The latest and greatest...

So it's been two months since my last post. So much for the once a week post, huh? We have been so busy!

My new job is going great. I love the people I work with and the work that I'm doing. It's getting crazier by the day as we inch toward the first day of school (August 22). The kids have adjusted amazingly well to me being out of the house, and Dave is doing an incredible job with them. They have been out of school for the past two weeks... I'm sure he's ready for them to go back on Wednesday!

We recently went through a round of ear infections for the kids. JD's was a double! His tubes had fallen out of his eardrums (they're supposed to do that within a year) but were just sitting in his ear canal. So Dave had to take him to the ENT to have them removed. Luckily he was able to just pluck them out and JD said it didn't hurt or tickle or anything! We are having a bit of a mystery issue with Allie. Her nipple is bleeding again. Remember when it did that a couple of years ago? Well, it started again about a month ago. Her pediatrician is pretty stumped. We've had an ultrasound of the breast, it was normal. He consulted a pediatric endocrinologist who asked him to check her prolactin and thyroid levels and they're both normal. Now we will go down to MUSC to see the endocrinologist on the 28th because he doesn't know what else to do. It's definitely not normal and it's definitely not anything our doctors has ever encountered. It doesn't seem to bother her too much. If I try to touch it she pulls away but doesn't seem to bother her otherwise. I'm just nervous enough about it, though, that I want to exhaust all non-invasive tests before I "just keep an eye on it".....

So, on to more fun topics! Allie is in the thick of the two's, which, for her, aren't too bad. She's now 100% potty trained, has moved in to a big girl bed and has given up her binky. Lots of big steps in the last two months, huh? She's done so well. She hasn't asked or cried for her binky at all. Not even once! She doesn't settle down to go to sleep as easily anymore and has been skipping some naps, though, so we will have to work on that. She loves to draw and sing and has even started drawing people, complete with hair! She's also very addicted to her daddy right now and she hates to have her hair combed..... she's an independent little girl and likes to do things herself, which we encourage every chance we get!

JD amazes us these days with his vocabulary. Sometimes it's like I'm talking to an adult. He has his first "buddy" since moving to Pawleys. Jack is his best friend. They are exactly alike... they even have the same favorite color: orange! What little kid likes orange?!? I was also amazed to find out that Jack also likes to "hook things up" just like JD does.... and the strangest thing? Jack is short for John David! JD is starting to play a little more independently but, if left alone too long, finds mischief. Last week he and Allie were playing in their rooms. Dave was in the kitchen. My mom went upstairs to see them. JD had placed a step stool (the one in the bathroom that they use to wash their hands) on top of Allie's dresser. He would then climb onto the dresser, stand on the step stool and jump to Allie's bed.... all boy! And here's another funny story from last night... we had dinner at a local restaurant with some friends. As we entered the restaurant, Dave made JD stand to the side while Allie and I went through the door and told him "always let ladies go first". Later JD had to go potty so I took him to the ladies room. He had his pants halfway down and I said "I think I'll go potty too while we're in here..." With that, he pulled his pants back up and said "girls go first, mommy!" It's good to know that he actually does listen from time to time!

So what's in the near future for us? School starts and, now that Allie is potty trained, they can stay for lunch and nap until 2:30. I think Dave is pretty excited about that as he's been busy getting Emerald Leaf going. He is working on getting his general contractor's license. He has to go take a test so, the kids being in school will allow him study time as well as time to get the website up and running, etc. I think Dave and I will take a little mini-vacation for our anniversary in a couple of weeks. My parents offered to keep the kids overnight so I think we'll go to Charleston for a night.... and that's about it!

I got it!!

OK, so here's my quick blog update for this week. I'll get pictures up soon, I promise.

I go the job! This past week I accepted the position of Administrative Assistant to the Director of the new Coastal Montessori Charter School that will open it's doors this fall.

25-30 people applied for the job and they interviewed 6 of those people. I, along with one other person, was called for a second interview and the next day they offered me the job, paying me what I asked and with full benefits!

The application/interview process was long and interesting but I don't think my return to the work force could be any better. I'll still be doing administrative work, which I'm good at, but without the stress and long hours that I was working before. Not to mention, my kids will attend this school in a couple of years... so I couldn't be more excited!

It is a new school so student files need to be created, classrooms need to be filled and the administrative office needs to be put together so I will start work on July 2, 2012.... and Dave will be a stay-at-home-dad. I know he will do a great job. The kids are kind of "mommy-addicted", though so they might have a tough time adjusting at first but I think it will be good for them to get more used to Daddy helping them out with more things.

So that's my update. Stay tuned for pics from visits from our various family members..... there have been a lot of them!

Oh My!

How neglected my poor little blog is..... I probably don't even have readers anymore! But, I plan to catch up slowly because, while I initially started this blog so family and friends could stay up to date with us (ha!), I also print it out by year as sort of a journal.

Anyhow...A lot has happened since April. That was two months ago! So much family has visited, so many "new house projects" completed and I've even started my own photography business. Add to that the fact that I have a job interview this afternoon (more on that later) and JD's 4th birthday party is this weekend.... it's no wonder the blog has taken a back seat.

But no more excuses! I have WAY too many pictures sitting on our server doing nothing.... I know y'all are dying to see them! I'll try my best to do one post, complete with pictures, per week.... starting next week (come on... job interview, two different sets of family in town, birthday party.... too much going on this week!)

:-)

Easter

Easter in the new house was so much fun! Luckily the Easter Bunny stuck to the driveway while hiding the eggs because, at that time, we had a large yard of dirt!

The evening before we dyed eggs, which the kids LOVED. When they woke up they had fun hunting inside for their baskets, which had all kinds of cool stuff in them, and outside for the eggs that they dyed the night before.

After hunting for eggs and obtaining a sugar high it was time to dress for church and head out the door. After church we went to my mom's house for lunch and then to the neighbor's house for the annual mini bottle hunt.

After that we were pretty much wiped out and just relaxed the rest of the evening until collapsing into bed.  Here are several pictures from the day.

Dave helping JD with his very first tie

Easter Party!

Luckily, Merv and Angie were in town during JD's school Easter party. I made a few dozen cupcakes for both his class and Allie's and we spent the entire morning at the school hiding eggs and watching all the cuties run around with sheer joy on their faces. JD's class is so stinkin' cute!

Ready.....Set.....GO!!!

They're off!

This is JD's friend Hayden. He is the teacher's son!

JD seems to have found a treasure under the fort!

Make that lots of treasures!

From what I'm told, all the little girls love JD.

goofy boy loves to swing

I wonder why he all of a sudden decided to sit nicely for a picture... he usually runs!

I think they spotted an egg that they missed....

Checking out the loot

Allie wasn't left out... she got some loot too!

Happy Spring!!

What a mild winter it has been here in SC. In fact, I don't really feel like we even had a winter... which is just fine with me!

Spring came early this year. The azaleas even bloomed early!. I managed to get a few pics of the kids in front of my mom and dad's azaleas one morning before school. They were in a good mood and I didn't have to chase them around too much.

Along with Spring comes Easter parties!  I'll have pics of JD's school Easter party soon.... and, of course, pics from Easter Sunday too!

Hello!

Yes... I'm still here!

Since moving in to the new house we have been SO busy. In fact, I think that there's enough to be done to keep us busy for the rest of our lives!

So what have we been up to you ask??  Well, Dave's parents were in town for 3 weeks and so much help! I can't even remember what all we accomplished while they were here, they did so much. I know I gained some closet shelves, which is HUGE, but I still need more in order to put towels, etc away. Don't worry, we didn't make them work the entire time they were here. We also did stuff like go to the beach and go out on the boat!

Yeah... fun!

So since they left we've been putting together a large garden (LOTS of shovelling and raking). Tomorrow we will start planting!! Dave and Jeff (our builder) worked hard and got rid of the burn pit and gigantic mountain of dirt in the back yard and now we have what looks like an actual yard. But that's not all! They also built a "pump house" today to house not only to house the pump for the irrigation well but also the electric controls for the irrigation system that will be installed in the next week or so. And after that???  GRASS!! Lots of grass! Which means cleaner kids and floors. I can't tell you how much dirt and sand I sweep off of the floor each day. Not to mention what falls out of the kids shoes and clothes! A yard full of dirt and two preschoolers is not a good mix!

Past those BIG projects, we've ordered blinds for the upstairs rooms to keep it cooler up there in the afternoon and I've also started working on curtains and other decorative things like pictures on the walls, etc. There are just not enough hours in the day!

The best part of the new house? Having room for friends and family to come stay with us! My brother Merv and his family will come in from GA this weekend and stay a whole week. In our house! I'm so excited to have family be able to stay with us...... Look forward to lots of pictures of our friends and family this summer!

JD's first dental exam!

We had a family dental appointment last month. I talked it up as I was putting JD to bed the night before and he was actually excited about going when he woke the next morning. He's been with Dave and me on a few occasions just to watch so it was vaguely familiar to him.

We told his teacher about his appointment because I would have to pick him up early from school. So Ms. Niki read a book about the dentist to the class that JD seemed to enjoy. He talked about it in the car all the way to Conway!

So they called Dave back first and we all went. Both kids climbed on him while he was getting his teeth cleaned so they could see what the hygienist was doing. Both were very, very interested.

Next my hygienist came to get me so I left Allie with Dave who was almost done and took JD in with me. He asked LOTS of questions as I was getting my teeth cleaned. About half way through my cleaning, his hygienist came for him. I was a little nervous because you just never know how he's going to react to a new situation but he did great! He followed the hygienist to his own little room, hopped right up in the chair and opened his mouth! The dentist came in and told me how great JD did. Allie didn't have a cleaning, she was just there for observation, but both kids left with a goody bag filled with toothbrushes, dinosaur flossers and a few toys from the treasure chest!

After the dentist we took the kids to lunch, headed to the old house so I could get some cuttings from Ashlyn's Butterfly Bush. They enjoyed throwing rocks into the pond one last time... then we went and got new shoes and a chocolate shake from Chick-Fil-A!

Allie's 2 year stats

So whew knew that it would take 6-8 weeks to get a well-visit with the pediatrician when you can take a sick kid within the hour?!? I mean, don't get me wrong, I definitely appreciate being able to get right in when the kiddos are sick but 6-8 weeks? Really??

For this reason, we just now had Allie's 2 year check up. She's doing great. Dr. B once again commented on how sweet she is... but we all knew that! Let's get to the good stuff, shall we??

She now weighs 25 pounds which puts her all the way into the 25th percentile (she was in the 9th percentile for a long, long time) and she is 34 1/4 inches tall which puts her in the 75th percentile (up from the 66th percentile last time). So our tall, skinny girl had a growth spurt! All I can say is, I hope she keeps this metabolism for a long time!

Right now her favorite thing is to draw. But not with a crayon, no.... our feisty little girl likes to "write my name" with a pen or pencil! She'll scribble a bit, hold it up and scream "I write my name!!!!" over and over again. She also likes to draw circles and she's pretty good at it! The one thing that surprises me, though is that she doesn't grip the pencil in her fist like most kids her age... she holds it properly! Any time she sees a pen or pencil she demands that we let her write her name. I had to fill out some change of address forms at the pediatricians office so, of course, she had write her name too. Here she is drawing a picture for Dr. B as we waited for him Look at how she's holding that pen!

The other interesting thing from her doctor's appointment:  Her heart whistles! The doctor kind of freaked me out at first. He listened to her heart for a very long time and kept coming back after checking her lungs. He laid her on her back and listened again for a long time. Finally he sat her up and told me her heart makes a whistling sound but when she lies down it goes away completely. He wanted to make sure I knew and understood that not only is it nothing to worry about but it's actually fairly common! He did warn me, though, that if I ever had to take her to the ER or another doctor that they might try to tell me she has a heart murmur.... but I should ignore them because that's not what it is! I came home and told Dave that she has a happy heart... so happy that it whistles!

So she gets smarter and smarter. She sings her ABC's, not perfectly but she's trying really hard! She counts to 10, she knows a lot of her colors and she loves school. We are a little stumped though. She has started talking about "Pee Wee" at school and says it's a friend. Her teacher has no idea what she's talking about and neither do we but if you ask her what she did at school, she'll say "Play Pee Wee"...??? An imaginary friend maybe??

She continues to be 100% a Daddy's Girl. She absolutely adores Dave. She also continues to do absolutely everything that she sees JD do. She loves him so much and they still give each other a kiss and hug in the morning before they go to their separate classes.

She's adjusting to the new house okay. I put the bed rail back on her bed yesterday and she slept through the night for the first time in a week. I think it will stay! She loves to ride bikes on the enormous driveway and play in the dirt with JD. She also thinks she's big stuff being allowed to go up and down the stairs by herself! She has also started using the potty a little bit. She will wear her Minnie Mouse panties for hours at a time without an accident and she likes getting two Reese's Pieces when she's successful. Looks like it's time to actually potty train our girl and say goodbye to diapers altogether!

So that's it! That's Allie's update. She's getting bigger and bigger. She's cuter than ever. Especially now that she's talking so much! Dave and I are so incredibly blessed by this little girl!

So Much!

The excitement of the past few days is quite overwhelming.

On the 17th we all woke up knowing it was the day to say goodbye to Kent, Sarah and Jasper. They're moving to San Antonio, TX. I took the kids to school and headed to the house to help Dave work on the road widening project. Jeff, our builder, arrived and informed us that he had the inspector coming out to look at the other little things that didn't pass inspection the last time so I busied myself getting the house ready and then went out and helped Dave smooth the road. In the back of my mind I was hoping that the inspector would see that we had made an effort to comply and, even though the road wasn't quite finished, would possibly, maybe pass us..... NAH! This is Georgetown County and the inspector had about zero personality. Nothing is that easy!

The inspector was driving in as I was driving out to get the kids from school. I brought the kids home and fed them lunch at my parents house. Jeremy (my cousin) and his girls were there hanging out with Kent before he hit the road..... As I was making sandwiches my dad came in and said Dave was on the porch and wanted to see me.... i walked out and he handed me a piece of paper. All I saw was the word "PASSED"!  We passed our final inspection! We finally, finally, finally  were allowed to move in to our house. I literally screamed as I jumped up and down on my parents' front porch!

Inspection Type: Final
Inspection Status: PASSED!

FINALLY!!!!!

After the excitement wore off we said our goodbyes to Kent, Sarah and Jasper (and Merv too who came from GA to drive out to TX with Kent and the dogs.... but we'll see him again in about 6 weeks). It was hard. I've never lived more than a few hours from Kent but I know that he's very excited and this will be a great thing for him and his family. Before they left they asked me to snap some pics of Jasper for his half birthday (he turned 6 months on the 15th). I think I got some good ones....

Just look at that chunk! Who could possibly resist.... my babies were skinny so I quite enjoyed snuggling this squish for a week before they left!

Baby toesies are the best!

When I set out to edit this pic my intention was to just smooth the skin. Half way through the editing process I stopped. I don't normally leave my photos this fuzzy. I usually like a nice crisp photo but the dreaminess of this just captured me. I think it perfectly captures the relationship between a mom and her little one!

So that night we slept in our new house as a family and the next day we sold our old house! We got a full price offer about a week after listing it. We have the most awesome realtor in the world! So we close on March 16 and then the past year will be nothing but a memory! The last 6 months were a bit tough. With Dave living with my parents (I'm sure that wasn't easy for them or for Dave) and me living in Myrtle Beach with the kids, doing the single parent thing during the week... then every Friday I would pack a suitcase and head to Pawleys with the kids for the weekend. It was A LOT of packing and unpacking! But all totally worth it.

Our last visit to our old house (see the For Sale sign??)... we're gonna miss that little house!

I think I walk around the house with a perma-grin now that it's complete and we're in. I love, love, love my new kitchen, especially the convection oven. WOW! What a difference that makes! Meats are juicier, cupcakes are moister and fluffier. I was skeptical at first but now I'm a believer!

The kids are getting used to it. Allie keeps falling out of her bed because we wanted to try it without the bed rail but it's going back on today. I'm tired of going up and down stairs all night to tuck her back in. JD sleeps through the night but getting him to actually go to bed is difficult. He's stalled until after 9:00 PM for the past 2 nights and has been a clingy, grumpy, whiny mess in the mornings. So we're thinking about cutting out his naps... which have also become a struggle. So what's worse? Taking a nap, going to bed too late and grumpy in the morning or no nap and becoming a disaster around 4:30 PM and then praying that we are able to retain our sanity until 7:30 PM when he will go to bed easily?? That's a L-O-N-G three hours, folks!

As with anything when it comes to little ones, it's all a guessing game and once we get used to one routine they change it up!

So that's what we've been up to! Lots and lots of stuff amid the unpacking process..... Oh! I also took Allie for her 2 year well visit and JD to his first dentist appointment... those get their own posts, though!

Still not in....

So we've moved out of the Carolina Forest house and put all of our furniture in the new house. We planned to stay with my parents for a few days until the balusters were installed on the stairs. Well, there was a delay in ordering, painting and installing. Finally, they were installed late last week. Installed wrong, but installed well enough to pass inspection. They'll have to be fixed later....

So the inspector came out on Friday and failed us. There were a few minor things with the house that needed to be corrected but the biggie is the stupid road. It's not wide enough for the fire trucks. And we have to talk to the Fire Marshall before we can start cutting more trees. So no CO (certificate of occupancy) until we can do that and have it reinspected... At least a week.

So we're still living with my parents (2 weeks now) and making do until we're allowed to officially move in to the new house.

In the meantime, the kids have started at their new school (more on that later) and we've been doing what we can to unpack.

Unsettled

Hi! Remember me??

We're still a little unsettled. Okay. A LOT unsettled. While we moved all of our stuff last weekend we are still not "in" the new house. There was a delay on the balusters for the staircase and I refuse to move a 2 year old and a 3 year old into a house with no stair rail... not to mention the balcony on the third floor that is wide open!

So, my incredibly welcoming parents have let us bunk with them for the past week while Dave spends most of his time at the old house painting and fixing things so we can get it on the market.

Last I heard, the guy will be here on Tuesday to start installing the balusters so, God willing, we will be able to actually sleep at the new house and not have workers in and out by the end of next week.

So what have I been doing? During every sleeping moment (when the kids are sleeping, that is) I have been at the house unpacking, cleaning and trying to at least have a functional kitchen.

The kids are handling it well. Neither one of them have asked to go home and they're both sleeping great at grandma and papaw's house. They have been hanging out with me this week and start at their new school on Monday morning.

Pictures soon, I promise.....

Almost in...

It has been a while since I've posted a house update.

We're so close I can taste it! A couple of weeks ago we loaded a 14' enclosed trailer with boxes and parked it in the driveway of the new house. Just to get the boxes out of our garage... the kids wouldn't stop climbing on them! Anyway, it sat in the driveway for a while.... today we unloaded it and started hauling stuff up ALL of the stairs (I've counted... there are a total of 32 steps from the ground floor to the top floor).... This is because WE'RE MOVING OUR FURNITURE THIS SUNDAY and we need to use that trailer!!

Yep! You read that right... we're moving out of our Myrtle Beach house and placing all of our furniture in the Pawleys house THIS weekend!

There was a slight delay in installing the stair rail and the balcony railing (the second floor looks down onto the foyer) so we will be sleeping at my parents house for about a week (maybe a little less) but we already had friends lined up to help us this Sunday, next weekend is Super Bowl weekend and then the kids are starting at their new school on the 6th.... so we decided to just go ahead and move on down.

I'll post pictures soon, I promise. The counters are gorgeous, the appliances look great, I'm totally in love with the whole house (especially the oak floors)!

Happy 2nd Birthday Allison!

Wow! 2 years old already! I just don't know where to even start when talking about my sweet little girl. She has always been a snuggle bug and still is. She is such a light in our lives. Now that she's talking and showing her little personality, Dave and I are just completely overwhelmed by how much we love her!

She now says 4 and 5 word sentences quite often! She knows lots of colors, sings her ABC's and tries very hard to count (1, 2, 4, 5!). Her favorite movie right now is Shrek and that's all she wants to watch. She has learned to lie on the floor with her face down in her hands when she doesn't get her way... we just ignore it and she gets over it pretty quickly.

Our house is all about baby dolls, nail polish, lipstick (gloss or chap stick) and pocketbooks these days. She's totally and completely addicted to her binkies. We have about 20 of them (no lie...) and she calls them by name according to what is pictured on them (owl deedee - which was her favorite for a long time - princess deedee, horsey deedee, circle deedee, green deedee, butterfly deedee, etc., etc.). I know we are going to have a very hard time breaking her of her deedee habit but I'm not going to even attempt that until a few months after we move in to the new house.

The other night she showed up at my bedside with a simple "hi mommy!" at 3:00 AM. That was a first as she usually has a hard time with her door knob and knocks to be let out of her room. Not to mention she usually doesn't make a peep during the night!

She continues to do absolutely everything that JD does. Just tonight I talked JD into eating his peas by telling him I needed his help getting Allie to eat them. Sure enough, as soon as she saw JD eating peas she started gobbling them up! Every morning when they part and every afternoon when they first see each other after school they give each other a hug and a kiss. They do it when I put Allie to bed too. It's so sweet and I try to burn the image into my memory because I know that they'll be fighting and will barely look at each other when they're teenagers... in the blink of an eye!

So stats will have to wait awhile. Apparently if you have a sick kid you can be seen in an hour at our pediatricians office.... but if you have a healthy kid and want to schedule a well visit, they're booked for 6-8 weeks! Who knew!??!?! So, her 2 year well visit won't be until February 21, 2012. I did measure her and she is now 34 inches (and has FINALLY outgrown her 18 month clothes - length wise. I have to buy adjustable waist pants and cinch them tight as 24 month pants are way too big in the waist!), which puts her in the 66th percentile for height. I haven't weighed her yet as I don't have a scale at our house anymore but I'm hoping she's up to 25 pounds by now. That would put her in the 30th percentile, though and she's been in the 9th percentile for a while so I'm not holding my breath!

Okay... so on to the good stuff! I have TONS of pictures from her party. It was a Sunshine and Rainbows theme and everything turned out so cute! So let's jump right in, shall we??

This year's invitation was too cute! I found the design on Etsy and the girl formatted it as a 5x7 and emailed the high resolution file to me as a .jpg.... then I just had them printed! So easy and MUCH cheaper than ordering cards through Shutterfly or Snapfish!

I got a  little streamer happy. I made a rainbow or two on the ceiling and a giant yellow tissue pom to represent the sunshine!

Treat bags for all of our friends. Finding little things for the treat bags is one of my favorite parts!

I found out about a week before the party that Merv and Angie would be coming to town so I put a star tip in Angie's hand, of course! She always saves me by helping to decorate the cake!

There's the happy little  birthday girl! She had so much fun at her party! Her dress and hair bow also came from Etsy. Full shot of it coming....

Aunt Angie made this adorable balloon wreath for the front door. I think just about every single female guest asked where I got it! Thanks Aunt Angie!!

BUSTED! Uncle Merv got this shot.... one of my favorites!

Of course we hung the birthday banner!

The cake is all done! Sunshine on top, rainbow on the side and completely covered in a yummy marshmallow frosting... but just wait until you see what's inside!

Because I seem to have an addiction to cute cupcakes... I found these on Pinterest and they were seriously some of the easiest cupcakes I've ever made!



More cute cupcakes found on Pinterest (actually, most of my party ideas came from Pinterest)

rainbow fruit tray (arranged by Angie) and white chocolate covered pretzel sticks rolled in rainbow sprinkles...

 

Yummy pretzel sticks...

Birthday cutie with her cake

BIG breath and....

....BLOW!!!!

 I'm pretty sure she likes it...

 Hmmm... let's see if I like this one too...

 WHOA! Look at that cake!

 JD enjoying his sunshine cupcake

Allie still enjoying the icing..... 

 Then she moved on to other sugary items...

 Ta-Da!  I made each layer of the cake a color of the rainbow! Allie loved it!

 She tore right in to her gifts without hesitation...

She absolutely adores the new baby doll that Grandma got her and the baby crib that Uncle Kent and Aunt Sarah got her.... not to mention all of the other stuff she got... this girl is SPOILED!

Uncle Merv totally got in to playing with the baby doll!

Play time outside. My little sugar addict was slightly wound up.

It didn't take JD long to start confiscating Allie's birthday present. Here he "flying" with her new Tinkerbell lunchbox

Sweet Jasper enjoyed the party. He even took a quick snooze in his big cousin's (JD's) bed! Here are the three generations of Havels

Uncle Merv was sure to introduce Allie to the joys of remote controlled helicopters too!

 

And we ended the evening with the coolest party hat ever! She stuck my tissue paper pom on her head and walked around. I think this is my favorite picture of the entire day!