Bullet Style

Doing this blog in bullet style, because I have several random things to jump around to:

- Last weekend we went to the lake with our dear friends Jeremy and Jeanne and Heath's cousin Hannah and her family.  It was a total of 7 boys and Collins and Jeanne's parents were wonderful to host our wild crew!

Best picture we could get - Winston, Henry, Zachary, Averitt, Turner, Sam (Spiderman), John Burke and Collins

- Turner went tubing for the first time and loved it!  In fact, he made it look easy to John Burke, who will not be outdone!

They had so much fun!

Second cousins hanging out

- The weekend before that Laurahelen got married!  She was a gorgeous bride and has an even more beautiful heart, and God matched her perfectly with Thomas.  It was so wonderful to be a part of the whole weekend - watching God bring together two of his faithful servants who waited on His perfect timing!

- I got to reunite with 2 best friends that I rarely get to see, and I laughed a LOT!  So nice to be able to pick up right where you left off.  I felt like we just were in Auburn, except we are 31 now.  I really do forget that on a daily basis, until someone calls me ma'am or I look at my 3 children and snap back.  

- This week, I am witnessing a lot of friends send their children to kindergarten.  And my niece Kate started too!  Maybe Lindsey will feel led to update her blog on such happenings.  Anyway, it just makes me realize how short of a time I have with my babies until they go to kindergarten.  While I know it is a good thing, it makes me appreciate the time I have with them.  Even when they make me CRAZY!!

One last hurrah with Kate and Blake before they started school last week.  We met them in Prattville for a morning at our favorite - Chick fil A, of course

Look at these kids getting older! 

These boys run upstairs every morning to check on Baby Sister.  I had to get this picture of the monitor because they would have never stayed long enough with the real camera.

- One day last week I went to pick up Collins and load her in the car.  This is how I found her.  That is a helmet on her head (with air holes, thankfully) and a toy saw in her lap.  I think she is going to be laid back, because she didn't make a sound when they covered her entire face with the helmet and she was actually asleep underneath when I rescued her.  Ugh!  They just casually camped out by her, so I had to take this picture.

Here she is without a helmet - just realized she is in the Bumbo that got recalled this week.  Safety first.

Reaching out to her boy Sims

And, pulling the paper towel off of the roll.  She loves to grab things and this has been her favorite so far.  I overheard John Burke yell at her in the kitchen the other day "NO BABY!  Her taked my cup!!" as he yanked it back.  I felt kind of proud of her!

He forgave her - giving her kisses

- Turner Lightyear - this has been the summer of mastering potty training.  He has to be to enter the 3K program, and he has done well.  However, I feel like a labor coach every time he goes poop.  He has gotten better, but for a while there I had to sit at his knees and "coach" it out, bringing back scary memories of child birth as I say "Push, push, push...almost there!"  John Burke likes to crawl in my lap and help me, making it a beautiful family affair.  Jealous?  :)

July Highlights

July has come and gone and I can't believe I didn't steadily record it.  I just keep thinking I will get better - but truth is, I am worse about having my camera with me and actually having time to take pictures.  I want to soak up this time, though - we are really enjoying our summer!

We had a fabulous Fourth of July!  It is my favorite holiday I think.  We went to the lake with friends during the day and then watched a PHENOMENAL fireworks show at Wes and Evan's that night!

First boat ride

Watching Daddy ski

Derek, Stacy and Chloe came over to watch Wes' fireworks show that rivaled Thunder on the Mountain!  Seriously...neighbors walked over in awe and there were cars parked down the hill into our neighborhood watching in amazement!  

God Bless America!  My kids' hearing must be jacked because they handled the noise and such just fine.  Maybe it was the beer from Uncle Derek :)  Just kidding, but it does look like he is feeding it to Collins here.

The leftover boxes from the show - it was no joke!

The next weekend we had a great lake trip with dear college friends

Trip to the zoo with "Sare-beth and Lilliam" - it was such a treat to go to the zoo with such great helpers.  The kids didn't want to leave!!  At one point, though, we were in the reptile cage admiring the snakes and turtles and stuff.  All of a sudden Turner runs up and excitedly shouts "Look Mommy...a helmet!"  Nope, not an animal.  A helmet that was leftover from the zookeepers cleaning the cage.  Why does my child look past the cool animals to a helmet??  So weird.

Our street got a new member, Ramsay Harless.  So glad he is here!

Lindsey and Brandon went on vacation and the kids stayed with GiGi and Pop Pop.  Of course we used this to our advantage and milked time with Kate, Blake and Morgan since they just moved to Greenville, AL.  

My dad took the week off of work, so we lovingly called the week "Camp Pop Pop" - we went swimming, out to dinners, to Jump Zone, Chick fil A, Brusters and the petting zoo.  He and Mom had to be tired, but we had so much fun!!

Kate holding her baby

Petting zoo humor

Then we headed to the beach for a week with our friends the Bennetts and 2 fabulous babysitters, Sarah and Lauren.  They were lifesavers and made the trip so much more manageable and fun!

How cute are those sitters?!  Love. them.

Turner and Brooks

John Burke and Read

Collins and Sims

Sims at the pool

The dads had fun too :)

Back at home this week, this little lady has turned 6 months (well, last week) and just started eating oatmeal with a little fruit in it.  She loved it and tried to take the spoon from me!  This morning I had to yell at John Burke to get his fingers out of her mouth.  See, she won't take a paci, but it somehow soothes her to chew on his fingers.  But it grosses me out!  Well, he promptly took his fingers out of her mouth and then I heard him squeal "My toes!"  Luckily, I was close enough to dive over and rip his foot out of the way before he placed it in her naive little mouth.  YUCK!

Turner has been very into Curious Jones (George) and whenever he is recounting something he says "last year..."  That generally means anything from minutes or hours ago, days, weeks or literally a year ago.  He also has a renewed interest in Gordon.  I swear the kid is oblivious to big life events until months later!!  We had a big storm the other night and the next morning we were talking about God protecting us from the storm.  Turner said "But he is in heaven" and we had a talk about God being in heaven, but sending Jesus to die for us and be in our hearts and the Holy Spirit within us, etc.  I thought we were making progress until he said "But he died.  He was black."  What?!  Then I realized he was confused with the dog.  Since he can't read and doesn't understand letter sounds yet, I guess they sound alike.  Time to step up the theology talks I guess!

And John Burke is still a mighty destroyer.  He does it with a smile, though, and is a shameless cuddler.  My mom watched them the other day and when he woke up from his nap, he sat in her lap and hugged her for a full 15 minutes and just winked at me, because he knew he was so shameless.  He also loves to say "okay" in his froggy voice.  He is repeating so many things all of a sudden, and when you answer his question or acknowledge what he says, he loves to simply say "okay."  And refuses to say yes, but loves to say no and point at you while staring you dead in the eye.  Ridiculous.   And - this is inappropriate - but he got in the car the other night after church and wasn't ready to leave "his ladies" yet.  We snapped him in and I swear to you he looked at me and said "Godda**it!"  We take that one very seriously, so that is not frequented around our house (not that I can say that about every bad word or thing), so no telling where he heard it.  Heath and I looked at each other - mortified - and have since tried to convince ourselves it was something else.  We couldn't laugh, but it caught us so off guard that we wanted to!  I tried the ignore it approach, fearing if I brought more attention to it, he would think it was funny.  He is going to be the death of me!  On a lighter note, we pulled into Target last night and he leaned up and said "Der's Target Daddy!"  I think he is killing me because he is saying things in context, and also with a slight cajun accent.

This child is my easiest - for now.  I am enjoying her NOT talking back to me and cussing!!  Rolling over and belly laughing are much cuter!

Finally, we wrapped up our July with our 8th anniversary!  Happy anniversary, Lobster!  Now, off to celebrate the wedding of one of my very best friends!!