the kids artistic sides

The kids are showing their artistic sides. Not only the artist sides but their wild sides as both recently got inked. Yes, Livy found markers (I was clueless she could get the lids off) and chewed one. Any guesses for the color???

and Ian a pen (again).
The pictures don't do justice to the true art expressed. To this point in my life with kids, neither have drawn on the walls but I am not holding my breath.

Missy Prissy

So I feel that in order to balance the posting about I. here are some of L.'s moments.

She is a climber monkey and it seems she is attracted to the most unstable of things--a laundry basket, a trash can, etc. to try to pull herself to stand. And who needs alphabetized movies?

She is already a girl loving mommy's shoes, makeup and concerned about her weight as she does her weigh in like the rest of the family.

And she likes to taste test things in the kitchen. I gave her the spoon after I mixed up some rice krispie treats and she thought she was in heaven.

Tired but worth it

Yesterday we went to Columbia so that I could go to the temple to do some work for a relative. It was a sweet experience. We all made the journey with Brett watching the kids while I was at the temple.

After that we went to a suprise visit to the zoo something we had planned but kept secret from Ian. He loved it. The giraffes were his favorite. He loved the penguins also and Livy giggled at them swimming by her each time. Despite the hot temperatures it was great.

We even stopped at Macaroni Grill for me on the way home! Yum. Great trip to Columbia!

Fabulous Fourth

Our fourth of July was great despite me striking out for a third time on trying to find a holiday related activity for our family. Christmas was not so great at our City's celebration at the municipal building, Easter was disappointing as the egg hunt we went to had not one piece of candy in the eggs but only a tiny single sticker in each egg, and the fourth of july parade that we had wanted to see at 4pm didn't start until 7pm and didn't even have a band. Here we are en route to the parade.So Brett is choosing for us the next holiday.

Truly though, we were able to buy a new bed (whoowho!) for us, grill out (complete with Brett's "fire shirt" aka grill apron,

and Ian got to see fireworks with Brett while I stayed home with with wee one. We managed to do a few sparklers in celebration at home too!

Little Girls

So exciting to have a little girl because today she got her first ever ponytail. It lasted for about 2 minutes. I'm honestly not sure if you can even count this as a ponytail because it is about as long as a fingernail; but to me, it counts and therefore she is about to enter the realm of hair do-dads. Pretty exciting stuff. On to painted toenails...in about a year :)

We've Been Here a year....

So we have been in South Carolina for a year now in our home. That's Brett opening up our front door for the first time a year ago after we closed.

And in honor of our new state SC, here are some S.C. things associated with our new area.

1. Southern Cooking- Fried doesn't just apply to chicken any more and gravy doesn't just belong on mashed potatoes solely either.

2. Sandy Cars - Refer to early post about our beach outing with children but it's just not the beach outing that we seem to attract sand it is anywhere.

3. Slow Commuters - Particularly in rain or when merging onto the interstate

4. Snakes & Critters - I won't share the details of all that we have seen up close and personal to spare the faint of heart

5. Sandals or Crocs - The shoes of choice for every outing. My crocs have great jibbitz thanks to my oldest sister and those jibbitz are quite the thing at playgroup.

And last but certainly not least....

6. Sweaty Climate or Sweltering Conditions or Sticky Clothing....they all mean the same thing and that is it is HOT AND HUMID!!!