Fun Weekend!

We had a wonderful family weekend. Saturday we went to Carowinds with Pop and Gram. Cory and I used to go all of the time, but we have not been since Rafe was born. We all had a ball. Rafe has NO FEAR of rides. The only problem was he wanted to ride everything and he was not tall enough. (maybe next time!!) The worst part of the day was the heat, however I hung right in there. If someone had told me we would be there when they opened and leave when they closed I would have laughed at them! I am glad we did, though. Rafe had so much fun.

Rafe on his first ride, the swings. Needless to say this

was NOT a ride he wanted to do again!! Wonder why??!!

One of his favorite shows, Scooby Doo

Rafe caught the tiniest frog I have ever seen

Fixing an icee

Last night we went roller skating with our church. This was Rafe's first time to put on roller skates. It took him a few minutes to warm up to the idea of doing it. (despite being SO excited about it) Once he saw Cory out there he decided to try it and he LOVED it! He did a great job. He even started dancing out there with his buddies. They were quite the entertainment. It definitely took me back to my middle school days. That place had not changed a bit!

Rafe and his buddy, Riley

Rafe and his buddy, Hudson

Hudson, Andrew and Rafe

Rafe's favorite movie

This is Rafe's new favorite movie. I must have crawled under a rock in 1984 when the movie came out because I have never heard of it. This was one of Cory's favorite childhood movies and, being the movie fan he is, he bought it for Rafe last week. Since then we have watched parts of it every day and even added the song to our blog. It is a really good movie about a boy's imagination but there is one part that scared Rafe a little bit. The boy had a fight with a wolf but Rafe will NOT let us skip that part now. Last Thursday night he stayed with Pop and Gram and made them watch some of the movie with him. When Gram was putting him to bed he told her he thought the wolf was going to come in his room during the night. He said, "Gram, don't close my door. The wolf may come in here and DON'T repeat after me!" How funny was that!

A Sunday Breakfast

Yesterday morning I made Mickey Mouse pancakes before church. I fixed Cory's and Rafe's first and while I was making mine Cory decided he wanted to make himself another one. This is what his looked like:


and this is what it SHOULD look like:

I am just so thankful I had already made Rafe's because he would NOT have been happy if his pancake had turned out like this. This reassured me that Cory's place is not in the kitchen. Maybe he did this on purpose!!

Catching Up!

I feel like last week just flew by and I did not get a chance to blog so I am going to do one that sums up our week. Last Tuesday Rafe helped me "clean" out the pantry. He got all of the boxes out and played with them. Before we put them back we played "food dominoes" with them. Funny how something so simple can be so much fun. We must have lined them up and watched them fall a million times. He had a ball! (and no it was NOT his birthday. He put the hat on Buck and then put it on himself for the picture!)

We have started buying the baby some "pink" clothes. Rafe really enjoys putting them in her closet and I joke with him and tell him they are really for him. He had a little fun of his own with a hat and bib. Isn't "he" lovely??!!

Last Thursday Mrs. Hamilton, Rafe's new teacher, came by to visit with us. Luckily this visit went MUCH better than the visit last year with his teacher. Last year he was extremely shy (to put it nicely) and would not talk to her. Let's just say this year Rafe had NO trouble communicating with his teacher. I was the one ready for him to STOP talking. Some of his stories were getting quite embarrassing!! We are really looking forward to a great school year with her.

Friday we had a playgroup at our house with Rafe's cousins, William, Charlie and Jay and his friends, Nolan and Caleb. They all had a great time and even Stewart (William's daddy) joined in on the fun. All of us mom's were glad Stewart decided to come. The boys had a great time wrestling with him while we chatted!

My Sweet Rafe

Yesterday Rafe was listening to music and playing in his room. He came in my room and said, "Mommy, when my sister gets older, I am going to put on a black suit, she can put on a dress, and I am going to dance with her." I almost started crying. How sweet is that?

I am definitely not ready for them to grow up, but I am really looking forward to the day they can dance together. This little girl is very lucky to have such a wonderful big brother!

It's a GIRL!

We are thrilled to announce that in December we will be adding a GIRL to our family! I still cannot believe it. I was so sure we were having another boy! Mostly thankful she looks healthy with 10 fingers and 10 toes!

A great week at the beach!

Last week we enjoyed a wonderful trip to the beach with Pop and Gram. Vacations are great until you have to come home. The weather was perfect and Rafe had a BLAST!! He enjoyed a lot of firsts.... body surfing in the ocean, crabbing with Pop and Daddy (although you will NOT see any pictures. For some reason Cory just doesn't know how to use our camera!! Ha-ha) and riding the BIG water slides at the water park. Needless to say he was ready for his bed each night. A big highlight from our vacation was a day trip to Charleston to see our friends, the Fortney's. We went to the aquarium, had our usual Mexican lunch and then a wonderful cupcake from Cupcake. We also got to meet the Horton triplets for the first time. They are too cute!

Thank you, Pop and Gram, for a wonderful trip. We cannot wait until next year with TWO kids!

Saddle 'em up Cowboy!

This is what Rafe INSISTED on wearing to supper last night! (he did look pretty cute!)

Happy 4th!

We had a WONDERFUL July 4th weekend. Friday, Cory had the day off so we went to downtown Greenville for lunch, shopping and walking around Reedy River. Rafe enjoyed that so much. He could have stayed there all day walking on the rocks and trying to catch fish with his hands!

Friday night Cory started Part 1 of a two-day firework show. Rafe enjoyed the fireworks, from our garage!! If he didn't know what they were going to do he stood beside the cars until the coast was clear. Then he would run out and help Cory get the next one ready. He did enjoy the sparklers!

Saturday morning we went with Gram and Pop to the Indian "station" as Rafe calls it. Pop has wanted to take Rafe to Cherokee for quite some time now and "they" enjoyed it! Rafe got a gun, an arrowhead and a sling shot (just what he needed!). Gram was completely miserable and said she will "never be back unless we have another boy." Cherokee is NOT for her! The next trip will be just Pop and Rafe!

Riding a bull

Saturday night was Part 2 of our fireworks show. We decided to shoot them at Pop and Gram's house since they don't have any trees to worry about. However, Cory burned Gram's flowers up by launching the bottle rockets out of her arrangements! Finally we went to downtown Greer to hear Cravin Melon and see more fabulous fireworks. It was really a beautiful show!

Acting silly waiting on the fireworks

Relaxing after a long, fun day!

So Sweet!

Rafe and I were reading a very sweet book called "I Already Know I Love You" today. My dad gave this to me when I was pregnant with Rafe and it has always been very special to me. I talked to Rafe about how much I loved him before I even met him and we talked about how much we already love the baby. After I finished the book Rafe grabbed it out of my hand and ran off with it. When he came back I asked him what he did with it and he said, " I wanted to leave it in the baby's room so we can read it to "him" when he is born." How sweet is that?

I know it will be a VERY big transition for Rafe when the baby is born, but to say that he is EXCITED about being a big brother is an understatement. He talks about the baby all day, every day. He asked every morning if it is ready to come out yet. He tells strangers we see out that I have a baby in my belly and will even lift up my shirt to "prove it" to them!! He has already started gathering up things that he sees (old toys, pacifiers, etc.) and putting them in the baby's room. The other day we were talking about the possibility of a boy or a girl and Rafe said, "I don't care if I have a brother or a sister. I just want a baby." I am excited beyond words for this baby, not just for Cory and me, but for Rafe. He has waited a LONG time for this and I am really looking forward to seeing him in the "big brother" role. I know he will be GREAT at it.