Marshall and Lisa's Visit

Strawberry picking at a farm near our house

It was oh so fun to have my brother Marshall and his cute wife Lisa Jane come to visit us this month. We hadn't seen them since 2010, so it was definitely time! We fit a lot into our week together. Here's a sampling of our fun adventures.

Hiking by the Eno River 

Racing (Grant's favorite game) on Duke campus

The cute couple. We're so excited about their baby coming this summer!

Posing at the Bennett Place Historic Site

The dinosaur trail at the Museum of Life and Science

Lovin' our favorite summertime treat: Pelican Snoballs

Yes, we jumped on the bed in Asheville at Mark's awesome apartment. :)

Looking out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC

I just love these guys.

World War II Memorial in DC

Funny to think that when Mark and Marshall first met, Marshall was only 10. :)

There are a hundred more fun pictures, thanks to Lisa's sweet new camera, but here's enough to show how much fun we had exploring North Carolina and DC. Of course we don't have photo proof of staying up late playing board games or eating lots of yummy food together or reading books with the kids or driving for hours and hours in our van... but we sure did make some good memories. Thanks for coming, Marshall and Lisa. We miss you already!

Springtime in NC

We are loving the perfect spring weather--especially since we know the humidity and heat will be here all too soon. We had a great day at the zoo last week with Kimball's second grade field trip.

Kimball with his awesome teacher

Yes, we spent a lot of time at the elephant exhibit. Kimball has decided elephants are his favorite animal, and I couldn't be prouder. :)

My kids with some of Kimball's friends from school

Kimball was quite the photographer at the zoo. This is one of his shots.

This weekend, my kids decided to try out spring sledding in our backyard... 

Along with the usual arguing and teasing, my kids have been playing really well together lately. They've been into Legos and dart guns and running around outside together. It makes for happy kids and a happy mom.

A Week at the Beach!

We just got back from a fabulous, relaxing week in the Outer Banks. We rented a beach house with a fun group of friends (23 of us in all), and we played hard from morning till night. We saw three lighthouses (Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke, and Bodie Island), visited some beautiful beaches and spent several full days hanging out on the awesome beach right outside our beach house, went to Kitty Hawk and Jockey's Ridge, celebrated Easter (complete with church, an Easter devotional, an egg hunt, and egg dyeing), stayed up late playing card games, ate amazing food... wish we were still there! Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip:

Easter egg hunt on the beach!

Taking our morning walk

Standing in the huge hole we dug for the kids to play in. You can see it better in a couple other pictures...

Always have to take a self-shot. :)

The hole (complete with balance beam)

Posing on some random posts on our beach

I love these kids.

Kitty Hawk, the Wright Brothers Monument

The first lighthouse we visited, Cape Hatteras

Sitting at the base of the lighthouse--this give you an idea of how tall it is!

Visiting Ocracoke... it was cold that day, but oh so pretty.

Football on the beach on Ocracoke Island

A pocket-ful of sand

Ocracoke Lighthouse

On the ferry (with our cars) riding back from Ocracoke 

Digging for sand crabs by our beach house

Sand crabs!

Poor Kimball. Grant was very worried about him. :)

The guys found an old canoe under the house and took it out into the ocean. There was a huge feeding frenzy going on about 200 yards away from us in the ocean, with birds swooping down to catch fish, and dolphins jumping all over the place. It was amazing! The guys were able to go out there and get a closer look at the birds and dolphins.

Cute friends

The final lighthouse we visited: Bodie Island

Driving home... yep, we even topped off our vacation with a trip to Krispy Kreme. 

We all needed the time away from our daily stresses. We got to reconnect as a family and recharge our batteries for the busy months ahead. We're thankful for great friends here who made our vacation into a real party. Happy times!

Birthday week

Along with moving into our new house, we got to celebrate two birthdays this week: Grant Boy's and mine. For months Grant has been asking, "Is it my birthday yet? Is it March?" so he was one happy boy when we finally got to celebrate. We did an early birthday party for him while Popsy and Tim and Paul were still here, and our friends the Crittendons, the Kuettels, Miss Pam, and Miss Deanie joined us.

The party crew

Of course Grant got breakfast in bed. He chose sticky buns and fruit.

Do you think he's excited about all of this?

He kept driving the cars and trains around the cake, then he got to lick all the frosting off. :)

The new Mater scooter from Popsy and Nana has already gotten hours of use. Thanks!

Along with trains and cars, one of Grant's new loves: firetrucks. Thanks for the new puzzle, Nana and Grandpa!

Grant and I went on a date to the mall to ride the carousel and the trains and get a treat on his birthday. It was a happy time for me to enjoy my little boy. I can't believe my baby is three! Although he has his sassy moments, he is such a sweetheart.

My birthday followed Grant's, and although I didn't get any cars or trains, I had a happy day. Kimball surprised me by making me breakfast in bed, all by himself. :) Some friends took me to brunch, I got to go shopping, we had dinner at the park as a family, and I took my kids to swimming lessons. I loved all the phone calls and thoughtful gifts from my family and friends. Thanks everyone! I'm looking forward to a new year. 

All Moved In!

After weeks of packing and cleaning and saying goodbye to our home and friends in our old neighborhood, 

Miss Joyce, Miss Pam, and the Grinells, all from our cul-de-sac, gave us a good-bye party. We're going to miss our neighbors there!

our big move (actually only 3 miles up the road from our old house!) was last weekend. Thanks to the help of Mark's dad and brothers Tim and Paul and a lot of awesome friends, we were able to get everything moved over quickly. I've worked really hard this week trying to unpack and set things up so that this new house feels like home. Our new house is big and beautiful but really different than any home I've ever lived in, so it has been fun to try to figure out how to make it work for us.

Here's the formal dining room, which we're using as a toy room on the main floor.  I figured that at our stage we need play rooms a lot more than we need formal rooms! 

The new piano area has made Kimball much more excited to practice. :)

Here's the new bookcase that I bought with my birthday money. I got this and the toy organizer in the first picture both from Costco for a great price. Happy birthday to me! 

I like how the kitchen and family room are one big open room.

The kids' rooms turned out fun, and Mark and I are having fun with our gigantic master bedroom and sitting room. We're using the sitting room as an office space for him and a craft/project room for me. It's nice to have our own space so the rest of the house stays cleaner. Anyway, we're feeling moved in and ready for life to get back to normal around here.