Happy April!

I have been so bad about the blog!  My apologies!  We have been really busy, but I will try to update you on the past few weeks.

Okay, our trip to NJ and NYC...we had so much fun!  We stopped at Pat and Linda's on the way up to break up the drive and had a great time playing with them and had breakfast together at Cracker Barrel.  Then we finished up the drive to Mom & Dad's.  We are so thankful to them for sharing their one bedroom apartment with all of us!  We enjoyed every minute of our stay there.  We played games, went to the Statue of Liberty (or Liverty, as Kylie says) and Ellis Island, went into Manhattan and played at the huge ToysRUs with the ferris wheel, Rod and I saw Spamalot for his birthday, went to the children's museum...so many fun things!  The kids baked a birthday cake for Rod so we could celebrate him and had to put the whole tube of red food coloring in the cake before icing it with chocolate icing just to make a Gamecock cake!  On our way home from NJ, we stopped in Richmond.  We went to Chuck E Cheese with Uncle Ian, Aunt Courtney & her sister and kids.  Then we stayed in a hotel with a swimming pool which Rod and the kids took advantage of while I got Elijah to sleep.  We were exhausted by the time we got home, but we made it in time for Rodgers' art show at school.  One of his paintings was hung on display; he was very proud!  It was a great evening as a family!  That weekend continued  to be a busy one with birthday parties and St. Patrick's Day parties, so that next week at work was a tough one for Rod after being gone for so long and running low on sleep.

Rodgers went for his testing at Carmel Christian and wowed them, of course.  He had a wonderful time and interrupted during the testing with, "excuse me, when you are done asking me questions, do you think I could see some classrooms?"  They thought that was a riot, so we went to see the classrooms and met the Kindergarten teachers.  One class was at music, so we stayed and played in the room and talked to the teacher for a while.  He is now so excited for Kindergarten that we have a hard time getting him to go to Cross & Crown.  I met with the Admissions Director the week after his testing to go over his results and we questioned whether to put him Kindergarten or first grade, but after he went for a day we decided on Kindergarten.  They feel they can challenge him enough while allowing him to stay with kids his age and allow his writing skills to catch up to the rest of his academics.  I handed in his acceptance paperwork and deposits and am SO GLAD to be done with all that!

Kylie and Rodgers both went to get haircuts before Easter, though it did take a bribe from me to get Kylie up there!  They looked so cute on the little chairs next to each other!  I took a picture on Rodgers camera that I was going to post, but he deleted it, so you will just have to take my word that it really was cute!

Easter morning we went to church along with Mom & Dad, then after church we said goodbye to Rodgers and he went with Nana Kathy and Papa Fred to PUERTO RICO!  He was there from Sunday thru Thursday!  Dad had to go on business, so R and Mom got to tag along.  He loved it!  He saw San Juan and the forts and the rainforests; he ate shrimp and scallops (WHAT?!?!).  He had fun speaking Spanish, too.  In fact, he did not want to come home.  He was sure that Yogi (his tour guide) was going to miss him and said he would miss Puerto Rico.  I called him when I got the text about this and told him not to make me come over there!  He looked so grown up when he walked in Thursday night and started talking about his trip and handing out gifts he brought back for us.  We really missed him while he was gone.  My little world traveler...I wonder what the future holds for you and your love of foreign languages?!

While Rodgers was gone, Kylie got to go down and spend the night with Nana Stewart all by herself!  They went to the Gamecocks baseball game and she got to see Cocky.  She had fun with William and Bennett and Walker, too.  She also had a playdate with Ellie that week.  I am so glad she is starting to have girls to play with!

Elijah has been busy getting teeth!  Let me tell you, we have had some not-so-fun times!  But he now has two little bottom teeth and the top two are trying so hard!  Poor guy, he thinks Motrin and Tylenol are food groups!  Speaking of food, he now loves his cereal with bananas, Zwieback toast, apple sauce, pears, carrots, corn; he tolerates sweet potatoes and squash; and he despises green beans and peas.  He also has fun with french fries, pickles and breadsticks when being entertained when we are out.   Okay, well, since I started writing this entry a couple weeks ago, he now really likes peas and peaches and freeze-dried apples.  And he was sitting up when I went in to get him up from his nap yesterday!!!  I am not ready for him to be doing that on his own!

Let's see...Nana & Papa B and Mom & Dad were here the weekend of my birthday.  Rod and I went with some friends to a friend's wedding, then went out to hear Chairmen of the Board play at a bar uptown.  It was so much fun!  We had Elijah's dedication at church that Sunday.  He was so cute!  He was "cooing" while we were up there.  His verse is Micah 6:8 "He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  We found out later that is Papa B's favorite verse, so that makes it extra special!

We got tickets to the Masters this year from one of Dad's friends at work.  We gave the tickets to Steven and Kerry for Monday and we kept Brennan for the day.  The kids had so much fun!  Brennan is such a cutie!  We laughed a lot.  Rod and I went to the tournament on Tuesday and met up with Pat & Linda and two of their friends.  We had a great time!  It is so beautiful there; we walked the course, and got to see most of the players.  Right when we walked in, Mike Weir was coming down the first fairway, so I got to watch him for a little bit and even talk to him as he walked by.  Elijah stayed with Mom and Dad and did great!  He drank his bottles all day (which we figured out the night before he would drink as long as the Praise Baby DVD was on).  I did have to battle him a little on Wednesday to get him to nurse again, but I still think it was worth it to experience the Masters!

Rodgers had his graduation pictures taken at school, and they turned out great.  He looks so grown up in that cap & gown!  He's ready for Kindergarten!

The kids got an easel and have been painting masterpieces almost everyday.  It has been fun to listen to them interpreting each others artwork and making suggestions.  Their imaginations amaze me!

Mom came along with us to family camp at Windy Gap last weekend to help me with the kids.  Rod was doing program with Rob and Steve, so he didn't get to hang out with us as much.  The kids LOVED Windy Gap!  They made new friends and had many new experiences.  Rodgers even went on the big tandem swing!  I couldn't believe when he said he was going to do it, and half expected him to change his mind when it was his turn.  He agreed to go with an 8 year old boy named Amedeus (pronounced Amadosh) who needed someone to ride with.  I went down to the bottom of the hill to watch and nearly had a heart attach as the pulley was lifting up higher and higher into the trees.  I thought they would only pull them part way up since they were so little...but I was WRONG!  Then I watched as he took one hand off the handle to try to pull the release cord, but he couldn't get it, so Amedeus pulled it.  They were yelling and smiling the whole time!  He loved it!!!  And I couldn't believe it!  He actually wanted to go again.  He is still talking about it and his friend Amedeus.  They got to ride horses and play in the game room...The funniest part of the weekend, though, had to be that Rodgers didn't recognize Rod in his costume!  He knew that the two guys Tim & McGraw were really Rob & Steve, but when you would ask him who T.A.Nails was he would just say, "he's a bus driver!"  Then one time I was sure he had realized it when he said he had to tell me something about TA Nails, but he just said, "Mama, TA Nails is really MEAN!"  Rod eventually told him after the whole weekend was over.  It was hilarious!  Kylie, on the other hand, started giggling the very first time Rod came out and said, "that's Daddy!"  That girl knows her Daddy!

Mom was here for over a month!  The kids are missing her like crazy!  She just had to leave on Thursday.  We sure had a blast with her!  We enjoyed helping her plan things out for the changes to the house in Pinehurst.  She and I took the kids over for a day to see the changes that had been made and meet with the contractor and tile guy.  The kids had fun climbing around and walking thru the framed rooms and climbing on the huge dirt piles.  We also spent time at LaZBoy picking out furniture and fabrics.  It is fun to spend other people's money!  :)

Friday night we had soccer practice, then their first game Saturday morning.  The kids did great!  They both had shots on the goal, and really almost both scored.  After the third quarter Kylie came to me and said, "Mom I just really want to do the part where we get in a line and give high fives and get our snack!"  It was still a huge improvement over the fall!!  We had Will's birthday party Saturday afternoon at the Water Ice Factory in Matthews.  We had never been there before and were happy to "find" it.  It was yummy!  Amy, Shannon and I put together 120 goodie bags for the Young Life golf tournament after that, then Hayley came to babysit so Rod and I could go out with CC & crew to celebrate her birthday!  Caroline made it up from Columbia thanks to a cancelled babysitting job, so we even got time with her!  Fun times with friends...that I don't have any pictures of...hint hint...

That gets us current, except for the many things I left out.  Oh, I do need to add one thing from last week.  Whitney came over to get the kids to help her out with a project for school.  She needed to record their voices for a public announcement she is working on.  It was a riot!  Rodgers could read the words, but we had to prompt Kylie.  They really did great, but we did get to laugh a lot.  The kids were so proud of themselves and loved the chance to talk into the microphone and then hear themselves on the computer!  Thanks Whit!

I am so glad I am finishing this post before May so I didn't have to change the title!  haha!  Would love to hear from you!

As I was adding pictures I realized I left out a lot of important stuff like Will & Megan visiting, Papa Fred's 55th birthday (wearing his "I'm not dead yet" shirt!), Julie coming over to play, the boys eating breakfast together which is the routine now, and Kylie helping pull up the carpet in the bedrooms to reveal the hardwoods.  So much going on... And I added pictures of Kylie from her trip to Florida with Mom & Dad in February.