Good Morning to You

Because it's Wednesday (and I hear Wednesdays can be difficult for some people). And because keeping this level of cuteness to myself would just be selfish.  Enjoy. 

It's easy to see where E gets his incredible looks from....it's ok to be jealous that my husband is this attractive.

Good morning and happy Wednesday people!

It's 2:30am...Here's to the Month of May

I have finally found time to update our long abandoned blog.  Most of you are probably sleeping since it is 2:30am...but not me.  I'm wide awake because my daughter is wide awake.....because she has been throwing up since 11:30pm.  So, we are watching Elmo, waiting to see if the worst of this little illness is behind us. I have to say, I couldn't love her more than I love her at this moment.  As weird as it may sound, I'm so thankful for this time with her...i'll talke every second I can get with her....even if it involves barf at 2:30 in the morning (however, i can't help but wonder, WHY CAN'T KIDS THROW UP DURING THE DAY???).

Anyway, here is a little pictorial update on the month of May.  At this point you may be thinking, "wait aren't you gonna tell the story of how y'all got back to Greenville?" And the answer is no.  It's my (well my families) story and I'll tell it when I feel like it.  For now, here's to the month of May.  Which has been filled with a lot of "normal" things...it's been amazing.

Emmy has spent lots of time washing her hands.  It's a little out of control.  Luckily, her Aunt Amanda is patient.  I think she washed her hands for about 15 minutes when this pic was taken.

Em also had her annual cardiology visit.  Which went great!  There have been no changes since last year, and we love our new pediatric cardiologist, which is good because we are now in a long term relationship with him. The visit was encouraging and definitely more fun than last years visit. Some of that is because G spun Em around on the doctors stool for an extended period of time.   

Other "normal" things we  have been doing.  Washing cars on Sunday afternoon.  And loving it.  Em really got into helping.  She also got really into washing her whole body with the dirty water.

We celebrated Mother's day.  Watching my kids with my super hot husband is the best gift ever.  Evan slept through most of it....and he looked so cute doing it.

Em refused to take a picture with me because she was too busy trying to jump off the bridge.

We have enjoyed more than one hail storm.  I kind of think they are awesome

G and I have both been able to spend some amazing and much needed time with our friends. We are beyond blessed by the community we have here.  Some of my girlfriends and I went to Design With Wine a few weeks ago. If you live in the area or are ever visiting it is a MUST DO thing. So so so much fun.  I'm read to go again.  G got to go to the shooting range with some friends last week....he loved every minute of it.

Emerson turned 2!  What the heck!  She had two parties, neither of which were well captured on camera.   Part of that is due to the fact that she bit one of her friends five minutes into her "friend party".  It's her party and she'll bite you if she wants to.  Ugh. I got on a baking kick and made the cake for the family party and made cake pops for the friend party.  No pictures of the cake pops, which is sad because they were crazy cute.

And we have spent TONS of time outside playing with the McCall kids.  The water spot on this pic is because Bryson had just sprayed me with the hose (which is also why H.C. is sobbing in this pic).

Little Hannah Claire, beyond precious.

And last but not least, we have spent the month of May falling even deeper in love with this little guy.  His cuteness is overwhelming and is only surpassed by his sweet, fun loving nature.  He is a little wild but it is fun.  Emmy constantly says, "Evan's crazy." She is correct.  But look at him....

Ok, it's now 3am, I've done a load of laundry, and it's time to put the clean sheets back on the bed...and attempt to get this little girl back to bed.  Which could be challenging since she is eating goldfish and watching Elmo....how can I tear her away from her 2 favorite things??? 

Eventually I will get around to telling the story of how we got back to Greenville, but only eventually.  We are moving into some permanent housing next week. Since our stuff has been in storage for 2 years, it should be exciting (and nasty at the same time because it is probably really dirty).  So, we will be busy......blog abandonment begins again now.

Say What???

Garrett Reed quote of the day....

G: "I'm so glad my name doesn't start with an A."

Me: "Why?"

G: "Because I can't make cursive A's."

Really?? Who sits around thinking about that.

Also, Garrett got a new job and we moved back to Greenville yesterday.  Say What???? It's true.  No you are not out of the loop for not knowing.  It happened fast...very fast. More details to come later. 

Until then enjoy this photo from May 16, 2004 (my college graduation)...almost exactly SEVEN years ago. How is that possible? Mandy, has it really been seven years since we went to Europe???

"You Lie"

Me: "Emerson, were you eating the paint while mommy changed Evan's diaper?"

E: "No."

Too bad Joe Wilson wasn't here to call her out.

In Case You Hadn't Heard...

No I am not pregnant.  We are a little nuts, but not that nuts. The real "in case you hadn't heard" news is....Garrett's baby sister Courtney/Aunt Coo Coo to my kids, is ENGAGED!!! We are so excited for her.

Coo Coo lives in Colorado so we only get to see her a few times a year. Lucky for us, she made a quick trip to Charleston last weekend for the Bridge Run. So, we made a detour thru the Holy City on the way to the Myrtle so we could congratulate her in person.  It made our hearts happy to see her.  Court, we love you so much and are thrilled for you and Chris!  Although, I will say I am a little sad that we will only share the same last name for a few more months.  Good for you though, Nicoletti is definitely a little spicier than Reed.

Court got to spend lots of time loving on baby Evan.  And regardless of how it looks in this pic, he enjoyed every second of it.

Emmy wanted to say congrats again to Aunt Coo Coo. Yay Coo Coo!!!!

40 Days

40 Days....that is how long it has been since I have touched this blog.  So sad. Honestly, things have just been busy. Between taking care of both of the kids by myself, working part-time, fun play dates with friends, and trips to the beach (rough life i know)...I really haven't even thought about blogging. Whoops. And without Garrett around, I seem to have lost my biggest source of inspiration. Have no fear though, we are headed to see him tomorrow. I'm feeling inspired just thinking about it.

Pretty much, I am really tired these days. Kind of like Emerson was after little Harrison's birthday party a few weeks ago.

My day starts at 6:15 (i have to get up before both kiddos to get ready) and ends around midnight. I constantly day dream about how amazing it would be if I could have a nap time every day.  Oh well, I can nap when my kids go to college. Until then, I'm going to enjoy every second of having these precious little faces wear me out. 

I have fallen so in love with this kid I can hardly stand it.

This little girl brings  light to the world. Yes she is wearing a leotard (and boots that are not pictured).

Hopefully I will be posting more this month. I feel like I am missing my opportunity to chronicle Evan's first year of life. It's so true, the second child gets the short end of the stick. I know because I am the second child.  What was my sisters first word??, "thank you," what way my first word??? no one knows. Evan I am vowing to minimize how many of your milestones we forget.  You deserve it....look how precious you are.

Yes, I nibble on his cheeks all day long.  All day. Every day.

Help

Garrett came to town again this weekend. He makes my heart really happy.  He also makes my kids hearts really happy. There is no doubt he is the fun one. Tonight he decided to put Em in the Baby Bjorn (a baby carrier for those of you who are not versed in baby gear). It was comical to say the least.  Watch for yourself. My favorite part of this video is my mom.  She goes on cooking dinner completely ignoring the dancing man with an almost 2 year old strapped to his body. Apparently she is used to Garrett's uniqueness.

And as if the video wasn't good enough, I somehow managed to snap this pic. It makes me laugh. Not the most flattering picture of Garrett but hilarious nonetheless.