Our new life..

Things have changed a little around here!  Sadie has became a new baby doll around here.  Lyndsey tried to get her into a doll bed and stroller, but Sadie just is not ready for that yet!  The girls have managed to "baby"  her all day!  They love to hold her and let her take a nap.  Yes, that is Lauren holding Sadie.  She is overcoming a few of her dog fears!  Lauren likes Sadie.  We will see how she does in the future with bigger dogs!

Nerf Guns

Okay, here is my plug for Nerf Guns.  Honestly, I never would have bought them even though I had read on my friend Robin's blog how much fun her boys have with them.  Tyler bought one while we were at the beach last weekend with his birthday money that is burning his pocket.  He has really enjoyed it over the past week.  While doing a little shopping for an upcoming holiday, I bought him another gun.  Last night, Tyler had a friend over and I decided to go ahead and give the gun to him (after he started insisting we go to Target so he could buy another one).  He and his friend had so much fun shooting each other and staging attacks!  My only question...how do you keep up with the bullets?  We have "lost" half of the bullets in the orderliness of our playroom!

Baseball Season Opener

Well, we did have a break this afternoon from the rain.  Enough of a break for Tyler's team to have their first game of the season.  They played a really tough team, and they ended up down 4-3 at the end.  Tyler was up to the plate 2 times and hit singles both times, but was never able to score for the team:(.  It was disappointing for everyone, but I am sure they will bring a better game to the diamond on Tuesday night!  I am a little sad that I will not get to see him play on Tuesday, but it is one of the things I had to sacrifice to go to  NEW YORK CITY for 3 days with my hubby!

Sadie arrives..

Friday afternoon we welcomed the newest member of our family to our house.  We actually went to the shelter back on March 7th to pick her out, but due to a few complication we were not able to pick her up until March 27th.  The kids have had fun playing with her (and fighting over her).  Sadie is checking out her new digs and trying to adjust to the constant chaos around her!  She seems scared to death of the kids and their constant activity.  Lyndsey has claimed Sadie as her own (at least while the other kids are gone right now).  She has wrapped her in covers, read books to her, made her a  bed, and is now cooking for her as I type this blog.  They are quite an interesting pair!

Rain, rain, go away...

It seems to come every weekend...the rain.  It actually started on Wednesday this week and I almost was upset that it was raining again.  BUT I tried to look at the positive...at least it is not another weekend!  Yet here we are on Friday morning about to face the rain on the way to school and it is not predicted to stop by 3:30 (the official start of the weekend)!  We might as well PLAY and SING in the rain!

We are still going green here!

We have just changed our reasons...Baylor beat Auburn tonight!!!  They are headed to NYC for the final four of the NIT!  Sic'em Bears!  Tyler and JM went to the game over in Auburn this evening.  They had a blast and yelled there voices out... literally!  Tyler was very disappointed because he is an Auburn fan, so I will have to give him a hard time for a few days at least!  GO BAYLOR!

On a side note, the girls and I were watching the end of the game on ESPN.  At the final buzzer, an Auburn player fell to his knees, hit the ground, and eventually laid on the court in disappointment.  The girls were concerned that he was hurt at first.  When I said he was fine and just throwing a fit, Lyndsey started copying his actions.  I asked her if it was nice for the boy to do that.  She replied, "That's funny!"

A Pinch of Green!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  We hope you have had a very green day!  We have enjoyed a fun day at the zoo with a few of our cousins - Preston, Caroline, Thomas, Samuel, James, Aunt Kelly, and Aunt Sheryl.  We had fun visiting the animals, the playground, and Burger King together.  Thanks for the memories guys!  

Do you think JM, Tommy, and Rebecca would have predicted 30 years ago that their children would be playing together in Montgomery?  It is amazing how God works in the lives of those who love him!

Only our princess...

Disney has yet to create a princess who can do all this...

And when they create one that does this...

we will all be able to pick our noses and suck our fingers with grace!

Batter, Batter, Swing!

Baseball season is in full swing here.  Tyler moved up to the Majors this year.  They played there first practice game tonight.  His team won 16-4, and both teams really looked good for only practicing together for less than a week --almost every night:(.  Tyler had 2 singles and a double at bat with no strike outs!  He even made it home to score a couple of times!  Yea!  

Tyler has been taking weekly batting lessons for 2 years now, and he has been looking good in the cages.  But it is hard to tell how that practice will translate on the diamond!  He has gotten so much stronger and more confident since last season.  His swing is beautiful, and he knows how to watch the ball.  Coach Rob, his batting coach, has done a great job in the off season.  Tyler is a force to keep your eye on!  

A night at the Ballpark!

Daddy took the kids to the Capital City Classic.  And these are the only pics I got!

And a text message that said:

Tyler with friends - cool.

Corynne with dippin dots - cooler.

Lauren with Emmy - coolest!

Did Dad pawn off all the kids and watch the game...????

Too OLD now!

Tyler was excited to learn that he was to old for the kids menu today!  He pointed out that it clearly read "For children 10 and under".  He was so proud to get the adult menu.  He browsed the menu, then asked if he could just order a grilled cheese from the kid's menu anyway!  We got a good laugh for the morning! 

 

Sleepover Madness

A couple of years ago, Corynne and Tyler decided that they wanted to have their birthday sleepovers on the same night.  With JM schedule it is hard to find 2 weekends for parties so close together, so we decided to give it a shot.  This year the party size grew, but we still let them have them on the same night.  We look at it as 1 sleepless night instead of 2!  Corynne invited all 11 girls from her class.  Tyler picked out 7 friends to invite.  Why were we so unfair in the #s?  Girls at 9 are much easier than boys at 11!  That is just the bottom line.  Okay for as long as I have been planning parties, you invite so many and expect about 60%.  We ended up with 10 girls(plus my 3) and 4 boys plus Tyler!  Corynne has a very close class, so I should have expected a complete turnout.  It was quite a house full!  I loved it, but it was exhausting!  It was a fun afternoon and evening.  The girls enjoyed writing plays, dressing up, performing the plays, crafts, movies, and much more.  The boys went bowling and to the arcade.  They also played basketball,  kickball,  fuseball, and Wii games.  When everyone left, the house looked like we had a blast!

Reality hits me...

My oldest turned 11 today!   I think the big chunk of reality came with a letter from the church yesterday.  It was a letter from the Jr. & Sr. High ministers on the upcoming promotion to the junior high department.  He is still in 5th grade!  We will not be in jr. high for at least 6 more months as far as I am concerned, but our church promotes at the end of May!  Wow!  I was not ready for that reality to hit me.  We have a parent meeting to go learn about the ministy at the end of the month.  I guess they feel they have to ease us into this!  (Honestly, I don't think I will be ready if we start today!)  

Happy Birthday Tyler!

  

It is hard to believe that it has been 11 years since we raced to the hospital in the early morning hours.   I remember a sharp kick waking me up that morning.  I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom only to realize I had no control over myself at this point!  JM jumped into action.  We were not ready for this surprise at all.  We were first time parents, but Tyler was breech, I had showed no signs of labor (I went for a checkup yesterday),  I was 37 weeks, today was my last day of work, and we had scheduled a delivery on Monday!  I still believe that JM broke every traffic law possible on our short journey to Women's Hospital in Houston!   From your exciting arrival into our lives,  you have brought us years of happiness, joy, and love.  We have enjoyed every moment!  We love you!

Here comes the bride....

Lauren's Kindergarten class attended the wedding of Q & U today.  It was so cute!  Lauren was excited all week waiting for the day she got to wear her "ball gown" to school!  The ceremony was performed by the minister (Headmaster Mr. Gieger), and the soloist was the lower school principal Mrs. Gaines. 

 After the ceremony, the kids joined Mr. & Mrs. Qu for the reception.  They enjoyed a groom's cake and a bride's cake with punch.  

Then Mr. & Mrs. Qu headed off on their honeymoon to Quebec.  The kids showered them with bubbles!  It was an exciting ceremony.  Learning can be so much fun!

Lyndsey has attitude issues!

Our youngest has most definately hit the terrible twos!  We have been struggling for weeks with her behavior.  She can really throw the fit, and she will throw it anywhere.  She controls the mood of the room she is in!  She will let you know if she does not want you to talk.  She prefers to go home and watch Dora (or Deigo).  And whoa to the person who looks her way when she does not want them to look at her.  She gives you this face with her bottom lip sticking WAY out.  It is hard not to laugh!  I believe that she is going through the "testing the waters and where are my boundries stage".  I am standing my ground, but how long will this last?  I want my sweet little girl back!

Family Night

My friend in Maryland has been talking about letting her kids make their own personal pizzas and really having fun cooking them.  So I decided to give it a try.  It has been a long time since we have assembled our own pizzas around here.  Lauren likes for the "pizza man" to bring them to our house!  And honestly he does not make a mess for me to clean up!  First Corynne and Lauren made their pizzas!   

When I brought out the toppings, Corynne announced that she and her friend had made pizza last night at their sleepover.  She told me that the secret to great pizza was rubbing the crust with olive oil!  So we did it!  It must have worked because everyone with the exception of Lauren ate their personal pizza!  

We finished off the evening with piano practice and homework. 

We like variety in our weather!

Lower Alabama (or LA as some refer to it) has really run the spectrum on weather this winter!  We have had many tornado warnings that have sent us to the closet. Fortunately, none of them have touched down around us.  As a kid growing up in Texas, I remember learning a "fire drill" meeting place in the case of a house fire.  My kids are growing up with a tornado drill plan!   One night we were under the sirens for basically 4 hours.  And when I say "under the sirens"  that is very literal!  One of the weather sirens for the county is not very far from our house so when it goes off...WE HEAR IT LOUD and CLEAR!!!!  This is how we man our tornado stations for the night.  Thank goodness for walk-in closets so we can all sit and do homework!

We have had our fair share of warm days here and there. And then today we woke up at 6 am to a snow storm!  I noticed the snow around 5:30, but our kids have seen snow before and I had mixed emotions on waking them up!  Lauren woke up at 6 so excited, so we bundled the little girls up and took them outside.  Lyndsey thought we were going to go play on the slide and she quickly said take me inside when she saw the snow.  Lauren was not interested in playing without Corynne (who was over at a sleepover at a friends house).  The snow did not stick for long.  By 8 am it was already disappearing.  Even though it snowed throughout church, none of the snow stuck.