The Mamma's Birthday/Mother's Day

(04.18.2014)

This year for my birthday Mike had to work, but Addison had off of school due to Spring Break and Easter.  So I decided as a gift to myself, I would take the kids to downtown Greenville to the Children's Museum so that they could entertain themselves and I could hear myself think for once.  The kids had a blast and I actually enjoyed myself as well.  We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and it was delish as always.  After Mike got home from work, we headed to Carrabbas for dinner.  Eating Out TWICE in ONE DAY is a treat for me!! I LOVE to eat out so I was happy.  This year I was very spoiled for my birthday--I got my new SUV which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!!  Couldnt be happier with it.

Also this year on Mother's Day (05.11.2014), I was spoiled by Mike waking up and cooking breakfast and also cooking a fabulous dinner as he always does.  I also got to wake up to this:

How appropriate for a Southern Housewife to receive one of these babies...I LOVED it!  Oh, and yes the rose most definitely was plucked from outside off of our rose bush.  My hubs is such a hunk, and I am being dead serious.  I loved it.

Well here is to my last year of being in the 20's....30 is going to hit me hard, but it will be good...I know it!

Zoey's 4th Birthday

On 04.30.2014, our lil Zoey turned 4 years old.  A couple of days before her actual birthday, Nana Sally drove over from Charlotte to spend a little time with Zoey and to bring her, her birthday gift.  We decided to take Nana Sally downtown Greenville to go to dinner and then head over to the park where Zoey got to open up her gifts from Grandpa Ladd and Nana Sally....

On Zoey's actual birthday, the 30th, she woke up, got dressed, and got to open up one present.  From her sister and brother she got a new purse and some lip gloss, and to this day (5 months after her birthday), she still carries around that same purse and lip gloss...she LOVES it!  Anyways...here are a few pictures of her opening up her presents with a little help from big sister Addison:

She also got some dolls and some stuffed animal bunnies that she bought with her birthday money.  I failed on the "mommy taking pictures" department.  I really didnt take a whole lot and fully regret not doing so.  

Mike, unfortunately had to work on Zoey's birthday so Aunt Heather along with her 2 boys drove over from Charlotte to spend the day with us.  We first went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch where the kids got to play on the playland for awhile, and then we headed on over to Chuck-E-Cheeses to play some arcade games and ride rides.  Here is a picture of their overpriced prizes they got at the end---and yes half of them broke before we even made it to the car.  Stupid over-sized rat ripping all of us off...oh well, we are there for the memories, right??

And of course we ended the night with cake....her cake wasnt the most glamorous one I have made, but she wanted a "My Little Pony"cake, and b/c time was our enemy, this was the best she got.  Hey, she was happy :)

Happy Birthday, Zoey!!  We are so glad to have you a part of our family....attitude and all.  We love our "Zoe-ster"

Easter 2014

This year for Easter, we were able to head over to my parents house in Charlotte on the Saturday before Easter Sunday (04.19.20140.  It also happened to be my mom's birthday.  After arriving in Charlotte, we had a birthday dinner for my mom and then celebrated my brother Nic's, mine, and my mom's birthdays with cake and ice cream---our birthdays are all within 4 days of each other.  After cake, all the grandkids headed downstairs for an Easter Egg Hunt in my parents basement...I didnt really take any pictures, I videoed it instead, but it takes to long to upload it, so you are just gonna have to take my word for it.  Anyways, after all the Easter fun, we headed back home to Greenville so we could attend church in our ward.  The next morning the kids woke up, got their Easter treats and then off to church we went.  Once again, I suck at taking pictures and the only one I got was the trio in their Easter get-up.  At least I took a picture of them in their Sunday best......

Happy Easter 2014

Things We Love About Being Back Home

Since being back home, we have been able to catch up with things that we totally missed and that we didnt have back in New York.  Like the first place we stopped to eat at was:

We just cant get enough of our Chicken and Waffle Fries...Mmmmm.  This was the #1 thing we missed about the South.  You wont find Chick-Fil-A in New York...friggin liberals.

And lets not forget Happy Hour at:

Man are we fatties or what??  Kind of pathetic that the places we missed the most are all fast food...hey, can you blame us??  Its good stuff!  You dont know you miss it until you go without.

Another thing we missed was:

We just cant get enough of those hot, juicy, sugary, full of calories kind of dohnuts.  Plus they give you cool hats to wear.

Also LOVE having this nearby:

Thats right... neighborhood pools!! One thing about the South, everywhere you go there is an outdoor pool or splash pad!  Evert neighborhood has a pool, all the YMCAs have outdoor pools, or there is quite the selection of splash pads...THIS is what gets us through our hot and humid summers.  LOVE IT!

And lets not forget about Southern Thunderstorms and rockers.  I havent loved our rental house that we are in, but we thing I do like about it, is that it has a front porch big enough for me to put my 2 Southern Rockers on, also we have a big screened in back porch.  Love going out there and watching a good ole' Southern Thunderstorm roll through.  This is a picture of me and Rhett enjoying our rockers during a storm.  Love it.

Another thing we missed about being in New York was being near family.  Since being back home in South Carolina, we have gotten in a lot of family time.  My parents and 2 sisters are only an hour and a half from us in Charlotte, and then Mike's family is 2 1/2 hours from us in Charleston.  It has been so good to catch up with a lot of family time.  One of the first things we did was meet up with cousins and Nana at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia (south carolina that its).  

And I had to throw in a picture of me and the mr

Other things we have gotten to take advantage of is my parent's Lake House (2 hours away), my dads farm (1 hour away), and of course Charleston and the beach (2 1/2 - 3 hours away)!!  We cant get enough!  More pictures to come of those places...

Again, it has been so nice being back home close to family again and catching up with old friends.  We just cant get enough of the South and know that we were meant to move back home.  

Getting Settled In and A Lot of New Everything.....

After getting all of our stuff into our rental house, we got Addison registered for Kindergarten here in South Carolina.  Unfortunately, she hasnt had the smoothest transition between schools... first of all, here in South Carolina they are FULL day kindergarten--which I love by the way, but still it was an adjustment for her coming from a 1/2 day program, but she did like the part that she got to eat lunch at school and go outside for recess.  Second of all, South Carolina is WAY ahead in their kindergarten curriculum than they were in New York.  She came into this school and all the kids in her class are reading and writing, unfortunately for Addison, in New York with it being only 1/2 day Kindergarten, they were just required to learn their letters and count to 100 since time was against them.  Needless to say, we have had a rough time with the transition and trying to catch up to where she needs to be.  But I have much faith that she will catch up, she has already come such a long way in the past 3 months with her reading and writing.  I have no doubt that starting a fresh new school year with a new teacher (we werent too impressed with her last one), and a new start that she will do just fine in 1st grade.

Not only starting a new school, but we have been exploring everything Greenville has to offer and we LOVE it.  We have fallen in love with downtown Greenville.  It is a beautiful city with much to do and wonderful places to eat.

Looking at the ducks

Zoey at the waterfront

Underneath this really cool pedestrian bridge there...this picture does not even show all the beauty of this park ...LOVE Reedy Falls Park

My 3 goofballs

Best Friends....love the azaleas in the spring time

Not only did we get a new city, and a new house, but we also got a NEW..............

CAR!!!!!!!!  Its a GMC Acadia and I absolutely LOVE IT!!!

SO pretty!!  Notice we already put our Palmetto Sticker on it...gotta always represent  :)

Along with a new car...we bought some Paddle Boards so we could enjoy these HOT Southern Summers...

(this was the best picture I have of them as of right now)

We have loved living here in Greenville so far.  We are renting for now trying to get to know the area and then hopefully in a year or two we will be ready to buy a new house.  It feels good to be back home in South Carolina and as of right now, the plan is to stay for GOOD!!!  Now come visit us, yall!!! We have a guest room!!  We know you will love it just as much as we do!

Back to God's Country

On 03.28.2014, all the packing was done, carpets were cleaned, the house keys were turned in, we were on our way back to God's Country (aka South Carolina aka the South).  Mike had already been gone and moved for 4 weeks at this point, thank goodness my mom was able to fly up, help us pack up and clean the house for its new owners, and help me drive my 3 kiddos and the dog back home to South Carolina.  Notice that I said DOG (single), yep, thats right, thanks to some wonderful people in our ward, the Siglins, they took our "devil dog" Bam in.  Bam was way too much trouble for me.  Between the chewing, the barking, the biting, the pooping in the house, the chewing up of my $200 LL Bean coat, he bursted my bubble and I was ready to leave him out on the street to freeze in the snow....so thanks to this wonderful family who fell in love with Bam (not really sure why, but I didnt want to ask), we left Bam in New York where he belongs.

ANYWAYS, we left New York.  This move was bittersweet for me.  We LOVED living in New York.  We fell in love with the people, we fell in love with the area, the schools, our neighbors, our house, and our son, Rhett was born here.  Rochester will always have a special place in our hearts.  What I wont miss is the cold, snow, taxes, and government--sorry New York, you can keep those things.  But thank you New York, for wonderful memories and a good life.  As excited as we were to move back home to South Carolina, we have surely missed living in upstate New York.

Addison's best friend Arthi...she lived right next door to us and we were so sad to move away from her. 

 Picture of our house with the "Sold" sign on it  (sad sad day)

We officially closed on 03.31.2014

Just to give you an idea...we went from THIS (New York in March)...............

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to THIS (Carolina) is just a matter of a few days.

February Happenings

So as we all very well know...this winter has SUCKED BIG TIME!!  It has been cold, snowy, cold, gray, oh and did I mention COLD!  This winter has been NO fun at all, we have cabin fever to the max and our move to South Carolina cannot come SOON enough!  We have been trying to keep busy despite the cold.  The kiddos have gotten to go out mabye a total of two times to go play in the snow b/c it has been so bitterly cold outside, its too miserable to go out even with layers upon layers of snow clothes on.  So here is the past few weeks or so of us getting through this miserable winter.

A lot of these were taken with my cell phone, so the picture quality isnt the greatest

Our view out the front door practically everyday, or so it seems like everyday

More snow

FINALLY a sunny day!!  The kids last about 15 minutes before coming back inside b/c it was so cold

We have done a lot of Netflix watching, even the dogs have gotten into Netflix

"Helping" mommy pack up the house for our upcoming move

Us and some friends decided to take the kids bowling..here's Addison

Go Zoey, go!

Such a tough lil man, he wanted to do it ALL by himself

Addison, Zoey, and our friend Mallory rolling the ball down together

More outside fun...Addison & Zoey building a snowman

Please Spring, HURRY UP!!!!

Trip to Carolina

Back at the end of January, the hospital Mike will be working at paid for us to go down to Greenville to check out the area.  Since working for the airlines and getting free flights, we decided to fly the kids to Nana and Grandpa's house and ditch them there while Mike and I went on to Greenville for a little "getaway" paid for by the hospital.  They put us up in the Hilton and we had wonderful time touring the area, and meeting up with our friends, the Lowery's from Charleston who now live in Greenville.  We fell in love with Greenville and cant wait to find a house and move on down there at the end of this month.  While being in the Carolinas, we also got to head out to my Grandpa Ladd's Farm in Chester, South Carolina to ride 4-wheelers, hang out by the fire, roast marshmallows, and eat yummy food.  The trip was short and sweet, but we were glad to get out of freezing cold New York for a bit and see where we get to live next!

The most popular thing at Grandpa's Farm--the tire swing

Rhett spent the majority of his time playing in the fire pit--no fire was going, yet for you worry-warts out there

 Grandpa Ladd taking charge

Downton Greenville, SC--cant wait, so pretty!

Rhett on the plane on the way home, he was just happy he got his own seat this time

The girls ready to go

This was as the plane was taking off...Addison screaming the whole time "this is awesome, its just like a roller coaster!"---yeah, she is one of those kinds of passengers