Callie's Party

Would you believe this is the only picture I got of the 3 of us? Me, David, and Callie? Cute anways...
The butterfly cake that I made for Callie - it turned out really cute! Thanks Sandi, for letting me use your pan!
This is where the fun was REALLY happening! (and no, they aren't supposed to be standing on the top bunk...)
Callie and Delaney (who turns 1 at the end of April) looking longingly at the backyard...Would you believe that this is the ONLY picture I have of Callie in her cute pink party dress? Did anyone else get a better one? I'm so annoyed!!!
Hamilton, Jacob, and Parker

I had not intended to post about Callie's party until tomorrow. After all, it was 10 pm, and I was ready to go to bed. I decided I'd better just check the blogs really quick since I hadn't been on this last week (remember it was NUTS!) Well, here I am, almost 2 hours later. Finally all caught up with you guys, and guilted into going ahead and posting it now so I don't get behind again!!! I'm hoping to start the week off all caught up with things!!!

So, Callie's party was Friday night and was so much fun! We had a house FULL of friends, but I was so very thankful to be blessed with wonderful friends and neighbors that love us and love our children and want to celebrate them with us!! We are truly blessed. Callie had a great time seeing everyone and showing off her new walking skills!! The other kids seemed to have a great time too - there was quite a pillow fight back on the boys' bunk beds, and the rest of us adults enjoyed catching up too. Callie enjoyed her cake - ate it quite daintily, I would say. She was in bed asleep before the guests even left (the perils of doing a Fridy night party), but very much enjoyed herself!!!

Happy 1st Birthday, Callie Elizabeth!

I thought it would be a great idea to post the picture of me on my way to the hospital to deliver. Holy cow - I had forgotten how VERY big and pregnant I was...so Sue, Courtney, and Beth, my dear pregnant friends - you guys all look great!! I looked like a beached whale!!!!

Would you believe that as we were driving up to Coldstone Josiah said "Mom, did you bring a candle and matches?" I swear I didn't tell him!! He remembered from when we did it for his birthday! I LOVE that he loves these traditions like me!!! (Is everyone signed up for the coldstone birthday club by the way? FREE ice cream on your birthday!!!)





I can't believe that my baby girl is one today!!! I'll keep this short, because I have a kitchen full of dishes, things still to put away, and I don't want to get emotional!!! But what a joy, my Callie Elizabeth is. She is SUCH a blessing - all of my children are - and I am SO very grateful for the priviledge of being their mom. The boys and I had so much fun singing Happy Birthday to Callie all day today (the strategy is to avoid any traumatic "Happy Birthday" song moments like Josiah had), and she would just clap and clap every time we'd sing. Of course she's pretty oblivious, and the boys even opened her presents for the most part, but she just loves them and smiles at us. She VERY much enjoyed her first real Coldstone experience, and finished most of her vanilla ice cream (Josiah wanted to know why she didn't get to choose any mix-ins this time). We let her open a few presents that my family had sent and she got some very cute clothes - and some adorable bathing suits!!! Pool season is coming!!! Anyways, I love this little girl. What a year it has been with her. I love you Callie girl. My heart is full.

No Sugar Yet...Except For....

So I always hold out for the first birthday to give the kids their first taste of sugar when they have their birthday cake. With Josiah, it really probably was his first taste of sugar of any kind - I mean ANY kind. Jacob and Callie probably have tasted sugar in some forms, but nothing REAL - like cake, cookies, etc. Actually no - Jacob had an ice cream cone before he was a year. I remember because he DEVOURED it - the cone and all. We were at Dairy Queen with my Mom and I couldn't resist - it was TUTU after all!! Okay, I digress. Back to Callie. I was talking to my Mom this last week about how fun it was going to be to see what Callie does with her cake this week seeing as how it will be her first taste of sugar. I was cleaning up dinner dishes at the time, and Callie had just eaten a PLATEFUL of sweet potato casserole and honey baked ham!! I died laughing - there's probably more sugar in those things than a piece of cake! Oh well...

Head Is Spinning...

Lots to do this week, so my head is spinning. Watching Carter 4 days instead of 3 , Anderson 1 day, Callie's birthday party this week and ALL that entails (making cake & cupcakes, food, goody bags), cleaning house, cooking for 2 new clients, last 2 swimming lessons for the boys, David's car inspection & oil change, hair cut, well baby check up for Callie (2 1/2 hours before her party on Friday...ugh), etc. Just busy, but we'll be fine. Unfortunately, it's supposed to be rainy this week, so I've got to get all that done while keeping boys entertained that will be cooped up all week!! UGH!

Miniature Golf & Ice Cream

Getting some practice on the putting green before hitting the course.



Callie was keeping her eye on the ball! :)

We have so much enjoyed having these extra days with David during his spring break. On Thursday, we spent some of the afternoon down at the beach playing in the sand. Friday afternon, we decided to take the kids out to miniature golf!!! It was their first experience and they absolutely loved it!! Jacob did more "guiding" the ball to the hole than swinging, but they had so much fun. Callie was in the backpack on David and she was totally RIVETED!! The weather was beautiful, so I don't know if she was just looking at everything around her or watching the balls or both, but it was such a fun evening. We topped it all off by going for ice cream afterwards - what could be better? :)

The last visit to the Williams Family of 4!!!

Beth & Anthony's house backs up to some woods, and so both nights, the daddies took all the boys on a hike. They had a BLAST!! The second night, they got so adventurous, that Beth had to go pick them up because they ended up so far away (and it was DINNER time!!!) The boys came back filthy and all scratched up, but SOOO happy!
The four boys at one of the parks we went to. (Jacob, Josiah, Harrison, and Jackson)
Miss Beth & Callie - pretty in pink!!!
The boys with their loot after our Easter egg hunt! :)
This was the funniest thing. All week, Callie had a cold and so was not quite as chipper as she normally is. Well, the last night, I had finished feeding Callie and we were getting ready to hit the road and drive back home. She was past her bedtime, but we weren't quite done loading up the car. Anthony came and took her so I could finish packing and the next thing you know, she was BEAMING from ear to ear!!! Apparently he had the magic touch!!

We had a wonderful visit down with Beth and Anthony for a few days at the beginning of our week. Since David had off for spring break, we headed down to NC to see the Williams family for a few days. David volunteered to help Anthony with some painting, so they were VERY productive. Beth & I and the kids, however, just played played played!! The weather was beautiful and we went to a couple different parks. We had a great time, as always, and can't wait to do it again. It was strange though - as we were leaving, it dawned on us all that the next trip we make down to NC will be to visit the Williams family of FIVE most likely!!! It's getting so exciting waiting for Addison to make her arrival!!!

Happy Easter Everyone!

See the bare feet? After going to Target last night to get her white shoes, she LOST one of them somewhere between our house and church this morning!! So she ended up being bare foot after all!!!!
Callie's first egg hunt

This is mostly for my Mom...I promised I would put some pictures up of the kids from Easter today. We miss her soooo much - I know she's coming for Callie's birthday in a few weeks, but we miss Tutu!! So here's some pictures from Easter Sunday! Tons more to post from our small group egg hunt, but I'll let everyone else do that. I've got to go back for a trip to Raleigh in the morning!!!! :)

STILL getting used to this girl stuff...

....so here it is, 7:30 PM on Saturday night, the night before Easter. I was laying out the kids clothes - the same pink polo shirts & khaki pants for the boys, and an adorable little dress from a friend for Callie. Then it dawned on me - I don't have white shoes for Callie!!! DUH! Easter Sunday = white shoes!! Time to put away the black ones. HELLO!!! David is leading worship at another local church tonight, so as soon as he gets home, it's off to Target I go!!! Probably should get some of those lacy socks too, right? (Although it's going to be cold enough tomorrow for wool tights, I'm sure)!

It's been a fabulous day though. The kids and I have done 2 egg hunts - one with the neighborhood, and one at the local park. The city wide one had pony rides, moon bounces, and crafts which was really fun too. The neighborhood one had the kids make their OWN resurrection eggs, which Josiah LOVED because we have been doing them as a family - so he caught along quickly. We've made our Resurrection cookies and the oven is sealed up (ya'll have seen that recipe right? Meringues basically, and you turn the oven off and tape it up. In the morning, you come look at the cookies, and the middle is HOLLOW - just like the empty tomb! Every step of the recipe has a scripture, etc, etc. ). The boys LOVED that process. I have had so much fun with them this week - even more so than all the Christmas traditions. I think maybe because they are older and are more capable of understanding the story and the meaning. Maybe because you don't have the commercialism to deal with like you do with Christmas. I don't know, but it's been wonderful. Looking forward to a GREAT day of worship tomorrow. Signing off...and heading to Target for Size 4 white shoes soon!!! :)

OFFICIAL Race Pictures

http://www.brightroom.com/go.asp?29946692

You can click on the link above and see the "official" pictures taken of me at the race. Most of them are terrible though - keep in mind that while running 13.1 miles (every last step), you are not necessarily looking your most beautiful! Kelli had told me beforehand to smile when I saw the camera guys, but I NEVER saw them!! I was focusing on running the race I suppose. Oh well. There's one picture of me at the beginning as I was trying to take off my black jacket. It was complicated - taking off the jacket, repinning my number on my shirt, etc. The other pictures of me racing at the finish are hilarious because Kelli is right behind me!!! She was taking pictures of me finishing on her camera - so funny.

By the way, Kelli's pictures are coming. We had burned them to a CD at Target before she left, but they had some error on the CD and it ended up being blank. So she's mailed them to me. Be patient!!!

Eggs Done, Bunny Cake in Progress..

This picture was from yesterday's special Easter storytime. The library had a special event for 2-4 year olds. They read some Easter books, made a bunny craft, and then headed outside for an egg hunt. I had signed up Jacob for it, and talked with Josiah about it beforehand. It dawned on me that I could potentially have an issue or potential meltdown if the two didn't get to do something together (you all know how inseparable they are...). I talked with Josiah about how this was something special for Jacob and the other 2 & 3 &4 year olds. He got it immediately - he said "yea, the stories will be for younger kids with not as many words, and the craft will be easy for the younger kids. I'll just help Jacob, and some other time we can do something special only for the 5 year olds." I was so proud of him!!! He handled it GREAT! Oh, and the bathing suits are because we had to go straight from storytime to swimming lessons...I'm sure the moms that had their kids dressed in their Easter outfits and smocked overalls and dresses thought I was a freak!
The boys all decorated our Easter eggs this morning. It was not the most successful "kit" we've ever done, but it was fun. Growing up, we used to always dye the eggs on Saturday night - and we had many an Easter Sunday morning with blue and pink fingers!!!! Remember Kristen?

The bunny cake is made and waiting to be decorated once the boys wake up from their naps. They've already practiced hiding and finding eggs today (even Callie got to enjoy that!) David was roaming around the kitchen earlier whining about how there is no chocolate anywhere. I told him that I bought it two weeks ago to fill the eggs with but have it hidden!!! I'm no dummy!!!