Birthday and Friends....

Our little boy is 4!!!!!!! I can't believe that 4 years ago, in Augusta, GA, of all places... Nicholas was born.. amazing how much time has gone by! And yet, here we are again, back in GA... It's been kind of fun finding our way around and trying to remember all the fun things we did last time we were here. Yes, we had a little bit of a rough start last time, but this time, I know my way around and I'm not 5 months pregnant!

Nicholas has had quite the week for his birthday. Sadly, I made a mistake and took some pics on my camera without the card in it, and don't know where the cord is to connect the camera directly into my computer... argh!

The first presents arrived early last week from Nana and Papa... again, the pics of the present (spiderman life jacket) are probably on the other card...


Molly got a little purse...


Caroline and her Fancy Nancy book...

And, just in time for Nicholas' birthday, Brooke Lipsey and the boys came down for the weekend. We had so much fun playing with them. Swimming, glow in the dark sticks, movies, and brownies... it was hard to see them go :(

Aren't they cute???

Molly really wanted to go home with the boys and then Caroline and Nicholas just decided to jump in too.... Can't wait to see these boys again soon!

Nicholas got a great present from Zachary and Luke... a StarWars/Transformer Star Fighter... Awesome!

Uncle Mike hit the jackpot too... a Light Saber that has different handles and changes colors...

Happy Birthday cupcakes.....

Speed Racer from Aunt Courtney and Uncle Chad...

A bubble gun from Aunt Kendra...

Grandpa Paul sent Caroline a beautiful necklace and earring set...

Nicholas and all his loot from Grandpa Paul... this kid was SPOILED!!!!!!!

Molly went to bed last night before all the festivites, so she got to open her present this morning.... It's Duck from Duck at the Door and Duck Soup...

She calls him Duck Duck and loves him! She has taken him everywhere with her today, even to the pool. Fortunately he didn't fall in, and now they are tucked in bed together...

And, somewhere I seemed to have forgotten the pic of SpiderMan and super hero's Chutes and Ladders game from Aunt Katie and Uncle Ryan... another hit! We had fun playing this afternoon. Thank you to all our family and friends that thought of Nicholas on his special day. He is totally spoiled! He is already loving being 4 and having a great time with all his gifts! Wish you could have all been here to celebrate with us... sucks living so far away!!!!

Playing Catch-up!

We're here, in GA... Joe is in TX for another week. His last test for Phase I is tomorrow!!!! 60 tests and he's finally done!!! Then he's got about 10 days off, and on to Phase II... hard to believe that a year has gone by and that Joe has put so much hard work into it. He has done amazingly well and I couldn't be any more proud of him!!!!

The kids and I are slowly getting settled. Our favorite activity is going to the pool... and during break time we get popcicles :) yum!!!


One of the first rooms in the house to get done was the dining room... and sadly, it's still the only room that's done :(


This is what my living room looked like till yesterday. A nice couple from SC came and bought most of the boxes and took them away for me :)


Nicholas running through the papers....

Our bedroom... still lots of work to do though before Joe gets here. I have barely touched our closet... not looking forward to tackling it at all!

On our way to GA we stopped in Birmingham to see Grandma SuSu, Grandpa Tim, Aunt Katie and Uncle Lee... I know Katie's gonna hate me for putting this pic up, but it's too cute and you can really see how pregnant she is :) She was 39 weeks in this pic and had little baby Henry last Friday :)

Here's some pics from this week. Grandma is here and has her good camera and a TON of pics, but I don't have time to go through them right now, nor can I get to my card reader for her card, oh well... and I really should be in bed instead of doing this, but oh well..

Monday wasw the kids last full day of school. I wanted to compare their pic from the first day of school, but haven't figured out how to link back to it (again, don't really have the time or energy to figure it our right now).. The kids had bought me some roses the day before, but wanted to take one for each of their teachers. We have been very fortunate to have wonderful teachers this year! they will truly be missed!



Caroline and her teacher Ms. Stacy. Hannah, is also in the pic, is Stacy's daughter. She and Caroline had fun playing with each other.


Nicholas and Ms. Michelle. He absolutely loved having her for a teacher!


One of the advantages to moving.. I don't have to cook.. Thank goodness for Costco. Cheap, quick food! :) We had to go in and get a new tire so we just timed it with dinner... :)
(and no, Molly did not eat all the pizza)...

On Tuesday we escaped quickly to the zoo. We had a year pass os we thought we should try to get one more adventure out of it. We had a great time. We got to pet a Grizzly Bear pelt, see a lion pelt, watch the zoo keepers clip the feathers on about 6 pelicans, and see a 2 year old gibbon escape his pen, come say hi, and go back home..

here's the gibbon. The fencing on the cage is flexible and he is still small enough to wiggle his way through it. Fortunately there was a zoo keeper near by that knew what was going on. The adult Gibbons were right on the other side of the fencing to make sure the little on didn't get too far. It was pretty cool to watch...

Nicholas got a spiderman scuba set and this is how he walked around most of the day at the zoo... His head vs. a lion's head... the lion pelt was huge...

Today was the kids last day of school and Caroline had a little graduation ceremony. I didn't think I was going to make it with the moving truck being here, and Joe was nice enough to stay home and let me go..

Caroline and her little cap and gown..

Niocholas wanted to bring a flower to school today for his friend Emma. He absolutely adores her and I'm sad I didn't get a better picture. He says he's going to miss her the most ;)



Caroline and Raelynn

Caroline and Sage



Another person we are going to greatly miss is our wonderful babysitter Allison. We met her one of the first weeks we were here and she has been a lifesaver. It's always hard to find a good babysitter who is reliable and available and the kids loved her.. Tonight we went out to dinner with her to say good-bye and after dinner Caroline, Nicholas and I went to her house to go see her new puppies.. they were so cute!

In about 28 hours we will be off for Georgia.. So hard to believe that this year has gone by so quickly. Joe has 5 tests left before Phase I is done and then he'll be off to Georgia to come join us. Hopefully our drive will go smoothly and all our stuff will arrive quickly and in the condition we left it :)

before and after...

Yesterday Mama decided to take the kids for a hair cut. Nicholas' hair had gotten pretty darn long and shaggy, and Caroline's hair just keeps getting tangled...

BEFORE......



AFTER...

Nicholas wanted a haircut like Daddy's, only the lady took a little too much off the top. It really makes him look like a boy, but I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at first. But, it's only hair and it will grow back! :)

Caroline didn't get too much taken off, just enough to layer the back and show off some of her curls and hopefully keep it from getting too tangled all the time. I asked her if she wanted it long or short, and she hates it getting tangled, so her answer was short. i'm hoping maybe now I can get her to grow it out a little bit longer if I can keep it from getting too tangled. We'll see :)

Preschool & Mother's Day

On Friday Nicholas and Caroline had "muffins and tea for mom". Nicholas also got to celebrate his birthday a month early since he's a summer baby. It was fun to see him excited to be the special one for the day. Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the "mom" part, but here's a couple from his birthday. Daddy even stopped by and dropped off pizza for the class.

Caroline had fun spoiling me in class. She sang a song, gave me a flower, and gave me a few muffins. The kids only have 3 days of school left... I can't believe Caroline is going to start kindergarten next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend we went on a spur-of-the moment trip to Joe's mom's house in Ft. Worth. It turned out to be the perfect weekend to do it. It was Mother's Day on Sunday and we got to take Joe's mom out to dinner. It was really good to see her and Bob and especially Mud Pie (their dog). Molly LOVES that dog and the kids got to say good bye to her. Sadly, she was put to sleep on Monday. We'll miss you Mud Pie!!!

We ran to the store to get some flowers for Grandma and they had a cake decorating station for the kids to decorate a cake... here's their masterpiece...

a few more...

When Joe and I came home from Georgia, Nana and Caroline took over the kitchen. They had already made meatballs, and now were making lasagna rolls. Boy did our house smell good!!!! Caroline LOVED the lasagna rolls as always and Nicholas LOVED the meatballs. I LOVE it when my kids finally realize that they like foods other than hot dogs, chicken, and tomatos! Even Molly ate some lasagna rolls... Nana can come back for a visit anytime she wants!!!!!!

On Nana's last morning we made Monkey Bread. The kids were a little confused by the name but Caroline had fun helping me make it.. Nicholas wanted nothing to do with it when it was time to eat. But wouldn't you know it, that after we came home from a walk he decided he wanted to try and realized how much he really liked it! Now it's all the kids want for breakfast!

On our trip to Arizona, the kids really enjoyed seeing the Cactus. Nicholas really wanted to take one home with us, but we never got around to finding one. So, Nana to the rescue. She picked up a few cactus at the airport on her trip to come see us... Then on our walk on her last day here we found some prickly pear cactus too and Joe brought home a hunk to plant....

The finished products....