A bit out of place...

My sweet little Nicole loves to be a helper around the house.  Especially in the kitchen.  Everyday she wants to climb into the dishwasher to help me load it up.  After hauling her out, she usually gets to help put a few pieces of silverware in and then she gets to shut the door... this elicts a lot of excitement!  Ending in huge claps for herself for being such a good helper (I love it when she claps for herself.)

Today when I opened it up to empty it out, I saw something a bit out of place....

 Evidently, Nicole thought Megan's polly pocket pieces needed some washing.  And this little guy....

Poor baby.... in the dishwasher prison!  I guess it was her form of time out.
And hey - in case anyone needed to know... polly pockets seem to be dishwasher safe.

Publix!

 Today, Megan's class had a fun field trip to one of our local Publix stores.

Megan had fun introducing me to some of her friends...

 Before the trip started - all the kids, teachers, and parents had to put on the obligatory hair net.  Megan was so not a fond of the hair net!

 We got to tour each part of the store.  All the kids were excited to get up close to the lobsters.

 Megan liked checking out the big freezer... I think she was hoping for them to open one of the big boxes of ice cream cones (no luck).

But in the deli area, all the kids got to sample some of the famos Publix Popcorn Chicken... I must admit, I didn't know they were famous for thier popcorn chicken - but Megan devoured it so I'm thinking we'll have to try it out one day.

Our favorite part... the bakery!  Of course!!!!!!
Each student got to help ice a cupcake and add sprinkles.  

 Megan's was the tallest one by far! Megan said it was super tasty - they ate them after lunch.

 Then to finish off our Publix tour - everyone got to learn to look for the barcode, scan an item, and be a bagger.  Fun!

I think Megan has a new found appreciation for our shopping trips now.

Happy B-day!

Oh what a day.  My sweet girls started my morning off with a bang with a fabulous rendition of Happy Birthday!  Even Nicole tries to sing it.  It's so cute because she mostly hums because she can't say the words.  Megan painted herself a bit this morning making me a sweet card!

Sadly, after dropping Megan off at school, Nicole got really really fussy.  She was pretty inconsolable - and then she let me have it... literally - all of it... everything she'd eaten all day.  Ugh.  Poor baby.  We had a visit to the Dr's office, a negative strep test (to the shock and awe of the Dr.) and a good grape lollipop (from the Dr. who felt so bad about how bad her throat looked).  And when we got home - she was like a different child.... one ready to play!

 It's so sweet to see the girls play together.  Nicole loves all of Megan's Polly Pockets and Princesses as much as Megan does.

 Megan has been desperately trying to show Nicole how to play board games.  I hear "No, Nicole, that's cheating!  What, you can't move your guy!  Nicole????!!!!"  It's quite funny.  It usually ends with a, "I'm  not playing with you anymore because you aren't playing right."

Those sweetpea's are the best birthday present I could ever have!  Oh how I love them and all the birthday's the Lord has given me. 

Having a sister means you have someone to always do something with....

No, Nicole is not potty training officially.... I'm not willing to do that with a 22 month old.  But she does love her potty and actually uses it about once a day.  Usually at the same time Megan is on the potty.  I had to preserve their modesty - but it was so cute I had to capture the fun of it somehow.

While Megan is at school, Nicole and I have been getting out and about and having some little friend playdates.  Now that the weather is starting to chill out a bit, we love meeting up with friends at the park.  Last week we met up with Julia, Emma, and Will....

Nicole has a new friend - Julia!  We were so thrilled to meet her finally after lots and lots of praying for this sweet friend.  Nicole wanted to be a good friend and help her out as much as possible... so what's a few cheerios among friends?

 Nicole loves the sandbox as much as Megan did at this age.

 Playground play food anyone???

Doughnuts with Dad

 Last week Megan had a special day at school.... Doughnuts with Dad.  She was so excited because it was the first time Tom had seen her classroom  And she'd been getting ready for it for weeks...

And not only did she get some super fun time with Dad, she also got her fill of doughnuts!

Oh yeah.... a successful date day!

Weekend at the Lake!

A few weeks back, my family headed up to Lake Burton to hang out with my friend Natalie's family.  It was so fun to have my family and my "extended family" together.  Megan loved showing Grandma and Granddad all around the lake.

We had dinner at the marina and the girls loved feeding the fish.



The girls started off their "lake time" with some time on the beach!

 The adults got to relax a bit....

 These girls are super fearless with their life vests on!

 And you can't truly appreciate all the lake has to offer without a lot of boat time!

 Megan of course, had to spend some time behind the wheel.

 Behind Megan you can see some of the damage that was done by the tornado that ripped through the area and over the lake this summer.

And we spent LOTS of time ON the water...

 Aunt Kelly, Anna and Megan...

 Uncle Kevin with Justin and Daniel...

 My turn with the girls....

 Oh yeah, I got to stay on and go with the boys....

 Don't think that Tom didn't do his time on the raft either....

 We turned it into a stuntshow....

 All the water bugs... Daniel, Justin, Anna, Nicole and Megan.

 Sadly, I had to leave a bit early but everyone else stayed for another day on the water.  Aunt Kelly even got Nicole out on the tube with Anna and Megan.  She LOVED it!

 AAAhhhhh.... what a way to end summer!

Fun and Games

Recently, we've been visiting a church down the road from our house.  Today they had a "Back To School" church picnic.  Everyone brought picnic lunches and the church organized some fun games for the kids.  I wondered if Megan would join in - and sure enough she ran to get in line. 

It helped that she had a friend who also has been visiting.  Megan and Macie were trying to figure out exactly what you do in a "baton relay."

 Nicole wanted to join in sooooo badly - she really does think she's 4.  As the girls raced, Nicole just kept running to the tree and back.

 One of the funniest things, was Megan in the sack race.  I honestly didn't know if she'd be able to do it - most of the kid who were in that race were older... but she was a trooper and actually did a good job. 

Megan said the sack race was "soooo fun!" but she also loved the 3-legged race with Macie.

Nicole had to just be a spectator this year - but she was a cute one!

I have to admit, even posting this is hard because it means that I'm admitting that we are heading out of our life at our current church home, and beginning to step into a new church.  We've known our days at DBC were numbered and we wanted to get involved in a church closer to home before Megan started school.  We'll, that's next year!  So we are making baby steps and learning more about this new church and love it.  I have a feeling it'll be a hard transition for me - today we went back to DBC for Awana (which we will continue to do there), and my heart hurt.  It's hard going from a place where you feel like you are part of the fabric of the church, to a new church where you don't yet know where you'll fit in.  Unfortunately, most of the ministries that have made up so much of my "church ministry life" at DBC they don't have at this new church - no awana's, no women's ministry, no children's choir....  This is a church that is really a baby - it's an older church that was basically reborn 18 months ago.  In that time it's gone from a church of about 60 people to over 200 adults and 100 kids.  It's still in "church plant" mode so I know that God is doing something cool and leading us there so that we can use our talents and gifts to be a blessing to this baby.  But that in between stage may be a bit of a challenge for me.