The End

Its time to close this blog. Our tent is bigger! And now we are moving on to other chapters of life. I've started a new blog (one that I will hopefully update) for our family as we move overseas. If you would like to read that blog, just send me an email or a facebook message and I'll be glad to send you the address. Thank you for all the comments and conversations through this time. I can't wait to get my blog book made!

How to Take a Group Shot with a Timer

I’m coming out of blogging retirement to share with you some photography skills I’ve recently acquired. When you and your three year old stop by NC on the way to DC and want to get a group shot, this is how you do it.

Family Pictures

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend with some friends from church and one of the other moms was kind enough to take some family pictures for us.

 

Oh Kiran. These make me laugh so hard because I was that kid too. You can ask Chief. His wish came true and I got a kid just like me.  

For the Record

First word

Rhys: Ball (although as a good Southern boy it has about 6 syllables)

Owen: Uh-oh

I can’t help but wonder if there is any symbolism here?

Another One for the Books

Friday late afternoon we finally took off for the beach with J’s family. We were cruising along; I was driving as J was reading for his grad class. The kids were riding well and we were hoping to make it to Columbia before stopping for dinner.

Then I saw it.

The white smoke.

AGAIN.

Ten seconds later I had whipped that van off the interstate, up an exit ramp and to a gas station all without burning up the transmission or losing power. J & I piled out- him calling AAA and me calling some of our closet friends and asking if they would mind us spending the night at their house spontaneously? Geoff jumped in the car to rescue us from the side of the gas station parking lot and Bren started calling around hunting for pack n plays. I mean if we had to be stranded somewhere, our best friends’ house is a pretty good place.

We hadn’t been at the gas station in Newberry, SC for 10 minutes when we hear “Hey Caskeys!” Some friends from Furman were on their own way to the beach and had randomly decided to get off at that exit to calm their screaming baby. Thank you Lord. We had of course pulled off at an exit with no fast food and it was past dinner time. So my Jonathan went with friend Jonathan to get us food while Christina and her SIL (and sweet baby!) stayed and helped me with the kids. 

Geoff rescued us, Bren found beds for all of us and we had a fun night with some of our oldest friends in the world. It was actually really fun. The next day was spent moving the car to a transmission place, hearing bad news, trying to locate the ONE minivan for rent in Cola, moving all our stuff over and finally getting back on the road.

26 hours after we left, we arrived at the beach. I cannot praise my kids enough. They were such troopers.

So on Monday we find out that our transmission needs to be rebuilt. Our mechanic from the Upstate just happens to be in Columbia so he runs over there and takes a look. It was reassuring to know we were making the right decision.

So a couple thousand later, we have a new transmission, we enjoyed a nice minivan at the beach and made a thousand wonderful memories with our four kids who all ADORED the beach.

Its True!

The rumors are true!

When she wakes up in the morning, she will be THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday Baby Girl! You are growing up way too fast for this mommy. I’m glad we’ve agreed this will be your last birthday and you can be three forever.

Pinterest

Um are you on Pinterest? Because you should be. Unless you don’t have 7 hours a day to waste on it finding fun ideas like watermelon pancakes:

So if you are on Pinterest, let’s follow each other. And if you’re not I can send you an invite. I think. I’ll figure it out.

Really my biggest issue is getting off Pinterest and going and doing all the fun ideas I’ve gathered. It’s the creativity that has always been lacking in my brain.

I still love delicious though. In fact sometimes I find stuff on Pinterest, click on the link from where it originated and save that link on delicious with a whole bunch of tags. That’s the best part about delicious- you can put all kinds of tags on it so I can almost always find the link I’m looking for. Almost.

And I like GoodReads too.

Any other tagging, browsing, organizing sites I need to be aware of?

Preschool Co-op

This year Kiran & I participated in a preschool co-op.

5 preschoolers, 4 moms

The moms took turns teaching- 2 weeks every 8 weeks. We used letters and numbers to give us some structure but it was pretty free for the interpreting. 

We had a blast. It was a great compromise for us between full time preschool and doing nothing.

Today we had their end of year party.

And with the little sisters:

There are 4 little brothers also but they were sleeping.

Three of the five will be starting kindergarten in the fall. K is one of the two that will not. She misses the cut-off by 7 days. I’m not sure yet what we will pursue for next year. I’m sure we’ll come up with something exciting.

Not Identical Anymore

Rhys was tired of no one being able to tell he and his brother apart so he took matters into his own hands.

Now you can tell them apart. Rhys is the one with the big scrape on his nose.

Sorry about the poor quality of the photo- we had to take it with J’s phone since we lent our camera to my parents for my niece’s dance recital since they had lent their camera to my bro and sis-in-law who are currently on a cruise ship in ALASKA. Sigh.

The Middle of the Night

The other night- as I lay awake way past when I should have been snoozing- I heard Sienna cry out.

I went to her and she couldn’t tell me anything that was hurting or anything that had scared her so I retucked her into bed and slid back into mine, hoping sleep would come this time.

She did it again. And a third time. That third time I asked her if she wanted me to lay with her. Surprisingly my need-personal-space daughter said yeah. We lay in the dark not speaking. Just barely touching. Crammed onto a trundle bed that gets pulled out every night and pushed back in every morning.

I treasured those moments with her. I took the time to smell her scent and feel her chubby fingers as they stroked her bunny. I wasn’t thinking about sleep or to-dos or tomorrow. Just her. A daughter, a middle child. And I didn’t mind curling my adult body beside her tiny one even if it was in the middle of the night because I know there are days coming where a snuggle with Mommy won’t be enough to solve her problems. Her disappointments will be too deep for my embrace to resolve. Her fears will be things that haunt me too.

So I chose to relish that moment when a Mommy’s arms were more than enough to soothe an innocent heart back to sleep. Even if she did tell me after 20 minutes I could go back to my bed. I think it was the personal space thing.

I love…

…cooking dinner while being serenaded by Needtobreathe

….simple dinners: Pineapple Ham

…how Kiran waits eagerly every month for her new High Five magazine and is captivated by it for at least an hour when it arrives

…the 4 hour simultaneous naps my twins took today

…chopping fresh veggies from the farms near our house

…picking strawberries with friends

What are you loving today?

At Our House…

we start ‘em young.

Your Input, Please

I was doing an exercise and it said to name your three favorite movies and find the common theme between them.

So

1. 10 Things I Hate About You

2. Remember the Titans

3. Sound of Music

Besides having fantastic soundtracks, what common themes do these three movies have in common???

We Did It!

We finally cancelled our satellite TV service.

We had been talking it over for months, debating the pros and cons. We put that DVR to good use during the first year of the twins’ lives. We watched many House Hunters International during dreamfeeds and caught up on House and 1000 Places to See Before You Die during the middle of the night feeds. We ran through a Sesame Street phase, a Sid the Science kid phase, a Super Why phase and finally a Dora phase with the girls.

But… the kids are older. No more middle of the night feeds. No more dreamfeeds. No more nursing at all (but that’s a whole ‘nother post). We’re busy and we decided to pull the plug.

And.

I love it.

The first few weeks we didn’t even have the antenna up and I didn’t miss it. I enjoyed the quiet and the extra time I found in my day. We are checking out DVDs from the library for the girls screen time and we actually hooked up the VCR from college and watched our wedding video for the first time ever! I also watched part of the cruise video from high school…. yet another post.

We’ve got the antenna hooked up now and receive the basic channels (although still no ch 7 which is in fact the closest one). I’m glad we’ll be able to watch some sporting events live or turn on the news for updates. But perhaps the best benefit of all is that it should afford me more time to blog!

Who Hasn’t?

Who hasn’t found their kid into the tissues, the toilet paper, or the wipes? Its like a kid rite of passage.

O left, R right

Can you guess which was the instigator and which was the follower?

Dear Finn

Dear Finn,

We hear that you received the same door plaything that we did for Christmas! However, we just don’t understand how it could be any fun for you. I mean who is on the other side of the door every time you open it? And who is there to open the window every time you close it? And really who slams the door on your head when you are halfway through it? We are sorry you can’t have any fun with your new toy. We’ll be glad to show you how its done.

Love, Rhys & Owen

Sigh

Finding her like this just makes my little book loving heart go pitter-patter. Next she’s going to be reading by flashlight in bed and parking her book behind her cereal bowl. Not that I would know anything about that.

March Madness

Sunday was Selection Sunday and that is my second favorite Fitz Fam tradition. We’ve been picking teams for the tournament forever and so we gather to watch the Selection Show, eat some pizza and find out what teams we get to pull for during the tournament.

This year we drafted teams for the first time. It took a lot of concentration.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have much concentration so I don’t even remember what teams I got- except BYU! Are my teams on my bracket?

Owen even helped. This year is extra special because J & I are going to the Final Four!!! Thanks to his work, we have great seats for the games and are really really super excited about it. Like totally excited.

So my dream Final Four would be: Duke, UNC, BYU (I want to see Jimmer play!) and Wofford (Go SoCon!). Its not going to happen because BYU and Wofford play each other in the first round.

One Year Old Caskeys

Remember That Time

Sometimes we play a game dubbed Remember That Time. It goes like this:

Me: Remember that time we went to San Francisco.

J: Yeah.

 

You ready? Let’s play Remember That Time.

Remember that time that J turned 30?

yeah.

Remember that time I conspired with his coworker to drive to Chattanooga, TN to surprise him on the evening of his 30th birthday?

yeah.

Remember that time the grandparents graciously cared for our four children so I could sneak away and celebrate adults only style?

yeah.

Remember that time I found that great Mexican restaurant for dinner and the cupcake bakery for dessert in downtown to celebrate?

yeah.

Remember that time that J got a 12 hour stomach virus on his birthday and didn’t see anyone except the front desk clerk who brought him some Powerade and how we got me take out and more Gatorade for J and watched basketball before going to bed early instead of my grand plans when I showed up unannounced?

yeah.