New rug

For those of you who really understand our despise for our dog these days, let me start off by saying, this is NOT Izzy.

One could only hope. Kidding!!! (Or am I?) Hmmmm... Movin' on....

I've always wanted a conversation piece like this....and we decided upon a nice coyote fur rug.




Combos as a nice warm scarf.




Or a hand puppet...




All kidding aside, this coyote entered my home tonight while having our small group from church over. I was in such shock of its uniqueness I had to share.

This belongs to our friend, Mr. Rob (as Allie calls him). Mr Rob shot a coyote while hunting recently and had him....what do you call it, skinned??? Gives me the willies.

So long naps

Say it isn't so!!!!!

Allie has been on the verge of giving up her naps for a few months now. But, I would ignore her "I'm not tired" pleads and force her to lay down and try to sleep.

Lately she has been eating everything in sight and wants to sleep until 9:00 a.m. (I know, dont hate me....do keep in mind I still have to wake up with my early riser 18 month old). I understand this is a growth spurt, but she is 4. And, does just fine without naps.

I only want her to continue naps for selfish reasons....ME time!

So, this is our first week of no naps. We have been successful with "quiet time" in her room or either watching a movie in the play room. She understands she is not allowed to come out of her room until I come in and get her....or until the movie is over.

She is being completely cooperative and obediant with her new found freedom; which I am thankful for.

BUT, I am saddened to say, So long naps. You will be missed!

Bad day

I love this little girl.

But, we had a bad day last week. It seemed everything we did, we butted heads.




This particular bad day, Allie decided to "pass her nap". (There's my red flag.)

Instead of a nap, we agreed upon one hour of quiet time in her room.

But, I quickly realized Allie and I had different definitions of "quiet". It sounded like a herd of elephants up in her room....banging, jumping, dropping, crashing.




Later on in the day she ended up shutting herself in our downstairs toy closet. I tried to talk to her, but she wanted nothing to do with me.

So she shut the door again, only to emerge an hour and a half later after taking a power nap.




We have since had much better days! Today was one of them.

Allie had school this morning, "passed her nap" this afternoon, and had Miss Katelyn come over to play for a bit.

I love you Allie. And even though we may have bad days from time to time....I will always love you and I am so thankful for you.

Prayer for Dot

Please keep my grandmother in your prayers.

She tripped in the middle of the night on her way to get a sip of water and fell face first into the floor.

She broke her nose and had to get 16 stitches in her tongue.

I talked to her this afternoon and she is doing fine and thankful she only broke her nose! She told me she looks like a panda with black large circles surrounding her eyes. Bless her heart.

Please keep her in your prayers as she recovers from her fall.

Find the light

In my short journey with photography, I've quickly learned that light is the key to a good photo. DUH, right?

Pick a window, any window and get the subject to face it. I'm sure there is a way to shoot a backlit subject....but I'd rather work with the light than against it.

This particular picture, Gabe was hanging on my leg wanting me to pick him up. I see a lot of this now-a-days. He chases me around the house, "momma, momma, momma". I remember Allie doing this when she was his age. I remember being pretty good at ignoring her...




...But Gabe is different.



I just want to scoop him up and eat his jaws.




There is just something about little boys! I love every inch of him.

And to think I was favoring wanting another girl when we found out we were expecting again.

The old barn

Another Beeeeaaaauuuuutiful day.

After naps we headed out to this old barn that is a couple miles down the road from us. I'm getting pretty good now at this trespassing thing.

I could say that Allie was blowing her dear little brother a kiss in this photo. But really, she was taking dead leaves and putting peices into her hand and blowing them off into her brother's face.




Allie's eyes are slightly out of focus, but this is still my favorite shot of the day.




This is what an 18th month old little boy looks like when let loose in an old barn....snotty nose + dirt = muddy face. Notice his hands? All mud. I caught him eating it too.




Allie shut the barn doors a little too hard....and we interrupted some sleeping animals in the loft. I grabbed the kids and we were out of there pronto!

Out and about

Whew...Allie is well!

It only took her 6 days to get over whatever she had (except for the horrible hacking cough...but she'll probably have that until next month). I say it was the flu....doc says a "flu like virus". What's the difference?

Regardless, we were cooped up in the house for the week trying to keep Allie away from others. Gabe and I both had flu shots....Allie did not. Just sayin'....




Everyone knows how cold it is has been here in the warm south. Our little sandbox had filled with water and the cold temps froze it solid. The kids had a time "ice skating". Don't worry about Allie not having on a jacket. It was actually 60 degrees out this day.

So glad your feeling better sweetie!

Lotta nothin'

This one is teething...2 bottom molars. I have changed shirts many times a day because he will come up to me grab my shirt, and wipe his nose on it. Thanks bud.

We also had his 18 month well check this week...to which the dr. said, "He's a petite one." Not exactly what you want to hear about your macho son. He is 21 lbs and 30 inches tall. 10th percentile for both height and weight. Good news is he is ahead on his speech for his age. He combines words, "Bye Bye Izzy". "Where's Allie".





Then we have this one. Per the doctor today, "has a flu-like contagious virus that will take around 7 days to run its course." She's been sick since Monday with an off and on fever and chills, body aches, croop cough (however you spell it), bloody nose, and loss of appetite.

Can't forget to mention she barges in our room at least 3-6x per night either crying or loudly saying "MOMMA, MOMMA!!!" I'm ready for a good nights rest.





Gabe got a haircut....we keep cutting it shorter. I think he looks handsome! I hope to get a better picture of it, he had just woke from his nap when I took this.





Grammy came up for a visit. We always enjoy grandparents visits. Especially Grammy. She is an early riser and I suddenly become a late sleeper.

Allie got Bendaroos for her birthday. (PA Susan Patton....look familiar?)






Monkey see monkey do. Anything and everything Allie does, Gabe tries. Allie's phrase of choice these days is, "Oh, man." Gabe can't quite say it, but his voice inflection is right on when he attempts.

Say a little prayer that Allie gets well soon and that Gabe stays well. He snuck a sip of her water when I wasn't looking two days ago, and I'm thinking he might be next victim of this virus. I'll keep you posted.

Monkey Joes Birthday Party

We had Allie's official birthday party at Monkey Joes this past weekend. Here is the group of kiddos that were brave enough to come join the chaos of Monkey Joes on a Saturday. There are a few not pictured....but this is the best we could do.




Gabe snuck out of my sight a couple of times....both times I found Lauren carrying him around. He served as her little baby doll toy for the day.

I especially like his expression in this pic - Mom, a little help here.




And here are Allie and Lauren sliding down the big slide together. These girls had a weekend full of Monkey Joes - we went to Lauren's party the night before Allie's party. Allie is old enough where she took off as soon as we got there. They were a blur both parties running around doing their own thing.




More of Allie's buds....Callyn and Sydney. So sweet hugging each other! Callyn and Allie look like they could be sisters.




Not real sure what was going on here. I turn around to find Matt lugging 3 kids in his arms.

Thank you to everyone who came out. Allie had a great time playing with all of your kids and has been playing with her birthday treats ever since. We are so blessed to have you all as friends.

Banished

Izzy Izzy Izzy! Iz Bo Biz, Izzard, Izzster, Iz-mister....the dog we have all grown to tolerate.





A few months ago, Izzy was banished from our bedroom at nights. She was no longer allowed to sleep with us because she a) walks marathons on our bed at night, b) thinks she is human and has to have her head gently laying on one of our pillows, this leads to c) her little legs outstretched poking either myself or Stephen in the back, d) cannot make up her mind whether she wants to be on top or under the covers, thus pulls down our duvet and uncovers us when she goes in and out of the covers, etc, etc, etc.....

So she was banished. We'll come back to this in a minute....





There are many, many Izzy nuisances. She sneaks human food at every possible moment we aren't looking. I haven't cleaned Gabe's high chair off in months....Izzy beats me to it. If you look closely at this photo, she is chewing on one of the kid's snack bowls....but you can see her stuffed toy right in front of her face.





She's a barker when anything passes our house: trucks, cars, wind.





Lately I've discovered she is tearing up our blinds. IZZY!! She pees on the carpets, scratches at the back door tearing up the wood frame and weather stripping.





And let's not forget this. I am convinced if I took her to the vet and had tests run she would have some crazy disease. She has a very sensitive stomach and we frequently are cleaning up vomit around the house. (I know gross, but just laying out the facts here.)





Back to her banishment. Since being kicked out of our room, she has started sneaking into Allie's room at nights. So, Allie has now started bringing Izzy back into our room and Allie will go quietly back to bed...alone. And we are stuck with the mutt again.





I'm thinking we might try this approach.

Happy Birthday Maw-maw

Since I forgot to sing earlier today when I talked to you....here goes:

Happy Birthday to Yoooouuu!
Happy Birthday toooooo Yoooouuuuu!
Happy Birthday my favorite mo-ommmmmm.
Happy Birthday to Yoooooouuuu!

Love you mom. And I have another confession. I forgot to send a card too! I'll try and do better next year.

Our 4 year old

Our little 4 year old. Did you know when you are 4 years old you: a) are much taller, b) have larger hands, c) can brush your teeth all by yourself, d) decide on Auburn for college (such a smart little girl), and e) can fully submerge head under water in the bathub???? Impressive huh? Allie throughout the day would say because she was 4 she could do so many more things.


After getting to play with her friends at church and her special birthday lunch at McDonalds we came home to open presents. She loved all of her birthday gifts. Thanks Chris and Jen Jen, Uncle Benny, Pop and Maw-maw, and Pappy and Grammy for her birthday treats.


Poor Gabers just wanted his hands on the gifts. He kept trying to climb on the table to get closer to the goods.



Nap:30. By this point is was nearing 2:00 and the kids were ready for naps.




Then after naps Nick showed up. Stephen and I couldn't have been more thrilled. He followed the kids upstairs and played with them while Stephen and I had a nice quiet dinner. I was sad to see him leave. Come back soon Nick!

Happy Birthday Allie! We hope you had a special 4th birthday. Looking forward to your party this weekend.

Happy Birthday Allie

Happy 4th Birthday Allie.

These 4 years you have been a part of our family have been such a blessing and we look forward to watching you grow into the beautiful young lady that you are already becoming. You bring us so much joy! We are so proud of you and are so blessed that God picked us to be your parents. Thank you for everything you are to us....thank you for being you.

We love you and hope you have a wonderful 4th birthday.

Warm(er) Day

Cold weather can't stop us from playing outside. The kids and I got out and took a walk the other day when the temp reached a warm 47 degrees.


Don't worry Grandma, Gabe's hood stayed on the entire time and we went straight home once his nose turned bright red.

(My grandma is always giving me a hard time about keeping the kids ears covered to avoid colds. It doesn't matter if its 90 degrees out, she'll ask if I had their ears covered.)



We didn't walk far before we stumbled upon some neighborhood kids who were also braving the cold. Allie loves playing with these guys! Aisya has 3 other sisters and Conner has an older sister (all close by playing). We stopped the wagon and decided to play for awhile.



Chris Farley...I mean, Conner, is a HOOT! Seriously, this kid is destined to be a comedian. He cracks me up and I love listening to his jokes (which are not meant to be jokes, but they are).



Playing throw the chalk in the air 100 times. Didn't get old though....



Allie and Aisya made Gabe a grassy/weed necklace. (They made him wear it.)

I love being outside like this and seeing where the kids' imaginations take them and what they will find to play with.



Until next warm day....