Friday, June 17, 2016

May 2016: One of the most eventful months yet!

It's mid-June, yes, I know.  As you will see and read about below, May completely kicked our tails, mainly mine.  Right now both of the kids are sleeping (which is rare since Grace doesn't usually nap) mostly due in part to the gift of strep throat.  I kid you not when I say that our children love to play tag with sickness...I thought sick season was over???  Anyways, we are thankful they normally do have their good health and additionally thankful for some extended peace and quiet for mommy.  June has a lot in store of us!  As I type this, Jimmy is on his way back from his annual beach beer run so I know he'll be walking in the house with a smile :).  We are leaving for the beach in the morning and cannot WAIT for a vacation!!

May was an unusual, busy, chaotic at times, and beautiful month all in one.  I'll start with pictures...

We were able to celebrate Timmy being in his forever home for ONE year!!  We celebrated Hibachi dinner style...and it was so fun.  It was Grace and Wesley's first time at a Hibachi steak house...I thought the fire trick would win them over but Wesley just kept repeating, "He not do that again" the rest of the dinner.  Classic.  :)  We love you Timmy!


This was a day or so before Jimmy left for Ghana.

  

Grace's last day at the pre-school she has attended since she was 9 months old!  We will just skip over the part about her starting kindergarten this Fall...

Preggo pics...can't even remember the weeks but here you go!



This was actually from the end of April, but I couldn't remember if I posted it.  Apparently I'm too lazy to go and actually check the post, so here it is (again, possibly)!  We were able to contribute towards a wonderful local business in Winston-Salem called Skippy's Hot Dogs.  The owner is currently battling cancer and several local restaurant owners teamed up to run the restaurant and collect donations towards his medical bills.  It was beautiful to see so many people work together.


We were thankful technology while Jimmy was in Ghana on his first medical mission trip.  We were able to Skype with him almost each day and it was especially nice that he was only 4 hours ahead of us.

One of my busy projects while Jimmy was in Ghana.  Pressure washing is quite addicting, I must say.
  And also, GROSS, our patio was nasty.


My Mother's Day surprise from Jimmy...he ordered these delicious strawberries from my friend's business in town!  Thanks DeAndra (Triton Catering...try them out!) for spending the time to make these beautiful and tasty creations!  They didn't last a week but a few days.

We were able to go to the Children's Home festival with the Watki clan.  Face painting to start!








My aunt Cindy came to spend the night during the week while Jimmy was in Ghana.  She gifted us a newly painted and decorated guest bathroom!  I LOVE IT...it compliments the room the kids now share which is yellows and grays all over.  Sure wish I had a good before picture and I very well might somewhere in my picture library.  The fish is a chalk board and I will be writing something cute on it soon.  Thank you aunt Cindy for the gift, company, assistance with the kids, and food :)


The weekend before Jimmy returned from Ghana we got out of town for a weekend at Memere and Pepere's house.  First swim of the season!  

He's home!!  It was a long 15 days, but we are grateful he made it home safely.  We are also grateful God provided this opportunity for Jimmy to go on his first medical mission trip.  

Girls night in Winston!!  I was able to get out with Sarah and Christine and we spent a fun night in down town Winston.  We began with some italian food and then walked around and stumbled across the First Friday Art Gallery Hop that I didn't even know about!  On trade street the first Friday of each month, the art galleries stay open and let people come walk through.  We got to visit a new bakery, speak with some local artists, taste test some chocolate, and watch a drum presentation (not sure I'm calling it the right thing).  SO much fun!  

Yeah.  Just amazing!

The last week of May and the first week of June I had to work full time due to end of year testing (since I'm the testing coordinator at my school).  Pre-school was out of session for the year, so we were going to have to pay for full time child care...for two weeks.  That's not cheap, y'all!  My parents graciously offered to watch the kids for a whole week...a few days over a week to be honest.  We brought the kids down to their house, stayed a few nights, and then headed back without kids.  

*Before we left town, Grace pulled one of her epic "sick" moves.  One evening we heard crying from the kids' room.  We went in to see that Grace had thrown up...from the top bunk bed all the way down to the bottom bunk bed...all over Wesley.  Of course I had to be at work the next day and Jimmy was graciously able to work it out to have someone cover part of his morning shift at the hospital which usually would NEVER work.  Two nights later, in Columbia, we heard crying again.  I ran in the room to see what was wrong and BOOM, slipped and fell on the ground.  Yeah, I slipped in throw up.  We were so confused why Grace was getting sick again.  Until an hour later, Wesley joined the party and we realized it was some type of bug.  Our sick season seems to be never-ending!  Fortunately they both seemed better the next day.  We would have hated to leave two sick kiddos in Columbia
!
Camp Memere and Pepere: Columbia Adventures
Fun in the sun!

Grace has been completely and utterly fearful of going under the water.  We have tried patience, lessons, scare tactics, and yes, even a few adult males in her life thought throwing her in the water would help cure the fear.  Surprisingly, none of it worked.  We soon realized we would just have to let her deal with it on her own, but I was losing patience as we are about to have our 3rd child...I really don't want to have 3 non-swimmers on hand.  I mean, she and Wesley can swim with floaties independently, but for safety's sake, I wanted her to just get over it!  Along comes this picture from Memere (above) with Grace finally going under!  I guess the week exposure to a pool helped her muster up the courage to try it and we were SOO proud.  She also was swimming around a little in the shallow end.  Hallelujah!

The kids were watching morning cartoons and I guess Pepere was worn out!

Loving some pool time

A fun trip to Sonic

Another fun trip to the zoo!  ICEEs are a "thing" in our family.  It may or may have not come from frequent visits to Target.

From the zoo trip...I love this picture!  Grace is feeding a bird.

This picture is a special one!  Grace and Wesley are pictured her with Charlie and Lucy whom happen to be the children of one of my longest childhood friends, Millie.  Millie and I grew up together, played soccer together, were in each other's weddings, and now so happy to see our kids meet!  My mom and Millie's mom, Mrs. Green, got the kids together as they were both running grandparent camp :)

Clearly they had NO fun in Columbia, right??  This is the kids at a local park that has a splash pad.  



Ice cream to end the week long camp. 

Cupcakes for breakfast?  Okay!  My mom brought the kids back up to Winston-Salem after having them for a week and I KNOW she was ready for a break.  Thank you SO much mom and dad for keeping the kids.  They had a blast and it saved us A LOT of money in childcare!

Jimmy and I had a fun week together with no kids in the house!  Last year when my parents had the kids, Jimmy was working nights while I worked full time and we didn't see much of each other.  THIS year, we had several date nights, some spontaneous trips out during our normal scheduled kid nap times, and even had a few double dates.  It was refreshing and much appreciated!

For my last week of working full-time, I was able to have some awesome babysitters!  One of the days the kids went to my friend's house (Kait) who watched them and took them to the pool.  Then, w had  recent college graduate from Wake come to the house one day and our new friend, Hannah, watch the kids two other days.  You have to love getting pictures like the one below from someone who is watching your kids! They had a blast.


Summer break!  The ice cream truck comes to our neighborhood several times a week and we all just couldn't resist.

Jimmy and the kids love playing chase and hide and seek.  Playing hide and seek with Wesley is just hilarious.

Grace and I played this board game a bunch...it's a really fun cooperative board game that was highly recommended on Amazon, so I believe she was given it for Christmas by one of us.  

Grace doesn't usually nap, but if she is worn out and you rub her back while she is on the couch...she very well may fall asleep.

Morning jump time with our floaties!

Grace started track and field through one of our local recreation centers.  Parenting fail, though.  We went to the first one, she was out of town for the second week, I FORGOT to take her the third week, she had strep throat the fourth week, and we will be at the beach for the final week.  Whoops.

A little Children's Museum fun on a Friday afternoon after mommy's LAST day of work!!


I believe Jimmy was on call, so the kids and I ventured out to a new park.  This park is also a recreation center where Grace will attend two full weeks of camp.  The price was incredible and I think it will be great prep for kindergarten as she is not used to being at school for a full day.

They are breaking ground currently to build a splash pad...can't wait for that!

Our little tree climber

This is from another park...we decided to venture out early before the heat hit.

Exploring with the Watki crew

Church fellowship group night out at the Porch.  We are missing a few here but had a great time out together!

Family Update

Grace and Wesley had a blast this month, as you can see.  We are thankful for everyone's support to get through this month.

Kristen: I have 2 weeks left of graduate school EVERRRRR!  I am wrapping up my internship with some final assignments and can't wait to be finished and awarded my Masters in Educational Leadership.  These past 22 months have gone by fast!

Jimmy: Graduates from anesthesiology residency at the end of this month!  He will do a one year regional fellowship following graduation, here in Winston.



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