We are Brothers on a Journey

You know that song: Brother let me be your servant, Let me be as Christ to you...Well, I wish I had a good enough camera to have taken this picture the other day. We finally had a few days in the 50's and 60's and with NO RAIN! So, I very happily sent the boys outside to enjoy the dirt and sun. I periodically look out to make sure they're safe and not too far away and not knee deep in the marsh. My backyard is half protected marsh. When it's dry, you can walk out on it and step over hard grass patches and fiddler crabs..Hence the name of our property, Fiddler Island.

So, I look out and see the boys exploring the marsh with sticks in hand. Then I see James lay down on his belly and raise his hand up to Ryan. I guess he needed Ryan's help to get up. Then he got up all smiley and then Ryan decided to lay down and ask for help. Once James helped him up, I thought, Oh, cute! They're helping each other. But instead of running off together, Ryan decided to lay down again. I could tell James was thinking that this was gonna get old, but sometimes our friends and family just always seem to be falling down. And sometimes we just have to stick it out with them. :)

Finally..

Finally, this little girl let me get some good pictures of her. I couldn't resist grabbing the camera as I saw her do this..

My Budding Photographer

Alex's family is very creative. I think my sister has this creative gene, but I definately do not. I'm talking about the crafty, artsy, good with colors like of creativity. My little big guy James has this gene. He's very creative, has great fine motor skills and loves to draw! He also loves to help bake, paint or anything where he can make something. He can already color within the lines and I'm a super proud mom! Alright, enough with the bragging.

Last night he wanted to walk around the house and take some pictures. This is what he found. I think he took 68 pictures.

Valentine's Day

This day is always touchy with me. I do love the excuse to go out to dinner, or have a party or get dressed up or buy some presents, but the reality is, it's just another day. Expectations are super hard now because I still want a special surprise from my spouse that makes me just swoon like I did when we were dating. Funny how things change when you're not trying as hard to win someone over. Do I want to go back to the time of dating? Absolutely not.

And this is why: I have a loving husband who loves to spontaneously whip out a beautiful cake in honor of his wife.

I have 3 wonderful children who find ways to make me smile, laugh and cry all within 30 minutes.

But especially, I appreciate the reminder to take some mental time and prepare a special something for my husband and kids.

Snow Fall in Chucktown

We finally saw it! Snow!! And it stuck on the ground long enough for every other person to make a snowman in their yard. We saw 1-2 inches while the western side saw a few more. This is a big deal for charleston. I think it's been 10 years since the last recorded snow fall. So, we were super excited. We woke James up to show him and he was impressed for a few minutes, then he wanted to go back to bed. But, he got up with Ryan around 630 to go play in it. It wasn't as fun as they anticipated because it was so cold. I bundled them up as best I could, but it still wasn't good enough. I didn't know Ryan had gone outside with no socks on under his boots, so he was pretty miserable.

But we got some good pictures and enjoyed the 24 hours of snow.

Ready, Set, Rock N Roll

This is the name of our local jump castle. You know, the place that has huge inflatable slides and trampolines that gets rid of excess energy? I wish I had visited earlier this year. It's the kind of place that is PERFECT for rainy days, super hot days and those days you just need a little break. They are generally a bit pricey, but on mondays, it's only $2.50 a kid. They have a monthly pass for $35 which is unlimited jumping.

The max time for my kid appears to be in the 1 hour limit. We got to go today and it was great. It was clean, the floor was carpeted and it was not crowded!! Olivia could crawl around and was happy except for when a little girl tripped over her. The boys did great until we had to leave and I wouldn't buy them flavored sugar.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the 'release' over the next month until the weather gets consistently nice that we can go outside.

No, don't look

Here's how this goes after he gets down from the table:

Ryan: I'm all done!

Me: Okay, I'm gonna look.

Ryan: No, don't look!