4th of July

I was fortunate enough to get the week of the 4th off, so the kids and I headed to Kiawah for the week. It was a great week with friends and family. Sadly, Jay had to stay home and work, so we missed him a lot! The kids had so much fun! My cousin, Grae, and her two kids Mary and Jackson got to come down for one day. A couple of my friends from Anderson, Elizabeth and Colby, were able to come for a day with their kids as well! For those of you who don't know Colby, she and her family live in Cairo, Egypt now so we have not seen them in 2 years! They are here for several weeks this summer and we were thrilled to get to spend some time with them! Our kids are all pretty much the same ages and had a great time playing. It is a little scary being outnumbered by our kids now, though! At the end of the week my sister and her family came down. Easton is 19 months now and such a cutie!

The kids stayed with my parents and are enjoying time in Anderson this week while Jay and I have a very busy week. We will go and get them on Friday and then head to Tennessee for a few days to spend time with Jay's family. We look forward to seeing them and most of all meeting baby Lila!!! I'll have lots of cute pictures to share next week!

The New Addition

While Jay was out of town last weekend Elle and I had a moment of weakness and brought home a homeless, abandoned kitten. I'm pretty sure this is one of the worst decisions I've made lately (Jay would second that), but seriously how can you resist such a cute kitten? The sad part is that she will grow into a cat and no longer be a cute kitten, but we're enjoying her for the time being. It is so worth it to watch Elle with her. She just adores her and they are so cute together. Brooks is a different story! We have to watch him closely with her! Elle has named her "Pupcake". This is the name of Strawberry Shortcake's dog, and Elle likes it, so she's using it for her cat! She really has been a great kitten so far. Very well behaved and great with the kids (even when Brooks is terrorizing her). She has slept well at night despite being so young and still needing milk at first. She is eating normal kitten food now and doing great.

Finally!

Brooks is now the proud owner of the much anticipated Edger!!! He is doing great with his potty training and went sun up to sun down today in his big boy underwear. That included many outings, so this was a great accomplishment! Way to go Brooks! Keep up the good work!

Lila Katherine Hemphill

Elle and Brooks would like to proudly announce the arrival of their new cousin, Lila Katherine hemphill. She was born on Thursday morning and weighed 7lb. 2oz. Claire, Brian, and Lila - we love you and can't wait to see you all soon!!

Gatorland

Sorry that it's been so long since the last post. We're staying busy with the usual madness, but nothing really blog-worthy. Brooks is very close to being completely potty trained. He has been doing really well. His motivation has been an edger. Yes, an edger...like Jay uses in the yard. There was one at their school that he played with every day. His teacher told me that he loved it and that's all he ever wanted to play with at school. So, I thought it would be a great "potty prize"! So we built it up and told him that when he started going on the potty like a big boy we'd buy him an edger. That's all we needed to say. He really wants that edger. Unfortunately, they apparently don't make them anymore, because we couldn't find one anywhere. I got a little nervous and didn't want to go back on my word. So, in a desparate plea I asked his school if I could buy it from them or replace it with a similar toy. They were happy to do it, so we now have an edger. All he has to do is go the rest of the weekend with no accidents! I hope to post a picture of that soon! (of him with the edger...not on the potty!)

We took the kids to Gatorland today. It was so hot (our car said 108 when we left!), but we had a great time. The kids got to touch a baby gator, take a walk through the swamp where we saw a couple of snakes, ride the train and then finally play in the splash park. And to make it even better....Brooks was accident free all day!

Happy Birthday Elle!

Elle's birthday week began last weekend with a small party at our house. She had it all planned out in her head months ago - a butterfly theme with face painting, pinata, and cupcakes. We tried our best to meet her requirements! They all had a wonderful time. The girls loved being made into butterflies and most of the boys chose pirates.

On Wednesday, the kids and I headed to Kiawah to meet up with Mom, Dad, Libba, Kyle, and Easton for a long weekend at the beach. Jay joined us on Friday and we had a wonderful weekend of celebrating Elle's birthday (again) and Mother's Day. It is hard to believe that Elle is 5 years old now! Where has time gone?

Disney's Minnie Marathon

Disney's Minnie Marathon weekend is this weekend and Elle and I both participated this morning. I ran the 5K and Elle ran in the 200 yard dash for 4-6 year olds. It was a lot of fun! The 5K went through Epcot. Elle's race got off to a rocky start. She was really excited about the race and before she went to line up was "practicing" and fell and skinned her knee. We tried to act like it wasn't a big deal and help her bounce back in time for the race, but it was pretty bad. We got her cleaned up in time for the race, but needless to say her morale was down! Jay stayed with her at the start and Brooks and I headed to the finish line to cheer her on. Once the race started she got a little nervous and Jay ended up running with her. There were several other parents who ran as well. She was proud of her medal, and we told her that she definitely won for "fastest with a boo-boo". She seemed OK with that! Hopefully this will be the first of many mother-daughter races to come!

Chris Lofton

Whether you're a Tennessee basketball fan or not, we can all appreciate this inspiring story about Chris Lofton's secret struggle with cancer. Take a look if you haven't already read it!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=3376961

Can we PLEASE go to the fair?

This is the question we heard every day, several times a day, for 10 days. Unfortunately, the Orange County Fair sets up camp about 2 miles from our neighborhood every year and we have to ride by it more than once a day. I don't want to offend anyone who may love fairs, but I hate them for many reasons. Now, I can appreciate a good country fair with pie baking contests, pig races, and horse shows, etc. This is not one of those. This is one that comes through town like a tornado...takes tiny boxes off a truck and turns them into towering ferris wheels and roller coasters in mintues, and has a few animals that are by no means prize-winning that are carted from fair to fair. Last year Jay and I were able to avoid taking the kids somehow. This year we weren't so lucky. With both Elle and Brooks chiming in together daily from the backseat, we finally caved and said we would go walk around. While it did meet most of my low expectations, it was worth it to see the look on Elle's face. She was in heaven. As I mentioned earlier, I have serious concerns about getting on these rides that days earlier fit in the back of a truck. But, once again Elle's blue eyes won and we bought some tickets. I knew we were in trouble when we stepped on our first roller coaster. Elle and I climbed in and strapped on our seatbelt that didn't fit. I couldn't help but notice the rust on the tracks. Elle was giddy. The last words the attendant said before giving us a push start (he literally pushed the roller coaster to get it going!) was "you might want to hold onto her" as he pointed to Elle. I thought we were going to die! We didn't. Elle wanted to ride it again, but I conviced her to do something a little closer to the ground. Brooks was not a fan of the rides (smart boy!) and chose to play games instead. He had a great time eating cotton candy with Jay and fishing for sharks. Here are some pictures of our night at the fair. Only 11 more months until it comes again...

SC Visit

I had a wonderful visit to South Carolina last week to check on Dad. Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers...he is doing amazingly well! They have had an outpouring of support from friends and family. I was fortunate enough to partake in several of the meals that were provided for them during my visit! In addition to spending some quality time with Dad, I also got some much needed time with my nephew Easton. He is so much fun and is 16 months old now. Thought I'd share a cute picture of him now as well as one with Dad. I was sad not to take Elle and Brooks this trip, but Dad needed his rest and would have been too tempted to try and entertain them. Now that he's doing much better we are going to make a quick trip to see them again next weekend while I have time off of school. Elle wants to compare notes with Pops on IVs and bloodwork, etc. since she feels like a pro now from her own recent hospital stay!