Randoms

Still haven't been able to keep up with the blog, so here are a bunch of random little details of our lives the past little bit that I want to remember later.  On Labor Day we went to Ikea in Charlotte.  We were looking for a few things for the house, there was a rare coupon, and it was Eat Free weekend.  The kids tried out the playland for the first time and I naively thought we would complete our shopping in that time while they were there- yeah right!  I am so indecisive and practical that I debate over every little thing.  But the kids were troopers and a free meal midway helped.  We definitely got a huge value, our kids (and let's be real, us too) eat a lot!

Aaron is no exception, he is starting to contribute significantly to our grocery bill too, but he is fun to feed because he will eat most anything.  He did "So Big" for the first time there and it's a favorite mealtime pasttime now, along with clapping for himself.  My favorite is when he stops in the middle of nursing, looks up at me and claps.

Sadie and I got to go with her preschool to a farm for a field trip on a  Monday, which is not one of her normal school days, so she was extra thrilled.  She lives for preschool days.

Sometimes I just stare at Marissa and think to myself that she is beautiful.  

Aaron loves to be in his bouncer watching me mow the lawn.  It's been a good thing, mowing our lawn with a push mower takes awhile!  I usually split up front yard and backyard between two days.

Josh was on TV!  His health group has recurring spotlights on the local news and they had him do it since it was on back to school well checks and vaccinations.  He was pretty nervous but he did great!

I took the kids to the Guilford Courthouse for the National Parks 100 year celebration. It is a Revolutionary War site.

They were doing a Junior Ranger program and they got Junior Ranger badges.  I'm glad we have a National Park in town!

Sadie was my landscaping business one day, the bushes needed trimmed really bad.

Our Sunday walks are a lot prettier now.  This is just a couple minutes from our house.

I have seen more butterflies in our yard since moving here than I think I have in my whole life.

Sadie's preschool is right by Shane and Marissa's school, but there is a gap in their dropoffs so in between I go to the community park that's also right by their school and run.  At the end I try to get her to get some exercise too, it helps when I let her wear my GPS watch:)

Josh has been coaching Marissa's soccer team.  They are having a lot of fun, though she could be a bit more aggressive.

My little errand buddies.

This trampoline has already proven to be totally worth it.

We have some fall leaves!  And it's not frigid out!  I love fall here!

I have longingly watched for the past couple years as people have gotten free donuts at Krispy Kreme for various reasons.  So I was thrilled we have one in town so I could go for Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Our laundry room is on the main floor, and all the bedrooms are on the second floor, so we do "baby in a basket" often to get the laundry done.

Marissa's reading has really taken off, she kind of just figures things out on her own.  This is her favorite spot to read, and I love when she and Sadie mutually agree on doing it together (there is still a lot squabbles between these two bossypants)

The kids' school does a fun run for their fundraiser, and we had fun watching them.

The next week we watched them run again because the PE teacher does a mile run with each class in the fall and spring, kindergarten included.  He puts parts of a smiley face on their hands to show how many laps they've done, and Marissa and Shane both ended up doing a mile and a half.  Marissa was pretty fast compared to the other girls in her class, and Shane could've kept going forever but wasn't super fast (sounds like his mama!)

Sadie is at the stage where she definitely doesn't need a nap every day, but needs them sometimes.  I can tell when I find her like this frequently

Shane got chosen to be the "Terrific Kid" from his class last month so we went and watch his principal give him his award.

He was pretty pleased.  He had some rough times in Kindergarten but I'm so glad he seems to have figured out this school thing and is doing well.

Josh got to bring flu shots home for us.  Can you tell who was excited about that and who wasn't?

 Our dentis had a party to celebrate her first year of being open.  There was a BBQ lunch (BBQ here means pulled pork and all the fixings, yum!!!)

 The kids got their faces painted, played some cornhole, and had a good time.  I like our dentist, she is pregnant with her fourth, and the other three line up right with ours.  

 While Marissa is at ballet on Mondays we usually head to the park across the street.The weather has been gorgeous.

 Sometimes I try to fight the woodchips constantly in the mouth issue and then sometimes I just let him be and monitor for choking;)  He sure loves being outside.

And I love these two:)

Hanging Rock State Park

We have so enjoyed Josh's work schedule.  He gets a day off every week, which a lot of times is used to work on projects or do errands or something but sometimes for fun outings.  One of his days off in August before school started we went to Hanging Rock State Park.  It is less than an hour from us, and there are a lot of cool hikes there.  We figured this time we'd see how many of the waterfall hikes we could do, since they were shorter and the weather was perfect for swimming.  We busted out the hiking backpack we used in Dominica with Shane and haven't used much since (not tons of hiking going on in the Midwest...) and had a blast.

 I'm glad we went to this waterfall first because it ended up being the smallest, and so we were pretty excited to see it when we got there but it wouldn't have been as cool after seeing the other two.

 Keeping little miss sassypants going was by far our biggest challenge.  The older two do great and Aaron loved the backpack but her little legs just don't love walking very far.

 I tried all kinds of motivating talk, distractions, threats, etc.  She actually did the best when she was climbing stairs because she loves counting (like someone else I know!)

I love hiking with kids because it helps you see things in a new way.  Shane was the one who discovered that what we thought were big spiderwebs everywhere were actually silkworms.

and he wanted to try out carrying Aaron in the backpack,and much to our surprise he could actually do it, and did it for almost half a mile.  That thing is heavy!

 The second waterfall we got to was bigger than the first and we were able to all get in it so that was pretty cool.

 Can you tell in that nice family picture above that Aaron was naked as a jaybird??  He loved playing in the water, as did they all.

 The third waterfall was the biggest and had a big pool around it too.

 It was hard to get it all in one shot so we tried out the panoramic setting.

 Happy boy.

One of the things we love about North Carolina is that there are so many more outdoor opportunities and more months where it is enjoyable to be outside to do them.  We are excited to keep exploring!

First Days of School

We had an extra long summer this year because Shane's school in Fort Wayne got out before Memorial Day and the schools here don't start til the end of August.  I do like not going back so early in August (that's still summer!), but I think this summer we were all ready for school to start to meet some new friends and get into a rhythm.  Here are my big 2nd grade and kindergartner before we headed out for their big day! (The bus comes super early in the morning so I take them and they ride the bus home) 

 I think Shane was excited for school.

 I know Marissa was!  She has been "practicing for kindergarten" for months now, and I'm pretty sure it was like her dream come true!!

 Backpacks laid out the night before.

 She initially said she wanted to walk in on her own the first day, but changed her mind the morning of.  It was probably a good thing because their school is bigger than we're used to, and I made a few wrong turns myself!  It seems like a great school though, and pretty much every person I have ever talked to about it raves about it so we shall see.

 I don't think Sadie missed her brother and sister one bit.  I think she was needing a little more focused attention from mommy:)  I've been taking advantage of the fact that I can fit all my peeps in the stroller while they're gone to explore the greenway, and I am smitten with it.

 I thought maybe Marissa would be tired after a long day- nope!  She was pretty pumped up!

 Sadie finally got her turn yesterday, and boy was she ever excited.

 Her school is very close to Shane and Marissa's, and there is about an hour lag between their drop offs, so I took the littles to the park right by the school to run between.  She did not want to let that backpack out of her sight and made sure every 5 minutes that I checked the time.

 She surprised me when she was super shy and hesitant at the open house last week so I was a little nervous for how she would react but she marched right in there like she owned the place and didn't look back.  Her teachers have a share site where they post pictures of her at school and I loved these!

Now I will have a few hours a week with just one kid?  What will I do?!

A Few Things I Am Loving About Our New Home

Well, we have been here for a month and a half now, and things are starting to settle down a little bit.  I should probably post some posts about our move, but it's easier to start with the semi-present for now.  We are loving it here and I feel like if I love it now while the heat and humidity are on, it's only bound to get better right?  No place is perfect, I wish I could combine my favorite parts of all the places we have lived, and there are things I miss about Fort Wayne, but there are so many great things about here.

I love our neighborhood.  There are lots of beautiful trees and rolling hills, a pond, and very friendly people.  They do Family Fun Fridays throughout the summer where the neighborhood gets together for activities so it's easy to get to know people.  There are 8 houses on our street and we had 3 families bring over treats to us when we moved in and everyone has been very helpful and kind.

Just outside our neighborhood is this cute Little Free Library that is well stocked and great motivation for Shane to get some exercise. (He told me the other day: "does everyone around here like being active and hot and sweaty?  Does anyone like the cold and relaxing?"  when I told him that usuallly people who like that are really large he said, "am I the skinniest person who likes relaxing that you know?"  and we've talked about having a good balance:)

Sadie was pretty stoked when we stopped to check it out on a run and there was a Dora book in there.

 I LOVE my screened in porch.  We don't have any furniture in it yet but that hasn't stopped us from enjoying it already.

 Josh is really liking his job, it has the small town feel that he wanted.  And I benefit from it when his patients bring him things like sunflowers from their fields:)

 It has been hot and humid, but that means it's pretty much always a good time for the pool.

 There are crape myrtle trees everywhere around here and I love them.  They come in all kinds of different colors, here is the big one in front of our house.

Our yard is a lot to mow, but there's a lot of space to run and play.

We get a lot of wildlife- can you spot the deer at the edge of the woods in our backyard?  They are pretty much daily visitors.

 I love sitting back here after I go for a run,it's so peaceful.

 And I am loving having an island, it makes cooking with the girls a lot easier among other things.

And we love living close enough to visit this girl:)