singing

Cow Appreciation Day!

As most of you know my favorite day of the year is cow appreciation day at Chickfila. This year we made it to two meals.

Here is Lydda Grace showing off her new dress that Miss Mama made her.

She is so happy she is wearing the cow nose her hands went up in the air. (Note: She did not like the nose or the ears once we got to the stores)

The Wylie Family as we entered the Chickfila in Clemson.

The Wylie's & The Arrowood's

The first meal was at the Chickfila in Clemson, SC. Emily and I met the Arrowoods for lunch. We had a great time.

No time at chickfila would be complete with out playing on the play ground. Here are Wade and Karis!


Later that night we went to the Chickfila in Anderson. Emily went and ran some errands after dinner and the kids and I stayed back and had ice cream. Enjoy the video.

the fruits (and vegetables) of our labor

First off, the bad news. We had (have?) a vine borer :( One zucchini plant and one squash plant are gone. We felt like our pets died! I did surgery on the other zucchini plant last night and tried to save it, only time will tell. We're very tempted to forego the organic attempt and just douse everything with bug killer!!

However, last night we had bruschetta (with fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden on a baguette made from freshly milled flour).... AMAZING! I should have just made a full batch and eaten only that for dinner!

And then Lydda Grace got to pick a whole bunch of carrots! Carrots are the most fun vegetables there are... It's a big surprise when you pull them out of the ground!
And I just realized she is shirtless in this post and the last one.... the last one was b/c she was painting and this one was b/c she just picked some strawberries and wanted to eat them and it's way easier to clean her belly than her shirt!

the cows are coming!

Today is Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-a! It is one of Jon's favorite days of the year (other than our anniversary! Seriously, that's how he said it earlier today :))

I mean, Chick-fil-a, free food and dressing up and looking ridiculous in front of a whole restaurant full of people.... that's three of his favorites all rolled into one day.

I'll have pictures later but here is LG yesterday painting her "hooves"

4th of July weekend

As Jon mentioned before he "kicked us out" for the 4th of July weekend so he could work in peace and quiet on his dissertation. It worked out really well as the kids and I had a fun time at the lake.

At first LG was a little hesitant in the water and didn't want to let go of Pop Pop or Mama, but as she got used to it she turned into a little fish! At one point she figured out that if she kept her mouth closed she wouldn't swallow water and the realization in her eyes was priceless!

Wade was never very keen on the lake, he enjoyed the boat though and playing on the screened porch.

Our 4th was very restful. The only downside of the weekend was when I dove into the lake still wearing my glasses! They are somewhere at the bottom of the lake and I'm even more thankful that Lord willing I'll be getting LASIK in about a month!

Here are some pics of our trip... I find that I get much fewer when I don't have Jon with me on trips!

Lydda Grace never tires of reading. We "rediscovered" some old books this weekend that she loved!

Watching the birds out the window, "bir" was a new word for the Wadester!

This had to be a highlight for LG! We played Candyland and she LOVED it! Her favorite part, other than winning (which she did EVERY game we played and we seriously did nothing give her an advantage at all!!).... anyway, her other favorite part was getting "stuck" on the squares with black dots. She would see one coming and get so excited that she might get "stuck"... I love her innocence!

We played another card game from when I was little, aptly named "My First Card Game" She needed extra help with that one but still really enjoyed it.

Look at that tongue! She is her daddy's girl!

Birthdays and Copying

So last night was the first time I had seen my children for like 5 days. Emily and the kids went to chapin over the 4th of July (note: emily will post the pictures later). I had the opportunity to stay back at our house and work on the dissertation. Good news: I have written 183 pages. Bad news: The dissertation is not finished.

So last night at dinner, I took a video of our conversation. If this does not make you appreciate innocence, I do not know what will. The topic of conversation for LG was Birthday's. The topic of conversation of Wade, copying whatever I did.

Water Time

So the other day Emily and I had the idea to wash the cars and play in the water with the kids. Here are two video's from our time with the pool and water hose. It is amazing how quickly our children grow.


Wade enjoyed being sprayed. But then we got out the video camera.


Wade playing ball inside and outside the pool & LG playing in the pool.


Wade and the ball. If you can't tell, Wade loves to play ball. This basically entails throwing the ball, chasing the ball, picking the ball up, and throwing the ball again.