Happy Birthday to Jack :-)

Two years ago today (at 11:01am to be exact), we were given the gift of Jack Day Steele. Happy Birthday to our sweet baby Jackie!!



Oh, sooo tired!!!

Jack D

So, I look outside and Jack has gone and put two different boots on and is trying to walk around without them coming off. It was so cute to watch him working so hard on it! Had to share...



*Darn it, fell off again*


*Cheeze!*

**Doe-mes-ticay-shawn** (aka domestication)

Just call me June Cleaver. I never woulda thunk it would happen to me, but I find myself more and more the domesticated housewife. It's been so vilified that it sounds horrible, I know! But, I'd like to glamorize it a bit here if I may!!

It started out a bit rough. When we got married and had Isaiah I could make scrambled eggs and grilled cheese sandwiches. That's it! I went to bed at 4 or 5 am and woke up at 2 or 3 pm. BIG changes were coming!! I have learned to cook and balance lots of things at once. We now have four children, as you all know. Lots of days Joshua doesn't get home until 9pm! So my job is heavy, but the burden is light :-) Today you could find me (apart from sitting at this computer posting to this blog): listening to jazz/Dylan/classical/other while...washing clothes, drying clothes, folding clothes, putting away clothes, making breakfast, cleaning the kitchen, cutting up fruits and vegetables to juice, vacuuming, dusting, balancing the checkbook, cutting coupons, sweeping the porch, mopping the floor, teaching math, reading a book to Jackie Day, cutting/arranging flowers, doing my graceful Pilates (hoping no one comes in! lol), helping Jude make letters, taking Jackie Day to the potty, checking grocery store sales papers, and alllll the while singing and smiling the day away!! Oh yes, it's beautiful! Now, obviously I don't need to mention that some days are hard and I get tired of children fighting at times! But, for a job that is considered beneath so many, and one I would have considered very drab and mundane and unimportant at one point in my young life, I have found that I am more fulfilled and content than I could have imagined. It doesn't pay in dollars, but it does pay in peace and love and harmony. (and fyi, I didn't feel this way after 1, 2, or maybe even 3 babies! It took #4 to chill me out! or maybe it was just 10 years of experience, I don't know which.) Alright, enough glamorizing. Here are some captured moments...*laughs*

Laundry lady


Fresh flowers

Matisyahu

The boys didn't take long at all to fall in love with Matisyahu's music. It was love at first listen! I have to admit, it's very hard not to love the sincerity and devotion that he reflects in his songs (not to mention his gift to craft the beats that he carries). When my sister heard them talking about Matis and saw how excited they were about his music she went to work, seeing what she could do about getting them to a live performance. As "luck" would have it, he was playing at the Handlebar in Greenville, just a short hour's drive from us, so she surprised Jude on his 6th birthday by announcing that she'd gotten him and his brothers, Mom and Dad, tickets for the show. They started counting down the days! So, yesterday we dropped baby brother Jack off with Namma and Papa and set off to "G-vegas", as it's called locally, and got checked into our hotel downtown. Thanks to "Twitter", we learned that Matis would also be playing a few of his songs at a record store just up from the venue, to all who wanted to come. That was the icing, for sure! (As an aside, the boys had also felt very strongly to give Matis a gift, which we were able to a friend of his who hopefully delivered it. God Bless Solomon, and God Bless Matisyahu) Here are a few pictures and a little video I took at the store. Enjoy!

Waiting for the show to begin!




Probably the best part of the music experience for the boys was being able to see Matisyahu sing at this little record store a couple of blocks up from the Handlebar. They stood right in front very attentively and really enjoyed all the songs, especially the one they'd never heard before called, "Temple." Here is a little taste.





Thank you, Jenn-Dawn, for a lovely evening! We feel very blessed!

Leave'n

Only one good thing about piles of leaves!!

Again...Slacker

I have many good excuses for why I've been so slack lately; but as my husband's old basketball coach used to say: "Steele, excuses are like...[we'll use the word, booties]...everybody's got'em, and they all stink..."

Going WAY back, to October 8th, we celebrated 6 (SIX) YEARS of Jude Harrison Steele. He had a soccer game on his birthday, and after a season of disinterest in the ball on the field, he suddenly CAME ALIVE!! I said, "He just realized he's Joshua's son!" Seriously though, he just grew up! In one day! Later on, we had cousins come over and have a sleep-over with a campfire and roasted marshmellows and weenies! (no pictures, I'm afraid...)


A couple of weeks ago, we went with a group of homeschool kids to Denver Downs for some Fall Fun! We went through a corn maze, did a hayride, picked pumpkins, played on haybales and in the haybarn..The rain held off until we were leaving, so it was great fun!

Trying to find our way through the "corn maize"--impossible!








Rope-swing in the straw barn! It was by far their favorite part!



Our Halloween consisted of...not much really. Not our favorite holiday (if it can be called a holiday), although I LOVE the fall. We had a 'family reunion' of sorts that was, well, whatever...anyway, that's what we did, and the kids put something together right before we walked out the door.




That's it, hope you all had a Happy Hallerween...hehe!

Whoa! Time for an Update!

Sorry it's been a while since I posted. We've been too busy with too much to mention, but here we are! Besides some snotty colds that have been lingering for the last month, everyone is doing wonderfully.

Hammin' it up for the camera:
Last night, Isaiah was trying to work on his story, and Jack kept climbing up in the chair and trying to steal his (Isaiah's) attention away from the computer. It was so cute, I documented it with pictures! Of course, when I got out the camera, Jack decided to stop being cute, to be even cuter!




Jude is playing rec soccer this year. He looks so much like Josh it's not funny! (Don't know why this is the only picture that uploaded...more later)


We celebrated Ira's 8th birthday on September 12th by going to Charleston with all the grandkids! Ira, my little grown-up 8-yr old, chose, not a "chuck-e-cheeze", but a nice (not 2 nice) restaurant to eat for his day so that he could look out at the ocean :-). As an added bonus, the following day we went out for Japanese and sat at an hibachi table (is that right?) so that the kids could see all the fun tricks the chefs do. Ty (my sis' hubby) told them it was Ira's birthday, so he was picked on the whole time by our chef ("How old are you, white boy?" ha!) He requested "Green Tea" with his meal, b/c, well, that's Ira! Here's some pics...

Ira's Birthday dinner at the Folly Beach Pier.

Everyone out on the pier after the birthday dinner. (Nessy, Kiki, Owen, Margo, Isaiah, Ira, Jude and Jack)

Out at a park on the Cooper River finding wild hermit crabs!





Jack loves to wear hats, so here are a few older pics of some of his "looks" (as Ira would say). SO cute!



Ira was ring-bearer for my cousin's wedding over the summer. It was his second time at the job, and he did well. We decided he should go into business, hire himself out, and get paid to do weddings. Not a bad idea, eh?

Doh! (*eating someone's cake when they weren't looking...busted*)