Life at the Shore

Some of my favorite memories of childhood are of days with my toes in the sand or gently floating in the sea.  Growing up near the coast there were a lot of summer days spent that way, especially since my mom loved the beach.  She would pack a cooler full of drinks and food and load my sister and I into a car filled with beach chairs, floats, and toys for digging and building castles in the sand.  They were glorious days!  So now when my family goes on their annual trip to the beach I always jump at the chance to come along.  Caroline's first exposure to the shore was at 3 months old and each year it has been so fun to see her take it all in in a new way.  This year her favorite beach activities were digging in the sand and throwing sea shells into the ocean. Each day she would get caught up in one activity and want to do it over and over again.  She even played a round of bocce ball with us!  

 

These times at the beach are some of my favorite memories.  It always makes me long to be a kid again.  Thank you Mom & Daddy for always treating us to these very special getaways at the shore.  

Weekend Recap

Our weekend kicked off with some of our favorite things.  Saturday morning David took Caroline to the park for some fun play time.  She talks about the park every day and every time we get in the car she thinks that's where we are headed so she was super excited to find out that's where she was going.  She didn't even want to eat breakfast!  We have both been amazed lately at how much she is growing.  This time she wanted to play on all of the big kid slides and swings.  No more baby stuff for her!  She played hard and returned home sweaty and smelly.  

Saturday afternoon we got to have some friends over to watch the U.S. play England in the World Cup.  David is a HUGE soccer fan and has been talking about the World Cup for months.  We were so excited to discover that some of our friends are big fans too.  We grilled out and cheered on the U.S. team who amazed us with a 1-1 tie!  

I'm Back and Caroline turned 2

So it's been forever since I've posted!  Don't know what happened but I am recommitting to capturing our daily life here.  I've realized a few things about myself the past couple of months.  One, I struggle with following through on my projects, like this one. Two, I feel really insecure trying to write about our life in an interesting way, even though there are only a few people that actually read these posts! :)

Caroline celebrated her 2nd birthday.   She had a birthday breakfast where we opened all of the cards she had gotten in the mail.  She fell in love with the Elmo card we gave her.  It had Elmo wishing her a Happy Birthday.  She played it over and over all day long! 

Here I am trying to show her how to dig into her birthday cake.  The DeWeil family tradition is the birthday girl gets to take the first bite!  This year she had an Abbey Cadabby cake.

She got lots of fun gifts from so many people that love her!  Our house is full of new toys!

I can't believe we have a 2 yr old now!  She is acting more grown up every day!

Some of her new phrases are:
Uh oh!
I love you  (this melts my heart)
Sprinkler
What happened?
Go to the park
Go bye bye

Some her favorite things are:
Dora the Explorer
Elmo and Abbey from Sesame Street
Playing with balls outside
The slide and swing at the park
Play dough


She is even singing songs now and attempting to count and say the alphabet. 

I love being her mommy! 

Sweet Lessons

Every day at lunch Caroline and I read stories from her Children's Bible.  It has been so sweet to see her come to love her Bible.  Many days as I read and talk to her about God's word I am struck by how these simple stories convict my heart and challenge me to love Jesus more.  


Yesterday we were reading about Palm Sunday and Caroline with excited glee starting waving her palm branch around that she had made in Sunday School.  I know that she doesn't understand the things I am reading to her but it has been so amazing to see the Lord planting seeds in her heart through these times.  Our prayer is that she will come to know and passionately love Jesus.

Style Struggles

I haven't had time to blog lately because I've been obsessed with trying to make curtains with my new sewing machine.  A dear friend took the time to come over and teach me how to do the basics so I could get started.  I've had grand images in my head of what the curtains will add to the room with a pop of color and making the room feel more put together.  But the reality has been far from it.  

Pop of color.  

Check.  

Room feeling more put together.  

Not so much.  

Instead it's led to confusion about what my home decorating style is and how to make that a reality in my home.  I have scoured the internet for inspiration images but somehow I keep struggling with putting it together myself.  Thus leading to a very frustrated and stressed out wife last night.  I was no fun to hang out with.  I didn't even want to go into our kitchen/family room because I didn't want to look at the curtains I had made. 


I feel terribly guilty because I spent money buying the fabric I thought I'd love.  But now I'm not so sure.  So now I sit with nothing on my windows and total confusion as to where to go from here.  I certainly don't want any more money wasted.  

Here's a pic of the kitchen window.  It's the only one I really like right now.  Except of course for the awful mini blinds!

Surprises & Friendship

I LOVE surprises so today was definitely an extraordinary day!  First I woke up early and was able to have some quiet time drinking coffee and reading email.  The birds were actually chirping outside and the sun was already peeking through the window as I walked into the kitchen.  It was just like a Spring morning and made me long for it to be warm outside.  

My first surprise of the day came from my best friend Ansley and her husband Brandon.  They wrote to tell me that he is planning to fly me to NYC this summer to be with her for her birthday!  He gave her the option of a new digital camera or flying her best friends up for some girl time and she chose us!  I'm so incredibly honored and excited beyond belief!!!  I'm ready to leave tomorrow Ans! 


Later in the day, after being out and about running errands, and buying an awesome new purse with some birthday money, I returned home to find that a precious friend had left a surprise for me on our porch!  Cheerful tulips, Godiva dark chocolate bar, and a card.  My favorite things.....flowers, chocolate and sweet encouragement! 

Both of these sweet surprises were a much needed reminder to me of how blessed I am to have some amazing friends in my life.  It's been a tough week.  Our house was struck with a stomach virus that started with Caroline and made its way to David and then finally me.  I've also had a lot of deep things on my mind lately and its easy for me to get downcast and lost in my thoughts.  These surprises and the friendships that they come from have reminded my heart today of how foolish it is to get wrapped up in ourselves that we don't see the amazing things in our lives.

I also need to give a huge shout out to my family.  The moment I called and asked for help this week they were in the car headed here from out of town to take Caroline off my hands so I could rest and recuperate.  I couldn't have made it through this week without them.  She's had a blast playing at their house and being the center of their attention while I could get some much needed sleep.  I am a blessed woman!  Thank you Lord!

Lazy Days

We traveled to Georgia this weekend to visit Papa D and Gee Gee. It was a great time of lounging in the hammock, riding in the woods, catching up on Food Network, and eating lots and lots of yummy food.


Caroline definitely has her grandparents wrapped around her finger. She used her charm to talk them into giving her cracker upon cracker and tons of her new favorite cookie. She was definitely sugared up!!



My birthday was on Sunday so we celebrated with strawberries and pancakes for breakfast and then later in the day David presented me with a birthday cake. It was a last minute idea so you will notice the cake has an Irish theme and a very sad icing message. Evidently, it was so late at the grocery store when he bought the cake that only one person working was willing to try to write a birthday message on my cake! Then to top that off the only candles his parents had in the house were leftover from his grandad's 90th birthday party. So today, unexpectedly I celebrated my 95th birthday! Don't I look good for my age!!! ;)



The next picture will have to be explained. A DeWeil Family tradition is that the birthday girl or boy has to take the first bite out of their cake. Usually it's a year-long competition to see who can take the biggest bite. David was laughing at my pitiful effort.



All in all we had a great weekend! Thanks Papa D and Gee Gee!

Let the Creative Juices Flow

Isn't she a beauty? This was an early birthday present from David. I have wanted one for so long!!! There are so many fun projects I have on my mind.....now I just have to learn how to use this bad boy!

Mimi

Caroline is definitely a Daddy's girl. She's been that way since the beginning. Maybe it's because when she was first born David would dance with her every night before we put her to bed. OR it could be because he's so funny and always knows how to make her laugh. Whatever the reason she has always been a Daddy's girl. Because of that most days all I hear about is Dada this and Dada that and nothing about Mommy. I have to admit that was pretty tough when I thought about the rough days of morning sickness I went through while carrying her and the difficult sacrifices I make each day to stay home with her. All I wanted was some recognition from her....that's all. :) But now I can say it was worth the wait. Caroline has now started to call my name all the time. FINALLY!!!! But instead of calling me Mama or Mommy she has named me "Mimi". If she sees a picture of me across the room she will yell with joy "Mimi". The other day we were at the grocery store and David was pushing her around on the cart while I tried to quickly find everything on our list. When they turned down the aisle where I was, I heard an excited shriek "MIMI!!!!" It was awesome! So even though she is still a Daddy's girl at heart it's so good to finally have some recognition from her.

Oh Yum!

First let me say how happy it made us to see a table of Girl Scouts in front of the grocery store yesterday!!! After digging through all the loose change in my purse I came up with exactly enough to take home one of these......


and let me tell ya....one box is not gonna last long in our house! We broke them open as soon as we got to the car! We try to eat them when Caroline is napping so we don't have to share with her! Isn't that awful! :) We're very protective of our Thin Mints.

So last weekend David took me to this new (well new to me) restaurant where he ordered "Southern Salsa" and I instantly fell in love! So all week I've been on a quest to find a recipe for this stuff so I could recreate it at home anytime I wanted. Here's the first recipe I tried out last night that is called "Texas Caviar". It didn't have the kick the Southern Salsa had but it was yummy.
I also made Monster Cookies for the first time and I wish I had not waited so long to sample this recipe that I've had in my possession for years. Watch out these are addictive! Thankfully we had some friends come over Saturday night and they helped us eat some of this!

I actually remembered to take pictures of the process of making the cookies. Although I didn't think of it until after I began so all the ingredients are not pictured.

If you'd like any of the recipes let me know! I'm happy to share!

A Prayer for Caroline

It is my desire to be praying consistently for Caroline. Here's what I've decided to commit to praying for her.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. ~Ephesians 3:16-19

Pickles

Caroline's newest obsession. She begs for them from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed. It must be genetic because from what I hear her daddy loved pickles too at her age. Guess I'll have to get used to vinegar scented kisses. :)

Snowy Valentine's

What an amazing weekend! Caroline went to visit Nana, Papa and Aunt Tracie for the weekend so David and I could have some much needed quality time together. He surprised me with flowers, chocolate and a sweet card when I arrived home.....what a great start! And with our new found freedom we headed straight to our favorite spot......Barnes & Noble, where we spent the afternoon reading magazines, looking at books and drinking yummy Starbucks. :) To add to the magic of our weekend and turn us into giggling kids something happened that is very rare here in the South......it started to snow!

And it kept snowing so that by the time we finished dinner the roads and everything in sight were covered! It was unbelievable! Here we are outside of the restaurant.

We spent the rest of the night at home walking around our neighborhood having a snowball fight and making snow angels. Such fun!

By the next morning everything looked like this.

The rest of our weekend was spent eating lots of good food (first ever fish tacos that were amazing) and having deep conversation about life. It was just what we needed.

Here We Go

So I've been reading and falling in love with blogs for awhile. I've been in awe of how they capture each person's life and tells their story in their voice. I'm not a fan of scrapbooking and have discovered I struggle with even keeping up with updating my daughter's baby book so I've decided that this outlet suits me the best to capture our story for her. So she can follow the real life adventures of our family. Recently I've thought a lot about how the walls of our home speak our individual stories of how we become the person that we are. The memories of a baby coming home or birthday parties and family dinners and laughter and tears. All the learning and growing and stretching of ourselves all resonates in our homes. So this will be our story....our journey of how we became who we are. Hopefully someday this will be a treasure for Caroline to read and have a glimpse back in time.