Our Sunday in Pictures

The weather has been a-w-e-s-o-m-e here. One of the things I love about Greenville is that there is always something to do when it's nice out and even though it's essentially the same thing, with a few changes here and there, it NEVER gets old. Love it!

The day started with a visit to Starbucks that we enjoyed outside.


P was very uninterested in anything but her toy and the strap to the stroller


Really? Can you pah-lease get that thing outta my face, momma!


I have a feeling it won't be too long before she is munching on pink doughnuts or scones just like her brother.


We didn't really have anything on the agenda so we strapped in the littles and let Lane guide us.


He informed us he wanted to go see the animals, so we walked to the zoo, stopping to explore along the way...aka...to feed Parker. :-)








milk coma...


When we were done going through the zoo, we realized we were probably closer to home, but still had to walk back downtown to get our car. Needless to say we did a lot of walking. But it was great!

When we got back to Main St. we stopped for a quick snack and some lemonade and tea before calling it a day.






Love this little profile.


Of course, when we got home, we played outside until the sun went down because this little guy wanted to.

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Hello from the Frozen Tundra

We're still in IL. The weather prevented us from returning last weekend as originally planned. The project Matt was overseeing was delayed and since he didn't have a flight to reschedule, he thought it was best to hang around for a few more days. Good thing our schedule is flexible! It's been over a week since the BIG storm. The snow is still hanging around and people....it's freakin' freezing here! I went for a run outside yesterday. What was I thinking?! About 30 minutes into it, I started to panic. I think my brain was frozen and causing me to have irrational thoughts. I couldn't feel my fingers...any of them and they appeared to be stuck in a bent position. My nose was soooo cold, I had thoughts of it actually stop working and my face felt like it was on fire. When I got home, it looked like I was sunburn and it took my body hours to regulate my temperature. Needless to say, I think I'll stick to running at the gym when I'm here in the winter.

Last Friday, we went to Lacey's house because she has a treadmill and we each thought we'd get in a workout while the other person sat with the kids. She lives on a farm, if you remember. And while I would LOVE that property in the summer...I'm not so sure I would in the winter.

This is the snow my brother in law had to clear for them to drive down their lane.






And just to get an idea of how high it really is:

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Seriously rough 'round these parts

Well, I'm sure you've seen on the news that the south got hit with what the news is calling, an EPIC snow storm.

snoooooooowwwww


We actually did get snow...like a foot of it in some parts of the Upstate. And that means we have been confined to the house for going on the 2nd day. And even if we decided to leave, we couldn't because Matt has taken our car to work considering his rear-wheel wouldn't get him anywhere but a ditch, most likely.



Yesterday was Operation Clean-Up Toy World 2011. Lane's (and now Parker's) toys have been scattered about numerous toy baskets for 2 years now. We keep getting more toys, we keep adding more baskets. Lane at least once an hour asks me "where gasses" to his Mr. Potato Head or "oh no! I need block to put in dere." and if I get lucky, I find it in the last basket I go through, but most likely I don't find it at all and we have to play with something else. But yesterday, yesterday was magic in sort-and-find-all-the-missing-pieces-to-their-toys-land and I was able to organize each toy and all its pieces into a plastic bin with a lid and label it. That way everything has a place and the bigger toys that are not easy to lose can find a place in the baskets. It was amazing and a little bit hard when the owner of those toys was walking around to each bin and saying "no, dat's mine" and throwing them out of the bin.


But we did it and now we can find everything. At least for the next week until they are all mixed together again. :-)

And Parker, well I can only conclude that she is probably starting to teeth because when she looks like this the past few days:




I promise I did not give her anything!


And sometimes this:


And does this nonstop:
mmmmmmmm, fingers


And tries to eat your face with force when you go in for a kiss:


And has been waking a couple times a night to nurse.

I can only guess that one or two are probably coming?

And Lane, who hasn't acted out ONE bit since Parker was born, may be testing some waters right now. He has been potty trained since August and hasn't had an accident since Oct. He wakes up dry from his naps and nighttime and has never had an accident at school, BUT the past 2 days he has pooped in his pants 2 times a day. WTH?! Seriously ROUGH!

So besides for munching

on strawberries, (that apparently are making "us" poop in our pants)


our hands


and staying in our PJ's for most of the day, not too much else is going on around here. But I'm ready for some warm temps. and sun to get rid of this snow. We seriously need out of here...we're starting to wear pig hats on our heads

(Ok not really all of us, I just had to throw that one in there!)

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Grandma and Grandpa Day 1!

So the McConvilles pulled up around 9ish on Thursday. We let Lane stay up even though it wasn't a far stretch from his bedtimes these past few weeks. With the time change and weather, staying outside until the street lights come on is just what we do every night. I love it!
I had dinner waiting for them after their long exhausting day of driving. We caught up, Lane dished out hugs, kisses, and cheese like his Lane-self and Grandma and Grandpa just ate it up! Nearing 10 o'clock and a wishy-washy toddler, we sent him to bed. He most certainly didn't protest and after he drifted off into lala land, we stayed up until late, like almost midnight late (at least that's late to me), and caught up. It was nice.

On Friday we got up and got dressed and headed downtown for some coffee. We had record breaking temps.-like 90 degree record breaking temps.-that day so we spent the whole morning and afternoon downtown. I am not prepared for summer yet, so my diaper bag was still packed for winter which means we had no sunscreen (or actually none left from last year) for the little man. No worries! We stopped in at the Mast General Store and picked up some SPF's for him and sunglasses for Daddy and spent some more time soaking up the sun!

Around naptime, we grabbed lunch-to-go and headed back to our house, dodging any major I'm-tired-hungry-sweaty-and-hot-so-take-me-home-tantrums (out of me or Lane!) ;-) I thought that since he'd spent a good majority of the morning and early afternoon running around that he would sleep for hours! We put the little man down and took our lunch out to the deck. I had to work from 2-5 so I headed out and they relaxed and rested up for the night.

After a proper happy hour,

 

that I didn't partake in, we headed to Main St. Jazz! We ordered some pizzas and grabbed those on our way downtown. We set up camp, ate some pizza,

had dance lessons,

indulged in some refreshments, and took in the music. It was an absolutely beautiful night. At 10 o'clock when we were heading home it was still 80 degrees with the most glorious breeze. Ahhh! I love me some of those summer nights. Although, in reality, that isn't at all what a summer night feels like here...it's about 10 degrees hotter with 127% humidity. (Ok, ok, I know that if the humidity is 100% it rains, but the humidity here calls for some exaggeration!)

There you have it folks, Grandma and Grandpa Day 1! Success!

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Spring Break Week

This week is Spring Break for all the schools in Greenville County. When I checked the forecast, I thought of my fellow teachers I taught with at Bryson. Looks like they are going to have an awesome week whether they head to the beach or hang around Greenville. Even though Lane and I aren't really on Spring Break (because technically we have every week off! :-)), we will be sure to enjoy this spring weather as well! And not to mention a pretty decent forecast for our next visitors arriving this week, Grandma and Grandpa McConville!

Hurry up Grandma and Grandpa, we can't wait to see you!

But you better bring your running shoes or this might be the only glimspe of what you'll see of Lane!

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In the past 3 days

• we've had an awesome time with Papa and Nene, life is just fuller when they are around.
• we've had record amounts of rainfall and they still have yet to see the South Carolina sun I am so fond of...sorry guys.
• we've all been puked on and/or pooped on, yes, gross, I know, but truthful.
• Lane has woken up out of a dead sleep 2 different nights laying in a pile of his puke...sorry for the TMI!
• we've decided the common denominator is raisins. He had them for a snack both days he's woken up sick.
• Lane has been bathed 2 times as much than he has in the past week combined.
• Lane has had 6 different sets of sheets on his bed that have been washed and dried 3 different times.
• Lane has had 6 different pajama changes.
• we've been to Rite Aid 4 times for various reasons including stocking up on Pedialyte.
• we've laughed a lot.
• we (meaning my mom and I) have been to 2 different Kohl's 2 different days and bought way too much for a certain Mr. Man. How many Easter outfits does a 1 year old need?
• we have also done some damage at Old Navy.
• we've talked about how we have 3 more days to shop some more...:-)
• we've taken at least a hundred and fifty pictures...can you tell?

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Birthday Weekend Part II

Taking advantage of the first "warm" weekend we've had in a while, we decided that Sunday we would go to the zoo. It's about a 5 minute drive from our house. It's right near Cleveland Park, our favorite park we always go to. Apparently everyone else in Greenville had the same idea! It was packed. People and cars everywhere. There were cars parked in places I had never seen cars before. We played at the park for a little while, waiting for the line at the zoo to slim down a bit.

This year I knew I wanted to get an annual pass to the zoo. It's only $49.00 for our family and that includes unlimited zoo access for the 3 of us for the year, 6 guest tickets and free admission to over 200 hundred other zoos across the U.S. You really can't beat it. The regular admission to the zoo is $6.00/adult so if we go more than 4 times then we will get our moneys worth. I know Lane and I will be there a lot this spring and summer. It's big enough to enjoy, but small enough to navigate. He was having a complete ball roaming freely around the zoo. He really enjoyed the freedom of being out of the stroller.

He really wanted out here, but we were in line and there is a parking lot near by so I wanted to contain him until we got in...he was pretty happy about it :-)

Looking at the HUGE elephants...

Turtles

On our way to Africa to see the lions and giraffes.

Apparently he feels the same way about giraffes as Aunt Cece does.

Cheeser

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