Easter

We had a really nice Easter. My sister Lara came down from Boston for the weekend and we went to Charleston. The weather was perfect, the water was cool (which I prefer to how hot the ocean gets during the summer here), and we just had a really great time.

We went to an Easter service outside at Boone Hall Plantation. The kids sat well for the first little while but got wiggly during the sermon so Chad took them to run around a little bit. Apparently Emerson was not to happy having her picture taken.

I just love this picture. I think we'll definitely need to get it blown up!

I know the kids aren't really looking but this is the only picture Lara took after telling us to take our sunglasses off because we were in a hurry to get to the beach and do our Easter egg hunt.

We have lots more pictures to post once I get them downloaded. I also have lots of pictures from when my mom and Bob were here. They came down for a few months and stayed at an extended stay hotel. We were very sad that they left the week before Easter! Especially since it was my mom's idea to go to Charleston for Easter but we were happy that they did get to spend a lot of time with us.

When we got to the Easter service Parker kept looking around. I asked him what he was looking for and he said he was looking for God. I told him God was there but we couldn't see him and he asked if God walked away. I think it's a bit of a difficult concept for a 3 year old!

Apparently our new compost box from Chad's mom June makes a great hideout!

Enjoying some play time at the mall play area.

Kennedy the Fairy Princess

I never posted pictures of my trip to Boston last June with Lara, Jana & Emerson. I came across them tonight and thought I'd share a few. This was the neatest little town. I can't remember the name but it was so cute!
If you're expecting a baby, you should definitely invest in a wrap type sling. I've tried lots of slings and this one is my favourite style, especially for an infant. Emerson was so happy in there.
More of the cute town.
"Look at you . . . you have a baby . . . in a bar!"

That's from the movie Sweet Home Alabama, it's what I think of when I see this picture.

Just a quick picture from this month's trip to Disney World. I'll get a slide show up someday soon I hope.

We just watched a show on ABC, something about Jamie Oliver's food revolution. I thought it was going to be boring but it was actually interesting and rather scary. He is a chef and is going in to a school in WV in a city that apparently is the most overweight in the country. Scary, scary stuff that the kids are being fed in schools! I think it comes on again Friday, if you need something to watch I would recommend it. I happend upon this website by a lady who is eating a school lunch every day this year. http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/ I just read through the last two posts but they were quite interesting.

This is all particuarly of interest to me right now because we are starting an elimination diet. We're eating meat (antibiotic & hormone free), organic beans & rice, and vegetables and fruit. As my mom keeps reminding me, it's going to be fun at our house! The kids have definite signs of food allergy and/or intolerance issues that I'd like to get resolved and I think this is the best way to figure out what's causing them. I just had a thought though, I wonder if the chicken I just bought today was being fed soy. I'll have to call the store and ask them. It's shocking how many foods have soy in them. We know Emerson doesn't tolerate soy well and I would venture a guess that the other two don't either. Maybe soy beans in their natural state, but not the processed soy in so many foods. Some symptoms of allergies you might not think of:

Physical:Diarrhea, constipation, dark circles under the eyes (allergic/Intolerant shiners), rash, failure to thrive, eye wrinkles, red ears, patchy tongue, red tipped nose, joint stiffness, pimples on buttocks, eczema, translucent skin, gas pain, itching, runny nose, hives, swelling, tongue soreness, sneezing, wheezing, watery eyes, rattling chest, persistent cough, recurring ear infections, bronchitis, rash around anus, mucousy diarrhea, bloating, mouth sores, ulcers, vomiting, IBS, flatulence, constipation, swelling. Severe reactions can cause anaphylactic shock.

Behavioral:Uncontrollable behavior, aggression, crying, tantrums, hyperactivity, behavior that resembles attention deficit disorder, inability to concentrate or stay still, depression, baby screaming, colic, fatigue, migraines, night waking, sore muscles and joints, unruly child.

My challenge is going to be cooking food that they will actually eat. They do love fruit, but obviously they can't eat only fruit for 4 weeks. They also like salad, broccoli, carrots & avocados. Now if I could just get them to like beans and rice! Tonight we had taco baked potatoes. Sort of. We didn't have any toppings other than guacamole that I made. Well Chad did have salsa and some cheese sauce that was still in our fridge.

I don't know what we're going to have tomorrow night. I need to go searching for some recipes made up of the limited number of ingredients we can eat at the moment. I'll let you know how it turns out. I know everyone is dying to know :)

Well it's 12:40am and I hear our darling Emerson crying. She's been sleeping sooooo badly lately. Every night she ends up in our bed shortly after we do. She cries and moves around all night. She wants to lay on top of me which prevents me from getting much sleep. I think it's because she's teething. At least, I hope that's what it is because I am tired!

I just went on facebook for the first time in months (I've been signed up for about 15 months and have maybe made it on 3 or 4 times) to respond to a message from a friend from Canada that we met when I was 11. While on there I stumbled across this thing from trip advisor where you map out all the places you've travelled. We were blessed to travel a lot growing up and I hope that our children will be able to have the same expriences. Looking at this map I realized how much of the world I still need to see!

• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Find vacation rentals at TripAdvisor

Just a few pictures from the December. Sometime soon I will try to get a slideshow up of the last 2 months.

He looks like such a big boy! At the rehearsal for Aunt Hannah's wedding.
Our 3 options for Christmas cards.

I always forget the things Kennedy says that I want to share so I thought I'd post this before I forget. We have the possibility for some snow tomorrow which I told her and she said she'd pray for it so she says "Dear Jesus, please give me snow". Then she says did Jesus hear me? I said yes and she said will he give me snow? I said we'll have to see. I reminded her awhile later that we may or may not get snow. She says, why not, didn't Jesus hear me? I again said yes and tried to explain (not very well obviously) that while He always hears us He can't always give everyone everything they ask for. And she says "but I don't want everything, I just want one thing - snow". So funny!

I just checked the forecast in Boone and it's supposed to snow 6 out of the next 7 days. I'm so jealous!! I think we might just have to make a trip up there next week.

I happend upon a toy store this week that was the neatest toy store I've ever been to. If you live in the Charlotte area you have to check it out. It's called Toys & Co (I think they have 2 stores in SC too) and is by Wendover/Randolph roads. I never go to toy stores because I almost never by the kids new toys, I can get almost new toys for a fraction of the price at a consignment sale or on Craigslist and then I can resell them when they're done with them for the same price I bought them for. I don't really buy them that many toys anyways because they rarely play with them. But next time I do need a new toy, I'm definitely going to head over to Toys & Co. I've never seen such a variety of toys in my life. And not all the licensed kind of things like Barbie, etc. that they have at Target and ToysRus. It was just so neat. And if you're bringing you kids with you (mine were at home with our babysitter when I was there), they have lots of areas where the kids can play with things like a train set, kitchen, dollhouses, etc.

We leave this afternoon to go to Winston Salem for the wedding of Chad's sister Hannah. Chad is doing the pictures and Kennedy is a flower girl. From there I'm headed to the airport to go to Boston and see Lara. Chad will be staying home with the kids. Thanks Chad!! When I get home we'll be getting ready for Emerson's birthday party and then it'll be the week of Christmas. Wow, it came so fast. We haven't even finished decorating our house yet! We're usually done the weekend of the Thanksgiving but we just haven't had the time to get it done.

Emerson is the huggiest little baby. She just loves to hug everyone. It's so cute. She also likes to say uhoh. She's taking more steps when she lets go of one thing to walk to another.

Parker is surprising me with his ability to remember things. I unfairly assume that just because I can't understand everything he says he can't learn a lot, and that just isn't true. I pointed out to Kennedy on our wall map where Disney World was, and the next day he walks up points right at Orlando and says "mama go?". He can also point at Charlotte when I ask him where we live. And then the other day he gets up on a chair to reach up and point at Iceland and says his version of cold and shivers. I was so surprised. I had told Kennedy once that it was cold in Iceland. So I'm now trying to focus more on teaching him things too.

Kennedy is full of questions that I don't always know how to answer in a way she'll understand. Like where does God live? Why does He like to walk far away? Why do people die? Is she going to die? That discussion did not go well because I tried to answer honestly and now she keeps saying she doesn't want to die. Her reading skills are improving and she can identify all 7 continents, the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, and Madagascar! They watched that was set there and were so excited when they saw that it was an island on the map.