Our Little Author

Brooke is a very focused, determined, and observant little girl. She is really into doing workbooks (I find these at AC Moore and they are awesome for writing/reading skills), coloring, and writing all her letters. She writes all the time and is constantly asking me how to spell things so she can write. The workbooks she does have all types of exercises (matching, spelling, math, you name it...). We sat down and did a workbook the other day for over an hour while Presley took a nap. I am so excited that Brooke is so focused and loves doing "school" type work. Hopefully this will continue on and she'll be much more studious than her mother was. :)
Below is Brooke's 1st book that she has written. Mom Mom Suz sent Brooke this blank book that you add stickers to and have room to draw pictures. This is what she chose to do with it. We are so proud of her! Title of the book: King Triton looks for Ariel, Ursula, Flounder, Sebastian

Brooke's 1st Field Trip

Brooke's school took a field trip yesterday over to Niven's Apple Farm. They got to ride a hayride, pick apples, pick a pumpkin from the patch, see the animals, do the corn maze, and play at the playground! It was a beautiful morning with my gals...even though Brooke was feeling pretty shy she still managed to have fun by the time we were leaving. :) Picking her 1st apple of the day!

She and Presley jumping at the playground...this thing is always a hit!

Looking at Bubba...the calf

The girls with their pumpkins...Presley had just been running with hers and fell. She was so mad!

Trying to get a picture of the 3 of us! It never works!

FSU/Clemson Game

We were so glad we got to see FSU play this season, even though it was a tough loss. The game was at Clemson this year so we headed down with good friends of ours (who also went there) to spend the day tailgating and going to the game. I have to say that I absolutely love going to games at Clemson. It is such a fun school and reminds me lots of being at FSU. Hopefully the Noles will get our hurt players back and have a better rest of the season! Hanging at the tailgate!

Fallon and I before we headed to the game!

Zane, Christine, Patrick, Fallon, me, and Scott after Clemson won...boo....!!

Before we headed out... Even tough we lost, we still had a GREAT time!!!

A Week with Daddy

Scott was off of work all of last week and we had such a great time! We kept saying to each other that we could get used to that...if we won the lottery!! We got to spend lots of family time together and while Brooke was at school we got lots of home projects done. It's such a challenge these days to find time to get projects done so we tried to take advantage of anytime that we had. We definitely had the girls helping out too when they could. They loved it!! Daddy's back to work and we miss him!! On Tuesday we rode our bikes from the Zoo to the Children's Garden so the kids could walk all around.

Daddy repainted the deck and had the girls out there scrubbing it! They were out there for about 2 hours!

On Thursday we headed to Sky Top Orchard in North Carolina for some awesome apple picking. It was great to go up there during the week since it was less crowded and there were still lots of apples to pick. Our gals! Brooke picking her 1st one this season!

View from the orchard

Daddy and his girls! Go Brooke!

The gals! (I'm hanging on to Presley so I could get 1 picture of the 3 of us together!!)

Having fun with Daddy!

Presley's 1st time ever picking an apple! She loved putting them in the basket!

Daddy cut down some bushes and the girls were having so much fun watching him!

Hello, FALL!!

I have to say that I am really excited that Fall is here! The weather is getting a bit cooler, our schedules are much more normal, and it's FOOTBALL season!! I love every part of FALL!! Brooke is back in school 3 days a week and is LOVING it! Presley comes to Stroller Strides with me and we get to get some alone time together. Brooke is back in dance class and is so thrilled with her class. Ahhh...goodbye summer...hello FALL! Mom Mom Suz was in town when Brooke had her 1st dance class this year! Look how excited she is!

1st day of school!

Wearing her mermaid outfit that Nana got her!!

At a friends birthday party enjoying her pizza! Like mother, like daughter! :)

Seriously?!! This was after eating a cupcake!!!

A Day with my Man

Yesterday was a day that I have craved for awhile now.... I got to spend the day with my incredible husband!! With the past couple of months being so busy, stressful, you name it... it was time for us to get away and really have a great day together. My Mom was so great to watch the kids for us while we jumped in the car and headed off. We decided to head up to Table Rock and hike for the day. I have to say that this was by far such a beautiful day (in many different ways). We hiked for 7.2 miles and loved going to the top of Table Rock. The view was so pretty and it felt great to be on the mountain and feel so connected to my love. We laughed so much and just loved being in nature together. After the hike we headed out to dinner in downtown Greenville to one of our fav restaurants, Rick Erwin's. We had an awesome steak dinner with a dessert to die for. We stayed overnight downtown and enjoyed coffee on the river and a long walk there this morning. I love being with my children everyday but the times I get to have Scott all to myself, I just soak it up. Thank you Mom for hanging out with our children so we could have such a great time hanging out with each other. It means so much to us to be able to do that. We love you.


Here are some pics from our day yesterday:
We stopped at the last gas station before Table Rock and found this ostrich behind the store. We thought it was a little random. :)

Start of our hike! Yes, we were already sweating since it was still about 90 something degrees in the mountains!

On our way up... this rock looked like a sleeping dinosaur!

Pretty view on the way up

Nice view heading to the top

At the summit!

Scott looking out at the beautiful view

This was what we climbed yesterday. This was taken when we left the mountain. The pics right above this are taken from the top of those rock cliffs.

End of August

We cannot believe that summer has come to an end especially since it is still about 97 degrees here! The last couple of weeks of summer have been so much fun! Mom Mom Suz came to visit for a week and it was so great to spend time with her and get to all be together. She and the kids did so much together and had a blast!! The last night she was here she came with us to the annual neighborhood Dodgeball tournament!! This night is so much fun..the Dads play dogdgeball and drink lots of keg beer while the ladies and kids have fun outside the game!! We love this night every year! This year our Dads called themselves the "Millbillies" and they won the whole tournament (12 teams played)!! So fun, we got a little rowdy afterwards to say the least. :)
We also celebrated Nana's birthday too with yummy Italian food and a fun night all together!! We love you Mom Mom Suz and Nana!! All the gals and kids at the dodgeball game!

Scott taking a break and hanging with Brooke and Melaina.

Mom Mom Suz and Nana hanging out!

Nana's birthday night!

Me and my girl celebrating! (Yes, Brooke does not have clothes on...she pretty much rips them off everytime we walk in the house!)