New Pictures

Lisa Sawyer volunteered to take a family picture for us after church this past Sunday.  I still had on my volunteer shirt, and the kids weren't posed very well, but here we are ...

Here is a cute face from each of the kids ...

Everyone is playing so sweetly ... 

And lastly, I love pics like this last one.  This was on the way home from Blackshear.  We were down there celebrating June, July, and August birthdays.  Everyone's asleep (including Clara, who apparently didnt want us to see her sweet face).  

Eve's Birthday Surprise

This entire year, Eve has been practicing "surprise parties".  She loves to hide and then jump out and yell, "SURPRISE!!!", and she loves to get the little kids involved too.  She has practically BEGGED for us to throw her a surprise party for her 5th birthday.  How can you say no to something that means that much to her??

We started the day with a lunch date with daddy.  Eve got to pick the place, and it was no surprise that MONTERREY was her choice :)

Then, that evening, we had a family celebration at mom and dad's house.  We ordered pizza, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents.  She loved it.

And then, I asked mom to help me coordinate the SURPRISE.  Some of mom's friends, the Powell's, brought their two new horses to the field behind the church and let Ella Kate, Miley, Josiah, Katy, and Eve ride them.  Eric took the little three home, while I blindfolded Eve in the backseat, and tried to have her as surprised as she could be.  We pulled up, she saw the horses and her cousins all standing around, and she was THRILLED.  She loved it!! 

 So, our attempt at a surprise party was a success!  Happy Birthday girl, happy momma!!

60 Years and Counting

Dad's 60th birthday is tomorrow, and last weekend, the girls and I celebrated with him.  We decided to take a Saturday and drive him around down memory lane.  We started out in Ninety Six, SC where we saw Granny Berry's home and the Beasley's home.  He showed us his grandfather's grocery store locations and where Nonny and Granddaddy went to High School.  We also got to see the church they grew up in.  I can't remember spending much time there before, so I really enjoyed the history lesson!  

From there, we headed towards Anderson and came across the intersection where a novice driver ran into dad and flipped his VW bug into a field.  We saw the old convenient store where they called the police.  Then we went to New Silver Brook Cemetery, where we met up with Faith, to see Nonny and Granddaddy's grave.  That was a sweet time of thinking about sweet Nonny.  We took this picture while we were there.  

Then, it was lunchtime, so we drove over to Little Pigs to get our bellies full.  Dad laughed about when he and mom first got married, they would stop by little pigs to eat on their way to Non's house.  Dad would order a regular BBQ sandwich with fries, and a jumbo BBQ sandwich and eat it all on the road.

Our next stops were Granddaddy's old church, the parsonage, LaFrance Elementary and Pendleton High School, and an old mill house that mom and dad moved into when they were newly married.  

We took a pitstop at Non's house and took this picture in the front yard.  Lauren and Kristen smelled the laundry room and we were back on the road.  

From there, we drove to Clemson, stopping at The Athletic Dept for Lauren and dad to make some Clemson purchases (a straw hat, a baseball hat, a wallet, a nurse badge, some t shirts, etc).  Dad took over the driving at this point, pulled through Starbucks (for mom) and then onto the Clemson campus to find the ice creamery.  We got back on the road towards Augusta after splurging on peach and cookies and cream ice cream...yummy.  

Our last pitstop was at Zaxby's for some tater chips and crushed ice, and then home.  

We had a BLAST celebrating dad's life.  Lauren, Kristen, and I are blessed to call him dad.   

Kindergarten and Mother's Day Out

One of the reasons that I love Eric is the fact that he took this picture of the girls on the first day of school.  He loves his time with them in the morning, and they love it too!  This year, Eve is attending half day kindergarten at Grace with Ms. Ashley.  Clara and Ellie are attending MDO 5 days at Grace, with two different sets of friends (Adalyn is in their Tuesday and Thursday class) and teachers.  Coleman is at Grace Tuesdays and Thursdays with Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Meredith, and at First Baptist of Evans on Mondays and Wednesdays, and alone with dad on Fridays.  

It is going to be a great year!

All Out of Love

Eric was feeding Coleman the last bit of his corn one night at dinner.  The conversation went something like this:  "Coleman, I hope you appreciate that I am giving you my LAST BITE of corn out of love for you!"  Eve speaks right up, "Daddy!!!  You are all out of love for Coleman??"

Let The Arguments Begin...

Well, it's been a hectic and busy and loud few years as the "twin girl Lairsey's" have grown up into "little girl Lairsey's".  We've enjoyed (mostly) the journey, but we have now crossed over :(.  Crossed over into the world of sibling arguments!!!  Up to this point, Eve has been able to boss and sass the little girls around and if they joined in, great; if not, they'd just say "no" and go the other direction.  This week, I overheard the first (of many, I'm sure) argument between Ellie and Eve.  It went a little something like this,

Eve: Ellie, those are my princess shoes I got for Christmas!  Take them off!
Ellie: No ma'am, Ebe.  I'm gonna take you home!
Eve: Give them to me!
Ellie: You are an E I E I O!
Eve: Well, you are an L O V E!!
Ellie: NO!  You are an E I E I O!

I couldn't help but giggle to myself, but then I wanted to cry...for a few reasons.  One.  That my girls will be bickering over toys, shoes, clothes, money, etc for several more years! Two. That my girls are even old enough to argue with their big sister!

Fun times ahead at the Lairsey house.  :)

Stay tuned!!

 

Talking Up A Storm

Some of Coleman's favorite phrases at 18 months are:

*You, You, You ... meaning he wants to listen to "You, You, You" from VBS songs.  He points (just like Eve does when she's doing the motions to the song), and I PROMISE when we were at Gatlinburg, I heard him say, "you, you, you, you can trust God!"  

*Get down!

*Get up!

*Shoes on

*Jesus, Amen

*Thank you

*Sorry

*Bird, up there
*Oh Toodles (from Mickey Mouse).  He says this with his hands over his mouth.

He LOVES to give his sisters a "hug, kiss" before nap or bedtime.  

He LOVES to run to the laundry room to put his shoes on when he thinks it is time to go. 

He LOVES to pull a toothbrush out of the drawer and chew on it.  

He helps putting diapers in the diaper trash can.

He helps me put the wet clothes from washer into dryer.

He walks around with the broom.

He LOVES balls of any kind.

He squeals and screams and giggles at the sight of any animal.

Cute stuff.