Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! I would have to say I think Vaughn had a good day! He started out playing a round of gold with his dad and brother, he didn't win, but still played well- that always makes the day go a little better. :) We then met up at his parents house to cookout. Mrs. Granger was nice enough to play with Callie for a little bit and let me and Vaughn take a much needed nap- it's amazing that you can be SO tired after vacation! After that we headed home and played for a little while. You might be asking what Vaughn actually got from us for his father's day, and I'll have to say: nothing really. The boy always goes and buys whatever he wants at tha moment and never leaves me a chance to buy anything for him! I was going to get him a mp3 player for our back porch, but he bought that two weeks ago. I was then going to get him ladder ball, which he had a blast playing with at the beach, but he went and bought that the day we got back! I told him this and he said that those would just count towards his father's day gift. Oh well. He did get to come home Sunday to a clean house, which is always nice. :) Although these pictures weren't taken on Father's day, it's Callie playing with her daddy!

Rowland Vacation- Sunset Beach, NC

It was another funtastic week at Sunset Beach, NC with my dad's side of the family! In total, there ended up being 18 people and 2 babies during the week. Gradma had 7 our of her 9 Greatgrandchildren there with her! It's hard to believe that it's already over, but we are looking forward to next year.

The first day at the beach, we took the baby pool down so the little one's could play in it. We didn't know if would work or not, but it ended up being a HUGE hit! Callie and her second cousin Stevie, he's 1 month older, LOVED it. It was also great to not have a pound of sand in their dipers. We just put their little toys in there, put the umbrella right over it and they were good to go for a while.

Callie playing with her shovel full of water

Little Stevie, such a cuttie!

Uncle Alex the lifeguard

Each beach week we have a "Ghost Crab" night. We take all the kids and go looking for crabs with our flashlights. We'll this year, we happened to stumble across a tresure map that lead us to some burried "booty." Capt. Jack had burried it there before Hugo came and we just happened to disccover his chocolate gold coins that night! All the little ones had a blast, Callie and Stevie were asleep and missed the fun, but theres always next year!

Told you she was crawling! She's a scooting machine!

Callie and Stevie crawling around

Unfortunately we didn't get a family shot this year, or I would have shared. We miss all the family already and looking forward to seeing everyone again in July when we get together!

2, 4, 6,

EIGHT!!! Our little Mac is already 8 months old! It's only 11 days into June and it's already been a crazy month for us. Two weeks ago I walked into Callie's daycare to find my pastor standing there (her daycare is at our church), although that's not unusual, the look on her face said there was something wrong. She informed us that the Childhood Enrichment Center had to close down for lack of enrolement and therfore funding. My heart fell and my throat closed, I couldn't believe it. I was terrified to let Callie go to daycare, but I have fallen in LOVE with her teachers and the Center. Rev. Skidmore was just about as upset as I was. The first thing that went into my mind was, what are we going to do! Most places have a 1- 2 year waiting list to get into. Then second, where are her wonderful teachers going to go?! After the shock of it all, I dropped Callie off in her room, and then drove straight to several other places that have centers like ours and found that they were all booked. After a couple of days looking, I finally found a place near my office that had a place for her. It's located at one of the hospitals and seems to be a great place. I'm so nervous though, now that Callie is used to Forest Lake, will Callie love the new place too? Tomorrow is her last day at Forest Lake, we go to the beach next week for Rowland week, and then she'll start the following at Bright Horizon's. Please pray that it's as wonderful as Forest Lake.

On a brighter note: Callie has started crawling!! My little bug is slowly, but surely getting to places by crawling. It's amazing!! I tell Vaughn every day- I think Callie is the coolest person ever! :) I don't have a picture of it yet, but I hope to catch her in action at Sunset next week with all her cousin's.

~Erin

C-L-E-M-S-O-N!!

I was so excited to take Callie on her first trip to Clemson this weekend! We went up and back Saturday to visit Uncle Alex and see Cousin William at his 1st Birthday Party. Mom rode up there with us so we had some company on the trip. Once we got there we were hungry so we stopped into Peppino's Pizza- I hadn't had it in over 4 years! It was just as I remembered, yummy. Callie enjoyed her lunch as well, although I can't say it was as good as ours. :)

After some retail therapy downtown- it's changed so much since I've been there- we headed on over to Kate and Andy's house for Williams' party. When we got there we had the two little ones say hello. William was a little overwhelmed by Callie who LOVES all small people.

It was then time for William to put on his bathing suit and eat some cake. His mom had to help him blow out the candle, but he had no problem eating it. He was SO cute and it made me really look forward to Callie's 1st Birthday bash.

After getting cake all over the place, it was time to hit the kiddie pool. Callie brought her bathing suit so she and William could play in the water together. Callie loves the water, so put that together with a little person and she had a blast.

William tried to escape a couple of times, Callie just couldn't get enough of her cousin!

Here's Kate and William with Callie and I after their pool party :)

Time to open presents! William had just as much fun playing with the bows and boxes as he did looking at the new toys. Cute!

We said our goodbyes and made plans to see each other soon. We already miss them! Callie was exhausted by the time we left there, she and buddy took a nap on the way back to Clemson from the Floyd's.

We then took a quick tour of Little John and Death Valley, couldn't take her to Clemson without seeing the Tiger and the Hill! We had also bought her a cute Clemson pink hat for her to wear. It didn't really match her awesome outfit that Amy so graciously monogrammed that morning for us, but orange and pink work right?

So excited to see the Hill! Hopefully a future tiger, I'm not pushing it or anything...

We had a GREAT visit and can't wait to go back for football. G-Kat bought her a cheerleading outfit that she'll be able to cheer the Tigers in come fall!

Granger Beach

Two weeks ago we took our annual Granger Vacation- you guessed it- with Vaughn's family. Last year we went to Aurba, but not with the little one we stayed a little closer to home, Myrtle Beach. We had a great time having some time off, the month of May was very hectc for us. Callie seemed to enjoy all the attention and didn't like having to come back. We ate lots of good food and mostly stayed by the pool. We did venture down to the beach a couple of times, but Callie slept throught those visits. Overall it was very relaxing and we are looking forward to Rowland Vacation in one week!

Callie getting into vacation mode

Enjoying some sun in the pool, she LOVED her float!
Having a snack with her Granddaddy.

Family Pic

"HEY!"

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful first mother's day! Vaughn, Callie and I headed to Lake Wateree. The water was still a little too cold to jump in but we still had a great time. Callie and I the week before had gone to the State House to get her picture's taken. Kind of a belated 6 month pictures but for Mother's Day presents. One of our good friends (Chiristian Viera Photography) took them for us, and they turned out great! Callie didn't smile once, but she's still cute. Hard to believe she's getting so big, but I'm loving every moment!!

Beach body ready? Not Me...

I've come to the realization over the last couple of days, I'm not ready to try on bathing suites and hit the beach for the summer. As some of you know, post baby body is nothing like pre-baby body. It has taken me a while to get used to the changes in my clothes, but the thought of getting in a bathing suit right now scares me. I started out strong in the weight loss division, but lately have hit a wall- diet and exercise ain't as easy as they once were. I keep saying it's because of my thyroid issues, but I hate having something to "fall" back on to blame. All that said, today is a new day. I've decided to take me loosing my last 10lbs seriously. No more letting a couple things slide every now and then. Vaughn and Shannon at work have been great inspirations. Vaughn, pictured below, is looking great on his new work out routine and Shannon has lost 20lbs on Weight Watchers and looks fantastic!!! We go to the beach the end of this month with Vaughn's family. I hope by then I'll be able to feel a little bit more confident hitting the beach! Wish me luck!