Shopping with Hallie

It isn't often that we all venture out to the mall together, but when we do, you can count on Hallie to keep it from being another dull shopping trip. Last weekend, we all headed to the mall to shop for some clothes for Jaime, which is even more rare. As we came off the elevator and walked past the lingerie section, there were two full mannequins in their underwear. Hallie walks right up to them, tilts her hips and head back, points at them with both index fingers, and says, "Looking good ladies". Jaime and I started laughing hysterically. Of course, that led to her saying it to every other mannequin in the store.

Well, this spot in the store has gotten Hallie's comments more than once. Several months ago, we were walking through the same store and Hallie spots a pair of leopard print underwear. She picks them up and tells Jaime that they look awesome and she should buy a pair. She then tells Jaime, "Mommy, if you had these, you could be just like a tiger. ROARRRRR!!!!!!" Jaime looked to get my reaction and I simply replied, "ROARRRRR". It was hilarious.

Later into the same shopping trip last weekend, Blake and Hallie decided that they wanted to go to the Disney Store. We say no because we knew they will want to buy something and we didn't want to have to drag crying kids out of the store. After much begging and promising that they will not ask to buy anything, we give in. As you know with everything Disney, customer service is top notch. The moment we walk in, a Disney employee walks up to us, with a big smile, and asks if she could help us today. The moment that those words left her mouth, Hallie looks up at her and says, "We aren't buying anything today. We are just looking". The employee was a little surprised, but thought it was funny. Of course, we were dying laughing and proud that she kept to her word. Blake did too. Neither asked for anything in the store.

1st Day of School

Today was Blake's first day of second grade at his new school. He was so excited he got up at 5:30 this morning ready to go. I had to drop him off at 7:15 (as soon as they opened) because he couldn't wait to get there. When I picked him up, he said he had a great day. He likes his class and really likes his teacher. He already knew 3 boys in his class from Cub Scouts and 1 girl from church. Another one of his friends from Cub Scouts is in after school care with him, which is wonderful, because he already has a friend in after school care too! He has finished his homework already and I know he will sleep good tonight.

Here is a picture of him this morning. You can tell, he was not very patient as I took his picture.

Yesterday was Hallie's first day of 5k. The first day of summer care this summer she started asking her teacher when lessons began and has asked every day since the beginning of July. So yesterday she was beyond excited when she finally got to start her lessons. Here is a picture of her yesterday, she had to wear special clothes on the first day.

And not to leave anyone out, here are some pictures of the boys playing outside this weekend. Normally they just play with the water in the buckets, but it was too hot, so they just got in the buckets! You can tell by the pictures that Daniel was the one who came up with the idea. Andrew just followed along and I'm not sure he really enjoyed it!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

. . . Take me out to the crowd. Buy me some nachos and a giant foam finger. Well that is how our version went. Blake and I went to his first major league baseball game on Tuesday night. That is one of the best father-son moments. We saw the Atlanta Braves put a whipping on the Houston Astros, 12-4, and had a blast. We got there early and was able to meet and get autographs from several of the Astros players. Two of the players that we met were centerfielder, Hunter Pence, and third basemen, Ty Wigginton. What nice guys. When we finally made it into the stadium we played a little homerun derby on an xbox 360, watched batting practice (almost caught a homerun ball), bought our foam finger, and headed to the Sky Field for a little fun. In the Sky Field, we were able to look out over the city and Blake was able to run down the base path.

After that, we got our pizza and drinks we settled into our seats at the very last row in the upper deck. When the game began, we joined in with the crowd. Although the Braves and Astros are my two favorites teams and I was unsure who to cheer for, Blake decided that we would cheer for the Braves and we cheered as loud as we could. Blake would even put on a dancing exhibition for the people in our section in between each inning. We were able to see the Braves belt 4 home runs and after a great and loud rendition of take me out to the ballgame, we headed to eat the second greatest stadium food. That is nachos for all of you amateur baseball fans. Blake played a little in Tooner Field, which is the kids play area, and then we watched the final 3 outs and the fireworks. We had a great time.

As fun as that was, there is one thing better than going to a baseball game and that is going to two baseball games. Tonight, we went to the Birmingham Barons game. Although the twins were determined to run all of the ballpark, we had a good time. Thank goodness for 25 cent hotdog nights. Blake and Hallie sat with their friends, Hunter, Brantley, Brandon, and Caleb, and cheered for the Barons. Hallie put on the foam finger and started chanting, "We're #1." Later the cheer turned to "Go Barons" and then "Biscuits are rotten", which I must give Blake the credit for coming up with that cheer. (The Barons were playing the Montgomery Biscuits.) They all had fun watching the game and eating their hotdogs, nachos, slushies, etc. Daniel sums up the night best as he says, "Baseball is #1."

Poo-Poo in the Potty and The " Tooter"

Yesterday was a very exciting day at our house. Hallie always gets "prizes" at school for good behavior and for napping and yesterday she got into the car and said, "Mommy, I got a tooter today at school". I said "A what?". I thought she meant a tutor and I could not figure out why she needed a tutor for something in 5k. She said " A Tooter, Mommy", the she held up a whoopee cushion and all of a sudden it made sense. All night long she talked about her "Tooter"!

On that same note (not to gross anyone out), Daniel was in the bathtub last night and he started to say Potty, Potty, Potty, so I took him out of the bathtub and set him on the potty and he went poo-poo in the potty!!! We were so excited, both Chad and I started yelling and clapping. He acted very nonchalant like this was an everyday occurrence. He wiped himself and we put him back in the bathtub, of course as soon as we did he pee-peed in the tub, but we have made the first step!!

The Echols Family Musical

Hi everyone. It is Chad again. Have you ever heard anyone say that they have a hard time watching musicals because people don't break into song in real life? Well that person has never spent anytime at our home. It is not uncommon to hear someone burst into song when going from room to room. It is usually Blake and Hallie singing because Jaime and I reserve our songs to each other when no one is listening. My love, there's only you in my life . . . Sorry about that. That is for later. Anyway back to Blake and Hallie. Today I asked Blake to wake up Hallie from her nap and he began singing a song about how he was going to wake her up and then kept singing his attempts to do it. One of the better songs in the Echols Family Musical occurred this week in the car on the way home. Blake had loaned a toy to a friend at school and she had lost it. He was upset and mad at his friend for losing it. We were having a discussion about how it is okay to be upset when something is lost, but it isn't worth losing your friends over it. Blake then asked, "what if someone lost Hallie?" I said that no one would lose Hallie. He asked, "What if someone lost me?" Before I could answer, Hallie began singing and Blake answered her in song and it went on for a bit. Here is what it sounded like:

Hallie: If you got lost, I would come and find you.
Blake: But what if I was super far away?
Hallie: I would drive a car and I would find you.
Blake: But you can't drive a car.
Hallie: Then I would wait until I was 16 and then I would have my driver's license and I could find you.
Blake: But what if I was in a bear cave?
Hallie: You could call me on a cell phone and then I would know where you were.
Blake: But what if the bear ate my cell phone?
Hallie: Then you could send me a map and I could find you.
Blake: But what if I didn't have a map? I'd be lost forever.
Hallie: Yep! You'd be lost forever.

And then the song ended. I reckon that not all musicals are comedies, although I was laughing my head off.

Blake's Birthday and the 4th

We had a fantastic weekend where we celebrated Blake's birthday all weekend. Blake decided he wanted to go to Laser Tag for his birthday, so we invited several of Blake's friends and their families to come play Laser Tag Friday night. We had a great time, it was fun for the adults and kids to run around a play together. We went to DQ afterwards and had dinner, cookie cake and ice cream.

Saturday, all of the family came over and we had dinner, cake and a birthday party for Blake. Again, we all had a great time. The babies loved all the attention and Blake wanted to play with all of his toys. He is the best present opener ever, he loves everything he gets, and gets so excited with every present.

Sunday we took a day off from birthday celebration, but on Monday I sent cupcakes to school for Blake and then we went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. Poppa and Bidee came over Monday night to wish Blake happy birthday and then the birthday celebration was finally over!!!:)

On the 4th, we went to Chad's aunts house and ate WONDERFUL BBQ and got to swim in the pool. Blake and Hallie always love to swim, they put on their life jackets and swim and swim. Andrew was really scared of the pool and would not get in, but Daniel got in and we had to fight to get him out of the pool. He loved to splash and play in the water. It is really strange, because Daniel hates the bathtub but Andrew loves it. I think they boys keep switching personalities, just to confuse me. We went to Poppa and Bidee's after swimming and got baths to get ready for school today. We had Andrew and Daniel out of the tub, with diapers and shirts on when they wandered into the bathroom where Blake was showering. Poppa decided Andrew wanted to get in the shower, so Andrew got into the shower with Blake, with shirt and diaper on. He had a great time, then Daniel had to get in too. They had a great time.

Maybe next year we will get to see fireworks. They are too late when we have school and work the next day. Hopefully next year the kids will be big enough to stay up to see the fireworks.

Happy Birthday Blake!

I have been thinking about what I would write on each of the kids birthday, and I realized I'm not sure if I have ever written down the details about the day each of the kids were born. So today, I will write about July 2nd.

It all started on Friday, 3 weeks before my due date. I rode MARTA into work that morning and was getting settled at my desk, ready to start the day. All of a sudden I needed to go to the bathroom (which was not unusual being 9 months pregnant), I won't share all the details about this part, but after going to the bathroom I realized that something was going on. I went back to my desk to call the Doctor and as I was talking to him on the phone, my water broke right in my chair. I ran to the bathroom and handed the phone to one of my co-workers. When I got back to my chair (with golf towels all in my dress), the doctor said it was time to head to the hospital. I called Daddy and he was at work so we decided he would meet me at the MARTA station where I left my car. One of my co-workers drove me to the MARTA station, where we could not find Daddy, we finally found him and Daddy and I headed to the hospital.

We got there and waited until noon, until there was finally a room for us at the hospital. They looked and me and decided that would be the day that you would be born. Daddy headed home to get our bags and everything we needed to stay at the hospital. While he headed home, he called Poppa and Bidee and they got into the car with Aunt Julie to head to Atlanta to be there when you were born. I called Grandma and Grandpa, and Grandma got into the car to get to Atlanta. Grandpa could not come that day, because he had to work.

Daddy got back to the hospital and after several hours it was finally time for you to be born. Grandma, Poppa, Bidee and Aunt Julie were in the waiting room and Daddy stayed with me. We were so surprised and so happy when they said , "It's a boy!". It was 8:31 pm. We had not decided on any names, because we did not know if you would be a boy or girl. So as soon as we saw you, Daddy said "How about Timothy Blake". I said that is perfect, and that is how we decided on your name. You were so beautiful, you had a head full of red hair, and pretty blue eyes. Daddy and I fell in love immediately. We couldn't stop looking at you, and everyone wanted to hold you at the same time. Grandma, Poppa, Bidee and Aunt Julie came in to see you and they were so excited to meet you.

After several hours, Daddy, Poppa, Bidee and Aunt Julie went back to our house to sleep and Grandma stayed at the hospital with me and you. Grandma got to feed you your first bottle. Mommy was too tired, so the nurses let Grandma do it. I will never forget laying in the hospital bed, watching you eat your first bottle, I was so proud.

We went home on the 4th of July and as we drove home, Mommy sat very close to you in the back seat, and we watched fireworks as we drove home. It was the perfect way to bring you home from the hospital.

Both Daddy's and my life changed that day Blake, we love you very, very much.

Happy Birthday!