. Because Chris and I are both pharmacists though we always bring my mom and Vicki along to care for the girls. The first few years we went were nice, but still rather challenging for mom and Vicki as the girls were little and we didn't know the plantation well enough to know exactly what we were getting into. This year turned out to be our best year ever. Chris and I both decided to do only the bare minimum education programs we had to and just to enjoy the rest of the time with the girls and mom and Vicki. We had a resort view villa which was a short walk down a board walk to the beach. There was also a very nice pool right at the villa. We were all able to relax and just have a wonderful time. The beach is always rather choppy so we don't generally spend a lot of time there. However, this year mom and Vicki brought kites and so we went down to fly kites for a while. Stephanie was insistent on 'jumping' the waves and so we tried to oblige her. You will see in the pictures though that the water was just way too rough. Keep in mind that they were only ankle to mid calf deep! One day mom and Vicki took the girls on a walk along the beach and decided to come and meet Chris and I at the Beach Club Grill. The walk should have taken then no more than 30 minutes, but as it turned out it was more like 2+ hours. They went the wrong way on the beach!!! Afterwards, anytime a mention about a walk on the beach was made the girls would quickly say 'nooooooo' Chris and I had a good laugh about while the 4 of them were just rather sore. We had a great trip and are already thinking about our next trip. This time though we remember where we stayed and we will be requesting it.

Omaha 2009

Well, I have been terrible at blogging lately, but we have been really busy. We were out of town for 3 weeks in July. The summer was terribly busy, bu in a good way. I'll try to play catch-up a little over the next few days. The firs part of July started out with our annual vacation with the Harrisons. This was our year to fly to Nebraska. The girls were at grandma' s the beginning of the week and so we picked them up in Columbia on our way to the Charlotte airport. We flew from Charlotte to Kansas City and the flight there was relatively uneventful. Our plane in Charlotte was late taking off, which just meant that we had a very short to no lay over. We arrived on time in Kansas City and the Harrisons were there to greet us. We stayed the night in Kansas City and enjoyed half of the next day there as well. On Friday afternoon we piled into the cars for our 2.5 hour drive to Omaha. The weather was rather cool while we were there with very cool evenings for the most part. We actually had to wear jackets on July 4th while we were outside shooting fireworks. Chris and J. were more excited about the firework shooting than the kids were, but that is not surprising. They are just kids in a grown up body anyway. We enjoyed our visit to the fullest as usual. J. and I enjoyed some shopping and eating time together and Chris and J. enjoyed lots of time in the basement playing XBox. One night they actually played thru the night. I had to get up to go to the bathroom and realized that Chris was not in the bed. When I went down to ask them if they realized what time it was they just looked at me dumb founded. There was no clock and of course they were in the basement so they had no concept of time. The visit was great and as always went by way too fast . There were lots of tears shed by all as we boarded the plane to come home again. Our friendships have only grown stronger over the years. The kids all get along very well and S. is very good with my girls. Katie and Talia have always bonded quickly and being the baby Katie clings to S. as well. This year Katie and Z. found time to play together and they bonded as well. We hated to leave as always, but look forward to our visit again next summer. %2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fblandman19%2Falbumid%2F5368048357633050657%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCPSnotjfsJyIBQ%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="288" height="192">

Pedicures with the girls

Our neighbors and friends from across the street had to move this summer. We have lived in this house for 8 years. Chris and I moved here just 2 months after we married and this family has been our neighbors ever since. L. was pregnant with her 3rd child when we moved in and several years later she and I were pregnant again at the same time. L. child A. and Stephanie became fast best friends. They couldn't stay away from each other and all four girls played together constantly. One or the other family always had at any given time 1-2 extra girls. Back in Oct/Nov our friend lost his job and so he has been prayerfully searching for a job ever since. He finally found a job in June in MS. The inevitable was finally upon us and we were faced with the reality that they would really be moving. We tried to allow the girls to spend as much time together as possible. The had lots of sleep overs and lots of play dates. As a final get together of sorts, we decided to take all 4 girls with us for 'pedicures' We went to Tip Toe nails in Evans and proceeded to have our toes done. The 4 girls had their toes painted and then were able to watch a DVD while L. and I had our pedicure. It was a great time and we created an unforgettable memory that day.

Swimming with Friends

We went to the pool today with some good friends from church. L. is Katie's friend. They are in class together at church and school. L. was one of my Puggles in AWANA and I developed a fast bond with her. So, naturally her mom D. and I have become friends too. Today was the second of our pool dates together. We have enjoyed getting together and the time goes by very quickly as the kids play together very well for the most part. Katie and L. posing for their picture. Steffie in an action shot! L. all geared up!

Backyard Fun

We recently had some friends to give us a nice swing set for the girls and he and Chris put it together not too long ago. The kids have really enjoyed playing on it and it has been a great asset. On Monday, I had yard work to do so I set the sprinkler up so that it would be on the swing set. The girls put their bathing suits on and had a blast. When asked it they were having fun Steffie said, "Yes, this is better than the pool. This is the best day of my life." If only I could remind her of this on other days that she is complaining about this, that and the other.

Uncle Justin

We went to Aiken on Sunday(Father's Day) to have dinner with Uncle Justin. We were supposed to meet Chris's dad too, but he wasn't able to come. We had a good time nonetheless. The girls were thrilled to see Uncle Justin as he was them. We ended the evening with the 'traditional' ice cream run. It is hard to tell in these pictures, but the girls were covered in their ice cream by the time we left. They enjoyed every last bite-the ones that didn't land on their clothes at least.