Who are these kids?

This is Holden, after playing in the huge dirt pile in our backyard. You can imagine what the tub looked like after his shower.

This is Braden, after chowing down on some brownie. It looks like you're missing a few teeth there. Nice!

This is Alanna, after graciously eating a red frosting covered donut.

A day at the beach

My brother Don and Jennifer invited us to their timeshare in Hilton Head, along with my other brother Dale and Susan, and mom and dad. This was Alanna's first trip to the beach. The boys had a blast on the body boards. One of their favorite things to do is bury each other in the sand. I'm not sure Alanna thought this was so cool, but she was a good sport.






Don took this picture.

Use your bottom

We were outside enjoying the beautiful weather today! What a great Easter Sunday!!
Since Alanna is so sensitive to bug bites, I sent her back inside to get her shoes on. Our side door sticks a little, so you have to give it a good push to open it. Alanna shouted to me, "I can't open it!" and I shouted back,"Just use your bottom to push against the door, you can do it". I look over and she's got her hand on the knob and she's wiggling her bottom. OK, I had to laugh! Not exactly what I meant. Silly girl!

Strawberry Picking

We headed to Ottowa Farms for some strawberry picking. Wow, the strawberries were huge! Between the five of us, we picked 15 pounds of strawberries. OK, now who's going to EAT all those!?

Heathwood Hall Lacrosse Tournament

Braden's lacrosse team had a tournament in Columbia this weekend. A total of 10 teams were there. Our team did AWESOME!! The scores were something like 5-0, 8-2, 5-0, 6-2, 5-3. They won a total of 5 games and were #1 in the tournament. HOORAH!


As for me, I am the winner of a nice sunburn! Was it ever hot! Alanna stayed with a neighbor friend, Clarissa. We kinda swapped kids for the weekend. We took her son to the tournament and she kept Alanna. She's not too excited about sitting and watching the games. When we picked her up on the way home, she said "Boy does she ever talk a lot!" OK, so I'm not the only one who she totally drives CRAZY with her non-stop talking! Speech delayed my foot! Did she come with an "off" button somewhere, cause I can't seem to find it.

Jekyll Island & Jacksonville

Good friends of ours run an Ultimate Frisbee tournament each year. This year it was hosted in Jekyll Island. They had rented a condo right on the beach, and let us stay there the last night, since the tournament was over. Way cool! We walked on the beach, collected some cool shells, they boys even were brave enough to go waist deep in the water. FREEZING! They also generously gave us passes for minature golf and the Sea Turle Center. Thanks Ed & Cathy...really enjoyed it!





The next morning, we were up and leaving at 6:00 am! Not much of a relaxing vacation. To Jacksonville we go for more lacrosse games. The younger middle school team played 2 games and filled in on 3 for the older middle school team. Then on to Ponte Vedra for 2 more games!


Here's Braden (green, in the middle) chasing a guy on the other team, trying to hit him with his stick. Well, actually he's trying to get the ball away from the guy. Looks like fun...wish I could play and hit people with a stick! OK, yes...I'm in need of an outlet.

Allergic to bug bites

Alanna is definately allergic to bug bites! We were at Holden's cub scout pack meeting last night. They had a game night outside and the gnats were aweful! Just as we were leaving, Alanna started whining that she got something in her eye. I looked, but didn't see anything. That evening, I noticed a small welt on her eye. The next morning she woke up and her eye was red, swollen and had a pus nodule (kind of like an ant bite) on the corner of her eyelid. I took her to the Dr., he said she had an infection and gave her antibiotics. The next day, her eyelid turned black along the edge. Like a bad make-up job. Yuck! Dr. mom to the rescue...yes, I had to drain her eyelid. Won't go into the details, it was gross. By the next day, it looked 50% better. Wow, I have to coat this child with bug spray everytime we go outside!

The Sunday prior, we were at one of Braden's games. Same thing...gnat bites on her face. After her nap, her forehead swelled up right in the middle. Just a little scary. I know carry around Benedryl, just in case.

Rodeo Roundup

Holden's school hosted a rodeo roundup fun day.

Alanna's first pony ride.

Food Drive

We enjoy watching The Biggest Loser and seeing people transform their lives by losing weight- a LOT of weight- and getting healthy. One of the recent challenges, the teams participated in packing boxes of food for the hungry at a local food bank. Air 1, 88.1 fm also recently joined with Compassion International to promote awarness of the global food crisis.

Holden is working on his citizenship badge in Cub Scouts. One of his projects is to participate in a family service project. We decided to host our own food drive to collect donations for the local America's Second Harvest Food Bank. Kroger generously donated a stack of plastic grocery bags. We made up a flyer stating the time we would pick up the food, attached it to the plastic bag and hung it on over 80 door knobs in our neighborhood.

Holden spoke to the Kroger manager about his project and he donated a $10 Kroger gift certificate. Clean USA also donated some funds that we used to buy more food.

We collected 35 bags of food totaling 92 pounds! Time invested...maybe about 2 hours on 2 different days with a total of 4 hours. A much better use of time than sitting on the couch and playing video games!!

One person may not be able to give a lot, but a lot of people can give a little...it all adds up!

Way to go, my Webelos!

N Charleston Playdate

The team is listening to the coach before the game. The sun was definately blarring!

Braden is the one in green on the far right. They were all in a bunch, trying to pick up the ball. Go Braden!

Braden #43, waiting for the whistle.

Braden #43 and Noah 44 (friend and carpooling buddy) watching and waiting for the coach to send them in!

Not a good weekend to initiate daylight savings....

We left the house at 6:30am to head to North Charleston for another Lacrosse playdate. Not liking missing out on church, but fortunately there are only a few Sat/Sun games scheduled. I'll just say we were all a little tired in the morning. The boys all slept in the car, while I drove. And of course Alanna was wide awake.

The team did an awesome job and the coach made sure that every team member got some game time. I think there's about 33 players on the team, with only 10 playing at a time. The team is mostly 6-8 th graders, but there are a few 2-4th graders as well. They all seem to play pretty well as a TEAM. Awesome game, way to go!

Take the speck out of my eye!

Savannah Lacrosse team at practice.

Braden's team, Savannah Lacrosse, had a playdate in Hilton Head today. There are a total of 3 teams, with each team playing 2 games each. Braden headed to the game in the morning with a teammate, and we drove up around 2pm. Being right on the coast, it was a little windy outside. Rob is setting up the chairs and I headed over to talk to the team coordinator and other moms. I'm standing there, sporting my shades, and all of a sudden something blew into my eye. OK, no big deal. I head to the one and only single stall bathroom to find a mirror and some water. No go-there is a line of 3 squirming toddler girls. I dashed back to our van and took a peak in the car mirror. Something is stuck in my eye, right in my iris! I tried dousing my eye with some water...not coming out. Of course it's a Saturday and most eye doctors are closed! Oh great! We get in the car and just start driving, not knowing where to go. I spotted a Wal-Mart and went in to the vision center. The doctor JUST left! I begged the lady to help me find someone that was still open and fortunately, right down the road, the dr. at Pearl Vision was still there. To get to the point, I had a small peice of wood stuck in my eye. How weird is that!? I even had sunglasses on! Hat's off to the awesome stall at Pearl Vision in Hilton Head! The dr. painlessly removed my speck in just 30 minutes.

Oh, now back to the game. Just as we get out of the car and walk back to the field, they blow the horn...game over! UUUGGGHH! YOUR KIDDING!

Sometimes things don't go like you planned. But all's good. Oh, and the team won 2 out of 3 games. Hooray!

Happy New Year!

It has been so nice outside lately. What happened to winter?! Not that I'm complaining. We are all enjoying the long break from school, and work. Alanna loves to play outside, especially on the swing.

Last night we enjoyed our annual NYE fondue with steak, chicken, shrimp and veggies, followed by chocolate fondue, YUM! The boys have been wanting to get Rock Band for quite awhile, and we finally let them buy it with money they earned. Braden spotted the FedEx man driving down the street and was ecstatic when he stopped at our house with his package...2 days early!! Guess what we played until midnight! Braden was on guitar, I was on drums, Holden on Bass and Alanna sang (well, we didn't have her chord plugged in, but she didn't know the difference). Pretty cool!

Christmas Day

I think Alanna's favorite gift is her princess dress up kit. She put it on right after she opened it and wore it the rest of the day, shoes and all. Next morning, it was the first thing she put on! She keeps saying, "I'm pwincess!"


The look on Holden's face when he opened his new Lego kit...priceless! He spent 6+ hours putting it together. Did I mention he LOVES Legos!


Braden is into his music. Santa was too broke to bring a "real" drum set, plus where in the world would we put it? We gave him a practice pad to get him started, plus some new guitar gear. Guess what I get to listen to now...tap, tap, tap, tap, tap-tap-tap!

Christmas Fun

Each year, we like to make gingerbread houses. I think the hardest part for the boys is not eating all the frosting before it's finished.


This was all daddy's doing! This is actually red frosting from a donut. Kinda looks like Alanna got into momma's lipstick. Nice!

Pre-K Christmas Party

Alanna had her first school Christmas party.

A present just for me!? A new book from Mrs. Brenda!

A new baby doll, Mei Mei. Someone was thinking when they made this one...the blanket and hat are attached by a string so they won't get lost!