Thanksgiving with Family in Atlanta!

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We were very THANKFUL to have Tracy’s family together at our place for Thanksgiving week. Kristen’s Nana lives close to us and celebrated her 90th birthday in Georgia, which was the perfect excuse for Rob, Kristen & the kids to come visit from California! It was great to meet our niece Abby (7 months) for the first time and to watch the boy cousins play together. Collin was excited to have Owen come stay with him and Owen and Carson played much better together than they did in March when we were in Lake Tahoe together.


Mom & dad drove in from Texas so it was a full house (6 adults and 4 kids). We went to the Georgia World Aquarium together, hiked in our nearby woods/creek, did a little shopping, went out to dinner, but mostly just stayed around the house and enjoyed being together. It’s hard to be so far apart and not know when we next are together again, especially when the kids are growing up so fast, but we appreciated the time together!

Nashville Trip with the Voegtle Family

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Since we hadn’t seen Mike’s side of the family since June and the kids are getting big fast, we decided to meet up for a mini vacation in Nashville, which is almost half way between St. Louis and Atlanta. We rented a house that slept over 20, but it’s always crazy to have 14 people sleeping under the same roof, especially when five of them are three and under and on varying nap schedules.


We stayed in the house most of the time, but Sunday we out to the Opryland and then to lunch at Rainforest Café. After lunch we went to the Bass Pro shop, where Collin saw Santa for the first time. On the drive home we stopped at The Chattamunga battlefield (http://www.nps.gov/chch/index.htm) outside Chattanooga, the first and largest national Military Park - even larger than Gettysburg. This will be a nice stop again in the future when the boys are older and can pay attention and we have more time.

Halloween

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This year I finished the qualification for my first Mary Kay free car on Halloween. It was quite a crazy month building up to it - adding 6 new teammates and making my highest production month yet. I am so thankful for my new teammates and it is so great to be able to share this opportunity with others!





We had a Halloween party at church the week before Halloween that both boys wore their costumes to thankfully, since I wasn’t able to locate Carson’s giraffe costume on Halloween day. Collin was Optimus Prime, a Transformer, and Carson wore Collin’s monkey costume (from when he was two) to our neighborhood parade and Trick-Or-Treating. It was pouring rain most of the day, but the rain let up just in time for the parade to begin, then started again right after pizza and the costume party at our pool. We waited out the rain under the clubhouse awning for 10 minutes and then began our Trick-Or-Treating.


This was the first year that Collin was able to run up to the houses himself, so we enjoyed walking with our friends and watching the kids Trick-Or-Treat rather than going up to each house. Carson had a blast running up each driveway and didn’t even know about getting candy – he just thought it was fun to chase his brother and friends. He learned pretty soon after Halloween where we kept the candy and asked for it frequently (‘please’ and ‘more’ in sign language and “ahh” “ahh”).

Hellen & Pumpkin Patch

The leaves in Atlanta are beautiful (except on the ground in our backyard) but even prettier in the Blue Ridge Georgia Mountains, which are only 60-90 minutes away. On a nice (but chilly) Sunday in October we decided to drive up to the town of Helen and also to a pumpkin patch.

Helen is a cute little town in North Georgia along the Chattahoochee River, with a somewhat cheesy attempt at recreating a Bavarian alpine village complete with cobblestone alleys and old-world towers. We went in just a few shops and spent some time at the local park before driving on to find the pumpkin patch Mike had heard about. At the pumpkin patch we ran around in a corn maze and Mike & Collin attempted to hit the target with Apples from a slingshot. There was a fun slide, and of course a Farmers Market where we bought our pumpkin. On the way home we stopped at a restaurant and snapped a few photos of Larry the Leopard for Collin’s class book.

Soccer & Cameron's Party

This year Collin played soccer again at Johnson Ferry (Upward Sports) again as he did last fall, but he was spoiled by last spring’s experience of having several of his best friends (Cameron & Riley) on his team along with his dad and Mr. Rustin as coaches. There’s still hope for Collin to be a soccer player as he’s still young, but I think we need to take a break from soccer for a bit. Another wet Saturday Soccer game... The drought in North Georgia is officially over! We got in one of Collin’s last soccer games of the fall and not only was it wet, but cold too!

That afternoon was one of Collin’s best friend’s Cameron’s birthday party at a local bowling alley, so Collin got to bowl for the first time. Carson also liked the bowling balls, but he was a little young to join in the fun.

September 2009

We survived the first month of Kindergarten! For the first few weeks all we heard about was Boosterthon.com – a fundraiser where they ran laps at school. Collin seems to be adjusting well and enjoys his new friends. Carson loves getting Collin from the bus stop, but occasionally he is still asleep from his nap. The boys are enjoying their time together in the afternoons. It’s fun to watch the kids together, but it’s been nice to have the time to focus on Carson while Collin learns at school. One of Carson’s favorite things to do is to give kisses and hugs. He will often pucker up to give kisses spontaneously or on command – adorable!

In September we enjoyed the nice weather and our new backyard and swingset, marched in the annual East Cobber parade with Mike’s Rotary club, attended soccer games on Saturdays (& practice on Wed) and went to the Tellus Science Center.

Dragoncon Parade

We decided to venture downtown to observe the Dragoncon parade spectacle that occurs in Atlanta each Labor Day weekend. It is quite a scary site to see adults living in a fantasy world, but Collin (& Mike) enjoy seeing the Star Wars characters. The best viewing spot is on the steps outside of Mike's office building on Peachtree St. Collin & Carson both found opponents to fight with their light sabers in Mike's lobby.

Carson is 18 Months

My BABY is a year and a half already – where did time go? I swear it’s gone even faster the second time around. With Collin I kept saying, “now THIS is my favorite stage” surprised that each stage came with a new set of joys and challenges. The second time around I think I may be enjoying all of it even more because I know how short each stage is. I try to relish each moment since I know it will be over soon…I’m so thankful to have this time home with him! Now that school has begun I’ve enjoyed being able to have time with Carson alone while Collin’s in school until 3, and then some time with Collin alone when he first gets home if Carson is napping rather than trying to meet both of their needs all day.

Carson continues to be such a delight – he continues to have such an easy-going personality and is happy nearly all of the time. He is fairly independent and occupies himself surprisingly well (I wonder if Collin was EVER like this and we forgot, or perhaps we never gave him the opportunity to play on his own). Carson loves his toy lawnmower and pushes it around everywhere…it’s amazing at how well he navigates the difficult terrain of our yard. It’s too bad the lawnmower doesn’t actually work or we’d have to consider hiring him out!

Carson is also quite expressive and he knows what he wants. He is very picky about his shoes – either wanting them on or off, usually on because he wants to go outside. He also has definite ideas about what we should be doing, and directs me with his pointing and “Ehh Ehh” that I should (put on my shoes/sit down beside him/take a drink of water) or whatever he thinks of.

He is doing great at signing and learns new signs quickly – usually after one or two demonstrations. Although he’s pretty vocal, he speaks in a language we can’t understand (Mike calls it Ton Ton talk from Star Wars). He does say a few words quite clearly, most of them beginning with the letter “b” (ball, bye, bug, also Hi, MaMa, Mom, Da Da, Pa Pa. He tries to say “truck” and a few other words too but he prefers to sign. He signs “more, all done, please, thank you, milk, grapes, bananas, hot, cold, and made up signs for juice and yuck since I didn’t know the real signs.

He wants to be part of conversations, but doesn’t quite know how to contribute, so sometimes he begins the signs for “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, wanting us to sing along with him. He enjoys praying before meals and if we forget he reminds us by putting his hands together, and then doing the sign of the cross, which looks most like imitating a chicken rather than crossing himself.

He’s a pretty good eater, and his favorite foods are pizza, pasta, grapes (and most fruits). He’ll eat two slices of pizza along with his milk, even after grazing on Cherrios for hours waiting to eat. He loves feeding others as much as feeding himself and often tries to give us soggy Cherrios to eat. Perhaps his most favorite is feeding the cats, which he learned by watching this father. Carson LOVES the cats and tries to pet them often. They are much more tolerant of him than they were of Collin at this age but I wouldn’t say the affection is mutual. How blessed are we!

Collin’s 5th Birthday Party

Collin has asked to have a birthday party at his house for years, and so this year we finally obliged. He wanted to have a Knight theme, complete with swords, Armour and a fire-breathing dragon. (He asked Paw Paw to be the fire-breathing dragon, so Nana made a costume for him).

After many weekends of preparing the yard, deck and zip line knowing we were planning an outdoor birthday party, the day of the party (Sun, Aug 30^th) was torrential downpours. We improvised and played a few games inside, watching the boys attack each other with their foam swords while the girls calmly decorated their princess hats. It wasn’t exactly what we had planned but the kids had fun, and got to do a few rides on the zip line, slay the dragon, and eat a castle birthday cake mom I made. We were so thankful to have mom & dad here to help, before during and after. Collin had fun at his party, but next year will be at the pool!

1st Week of Kindergarten

It’s amazing that our little Collin is in Kindergarten – riding the bus and everything! We survived the first week but it’s been an adjustment for everyone. Collin fared better than I would have expected. Everyone told me he’d be exhausted for the first few weeks, and he did require a few more time outs than normal in the late afternoons, but overall he’s done really well. In fact, he even woke by himself before 6:30 three out of the five days. Mom hasn’t adjusted as easily to the new schedule of having to help get him dressed, fix lunch, eat breakfast together and get out the door by 7 AM for the bus. I know I need to go to bed earlier, but it’s hard for a night owl when late evenings seem to be the only time I can get things done. Plus, Carson’s been waking earlier and earlier now with the change in schedule – 4:30 one day...got him back to sleep at 6 which did me no good since I had to be up 10 minutes later. Mike’s been a big help in getting Collin out the door and we’ve not missed the bus yet. Schools is within walking distance if we do, but I’d rather plan on walking in advance.

We haven’t heard a lot of details about the day from him, but he does like recess (who doesn’t?) and lunch. He got to buy lunch one day, which he was very excited about. Instead of taking money they have an account that we can just add money to online. Things are much different that when we were in school!

Here's a picture of Collin's classroom. They have multiple tables where they do their work, a computer station, a book corner and play area. We are happy with his teacher and thrilled that he likes school, though perhaps not as much as preschool.!

Mary Kay Seminar

The first Mary Kay seminar I attended was a life-changing experience, but I probably enjoyed this year even more than the other two I’ve attended. It was great to be able to view it through my teammate Tracy’s eyes seeing it the first time, and be reminded at what an awesome company I have the privilege of being involved with! The philosophy of Mary Kay is Faith 1st, Family 2nd Career 3rd...Mary Kay believed you can reward a woman to success. It’s incredible to see how many lives have been affected by this company and to hear the inspirational stories and training from our leaders! It’s hard to explaine seminar but is sorta like a cross between the Academy Awards, Ms. America pageant, an inspirational leadership training/retreat and a broadway musical...here's a picture of one of the entertainment numbers from Slum Dog Millionnaire.

Dad picked us up from seminar with the boys in the car and we had my favorite Thai food on the way to the airport. I have to say eating Thai Chilli with my former co-workers is one of the few things I miss about working from an office away from home. I am so grateful for the time I have with the boys, my freedom, flexibility, the opportunity to select the people I work with, helping others be successful, and the amazing personal growth opportunities I have with Mary Kay!

Trip to Texas

Mary Kay seminar is typically the last week of July, often coinciding with my mom’s birthday as it did this year. Since Mike also had some work to do in Texas, we decided to make a mini-vacation of it (tax-deductible of course) and have a chance to visit some family & friends, though not as many as we would have liked.

Mom picked us up from the airport, and on the way home we went by our old Dallas house which was on a recent Ju-Nel home tour. We also stoped at one of Mike’s clients Top Golf – a golf entertainment facility. It was a lot of fun! Sorta like a bowling at a multi-level golf driving range. Each of the balls you hit has a computer chip in it so you can follow it on a video screen. Collin loved it and I enjoyed my first attempt at hitting golf balls.

Unfortunately Carson wasn’t feeling well (perhaps he caught a bug from the plane) so we had to go to the doctor’s office Friday morning, which delayed our trip to Austin a few hours. We stopped on the way to see another one of Mike’s clients’ buildings in Copperas Cove – a new movie theatre/ entertainment facility. Collin got to play Lasertag with Mike, and Carson & I ate free popcorn while visiting with Mike’s client.

We had planned to have dinner with our good friends Brett & Tara & their kids (Gage, 3 & Calla, 5 wks) but since Carson was sick they had to take turns, so Tara came out with us for dinner, and Mike was able to hang out with Brett & Brent for drinks afterwards. I took the boys to a hotel since we didn’t want to risk bringing germs into the Pitts, especially with Calla so young. Mike was super nice to suggest that I go out with his friends on the boat early Saturday morning to wake board and he’d come out with the boys later. Unfortunately Carson didn’t cooperate with that plan and wanted his momny since he was feeling under the weather. But it turned out fine cause we all got to go out together on the boat and I got to wake board too. After the lake we went back to Brett & Tara’s for a BBQ where we got to see some other mutual friends. Tara & I hiked the Greenbelt in the heat, since the trailhead is right NEXT to their place. We forgot how HOT Texas is!!!
The next morning (Sun) we had to head back to Dallas, got to see the end of the Tour de France (recorded) at Chris & Ashley’s, then see Chrissie & her kids for ice cream before heading back to my parents’ place for dinner. Monday was mom’s birthday, and she was very gracious to spend it at the Wiggles play place for kids. Dad met us for lunch, and then we had a great dinner at the Grand Lux, despite Carson not cooperating or wanting to sit in his high chair.

On Tuesday Mike went back to Dallas and Tracy, my Mary Kay teammate from Georgia arrived on Wednesday for the Mary Kay seminar that started that evening.

New Backyard and Playset

For years we've wished we had a backyard to play in with Collin, but we instead have had a forest to admire from our screened-in porch and most of our outside time at home has been spent playing baseball or basketball in the driveway. This year, with a little help from my parents we decided to do something about it. The transformation began with getting some grading and stone work done by a landscape company in mid June. We decided against the idea of grass because we had way too many LARGE trees to cut down and to even attempt to get enough sun. We instead worked with what we had and kept all the trees, which makes for a very shady and cool spot in the summer. We have a nice stone patio, stone retaining walls and an area for a playset. Here are some pictures of what our yard looked like mid-June... (you can click on these pictures to see more)

The last weekend of June Mike bought and assembled the playset for the boys. Our friend Ed was in town from Dallas and was helpful. Mike worked ALL Saturday, from 6 AM to 6 PM. I took Ed on a hike and we played tennis so he could enjoy his vacation but it happened to be one of the hottest weekends we had all summer.

The boys LOVE their playset, and for several weeks was hard to get them to go anywhere since they enjoy their backyard so much. We used to play in the playroom in the morning, but now both of the boys want to be outside by 8 AM. Carson brings me his shoes immediately after breakfast, and Collin suits up in whatever his outfit of the week is (usually his "transformer shorts" with a belt, sometimes his Lightning McQueen boots, and oftentimes other accessories, such as a knight costume, or pirate patch and a pasta strainer he wears as a hat. The imagination of a four-year-old is amazing! I have to say it's been sorta nice to stay home more…there were days we didn't even leave the house until 2 PM because we'd wait for Carson to have his nap and then leave after lunch.

Mike spent nearly every waking weekend moment of July on building a new section of our deck, but the project moved pretty quickly due to his hard work and focus despite both boys wanting to "help" Be sure to see the pictures of Carson using his drill...he wanted to do anything Mike was doing and couldn't stand to be too far away. He finished the majority of the deck in just two weekends less than an hour before it began raining.

I've spent quite a bit of time sanding and staining the playset and was finally able to finish when Mike's parents came in town. Mike built an entire deck in just a few weekends and it took me longer than that to stain the structure. Of course, I was responsible for trying to keep the boys out of his way and I took advantage of Carson’s nap times to do other things, like a bike ride, tennis or other work. Mike's dad was a huge help the first week of August at building a bench while Mike's mom was a great help with the boys and helping me finish staining. Other than staining, the deck is mostly complete after their visit after Mike & his dad installed a bench and a planter. This fall we'll need to do some landscaping, but we love having a backyard to enjoy!

4th of July

4th of July was on a Saturday this year so many people were out of town. Mike took off Friday and began his deck project and planned to have a 4-day weekend to make lots of progress, but it rained on Sunday and was wet Monday so he went into the office.
We had a great holiday weekend even though Mike worked most of the time on the deck. Friday night we went to a new Mexican restaurant with some friends and enjoyed some margaritas - quite a treat!

On the 4th the boys and I walked in our neighborhood parade, then came back and played in the yard and I sanded the playset. After Carson's nap we went to the pool for a short time, then all went to Ted & Jenn's for our annual party and then to Indian Hills for fireworks. Collin looks forward to this night all year, and enjoys playing with his friends and the sparklers just as much as watching fireworks. Carson did fine with fireworks too and wasn't scared at all like some kids his age. I figured that would be the case for our easy-going man.

Tribute to Ben

Our nephew Benjamin Gregory lost his battle with hypoplastic left heart syndrome at just 5 weeks old and passed away on May 30, 2009. We traveled back to St. Louis to be with our family and attend the services. Both the visitation and mass were beautiful but it was obviously a very sad event. The priest’s homily was touching, and he explained that Benjamin is Hebrew for “Son of the right hand” – unbeknownst to Karen and Greg when they chose his name. Who knows why God needed him so soon, but he is not in pain.

I never imagined that Collin’s first funeral would be that of a newborn or cousin, but he handled himself pretty well and seemed to understand enough to know what happened and ask questions. I can’t imagine going through everything Karen & Greg have endured these past months – but I am so impressed at how well strong they are. I know that Ben has touched their lives in ways we can never comprehend.

Memorial Day Weekend Beach Trip

May was somewhat a crazy month – Mike traveled 75% of it between two trips to St. Louis, the ICSC convention in Las Vegas and being a vendor at a conference at Jekyll Island, off the coast of Georgia. We had originally planned to make a vacation out of it for Memorial Day weekend, but then the boys and I almost didn’t partly due to a poor weather prediction. Mike and his partner Bill left on Saturday and I had a great day with the boys – running on the off-road trails, going to the pool for the first time of the season (in the rain) and Chuck E. Cheese.

Mike called and asked if the boys and I would dive down to join him on Sunday, and Bill’s wife Phoung drove with us. Jekyll isn’t a very developed island – no chain or fast food restaurants, which is GREAT except when you’re looking for an affordable place to eat with two little ones. The good news is we saw some deer and other wildlife while looking for a restaurant, a raccoon at the restaurant (we were sitting outside) and Mike saw an alligator while golfing.

This weekend was the boys first time in the water and they LOVED it. It was so fun to see the excitement for both Collin and Carson being in the pool (and ocean) and Carson even surprisingly liked the sand. I truly enjoyed my time with them and it was a great surprise mini-vacation!