Ellie Goes to Greenville/ Weekend in Greenville

A few weeks ago Ellie went to spend a few days by herself in Greenville with my parents. She was so excited to go and had the BEST time!

Paul had to go to Greenville early one morning so he got Ellie up at 6am to head to Greenville.

Tired baby!

When Ellie got to Greenville Gran had waffles ready for her!

Ellie did lots of fun things while she was in Greenville but the item at the top of her list was a trip to TCBY. Ellie asks to do this every time we go to Greenville...but she usually asks on the last day where there and we don't have time to go. My mom took her twice while she was up there and Ellie was thrilled!



Ellie went to Jelly Beans to get her hair cut. She was really excited about her braid and even more excited when my mom told her that Emmie said she thought it was so cool!




My mom took her to the store to pick out colored pencils, crayons, and glitter markers (!) and a new coloring book. Ellie had a great time coloring. (It's one of her all time favorite things to do at my parent's house. It's funny because she colors occasionally at home but will spend hours coloring at their house.)


Ellie also told my mom that her church shoes hurt her feet so they went and picked out some new ones. They're super cute with a little bow on them!

at the mall

Ellie played with playdoh. Always a fun activity!

Ellie did this picture of her and my mom. My mom is in the white. She's decided Ellie is the favorite grandchild!


Ellie apparently had a blast playing with this box and she was so upset that we forgot to bring it back to Columbia with us. (Her mom was not so upset about forgetting it.)


They made me my favorite molasses cookies as a birthday present! Ellie thought the molasses smelled HORRIBLE but (sadly for me) she decided that the cookies were delicious!




They also made biscuits for all of us! Ellie LOVES Gran's biscuits!


They also went and visited Grandaddy at work and went to lunch with him. Ellie reported that Grandaddy's office wasn't too big of a mess!

They made a few trips to the pool where Ellie had a great time playing with Grandaddy.


They went to the zoo, played on the playground, and had a picnic.

Ellie has been wanting to see the baby giraffe since it was born last year...she finally got to!

The rest of us headed up to Greenville on Friday evening. The other kids were SO excited to go see Ellie!
On Saturday we went to the pool and ate lunch down there and then just hung around the house.

JP decided this was HIS spot.

Saturday evening Paul and I went out to a nice dinner and then to see The Lion King! It was SOOOO good! We were both absolutely amazed! The tickets were my birthday present from my parents and I thoroughly enjoyed my present!


We had a relaxing morning Sunday (we decided not to subject the church nursery to JP and to not traumatize JP by dropping him off in an unfamiliar nursery...the struggle is real every Sunday) and then made another trip to the pool and then had a delicious dinner and my dad made homemade ice cream.

JP has decided that Grandaddy can't do anything without a helper along. He followed him EVERYWHERE. He even got down from eating a meal so he could go outside and help Grandaddy.

Sunday was also Father's Day and we were so glad to be able to celebrate it with 2 great fathers!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a wonderful Father's Day today celebrating the dad's we love. We were at my parent's house because we went and saw Lion King last night so we had the extra treat of getting to be with my dad on Father's Day.

I am so thankful for Paul. He is an AMAZING father. He works so hard to provide for our family and then comes home and helps with the kids. I have loved watching him go from this guy who didn't know how to change a diaper to the guy who will clean up throw up off the carpet at 4am all by himself (that's a great story for another blog post but pretty much he's super dad and super husband). He went from a guy who could barely manage one child to the dad who takes 4 kids by himself to birthday parties and the grocery store. I love to watch the kid's faces light up when he comes home from work (especially JP...he's such a daddy's boy!). I'm so thankful that my children have a dad who shows them what a Christian husband and father looks like!

I am so thankful for my dad. Two children and four grandchildren later and he still may not know how to change a diaper but he is the BEST dad and Grandaddy. I have loved watching my kids warm up to their loud, wild Grandaddy. He has acquired the nickname "Boo" as he is prone to hide around corners and jump out and scare them. I love to watch him play chasse around the house with them just like he did when I was little. It's always so sweet to walk in a room and see him reading with them or playing quietly. These kiddos love their Grandaddy and JP has decided that he needs to be Grandaddy's shadow. I'm pretty sure my dad didn't make a move this weekend without JP right behind him. I'm so thankful that I had a dad that I could look up to and I always knew that I wanted to marry a man like my dad.

I was so fortunate to gain a wonderful father-in-law when I married Paul. I am so thankful to Fred for raising 2 amazing young men. He raised Paul to be respectful, and loving, and selfless, and to put family first and most of all he taught him from an early age to love God. I have loved watching the tough football coach who only had boys melt when the little girls come around. And I have loved watching him with a grandson. He loves the grandbabies so much and it shows every time he's around them.

The kids and I are blessed beyond measure to have these wonderful men in our lives!

20 months!

I am 20 months old!

• I wear a size 5 diaper, size 12-18mo shorts and size 18-24mo shirts, and a size 5-6 shoe.
• I sleep from 8pm-7:20ish in the morning (when we have to leave to take my sisters to school). I take a nap from 12-2:30.
• I still don't say a lot of words but we're working on it. I know how to say many words I just generally choose not to say them.
• I still love my pacifiers.
• I love my sisters. Especially my buddy Ruthie!

• I LOVE the water. The splash pad makes me super happy as does the water table at home. My sisters have been taking swim lessons and I can't wait until the pool opens and I finally get a turn in the water!

• This month I went to Aunt Suzy and Uncle Clyde's house for cousin's weekend. I had a great time getting lots of hugs and playing with their dogs...and the other kids. But the dogs were the highlight of my trip!

• I love to throw things...and I'm really good at it!
• I'm a great climber. I can get in and out of the car and my carseat by myself.
• I love anything that makes noise. Even better if it makes a loud noise when I throw it!
• I can be entertained for a long time with kitchen items. A container of uncooked noodles and a spoon are so much fun!

• I'm loving books more and more each month. My favorite books are one from the library called Huggy Kissy and any book about Clifford.
• At night I sleep with my little pillow, 2 aden and anais blankets, Clifford, and my pacifiers.
• I like to wear hats.
• I think grandparents are GREAT!

Emmie at 20 months.

Ellie at 20 months.


Ruthie at 20 months.

End of the School Year

Today was our last day of school! Emmie and Ellie had such WONDERFUL years and we are so thankful for their sweet teachers and sweet friends that helped make it so great.

Evelyn is an honorary Edwards kid :)

Emmie's friend Abby is moving to Okinawa this summer. Abby broke my heart wiping away her tears to take this picture. We'll miss her!

Emmie got the teacher that she had been dead set on having AND her best friend, Evelyn, was in the same class. She also had a little boy from her class last year that was in her class again this year. Poor guy. Within the first few days of school last year she made him her "project" and she was thrilled to have him in her class again. I guess they figured he needed to be with his "mother"!

Our tradition...a "bench" picture with Evelyn and Emmie at the beginning and end of the school year...August 2016

May 2017...these sweet girls have grown up so much!

This year Emmie grew even more as a reader. I'm constantly amazed at what a great reader she is! She struggled some in math but I'm so proud of how hard she worked on her math assignments and I loved seeing her big smile when she figured it out! She started doing spelling tests and reading comprehension tests (they were graded but didn't count for anything). I'm proud of how determined she was to make 100 on her tests and I loved celebrating when she FINALLY went from a 90 to a 100 on the comprehension...she was so determined!

Emmie's teacher was just amazing. We had such a great year with her. AND...the BEST part...she's looping to second grade! We're beyond excited. (As an FYI, looping is when a teacher follows her class to the next grade. She'll have many of the same kids with some new ones added in as they had a few that moved at the end of the school year.) As a parent I love that we will start second grade already knowing our teacher very well and knowing how she operates. It's also nice to know, roughly, which friends will be in the class.

Emmie LOVES her teacher!

Ellie had a different teacher than Emmie did in kindergarten. She absolutely loved her teacher and the aide in the room. Ellie is sure that her teacher is the smartest teacher ever. She was always coming home telling us some interesting fact that her teacher told her about whatever their unit of study was that week. She would tell us all the time how smart her teacher was.
I am so proud of all that Ellie accomplished this year. She learned to read, has excelled in math, and LOVES to write! Her teacher told me that Ellie always goes above and beyond on any assignment. For instance, the kids will be told to write a sentence about their picture and Ellie will write a story. This was the child that a year and half ago we could barely get to write her name. I'm SO proud of her! Ellie is very excited about heading to 1st grade and we can't wait to watch her grow even more!

Ellie and her teacher. The other teacher was out sick this day so I wasn't able to get a picture of Ellie with her.