Where have we been???

Man, time flies when you are all over the place! I think the sane part of my summer starts today! We have a had a fun-filled July, though, that is for sure! Let's see...July 3rd we had Rod's Pulte 4th of July celebration picnic with fireworks. The kids had fun at the cookout and especially enjoyed the cotton candy and snow cones! The fireworks were amazing! It was a late night, and the only child still awake when we got home was Elijah, who never sleeps anyway.

The morning of the 4th, we went up to the pool and the kids joined in the bike parade. Rodgers rode his scooter and Kylie wanted to ride in the stroller, but they had fun being in the mix with Owen, Jule, and all the other kids.

After the parade, we played at the pool until lunch time, then we took the kids to see Ratatouille at the theater. They both really liked it; it was a great movie! We came home in the afternoon and played in the yard. Chris and Rob came over for a while and we grilled brats and hotdogs for dinner. Daddy put on a fireworks show in the driveway afterwards. This is the first year the kids have enjoyed that! We were all wiped out by the end of the day, although Kylie was adamant at bedtime that she was "not sleepy at all." Apparently, she got back out of bed and was sitting at the top of the stairs. We found her later when we headed up to bed.

After the 4th, I headed to Charleston with the girls for a fun weekend of catching up and playing! Amy, Caroline, Katie, Kerry and I went to the beach, out to dinners, and shopping of course! It was a fun time that went way too quickly! I have been forbidden to put any pictures of us from the beach on the blog, so the only pic I have is one Katie took. I will have to update you later with a picture of all of us!

I left Charleston Sunday afternoon and headed down to Surfside Beach to meet up with the kids, Rod & his family. Rod had to go back to Charlotte Sunday night to work the first half of the week, but he came back down Wednesday night to stay thru the end of the week. The kids had a blast playing with their cousins, Uncle Will, MEGAN (Will's girlfriend), Nana Stewart, and Papa Rock. Megan definitely gets the award for the week because none of the kids left her alone the entire time! She is the favorite for sure! Kylie loved her time with Papa Rock and ended up using Nana's emory board one night to "make his head smooth" and then lathered lotion all over it. Good thing Papa has a shaved head and a good attitude! The kids built many sandcastles and swam like fish in the waves.

Thankfully there were enough adults there to keep eyes on all those kids!!! Kylie loved every minute of playing with Walker! He is starting to walk and looks like such a big boy! Rodgers enjoyed reading some of Williams books, and Kylie got to listen to a lot of them. We had a night of fun at the arcade and go kart track, too!

We left the beach Saturday morning and stopped through Columbia for lunch at Groucho's...YUM! Finally we got home late Saturday afternoon. It was good to have a day before Rod had to go back to work to recover! Rod and I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning out our closets and rearranging the furniture in our rooms...pretty relaxing, huh? Monday morning the kids and I had to take 11 bags of clothes to Goodwill!! Madness! I had a lot of errands to run Monday after being gone for so long, and packing for the kids because I took them Tuesday to Pinehurst to spend a couple days with Nana Kathy and Nana Irwin. I originally thought only Rodgers was staying over, but Kylie said she wanted to stay and that I could get ready for her party without her. She said bye and that she would see me when she was three. I came home and went on a date with my husband Tuesday night! We ate at Providence Cafe - one of our favorites - and it was delicious! It was the perfect evening of sitting outside and getting to talk and catch up while listening to the rain on the awning above us. We left dinner and went to hang out with Paige at her new condo, which Rod had not seen yet. Meg was over to visit, too, so it was a fun night. I went to the doctor to check on baby Elijah Wednesday morning. He is growing, growing, growing, and so is my belly, but oh well. She couldn't get a steady reading on his heartrate because he wouldn't be still long enough, so she finally said she was just going to write in the chart that he was happy. The only thing that mattered to me was that my blood pressure was still low, so I don't have to worry so much about my swelling. I got home from the doctor and started working on the house. It was disgusting! I mean BAD! I don't think my house had looked like that since I worked full-time. And it took all day long to clean it, for sure. Thankfully, Nana and Papa B pulled into the driveway right as my vacuum started smoking, and Papa B figured out right away what was wrong with it and had it back in business and all the floors downstairs cleaned before it was time for dinner on the patio! Papa got right to work and started fixing the walls in our bathroom. He is the master with that drywall mud! Nana and I started getting organized for Kylie's party. Thursday morning, Papa headed back into "his hole" aka the bathroom, while Nana and I rearranged the playroom and organized the shelves on the new game cabinet. We got everything cleaned up and ready for the kids early, so we headed out to get a mani/pedi! Fun times! It is rough, this life of leisure... The kids got home and we all joined in the excitement of it being Kylie's birthday! We had tea parties with birthday cake and played games and just had fun being together. Daddy came home early (for him) and we had dinner on the patio and then an ice cream cake for Kylie. She got a new baby stroller from Daddy, Mama and Rodgers, too, so we all went for a walk after dinner.

Friday morning, I was up and out at Walmart by 7:30, which by the way is the best time to shop at Walmart. I came home and got Kylie ready for her 3 year old pictures. Thank goodness Nana Kathy went with us because Kylie had a meltdown when we got there and didn't want to get her pictures taken. She finally stopped crying and with two photographers working VERY hard, we finally got a few pictures (out of the 67 shots they took) of her smiling!

We left pictures and went straight to Costco to, first of all, eat pizza, and then get all the shopping done for the party! We were super-quick and got back home, unloaded, reorganized and divided, and rearranged car seating. Nana and Papa B took Kylie clothes shopping for her birthday while the rest of us headed to pick up the new bunkbeds for the kids' room. I am not even going to tell you about the nightmare that turned out to be. Just trust me when I say it didn't go smoothly. Anyway, Kylie then rode to the airport with Nana Kathy to pick up Papa Fred. We all went out to eat that night at McAlister's which was a nice retreat from the madness that was here at the house! Nana Kathy and Papa Fred gave Kylie her new bike for her birthday, so they had fun riding in the driveway for a little while. She still wasn't sure about the pedals; she thinks they are broken because you can't pedal backwards like on her tricycle. Hopefully she will figure out the brakes soon!

Aunt Patti and Linda arrived a little before midnight and we all pretty much slept hard from the sounds of things...by the sounds I mean the snoring.

So we are up to Saturday, July 21 - PARTY DAY! The Papas got to work putting the new beds together and finishing up some work in the bathroom, while the rest of us started party preparations with food, balloons, ice, decorating...Kylie even decorated the cupcakes for the party! Rodgers helped a little with the sprinkles, too. It was a busy day. The weather turned out to be perfect: sunny and a little cooler than it had been. Everything was finally ready for the fiesta, or at least as ready as it was going to get! The party itself was mass chaos, but the kids all had fun, and I don't think anyone went hungry! The kids did a relay race with ponchos and sombreros where they carried chili peppers on spoons, threw bean bags into hoops, shook maracas, and bounced on the bouncy balls. They played pin the tale on the "burro," made friendship bracelets, and broke the pinata. They ate tacos and ice cream cone cupcakes, and we got the frozen lemonade working in time for the party, too. Kylie loved opening all of her presents, though it was a bit overwhelming with all the gifts. (We had to go back through later and look at everything again and remind her who gave everything to her.) She loved all the clothes, princess stuff, games, PlayDoh, purses, and her new pink baby. She ended up naming the baby Avary, just like Betty's baby.

Everyone was spent after all the festivities, so we just hung around the patio after cleaning up. Sunday morning seemed to come really early for some reason, but we all somehow managed to get ready for church even though there is only one working shower in the house. That alone was a miracle! As we left for church, Nana and Papa B had to start their journey home...the first of the clan to break up the party...so sad. The rest of us came home after church and ate...can you guess...TACOS! Good thing I could eat mexican every single day! Love it! In the afternoon, Daddy, Rodgers, Papa Fred, Patti and Linda went to play golf at Sun City. Nana Kathy, Nana Irwin, Kylie and I headed to the pool as soon as we finished watching the Open. Kylie rode her new bike the whole way to the pool and back with her new CareBear riding in the basket. What a big girl!!! She definitely has those pedals figured out now! The pool was a little cold, and the air was even colder so we didn't stay very long. We went and had a girlie dinner sitting outside at Panera. The golfers got home really late, so we didn't have much time to play before Nana Kathy, Papa Fred, and Nana Irwin had to head to Pinehurst. The rest of us got to bed late knowing Monday morning would be a hard one. And here we are on Monday! It was an early start since Kylie forgot to sleep in. Patti, Linda and Kylie took baby for a walk this morning, then Patti and Linda had to leave in order to make it home for their golf league tonight. It is a sad day for the kids, but they are just now starting to move on and play together instead of saying how sad they are. I am almost done with all the laundry and the kitchen is all cleaned up. I am about to have my second tea party with Kylie, and Rodgers just ran off to do who-knows-what after finishing working on a puzzle. I think things are getting back to normal. Daddy just called to say he is on his way to lunch and then he is headed to his new neighborhood!!!! Yea Baxter!!!! Hopefully this is the beginning of a much happier Daddy!!! Well, that's all for now. Hopefully this is going to load right with all these pictures!