The Things They Say

Last night we had spaghetti for dinner and Cory was asking the kids if they wanted their cut up. Elise likes hers "long" but the other two wanted him to cut theirs up. I was bragging on how good he is at cutting up spaghetti (and he is really good at it--he uses two butter knives and in seconds flat he has the whole plate of spaghetti in bite sized pieces). I told them, "I'll bet you don't know how lucky you are to have the best spaghetti-cutter-upper in the world as your dad!" It was quiet for just a second and then Elise says, "Well, at least he isn't French!" We thought it was so so cute and funny.

The other night we had painted the little flower pots for Family Home Evening lesson, and this morning we were filling them up with dirt. Elise wanted to start with Daddy's, but Ian wanted his done first. Finally Elise said, "We have to do Daddy's first because he is the oldest." Ian agreed and then said, "Yeah and because he's our hero." Awwwww...

A Day at the Beach

We went to the beach yesterday with my sister-in-law and a friend of ours from church. It was absolutely the most perfect day for being at the beach and we didn't want the day to end. We stayed until almost 8pm, enjoying every ounce of fun and sun we could. And it was worth every minute of it.

The wannabe twins. They are just too good and too cute!

Merry Grace, Charles Allen, Ian, Madi, Elise, and Emmy: They played sooooooo well together and had a great time. I think the only conflict of the day was between Ian and Charles Allen, but there is a lot of testosterone between the two of them and that's to be expected. They got over it quickly, though, and it was such a blip on the radar that we hardly notices. We had fun being with these cuties and watching them have fun.


Madi and Ian were buddies quite a bit of the day. They never tired of the water and always seemed to drift a little farther away from the group. But they stuck together so it was super cute!


I'm not at all interested in being buried in the sand. I love the sand and the beach and all that comes with it, but this takes it to a whole new level. Aren't they just CUTE?


Emmy and Elise are so cute, and what kind of little brother would Ian be if he didn't try and steal a little of their thunder? :)


The older kids loved playing in the waves this year. They couldn't seem to get enough. I was amazed at how brave they've gotten, just in the past year. Here is Elise just being adorable.


This little imp was not at all intimidated by the water, waves or anything else related to the beach. She thought she was at least as old as the bigger kids and wanted to be out in the waves with them. A time or two she even got rolled over by a bigger wave close to shore, but she always came up smiling and happy.

She is just too funny and cute for words!!!

Poor Ian spent so much time in the water that between the sand, his suit and the water his legs got pretty chafed. The whole inside of one thigh looks really bad. By the end of the day, he was hurting pretty badly but still wanted to stay in the salt water and at the beach. He's feeling much better today. He LOVED the waves, maybe more than anyone. He just couldn't get enough!

Sassy Frassy. What more can I say?

It was a such a nice day yesterday, it was hard to leave and come back to "real life". I think we might have camped out on the beach if we could have. It was wonderful. We're already looking forward to our next trip there!

Father's Day

It's a few days belated, but then, that is the story of my life. We had a great Father's Day weekend. My family got to come spend the weekend with us, so my Dad got to be here to celebrate while the kids celebrated Cory. It was really nice to all be together. Cory spent the Saturday being a dad--taking the Elise and Emmy to a local kids museum for the morning. Elise loved it & Cory was so good to take them and let them play their little hearts out. Sunday morning I passed on our early meetings at church so that I could stay home and cook my Dad and Cory a good breakfast. So we had my Grandma's angel biscuits (which would have been much better if you'd never tasted my Grandma's before. :)), smoked sausage, and eggs. After church we had a a yummy lunch of roast beef, butter beans, and a few other fixin's. And of course, homemade apple pie for dessert. (Also my Grandma's recipe, but a much closer imitation than the biscuits...) I tried to fix some of Cory's favorite dishes since it was his special day. After lunch, he and Elise snuggled up for a nap. I don't know how comfortable it was, but it sure looked cute. :)

For father's day, we gave Cory a set of water guns (one for each of us so we could play together), a pair of UNC flip flops (b/c heaven knows he is running low on Tarheel gear ;)), a wallet thingie, and a quilt. The quilt was definitely the coolest part. It started out with the kids coming up with a list of things they love about their dad and things that he is good at. Here was their list: he is good at sports, good at using tools, sets a good example, he is the world's greatest dad, chooses the right, is a good painter, the #1 tarheel fan, good at putting out fires, we love that our dad reads us the scriptures, dresses us for church, provides for us, keeps us safe, holds us, vacations together, he is nice, he eats his vegetables, sings with us, he beeps the horn, we love snacking together, hugs and kisses, camping, he cleans our car, and he loves us. I thought their ideas were so creative and thoughtful. So we (mainly the kids with a little help here and there from me...) painted squares that I had cut out that represented each of their ideas. We filled in a few extra squares with handprints of each child, a few quotes, and a square that each child painted any way they wanted to. I think we ended up with about 35 squares in all. The kids helped each step of the way: the ideas, painting, and even the sewing. (They are great pedal pushes!) I wanted them to be involved b/c I think its always more meaningful when the kids come up with the gifts or help with them because they seem so much more from the heart that way.

Here is the quilt--it has a lot of imperfections, just like the real family that Cory puts up with each day. But there' s a lot of love in it, too, so hopefully that more than makes up for where it is lacking. :)

What really make the quilt special--those three rascals sprawled out on top of it. :)

I think Cory is such a wonderful Dad. He's so patient with the kids and so good to wrestle and play with them. They love it when he comes home from work and always try to convince him to stay home with us instead of going to work at all. He is great to spend time with the family and do fun things with us. He rescues us when we have crazy things happen, like flat tires or when we spill milkshakes in the car and he does it cheerfully. He can fix almost anything, most recently the door to the microwave when it stopped latching correctly. I was really impressed with that one. I have no idea how he did it, but he did, so that's all that matters. :) He's just as good a husband as he is a dad, so we all consider ourselves more than lucky to have him around. And he's cute on top of that! Can you seriously beat that? :)

I always think I did a pretty good job of picking a husband and a big reason I think that happened is because I have a great dad. He set a great example in my childhood home of showing me what a real man is like, so it was easy for me to spot one. I have so many good memories of my dad growing up: riding around with him on Saturdays to run errands (and usually ending up with a treat from the gas station or a yard sale), working on a project around the house or in the yard, having him play with us (water fights, tricks on the swingset, races, sports, etc.) It didn't seem to matter what the four of us kids were doing or how tough it might be for him to participate, he didn't seem to give that a second thought. He just jumped right in, sometimes literally. I love my dad so much and I'm so glad I got to spend father's day with the two great fathers in my life.

The Three Little Kittens

Elise wanted me to put make up on her face so she could look like a cat. Naturally, the other kids wanted to follow suit (because, as Elise will tell you, the kids are always copying her:)). So here are the three little cuties, all dressed up and as adorable as can be!!!

The Kids

Here are a few cute things the kids have said recently...

Elise told our baby-sitters the other night, after they'd finished playing "Carolina-opoly", that they'd better pick up all the pieces or her Daddy would go crazy. A friend gave him that game and if the pieces got lost he would go crazy. (It's just funny to think of Cory 'going crazy' over anything. )

Ian has started saying the letter "e" in place of the letter "a". For example if he wants alot of strawberries, he would say, "I want "e-lot" of strawberries." Or he might say, "I want e happy meal."

The other day Merry Grace asked for something and so I said to her, "What's the magic word?" She responded, "Four." I laughed over it so much that now she says that every time. :)

They are just toooooooo cute! :)

Myrtle Beach

We spent the last few days at Myrtle Beach with Neal & Amanda and family. It was a lot of fun. We didn't do anything dramatic, just spending time out at the beach or the pool. The kids loved, loved, loved playing together and we had fun visiting and getting some sun. We did have one minor mishap with Elise catching a 24 hour stomach bug, but we survived and it only cost her about 1/2 a day of play. One of our favorite things was a night trip to the beach to sit in the waves. The water temperature was fabulous and it was so nice and peaceful. I think that might have been one of the highlights. Another day at the beach a couple of sting rays swam within inches of Amanda and some of the kids. It was cool, but a little too close for comfort. The pool felt wonderful, the kids got so comfortable in the water which is fun to see, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Now I'm looking at a house that looks like it vomited its insides out, what with laundry, luggage and life in general spread out everywhere. :) Here are a few pictures of our fun times....
Here is official proof that I actually went on vacation with the family. :) I love having a snuggly baby. :)

Emmy and Charles Allen are running from the waves. This wasn't when the sting rays appeared, regardless of how Charles Allen looks. :) We love being on the beach!!!!

The sun got a little bright for this gal. Luckily, I brought my sunglasses to save the day.

Here is Elise, after surviving the stomach bug. Thankfully she recovered quickly and was able to enjoy the rest of the vacation.

My sunglasses were a big hit with all my kids. Here is Ian eating his apple after Cory & I "bited the peeling off" for him.


These girls are like two peas in a pod. I don't think they could be any closer if they were sisters. I think they've had about 2 disagreements in their whole 7 year friendship. They are always together if humanly possible and are most unselfish when thinking of the other. Aren't they cute?

Cory was great to play with the kids while I got a little sun. He never seems to tire of it all. The kids, obviously, think he's great and I couldn't agree more.

The other thing we did really well that I forgot to mention was snack!!! We had tons of snacks and made good use of them. Merry Grace just polished off a powdered sugar doughnut. I'm just guessing here, but I think it was yummy. :) The sand in her hair is courtesy of those two rowdy boys she tags along behind, Ian and Charles Allen.

Here is Ally in her cute little bathing suit. She spent more time on the edge of the pool than in it, but seemed to enjoy both ways equally well. She has the sweetest smiles and she and I bonded over pringles, goldfish, and iced animal crackers. :) Nothing like snacks to win the heart of 10-month old!

I think Charles Allen's favorite thing was the hot tub, although he did spend time in the big pool. I was afraid he was going to cook himself a time or two, but he didn't seem to mind. Luckily, when he got in the big pool, he kept safety forefront in his mind. I think he's going to stay afloat, but I'm not sure. ;)

Ian spent a lot of time at the edge of the pool yelling "Cannonball" and then running and jumping into the water. It was adorable, but it took a couple of days before he realized what a cannonball actually was.


Usually when I come home from a trip, I feel like I've got tons of cute pictures of the kids. This time, most of the pictures looked like this one, or were of the back of someone's head or their behind or other nonsense. So I did the best I could with what I had. We had a a great time, we're glad to be back home, but wish vacation would never end, too. :)

Please tell me no...

Yesterday the kids & I were hard at work getting the house scrubbed down and we were working together in the bathroom. Elise was doing mirrors, Ian the sink and myself the toilet. (Shocking, isn't it, that no one volunteered for that job?!) As I was on my hands and knees with my rubber gloves on, scrubbing around the toilet with a sponge, Ian says, "Mommy, I think you really need a toothbrush to clean the toilet." That struck me as a little odd, considering that I wasn't aware that he'd ever cleaned the toilet, or had any idea how to give it a deep clean. So I responded, "Well, that is a great way to clean the toilet really well, but we can get it clean even if we don't use a toothbrush." To which he said, "When me and Emmy cleaned the toilet, we used a toothbrush." I vaguely remembered a time when the cousins were together that they all went into the bathroom and cleaned it...but of course had no idea the toilet had been cleaned or that a toothbrush had been used! So I asked, "Did you throw the toothbrush away after you used it?" He gave me this puzzled look like he had no idea why I would ask such a question and then said, "I don't think so. I don't really remember what we did with it after we cleaned the toilet." I just kind of stood there, praying my little heart out that whenever he cleaned the toilet with the toothbrush, that it hadn't been mine he's used and that for heaven's sakes I hadn't used it afterwards!!!