Back to School....

The school year has gotten off to a good start around here. Miracle was ever so excited to go back, and she is loving first grade more than ever!

Here she is on her first day with her little brother. (His heart was broken that he could not go to school too!)


Here she is with mommy.

They both wore blue for church this morning, and I snapped the cutest picture....aren't they adorable?


It kinda stinks that summer days are over, but we are anxiously awaiting the coolness of fall! Mommy is already planning trips to apple orchards and pumpkin patches for some fun fall celebrations. As the kids get older, it gets more and more fun to plan exciting things for them to do! I hope you all are having a good month too!

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"Happy Anniversary to my AWESOME Husband! The last four years have been the best roller coaster ever! Lots of ups and downs, lots of anxiety, tons of fun, and worth every minute! I'd wait in line for EVER if I had the chance to re-do it all...as long as it was with you! I love you!"

Happy Anniversary to my husband and best friend

Dating...

Our Wedding...


After four years of loving, laughing, and making perfect memories!


I love you baby...happy anniversary!

Just havin' fun!

So this week has been our last free week before the school year starts (for mommy at least)! Miracle has one more week off before she starts first grade....she is super excited. I keep telling her that she shouldn't wish summer break away because there will come a day when she wishes she had it again;) However, in her little girl mind, nothing is cooler than going to school every day. I used to love school when I was little too....my how times change once you grow up a little! Nanna and Papa were here last week and helped us out by buying her some school stuff. She chose a blue book bag last year and it was the worst mistake ever. She asked me every day if she could get a pink one instead:) When we ventured out for the new bag this year, she almost decided on purple. I had to gently remind her how much she regretted not getting pink last year...she quickly remembered the pain of a blue bag last year...and went for a cute pink one instead. Little girls are so much fun! Every day since then, she has asked how many days until school starts...bless her little heart! It's scary how grown up she is. We had to pick her up some deodorant today at Walmart. She is still pretty young but with this hot summer it has become a must. She feels so grown up, and when I asked her when she was supposed to put deodorant on she quickly replied (with a very big girl voice) 'When I get dressed in the morning and after a bath'! She so looks forward to being a big girl...we have our work cut out for us with this one!

Despite the school excitement, we have just enjoyed being home with each other this week. Monday and Tuesday were spent cleaning and being lazy. The kids have played together so well and seem to truly enjoy each others company. I love the relationship that they share and hope that it ends up being as special as the relationships I share with my siblings! We ventured out today and helped my sister with her classroom a bit. It was super hot, but we enjoyed being out and about anyway. We are still working diligently on the potty training thing and am sad to say we are stuck at 75% of the way there....We keep working though and are hoping to be diaper free by time the holidays are here!

I should go. It's almost time for the beloved "Big Brother", and I need to get a house full of kids calmed down and headed towards bed. Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!

New blog design...

So I am trying out this new blog design. I can't decide if I like it or not...don't be surprised if it changes again tomorrow:) If you like it...you gotta let me know!

Fun in the 100 degree sun...

My parents came up from MI to visit their kids this week. I new the week would fly by but had no idea how truly fast it would go:( We kicked off their week in SC by introducing them to the HOT HOT SC sun. We went to this beautiful park in Westminster called the Chau Ram County Park. It was almost an hour away but well worth the drive! Also, it felt like it was a thousand degrees outside...but we all had a blast anyway! The reason we chose this park so far away was for the beautiful waterfalls and the cool river to swim in. Being that we are all from MI, we are all used to having a good lake or river to swim in within 15 minutes any direction you go in the good old Northern country. It's a little different here in the South, however, so we had to go searching for the comforts of 'home':)

Here is the only half way decent shot I got of Miracle. She doesn't stay in the same place for long!

This is my niece Meredith enjoying the little stream near where we ate our lunch.

Jack and JJ enjoyed the stream as well...It was SO SO hot and the water was so COOL!

JJ taking a rest with daddy in the gazebo.

A self portrait of me and my favorite husband:)

The kids loved the juice boxes.

The two youngest cousins in their matching swim trunks.

This is my mom and dad in front of the waterfall.

Me and the kids with my mom

My husband being a kid again and enjoying the waterfall up close and personal:)

Last but not least, my favorite shot of the day....my two favorite munchkins!

Is it really almost over?

Well friends, its been a long while since a good update from the Splan Clan. We have just been so busy with enjoying summer and working. Miracle spent two weeks in Michigan during which we painted her room as a birthday surprise. It turned out super cute!

She absolutely loves it! JJ and I spent our two weeks off with sissy gone just havin' fun! We played at the park, played with the cousins, celebrated fourth of July, and JJ even helped do some painting. We also spent a lot of our time missing sissy....she has never been away from home that long so it was really hard.

Summer is just flying by. Only 3 more weeks of summer fun before school actually starts back up again. CRAZY! I spent a lot of time today looking for Christmas gift ideas online. After wasting way too much time doing this...I realized just how fast Christmas will be here already! I'm not wishing any time away though so onto more 'summer' talk:)

The kids are spending their days at Ms Dana's house. They love her and have a lot of fun over there most days. They do prefer Aunt Christy's house though...and JJ has been very adamantly reminding me of that on a daily basis. The other day, Miracle was crying because she had just gotten scolded for feeding her dinner to the dog. JJ pointed at her and said, "ha ha you trouble!" He got scolded for this comment of course....but it was so funny! His little sense of humor is really starting to come out!

Miracle has grown about 3 inches this summer. Her shoes are too small and her pants are too short....she is going to shoot way past me before she even reaches high school! We are preparing to buy lots of new jeans throughout the year if she keeps growing at this pace! We are also preparing to ward the boys off pretty soon...as she grows, she gets more and more beautiful!

Overall, we have much to be thankful for this year. It's going by WAY to fast...but its been a good one!

I forgot to mention that we got a new little addition at our house. His name is Patrick Murphy and he an adorable little tabby cat! He is a perfect little friend for JJ and Miracle (he has managed all of the 'loving' very well), and he is turning out to be a good little kitty! He plays a lot, cuddles a lot, and has mastered the litter box quite nicely! I let him sleep with me most nights and have really enjoyed him!

Hope you all have a wonderful end of summer!