WWU

Last Friday, Dolly and her BFF, Teecy, came into town. Teecy has been in Taiwan for a year and has recently arrived back in the states for good. She is like my 5th sister, so it was great to see her and spend some time with her. My sweet niece, Maddie, also came with them, too. Dolly, Teecy, and I had to go to a going away party for our friend, Stacey, that night. So, Roy stayed home with the kids while the three of us went to the party. It was so nice and fun and it was good to send Stacey off to China in style:

Teecy and Hannah:

This is funny. The girl in the middle is a friend of Stacey's from church. Stacey thinks she looks like the 6th Reber sister. It was weird seeing someone across the room who kind of resembled a family member. I think it's the nose and eyes?? Anyway, we had to get a picture with her!

Teecy could not wait to do karaoke. She had to wait her turn but it was like pulling teeth to keep her still. Stacey went first and then Hannah joined Teecy in Independent Woman by Destiny's Child. Funny!

Good luck, Stacey!

Saturday morning, Caroline and I had to be at Nordstrom's at 9:00 for a shoe-tying class. We brought Maddie along with us and she was such a good help. Caroline adores her big cousin! If you have a Nordstrom in your town, sign your child up for this class. It was adorable!

While we were at the mall, Maddie had spending money just burning a hole in her pocket. What did she choose to buy with some of it???:

She visited the candy kiosk. Classic Maddie:)

Later that night, all of us girls and the kids went to Stonecrest for some Qdoba and to listen to a cute band play some music. The kids loved it but we ended up leaving abruptly because RoyBoy did some serious poopooing and it started to leak through his shorts, and being the good, prepared moms Dolly and I are, we didn't have any wipes in our bags:)

This is when I discovered the poopoo mess. I was holding him and my right forearm got wet. Yuck!!

Teecy and Dolly left this morning, but Maddie is spending the rest of the week with us and we are having so much fun. She is being the biggest help! I wish she lived closer to us because I would love to have her as my helper all the time! This should be a fun week!

WWU--Graham Family Style

***This post is pretty long...just a warning****

This past weekend was a busy but fun one. It all started with Roy's little sister, Cissie, and her husband Corey stopping by to visit us for a few days on their way down to Florida. They arrived on Friday night and we ate dinner, went out for ice cream and then worked it off with a fast walk/run. When Caroline heard we were going on a walk and when she saw her Aunt and me in our work out clothes, she quickly went to go get on her running outfit, and to find a headband to be like us:
Here we are stretching before our big 3 mile walk. I don't know what stretch I'm doing.

Here's Aunt Cissie keeping up with Caroline. Sorry the picture is blurry, but I was running and pushing Roy Austin while taking this picture.

Saturday night, Kendra (Wil's wife) and her kids drove down to Charlotte. After we ate dinner, Roy and Corey took the kids home while us girls went out to Starbuck's and a movie. We saw The Proposal and it was cute--two thumbs up! Kristy, we missed you!

The next morning, we all got up, skipped church (yikes!), and drove on over to Carowinds! Wil got in late Saturday night, so we were one big happy family (minus Jane and Franklin and the Edward Graham family). We got there right when it opened and let's just say that if you live in Charlotte, go to Carowinds on Sunday. The park was so empty. We rode rides over and over again with no lines to wait in. The atmosphere was a little depressing, but it worked out great for us! I kind of have the feeling Carowinds may file chapter 11 this year, because the place is really run down!! Look who we saw when we entered the Nickelodeon area:

Harry Jack, this is for you! You would LOVE Carowinds:


Right when we got into the park, Wil made sure Quinn wouldn't get lost. Look what he wrote on the back of his shirt!:

Caroline had such a fun time. She was giddy first of all because she was with her cousins, but this girl is a thrill-seeker! She LOVES to ride roller coasters!! I thought she would be scared, but nope. She rode her first roller coaster and was so excited afterwards. She kept saying, "Again!" each time it was over. We rode this roller coaster about 5 times:







Roy and I both agreed that the entire day was worth it just to see her reaction to everything. At one point, she turned to me and said, "Mommy, I just love my cousins"! The look on her face in this picture says it all:

RoyBoy wasn't able to ride much, but he rode this balloon ride 3 times and belly laughed through the entire thing. He loved it! It made me a little bit dizzy:

Speaking of being dizzy: after riding 2 real roller coasters, I think Cissie and I decided that those days are over for us! Wow! We had the worst headaches afterwards. It was awful.

Now, Carowinds is an interesting place. Roy likes to just people-watch when we go. There are some...let's just say...creative dressing people there. Because there is a water park connected to the amusement park, some people literally walk around the entire place in string bikinis (and these people are usually the ones who don't have any business wearing one). The place can definitely raise some eyebrows. Julie Day, this is for you (Roy had fun non-chalantly taking these pictures!!!):


Yes, this mom had four children with her. I honestly cannot believe Roy had the guts to take these!! I hope her husband didn't see him!!! These were taken while I was holding our children on the balloon ride.

We were at the park for 7.5 hours. By the time we left, we were all hot, tired, sweaty, sunburned and stinky. All of the kids did great, though. There was not one temper tantrum, crying spell, pitching of fits...nothing! They were great, even without any naps, but by the time we left, RoyBoy had had enough:

*notice all the red scrape marks all over his knees and legs. These are from his continuous falls off of brick ledges all over Carowinds.*

The other kids got to take home a souvenir of a plastic straw filled with different flavors of sugars! Yum. We got back to our house for some nice baths, clean clothes and take out dinner! It was a fun weekend and we all enjoyed ourselves. Thanks for visiting us Lynch's and Graham's, and thanks for teaching us how to play Nertz, Cissie and Corey!! Wow, that was a long post!

WWU

This past weekend was such a relaxing and enjoyable one for our family. We started it off with a trip to a local strawberry patch on Saturday morning. It was H-O-T outside, but we still had fun:

We picked our berries quickly because the kids got bored after a while and were enjoying eating them more than picking:) I made a delicious strawberry pie later that afternoon. Click here for the recipe. YUM!

I was craving a good-'ol-fashioned hot dog for lunch, so we ventured on over to the BG Library, where the best hotdogs in the world are served. I don't know what kind they are, but they are delish, and I don't even really like hotdogs. Caroline loves Bessie the Cow, who sits in the front of the Library and she always has to go by to have a look. Roy Austin was terrified of her and clung to me the entire time.

They also enjoy running out on the grass in front of BG's childhood home, which is on the property. I love letting them do this because Roy can remember playing outside of it when he was little and pelting his brothers with acorns. Now, Caroline and Roy Austin are playing outside of it and making memories. I think that is so cool!:

When we got home, I had a nice package waiting in the mail for me from my blog friend, Rose. I won a contest on her blog and she sent me these nice treats:

Hopefully I can start reading this book this week. I've heard good things about it. She also sent me some OPI nail polish (easy, Angela...don't get jealous) and some hot tea! Thanks, Rose! You are so thoughtful. Oh, and check out Rose's blog because she has a funny post about how she recently got to meet American Idol's Kris Allen.

On Sunday, the Sounds of Liberty were the guest artists at our church! They did a great job and it was so refreshing to hear their music. Roy and I both felt like we were back at Liberty and Thomas Road Baptist Church. It was great! For lunch, we went to Azteca (locals, don't laugh). Roy knows Mexican is one of my favorites and I have been wanting it badly lately. I know the comments are going to ask if I'm pregnant--craving hotdogs and now Mexican food??Don't get too excited. I promise I am not. I did, however, eat my heart out on one of my favorite food groups--cheese. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Happy Mother's Day to me!

Me and my two. RoyBoy needs a haircut this week, pronto! His hair is beginning to take on the shape of a bowl cut. Have a good week!

WWU

Our weekend started on Thursday afternoon when Dolly and baby Michael arrived in Charlotte. Dolly came into town just for the big consignment sale that I go to twice a year. In order to attend the preview sale, a person has to volunteer, so on Thursday night we both did just that. It was so good to see Michael! He has grown so much and is the sweetest thing. He is such a calm baby and just sits back and takes everything in. Caroline LOVES him to death and Roy Austin even grew attached to the little guy. He even stopped his playing once to come give Michael a kiss all on his own! Here is the Bumbo Boy:

Friday was the big sale day. Dawn came into town around 2:45 just in time for us to hug hello, leave her with the kids and head on over to the sale!! Let me just say that Dolly was one excited girl. She made me laugh because that is the exact way I felt the first time I went. It was an exhilarating feeling. Here she is while waiting in line, pondering which direction she'll take when she enters the sale:

I found her a little while later with her finds and scouting out the next direction she would take:

She really did find some good stuff. For her point of view, check out her blog soon. She took pics of her loot. A big thank you to Auntie Dawnie for watching the children for us! When we got home, we all went out to PeiWei for some Chinese food and learned that Dawn HATES Chinese food. Who knew? Again, she was a sport.

Shoo! It's hard work taking care of kids! It wore her out.

Saturday got off to a great start. We had our whole day planned out around SouthPark Mall and then had a little setback. Roy noticed a hernia looking thing on Roy Austin's stomach that morning. We kind of didn't think much about it, but when I changed his diaper, it was really sticking out far and was really scary looking. So, I called the doctor's office and they told me to go straight to the Children's ER! Talk about scarring a mom and making her cry! Thank God my sisters were there. They took Caroline with them the entire day while I met Roy at the ER with our little guy. He was acting totally normal...totally Roy Austin. Here he is in the waiting room, climbing all over the furniture, but taking a second out of his active state to watch CNN:

He was so cute in his little hospital gown. I couldn't help but snap tons of pics on my phone camera:Don't be scarred, RoyBoy. He hated the hospital bracelet and tried his hardest to pull it off. All was fine until he bumped his head on the wall after jumping on the hospital bed:

Long story short, he suffers from Diastasis recti. Google it. I don't quite understand it all the way, but apparently this is normal in little boys and it "should" correct itself by age 5. It looks gross and scary though! I couldn't help but think on the drive to the ER that this was probably the first of many visits there with our little RoyBoy. Thank you to those that I called on the way there. I honestly could feel your prayers and by the time I got to the ER I was very calm and not worried at all.

Saturday night Dawn and Roy got the Wii Fit out and had some challenges. That Dawn is a competitive one! Here she is trying to master the ski jump game:

Sweet Caroline had to give it a try, too. Here she is trying to do the hula hoop game:

This weekend really flew by. It felt like my sisters had just arrived and then this morning, it was time for them to head on back to Virginia. They got ready to leave while we got ready for church. Now, for all of you non-smock lovers, bubble wearing, knee-sock haters out there (you know who you are) please pardon this next picture. Check out our Diastasis recti boy in his little firetruck smock bubble and new saddle shoes I got at the consignment sale for $3:

It was basically impossible to get a still picture of him this morning, right Dawn?! I was literally chasing him around our downstairs with my camera trying to get a shot of him. He was obviously running when I took the above picture. Speaking of consignment sale purchases, I didn't do too bad. I only spent $60 this time because the kids didn't need much. The best purchase? The above saddle shoes for $3 and another nice Willet leather pair for Easter for $5. Hip Hip Hooray!

Here's a picture of Caroline as she says goodbye to her baby Michael. She really loves this boy:And because today is such a gorgeous day, we ate lunch outside after church and enjoyed the sunshine. Afterwards, the kids played in the grass and on the playset. RoyBoy learned a new trick...climbing the slide all on his own at 16 months of age. He climbs all the way to the top and then lets go and and slides down on his belly. Like I said....yesterday was the first of many trips to the ER, I believe.

This week: Double coupons at KMart and Triples coupons at Harris Teeter for an entire week straight!!