When the rain won’t stop…play in it!

Finally…A beautiful day at the beach

We have been stuck inside for the most part for the past two days, except for our outing to Conway yesterday.  So going to the beach after a cool bike ride this morning was a great treat!  We wore bathing suits and weren’t cold!  We enjoyed the water, built a big pile of sand to jump on.  We wanted to build a castle, but they kept getting knocked down.  The kids love finding sand fiddlers and we found them in the dry sand today, so we saved many lives by throwing them back.  Then we headed in for a PB&Honey and yogurt and took a nap. 

After the kids both actually slept for their nap today we jumped in the pool for a fun few hours in the pool.  Delaney and Mama enjoyed some time on the hammock together and Blake and mommy had fun in the pool.   Daddy took Delaney down to the end of the dock for their first father/daughter time down there.  I’m sure there will be some conversations to have, for now they can just wave and tell everyone hello.  Kevin cooked us delicious tacos and then had to leave to go back to Rock Hill to work for the week. We will sure miss him until he returns on Friday.

2 and a half!

“Crazy Delaney” is 2 and a half today!  When she was having breakfast and we told her this she immediately asked when her party was and when she’d have her cake, VERY seriously!  I felt so bad, she had a morning at Mama and Granddad’s house and a road trip to the beach, no party in the plans, but a fun day!  So on the way in to the beach we stopped by a cute Cupcake place in Calabash.  She picked out some plates and said we needed these for her party, she was fine with a few birthday napkins we had at home and 2 1/2 candles.  When we got to the beach house about 6:20 we all had a 1/2 a cupcake for her birthday.  She gobbled hers down!  At 7:30 she didn’t want to go to sleep, it took her 45 min or better to fall asleep, too much sugar!  She is such a diva now.  She poses for pictures, puts on faces to get out of trouble with a smile, she asks “why” ALL THE TIME.  Says, “Let me do that” or “I do that myself” to any task at hand.  She dresses her self MANY times a day!  She may be 2 1/2 but she thinks she’s 16!  Blake and I say “Crazy Delaney” is up to it again and she just laughs and laughs.  She climbs on top of everything and everybody.  She jumps in the water, goes down tall slides, tries anything new to do or eat.  She LOVES every sweet in sight.  She is a handful for sure, but has so much love to give to all.  She hugs and kisses all the time, she’ll kiss every part of my face and say “hug” all the time.  She latches on tight to Blake and hugs and hugs with a big grin on her face.  She hugs her friends and kisses those she knows well.  She is a flirt and a adventurer! 

Baxter’s Bunch Playhouse Play date

We had a fun play date today at Baxter’s Bunch with Bailey and Carter, Blake’s friends from church and James, Delaney’s friend from school (his mom and I were friends in Elementary School). 

This picture of Delaney sitting in the middle of the girls in the chairs was taken after I looked and looked for her and finally found her.  I took a quick picture, then walked up to see what was going on.  They were playing house and Delaney was their baby.  So cute!

A day in the park

We have met a great family over the past year and have slowly formed a friendship that I will cherish forever.  Blake and Spencer have been in class together at Day School this year.  Joy and I talked in the hall several times as Grace was just a tiny new baby, and then decided to venture out on a double date a couple times.  We have gotten the kids together and they play so well.  Thank you God for these friends and all the others I cherish.

College Girls

I had a fun Sunday afternoon outing to Greenville today to visit my best friends from PC…Katy, who is getting married Oct 4, Ivey (my roommate), and Julie, who was married just a year ago.  We missed sweet Andrea who is home with a baby.  I am so blessed to still have these wonderful women in my life and look forward to our moments together.  I love you girls, through thick and thin!

Date night

We went out with some of our best friends tonight.  We used to hang out with them every night of every weekend before we had kids.  Or when we had small babies that travel easy.  We all lived in the QCP too.  We were blessed to find these couples when we moved into the QCP 7 years ago.  No kids and all just married we hung out all the time, 7 years later, and 7 kids later we have been through so much together that we are so close and enjoy each other’s company so much.  Unfortunately the Fisher’s couldn’t join us, but it was nice to have a night out without the kids (we usually just all get together with them) with the Collins and Casons.  We had a fun night and look forward to many other days we will have together in the coming weeks. 

Thank you God for blessing me with such wonderful friends!

Davis Family Fun Day

Once again the Davis Family set out on a last minute adventure for the day.  We went to Discovery Place after a breakfast at iHop (it’s been a couple months since we have been and we used to go every week, our waitress was so happy to see us and we were happy to see her).  The kids are big enough now to enjoy some of the upstairs activities, but the water (or “wa-wa” as Delaney still calls it) is still their favorite.  Today we decided to take them to the IMAX where a movie on the Artic was playing.  It was only 40 min so we thought it’d work well, it was Delaney’s 1st movie and Blake’s 2nd, but first IMAX.  He was scared in the beginning.  He would cover his eyes and keep asking Kevin if he was moving.  I think he had Disney on his mind, still remembering the scary parts of that trip.  Delaney was frozen with a big smile on her face watching it.  She stayed like that about 20 min., then wanted on my lap and squirmed the rest of the time.  We had lunch on the go on the way home.

After our well needed naps we were off to Wal-Mart on TAX free weekend, oh joy!  But the School Bus were there collecting school supplies.  Both kids picked out the items for a child to use at school whose mommys and daddys don’t have the money to get supplies for them and they took the bag to the people collecting them.  They were excited and proud to do this.  A quick tour of the bus was lots of fun too!

 

After all this fun it was time for mommy and daddy to have some fun of their own…

Our new grapevine

Gardening was a challenge this summer since I wasn’t in town during the prime time to weed and train the plants, so our summer garden didn’t do great, but we do have a few tomatoes, had a good many cucumbers, a bunch  of jalapeños and a couple bell peppers, but not enough.

We had to start over on our grapevine this year.  It takes 3 years to produce fruit you can eat and we are finally there at the other house and we moved away, of course we haven’t sold it yet though so we will still be able to eat some.  We got strawberries from that yard this year, but the blueberries were found by the birds before I could get over there to enjoy them.  There are a bunch of grapes growing on it now, I can’t wait for them to get ripe.

We had our new trellis put in for our two vines I planted last fall this week.  They are going to be so happy to have so much room to grow and produce their fruit.  The kids enjoyed watching it be installed.  Kevin did too, he was glad to not do the digging this time.

French braided pig tails

One of the joys of having a little girl has finally become a reality!  They didn’t stay long, but I was able to French braid her hair!  I wasn’t real sure this day would ever happen since she was bald for so long.

A family always in my prayers

I met the Whitleys 4.5 years ago on a mission trip to Spain/Africa.  They serve in southern Spain working with African refugees.  I immediately found a friendship with Tiffne at her home.  She then had a 5 year old and twin 2.5 year olds.  I always think about her and Joel and the work they are doing in Spain.  I have seen her once since then and just had that same connection with her then, even though it was a very brief time.  Now they are staying in Rock Hill for an extended stay and I have a could weeks with them. 

I spent 2 hours at lunch at her house yesterday and the kids had such a great time together while we caught up and talked about life as moms in our different, yet same, worlds. 

Today she joined us this morning for Bible Study, well we should call it, a group of Christian ladies that support and love each other that meet weekly and read a book together.  We help each other raise our kids in a Christian home in a corrupt world.  She had so much to give and I’m sure took from what we had to offer as we discussed Grace-based parenting. 

We met after the kids had a nap at the “Elephant Museum” as Blake calls it.  We were able to chat more while the kids enjoyed all it has to offer.  I really needed our conversations we have shared and feel so encouraged about parenting and my relationship with God.  I have really been working on both these things lately and working on them together.  They are hand in hand and should be!  I am trying so hard to find that path me and my family need to take together.  She was that next step I needed. 

She is an amazing person, wonderful missionary, and most of all a SUPER mom!  Her kids are so well mannered, well behaved, and polite.  I hope to continue to stay in touch with her and gain great advice and guidance over the years.

Daring Delaney

Delaney loves to try new things, volunteer for something, and go first every time she can.  She has such an outgoing personality and is fearless.  She asked to be buried at the beach and begged to go tubing on the Intercoastal waterway.  In camp this week she is in a class with 2 and 3 year olds, one of the younger ones, and they are doing Science Camp.  She is the first they say to push the button on the blender to make soap, dig her hand in to squish out the water to make paper, jump in line to get her face painted…etc.  She isn’t afraid of anything and that makes me afraid. 

How do we, as Americans, teach our children how to be afraid enough to be cautious?  I don’t want them to meet a stranger because I want them to be able to learn from everyone, help those that need it, etc.  But I don’t want them to get abducted, raped, or abused either.  How do we shelter them, but also let them shine with their outgoing personalities…I don’t want to hold her back (I am sure Blake will some though, he is VERY cautious in all he does). 

One out of four little girls in America are touched inappropriately in same way.  One out of FOUR!  That is so scary!  One out of six little boys are.  I already know one person that has had this occur and it’s so sad and makes me want to throw up!  Usually it’s someone that child trusts and us as parents trust with our child.  It’s that one on one time that is so dangerous.  We have to protect them from that and teach them to understand about private parts and how they are PRIVATE!  Even at a young, young age.  Unfortunately this world is not what is was when it comes to being safe 10, 20, 30 years ago.  Things have to be done differently.  I pray that neither of my children will have to go through this and I plan to do all I can to keep them safe, but we need to spread the word and hope that all parents teach their kids what is inappropriate.  Who knows when another child, teen, adult, won’t know when enough is enough.  Teach your child to say no and mean no!