Happy Birthday John

Our Sweet Johnny turned 9 yesterday. Wow! I can't believe that sweet little baby staring up at me from his hospital bed is 9. Brian and I are experienced parents now, but I remember thinking "wow, we get to take this baby home, alone" at the time. Here are some pics of John then and now. He is maturing into such a great young man.

John age 2, playing with SG, age 8 mos

John age 2, playing in the front yard sprinkler - he has his swimmies on, just in case...

John and Mamaw Goldie - Such good friends

John and his Daddy on the night of his birthday - wow! John is so grown up - his last year in single digits.

John playing Ode to Joy at Grandparents Day at Palmetto Christian Academy last week. He did such a great job - note he has no music - he plays from memory.

I was very nervous for him - he was completely calm.

John's birthday cakes. One is a train because we are going to the NC Train Museum for his birthday. The other is a Revolutionary War battlefield, because on the way to the train museum, we are going to visit Kings Mountain Revolutionary War National Park and see a re-enactment. Fun stuff!

Our Busy Week

This week was a pretty busy week for the Moore's. We had Will's final soccer game, work, school and Grandparents Day yesterday. Today is John's last day as an 8 year old - tomorrow he turns 9! We are going out to dinner tonight for his birthday, because tomorrow night we are going to the Carolina Game.

John is going golfing on Sunday. Sunday is also Sweet Magpie's 15th month birthday. She is walking (really running) everywhere now.

Here are a few pictures from our busy week.

Above are a few pictures from Grandparents Day - Poppy Derek and the kids, our friends the Austins, and Poppy Lee and Mimi with John.

Our teacher, Mr. Moss with his grandmother.

Will with his soccer trophy

Maggie, about to turn 15 months

Will and john playing together

The Red Zone

Good news - our Gamecocks won tonight, but just barely. But I'm not writing about the football red zone...I'm writing about how the color red has touched our lives lately.



FIRST: Here is a picture of the new wallpaper in our hallway in the New House. Hooray! Poppy Derek put it up for us today and it looks great. This shot is looking down the hall toward the dining room.



NEXT: Here are some pics of Mags modeling some new red clothes. In one shot she has on her new Carolina Gamecock pants...Nana Sharon made them and they are too cute. In the next picture she's wearing her Whale pants - they have little red whales on them. She has on her new red Mary Jane shoes with them. She LOVES her new clothes. She looks at them as says "Oh, WOW".












AND THE FINAL RED ITEM ON OUR LIST...Below is a picture of Brian's football helmet - the one he wore in pee wee football over 30 years ago. I was packing up some things to move - I put this helmet in the "give-away" box. I asked Brian to take the "give-away" box to the Bowers-Rogers home and he gladly agreed. When he picked me up for lunch that day he said "you gave away my old football helmet?" I said Brian, that thing is over 30 years old. Brian just nodded his head and never said anything else about it. When I got home that night, this was sitting on my washing machine. Look at the scratches, I guess it's earned a spot in Moore Family History.

The Jumping Daddy(s)

I said I'd post these, and then things just got crazy and life got in the way. Here are some more pictures from Will and SG's birthday party. As you can see, they are mostly pictures of the all of the daddys having fun...

Emily and Chip racing down...

Brian and Marc getting ready to race

And they're off....

Updates on Ike - We don't like Ike

For all of you who were wondering, my Texas family seemed to come through Hurricane Ike unharmed. My parents in Alice (40 miles west of Corpus Christi) didn't even get wind and rain. My sister, Susie, who lives smack dab in the middle of Houston is unharmed, and safe, but has no power. She is dealing with the damage - her house was not hurt, but she says there was an awning that looked to be from a restaurant in her back yard.

I talked to her a few minutes ago - she was waiting in line for gas for the generator. She was at "the" gas station in her area of Houston that was pumping gas. She said she expected to wait about an hour. Susie was not in an area advised to evacuate, but still hit pretty hard. She rode out the storm with our cousin Jana and her husband Robert and daughter Laine. Jana and Robert were very prepared with food, water, a generator, chain saws, tarps, etc. Everything you would need. Susie was probably not as prepared - I'm glad she is staying with them. I think they are working hard to make the best of it.

Ike was a massive storm. Check out my brother Will's family's blog at http://www.degenhartfamily.blogspot.com/ (or just click on The Degenhart Family on the right) Will and KK live outside of New Orleans. You will see they seem to be getting more flooding from Hurricane Ike then they did in even Katrina or Rita. WOW!

Here is a pic from Ike - Houston took a major hit.

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON

The Hospital Stay and the Wedding That Wasn't

Here is a picture of Will in the hospital and a picture of Will coming home. You can see what a difference 3 days make!

Our family had planned a little beach vacation last weekend...my cousin Julie was getting married at Pawley's Island and we planned to go to the wedding, hit the beach, swim in the pool and have all sorts of family fun. That's not exactly how our weekend turned out.

Tropical Storm Hanna made her way to the South Carolina coast, coming ashore basically at Pawleys Island. Brian and I decided we just shouldn't try to drive into the storm on Friday. Maybe, we thought, it would be better to wait until Saturday. Thank the Lord we did.

Saturday morning we woke up and Will was very sick. He had a high fever and could barely breathe. We called his doctor who said to go straight to the emergency room. Will was diagnosed with Croupe and possible a small case of pneumonia. But his big issue was the swelling around his throat and bronchial tubes. It made it very hard for him to breathe (and eat and drink). We learned that earns you a 3 day stay in the hospital.

Thank goodness the Lord put us where we needed to be. He even sent a large storm to keep us safe at home. Will is home now and doing much better. Praise the Lord for that, too.

The Big Brother and the Movie Star

I want to let you all know what a good big brother John is. Being the oldest, John has always had to carry the diaper bag or the grocery bag or something. He helps me with Maggie and Sarah Grace and Will when I need him - he buckles seat belts, ties shoes...he's a good helper. He and Maggie were playing yesterday. Maggie loves to play with the big kids - she also LOVES jewelry. She was putting on jewelry and taking it off - one of her favorite games. Then she started putting it on John. John very patiently let Maggie "decorate" him with jewelry, all the while saying "oh, thank you, Maggie - how pretty."

John is going to make an excellent husband and daddy one day!

The New House - Before and After

I know some of you wonder what, exactly, we have been doing in what we call "The New House" all this time. Every week in our family update I write that Brian will be working out at the house, getting it ready for us to move in. Well...good news - the laundry room is almost finished and we are starting the "clean up" phase. Move in is not far away!

I thought you might enjoy the before and after pictures. These are the pictures from our living room, dining room and kitchen. (Yes, I know, I got one set of before and after backwards, but you get the picture). The transformation has been amazing! We painted, revised, and re-did every room in the house! WOW! (OK, I use we loosely because really, I just watched while Brian and Sharon and Derek did all the work, but it has been exciting!).

I will post more moving in pictures, hopefully soon!

I am so pleased with how everything turned out!