Horsing Around

This morning the boys and I headed out to Madison to visit my good friend Maggie and her little girl, Savannah at their farm. Savannah really wanted to go swimming, but Drew and Ben were too excited about all the room to run. There were too many things to play with and explore, so sweet baby Savannah had the water all to herself. Isn't she the cutest?! Ben was so shy around Savannah, but once he warmed up to her, he had fun sharing her bracelets. Drew LOVED the horses, which was not really a surprise at all. This horsey was so friendly and let the kids love on her as much as they wanted. When Drew began to walk away, she followed him wanting a little more attention. And here are the three of them trying to get inside the chicken coop. I'm sure if we had let them work on it long enough they could've figured it out. But for now, they just had to settle for peeping in. We had such a fun time at the farm. Maybe next time Savannah's daddy will let us sit on one!

In other news, we've had two really big developments around here: Yes, that's right! Ben has been consistently telling me "pah-dee" for almost three weeks now. I'm not pushing it at all, and only take him to go when he tells me he wants to. But he is so eager to be a big boy. He is very proud of himself and always claps and says "yaaaaay!!" after he's finished. Drew isn't interested at all, and that is fine with us. He'll let me know when he's ready.

One thing he IS ready for is his own bed. After 21 months of sharing a bed with his brother, Drew has very blatantly told us that he's ready for his own bed now. To be perfectly truthful, I think it's harder on Michael and I than it is on them. We thought they'd share a bed for at least another year or two. In fact, the first night that they went to sleep in separate cribs, Ben was lonely and waking up at not being able to feel Drew. So before we went to bed we moved him to Drew's crib. Now that Ben has adjusted to sleeping alone, he seems to be better. But it is a little sad to me since I have loved tucking both of them in every night, usually snuggled up together.

I snapped this of Drew at Michael's Championship softball game. He gets down like that any time he has a ball, and if you tell him to "get ready to catch the ball" he crouches down low and holds both hands out. We've never taught him to do that, but we think it must be because Michael played Catcher, and he has really liked watching his daddy play ball.We've been playing so hard lately with all of our friends that this is the most common sight in the backseat of our car. Hope you all are having a fun summer too!

Easy Does It

For a nice change of pace, things have been pretty laid back and slow this past week or two. Not too much has been going on...just the usual play dates with friends, errands, swimming at the pool and other summer fun. No complaints from this girl!

Drew and Ben are pretty funny, and are showing us their developing personalities more and more every day. For instance, the other day, I had told Ben several times to put his toys back in the toy box, and he wasn't minding very well. So I said "Ben, if I have to get to 'three', you are going to be in trouble. One...Two..." and then Ben looks right at me (while putting toys in the toy box, no less) and says "Free, Far, Fiiie, Fits. Yaaaaaaaayyyy". The moment was lost, and I stood there cracking up. All three of us laughed (but I'm sure they didn't know why we were laughing), and then we all picked up the toys together.

They are both beginning to put two and three words together to make sentances, and it's really nice to be able to know what they are trying to communicate since they can say just about everything. They're pretty obsessed with the movie 'Cars', or anything that has wheels and goes "passt" (fast). Maybe that's why Drew runs everywhere he goes. His favorite phrase right now is "aahhh sern, mommy" (my turn, mommy), and any time Ben has anything -regardless of how long Ben has had it- Drew immediately looks at me and tells me that it's "his turn." It's a process...

Anyways, I've been trying to post video of the two of them splashing in the baby pool we have on our deck. They really have fun with it when we're not at the Y. But so far, Google Video hates me, and won't let me post. Any computer savvy blogging friends out there, feel free to offer any advice. Until I can figure it out, here are just a few random pictures I've taken lately. Enjoy!
"Mommy, look how much I love my pacies!" "Ben, honestly, you look ridiculous!""Oh wait! I didn't know it was cool. I guess if you can do it, then I can do it too."

Better Late Than Never

We are home from a fun getaway to visit our good friends, TJ and Holly in the Dominican Republic.....uhm...I mean Paradise. Actually, I should clarify: we HAVE been home for a couple of weeks now, and I have been (once again) the Web's Worst Blogger. But I digress. This is the beach that they took us to for some fun in the sun and lunch on the sand on our first day there. It took an extra day for our luggage to get to us, but we were just so excited to see our friends and be in one of the most beautiful places on earth, that we really didn't care too much.

We met the boys that they are working with, helped them in their outreach center, ate all the fresh fruit that you could ever want, and had a GREAT time just hanging with our friends. This is the four of us before we began our hike up 27 (yes, you read that correctly: 27) waterfalls and jumped or slid down them. Seriously, it was one of the most fun things I've ever done!

And here is an action shot of Michael. I'm sure glad they didn't tell us how high up those waterfalls were before we went there. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have agreed to go. I'm also pretty sure I impressed both my husband and myself at climbing up some of those rocks and jumping off. It was definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.
This is the mountain that we drove up to get to the church where TJ and Holly worship and work with. The people there have no idea how we feel about the natural beauty that surrounds them. It was such a blessing to worship with believers who are our brothers and sisters, but who speak to the same God in a different language and are in a completely different part of the world.
We ended our trip with a short stay at the most romantic and beautiful places I've ever been. All in all, it was the perfect getaway vacation. But I will say we were both really ready to come home to our buddies....even if it did mean leaving Paradise! We're already looking forward to going back.

Minus 1 Family Member, Plus 5 New Ones...

.....Makes for a very large family! Several weeks ago Aunt BeBe bought the buddies a fish tank, and gave them the guppies that used to be in her 1st grade classroom. Well, all 5 of them died (or "went night-night" if you ask Ben and Drew) after only a few days at our house. Being the wonderful Daddy that he is, Michael quickly remedied the situation by bringing home two new "ish-eees".
We named them Fin and Goldie, and I'm sad to say that this past weekend while we were in Montgomery visiting MiMi and Pop, we lost one. But, we now have 5 new additions to our house....or front porch, I should say:
This is what I found this morning while we were watering our flowers. I had noticed the mama bird building her nest a couple of weeks ago, and soon we'll have some new babies to look at.

We had a great time visiting MiMi and Pop. Nana and Papa (my grandparents) were even able to come over from Georgia for a couple of days too. Pop and Michael played golf on Friday, but before they left, they took some time to show the boys how it's done. Mimi got them each their own set of little clubs, and those were definitely a hit!
Then, we took the boys to see their first baseball game. I'm pretty sure they didn't understand what was going on, but they definitely knew there was a "beee ball" (big ball) to watch for. They really had a good time, and when the choo choo train passed by the stadium, they were in toddler heaven.

So now we're home again, and settling back in for a couple of weeks before our next adventure. When we got back our sweet little neighbor brought over some sidewalk chalk for the boys, and it is now the first thing they want to play with after breakfast. They were so excited to play with their "cuh-wurs" (colors) that I just let them go out in their pajamas after breakfast. Ben is holding his chalk and saying "sheeese" at the camera.

Hope you all are having a fun summer too!!! I'm off to begin on my to-do list now that I have a moment. Enjoy the new pictures and thanks for checking in on us!

Today we headed into downtown Nashville for some water fun. Back in 1994 Tennessee had celebrated it's bicentennial birthday, and to commemorate the occasion the state built the Bicentennial Mall. It's this beautiful park that has Tennessee's history carved into granite monuments, a Farmer's Market, fountains that shoot up from the ground, and -- as if that weren't enough -- there is a railroad track that runs above the fountains. Once the boys warmed up to the idea of the fountains, they really liked playing in the water. But the highlight for them was the choo choo train that they got to see and hear while they were playing. They both yelled "hiiiii choooo chooooo" at the top of their little lungs as it passed by them, and were sad when it was "ahhhh done". After that we headed over to the Farmer's Market for some lunch and shopping for produce. Unfortunately for me, the boys were ready for their naps so we had to cut our visit a little short. But we still managed to have a good time. Here are Ben, Drew and Brax climbing the stairs and heading to the Capitol Building.
This is Drew sitting on the granite map of the state, beside our sweet little city of Spring Hill.
Ben, Jay, Avery and Brax play in one of the fountains. I think that sweet little girl had the best time out of all those wild little boys.
I'm not sure if you can see the expressions on their faces good enough to tell what a great time they were having, but they were all smiles until I made them go inside to eat lunch.


Thanks, Laura E. for getting this all together!!! We had so much fun, and we'll have to do it again soon!

Fun in the Sun

We are finally home and settled in enough for me to get a chance to post a few pictures from the boys' first beach trip. For this past Memorial Day weekend, we took the boys to Destin, Florida with the Laytons and the Belvilles (check out their pages to see more beach pictures). It was such a great trip for many reasons, but by far the biggest reason was because of the friends we went with. There were 6 "grown-ups", 5 toddlers under the age of two, and 2 of the best, most patient babysitters you could ever ask for. All of us stayed in a 4 bedroom house across the street from the beach, and it couldn't have been more fun! If you keep up with us via this blog at all, you probably know that Michael and I were a little nervous about how Ben and Drew would do since they didn't seem to like swimming lessons very much. But I have to say that they did GREAT!!! They loved the feel of the sand, and were happy to sit and dig or throw it until it was time to go in for lunch and a nap. Here are a couple of pictures of them as they see and hear the ocean waves for the first time.....but this was about as close as they wanted to get to it.


In the mornings after all the kiddos had been fed breakfast and the grown-ups had been given coffee, we headed down to our beach tent with sippy cups and sand toys in hand. We usually stayed there until the boys were ready for lunch, which was more than enough time to make them want to take looong naps.


As you can see, they pretty much stuck to playing in the sand. But by our last day, they got a little more used to to the waves, and ventured down to the water. Ben really liked the cold water splashing on his legs. But little Drew was perfectly content to play at a safe distance.



Usually we would feed the kids dinner while they played in the backyard, outside of the pool while we all just hung out and visited. Then we would put them down for bed, and then go out to dinner without having to ask the hostess for 5 high chairs. That alone was a treat. But one of the nights we loaded everyone up and had dinner in Sandestin. Here is a picture of all of us together.

If the kids weren't playing at the beach or in their pajamas, this was the usual scene outside of our house: naked babies in diapers, running and laughing their little hearts out. Being the photo-snapping mommies that we are, we had to sit them down for a quick picture.

And lastly, here are our two wonderful babysitters, Melissa and Winn. I know that the trip would not have been nearly as enjoyable for Michael and I if we hadn't had them. They were patient amid all the chaos that 5 toddlers bring, and did way more than we ever asked or expected them to do!

It was so much fun to get away with good friends. And I am just so thankful for the people that God has brought into our lives. Enjoy the pictures, and I'll try to post a few more of my favorites later on.

How Long Does it Take to Eat A Whole Bag of Goldfish?...

...about 2.5 seconds, if you have three mouths, four hands and four paws all working together at the same time. it was one of those priceless moments when i was gasping at the mess, but so glad to see that they are actually learning the things i try to teach them (like how to share). let me just say, THIS is why we have to leave the door to the pantry closed at all times!