Going Away :(

Roy and Donna Graham, some of our sweet friends from Charlotte hosted a huge going away party for us last week at their house. Dave and Chrystal Bachmann hosted it along with the Graham's. They were all so sweet to do this for us and it was an awesome party! Roy has a huge smoker that he set up in their driveway. He did it up right with delicious barbeque and ribs and then they had all the fixin's to go along with it!

Roy and Donna - our amazing hosts!

Check out this smoker - it made some yummy food!

Donna, Chrystal and I

We invited some of our close friends in Charlotte along with their children. There were around 60 people at the party, so it was a full house! We have known many of these friends since we first moved to Charlotte 8 years ago. We have been in Sunday School together, all of the girls have been in Bible Study and many of the guys have played sports together. When we met these friends, many of us had not had children yet. Since then we have enjoyed raising our children together. In fact, at the party there were 28 children all under the age of 10! Thankfully, the weather was beautiful, so the kids all loved playing outside. Here are some of our friends that I got pictures of:

Me and Clayton with Amy and Laura, 2 of my Bible Study friends

Me and Dina, my old neighbor whom I became great friends with! She later joined our Bible Study :)

Me and Elaine. We met each other 6 years ago in Bible Study. She and I were pregnant with our first babies at the same time. Now Caleb and Kailyn are good friends :)

Here's Russ with 2 of his friends, Jake and Jason

Erica held Clayton and he cuddled right in and went to sleep!

Jill and Julie my Bible Study friends

Caleb and Kathryn playing on the tire swing with Cole

Caleb and Kathryn with their best buddies Caroline and Roy Austin.

Boy are they going to miss each other!

We are really going to miss these friends that we have made over the years. They have all become such a special part in our lives and we are so thankful for each one of them. We hate to say goodbye to them, so instead we are saying "See you later". Thankfully we will only be an hour and a half away! We plan on seeing them often!

Where has the time gone?

"Where has the time gone God has blessed in so many ways?" I'm often reminded of this quote from my uncle in a poem he wrote for Russ and I when we were married. It is so true when I think back on the past 5 years since Caleb was born. He is starting Kindergarten this coming Monday and we can hardly believe it! He is so excited and of course we are for him, but it still brings a tear to my eye when I really think about it. No more preschool for Caleb!

We have him enrolled in an elementary school in Simpsonville, SC and we couldn't be happier with the school. We are so thankful that God worked it all out for us. I have been really stressed over the past few months as we have tried to plan on where Caleb was going to school. I just had to put it in God's hands and trust that He would work it out. Of course He did! We were able to sell our house, put a contract on a new house and enroll him in the public school up the road, just in the nick of time. We love the school and were so happy to hear that the principal is a very strong Christian. In fact, he was the principal at a Christian school in Greenville for years before he went to Oakview and we have heard great things about him!

This afternoon we took Caleb to see the school and meet his new teacher. He was fascinated with how big the school was and how many kids were going to go there. I was very nervous about what his teacher was going to be like, but I shouldn't have been. She is young, sweet, very educated and seems like the perfect kindergarten teacher! I know that Caleb is really going to like her as well as the assistent teacher. He loved looking around his new classroom and he's ready to start on Monday. I just don't think that I'm ready yet :(

Here he is standing in front of his new cubby

He loved the fact that they have turtles in a tank his classroom. He is going to have fun with those!

I wish I had a good picture of him with his new teacher, but unfortunately the picture I took did not turn out well. I'm sure I'll get some more though in the future!

After meeting his teacher, we went back to my parent's house to swim. Yes, I said it, swim! My parents have literally talked for years about building a pool in their backyard. My grandparents had a pool when I was growing up and I have so many memories of time spent with the family there. After much discussion, planning, changing their minds many times and such over the past years, my parents decided to just do it! They signed the contract a few weeks ago and now the pool is done! It is beautiful and the kids were thrilled to get to swim in it for the first time. We are all going to enjoy it. It certainly brought back many memories of swimming at Grandma and Pop Hunt's house. In fact, my 90 year old Pop came over this afternoon to watch the kids swim. He never wanted to swim in his own pool, but he always sat and watched the grandkids swim for hours on end :) It took me back to when I was little girl.

I just hope my children will one day realize how incredibly blessed they are. They have grandparents who love them dearly, take great care of them and spoil them rotten. The kids always have so much fun when they are with them. Their Nana and Papa have a beach house with a pool! They are definitely little water babies now!

Caleb snorkled all around the pool over and over and over.


Clayton's just chillin'

Our Baby is 5 Months!!!

It's hard to believe that Clayton is already 5 months old! Time has flown by and we are so in love with with this sweet boy.

Clayton is such a good, easy baby and he's happy almost all of the time. He loves it when you talk to him and he loves to talk back to you. He talks to us by making lots of sweet noises and by making a cute "kkeee" sound. It's so funny because it is the EXACT same sound that Caleb made when he was Clayton's age. It is funny how similar Clayton is to Caleb! They look alike, and they have very similar personalities. Caleb and Kathryn LOVE their baby. They love on him absolutely all the time and they always make him laugh. Clayton is a very blessed baby to have a big brother and sister who love him so much!

Clayton is getting so big now. He weighs about 15 pounds and he is constantly moving! He rolls from his back to his tummy and from his tummy to his back now. He loves to sit in his bumbo seat, jump in his "Johnny Jump Up" and play in his exersaucer. He still loves to swing as well! He is sleeping very well through the night and he takes good naps during the day. He loves to eat his cereal now too! He is very good and easy going. I guess he doesn't have a choice being the 3rd!

Kathryn's Polka Dot Party!

We celebrated Kathryn's 3rd birthday with a polka dot party! We invited some of Kathryn's close friends and family and we had a great time celebrating her! She has been talking about her birthday party and her birthday cake for months now, so she was so excited!

She wanted a big polka dot cake, so of course I had to deliver!

We blew up lots of balloons all over the den and the kids had a blast playing with them!

I decorated the yard with polka dots (colored pom pom's) and the kids ran around and collected them in little bags.

Here are the boys showing off the dots they collected

Then all the kids used their dots to make a "Polka Dot Creation"

Kathryn loves it when we sing "Happy Birthday" to her...

And blowing out her candles...

And eating her cake...

And opening up her presents...

And showing off her new things!

We had so much fun celebrating her birthday with her. She is such a sweet girl and we love her with all our hearts!

are a couple of family pictures with the birthday girl:

And I had to include a picture of our happy little Clayton at the party!