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.