Back To School...

Regan and Riley started school on Wednesday, August 26th. Riley is in Kindergarten at Trinity this year and has the same teacher Regan had, Mrs. Pothoven. Mrs. Pothoven is an amazing teacher and we were thrilled to have her again. Riley has several kids from church in her class and is making new friends too. Riley had a great first day and loves being at the same school as Regan and being right across the hall from Regan's class. Riley is sad that her dear friends Julianne and Emma are not in her class but she will still get to see them. She saw Julianne in the bathroom the first day of school and was so excited and came home talking about it. :) Regan is in the 3rd grade this year in Mrs. Shively's class. Regan's grade has a ton of girls so this year her school decided to have an all girls class and a co-ed class. Regan got in the co-ed class. Regan is very thrilled to have her dear friend, Hannah Stepp, in her class. They have not been together since Kindergarten so this is a wonderful treat! Regan had a wonderful first day of school as well. Reece is very sad that her sisters are gone and keeps asking when they will be home. She told me today, "I want to be big!" I asked her why and she replied, "So I can go to Trinity with Regan and Riley." She really does want to be big like them. I don't think September 10th can get here fast enough for her. That is when she will start her first day of preschool at St. Luke's.

Riley with her teacher, Mrs. Pothoven on "Meet the Teacher Day."Riley with her assistant teacher, Mrs. Federman, on "Meet the Teacher Day."
Regan organizing her desk on "Meet the Teacher Day."Regan with her teacher, Mrs. Shively, on "Meet the Teacher Day."Riley's first day of Kindergarten!Regan is excited to be in 3rd grade this year.

First Day of SchoolTrinity has uniform day every Thursday. So, this is Riley's first time wearing the Trinity uniform. They have chapel every Thursday and Reece and I attended today. They introduced the school's theme for the year which is Peacemaking. Their school verse for the year is "Blessed are the Peacemakers for they will be called sons of God." Matt. 5:9

Beach Trip - Summer 2009

Last week we ended our summer with a wonderful beach trip to Holden Beach with our dear friends, the Stepp's. We have gone to the beach with them since Regan was 6 mos. old (they have a daughter, Hannah, that is 2 weeks younger than Regan). We started out 8 years ago in a condo in Myrtle Beach for a long weekend. We did that for 4 years until our families got too big. Then, we moved to a house at Ocean Isle Beach that was on the Intercoastal Waterway for an entire week. We stayed at that same house for 3 years in a row. This year we decided it was time to find a house on the beach and boy was it nice!!! We enjoyed going to Holden Beach for the 1st time and had a 5 bedroom, oceanfront house. It was very roomy and very convenient. Now that we have all been spoiled with oceanfront, I don't think any of us want to go away from that amenity. We had a wonderful week with perfect weather (for August), calm waters (until the end of the week), and the kids played very nicely together. We adults had fun catching up, exercising, relaxing, going on dates and playing with the kids. The kids had fun building sandcastles, boogie boarding, swimming in the tide pools, jumping waves, riding scooters, playing Wii, and just being together. It was a wonderful week and a great way to say goodbye to summer. Here are some photos of our fun week. (Some of the photos are somewhat small so you can click on them to make them bigger.) This swing was on the backporch of the house. We loved reading and resting in this swing while watching the ocean.

There were many great places to read at this house. Regan took advantage of them.

The beautiful view from our back porch.

Reece enjoyed splashing in the tide pools.

The pretty sunsets

Here is a photo of Dave digging a big hole. He is working so fast and hard that sand is flying and the shovel even broke. I am surprised Dave did not find hidden treasure since he dug so deep.

Riley doing a cartwheel in the water.

Reece Boogie Boarding

Tony and I got to go on a date night to Wilmington on Tuesday. We had a nice dinner, a boat ride, walked along the waterfront, had ice cream at Kilwin's and watched the sunset behind the battleship. It was a wonderful evening, Thanks Dave and Lori!!!

Holden Beach had some waterslides that we went to one day. Riley and Reece were too short for the bigger slides but they had two kiddie slides they could go on. This slide above is where Riley and Reece stayed because the other slide was too fast and sent Riley sideways. Riley only did the other slide once. Luckily, I got a picture that one time. :) Regan was not interested in the slides so she just brought a book and read.

Reece coming down the small slide.

Riley coming down the faster slide - this is her first and last time down it.

This is a view of our house from the beach - we were spoiled being so close to the ocean.

Dave and Tony (w/ a little help from the kids) dug this huge hole in hopes that when high tide came we would have a pool for the kids to play in. This is the same hole Dave was digging a few photos ago.

Hannah and Regan playing in the hole.

The kids decorated the front wall of the hole with shells.

Regan and Hannah had fun playing in the waves together. This was Regan's first year to really enjoy the water/waves. In the past years, she mainly just played in the sand or very shallow surf. We were excited to see her venture out more.

Dave made this canal during the day with hopes that it would make bigger tide pools for the kids in the afternoon when high tide hit. Dave worked very hard on this. It actually created a great waterslide for the kids. They enjoyed running from the waves and boogie boarding through it as the waves came crashing through.

The waves were pretty powerful on Thursday afternoon - Saturday due to Hurricane Bill moving up the coast. We had rip current warnings for Friday. These are some of the waves crashing right at the shore.

Our boogie boarding waterslide/canal.

Every morning and evening the high tides would create these wonderful, deep tide pools. The kids LOVED playing in these. It was like having their own pool on the beach. They surfed, boogie boarded, swam and jumped in them.

All the kids enjoying the great tide pool. Dave and Lori went on their date Wednesday night and Tony and I took the kids to the beach. They played in this tide pool and the canal for almost 2 hours. They had such a good time as did Tony and I.

Riley doing a canonball into the tide pool. It was about thigh deep in this area so the kids were jumping into it.

Regan and Hannah surfing in the tide pool.

Reece boogie boarding

Daddy and Riley

All the kids (Jonathan, Riley, Reece, Regan, Hannah, and Daniel)

Grandpa and Grandma Come To Visit...

My parents came to visit Aug. 9 - 11. We had a great time visiting with them. Grandma reading to the girls

Reece did not take a nap this day and she fell asleep on Grandpa's arm.

The girls with Grandpa and Grandma Crissman.

Fernandez Family Photo...

Tony's parents came up to NC at the beginning of August. They stayed with Joe and Abby (to meet baby Joshua) and we went over to visit. We had a good time visiting, eating and catching up. We also had fun playing with our precious niece, Lizzie and loving on our adorable nephew. We also got a current photo of the Fernandez Family. Feeding my nephew, Joshua.

Uncle Tony having some time with Joshua.

The Family - Summer 2009

Random Funny Moments...

I wanted to post some funny moments before I forget them....

1. While on our day trip to the beach we had some cookies and Pringles for snack. Reece kept asking for "Cookies and Sprinkles." We told her we did not have cookies with sprinkles. She kept saying it and we finally figured out she was asking for cookies and Pringles. :)

2. Reece was upstairs the other day playing with blocks and Tony overheard Reece telling her sisters that she was building a ladder up to space so she could see God, Jesus and Mary in Heaven.

3. Reece told me in the van today, "Mommy when I close my eyes when it is raining I see Jesus." Then, Riley replied, "When I close my eyes I see.....(thinking about her answer) and Regan piped in and said, "darkness."

4. Reece told me the other day that she wished it would rain a bunch and make a huge puddle with no waves and no crabs and she could swim in it and it would have walls around it so the water would not get out. I asked, "you mean you wish you could swim in a pool and not the ocean?" And she said, "Yes, a pool!!!!" A creative way to explain her thoughts. Not a good thing since we are going to the ocean next week and we will not have access to a pool. :) Hopefully, she will warm up to the waves.

5. On another note, Riley is swimming now. We went to the pool on Monday with my parents and Riley swam halfway across the pool without stopping to touch the bottom. She had the breathing down and everything. I was shocked b/c she has not been able to breathe but all of the sudden she is doing it. She did great! Regan is doing well too but we just need her to get over her fear of deep water. She only has one more swim lesson. I think she will get it soon on her own. Reece is also doing well in the water. She has NO fear. She will not wear her puddle jumper anymore and is practically swimming. She goes under water for long periods and loves to do the dead man's float. She scares me (and I think the lifeguards) half to death. The lifeguards are always watching us closely. But, she always comes up happy and smiling and no choking. She is our little fish.

6. Riley can now do a front handspring and then can kick back over once she has landed (which I guess you would call a back handspring - somewhat). I will have to videotape it soon and post on here. She was showing off for my parents and surprised us all when she kicked back over.

7. Regan is doing very well with her reading - nothing new- but her new thing is trying to see how long of a book she can read. I think her record right now is 394 pages. She was disappointed when she found out the next book in the series she was reading only had 340 something pages. And the amazing thing is she reads these books in 2-3 days. She is putting me to shame. It would take me weeks/months to read a book that long unless it is a Lori Wick book. Then, I definitely could read it in a few days.