Better late than never

Not that my life is all that interesting or anything but blogging once a year just isn't enough.  One day I'll regret that.  Since I'm not going to catch you up from my last post in January I'll bring you up to date on the more important things.  Since then we've celebrated Will's 33rd birthday, Callan's 4th with a princess party

                                        Snow White & Cinderella


and Lizzie's 3rd with a luau. 

L's new chair-pretending to sleep after her party

We had a busy summer with lots of fun.  Me and the girls created a bucket list for the summer with different activities that included anything from 'play with chalk' to 'blueberry picking'.  We got all but 5 things marked off and most of those 5 weren't really smart picks on my part.  Like camping for instance.  Only had one somwhat close to camping experience so I'm not sure what made me think me, my husband and 2 young girls would excel at that.  Oh well, maybe in a few years.  We had fun trying to plan things that were on our list and my little task oriented mini-me's loved marking the things off.  Here is a picture with Reagan at the creek...one of our new favorite summer activities.

We have had our house listed with Coldwell Bankers for the last 6 months in an effort to sell it since it wasn't going anywhere by owner.  We've purchased another house and are fixing it up so that when our current house does sell we can be ready to move in.  It has been a huge project and one that we're not all that excited about at the present moment.  I think we are just tired seeing as we go over there and have gone over there every free moment we have.  Most of the time we spend 2-3 nights at week over there painting or cleaning or painting or sanding or painting.  It has just finally caught up with us so we took the last 2 weeks off just to enjoy some normal family time that most of you probably got this summer.  The girls do wonderfully over there and although there isn't much to do they have used their imaginations and come up with entertaining things to do.  We are down to the last bits of painting and flooring to finally have it move in ready.  I'm sure one day I'll post some before and after pictures but I can't promise that it will be today.  So in the meantime the contract on our current house is up this Saturday so if you know of anyone wanting to purchase our house, please put them in contact with us immediately.  We would really like to only own one house...as would our pocketbook!

New house

We haven't gone on any trips this summer mainly to save money for our house payments but we did take a last minute trip to Memphis to spend the night and go to the zoo.  My poor kids are so used to the yucky carpet padding at the new house that they asked if the carpet at the hotel would be clean.  Bless them!  We had a great time getting away from the 'real world' for a night.  Although we always have high hopes for our little family sleeping whenever and wherever on the road, it doesn't usually happen as so the somewhat sleepless night turned into whiney girls the next day (me included).  Oh well, still made some memories and Lizzie napped the entire trip home from Memphis. 

 

 

 

Today was a day of firsts at our house.  The girls had their first day of 3 and 4 year old preschool.  C started her first day at the Ready, Set, Read program at the library and both of the girls started gymnastics at the Y.  It truly was an exhausting day and I almost took a nap when they did but hopefully once we get into the routine we'll be rested better.  They did great at all of those things and although Tuesdays will always be tiring I'm glad they had different activities to help them learn in different ways.  I need some good crockpot recipes because it looks like we'll be gone during dinner time on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I refuse to eat out regularly so I need something I can come home and put on the table.  Suggestions welcome.  I've had a lot of failed Pinterest meals so I need some proven winners!

We are hoping for a quick sale of the house and move, a last minute beach trip and a visit to Florida to welcome our new nephew sometime before the end of this year.  Will is also planning several mission trips to Peru, Brazil, Paraguay and Africa.  It's going to be a busy time for us. 

 

Daddy & naked Lizzie

My cousin Ashton following in my Alpha Gamma Delta footsteps!  Go squirrels!

I'm not sure I really caught you up on anything but like I said the most excitement we have these days is watching potential home buyers creep by our windows.  We like to stalk them and figure out what other houses in the neighborhood they might be looking at.  Told you it was exciting!

Christmas sickness and a Target couponing trip

Right after she starting running fever


Christmas morning :(


Lizzie started getting fever too


1st out of 2 doctor's visits that week


Boneless chicken farm-both fell asleep on me

I know these are out of order but I don't want to take the time to fix them.

Making snow cookies-a Christmas tradition (before we got sick)

Lizzie's new big girl bed....loving this change!

I am so far behind I am not going to attempt to catch up. Basically we had a great fall and winter but then both girls got very sick during Christmas and we had to cancel several of our plans with family. I have realized there are 2 times in my life that what was going on in the outside world didn't matter to me. 1. When we had our babies and were in the hospital and it didn't matter if your house was dirty or clothes were washed. All that mattered was taking care of that baby. 2. The second time was this past Christmas when both girls were sick and we didn't get to go anywhere or do anything for about a week. They both ended up with ear infections and bronchitis and Lizzie had some Croup thrown in there too. It was pitiful to watch them not even feel like opening presents (although they did but not with as many smiles as we had hoped for).

Callan on Christmas day-went to my Granny's for 30 minutes and she threw up so we had to leave

On a totally different note, I am posting a short pic to describe my latest Target shopping trip. Not only am I super excited that I got a new Target debit card today which saves me 5% on every purchase and 1% of my yearly purchases go to the school of my choice. I'm hoping maybe somehow Mars Hill can take that donation off of my future bill. Fat chance! But also, today I had an amazing couponing shopping trip that I wanted to share.

I got one box of Multigrain Cheerios, 2 boxes of Skinny Cow chocolates and 2 boxes of Cheez Its. My sweet cashier friend checked me out and told me my total of $17.59 and then I handed her my 4 coupons. $1 off Cheerios, $1/2 Cheez Its, $3/2 Skinny Cow Target coupon and Buy one get one free Skinny Cow manufacturer coupon. When all those were scanned my total was $4.54!!!!! With my new red card I saved an additional .19 cents today. I was so excited that my total went from $17.59 to $4.54. Greatest Target shopping trip ever!!!

We are so thankful for the sunshine we have seen over the last few days. It is a change for my allergies and my mood!

August updates

Typical picture of our girls these days

Reagan, Calln, Tyler, Lizzie, Taylor & Carley

Ghetto pool

New Bama jerseys

Me and my honey of 8 years

Mom/Mimi/party helper

One of L's many faces

Thanks Amy's cakes!

Just a little browsing in Hibbett's

My first night of running-pushing a double stroller with these 2 monkeys in it! Their first and last run with me!

Some of the tomatoes from our plant

I thought I would update all my many readers on what's been going on at the Bridges household. It is Labor Day weekend and I just found out that our friend, Katie is on her way to our house with her boyfriend, Matt. I am so excited to see them. What a nice surprise. They have been at the beach along with the tropical storm and have been pretty miserable so they are going to use their last day to visit their Florence friends.

This is a crazy week for us because the girls start school at Kid's Point on Tuesday. I hope they are really excited about it because I am! I realized recently that they are together all day everyday with little to no break from each other and it is starting to show. This has got to be exhausting so I think school will be so good for them. We are having to make an effort to spend one on one time with them to separate them a little and it is good for all 4 of us when that happens. Callan is lately giving us a run for our money with her little defiant attitude and I'm so ready for the few hours a week that I get to be by myself. Granted I need to be cooking and cleaning and I hope I learn to make good use of my time, but I am so excited for the little break. Maybe I'll squeeze in some fun Mel time!

Will and I are leaving soon for a little beach trip on our own. It is a belated anniversary trip and much needed. I seriously feel like we haven't had a decent uninterrupted conversation in several weeks. It is so hard for me to leave the kids but I know how important things like this are for our marriage. I love spending time with Will and it is going to be so nice to do it for several days in a row with no precious little voices around! Thanks to fabulous grandparents for lending a babysitting hand while we're gone!

Our house is still for sale. Actually at this very moment we are having an open house. Can't you tell how busy it is? We are trying really hard to sell it on our own to save money to possibly fix up another house or put some money down but it is really hard to do. This open house might let us know how badly we need to list it. By the way, a little shout out to Mary Lord who is an awesome agent if you need one! Still got an hour and a half left so we'll see what happens.

On a crazy note if you know me, I have actually started running. Yes I know you are all shocked by my exercise but I decided now that I'm close to 30 that maybe I should do a little something to get in shape. I decided to do the Couch to 5K program which basically takes me from the couch seeing as I don't exercise to being able to do a 5K. I am on my 4th week of running and I'm running 3 days a week. I don't pay attention to how far I run, I just try to run more time than I ran the time before.

We moved into a new classroom at church for our SonSeekers class and me and Will have spent a lot of time looking at furniture and buying art for the wall. It's an awesome room though and we have tons of space so if you are youngish (20-30's) and want some super cool people to hang out with, come to CrossPoint and hang out with us! We have some single, some married, some kids, some without. Equal opportunity!

Lizzie turned 2 on August 26th and whenever you ask her how old she is, she says August 26th. We had her party last weekend and it was great. It is so nice to be surrounded by family and friends that love your children. She got tons of stuff and we had lots of yummy food. We have found a hot dog bar with lots of different toppings to be a huge success. We also had beans and one of my new favorites, corn dip. Oh my, it is so good. My aunt made it for a family get together and it has been a huge success the 2 times I've made it since. Let me know if you want the recipe.

On a not so fun note, my grandfather, Paw Paw (mom's dad) has recently been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. It has hit him pretty quickly and he is starting to get very weak. His speech is the thing that has gone down the most and it is almost as if he is talking without his teeth in. It is very sad because we know his time isn't very long. He is a super cool granddad and it has been hard to watch him going down. I'm also very sad for my mom who is the only daughter; she has 3 brothers which help care for he and my granny a lot too but mom is really close with them and visits with them a lot. My granny isn't in the best shape either and has a really hard time walking so if something happens to him, she might not be able to be by herself very long. I'm trying to make a cookbook for that side of the family to commemorate all the times we get together and eat. Hopefully I'll get it done by Christmas!

Sorry all of this is so random but sitting here with nothing to do, I thought I'd share some stuff. I don't feel like arranging the pictures so they are just going to be all at the top. Have a great Labor Day!

Part II

Part I is below.

We have decided to sell our house. We aren't really sure where we are going but we put a sale sign in the yard in early May. It is For Sale by Owner which means we don't have the marketing that the realtors do but we are praying that God will send the right people by and that he will also help us decide what to do. We feel confident that this is the decision he wants us to make but of course it is still hard. If you know of anyone interested, it is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with an office and a bonus. I've got pictures I can email anyone interested. Here's a pic of the outside.



Here are a few random pics of the girls lately. They are really starting to play well together. Right now, they are very much into pushing each other around in the doll strollers and playing in Callan's bed. They get along for the most part but we definitely hear some crying and screaming from time to time when they aren't doing so well together.

Lizzie did great giving up her paci. She did much better than I thought she would.

We have had lots of playdates and outdoor play this summer. Here are a few pics of some of our friends. Callan also finished out her first year of preschool at King's Kids. We loved Mrs. Kim & Mrs. Connie and will miss them. Unfortunately as much as we loved it there we are going to enroll both girls in CrossPoint's new preschool this year. If you are interested in knowing more about it, let me know. It is for 2's, 3's and 4's from Tues-Fri (any variation of days). We are so excited!!


Mrs. Kim & Mrs. Connie at preschool

The slip & slide is always a winner!

Lizzie & Baby Ava

Uh oh!

I've got blackmail on Beau!!

Precious friends!

We spent one Friday night recently riding our bikes on the TVA trail and enjoying a yummy peanut butter & banana sandwich by the dam. It was such a nice ride and I hope we do it again soon. It is hard to want to do it on really hot nights. Thank goodness Will pulls the girls in the trailer and I don't have to.

Will & C taking a break

We are missing our sweet friends Chad, Julie & Parker. They recently moved to Indiana and we were so sad to see them go. We know God has a plan though and we are thinking his plan involves bringing them back. Here is a pic of Callan and Parker on one of their visits back. Can't wait to see them in a few weeks!

We are potty training Lizzie this week. It has been pretty good except for Friday when I was having a hard day and so was Lizzie. We started on Tuesday and since Tuesday she hasn't had on a diaper since. We put her down for her nap and bedtime in panties and she has been dry every nap and bedtime since. It is amazing. Callan still wears diapers at nighttime but thanks to my sis-in-law, Shannon's advice we decided not to go back to diapers with L at all so she has really surprised me that she has done so good. Yesterday she only had one accident and so far today (church and all) none!! So thankful we might be saving some money on diapers now. I'll post a pic of her and her new Minnie Mouse panties later. By the way, I would love some advice on how to get C out of diapers at night. I think we might have gotten her out of them for naps thanks to Lizzie wearing panties at nap, C has wanted to too. We need to get her out of diapers at night too though. Help!

Spring & Summer Part I

I guess I'm only going to post once a season or so but maybe I can get you caught up. We had a busy spring with lots going on but amazingly this summer has slowed down a little. We have lots of birthday parties coming up this week but other than that we have enjoyed lots of nights cooking at home and playing with the girls. It has been so nice to spend some quality family time together.

Callan started gymnastics at the Y right after she turned 3. She loved it at first and wanted to practice her new tricks a lot but after about 6 weeks she started saying she didn't want to go and cried when we talked about going. It was a very crowded class and the teacher wasn't exactly pushing her to go during her turn so we didn't mind dropping out. Most of the time she just wanted to sit by the teacher anyway. Maybe when she is a little older she will like it better.

Will had to go to Mobile & Destin for his last work trip for a while so me and the girls tagged along for a quick beach stay. The first part of the trip was absolutely awful and we thought we might never take another family trip again but once we got settled at the beach and quit hotel hopping and being in the car so much, they were great and we had a great time. We stopped the first day in Birmingham at the Children's Museum and had a fun time letting the girls run around and see all the neat stuff.

Then we went on to the beach and stayed a couple of nights. They loved the sand and it was so nice to stay out there for several hours and enjoy the wonderful weather. We bought a Sportbrella at Sam's and I highly recommend it.

My aunt Lori is an awesome painter and over the last few years she has painted the girls their own personal chair with their name on it. We got a table from a friend for a super low price of $10 and painted it to match the chairs and it has been perfect to let the girls play on or eat a snack. Precious!

Taylor & Tyler got to come up for their spring break and spend a little time with us. We picked them up at the airport (they flew by themselves!!! They are getting so old!) in Birmingham

and they stayed in Florence for a few days before going to Athens. They are amazing kids not to mention great babysitters too. Our girls love them so much and just the other day Callan said she couldn't wait until they got here this summer so she could hug them and hold them.

They are coming in about a month for their summer trip so we can't wait!

Here are a few pics from Easter. We always go to my grandparents in Danville and hunt eggs after church. Oh yeah and eat...Granny food!!

We sat in the laundry room during the bad storms in April. Thank goodness Florence didn't get hit hard but I know so many have suffered from them.

This post is entirely too long to be one so I'm going to break it up. Hope you are catching up! Part II is next