Missouri Weekend

We just got home and unpacked from a great weekend in Missouri with Michael's family, and we had such a great time! Granted, the boys have been making this 7 or 8 hour trip with us since they were six weeks old, but sometimes the car ride there isn't a walk in the park with them. Not so, this time!!! They were AWESOME! I couldn't stop bragging on how great they did. Not one fuss out of either of them. And that just kicked our weekend off to a great start.

We went to celebrate Michael's birthday this week, but honestly, with such cute kiddos around all the attention was on them. Ben and Drew love their little cousin so much, and had such a great time playing with her and chasing her around. Brittany and I grew up with very close relationships with our cousins, and I've always wanted that for my boys. I'm so glad they have that with Dresie. We put them in the wagon, and walked to the elementary school (one of the really neat things about living in a small town) to pick her up on Friday and the look on her face said it all. That night we headed to Chuck E Cheese for dinner to treat the little ones, and I'm pretty sure the grown-ups had just as much fun as they did.

Then on Saturday, Uncle Dan and Aunt Chelle took us out to some friends' house to feed the baby sheep and see the horses, and the boys had even more fun. They loved feeding the babies the bottle, and Dresden was a natural at it since she gets to do it all the time. And then Saturday night we headed into Columbia to celebrate Michael's birthday. Restaurants can be tricky sometimes with these two little guys. But they were on their best behavior and we even ordered them each some ice cream to reward them.

It was a whirlwind weekend, and we sure did have lots of fun. There were so many good pictures, it was hard to narrow it down. Here are just a few.

Now I'm off to tackle the mounds of laundry that come with traveling.......not much fun, but definitely worth it!Dresie teaching the boys how to play basketball

Playing Bop-It with Aunt Chelle and Dresie

Ben helping Daddy with his score (read: Michael cheating) at Skee Ball

Daddy and Drew racing

Uncle Michael teaching Dresie about how to sink a putt

Aunt Chelle and Drew with the golf balls

Dresden and Ben with the baby sheep

PawPaw, Dresie and Ben walking to see the horses

My boys giving the baby his milk

I realized not too long ago that I had not really taken very many pictures of Drew and Ben brushing their teeth. This is one of their favorite things to do in the mornings ...by themselves, that is. So, it usually starts out as a happy event (and let me tell you, it can be an event lasting up to 10 or 15 minutes with the two of them), but can often end up getting pretty ugly since both of my boys like to do everything by their "see-elves". But here are a few action shots, pre-meltdown over who gets to hold the toothbrush.

We haven't been up to too much lately. Just working our way through our weekly routine is busy-ness enough. I think they are both beginning to cut their two-year molars, based only on the amount of drool, waking up at night and gnawing going on. I think it's worse this time than when they were babies. But we're doing what we can to help them through it.

In other news, we went to Ben's check-up at Vandy for his thyroid condition. I tell ya, there's no place like Vanderbilt Children's Hospital to make you thankful for what you've got. The Pediatric Endocrinology is on the same floor as the Pediatric Cancer Center and a number of other serious illnesses. So, we are always in the waiting room with babies and children who have Down's Syndrome, physical and mental handicaps, and cancer patients. It is always such a reality check for Michael and I when we are there to look at what some parent's go through. I honestly can't imagine. But I always find myself in some serious prayer on those days. As the boys get older and older, I love the idea of exposing them to children who have different problems than they have, and teaching them how to be loving and compassionate. Anyways, we went through the whole checkup, and I really thought that Ben was beginning to outgrow his dosage of medicine. But, the bloodwork all came back perfect. So, after his next visit in 4 months, the Drs. think that we can do a trial of coming off the medicine completely. We've always had hope that he would outgrow this, and it wouldn't be a lifelong thing to treat. But either way, we're so thankful to our great doctors who have taken such great care of all four of us!

That's all for now! Here are a few silly shots I've taken here and there lately. Hope you all have a happy weekend...we sure plan to!!!

It's Football Time in Tennessee

Hello, one and all! We've been a little out of the loop lately since Michael is now back from China. We have just been having such great time lovin' on him and laughing and playing, and the boys have been more attached to their daddy than ever. So, we just couldn't take time away from that to sit at a computer and blog. While he was away, the boys and I made the trip down to Montgomery to visit Mimi and Pop, and had a great time. We came back a little spoiled, as we always do. My parent's both have very flexible jobs, so one or both of them was always around to help me wtih our very busy boys.

They seem to be talking nonstop these days. A few favorite phrases around our house are "my turn", "I ho-bit" (I hold it), "I ha-bit" (I have it), "I do it I see-elf" (I do it myself), and plenty more. I'm constantly amazed at the things they'll say back to me while we're talking that I didn't consciously teach them. They've mostly got the colors and counting down, so we've been working on letters lately. But honestly, that bores them, so I usually do it while they are buckled down in their carseats as a captive audience.

Summer is gone (mostly) and I must say that I am never sad to see it go. Fall has always been my very favorite season, and Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Along with those always comes football season, which was kicked off at our house bright and early this past Saturday morning. We did our normal Saturday morning tradition of donuts and then before I could even blink twice Michael already had them in their gameday shirts and singing Rocky Top at the top of all three lungs. Good times!

Here are a few pictures of the boys in all their sports' teams glory to tide you over till I have more time to post. Love to you all!