Phillip's Last Lap Around the Ole 20s!

Phillip turned 29 on May 23rd!  To celebrate we had a little family cookout.  It was nice to have everyone here with us instead of traveling.  

Taylor really enjoyed the fruit.  Although, I suppose that's better than killing the chocolate cake beside her.  

We told her to scare the squirrel off of the bird feeder.  She was actually able to sneak up the hot tub platform and do it.  It was quite humorous. 

I completely forget what this is called, but they are the coolest blooms.  They begin as the little pink balls and then when they open they have these deep purple blooms.  

I told Taylor to go find a 4 leaf clover.  Initially, I thought it would take her quite a while.  The kid came back in less than 2 minutes with one.  Ridiculous.  

Phillip's mom, aunt, and niece were all able to make its.  Here's the birthday boy with his mom.  (Thanks for coming up you guys!)

Phillip asked Taylor if she wanted to help blow out his birthday candles.  Instead, Taylor took over the candle extinguishing for him.  It was a very hilarious moment. 

Swinging in some crazy humidity right after a rain shower.  

My grandparents came too!  This is my precious Grandmother (paternal).  

My parents have a lot of large rocks in their front yard scattered about in the midst of large trees.  Taylor wanted her picture taken on one of the rocks.  Here's said pic.

Phillip's family spent the night.  Here's goofy Taylor the next morning.  She and Uncle Phillip decided to take some of their toys outside to play.

Phillip insisted on getting this plane.  He said he played with these all the time when he was little.  This was, by far, the cheapest, most utilized present he received.  

These two got the plane stuck on our roof.  My oh-so-savvy husband used one of his fishing rods to get it down.  

All in all, it was a wonderfully restful birthday for Phillip.  Thanks to everyone that made it so special!

Spring Sprang ... and I failed to blog.

The end of this past semester was quite busy with meetings and teaching.  I could go on with the excuses, but when it all finally came to a close I got very, very lazy.  Unless something absolutely had to be done, it was not going to happen.  Sad, but true.

Our Spring did get off on a great foot though!  We did lots of the regular cleaning around the yard.  Here are some pics!  

This is my new bird feeder.  I was quite excited about it until over-eager squirrels broke portions of the side glass out.  It was great while it lasted!

We found this at Lowes.  I loved it, Phillip could care less.  The small dead looking plant to the left side is one of the many hydrangeas my parents gave me after Easter.  It works out well.  I get free plants.  Most of the time I unintentionally kill them.  However, to date, these three are doing well.  I have two periwinkle and one pink plants.  Although, the acid of the soil determines what color they are once they have been planted.  I will be sure to post the results from this experiment once next year's blooms have sprung. 

As previously mentioned, I kill everything.  My front porch doesn't see a ton of early morning sun.  So everything except the Impatience died.  They were quickly replaced by other Impatience.  

Our tomato and strawberry plants!  The tomato plant has already produced quite a few tomatoes (with five new ones currently on the way).  The strawberries are everywhere, but none are ready yet.  We have no idea what is taking so long because they have been planted since mid-April.  

This little buddy made a home in our Carolina Jasmine.  We love our robins!

The end! 

Absentee

I am not sure where I should even begin with the last two months.  Phillip has stayed quite busy with work, while I've been stuck student teaching and working at the firm.  Both of us have seen very little of one another. 

 Us on Easter.

We have made quite a few trips to South Carolina to visit Phillip's family as well.  We were able to stay here for a few weekends and work on some Spring cleaning!  (I realize it's sad when you get excited about that.)  Brandy and Will even came and visited (but I didn't take many pics).

Brandy is laughing at the boy practicing golf in the backyard.  

Good Friday marked the beginning of a long-awaited, very relaxing weekend for us.  We spent the holiday in Florence with Phillip's family.  It was great seeing our nieces.  We visited Phillip's old church while we were there.  We even got to take Grandma with us. 

 This is the strawberry Phillip consumed in SC.  That thing was crazy huge!

Cute Logan fishing.  This is what her Uncle Phillip wanted to do with his weekend too.  (He gets a boys' fishing weekend in a few weeks.)

Emma loves some worms.  

Really, really loves her worms.  

Logan did not catch anything (except maybe an attitude when I laughed at her).

I would try to catch up on posts, but at this point there is no way I'll accomplish any of it.  I finish school at the beginning of May, and boy oh boy are we excited for this summer.  In case I don't post for a while, happy Spring!

Lent Laughter

I (Kristin) came home yesterday and noticed that our toaster oven was in the garage.  I sent Phillip a message asking why.  His response:

I gave the toaster oven up for Lent.

Really hun?  I have never heard of anyone giving up a small kitchen appliance for Lent, but leave it to my husband!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

We have had several little snows this year.  Most of which were a mixture of ice, which is not as much fun as fluffy snow.  However, this Friday we got a little dose of the pretty stuff!  Phillip is back on 10 hour shifts, so he works 3 PM to 1 AM.  We don't see much of each other; however, on Fridays he only works from 1 PM to 9 PM.  He got home a little before 10.  We already had at least 4 or 5 inches that had fallen.  We decided to take advantage of our precious time and go on a walk...at 10:30 PM...in the middle of the snow storm.  We had so much fun.  Mason loved it.  Gracie was not such a fan.  She tolerated it, but as soon as we got home she ran to the front porch and waited on us to finish playing and let her in.  Below are some pics (remember: it was late, so we were looking rough).

 

Sweet Gracie was such a good sport.  Her daddy was trying to get her to play with the snow.  Not really into it.  

 

Mason was all too eager to go on his walk.  He wouldn't even look at the camera.  Normally, he's the most photogenic dog around. 

Told ya!  I was quite sleepy and Phillip was ready to play in the snow.  Bad combo!  :-)  I got pelted.

This is the house the morning after.  We didn't get to play in the snow because of Valentine's Day at the florist, but it was so pretty while it lasted.