The Sweetest Surprise

Stephen and I are such planners that it's almost annoying.  Of course, we plan how to save and spend our money.  We plan our dinners out a week ahead of time.  We plan when we will go on certain trips, when we will purchase certain big ticket items, when we would have kids and how far apart they would be.  We planned baby names and nursery themes well ahead of time.  We plan outfits out for the week at one time. (well, by "we", I mean "me". ;)  We plan about our kids' schooling, sports, the future, etc.  You get the point.  I suppose we like to feel that we have some sort of control over things in our lives.

But, let's face it, sometimes something comes along that wasn't planned.  And it catches you off guard.  It's not necessarily a bad thing... it's just an unexpected thing.  And, as big of planners that Stephen and I are, we are not the most flexibly-minded folks when it comes to something off our "plan" list.  This is probably how I look when this happens:

Sometimes God has a different plan for you.  Sometimes you have to know that, as much "control" as you'd like to have in your life, someone else is really in control.  And He wouldn't give you something you couldn't handle.  In fact, God probably finds lots of humor when he throws such annoying planners off their course.  :)

So, now that we are well beyond our state of shock, and somewhat behind my state of nauseousness, I present to you our "sweetest surprise"...

Baby K #3, due October 4, 2012!

Chattanooga

This past weekend, the whole Sherry crew took over Chattanooga.  My brother and his family live near Nashville, TN, while the rest of us reside in GA.  Chattanooga is a happy middle ground to meet, play, and explore.  And that we did!

We got up there Saturday morning, checked into the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat at Cracker Barrel, and then headed downtown to see the Chattanooga Choo Choo.  After a fun little ride on a trolley, we headed to an area with shops, a little park, a merry-go-round, ice cream parlor... need I say more?

The weather started becoming iffy mid-afternoon, with chilly winds and rain.  We decided to head back to the hotel, get dinner to go, swim in the pool, and hang out until an hour that was way too late for a certain 3 year-old (and her mama!).

D-Dad and four of his girls

Madeline, Olivia, and Sydney

Merry-go-round

This was great entertainment for almost 2 hours.

Sunday morning promised to bring with it some better weather.  We headed to a fun go-cart place down the road from the hotel.  All the kids enjoyed that.  Taylor preferred to climb on the games in the game room.

Then, we headed to Rock City!  My favorite part of the trip.  I hadn't been here in years, and if you haven't either, I would highly recommend it!  Especially for kids... although maybe not for kids in strollers (see below for how Taylor made it around the 250 steps).  We spent a couple of hours here, enjoying the beauty of the southeast. 

After Rock City, we ate a great Sunday brunch and then we all headed to our prospective houses.  It was a great trip!

Next time, I want to see Rock City like this.

The wobbly bridge. 



Taylor the Tornado, Part 2

Let me just give you a glimpse into 5 minutes of Taylor's evening today.

As I got her out of the bath to put her diaper and her PJs on, she was squirming all around on the changing table.  She turned herself around, stuck her finger in the diaper rash cream, and put it in her mouth.  (Luckily, I think I caught it in time, and proceeded to wipe her mouth out with baby wipes).

Then, I put her down to get Sydney dressed.  Taylor manages to walk into the bathroom, stand up on Sydney's stool, grab her rinse cup (which had about 1 inch of water in it), and pour it all over her.

Then, she walks over to the gate on our stairs and climbs up so she is standing on the rungs.  Something her big sister taught her this past weekend.  And something we are trying to prevent.  Then she starts sticking her legs through the banisters on the top of our staircase.

Then, to top it all off, we all go into Sydney's room, and as I'm finishing getting her ready for bed, Taylor pulls the bottom drawer out of its socket, pulls it onto the floor, throws all of Sydney's jeans out of it and onto the floor, and then climbs into the drawer to sit.  And chill.  Smiling all the way.

Then, I picked her up, gave her a kiss, laid her in her crib, and she went right to sleep.  She never made a peep.

Sigh... she is my ultimate sweet, loving, silly MESS!

Insanity

I must say that life has been INSANE lately.  I don't know what I would do without my wonderful, tag-team-able husband.  We are constantly tag-teaming on all kinds of household activities, taking care of the girls, taking/picking up the girls at daycare, taking the girls to the doctor, taking Sydney to soccer, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, cleaning.  I am so appreciative of him!

Work has been crazy.  I don't know what day it is lately.  I keep thinking it's March 7th for some odd reason.  I woke up this morning and had a split second of relief, thinking it was Saturday.  So sad when I realized it was only Wednesday!  I have driven to Macon and back twice this week for work trainings- 3 hours of driving each day, plus 8.5 hours of sitting each day.  I have to go to Atlanta tomorrow for another one.  I have meetings every afternoon for the next 3 weeks.  Crazy!!!!

So, I apologize to my friends and family who I feel I have been neglecting lately with interesting, intelligible conversations.  Or emails.  Even texts.  Blogging has been a long lost afterthought, unfortunately.

BUT... to keep things positive, this work week is almost over... we have a fun few weekends ahead... spring break is looming in the near future... the weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately... lots of fun times ahead.  Must focus on that.

I'll leave you with a picture of my sweet 15 month old. :)

First day of soccer!

Sydney had her first soccer practice on the Kickeroos team this week.  She has been excited for weeks to get to play soccer.  Her team consists of 3 and 4 year olds, and they really only have "practices" to learn the basic skills.  The last few practices, they will get to play little scrimmages. 

The first practice was overall a really good one.  There was, of course, the mixture of emotions- giddiness to finally get to play, determination to score a "gold", tears for who knows why, and lots of laughter.  Check out the highlights:

Listening to the coach.

Taylor, cheering on her sister.

If I run into the net, does that count??

Gooooooo Sydney!

Sydney, Raegan, and Mrs. Monica

Look at that intensity.

Pure excitement.

BFFs.

Ummm... I think you're supposed to use your feet.

Taylor, joining in on the action!

Well done, teammate.

Mobile Uploads

Check out the latest mobile uploads from my phone:

Miss Cool, watching Dora with her shades on.

This reminds me of that scene from ET.  Where's Sydney?

Heading to class.

All her friends, neatly organized.

Sydney and McNair, soundly sleeping on NYE.

NYE toast.

Bunked up in our storage closet when a tornado came through our county, around 3:00 AM.

Taylor was wildly entertained by the flashlight.

Ha!  These never get old.  Although, I think we need to stop buying stuffed animals.

Windy Day

I'm loving the opportunity to be able to have my girls play outside and I can try to sharpen my photography skills by capturing their moments of fun.  This past Sunday was a cold, windy day, but we still made it outside to play.

Looking forward to the spring... this lady can't handle too much of the cold.