Happy Father's Day and stuff

I spent very little time on Facebook yesterday, as I want to make more of a habit of doing, enjoying time with my own family while we have the time on weekends rather than whiling away my time on Facebook or reading blogs or whatever else I can find to do online, since I think I do that way more often then I ought. But for the few minutes I was on there I saw scores and scores of my friends wishing their loved ones happy Father's Day and I felt a tiny bit guilty for not coming up with some touching picture of me and my dad or the kids and Bill or some such thing. But then I mentally stopped in my tracks and told myself I'm not required to do that to be grateful for my dad and my husband and all that they do. Because they're awesome, but if I don't tell the whole world about it, that's okay, they still are.

So I didn't do that yesterday and I'm only sort of doing it right now. We did have an exceptionally awesome Father's Day.  Church went well despite having forgotten Spencer's church bag of toys and sundry distractions. We had a fantastic dinner that I thoroughly enjoyed spending several hours in the kitchen putting together. We'll be eating on the strawberry swirl cheesecake all week I'm sure. The kids were generally happy and enjoyable all day, which is not necessarily the truth every day.  The kids and I got Bill some awesome gifts and Bill and I had a lovely time playing his new Parcheesi last night after the kids were in bed. That's one of those games we played together with a friend back in our dating days and it was fun to finally get our own game. And that was about it. It was a good day and when we got to the end of it, we were happy to crash in bed. Life is good around here friends. I'm glad to be living it with my awesome husband and cuter then anything kids.

 And here's a few Bill shot of Genevieve this afternoon. Look at those bottom teeth! She's worked hard for those, so we're celebrating having two whole teeth at 9.5 months old. :)

This lady knows how to get in trouble getting all of her brother's drawing supplies. But it's okay because look how cute she is in that outfit!

This is how she carries around the duplo guys all day. It's hilarious and somewhat unfortunate at times, especially as both kids love them, so there are some tears at times over who gets to play with them. Apparently four are not enough for two kids.

Oh, and right before bedtime tonight Genevieve decided to try out standing on her own, not once, but twice! She let go and then wiggled her hips like mad to stay upright. She sat down, hopped back up, and tried it again. She was so pleased. I foresee more of that happening here right quick. She's ready to get moving faster than crawling can do for her.

Great Smoky Mountains Campout

We went camping. It was awesome and like another world compared to camping in the west. I had a hard time comprehending how green it was. From the ground all the way up to the tree canopies there was vegetation. You couldn't even see through the trees, let alone walk through them. It rained like crazy, as we were getting hit with the rain from a tropical storm down in the Gulf. We ate lots of good food, did a bit of hiking, saw the very cool synchronous fireflies, which is why we went, and generally had a good time. Spencer manifested his love of art as he went to town on some nearby rocks with the sidewalk chalk. That kid has flare when it comes to drawing. We got eaten alive by some kind of bugs, though I'm not sure what exactly, while we were watching the fireflies. I've got 15 bites on one foot, 25 or so on the other and about 15 on each hand. Bill got 45 on one calf and shin alone. We won't forget to use our bug spray and wear closed shoes ever again, that's for sure. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We really, really enjoyed ourselves. We learned lots about the need to entertain children while camping and we'll file that away for future outings.  Oh, and Bill had a total revelation when he saw a Jeep just like ours towing a popup camper. Now he has big dreams for if we had one. Someday...

And now for a few pictures. :)

The campsite.

Spencer sleeping like a champ.

On our hike.

Millipede I think.

The girls. 

Mountain flowers.

The girls we were with. There were three boys and Genevieve too.

The boys.

The family.

These girls were great. They were always finding slugs and snails to hold.

Pretty butterfly.

This week in pictures

Bill and I got new bikes. The kids and I have already been out riding. It's awesome. I foresee lots of good times in the future. Spencer has a new little bike too that he'll be able to ride once he learns better how to push the pedals.

Swim diapers are to catch poop, right? So why not just wear underwear? So says Bill, and it seems reasonable to me. So Spencer is modeling his first pair of underwear. :) Someday we'll tell him what it's actually for. lol

What are you guys doing to me?!?! Yup, we just did that.

This is a dress of mine from when I was a baby. She rocked it last Sunday.

Happy baby. I love it when I catch it on camera.

The peppers and basil. Looking good! Can't wait to use these.

I love gardening in South Carolina! The tomatoes are flourishing! The peppers are a little slower, but we're going to have some seriously tasty dinners in not too long. 

Story time on the couch in style. 

9 Months

I swear this year is just flying by. I didn't realize Genevieve had turned nine months until two days after the fact. Woo! She's still growing like a weed and is just the most delightful child.

She still loves to chew on everything. She only has one tooth and is just about to push through her second, so that accounts for at least some of it. 

This is her favorite stuffed dog. It is beloved above all others, save for maybe Spencer's favorite one, his sock monkey. No surprise there. These two love anything the other one has or likes. Pretty typical. They love each other too, so it mostly works out.

She's crawling like crazy, standing against furniture with barely one hand holding on, but only cruising a bit and not really thinking about walking yet. She loves to climb, particularly on me and Bill. I foresee her being my child I find on top of the refrigerator or some other crazy place.

She is still smiley and giggly as can be at home, but very clingy to me when we're out in public. She's just in the last couple days started to crack the stone-faced normal look she gives to everyone she sees out in public. She's starting to share small smiles just as long as she's cuddled up to me while she's doing it. I'm not complaining! Cuddly babies are awesome. I imagine it's as much a phase as anything else, so I'll enjoy her wanting to stick close for the short time I have it. She's very curious about things she sees, so I think she'll start exploring a lot more now that she's so much more mobile.

This may be her best talent. :) Just kidding, but she's quite a good eater of food. lol. She eats anything we put in front of her still. It's fun. She's in the 75th percentile across the board on her stats, so that means she's actually slowed down a bit her growth, which is nice for all the cute clothes she has in this size. She's wearing 12 and 18-month clothes exclusively. She's not small by any  means!

We love this little squish to bits. She truly is just a delightful baby.

Bikes, food, flea markets, and cute kids

I realize I'm late to the party, but we went to our first flea market this morning. It was awesome. We did some research on ones nearby and they each seem to be open a different morning of the week, generally not Saturday. I guess people have better things to do with their Saturday or something like that. Like fishing on the lake. Or doing water sports. Or swimming. Or anything else you can think of with water, as there are three lakes mere miles from our house. Oh, and maybe hiking. Or apparently eating at Waffle House, because despite the roads being completely deserted this morning at 8:30AM, both Waffle Houses we went to were full. We got the last table at the second one and had a fantastic breakfast. Check that off the bucket list. Now on to trying the plethora of one off mom and pop restaurants. I foresee lots of happy taste bud experiences.

But back to the flea market. This place was huge. There had to be hundreds of tables. Only a few were in use, but you could have a seriously huge market there. We found some great kids books for a whopping 27 cents each. That's what I'm talking about! I think I could enjoy doing this for a hobby. We need a new bookshelf though. Ours is now stuffed full. It was nearly there, but it's now reached capacity. I have no problem with this turn of events. :) So yes, more flea markets in our future, and hopefully some farmer's markets mixed in.

Did I mention that we got Spencer his very own bike this last week? He hasn't quite figured out its awesomeness yet, but I have no doubt he will soon enough. He did have a pretty great first reaction to it.

Genevieve is quite pleased with it herself. She regularly crawls over to check it out and make sure it's still there.

Bill got a bike too, but it's still in transit. Once it gets here and is assembled, if it fits me as well I'll be getting the same one and then we'll be off to amazing family bike rides. I can't wait!

And for your viewing pleasure, here's Genevieve playing with Genevieve after her bath last night.

It's always fun when Grandma comes

This is what we do when Grandma comes to visit.

Splash in the puddles

Play with new toys.

Play at the park.

Swing on the swing.

This is the best picture we got of Spencer the whole week. He never stopped moving long enough to get a better one.

Genevieve is perfecting the art of tearing off the label before anybody knows how much money she spent. :)

Deep in contemplation of her new toy.

Slightly fuzzy picture of Spence at the botanical garden.

Bath time! Don't be fooled by their lack of expression. This may be their favorite time of day.

Genevieve appears to take after Spencer in loving water. We were looking at a waterfall at the botanical garden here.

And then there was the time I locked the keys and diaper bag and cell phone in the car. Thank goodness Suzanne was there with her phone! We were at a thrift store so we found a comfy couch to lounge on while we waited for the locksmith to come and bail us out.

A lovely evening walk on Clemson's campus. This is the fountain in front of the library.

See? Spencer loves water, muddy or not.

Oh, I may have been wrong. This is probably the best picture we got this week.

We had a fantastic time hosting Suzanne here and we miss her already. Can't wait to see her and everyone else in July!

King Creek Falls

Another great hike today. We struggled a little to find the trailhead and it was quite short hiking there, but certainly didn't lack for grandeur. Another great afternoon in South Carolina.

The falls were huge and beautiful and had absolutely no safe place for a kid to stand since the windy trail just stopped at the water's edge. So we hiked up, took a few pictures, threw a few rocks, and headed back. A little anti climactic, but we made it a good time.

Spence still loves this carrier. Poor Bill's back, but he's a good sport.

Genevieve loves her carrier too. Aside from not being able to see where I place my feet because of her being in front, it's super comfy to carry her this way.

A trillium. There are probably 30-40 varieties of these in all shades and sizes around here.

These flowers were tiny and delicate and scattered all along the edge of the trail.

A fly catcher!  Bill's sharp eyes noticed this one and we stopped for a picture.

More pretty purple flowers.

Success! Spencer spent some of the time walking himself, of course with a couple of sticks.

And then he got tired and we ended up putting him back in the carrier.  Cheers to at least a little effort on his part hiking with us. It's a start.