Our last days in Sumter, SC

my sleepy boys

At the moment, I'm taking a much needed break from packing.  You'd think it would be easy since we are all shoved into a hotel room, but noooo!  Of course not!  I'm so tired and I know that I still have like 3-4 hrs before I'm ready or as ready as I can be.  Chris is doing his best to help, but packing is not his thing.  So we've been talking and planning and watching whatever is on the TV.  I'm so nervous about all these changes.

Chris said goodbye to work with a great farewell lunch at Logan's Roadhouse (my favorite).  It's one of those things that everyone gets to do and the whole flight or unit or group or whatever get to go out to eat and have a good bye to the guys leaving.  It's also one of the few times that the whole gang gets on just one person's case to make fun, laugh, and wish well.  There were lots of funny jokes and embarrassing moments to be relived.  I got to hear a lot about Chris, nothing I didn't know, but it's always fun to hear what goes on at work and how others perceive my husband.  He's a great guy and the camaraderie that was shown really said that the guys he worked with agreed.  His Commanding Officer even flew in special to be there for the farewell. He was such a great mentor for Chris and a good person for me to trust with my husband.  Chris got a beautiful display with an American Eagle and a glass plate that had his service and his well earned nickname Lt. Christopher "Bow Down" Fosburg.  If you want to know about that though, you'll have to ask him yourself.  It makes me wonder what his next nickname will be!

As far as our house was concerned we still had a ton of work to do.  We hired the fantastic handyman from our realtor's company (he came out several times while we lived here) to fix the holes in our walls and repaint the house.  Earl did an amazing job.  I wish we could take him with us.  When he found out where we were moving to he wished the same thing.  He is also the guy who is raising his granddaughter.  She came to play several times over the course of the last two years.

Anyway, so after Earl did his thing, we did ours.  We cleaned that house until it looked like we'd never been there.  Chris and I both have a thing about cleaning: do it right the first time.  I know my Grandpa Nix is reading this where he is and thinking "FINALLY, she got it!"  So we spent three days scrubbing that house; the cupboards, the floors, the appliances, everything!  I hate this part of the moving process. It's back breaking work, but we did get our full deposit back which went right into our car fund for Hawaii.  By the time we had Carol from Svetlik check us out the kids had gone through their bubbles, chalk, outside toys, snacks, drinks and anything else we were able to come up with to occupy them.

Our kids loved to draw with chalk outside on the patio.  I didn't have the heart to clean it off before we checked out.  I just took pictures of all the creativity.  You can tell we enjoyed our time here!

Lizzy had just started getting into the drawing thing.  Most of her drawings looked like the chalk got stuck in a tornado!

Eve was very proud of her girl

See?  We were responsible and filled the hole our children made.  Every time someone came to visit for the first time they would ask if we had a dog.  We would just smile and say no, we have four little puppies who like to dig.

This is also the same week we finally said good bye to our Sumter home on Peppercorn Lane.  It was a great yard - I mean, REALLY great yard.  We are sooooo going to miss our swing set and all the freedom.  I'm not going to miss the lack of fencing or the icky wall paper.  But it was a great home for us and our first house in general.  Hope we get to do more of that at some point.

Little Lizzy Swings

ally kisses!

So of course we got to spend Father's Day in the hotel and it was kind of cool.  There wasn't any big favorite dinner or anything, but we still sang to daddy and got him some fun gifts.  We also went to church for the last time and I got a cute picture with some of my girl friends.  When I first moved to Sumter I couldn't imagine having such a hard time leaving, but now I know I'll miss it a lot.  It's become home.  So many good friends and growing experiences.

I also had my last dr appt after the baby.  No more pre or post natal anything!!!  Super happy about that, though I'm sure a Hawaiian baby would've been fun.

So the rest of this post is just going to pictures.  Pictures of our home, our friends and our last FHE with the Perkins family.  We had so much fun with them.  We love you Michael, Diantha, Lexi, Colleen, Savannah, Michael Jr, and Faith.  Hope we see you again sometime!

With our kids we had fun even before we got to the pool!  Ally was bouncing on the bed and made these silly faces.  Guess it's time for some barrettes!

there she is - so adorable

hangin' out in the hotel before FHE

I love taking videos.  In this one you get to see Chris teaching the kids to swim.  I love how involved Chris is with the kids.  Not every dad is like that.  So lucky!

We had such a great time playing in the water.  Sometimes I forget how many kids I have so young.  They feel old to me.  Then we go to an activity like swimming and I realize that only Eve can swim by herself.  Joe wears the wings, Lizzy and Ally are both in floats and V can't even go in chlorinated water yet!  It's so funny.  They seem older than they are when we're doing other things!

no sweetie, we wear the goggles we don't eat them

 pretty little girl

 peek-a-boo

 surveying the pool 

 floatie twins

 my water babies

My kids so love the water.  When we had to move hotels I was pleasantly surprised by the use of a pool.  Living in South Carolina we didn't do a lot of pools, but there were a few.  This was a nice way to get out the wigglies and have some close to "home" family time.

I have so many pictures of the pool.  Everything my kids did at the pool seemed cute to me.  Guess I'm biased!  I just had fun doing this.  We were so busy this last two weeks that a chance to just relax and have fun was a nice break and a great way to say goodbye to Sumter.

 more swimming fun

 my little V - he loved the pool - see?

 Michael and little Faith

 everyone at the pool

 there's my boy

 smiling for the camera! (just not mine)

 Jr and Ally

 Lizzy and D

 Every time we had FHE it felt like we had a whole primary with us.  Each family had five by the time we left and boy were we busy.  Needless to say, we all became very adept at FHE's for little ones.  The Perkins family has kids more spread out, but they are all as crazy and silly and fun as our kids.

 Top down: Michael Sr., Miss D and Lexi, Colleen and Evie and Savannah, Joseph and Jr., Lizzy, Faith and V in the car seats, Chris and Ally.

 Chris was very sweet and made sure we even took a picture with the resident photographer.  See I was there too!

 my South Carolina best friend - Miss Diantha or D as I call her

Ahhh, the South

Every year we live down here in South Carolina the weather takes me by surprise.  You'd think after three years I'd be on board, but no.  The girl from Spokane Valley, WA  still can't quite get with the program.

What I mean is that the spring and fall are a bit, well, crazy.  My washer is always very unique at this point because I have those great fleecy jammies sitting in with the swimsuits and beach towels.  Why you ask?  Because at night it can dip to 40 degrees and then the next afternoon be in the 80's.  I know it sounds really odd, but after three years it seems to be a regular thing for Sumter, SC.

So due to the wacky weather my kids all have seasonal allergies which make them and me miserable, but they also get to do really fun things like swim in the pool in March.  That's what these pix are.  Here in Sumter, March 30th was greeted with blue skies, scorching sunshine, and super happy little children playing in the water.  That's just the way it is down here.  We kind of just roll with it at this point, though the recent cold snap sent us back to allergy meds for a week or so.  Sheesh!

 this was Ally's first time in her wading pool - 

eventually she got it - and loved it

Cute Kid Moments

One of the things I love the most about posting on this blog is that I can post things that are really important like birthdays and major milestones in the lives of my family members, but also that I can post random funny things that happen to me just because I happen to be the mom of some very silly children.  What an adventure this has already been and my oldest is only 5.  

So this is one of those posts that just reminds me why my kids are mine - they make me giggle like no one else can!

 though Ally is cute, it's daddy's smile that caught my heart in this one

I'm sure someone noticed that Ally's birthday post was missing the Nana/Papa gift.  Well, it came a day or so later.  This little fuzzy bear has become a staple in the crib and has since lost his cute party hat.  Ally chewed on it so much it fell off and had to be tossed.  At least we know she loves it!

 This is that little birthday cake by Leap Frog that she got.  She loves this thing!

Ally is such a Fosburg, she's great!  Only my kid would be completely happy drinking a bottle hanging upside down.  I just came around a corner and found her hanging this way with no apparent reason for the position.  Such odd ducks are my children.

This was a great little science lesson we did.  They learned about plants, roots, leaves, and soil.  They enjoyed it so much.  A bit later when the seeds sprouted they got really excited and then frustrated when they didn't do much after that.  Eventually, Joe accidently knocked his over and we had to throw it out and Evie over watered hers while trying to be a big girl and do it without mom's permission...

 ...we still enjoyed the project though!

 Here they drew a picture of what they thought the flowers were going to look like.  It was a way of continuing the science lesson by practicing the predicting skill of the scientific method.  They did a great job.

 can you see the little plants?

Random sleeping picture of Joseph.  We have come to realize that he and daddy are very similar.  They can both sleep anywhere at anytime.  He can also fall asleep in less than five minutes or stay awake hours upon hours if he really wants to.  Sleep seems to be one of those "crosses" he just has to bear in mortal life.  Apparently it is an inconvenient necessity.  So funny.

This is a picture of Evie after a play date with her friend Isabella from ballet class.  We had to send her with a note to give to her friend after class to invite them to our home.  I felt like I had stepped back in time with the process since it's been so long since I've heard of it being done that way.  Anyway, Isabella came over and then Evie was invited to Isabella's house the next week.  It's been a good friendship for her.

And this is what Joe does when Evie is not at home.  He plays with her stuff very happily.  Chris really thought it was cute what he had done with the doll house.  He apparently turned it into a parking garage or something - oftentimes he uses the cars the way Eve uses dolls.  They have teeth brushed, get in time outs, and talk.  So funny.

Evie, Joe, and Liz on a walk with daddy.  I love Evie's pose-my drama queen, Joe's hat-actually daddy's, and Lizzy's little "I'm here" grin.  

Chris and I often find it amusing to notice how Joe seems to organize his toys.  They all end up in rows, lines, and specific groups.  It's kind of funny, but one of those Joe personality traits we noticed.

Ally says hello to the camera!

Aren't my kids silly?  I so get a kick out of having cameras on our phones and a nice one in my home.  It makes capturing these funny moments of the kids growing up so easy and fun to look at.