Soccer Season Starts!!!

Today our soccer season started. Sydney is on an coed team called the Tigers sponsored by Kids Teeth. I am her head coach and daddy is he assistant. Daniel is on a boys U8/9 team called The Strikers. Daddy is his head coach as I assist him.

Daniel had his first game goal tonight for this season. Sydney played very well and almost made a goal tonight. She had great defensive plays.

It's going to be a fun season.

Summer of Lazy Beach Days

This summer being our first living at the beach we took advantage and spent a lot of time there. I have gotten very comfortable taking the kids to the beach while daddy works. We enjoyed many trips with daddy as well. The kids love to fly kites there and build sand castles. Kenny's favorite thing is to drive cars in the sand. Daniel and Sydney love to catch the waves and ride them in. 

Let's Go Fly a Kite.....

We went down to the pier in our neighborhood and used the high wind there to fly ours kites. It wasn't as good as we thought it would be. Next trip will be to the beach.

Memorial Day 2013

Well we kicked off the Weekend with a trip to Maw maw and Paw paw's House in Loris, SC. PaPa Peter came along too. We had a wonderful barbeque and sat and watched the kids play. Mom and dad got the ok from the State to move into the house that they have been building for 3 1/2 years. It looks so great. I think they will officially be living and sleeping in the house in about 2 weeks. I am so happy for them and excited to share in the many celebrations there.

Kids being kids..

Our kids love to play outside.. so here are three random shots I pulled from Stefan's phone of the kids..

Pool day

It's 82 in Charleston today. Great day for the pool. Papa Peter is enjoying the sun from not being able to be in it for over a month being in hospital/ rehab. Sun naps are the best!! Footballs, pirate ships and doll babies having fun too!

Mother's Day 2013

This year my mom and I drove to NC to spend time with Grandma for Mother's day. It was a great trip.I was so thankful to see her looking so good.

I spent most of the time there like this.. in her arms. I felt like I was 8 yrs old again, as she rubbed my head. It was hard not to think that this might be the last time I see her alive on this earth. She has been such a great grandma and mentor to me. She is so smart. She is the best cook. As far as I know I am the only one who can reproduce her famous pound cake. It was one of the hardest parts about moving to SC..leaving her. I was the only one close to her for over 12 years. So many hospital stays with her and grandpa and help caring for them and running errands. Its ironic, because now I wish I had spent more time with her and grandpa. I wish I hadn't let the busy schedule with the kids enjoying them more as an adult. I love her more than words can express.

Then I woke up Mother's Day morning to three of the sweetest hand made cards from my kiddos and an awesome one from Stefan, along with breakfast in bed. We then packed up and went to Folly Beach for a day in the sun. It was a blast and perfect way to celebrate.

Sydney's Dance Recital

Sydney's Dance Recital was Mother's Day weekend. I had the pleasure of being one of the dance moms helping back stage with the girls. The girls did a ballet routine to "These are a few of my Favorite things", Sound of Music, and a tap routine to "A Spoon full of Sugar" Mary Poppins. Sydney loved the music. She did so well. So Proud of her. Afterwards we went to Rehab to see PaPa Pete since he was not able to go to her recital and Sydney performed for him.

Happy Cinco de Mayo from my three amigos!

Stefan's work

Ever since moving away from everything the kids knew, for daddy's new job, the kids have been very curious about what he does. We took one Saturday and he drove us to his work and showed us around and where he works in the lab. The kids had a ton of questions and a blast. Especially for the free lemonades, since his work has a free beverage/fountain drink area. Lol.

Daniel and baseball

Daniel is having a great season in baseball this year. His team is undefeated and he has been enjoying playing first and second base. His hitting has improved as well. He is hitting way into the outfield. So proud of his effort.

Kenny and his Frog

Kenny found this frog in our back yard and played with it for hours. He was so gentle with it. He was very proud of his catch. He was sad when we had to return it to the woods to come in for bedtime. But we will find another one I am sure.

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Kenny-um um good...

I just love this boy....

Dog training

Prince has gotten big. We are still going back and forth every day if we will be keeping him because he is crazy but we are having fun some days with training him. Here is Daniel training him to play fetch the ball.

First ice cream of the Spring/summer season from the Ice Cream truck

We were outside playing and then we heard it. The faint little music that comes from the ice cream truck 3 streets away. It was a fast scramble to see if we had money so the kids could get an ice cream. We did and they enjoyed these sweet treats.

Daniel's baseball team

Fun day out

Visiting with PaPa Peter

We have been trying to make the best of Peter being in rehab. We visit him often and the kids think its cool to get into the bed with him. Luckily he doesn't mind. Hopefully he will be home soon. 

PaPa Pete's bday

Peter is staying with us due to a bone infection and not able to get around very much. We had a pizza picnic in the basement with him and then cake. He seemed to enjoy it.

Daddy's bday

Stefan turned 38 this year. We celebrated by going out to dinner at PF Changs and the kids made a poster and hand picked out some gifts for him. I think he had a great time. We were suppose to go out of town and to the Great Wolf Lodge for his birthday but due to Papa Peter being in the hospital we canceled the trip to be close to him.

 

Pizza party with neighbor friends

10 yrs since Stefan asked me to marry him!

April around Easter 10 years ago Stefan asked me to marry him. Boy has it been a whirlwind.. wouldn't change it for the world.

Easter 2013

It was our first Easter in Charleston, SC. Boy did we miss our church family back in NC. Easter was always such a joyous occasion at LCC. We did have a great service in SC at CBC. We brought our neighbors daughter with us as well. I normally host Easter Dinner at our home, but due to Peter feeling ill and mom and dad, building their home it was just our crew for dinner.Our Savior has risen Indeed!

Spring Break with Mom and Aunt Jennifer's family

Mom invited us to come visit her when Jennifer and her family was coming down for their spring break. I never would have thought we would have had as much fun as we did.. I loved it and hope we plan more of these.. We did an Easter egg hunt, Mom and Dad gave the kids a big Easter egg filled with many goodies and we got to hide for them to find. We played lots of soccer and football and chase the dog. Even a good family football game which was a little too intense for both Daniel and Brock. My family lost.. we will get them next year.

Upwards basketball 2013

Another year of Upward Basketball, but this time in SC. We were blessed to find a program in Charleston.
Stefan and I coached again this year. The boys were awesome. On several occasions Daniel was the first player from both teams to score the first shot of the game. I love to see his energy in playing sports. He is great to coach as well.

Upwards Cheerleading

Finally, Sydney is able to participate in Upwards Cheer leading. I was the teams Coach. We were the Angels. She was a great to coach and I loved the girls. So proud of their growth throughout the season.

Day 3 Hollywood Studios

This was our 2nd favorite park. The kids loved meeting all the characters and Sydney love the Beauty and the Beast Show and Daniel loved The Indian Jones Show. We saw a parade with a lot of characters. Kenny fell a sleep for a couple hours this day right when we got in line to meet his favorite Jake from the Never Land Pirates. But Jake had fun with him and even stole his lovie and pretended to suck his thumb. No worries we got his picture with him another day. Daniel also liked the Star Wars part. Not the ride....did I mention he hates roller coasters...well he does and refused to ride even the star wars ride a second time. They had fun going to "jedi school" and fighting Darth Vader. (click to make pictures bigger)

Day 2 Magic Kingdom 3 of 3

Also on our 2nd day we planned for Daniel to visit The Pirates League and be made into Captain Jack Sparrow. He loves the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and we knew he was going to be excited to be transformed. We got a deal so we signed Sydney and Kenny up as well. Boy did they get transformed. The wenches really stayed in character as each lady worked on each child. Kenny was turned into Jake from the Neverland Pirates. Sydney was turned into a Princess Pirate and of course Daniel was transformed into the one and only Captain Jack Sparrow. They later came back and participated in the pirate parade and even got to meet Captain Jack and take the pirate oath. (click to make bigger)

Day 2 Magic Kingdom 2 of 3

The first thing that happened when we walked through the gates: we heard someone say no wait to meet the princesses, so we rushed in line like we were crazy people after a free tv or something and we were 8th in line to meet three Princesses.. We weren't even sure which ones. Daniel was so mad...but I told him we had a special surprise for him later and he had to enjoy the ride with Sydney and her princesses the whole trip. :) He refused to take any pictures with them.. but by day 3 he was "okay" to take pictures with them... Sydney was in "heaven" she thought. I loved that they didn't rush the girls through the pictures, because by the time they were ready for us to enter the wait was over 2 hours long. Now you see why we ran like nuts. All three of the Princesses took time to speak with Sydney and ask her questions. She saw Rapunzel first, and she liked how Sydney had her dress on and Sydney showed her Rapunzel clippie to her which made this mama proud. Sleeping Beauty was next, she was quick to tell her that her dad was named Stefan just like Aurora's dad. Aurora liked that and said her daddy was special to her and asked Sydney if her daddy was also special and Sydney said "very Special". Next was Cinderella.. and boy was she a blessing to my little girl. She talked to her and danced with her and hugged her and Sydney told her that she was going to eat breakfast with her one day and she asked her what day and pretended to take her reservation and told her she would have the best seat in the house. She was so awesome to her. She must had taken like 5 minutes with her which seemed like an hour... loved the pictures we got. (click to make bigger)

Day 2 Magic Kingdom 1 of 3

Day 2 was an awesome day. We went to the Magic Kingdom(MK), which was by far our favorite spot this trip. We had several things planned to do in MK during the week. We sure made many memories. It was indeed a magical place. From the very beginning as we waited for the park to open and to see Mickey and Minnie ride in on the train along with many characters and princesses too, I should I realized that we were going to have a blast. It was so not crowded. We waited no more than 15 minutes for anything. If we ever go back we will go the same week. We were up and at the main gates by 8:30am and we didn't leave until it closed. Kenny did great. Took a little nap while we waited for the parade around 2pm in the stroller, but wasn't cranky or fussy during the day or night. We were so proud of our little guy.The kids liked the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House and asked many times during the trip is we could spend the night in the house. I admit I would like that.. daddy not so much. We liked the picture where that put Tink in your hands with magic... (click to make larger)

Disney Day 1-Animal Kingdom

Finally I am blogging about our awesome trip to Disney World the first week in December. We drove in from SC to Orlando on Sunday Dec 2nd. We arrive around 2pm, so we headed straight for Animal Kingdom because we knew we wanted to try to fit this park in but had a busy schedule Monday-Fri. We thought it was okay. but not our favorite. We caught an awesome parade and the kids loved waving at the people. They played in Dinosaur land in the bone yard playground. We got their face painted and we were surprised Kenny sat still long enough. This was the first of many great surprised Kenny gave us during our trip. We went on a couple rides and this is where we realized that Daniel was AFRAID of roller coasters...BAD. not a good sign on Day 1. But more on that in another day post. (click to make picture bigger)

Prince is growing up!

Its hard to believe that our little puppy is already 7 months old. On a daily basis I still say we are getting rid of him... eats everything still. bits the kids...but at night when everyone is asleep he sure keeps me warm on the coach.