Owen's 7 year Check Up

He chilled in the waiting room on Daddy's lap with his DS until we were called back.

Owen weighs a whole 43 pounds!

Has normal blood pressure.

And measures 45 inches tall.

Owen loves walking down this hallway with the fun tiles filled with dyed liquid to squoosh around.

He has to jump on each one :)

Strong heart and lungs

Dr. Bowman wanted to know what happened to all of his teeth!

Look at that boy touch his toes!

Strong long legs

And chilling again while waiting for the nurse to come back in with the flu mist vaccine for each of us. Owen volunteered to go first and then changed his mind. He was hesitant it would burn and asked for Daddy to go first, then him and Mommy last.

Dr. Bowman gave the thumbs up that he is one healthy boy :)

Bounce House Birthday Party

Sweet kids, happy to stop & smile for the camera while waiting for the bouncies to finish filling up.

Chloe hadn't seen Sophia since the spring and was so happy to play with her again!

Smiley boy.

Matthew's Daddy Billy stopped to join Chloe's and Sophia's tea party.

Owen climbed onto the side of one of the slides and tried to ride it like a horse.

Matthew, Nate and Owen. The Three Musketeers.

Matthew is one of Owen's favorite friends.

They were patiently waiting for the kids to stop singing Happy Birthday so they could blow out the candles.

The pictures shown above do not give any indication other than our kids were the happiest creatures on the planet. And for this two hour window, they were.

I'll leave it at that.

Chloe's Five Year Check Up

We started out the day with pigtails. But they came out before naptime at school.

She wasn't in trouble, but was being very coy about letting Mommy take her picture in the waiting room at the pediatrician's office.

Chloe thought she was pretty cute with her head in my lap.

She weighs 39 pounds.

Has normal blood pressure.

A whole 43 inches tall!

Doesn't she look cute in her paper towel princess dress?

She thought so, even though she didn't like the teddy bears.

Dr. Bowman was listening to Chloe's heart.

And listening to her take deep breaths, which amused Chloe.

Chloe's counting and self-awareness was put to the test when Dr. Bowman counted a sixth toe on one foot.

All done with the check up. Dr. Bowman gave Chloe a hug and a kiss before walking out.

This was the last smile before we told her she needed to get shots.

The poor child was in hysterics. She fought hard, kicking & screaming until just before the shots were given. It didn't take her too long to calm down and then in the car, she said "It didn't hurt that bad."

chain Style by Jane Dickerson

I just got my copy in the mail today!

That would be Lorelei's gorgeous necklace on the cover.

And my lampwork lentil on the right side :)

It was one of the first focal beads I sold out of my Etsy shop.

Lorelei has nine pieces of jewelry featured in this book. NINE! How cool is that?!

I'm so excited for her. And for me, that one of my beads is now published. My etsy shop is also listed in the Resources pages at the back. Sooo soo cool!

You can buy your copy here :)

Minnie Mouse

Chloe just got this dress and headband with mouse ears for her birthday. She came to the dinner table still dressed as Minnie and by far, the most colorful person at the table.

By the time Chloe was done eating dinner tonight (chili), she decided she was too hot to remain dressed. She had to strip down to her undies before she could eat a Skinny Cow french vanilla bar for dessert. :) Glad I snapped the pics before we sat down for dinner!

Just for the record, the Skinny Cow chocolate truffle bars are tastier than the french vanilla truffle bars.

Happy 5th Birthday Chloe!

Today our baby girl turns five years old.


She is many things.

A siller and a goat. A tree-hugger and a fish.

She's a sister and a friend. A daughter and a sweetheart.

She's a tester and a bulldozer. A goofus roofus and a compassionate little being when she sees someone get hurt.

She is bizarre.

Chloe loves animals. So much so that she can't help herself from delivering three quick (and sometimes hard) pats to their backsides.

She is smart. She can write her name and the names of many friends and family members.

She is our Bean.

I can't believe my baby is five already

Happy 9th Anniversary

Nine years ago today, Todd and I exchanged vows. Having attended a handful of weddings since then, every ceremony has only reinforced how sacred those promises were that we made to each other on that partly sunny day in front of our family and friends.

To have and to hold. In sickness and in health. In good times and bad.

We have been very fortunate. The good times far outweigh the bad, which could probably be counted on one hand. We have a growing family with two beautiful and smart children. We have secure jobs and a stable home. We have been in the right place at the right time to help others get through a day or a year at a time. We are fairly like-minded, which has made us stronger together and more united in the decisions we make from small to big.

Till death do us part.

I love you honeys. Happy Anniversary!

Owen's Turns Seven Years Old!

So cool that he can read his own birthday cards now!

The little digital camera went over great! We told him it was just like our very first digital camera (because it has a hard metal casing all over). Owen has been obsessed with taking pics for well over a year now and can't keep his hands off the little disposable cameras and won't stop begging to take pictures using Kelley's new camera.

Owen taking a picture of me taking a picture of him :)
He just had to do a happy dance!



And then take pics of his seester :)
Owen was very happy to have company at lunch on his birthday

Not bad for a self portrait...hard to hold this camera out with one hand because it is so HEAVY!
HaPpY bIrThDaY OwEnSk!

Catching Up

We returned from too short of a vacation to Calabash, North Carolina for Kelley's best friend Mary's wedding. Kelley was a bridesmaid and Chloe was the flower girl. Considering I uploaded 930 pictures last night, it may be awhile before I have them all cropped/edited/sorted to start posting pics from Owen's bday, Kelley holding Wendy's newborn baby boy Logan or shots from the wedding.

In the meantime, this is the rain we have today.

Owen's 7th Birthday

Owen will turn 7 years old today. Shortly after 8:30pm, if you want to get technical. Time has flown since that day when both my parents, my grandparents and some of our best friends waited out the hours in the labor & delivery room at Northside Hospital with us. Since I have no siblings and Todd has only one, our friends present at the hospital were given honorary Aunt and Uncle titles.

In these short and fast seven years, we have watched Owen grow from a little jaundice baby into a big boy who makes us proud. He is smart and excels at math, as well as picks up new spelling words quickly. He can read just about anything we put in front of him now, which is exciting.

He is strong-willed and can't be swayed from his course of action once he makes up his mind. Owen gave up diapers completely (yes, even at night) before he turned two years old. He stopped sucking his thumb cold turkey when he was four years old when he realized he didn't want braces. In spite of tears and many falls, he got back up on his bike repeatedly until he could ride it without training wheels in less than an hour and through many tears of frustration.

Owen is kind. He is quick to put himself in other people's shoes and is very sensitive to other's pain or sadness. He is gentle with animals and will admonish his sister if she is too rough with our pets.

He loves to dance and will break out the moves to music on the radio or his own singing. Owen loves We Will Rock You and We Are The Champions by Queen. For the past two months, he has only listened to Queen's greatest hits in his bedroom as he is falling asleep.

Owen is whimsical and loves to dress up in costumes or have his face painted to take on different identities. He loves to be silly and because of Owen, we know that if boy privates could talk, they would sound just like Charlie Brown's teacher (wah wah wah wah wah wah).

He loves sports and tends to gain attention from softball coaches at batting cages and tennis coaches in camp because he is quick and has excellent hand/eye coordination.

Owen is independent. In Kindergarten, he would get up after his alarm went off and get dressed before brushing his teeth. Many mornings we would find him in the kitchen making breakfast for himself with either cereal in a bowl or waffles in the toaster.

Owen is a brother, a friend, my son, a goofy boy and as he sometimes reminds "just a person who wants have fun."

Today we are driving to North Carolina to see my friend Mary get married on Saturday. Today we get to spend 7 hours in the car with our newly turned 7 year old. Today, we are thankful he is ours and we're celebrating another birthday.