Christmas letters from Santa

The kids got their Christmas letters in the mail today from Santa, and boy oh boy were they excited (well Madison was excited enough for both of them) Blake just tried to eat his :) The letters were personalized from Santa and told Madison how good in school she was doing, and how great a big sister she has been this year. Blake's letter told him that he was such a good sleeper, and eater. Santa told the kids that he would try his best to get them the toys they were asking for, and requested that they please leave out some reindeer food for the reindeers because they got very hungry delivering toys! Madison was very excited and told us that she would make sure to put some carrots with Santa's cookies and milk! I love this time of year and seeing the excitement in my babies eyes!!! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Program!

Madison had her first school program on Friday, and she did GREAT!!! I am such a proud Mommy!!!! They had their Christmas program at the preschool on Friday and both Bryan and I got to attend as well as Grandparents. Madison was really excited to go up on stage and sing all of the songs that she has been learning at school!! She has a cold so the congestion was getting to her half way through the program but she tried her best to stick it out. I am so excited that she is getting to experience all of these new great things that the preschool is teaching her! She is so excited about Christmas, and it being Jesus' birthday!!! We took the kids to go look at lights at Saluda Shoals one night last week and the whole time all she kept asking for was to see "baby Jesus". She is just too sweet!!! Well Madison mommy and daddy are so proud of you for doing so well in your program, and we look forward to many more things that you and your brother will get to do. As a special treat my mom "madison's mimi" gave her Horton hears a who for doing so well singing so we are all planning on watching it this weekend!

Boo at the zoo!!

Madison and Hannah Dancing the night away!!

Go Girls!!

Madison and Bryan running through the "snow" (foam)

Getting candy "Trick or Treat"

Look at my beautiful Ariel

Boo

Daddy and his Princess

Mommy's Girl

Bryan and I took Madison to Boo at the Zoo last night and boy did she have a BLAST!!! We left Blake at home with my mom because I was afraid it would be to cold for him, and because we wanted to do something with just Madison. She had so much fun, and so did we. Her favorite parts were running through the "snow" as she called it with her daddy, which was this huge foam making machine they had set up that produced mountains of foam for the kids to run through, and dancing. They had a D.J. set up with lights playing all kinds of great music for the kids, Madison and our neighbor Hannah had a blast dancing to all of the music. My favorite part was dancing with Madison and roasting Marshmellows!!! They were YUMMY!! All in all we had a great time and it is definitely a family tradition that we will do next year with Madison and Blake!!!

Crazy Weather!!!

Pine Tree in mom and dads gameroom

This is where the top of the tree broke off and fell

Look at those roots

As many of you know on Friday we had some pretty crazy weather out in the Chapin Ballentine area. Bryan had just arrived back from Georgia, and my mom was coming over to get Madison. She was going to take Madison back to her house to spend the night, but instead I asked if she would just watch both of the kids here so that Bryan and I could go out to eat. We were leaving for the restaurant when the wind started to pick up. We did not think much about it at the time and we headed out. We had just put in our order when my mom called and said that the neighbor had just called her and a pine tree had just fallen into their house!!! I was freaking out! By the time we got back home our patio furniture had made its way over our fence and into the neighbors yard. Thanks Josh for rescuing it for us!!!! And poor Maidsons trampoline was no longer round, but instead oval!!! The streets getting to our house and my mom's house were closed due to trees and power lines that were down. I am so thankful that everyone was okay, because all of the stuff that was messed up can be replaced, but it was still a BIG MESS!!!!! Just please continue to pray for my parents as they try to get their home fixed!!!

Making Halloween treats for daddy!!

The Batter is the best part!!!

My little chef!

Say pumpkin :)

How cute is this!!!

Bryan is finally done with his training in Georgia which had him out of town for a month. Last weekend when he was coming home for the weekend Madison and I decided to make him a yummy meal with halloween brownies for dessert. The meal was okay, and the brownies turned out so so, but boy did we have fun making them!!!! I am so glad that Bryan is home and we can get back into our little routine!!!

Boy do they grow fast!!!

Blake Sitting in his Bumbo seatEating rice cereal for the first time

He found his feet

Yummy Carrots my favorite

Doing arts and crafts with sissy!

Boy how time flies when you are having fun!! I cannot believe Blake is almost five months old!! In this past month he has really came into his personality! He is so sweet and loving! He definitely love his mommy!! He gets so excited when he see Madison, he has actually just started laughing out loud when she smiles and talks to him! It is so sweet to see him light up when he see's her!!! This month was full of firsts. He sat in his bumbo, ate rice creal, tried carrots and applesauce, and found his feet (he loves his toes and tries to put them in his mouth as much as possible)! I thank God everyday for giving me two healthy children who I love with all of my heart!!! God is so good! Oh and I forgot Blake also started rolling from his tummy to his back, man this was a busy month!!!! Stay tuned for more Kolb updates!

Pumpkin Patch!!!

Say Cheese

We took the kids to Harmons Tree Farm on Sunday afternoon to the Pumpkin Patch and boy did we have a great time!!! We went with some of our friends and their kids and Madison had a blast looking for pumpkins and going on a hayride and of course playing on the playground!!! We ate homemade peach ice cream, which by the way was delicious!!! We had such a great time and the weather was beautiful!!! The kids especially loved looking at all of the neat animals that were their! They loved feeding the goats and deer, the geese were a little mean though one goosed Payton on her nose!!! We had a great time at Harmons and looked forward to going at Christmas, and we will definitely be going back next year for more pumpkin picking!!!!!

HELP

I know that I have some computer savy friends out there who can help me with my blogging problem since my husband is in Georgia I cannot show him, but it will let me type new post, but when I try to upload pictures it errors out saying that something is wrong with the web address and to try and type it in again. I am not sure what this means because I am not typing in anything to start with I am just uploading my pictures like I always do, and then while it is uploading it errors out!!!!

Hanging out with friends!!

Sorry it has been so long but everything has just been so crazy with the kids and Bryan away at school!!!! I have developed a whole new respect for single moms!!! I do not know how they do it. By the time I get them in bed I am pooped, it is all I can do to do anything else!!! This weekend when Bryan came home we had a great time. Friday night we celebrated his birthday with our friends since he will be gone on his actual birthday :( We just played it really layed back and had some people over for pizza and cookie cake, and let the kids play outside until bedtime because it was absolutely beautiful!! Then Saturday we watched the Carolina game with Caroline and Ryan (oh by the way did I mention how awesome we did GO COCKS!!!!!) and then that night my mom and dad came over and watched the kids so that Bryan and I could go out for dinner (Date night YEA!!!!!!!) When we got back all I had to do is put Blake down for bed they were all bathed and ready to go!! I have the best parents in the world :)!!!!!! And today we went to the Pumpkin patch and bought pumpkins and went on a hayride with our friends Cy and Lindsey and Ryan and Katie and all of their kids!!! It was a great weekend and I will be downloading some pictures of the pumpkin patch later tonight or in the morning!! We are truly blessed to have such great friends!! As you get older you realize who your true friends are and that when you find them you need to hold on to them because true friends are hard to come by!!!! I am happy that I have these people in my life. What a great weekend!!!!

Madison's first dentist appointment!

How cute is this!!! Madison went to her very first dentist appt. today! She did GREAT!!! I could not believe how great she did. When we went in I thought they would just look at her teeth and get her used to the idea of the dentist, but oh no, they actually cleaned her teeth. She did better than me (for all of you who know me I am afraid of the dentist) :) Miss Lisa her hygentist was AWESOME!! She told Madison that the chair was a princess chair, and called her princess Madison the whole time. We made it a family event, Myself, Blake and Bryan all crammed back into the room to watch Princess Madison get her teeth tickled!!! It was great. I was so frazzled today that I forgot my camera, and the wonderful people at Dr. Nelson's office let me use their's and e-mailed it to me before I even left!! How great are they!! We took her to Target tonight and got her a special prize for being such a big girl at the dentist today! Did I mention that she did GREAT :) I am such a proud mom.

Madison started dance!

Last night I took Madison to her very first dance class at Southern Strutt! It is a combo tapp and Jazz class that last 45 min... I thought there would be a couple of girls in there, but boy was I wrong the class was packed full of cute little three year olds eager to shake their booties!!! :) She had a blast, and the funny part was while we were waiting for her class to start we were looking at all of the pictures on the walls of the dancers, and yes you guessed it there I was big hair and all. It was so funny to be taking my daughter to where I used to dance. I told Madison that mommy was in the picture and she just looked at me and laughed... Well once again my independent daughter amazed me. She did not know a soul in the class, but when the teacher said it was time to start she just walked right in and did not look back! She is doing so great with school, gymnastics, and dance!! Her schedule is so full, and I am so tired... She loves to stay busy, but I am looking forward to Friday because we get to just hang out!!! I have a couple of pictures I will try to get on later, but I will have to take more at her next dance class because these did not turn out that great!

Kiawah 2008

We just got back on Saturday from our week long beach trip to Kiawah!! We had a blast, but it was quite the challenge to take a 4 month old on a beach trip away from home... Blake just got extremely off of his schedule and was up most of the nights... On the plus side I had lots of help with the kids, and got some time to relax. It was great to have a couple of night to actually eat a hot meal :) Madison had a blast, she did not actually enjoy the beach part, but the pool was her favorite!! She would have slept their if we would have let her. We had a great time and got to do some neat things. I already cannot wait till next year. I am going to miss summer!!!! Oh well I guess this means back to reality! I will post some more pictures.

First day of preschool!!

Madison's first day of preschool
Look at that sweet girl
Her bookbag is as big as her
Proud Mommie
Here we come preschool

Madison started her first day of preschool yesterday at Gateway Baptist Church. Her teachers names are Miss Lisa and Miss Robin. She was super excited to start school!! On Monday night I layed out her clothes and packed her bookbag, and then on Tuesday Morning when I woke her up to get her ready she of course started saying she wanted to wear her "handprint" shirt. I had no clue what she was talking about. I told her that I had this pretty outfit for her to wear, but then she started getting upset and crying. I did not want her upset and crying on her first day of school, so I told her to show me what she wanted. It was the Gateway shirt Bryan had bought her on registration. So we put it on, even though it was to big and she wore it!! When I dropped her off she said by mom and hugged and kissed me. As I drove off I started to cry because she is so grown up. Then when I picked her up she had a huge smile on her face and ran to me. That made me feel great!!! I look forward to this year, hopefully it will be full of great memories for our family!!!

Carolina Game

Madison and Blake cheering on the Gamecocks!!
Madison and Lauren Playing
Say cheese "Bubba"
Blake and Noah in their Gamecock attire
How Cute: Future Carolina football players :)

I cannot believe it is that time of year again!! I can remember when it was Madison's first game and we dressed her up in a Carolina onsie, and now it is Blake's turn. We celebrated the first game by going over to some of our friends house Jenn and Cliff and their two kids Lauren and Noah. The girls played and we ate some great food. The boys were both a little fussie, it was almost bedtime before the game even started :(.... We left shortly after the game started so that we could get the kids into bed and enjoy the rest of the game!! Go Gamecocks!!! Hopefully it will be a great season!