What is better than facepaint??

On Saturday the Masons were providing a really wonderful free service called the GAchip identification program. We took the kids over to their lodge. They were photographed from several different angles, they video recorded an interview of each of them, they finger printed every single finger, they did a dental imprint and took a DNA sample. All of this was put into a packet for us to take home with us. All of the information was erased from their computers, so if, heaven forbid, either of them were missing, we would take this packet to the police and allow them to use it in an effort to find them. It's hard to believe that it was done for free. We found out about it through a flier sent home with Olivia at her preschool. They said they had about 90 kids show up on Saturday, but they were hoping to have more like 150. They're interested in providing this same service again maybe next August or September. If you live close by, keep your eyes peeled for when they do this again. I feel like it is such a great opportunity. They were very sweet folks, and they did a good job. The only funny thing was that we realized after we got home that Olivia's race was "Native American". Oops. :) Anyway, they kept saying to us, "We send you home with these packets hoping they'll never get used." And that is our hope as well, of course, but it seems like it could potentially be of help if they were to go missing.
OK, enough of that. So afterwards, the reward for them sitting through that process was to get their face painted. Olivia LOVES to have her face painted, so this was super fun for her, and hers wound up looking gorgeous, as you can see here!

A Day on SSI

On Tuesday Dad had a cabinet meeting at Epworth by the Sea on St. Simons, so we (Carrie Beth and I) drove over there with our kids to spend the day with Mom. We were very glad to get to eat lunch with Dad (who treated us all to McDonalds! always a big hit with our crowd!) and we shopped at Bailey Boys and played on the playground down by the pier. It was a chilly, but beautiful day. On Wednesday I drove Mom to the JAX airport where she flew out to Dallas to spend two weeks with Abby and Andy, little Andy and their newest addition, Titus! We're all wishing we could've jumped on the plane with her to go visit Abby and the Miller family. We can't wait to see Titus face to face.

V-day party at Noah's Ark!

Olivia and Benjamin both had a great time at the Valentine's Day Party at Noah's Ark yesterday. You'll see Benjamin wasting no time chowin' down and Olivia gets excited about her V-day gifts. My favorite is Benjamin in these heart glasses. So cute! It was a good day!

Skinned Knees

Benjamin seems to have eternally skinned knees. I thought I would take a picture of them to document his seemingly endless state of slight injury. Forget snips and snails and puppy dog tails! Little boys are made of skinned knees! :)

A Night to Remember

Stan and I have not been good about making sure we had date nights and special, fun experiences away from the kids in the last several months. For Valentine's Day we made up for lost time! We enjoyed a special evening at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel for dinner. The Grand Dining Room has just finished a big renovation, so we enjoyed the beautiful new paint, carpet, upholstery, window treatments, china etc. We were glad to see these improvements as we had begun to notice the last time or so that we were there that things were beginning to look a tad old. It's such a special place to us, so rich with memories. We had Sausage and Fennel with Chorizo purses for an appetizer, a lovely salad, and then I had Jekyll Shrimp and Grits (the best cheesey grits at any restaurant ever) with asparagus, and Stan had the NY Angus Blue Cheese Filet Mignon with roasted vegetables. Then for desert Stan had an apricot brownie with two flavors of chocolate mousse on top and raspberry sauce drizzled on the side with a beautiful crescent-moon-like sliver of some sweet crispy wafer thing standing up on the plate, and I had the famous Jekyll Key Lime Pie--I always get it! Sooooo good. Decadent. Live piano music playing things like "Someone to Watch Over Me" and "I've Grown Accustomed to You" swelled all around us through the long evening meal, and we truly hated to see it end. Then we drove down to the beach and walked the boardwalk out as far as we could, getting farther and farther from the street lights, and it was just us and a sea of stars and the crashing waves. Truly a perfect evening. This morning I was telling Olivia all about our meal and how fancy it was and how delicious everything was, and Stan finished by saying, "But the best thing about the whole night was the company." Thank you Lord for this precious time with my amazing husband!

Our Trip to Texas in a Van with Four Kids Ages 6 and Under

We had such a great time going out to see Uncle Will in Alabama and Aunt Abby, Uncle Andy and little Andy in Mansfield, Texas! It was an awesome 9 days! We praise God for his care and guidance through this courageous journey! :) It was wonderful. Hope you enjoy the slideshow!