Just peachy...

The peach tree in our yard was a big hit! It was loaded with peaches this month and we ate as many as we could...Carter even ate the fuzzy peel!



I made my first peach cobbler last week and it was oh so sweet and yummy :)
Sydney had been a little hesitant to eat a peach but after tasting the cobbler she decided they were good after all!!

We've pretty much cleaned the tree out for this year...we'll be eagerly waiting for more next summer!!

(trying a vintage look on these pictures)

guess where we went today...

back to the dr. of course!!

We can't get through 2 weeks without a dr. visit lately!! Carter's nasty cold has turned into a nasty cough so I took him in today. He's got bronchitis and the beginnings of an ear infection. Got some antibiotics for him and hopefully he'll be feeling better in a few days!

So far this summer we've had:
2 (almost 3) ear infections
2 strep throats
1 swimmers ear
1 bronchitis

and a partridge in a pear tree... (I feel like I should be singing the 12 days of Christmas) :)


Here's a pic of Abby from last night...she climbs up in the peach tree then has a hard time figuring out how to get down!

We have a pen pal :)

Every year, Sydney helps me fix a shoebox or two for our church to send to Operation Christmas Child/Samaritans Purse. The boxes are packed with school supplies, toiletry items and toys and are sent to children in 3rd world countries around the world. When the shoeboxes are given out, the child will receive information about Jesus as well! These shoeboxes are often all the children receives for Christmas!

We received a letter in the mail last week from West Africa! A girl in Burkina Faso, Africa received our shoebox and wrote to us! Her name is Pauswende and she is 13 years old. She says that her name means "pray God" in her native language and she enjoys playing and helping her mother cook. She also gave her address so we could write back to her!



I think it's amazing that we are able to send these to children all over the world! (Last year, we received a letter from a girl in Jamaica!) It's also hard to believe that a letter from Africa can arrive here and not get lost in the mail!!

It's a good experience for Sydney too...she remembers fixing those shoeboxes and when we get letters like this, she can understand that we helped this girl in a small way! She's already asked about fixing another shoebox :)

We'll be sending a letter back to her very soon!

we've been hanging out in the bathroom a lot...

I've been testing Carter out this week to see if he's ready to be potty trained. One day last week he went twice in the toilet, so I thought after Sydney's birthday was over I'd give it a shot!

Monday and Tuesday could not have been any better! I filled his cup up with water all day to keep him going ;) A few accidents, but 9 "visits" on Monday and 4 on Tuesday! Today, not as good...but we'll keep at it!

Something going against us is this nasty cold he has, that's only gotten worse this week. But after the first couple days went so well, I didn't want to give it up.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. If he's ready, GREAT, if he's not, that's ok too!!

And I'll keep this one small so Carter won't be too emabarrassed!

another yard sale find!

I found a box of play-doh with toys at a yard sale and I'm so glad I got it! (We had some playdoh before but I haven't seen it since we moved...I think a box of toys got lost cause a few other things are missing too)
Anyway, Sydney can easily spend an hour playing with it and Carter likes to get his hands in it too! It's usually an outside thing to do, for easy clean up purposes! Our patio is getting fixed this week, so I let them play with it inside. Easy entertainment while I fixed dinner!

Sydney likes to make little people with crazy hair! Carter likes to cut out shapes and pretend to eat food we've made. He puts it up to his mouth and smacks his lips! His favorite...hot dogs!

Here they are...hard at work!

The birthday weekend is over...

We had some cupcakes left over from the party so we put the candles on them and sang to Sydney after church yesterday! She had a great birthday weekend!



Carter digging in :)

The birthday girl!

I can't believe another birthday is here already! She's been anxiously waiting all week for it!

Sydney is so much fun at this age! She loves all things "princess" (Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Snow White etc.) and Nemo & Dory. Her favorite things to do are: play with playdoh, ride her bike or tricycle, hold her new kitten Abby, swim in the pool, color and sticker anything in sight, watch cartoons or a movie and play on her playset.

She can be a girly girl too...she loves to dress up on Sunday and wear her "church shoes". After her hair is washed, she doesn't mind me drying and fixing it for her. She has lots of bracelets she loves to wear too!

She's also a great sister for Carter! They get along really well! They love being outside together riding bikes/trikes on the patio or riding in the wagon! Most afternoons she asks me if Carter is awake from his nap yet...she likes being around him! And when we're riding in the car, she says, "Carter, let's hold hands...1,2,3 go!" and they hold hands and just grin at each other! They do pick on each other sometimes but if they didn't, something would be wrong ;)

So I was going through some old pictures and thought I would do a recap of the past 4 years with Sydney!!

She's here!! July 2004:





1st birthday:





2nd birthday:






3rd birthday:


her "camel face"




4th birthday:



This was the picture on her birthday invitation. I love this one because it's just so her...a real smile and those pigtails! Happy birthday!!


Birthday party pics to come!!

4 years ago today...

I was wondering if this little baby would EVER get here! She was 8 days late!

Another trip to the dr...

Arghhhh!! How many times can we go to the dr. in one summer?? Sydney said something about her ear hurting the other day and today she wasn't herself. She told me again that her ear hurt so Kevin took her to the dr. this afternoon and she has swimmers ear! So we got some drops for that...hopefully she'll perk up for her party tomorrow!

I made her cake today and just finished decorating it after everyone went to bed. I am too tired to take a picture of it. Sydney will be surprised to see it in the morning! I decorated the house for her party too...between her party tomorrow and her birthday Sunday, she will have a pretty good weekend!!

4 more days...

till she's 4!! That's hard to believe! She is sooo excited!


This has been another busy week! Sydney's been going to Bible school from 9-12 every day so we're been keeping the road hot! She loves it though...a few of her friends from church are there so she's excited to be with them! There are about 35 kids in her class and 6 teachers!!
My jaw hit the floor the first day I walked in the sanctuary! Every square inch of wall is covered with paper and it's decorated like an amusement park. One entire wall is a giant carousel, the other is a ferris wheel and roller coaster, the back wall is a field with a picture from each theme in the park and giant characters! It looks amazing! The chandeliers had huge balloon bouquets attached to them and there are balloons on each pew! It's really festive looking and I still can't imagine all the work that went into that! Anyway, she's had a great week there so far!!

Carter had a first today...he peed in the toilet twice!! This morning I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty and he said yes. And sure enough, he peed! Then tonight Kevin asked him to go again and he did!! The thought of no diapers sounds reeeeally good about now, so maybe we'll start working with him more!

It's finished!

While Kevin was off last week, one of the projects on his to-do list was to assemble the playset we got for Sydney/Carter's birthday. It took about 3 days working off and on to get it all together! All I can say is, I'm glad that wasn't my job because it would have ended up either smashed into a million pieces or in the landfill...I would not have the patience to assemble something like that.

Anyway, Sydney was so excited to see it come together!!


They climbed up in it as soon as it was finished!


They both like to swing over the slide too :)



Happy (early) Birthday!!

happy 4th!

Sydney was quite proud of her red, white and blue nail polish! We painted her fingers and toes like this :)


We went to Herb & Julie's this afternoon for a cookout...Sydney had fun feeding the fish in the pond!




After we ate we set off some fireworks we bought at the beach. They were really good!! I had a few sparklers too that we played around with...


Carter liked watching all of this but Sydney...not so much! She sat in the truck with Julie most of the time then headed inside where it wasn't so loud! She said that she would like the fireworks when she was bigger...ha ha! :)

meet the newest member of our family...

So we were driving to church Friday night on the back roads when we drove by these 3 little kittens on the side of the road. Kevin and I looked at each other and we knew that someone had dropped them there. So we turned around to get them but they ran away in the bushes. We couldn't be late for church so we had to leave but on the way home that night the kittens were back in the road again!! So we stopped and to make a long story short we only caught one of them. The others ran in the bushes and it was too dark to find them :(

This poor kitten is soooo skinny! I can feel all her little bones when I pick her up! We brought her home and gave her some milk and she drank it right up! We give her cat food too and she eats and eats and eats...poor thing!

Sydney and Carter love her already! Carter bends over to look at her then says "Meooooooowww" ha ha!! They are both very easy with her and we decided to name her Abby.

Even though I didn't really want another cat, there is no way I could have left those kittens on the side of the road. I wish we could have helped the others but we did all that we could. So welcome home Abby :)