First Sprinkler Day of the Season!

We had a great weekend. Saturday, we dropped off the kids at Bidee's house while Chad and I went and looked at cars. Since the white car was beyond repair, it was time for a new one. We bought a very nice used van, it is in great condition and it will be a huge timesaver for us to have two vans. We won't have to worry about switching cars everyday depending on schedules. When we got home with the van, Blake kept on saying "We are rich to get a new van." We kept reminding him that it was a used van, and we were very fortunate to have what we do. Later that night, the iron broke so we went to get another iron, when we got home with that Blake said "Wow, we really are rich to get a new van and a new iron all in one day!" Chad and I laughed and laughed at our $6.82 new iron from Wal-Mart.

Saturday night we had a great time hanging out with friends. We ate great food, let the kids run wild and had a great time with the grown-ups. I am reminded once again about how blessed we are with such wonderful friends.

After church on Sunday, we spent the rest of the day playing outside. We got the sprinkler out and Chad and the kids played and played. Andrew was tired, so he just sat on my lap and watched everyone else have fun. It was great for me, I loved my special cuddle time with Andrew. Here are some pictures of Daniel and his first time running in the sprinkler.

Bad Dreams

Hi everyone. I'm Chad, the dad that Jaime has mentioned. One of the duties of being a dad is getting woke up in the middle of the night when one of your kids has a bad dream. The other night, Hallie taps me on the shoulder and says that she had a bad dream. I asked my usual opening question which is, "what was it about?". She says, "I had a dream that I was asleep in my bed and Blake's drum set started putting itself together under my bed and poking me in the back through my mattress". Since Hal sleeps on the bottom bunk and the drum set is on the floor under her, I am sure you can see how frightening this is, right? After informing her that drum sets do not assemble themselves and that I would rather sleep than assemble a drum set under her bed, I tuck her back in the bed and she goes to sleep. As strange as this dream may seem, it is not the strangest that I have been told. One night, a while back, Blake wakes me up. He was crying and said that he had a bad dream. After the usual question, he says, "I had a dream that my legs were stuck in the toilet and you were pee-peeing on me". Of course, you don't want to laugh at your child's bad dreams, but sometimes they make it hard. After a few minutes of silence, while I am trying to regain my composure (thankfully the lights were off), we make a trip to the bathroom to show him small the hole in the toilet is and to show him that his leg won't fit. I also assured him that I look before I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night so I would not pee on him. Then he calms down and goes back to sleep. I know most kids are afraid of monsters, ghosts, Frankenstein, and other terrifying things, but sometimes I guess self-assembling drum sets and dads who pee on their kids can be just as frightening. With that being said, parents, please turn on the light and look when you make that middle of the night bathroom trip just in case one of your kids is stuck in the toilet. We can't have kids being terrified of that.

St. Patrick's Day

We had a very fun, very busy weekend. My Uncle Larry and Aunt Marilyn came in town to visit this weekend. Mom and Dad also came into town and Brian and Dawn spent the weekend with us. Friday night, everybody came over, we just played with the kids and visited with each other. Of course, the big news was Brian and Dawn and the new baby and we all enjoyed looking forward to meeting the newest Bone. Saturday was not as warm as we had expected, so instead of going to the park, we went bowling. We had a great time. I didn't know that Brian, Larry and Marilyn were such accomplished bowlers. Needless to say, I tied with Blake and Hallie beat me! The babies even got to play.

Here is Andrew.. Here is Daniel..

But this is what Daniel enjoyed the most

and this is what Andrew enjoyed the most. He was standing on the table watching everyone bowl.Everyone had a great time, the babies even played a little Skee Ball. Sunday, after church, we met for lunch, then went shopping at the mall. Larry and Marilyn got a couple more snuggles and giggles from the kids and then it was time for them to go home. We hated to see them go, but hopefully we will get to see them again soon.

A New Addition!!

We got some very exciting news this week. We found out that my brother, Brian, and his wife Dawn, are going to have a baby!!! I am so excited! The big kids have decided it is going to be a little boy with red hair, just like Blake. That would be wonderful, but a little red headed little girl would be just as wonderful. It will be so exciting to have a new baby for Christmas this year. I can love and hold and cuddle and feed and then go home and and sleep through the night! This will be my first time being an Aunt and I can't wait. We love you Brian and Dawn, we can't wait to meet the new arrival.

Chi-O Banquet

Chad dropped me off in Montgomery with my friends Leah and Carrie to make the trip to Troy for Chi-O's 30th year anniversary on campus and to honor one of our advisors who passed away this fall. We met most of the rest of our "once a month" dinner group in Troy, Nikki, Heather, Shea and Julie. We got to each Crowe's Chicken (the best chicken fingers and sauce on the planet), see how Troy has grown since we have been gone (10 years!) and see some friends we have not seen in a lot of years. I got to see the Chi-O house for the first time and it is very pretty. We had a dinner and a Band Party afterwards. I realized that there is a reason I am not in college anymore. After going to bed around 2, which some nights was early at Troy, I was exhausted the next day. I had a fantastic time, sometimes it is nice to have a break from "Mommy" duty. I missed Chad and the kids, but I was much more patient when I got home after a day away. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends. It is great to have a group of girl friends that can get together once a month and share our lives. Together, our joy is multiplied and our burdens are divided. I am very lucky!

Then on Tuesday night, I went to dinner at Shelli's house with some of the girls from Sunday School. We had a fantastic time talking and eating, with some fantastic school. We don't get to see each other as often as any of us would like, so it was great to spend this time together. I was again reminded of how blessed I am with wonderful friends. It was a great night, I hope we can do it again very soon.

USS Alabama

Now that I am finally finished with last weekend, I can move to this weekend. Last week was pretty normal, just busy. Then on Friday, we headed to Mobile for Blake and Chad's trip to the USS Alabama. We went with our friends Ed and Sallie and their kids Hunter and Brantley. Blake and Hunter rode with Ed and Sallie and I don't think they looked up from their electronic games the whole way down. Brantley and Hallie rode with us, and I think they had school in the back of the van the whole way down. They used Hallie's flash cards and took turns tracing letters and spelling words. They did great job and the babies were very good for the car trip. We got to Mobile and went to a fantastic park and let the kids run and play. It was a beautiful day, we had a picnic with McDonald's at the picnic table, and just played and played. We went for ice cream and the boys had their first ice cream ever. They were a huge mess! I'll post some pictures if I can find some. I forgot to send the camera with Chad, so we don't have any pictures on the ship, but we have some from the day.

The boys went to the ship that evening and it sounds like the kids had a great time playing "war" on the ship. Chad said the kids had full access to the ship and they went as high as they could go and as low as they could go. Apparently the bunks were three high and all the kids wanted to sleep on the way top ( I'm not sure how much sleep they got!) Hallie, the babies and I stayed with Sallie's parents and had a very relaxing evening. The babies went to sleep before 7, the girls played and played, especially with their dog Maggie. Hallie really wants a dog and we are trying to hold her off until she gets her own home! Sallie, her mom and I just ate good food, watched TV, and went to bed very early. We had a really good time.

Saturday morning, we got up early and headed to Montgomery so I could go to Troy for the Chi-O 30 year anniversary banquet. I will post more about that later. I will try to post some pictures when I get home tonight.

Cottontails

Alright, I am still on last weekend, but I need to get all this down before I forget. Last Sunday the kids and I went to Cottontails with Bidee, Aunt Julie, Aunt Sue and Lori. One of my purposes was to get chalk portraits of the kids done. Last year when we were there we got Hallie's done and really liked it, so we decided to do the other kids this year. They all did a really good job. Daniel's picture being done is to the left. Blake was very excited, he loved getting his picture drawn. You can see his finished product on the right. The boys did a good job as well, it was tougher for them to sit still. The rest of the afternoon, we walked around Cottontails and shopped. Didn't get much else, some pictures for the big kids rooms and that was it! It was a nice, busy weekend. Check out the post of Blake's Cub Scout banquet. I added some pictures.

Cub Scout Banquet

I have not blogged in several days, I haven't felt good this week, but I know I need to get our whole weekend down before I forget about it.

Blake had his Cub Scout banquet Saturday night and it was a luau. We really had a good time, we sat by our friends from Sunday School, and we all had lots of fun. The food was really good, they had a real, whole, roasted pig. That was the first time any of us had seen that. The kids thought the meat was great, although Hallie came back to the table and told me that there was chicken up there that they had shaped into a pig! I guess all white meat tastes the same to her.

At the Awards ceremony, Blake got his Tiger Cub badge and was very proud. I really don't know what it means, but because Blake is excited, I am too. He did not win any awards for his General Lee pinewood derby car, but he and Chad had a great time building it. This weekend Blake and Chad get to camp on the USS Alabama for Cub Scouts, and I think Dad and son are equally excited about this one. I don't have any pictures to post of the banquet, but if I find some I will upload later.

Sweet and Sassy

We had a very busy weekend, so there will be several posts about the whole weekend. I'll start with Saturday morning.

Hallie was invited by her cousin Emma to go to Sweet and Sassy with her Saturday morning. Hallie has been looking forward to this for weeks. We met Lori, Emma, Sue Sue and Bidee at the "salon". The girls got a manicure complete with glitter lotion and sparkly nail polish on their nails. They even got flowers on one of their fingers. After that, they got their hair done like princesses. They both looked beautiful. They got glitter hairspray and were "glowing" from all of the sparkles. They also got a little bit of makeup on and they really felt like princesses.



After all of the treats at the salon, we all went to lunch, the girls were very silly and had a great time. We went to get ladybug cookies afterwards and Hallie was sweet enough to suggest getting a cookie for Blake, since he had missed all the fun. I am very proud of her for always thinking about her brothers. Blake does the same thing, he always gets a sucker for Hallie whenever he gets one at school or the doctor. Hallie and Emma had a great time together, I wish they could play together more often. I'll post more tommorow about the rest of the weekend. I need to spread it out over several days.