Saying Good Bye is Hard To Do...

As we start packing and getting ready to move back overseas... it comes with a roller coaster of emotions. There is a lot of excitement about moving to France, for sure! However, there are a lot of unknowns that come with moving to a new place too. A new culture, a(nother) new language, new friends, new schools, new everything... that can be hard. But before all the exciting "new-s" happens... there are a lot of hard good byes we have to say.
When we came back almost a year ago, Sadie Mac had never met her cousins... and she is quite fond of all of them now. The past two weekends have been rather hard as we have had to say "see you (in a few years)" to them. Sadie Mac and Noah both have bonded with them and WE LOVE them all so much. We love what we do, but it's hard at times too. This is one of those times. Thanks for a wonderful year of loving on us all!!!

Here are some pics of time with our New Bern cousins...





Last week, she spent the week with Grandma Jannie for some bonding and cousin time. Here are pics with the Ellerbe Girls... (Sorry, no pics with Kinnley... glad you were there for the fun though!! LOVE YOU!)

Sadie Mac... The Birthday Girl!

I shake my head in disbelief that I have a three year old daughter. It's crazy to me. Somehow... it just doesn't seem real. I told Stephen we no longer have a baby girl, but she really is growing up. (I know... that is what kids do!) We have real conversations now. Yes, they are 3 year old in context... but she responds with more than just a "no" and asks "how", "where", "when" and "why" questions... she amazes me.
To celebrate HER... we had a wonderful party celebrating her 3 years of life! Her first American Birthday with friends and family from far and near. We were so thankful for good weather as thunderstorms had been forecasted. Never would we have thought we would be here this long... but it was a blessing to be able to enjoy tastes of America for her birthday this year.
Family and friends from hours away came... even if it was only for an hour to give the birthday girl a hug. Everyone made the day very special for us. We know we'll be leaving for France soon... so each day and hour is a treasure. Here are some of our captured memories...



Cake. Dora & Diego. She loves them. I told her I couldn't find Diego things (several weeks prior) and she said, "But mom... you can make one." Her confidence challenged me and encouraged me. I had to make a special cake for her. And that... I did. I did a cupcake cake. Lots of cupcakes piled together with a scene on top... lots of work... but she deserves the best. ;-)

Dipping in the cool mountain water. Lots of fun and swimming. So thankful to my sister who was the "life guard" and official dipper of the kids to the water!

Stephen made her a pinata... packed with candy, whistles, jewelry, and bouncy balls!


Tea Party... for the birthday princess and cousin princesses after the birthday party! (Tea Parties are a daily occurrence at our house!)


Sadie Mac had her first hair cut on her 3rd birthday. Thank you Aunt Dot for giving it to her!

My Little Crafty Girl

I have a little crafty one on my hands. Every day she is wanting to do arts and crafts. On a daily basis I get the question, "Mom, can we do a project?" It makes me smile and also is making me learn to be super creative. I'm learning from lots of other blogs... THANK YOU OTHER MOMS WHO HAVE GONE BEFORE ME (and blog about it!!!)*** I'm working on new ideas, especially for the plane ride to France (8 some odd hours!)
We have also been working on spelling her name. She gets super excited when she sees "S" because she KNOWS that one!! She has actually gotten to where she can recognize each letter (usually!) We had fun working on each of the letter... using painting, stickers, feathers, and learning other words that start with that letter! What an adventurer... What a joy. This is her jumping and throwing a feather because she knew all the letters!!!




And this is my Noah. I just think he's super cute and wanted to show him off...




***To Other Mom's who look at my blog... here are some of my favorite crafty blogs:
thinkliz.com
familyfun.go.com
makeandtakes.com
chasingcheerios.blogspot.com
... and others.

If you know of a good one, PLEASE leave it for me as a comment!!! Blessings and happy toddler mom-ing!

Hot 'Lanta!!!

We headed down to Atlanta to work on getting our visas for France. We live in the mountains of NC where the weather is what you'd call "really nice"... not too hot, not too cold... "just right" as Goldie Locks would say. Well, we learned they don't call Atlanta, "HOT 'Lanta" for nothing!! It was quite warm while we were there. Our hotel was right near Centennial Park so we enjoyed seeing that area. They even had a couple of little tot lot parks right around there so Sadie Mac had a ball!



Since it's a good little drive, we thought we'd enjoy at least one tourist stop, so we went to the World of Coca Cola!! We all had a great time and even enjoyed seeing the BIG Polar Bear and got a pic with him. Noah wasn't that impressed as he slept through the meeting! We also got to see a 4-D movie and Sadie Mac LOVED it! She enjoyed meeting a statue of the Coke Man too! Thankful for a fun little family adventure before we head back overseas!!

It's Birthday Week!!!!

In our family, we don't just get a birthday day... we get a BIRTHDAY WEEK!! I mean, why just get a day to celebrate?!? Sadie Mac will be 3 in a week (which I can't believe!) and we have had some struggles with her understanding when her birthday was. You see, Stephen's birthday was May 18th and we told her, that she was next to celebrate... (in OUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY). But, what she doesn't understand is that cousins, aunts, and Father's day were all reasons to celebrate too... she has been waiting and waiting!! So, we decided to make a birthday chain!!! We rip one down every night! And boy is she excited! We started it at the beginning of July and "birthday week rings" have special jewels and feathers, glitter and stickers! Here are our supplies...



And here are 3 rings for birthday week!!!! (This was the start of the chain!)

Oh Brother....!!!

So we were taking pics the other day of "Big Sister" and "Little Brother" in their tshirts having lots of fun with that. Sadie Mac is not enjoying taking pics right now, so I basically have to bribe her. Well, in the midst of taking the pics, we were laying down on the ground and I feel like I can see a conversation in these pics between the two of them.... what do you think??...

Noah... "Sadie Mac, I'm going to get you... (makes baby growl sound)... here I come."
Sadie Mac thinking, "Really little brother, is that all you got?"....

Sadie Mac, "(BIG SISTER GROWL) I'm gunna get you... ROAR...!!!!! This brother is how you "get someone"!!!
Noah, (all laughs)!!!!


Well, here is one of those bribed pics... she probably enjoyed some M&Ms after... it was fun. I just love these two!
(Noah thinking: I'm not smiling until I get some M&Ms!!!)

Party at the Park!!

My sister Avee recently celebrated her 19th birthday!! We went to Price Park and had a great time... sadly Judd and family weren't able to be there... but we celebrated the bday girl in true summer fun! We had a great picnic and then played in the creek for a good while! We loved letting the little cousins play together and enjoy the warm weather, splashing around in the creek! While we all played and splashed, NanNan enjoyed special time with Noah, and he enjoyed special time with her.
As much as we are ready to move to France, we're really enjoying the blessing of being around family while we wait for visas.


Chocolate on chocolate... just what the birthday girl ordered

Our Week With Grandma... by Sadie Mac & Noah

Last week our grandma came to visit us. She says it is hot and dry where she lives so she needed a break from the heat and dryness... and from all the chores our Poppie makes her do. So, we invited her to stay with us for a little while. We are sure glad she came to stay as we had lots of fun. She is really good at taking pics and takes lots of them so we can all remember the fun things we have done while we're in America.
One of my favorite things was dressing up in fancy clothes and having tea parties... we did this a lot!! Grandma is a really pretty princess and I love it when she wears funny crowns on her head. One day we even had a tea party on our porch. The weather was very nice the week she was here... hot some days, but not like down in the sandhills!



Grandma teaches school so she is really good at reading. She loves to read to me and Noah. Here is a book she was reading to Noah one day... He likes to be with her.


Sometimes we went out to eat too!


Noah's favorite thing to do with Grandma was snuggle... and I think that was probably one of her favorite things to do with Noah too...


As you can see... more snuggling


Grandma grows her own vegetables in her garden, so she was teaching me to grow my own garden. We planted tomatoes together!!!


This is when mom got caught up in my tent and tunnel...


Then chased me around our yard!!!!


And after all that fun... this is all we have to say...


Thank you Grandma for coming to stay a week with us. We love you so much and were so glad you came to visit...

Love,
Sadie Mac and Noah

Celebrating 5 Years...

On June 23, Stephen and I CELEBRATED the blessing of marriage and how thankful we are that God has placed us together. I can't believe it's been 5 years... and a wonderful 5 years it has been!



We were at the beach with my family and so were blessed to have babysitters so we could enjoy our time out with just each other. A quiet night, I guess you could say! He planned a special dinner for us at a neat little restaurant near where we were... then surprised me by taking me back to the place on the beach where he asked me to be his bride... and I said "YES"... all over again!



The rest of our time was wonderful as well... we enjoyed time with my brother and his family and one of my sisters. We all got lots of sun and of course napped... here are my two little blessings as beach bums!!!


Family pic... with Avee!