I love Lucy

After an 'emotional' roller coaster of an afternoon with Lucy, it dawned on me that the pre-teen stage is nearing sooner than I thought!  Lucy be-bopped in the door from school happy as a lark going on and on about her day at school….next minute she is in tears and MAD b/c she couldn't do a triple pattern for a rainbow loom bracelet! what?!?!! I got her calmed down and asked if there was anything else bothering her and she said no. Five minutes later she is dancing her heart out to some 'Hairspray' songs and then she has another bout with the darn rainbow loom! Girls! Drama! I guess I better stock up on some dramatic patience as these three girls gauge at 100% for personality and girly drama!

 Oh Lucy, she is sweet when she wants but then can be mean as a snake to her sister….ridiculously flexible, gets lost in another world while dancing in our playroom, sings and makes up lyrics from her heart, yearns to learn the piano and guitar, loving her new church choir, is a mini-mother, already loves boys and sadly flirts with them (but I loved to hang out with boys when I was younger so maybe it's genetic?), has a fashion sense that is improving (thank goodness), puts on lounge wear as soon as she gets home from school, sometimes lacks confidence but keeps trying, loves her friends and teacher at school, loves her some lemonade, chinese food, pumpkin pie, goldfish, muffins….(in no certain order)…has gotten the 'running bug'- runs three miles like it's nothing, has a competitive spirit in athletics (wonder where she got that from)…..I could go on and on but  she's my girl.  Deep down, she is a homebody just like her mama and loves to be at home with her family.  While I hope she can spread her wings some day- I'm gonna keep them clipped while I can!

Go Deacs!

  Despite living literally 5 minutes away from my alma mater, I went to my first football game of the season today! It was a nice fall day for a football game…not too cool and not too hot!  We only made it the first quarter due to nap time and a squirmy toddler but we had fun tailgating and seeing the Deacons score!

Leaves to Sand…..

I feel like the leaves are about to overtake our house!  I blow them and an hour later, you can't see the ground again!  We had a little break from the leaves this past weekend and went to the beach for an annual weekend.  We have been going since Josh and I were dating!  Pawleys Island was beautiful this time of year…we were lucky to have a mild weekend! The food, friends, relaxation and laughter was just what the doctor ordered! I think my body is reminding me today that I can't stay up that late three nights in a row- YAWN!

My in-laws kept the girls here in W-S. They had a great laid back weekend. The only thing they had planned was that Lucy's church choir sang at the Junior League's shopping 'Bootique' extravaganza! The following clip is of her choir and mini solo!

 the only other pictures I took this weekend were these:

Josh turns 39!

Today was a special birthday in our household! Daddy/husband turned 39! One more year til'
the big 4-0.  As I mentioned in a previous post, we celebrated with his parents in Nashville this past weekend but we had our own lil' family celebration this evening b/t Lucy's tap dance,choir rehearsal and homework so it was a little crammed in but special nonetheless!  Dinner out with Evelyn is a little tricky at the moment so he opted for pizza in!  Lucy decorated his cookie cake to match his UNC wrapping paper and table decor!  Josh is participating in the 'Movember' thing…still a little prickly for my liking and  a lot of gray but he is still handsome as always! Happy Happy to my one and only!  Our girls light up when he gets home and my heart still skips a beat when he smiles…..cheers to a wonderful and loving father, husband, son, son in law, and best friend!

 got our house painted for him…..wonderful job by Kristen Kluttz!

Nashville!!

In planning our new 'annual race/family' trip….we picked Nashville, TN this year! Josh and his Dad love to run races.  Last year we all went to Savannah for the Rock n Roll 1/2….so to start a new tradition, we looked up races in the southeast in November (we also celebrate Josh' November birthday)….we picked the Hard Rock 1/2 Marathon in Nashville this past weekend. We left Evelyn with my parents and drove west!  We spent Thursday night in Knoxville and headed to Nashville Friday morning. After picking up their race packets, we went downtown to the 'honky tonk' district! We had a delicious lunch at Puckett's Grocery then went to the Ryman Auditorium and toured the Country Music Hall of Fame! We were not disappointed! The CMA Awards had just been two days before so there was still a lot of 'buzz' in the city!

That night we attempted to go to the famous Bluebird Cafe but the line was way too long to wait with kiddos so maybe another time!  Saturday morning, it was race time! Josh had a personal record of 1:33.56! I was so proud of him! Grandpa Jeff did really well too! He cut 30 minutes off his time from last year! The girls made posters and we rang bells for them as we cheered them on at the finish line!

we also 'semi stalked' taylor swift on this trip. We had a feeling she would be in town b/c of the CMA awards…turned out that her apartment building was two blocks from our hotel! The first afternoon, we decided to ride by her building and her mom was pulling out in her white Range Rover! I was pointing at her and she was laughing at me! There were others in the car but we couldn't tell who they were! We didn't see her but saw her mom so the girls were excited! Our concierge told us that when she is in town that she lights up a tree in her penthouse and we saw it lit every night! You could  see her place from our hotel window so I found Lucy in our windowsil a lot!

we had a great time! I really liked Nashville! Think I could even live there except that it is too far from the coast!!! I hope we can go back soon! It was fun, but I was glad to come home to this:

Halloween this year

Well, while I said I was not going to back track 7 months, I am going to post few things that have happened as of late!  Halloween was a few weeks ago…we had the perfect weather for Halloween! IE, not coats, under layers, etc!  School was out the following day which made it so much easier as we didn't have to rush everyone to bed for a 'school night'.
 Alice decided what she wanted to be first *not surprising*….she picked out the 'pop star' costume with accessories out of the Chasing Firelies catalogue!  Despite having to cut a foot off of the dress (she is a shrimp still), she was ready to go dive style!  At the end of the night, she said (so excited and seriously)…'Mom! Someone actually asked me for my autograph!'

Lucy then decided to be Taylor Swift! This is very fitting for her! We decided to go with one of the looks from her recent RED tour's concert that she saw twice! Despite missing the blonde hair and guitar which we thought would be a bit cumbersome- she was great!

 

Next but not least was our little Evelyn! We had several choices for her….an old orange cat costume which we decided would be too hot……she loves abby cadabby from sesame street so I got all the parts to that but the 'dress rehearsals' soon proved that it was not going to stay on very long so she wore that to preschool for the halloween parade.  She LOVES to make a pig snorting sound so I found this piggy costume at a local consignment shop for $9!!!! It was perfect for her!

ABBY Cadabby and our little pink PIGGY

All in all, Halloween was fun success this year! Everyone got a lot of candy and was tuckered out when we got home! Evelyn really got in the 'trick or treating' part which surprised me! She went up to every door her sisters did and said 'Peez' aka 'Please!"