This time of year I seem to get even worse about blogging because of spring projects I think. At Noah's request we are growing a garden and I have to say it is doing much better than I thought it would! We bought about 30 packets of seeds the last week in March including peppers, basil, thyme, squash, okra, broccoli and corn. Yes, you read that correctly-CORN! I'm still laughing my head off picturing nice rows of corn growing in my backyard. Our green beans were doing so awesome we had to thin the plants out. The okra and sugar snap peas are also looking great. We learned that we should not have planted cabbage and lettuce this time of year but it is coming up anyway. We will see how that goes. My basil and other favorite herbs are also coming up nicely.

Currently, I am posting pictures of Alex's 9th birthday party with friends and family. I can't believe she will be 10 next year! Also, I am posting pictures of our trip to Alabama to visit Aaron's sister and her family. We have been very fourtunate to have this time with them as this is the closest they have lived to us. We will be sad to see them go to New Mexico in June but we will have one last hoora at Disney World before they leave!!:) Aaron's mom and dad were able to meet us at their house for Easter and we had a great time celebrating the Resurrection of our Savior with family!

Also included are pictures of Piper's first dance recital. She attends Dreamworks Dance, a christian dance company. Her teaches trains the girls to dance for Jesus. I love this dance company because they are growing little girls and boys from the inside out. My little girl was so beautiful and did such a great job doing ballet to her favorite song "Here I am to Worship". She received three bouqets of flowers from us, Nana and Papa and Amma. She looked like a little princess and we are so proud of her and that she has a heart for the Lord. Enjoy the pictures!

Furst Loof Toof

No, really, it did SNOW!

Yes, you heard it right it SNOWED again! The kids were so excited. It started on a Friday afternoon as we were waiting for Noah to come out of his OT session. He walked out and announced to everyone in the waiting room "ITS SNOWING!". We played in it for a few minutes with his therapist and then headed home to find Aaron's truck in the driveway. Noah ran in the house and said "Daddy, it's a MIRACLE!". We played for an hour or so and then came in and had a nice dinner. Alex, Noah and Piper all piled into Piper's bed so they could watch the snow fall as they drifted off to sleep. The next morning they woke up and Noah came running into our room and said "Wake Up! It really happened!" So of course, we ended up playing in the snow all day long. It was the most powdery snow this southern girl has ever seen! We were able to build a snowman later in the day when it started to melt off a little and stick together better. Sorry, we didn't get any pics of the snowman but lots of the kids.
Also, included in this post are pics of Noah after he lost his first tooth. He was so excited but disappointed to find that the Tooth Fairy only brings money and not candy! We told him he could buy candy with his dollar!:) Enjoy the pictures!

Fall Fun

Yes, I finally updated my blog! Sorry to all who have been anxiously checking it to see the happenings of the Libby family only to be disappointed by my slackness. We have been REALLY busy since school started! Having three children in school now has it's challenges but I am very thankful that I can be home with them when they get home from school. Piper started a half day K4 program this year so she gets out at 10:30. I get a little time to myself in the morning to get things done and then I pick her up and we have "girl time". She loves that she still gets alone time with me:) Noah adjusted really well to full day kindergarten this year and we are so proud of him! Alex was accepted into the talented and gifted program called "Challenge" for third grade this year! We are so proud of her for all of her accomplishments.

I am posting pictures of our recent day trip to the mountains. Our kids had never seen this part of God's creation and we couldn't wait to see their reactions. Noah's mouth dropped open and he said "WHOA!". The girls couldn't stop talking the entire time (imagine that). We went apple picking in Hendersonville and drove the parkway around Asheville. It was a great family trip! I am also posting pictures of our Halloween fun trick-or-treating with Avery, my sister's little girl. All the kids had so much fun running around the neighborhood together. We also found out that Avery is going to be a big sister! YAY! Enjoy the pictures.

Crazy Summer Fun

I have been reminded by sister that I have yet to post pics. of the new puppy so here she is; miss Butterfly! Aaron was remodeling a bathroom one week when he was off from CAT and came home with a precious (or should I say precocious) little black lab mix. The interesting thing about her is that she has a perfect white butterfly marking on her chest. Noah instantly named her Butterfly and would not settle for any other name as that was the most fitting. She is growing like a weed and has brought Leia (our 11 year old yellow lab) back to life. Also, included are pics. of Piper having fun with her buddy Tatum. They did this to themselves all on their own. Hope you enjoy the pics.

Schools Out for the SUMMER!!!

Busy, busy, busy! The last two months have been very crazy for us as you can see from the montage. Included in this post are pictures from Memorial Day at Papa and Nana's, strawberry picking at Stafford's Farms (a yearly tradition in Sumter), pre-school graduation for Noah, gymnastics exhibition for Alex, end of school fun, our trip to the SC State Museum one Sunday afternoon and just our kids and their friends having a blast at our house starting off the summer in style.

Aaron has been working really hard on his furloughed weeks from CAT, remodeling bathrooms, kitchens, and building stuff (not to mention trying to keep up with our ongoing projects at home). We feel truly blessed that the Lord has continued to provide for us and also given Aaron the opportunity to do what he loves. I will post pics of his jobs and some of our recent house projects in a separate post. Hope you enjoy!

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Happy Easter!

Well, sorry it's been so long since I've posted. We have been VERY busy! The Libby Family celebrated the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus by attending a wonderful Palm Sunday service the week before Easter. We then headed out to our beautiful church property for a great meal and awesome egg hunt for the kids! There were over 2,000 eggs!!! On Easter sunday Aaron and I had the privelage to teach Piper's Kidstruction class what Easter is all about. Then we all headed over to Papa and Nana's for a great meal. Brian, Julie, Avery, and Brodie the dog were there as well as Amma, my grandmother. Brian and Julie set up a great egg hunt for the kids in the backyard. Piper found the "special egg" full of yummy chocolate and a one dollar bill. She was very proud of herself! Noah decided to share his eggs with Avery, and Piper fed her jelly beans during a Noah powered wagon ride. Alex was a huge help to Avery and enjoyed hunting eggs as well. We enojyed being with family very much during this most special holiday. Just wish Grampy, Mi-Mi, Ted, Sarah and the boys could have been here. The last pictures you will see in the montage are us hanging out in our backyard. The kids found something interesting to play with as you will see! We hope you all had a great time celebrating that JESUS IS ALIVE!

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Kiss Her, She's Irish

As most of you know Alex's eighth birthday was on Tuesday, March 17. Yep, that's right she's Irish! She really does have a little Irish blood in her. Anyway, we celebrated on Saturday at our house with my family. Papa, Nana, Amma, Brian, Julie, and Avery all came for the big day. Alex requested a green ice-cream cake with gummy bears on top. So, I found a recipe and made a mint chocolate chip ice-cream cake with Oreo crust. I topped it off with Oreo and gummy bears. Yummy! Aaron grilled burgers out in the cold but at least it was not raining. Alex received many nice presents including a Polly-Pocket,Pet Shop toy and beautiful cross bracelet from the Clark's, an art set and clothes from Amma, a craft set from Noah and Piper, clothes from Grampy and Mi-Mi, and lots of cold hard cash from great-aunt Star and Aunt Sarah and her family! We also got her the Wii Fit to go along with her most favorite gift The Wii!! She was very surprised and thankful to receive this great present from Papa and Nana. We were all excited about it because it is such a family friendly gaming console! Check out Alex and Noah boxing on Wii Sport. Alex can throw a mean left hook and Noah has some serious hip-action going on! Alex wanted to Skype with Grampy and Mi-Mi on Saturday so she could open her present "with" them. This was an awesome idea and one that I think we will do again. On her actual birthday she dressed herself all in green and headed off to school where Piper and I brought homemade cupcakes with green frosting to her class at lunch. They sang a funny happy birthday song to her and then headed back to class. Alex really appreciated all the nice cards and phone calls she received on her birthday as well! Thanks to everyone who thought of her on her special day.

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I am adding a few pictures from parent watch day at gymnastics so you can see what Alex is doing in her extracurricular activity. She was "upgraded" to the fast-track class at the begininning of the fall semester and really loves her coach. She is so proud of herself for getting her split and she almost has her kick-over. The bars are her favorite. I wish I could attach a video of her on the bars but I am having trouble attaching video's for some reason. Enjoy the pictures!

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Nothing a Little Super Glue Can't Fix!

Piper and I began wrapping presents for Alex's birthday party on Friday afternoon with the expectation that things would go smoothly and we would have it all done before going to school for pick-up. As we all know, anytime something is expected often times the result is not what we want. Well needless to say, this was how our afternoon of pre-birthday preparation ended. After wrapping two presents I ran out of tape and left the room to get more. Piper proceeded to put a shopping bag over her head and pretended to be a ghost and "scare mommy". Next thing I knew I heard screams coming from the living room and found Miss Priss lying on the floor with the bag still on her head. Apparently she tripped (because she couldn't see where she was going) and landed, chin first, on the hearth. I removed the bag from her head and saw dripping blood from her chin and a deep gash. We quickly went to the bathroom to examine the damage where I determined we probably needed to go get stitches. I called Aaron at work and of course he said "Is it really that bad?" I informed him that if he wanted to come home and see for himself he could but otherwise I was going to FastER Care. He decided to come take a look at it. After Ibuprofen, ice, a call to Mi-Mi, and lots and lots of Skittles we decided to take care of it ourselves. After picking the other two kids up from school, I traipsed all through CVS looking for a super-glue-like adhesive for skin that Aunt Sarah keeps on hand at her house for my daredevil nephew, Ranger. Much to my dismay I found out they do not sell this over-the-counter, they only use it in the ER and Dr. office because, as the nice pharmacist informed me ,"People would be putting themselves back together all the time". So........ I ended up buying Liquid Bandage which is what Aunt Sarah had meant all along! We prepared Piper for what it was going to feel like and then Aaron held her down while I applied it. She cried just a little(to my surprise because she is a drama queen!:), and then finished off the rest of her skittles. Whew! As a family we have managed only one ER visit thus far and I hope it stays that way!

More Remodeling

I'm posting some very random pictures of what's gone on in our life over the past month or so. The first are of the remodeled master bath. Aaron laid a beautiful white tile brick pattern on the floor and up the walls with some nice accent tile. After a little debating he decided to buy a sink/cabinet combo already finished and ready to go from Lowe's rather than building one. He loves to custom build anything however, we needed a sink fast so he opted to spend a little extra money in the interest of time. We replaced the light, mirror, fan and sink faucet. The walls are blue as is the ceiling as you can see. Reminds me of the beach:)! He ripped out the shower doors (yipee!!!!) and replaced with curved rod and nice curtain that I found. No more cleaning shower doors and track for me!!!! This is my favorite part I think. In the powder room we replaced the light fixtures and painted the same blue with one accent brown wall. We still need to replace the big mirror with a smaller one and then Aaron will build cabinets on either side for all of my girly products. The sink/counter in the powder room is not too 70's looking and would be VERY expensive to replace so we are going to keep it. My job now is to paint the bottom cabinets in this area brown and Aaron will eventually replace the doors to update even more. We have some molding left to install but other than that the bathroom is complete. Aaron did an aweome job.

You will see random pics of the kids too. Avery, my niece, came and visited one weekend and the kids had a blast playing with her. She is running all over the place and into everything. Piper wants to dress her up like a doll and carry her everywhere but Avery is not to keen on that idea. She loves Alex and laughs out loud at her all the time. Noah has taken to kissing her and Avery kisses him back. Guess the term "kissing cousins" applies here!

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Deep Thoughts by Noah Libby

Our kids make us laugh all the time and we love to hear what they have to say on a day to day basis but I have to admit, I NEVER know what is going to come out of Noah's mouth next! He is the most humorous of our three children and never misses a chance to crack us up. I have recorded some of his thoughts and antics down on paper over the years and decided to reflect on them yesterday after he said something that made me laugh. I thought I would share some of these on my blog and I think I will continue to add to them here as he continues to surprise us with his next "deep thought". Enjoy!

*After hearing a terrible sound coming from my brand new van after I cranked it one morning to take Alex to school, I called Aaron at work to inform him that something was wrong with the new van and we needed to contact the dealer. He said he would check it out first when he got home from work. Aaron determined the sound was coming from the exhaust and agreed that we probably needed to take it in. The following day it dawned on him to check the tail pipe. Sure enough there were several large river rocks lodged in the pipe. Apparently Noah who was 18 months old at the time had gathered them from the court yard off the front of our house and decided they fit perfectly in the tail pipe. I'm very glad we did not drive around for days like that! Could have been bad.

*Age 2-Noah asked "Mommy were did de sink go?" I informed him that daddy had to build a new cabinet for the bathroom and that we were getting a new sink. He replied "I help him. I go get my hammer!"

*Age 3-At his three year check up the pediatrician noticed that something was in his right ear. When asked if he put something in his ear Noah said "Yes, my toy MOMMY!" Like, "duh, don't you know". We drove all the way to Columbia to the ENT to have the thing, whatever it was, removed from his ear. All he could say the entire time leading up to this was that it was a toy. I was thinking "There is now way. We have no toys that small". As the very pretty ENT proceeded to remove the unidentified object from Noah's ear he flashed her his best smile. She carefully pulled this strange thing from his ear and we both stared at it and said "Is that a googly eye?!!" (You know, the kind from the craft store that you make faces and puppets with.) Noah's face lit up like a Christmas tree and he said, "There IT IS!!!! My TOY!!!"

My all time favorite:
*Age4-His sisters had just finished their baths and I told Noah to go get into the tub and I would be right there. When I came back into the bathroom a few minutes later, I found him standing there buck naked, staring at the almost empty tub. When asked what he was doing he said, "I'm waiting for the yucky, yucky girl water to go down!"

*Age 5-When Aaron showed Noah how to put a candle out by licking two fingers and then touching the flame, Noah said matter-of-factly "That's magical."

*I asked Noah if he was ready to say his prayers last night after I turned off the light. His reply.."No thanks. I'm too yawny." :)

*Alex was discussing and demonstrating the way that cousin Avery is beginning to use her voice. I mentioned that she was learning to talk and that all babies do this. Noah chimed in "Mommy, baby Avery can't talk yet!!Her voice hasn't gotten to her throat yet!" Aaron decided to take this a step further and asked "Then where is her voice, Noah?" Noah replied, "In her big toe!" Like, "you big dummy didn't you know that. You're supposed to be smarter than me". Daddy continued to press this one and asked "Well, Noah when does her voice get from her big toe to her throat?". Noah responded in exasperation "I don't know! It takes a while. It just happens."

Let it Snow!

After praying for snow two nights ago, we woke up to a beautiful flurry of white falling from the sky yesterday morning. Aaron woke Alex up to tell her before he left for work. She then proceeded to wake all of us up at about 5:45 to get us ready. After a quick breakfast of whatever was in the fridge, we all went outside to enjoy the snow. Alex does not remember the snow we had about seven years ago, and Noah and Piper really had no clue what it would be like. They enjoyed throwing snowballs at each other and then we had to hurry Alex off to school. She was very sad that her school was not delayed but delighted to find her class outside playing in the snow when she arrived. Noah and Piper insisted on checking on the geese at the pond in our neighborhood as you will see in the montage. We had a blast playing in all of the fluffy stuff. As I look out of my window now there are still bushes with white "frosting" on their leaves even today. Enjoy the pics!

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Andes Mints and Marquetry

You know the old saying "If it ain't broke,don't fix it"? Well....in the case of redecorating I'm thinking I should have taken heed that advice. After taking down all of the Christmas decorations I commented to Aaron that this would be a perfect time to repaint the great room as we had been talking about it for some time now. Now, if you know Aaron you know that he loves any chance to be creative and to do something different especially in our house. So, he looked at me and said "what color do you want, I'm going to Lowes". Well, I had been contemplating this bright lettucy green appropriately called Lettuce Alone. Kind of the color of a good head of Iceberg. So he went and bought three gallons of Lettuce Alone and I began happily rolling paint on a rainy Sunday afternoon after church. After I got all the way around the room above the chair rail I thought to myself "this is really a lot of green, but I wanted it so I'm not giving up now". After Aaron stared cutting in, because I make a mess when I trim, he so lovingly suggested that we paint a chocolate brown under the chair rail to give the room a little weight to it. Now, I did not want another dark color on the bottom but after staring at all that green I gave in to the artist because he is usually right when it comes to these things. Did I really just say that? Anyway, a day and two coats of paint later I looked at Aaron and commented that the green was actually kind of minty. Like the inside of an Andes mint. He looked at the walls and his eyes got big and he said, "Oh no! And we just painted the chocolate on the bottom!". Well that did it. I knew I was not liking it and now that I knew he didn't either and that it looked like an after dinner mint I put my roller down in disgust. Did my husband sit down and resign himself to the fact that we had just ruined our favorite room in the house? Oh no! He said "come on Steph this is part of the process, this is what makes it fun". Huh? It was midnight and I was ready for bed, and wondering what in the world he was going to do next and thinking that it could not be at all fun. Not only did the room look horrid but we just wasted about seventy dollars worth of paint. So, do you know what my hubby did next? The only thing any good do-it-yourselfer would do. He went to his shop and found some yellow, orange and blue paint and began mixing his own custom color in a big bucket. I'm about to lose it now. I'm thinking "How is he going to get a good color out of this!". Well to make a long story short (too late), he got a really nice darker, yellower green out of it. I went to bed and he rolled the walls until 2a.m. I'm liking the green but still not sure about the brown on the bottom. As you can see we still have some painting to do, but tell us what you think of it. The pictures are not totally accurate but you get the idea. Also, in my montage is Aaron's newest project, marquetry. Check out the rose he did. Oh, and no he has not started building the kitchen cabinets yet. All these little side projects keep getting in the way I suppose! My fault this time!:) Hope you enjoy the slide show.

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Piper's Birthday

Piper turned 4 on December 8th and had a blast at her party. I thought I'd add a video although this puts things a little out of order with my previous postings. Piper is definitely the princess in the family and loved getting lots of clothes, fairy wings, books and the Tinkerbell movie. Aaron and I made her Barbie cake, which beat the $50 one at Bi-Lo by a long shot I have to admit!:) She is proud to be four and ready to go to school right on the heels of her big brother next year. She already thinks she belongs in his preschool class because everyone knows her name and talks to her when we visit. I believe she will have a little separation anxiety when she does start, but knowing the teacher and school before hand will help ease this transition I hope!

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Here we go...

Okay..here is my first attempt at posting a slideshow..we shall see how it goes. Here are a few pics of our MASSIVE gingerbread house as well as a few of the kids on Christmas morning. Enjoy!!

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So, I did It!

O.K. so I'm finally doing this! It will probably look like I don't know what I'm doing the first couple of times I post because, well....I don't! My sister's blogspot is so cute I just had to do this. I probably won't keep up with mine as well unless Aaron and Alex want to help me but I'll give it a try anyway.
We had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a wonderful new year! Julie, my sister, and her husband Brian and their beautiful 1 year old, Avery, came for Christmas. They brought Brian's parents all the way from Wisconsin and we all had a blast at Nana and Papa's house (my mom and dad). We are having everyone over today for a little New Year's eve party at Alex's request. She and Aaron planned the entire meal so all I have to do is clean the house! Well I will post more later with yes... PICTURES!!!