Conquering the World... One Step at a Time

Jack has only been crawling for about a month, so imagine our surprise when we saw him venturing up from the recessed living room into the dining room today. He struggled for a few minutes, but figured out how to get both knees up all by himself. I guess we won't be able to keep him fenced in the living room anymore! Catherine was so excited, and clapped right along with us. She even ran to change clothes so that she could "cheer for Jack." (She came back with just a tutu on.)

Happy 5th Birthday Colin!

We went to Columbia this weekend to help celebrate my nephew Colin's big day. The festivities began on the baseball field as we all admired Colin's incredible athletic talent at tee-ball. His team is really good... they managed a quadruple play at the close of the game.
Go Gamecocks!

"We're up to no good..."

Lunch at Red Robin after the game. Notice Catherine smiling because she has just pretended she couldn't hear the entire table of adults calling her name to look up while I took this picture. What a stinker.

The best part of any goodie bag: the Bubba teeth!
Megan couldn't resist getting in on the action.

Catherine was so tired from a full day of playing with her cousins and Grammy that she fell asleep during the drive back to our house, with the string of her balloon in her mouth.

The Big Top

Ever heard of the Cole Brothers' Circus? No? Well, I'm not surprised. But we were excited to go see this little circus (in the Big Top!) on March 26th. Catherine and Jack both loved it, although Cat didn't try to hide the fact that the clowns scare the bejeezes out of her. It was great to see how impressed Cat was with all of the typical circus acts.. tight-rope walking, juggling while balanced on your head, and the motorcycle globe of death. But her very favorite act was this one... where the performers perform a whole routine while hanging from their hair. She thought the animals were really cool, too, and on the way home she told me that when she grows up she wants to ride elephants and cook dinner for them.

In the Crib

Catherine loves seeing Jack when he wakes up. As soon as he starts making any sort of noise, she wants to run to his room. One morning last week when I knew he was awake, and not just making sleepy sounds, I let her go into his room while I finished up something in the kitchen. I just cracked up when I walked into his room and saw this. Normally she's not allowed in his crib, but the sight of them surrounded by baby toys and laughing it up was just wonderful! I hope that they continue to enjoy being together as much as they do now.

Adventures in Gardening

We spent the weekend of March 13th at Ben's parents' house. It has become a family tradition that we get together to help Mema & Papa plant their garden every spring. Catherine was very helpful with planting green beans and marigolds. She made sure to change her clothes whenever she got dirty, so she had worn three outfits by lunch time. It's a good thing she had packed so well!

We finally planted our family garden on Saturday, March 21st. Yeah! We didn't get started until that evening when Ben got home from work, so it was kind of chilly, but we were able to work hard and get it done. We had to move our large box from the back yard (where the plants weren't getting enough sun) to the front, and Ben built two more small boxes. We prepped the soil, outlined the squares, and even planted everything we could. Catherine was eager to dig in the dirt with her new Dora work gloves and did a wonderful job of helping to plant the seeds and planting the small sunflower plants that her preschool class started. Jack was happy just to hang out and watch all the action (except for all the gnats that kept bugging him). Just wait until next year, Jack. You'll be able to get all dirty too!

Catherine, aka Cinderella

Earlier this month, we began using a new approach to discipline with Catherine. When she grossly misbehaves, she must pay us with a toy. We choose the toy, and we also choose the payment necessary to earn the toy back. (Payment is just about any chore we think she might be able to manage.) Within a couple of weeks, our collection of Cat's toys got to be really big and she wasn't motivated to earn them back, so we established the "Chore Store." She was welcome to buy any toy back, paying us with the chore displayed on the price tag, but whatever she didn't purchase by Saturday was going to someone else who needed toys. It worked! She did all kinds of things--cleaning mirrors, washing toilets and bath tubs, vacuuming, sweeping, dusting, doing dishes, putting laundry in the washing machine and dryer, folding and putting clothes away, it was great! The house looked wonderful that week. Unfortunately, she's behaved pretty well since then and we haven't been able to get as many chores out of her, but one day I needed to mop while Jack was sleeping and Cat was very eager to help. I figured she'd done so many other things, why not? And she loved it! Maybe watching Cinderella over and over again has paid off?

St. Patrick's Day Adventures

On the eve of St. Patrick's Day, we had a great Family Home Evening about the symbolism of the four-leaf clover, then Cat went on a scavenger hunt through the house until she found her pot of gold. We all enjoyed the Jell-O together... Jack was unsure at first, and kept trying to grab some in his hands, but in the end he liked it when we fed it to him.

Savannah is supposed to have the second-largest St. Patrick's Day celebration in the country, and it's only about 80 minutes from our house, so my friend Nicole Harrison and I decided to go on up and see the parade. This was the first time either of my kids had been to a parade and they both really enjoyed it. It was quite the adventure!

Cat and her buddy Ashlyn lounging on the beach chairs before the parade got started. We found a spot to hang out near the end of the parade route, which was great because it wasn't crowded, but we waited for over an hour before the parade even got to us!

Cat was standing on a beach chair mesmerized the whole time, and wouldn't talk to me, until we had to leave early and she complained that we were missing the rest of it.

One of the many pipe & drum groups we saw.

I had Jack in the Baby Bjorn and he kept clapping and clapping throughout the parade. There weren't nearly as many floats as I expected, but I thought this one was particularly festive.

Our second annual St. Patrick's Day feast: green clover waffles, green eggs & ham (yeah, I know the ham looks pretty gross, but Cat had a lot of fun "painting" it green, and it tasted fine), limeade, and lime shamrock pastell cookies for dessert. We may have looked a little Grinch-like afterwards from all the green food coloring, but it was fun!

Adventures in the Kitchen

Catherine has become quite the sous chef. Not only is she helpful, and incredibly precise with her measurements, she brings a certain glamour to the kitchen that I'm just not able to produce myself. I never would have thought to wear my leotard/tutu and straw hat to bake bread, but I know I don't have the diva quality that Cat is so famous for.

Our sweet adopted Granny and neighbor, Jo Ann Bailey, brought us a bunch of oranges and tangerines that I knew we wouldn't eat before they went bad, so we juiced many of them and froze the juice. Normally, juicing is a pretty quick process, but not when a 3-year-old wants her fair share of turns! At least she had put her apron on by this point. We were in the kitchen for quite a while that day, and I loved it.

February's Adventures

Cat's adventures in photography... she's getting better and better!
(Shout out to Uncle Andy.. that's the duck you gave Jack for Christmas.)


Cat and I loved making this Valentine's garland. It's so nice that she's old enough to actually help with these crafty things--she cut two hearts in the time that I cut everything else--but we had fun doing it together. I made her this tacky Valentine's shirt at the encouragement of my Mom. (It was the best way I could think of to re-use the Christmas shirt I made her.. the little star is under the hearts.) Of course, Cat loved it.


These are the Valentine's Cat and I made together for her preschool class. I was so proud of her for writing her name!! (No, she didn't want to write her name on all of them, but at least she did it on a few.)


Cat's class at the Valentine's Party. We LOVE Cat's preschool, and especially her teacher, Mrs. Chris, and her two daughters, Allison and Megan, who help out every day. This is the second year Cat has had them and we are so grateful.

My little Sleeping Beauty. I couldn't believe it when I found her sleeping wearing the tiara & princess pajamas. Gotta love it!


It was a wonderful adventure for all of us to go down to Jacksonville on February 22nd and meet our newest niece, Iris. She is so sweet!!

January's Adventures

Ben took this picture... gotta love wearing short-sleeves while helping Daddy in the yard in January! (I try not to think about all the bugs.)

Jack is not the only one who enjoys his new Christmas present (thanks, Grammy!). Catherine loves getting to push her baby bro.

Jack frequently rolled himself around the house...

Before I knew how rolling under this bench was one of his favorite adventures, I "lost" him, and it took me a few minutes to find him! After that, it was the first place I looked when he was missing.

Aunt Suz with her favorite baby.
We'll miss you while you're on your mission!!

This was really the beginning of Cat's refusal to take
decent pictures. But, we had to include one of her and Suz
modeling their girly tie shirts!