tea parties!!!

Emma had one of her friends over one afternoon and all of a sudden they came out with her table and chairs. They wanted to have a tea party with their dolls, and because she can't have liquids in her room they were coming out to the front room to have their party. They had sandwiches, chips and grape soda. They had a lot of fun, and Emma keeps asking when she can have another one.

They were so funny to listen to "you have to have your pinkies up" and "cheers". In the picture they have their pinkies up if you couldn't tell. They had to have their pinkies up while they ate and drank. I thought it was great, they made me laugh.

I had to post this because it is so stinking sweet. Andrew wanted to play Xbox with Dad the other night. He even has his own controller (a corded one that doesn't work very well, so it was given to him so he could play), so he thinks he is playing with them (one day he will find out it doesn't really work, but hopefully by then he will be old enough to play, and he will forgive us). This night in particular he was so tired but I went to tuck in the other kids, so I put him on his couch, gave him his controller and left. I came back to this, I was only gone for a couple of minutes, and I couldn't pass up this picture.

A fun time with the family!!!

I had told Emma (before she went back to school after Christmas break) we would go and see Tangled. Well with us being under the weather most of the break we finally were able to go on New Years Eve. Ryan decided that he wanted to see it also so the three of us headed out to the theatre. I loved it, it is now one of my new favorite movies. Ryan said that he liked it and Emma loved it. I love walking out of the movies feeling good about what you just watched, (there isn't very many like that any more), so when I see one it's wonderful!!! I highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already.

When we got back home after the movie it was time to get ready for our New Years Eve celebration. We stayed home and had fondue. Since we did fondue a couple of years ago the kids think that is what we have to every New Years Eve, but that's okay because we are together and enjoying dinner. Yes, it takes longer to eat but the family time spent together is priceless. We tried to feed Andrew some but he really didn't want it, so he ended up with macaroni and cheese and bananas, which he loves, so it all turned out. It took us longer to eat dinner then I had planned so we had to do desert (chocolate fondue, with fruit and fixins) the next night. All in all it went great!!!

Randomness...

...the first few weeks of January 2011.

I thought this was so cute, we were eating ice cream cones last week and I couldn't leave Andrew out. So I fixed his very own and talk about excitement. After watching the kids and Dad eat theirs he kind of figured out how to eat it...

... other than he still wanted to use his hands to eat the ice cream. He is turning eighteen months later this week and he thinks he has to do everything by himself. He doesn't want anyone else to feed him except himself. I am lucky to feed him breakfast in the mornings (there are some mornings that he won't let me). He thinks he is a big boy that has to do what his brothers and sister do (by himself).

He actually let me try to feed him, and he actually liked it. But then who doesn't like ice cream?

Mmmm Yummy!!!!

Andrew's new place to play!! He throws all of the magazines and papers off the table and puts his cars on, climbs on and plays! He is just like his older brothers and instead of driving the cars he lines them up bumper to bumper. He is getting where he actually is starting to drive them across the table. He has also found out if he plays with them at the front door where we have wood flooring he can push them and let them go and they go and don't stop like they do on the carpet. Aren't kids just to smart for us?

He found a new chair that is just his size. We have to have it in the front room along with his couch so he can watch "Mickey Mouse". The chair was actually mine when I was that age, you can't find anything like that anymore, they don't last.

Playin' with the dogs!!!

Andrew chasing after Rascal. He loves that dog, it is just his size!! and yes, even here we have to support our Jazz team!!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for the outfit!!

Dad and Aggie playing tug of-war.

Clark and Aggie playing and Rascal trying to join in. It was so funny watching Rascal trying to get it from Aggie, half the time Aggie would pull her across the lawn then others Rascal would hold her own, ears up, tail up using all his strength to try to get the rope.



Isn't he just so cute?! I took him to the vet today for his booster shot, and all the employees that we saw thought he was just so cute with those floppy ears and puppy dog eyes.

Christmas vacation part 2

As promised here is the rest, I was so upset with myself last night after I had uploaded all these pictures and then to hit a button and lose them all. I still don't know what I did but I am back and they are loaded so lets get to the point. On our Christmas vacation we had to break our trip to Montgomery into two days. We went to The First White House of the Confederacy, Grandma's Attic/Archive Building and the Alabama State Capitol the first day and The Cattleman's Association Mooseum and the park on the second day. The start of this post is the last place we went on the first trip, so lets get going!!

Alabama State Capitol

One of the reasons we went to the State capitol was we had never been inside and like I said earlier my friends daughter is studying Alabama History, and in her book it stated that the spot where Jefferson Davis was inaugurated was marked at the capitol with a star. So we went in search for it. It was right there on the top of the steps into the Capitol Building. The kids thought that it was cool to see it. Here are some of the kids trying to read it, and Clark got a camera for Christmas so he was trying to take a picture of it for himself. He is really enjoying his camera.

This was the first time that we had been to the Capitol that we were able to enter the building, and I had heard that the painting on the ceilings of the dome were beautiful. The pictures don't give it justice but they are beautiful.

I thought this was cool, instead of telling you about the room I posted the the tablet from behind the bench so you could read it for yourself. I knew I would forget what it said and I thought it would be good to see it for yourself.

Cattleman's Association Mooseum
The second time that we went into Montgomery the kids were so excited. They were sad that we weren't able to see it the first time that we went, so when we arrived the kids were so excited and they wanted to hurry inside. This is the first thing that you see when you walk in. They all wanted their picture taken.

Here is the group that went this day. If you notice we are missing one and gained another from our last trip, and yes Andrew was with us this time I just didn't get him into this picture. Clark was invited to go to a friends house for the afternoon and play air soft (if you don't know what air soft is it is like paint ball but with bb's that don't have paint in them). I don't understand why you would want to shoot at each other, I think that would hurt, they say otherwise. So he went there and had fun, and we had invited another one of Emma's friends to go with us.

Andrew thought this was great. He screamed when we made him get off.

Emma smiling for the camera!! The kids all took turns riding the bucking bronco!! No, it didn't move but they enjoyed it anyway.

Ryan getting bucked off!! Even he enjoyed the Mooseum!!

Ryan loved the cowboy hats and he actually asked me for a picture, usually he
just groans when I ask for a picture.

Andrew talking to the cow they had there. No, it's not real it is fake, but he didn't know that, actually it looked quite real at first glance.

The kids playing in the kitchen. The thing that they are pretending to eat is one giant stuffed hamburger with meat, cheese, lettuce and the bun. Andrew thought this was great, he was actually able to get out of the stroller and play with the big kids. (lower) Marianna, Grace Addison and Emma posing for a picture!! The play kitchen was so cute and the girls loved it.

This was one of the weirdest things there, it was very informative but the guy doing the talking was just weird. He was a mannequin but his head never moved. There wasn't any facial expression so it was weird watching it but then you couldn't turn away because it was quite captivating, weird huh? Crazy!!! Here is a close up of the guy.

Playin' at the park
I had asked Ryan to play with Andrew for five minutes and then he could go play with Zack and Peyton. He wasn't too happy about that but he did and they had fun playing on the slide with Andrew. Andrew didn't want to wait for Ryan to get ready to go with him so they would take turns, the one who caught Andrew would take him up and the one who sent him would slide down after Andrew and catch him the next time.

Look at that smile. He was loving it!!!

I have decided that Andrew LOVES to go to the park!!!

Emma was poking her head in the hole so I took her picture. After that she went down the slide and landed in a huge puddle of ice cold water that was sitting in the bottom of the slide. She was not a happy camper as you can tell in the following picture. She was freezing! I told her to go and play and that we would leave in a few minutes so Ryan could get in some play time with Zack and Peyton. They love to play tag on the park equipment. We weren't there very long because we had realized the time had flown by and we needed to get home. But i hope the kids enjoyed there vacation. I know we didn't really get to do a whole lot (like get together with friends) due to three of us being sick, but I do hope they had fun with what they got to do.

Christmas Vacation 2010!!!!

We went with some friends into Montgomery to visit some historical places. We were hoping to go earlier in the week but the friends that we went with took their van in to get it fixed, and it was only supposed to be a five hour job turned into seven days. Needless to say after calling the mechanic for a few days she borrowed her Mom's car, I took her daughter and neice, and we headed into Montgomery. We headed to the Cattleman's Association Mooseum. Got there and it was closed for lunch or so we thought, we went to the park for lunch and headed back to the Mooseum, got there and it was closed till the next Monday (we didn't notice the note on the door). Lucky us!! Now we were headed for the First White House of the Confederacy, hoping it's open.




The First White House of the Confederacy
We finally made it inside the building. Every time that I have gone it was closed, so when we got there and the sign in the window said open I was so excited. It was neat to go inside and see the items that were there when Jefferson Davis lived there.

The group of kids that went. No, Andrew is not with us Dad was home so I left him with his Daddy and I enjoyed not having to worry about him.

The table here in the picture is the table that Jefferson Davis wrote "The Rise and Fall of Confederate Government "

Emma and Marianna looking at the pretty dresses that were worn then.

One of the rooms in the home. I love the dress in this picture, and also the spinning wheel over in the corner.

A shot of the current State Capitol from one of the upstairs rooms in the house.

Grandma's Attic

Next we ventured next door to the Archives building, where there is Grandma's Attic. The kids can come here and learn about Alabama and dress up in some fun outfits. Here Emma and Grace are modeling some beautiful old time hats, and Marianna is modeling a band uniform (she was pretending that she was Michael Jackson, she said this looked like something he wore. My friend is a huge fan of Michael Jackson) the girls were so funny playing dress up!!!

Here Clark and Zack were combing cotton (I can't remember the term), and Ryan and Peyton were playing games. Grandma's Attic is a hands on learning place where you can also have fun learning!!

This isn't a great picture but Ryan was trying on some dress ups and he thought this one was awesome!!

In the Archives building they usually have a couple of rooms on Alabama's history. Most of the rooms were being moved to another area except one. Part of the reason we went to the archives building was to find the Bible that was used when Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederacy. Monica is home schooling Grace and they are learning about Alabama history, and in Grace's book it talks about the bible. We were told it was probably put away to be moved, while we were leaving we found one room that they hadn't taken the things away yet and we found it. They were excited, it was cool to see it there. We also learned that when every Governor of Alabama is sworn in they use this same Bible. It is a lot of fun learning about the South.

I have to go now, this has taken a lot longer then I planned, due to uploading a lot more pictures then losing them and having to start over. I will get back to this hopefully tomorrow when I have a few minutes.

Christmas 2010

I have been a slacker and haven't updated for a few weeks. I have quite a few pictures to put on here so I am going to do it as the day goes, so bear with me there may be a few updates at a time.

Christmas has come and gone. I am always sad to see it leave. Even with temperatures in the 60's and no snow, Christmas is still a wonderful time of the year. The only downfall this year was that I had been sick and it took me longer to get presents wrapped, goodies baked and Christmas dinner (and snacks) planned. So needless to say presents did get wrapped, goodies were baked Thursday night and Friday (Christmas Eve) and delivered, they were yummy, and we didn't have too many snacks and dinner was great (if I do say so myself).

Christmas Morning
Santa found us again this year and he was so kind this year. The kids were excited with what they got, and they haven't put them down since. One of the big hits this year is "Wipeout" a Wii game that was given to the family. It is so fun to play and watch. I highly recommend it, it is even a game that I can play (I still stink at it, but it is fun). I think the first time we played it, we had played it for three hours.

Emma checking out her stocking

Clark passing out presents

Ryan seeing what he got

Andrew checking out his stash

Christmas pictures

The kids all got new Sunday clothes for Christmas, and trying to get a picture after church the next day was not as successful as I wanted. This is the best picture that I had taken. Andrew did not want to cooperate, he wanted his trucks and his bike (as seen in the pictures below), we even resorted to taking one with him playing in front of Clark, Ryan and Emma, and then they didn't even look. Aren't children funny!

New suit new bike I"m set!!!

Now the Christmas tree and the decorations have been taken down and put away, we are ready for the new year to come and see what we can make of it! It is always sad to put "Christmas decorations" away, but this year I was so ready to. I couldn't keep Andrew out of the ornaments. He did really good with not touching the tree for most of the month, but right there after Christmas he couldn't keep his hands off of it, but then again he is only 17 months, and looks at you while you are telling him NO and does it anyway. He is such a character!! I am so glad he joined our family.

We hope that all of you have had a wonderful Christmas season and are ready for the New Year!