Weekend visitors

We had a great visit with Derek, Jamie, Madelyn and Morrison Gomez when they came to stay with us Saturday night. We didn't do anything too exciting, but we all had fun just hanging out. Since the kids are all pretty close in age, they had a blast playing together. We wanted to get out and do something fun in Charlotte, but it was too chilly and we didn't have a lot of time. We had more visitors when Jenny and Chris and my brother and his family came over for dinner. It was crazy having 6 kids aged 4 and under runnning around, but they had so much fun! So did the adults. Jenny, Jamie, Brian and I all grew up together in Columbia and our families always did fun things together. I guess the craziness at my house was just a sampling of the craziness that our parents put up with when all 5 families were together (15 kids in all!) I look forward to spending more time with our friends as their families grow.

Madelyn, Olivia and Kyle running amuck (sp?)


Jenny and Chris (see Jenny's cute baby bump!)

Winding down by watching A Bug's Life before bed


What's better than ending the slumber party by watching cartoons in your pjs with your buddies

A Blue Moon

Once in a blue moon, Kyle will succomb to his exhaustion and takes an afternoon nap. So, it must have been a blue moon last Friday because he took one for me! Here is the proof:

Bye, Bye Goldilocks

For a whole year, Anna did not have much hair on her head. You can blame it on me. I always hear how I didn't have any hair until I was 2 (really, is that a teeny bit of an exaggeration?) and it was white-blonde when it came in. Right around Anna's first birthday, we noticed her white-blonde hair was getting gradually thicker and longer. It came in straight as an arrow on top and would stand straight up. It was quite a conversation piece. I had a hard time taming it, but thankfully the little bows did help and she'd keep them in. Fast forward to today. She had these long, (to me, anyways)adorable curls on the back of her head. The hair on top still has a while to go, but the back was outpacing the top and sides, so I made the difficult decision to get her first haircut today.

Before




After



So much for waiting until her 2nd birthday. I just hope it grows a little more evenly now and the curls make their way back!

Tiger Fans will appreciate this

Patrick recently became an IPTAY Representative and we were invited to the National IPTAY Rep meeting last week in, of all places, Columbia, SC. (IPTAY is Clemson's athletic booster and 75 years ago stood for "I Pay $10 a Year".) He probably RSVP'd the next day because he was so pumped about the possibility of meeting our coaches - Dabo Swinney and Oliver Purnell, and possibly some student athletes. So, we went down to the Columbia Convention Center, which I must say was pretty impressive, considering it is located in Gamecock country. The "meeting" was basically a reception to thank the IPTAY Reps for recruiting more donors. There were more than 900 people, almost all wearing orange. Dabo and OP were in fact there and gave very positive, motivating speaches (felt more like pep talks).
Sarah with Oliver Purnell, Clemson's Basketball coach (the day after they beat Duke by 27 points!)
Patrick with Dabo Swinney, Head Football Coach (some people have said Patrick looks like Dabo...)
The Tiger trying to steal me from Patrick