Diaper Drive

The Diaper Drive was a huge success! We got over 10,000 diapers, about 100 packs of wipes, numerous diaper creams, soaps and lotions. Our goal was 5,000 diapers. We are so overwhelmed with the outreach of our community.
I will post more pictures when we get settled into our new house. Yes, we have started moving-boxes today and tomorrow and then the movers will move the furniture on Friday.

Diaper Drive Spirit Night

Last night was spirit night at Jim N Nick's for the diaper drive. They donated 10% of their sales to the diaper drive. What better excuse for a Girl's Night Out! The guys decided to take the kids out as well. The girls sat on one side of the restaurant and the guys and kids were on the other. The waitresses thought it was pretty amusing. Their waitress tried to guess who belonged to who, but she couldn't figure any of us out.

Here are the pictures from Jim N Nick's Facebook page.Diaper Drive is tonight at Chick-fil-A from 5-8!

Here is an article from The Island Packet.

Ella's Baptism

Sweet baby Ella was baptized last night. The baptisms were supposed to be in the May River, but God had other plans since there was a thunderstorm. They had the baptisms inside at Calhoun St. Allen and I were so extremely honored to be asked to be Ella's Godparents. Emily and Lewis are such dear friends of ours (and Harper's Godparents). We look forward to watching Ella grow in faith and love for Jesus.

The church pictures didn't turn out since it was dark.

Group shot

Ella's family

Family pictures

Playing in the Rain

Harper and I went out to stomp in some puddles after the rain on Saturday.Harper helping Allen bring the trash can in.

Harper Update

Harper is 27.5 months old (2 year 3.5 months). He is all two year old now.

-He has to do everything "myself". He climbs into his booster seat and buckles the seatbelt. He likes to undress and dress himself. He has also likes to just take his clothes off including his diaper. He has to put his swim diaper and bathing suit on himself. He also has to put his own shoes on.

-His memory continues to amaze me. We go to the mall every few months and he always remembers the play area. He asks to play on the turtle. Allen took him to Home Depot for the first time in 6 months and he asked "Where the snowman went?"-from Christmas. He knows where everything is. When we are going around the traffic circle, he asks to go see Elmo at the library.

-His vocabulary and speech always impress me. He loves to repeat everything you say. His favorite sentence is "Where did _____ go?". It is especially annoying in the car, Where did garage truck go? Where did the bikes go? etc. It also applies to people. On the way to the beach to see Mary Kate, I will hear "Where did Mary Kate?" go about 200 times, no exaggeration! He refers to himself as you (instead of saying me)-"Mommy carry you". He also tells me "I need to check my email." I wonder what he thinks it means, he knows it has something to do with the computer though.

-He has definitely started to test us, especially at meal times. He has started saying "I don't like it"-no matter what it is. He might have eaten it for lunch and by dinner, he doesn't like it. He hates to be put in time out, so sometimes that is the only threat that works. Unfortunately he is so stubborn that I usually have to give in, because I can't take the crying and screaming anymore. I definitely need to learn some toddler techniques.

Here are some self-portraits taken by Harper. He smiles more for himself than for me. He has also figured out that after he takes a picture he can see it on the camera screen, so he has to check himself out.

Mark's 30th Birthday Party

Erin threw Mark a great surprise party for his 30th birthday. Everyone met at Corks in the event room and waited for Mark to get there. He said he knew that something was coming, but he didn't think his party would be at Corks, so he was mostly surprised! Most of their families even came for the party. We had our first real babysitter, since Jenny and Jas are in Michigan. We got a neighbor girl who watches the kids during our small group. I didn't get much input from her, but I hope it went well!

Clayton and Curt spying on the birthday boy to see when he was coming

The surprise!

Singing Happy Birthday

The guys being silly

The guys behaving

The gang

A Mind of His Own

Harper decided to walk Cassie around the house today. He had on his star sunglasses, no shorts and his shoes on the wrong feet. He kept telling Cassie, "Cassie this way". I am glad Cassie was such a good sport!
House update-everything is going forward with our closing. We are going to start moving into a rental house next week and hopefully closing on our house July 19th! Here is a link to the rental house. One of our friends built it as a spec house and it hasn't sold, so they wanted to rent it out.

5th of July

Allen actually had a day off with all of our friends, so we headed to the beach. The Colvins, Green, Campbells and Jacobis were there for the fun.

Harper and Cole playing in the hole

4th of July

We decided to watch the fireworks from Palmetto Bluff this year. We headed down a little early and had a picnic dinner on the river.

Avalyn and Ella in their matching outfits!

We headed down to the dock to watch the fireworks. We could see all five area shows, plus all of the locals who did their own. Harper loved it. He said "bam" every time they went off.

Family picture

Harper was obsessed with Clayton. Clayton had Harper cracking up laughing. Harper had to do everything he did. Here they are pretending to sleep after the fireworks.

Josh and Kali's

Since our friends Bob and Hadley moved to Ohio, Josh and Kali rented the same house on the river. We went to the moving in party Saturday night. Harper played corn hole the whole time!

Kali, Abbagail, Grayson, me and Avalyn

What a view!

4th of July Parade

Bluffton had a Children's Parade down Calhoun St. this morning. Everyone decorated strollers and bikes for the 4th. A bunch of our friends came out for the event.

Harper, Logan and Chase

Allen got to leave work for a few minutes to walk with us in the parade.

Family picture

Harper enjoying the ride in his stroller during the parade

Dads and kids

Harper and Mary Kate hanging out

It wouldn't be a Bluffton parade without a red, white and blue mohawk!

or a wagon for dogs!