Hello out there!

Hello! Not sure if anyone out there still checks this thing since it has been AGES since I posted anything, but thought it was time to post- more for my own memory purposes than anything!

We have been busy, just trucking along and feeling like time is going way too fast. Meredith will be 5 in February and has really been making leaps and bound recently with learning her letters, numbers and even writing her name. I will definitely credit her new preschool program for a lot of her new interest. She had shown zero interest in learning anything past the M in her name up until August when she started at Primrose. There really is something to a structed environment, kids her own age and a dedicated teacher with LOTS of patience :) After Chris got out of school in early June, we decided it was time to take Meredith out of the in-home daycare she'd been in since before she was a year old! Miss Prissila has played a huge part in Meredith's life and we dearly love her, but we all knew it was time for Meredith to have a change in environment that would better prepare her for Kindergarten. I was a blubbering mess on that final day when we picked her up since Prissila has seen her (and us) through so many major milestones and has had such a massive influence. We also knew that this move would be a sacrifice in the sense that is costs A LOT more than her previous daycare, but it is really proving to be well worth it. We are investing in our wonderful child afterall :) She has two great teachers in her PreK class and they have indicated that Meredith is a natural leader- well, the actual word was that she's bossy, but I'll try to interpret it another way :) Seriously, she's been used to being the big fish in a little pond for a long time, so I'm glad to know that she hasn't been too overwhelmed by this new, much larger environment. We are working on her being a little less bossy, but hey, at least she's not a little wall flower like her momma was!
Meredith also started off her summer with a big dance recital. The whole story was Snow White and there were lots of woodland animals- Meredith's class were tap dancing chipmunks to the song 'Shake your Groove Thing' - in Chipmunk :) This thing was a huge production at one of the local high schools- totally sold out and kind of a crazy event in general, but Meredith absolutely ate it up. Now I know that I'm a biased mother, but that girl stole the show! I was a little worried that once she heard and saw the audience, she would kinda freak out. She did the total opposite and seemed to shake her groove thing even more when she heard the audience laughing. Too cute! Needless to say, she is continuing with her dance class again this year.
We had a really fun summer and took several trips. The biggest thing was that Chris turned 40 in June! His favorite place in the world is Scottsdale, Arizona, so we went with our friends Randy & Katy and spent a week out there. Chris' goal was to play as much golf as possible and I think he succeeded in that mission! My only goal was to relax by the pool pretty much all week- I also succeeded :) Meredith stayed with Chris' mom in Tennessee while we were gone and she rode a horse for the first time while she was there! When we got back, we had a big 40th birthday party for Chris and had a really fun time. We also spent a week in Myrtle Beach in July with Chris' mom, step-dad, sister and brother-in-law. The weather was great and we had a really fun time.
Another major event for our family is that my sister, Hillary, and her husband, Joey, finally got their official placement with the Peace Corps. They have been in the application process for what seems like forever and have now been in Azerbaijan (I had to look it up too!) for about a month now. We were able to spend a long weekend in Carolina Beach with them right before they left and we also threw them a rather large going away party at our house. They are going to be gone for over 2 years and we're really going to miss them!
Ok, I think this post has gotten long enough and I will really try to be better about posting more often.