Happy 4th of July and Bryson's Baptism

Happy 4th of July to everyone!!! I hope that everyone had a very safe and fun 4th of July with family and friends!

I was supposed to have a biopsy done on Wednesday of last week but earlier in the week my throat started to hurt and by Wednesday morning I was pretty sure it was strep throat so I called my doctor's office and got worked in for later in the day and in the meantime I went on to my appointment for the biopsy but once I got there and told them how I was feeling they decided it would be safer to reschedule so we did that and I went home until my next appointment for my sore throat. As I suspected, I did get a positive test for the strep throat and went and got some medication right away so I'd start feeling better as soon as possible. In the mean time my mom had come to help out for the day with Will and since I wasn't feeling well she ended up spending the night which thrilled Will! They went for a long walk through the neighborhood and played chase in the park and my mom cooked dinner for us which was a big help!

I had doctors orders to stay out of work that Thursday and Friday was a day off for me so Will, my mom and I headed to Rock Hill on Thursday evening for the holiday weekend! We didn't do much on Thursday because I didn't want to infect anyone but on Friday Will and my mom rode bikes, we went and got alterations taken care of for me for my dress for DJ's wedding and ran some other errands and later in the evening we headed to Elizabeth and Ben's house to eat pizza and let Will and Emma play in Emma's pool and run through the sprinkler. They also were treated to a bath in the jetted bath tub, which they love!

On Saturday I slept in and we later went and hung out with Elizabeth, Ben, Emma and Bryson for a while since they weren't going to be with us that evening. We came back down to my parent's after playing and Will and I worked on making macaroni and cheese for lunch for the next day...Will was so excited to be able to help out and actually did a very good job!

Kent and Meghan suggested that we go to the Charlotte Knights game that evening and enjoy the fireworks show afterward so my dad went online and ordered us tickets - by the time he tried to order them all the regular seats were taken but we were able to get tickets for the hill, which turned out to be great seats, especially for the fireworks! My dad got a few too many tickets and ended up selling some to my aunt and uncle and some of their friends. Rick came up for the evening which was a nice treat and we all piled into the Suburban that evening after eating supper at my parents and headed to the stadium. We had so much fun watching the game, eating funnel cake and cotton candy and hanging out with each other and the fireworks show after the game was phenomenal!!!

Sunday was Bryson's baptism and he did a wonderful job! We all headed to Elizabeth and Ben's after church for lunch and everything was delicious! We enjoyed spending time with our family and Ben's and were so happy to be able to share in Bryson's special day!

2009 FAMILY BEACH VACATION

We just got back the other week from our annual family beach vacation (June 20 - June 27, 2009) and had a blast as always!!! We couldn't have had a better week weather wise - it didn't rain at all until Friday night right before dinner time and then cleared away in time for those that were going out for dinner to go out and eventually all meet up later that evening at our favorite ice cream place, PAINTERS! We even got a rainbow from the rain! :)

We spent most of our time as always on the beach playing in the sand, laying in the sun, reading books, playing in the ocean and taking walks on the beach! Lots of card games were played at night and we watched some movies together - got to watch Marley and Me for the first time and loved it!!! The boys played some football and baseball from time to time and paddle ball and bocci ball was played a good bit too. We built some sand castles, dug huge holes (Rick and Christopher even built some holes with stairs) and caught lots of little crabs that were brought in with the massive amounts of sea oats! Will even got to go kayaking with his great uncle Bob and he was so excited about this because Bob even let him "paddle" - he was so proud of himself!

We had our night out to eat with the whole family to Nance's and had a nice time hanging out with everyone there and taking some pictures afterward.

Kent and Meghan went out shopping one day and came home with some adorable shirts for Will, Emma and Bryson:

Will's was a Duke's of Hazzard shirt, Emma's was a Carolina Cutie shirt and Bryson's was a cute little shirt (can't remember what it said but it was cute). Will was so excited about his and wanted to try his on right away so I got some pictures of course!

The rest of the week was spent just hanging out together with everyone and we all had so much fun together!

My dad, Kent, Rick and Ben went golfing on Friday so myself, mom, Elizabeth, Meghan and the kiddos went to eat breakfast at this place called Eggs Up Grill - everything was delicious (a little stressful with dealing with Will and Emma because they were pretty worn out by Friday)! After breakfast we headed back to the beach house to get ready to head out for our last day. Will and I headed to the store, JAWS, for him to spend his money that was given to him by his great grandparents and he ended up getting a stuffed shark and a plastic shark and orca whale - he loves them all! It was nice for us to get out for just a little while with just the two of us!

I don't know what it was about this year but I know I had a wonderful time with everyone and look forward to many more years to come with my wonderful family! I'm so glad that we've been able to do this together for as long as we have - it's something very special to all of us and has given us some very special memories in our lives!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I know this post is a little behind but Father's Day occurred while our family was away on our annual beach vacation so I wasn't able to write anything. I just wanted to wish all of the amazing father's out there a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY and hope they had a great day with their families! I know that I am very blessed to have an amazing father - I couldn't ask for anyone better than my dad! I love him so very much and consider him a great friend! God truly blessed our family with my dad...he's been there for our family through so much and has helped us to create so many wonderful memories throughout our lives and I hope to continue making more amazing memories with my dad and family! I also wanted to take this time to "brag" on Rick....he is needless to say an amazing husband and better yet a fantastic dad to Will!!! Will strives so hard to be just like his daddy and I couldn't have asked for anything more! We love him so much and hope that he had a very Happy Father's Day!

Since we were at the beach for Father's Day I decided to make pancakes for everyone that morning to treat the father's and everyone else. We also did our dinner that night and for a special treat for the dad's we did banana splits!

Will gave his gift to Rick before we left for the beach...it was a hat that he made in daycare that said World's Greatest Dad and he was so proud of it! He had also made a card at school. I was able to get some pictures of Rick with his hat and this was the cutest of them all:

Like Father, Like Son

Will loves mowing the grass with his daddy and so as soon as he saw Rick come out with the lawn mower tonight he just had to go and get his lawn mower too! He's so precious and just absolutely adores his daddy so much and so wants to do everything like Rick! He's always saying, "one day I'll grow up to be big like daddy?" We of course have to tell him he's got to eat like daddy to grow up as big as him one day! :)

Another Fun Swimming Day at Grandmom and Grandpop's

We headed to Rock HIll on Sunday since it was such a warm, sunny day to go swimming at the Papp's! Will was so excited about this and Rick and I were looking forward to the relaxation ourselves! Will had a blast as always hanging out with his grandparents and swimming in the pool. He even started jumping off of the diving board - he wanted Rick to hold his hand the first time and as he was jumping Rick let go! Will was so proud of himself for doing it all by himself so he continued jumping off of the diving board and jumping all over the pool the rest of the day! It's been so much fun watching him really learning how to swim! It makes me so happy to see all that he is accomplishing but sad too because my little baby is not a little baby anymore - he's a BIG BOY!!!

Last Day of 2009 Swimming Lessons

Will had his last session of swimming last night (6/11/09) and had a blast! The night before was cancelled due to storms and we were worried that last night was going to have the same outcome because some very bad storms rolled in that evening but luckily it all passed on by in time for the lesson. Rick had been out of town and was able to get there right in time to surprise Will before they went to watch a safety video...Will was so happy to see Rick!!! After the safety video was over they came out and put on life vests and goggles and practices jumping into the water, kicking, laying on their backs, etc. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Will learn and am so very proud of him!!! Can't wait until next year!

These are pictures of the storms trying to ruin the last night there but luckily they kept on going but this was an awesome sight to see!







Safety Lessons:















Video of Will practicing jumping - he loves this so much!

HAPPY 8th ANNIVERSARY!!!

Eight years ago today (6/9/09) I was marrying the love of my life and my best friend!!! Rick is an amazing man of God and I grow to love him more and more every day! He never ceases to amaze me with some of the things he does for myself and our family! He is a wonderful father and husband! God did an amazing thing when he "introduced" Rick into my life and I thank God every day for giving me such an amazing husband!

Unfortunately Rick is out of town for our anniversary this year so we'll celebrate at another time hopefully...I'm just so excited that he'll be coming home tomorrow night and I know that Will is too!!! We've missed him so very much and can't wait to see him walk through that door!

Here's to many more years to come!!!

Me-Mo comes for a visit

Rick had to go away on a work trip to the Bahamas from this past week. I know most of you are thinking, "poor Rick," right??? :) He did have a very good time at Atlantis riding on the lazy river and the water slides but is glad to be coming home to see us and we are very happy that he is coming home....we've missed him like crazy! We got a special treat though since Rick went out of town....my mom, better known as Me-Mo to Will, came to stay with Will and myself for a few days to keep us company and we all had so much fun together, especially my mom and Will! I don't have pictures of much of what they did but they did a lot! They rode bikes, played in Will's pool, watched some movies, finger painted and colored and I'm sure did some more stuff but I can't remember everything. They headed to Rock Hill on Tuesday to watch a movie with Emma and Elizabeth and a few of the kids from the church and then after that was over headed to my mom's to hang out with them a little longer and to see uncle Kent and Daddy-mo! Will was so excited about going to visit Rock HIll again! They headed back to Columbia that evening and met me at Will's swimming lessons.....Me-Mo thoroughly enjoyed getting to watch Will learning all that he had learned in the lessons! After the lessons we headed out to eat at Olive Garden and it was absolutely delicious! My mom said that she was treating me to dinner for mine and Rick's anniversary since he wasn't here to celebrate with me! :) Me-Mo had one more day of play today (6/10/09) and they played so hard that Will actually took a nap - almost 3 hours (my actually coaxed him into going on a ride in the truck in hopes that it would put him to sleep b/c he needed it and it worked)!!! Those of you who know Will, know that's a miracle but he was beat! He woke up just in time for me to get home from work and head to swimming lessons....unfortunately they were canceled for tonight due to some bad storms so Will was a little bummed about that! We headed back towards the house and stopped and got some food and I told Will we would have a "picnic" in our bonus room once we got back home so that cheered him up! So...as soon as we got back we went upstairs, laid out a spread and ate our dinner and played a little longer. Unfortunately after we ate, we had to say our good-byes to Me-Mo because she has to go to class in the morning! My mom and I of course cried...it's our usual routine! Will was asking us why we were crying and we had to explain to him that we were going to miss each other. :) After Me-Mo left Will was saying, "I miss Me-Mo...she's going to come back tomorrow right?" We'll see her soon enough and I'm sure we will shed some more tears! :) Thanks again momma for coming to just hang out and help us out with everything!!! I so enjoyed the time together and just getting to hang out just the two of us and look forward to the next time we can do it! :)

These are pictures from our picnic with Me-Mo:













Me-Mo also brought some sea shells for Will to do a countdown for our family beach vacation! He loved this so much so we'll be continuing it every night until we leave next weekend! He takes a shell out of his container every night and puts it on the end table by our couch and then takes the shells that are left, lines them up on the table and counts them out and screams out at the end how many days until Garden City! It's so cute so I decided to get a video of it tonight.

Fun at Grandmom and Grandpop's

We headed to Rick's parents house last night (6/5/09) for a spend-the-night and had so much fun! We ate pizza together and hung out talking and Will and grandpop spent time playing with his toys and watching movies. Today we got up and Rick's mom made us some delicious pancakes and after that we headed outside so Will could ride his bike. Rick's mom and I took Will around the neighborhood and as he was riding grandpop pulled up behind us in his truck and said to Will, "you wanna race" and of course Will said "yes" and took off riding his bike after his grandpop so grandmom and I had to run to chase after Will...we definitely got our workout! Will also rode around in his little "57 Chevy" truck and mowed the yard. After he was done with that he played in the back of the big Chevy truck of grandpop's....he loves that truck! Grandmom, Will and I then headed to the store and bought some food for dinner and some water guns while Rick and his dad headed to the store to get my tire fixed (had a nail in it). Once we got back we all headed out to the pool to show Will's grandparents what he's been learning at his lessons! :) He had so much fun! The pool was a little chilly since the sun didn't want to stay out from behind the clouds today but we still had a nice time. The sun did finally come out but by that time it was close to dinner time so we waited until after dinner to go in for another swim. After our last swim we headed in for some banana splits which were delicious! Will got a bath and played with his blocks and cars with grandpop while I was packing things up for us to come home! Will wasn't very happy about having to leave so we'll just have to make sure we do it again soon!

Days of Work with Mommy

Will ended up going to the doctor yesterday due to a sore throat and I was so glad that I took him because they did a strep test on him and it showed up positive! So....we sat out work day yesterday since he was contagious and headed back home after the appointment with the doctor. We hung around the house for a little while resting and watching some cartoons and then headed to my dental appointment to get my permanent crowns put on - amazingly enough Will loved watching all of this - he had many questions! :) We headed to the Village at Sandhill after that and had some ice cream because I wanted to treat myself after all I had just gone through! :) We went back home after that and just hung out together watching some movies.

I decided to take him to work with me today (6/4/09) to give him one extra day with out "kid germs" from the daycare and he had fun as always! He watched a couple of movies, played with his cars, colored, ran up and down the halls and in the office flying paper airplanes that I made him and then he ate lunch at Firehouse Subs with myself and Beth. It's always a little stressful having him there with me especially as the day continues and he gets tired because he won't nap but I still enjoy having him there with me despite the stress! :) I'm so fortunate to have a job that allows me to do this and for the most part he does a very good job behaving himself - as well as and almost 4 year old can do! :)

I took a few pictures of him today to get a glimpse into what my desk area looks like with Will there: