Kid Shots

I just wanted to give a shout out to my wonderful photographer, Deanna!! She did such an awesome job taking pictures of the kids that I wanted to share our little album. Just go to this website http://deannadevine.smugmug.com/Portraits and then click on Riffles 09. Getting all three of these monkies to smile is so hard - Deanna and I were sweating this day!!! Remember her next time you need pictures taken!! Thanks Deanna - You're the Best!

Groceries

Had to show off my great savings today at the grocery store. I have been working very hard to change my shopping and we have saved ALOT of money!!! My goal is to spend $50 to $75 max a week on groceries. Now, this is the only place I shop, so all toiletries, meats, fruits, cleaning products, etc. are figured into this budget -as well as our 5 gallons of milk we drink a week!! These groceries added up to $191 and I paid $77!!! The picture does not include 5 cases of pepsi! As you can see it is a lot!! I have 4 meals with the meats I got, 4 boxes of GM cereal, 6 bottles of Lysol cleaning, just to name a few biggies. Anyways, I was so excited that they had to use the key to ring me out today (I had too much savings) that I had to blog about it! And all of this was bought at Harris Teeter!!

A Long Awaited Answer to Prayer

As many of you know, one of our prayers for a LONG time now (several years) has been a new job for Matt. The girls pray for this too, every night, especially when he isn't here to tuck them into bed at night. Well, God's timing is here! On Tuesday (June 23rd), Matt had a second interview for an Assistant District Manager for the Charlotte region and ......... HE GOT THE JOB!! We are so excited for this new phase in his career. He won't be in just one store now and have to deal with working his retail hours. He will be over several stores in Charlotte (not sure of which ones yet) and it should be more of a "normal" schedule. Now, there is never anything normal when it comes to the retail world, but it will be a huge change to us!! He starts next week, so I will have to keep yall posted on how things are going with it. Thank you Lord for this opportunity!!

The interview just happened to be in Charleston (because that is where the guy was and they wanted the position filled by the 1st), so of course I offered to let Matt use my car to drive to the interview - filled by his biggest fans!!! Neither one of us has ever been to Charleston, so we made it a little day trip!! His interview was Tuesday night at 5, so I dropped him off, went across the street to the outlets and shopped while he was there. Then we went out to eat in downtown Charleston right on the water with his brother, Chris (he lives in Charleston). We slept in a tiny little hotel room, with one King size bed (oh yeah, we slept with the girls - Harper still sleeps in the pack and play). That was fun - at one point Carly had her head on me, her legs over Chloe, and her feet were on Matt!! Oh well, they slept good. Then in the morning, we ate breakfast and went out to the town. We went on a horse and buggy ride, walked all of downtown Charleston, ate at a little place called Jestine's, went to the marketplace, and then went on a water taxi ride. It was super hot!!! The kids loved the horse and buggy and the boat ride - we even saw some dolphins! It was a long day, but fun to see Charleston. The kids were such good troopers!! They didn't have a nap and they walked and walked and walked that town. They would say, "Mom, what song can we sing?" They thought singing would help out the walk, so we sang a lot of songs! It was fun to spend one more day together on a mini vacation!

On a pier after dinner. We say a man catch a sting ray!

Harper with Uncle Chris

Harper getting Larry the horse ready for the day!

Carly hanging out the back of the carriage enjoy the sights of Charleston!

Of course Chloe did it too!

Pete and Repeat were on a boat!!

Relaxing on our taxi ride - it was nice to sit!!

Here is Carly about 5 minutes after we left Charleston at 5:00 - it was a long 25 hour mini trip!!

And here is Chloe! These are supposed to be travel pillows, but when you put them around the back of your neck, it pushes your head forward, so I tried to crawl back there and put them under their chins - didn't work out so well, so they just bent their necks!

End of the Beach Trip

Well we are back now and the kids have destroyed the house to an amazing mess!! Matt said they had to come home and take inventory! They were not happy to be home at all. Once we turned on Lawyers Rd., Harper realized where we were and kept saying, "beach house!" He was not happy to be back. When we got into the garage, no one wanted to get out of the car! It is very sad that our vacation is over, but we are going to go to Charleston tomorrow for the night so that will give us another tease! Anyways, the beach was a blast. Chloe did end up deciding that she wanted to swim by herself and she did a great job! Now we just have to keep them going. Here are the last of the pics:

Harper and Connor loved playing together! The only boys out of 8 kids can be tough - they have to stick together!!

Connor and his sand digger hunting!

On the last night we went to Barefoot Landing - we bought the baby the cutest socks!

Riding a cow!

Family - I love these guys!! We had a great vacation!

The Beach Continued!!

Matt and Harper looking so cute one night. I have to say, I miss my Harper this week! He is Matt's shadow and he won't let anyone mess with him but Matt. We are going to have a rough day come Monday morning, but I will like getting some love and attention from that little rascal!!

Here are all the little ladies flying Kaitlyn's Barbie kite!! It has been great kite flying weather!! Connor had a Transformer one (I think) but all the pictures I have of him are sideways.

We went to Braodway at the Beach one night and found some girly store. Carly and Chloe put on these sparkle hats and did their entire dance on the little stage they had in there. They had a nice little audience too. It is so funny how shy they are, but they will get up and do this!

Carly and Chloe rode in a Grandpa truck (it is blue like Dad's). They loved it! Look at those faces - priceless!

Harper watched from the sidelines - he loved all the cars!
They decided they needed to play in the money fountain. Of course we got our dresses and shirt all wet!
Kaitlyn at Johnny Rockets - she is such a ham!

We went and played putt-putt at the Jungle Safari - of course because of the Giraffes and Elephants. This picture reminds me of the Swiss Family Robinson movie when they are all playing some game on the back of the ostrich, zebra, and elephant (I think). They loved playing golf.
Carly with much concentration trying to hit the ball with her club turned the wrong way!!

Chloe waiting for the others to make it to the next hole. She was always first and went so quick.

Harper getting lessons. He played several holes and then he liked just running up and down the putting greens.

It was so hot on the beach today, so Matt made them a little swimming pool to stick their feet in. They were all making drippy sand castles. Yesterday, Matt and I tried to go out and lay on the beach, but it got so hot so quick we didn't make it too long! I did get to lay out on my belly though!! I dug a hole just big enough for my stomach, laid a blanket over it and stuck my belly right down in it!! Man did that feel good! Connor has found a new hobby at the beach collecting sand diggers, so we nicknamed the baby little sand digger! Connor thinks its funny. Today in the pool I was holding him and he was sitting on my stomach and he started laughing because sand digger was holding him up! We only have one more night left!! We leave tomorrow and I hate to have this vacation over with. I will post more pictures of the final chapter of this trip later on.

Beach Trip!

Here we are for a week of fun and relaxation at the good ol Myrtle Beach! We got here Sunday and will be coming home on Sunday. Here are some midweek pics of our trip. So far we have stayed at the pool and the beach for the majority of the time. Mom, Dad, Kris, Gina, Connor, and Kaitlyn are all here with us. Mom, Dad, Kris, and I did manage to go to the outlets already and Kris and Matt snuck away yesterday to try to test drive a new Camaro. There were none to be found!! We also went to Broadway at the Beach to do some cruising around all the shops last night. Kris, Gina, Matt and I watched the movie Mall Cop the other night, something we have been looking forward to since it came out in the movies. It was good, not all that I had hoped for though!! We also made fondue one night - YUMMY!! The kids have loved the beach and the pools - Carly can swim all by herself now!!! Chloe did it a couple times, but you could tell she was nervous. Chloe really likes the "snake" pool. It is just a little kiddie water park. Connor has fell in love with the lazy river. Kaitlyn loves all the splash pools. She loves getting wet, but when it comes to letting go with her float on in the big pool, she is baby stepping it there!! Gina has gotten her to swim a little bit, but I guess she doesn't like her feet not touching!! Harper, well, he loves it all. Whatever anyone else can do, so can he!! Carly and Chloe are really enjoying living at the beach and I know it is going to be very hard for them on Sunday. They like getting up and eating doughnuts on the balcony. They get 3 little ones every morning. I had to buy 4 bags of those things - $8 on just doughnuts, but that is part of what makes the beach so special to them.

Kris and Connor in the snake pool

Kaitlyn

Loving the beach!

Carly, Chloe, Kaitlyn, and Harper splashing it up!

Sand Castle!

Connor and Kaitlyn - the lifeguards

Night stroll down the beach stopping for pics!

Ok - now I am tired of loading these pics so I will do more later!!

Can I freeze time please?

Yesterday was such a great day, I just didn't want it to end. In the morning, we took the kids to the pool and had a great time. I don't know when you turn your phrases from, "Wow, you did that yourself, I'm so proud of you." To: "You can't do things yourself, you need your parents to help you and guide you." But we are at the stage of being proud of every little thing that they do by themselves. I guess when the girls turned 4, they decided that it was time for them to grow up!! This is sad, but exciting at the same time. Carly decided yesterday that she was going to swim by herself!!! And she swam under water to me! I couldn't believe it. My girls are such chickens and this girl has decided that she wants to swim! Chloe did it too, just not as far as Carly and not as sure of herself - I give her another week and she will be right there with Carly. They also decided that it was ok to go down the water slides too. Well, Harper went down them first and then they decided that they could do it. I will never forget the looks on their faces on the first slide!! The look of fear and determination followed by pride and success!

We took Harper to Mandy's house in the afternoon and headed off to the girls' dance recital! This is their second year taking dance and they absolutely love everything about it!! They loved getting their blush, lipstick, their sparkling, twirling dresses on, seeing the stage and the big girls. They were so pumped to get on that stage and do their dance. Now, of course they looked very nervous and weren't too eccentric with their moves, but they loved it. We had to watch the whole recital and they were very upset when it was over - they really wanted to watch more of those big girls. When we got in the car, they wouldn't stop professing their love for all their dance teachers - they love: Ms. Deanna, Ms. Sabrina, Ms. Amanda, and Ms. Lori. They were so loud, Matt and I couldn't even talk - and they sit in the very back on the 3rd row of the van!!! When we got home, they lined up stuffed animals and proceeded to reenact the whole recital. This was at 10 pm!! The excitement that they had last night was awesome! Matt and I just loved every minute hearing their squeaky little voices incessantly talk. Their dance lessons were worth every penny!! We couldn't stop smiling and just wanted to bottle those moments up. Their little lives are just that, little!!! They are going to be going to school next year, so this is my last year with my babies!! After August, I just want to freeze time!! We will have 2 four year olds that are so cute and helpful. A 2 year old that is trained and is an absolute ham!! And a tiny little baby to hold and cuddle!! How much better can life get!!! I love being with my kids every minute of them growing up and don't want to miss one second of their little lives! Anyways, back to yesterday. So, we told the girls we needed to go check on Harper since he was in bed and didn't go to the recital with us. We all went into his room and looked in his bed. He was laying there with the biggest smile EVER on his face! He jumped right up and was dancing in his bed (he must of heard us come home and he woke up). So I scooped him up and he hugged each one of us several times and gave us lots of kisses. He couldn't get enough of the girls and they couldn't get enough of him. We rarely do stuff apart from each other, so Harper was obviously very excited to have us home. Those five minutes sitting on the floor of Harper's room with our 3 kids was terrific! I love my family so much and am so thankful God has blessed Matt and I with an abundance of love for each other that we have such wonderful kids. I can't get my smile off my face when I look at this family I have been given. God is so AMAZING!!

Before the rehearsal we had a little snack on the curb. These kids love their Daddy! This was his first day off since May 25th, so they were all a little clingy to him!

Here are the girls getting ready for the rehearsal! They loved the sparkles on the stage!!

All but one of the girls in their class.

Chloe looking so cute!

Carly doing one of her favorite steps - Wiggle, Wiggle, Wiggle

Ok, I went to add pictures from the actual recital, and they aren't on my memory card!!! YIKES! I had such cute pictures. So I may add some pics later once I find them, if not, then these are all that I have!

Oops - Party Update

I just realized I never blogged on my girls' birthday!! My sweet angels were 4 on May 16th!!! I can't believe how big they are getting. (The above picture is them dressed in their princess dresses that we got them- they have gotten into all the princess stuff - even though they have no clue who they are since they don't watch TV) We were supposed to have their friend birthday party at the park, but it was raining off and on that day, so we had it at our church fellowship hall. They all had a great time. We had pizza and wings and then an enormous cake for dessert. It was definitely nice to celebrate right after Harper's accident - we have alot to celebrate!

Carly and Chloe unwrapping gifts!

Since Harper's birthday is in June and he doesn't really know what is going on, we decided to combine his little friend party too. (Thanks Christian and Preston!!) Harper doesn't have many kids in his Sunday School class, so his friend list is short :)

Carly getting ready to blow out her candles - look at her face - she is so excited!!

Chloe was ready to blow out these candles - all their parties have been outside so we have always had the wind to deal with - this was the first time they got to blow them out for real!!

And of course here is our little Harper - he got a little cake and he was so excited to blow his candles out, that he did so before we got done singing to him. It was so cute how he blew them out - Man we are thankful for this kid!!! Check out Ethan to the right of him in the pic. He is in the girls' Sunday School class and he reminds us just of Harper. They look a lot alike.

2 hot chicks!! They got sunglasses in their goody bags, so here they are modeling them on the swings.

This is Preston - one of the girl's future husband!! (I think it will be Carly) Isn't he the cutest thing!!! This boy is such a ham and the girls absolutely adore him. I couldn't find any other pictures of other kids from the party!! Chad was our wonderful photographer and Matt and I didn't do too good of a job documenting the day. I guess we were still in a fog! Oh well - thanks everyone for coming and making Carly, Chloe, and Harper's day special!!