Where has the summer gone?

This summer is flying by. We've been really busy doing nothing at all! Scott made the drive to Metter to meet my parents and pick up the kiddos. Ben and I stayed here and went to The Tidal Wave. Great entertainment for almost 2 year olds! Once we were all reunited Scott suggested we all go see Cars 2. Lillee and I were not so impressed! The boys loved it.

We've been hanging out, thinking about packing for camp, swimming, eating at Subway and looking for lightening and cicada bugs. We've also been doing quite a lot of sleeping. The kids obviously needed some time apart in order to get their beauty rest. Ben took two and three hour naps during the day when Baxter and Lillee were gone. My dad said he and Bax got some great chair/nap time too!

We've been eating lots of butterbeans, squash, peaches, blackberries, tons of blueberries, raspberries and watermelon. I ordered some things from CSA Bluebird. Everything I got from them was delicious. I attempted blackberry preserves. They're yummy if you pour them over your out-of-the-oven sourdough bread but not quite firm enough for a sammich. The attempt at peach cobbler was much better, especially the second day. I have a handful of peaches left on the counter and sitting next to it is the July edition of Southern Living. There are great peach recipes in there. Seeing this pairing on the counter makes me happy!

Yet another project is underway. We are trying to get Bax out of our bed. I know, I know that we should've never started the pattern. However, we are going to attempt to get a grip on it now! Sunday night was his first night and we caved and said he could sleep with Lillee (a transition of sorts.) She made him pay her $2 to sleep with her and it looked like a restless night. Monday night Scott read him a story and put him in his bed to sleep. All was great until the next morning when I woke up with him snuggled close to me. When I ask him why he came and got in bed with us he told me he thought he may have a bad dream. Key word: MAY Tuesday night Scott was so tired and had to get up early the next morning that he slept in Lillee's bed so I ended up with Bax, Lillee and Piper in bed with me. We'll keep working!

Lillee and I are starting to work on our list for camp. She goes in three weeks but we attempted a shopping trip together and found some shorts and such. Anyone who knows me will tell you I don't enjoy going out shopping. Shopping for this family usually means huddling around the computer or kids flagging pages in a magazine so I can place the order at 6 a.m. However, having a girl kind of means mother/daughter shopping trips. I emphasize trips and not vacations. Two totally separate words! A friend of mine from Jesup and her mother would go shopping every Saturday morning. I always thought that was a neat tradition so maybe Lillee and I will one day be seen perusing shops together? Maybe?? Now I would still prefer the clicking of the mouse and email tracking updates. We did go to a shoe store for some much needed tennis shoes for her. The clerk brought out a 1.5 which was way too small. After measuring her foot we learned she's a 3.5! I am in disbelief she is getting this big.

My friend and I were talking yesterday about another "friend" of mine. This "friend" is not someone I know but someone I stalk in blogland. Anyway, she has decided to document what she does each day. That may sound mundane to some, but to me it reassures me that what I'm doing is semi-normal! I enjoy reading it and seeing how our lives are somewhat parallel. Pondering in the future but preparing myself to see the feed/traffic SLOW down during those posts. A sweet friend of mine gave me this book for my birthday. It is such a great journal of thoughts to look back each year. I'm really enjoying writing in it each night and recapping the days events. When I think we're not too busy, I am surprised when I look at all of the things we've done.

New Beginnings

Lillee at FUMC Art Camp - loved it...just the right thing for her!

There have been lots of new things going on around here....beginning with the iPhone. I'm still learning and it is a really cool phone. My phone died and I used the old flip phone for the day. It was pure bliss. Very simple talking and texting. I called Scott to tell him things were great and I enjoyed that annoying ring tone but I was too late. This iPhone is fun if you know how to work all things Mac, which is why I have it I think. My IT guy is Mac obsessed! If I hear Mac Book Air again I'll scream. All of these pics are from the iPhone. I read a blog where they did an iPhone "dump" and put all pics from the past month up. Pretty cool concept as this is usually the only camera I have with me these days.

Starting with this picture!!! I had five kids in the house and we were all upstairs. I was packing bags to go to the pool and had thrown in this bag of chips. A few minutes later I noticed Ben had disappeared. It got very quiet upstairs but I could smell something coming from Lillee's room. I found him in Lillee's shower with the door closed with this bag of chips and a present for me in his pants! I texted this picture to Scott and he thought this was Baxter! I guess the poor guy was just looking for a quiet spot to eat his chips.
Some great friends decided to throw a fun birthday gathering for me. Very sweet and much appreciated. The kids had a great time as did I!

Lots of my parents friends came by while we were there. They brought vegetables, chicken and dumplings and offered to cut the grass. What great friends! We were able to go to one friend's home to visit their garden. We came home with a cooler overflowing with yummy goodness.

blackberries

purple hull crowder peas (Baxter loved shelling these)

can you spot a hot baby in the tomato patch?

I'm not sure if you can see this but it's asparagus! I've never seen asparagus growing in a garden! Very cool.

My dad's back went out right after he got home from visiting our house. He literally couldn't walk/sleep/eat/work. He has been to the doctor and had two epidural injections. I wanted to drive down to help but my mom convinced me to wait and bring the kiddos when he was able to hang out with them and play lots of Go Fish! I'm glad we waited even though I felt sad I wasn't anymore of a help. The kids and I were making daily trips to the post office to mail packages. I hope he recognizes the work in getting A)the contents of the package, B)making kids sit to color pics, C)the long lines at the post office with kids hanging on the velvet ropes! We enjoyed it and know it brought some happiness to his day. He just went to the doctor for his second epidural while we were there and was cleared to mow the grass (without bumps) for 15 mins at the time. Ben really enjoyed watching him. He couldn't figure out why Papa couldn't pick him up but he loved snuggling with him!
The first night we were there my mom took all three kids to her Vacation Bible School. I took full advantage of two quiet hours and went to the best TJ Maxx ever! I started texting Scott pics for his new office. He was so slow to respond I ended up with a lamp for our bedroom and some kitchen towels. Now I still have a reason to go to Forsyth Liquidators for him!
So proud of my two big kids who wanted to ride all of the big water slides at Summer Waves! We did not ride the ones that go straight down but these were pretty big! Lillee was not scared at all. It took some convincing to get Bax to go. I'm sure Ben would have gone willingly had he been able.

Oh, and one more new endeavor.....

I JOINED FACEBOOK!!!

Oh my! I'm not sure what I've done. It can clearly become an obsession. I am Jenn Key. I'm not really sure why I'm not Jennifer Key or Jennifer Causey Key but I'm just happy I have a profile picture that it took me 4 hours to figure out! Happy FB'ing

Myrtle Beach

We visited the city voted 1 out of 6 for "most fun" in USA Today! I can surely tell you The Hilton was fun. Our family usually doesn't leave the compound where we are. We did venture out a few places but not too far!
We were there for the Georgia State Bar conference. We met up at the pool with these sweet neighbors. Thankfully, Bethany went with us. I'm not sure if she was there to help with kids or to laugh with me at our Clampett goings on. I could seriously write a book/song about our life. We woke up all the kids at 6 a.m., were packed and ready. Crank up - dead battery! Just typical! So we threw our jumper cables in the back and headed out.
The beach was nice and the pier was close by. Very pretty shells. Unfortunately, these could be some of our last pics since our camera started making some crazy noise and is now broken. Where can I take to fix?

There was a waterpark at one of the hotels connected to the Hilton. It was great. Two fun slides and a lazy river. Bax was a little too short to go on the lazy river, hence, Griswald/Clampett moment but Ben didn't mind. He spent most of his vacation with happy looks like this...

What would we do without this sweet girl? We also went to The Pirate's Voyage. No pics of that. Dear Dolly would not allow flash photography. Everyone said that was the highlight of their trip! It was really great. A definite 2 thumbs up!

Sweet love.
The pool was separated by a little island. One of the pools had sand in the middle. Very cool.

Lillee turned a few chairs into her salon. There was lots of braiding and hair brushing involved!

We did eat at Cracker Barrel. We drove around and couldn't decide between the 14 seafood buffets on the strip so we pulled into the most reliable thing we could find.