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.

The Cucumber "Orchard"

Rafe has really enjoyed helping Pop in his garden this summer. Yesterday, while looking over his crops, Rafe found a HUGE cucumber in what he calls the "cucumber orchard". He could not wait for Pop to get home so he could pick it. I agree with Rafe, it is the biggest cucumber I have ever seen! Rafe was so proud of it and carried it all over the place. Let's see how long it lasts in our house. I just hope he does not stick it in a toy bucket and forget about it!

Too funny!

How about this for Father's Day love? Cory and I were reading Rafe a book before bed last night when out of nowhere Rafe said, "I toot and I snort. Who am I.... Daddy!" Cory and I about fell off the bed laughing. A child is always honest, aren't they!!

We still love you, Daddy! Happy Father's Day!

A Scary Situation

Do you know how this happened to my windshield.? Rafe shattered it WITH HIS HEAD! Can you believe it? We spent the week at the beach with Gram and we had just come back from the ocean. There was a song on the radio that Rafe liked and he jumped quickly out of my mom's lap (as I was turning the car off) and hit his head on the windshield. Needless to say we were all in complete shock. After I realized what had happened, and that there was no blood on his head, I got him out of the car and repeatedly asked him how he felt. Don't you know Cory was happy on the other end of that phone call. It is an understatement to say that my mom and I watched him like a hawk all night. I let him stay up WAY past his bedtime! I bet I didn't sleep a total of 1 hour checking on him. I don't know how, but PRAISE THE LORD Rafe was completely unharmed! He will never even SIT in the front seat of a car now until he is about 20 years old.

Now that all of this is behind us and I can finally breath, would you say this proves Rafe is hard-headed??!!

A Day of Fishing!

Yesterday we spent the afternoon and evening at Paris Mountain State Park for Pop's birthday. The men fished while mom and I relaxed in the chairs. It was great! For once they had good luck. I think Rafe ended up catching about 8 fish. He was SO excited! Rafe even enjoyed tossing them back in his "butterfly" net!

Look Who's Swimming!!

Rafe finally decided to give up his swim belt today and swim "all by myself"! I was SO proud of him. I knew he could do it. I guess those swim lessons paid off after all. For my sanity he will still be wearing the belt when he is playing around in the pool, but I am at least comforted to know that he CAN do it! Great job, Rafe. I am so proud of you!!

Guess What??!!

Yes, that's right! Rafe is FINALLY going to be a big brother! Due to arrive December 20th! Merry Christmas!