Myrtle Beach: Day 3

What a GREAT time at the beach! It was a BEAUTIFUL day. And it was really Rhyan's first time to get to experience the ocean. At least, it was the first time i got any pics :-)




She was so tuckered out from all of her hard playing, she fell asleep right on my chest! Sweet!

But before we turned it in for the day, we enjoyed one more trip out to enjoy the water.

The rule at the Brogdon's home is that before you go in from the ocean, you are to rinse off. Really, i prefer it anyways. Ocean water makes you feel so sticky! Here, the cutest tush in the world is getting rinsed. She loved it.

That evening, Shlaine let Jeff and I go out for dinner while she kept Rhyan. We took advantage and headed out to an all you can eat seafood buffet. Jeff was in heaven. I didnt take my camera and i regret it. It really was a pretty fun place. There were all kinds of sea creatures hanging from the ceiling (fake, of course) and fun music, great food and friendly people. Cant beat it with a stick.

Unfortunately, when we got back, Rhyan and Shlaine were sitting out on the porch. Rhyan wasnt feeling well. The only good thing was that it gave us an opportunity to get a dose of antibiotic in her before she went to bed (they didnt get the Rx ready until the evening). After that, she was fine and slept the rest of the night, although we did hear her whimper in her sleep a few times. So sad. She's such a trooper.

Shlaine took a walk (alone) down to the beach. She said it was absolutely beautiful. I believe it.

Hating that we only have one more day...

Myrtle Beach: Day 2

Friday. Our first full day. We got up late (um by "we" i mean shlaine and myself... rhyan got jeff up at 6:30ish... ahh!), ate breakfast, got loaded up and headed to the beach for some fun in the sun. Rhyan LOVED, and i do mean loved the ocean. It was nice and cool and offered some pretty good waves. The weather could not have been nicer! We rented an umbrella and chairs, and let me tell you, we got our monies worth out of them!

We enjoyed the pool, as well, although it was more crowded and really, almost too warm. Here, Rhyan is showing us her teeth. Too cute.

She thought that random strangers might like to see them, too.

And here, she is showing her aunt shlaine that she has a tongue, too!

Tuckered out from all the fun in the sun.

For dinner, we headed out for Broadway at the Beach. We were all starving and were desperate to find a place that could seat us immediately. As we walked around in our search, we walked over the bridge and paused to check out the ridiculous amounts of fish eating. Nasty!
She had to make a call before dinner. At Johnny Rockets... that girl DANCED and danced and danced to all the music there! She loved it! And the waiters LOVED her!

Trying to capture a cute shot of the two of us. Toddlers are hard to get good pics of!

I love this smile :-)

We got a group shot of the girls, but Shlaine would KILL me for posting it. We also got one of our little family, but its HIDEOUS of me and my melasma shows up like crazy. And since i'm the sole author of our family blog, i get editing rights and it didnt make the cut :-)

We got a phone call from Rhyan's dr's office that afternoon letting us know that even though the rapid strep test came back negative, she did indeed have strep. The full culture had come back positive. Poor baby! We all felt pretty badly for being so annoyed with her on the drive up. oops.
So, we called around and got the number for the rite aid down the road. Only one problem... somehow, somebody at her ped's office dropped the ball and never called in the Rx. So she unnecessarily had to go an extra day w/o an antibiotic. Obviously, she was feeling better by then, but it was still sad. Luckily, they work the mornings of Saturdays so we got it corrected the next day.

Stay tuned for day 3... we got a couple of GREAT ocean shots of Rhyan!

Myrtle Beach: Day 1

We were so blessed to be able to use our friend's trailer at Pirateland in Myrtle Beach, SC this year for a long weekend. We went from Thursday-Monday. My aunt, Shlaine, tagged along and we had a great time relaxing.

Leading up to the trip, Rhyan had been sick. As in running a 102 temp kind of sick. Jeff took her to the Dr on Wednesday, just the day before we left, and they assured us it was a virus as her ears looked great and her rapid strep test came back negative. So Thursday morning we loaded up with tylenol and ibuprofen in hand and were SC bound.

We fully expected Rhyan to do very similarly in the car as she had on the way to Orange Beach earlier this summer. Boy, were we in for a surprise. She slept 30 minutes of the 6 hours. And fussed/cried off and on the rest of the way. Oh Lord. She, of course, finally fell asleep ONE MILE from priateland. Geez.

Day one was nice. We got unpacked and then Shlaine and I explored while Jeff got Rhyan down for a nap. We headed out for dinner and settled on Chili's. We were all starving and were excited to find something familiar for our first meal... we werent really up for "trying" new stuff. While at dinner, Rhyan got an upset stomach and required every wipe in my arsenol and finished dinner without clothes. Slightly redneck? Perhaps. But sometimes you gotta roll with the punches.
Shlaine and Jeff both whined like babies when i got my camera out to take pics, so this trip has virtually none. Something i regret and will not be bullied out of again :-) But overall, it was a pretty good first day... and a relaxing first night.

Ryan's First Haircut

In my humble opinion, Rhyan is a little cutie. But even a cutie like her cant pull off a mullett.. and that was the hairstyle she was growing. It was a little to Joe Dirt-ish for me :-) So one Friday in July, I decided to bite the bullet and pay an exorbitant amount for a kids cut at Snip-It's.

Obviously, we didnt get off to a great start...
(using some basic sign language to let me know she wants "down")

Look Rhyan, the TV! nope, didnt work...

Thank the Lord for Lollipops :-)

NOW she see's the TV

No way, Mom. You're not taking my sucker away!

Lorddy, she's stolen my heart.

Those EYES!!!!!

So, after it was all said and done, she cried for all of about a minute. Luckily, she was the only kid in there at the time, so it wasnt quite so embarrassing :-)

And after we left, we swore to NEVER pay that much for a uneven cut again. I promptly came home and evened it up in the back. But, it was totally worth the mad money for the pics.

Lunch on the Farm

Way back last month, Jeff's aunt Cathy and uncle Wayne invited us to their home for lunch. They live in rural Madison, Ga... it is SO beautiful. I, personally, wouldnt mind living there one day. It reminds me a good bit of Dacula when I was a kid. Quiet. Friendly. Lots of open land. Just beautiful.

Aunt Cathy does a good bit of the cooking for the yearly Tankersley Thanksgiving get together, so i knew when she invited us for lunch, we would be in for a treat! Even though she assured us it would be a "light" lunch, something told me that our ideas of "light" were vastly different :-).
Rhyan napped a bit in the car on the way there, which was nice because it allowed her to "last" a little longer so that we could really enjoy our visit. She was just learning to take some steps and was really a bit of a show off, which was really great. She enjoyed visiting with "Scout", their grand-dog, and really warmed up to Aunt Cathy and Uncle Wayne... of course, who doesnt!?!

Aunt Cathy and Uncle Wayne had just (that morning) had new furniture delivered for their sunroom. So Jeff was happy to help them get it set up... little did we know that Uncle Wayne is borderline OCD and that getting it "set up" would include a measuring tape and lots of "an inch this way" or "half an inch that way". HAHA! He was cracking me up at how everything had to be centered! Gotta love Uncle Wayne! :-)

Rhyan was kind enough to try out their new couch for them. I think she approved!

Finally, Uncle Wayne was content with the results :-)

What a WONDERFUL day we had with family! We are so blessed that Rhyan's great aunt and uncles take such an interest in her and want to spend time together. She is one lucky little girl... and we are some lucky parents who get to tag along with her to all of her dates. :-)
Thanks Uncle Wayne and Aunt Cathy for having us over... and for more than filling our bellies! Our only regret... not stealing some of that homemade cheesecake to bring home! We love y'all!

August 19

I wonder if birthdays are recognized or celebrated in heaven? Or if death anniversary's, meaning the day the person went to heaven, is more celebrated. Or if there is no celebrating any of this?

Regardless, today is my daddy's 82nd birthday. And even if its not celebrated in heaven, on this day, i'm so glad that 82 years ago, he was born.

He was the best man i have ever known and i could not have more respect for anyone on this earth (this says alot as there are a few people i hold in high regard). He loved the Lord, his family and would give a person in need the shirt off his back. He gave me his "golden years" as he chose to spend them raising another child instead of traveling or relaxing. As hard as it was to lose him (temporarily), my life would have been so different if i had not had him.

Oh, how i miss him so.

Wordless Wednesday: Teaser from Myrtle Beach Post to come...

My 30th bday weekend... when Rhyan started walking. What a great gift to her momma!

Copponex Family Gift

Wow! What an amazing thing this has been! A couple of months ago, a few of us "blog moms" decided to try to raise some money for a gift for the Copponex family. This gift would represent all of Rachael and Greg's online community of friends and prayer partner and would hopefully be an encouragement for them as they, with hope, grieve the loss of precious Tripp. Our original goal was to raise about $300 or so dollars... enough to buy a tree and hopefully a bench in his honor. We sent out emails and facebook messages, posted about the opportunity to give on our blogs and let it roll. Much to our surprise, in the end, over $800 was given. But then, its really not surprising at all! People have a heart to love on others and that is just what this online group of friends has done... successfully loved on the Copponex family.

Check out the post about the delivery of the gifts here. And please, continue to pray for their family. Not only Rachael and Greg, but Tripp's grandparents, aunts and uncles... there are SO many who miss his precious face. Who wish we could have seen him grow into a Godly young man...

I said earlier that we grieve "with hope" because as Christians, we do not grieve as those who are without Christ. We have assurance from our Heavenly Father that we will be reunited and in this truth, we find hope. Sometimes, we have to remind ourselves, vocally, of this fact. That while we miss seeing Tripp grow on this earth, for all of us who believe in Christ as our Savior, we are assured an eternity with him.

I look so forward to meeting him. His life, however short, has moved me. He has changed me.

Friends

A few weeks ago I got a facebook message from some girls from High school wanting to get some of us together for lunch to catch up. Exciting!!! So we made plans and met at the chick-fil-a. Yum

Bella "sharing" the flower with Rhyan

What beautiful girls (and babies!)

BEAUTIFUL Kristin and baby Chase (is he a Fowler or what?!)

BEAUTIFUL Andrea and her twins, Colten and Kyler. What dolls!

Rhyan and Myself

BEAUTIFUL Kristi with her two handfulls, Joshua and Cody :-)

BEAUTIFUL Leighanne, borrowing Katies youngest, Farrah for a pic (somehow i forgot to get a pic of Katie with her own kids?! sorry, katie!)

We had such a nice time even though we were missing a few special girlies who couldnt make it due to travels or working or previous plans. But, we all decided to set aside the 3rd Thursday of each month and go to dinner or hang at someones house, shop... just whatever we decide on! I'm really excited about this. Youknow, the amazing thing to me is that all of these girls are my "highschool" friends, but i never went to school with any of them! We were introduced because of my dating Jeff, and I'm forever grateful. Not only did i get a great husband out of my h.s. years, but some fabulous friends as well. They have always included me, even though i'm the dacula "outcast" and i love them for it :-)

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Watch out a.c.o.r.n! Under age voter here!

Reason #3928 that i love summer (100 degree days is not one of those reasons...)

My little walker!

Priceless little face. I love this girl!

Cuteness

The one (and only) time she lay with me to watch tv. Sesame street kept her cuddling with me for 20 minutes... and i soaked up every one!

Baby girl got a sting of some sort on her index finger!

Our sweet doll baby

This dress is a favorite of mine. And the piggie tails are to die for!