Snowflakes are Falling on My Head...

Yes, snowflakes. We had them yesterday. Here in Ashe County we only had a dusting but in Boone there was an inch and higher elevations had up to 2 inches! Isn't it October?!? I have been informed, however, that October snow is not completely unusual up here. It was pretty to see I have to say and the girls had fun watching it fall.

They just looked so cute bundled up that I couldn't resist a picture. This was after preschool and, as you can tell, Evie needed some zzzz.
With the dusting of snow we had it wasn't worth a photo but this was the "Photo of the Day" on Ray's Weather this morning and I thought it was quite funny. The caption read, "This pumpkin was not happy about the snow."

As I mentioned above, we had preschool yesterday and learned about the letter "E." Daphne was teaching and I helping. Daph did a great job and read a story about elephants and the "e" sound box. We also used red paint as "glue" and used black pieces of paper to make "E's." We then wrote letters to our Daddy's and put them in envelopes, made "ewe" masks after reading about how the Lord is our shepherd, and colored and glued together Humpty Dumpty (egg) after reading his story. Daph has some great pics I wasn't able to get here. MF pleasantly surprised us by reciting Humpty Dumpty to Daddy last night without any prompting. They are little sponges!

The Week in Review

As you can tell, last week was busy. Good but busy. We had preschool on Tuesday at Candace's house and learned about the letter "F." Daphne was the helper last week as has some great pictures on her blog. Tomorrow we will be learning about the letter "E" at Daph's and I'll be the helper so look for pictures. I thought I'd give you an overview of our week in pictures.

One night last week, Daddy had all three of his kids with him in "daddy's chair." Aren't they a good looking bunch?
Thursday night Daphne and her sister hosted a Tupperware party. It went really well and they were able to earn some free Tupperware (always nice!). For those who don't know, I'm a Tupperware consultant and have been for a little over a year now. It's really great and you can find my website by doing a search for consultants on www.tupperware.com using my name in Boone, NC. Anywho, here is a picture of Ruthie, LeeAnne, and Ward before the festivities began. Our girls had a date with daddy that night. How fun!

Saturday we "tailgated" at MaMaw and Paw Paw's house as the weather was chilly, windy, and cloudy. After eating, the older girls got out MM's babies and the crib Paw Paw made. Mary Fran thought it was the perfect size for her. :)

Giving the baby a kiss

Look at that handsome boy! He's four weeks old today. My, how time flies!

Saturday night, my boys fell asleep watching football once Daddy got home from the ASU game. This one I couldn't pass up.

All three of our young'uns before Ward's first trip to church yesterday.

Last night, Standing Ground was asked to play at a Fall Festival down in Newton, NC. A friend of the guy's is the child/youth pastor at this church and asked them to come down. We had a great time eating chili/soup and then listening to the guys make great music as always. There was also...

A little "train" which these girls enjoyed. MF wasn't too crazy about the train and stayed w/ me.

Amber, Josh's wife, with Eves and Ruthie.

While I was nursing Ward, Amber took Evie on a horse ride. She LOVED it! Thanks so much, Amber!

Here's Ruthie and Daphne on her horse ride.

A Weekend of Rides and Elephant Ears

This weekend we traveled down to Columbia, SC for the SC State Fair. Why travel 3 1/2 hours down for a fair you may ask? Well, for those of you who don't know, my dad is the general manager of the SC State Fair and I have to say that he puts on quite a show! We debated about going or not but decided that with the great situation we have (being able to "rest" at dad's office) we would go on. I mean, when you have your first child you hibernate for 6 weeks but by the third you just go on! Plus, there are people we get to see once a year at the Fair but they are like family and we really hated to miss that. Here is our weekend in pictures...

We arrived Friday about 6:30, visited with Dad, Uncle Grayson, and everyone else in the office, ate some LaBrasca's pizza (unbelievable!), and then went to the house for a good night's sleep to prepare for a full day Saturday. Evie and Mary Fran enjoyed looking out PaPa's window at all the lights on the rides on the Midway. It was really neat as I remember doing this with Grayson when we were little.
Saturday was a great, full day. We got there early to beat the crowds and ride some rides while the lines were short. Evie wanted to ride the "big slide" so she and daddy hopped on that one. When I was looking at the weather for this weekend, the high was to be in the upper 60's. Well, there was still some cloud cover and a nice breeze which made the temperature in the 50's. I didn't bring the girls' jackets so we borrowed some blankets for the stroller until we met up with mom in the afternoon and she brought some jackets for them. Thanks, Mom! Unfortunately, Mary Fran wasn't tall enough to ride many of the kiddie rides but I think she was OK with that. She did, however, want to try the slide so she and I went down it beside Uncle Grayson and Evie. She really liked it!
Evie riding the train with her new friend.
This year they had a sea lion show. We didn't get to see it but did see the sea lions between shows. The girls really enjoyed seeing them up close and personal. What beautiful creatures! Here are Evie and Mary Fran with their friends Estella and Ava. Estella and Ava's mom, Nicole, and her entire family are part of our "fair family." Vicki and Louie, her parents, are food concessionaires who have several booths at the Fair. They have been coming since I was a child and their oldest child, Nicole, and I have bee friends since then. Nicole is married and she and her husband are in the family business. As you can see they have two beautiful girls. Evie kept telling us she was going to ride rides with her "best friend, Estella." It's really neat to have grown up with Nicole and then to see our children doing the same!
Mary Fran, Ward, and myself on the Merry-Go-Round. MF didn't want to ride on the horses but LOVED the bench. Ward enjoyed his first ride, as well.
In the afternoon, Estella joined us for some riding fun. Here they are awaiting MeMe's arrival and the subsequent Merry-Go-Round ride (second time around). Evie thoroughly enjoyed riding the horses and even told us "this is my favorite part of the Fair."

Estella and Evie riding the swings. Notice the hands. :)
Up in the helicopters! On the Crazy Submarine with Estella and MeMe. I was nursing Ward in dad's office at this point and Drew called to tell me he was worried with Evie on this ride. His concern was that she would get scared, as this one went high, and would not want to ride anything else. Thankfully, Evie had a great time...no fear for this one!
We also visited the animals and Evie and Estella got to pet this rather large rabbit. How fun!
One of our favorite areas for the animals is watching the ducklings slide down the slide. All three girls stood there watching them for the longest time!

So, are we crazy? Well, yes. However, we both said that while we are all tired it was so good to see the grandparents, Uncle Grayson, and our "Fair family." Also, the SC State Fair has been recognized numerous times for its high culinary achievements. We enjoyed pizza, chicken on a pita, London broil, donuts, Fiske french fries, ice cream, lemonade, a caramel apple, cotton candy, and caramel corn. Oh, does life get any better?

Preschool, Pumpkins, and Picnics

Busy past couple of days here. Yesterday the girls had preschool at Aunt Daphne's with the focus on the letter "d." They danced and made deer as the girls are showing off below. The names bestowed on both deer are "mommy." Go figure! They had a great time and always look forward to preschool. Daphne has several pictures from the morning you can check out on her blog here.

After the girls woke up from their naps and I fed Ward we headed off to a "pumpkin patch" in Boone. I had to run into town for some errands and we had been trying to do this for several weeks (the weather had not cooperated). Yesterday was beautiful so we decided to stop and pick out little pumpkins for the kids.
Here they are deciding which pumpkins they wanted to claim as their own.
Evie had no problem choosing but Mary Fran couldn't make up her mind.
Choice #1...
Choice #2...
Mary Fran's final choice which made her quite happy. Evie even picked out one for Ward, too. She has such a servant's heart.
Today we decided to decorate our pumpkins with paint and stickers. The girls had quite a time doing that! Yes, Mary Fran is wearing a "tutu" which she believes is her Cinderella dress. She wore it all day. :)
The finished products!
Daddy had a great idea for us to go on a picnic tonight. Seeing as the high was 78 today (well above normal for this time of year here) we decided to take advantage of it. We went to some property our friends own and had a great time. The sun was on the trees behind us and, therefore, the picture does not do justice to the beauty of the leaves but they are gorgeous!
Here are two maple trees at the front of the property sandwiching some beehives. We couldn't resist capturing this beauty! We are so blessed to live in an area where Fall is a distinct season and the trees always put on a beautiful show.

2 Weeks and Counting!

Ward is two weeks old today...my, how time flies already! Here is a picture of him sleeping on daddy's chest tonight. He sure does love that! Little Ward is growing like a weed and becoming more alert which I noticed today. He stays awake longer when nursing and doesn't go right to sleep afterwards. The girls are loving loving on their little brother which is so sweet. Ward is quite the strong man by holding his head up and looking around already. I think he just wants to know what all is going on. :) We love having a little boy in the house now and are continually reminded how blessed we are. Keep checking in as I'll try to post some more pictures soon!

Rainy Day Activities

It has been rainy and overcast here for the past three days. Today, I decided we would have a tea party to help divert our attention from the fact that we can't get outside. Here are our "princesses" (actually Cinderellas) all dolled up. Now they are dancing to "ball music" (actually Diana Krall).

Here they are after being "served" by mommy. They enjoyed pumpkin bread, Pringles Vanilla breadsticks, and a few chocolate chips. The tea was a specially made sun tea. :)

The Letter C

Today we had preschool at Aunt Daphne's. The letter today was "C." As always, Daphne had some great, creative ideas and the kids loved them. They dressed up like clowns, made caterpillars, made a collage of circles, and watched a Mr. Roger's video about the circus. The girls were so excited when I came to get them and wanted to show off everything tonight...

They got to take home their clown noses and greeted Daddy at the door with them on. They also made caterpillars out of egg cartons and used pipe cleaners for the antenna. (No, Evie's not mad, I just caught her with that expression)
Evie has taken a liking to taking pictures with our camera lately. This is a picture she took of their caterpillars.
Here is another "Evie special" of MF and me. Not bad, huh?
Evie holding her baby brother a couple of days ago. I just love this picture.
Big boy sleeping in daddy's arms last night. Drew asked me when it would be "normal" for a dad to buy his son his first gun today. He was thinking a month old, what do you think? :)

Sisters, Bathtime, and Accidents?

It's been a good first week home. It's hard to believe that this time last week I was getting over a stomach virus not knowing little Ward would decide to start coming in a few hours. Praise the Lord, the virus resolved! Everyone is really adjusting well with, of course, the normal "testing" from the older ones to make sure everything (the rules) is still the same. :) The girls really are loving on their little brother, especially Evie. I think Mary Fran is just a little too little to want to hold him a lot just like Evie was when MF was born. Here are some snapshots of the rest of the week...

Evie holding Ward. She's constantly giving him kisses and pays extra attention when he fusses (not much, thankfully). Eves likes to tell us what he needs when the fussing starts. :)
Mary Fran hanging out in the inflatable bed MeMe bought them.
Making Halloween cookies that MeMe bought. So much fun!
Ward's first bath. As you can expect, he wasn't too happy about being naked and wet. We got through it and, hopefully, the next time will be a more enjoyable experience for him. His umbilical stump came off yesterday, so he can now be immersed in warm water...much better!
Friday Mary Fran, we think, was trying to get up on the couch, slipped, and hit the floor face first. Needless to say, she was quite upset and got us pretty concerned when we saw blood coming down her face from her eye area. After getting her calmed some and the area somewhat cleaned, we saw that, thankfully, it didn't effect her eyeball and she could see just fine. Seeing that it didn't appear her nose nor her eye socket were broken, we decided to watch it. As I told Drew, the cut didn't look like it needed stitches and even if it did you'd be hard pressed to find even a plastic surgeon who would stitch that small of a cut up. Bless her heart, though, she looks like Rocky Balboa fresh from the ring! :) The swelling is down even more now and she truly has a black eye but is fine and dandy. Kids are so resilient!