Dance

I think that since the last post was titled Music that it would only be fit for this post to be titled Dance.

This is Kate's second year of ballet and tap. . .to say she loves it would be an understatement.
This girl adores dance.
In fact the other day when she was waaaay out in the outfield at her t-ball game I caught her doing her recital dance (with her glove on-quite a sight to see)!

Her recital dance this year was to the song, "In the Jungle. . .the mighty jungle. . ."

The girls did a tap dance this year.
Last year it was a cute ballet dance. . .think year it was a sassy tap dance!

Can you tell that the girl's teacher was standing to their right?

They all did so good. 
We were especially proud of Kate.
She is so confident up on stage and is lots of fun to watch!

*I have a small disclaimer about the rest of these pictures.
My little small boy helper named Ben was not interested in anyone but his mama holding him this day. 
So dispite all the offers for help with him I was stuck with a baby on my hip and picture taking.
Which led to the fuzzy pictures below.
One day, I know, I will miss this little fuzzy picture maker!

Trophy time.
The trophies get bigger every year. 
Kate has spent much time with her two trophies talking about how this year she got a bigger one.

Sweet fuzzy dancer!

Music

Our kids love music. 
I am sure they got this from their father.
He LOVES music. . .don't let him fool you because he loves to sing too!
(And he does lots of it!)
Both Mac and Kate love to sing. 
In fact Kate is ALWAYS singing. . .she does not get this from me, I like quiet. 
Sounds grumpy I know, but I like quiet.
Don't get me wrong, I love to music. . .just not with the passion that the rest of my family has.

Mr. Ben has discovered music!
He is figuring out how to work Trip's ipod. 
He might know how to use it better than Trip before long!
I wonder if he will love music like his brother and sister or be a quiet bug like his mama?

Don't you wonder what he is listening too? 
Lots of times Trip has music and books on tape on his ipod. . .maybe he is learning how to be a better business man or listening to Jack Jackson. . ."better together" who knows!



Do you see the balloon wreath in the background? 
Want to know how I made it?

Happy Easter

Today was a great day! 
We were busy all day.
And are exhausted tonight.
But I wanted to share some of our Easter pictures with everyone!

 

Please notice the two front teeth missing from Mac's tooth lineup!
Last night he decided that he would pull his very very wiggly tooth so the tooth fairy and the
Easter bunny could come! 
And what do you know they both came. 
When Mac woke up this morning, there was a two dollar bill and a jelly bean under his pillow!
He and Kate both were thrilled.  Kate talked all day about the bunny and fairy's meeting last night!

We also talked about much more important things today.
In fact, the real reason of celebration today.
Our Saviour rising from the dead!
The big kids sang in the worship service at church. . ."where you there when He rose up. . ." 
(Don't you love that one??)

And Ben says that's enough pictures.
I think I am in need of some back up. . .any takers?

Baseball

Its official! Baseball has started. 

Did I mention that Mac and Kate are playing this year?
Oh, yes.  You heard me right. 
We spend all night on Monday and Thursday at the ball field. 
It makes the nights long, but they are so much fun.
We have some great "ball" friends that we only see during baseball season so we love it when the season is in and we get to visit.
Several of the younger siblings of Mac's baseball friends are starting T-ball this year with Kate and it is so much fun because Kate and the other kids have been coming to the ball field to watch there sisters and brothers since they were all just babies. 
And now they are playing themselves!
Trip and I were talking the other night and remembering when Kate and the other kids were crawling around in the dirt like Ben and now they are the ones playing ball!  Time flies.

Please take notice of Kate's pink and purple glove.  A very important accessory
Also notice the pink stripes on the cleats. . .another very important accessory!
And the final accessory is the orange bows.  What girl T-ball player would be complete without her bows?

There are only two other girls on Kate's T-ball team.
Lillie and Kristen.  The girls stick pretty close to each other.
However, Kate does know most all the boys and is pretty quick to convince them to get a ball that goes too far in the outfield for her liking!

Mr. Mac is playing coaches pitch this year!  Pretty exciting.

The most exciting news though is that he is playing catcher!
He really wanted to play this position and he got it!  Go Mac.
He is doing great in this position.  He has also really worked on his swing and is hitting some of those balls far into outfield.
And, yes.  That is Trip.  A.k.a  Coach Trip.

Ben and I are at all the games too of coarse. 
Cheering everyone on. 
This picture was taken way, way early in the game. 
In fact I am not too sure the game had even started! 
He does not spend too much time here in the stroller. 
Much more of his time is spent on the ground or trying to get on the ground. 
This boy loves the dirt. 
Before I blink he will be the one starting T-ball.  {No blinking-anyone!}

GO COLTS!

Garden

*Let's try this post again, shall we!

It has been a long time since I have posted! 

We have been so busy. 

I have no good excuse for our business. . . just life. . .sick, spring break, baseball, you know, normal busy family things.

I am happy to report that in the midst of our crazy, busy life we did manage to plant our garden this year.

We like to plant our garden in a raised bed.

Just makes gardening a little easier and anything that makes life easier is what we want to do.

This is the plan we followed to make the raised bed. 

Kate and Trip got the soil ready. . .real manual labor!

I believe they were mixing the soil.
(Do you see that sweet smile on Kate's face?  She was having a blast!)

Ben was. . .ummm. . .helping too. 
Can you tell by his face how he was helping?

Yes, that is right, he was enjoying a lunch of dirt with a side of more dirt.
We quickly discovered that little Ben L-O-V-E-S the dirt! 
He was busy digging in it and well, eating it.
I was taking pictures of him playing in the dirt and the next thing I know he is stuffing a handful of dirt in his mouth. 

Organic gardening at its best!
Thankfully no babies were harmed in the making of this post. 
In fact said baby will probably be a little healthier because of all that nice clean organic dirt.

Well, maybe the veggies that come from the good dirt will be better for him, oh, well.

I will try to keep you up to date on the garden and all the yummy veggies!

*Oh, let me also say that Mac was at a friend's house when we were busy in the backyard putting together the garden.  Seems almost 9-year-olds would rather play with friends than help with gardening. 
Just wanted you to know that we had not sold him or lost him or left him somewhere! : ) 

Rainbow Cake

Well.  Just when I think I have computers figured out, I realize that I really don't.  For some reason or another Blogger will not download my pictures straight from Picasa and it also seem I am not the only one with this trouble.  However, I did discover that I can manually post pictures, which takes a very very long time. . .something I do not have much of. . ."time" that is.  Not sure where it all goes.  : )

So, while we all wait for Google to fix our little problem I want to show you this amazing cake that I made for Kate's birthday.  I will share pictures of her birthday. . .when all is well in Blogger Land.

Here is the cake on the outside.  Pretty simple looking.  Now please remember I am my no means a professional cake maker.  I have two friends who I leave that to. . .everyone should have friends who make beautiful cakes.  My two friends are amazing there are just not words to describe the cakes they make!

Miss Priss requested a Rainbow Cake.  And like any good mother I typed in rainbow cake on Google.  This is what came up. . .(or something similar, maybe not so lopsided and more even, but really, does it matter look at this thing!)

Needless to say the birthday girl was thrilled and her momma was pretty thrilled with the way it turned out!
Hopefully I will be back soon with a fixed Blog!

Curtains

Praise the Lord.  The curtains are finally up!

If you remember a few months ago I shared with you all some fake curtains that I was working on with the assistance of my little helpers.  Well, they are finally up. . .took a while, I know




After I got the plain white curtains up I felt like the windows needed some more to tie in with the color of the fireplace bricks.  So I decided on a set of matchstick blinds. 
Kind of pulls it all together in a Pottery Barn kind of way.
Can you tell I didn't sew one stitch on the curtains? 
Can you see all the money I saved by doing them myself. 
Can you also tell that I am very please with the way they turned out?

Do you like them?  (Just tell me, yes!)

My little helpers were no where to be found when they were hung. 
They were outside with daddy.
Thank you daddy!
I had tried one afternoon to hang them with everyone awake and in the den with me. . .can you just imagine that scene?  Crazy! 
Anyway, I decided to wait patiently for my favorite helper of them all. . .daddy!
He took everyone outside and I got to work{quickly}.

Maybe next time my little helpers can be of some assistance! {Maybe}

Look Out.

We live in a small town in South Carolina. It is the town that Trip grew up in.

I have slowly grown to love this little town. 

There is only one thing I wish we had more of and that is organic and natural food. 
However I hit the jackpot the other day at our local WalMart. (I know!  WalMart?)

Now if you remember one of the most important things that I look for when buying packaged food for our family is for a short list of ingredients with words that I can pronounce.
I have found two new things and I am so excited.

These Cliff Crunch bars are so good.  The kids love them too, a big plus in my book! 
Trip loves the regular Cliff bars and takes them in the car with him a lot.  So, when I was doing some shopping at WalMart the other day I found these and thought we would try them out. 
What does Rachel Ray say?  Yumm-O.
And the best part is I could read the ingredient list!  It was a little longer than I like, but in a small town we sometimes have to take what we can get. 
Our bodies are made to process natural ingredients not processed ingredients and that is why it is so important that we give our bodies natural food that God made. 
The reason we have such a problem with obesity and diabetes and cancer here in America is because we are consuming too much of these foods that are unnatural and our bodies don't know what to do with these unnatural ingredients so people are getting fatter and sicker.
We have to be responsible with what we put in our bodies and our kids bodies!

Alright, off the soap box I come.

The other thing I have discovered right at the local WalMart is this new brand World Market.
( I believe it is a WalMart brand.)
The ingredient list on most (mind you I said most) of their snacks and chips is short, short, short! 

These chips are amazing and the only thing in the ingredient list is potatoes and salt and olive oil! 

So now, go to WalMart tomorrow. . .before 10AM. . .and get some yummy healthy snacks and then email me and let me know what you think. 

You will be healthier for it!

Laundry

Let me begin with a confession.

I DO NO LIKE LAUNDRY!

Hard to believe, I know.
Seems just up my ally, but no. . .it is the one chore I cannot stand.

Trip is usually the one that initiates the starting of it, yuck.

Here is usually how the conversation goes.

Trip: (standing in his last pair of clean boxers) Leigh I need to do some laundry!

Me: OK.

Trip: Could you help me?

Me: Ummm. Sure. . . {pause}. . .right now?

Trip: Yes!

Me: Well sure. Just let me ummm. . .{pause}. . . clean the baseboards. Yea. They are really dirty.

Really. I would rather do just about anything but laundry.
Needless to say I mostly do the laundry, in fact I am the only one who every puts any of it away.
And the kids and Trip always have clean stuff to wear. . .I just don't like doing laundry.
And that sweet patient man of mine never complains. . .he just reminds and begs heavily.

I have tried real hard not to let Kate and Mac learn any of my bad laundry behavior.
In fact Kate had a great time the other day actually doing her Elizabeth's (baby doll) laundry.

I quickly was able to gather up a few laundry supplies for her.

1 laundry basket (for dirty and clean clothes)
10 clothes pins
1 spray bottle with water in it (a.k.a stain spray)
1 make believe clothes line
1 small bucket (with water for hand washing)

She even had a little helper. . .man there are just helpers all over the place 'round here!

(WAIT!  Do you see my crazy Poinsettias back there?  Those are leftover from Christmas!  I cannot get them do die!  Seems silly to throw them out if they are still alive. . .I will let you know how long they last.)

Nothing better than clean laundry and a busy girl!

Now, maybe I can teacher her how to really do laundry. . .that would be wonderful!

Don't Forget.

I don't want to forget these little feet sticking out from under this little booster seat every morning. 

 I also don't want to forget that he was too little to sit in a regular highchair. . .at least for now.

 

 I don't want to forget that our sweet old dog Bailey sits under Ben's booster chair at every meal. 
Bailey is sometime one of my favorite helpers during the day because I do not have to sweep! 
Thanks Bailey.

I also don't want to forget that Ben loves to throw food to Bailey!

I most definitely also don't want to forget that one day Ben's little feet (and legs) will be sticking out from under my table like this. 

Without the painted toes of course!

Eight-Year-Old Boy.

Mac is our first child.  He is more like me than I want to believe.
He is the joy and love of our lives. . .but he is eight!
Do you know what eight-year-old boys are like?

They are very hard to take pictures of and they are smelly and busy, busy, busy.
But they are kind and gentle and patient like no grown up could ever be.

They are worrisome and annoying and wild.
But they are also handsome and smart and silly.

They like to be with their friends, but love to be with their family.
They don't like their sister. . . at least most of the time, but they love the Lord with all their heart all of the time

I won't go and say that this eight-year-old boy is precious like his brother, he wouldn't like that, but I will say that he is the love of my life (I know, I know, I have many)! 
Mac will always hold a special place in my heart because he was my first. 
He loved us even when we didn't have a clue what we were doing when he was a baby and even now that he is eight, we still don't have a clue what we are doing and this eight-year-old could care less, he still loves us for who we are.
He is an amazing young man and even though he is eight I love him!

(He won't stay eight forever, right?)