my boyfriend's back!!!!

and he now has a new hard drive....BUT they were able to somehow find every picture I've taken of my children since June 2008! I have been more than a little sad for the past few weeks about the possibility of losing all of our pictures, but WOOHOO, my boyfriend has returned and I will be backing him up ASAP!!! Word to the wise---you don't think your computer will crash until it actually does. Don't be dumb like me---back everything up. Now.

In other news, somebody in our house turned FOUR last week! Emma Claire has morphed from the sweetest little baby into a precocious little girl in the blink of an eye....I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. She loves being "fo-ah" now and can't wait to do all of the things that "fo-ah ye-ah olds" do. :) We had a really fun joint birthday party a few days ago for her and Whitt, and I really think it might have been our best party yet. Pictures to follow soon!

EC had two of her besties, Tyler and Sanders, spend the night on her birthday, and they taught her how to walk like a model. It was HILARIOUS. Christie, Ben, and I were standing at the window dying laughing at them shaking their tails as they walked. I'll have to figure out to to upload a video from my phone to my blog--too funny not to post!

Grayson learned how to ride a two wheeler!!! (I took this right before Ben took the training wheels off). It was so amazing---it seriously only took about five minutes of Ben running him around in the yard and talking to him about how to balance the bike, and all of a sudden he was off! He is so proud of himself and keeps getting better and better every day. What a rock star!

Whitt is going to turn TWO this Saturday!! I have no idea where the time has gone...our baby isn't a baby anymore! His vocabulary is getting better and better and he is one fun little monkey. This boy has his mama wrapped around his little finger, for sure! How could you not resist this sweetness??? :)

Can you tell that these children pretty much live in their bathing suits this summer?

This little ball of fur and her siblings are getting cuter and cuter---and closer and closer to being able to be weaned. Any takers?? :)

Other happenings that have occurred recently around here include, but are not limited to, broken pipes in the kitchen, meltdowns in Walmart, EC dropping a jar of spaghetti sauce on the floor of Walmart (I'm never going back with three children again--they are the least helpful people ever), me calling 911 because a lady in the drugstore parking lot was passed out hanging out of her car (turns out she was drunk and had just left an AA meeting...nice), receiving a court summons to be a witness to aforementioned lady....just a small portion of some of the excitement that seems to follow us everywhere. :)

A few recent favorites that need to be mentioned:

* I found these Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp bars in Target the other day and I'm obsessed. They are SO good and only 110 calories! The hardest part is not eating more than one at a time---not because they're small (they're not), but because they're so yummy.

* Sing Over Me is our new favorite CD. It's made up of worship songs and lullabies, and it's so relaxing and calming. I love playing it in the late afternoons while I'm cooking dinner and the kiddos are reading or coloring. Such a fun way to wind down from the day!

* Real Housewives of NYC and NJ. We cancelled cable but I had a bunch of episodes DVR'd that I've just caught up with and oh my goodness, I'm hooked. I have to find a way to watch the episodes online or something. I'm loving the NJ drama with Teresa and Melissa and the NYC drama with everybody!! I'm starting to think that Jill is the only semi-normal one this season! Ob.sessed.

* I'm leaving soon for a 13-ish hour drive with all three kiddos. By myself. Pray for me. :) And please send tips for long car trips if you have them!

iPhone camera dump

Happy Summer, y'all!! My computer is still broken with no repair date in sight so this is another post with pictures from my iPhone. We have been busy and HOT! Spring lasted about 2.5 seconds here on the SC coast before Summer hit and it's been H.O.T. for awhile now.

This little monkey's face turns bright red as soon as he steps outside so our visits to the playground have become few and far between. Playing inside in the AC or in/around a body of water have officially become the activities of choice for us!



Miss Priss had her first recital last weekend! She was adorable and made this mama cry for most of her performance. So proud of our little dancing bunny! :) Speaking of being proud and crying, Emma Claire learned how to SWIM today!!!! She had her first swim lesson of the summer and spent the first half of it hanging onto her teacher's neck and crying, and the second half of it swimming like a little fish. I was boo-hooing all over the place---such a fun milestone to watch your child achieve!!!



Last Sunday we went to Sea Island, GA, for the day to visit my sweet, sweet friends Liz and Joanna and their crews. Between the three of us we had 9 kiddos between the ages of 1 and 5---and they all had a BLAST together!! I am already looking forward to getting together with these girls and their adorable children again!



We have had lots of friends over to play---I snapped this somehow without anybody noticing I was even in the room. Love it!




If you know us (or have been reading this blog for a little while), then it shouldn't come as a surprise that we had a health scare. Grayson had a seizure last week while we were visiting my inlaws. I just happened to be in bed with him when it happened, otherwise it probably would have been missed. After returning home for an EEG and an appointment with a neurologist, all is well. EEG results were normal so for now we're just keeping an eye on him and praying it was a one-time freak thing.

This picture is out of order, but while we were visiting my in-laws we loved catching lightning bugs---something we miss out on living on the coast. This brought back so many memories of running around the yard with my brother and filling jars with the little glowing bugs. It was definitely a highlight of the week!

Sweet Whitt is loving having his big brother and sister around all day---he follows them everywhere and thinks that he's a few years older than he really is. He has perfected jumping off of the diving board and has ZERO fear of the water. This little munchkin seriously couldn't be any sweeter!!

And just to add to the craziness that already follows our little family everywhere we go, we now have EIGHT cats. Yes, eight. A couple of months ago we only had three--Chester, Tilly, and Rally--which was already too many cats. Meet Pippa, Hippo, and Fripp. Not pictured are Leroy and yet-to-be-named black kitten, who are a few weeks older than these babies (3 weeks old today). Let me know if you are in the market for a new kitten---they will be available very soon and are even cuter in person! :)

So there you have a little recap of what we've been up to. I didn't have any pictures of tantrums in the grocery store, children throwing shoes at each other's faces, or throwing up in the swimming pool, but we've done a little of that as well. :)

And I've had requests for more recipes---which I would be able to do if my computer worked!!! I had saved links to all kinds of delicious meals that I've been making in the past few weeks and now I have no way to access them. Ugh!! I did stumble across this awesome blog this past weekend and she has a ton of delicious recipes. I made her Wild Salmon with Lemon Cous Cous tonight and it was A.MAZ.ING. I really, really, really don't like asparagus but I put it in there and it actually wasn't too bad. I did pick around most of it but I didn't gag on the pieces I did eat. :) The rest of the meal was great though, and I will most definitely be making this again...it was super easy and quick to make.

The only thing I don't like about making fish is how it makes our house smell for the next day or two. Maybe it's because we live in an old house, or maybe I just have a sensitive nose, but I can always smell the fish for awhile after cooking it....and that's not a good thing. Soooo, in an effort to erase the fish smell from the house, I whipped up these brownies, also from Iowa Girl Eats, after I put the kiddos to bed. Did the trick! Now the house smells like brownies and I do believe she is right---it's the only brownie recipe I'll ever need! I had everything on hand already (I omitted the walnuts and chocolate bar like she does) and it took about 45 minutes from start to finish. Now I need to find somebody to give the rest of the brownies to before I eat the whole pan....

Schooooool's out for summer!

Woohoo!!!! Grayson and Emma Claire's last day of school was last Friday and we have been enjoying every second of summer break so far. We spent the long weekend at Edisto with my brother and his family, and I really think it may have been the best weekend we've had at the beach yet. The kiddos are all so much easier this year---they all pretty much get along well, they have fun playing with each other and aren't so needy, and they love being at the beach so much that we can actually sit down and relax. SO nice! We enjoyed a fun weekend that included swimming, playing in the sand, catching fish with nets, crabbing (and cooking those crabs later that day), playing in a tidal creek behind the beach house, and even getting ice cream from the ice cream truck (a first for Grayson and EC!).

On Tuesday, the kiddos and I made a list of everything they want to do this summer---it includes everything from visiting grandparents and friends to planting a garden to seeing skyscrapers (that was Grayson's idea). It is going to be so much fun to cross things off of our list and I can't wait to see how much we do by the end of the summer. Even though this is only our first week of break, I'm quickly learning that although I'm not a planner and prefer to be spontaneous, my children thrive in structure and our days will have to be somewhat structured or we will all go a little crazy. Glad to learn this early in the summer, for sure! :)

Whitt went over to my mom's house this morning to play and I took Grayson and EC fishing and to the pool---a great day, and it was amazing how EASY everything was with only two children! :)






We are canceling our cable for the second summer in a row, I'm still off of Facebook, and my computer crashed last week (I'm borrowing Ben's work computer right now to blog) so it looks like we'll have an even more technology-free summer than usual----and we're actually looking forward to that. I hope everybody else is enjoying their summer so far, too!