Gone Fishin'

I had just gone downstairs to finish cleaning up the breakfast mess after I had gotten the boys ready for the day, when I hear Drew say "shish, Beh! shish!" (fish, Ben! fish!). I then hear four feet running as hard as they can to the playroom, where I guess they got their new fishing poles that Aunt Chelle, Uncle Dan and Dressie gave them.

It was too quiet, so I headed upstairs, and this is what I saw as I was coming up: Two little feet and two fishing rods hanging over the bannister at the top of the stairs. Who taught them to do that?! It was so funny to me that I ran back downstairs to grab the camera. I just knew that my Daddy and their Uncle Dan would be so proud to see the little fishermen already in action....since they have both been itching to take the boys fishing for some time now.


P.S. Who's impressed with me for having two posts in the same week?! ;)

Birthday Weekend

Well, I really wish that I had lots of cute birthday pictures to post for you all. I wish that we 'd had the fun birthday party that we'd had planned for the boys. I wish I could report that the 2nd birthday party with our friends came off without a hitch. But since I can't say any of those things actually came to pass, I'll tell you what did happen.

Wednesday afternoon Drew woke up from his nap with a scalding hot fever. At that point he wouldn't let me take his temp, but it was pretty high. So we began the motrin/tylenol cocktail rotation, the cool washcloths, ice chips, juice, water, and every other thing I could think of to help my little man feel better. Even a trip to Dr. Leeper's office to make sure it wasn't ears (he acted GREAT, by the way, while we were there. Like he wasn't sick at all! Why do they do that?) All to no avail through the night, and all through the next day. He was pitiful. He would only lay on me in the rocking chair. All. Day. Long. And a looong day it was. So, now on top of being exhausted, I'm now getting very very worried about my sick little boy.


So, at a steady temp of 104.1 for over 2 hours, the on-call nurse said we needed to head to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. I'm trying to keep my crying baby calm, navigate through rush hour traffic, thinking of all the serious things that could be wrong. Fears of MRSA, flu or strep in my head. It was so bad. He screamed even louder and even longer while they ran all the tests, and my heart just broke for him.


All that to say, it was just a really bad virus that is just now coming to an end (thank goodness!). So, we had to cancel the birthday party, and had a small family party here at our house Friday night instead. Honestly, it was PERFECT! It was just what the boys needed, and they enjoyed being with all the grandparents, aunts and uncle, and their cousin more than I can even describe. We all had a great time just being all together. The only bad part was that it made us all wish we all lived closer. I love that our families get along so well, and can all enjoy each others' company. It is really such a blessing to have such a loving family to raise our boys in.


So, the boys really did have a great birthday, despite not feeling quite as good as usual. Hopefully we can meet up with our good buddies in the park one day this week to play and celebrate. We didn't get too many pictures, but here are a few that we snapped.

The only three things that made Drew feel any better (after the fever started coming down) were his paci, coloring and birthday cake. Here he is showing me the picture we made. But look at his little eyes.

Aunt Chelle showing the boys their cake.

Everybody singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles. We've been working really hard at showing two fingers when someone asks how old they are.
Once we uncovered the cake Ben, Drew and Dresden all had to have theirs right then. So here they are, eating their dessert first.

Dressie helping Drew down the slide. They just adore her and kept running around saying "Come on, Dres! Swide (slide), Dres!".

They're getting so big, and growing so much every day. It's hard to believe two years have already flown by. They are most definitely the best things that have ever happened to Michael and I, and we feel so blessed that God chose us to be their Mommy and Daddy.

My New Adventure

After Darci's last post about finishing Brody's nursery, I had several of you sweet friends email me, wanting to see more of the painted canvases that I've done, and basically just encouraging me. And let me tell you, that was not only surprising, but also a huge blessing to me since I've been a little shy (I know, not typical of me at all) about telling anyone about this. And that's really silly since it's pretty hard to have a "little business" if no one knows anything about it.


But after the support I got from some good friends (you know who you are!) I figured that maybe now might be a good time to post a few pictures of some of the canvases I've done so far in the hopes that someone else will want me to help put the finishing touches on their little pumpkins' room. I'm not sure if you can see it, but on the sides of the canvases, each one has a different shape around it. The "one" has the deep red circles, "two" has cream triangels, "three" has light blue squares and "four" has dark brown stars.

This is the one that started it all. It hangs in Ben and Drew's nursery, and I started toying with the idea of making these to sell when my amazing husband gushed about how good it was and encouraged me to give it a shot.

This is just a sample I made to hang in one of the consignment stores here in Spring Hill.

This one is another sample, and these are Ben's feet. If you order this one either for yourself, or for a gift, it will come with extra paint for you to have footprints of the special little one.

And another sample, inspired by my good friend Carrie's nursery for her little boy Colt. The flash did funny things to the color of the background, but it's really a brick red, with dark brown lettering.

I've done a few others for some friends that I don't have pictures of, but these are some general ideas.

I'm working on some dump trucks, airplanes and cars for the boys' playroom right now. All this to say, I'd love to do something for you too! Just email me the color scheme of the room, the theme you have, and any other ideas you have about what you want. I'll be more than happy to add a personalized and special touch to the place that your little one calls home. You can get me at piddlespaints@aol.com. Happy Hobbying, everyone!

Fall is Fun!

Sorry for the lapse in posts, to all of my faithful blog buddies. We haven't really been any more busy than usual, it's just that when the weather is THIS great, it's hard to come inside or use the boys' naptime for things like the computer.

So, on to what we've been up to. Last weekend was the annual Country Ham Festival here in Spring Hill. We took the boys, and all four of us had a great time. I love going to things like this! There were pony rides for the kiddos, which ours loved and rode on like big boys, a choo choo train ride that they thought was the coolest, face painting (that we didn't even attempt since to get them to sit still for any amount of time is unlikely), a petting zoo, and more country ham than anyone could ever want or wish for.

Here are a few pictures of the day

Drew getting on the train. The conductor is Chris, the guy who owns and runs Sopranoz out here. We've gotten to know him from eating at his place occasionally.

The boys at the petting zoo.

Ben enjoying his first apple fritter on bale of hay.

I haven't taken too many pictures lately...not sure why I've been slacking...but I will try to do better. Thats all for now. Thanks for checkin in on us!

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!