What We Have Been Up To

Once again time seems to be flying by and I look at the calendar and realize that next week is Thanksgiving. Wow! Wes and I spent last week at an optometry conference in Orlando (yes, they are actually good for something!). We left Noah with Nana and Pops and headed down to sunny Florida to stay at the world's largest Marriott. Seriously, that is their technical status, not just me exaggerating. It was great, huge with many restaurants and several pools. While Wes went to lectures I slept in, read by the pool, worked out at the fitness center and enjoyed yummy food. It was very relaxing. Plus, Wes and I got to spend lots of fun time just the two of us which, lets face it, will be very rare from now on!

Because we knew we were going out of town, we had spent the whole weekend before doing fun things with Noah. The weekend before last we took him to the aquarium and he had the best time. Seeing the fish was great, yes, but his favorite part was seeing the giant barge that was parked in the harbor right in front of the aquarium.

We sat outside on the steps for 30 minutes just watching them dredge up gunk from the bottom and dump it onto the barge. Noah was amazed and got excited every single time the brought dirt up from the bottom. It was really cute! We had a great time. Noah is really fun to hang out with these days. He is interested in everything and always has funny little insights into every situation to share with us. I used to worry about having 2 kids and if I could handle it, but I know that we made the right decision by waiting a while to have number 2. We are in a great place with Noah and I am excited (rather than scared) to add another one to the mix.

Speaking of baby number 2, we find out on December 9th if it is a boy or a girl. Wes and I are really fine either way but poor Noah has his heart seriously set on a "girl baby". He even told me that if they do the ultrasound and say that it is a boy that he "will check instead and find a girl!" I have this vision of him leaping across the table and grabbing the thing from the ultrasound tech and saying, "No! That is NOT right. Let me show that it is a GIRL!" I wouldn't put it past him!

Halloween Fun

For Halloween this year Noah spent 3 weeks insisting that he be a ghost. Fine by me I thought. That is a simple costume to attain. Cut some eye holes in a white sheet and, voila, instant ghost. Except that with Noah things are never that easy. Two days before Halloween he declared that the sheet was "too stinky" and that he would not wear it over his head. So off to Party City where he picked, (insert eye rolling here) a Nascar driver costume. But being the good mother that I am I rolled with it. And good thing too because the minute he put on the costume he was in love!

On Saturday he was very excited to put on his costume, grab his ghost bag, and head out the door to join his friends from some trick-or-treat fun. We tried to get his picture with Bebe before we headed out but he was a little too crazy to cooperate. See.....

Anyway, we meant all the neighborhood kids on the corner for a photo op.....

...and then we were off! Perhaps in keeping with the theme of his costume, Noah adopted Ricky Bobby's motto of "If you're not first, you're last" and set out at breakneck speed at the front of the pack. Pretty soon he and his buddy Nicholas had left everyone in the dust in their effort to see who could collect candy the fastest. Of course, I should have expected no less from my little speedy Gonzales!

After going around to many houses - and getting extremely hot and sweaty in our polyester costume - it was time to call it a night. Noah finally headed home to enjoy the spoils of the hunt.

Hope everybody had a fun Halloween!

Happy Fall (From the Tropics)

We have been gearing up for Halloween here at our house. Everyday Noah comes home from school with a new Halloween themed art project, we went to Legare Farms for all the fall themed fun, and last weekend we carved our pumpkins. So, despite the fact that it is still 80 degrees outside, we are prepared for Halloween fun. And, oh yeah, Noah picked his costume the other day....he chose to be a Nascar driver. I have no comment.

Here is Noah at Legare Farms with the pumpkins we picked. This was after we did the "corn maze". (I say it with quotes because this year it was actually just a "maze in a random grove of trees" because their corn maze was destroyed by worms. Perhaps the sign that said, "Corn Maze: $6 per person" was a bit of false advertising?)

Noah watches as Wes cleans out our pumpkin. If you'll recall from last year, he is not a fan of the gooey pumpkin insides....

.....and neither is his Aunt J! It must be genetic.

Here are the finished products. Hopefully they won't rot in the heat!

Yikes!

I have recently been called out by my son.

(In the interest of full disclosure I will tell you this. Because of the fact that I am pregnant, I have been slightly more tired than usual lately. So, if given the choice between cleaning my house and say, taking a nap, I will pick the nap every time.)

Anyway. The other day Wes and Noah were sitting on the couch in the bonus room and they had the following conversation.....

Noah: "Daddy, I wish I had a pet baby elephant."

Wes: "What?"

N: "I want to get a baby elephant!"

W: "Why do you want a baby elephant Noah?"

N: "Because if we had a baby elephant he could squirt water out his nose and clean up this room!"

Yikes. I am off to clean my house. Come to think of it, having a baby elephant would be rather convenient!

A Great Weekend

Forget about another government stimulus. I think I may have stimulated the economy single handedly while shopping this weekend. Well, at least the economy in Charlotte that is.

In other news (and is my love of shopping really news?) I had a BLAST in Charlotte with Julie and Gray during our Charlotte girls weekend. We shopped, ate, laughed, and just genuinely had a great time. Julie and I even fit in a run each morning - it doesn't get any better than that!

I hope that we find another excuse to get together again soon! Love you ladies!

Fried Shrimp, Boiled Shrimp,.....

....shrimp kabobs, shrimp cakes, shrimp dumplings, shrimp and grits, shrimp wraps. No, I have not just finished watching Forrest Gump, I am just remembering all the yummy things I ate this weekend at the Beaufort Shrimp Festival!

Our friends Jan and Joe (Clayton's parents) invited us to spend the weekend with them at Jan's family creek house in Beaufort. So, Friday we packed up the kids and headed down for a weekend of fun. We started with crabbing on Friday afternoon.

Noah and I had never done it before and we both looked on with skeptical faces as Jan attached the turkey necks to the crabbing lines. (I didn't offer to help...are you surprised?) Anyway, Noah was very happy to play with the net and kept telling us how excited he was to catch a turtle. I tried to explain that we were catching crabs but he was convinced we would get a turtle. Turns out we got neither because the bugs were so bad we were driven inside pretty quickly. No worries though, we spent the rest of the night enjoying food and company and after the kids went to sleep the Shealys beat the Cruzes in a game of ping-pong. (Well, Wes beat them - I tried my best to lose it for us.)

We woke up on Saturday and had a relaxing breakfast on the porch as the sun was coming up over the water.

I know, I know...what a terrible view. It hurts my eyes.

Clayton, Wes, and Noah watch for dolphins in the creek.

That morning we headed into Beaufort for the Shrimp Festival. It was a beautiful day - hot yes, but that was okay.

Excited to be at the "Shrimp Vegetable"!

We did all sorts of fun things. Clayton and Noah did some face painting. There was music and tons of space to run around. Best of all was the food. So much to choose from - we probably tried it all! Noah's favorite part was definitely not the food - he liked the giant inflatable shark slide the best.

He and Clayton spent the better part of an hour going up and down the shark slide. They had a blast. So did the adults...

...don't you love our shrimp necklaces?

We finally dragged everyone home after several hours of fun and capped off the day with a sunset boat ride. After that, the kids were pretty much exhausted - and so was I - and we enjoyed some yummy dinner (thanks to Jan's parents!) and wine (yes, I had a glass -sue me.)

We had a great weekend - even though I may have gained 10 pounds from all the yummy food!

What's New Here...

I haven't felt all that busy lately but we must have been because the month of September has flown by!

Noah started school at the beginning of the month and is loving it. He is going 5 days a week, from 9-12, and he is excited for it every single day. He is learning a lot too. They are working on letters and are on the letter C this week and he is amazing me with things like, "Yeah, Mama, C is for cat." And, even though they are in different classes, he still gets to play with his buddy Clayton on the playground and even carpool with her some days. So he loves it - and lets face it, I love having 3 hours to myself every morning - so it is working out well.

Noah has also started tennis lessons. We go on Tuesday afternoons and he brings his little racket and water bottle and marches onto the court to spend 45 minutes with Ms. Denise learning the basics of tennis. I usually watch from a distance (if I am close by he gets distracted) and it is so fun to see him hit the ball with a big smile on his face. Of course the Popsicle he gets at the end contributes to his love of the tennis lesson!

And, in baby news I hit week 12 on Tuesday so I guess I am through the first trimester. I had a good 3 or 4 weeks where the nausea and fatigue were pretty bad but other than that it wasn't too terrible. Definitely better than how I felt with Noah. Plus, my whacked out taste buds are finally returning to normal (for the most part - I still can't stand peanut butter) and I am able to eat normal foods again! Wahoo!

So that's the news for now. I am off to enjoy a run this morning - fall finally decided to come to Charleston!