Home Sweet Home

We are back from our mountain mini-vacation. We enjoyed beautiful weather and scenery and fun family time. The drive was a bit long for my idea of a vacation (I'm more of a two-hour beach drive vacation kind of girl)! Anna Clare was an excellent traveler, especially considering our portable DVD player blew a fuse less than an hour after we left the house! Owen did as well as a 17-month-old could do. We had a couple of hours of constant screaming, but we picked up a book on CD at Cracker Barrel that helped drown her out. Perhaps that's why she was screaming....


The Griswold's are off! (My sister wanted to ride with us, so we left the 3rd seat in and borrowed the luggage carrier!)



First of many, many stops



We are here!!! I think Owen heard someone say the words "car seat!"




A quick stop for a picture on the way up the mountain during our "family hike"



The waterfall at the top...halfway there!


My brother, Scott, my sister, Erin, and AC



The girls with my mom and my dad (the real Clark W. Griswold)


And the real highlight of the trip...


My brother, Dave got engaged to his girlfriend, Jaime! They went on their own hike (their hike was 13 miles compared to our two and a half mile). He asked her to marry him at the top of the mountain and she said "YES!" We love Jaime and could not be happier! They want to get married next fall in the mountains! Guess that beach trip will have to wait till the next year:)

We're Off To The Mountains!

We are packing up to head here...

We will be looking out at this...

I can see myself doing a lot of reading here...

especially on that back porch!



AC is most excited about this...

Not sure that she will be in there...

My goals are to...

*Sleep late
*Finish a book or 2
*Take a good Christmas card picture
*Enjoy family time...husband, children, parents, brothers, sister

We don't get to see my brothers too often and AC is super excited about spending some time with her uncles! If you don't mind, please pray for all of us to have a safe trip. Thanks!

A Little Fall Fun

Bike Riding 101

Time to say goodbye to those training wheels! Steve borrowed our neighbor's bike because his is smaller and easier to ride. Notice the smile has faded after a few frustrating tries.








She's just about got it licked! But just so you know...there was a certain clip of her in complete meltdown mode and kicking the bike after she fell crying, "Please don't put that on the blog!" I recall doing pretty much the same thing when my mom tried to teach me!

P is for Pitiful!

There are few things more pitiful than a sick child. OK, maybe a sick family! No, the kitchen fairy did not make a stop by our house this week. But the sick fairy came and unpacked her bags for a week long stay. Since last Wednesday, someone in our family has been sick in some form or fashion. Thankfully, I was hit the least and was not actually sick but just felt like a train had hit me and was completely energy zapped. I think I could have slept for 2 days straight. I didn't even make our bed for 2 days, and while I'm the first to admit that I am weak in the house cleaning department, I am OCD about making the bed every day. PRAISE THE LORD we are all better! Although we did miss one day of school, church, and Bible Study, I am definitely not complaining. It could have been a whole lot worse!


She is still not 100%,but improving. I did not pose her in these pictures. She is usually nonstop-on-the-go, but actually took it upon herself to seek refuge on the couch. She has the absolute worst diaper rash I have ever seen and literally shakes and screams when we change her. Talk about breaking a mama's heart. AC never had diaper rashes so this is a new experience. Thanks to Denise for introducing us to Resinol, which has helped a bunch. Although with this one, we had to resort to a prescription cream.


Owen accidentally headbutted Anna Clare in the mouth and when AC started crying, she instinctively went to hug her....sweet sisters!

And this is what we found when we were loading up for school this morning...







"Turkey" is one of his many nicknames for her!

If that won't make you smile and get your day off to a great start, what will? :)

For the Grandparents...

Still working on "Grandaddy"...that one's a bit of a challenge!

Swishy...Lost and Found

Swishy is AC's Kindergarten class pet. Every Friday someone gets to take Swishy for the weekend, journal about what goes on, and report back on Monday. Since school started, she gets in the car every Friday and tells me who got him. Last Friday was our turn.

After school, she informed me that Swishy said he wanted to go to the pet store to look at the other fish. So we did. Friday night was pretty uneventful. She played with him and we took a few pictures for the journal. Saturday morning, she and our neighbor took him all over the house and yard and had a great time. When I came home from a baby shower, I told her to get Swishy because he was going to a birthdy party with her. Guess what? No Swishy!

We looked EVERYWHERE! I mean, how do we lose the class pet...especially when we only had him for the weekend! She was in tears. Hysterical! Crying out, "I'm the worst kid ever!" Bless her heart! It really was pitiful. I assured her we would find him. We even prayed for Swishy's safe return. After the party, I continued to search with no luck. I was really starting to panic and did not want to have to tell her teacher on Monday that he wouldn't be coming back! How irresponsible does that look? My biggest fear was that Wilson, our Jack Russell, had devoured Swishy and we would find remnants all over the yard.

After AC missed out on taking him to the party, a football get together, and church on Sunday, my parents and sister came over to help. Erin saved the day! He was in the garage in the bottom of the stroller from being hauled all over the place Saturday morning. I have never been so happy to see a stuffed animal. Of course, Steve said I completely overreacted! Me? Never! Well, maybe a little. But it was important to her and I did not want to get "Slacker mom of the year" award. Swishy missed out on some fun stuff, but it made for a pretty interesting journal entry!