The Polar Express

Many of you may know we went to Bryson City this past weekend to take a train ride on the Polar Express! We had a great time with our family, and look forward to doing it again next year. If you have not done this and have a little train buff....you will not want to miss this!!! We arrived at the depot and had little time to kill, you know that ended up being spent in the gift shop. The we lined up to get on the train, Colin sat on top of Stephen's shoulders saying "All Aboard" in his best Polar Express voice loud enough for everyone around us to hear him. Tripp and Andrew were so excited, they were just hanging on the gate trying to see. We boarded the train and settled in for a warm ride. Just when the train started, the Polar Express music came on and the "Chef's" brought Hot Chocolate and a marshmallow Santa for everyone as refreshments. Then the book was read over a loudspeaker as we traveled to the North Pole! Santa Boarded the train on the return trip and saw all the children and gave each of them a bell from his sleigh. He stopped to talk to each child, but he actually picked Colin up!!! Of course in true Tripp style, he forgot to tell Santa that he wanted a transformer, so he yelled it as Santa was talking to children at the other end of the train!!! We sang Christmas carols and just enjoyed being together on the way back to the station. Thanks to our travel agent (Jacquelyn) for making all the arrangements and to Lib Ann for the tickets. Here are a few pictures of our trip!

Words by Colin

I just wanted to jot down a few that I didn't want to forget when he was older...
South Carolina - "I live in Sout Caro lineup"
Pepperoni - "Macaroni"
I also stumbled on him singing "Happy Birthday" while looking at a book with a cup cake in it...sounded a little like this: "hap peeeee But Day do you"

The Loose Tooth

Tripp came home from school yesterday very excited after discovering that he had a loose tooth! I'll have to keep you posted on how that all works out in the next week or so. He immediately wanted to know if the Tooth Fairy would bring him money. I'm not so sure what the Tooth Fairy is bringing these days, can anyone tell me what she brought to their child?

Tripp's First Day at School

Wow, I'm not sure where the time went this summer, it obviously didn't go to blogging! In an effort to catch up, I'll have to post a slide show of our summer. Today was Tripp's first day at Kindergarten......He was great, much better than me in fact. He was so excited to go and use his lunch box and all of his school supplies. Here are a few pictures we took to commemorate the day.




This is Mrs. Bruce, his teacher this year.

This is how I left him, in a chair drawing a picture of his family.

Believe it or not, I'm actually in a picture, but I was not going to miss this one!

With Colin on the front steps

So proud of the Star Wars Lunch box...

With Colin before getting in the car.

Yes, this is Tripp's idea of a good breakfast - hey, if I get him to eat at all it's a good day...so don't knock the pop tart!

Happy 5th Birthday Tripp!

Today is Tripp's 5th Birthday!!! It is so hard to believe that he is growing up. Here are his current stats: Loves to play baseball, still loves trains, monster trucks and now has a new fondness of action figures - power rangers and star "worlds" as he calls it. He sleeps with his "white blankie" still, and has a knack for stating the obvious. He is fun-loving, still not very shy and he can practically talk a brick wall into moving with those beautiful big eyes and his very practical way of saying things. He is a biblical scholar - just ask his Sunday school teacher - he is constantly amazing her (Side note: we owe this to Mrs G-na at school - oh the things he remembers because of her!). He loves Ally the dog, and she loves him (finally!). He thinks that when he sleeps, his "sugar" grows back and his muscles get bigger. He enjoys spending time with all of his grandparents (he especially loves to go camping with my parents). He likes band-aids, but only for about 10 minutes (it's much better to be able to show everyone your boo boo if there isn't a band aid in the way). He is very sympathetic and we call him the Mayor of the playground or Ballpark because he loves to talk to everyone. He loves to play with Colin, but still has trouble just giving in to him because he's still little. He's like me, he loves the rules, and rules are for everybody! He enjoys learning to read and does pretty good with all three letter words, so Green Eggs and Ham is a good book for him. He likes for us to read books at night and is currently hooked on a Disney Storybook as well as the entire Curious George Collection. His favorite movies right now include Bolt, Nemo, 101 Dalmations, and anything Thomas the Train. He's a picky eater and exists on peanut butter, chicken nuggets, applesauce and pop tarts. We eat a few veggies and fruit too, but he wouldn't do that if you didn't make him.

This past weekend we had a Spiderman birthday party for him at Heritage Park. There were a lot of kids there! He had church and school friends as well as the entire family on both sides. Here are a few pictures to commemorate the day.

Tripp, you are the sweetest most gentle child, always remain true to yourself and love the Lord as you do now through the eyes of a child with all your heart. You are very special to me and I'm grateful to God for blessing me with you. It's my hope for you to always know that wherever you are and whatever you do, you can always count on my love, guidance and support. Love, Mom

Trippism...

Tripp has been sick for the better part of the last week and a half. High fever, ear ache, sinus infection, three different antibiotic treatments, three trips to the doctor, you get the picture. The problem just won't go away... Yesterday we went the doctor again. As we were checking out, the doctor came back to the front and told us that he wanted to put some ear drops in Tripp's ear. We went back to the treatment room, Tripp climbed up and put his head on the table, facing the wall. Here is how the conversation went:

Doctor: "Tripp, I'm going to put these magic drops in your ear and you are going to feel much better." Doctor begins putting drops in the ear and Tripp sort of jumps. The doctor says, "Stay still so they can work." He then looks at me and says, "Mom, we want to keep these in the ear about 60 seconds."

Tripp: "60 seconds! That's a long time!!"

Doctor: "Not really, as a matter of fact, if you count to 20, it will be just about the right amount of time."

Tripp, in his best serious voice: "In regular [I suppose he meant English] or Spanish?"

Doctor, amused: "Wow! Can you count to 20 in Spanish?

Tripp: "No, actually I can count to 30 in spanish....(then begins uno, dos, tres...you get the picture)"

Ear Drops in, feels better today.

I could have died laughing at him. The doctor was impressed I think, I was proud :)

Happy Anniversary!

Happy 7th Anniversary to my sweet loving husband. I have been so blessed to enjoy your company for the last 16 (or so) years. You make my world a sweeter place and for this, I thank you! I'm proud to be your wife and look forward to many more years of adventure and fun with you and the boys! Hugs and Kisses.... Stacia

Snow Day!

It finally snowed this past Sunday! It was a beautiful snow with big fluffy flakes, and there was plenty of it. I think Simpsonville got somewhere around 6 inches!!! Here are the highlights...Tripp and Colin standing at the back door, looking out chanting, "snow.. Snow.. SNOW" louder and Louder and LOUDER! They were so excited. We went out on Sunday night and took some pictures of us getting snowed on, but we managed to hold off the big fun in the snow until the next day. Colin just wanted to eat the snow. He also thought it was very funny to get hit with snowballs and the fact that we kept letting Tripp hit him with them was a win win for both boys (Next time I'm sure he won't think it's so funny and will fight back!). We did not make a snowman, we put it off until Monday and the snow had a funky texture and wouldn't stick together - sad, because I really wanted Tripp to experience that! We also did not have a sled - mental note to pick one up next time I'm at Wilson's 5 & 1.00 - but Tripp had just as much fun trying to ride his tricycle in the snow on the driveway. We also made snow ice cream (Yum!).

Snow days are fun, but I think Tripp started to get cabin fever by Monday night. He kept asking me and Stephen to do crazy things (example: Mama, can we please get out the sprinkler? It would be fun to run through it!) and was tired of "Train World" and "Car World" by bed time, and I still haven't managed to put up all that little people car stuff!

Today is Thursday, we still have snow in our backyard, but tomorrow promises to be 70 degrees so it will probably all be gone after that. I hope you enjoy the pictures of our little "snow day" in South Carolina!

Happy Birthday Colin!

Today is Colin's 2nd Birthday! While I'm excited at all the new things he's doing, I'm sad to see the "baby" going away. He is learning to do all sorts of "big boy" things from Tripp.

Right now loves playing with the dog (I'm not sure that is a reciprocal agreement at this time), racing cars, playing with trains, his blue blankie, following Stephen and Tripp around like a shadow, going up and down the stairs all by himself, wrestling with Tripp, and he also loves looking at and being read books (at least he got one thing from me)!

We had a birthday party for him this past Sunday with Kindermusik - I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a fun, fairly calm party for the under 5 set.... Colin played with the instruments, danced and had the best time ever with the bubbles and parachute. We had decorations and a Thomas the train cake.

Happy Birthday to my last little boy - I love you and hope that you will always feel how loved and special you are to me. You have completed our family and I could not imagine my life without all of the laughs you bring. You have your own little personality and I have a feeling there are big things in store for you in life. May you always be as happy as you make me and your dad!

Much love---Mommy

Merry Christmas!

A rare moment of sitting still, smiling, and loving on each other...

We had a great, but busy Christmas this year! I'm just going to post a couple of pictures and say I hope all of our friends and family had a beautiful holiday season, and we look forward to what 2009 has to bring!

This was Tripp as a Shepherd and Colin as a Sheep in the Children's Nativity Play at Church, always a highlight for us at Christmas!