Christmas is defintely over

Since my last post was about Christmas, it's definitely time to blog a little bit! Usually, I have so many things that run through my mind...and then run right on out...that I don't have the capacity to actually sit and put anything down in a coherent manner! It really is a struggle sometimes to get thoughts out in a way anyone else would understand. The winter (if you could call it that)/post-holiday melancholies have set in for me and they are very much a hindrance to anything productive in my life...unwelcome!! Consistent sunshine and warmer temperatures, when they get here, will be ushered in with gladness from me and mine!

Not helping matters is this stupid boot I have to wear on my ankle for the next two weeks. I've been having issues with my left ankle for months and I finally bit the bullet and headed to an orthopedic dr. yesterday. He thinks I have Achilles Tendonitis and some other unidentified problem that he's hoping we can knock out with the boot, some steroids, and some anti-inflammatory pills. Honestly, I'm hoping the same because I need to be done with this inability to exercise...also, I am not in the mood to pay for anything more complicated!!

Enough about me and my pity party! Other than my numbness of brain, things are going pretty well around here. Charlie and Piper are growing like weeds. They will be 5 and 3, respectively, here in a couple of months...SOOOO hard to believe! They are showing many of the accomplishments and frustrations that come along with their growing independence.

Charlie's doing great in preschool. He is writing upper and lowercase letters and his numbers like a pro. He's also getting really good at figuring out what letter words start with...it's really cute to hear him repeat the word to himself until he decides what letter he's hearing. ("Buh, buh, ball, ball...Momma, ball starts with B!")

Piper is pretty much potty trained, except for when she's asleep and many times is even dry then. I can take no credit for this either. She simply started going on the potty one day...her idea! So all of you out there that are fighting that battle, my advice is...just wait until they want to!! Much easier! No really, I don't care how you do it, this just worked for me...the less mess for me to clean up, the better! :) Now, the problem that comes along with this fun new thing for her is that she thinks she's "big" now and she does NOT need me! The other day at Charlie's school, she told me, "Momma, I have to go pee...don't come with me!" But honestly, if we're not in a public place, she really is capable and mostly, I let her do it herself! I can truly say I like this new stage!

Stephen and I are doing great and we're enjoying watching our little ones grow up into bigger little ones! They are such a joy. Every night we go look at them in their beds before we head off to our room and it is one of the sweetest moments in my day! In that moment, they are precious, silent (except for little snores and snorts every now and then), and no matter what frustrations the previous day held, I can truly treasure the gifts that God has given me as a mother. To Him be the glory!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I'm so excited to be celebrating the incarnation of our Lord this weekend!! Jesus Christ, the answer to the problem of sin and separation of man from God came in a human baby. All for the purpose of dying and bearing the eternal punishment of sin so that any who believed could have a renewed and right relationship with our Creator! There is nothing more joyous! Oh how I wish every person I have ever known had the assurance of salvation through Jesus Christ!! Believe and you WILL be saved! Celebrate the Savior who is the "reason for the season" and have a joyously blessed and wonderfully merry Christmas!!

Halloween

Here are some pictures from before we went trick-or-treating Monday night. We had a great time! As soon as Stephen walked in the door from work, Piper went running to him and said, "Daddy, I ready to go to Halloween...and get tons and tons of candy!!"

The kids did great, although Charlie started saying he was tired of walking right after we entered the neighborhood across the street. (It's where we go every year...very busy and full of people!) We told him that he wouldn't get so tired if he'd just walk with us in a straight line! He IS the kid from the Family Circus cartoon. You know, the one who has the little black dots behind him to show the crazy paths he takes to get wherever he's going? That's Charlie 100%...around a tree here, in a ditch there, on the street, in the grass, etc. Kind of frustrating in the moment, but pretty funny when you think about it! That's just our boy!

Piper was so excited, she walked almost the entire way. I know we had to have walked a mile! We only carried her between a couple of houses and then the final stretch home. Bless her heart, the sweet girl didn't really understand that Halloween is a day, not a place. She kept asking when we were going to go to Halloween and she got really upset when we told her we were done and were going home. I told her that this WAS Halloween and her little lip started to tremble and she got big tears in her eyes. She said, "No, it not! I want to go to Halloween!" I felt so awful that I couldn't make her understand! We asked her if she wanted to go back to the church (we had a little thing for the community going on - hot dogs, get your pic taken, etc), we wondered if that was what she considered Halloween, and she said yes. So we went back over there and she got to see some friends and eat some of her candy and that seemed to satisfy her!

All-in-all, it was a great time! We had lots of traffic through the church and maybe we made some good contacts! I love how we can use everything for God's glory...even a night full of costumes and candy!

"The black Spiderman"

"Spidergirl"...btw - she left that mask on all night! I was shocked! I actually had to take it off of her because it was digging into her face and leaving imprints!

Shooting webs!

My little superheros!

Stephen decided to dress up too...he was a world champion!!! Go Cardinals!

I had to post this after picture too...sporting the new pj's Ms. Gwen got them as Halloween treats!! Night-night!

Chaney's Dairy Barn

On Wednesday, I got to go with Charlie on his 1st field trip! We went to a dairy farm called Chaney's Dairy Barn. We had a very full morning and Charlie got to do so much fun stuff! I loved being there to see it all!

First, we met Ginger (whose milk they sell at a local grocery store - isn't that cool!) and the kids got to pet her.

They also had a calf that the kids LOVED!! (They were a lot less intimidated by the baby!) Isn't it cute?!


Charlie was also quite taken by the little bunny that they had in a cage.

We got to go into the pumpkin patch (sorry I didn't get a picture of that) and Charlie picked his own pumpkin. Then we came back and the kids got to paint them.


They also had a playground with some really cool equipment that the kids got to play on. This was by far their favorite part!! Charlie did not want to leave!



Charlie's really not mad about his friend cutting in on his photo op. He is just really not into having his picture taken lately! (Notice that he's not really posing for any of the pictures in this blog!)

We got to go through a huge corn maze. Charlie wanted to touch EVERYTHING! I had to keep getting on him to keep up because I was sure we'd get separated from the group and lost in the corn! We made it out safe and sound though!

They make and sell their own ice cream at the farm restaurant. We each got a big ol' scoop, my favorite part of the day! Charlie, and many of the other kids, of course chose the blue!!

And, not to leave Piper totally out of the post, here's a picture of her at the harvest party Charlie's preschool had on Thursday. The kids were moving too fast for me to get many pictures but I did manage to snap this one of the Pipester. She had a blast!!


Hope everyone has a great weekend and a safe and fun Halloween! Costume pictures coming soon!

catching up on pictures

Okay, since there is so much that goes through my head everyday and so much I could write about, I just don't. I know that sounds silly, but sometimes actually sitting down and trying to get out my thoughts is just too daunting of a task. All this being said, and because I'm so behind on posting, I'm going to again skip my thoughts and just give you some pictures...which is what most of you are after anyway!! Here goes...

These two pictures are on the trip to Dyersburg we took this summer to visit Stephen's family. This is what I saw when I looked in the back seat! (Charlie was very proud of his tattoos by the way!)

Here's my 2 with their cousins, Cameron and Alex. They had such a fun time playing!
Stephen and I got to take another trip to St. Louis for a night to see the Cardinals play. We had a blast and this time we had a super nice hotel room, so I just had to take pictures! The bathroom...
The main room...
This was the view of the city from our room. I love St. Louis!!
We went to eat lunch at Albert Pujols's restaurant. It was in a very cool area (no that's not a pool, it's a fountain), it had some fun Pujols memorabilia, and the food was pretty good too!

Here was our view at the game. Not nearly as up close and awesome as our fluke seats last time, but we had an amazing time!!
And, I don't go to a ball game without getting nachos! You'd better believe I ate every bite!! Mmmmmmmmmmmm!
Here's my big boy on his first day of the last year of preschool! I absolutely cannot believe that next year he'll be going to Kindergarten...so grown up!

Charlie's becoming quite the artist too...
Not to leave anyone out, here's my sweet little girl in her new gown. Daddy brought it home for her the other night!
Little Piper's not been feeling so hot lately, so we're finding creative ways to entertain her and keep her content inside and at home! (Playing with noodles this morning.)
I took this picture one day when all of our shoes happened to be out in the "big room". It got me thinking about how these days of 2 little ones won't be here forever and just thought it was a good way to capture the now of our family. The way these kids are growing, it is quite possible that one day mine will be the smallest shoes in the bunch!!
Later, from the Cavni!!

Just thinking back...

My sisters, brothers-in-law, and sweet nephew Owen were in this weekend. We had so much fun! Owen is 3 months old now and I LOVED playing with him, seeing his precious smile and hearing his baby noises! It got me thinking about my little ones. Time goes so fast, it seems like just last week one of mine was 3 months old!!

(FYI - This is no longing for a new little one of my own! I'm loving being an aunt of a baby and I LOVE that my little ones are growing and learning every day!)

I just thought I'd take a little walk down memory lane and check out Charlie and Piper at 3 months and then compare to where they are now. Hope you guys enjoy the look back too!!

(I do kind of wish I could take my babies out of these pictures to squeeze them and kiss those little cheeks, just for a minute or two!) :)

Ahhh...time flies!!

I cannot believe how quickly this summer has flown by! We have so much catching up to do! Again, I have lots of pictures to share, so I'll just start adding captions to let you know what's going on in the pics!! So...starting way back in May when Charlie was promoted from the 3-year-old class at preschool...

The last day of school was field day.


They had someone making balloon creations for the kids. Charlie chose a sword. Stephen and I found his "sword" a little bit disturbing...you may be able to see why.


"Unfortunately" the sword popped and Charlie was more broken up about it than we were!

At the end of field day, they had a picnic for all the kids and their families. It was all very nice and Charlie had a great day of playing with his friends.



At night, they had a promotion ceremony for the kids...Charlie made it to the 4-year-old class!! :)
(I think he put on his cap by himself.)


I just tried to put these pictures of Piper down farther on the post, but it wouldn't let me. So, a little break from Charlie to see a couple pics of Piper playing dress-up...

(Piper also wanted to wear Charlie's clothes today, so she was in the mood for role play I guess!)


Ok, and back to field day. They had a fun parachute for the kids to play with. (I used to love those days in gym class!!)

Ok, so to heck with correct order...this one is a picture from the family birthday party we had in Louisville for Charlie and Piper. They had lots of fun and got tons of cool stuff! (I promise I wasn't mad...just my default frown!)


This one is back in Cave City...I just thought it was funny to see the way Charlie was enjoying his lunch!


This is the Father's Day card Charlie made for his Daddy. I told him how to spell the words, but he did all the writing himself...didn't he do an awesome job!! (Just in case, it says "happy father's day"!)


("love Charlie") I was very proud of him!


Okay, back to the birthday party...a Costco cake!!! YUMMY!


Now just some pictures from playing in the backyard...these moments have been kind of rare here lately with the heat advisories and all. Soooo hot, yuck!







I hope everyone has been having a great summer. I love summer and the long days. I just can't believe how quickly it has gone by! Oh well, we've got lots more fun things to look forward to. In August, we've got a trip to see Gran and Pawpaw in Dyersburg, Stephen and I are taking another short trip to see the Cardinals (yippee!!), there's a back-to-school bash at church, some get-togethers with fun friends and lots of other stuff like that! Whew! Y'all keep cool!