Spider Bites

Malachi turns 1...

2011-01-10T20:26:00.000-05:00

So Mac turned 1. We had a couple different parties for the man and enjoyed time with family and friends to celebrate his first year of life. It has been a really fun first year and we are really thankful for our little boy. While he didn't dig into the cake above like we wanted him to - I am going to post a video of him annihilation his first ever cupcake on the actual day of his birth. After a nice Wacky Wednesday Pizza and some presents he DUG into a chocolate on chocolate cupcake like it was his job. Fun times.

sophia needs your help!

2010-10-15T20:30:00.001-04:00

The video below says it all -

Mac in a box

2010-10-09T11:29:00.000-04:00

Piper's first day of school...a little late again. but better than never.

2010-10-06T20:32:00.001-04:00

Piper started school back in September and we never blogged about it. She loves going to school and is going 2 days a week. She learns a great deal about group interaction and other things like shapes, letters, and colors - but most importantly she is learning Bible stories as well. She is making lots of new friends!

Seriously?!?!?

2010-08-18T20:32:00.000-04:00

The day has arrived. Sophia started school today. I can say NO more than that. The pics are above.

Cow appreciation day (I just don't get it...)

2010-07-09T21:20:00.001-04:00

Why, why, why in the world was our Chick-Fil-A not swamped tonight? Why were other restaurants still in business this evening? One of the premiere fast food joints in our nation gives (GIVES) away full meals (and might I add apparently desserts as well) for the mere exchange of dressing like a cow and people balk at this gift. Chick-Fil-A is not cheap friends - and you can certainly eat healthy there if you so choose - so what gives? I mean - you dress up like a cow and walk in and they say "welcome to Chick-Fil-A, what would you like this evening?" and then order! Is this seriously a case of people being afraid to show up dressed up? Is this like homecoming week in high school all over again? Sheesh. Well - we went, the girls looked cute, and we pigged out. And if you didn't go - you missed out. I know Aunt Gayle in NYC would KILL to have a Chick-Fil-A near her - let alone a free night there. I'm done now.

Sophia the artist

2010-07-08T22:31:00.000-04:00

Sophia is always drawing things from her imagination. Recently she started drawing things from what she sees as well. It started with drawing the carousel that we rode in central park last summer. Constantly. The next thing I remember her drawing was a vase of flowers that I got emily for a special occasion. Today, I went into the kitchen and saw her most recent endeavor - you can see it on the right there. Below is a video of the work in progress.

2010-07-08T11:53:00.001-04:00

Sophia set up a barbie princess and paper next to each other and drew her doll. pics and video to come on the blog. i love this girl

Mac Attack is...

2010-07-05T13:53:00.000-04:00

6 months old today! Ooooh Baby boy. You are growing way too fast. 6 months ago we had barely seen you for the first time (and by this time you hadn't even been named yet!). You are such a joyful addition to our family. Your sweet spirit is just what the doctor ordered and we can't wait to see what you are going to do in the future. We love you Malachi!

Family Picture Day at Freedom Park!

2010-07-02T15:34:00.002-04:00

As I mentioned yesterday, our friend Susan Jones offered to take us out to do family pictures for us. Last check, we had family pictures taken before Piper was born...sooooo - it was time. We have NEVER had any professional pictures of Mac and boy did Susan get some great ones. Click below the picture to see more! (Once you go to picasa web albums you can leave comments on individual photos if you so want to...Laura Elaine Smith does!)

CLICK HERE FOR MORE!

Pardon the updates - but here is Mac Crawling

2010-07-01T22:15:00.001-04:00

Mac has a very...unique style of crawling. Check it out

Family Pictures...Sneak Peak...

2010-07-01T21:11:00.000-04:00

They are coming...family pictures taken by our friend Susan Jones at Freedom Park today. The pic below is just a taste of what is to come...

Sites and Sounds of Beach Week 2010

2010-07-01T21:04:00.000-04:00

Here is a short movie (and I mean short) of beach week 2010. Piper in the waves and Sophia on "the Hippo" - a GIANT slide on the short in Myrtle. Chad obviously thought it was hilarious to see Sophia coming down it as you'll see.

2010-07-01T13:09:00.001-04:00

Just got family pictures taken at Freedom Park by a friend of ours. we should have the proofs soon!

Sophia Boogies

2010-06-25T16:12:00.002-04:00

We found out this week that Sophia has a special love/talent for riding on the boogie board. Check it out!

Beach Week 2010 - We're back (hopefully with more consistency)

2010-06-24T09:06:00.018-04:00

So we got the biz from people down in Florida for not updating the blog often enough. Below are some pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. Hope you enjoy! (You can click on the slideshow at any time to take you to the actual pictures - leave comments if you so desire)

Malachi William Fair

2010-02-10T22:49:00.000-05:00

I was fiddling around and realized that we have not updated this site in a VERY long time. We had our baby boy on January 5, 2010 - he was 8lbs and some change and we named him Malachi William Fair. He is over a month old now and is doing very well. The girls love him, very hard.

The first months of Malachi's life

The Latest

2009-12-18T10:52:00.000-05:00

So much has happened!
Sophia's first "semester" of school is over. Last week she was in her very first Christmas play. She was an Angel, of course. Her GG came and supported her and even brought her some beautiful roses and a yummy candy cane!!!

Baby Boy update: I have been to the Dr. and he and I are both healthy. My mom has been here helping out with EVERYTHING so that I can keep resting!!! We could not have made it with out her. She has been, taking Sophia to school, keeping up with Piper, cleaning the house and countless other things. Thanks Mom, you are amazing.

In other news, Sophia and Piper are growing up by the second. Piper talks non-stop and is quickly turning into a little girl and no longer a baby. Sophia gets smarter all the time and asks questions that we would have never thought of. Yesterday she asked me what Chad was going to be when he grew up. When I told her that daddy was a teacher, she said, "no, I mean a REAL job".

Stay tuned...

2009-12-07T16:54:00.001-05:00

Piper calls sophia heehee which we assume is sissy. it is cute.

2009-11-29T09:56:00.001-05:00

Sophia calls a veterinarian a doctoranarian

proud dad.

2009-11-15T19:43:00.001-05:00

Sophia drew that. All by herself. I don't know much about childhood development - particularly as it relates to art - but it seems pretty amazing to me. Proud dad - out.

4 Years!!!

2009-11-09T20:33:00.001-05:00

Happy Birthday Sophia!
It's hard to believe that 4 years have come and gone. Sophia, you are turning into such a loving young lady. We love you so much.

Waiting to meet you

This morning! (some things never change :)

Sophia at school.

In her happy birthday outfit!

Trick-or-Treat

2009-11-01T20:57:00.003-05:00

This year Sophia decided that she would like to trick-or-treat. Usually she just asks for candy :)

Enjoy the pictures while we enjoy the candy!

Chad as an Elephant!

Piper as a Monkey!

Sophia as a Monkey too!

thank you "regular" grandma for the hats and tail :)

It's Fall, y'all!!

2009-11-01T20:56:00.000-05:00

The past few weeks have been filled with pumpkins, tutu's, hayrides and cool weather! Here are a few pictures of the pumpkin carving .
ENJOY!

Daddy and the girls cleaning out the Pumpkin.

Piper insisting on helping.

Finally getting to help.

It's raining turtles...

2009-10-07T20:13:00.000-04:00

So...emily came out of our front door to find a new friend for the family. We are pleased to introduce the Titus the Turtle. Sophia has quickly bonded with this reptile that she is so very afraid of. I have never seen a more strange combination of love and fear. Emily placed Titus in a wagon for the day and the girls enjoyed wheeling him about the yard (always being careful not to get too close). When dad came home we switched him to a box that we had sitting around. By the way - I realize that things have been slow on the blog. Emily is feeling much better these days and we are looking forward to baby boy coming in January.

2009-08-31T07:33:00.001-04:00

As I was leaving for work today Sophia shouts "teach alot today Dad!" oh I will.

Learning Update

2009-08-19T19:52:00.000-04:00

From Sophia's preschool:

Main Theme: "Getting to know one another"

Art: "Sunshine" = for our bulletin board

Circle: Calendar/Flag. We talked about our new friends. How do we treat our friends. We talked about classroom rules (use walking feet, inside voices, gentle hand, etc). Read "Little Quack's New Friend". Played bells. Songs: "I have a good friend", "I am happy" and "God made the world".

Bible Time: Who is God? He made the world and everything in it.

First day of school and new fish.

2009-08-17T20:34:00.003-04:00

Sophia started preschool today. Holy mackerel. She was so excited - just click HERE to see the pictures.

Some bad news though - our first fish - Dorothy passed away this week. I brought Sophia over to show her.
I said: "Sophia, I have some bad news, Dorothy has passed away"
She said: "No dad, she's just sleeping"
I said: "I'm sorry Sophia, she really is dead"
She said: "Oh. Ok let's get a new one"

and so we did. You will see pictures of our new Beta Fish - "Toby" in the slide show.

2009-08-15T12:49:00.001-04:00

Just got done meeting sophias preschool teacher and seeing her room. time will not slow down no matter how hard i try to make it do so.

First Trip to the Movies

2009-08-04T20:46:00.003-04:00

So a big thanks to Regal Cinemas and their summer movie program. For those of you that don't know - Regal Cinemas opens their theaters at 10am for both a G and PG movie, get this - FOR FREE! Today Sophia and Daddy took this opportunity to indulge in her first ever movie theater experience. We went to see the movie "The Tale of Despereaux". Sophia had a great time. Things overheard from her "Dad, that's a real big tv", "this popcorn is real good", "I have to go to the bathroom."

Juice Box Stand

2009-08-04T20:32:00.002-04:00

Sophia got it in her head that she wanted to set up a juicebox stand. I was in the garage cleaning while soph made several trips in and out of the garage - when I came out to the front to see it, this is what I saw. She said she was going to sell them for 10 dollars! This post contains quite possibly one of the greatest pictures of the girls to date. Enjoy.

2009-07-31T12:12:00.001-04:00

I was just looking for something in the fridge when Sophia says "what do you need out of there chunky monkey" oh boy

2009-07-29T16:42:00.001-04:00

After hitting me while using a swing "thats what you get for standing in front of a swing"

Celebrating 6 Years!

2009-07-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Six years ago today emily and Chad Fair were married! The years have been wonderful and gone by with a bang. Two and a half kids later (if you didn't know we are having our third in January!), we are living wonderfully blessed lives in Charlotte. Enjoy this web album as it takes you through our dating days all the way up to our engagement at Blue Ridge Community Church's youth group meeting one fateful April Wednesday in 2003. If you have any questions about pictures - leave a comment and I will try to answer it. I am trying to caption stuff though.
Click HERE for the Awesome photo album.

2009-07-24T09:22:00.001-04:00

On Piper's balloon that flew away...Sophia says "maybe its going to Florida"

Sophia's first movie....

2009-07-22T11:28:00.002-04:00

We made a little movie this summer starring Sophia and some of the kids from our neighborhood. Enjoy.

Sophia gets her ears pierced!!

2009-07-12T07:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday morning Sophia woke up and said, "mom I want to get my ears pierced today". We had always told her that she could do it when she wanted to and before she has chickened out or not wanted to...this time was for real though and below is a short video of the time:

NYC with the fam!

2009-07-01T10:25:00.001-04:00

Hey guys - we just enjoyed a great time in NYC with Aunt Gayle. Enjoy the video below and picture album!

Pictures here:
CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES!

2009-06-26T15:34:00.001-04:00

Piper WILL catch a pigeon before this trip is over

Happy Fathers Day!

2009-06-21T09:02:00.000-04:00

I love you daddy!

"Special Reward"

2009-06-14T22:21:00.002-04:00

For months now Sophia has come home on Sundays talking about a "special reward" for singing and dancing in her class (called Motion). Week after week she would speak with a sense of awe at the students that won the reward - but also a sense of disappointment that only a 3 year old can have. All of that changed today! When we went to pick her up from her class - her teachers told us of her great behavior and her winning the very prestigious "Dance Shout and Sing Award". This is an award given to one child each week and our daughter was not only dancing by herself - but was encouraging others to dance and sing as well. Congratulations Sophia we are so very proud of you!

Piper these days

2009-06-08T21:25:00.002-04:00

She's flat out nuts...crazy. She dances all the time - loves music and is sleeping through the night until around 7:20 am. She is a source of inspiration to us all! PIPER!!!!

2009-06-04T19:04:00.001-04:00

2009-05-23T10:15:00.001-04:00

Me: sophia you ran over my foot with your bike Sophia:sorry but im just a kid Dad Me: what does that mean? Sophia: i run into stuff!

Catching up...

2009-05-10T21:23:00.001-04:00

We know that there have been long periods of inactivity on this blog - but rest assured the girls are growing and life is happening. Piper is getting HUGE. She now says "Hi" to everyone that walks by (and often when no one is there too). In addition to Hi, she is now saying "Mommy", "Daddy", "Woof Woof", "Phia" (Sophia), "Doggy", and some form of Thank You. Below are pictures of last Sunday when we headed to my school for some time on the playground.

The next week is going to be crazy as my kids are putting up the show "You Can't Take It With You" for a dinner theatre this weekend. Hopefully things will get more often here on the blog soon!

2009-04-19T08:25:00.001-04:00

Sophia: Dad me and Piper are not princesses. Me: Why not? Sophia: Because we dont have a horses

Sophia's new pet

2009-04-18T11:16:00.005-04:00

Most of us might find it a tad skin crawling...but we now have a new member of our family...Larry the caterpillar...below are some pictures and a video of Sophia playing with Larry's extended family on the back porch. Good times in the fair household.

This is why we love our church...

2009-04-13T14:52:00.002-04:00

This was the very beginning of our Easter service. After it the entire place exploded into worship both in music and spirit...enjoy:

Elevation Church Easter Opener from Elevation Church on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T08:00:00.000-04:00

Better late than never - Piper's first birthday video - a tribute!

2009-04-06T14:52:00.004-04:00

I've had this done for a while - but just now got it up to youtube...enjoy!

Long time, no post.

2009-04-04T15:52:00.000-04:00

Things have been rather busy here at the homestead. In March I went with our Upper School competition group to represent North Carolina at the South Eastern Theater Festival in Alabama. My boss directed the show and I was privelaged to assist in a great telling of Shakespeare's As You Like It that beat out over 60 schools in North Carolina to earn the nod to head to SETC. You can see more about that trip here. One of our students was named best actress over all...fantastic times.

After that I headed to Kings Mountain North Carolina where my middle schoolers competed in the NCTC middle school one act play competition. It was a really fun time and we did really well. I was so proud of the 18 middle schoolers that I was blessed to direct in two shows - Drop Dead, Juliet and Mill Girls. I will post those results in the near future - it was a wonderful day as well.

I'll try to post more frequently now that things have settled down...but I do have a dinner theatre coming up in May for anyone that would like to come. It is You Can't Take it With You and is being performed by students from the Upper School (here are the details)

SOOO. Piper turned one and there is a video that I will post some time soon...but below is from recent times when we got to go outside and blow some bubbles. Good times were had by all.

BUBBLES in April!

Just the Girls

2009-03-13T14:00:00.002-04:00

This past week Chad was out of town with the ACT 3 team, so the girls and I headed south to Grandma and Grandpa Artinos. Here are a few pictures of the girls at the beach.

March 1st brings...snow showers?

2009-03-01T22:23:00.002-05:00

So...Charlotte has been in a frenzy all day due to the fact that we were supposed to get snow today. We have gotten these warnings before through the news, gotten riled up, and then had nothing pan out. So we always tread lightly when we hear that these things are going to happen - meaning - we usually don't share with Sophia that it "might" happen. We watched weather.com all day keeping track of the storm that was supposed to bring 3-8 inches of snow to us - and round about 5 o'clock, it started. Below are some shots that we took at around 10 pm tonight. According to weather.com, the real bru-haha hasn't even started yet...we are supposed to have "severe" weather at around 1:45am. Oh boy - got to love some freak storms.

We need YOUR help for a contest!

2009-02-17T20:11:00.011-05:00

We are participating in a one day contest with Cheyenne Schultz Photography (her husband does video work for our church). Below are the contest rules and prizes - there is some great stuff on the line for us to win. Anyways - we are in a voting situation and need YOU, our faithful readers, to vote for us on Wednesday Februrary 18th before 11:59pm - click HERE. Our pictures won't be up until Tuesday at 11:59pm so don't expect them before then. Thanks so very much for doing this for us. I think you will recognize us in our picture. By the way - take some time to look around her site at her wedding stuff - it is amazing!

One dress - two girls

2009-02-16T14:28:00.001-05:00

Piper February 2009 Sophia March 2007
11 months 15 months

New Flower Beds

2009-02-16T13:51:00.001-05:00

So after almost 2 years of having nothing in our flower beds - we finally decided to do something about it. This turned into a 3 day project - but the end results makes us feel like we actually care about our home. Our next door neighbor's son came over and said, "So you guys are going to have more than just dirt in here now huh?" We laughed pretty hard. We are pretty pleased with the outcome. Here's what we did:

1. We leveled out (as much as possible) and weeded the beds.
2. Spread out weed fabric and re-set the border.
3. Planted some Indian White Hawthorns.
4. Replanted some other plants that were there previously.
5. Laid down some mulch.

BTW - for those that are doing this sort of thing: mulch does not go as far as you thing. Someone take a guess as to how many bags it took to fill this in - I'll even tell you that each bag was 2 cubic feet (Mike - put down the calculator you math nerd).

Big announcement for Sophia:

2009-02-13T20:18:00.000-05:00

Sophia is going to PRESCHOOL! Starting in August, Sophia will be going to a three day a week preschool. We are so very thrilled for her. She will be a part of a great program that will include Spanish, Computers, Math and Science! We feel very blessed for this opportunity. If anyone would like to know where - e-mail us!

the piper report.

2009-02-11T21:33:00.008-05:00

Alright - so other than the amazing picture - here are some things about piper:

She is now walking like crazy. She no longer needs to pull herself up on something - she is good to go. The crawl still gets her there faster and more stable - but the walk is slowly taking over.
She is using a sippy cup.
She loves Macaroni and Cheese - we're talking mad love.
She is a climber.
She can run a circuit in the bouncehouse - including sliding down by herself, letting herself down from the slide and crawling back into the house.
She loves to wrestle sophia.
She pretends to talk on the phone - or anything that looks like it. She will lift it up to her ear and grunt.
She does not do well with others at night (Sorry Tonya).
She is hit or miss in a nursery still - Mr. Chris at Butler campus can calm her down like no one else - come to find out he is a neo-natal nurse.
She likes frozen vegetables just like her sister did/does.

Happy 11 months big girl!

Adventures in three!

2009-02-11T21:03:00.029-05:00

Sophia has been very helpful lately. It is not the kind of helpful that is totally helpful though. Lately it has been a series of test of quick-minded reactions for both emily and I as Sophia has tried her best to do things for us but ended up doing somewhat frustrating things. The picture above is one from a couple of mornings ago. Sophia's new routine is to get up and go downstairs to watch some movies before emily gets up. There is usually a period of about 10-15 minutes between when I leave for work and emily gets up. During that 10-15 minute period, while the Soph was supposed to be watching Martha Speaks, she decided to pour all of us some milk - and make some chocolate milk for herself. What a sweet thing to do...and btw - the milk was salvaged.

Then just last night I brought home a bag of chips for salsa. em and I were catching up on the day and holding piper. We had the back door open because it was a beautiful night and Sophia likes to go out to the porch to look around. Soph got quiet for a little while and soon I figured I needed to check on her. When I went out, I found Soph doing something that she and her mother do quite often - take leftover food and put it out for the squirrels and birds. Only - this time it wasn't left-overs - it was the brand new chips. What a sweet girl - just trying to help out.

Tomorrow we have some good news to tell you about Sophia. For now - just enjoy our pain.

Snow day!

2009-02-04T15:30:00.011-05:00

So...rumor had it that we would be getting flurries last night...and then we weren't...and then we were. Off and on, off and on - I kept refreshing weather.com and it would change every couple of minutes. Last night at about 9 or so the news started reporting that the mountains were getting snow but that it was going to go all around us and miss us completely. I stayed up until 11:30 watiting to see what was going to happen and went to bed being told that little if any snow was coming our way. Then, magically - as if in a dream when Piper woke up at 1:30 for a bottle and I looked outside - everything was covered in white stuff!

At 6 am I got up for work and called our number and it said school was still on. I got ready for the day and was about to head out when Em told me to try again - to my surprise they had changed the message and school was cancelled - SNOW DAY! Enjoy the pics!

Piper Update: Mad Skills

2009-01-28T21:27:00.019-05:00

Piper just started giving kisses when asked. It is the open mouthed, dead-fish type, but none-the-less she understands and obliges.
She says and waves bye-bye (with a southern accent)
As mentioned before Piper has 6 teeth.
She is walking EVERYWHERE - see video below.
She is quick as a spider monkey when climbing the stairs.
LOVES table food, more than she is able to eat actually. We have to start her baby food a little early before she sees us eat b/c she will refuse to eat then - and she really isn't that good at eating everything she THINKS she can eat. Tonight she ate tiny pieces of pizza.
Started splashing and playing in the bath rather than just surviving it.
Loves the vacuum - LOVES
Can completely destroy a nicely folded basket of laundry in no time flat.
Said "Daddy, I love you" very clearly... (ok so that one is made up)

on the mend...

2009-01-25T22:24:00.002-05:00

Sophia and I headed to pets mart where we saw many animals that we now "need". In Soph's mind - ten will be a huge age - it will be the time she can have soda and a pet...i didn't know it, but they sell chinchilla's for pets. And for anyone that wonders - dorothy the fish is still alive and kicking.

Later on, em was feeling a bit stir crazy so we headed out to Target. Somewhere along the way we found a fedora, one thing led to another and then this happened:

Piper walks (think kanye west when you read that)

2009-01-25T16:03:00.000-05:00

Our family has been down with the gunk...Em with strep and an ear infection, Pipes with RSV-esque stuff and an ear infection, Soph with a cold and a nasty cough and me with a cold and an unhealthily large supply of airborne...

BTW - Piper has 6 teeth now and is doing this:

SNOW DAY!

2009-01-20T10:42:00.001-05:00

After being away from the girls and em for far too long - the good Lord smiled on us and provided a snow day to recover from a long weekend!

She's up and at 'em

2009-01-13T20:06:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to let you know that on Sunday night Piper took more steps than usual. SOooo she is officially on track to be walking more often. Her preferred method is still the crawl - or as our friend Keith called it: "the salamandar", but she is definitely up and moving. Such a climber. Pics and video soon.

M.I.A. Recap.

2009-01-10T20:35:00.006-05:00

We got back from our Christmas vacation by way of Jasper, Georgia. That trip took us about 6 hours or so. We took a little while to recover. We run in the new year in part with our friends Kelly and Will Goley and their son Alex and a couple of his friends. I say partially b/c we were back home by 11:30 and watched Ryan Seacrest, Kelly Pickler, Taylor Swift, and the Jonas Brothers hug one another (we won't even talk about Dick Clark...)

On Friday the 2nd we packed up Pat the PT and headed to Washington DC to help our good friend Jason Berrus get married. I love Jason as a brother and have known him since my days at BBC. He stood up with me when I married Emily and now after several years I was given the honor to join him. Regular Grandma and Julie were kind enough to come up here to look after Sophia and Piper for us back at the homestead - so it quickly became a very good time of reconnection for Em and I.

Our trip to the Nation's Capital went well and we soon arrived at the Capital Hilton (thanks to hotwire who got us a deal for literally half the price - if you have never used it - I highly recommend it. The only "problem" was that parking was 40 bucks a night! Ah...the city)

After checking in and freshening up - we headed to the rehearsal at Capital Hill Baptist Church. This was a great time of not only rehearing the wedding, but getting caught up with good friends like Ryan and Jess Roberts, Matt and Alicia Deweaver, and Ben and Suzanna Smith. We were also able to meet Jason's bride-to-be Bev during this time. After making sure that we knew what the heck we were doing we headed out for our rehearsal dinner at a great thai restaurant called Old Siam. The food was fantastic as was the company.

After dropping off the wives at their respective hotels, Ryan and I headed back to spend some time with Jason at his new apartment. We spent the majority of this evening in some intense Wii action.

The next day was great. We took pictures at the Capital building and inside the National Library, which is absolutetly AMAZING inside. You can see the pictures here. The wedding photogapher did a GREAT job. Check them out, here is a taste to temp you to head her way:

After a great ceremony and reception we headed back and headed out into the city with the Dewevers. We had great conversation and had some of the worst service at a Starbucks I have ever had (consequently - I wrote Starbucks and they were great in response).

After some time in the city we headed to Clyde's of Galleria place and had a fabulous dinner with all of the out of town guest. Jason and Bev's families really took good care of us. After dinner we said goodbye to the Dewevers and headed to the Washington Monument with Ryan and Jess. It was a nice night (a little cold) but it yielded a great walk and some good conversation.

The next day we slept in...(which was amazing) and then headed back to Charlotte. But not before stopping at our first ever IKEA!! We just found out that we are going to have our IKEA here in town on Feburary 18th, but we enjoyed thoroughly our first ever walk through the amazing halls of this Swedish Giant.

There is lots more to update - but this is the end of my ramblings for the evening.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T23:03:00.000-05:00

There is much more to write regarding our last trip, and I will get to it soon. But to ring in the new year - here is a great video from the break - enjoy your Friday...and if you had to go back to work today, I hope it goes by fast.

Florida Trip (now Georgia) Day 8 and 9

2008-12-29T22:56:00.006-05:00

Look closely at this price and tell me you don't want to go to Jasper Georgia right now and get some gas. We slept very well last night in a great little apartment that is set up in Mount Zion baptist church where Tony is an associate pastor. The people of Mount Zion were wonderful to open up this room which serves as lodging for missionaries and other friends of the church. We headed to Cracker Barrel and had a great breakfast with the whole gang:

We left Cracker Barrel and made a stop at the Wal-mart and Starbucks. After this we headed back to our wonderful digs at Mt. Zion. Then the real fun started as we found out that there was a huge volleyball shindig going down...the whole family got involved at one point. This was the first outing of team Fartino...and it didn't go so well. Paul (the Volleyball Nazi) blamed everything on Micah. Sophia really enjoyed cheering us on, and Gayle just had to do her best to keep Piper off of the court.

That night we had some wonderful bbq courtesy of a member of Tony's congregation and it was great. The next day saw Church and Sophia had to help Aunt Gayle prep for her solo.

Directly after our time at Church we packed up and headed over to the Ramirez for one last meal and paying attention to the last miserable Buc's game of the season. Then we headed back to Charlotte at around 3.

Florida Trip (now Georgia) Day 7: part 2

2008-12-29T22:35:00.004-05:00

We arrived at the Ramirez (Uncle Paul's in-laws) house at around 3:00 and were greeted by Uncle Paul, Aunt Lauren and Lauren's parents Tony and Cindy. They were wonderful to host us for a couple of days. Very quickly Paul, Lauren, and her sister Lindsey sat down to give the girls some gifts.

Paul and Lauren got Sophia a great chalkboard which Sophia promptly set out to work on it.

Florida Trip Day 7: part 1

2008-12-29T22:16:00.002-05:00

Ok...so we planned to get up around 6 when the girls usually rise. Unfortunately their body clocks had a different idea. Sophia tugged on my sleeve at around 3:30 am and asked to watch a movie on her dvd player. She was a tad loud and this woke up Piper who instead of being groggy was in mid-day form and started jumping up and down in her crib. Em and I looked at one another and decided to tackle the 9 hour trip to Jasper to see Uncle Paul and Aunt Lauren right then and there. 4 am brought quiet streets in Florida. Em and I both agreed that God may just indeed be sparing us by waking up the girls - so we were glad to get going. The girls slept well for the first part and we made "good time".

The newly aquired Tom Tom from Grammy and Papa Cows came in handy when we needed a break around 1 or so - we looked up Shopping Centers and found Southlake Mall in Morrow Georgia. This was a great place to stop and get out and they also had a GREAT carousel that Sophia got to ride on - this made her VERY happy. So after some Chinese food and a 2 dollar carousel ride - we hopped back in the car and headed to Picken's County Georgia.

Florida Trip Day 6

2008-12-29T21:35:00.006-05:00

We woke up Christmas morning and had a good time with Papa Cows, Grammy, Uncle Charlie, Aunt Shanna-Lee, and Hanz - eating breakfast, opening presents, playing in the bounce house, and then eating some more.

After opening gifts we headed out to Papa Chuck-E-Cheese and Regular Grandma's house.
There we were able to open presents and see Aunt Gayle and Julie as well. The highlight for Sophia was her baker's (and doctor's) set - she went around telling everyone, "Call me baker, call me Doctor Chef Sophia". Piper just enjoyed trying to eat the ornaments:

Piper was dead tired but took some time getting used to her new surroundings to sleep. The way we ran things up until this point in the trip was to get Piper to sleep and then put Sophia in the room and get her to sleep. Sophia went down rather late and emily and I slipped into the rooom at about 10 because we needed to get up to head to Jasper Georgia the next day...we thought we would get up around 6 and take off by 7 - the girls had a different idea...

Florida Trip: Day 5 Part 2

2008-12-24T20:47:00.000-05:00

The other part of today was getting to take Piper and Sophia to see a couple of important people in our lives. Mami and Pappi were my parents orginal neighbors when they built and moved into our home. Mami and Pappi (these aren't their real names, just nicknames that have stuck) were married when Mami was 14 years old and have now been married 70 plus years. It was a christmas tradition for my brother and I to visit with Mami and Pappi and so we are trying to continue it with our girls. It was good to see them today. They are amazing people.

We were also able to visit for the first time with Papa Cow and Grammy's friend's Roger and Jan. It was nice to meet them after hearing from them for so long.

We finished up the night with a visit from the girls Great Great Uncle James. This is Papa Cow's Dad's Brother and is the last surviving brother in that group. We love Uncle James and the girls do to!

Tomorrow is the big day - the Celebration of our Savior's Birth! Merry Christmas! Next stop - Clearwater!

Florida Trip: Day 5 pt 1

2008-12-24T20:09:00.008-05:00

Today's day started out with an epic early Christmas present from Grammy and Papa Cows - here are the windup and the pitch...what was it you asked?

A BOUNCE HOUSE! Can you believe it? Sophia certainly couldn't. This, my friends was most of Day 5's activity. Bounce Bounce Bounce. It didn't take long for Piper to figure out how to use it either.

Florida Trip Day 3 and 4

2008-12-23T22:07:00.005-05:00

Day 3: We headed out to do something that we have been wanting to do for a while and that is see Mema Fair at her new place of residence. She is at a wonderful assisted living facility near my parent's house - so we headed over there for lunch. We got the private dining room and had a good lunch - salad, beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a brownie. Sophia and Piper had a good time playing with Mema's frogs and listening to her celebrate good times card (video to follow). All in all, the trip really is worth it all if that is the only thing we get to do. Mema was so glad to see the girls and us.

Day 4: WE started off the day with Sophia helping out Papa Cows with the finishing touches on the tree. This was really a fun time to see Sophia place ornaments on the tree wherever she felt. Uncle Charlie came over in the morning and accompanied us on our errands. These errands included a trip to Chik-Fil-A. We were on the hunt to find Piper another one of these silly buddies. The company told us two stores that had them here in town, but neither actually did. After Chikfiwas (Sophia's pronunciation) we went to Sear's Essentials - which is an interesting store -(think K-Mart and Sears having a baby). There was much playing on the exercise equipment and horse rides outside. We headed home for naps and later that evening Shanna-Lee came over and Papa Cows made shrimp and pasta salad for dinner.

Florida Trip day 1 and 2

2008-12-22T10:08:00.010-05:00

We have begun our Christmas journey to Florida. We left on Saturday morning at around 10:30 a.m. after emily spent the week packing and cleaning and finishing up christmas gifts. Piper took a good nap for a couple of hours and around columbia we found a great McDonalds and stopped off for lunch and stretching.

From there we traveled to Jacksonville with one stop in Georgia at exit one for gas. BTW - anyone reading this and traveling on 95 through Georgia - the difference in gas between exit 1 and 3 was about 20 cents (with exit one being the cheapest). I had gone on trip advisor the night before we left and checked out Jacksonville hotels. I landed at Country Inn and Suites b/c they had a great room offered with a separate sitting area and bedroom that you could shut the door to. This, to us, is much better than a studio setting where we are putting Piper down and then doing our best to keep Sophia quiet for hours. I know that people have done it for years - but we are just not that good - so we need the added help. We arrived in Jacksonville at about 6 o' clock and checked in.

The placement of this particular Country Inn and Suite was good b/c it was around a lot of food choices - we ended up at Denny's. I don't know if you know this or not - but kids eat free at Denny's on Tuesdays and Saturdays...word. I got my favorite Moons over My Hammy and emily got a club sandwich - Sophia got a huge side salad and chicken and cheese sticks.

After a bit of a rough night with Sophia sleeping like a log on the pull out couch and Piper waking up every hour crying we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel (another perk of the country inn and suites). We got going at about 10:30 and made it to Lakeland at 1:40.

All in all - a good start. Spending time with Papa Cows and Grammy has been fun and Piper and Sophia slept well last night...IN THE SAME ROOM! Truly a Christmas miracle. Sophia is convinced that she will be getting into her grandparents pool at some point - which is absolutely freezing. Anyone want to come down and swim with her?

We'll check back in later.

Catching Up...

2008-12-16T21:27:00.002-05:00

This is what we have been up to.

Piper is getting so big and her personality is even bigger! She is a blast! Poor big sister was so pooped that she tried to take a nap down stairs on her toys...Piper was not having it!
Laundry takes a bit longer too these days. Piper likes to help.

Sophia is 3 going on 16. Some of the stuff she says makes us laugh so hard. The other day she asked me if School was ready for her because she was ready to go! Her newest thing is to say "get out of town" when she sees Christmas lights that she really likes. What a card.

What fun!

This is for you V

2008-12-07T20:50:00.001-05:00

I was tagged....Here we go

5 Things I want to do before I die...
1. Go on a missions trip with my husband and girls
2. Be a Proverbs 31 wife
3. Be the mommy God intended me to be
4. Memorize the book of Romans
5. COMPLETELY organize my house

5 Things I can do...
1. make Chad laugh
2. fold a fitted sheet
3. tell if a child has a fever by feeling their tummy
4. Bake awesome cookies, at least Sophia thinks so
5. watch and understand football

5 things I can not do...
1. Play a musical instrument
2. watch horror movies
3. go with out kissing my babies goodnight
4. stand clutter
5. sleep on a plane

5 things that attract me to my hubby
1. His Love for Christ
2. His dry sense of humor
3. His willingness to allow me to be right :)
4. His intellect
5. His leadership

5 things I say Most Often
1. "I love you"
2. "please be kind"
3. " Please, use your manners"
4. "Piper, get that out of your mouth"
5. "Please do not pick up your sister"

5 Celebrity Crushes
1. John Tesh
2. Steve Busheme
3. Christopher Loyd
4. Christopher Walkin
5. John Goodman

5 Peeps I'm tagging
1. April D.
2. Sarah P
3. "Red" - you know who you are
4. Mary W.
5. Julie A.

McAdenville Christmas Lights

2008-12-07T16:46:00.000-05:00

There is a town here in North Carolina known as McAdenville. They pride themselves on being called Christmas town. Around August of every year swarms of people gather and begin to test Christmas lights and then hang them all throughout the town. Then at the end of November thousands of people begin to drive at a super slow pace through the two mile stretch. We stumbled across this place about 3 years ago when Sophia was first born. She wasn't old enough to care then - but now she is so excited to see just two or three sets of lights so we decided to blow her mind with a trip to this town of wonder. The video is really not that grand as it is hard to capture something like this on video but we hope you enjoy it.

Evolution at work.

2008-12-04T01:00:00.000-05:00

So...the walrus is advancing in his abilities...

Happy Birthday Aunt Julie!

2008-12-03T08:11:00.000-05:00

We Love you Aunt Julie!
Hope your birthday is as amazing as you are!

December brings some joy...

2008-12-01T21:22:00.005-05:00

The girls are growing up fast - Piper will be 9 months old in a matter of days and Sophia is enjoying each day as Piper gets a little older and more wrestl-a-ble. You'll see one of the pictures below where Piper is actually enjoying the wrestle time - but trust me when I say that Piper does not always enjoy these times of rolling around with big sister. Problem is that sis doesn't know her boundaries just yet - but she is learning.

Today mom built a tent using a table in our dining room area. Piper was so excited to see her big sister under the sweet little fort.

I don't know if you liked the elf yourself we made - but if you did there are more where that came from...just let us know by leaving a comment...:)

Christmas is COMING!!!

2008-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Enjoy:

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

SICK!

2008-11-26T20:30:00.004-05:00

We have been MIA here on the Spider Bites blog because the days have not been kind to us. Last Thursday I called Em before I left to come home from work and she told me she was beat. This is to be expected as the week was wrapping up and the girls can wear you slap out, but she said that she felt a little funky to boot. We got through dinner and into the bath and afterwards, around 7:30 or so, Sophia complained that her stomach felt funny. I got her dressed and she kind of rolled around on the floor and then said she needed to go the restroom. I took her and she got sick all over the place (you get the innuendo, I'm sure). Meanwhile - Emily was sick in the same manner and had done some investigating to find out that she had used month old mayo on chicken sandwiches and we assumed that both she and Soph were the victims of some sort of food poisoning.

Well - Soph continued to be sick about every 15 minutes for the next three hours at which point the doctor said we needed to head to the hospital to try to avoid dehydration. It was a pathetic site, I wrapped her up in her blanket and headed to the E.R. The people over at Matthews Presbyterian Hospital are great and we got into a room about as fast as can be expected in an E.R. Sophia's nausea calmed a bit and eventually the Nurse Practitioner gave her some Zofran to stop the nausea which worked and then they gave her some Pedialyte which she was able to keep down. Toward the end of our stay I was starting to feel that sort of tired-sickness and I laid down a sheet and slept on the floor.

The trip home at 3 a.m. was the longest ever and we only live about 5 minutes from Presby Matthews. I laid Sophia down and slipped into bed but was beginning to feel sick myself. This was confirmed about 45 minutes later as my body told me in obvious ways. The fact that I was now sick and had not eaten the Chicken sandwiches of death confirmed that it was indeed a virus and not food poisoning. Point was - all of us wanted to die. Sophia had a terrible up and down night, bed sheets were changed multiple times, and it took us until Sunday to begin to feel normal. This was the first time I have had anything like this in well over 5 years so this thing was a beast.

If you've made it this far you are a trooper b/c this is most definitely for our memory. Here's to you and yours staying healthy this Holiday season.

Things you should know...

2008-11-18T22:22:00.000-05:00

I get to sit through a lot of chapel speakers during my weeks at school. Oftentimes people come through with some pretty amazing things to say, stories to share, organizations to tell us about. Many times I will come home to em and tell her about this stuff and I am really excited to share it. SOoo, I wanted to share these things with you guys who may never get to know about them.

The first is one that you most likely have heard about: Operation Christmas Child. This ministry run by Samariatan's Purse and since 1993 61 million boxes have been packed and sent oversees to children in impoverished countries. I don't know how I missed this - perhaps we didn't do it at BBC - em said she always did it at Liberty - but it is amazing. Individuals pack these boxes with all sorts of items ranging from fun to helpful, our kids for exampled did a piece for our broadcasting class where they took a day and went to the dollar store and bought a bunch of stuff for boxes. Along with these boxes - tracks are passed out, local churches are partnered with, and kid's lives are changed.

The second one is an organization that I just heard about today - and I am guessing you have never heard of them. They are called Mercy Ships and they are amazing. This organization actually ownes 2 ships that are fully equipped with 3 operation stations, blood labs, ct scans and living quarters. They take these ships and dock them in the ports of impoverished nations and they go in to these towns and help with surgical needs. Things like tumours, cleft pallets, and other malformations, things that we easily take care of in the US go untreated in these countries. In addition to the surgeries the mercy ship crews will also go on land to help educate about and provide clean water for local villages. This is an ingenious idea and I thought I'd share! Hope it blesses you guys.

Sophia Geddes part 2 or 3...not sure which

2008-11-15T17:04:00.003-05:00

It has been a while since we have featured this segment - but I think it will be more often because for her birthday Sophia received the Fisher Price Tuff Stuff digital camera. The picture quality is a little low - but I don't really care because she loves having her own camera. It is really durable and ready to roll with Sophia's lifestyle. These pictures were taken and handpicked by the master herself to grace our little blog. I hope you enjoy!

Cookies made and bought...

2008-11-15T16:40:00.008-05:00

Sophia wanted to make cookies today. And so mom obliged. It is amazing to watch her get these ideas in her head and then refuse to let go of them. Right now as I type this, she is just finishing up one of her chores which is putting away the silverware. Some water dripped onto the chair that she uses to stand on and so she asked em for a rag. She just worked feverishly to wipe it down and just now proclaimed "I'm done". She is now back to work and just stated: "Everybody likes knives".

In other news. Trader Joe's is now selling their yearly addictive item: the Candy Cane Joe Joe's. These bits of heaven are essentially Oreo cookies with Pieces of peppermint in them. They are just this side of amazing. Thanks again trader joe's.

Sophia Carving Pumpkins

2008-11-10T20:20:00.000-05:00

A little late but better than never - here is our tribute to ~~halloween~~ fall. Enjoy:

Birthday bounce house....JEALOUS!?!

2008-11-08T20:14:00.007-05:00

Today we celebrated Sophia's 3rd birthday in style. In attendance was Grammy, Papa Cows, Grandma, Papa Chuck-E-Cheese, The Nuzum Family, Smith Family and Ms. As you can see from the pictures below we got a bounce house for Soph from the bounce house man. By the by - this company is incredible. Not only were they friendly and professional - the price was extremely reasonable and we had the house from 9:30am until 6pm which was great. We enjoyed some Papa Johns pizza and em made cupcakes. All in all - it was a great day! Happy birthday peanut - it is hard to believe that 3 years has already gone by. Click on the picture below to see a whole bunch...

Sophia's Third Birthday

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK!!!!

2008-10-31T07:50:00.000-04:00

The concert was AMAZING!!! It was so much fun! More info and pictures to follow.

Emily's Windfall

2008-10-29T20:56:00.002-04:00

Does the acrostic: NKOTB mean anything to you in computer land? Well, to the laymen - this stands for New Kids on the Block...one of the greatest (if not the first american) boybands of all time. Well - these guys are back, new album and new tour. A couple of months ago - Emily instant messaged me and was out of breath over the instant message telling me that the New Kids were doing a concert on the Today show and that it was "Freaking awesome". She then committed to seeing their tour - until we found out the cost of tickets.

We forgot all about the concert until yesterday when our talk radio favorites Matt and Ramona held a trivia contest to win tickets. I was miffed b/c I wanted to call in and win them but missed the opportunity. Then, low and behold today right when Emily switched on the whole house radio - they asked for callers 10-12 to play the game again! I ran and found the phone and dialed Matt and Ramona's number. It rang and rang and then I handed off to Emily and they answered it. The long and short - Em was caller 12 and got to play the game - and won second place - TWO TICKETS TO THE SHOW!!!!

Here's the kicker - you can listen to Emily's straight up domination on the radio show here for a limited time.
CLICK HERE OR RIGHT CLICK AND SAVE AS

Books We're Reading Part 5

2008-10-24T21:55:00.004-04:00

Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

A Chef by by Douglas Florian
Day by day a week goes round by Carol Diggory Shields
Don't forget I love you by Miriam Moss
Ella Sarah Get Dressed by Margaret Chodos-Irvine
Madeline's Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans
Noah's Ark by by Jerry Pinkney
With you always, Little Monday by Geneviève Côté

Fall is here!

2008-10-22T20:30:00.009-04:00

We have heard many people talk about going to a pumpkin patch in order to pick out a very special holiday gourd. Not so much for the Fair family who saw that pumpkins were marked down to a very reasonable 3.50 this week. So we went to our local retailer and worked our way through the mess that was left overs. After much scrutiny by our resident quality control expert - we escaped with what we deemed to be a steal. Below are the pictures.

With the good has come the bad. Piper slept very well last night - she got up at 12:45 to eat but then slept until 9am. This is way different from usual (if we can say 'usual' with her yet) as she mostly gets up from 7:30-8. She took some long naps, longer than normal and then turned up with a 102+ fever. Em took her to the doctor and they said all of her other vitals were fine but that we should keep an eye on her. As I write this, she is asleep on Em's chest. Poor thing. By the by - Piper also has successfully cracked her 2 bottom teeth. This too was a trying time. Pray for the popcorn.

Picture People time!

2008-10-21T20:46:00.001-04:00

We made this visit about the 3 year (next month) and 6th month (last month) for the girls. Everything went well - Sophia was great for the first time in several visits and didn't freak out, in fact she got a chance to strike some of her poses for the camera that she and daddy have so diligently been working on. Before we get to the photos (which will of course have Zazzle on them b/c they are copyrighted) I would like to give a spider bite to you: I asked Sophia this question: "What brings us here to the photo place Soph?" and she said, "the car dad...(laugh)"

Saturday Mornings at our house!

2008-10-18T11:02:00.017-04:00

Before we had kids, when we were still living in our first apartment in Oviedo, we started a Saturday morning tradition of doing either pancakes or waffles and bacon. Many frequenters of this blog can attest to this fact as they have participated in this tradition.

We have continued to do this most every Saturday morning using our favorite Krusteaz pancake mix from Sam's wholesale club and pretty much any lower sodium bacon we can find (our favorite is Hormel Black label, but for a while we were using Gwaltney...pretty much we go where the deals are so we have tried many different brands). Sophia is now old enough to help stir the batter (not unattended mind you - I left her once and...let's just say we had to restart the process) and enjoys participating very much. She is also in charge of the chocolate chips.

So...what kind of family traditions do you have? Leave us a comment and let us know.

DATE NIGHT!!!

2008-10-16T21:17:00.000-04:00

First of all - Emily redesigned the blog and I think it looks Great!
Second: our Church spent 5 weeks on a series known as (and you can see this from the picture) Visionary Love, Dream Sex. It was a fast and furious romp through the book of Song of Solomon (Songs). The sermons took us from Attraction, to Dating, to Marriage and then the first fight. Pastor Furtick covered in great detail the "wedding night" for one sermon and then he and his wife finished up the series talking about the first fight.

This is all a precursor to the title of this blog. Week 4 saw our church putting it's money where its mouth is by offering all married couples a night out on the church's tab. They got together with several local restaurants (look at the card below for the list) and set up a 30 dollar gift card for us at the dining place of our choosing. We had two weeks to use it and so we capitalized tonight with the aid of one of our friends Susan and her daughter Brewington. We headed out to P.F. Changs! Emily had never been there and I had only been there once - we started with Chang's Chinese Lettuce Wraps, and then moved to Mongolian Beef and Sweet and Sour Pork with a side of White and Brown rice. We had a great waiter and he surprised us by having a side of noodles prepared to complement the sweetness of the Beef and Pork dishes. This was an AMAZING night - thank you Elevation for our Date Night!

Just yesterday...

2008-10-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

The girls are getting so big! It seems like just yesterday I was bringing Sophia home from the hospital. Where does the time go? I don't want to miss out on the little things that happen from day to day. Like naps and bath time. I am going to try to take more pictures of all the mundane things that we do! Wish me luck!

Piper was supposed to be taking a nap, however when I went to her room, this is what I saw!

"Flying" a Kite

2008-10-15T21:47:00.005-04:00

This weekend was a bit windy so daddy and Sophia got out the Spiderman kite and had some fun. The kite did not exactly fly ... but they both had a lot of fun.

Water tower pictures are pouring in...not really

2008-10-13T20:14:00.001-04:00

So this picture came to us from our friend Samantha. She is the only one who sent us one. So sad. I'll go ahead and add this one from Gaffney SC for good measure:

Calling all ... Water Towers?

2008-10-09T21:36:00.005-04:00

A conversation:
Sophia: Look Mommy! What is that?
Me: It's a water tower
Sophia: I love water towers!
Me: yeah...they are very cool
Sophia: I want a water tower
Me: you want a water tower?
Sophia: Yeah...I want one in our front yard?
Me: um, no peanut. I don't think that we can have a water tower...especially in our front yard.
Sophia: mommy, will you call papa chuck e cheese (Artino)?
Me: sure, why?
Sophia: I want to ask him if he will buy me a water tower!

From then on she has been obsessed with water towers! She loves them. While in Michigan and Ohio we took pictures of some ( there were TONS of them) of the water towers that we saw and are making a picture album of all of them for her. SO...if you think about it, please send us a picture of the water
in your town!

Tumbling & Tumbling

2008-10-08T10:37:00.001-04:00

Sophia took a tumble this week and got a nasty bump on her head. She was so tough! After a few tears and a Popsicle with daddy, she recovered very quickly. When I asked her what happened she said "I was just tumbling and tumbling and I could not stop!". This was not her first "owie" and I'm sure it will not be her last!