Dragonflies vs. Grasshoppers

Here are the pics from the big game tonight! I have no idea who won, but they all had fun. Notice Aiden's batman watch, that is so we will know which one is him on the field. :) Aiden was goalie for about half the game tonight and he actually stopped a few balls. :) Of course the biggest excitement of the night is when they get a snack at the end of the game! Aiden enjoyed his on the ride home with daddy.

Weekend Wedding

Our neighbor got married this past weekend at the beach, and another neighbor of ours took these pictures and sent them to me. As you can see he took a picture of our family, but I guess he thought we wanted a picture of the lighthouse, not the family. lol Oh well, we tried. It has been a crazy couple of weeks. We are all just now over all the sickness we had for over two weeks. We had Jason's Marines over again yesterday for a picnic. 25 of them this time! We plan to head to PA on Friday, after Jason gets home from work. I'll try to update before we leave. Thanks for all the comments you all have been leaving!! We love it!

Happy Birthday Liz!

I am so glad that God gave you to me as a sister. We miss you and wish we lived closer. Especially so I could borrow all your great clothes! :) We all love you!!

I found out today that a symptom of hand, foot and mouth disease is extreme irritability. I concur. Either that or my kids have chronic hand, foot and mouth disease.

Mighty Hunter

This is the deer that Jason got while hunting this past weekend. It is a huge deer in South Carolina standards, a nice 8 point. The deer here are very small. He shot this one in the woods in our neighborhood while hunting with his buddy Jamie. Sorry to any one out there that has a weak stomach, or is an animal rights activist. :)

A picture is worth a thousand words

So these pictures pretty much sum up my week. I finally took Kyle to the Dr. yesterday after he woke up for the 4th in a row morning with a fever. He has hand, foot and mouth disease, which sounds horrible, but is just a common childhood virus. Which explains the rash he has. He also had the flu on top of that. So Kyle had it the worst, so far. I noticed the rash starting on Aiden's hands and feet yesterday afternoon, so no soccer last night. He has only had a slight fever and been mildly grumpy. Of course all is mild compared to Kyles mood this past week. Ryleigh also seems a bit sick and her usual easy going attitude has been replaced with crankiness. She also has a cold. She does not want to be put down, either does Kyle, Aiden wants to be close.....you get the picture! " :'{ Here is a scene from last night as I was trying to make dinner:

Ryleigh was crying on the couch, Kyle was screaming and hanging to my legs and Aiden was opening and shutting kitchen cabinet doors. Apparently this really irritated Kyle (not hard to do these days) who kept screaming "STOP!!" Aiden just ignored him. Finally I said "Aiden please stop doing that, you are irritating Kyle and he is sick, so just stop." Aiden - "Mom, I'm not doing it to irritate Kyle, I am doing it to irritate Ryleigh." Me - "Aiden, Ryleigh isn't even in here, so just stop." Aiden - "Ok, I'll do it to irritate you." Me - "I really don't want to be irritated right now Aiden." Aiden - "Ok, I'll just irritate myself."

Chasing Butterflies & Catching Lizards

Catching butterflies & cute grins









There have been tons of butterflies around our flowers the last few days and the boys have had fun trying to catch them. They also have been trying to catch lizards. Yesterday Aiden found a lizard (not hard to do, they are everywhere) on the window and got a container to put it in. He slid the container up the window and was yelling at the lizard to jump in. I was watching from inside thinking "that is not going to work", but much to my surprise, and to Aiden's, the lizard actually went in the container! I don't know who was more surprised, the lizard or Aiden. Aiden quickly recovered from his shock, put a lid on the container and did an excited dance. He tried to bring it in the house, but I quickly stopped him. So, he put Kyle on lizard watch right outside the door. :)

Kyle has been sick since Monday, he showed a lot of improvement today, but he is still not himself. My first clue that he was sick was that he was laying on the couch in the morning, then he confirmed it throughout the day by throwing up all over me several times. Aiden is starting to act sick, so I guess we are in for round two.....

Life on Meagan Drive

Well the soccer game was hysterical. Twenty some kids going after one ball. They followed it around in a pack and then ended up in a huge pile of kids. Aiden lost focus a lot and kept trying to catch bugs. :)

Friday night Jason ran into some friends of ours that have a house right on the water. They told Jas to stop by on his way home. They had just steamed a bunch of crabs that they had caught that evening. They gave us a whole bag full of steamed crabs. Quite a treat for this Marylander who grew up eating crabs every summer. Sorry Dad that we called and rubbed it in. :)

Yesterday we took the kids to see "Open Season". They loved it and so did we. :} Before the movie Jason pulled up next to a nail salon, opened up the glove department and handed me a gift certificate for a manicure and pedicure. He took all three kids to Dairy Queen and I gave me some quiet time. I know, I know, what a guy. :)

There is a new game in our house (see pic above). Not sure what it is called, but it involves a sofa cushion and the steps. How do they think of these things? Currently we are trying to teach Kyle that my shirt is not a tissue and that putting his food under his chair or spitting it in the sunroom corner is not an option.

Soccer

Aiden started soccer last night. He was so excited. They pretty much just let them kick the ball around and tried to teach them the basics. Next week they actually play a game. That should be interesting. Some of the kids wouldn't even play they were just laying in the grass looking up at the sky. :) But, Aiden was totally into it, he didn't like having to give up the ball. He did a great job of not touching the ball with his hands and went to great lengths not to do so. When a ball would be stuck in the net, he would be trying to maneuver it out with his feet. His team is called the Dragonflies and their color is blue. They get their official shirts next week for the game. Wednesday night when we were putting the boys to bed Aiden asked if Ryleigh was going to come watch him play soccer. I said she was and that we would all be there. He said "But, Ryleigh won't know which one is me." I said "Don't worry I will show her where you are." He said "But, you won't know which one is me either. I got a great idea mom." Then he holds up his wrist and in an excited voice says "I will wear by Batman watch so you all can find me!" Keeping Kyle off the field was the challenge of the night. He was not happy that he couldn't play too. I guess we need to get him in some sort of sport soon. Today I found him playing "golf" with my soup ladle and a tomato. Next week we will have highlights from the big game, "Dragonflies vs. Grasshoppers"!!

Two months old

Ryleigh is two months old today! At her Dr. appointment on Friday she weighed 11 lbs. 9 1/2 oz. and is 23 in. long. She is smiling all the time now, and definitely knows Mommy and Daddy. She is starting to make cooing noises and likes to stick out her tongue. The boys continue to be infatuated with her. I have to watch them like a hawk. Today I had her on my bedroom floor while I ran to get a load of laundry out of the dryer. I came back (I was literally gone for 20 seconds) and she wasn't on the floor. I asked the boys where she was and they said "Under the bed." "How did she get under there?" I asked. "We dragged her under there." Needless to say, they were in trouble. Hopefully they don't try that again. I am sure it will be something else though.....

We had a quiet weekend. Oil changes, family walks, a date (yeah!) football. The week has started and it is going to be a busy one. The kids and I all have colds. The boys are being crazy as usual. As I type they are jumping off the guest room sofa flinging balloons and putting them on their heads (ones that have not been blown up). Each time they get ready to jump they say "Ready to rock and roll". :)

Marines

On Monday Jason had his Marines over for a picnic. He is now in charge of the Basic Marine Platoon which consists of Marines who have graduated boot camp, but have to stay on the island for some reason or another. Like healing from a broken ankle or require surgery of some sort. He currently has about 21 Marines, but some of them are on leave, so we had about 14 at our house. It was the easiest picnic I have ever hosted! I barely lifted a finger, every time I turned around they were taking out the trash or cleaning up. They were really happy to get off the island and be in a family atmosphere. They are a good group of kids, but having them over did make me feel a bit old. :) Especially when they kept calling me "ma'am". :)

The Weekend

Friday night we had the Kauffman family over, (old friends from PA) who were in town for their son Eric's graduation from Marine Corps Boot Camp. It was great to see people we haven't seen in years, to see how much their children have grown and have them be able to meet ours. The boys loved the Kauffmans and wanted to go home with them. Also, Happy Belated Birthday to Megan and Sarah!!!

We got Aiden his soccer equipment this weekend and Daddy showed him a few things in the back yard. He is super excited to start playing next week. Kyle wants to play too, but he is too young right now. I have a feeling it will be a challenge to keep him off the field when Aiden is playing.

Ferns and Black & White Photos

I adore this photo of Kyle. I think he looks a lot like Matt Aguilar, my cousin, who died about 15 years ago. He has that same mischievous look in his eyes and the same curly hair, only Matt's was dark like mine.
My new favorite photo. We took this photo with black and white film, and when I tried to scan it into the computer, it didn't turn out right. So I just took a picture of a picture. We don't claim to be photographers by any stretch of the imagination, but I think this one turned out really nice.
My ferns this year are huge!! Some of the leaves are actually touching the railing. These were just regular $7 ferns from Lowes I bought earlier this year. But, I learned a secret from a neighbor on how to get them to really grow. :) I hope I can keep them alive all winter.

More pictures from Mom and Dad's visit last week

Shrimp feast!!

Cute photo of all the kids.
Meeting Granddad, with proud daddy looking on.
Playing Playdough, a favorite pastime at our house
Cool block castle!

The Marsh

Here are some more photos from when we went on the Marsh Boardwalk on Hunting Island. You go across this long boardwalk to a little island, then another boardwalk to another little island. At the end is a big deck that you can fish, shrimp and crab from. When we first moved here I wasn't too impressed with the marsh views that I see everyday. I thought they were stinky breeding grounds for the terrible mosquitoes and sand fleas that seem to run the islands. But, after living here 2 years I have learned to appreciate the beauty of South Carolina Lowcountry. I might even (gasp) miss it when we move. I will not however miss the bugs.

More pictures from the beach

More pictures from our day at the beach. Hunting Island Beach is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to. And we live only 12 miles from it! The beach is lined with palm trees and driving in to the beach is really cool, it is dark and dense. Aiden says it is jungle. When we drive into the entrance Aiden always says "Be quiet, there are lions and tigers in here." I think Josh told him that last year! :) Notice the shrimp boat in the distance in one of the pictures. The other night when we went to get shrimp, we got it from a man our neighbor has been telling us about since we moved here. I usually buy it at a local stand down the road, but we decided to try Mr. Chism. I called and I believe he was on the boat shrimping as I was talking to him. He gave me directions to his house and I wrote them down the best I could understand. I didn't think we would actually find the place. We drove out to St. Helena's Island and made several turns on back roads and dirt roads. We drove up to a big house right on the marsh, I didn't think we had the right place, but someone pulled up in an old truck and I told them we were looking for Mr. Chism. He said "Right down there on the boat." So we went down to his dock and we bought the shrimp right off the boat. Can't get any fresher than that!! Mr. Chism now has our business!! A great Lowcountry experience.

I love the picture of Kyle with his arms outstretched to the ocean. He kept doing that over and over again. I would have loved to known what he was thinking.