Happy Anniversary Grandma and Grandpa

June 25, 1971

We were in Birmingham for a special occasion over the weekend. Grandma and Grandpa (Emily's mom and dad) celebrated their 40th anniversary. They received a blessing from Fr. Bill at the 5pm mass at Holy Infant in Trussville followed by a party which Celeste, Elaine, Steph and I put together. We got to visit with lots of friends and family that we haven't seen in a long time.  It was a beautiful evening.  The food was delicious, the flowers were beautiful, and the photo montage was full of so many memories.  I look fondly at my parents and wonder what Matt and my 40th anniversary will be like.  I hope we will be surrounded by our children and maybe grandchildren, friends and family. Congratulations Mom and Dad! We love you!

June 25, 2011

Noah crawling all over the floor

Joshua playing with his friends

Father's Day 2011

Happy Father’s Day! Overall we had a great Father’s Day, though it did start out a little sketchy. Saturday night we went out to Bonefish Grill for a nice Father’s Day dinner. The meal and family time was great, but when we got out to our car we saw that someone had hit our new van, denting in the bumper and did not even leave a note. It was pretty disappointing considering the van isn’t even a month old. On Sunday the boys gave Daddy a card which they colored. Also they both made him cards at school. Church was special because it was the last service before our pastor is leaving for a new assignment. We will really miss him and enjoyed the farewell service. Afterwards there was a picnic under a tent on the front lawn. The thermometer said it was 96deg but the heat index in that tent had to be over 100deg. It was hot!! We enjoyed the rest of the day at the house with Mommy cooking a special meal for “Super Daddy.” (A few times during the day Joshua told Matt “You my super hero. You Super Daddy.)

Joshua really enjoyed wishing his daddy as well as his grandfathers and even a few other people from church “Happy Father’s Day.” It was so genuine and super sweet. So to all the dad’s out there especially my dad, Matt’s dad and stepdad, and my wonderful husband Matt, Happy Father’s Day! We love you!

A Funny little Joshua story:
Joshua was trying to climb over the ottoman with an armful of toys and fell and started crying.

Me: Oh no! What hurts?
Joshua: (big tears) the ground.

Proof that he is his father’s son…

Fun with Daddy

Joshua's Haircut

Before

After

After the haircut Joshua said "I not shaggy!"

Peek-a-boo!

Noah has some new tricks! He now plays peek-a-boo with me. He’s played before, but I had to do all the work by covering his eyes. Now he uses a blanket to cover his face when I say “Where’s Noah?” Then he giggles and removes the blanket so I can say “Peek-a-boo! or There he is.” Noah thinks this is absolutely hysterical and mommy and daddy find it endearing as well. I’ve attempted to videotape this, but Noah turns into a serious statue whenever I try so I’ll just have to enjoy the memories and write them down for posterity’s sake.

Another new trick that Noah has is that he’s learned to click his tongue. He enjoys doing this, especially after he finishes nursing. He also enjoys mimicking so we alternate clicking at each other. It is a sweet game.

Conversation with Joshua:

Joshua: I need bread please.
Me: Not before dinner.
Joshua: It’s for the ducks.
Me: We’re not feeding the ducks today.
Joshua: But Mommy (insert big, serious eyes) they HUNGRY.
Me: Okay, let’s go feed the ducks.

Joshua getting ready for Beach Day

Sweet Stories

It’s June! Schools are closing for the summer, traffic is getting lighter, and the temperature is swelteringly hot. I feel like I’m melting at work. But enough about me, here are some short stories about my sweet boys!

One night it was storming pretty hard at our house when Joshua came into our bedroom w/ a couple toys under each arm and said “Buzz and Woody are scared. I sleep here tonight.” All three of them slept peacefully between mommy and daddy.

When Joshua wants something he’s gotten where he will repeat what he wants and start getting louder. This is particularly a problem when you are already talking to someone else and indicating to him he needs to wait. Instead this is what he says “I talking to you. Hey! I talking to you. You hear me? I still talking…” It’s cute now, but we are still working on patience. I told my dad about this and he said “Awww! Tell him he wouldn’t have to tell Grandpa twice. He would listen to him.” I sarcastically replied “Just like when I was growing up… Wait, that’s not how I remember that going down.”

Joshua can be so stubborn. Last night he threw a toy up in the air *again* after Matt and I had told him not to about 20 times already and it landed on my shin. I told him he hurt mommy and needed to say sorry. Usually we tell him he has to say sorry or sit in time out until he’s ready to say sorry. This time he crossed his arms, stuck out his bottom lip, and ran to time out before we could go over the options. He eventually did apologize. Where does he get that stubbornness? ;)

Deep thoughts: Driving to work a couple mornings ago Joshua saw the sun reflecting off the bay and commented “Look Mommy, the water is glowing!”

A small rebellion: Last night at bedtime I told Joshua to put his head on his pillow. I tell him this (head on pillow) at least ten times every night. Anyway, this time he shook his head and said no. I told him “You don’t say no to me. Put your head on pillow.” So he did, but he also shot spidey webs at me. It was so hard not to laugh!

Noah has become my shadow. He follows me all over the house. Fortunately he’s very loud the way he slaps his hands on the ground while he’s crawling so I can keep track of him. If I run out of the room to put up laundry and then get back in his line of sight he giggles ever so sweetly as he crawls towards me.

Memorial Weekend

Hmmm, Should I smell the flower or attack the flower?

Well it was Memorial Weekend and we celebrated by not going to the beach.  Most of my blog readers know what that means.  ;)  Instead we headed North.  Friday evening we drove to Birmingham and stayed at Granddaddy’s house.  It was the first time we’d been to Pleasant Grove since the tornadoes stuck on April 27^th.  The destruction was unbelievable. PG was unrecognizable. Trees that were so big around that Matt and I couldn’t stretch our arms around together were snapped like twigs or else blown over. Joshua was concerned by the demolition and asked “What happened? Where did it go? Who took it?” I told him it was a tornado and he spent the rest of the weekend asking “’Nado gonna take granddaddy’s house?” So sad.

Saturday we went up to Huntsville to visit Grandottie and JerryPop.  We had so much fun! Mommy and Daddy got to go to the movies for the first time in 1 ½ years and saw the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie.  The movie was entertaining, and the best part was being able to sit down for more than 5 minutes without having to pause the movie to change/ soothe/ read/ entertain/ wipe off/ pick up one of the kids. Seriously it takes us an hour to watch a 30 min show even though we are fast forwarding through commercials.

Big brother sharing with baby brother

On Sunday we visited a small church to hear Jerry and Dottie’s friend Larry speak as a guest pastor. When we got there we saw that Noah had had a massive poop explosion.  I mean he was literally dripping when we got him out of the car. (He wasn’t sick, he just had a lot of poop, which is still pretty soupy but not too smelly since he’s breastfed.)  Matt held him out while Dottie and I stripped him down in the parking lot and wiped him with about 50 wipes.  I dressed him in spare clothes while she found an outside trash can to dispose of the foulness.  Then I had to find a restroom to rinse out his clothes.  It was awful! I can’t believe a boy that little can have so much poop! Joshua’s had some doozy’s in his day but nothing like this.

Here’s the good part.  Immediately following the service I had to change Joshua’s diaper because he stank it up at the end of the service.  Then I went back into the sanctuary to meet up with the family.  They were talking to the pastor when he turned to me and said “Your family is just exploding isn’t it.” *I thought they must have mentioned the diaper* so I said something like “Well church must bring it out of him…” I saw his confused expression and realized he was referring to our growing family, not the poop explosion before the service because no one had mentioned that. Oops!

Noah, Jerry Pop, Joshua, and Grandottie

Matt and I have a friendly competition regarding the drive on I-65.  One of the Clanton exits has a water tower that is painted to look like a peach. Well you could also argue it looks like a giant butt when you are headed Southbound. Matt and I always try to be the first to call out “Peach butt!” when we pass it.  (This is only after I clearly established a few years ago that it is against the rules to call ‘Peach butt infinity.’) Anyway both the boys were asleep and Matt and I were searching the skyline for the peach when we both saw it at the same time and yelled “Peach butt!”  In our enthusiasm and subsequent debate over who actually called it out first we woke up Joshua. (Since I’m writing this blog, I’ll state for the record that I won.) Um, are we too competitive?