The End

Its time to close this blog. Our tent is bigger! And now we are moving on to other chapters of life. I've started a new blog (one that I will hopefully update) for our family as we move overseas. If you would like to read that blog, just send me an email or a facebook message and I'll be glad to send you the address. Thank you for all the comments and conversations through this time. I can't wait to get my blog book made!

How to Take a Group Shot with a Timer

I’m coming out of blogging retirement to share with you some photography skills I’ve recently acquired. When you and your three year old stop by NC on the way to DC and want to get a group shot, this is how you do it.

Family Pictures

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend with some friends from church and one of the other moms was kind enough to take some family pictures for us.

 

Oh Kiran. These make me laugh so hard because I was that kid too. You can ask Chief. His wish came true and I got a kid just like me.  

For the Record

First word

Rhys: Ball (although as a good Southern boy it has about 6 syllables)

Owen: Uh-oh

I can’t help but wonder if there is any symbolism here?

Another One for the Books

Friday late afternoon we finally took off for the beach with J’s family. We were cruising along; I was driving as J was reading for his grad class. The kids were riding well and we were hoping to make it to Columbia before stopping for dinner.

Then I saw it.

The white smoke.

AGAIN.

Ten seconds later I had whipped that van off the interstate, up an exit ramp and to a gas station all without burning up the transmission or losing power. J & I piled out- him calling AAA and me calling some of our closet friends and asking if they would mind us spending the night at their house spontaneously? Geoff jumped in the car to rescue us from the side of the gas station parking lot and Bren started calling around hunting for pack n plays. I mean if we had to be stranded somewhere, our best friends’ house is a pretty good place.

We hadn’t been at the gas station in Newberry, SC for 10 minutes when we hear “Hey Caskeys!” Some friends from Furman were on their own way to the beach and had randomly decided to get off at that exit to calm their screaming baby. Thank you Lord. We had of course pulled off at an exit with no fast food and it was past dinner time. So my Jonathan went with friend Jonathan to get us food while Christina and her SIL (and sweet baby!) stayed and helped me with the kids. 

Geoff rescued us, Bren found beds for all of us and we had a fun night with some of our oldest friends in the world. It was actually really fun. The next day was spent moving the car to a transmission place, hearing bad news, trying to locate the ONE minivan for rent in Cola, moving all our stuff over and finally getting back on the road.

26 hours after we left, we arrived at the beach. I cannot praise my kids enough. They were such troopers.

So on Monday we find out that our transmission needs to be rebuilt. Our mechanic from the Upstate just happens to be in Columbia so he runs over there and takes a look. It was reassuring to know we were making the right decision.

So a couple thousand later, we have a new transmission, we enjoyed a nice minivan at the beach and made a thousand wonderful memories with our four kids who all ADORED the beach.

Its True!

The rumors are true!

When she wakes up in the morning, she will be THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday Baby Girl! You are growing up way too fast for this mommy. I’m glad we’ve agreed this will be your last birthday and you can be three forever.

Pinterest

Um are you on Pinterest? Because you should be. Unless you don’t have 7 hours a day to waste on it finding fun ideas like watermelon pancakes:

So if you are on Pinterest, let’s follow each other. And if you’re not I can send you an invite. I think. I’ll figure it out.

Really my biggest issue is getting off Pinterest and going and doing all the fun ideas I’ve gathered. It’s the creativity that has always been lacking in my brain.

I still love delicious though. In fact sometimes I find stuff on Pinterest, click on the link from where it originated and save that link on delicious with a whole bunch of tags. That’s the best part about delicious- you can put all kinds of tags on it so I can almost always find the link I’m looking for. Almost.

And I like GoodReads too.

Any other tagging, browsing, organizing sites I need to be aware of?