Happy Birthday, Mom

September 30th is my momma's birthday. We were so lucky that she chose to spend her birthday with us! She wanted to come spend a few days with us and help me out with the kids. She arrived in Atlanta from St. Louis and was at our house by 11:30 that morning! (She took the shuttle from the airport to the gas station down the road.)

We didn't have a cake for her yet so we gave her a Krispy Kreme donut...and a Harvest scented candle to blow out. Charlotte was SO EXCITED that her Gigi came to see her! She even said "Gigi" to her. Here they are with the Krispy Kreme and their "juice".

Each kid got her a card. The I heart Mitt card was from Charlotte since mom always makes her watch Fox News....and taught her to say "Paul Ryan".

Charlotte was in shock that she was here :)

We even decorated for her :)

Happy Birthday, Mom! 

Charlotte did her own bit of celebrating... drinking and driving.

She is so funny.

So that night Alex and I went on a date.... our first date since Sawyer was born. We went to a Japanese place. I got drunk, he had a few drinks (not drunk...legal to drive) and we went to Target. We walked out with Halloween decorations (a lot of them including a GIANT spider), some snacks, and these pajamas for my mom.

They even had cat feet on the bottom.

We ended up taking the pajamas back bc mom can't wear hot pajamas like this. How hilarious are these though???

We had a great Sunday though. Alex had to work and mom stayed here with me and the kids. We had a great day. We are so glad she is here for a few days!

A First Timer Here!

Charlotte loves her some donuts. Loves them. Every morning she wakes up saying "Do-do?" Every morning she eats either small powdered donuts, chocolate covered donuts, or cinnamon-sugar covered donuts. They come in the little bag from the grocery store. She loves them more than any other food at this point.

But she had never experienced a Krispy Kreme donut until today.

I made sure to capture the moment... yeah, I love food. I get my figure honestly :)

Already had 2 bites. Loves it.

Give me more.

Oh yeah. Big mouthful of delicious sweetness.

Finger licking good.

CHEERS with DO-DOS!!!

A Full Day in Charleston

We LOVE waking up in Charleston, SC :) (It's even better after a good night of sleep.)

"Good morning, little brother! I loved sleeping in the same bed as you!"

I love this picture. Charlotte talking (typical) and Sawyer peacefully happy (not as typical, esp when Charlotte is holding him).

Love waking up to this handsome face. Bright eyed and bushy tailed.

We got up, had our hotel breakfast, got all ready, and off we went back to Daniel Island for our family pictures. My fabulous friend, Beth, took our family pictures that morning. She does NOT have a business but she does amazing work. I love her pictures. We took her a Starbucks gift card so she could indulge in some caffinated sweetness whenever she needs it.

Sawyer was pretty fussy during pictures but Charlotte was really good. I will do a separate post for them but they turned out great!! We LOVE them.

After our pictures we stopped and got a fattening lunch of fast food goodies and headed off to Sullivan's Island for a quick beach run. It was SUPER windy. Sand blowing everywhere.

Because of the wind, Charlotte basically had the beach to herself.

Sawyer about got blown away!

So priceless.

Alex and Charlotte were feeding the birds.

After feeding the birds, it was time to play in the sand.

The girl loves her sand and water.

Daddy insisted that they get into the water. Here is a scene from Baywatch.

That water was chilly but she loved it...in small doses.

Beauty

The world is your oyster.

This is what Sawyer and I did. 

Proof that he was there. His first official beach experience.

Charlotte loves her some "juice" in a cup with a straw. Such a big girl.

Perfect toes.

All of a sudden, Charlotte and her body realized that it was naptime. We had an allotted 1 hour at the beach (so we could get back to the hotel in time for check out.) However, we did not need that entire hour. She was ready to go.

Ready for night-night.

Sawyer was sick of his carseat by the end of this weekend.

We headed back to the hotel. We got the room all packed up, got the kiddos showered off, and got all ready for dinner and the drive back. 

Sawyer LOVES to be naked.

Charlotte made a few last minute phone call to Papa on the germ infested hotel room phone.

After we checked out, we went to our house to make sure it hadn't burned down and to make sure at least the outside was taken care of. It looked fine (they could work on a few things). Then we headed to N Charleston to meet with Julie... our realtor, our friend, our landlord. Her and her husband met us at Wild Wing N Charleston (DELICIOUS). We ate until we couldn't eat anymore. It was so good to see Jules. Charlotte loves her Aunt JuJu

LOVE THIS PICTURE.

Julie got to meet our newest addition. And go figure, she loved him too.

Love this picture too. It was a fabulous dinner. It was the perfect cap to a perfect day.

After dinner, we ran over to Northwoods Mall to get Christmas presents for some people. The store we went to was Charleston specific. We loaded up on gifts and got on the road back to the armpit of Georgia. It ended up being a six hour drive back too. Charlotte slept the entire time and Sawyer did pretty good as well. What a perfect trip....just wish it was 5 times as long. I really miss my friends. They ARE the family that I made for myself in Charleston. 

More Friends, More Fun

Our fabulous trip in Charleston continues on...

We may have only had 40 hours (including sleeping time) in Charleston but we crammed it full of things!!

We stayed at the Daniel Island Park until about 5 pm, then we headed back to the hotel...with Lee and Alysia coming up behind us. (I was SO HAPPY that they had blocked off their entire day for us. MADE ME SO HAPPY.) We planned to maybe even swim once we got back to the hotel but ended up deciding against that.

When we got back to the hotel, Leslie Johnson came and met up with us as well as Lee's brother and Catherine and her bunch of loves. We had so much fun. It was also happy hour down in the lobby with free drinks. We all ate, drank, and were merry. We ordered pizza in and that was absolute perfection.

Charlotte got to continue playing, playing, and playing. She LOVED Meredith...and sweet Meredith has gotten so old since we saw her last in May.

Lincoln was so good with both of the baby girls. You can tell he is just an amazing big brother.

See, he is just so sweet with them:) And Charlotte was just wanting some kisses from everyone.

Leslie, oh Leslie. She was a lifesaver. Sawyer was having some major major tummy issues. He was screaming quite a bit. In fact, some very rude 30 something yr old man was rolling his eyes at us. I wanted to tell him that if he wanted quiet to go to his hotel room. I also just wanted to punch him. I mean, my child is in pain and he was upset bc his game was on and it was disturbing his game. However, Leslie calmed him. Held him. Loved on him. She also was trying to run after Charlotte for me. Then she was offering to stay late at our hotel and watch our kids while we went out and did something just Alex and I. She offered to put them to bed and everything. What an amazing friend. Leslie, you rock. I miss you so much.

Two amazing beauties :) Love these girls.

Look at sweet William. He loves hanging out with Alex. He just sat and talked to him and laughed.

Cat with her bunch :) We were so glad they came out to play... even though it was a school night...even though we never made it into the pool. It was still perfect and I was so happy I got to meet Blue.

Charlotte loves Alysia. Can you tell by the way she is looking at her?

Around 8 pm we decided to go upstairs and everyone else went home. We got all settled in. Alex was the first to fall asleep... he was asleep by 9 pm, Charlotte by 9:15, Sawyer bye 9:30, and me by 10. (Obviously Sawyer woke up multiple times in the night but it was good to start my sleep so early.)

What a perfectly fabulous friend filled day. I have missed my Charleston family more than I could ever express.

A Park Date on Daniel Island

After our VERY short night of sleep, we woke up so happy to be in Charleston for 40 hours. We were so excited to wake up in our favorite city. We stayed at an Embassy Suites so breakfast was included. We enjoyed our delicious breakfast, got ready, and headed to Verizon Wireless. Naturally on the same day our car won't start, my cell phone completely breaks and won't work at all. Perfect. That made everything just a bit more difficult. HOWEVER, we were able to get me a new phone so I could feel back in contact with the outside world. After picking up some delicious food, we were off to Daniel Island to meet our friends at a park there.

The first person we saw was Miss Brenda. Charlotte was so excited to see her...and her puppy Charlie. Whenever Charlotte would go to Miss Brenda's house to be babysat, she would hang with Charlie and play with Miss Brenda's kids. I tell you, when my kid would go to the Stewart's house, she would be loved. There were usually 4 adults and a dog to my one child. Can you imagine the amount of attention she got???

Charlotte saw Charlie and she went nuts!! She wanted to walk him all by herself.

She loves her Miss Brenda.

We were so happy that the Tices and Wittners could come spend their Sunday afternoon with us. Josh loves babies and kids. Reagan was loving her time with him :)

Callie came to meet Sawyer. 

Charlotte was excited to see Callie and was so happy when she offered to take her down to see the water.

We miss the Tices and Charlotte most certainly misses her playmate, Reagan.

She loved showering her with hugs and kisses.

Hugs and love.

We were sitting at a picnic table right next to the walking trail. This was perfect bc all of the people with dogs kept running and walking by. Charlotte was in love with all of the people with "dog-dogs".

I most certainly miss this view.

Nicole couldn't wait to get her hands on Sawyer. He curled up in her arms and just slept and slept.

Josh was loving it.

Friends. Not boyfriends. Charlotte and Sawyer hanging on the swing with Alex and Josh.

Alysia always gets a bit bajigitty when she holds baby babies. But she did fabulously. Sawyer loved his snuggle time with her.

It's crazy how Charlotte went straight to Alysia, Nicole, Brenda, and Callie. She remembered everyone... especially "Seasa". She loves her "Seasa"

Part of our group...the table was FULL of food/snacks.

Beautiful, right?? I. Miss. This.

Let's go for a walk to the play area...

Charlotte loves being the center of attention :)

So so so SO HAPPY to be reunited with three of my best friends!!!!

Love this picture of them.

Why wouldn't Alysia have a wine glass in her picnic basket??? And why wouldn't she have actually used it?

It was a perfect afternoon. The weather was amazing. We ended up getting to see 10 of our friends at the park. It was fabulous. Laid back. Just hanging out. Ate a bunch of food. Enjoyed the view and the surroundings. I miss these people more than I could ever say. I hate being so far away from them.