Getting Ready for Baby

I've been collecting baby stuff. Most of it has been free and I am so thankful for my generous friends. I wasn't expecting all these to come so quickly, and it has been a fun experience. Our guest bedroom has officially turned into the nursery:)

We bought this second hand and very nice car seat and stroller combo from someone in Durham when we traveled there to buy the minivan from our friends the Morrisons. (Pictures of that purchase later.)

 

This is the crib plus sheets, mattress, blankets that came from a friend near Charleston. Thanks Jen Kline for picking this up from a friend and driving 2 hours to our house!

Diapers from Lesley and Jason. Wow, this is hundreds of dollars of cloth diapers. I won't need to buy any for quite a while, if at all. There's a bumbo, baby seat and bjorn from the Morrisons in there too.

 

Here's a close up of the changing table and dresser from our neighbors. Thanks Jackie and Davie! Again delivered to our door--we are so thankful. Also pictured are some handmade diapers and wool pants from my friend Jen. They are so cute, thanks you!

 

And last but not least, here's baby and me. 24 weeks Pregnant.

Getting Ready for Christmas

We are taking about a 3 week break from school to enjoy the holidays together. Daniel is home writing and the girls and I have filled our days with field trips, play dates, and projects. We had a lot of fun outings planned for the beginning of December. The following are pictures from a few.

Here's a picture from our homeschool group's Christmas party. The kids decorated ginger bread houses. A lot of people turned out for this event--probably at least 75 people. The parents did a cookie exchange and the kids also played a few games.

Here's a picture from one of our field trips this month to a nature program led by the rangers at the Columbia Canal. The kids learned about soil composition.

Here's one of the girls' ballet classes practicing their dance from the Nutcracker. We had a parents night out at the studio where the girls read the Nutcracker story, made crafts and played games. Their class did the spanish dance for the rest of the crowd.

This was my favorite thing--free kayaking with the rangers at the Columbia Canal. They taught us a few things about how to paddle and what to do if you fall in. The water was gentle and the weather turned out perfect at 60-65 degrees and sunny for both of our trips. We are scheduled to go out on the river in the spring. We loved being on the water. It's so relaxing and the perspective from down at the level of the ground is so interesting. Can't wait for the next trip.

Oh the joys of homeschooling! Long extended breaks and fun field trips with my kids. I love it.

Practicing Instruments

The girls practice their instruments 30 minutes a day. Usually they take turns but not today. I started laughing when I walked in to the den to see them playing different songs at the same time. Watch this little video that Ellen and I put together this evening.

Congrats Daniel

Daniel was selected by his department chair at Midlands Tech to receive the Adjunct Faculty Member of the Year award. This is a great honor as he was one out of 12 of the 500 Adjunct faculty members at MTC to receive this award.

It is amazing that he is recognized for this award especially since he is juggling so many other jobs at the same time. He is teaching 5 classes at MTC and USC, writing a dissertation, and applying for jobs, in addition to being an amazing husband and father. He is working extremely hard right now trying to finish things up here at USC. Congratulations Daniel, the girls and I are so proud of you!

Napkin Pillows

My mom gave us our beautiful red couch a couple of years ago. I had an idea to use napkins to recover the pillows that came with it since they didn't match the room. I love the fabrics at World Market so I bought 3 napkins @ $1.99 each. The first time I sewed the pillows about six months ago, I used the store bought napkins for the front with some antique napkins from my grandmother for the back. Her old napkins were so soft (and thin) that they wore out in only a few weeks! I guess there is a reason that people use upholstery fabric on upholstery:) This weekend I bought some scrap upholstery fabric from Hancocks for $2.50 and this afternoon I made the pillows again. This time I'm hoping they'll last a little longer.

Notice the $10 price tag on the top of the old Singer machine. Daniel bought this for us at a garage sale years ago. He keeps it working for me and it works like a charm.

I don't do much sewing--really just halloween costumes, hems, and these. I think the pillows turned out nice and it just took less than 2 hours. More importantly, it cost only about $2.75 a pillow.

Fall Break Beach Trip

This was our 5th annual beach trip with friends from Virginia and North Carolina. This year their were 4 families (8 adults, 10 kids from 2-11). We found this beautiful house right on the beach in Emerald Isle. Besides the first day being a little windy the weather was gorgeous.

This year we gave the older kids (5+) had a lot of freedom and told them they could head out to the beach whenever they wanted. During this time of year the beaches are not very crowded so the kids had tons of space to play. As you can imagine, the big kids did not want to come inside.

Our house.

Scott and Daniel getting ready for a long day at the beach.

Ellen.

The kids spent a lot of time digging holes. Here's Daniel covering them up.

Brothers, Alder and Heath jamming to Dan Zanes.

Feeding the pigeons.

Kalen flying the kite.

Everyone in the water (except the moms).

Daniel and Arianna

Alder, Arianna, and Kalen inspecting the treasures.

 

The dads during the horse shoe marathon. That game is a lot harder than it looks. I can't even get the horseshoe anywhere near the other side!

Madelyn and Arianna. Notice the red streaks. Anna and Scott added henna coloring to all the girls' hair.

All of us.

Last walk on the beach.

Beautiful Boone

Our trip to Boone was amazing. The fall colors were spectacular and the weather was just about perfect. We stayed with some good friends that we hadn't seen in a long time. It only took the girls a few minutes to get past their shyness and become good friends. I just love how even though years can pass without seeing each other, good friends can pick up right where they left off. The weekend was nothing but pleasurable and we are very thankful to our hosts. Thanks for sharing your home with us Matt and Ginger. We love you. The first few pictures are from a walk through their neighborhood. The last few are from our hike on the Parkway near Moses Cone.

A 10 year old and a baby!

 Our Ellen turned 10 last week. Wow, 10 years old. We are so proud of our smart, beautiful, and kind little girl.

And for the big surprising news...we are pregnant! Everyone's first response is "Are you serious? or Nuh--uh!" Yes it is true and we did plan it. We decided it was just too much fun to have these beauties around and we wanted more. The baby is due in May. Yay!

Apple Picking at Sky Top Orchard

We went to Sky Top Orchard for apple picking with some friends last weekend. This is a great place to go with the family. The location is beautiful right on top of a mountain. There are acres and acres of all kinds of apples, peaches, and asian pears. We only picked apples and the kids had a blast climbing trees and running through the rows.

They also have farm animals to feed and see, hay ride, fresh apple cider and other apple treats.

Here they are playing in the bamboo maze.