Reflection

This quote from C.S. Lewis has been on my heart today:

"It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is mean by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far to easily pleased."

Where am I settling?

Labor Day 2013

We made a long overdue trip down to Georgia to visit Ben's parents over Labor Day.  We always have the best time every time we go down there.  There is never a shortage of fun things to do.

The drive itself wasn't exactly a pleasure.  6 hours in the car with 3 kiddos is never really fun, and even with a DVD player, iPad and audio books, the drive was bearable at best.  I instituted the "Prize Bell" incentive system, where both Jackson & Weston each got 2 clothespins with their pictures on them clipped to the visor.  They lose a clothespin if they yelled, kicked, argued, touched the DVD player, etc.  The Prize Bell would 'go off' {as in me saying "ding-ding-ding"} every 45 minutes or so and if they had at least 1 clothespin still up, they'd get a prize.  This little trick worked wonders and really gave them something to anticipate.  

Once we made it to Brunswick, we stayed pretty busy!  After watching the Wolfpack win their season opener on Saturday, we went on in the boat and both big boys had a blast tubing.  We were so proud of Weston for wanting to give it a try.

The high-light of the entire day, though, was riding in the back of the Ben's truck from the dock back to the house.  Pure joy!

The next day, we headed to Jekyll Island to squeeze in some beach time.  Both Jackson and Weston LOVED playing in the ocean.  Colton got his feet in the sand for the first time and was his usual chill self!

Weston was clearly worn out!

On Monday, we spent the morning hanging out on St. Simons.  It was beautiful weather and just enough of a breeze.  

Monday night, we hit up the best little hole-in-the-wall seafood place nearby Brunswick.  We have eaten there once and this time it did not disappoint.  And these 3 were big fans too!

We had a fantastic trip to Georgia and always leave saying "We should go down there more often!"  

First Day of School (2013-2014)

While the boys started back preschool several weeks ago, my reluctant-to-blog self never posted.  So here's the overdue run-down.

Jackson started 4K and was over the moon excited to finally be the "big kids" at school.  He was eager to be in Mrs. Kim's class and could hardly wait.  He came home from school on day 1 explaining to me that "R-E-D spells red, Mom.  Say R...E....D....that's how you spell red." I was thrilled about his enthusiasm since it has been like pulling teeth the get him to tell me what he learned at school in the past.

Weston's first day of school went pretty much like every other day of the past year has gone.  He cried when he realized that I was leaving him at school, but within 30 seconds, the tears were dry and he was having a ball.  Due to his extremely late birthday, we opted to keep him back so that he'd be one of the older ones in his grade rather than the youngest.  {The grade-level cutoff is September 1 and having a mid-August birthday made him one of the youngest}  So this year, Weston's in 1K, and has the same teachers & classroom, just new classmates :)  Despite his initial clinginess, he had a great first day and was very puzzled during circle time when the counting stopped at 5 (instead of 20) and the songs were shortened for the newbies.

And sweet little Colton is looking forward to having his Mommy all to himself a few days a week.  

August Randoms

A little snippit of our August fun...

Colton's first ear infection...love our pediatrician and so thankful for the super-fast same day appointments they offer.

A poster at the pedi's office....so true!

One of our many trips to Costco.  Bravely rolling three deep :)

Colton's 2nd doctor's appointment within 2 weeks...this time: thrush (thank you amoxicillian)

A text I received from Weston's teacher last week.  Guilty as charged.

Poor Colton...he falls victim to Jackson's costume obsession.  But is such a good sport.

And here is Jackson's mullet.  He is in dire need of a haircut but we just keep putting it off.  At least we can laugh about it for the time being :)

Guess who has ditched his training wheels??  We are so proud of our big boy!  Still a little apprehensive but doing great!

Sweet friends at the pool.  Jackson is thisclose to swimming independently (he swims underwater for about 8 feet).  He loves the diving board and can do a front flip off of it.  Weston has improved 200% in the water and jumps off the diving board in his puddle jumper and is much more confident and comfortable than he was a month ago.

Weston is slightly obsessed with "Mickey Mousey".  He let me push him around Costco with his buddy since Jackson was at school and there was an empty seat beside him.  Surprisingly, no meltdown when we left Mickey at the register!

Weston's 2nd Birthday

I still can't get my head around the fact that Westie turned two last week.  How did that happen?

We have seriously made August a month-long celebration for sweet West.  His actual birthday was on August 17 and we kicked off the day with a trip to Waffle House for breakfast.

After breakfast - or technically "brunch", although I don't think WH makes the distinction - Ben took the big boys to see Planes with Kyle & Emmerson.  It was Weston's first movie-theater experience; other than a dirty diaper, 2 self-declared intermissions and loads of popcorn and bootlegged M&Ms, I think it went fairly well.

After dinner, we feasted on birthday cake and let Weston open his presents.

This past weekend, we had Weston's party.  We had a joint party with our neighbor Carson, who turned two a week earlier than Westie did.  We could not have asked for better weather...mid-80s, breezy and sunshine.  Per West's request, we had a Mickey Mouse party, and Poppy & Gigi were kind enough to rent us a bounce house for his party.  And Uncle Mikey & Aunt Jenn came in town that weekend too, so that was a real treat!

Being crafty, I couldn't possibly let a party slip by without at least a little bit of Pinterest inspiration.

Everyone wore the Mickey party hats, which turned out pretty cute :)

 Weston's mackin' on all the girlies :)

We caught Westie red-handed (literally) swiping some icing. 

After a day full of fun, friends & family, we had a relaxing evening.  Sunday, Mike & Jenn came to church with us before heading back to Raleigh.

Thanks to everyone for helping us celebrate sweet Weston's birthday!

Treasure Trove

When I was home earlier this week, Mom suggested I go down to the basement and pull out some boxes of my old toys for the boys to play with.

I started opening up various bins vaguely labeled "Missy's Keepsakes" or "Missy Personal" and stepped back in time to the late 80s & early 1990s. 

I found my old jewelry box, still full of costume jewelry...necklaces from old boyfriends, tarnished rings and random silver charms that never made it on to my charm bracelet.  I'd hung on to these treasures in hopes of giving them to my daughter one day.  I guess I'll just hope & pray for nieces :)

And also in my jewelry box, I found all of my baby teeth that the tooth fairy was generous enough to leave behind.  Notice how the dental floss used to pull out one particular tooth is still intact.  And my old retainer was there too.  Really?  Does this make me a hoarder, or just strange?

Not sure why I felt strongly enough about any of these items to hang on to them for decades, but found some embarrassingly dated Express jeans, a single pilgrim-looking loafer and my roller blades.

 

I also found boxes of tapes.  Yes, cassette tapes.  I found ones from the early 80s where my mom would record & send tapes from Texas to MawMaw in NC.  Kind of like voicemail.  I also found one labeled "Missy & Katie's Radio Show." I can only imagine.  I need to find a cassette player so I can listen to these.  

I finally stumbled across the box of my old toys and found all three dozen of the trolls I had collected.  I remember having them displayed around the top edge of my room when I was in elementary school.  I had put a piece of tape in each one's hair and thumbtacked them to the crown molding around the perimeter of my bedroom.  I'm glad my sense of decorating has improved since then.

I also found my two favorite dolls, Cricket & Kid Sister. (I was never super original enough to rename the dolls).  Cricket has a tape deck in her back and talks.  Creepy, yes.  She also seems to weigh about 15 lbs and is bigger than Colton.

And my favorite find of the day was my box of old diaries, journals & love notes.  This will get a post of its own, but here's a sneak peek.

I had the best time reminiscing about the "good 'ole days" and showing the boys some relics from my childhood.