Weekend Getaway

We decided to take one of those nice little long weekend trips this past weekend. We drove up to Washington to surprise my siter and brother in law to be their for our nephew Nathan's 1st birthday party! (Still can't believe he is 1 already)! We enjoyed spending some time with them on Saturday and then we drove down to VA Beach to spend the day together on Sunday. We had a great day! The weather was perfect - we put our tent up on the beach, and stayed on it until about 8pm! We played Bocci, played in the sand, boogie-boarded...and just had a great time! It was a fun time together! Here are a couple of pics from our weekend adventure. Peyton did get pretty tired of riding in the car and had some "moments" - but otherwise, we throughly enjoyed our long weekend! I still need to catch up and post my mission trip and Disney pics - just haven't had the time! Hopefully Soon! :-)

Has it really been 1/2 a year since I posted? Wow! A lot happens in a year. I don't even know where to start to catch up on a half a year. I guess I can't really! One of the major points of interest was that Kevin graduated in December with his Masters in Business Administration from Winthrop University. I am so proud of him for this accomplishment! He went to school while working full time and never letting his duties of being a dad and husband slide at home either! Our super hero for sure!!!

The boys are growing like weeds! Brayden is still swimming and playing baseball! He won his first race last weekend up at SwimMAC in Charlotte. He came in first in his breaststroke race! We were very proud of him! He is doing really good is baseball this year too! Pete continues to keep us busy as well! He is very talkative these days! He loves to point out "Octagons" AKA Stop signs, everywhere we go! We are working on potty training and trying to take Pappy away! :)

Brayden also took his first flight a couple months ago with one of our friends who is a pilot. He said he was a little nervous at first, but he loved it. We flew over our house, his school, and most of Lancaster! We really enjoyed it!

And we enjoyed Easter together as a family! It was a a nice time together. We spent time with my parents and with Kevin's parents. We didn't realize that the very next week my Dad would be hospitalized with severe pain in his back and legs. He is still fighting with it and is now in a rehab faciility as the doctor's are tying to figure out what to do next. Please keep him and my Mom in your prayers as they are trying to go through this very difficult stage!

Super Mario Brothers

We enjoyed a trip to the Pumpkin Patch this past weekend with Brayden's boy scout troop. We went through a corn maze, took a hay ride, played on the playground and roasted smores over a camp fire while listening to spooky stories.
It was a brisk night and we had a great time!

Road Trip

WE took a road trip this past weekend to watch the Gamecocks take on the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, GA with some of our good friends. This was the first time we took the boys with us. We had a great time! We did it all in one day, and didn't get home until 3am - I'm getting too old for that! LOL

Brayden was quite into the game. I was surprised about how well he paid attention. He seemed to really enjoy it and I think he learned a thing or two about football as well. Although the gameococks didn't play the best - it was a VERY exciting game - and we had great seats, oh and WE WON!

Tumbles & Teeth

We're still here~ I haven't been able to blog much at all lately - life has been SO busy!
Kev is chugging away at school and me and the boys are keeping busy with our normal schedules!
Brayden started 2nd grade 2 weeks ago and is having a good year so far. Homework is definitley starting to take up more of our time in the evenings. Many times we eat and do homework and there isn't much time left for anything fun. I hate that. Guess we just have to make up for lost time on the weekends! :-) Brayden has lost 4teeth now - all in the front, 2 top and 2 bottom. The last one he actually pulled himself! He was so proud!
Peyton started his 2 year old Wee school program this week. Other than a few tears, he is doing great too. He has actually gotten MUCH better with his separation anxiety over the summer! He's growing up so fast! He is a little chatter box and still very stong willed! He took a pretty bad fall last week at the babysitters. He tripped and fell and hit is face right on the corner of some brick steps. He tore his little face up pretty good. We were thankful that he didn't appear to do any serious damage - Kevin had EMS look at him and they said he didn't need stitches and that we should just let is heal up on its own.
We are ready for fall around our house - football, cooler weather.....summer was nice while it lasted, but don't you just love the change of seasons and the new things they bring with them! Hope you're all doing well!

FIFO

The BIG news around the Russell house from this weekend is that Brayden finally lost his first tooth. It has been wiggly for months and we recently noticed that his adult tooth was coming in behind it. After a call to our dentist and a pediatric dentist, we learned this is preety normal and they said for us to just try to work it out ourselves. Well, we've been working, but not really making much progress all month. Finally last night, Kevin pulled it! I was really apprehensive about how the whole " tooth-losing" would be. I was afraid it would be pretty traumatic, tears...etc...and I was afraid that however this first one went, that may set the tone for all to follow! Well, it went GREAT! Like so many other things I have blown out of proportion w/ worry as a Mom, Brayden did soo much better than I thought he would! NO tears, only lots of blood, and exuberant joy to finally have a gap in his smile! All of Braydens friends have already lost multiple teeth. So I'm sure he is glad he has joined that elite club too! :0) Oh, I did I mention to tooth fairy left him $10?!? Wow - if that isn't evidence of inflation - don't know what it! Oh yeah, and the FIFO stands for "first one in, first one out". This was the first tooth Brayden got when he was 11 mos old while we were at St Simon's Island. Just a bit of trivia!
Oh yeah - sorry for the sabbatical from posting! I promise, I'll try to do better~ "try" being the key word! :-)