Today I was holding a small paper bag from CVS and Beka said "what's that?" and I took what I needed out of the bag and handed her the empty bag and said it's for you. She took the bag and looked inside and with great disappointment said "there's no donuts in it." She is SO my little girl! She knows that when we go to Dunkin Donuts that we get our donuts in small paper bags too. (Don't worry Sal we only go about once a month!)

We went on board the "pirate ship" called the Peacemaker, to the aquarium, to the Children's museum and the circus over the last month. In the photos the blond boys are Jacob and Josiah Gillespie and the little girl is our niece Audrey.

March for the Reynolds

BEKA

My sweet and sassy two year old is more and more verbal every week. She can't say the "c" or "t" sounds so she says so many things that make us giggle all the time like "tar fuming" instead of "car coming" and "fiua fok" instead of "fire truck". I haven't started potty training her yet, but she has decided she "want go pee pee on potty". She tells me 20 times a day and every now and then she'll look down and poke herself and say "it's not working mommy". She helped me make cookies for the first time and I thought she'd get bored quickly but she loved every minute of it. She is a super picky eater. The only thing I can get her to eat for lunch is hummus, which is what she eats every day. She still loves to be outside more than anything.

DANE

Dane's favorite subject is geography. We finished learning about the 7 continents. Dane asked to learn about the Leaning tower of Pisa, so we spent a day learning about Pisa and Italy. We also learned about India, Ireland, Thailand and China this month. Each time we learn about a new place we enjoy the cuisine of that place for dinner and sometimes get to eat on the floor (like for India) which the kids get the biggest thrill from. Dane and I did a gardening seminar a couple of weeks ago and learned how to plant container gardens. He is quite the gardener. Daddy took his training wheels off a week ago and after much complaining, to our amazement, he was ridding within two days!

Last few months

Since it's been so long since I've updated I thought that I'd include a few photos from the last couple of months. Things have been very busy, but wonderful. My family visited for almost a month over Christmas. We had the joy and surprise of snow twice this winter. In January we embarked on the adventure of homeschooling. Tonii got a part in a show called "Army Wives" that shoots in Charleston, SC so he and I got to take an unexpected free trip this week that was such a blessing. God's abundant goodness and mercy never cease to amaze me.

Beka turns 2!

Yes our little princess just turned two! How fast it has flown! She has huge personality and a very distinct point of view. We celebrated the morning of her b-day with a little party with just the Gillespie's, then a larger family party in the evening with her cousins and another small, girl only party, on Saturday morning complete with tiaras.

Our favorite local getaway

Bald Head Island is to us here what Santa Barbara was to us in LA. It takes about an hour to drive to the ferry and then about 20mins on the ferry and you arrive in paradise. A beautiful, quaint little island with no cars allowed (only golf carts and bikes) and yet so classically Southern coastal elegance in every way. Come to visit and we'll take you there. It is truly something you need to experience to understand. We have some dear friends that live on the island and so we go over even more often now.

The photos are from the kids 2nd Halloween which took place on the island on Nov. 1st.

It's snowing!

Ok, so it is only snow flurries, but it is still SNOW and we are thrilled!! Dane is so excited that he can hardly contain himself and his excitement is contagious to Beka even though she has no clue why she is so worked up! Mommy loves it too!

This week in Dane's world

Here is a glimpse into Dane's week. He helped mommy make pumpkin bread as part of our school work. We measured and mixed and tasted of course. He got his very own cool camo apron for his birthday. He built a castle all by himself without any grown-up input or help for the first time. We collected leaves on a nature walk in our neighborhood and made a Thanksgiving turkey for our cork board. We worked on subtraction from 13-1 down to 2-1. The boy loves math, especially when it involves Skittles and M&M's being subtracted from the plate into the belly!!! Oh, what fun it is to live in Dane's world.

Super Star

Look at me daddeeee. Little girl loves to talk, although you can only understand about 5% of what she is saying, but she has a lot to say. She loves to "talk" to her Teta on the phone. Loves to go to the library and most of all love to be out side.

Happy Halloween

Can we eat the candy now? . . .How about now? . . .Is it time now? . . . Can we eat it all tonight?

Happy Fall!

I love our house in the fall. I love the crisp breeze in the middle of the day that necessitates the use of a sweater. I love the frigid nights and clear star filled skies. I love the hint of smoke in the air from the few families who've started using their fireplaces already. I love the holly berries turning from yellow to orange and just starting to take on the reddish hue that will soon overwhelm them. I love taking the kids out to the back yard to play and then bringing lunch onto the deck and needing to sit in the sun to stay warm. Praise the Lord for seasons.

Dane's Party

We had a costume party for Dane's birthday bash. We did it at the clubhouse in our neighborhood which was a real blessing for clean-up. It was so weird to have our first party without any of our CA friends and family. So for those of you who couldn't be there here is what we did. We had pumpkin shaped sugar cookies for the kids to decorate when they first got there, then we played hot potatoe and then had a relay race. After that we had lunch and on the menu were worms on a bun, monster munch, putrid punch and worms in dirt cupcakes. Yum yum, thanks Sal! ; )

Then it was gift time and cake time. I had made this huge 3 layer spooky cake and thought that we'd have tons leftover, but the whole thing was gone and mommy didn't even get a piece. The kids had a blast.

Dane's 4th Birthday

Dane turned 4 on Oct. 20th. I asked him what he wanted to do for his special day. He said "I want Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and I want to go to the beach." So we picked up his buddy Jacob, got donuts and had a ball at the cloudy, cold (54 F) beach. I forgot my camera, hence no photos. In the evening daddy finished work early and they went and picked out some presents with the money that Teta, Sido and Yaya (my mom, dad and grandmother) had sent him. Then we had Dane's favorite homemade pizza and cupcakes for dinner. Happy boy.

Blue Shoes Charlie. The crab that Mr. Billy stretched to catch for Dane. Mr. Billy saved the day for Dano who squealled with excitement when the crab landed on the dock.

Looking to nab a crab

Dane and Daddy with our new net looking for blue crabs.

Lamya and Bekaboo on the dock. Smile!

New friends on Bald Head Island

These are our new friends from Cornerstone Baptist Church, Billy, Megan, Addy and Aiden Morris. We went down to visit them on Bald Head Island where the live. It was a chilly rainy day but we had a blast none the less. The rain stopped long enough for us to go out on the dock and see the beauty around us.

Heavy Reading

The other day Tonii walked into the bathroom and saw Dane reading "The Mortification of Sin" by the Puritan author John Owen. Nothing else really needs to be said. Enjoy the photo.

Sweet Toothe

There is a gourmet store in town called Pine Valley Market that has been using me to make most of the desserts for their catering events for the past couple of months. They asked me to come out last weekend and set up a display and sell cupcakes individually in front of their store so that their regular customers could get a taste of Sweet Toothe. They'd like to get people hooked so that they can start retailing my cupcakes in the store on a daily basis. We will see. My proud and sweet hubby took this photo and told me that it needed to be posted. Thanks Sal for pushing me to finally do some posts again = )

BIG girl

Beka has been above average in the height department since she was born (of course, look who her mother is = ) ). But when I took her in for her 18 month check up I was shocked when the doctor, her uncle Patrick (pretty cool) told me that she is off the charts for height! Yes, our Beka is in the 100th percentile for height. He said that she is actually the height of an average 2 1/2 year old. From these photos you can see that she loves her "bay beee" and her "da deee" too.

Moments

Beka

She loves to be outside and especially to swing. She will stand at the door and point "side, wee". She loves to play dress up already and is obsessed with shoes. She will find mine, Tonii's, Dane's or anyone else who may be visiting and try to parade around the house in them. She is also obsessed with the book "Goodnight Moon" which we must read every night and if she had her way every morning and afternoon too. Her favorite part of the book is the "baboon" which translated means the "red balloon".

Dane

He asked me the other day if I was married and I said yes. Then he said "Well who am I going to marry?". I said "Oh Dane, God will make that clear in His timing". Then he said "Maybe I can marry Meg (Terrell from LA). . . . or maybe Noah (Neri from LA). I got a good laugh from that and said "Well, Noah might actually be more submissive, but Meg would definitely be the more God honoring choice."

We were in the car on Friday and out of the blue Dane says "Mommy I don't want to go to college." You can imagine my surprise from not only the statement, but from the subject matter too. So I said "Well why don't you want to go to college?" to which he replied "Because I want to stay with you and daddy." Now come on how can you argue with such a sweet sentiment as that. However, I did assure him that if he truly felt that way that he could live at home while he went to college. I can't believe I am having these conversations already. He isn't even 4 yet!! Marriage and college, this is just too much for mommy to handle.