The Simmons Story

Hannah the Kindergartner

2012-01-17T11:03:00.000-08:00

Hannah is officially a Kindergartner! The first day was a little rough (for me!)...but she loves it and is doing so well! She loves her teacher, her friends and her school!

Here she is on the first day of school!

And here with her best friend!

Riding her bike to school!

Jason brought her flowers for her first day.

Bless her, she thought they needed to be watered....

The Kiwanis Club of Hillsborough County awards a "terrific kid" award every month. Each month comes with a different theme. The first month of school, the theme was 'respect'. One student is selected from each class every month. The teacher selects the student that best embodies the theme for the month and is an overall good citizen. Hannah was selected from her class for the month of September, the first month of awards for the year! We are so proud of her! Here is Hannah getting her certificate from the Kiwanis club!

My little Swimmers!

2012-01-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

I am aware that it is January. I am also aware that I have not updated in many many months... There is no way I can catch up on everything, but there are a few things that I would like to add. One is an update on our swimming adventures from last Summer!
Tucker started his lessons through Kinderswim which taught him basic survival skills in the water. Pools are everywhere here and its something we felt he needed! Jason prefers to call them "supervised drowning lessons" but they really werent that bad... It was a little difficult to watch sometimes but his teacher was amazing and turned it into a really postitive experience! He started lessons in late July. He swam for 10 minutes, monday-thursday. By October he could "swim" from his instructor to the edge of the pool. If he couldn't make it to the side he could roll onto his back and float. Its amazing! Their instincts are so incredible! Keep in mind, hes not completely happy while hes doing this but he still loves the water and he LOVES Katja!!

Ou next challenge was William. William is very cautious in the water. He LOVES to swim and o under the water but he will not leave the steps. He swims like a fish as long as he knows the bottom is within his reach. Katja (Tuck's instructor) wanted to teach William. I didn't think it would work. I know William... I know his stubborness. I knew he was going to freak. Day 1...SCREAMING! Not just screaming, he was MAD! He was straight-up yelling at poor Katja. I was mortified! He was saying things like, "I'm Done! I'm DONE OF THIS!". It was awful. Day 2....he was SWIMMING! He was going from Katja to the steps and back to Katja. It truly was incredible! He is still pretty cautious but I feel so much better about him being near/in the water. His biggest obstacle is water temperature. Due to his next-to-nothing body fat %, he does not stand for cold water. Katja keeps her pool very heated... Now hes pretty spoiled!

Hannah took a few lessons in early Spring. She was almost 5 at the time so she picked it up really quickly. She swam almost everyday at the house. She can't wait for Spring to get here so she can swim again!

Summer Birthday Bash

2011-08-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

2 of our 3 Summer Birthdays have come and gone. Tuck turned 1 inJune, William turned 3 in July and Hannah will turn 5 next week! A few days after Tucker's Birthday we celebrated with our families back in Georgia. Aunt Shannon helped us host the big party to celebrate all 3 of our Summer babies. It was nice to be able to celebrate with our families and REALLY nice to only plan 1 party! ;) We had a beachy theme. There was swimming and pinatas for the kids...margaritas and yummy food for the adults!

The kids decorated buckets which later would be used to collect pinata goodies! Hannah and william worked hard on theirs!

Leis and hair bows!

Fun time with family and friends!

Sweet Presley!

Desserts!! We were lucky enough to have Ronnie's famous caramel cake and cupcakes!!

Time for Cake!!

Everyone getting their cake

Family Shot

Tuck with his cake... He was hysterical. Ive never seen a baby take on and demolish a cake the way our big boy did! :)

SOOO GOOOD!!!

I wish I had a picture of what was left of this cake... It wasn't much! The kid had it up his nose, in his ears.... He thoroughly enjoyed it!

Grandy was on clean-up crew... Thanks Grandy!

unbelievably behind...

2011-08-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

Its almost been 4 months since my last post. I have no excuse... Well, I guess technically I have 3. I still can't believe its been 4 months! I know I keep saying that I will get better and maybe one day I will... For now, I will try and wrap up the last 4 months!

It has been one crazy, busy FUN summer! We had our first annual Simmons Summer Birthday Bash! The kids and I took a 2 week trip to Atlanta and got to spend some time with lots of family. Aunt Shannon (Jason's sister) was kind enough to help us host a joint family birthday party for all 3 kids so that we could celebrate with family even though we live in Florida now. We celebrated it 2 days after Tucker turned 1. I still cant believe he is 1! He thouroughly enjoyed the party and did quite well with his cake. The party will have its own post sometime in the near future. Part of my blogging problem is that I don't end up with many pictures on my camera. I have to hunt down pics from various family members (who are kind enough to cover my slack) and then I can post! (Shannon and Mom, I'll be calling you for pictures soon! ;))

Lets see...shortly after the party, we took our annual beach trip to Grayton with the Taylor side of my family. Again, the beach will have its own post..as soon as I round up more pictures! :)

Now, we are back in Tampa and have been showered with visitors for the last few weeks! Jason got to spend some time with with his parents a few weeks ago while I took a trip with my mom out to montana to visit with my Aunt. The trip was just what I needed! Time away to rest, relax and miss my kids!!! Thank you Nana and Grandy for all of your help! We would have been lost without you!

Aunt Leslie, Aunt Cathy and Savannah were here to visit last weekend. We ate lots of crabs, took a trip to Magic Kingdom and had a blast!!! My Dad, step-mom and sister, Madison are coming this weekend to visit with us. We may just take a trip to the beach on Saturday! We are excited to have them visit!

Well, the countdown has begun... Hannah starts Kindergarten is 19 days, August 23rd! I can't talk about it without crying. I'm excited for her and everything but it just makes me sad! Time truly goes by way too fast!

So Tucker is 1 and 100% pure joy! He still is so easy going. He loves to make us laugh. He still loves to eat. One thing he doesnt love is walking!!! He started taking steps a few months ago but thinks its hysterical to plop right back down. He'll plop and then clap and laugh. Always a comedian... At first I couldn't wait for him to walk. Now, I'm kind of glad he doesn't want to. I realized once he walks he will be one step closer to a big kid and one step further from being my baby... At least now he still needs me for something! :)

William turned 3 last month. Thankfully he is fully potty trained now! YAY!!! I wouldn't mind that much that he was 3 and unpotty-trained EXCEPT for the fact that he has to be potty trained to go to school, which he also will start in a few weeks. Its worried me for so long! Most kids have some time between their 3rd birthday and starting school but the kids with the later birthdays don't have much leeway. Anyways, he did it and I'm so proud of him. He rarely has any accidents now (thank goodness!!). I'm excited for him to start school. I know that sounds bad since I'm so sad about Hannah going to school but William is only going for 2 days a week and its only for 3 hours a day. It will be great for him and I won't miss him too badly since he will be gone for so little. Hes not quite sold on the whole school idea but I think he is going to love it!

Hannah, like I said, is about to emark on a whole new chapter of her life. She couldn't be more excited...unless she found out her BFF Courtney will be in her class. She hasn't turned 5 yet but she only has a couple more weeks! She has decided she wants a mermaid princess party for her friends here. All 2 of them... :) We aren't going to do anything major (remember the first annual Simmons Summer Birthday Bash?) but we will do something small and mermaid-princess-ish for her and her friends. So yes, about to turn 5 but sometimes I feel like she is already going on 14!! The attitude...the eye-rolling...the exasperated sighs... I mean, really?! I may be reading a few new parenting books in the near future. The problem is I will have to take another trip to Montana in order to have time to read said books. SIGH!

OK, I'm off to hunt down pictures! Hopefully I will have posts soon! :)

LOVE TH (the) FAMILY?

2011-04-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

Why YES... I do! :)

*Artwork done by Hannah.
**If you are wondering, she did seek advice on the proper spelling of FAMILY.
***And no, she doesn't think there needs to be an e at the end of 'the'.

OK, I just noticed the back of this picture...
Anyone care to guess the movie? :)

Tucker, Tucker, and more Tucker!

2011-03-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Tucker just turned 9 months old. What?! I really can't believe it. He has changed so much from his last update on the blog.

If you remember, he was undergoing physical therapy to treat his torticolis and he weighed in in the 1% for weight a few days after Christmas.

We are happy to report that Tuck graduated from physical therapy right before we moved! Yay!! He really improved quickly! We were told to expect 4-6 months but this kid graduated in 3! We miss his therapist Ms. Monica but we are glad not to have to report to her once a week anymore! :)

Tucker went through quite the growth spurt after Christmas as well. He weighed 13.8 lb at 6 months. By 8 months he weighed 18LB!!!

I know this is not huge for most babies but for some perspective, Hannah and William were both 18lb at a year!

My sweet baby has an unparalleled love of solid food. William had a huge appetite but nothing like this!

Tucker started sitting unassisted for long periods of time the day he turned 6 months. He quickly began scooting and a little before 8 months, started crawling on his hands and knees.

Here is a video of him from Feb 24th. It was a few days after he started really crawling.

Of course now he is super fast and is pulling up on everything. Most of the time he just pulls up to his knees. He doesn't quite have the strength yet to pull all the way up to standing consistently.

His favorite things these days include food, waving HI, snacks, taking toys from hannah and william, food, clapping his hands, pat-a-cake, and snacks!!!

He says Da Da for everything and says, "HI!" when he waves.

A video of some waving and saying HI. No, we are not at the zoo. The crazy loud screaming chaos in the background is hannah and william on a particularly crazy evening!!!!

He takes 2 good naps a day (only he gets woken up a lot to accommodate the schedules of his older siblings) and still sleeps like a champ at night.

He got 6 teeth in 6 weeks! Ouch! Sweet boy did great through it all. He was a little fussy for a few of them but I was shocked how well he handled cutting all of those teeth! He slept, ate, and played like normal!

My resident chunk-a-munk! :) LOVE HIM!!!

Life in the Sunshine state

2011-03-10T11:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we have been here almost 3 months now! I can't believe its been that long! I have to say I really like Tampa. The "winter" weather is really nice. I love our location although I don't know if we will buy something in this specific area. We are still looking. I love the scenery and being so close to the beach. I love that my children can start swimming lessons March 1st in an outdoor pool and I love that I have a tan and its not even mid-march! ;) I'm happy with Hannah's school even though we really miss her old one... I love that it takes me 7 minutes to get there!
I miss family. I miss friends. I miss knowing my state as "home". Overall, we are very happy here and look forward to settling in further!
Here are a few...or a lot of pictures from the past few months!

We had a visit from Graham, Laurel and Audrey!!!
The boys at the zoo
Hannah and Audrey. (Hannah pouting...)

Hannah loves climbing trees! Who knew?!

A little trip to downtown Disney. Laurel had a conference in Orlando so Graham and Audrey played with us. They ended up playing a little longer than planned since Atlanta was buried in snow and ice!! Flights were delayed for a few days.
Hannah and William were very concentrated at the lego store.

Fast forward a few weeks... Time for Gasperilla! This was our first Gasperilla experience. Think Mardi gras...but Pirate themed! :) Fun parade+lots of beads=Hannah in Heaven! :)
The parade happens on Bayshore Avenue. It was a cold day in Tampa!
William loves the water!!!
a bull nosed ray swam by to say Hello!
A chilly-willy Tuck!
Maybe Gasperilla should have had its own post. I'm having a hard time narrowing down the pictures!!
Here are the pirates coming to invade Tampa!!!
William (watching the water again) waiting for the pirate ship to fire its canon
Hannah with her beads!
Hannah earning them...
The final pile of loot or booty...or whatever it is that pirates call it... maybe treasure??
We can't wait to make the Gasperilla parade an annual tradition!

I have to say that there are parks and playgrounds galore around here!!! We have tried out quite a few. Here are some pictures from one of our favorites

This is such a Jason-as-a-child smile!

Very Merry Christmas!

2011-03-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row, we visited Disney for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party. This year we were in town anyways, in search for a rental house. Now that we are an hour away, I guess it will become a tradition to kick off the Holiday season! The kids have so much fun. The parade is great, its not that crowded and the fireworks are incredible, in true Disney fashion! To top it all off, its a tradition shared with Kian, Hannah's life long friend who is now only a short drive away!
William didn't want his picture taken in front of the sign...so he hid IN the sign...

3 men in a teacup! :)
William during the parade. Waved at everyone!
Mickey and Minnie!
The highlight for Hannah
The highlight for Tuck
My favorite part, Cinderella's coach
The castle in lights
The rest of our Christmas pictures are on my mom's camera... But here is one to say
Merry Belated Christmas from The Simmons!!!

Fall Favorites

2011-03-09T07:49:00.001-08:00

One of these days.... Maybe... I hope to be better at blogging. It means so much to me to preserve these memories and share them with our loved ones but 3 small children and a consistently messy house and 2 dogs require a LOT of time!!!
I know its Spring but here are a few of my favorite memories from this Fall. First up? Halloween!! My two precious tigers and my peacock princess! Hannah loved her costume and the boys tolerated theirs pretty well. No more fluffy fleece costumes for these kids anymore. Those will simply not work in a Florida October! I had to make the most of them this year!

Here is Hannah loading up to go to school on Halloween
The biggest tiger at Hannah's school
Hannah with 2 of her best friends from school, Madison and Ellie.
She misses them terribly but will get to see them on our Spring Break visit! :)
Hannah in her "sassy" pose
Her favorite part, the feathers!!

The 3 before trick-or-treating
(Note that is not the correct peacock crown. It was accidentally left behind at our house. Hannah told me Halloween was "RUINED" so we borrowed a princess crown from Aunt Maddie. I guess Halloween was saved. The drama....)
His little tail is to die for...or is it his little tush thats so cute? ;)

Ok, enough Halloween. Some other fun times in the Simmons household? How about this?

Look familliar? Oh! Probably because Hannah did the same thing!! Click here for the original! Feels a little like deja vu, right?

Here is Hannah with another of her best friends, AK. She is also very very missed by my sweet girl. They were pilgrims in the 4k Thanksgiving Program! :)

Hannah before the big feast!
Hannah's old teacher, Ms. Morgan. This one is framed in her room. She loves Ms. Morgan and misses her immensely. She likes her new teacher but not like Ms. Morgan.
I miss Ms. Morgan too! :(

Where to start...

2011-01-18T07:40:00.000-08:00

Wow! Its been a long time and there has been so much going on! I definitely have never been this far behind. I still want to go back in time to Halloween, etc and share our experiences but first I will give you an overall update from The Simmons.

First and foremost, we have moved! Not down the street, but to Tampa, FL. Jason had a really great job oppurtunity down here and as much as we love his former employer and appreciate everything he has done for our family, we felt this was the best decision for us. Adding to that, we also left our families in the state of Ga to venture down here by ourselves. This was, by far, the hardest part of the decision. It has not been easy to leave Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, but we are committed to staying in touch and visiting often! :) We are equipped with webcams...we just have to figure out how to use them! :)
So, how is life in the sunshine state?? So far, so good! We are renting a house for a year so we can decide what part of town we want to be in permenantly. The rental is pretty good. Lots and lots and lots of white tile. I mean, LOTS! It has a heated pool and hot tub which we should be able to start using in March, which we are super excited about! Bentley already has an ongoing feud with the squirrels. They sit up in the palm trees and chirp at him while he stands below barking his sweet little head off. I don't think its sweet when hes barking though... (For all of you Simmons reading, picture Bent barking at Genna in the river....All. Day. Long!)
I definitely have emotionally good and bad days... Its hard to start over in a new place. Its hard to find people similar to yourself. I'm definitely missing friends but these things take time...
Hannah has started a new school that she seems to like. I miss her old school and old teacher... She does as well but she is adjusting amazingly well! The teachers and the director at her new school all told me she just jumped right in and it seems like shes been there forever. This makes me so proud of her! I wish I could be as brave as her sometimes.
William is loving the mild winter temperatures. He is constantly wanting to go outside. For those of you who worry about our little wanderer, he is completely safe from the pool! We have the child safety gate up around the pool and he definitely knows not to even try and get to the other side. We talk about it alot but even if he wanted to, he couldn't! I think Fla living is really going to agree with this kid! He loves the water and boats and fish... hes a perfect fit!
Tucker is getting way too big, way too fast! He turned 6months old a couple of days before Christmas. Just like his brother, he could sit up unsupported a little bit before he turned 6m but the day he turned 6m, he could sit for a long time and not fall down! Similarities like that are amazing to me! I was a little bit concerned that he was not adjusting to the move... We "moved" Dec 17th-19th. We stayed in Tampa 2 days and then we went back to GA to celebrate the Holidays with our families. Over christmas, we were pretty much sleeping in a different house every night and there was so much going on. He was fussier than usual and he was waking up at night which was very unusual for him. At his 6 month appt (a few days after Christmas) I found out that he had an ear infection. :( Poor kiddo! But at least that was the cause of his new behaviors and it wasn't because of our move!
Tucker checked in in the 1st percentile for weight, (just like big bro) but we started solids once we were semi-settled after Christmas and its amazing how much he has already grown! He has a healthy appetite and even some little fat rolls so I am not worried about him in the slightest.
He is also no longer immobile! He scoots all over the place! He gets up on his hands and knees, rocks and then lays back down. Sounds exhausting but it gets him from point A to point B. He is still so happy, so smiley and so laid back.
Jason is enjoying his new job! The company has a LOT going on right now so things are super crazy but hopefully it will settle down soon and we can get used to a new routine. Jason actually just left this morning on his first business trip. He won't have to travel an awful lot but he will attend conferences every now and then. SO, He's off to vegas... Rough life, huh? ;) He keeps saying hes going to sleep during his down-time. Maybe I can convince him to play a slot machine, or 2! Neither one of us have ever been to Vegas so I'm trying to live vicariously. :)
I guess that about sums it up! A special thanks to my Mom for journeying down here with me and the kiddos after Christmas to help unpack some boxes! We're ready for another visit! ;) Thanks to Rusty for everything you have done to help get our old house ready to be listed! I don't know what we would have done without you... And thanks to Alissa for helping us feel more at home here and for helping me learn the lay of the land!
To all of our family, we love you and miss you all!!! :)

50s day!

2010-11-29T14:04:00.000-08:00

There is so much I want to catch everyone up on but I am SO behind with the blog posts!!! Here are the pictures from Hannah's 50's day at school! She loved dressing up! I heard she was too "nervous" to participate in the limbo competition but in my mind, she won best dressed! :)

3 monkeys in the morning...
The boys were feeling a little left out after Hannah's photo shoot.

Playdate for Tucker!

2010-11-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

While I was pregnant with Tucker, I signed up to take some prenatal water aerobics classes. (If you are pregnant or have a newborn, check them out!!! Such fun classes and a great opportunity to meet other moms, just like you! http://www.ohbabyfitness.com/)I ended up taking them for about 15 weeks, the last class actually being the night before my due date! The class was so much fun and I met some really fun girls through it! Of the 5 of us, 4 of us kept the gender a surprise! Believe it or not...Tucker was the ONLY boy!!! Not that hes complaining... He gets to be the stud muffin in a group of precious little girls! ;) We are trying to get together every once in a while. Here are the pictures from our meeting a few weeks ago. For our next meeting, we may leave babies behind and hold margaritas instead! :)

All of our babies!!!

All of the mommies with their cameras...hysterical!
Ghianna macking on T!

T showing some interest himself!

All of the careseats... Hard to imagine having quintuplets!!!

Fun times in Charleston!

2010-11-14T09:34:00.000-08:00

We recently took a trip to Charleston to visit some family. Although I (regretfully) did not take many pictures, here are a few from the kids crabbing adventure! Thanks Grandy and Jason for showing them the ropes! :)
Thank you also to Peggy Anne and Linda for your hospitality! We had such a fun trip!!

Jason and Grandy setting the traps
The two newest crabbers!

Hannah got tired of the crabbing and decided to practice her curtsy! :)

Two little explorers!

William the Fireman!

2010-11-14T09:27:00.000-08:00

Hannah loves to dress-up. William tries to participate sometimes but his Daddy will not let me take pictures seeing as how they show our son wearing a princess dress, a crown and high heels... This day, William gave dressing up a shot and thankfully, it was appropriately for his gender! Meet William, the Fi-Fiyar (Fire fighter)!

Tucker's Torticollis

2010-10-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

My sweet Baby Boy...

This is really just a general update on Tucker but several people have inquired about his torticollis so that is the reason I titled it as such.
Tucker continues to be the easiest baby on the planet. He rarely ever fusses these days and he still sleeps 10-12+ hours every night and I never have to work to get him to sleep, just stick him in his bed. He likes to watch his mobile for a minute and then he rolls over and settles in for a nap. He doesn't even require a pacifier anymore! He prefers his fist... Want proof?

And a close up...

I've discovered he has a really BIG mouth! Sometimes he double fists it!
So that's pretty much all he requires...a bed and his fist. I try to rock him to sleep sometimes. He'll let me every once a while but he prefers to snuggle when hes awake, and lay down and put himself to sleep when hes tired.

He is learning about toys and LOVES them!!! He constantly grabs at anything in sight and has now figured out how to get it to his mouth. He started rolling from his back to his tummy about a week and a half ago (3.5 months). He loves to be on his tummy!! He has even started scooting with his legs while he is on his tummy. His physical therapist thinks he will be mobile very soon. This thought scares me... Hannah and William were pretty average with their mobility. Both sat up at 6m, crawled at 8m, Hannah walked at 14m and William at 12.5. I'm not set up for an "early crawler" or "early walker". I need my little one to stay put for a few more months...like 5 or 6!!

What do ya say, Tuck?!

Speaking of his physical therapist, Tucker has been doing PT for about a month now and is such a CHAMP at it! (If you missed the post about Tucker's Torticollis, click HERE) He loves Ms. Monica (his therapist) and consistently shows off for her. We have been going (and will continue to go) once a week. Each visit we work on different stretches and strength building exercises. She also measures his progress by mapping the difference in his rotation and head tilt. In his initial measurements there was a 5 degree difference in his rotation and a 19 degree difference in his tilt. This past Monday his measurements showed a 1 degree difference in rotation and a 2 degree difference in tilt!!!! For one months effort, that is awesome! He didn't like the stretches at first but we figured out how to make them more fun for him and now he doesn't mind them too much.
Tucker goes for his 4 month appointment on Monday so I'll update on that appointment next week. We have a jam-packed, fun-filled weekend coming up so I'm sure I'll have lots to share!
Here is one last picture of Tuck. He loves his sister and brother so much. With Hannah learning to read, Tucker often becomes her audience. I don't think he minds it too much though, do you? :)

Have a GREAT Friday!!!

Fabulous Days of Fall

2010-10-07T19:35:00.000-07:00

The kids and I have really been trying to make the most out of this awesome weather! I finally got some pictures of them outside playing!
Here is William standing on the stump serenading the neighborhood with the "Hello!" song from music class. He has really taken on a love for singing lately. He shocks me every day with a new song he knows all the words to.

We have a stump in our backyard from a beautiful oak tree that (unfortunately) did not make it... I miss that tree but the stump has proven to be loads of entertainment for our little ones! Here are Hannah and William working together to peel off some the old bark. Then, of course, the stump turns back into the stage!
I was trying to get a cute picture of Hannah on the stump. My mistake was to let her know I was trying. After realizing my opportunity for a candid photo of my girl was a long shot, I said, "Ok Hannah, strike a pose!". Wow... I really don't know where she came up with what came next. Here are just a couple of her "poses". Lets just say I think Tyra's job is safe for now!

They had so much fun jumping over a little dip in the pine straw!

This is one of my favorites of William from the day. Everyone from my Mom's side of the family might be able to recognize that smile... Ok Taylor/Tucker/Millers...Who does this remind you of?
We ended the afternoon with a little caterpillar sighting. Of course that meant moving him to a safe zone away from 8 stampeding puppy paws...
Just in case you were wondering where Tucker was... He was fast asleep, sucking on his fist. I don't think I have ever known a baby to suck on a fist like Tucker does. Its constant! I guess whatever works... :)

Tucker's Big Day!

2010-09-13T09:39:00.002-07:00

Can you believe its time for another Simmons Baby Baptism?!?! Tucker's Big Day was a few weeks ago on September 12th. As usual, we were blessed by the presence of many family members who love us and this little boy so much! Its really neat now that Hannah understands what baptism is and why we do it. My church sings a special little lullaby to the babies on their special day and now Hannah sings that song to Tucker whenever hes upset. So sweet... I'll have to try and get it on video. For now, here are some pictures of Tuck! Make sure to compare them to some of Hannah's baptism pictures I tacked on the bottom... Its almost scary how much they look alike. You can look at William's HERE and read more about our treasured christening gown! :)

What a good looking family!!! :)
(click to enlarge)

The baby boy!!

Grandaddy, Grandmother and Madison

The traditional 4 generation shot. My mom, me, Gigi and the babe.

Short attempt at a family photo...

Aunt Leslie! :) She was kind enough to be our photographer for the group shot.

Pastor Lee and a fussy baby :/

Jason, Grandy, Uncle Billy and Tucker

Grandy, Nana (the creator of the gown) and Tucker

Cousin Nora!

Now....same pictures, different Baby! :)

Labor Day at the River

2010-09-13T09:38:00.002-07:00

What a perfect Labor Day! The skies were blue with no clouds in sight. The weather was warm but there always seemed to be the perfect breeze... The kids had so much fun and Tucker loved hanging out outside looking up at the trees. Jason got to take some of the cousins wake boarding and William woke up asking for "boat wides". It was a great, great weekend!!

Cousin Bridge with a very cool shell! :)

Baby Lila trying out the mud...

Aunt Shannon and Baby Lila

Shannon, Bridge, Hannah and Lila...and Genna!

Too cold for Bentley...

One "Boat wide" too many for William! Apparently he fell asleep sitting up. Tara was nice enough to lay him down! Thanks Aunt Tara! ;)

Tucker Loving the great outdoors

Wherever there's a Tucker, there's bound to be a Hannah nearby...

My Sweet Girl (with river hair:))

Hannah on the dock with her friends, Emma, John and Tristan

Update on the Little Man!

2010-09-13T09:38:00.001-07:00

I cannot believe Tucker is almost 12 weeks old!!! Its completely mind-blowing how fast time is flying by. Its been a whirlwind but not because of Tucker. He is still a dream. He still sleeps 10-12 hours every night and sleeps great during the day. I have to wake him up every morning to take Hannah to school. He doesn't always care for his carseat but thats really the only time he fusses unless hes really hungry or really tired.

We have been going non-stop lately. Hopefully I will be able to put up some pictures this week. Hannah is on Fall break so at least I don't have to get everyone up and running at an early hour for 5 whole days! :)

Tuck had his 2 month appt (the re-do where is was actually covered by insurance). His doctor still thinks he has torticollis but I'm not buying it 100%. Well...I guess I am technically "buying" it since I'm paying for physical therapy but I really don't think he has it. His PT appt is set for mid-October so I guess we will see.

It looks like Tucker's growth is patterning after big sis and big bro. His weight went from 77% at 1 month to 33% at 2 months! He weighed 11lb 10oz. We are going to take him in for a weight check at 3 months just to make sure hes still growing. After all of the worrying we did over William only to contribute slow weight gain to high metabolism, I'm not worried about T at all! Hannah's growth did the same exact thing. They start out big, they grow slowly. Not a big deal...

He was 24in long and has a big head...just like the other 2!

Tucker smiles all of the time and is still pretty tolerant of the older sibing's affections. He loves to watch his tigers (his AU mobile) and is really good friends with Mr. Star from his activity mat! :)

Mad Mama Kind of Day...

2010-08-26T06:45:00.000-07:00

To all of the parents out there:
Have you ever had a day where you feel like you are constantly nagging, correcting and yelling at your kids? We had one of those days on Tuesday. I hate those days! I feel like such a mean mama...

Tuesday was a jam-packed slightly stressful day. I woke up at 6 to shower and get all 3 kids dressed, fed and out the door by 8...or in this case, 8:15!!! We dropped Hannah off at school (late, of course) and then the boys and I ran to the grocery store. We left the store, stopped by the house just long enough to drop off groceries and put away cold stuff and then it was time to go to music class. We had music class (which William missed half of b/c he wanted to go with me to feed Tucker instead of staying in class) and then we left to go pick up Hannah. From the school we went home. Everyone stayed in the car while I went inside and made some sandwiches for lunch and then we ate a picnic on the way to the pediatrician's office. We got to the parking lot in time for me to feed Tucker and then it was inside for Hannah's 4 year appt and Tucker's 2 month appt....except Mom-of-the-Year neglected to add Tucker to the insurance policy so it turned out to just be Hannah's 4 year appt. 5 shots and 1 finger prick later Hannah is crying and our pediatrician is telling me that Tucker has torticollis. (She wanted to examine him even though he is currently not covered by insurance so he couldn't get his vaccines) Torticollis is basically when one side of their neck muscles are tighter than the other which causes them to either look left or right instead of a neutral position. Tucker tends to hold his head a little bit cockeyed. I noticed it but I thought he was just looking at something interesting. It is a mild case and should be able to be corrected with physical therapy.
Its not a huge deal but its one more thing we have to worry about and that many more appointments we have to schedule so it was a little stressful... Not to mention the fact that William is being fussy and trying to leave the doctor's office the whole time our Doctor is trying to talk to me...

After the appointment its now 4:00 and we have to go get ice cream for Hannah since she endured so many pinches and pokes.

Needless to say I was a little frazzeled by the end of this long busy day. On the way home (FINALLY) Hannah asks me to look at the picture she drew. She says, "Mommy, I drew us! You are Mad Mommy! You are yelling at us. William is crying because you are so mad at us."

Wow... What a way to make a bad day WORSE! Granted, they warranted some of the yelling. It was one of those days where nobody was listening and they were picking at each other constantly AND we were in a hurry ALL day! It made me feel horrible but it also made me lose some of the irritation and the impatience. I was reminded just how important these little people are and how my actions can make them feel. The picture... It's hysterical to me now but at the time it hit me like ton of bricks. I'm keeping it as a reminder to not lose my cool even when they are about to drive me crazy. :)

In case you can't tell, thats me in the middle with the disheveled hair and the yelling face. Hannah is to the right with the ronald mcdonald hair and
William is on the Left, crying, with no arms!

UPDATE: Tucker is now added to our insurance policy (So don't worry Mom...) :)

How many themes are too many themes?

2010-08-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Hannah and I have been talking about and pre-planning this 4th Birthday party for some time. She changed her mind quite a few times before asking if we could combine some of her ideas...which is how this party came to be. Take a look! :) (click to enlarge)

That's right! We had the first ever "Princess, Rainbow, Butterfly, and Boiled Peanuts party"! Hannah was thrilled to celebrate with some of our closest family and friends. Thank you to everyone who joined us! Hannah truly had a blast!

Hannah enjoying some of her "bowled" peanuts. (How did she get to be so Southern?!)Her guests got to take home a pot of gold from the end of the rainbow!
on the slip-n-slide
Hannah and her friend, Olivia :)
WOW!
Her response to the Belle dress, "Oh! Its what I've always dreamed about!"
Trying on the rain get-ups from Grandma. And no...it wasn't raining!

Turning 4 is a BIG deal!!

2010-08-21T20:26:00.000-07:00

My Hannah is 4... When did this happen?! How does time fly by so fast?! I intended to post this on her actual Birthday but last week turned crazy really fast!! Hannah had a stomach bug and missed school on Tuesday (her actual Birthday) and Thursday. Luckily she was able to go on Wednesday and celebrate her Birthday with her class.
She had us in stitches all day on Tuesday, the BIG day! We were talking to her in the morning while Jason fixed her her breakfast of choice, chocolate chip pancakes!! We said something to the effect of, "Hannah, you are FOUR now!". She looked at us and said, "Wait, what?! Are my rainbow shoes still going to fit me?"
Bless her heart... She thought that turning 4 had caused her to grow overnight. Other comments from the day included...
Hannah: "Wow! Look how long my legs are!!!"

(while washing her hands at the sink after going potty)
Me: Hannah, are you OK?
Hannah: Yes, but look at my hands!!! I think they grew!

(Getting ready for bed that night. I was downstairs cleaning the kitchen while Jason worked on getting PJs on and brushing teeth. I hear lots of pounding feet...)
Hannah: (yelling excitedly) Dad!!! I can run SO fast now! And look! I can jump almost to the ceiling!!!

She is such a blessing... I hated that she was sick. This is only the second time she has had a stomach bug and its so sad because she is such a trooper through it all. She threw up constantly Monday from about 3pm-midnight. Luckily she felt fine Tuesday but still had to miss school. That night we celebrated her Birthday at her favorite restaurant (which is cracker barrell...) with one of her best friends, Ellie, who was also born on August 17th, 2006! Here are a few pictures of Hannah's Birthday breakfast, dinner at the CB and Hannah celebrating at school!

Surprise Present from Grandma! Her very own copy of a library favorite!

Trying to tell Grandma she loves her. Note: the tongue out signifies heavy duty concentration!

Hannah and Ellie
At school
Not very happy...
Just plain silly!

Hello!

2010-08-06T13:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a lot of time for updates lately but life is so good! There are a few posts in the works that will hopefully be postable soon...William's Birthday, Hannah's first day of school and countless pictures of our 3 children!
For now I can only update on whats been happening and post the bathtub comparison pics!

Hannah started pre-k last Monday... Its bittersweet. She really loves her new teacher and has made some new friends. She gets to learn some Spanish this year which is really exciting for her! She loves Spanish, not sure why. She only goes 4 days a week from 8:30-11:45 but its still pre-k and that makes me kind of sad... Mornings have been interesting getting all 3 kids up and ready to go by 8:00! Luckily Jason was around and able to help me 2 of the days!

Tucker is a champ! He is 7 weeks old now... CRAZY! He still eats well and is sleeping 10 hours every night! He is such a sweet baby and pretty much only cries when hes hungry, tired, or gassy. He gets pretty bad gas bubbles but (cross your fingers) it has been much better lately!

Hannah and William are still enamored by him! William always asks for Kuh-uh (Tucker) whenever Tuck is sleeping or out of William's sight. They still fight over who gets to hold him and race to grab whatever he might need...like his paci, blankie, or burp cloth. It is very nice to have such good helpers and its fun to see how much they love this little guy already!

All-in-all, things are going very well in our house right now!

Here are the bathtub pictures... You can't really see how much Tucker resembles Hannah from these photos but it is uncanny! His smile is 100% Hannah! I still have to capture one of those on camera... See what you think from these!

William:

Hannah:

Tucker: (Too busy looking at William to pay attention to the camera!)

William's Party!

2010-08-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

William's gigantic love for Nemo and everything else "fishy" related made this years Birthday party theme a no-brainer! Finding Nemo!!!

The Birthday Boy! Excited for the party!!!

He's not the only one though... Best bud Pollard is feeling the excitement too!

Having fun in the swimming pools!

Excited for cake!

Then getting shy...

Oops... This is what happens when a 2 year old is left unsupervised with baby pools of water just waiting to be jumped in... Oh well! It's his Birthday!!!

Grayton Beach 2010

2010-07-22T05:10:00.001-07:00

It was another great year at Grayton Beach! It was a little different this year since Tucker was just born...but it was great! We had so much help with all 3 munchkins! Hannah and William LOVED the beach!!! It was definitely their best year to date! I had a lot of fun with family but I didn't get to have a true beach experience. You can't swim for 6 weeks after having a baby so it was kind of torture watching everyone else swim. I was able to go down to the beach a couple of times but it just wasn't the same. I am so glad we went though and Tucker even got to go down to the beach a few times! I am definitely looking forward to next year already...
I chose a few pictures to share... OK, ok, its actually a ton but I couldn't narrow it down!

To start out the week, we got to experience Grayton at its finest during the 4th of July parade! Fun times were had by all...

Graham and Audrey

I think we can all guess who was the princess of the parade... :)

The kids had so much fun in the water! There is a little lagoon that sometimes feeds into the ocean near our house(s). It is the kids favorite place to play. The water is brown since its a mix of fresh water and salt water. Hannah affectionately refers to it as sweet tea and often asked to go play in the sweet tea... William loved to do belly flops in the water. He literally would stay in there for hours! Hannah braved the actual ocean a few times with Jason but William preferred the "sweet tea". He wasn't too sure of the big waves!

I was laughing to myself when going through these pictures. I wasn't down at the beach the majority of the time and didn't take many of these pictures so I don't know exactly what was going on but Hannah seems to be running in the majority of her pictures...

Tucker's first trip to the beach!!

Some more good times

sweet Audrey!

Games at night...a beach trip tradition! Hannah is learning early. :)

Grandma with her girls! ;)

Tucker making the most of his beach trip!

Our family of 5!!!

Celebrating William's Birthday on our last night

Thank you Gigi for another wonderful year full of good times and priceless memories!

We love you!

Happy Birthday William!!!

2010-07-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

My little boy turned 2 on Saturday... Where is the time going? He got to celebrate by spending all day in the car driving home from the beach! Good thing he is still too young to know the difference! Aunt Amy baked him a cake to celebrate Friday night and he was serenaded pretty much all day Saturday with the Happy Birthday song. He was loving it!!
So sorry for the lack of updates recently. We have been busy busy bees! We took off last week to Grayton beach with 21 other members of my family. We have a blast but the beach deserves its own post... Hopefully it will happen soon but if it doesn't its because this week I am working to put together William's Birthday party which will be at our house this Saturday...ready or not! :) Its a Nemo party, of course! :)

I'm sure there will be full Birthday coverage sometime next week!

William had his 2 year appointment at the pediatrician yesterday. Hes still my little scrimp! He is still hanging out in the 3% for weight. He is 71% in height and 99% in head circumference. Doctor B is still not worried about him at all. He "wears" it well and eats plenty...its just his metabolism! Ladies, its OK to be jealous!

The rest of us are doing well. Tucker has been sleeping pretty well. He usually gives me a 4-5 hour stretch to kick the night off and then hes every 3 hours until we are up for the day. Last night he had a rough, gassy night which has led to an unproductive day for me today. Lets hope he doesn't keep that up! He has been feeling good most of today so hopefully it was just a temporary thing!
Hannah is with my Mom and attending an Art camp during the day this week. She is having a lot of fun but I miss her...

Baby is crying, gotta go but expect some more updates soon! :)

Secrets Revealed...and Happy 1 Week Birthday to Tucker!!

2010-06-30T19:34:00.000-07:00

Hannah was beyond thrilled when Leslie Anne brought her the coveted key to the hospital when Tucker was born. We made a big deal about her being in charge of the key and unlocking it when we got home. Leslie Anne put the key on a ribbon for Hannah to wear around her neck. Hannah took her job very seriously! We were thrilled with the outcome of the room! Here are the promised pictures! Thanks again Leslie Anne! :)

As for this munchkin, I can't believe he is 1 week old!!! On one hand it seems like he was just born yesterday. On the other, it feels like he has been with us forever! Both of the kids adore him and are adjusting well so far. William has acted out a bit more than normal but part of that may be because we have stayed cooped up in our house since we got home from the hospital. I just haven't had the courage to brave an outing with all 3 of them yet... Maybe soon!

Tucker has been a very good baby so far. The first couple nights at home had me a little bit scared but the last few nights have been better. I have been spoiled with children who sleep well from the get-go... Hannah started sleeping 8 hours through the night when she was 2 weeks old and William was giving me 4-6 hour stretches about then too. Beyond that, when they did wake up in the middle of the night, they would eat and go straight back to sleep. So waking up every 3 hours in the middle of the night wasn't bad. Tucker's first few nights at home were different in that he would wake up, eat and then have gas bubbles for the next hour. It wasn't like he was screaming and crying for hours but he was restless and needed some loving, which meant no sleep for Mama. The past few nights have been much better. He pretty much wakes up at 3 hours to the minute to eat but then he is ready to get right back in the moses basket. He has even given me a couple of 4-4.5 hour stretches. We could still have many sleepless nights ahead of us but right now I actually don't feel too sleep deprived.

As for during the day, he pretty much still just sleeps and eats and poops. He is very laid back and very tolerant of all the MANY sugars he receives from Hannah and William throughout the day. They both love to hold him and give him the sweetest kisses. His hair still looks pretty light and his eyes are still very blue. I think he looks so much like Hannah did when she was a baby! Here is a picture to compare. In trying to find some good ones to compare, I realized we need to take a lot more pictures of Tucker! I'll try and post more soon.
He had an appointment with the pediatrician on Monday and weighed 9lb 5oz! Only an ounce off of his birth weight! He had dropped to 8lb 15oz when we left the hospital Friday but he gained it all back over the weekend. He is a really good eater!

I guess that's about it for us right now. Jason is back at work, which really stinks! But we only have 2 more days and then we are off to the beach! We are so excited!

Tucker Grant

2010-06-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our first day with Tucker is coming to an end but I'm pretty sure this party will continue through the night. This guy is an eater!!! He is nursing like a champ. In fact, he nursed for 40 minutes straight when he was less than an hour old! Hes not playing around...

We have had a nice day with lots of visitors! A special thanks to Grandma for braving it up here with Hannah and William almost all day! Some people think he looks like Hannah when she was a baby. I see it every once and a while. He definitely does not look like William. Tucker's hair is very light with a few very blonde, almost white patches. His eyes are bright blue right now. That could definitely still change but they are pretty convincing right now. Leslie Anne stopped by for a visit and luckily she brought her camera! :) Above are a few pictures of Tucker that she has already delivered to us on a CD! You'd never guess she was busy with 2 two year olds and pregnant with 2 more little ones... Thanks LA!

I have so many more pictures I want to share but we just got Tucker's belly full (after 30 minutes of nursing followed by latching onto my chin which led to formula supplementation!) so Jason and I are going to try and get a little rest. We will update again soon! Love you all!!

It's a Boy!

2010-06-23T13:14:00.000-07:00

Tucker Grant Simmons was born at 11:53 a.m. this morning. He was 9 lbs., 6 oz. and 20.5 inches long. Abby labored for about an hour. Tucker has a little bruising on his face, but other than that, appears unscathed. He has a good head of medium brown hair and a chubby round face.

Hannah and William adore the new addition. Hannah is a very proud big sister and William, I'm sure, has no idea how his world is about to change.

We'll update with some more pics this evening. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.

We're Here!

2010-06-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we got here at 5 a.m. It is now 9:00. They just broke my water and Jason and I are off to walk some laps. I am 4 cm dialated and 70% effaced. Pretty uneventful so far. We'll update you soon, stay tuned.

Orders are in!

2010-06-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

We got the call from the hospital. We are to report there in the morning at 5am!!! Yikes! Hannah and William are tucked in comfortably at Grandma's house so this little Mama (or Big Mama as Hannah-Bug likes to call me) is hitting the sack! Can't wait to share good news tomorrow!

40 weeks, 5 days...

2010-06-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

We had our appointment today. Nothing has really changed. The stress test showed a very content baby, even during conntractions. So...induction is scheduled for this wednesday, June 23rd! I'm slightly disappointed that I have to be induced again but I am very excited about meeting this little one! :) thanks again for everyone's support. Sorry for any unreturned text messages! I am already over for the month... Yikes! I can't wait to catch up with everybody soon! Check back for updates! :)

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40 weeks!!

2010-06-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well, 40 weeks has come and almost gone... Last week I was told to come in today for a non-stress test to make sure it was still safe to stay pregnant. I got there today and they said I didn't need to run the test unless I was over 40 weeks, which I won't be until
Tomorrow. So it was a pretty uneventful appointment. I am 2.5, almost 3 cm but still 60% effaced. our plan now is to go back monday for the non-stress test. We are anxiously waiting to meet this little one but really want the baby to come on its own. Thank you for all of your sweet comments, emails and phone calls!! Check back for updates!!

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39 Week Update

2010-06-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Less than a week until the big due date!!! I'm still thinking that the baby will come after that but some progress has been made... I have gone from 1/2cm last Friday to 2cm today so that is a little promising...
The plan now is to play the waiting game and go back next Wednesday, the actual due date. They will hook me up to the monitors for a non-stress test since I will technically be overdue but as long as the baby looks good, pregnant I will remain!
We have a very busy weekend planned and Hannah starts VBS at McDonough Methodist on Sunday AND I want to try and squeeze in one more prenatal water aerobics class next Tuesday. Maybe all of this action will force the baby to come on its own! Wouldn't that be nice? Well...as long as it he/she doesn't decide to come in the middle of my aerobics class... How embarrassing!?

When time does come for us to head to the hospital, the blog will be how we update. If you wish to, you can enter your email address under the list of blogs on the right hand side of this page and you will get an email update every time we post. Otherwise, just check back often! :)

The Secret Behind Door #3!

2010-06-03T20:57:00.001-07:00

Leslie Anne has come and gone... She worked her magic and has left us wondering... In case you do not remember from this post, our cousin Leslie Anne is the only person on earth who knows the gender of this baby. We did this so that she could come down and decorate/set everything up in the baby's room so everything will be ready upon baby's arrival yet we will still be surprised. This was the only stressful part of not finding out for me. Yes, we have everything but then you have to get it all set up...bedding, wash appropriate clothes and fill up drawers and closets... Now I won't have to worry about doing this when the baby is here, which is such a relief!!!
Originally she was going to paint the baby's room as well but since she is expecting not one but TWO more babies of her own, Jason went ahead and painted the room a nice neutral yellow! :)

LA came down a few weeks ago and worked her magic. She used all of our previous boy or girl stuff but I know she put her little creative spin on things and I can't wait to see it! For a few days there I started to think Hannah was more excited about seeing the room than meeting the baby!

So the room is finished...and locked! Everyone says the same thing, "How do you not pick the lock?!?!". My response is that I truly don't want to know. I mean, of course I want to know...but I figure we have waited this long. If I found out now, I would probably be so mad! Jason and I are so excited about the big reveal in the delivery room. It just feels that much more exciting!

I still have no clue... I'e been thinking Boy all along but then last week I was thinking Girl. But for the last few days every stranger who feels the need to predict has said Boy, which has me on the Boy train again... We shall find out soon enough! Well, maybe not quite soon enough! I had my 38 week appt last Friday and i was barely 1/2cm. My midwife predicted another overdue baby! I go back on Thursday so I will update again then!

General Update

2010-05-18T20:41:00.001-07:00

I was shocked when I saw the link to my blog from someone else's page the other day and it said I have not updated in 1 month!!! We have definitely been very busy lately and finding time to sit down at the computer is getting harder and harder... especially when your 3 year old thinks she can play computer games whenever she wants, which is usually as soon as I sit down to do something!

So what have we been up to? Here are some updates!

We'll start with Baby #3!! Believe it or not I will be 36 weeks pregnant at the stroke of midnight tonight!!! I cannot believe that we will meet our newest little one so soon! We still do not know the gender so we are very anxious to find that out! Hannah is still certain it is a girl but is definitely better with the fact that it could be a boy. The other day I heard her tell someone, "I think the new baby is a girl but my parents think its a boy". True statement but I was shocked to hear her call us her "parents". What happened to Mommy and Daddy? But more on Hannah in a minute. I still really have no idea what this baby is. I say boy if I have to guess but I'm really not carrying any different than with the first 2. The little peanut is very healthy and growing right on track! I'm trying to get away without having to induce this one but we'll see what happens. I'm about to start going to the doctor every week so we will definitely keep you up to date!

Now onto Hannah: She only has 1 day left of 3K!!! I cannot believe she has completed her first year of school! She is excited but I think she is going to miss it! Hannah is SO very excited about the new baby coming. She talks about it every day. As I mentioned before, she still really wants the baby to be a girl but says she will still love another baby brother. It helps to have Audrey (My precious little niece) nearby so Hannah can get her baby girl fix. Hannah talks to the baby by name (the boy and the girl one) and sings sweet songs to him/her. She is going to be such a good big sister! She actually already is! It warms my heart every time she sticks up for William at the park or in her classroom when we go to pick her up. The other day at her school there were several kids crowding around him, talking to him. Hannah was right there next to him. She spread her arms out in front of William and said, "Ok guys. Lets back up a little bit.". William was unphased by all of the attention but I love that Hannah feels the need to protect him.

She is also very excited about her 4th Birthday which will be here before we know it... She often counts the months until August because thats when she turns 4. I'm afraid she thinks something magical is going to happen on August 17th. I have heard her say a number of things like, "I'm too little to swim without my water wings now but I can when I turn 4!". Hopefully she won't be disappointed when she wakes up on her birthday and nothing has really changed...

As for my current baby, he is still too precious for his own good! He is such a little comedian and cracks Jason and I up endlessly! He is still a tiny little dude but growing every day! He has a very healthy appetite which makes me slightly weary of his teenage years. I don't know where it all goes. He eats more than Hannah at pretty much every meal and Hannah is a pretty good eater herself... William is talking a lot more and starting to sing some songs but not a lot of people can understand him yet. Its so amazing to me how different children are. When Hannah was William's age she was talking in very articulate, complete sentences. Not so much for my little man but he tries! I think its a combination of being a boy and being the second child. I feel bad because I know he has got to be so frustrated. He will repeat the same word/sound over and over and I just don't know what he is trying to say! He is usually very patient and figures out other ways to tell me what he wants.

Even though he LOVES his Daddy he is still very much a Mama's boy! Besides pointing to my tummy and saying, "baby", he has no clue whats about to happen! His world may be turned upside down but I think his love for babies will help him adjust.

I guess that's us in a nutshell for now! Keep scrolling down! There are a few new posts to show you a few of the things we have been up to lately!

The perfect Spring Day/ My son, the Nudist!

2010-05-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday before Mothers day is my new blueprint for the perfect Spring day! We all woke up and ate Daddy's famous pancakes and then we just hung out together! The weather was perfect!! It was warm and sunny with a perfect breeze!
After breakfast, we pulled out the hammock and set up the kids pool. It was all fun and games until William decided he would rather NOT wear his swim suit... He pretty much ran around in his Birthday suit all day... But who cares? He was having fun! (Don't worry, I used a spray sunscreen so all areas were covered, even parts where the suns not used to shining)

Warning! Post contains graphic photos but NO full frontal nudity! ;)

Jason started his day with a tutorial on how to get the honey out of a honeysuckle.

OK, so really? If YOU were looking at a tush this cute, would YOU make him put clothes on?! I didn't think so...
Running laps through the yard. Why not?
And of course, helping to water my flowers
Gotta love the teamwork!!
Daddy and his girl, relaxing in the hammock with Annie and Bentley keeping watch!
My happy boy!
I wish every day could be as perfect as this!

Muffins with Mommy

2010-05-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember the Donuts with Daddy post from a little while back. Well, now its our turn! All of us Moms were invited to the school for a special Muffins with Mom celebration! It was so special to go to Hannah's classroom and have some one on one time with her. They definitely made us feel special!
I remember leading up to the Donuts with Daddy event, Hannah practicing all of the songs they would be performing for the Dads...3 of them, to be exact! I didn't know what to expect for our special day but I was ready to catch them in action!! I guess they ran out of time to make up songs about Mom because this is what we got...

Don't get me wrong! It was so sweet and I LOVED it but I felt a little foolish setting up my camera for the BIG performance and that was all she wrote... They had several nice pieces of art for us, including a drawing of myself, and a very sweet little flower she planted. I felt very special and loved the morning with my girl! :)

Spring Break

2010-05-18T19:34:00.001-07:00

I didn't think we were going to do much for Spring Break this year, but lucky for us...my Mom needed a for-real getaway! So we crashed her and George's relaxing vacay and got to spend the week with them at Gulf Shores! Uncle Zachey (as the kids so lovingly refer to him as) was there too so we weren't the only party crashers!
The trip was fun! It was nice to get away for a little bit and nice to spend some quality time with family. What wasn't nice was the freezing cold beach!!!! We had nice weather most days but the wind made it soo cold! The frigid, arctic temperature of the water didn't help much either... William was not too impressed which surprised me because he loved the beach last year! I think he was just too cold. I mean, really, the kid can't have more than 3% body fat. He did enjoy the last (and coincidentally the hottest) day. Hannah had a blast building in the sand, jumping in the (freezing) waves and flying her Ariel kite from the Easter bunny!

William....not so sure!

Then there was Hannah...

Kite Flying

Normally the child hates having her hair in her eyes but she sometimes gets a certain fondness for specific curls and won't let me touch it...

I don't know why I don't have a picture of the actual mermaid tail but we buried her legs to make her look like Ariel. She found a perfect belly button!

Lil' Will finally getting into it with his "fishy net"!

This is him after lunch on that last day... The poor kid ate a whole PB&J, some snack mix and his body weight in strawberries. If you can't tell by looking at him, he played very hard! He took a very good nap shortly after this picture was snapped!

Easter!

2010-05-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Better late then never, right?...

Easter was a blast with the kids this year! We spent the night at Grandma's (my mom) house the night before and they were able to wake up to full Easter baskets and some eggs that needed finding!

Here are the siblings/cousins!

My William...

My best attempt to get the 2 of them together...

Not sure why Hannah was pouting but had to put this one up to show her nice Easter tat. Never really imagined her to be the temporary tattoo kind of girl but it is what it is.... I really thought it would be gone by Easter but no such luck...

Family of 4.5!

The Easter bunny brought William a t-ball set! William LOVES it! Here he is with his Daddy figuring it out. The kid has quite the arm so he enjoyed "pitching" to Daddy.

Then there was the hunt! He would have been just as happy playing baseball the whole time but we made him take a break and find some more eggs. He appeased us but he kept asking Jason to hold his basket.

Hannah was a masterful hunter this year! She had so much fun!

Are you Twitterpated?

2010-03-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hannah hasn't seen the movie Bambi in a long time but all this talk of Spring lately has sparked her memory... She asked me the other day if it was Spring yet and I said yes. She then said, "You are twitterpated! I'm twitterpated! Everyone is twitterpated in the Spring!!!". What, you don't remember what twitterpated means? Here is a reminder:

Here is Hannah trying to explain twitterpated...

Donuts with Daddy!

2010-03-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today was the day Hannah and Jason have been looking forward to....Donuts with Daddy! Both of them have been pretty pumped up about it and they had a blast! The kids gave their Daddies a picture magnet of them dressed up in "Daddy clothes" and a precious poem about a Daddy and his princess. Then they sang a few songs and visited a little bit. Jason had pretty strict instructions to take pictures and video the singing. So...enjoy! :)

According to Hannah...

2010-03-10T11:27:00.001-08:00

Hannah and I were looking at our weekly babycenter email this morning and when she saw this picture she said, "Look Mommy! It is a girl!!! See? It doesn't have a tinkle! We are having a baby sister!"

Poor girl! I know she will be happy with another brother but she is so excited about the whole sister idea.
She also told me last week during one of our frequent its-ok-if-this-baby-is-a-boy conversations that "It will be OK if this baby is a boy. We just won't give-up...."
My sweet girl.

William still doesn't really have a clue. Sometimes I ask him where the baby is and he will point to my stomach. This morning however, I said, "Where's Mamma's baby?".
He gave me this pitiful expression and then patted himself on the chest. Good thing he loves babies! I know he will be thrilled when little one #3 arrives!

Dancing Fools!

2010-02-15T07:29:00.000-08:00

Hannah has been on a huge ballet kick lately. She loves to make up moves and put on performances for us. Some of her moves are pretty funny... :) Here is a video of her dancing. You will be able to tell that she doesn't much like to share the spotlight...Something we need to work on! But don't worry, William will have his time to shine next...

William jumped up next and wanted to take his turn!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-27T19:47:00.000-08:00

Love at Life's First Little Wave!

Catching up!

2010-01-22T09:29:00.000-08:00

I'm finally to a point where I can start our updates back again. The first trimester "blah" feeling and the exhaustion got me all out of whack and I'm just now starting to catch up. Its not just the blog updates I have fallen behind with...its also the laundry...OK, actually ANY housework, cooking dinner, the bills (don't worry Jason, no late fees!!:)), the list goes on!! But I finally feel like I can breathe again. The house is getting to a controllable state and I am cooking again! But its like now that I am feeling in control again, I look at the calendar and realize I will be 20 weeks pregnant next Wednesday!!! Excuse me? I feel like we just announced this pregnancy! There's no way I can be that far along!!! But, it's true! We have our big ultrasound scheduled for next Wednesday morning. I'm afraid I won't be sharing any exciting news though because we are still determined to keep this baby's private parts private. I have always thought it would be cool to wait but I couldn't do it with the first two. I had to plan things out! But now I will have a June, July and an August baby and I already have one of each so I literally have everything I will need!
I also have a very special cousin who will be the only one to know the gender. She has graciously volunteered to decorate the baby's room with the appropriate bedding and clothing and then put a big fat lock on the door to keep out inquiring minds. I am so very thankful for this as that was the only part that was semi-stressful to me. Yes, I have all of the bedding, clothing, blankets, etc but I would still have to get everything set up after the baby came. This way I won't have to worry about it! Thanks Leslie Anne for taking on this very important job!!! ;)
OK, so now enjoy a few posts from our last few months! I will do my best to keep updating more regularly!!

Just some pictures

2010-01-22T09:11:00.001-08:00

We have definitely been taking advantage of the beautiful 60 degree weather we have had over the past week and a half (until the rain yesterday...)! They both LOVE playing outside but I have definitely had to make sure all doors are locked since William can open them now. Hes constantly trying to sneak back outside.
I haven't taken too many pictures but I have to share these of William. I really went in to grab the camera so I could get cute pictures of them playing outside, I was gone for 2 minutes and this is what I found. William and Hannah thought it would be fun to play in the grass clippings pile in our garden from last year. He had grass everywhere!!!!

These pictures of Hannah were taken a while back but I love all of her faces! We now play the "Show me sad...", "Show me happy...", "Show me surprised..." whenever we are trying to get a good picture of her. Its hysterical!!!

Our Snow Day!

2010-01-22T08:51:00.000-08:00

We have a book that the kids love called, "Russell the Sheep saves Christmas". There is one page in the book that shows Russell's friend, frog, making a snow angel. One day Hannah pointed out the snow angel and asked me when it would snow here. This was back in the beginning of December when it really hadn't even gotten cold yet. I told her that it doesn't snow a lot where we live so it may not snow at all this Winter. I told her that if it doesn't snow then we can make sand angels this Summer when we go to the beach.
The next morning as we were leaving the neighborhood Hannah says, "Ugh...no snow! I guess we gotta go to the beach now!". How I love this girl...
Well, Hannah got her wish and we got a little bit of snow a few weeks ago. I got her up in the morning thinking she would be all excited about the snow... She looked out the window and said, "Thats not snow! It's not even enough to make a snowman!!". I told her we take what we can get down here in the South! :)
SO we all bundled up and went out to brave the first "snow storm" of 2010. We barely had 1/2 inch on the driveway. You could still see all of our grass... Hannah was excited about the icy spot on the driveway so she could practice her ice skating. William hated it and wanted to go take a nap so I went in and put him down. So then I was faced with the task of finding a way to play with Hannah in the least amount of snow possible... Sledding was out cause there was hardly anything on the grass. So...we pulled out the sand toys. I had to help her scrape up some snow from the driveway but then she had a blast filling up all of her buckets and William's dump truck!

Once again...I have more videos than pictures. Maybe one day I will actually get them uploaded... William made the videos but he was asleep before I pulled out the still camera so there's no evidence of the 10 minutes William lasted out there.
And...that's all we got! I don't love the snow... Maybe if we ever got a bunch of it, but this? It was just cold and windy and slightly miserable. Hannah had fun though and that's all that really matters! :)

Christmas!!!

2010-01-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas was a BLAST this year! Hannah was so fun and got really into it! I already shared some photos of our Christmas Eve experience but now you get to hear about it! It includes our first ever trip to the ER with one of ourkids...
Every year on Christmas Eve we go to Columbus to celebrate with Jason's family. This year poor William woke up with a 103.6 temperature... He was so sad and just wanted to be snuggled... We debated staying home but decided to go ahead to Columbus and just made sure to keep him dosed on Tylenol all day. He was showing no other symptoms and had been totally fine the night before! He had an OK day but the whole family could tell he just wasn't himself... On the drive home that night we had to stop and let Hannah go potty. While I took Hannah inside Jason climbed back with William (who was whimpering pathetically) and took his temp again. It was a whopping 104.9!!! And that was with tylenol in his system. We decided pretty quickly to take him to Egleston just to get him checked out. We figured it was probably just a virus but he had just completed antibiotics for a double ear/sinus infection and I was a little scared some of that was never truly kicked. Long story short, besides his temp. everything looked great! Just like we figured, he had some viral something that just had to run its course. I'm glad we took him in, otherwise we would have worried about him all day on Christmas. I am thankful that it was nothing serious! He just needed some extra snugglin'...
So by the time we left the hospital (which we literally were in and out of...nobody is there on Christmas Eve at 8pm) we still hadn't eaten dinner and NOTHING was open. I am almost too embarrassed to type this but Jason and I unloaded our two kids and had a Christmas Eve dinner at none other than Waffle House!!! Classy... I don't plan on making it a tradition or anything but we really had no choice. There was not even food in our house to cook! So waffle house it was and Hannah loved it!!! She now asks for "the waffle place" every now and then for breakfast!
Christmas morning was fun...after we got Hannah awake! I will have to get my video evidence uploaded soon to prove it because some people haven't believed me but it was near impossible to get her out of bed Christmas morning!! It wasn't even early! It was like 8:00. We went in her bedroom all excited and she told us she was really tired and just needed to rest a few more minutes... No kidding! I'll get the video on here soon! (By the way, this is what I deal with every Tuesday and Thursday getting her up for school. The girl likes to sleep in... I am dreading her teenage years...)
We did get her up though and then she was all excitement! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day!

Hannah's Big gift from Santa!

William's

Everyone's full stockings

Somehow we missed getting all of her excitement in a picture but she LOVES her castle. We had to persuade her to open the rest of her gifts.

Here is William with his new ball pit!

Yikes!

William opened the rest of his gifts from his ball pit... We couldn't get him out!

Our sweet Annie dog!!!

These pictures were taken before Christmas but I need to post their matching Christmas outfits! These were from Hannah's school Christmas program! Her class sang Jingle Bells, Good News and Away in the Manger. So sweet! She did such a great job! I'll try and post the video one day...

Merry Christmas to All...

2009-12-24T22:05:00.001-08:00

...and to All a Good Night! :)

Our New Look!

2009-11-21T18:14:00.000-08:00

How do you like our new design? See anything...surprising? :)

A-day! (Yes, I know how behind I am...)

2009-11-19T07:07:00.001-08:00

For the second year in a row we packed up the fam and went down to Auburn for fan day! It was a hot day (this was back in August...) but the kids had a blast! Here are a couple of pictures from our family day on the plains!
William with a couple of cheerleaders
Yay!!! Hannah wasn't scared of Aubie!!! (Remember last year?) William was unsure but at least he wasn't screaming!
The little man making a get-away
William with Adam Herring . (I don't think he holds babies very often...either that or he was trying to show off his biceps!)
William with Michael Hoggans
Hannah taking a chip break!

MIA

2009-11-17T12:17:00.000-08:00

This may be a record for longest time with NO posts... Sorry about that! We have had so much going on, I have been picking up a ton of weekends at the hospital and...my external hardrive is very sick, which means I can't do anything with my pictures and videos...
We are working on fixing that but until its fixed I can't even update on whats been happening.

Expect more posts really soon though!!! We are also going to be getting another makeover in the next few days so be sure to come back soon! :)

Happy Babies

2009-09-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

This reminded me so much of the movie, "Monsters Inc."! If you haven't seen it, the only way for Sully to get the baby (Boo) to laugh is for Mike to hurt himself. Mike does many crazy things to inflict pain on himself to get Boo to laugh. By accident we have discovered that William is much the same... You say Ouch and he laughs hysterically. I'm not sure how I feel about this but we indulged him last night. This is what it looked like:

The Walking post...2 months LATE!

2009-09-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Its true! William is walking...he actually has been for almost 2 months now!!!! Oops! I realized when multiple people inquired about his mobility and then were appalled that I hadn't blogged about it, that it was time for some walking videos!!

These were actually taken a while ago too. Now when he runs from me, he runs much faster!

We have been super busy lately and I have LOTS to catch up on but this will have to suffice for now as I am about to leave for a long weekend in Florida with my best friends from Auburn!!!

So enjoy the videos!!!! Oh! Almost forgot... Please ignore the hodge-podge of junk stored in our garage. The eliptical took up too much space in the house for a dust collector, the baby items haven't made it into the attic yet and the toilet.... well, that's a post for another day! ;)

A Party fit for a Princess! :)

2009-08-17T08:09:00.000-07:00

It truly was a day to remember! Hannah had a BLAST at her Princess party! So many tiaras, so much pink and to top it all off, GREAT family and friends to share it with! Get ready for a pink princess picture overload!!!
(**I apologize for not doing a slide show but since one day I hope to print this blog into a book, I like to post each and every picture I share! :)**)

Welcome to Hannah's Princess Ball!!!
Olivia, Hannah and Madison
Princess Hannah with her cousins, Alli and Kelsey
The Spread
Cupcake Lillipops! I mean...Magic Wand Cakes :)

Hannah working hard on her Princess necklace!
Hannah's friend, Piper
Aunt Lauren, Nana, and Barrett
Kimberly, Kevin and Cinderella...I mean, Olivia! :)
Chad and Bridge
A LOT of princess gear waiting to be unwrapped...
Enjoying magic wands...

Tinkerbell, Uncle Terry and the twins!

Jason and Tristan working on a Beautiful crown! :)

Emma and Baby Kate (in her snow white dress!)
Barrett, William, and Aidan

William as Prince Phillip
Olivia in her crown and necklace
Amelie taking it all in
All of the Princesses

Hannah's New Toy!!!!
Cavan and Aidan taking it for a spin
I strongly suggest clicking this picture to make it big and check out Hannah's earrings! ;)

I was cracking up while filming... She is probably the worst 3 year old driver on the planet...Another exciting toy.... Meet Snow white, the purple fish!

Sneak Peak...

2009-08-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

Today was the day... We had the Perfect Princess Party! If I weren't exhausted right now I would go into details but....it will have to wait. In the meantime here is a picture of Hannah on her way to bed tonight. Some of her Princess Loot accompanied her to her bed... There is so much more where that came from!
I'll update more tomorrow!! :)

First Day of School!

2009-08-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hannah had her first week of 3K last week! All-in-all, it went very well! I was scared when we dropped her off Tuesday but she was amazing! She didn't cry at all!!!
She was very excited about her new back pack, courtesy of Grandma! :) Here she is in the first annual First-Day-of-School Picture!
Showing off her bag:
Pretty Excited...
Cannot wait to get in the car!
En-route...
A little anxious now that we are here...
Nothing Daddy can't help! :)
Discovering the doll corner in her classroom. Ahh...this school things not so bad!
And then no tears!!! Good job Hannah!!!
Thursday was a little different... She cried when I left but of course I sat right outside the door to see how long it lasted. The verdict? Maybe 30 seconds... We will see how it goes next Tuesday!
She doesn't like to admit it but she is having a lot of fun!
She learned her first Bible verse, "In the Beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth."! I read that on the sheet they send home at the end of the week. I said, "Hannah, did you learn a Bible verse at school?" and she said, "Mm-Hmm! 'In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.' ". I was shocked! She only goes 2 days a week from 8:30 to 11:45... She also knows most of the pledge of allegiance! This school is Great!

Crosses for Carson

2009-08-03T06:42:00.001-07:00

The Martins are some friends of some of our family. We just met Carson recently at a Birthday party. He and William 6 days apart in age. Please read the story below and buy a cross or donate if you feel lead. I have always had a big interest in service dogs and I definitely think the seizure alert dog could change his and his family's life. Not only could the dog save his life by alerting his parents of a seizure in his sleep (where most of them have occured recently) but the dog will also serve as a companion for life and a comfort for Carson during hospitalizations and/or medical procedures. Please read more about Carson below!

Carson's Story:
Carson Martin reached his first birthday on July 16th. Just 3 short months prior to his birthday, Carson began to have seizures. These seizures have been diagnosed as Idiopathic Infantile Spasms - a very rare form of epilepsy that affects 1 in 10,000 children. These seizures come in the form of clusters and often occur when a child is drowsy. 70% of children diagnosed with Infantile Spasms (I.S.) exhibit some form of developmental delay ranging from mild learning disabilities to mental retardation, and approximately 50% of children with I.S. continue to fight other seizure disorders throughout their lifetime. There is currently no known cause for Carson's seizures or indication as to how these seizures will affect him, but doctors are working very hard to figure out what they can.

With every cross purchased through Crosses for Carson, Carson gets a little bit closer to receiving a seizure alert dog. This dog is specially trained to recognize signs of Carson's oncoming seizures and will alert Carson's parents before or during the onset of a seizure. Carson's dog will sleep with him (which is wonderful since his seizures often occur around sleep), attend doctors' appointments with him, provide comfort during medical procedures, and most importantly provide companionship and improved quality of life for Carson.

For more information about purchasing crosses, please visit crossesforcarson.shutterfly.com

To read more about Carson's story or find out about other fundraising events, please visit 4paws4carson.weebly.com

Once Upon a Blog

2009-08-03T06:37:00.000-07:00

This is a plug for Jennisa over at Once Upon a Blog. She is a professional blog designer and has some really cute ones!!! She happened to have designed this one!
She just redid her website, http://www.onceuponablog.org/, so go check it out if you are looking to spiff up your blog! She is also holding some giveaways and offering a discount so go take advantage! ;)

Hannah got mail!

2009-07-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, Hannah is turning 3 in a few weeks. We are celebrating here at the house with a Princess Party!! Guests have been given the option of dressing up like princes and princesses, mainly the kids... Hannah decided that she would like to dress up like Snow White at her party. Only problem is she only possesses a Cinderella dress and a Tinkerbell dress. Sounds like a job for Grandma, don't you think?? Well she certainly did. Not only did she find a snow white dress, but she was leaving for Italy the next day so she had it shipped to her. What 2 (almost 3) year old doesn't love getting a package in the mail?
I videoed her reaction since Grandma is still in Italy and was not able to be with Hannah when she opened the dress.
Grandma, as you will see, Hannah LOVES it!!! She rarely takes it off!

I couldn't get a good video of her wearing it. She was too eager to go show Daddy in his office.

But here is a picture of the perfect princess!

The Beach!

2009-07-25T06:58:00.000-07:00

Our annual family beach trip has come and gone... The countdown has already begun for next year. This year we had a record 24 people and 4 rental houses!!! It was chaotic, to say the least but soo much fun!! Get ready for the overload. I had to narrow it down from 703 pictures so I'm sorry if its a lot!

Hannah jumped right in!
And then out...
William figuring out sand for the first time
William and Uncle Zachie. (The water was perfect!!!)
William and Amelie
We tried building dribble castles but William kept sitting in our water hole!
Hannah and Daddy flying the kite
Taking a break

We attempted to get a good picture of both kids.... Never an easy task!
William kept trying to escape

Hannah with her idols... My cousins, Rachel, Kelsey and Alli

I LOVE this one and not because its a great picture of us. Hannah was grumpy and didn't want to smile so Grandpa George started doing this ridiculously funny song and dance routine. Both kids and both parents were laughing hysterically. I wish we had that on video!
Hannah found a few more smiles in the sand. (Thanks Tara for that trick! Now every picture time she claims to have run out of smiles and we have to discover one somewhere. :) )

Baby Kate
Grandma and William
All of the baby cousins. Can you believe we got them all sitting still?!?
Eli, William, Hannah and Amelie

Silly Face

85 years young :)

2009-07-24T20:55:00.001-07:00

We left the beach on Saturday and traveled to Lake Martin to meet up with my Dad's side of the family to celebrate my Grandaddy's 85th Birthday! (Are you starting to see why there has not been an update in a while? We have been going and going and going....) It was so fun to see family members we usually only get to see once a year. The guys played the "First Annual Grandaddy Open", a very serious golf tournament with extremely high stakes...a whole box of golf balls and of course the ever coveted bragging rights! It was a great way to end our fantastic beach vacation!

Two of the sweetest women ever, Aunt Sally and Aunt Martha

Grandaddy, Grandmother and William

Great Grandaddy handing out the prize

More family pics

A Beautiful night for a cook-out at the lake

The whole crew!

Happy Birthday (Great) Grandaddy!!!

Birthday Bonanza!!!

2009-07-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

It has happened....My precious baby boy has turned one! I'm not sure what to do with myself....except maybe have another one! (Haha! No, I'm not making any announcements...)

True to second child stereotypes, William had no fancy party...but it honestly wasn't for lack of want! I was planning on throwing him a party but we didn't have a good weekend. The weekend before his Birthday was 4th of July and then we left the next Saturday for the beach. Instead he had many smaller parties and if I do say so myself, he may have even enjoyed that more! :)

The first one took place on 4th of July at Jason's family's house on the lake. He loved his Mickey Mouse balloons and decorations! He swam in his little pool and even got to play with his favorite little partners in crime, Aidan and Barrett!

Picture with Mom and Dad. He wasn't thrilled about being in strapped in but he didn't really know what was coming...Family Shot. I sure wish I knew whose camera we were looking at because it certainly wasn't mine! :)

He was slow and steady with his cake. He started out tentative but 30 minutes later he was covered and there wasn't much left on the plate....

Fast Forward a little....

Now he is starting to get it

Little help from Annie...

Now he is officially disgusting...but in a totally cute way!

Oh, but wait... This party has just begun!!!
Dirty, exhausted and officially stuffed!!! Nothing a little dip in the kiddie pool didn't fix!
The cake that survived...

William turned 1 on Friday, July 10th and we left for the beach the very next day. That night we had Round 2 with my Mom's side of the family. William loved his 2nd cake and all of his wonderful gifts! He and his cousins Amelie and Eli had plenty to play with all week long!

I think he still feels full from last weeks cake... He didn't have the same attack as before.

He still put up a good fight though!

Grandma and Grandpa George

Sharing one of the new toys with Amelie!

We had a few more little celebrations including cupcakes and presents at the pool with our playgroup the day before his Birthday. Part of me still feels bad that he didn't get a big party but I think he is happy! ;)

Summer of Animals

2009-07-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

Hannah and William sure have gotten a good dose of Mother Nature so far this Summer! A few weeks ago we met Uncle Zach and Grandma in Stone Mountain and took a trip to the Yellow River Game Ranch. It was the kiddos first time going and they had a blast! I love the game ranch because the deer are just out walking around and they are definitely not too shy to come beg for a treat. You can purchase saltines, peanuts, and carrots prior to walking the trail so we were well equipped!

These two were the smart ones. They hung out right in the entrance to
catch people who just bought snacks...

I was nervous about Hannah getting bit since she didn't always hold her hand flat but the deer were so gentle when they took the food from her one of my favorites. Check out his hat!

A couple of weeks later, my Mom kept both kiddos while I worked at the hospital for a few days. She and Zach braved it and took them to the zoo. We had originally planned to go to the zoo during my mom's spring break back in April but we ran out of time. Since then Hannah has asked regularly when Grandma was going to take her to the zoo, so this trip was really unavoidable... I think they had a good time though! I have been told that both of them LOVED the carousel the most!

The "Baby" lions

Grandma and Hannah waving to the orangutans

New baby panda

Supposedly sleeping monkey. He looks kind of bored though, doesn't he?

Trying to get to something through the bamboo?...

Apparently she really bonded with this goat. This is one of many pictures taken...

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!!!

2009-07-10T11:11:00.001-07:00

Lots of little celebrations...more pictures to come...may be a while though because we are BEACH BOUND tomorrow morning!!! YAY!!!!

Higher Education

2009-07-02T21:00:00.001-07:00

For anyone who has or has had a baby knows that we reach a point where diaper changes are more of a wrestling match than a simple change of the diaper... We are defintiely at that point. Thankfully, William has a new found love for books (as in he no longer cares to eat the pages...but instead likes to look at them!) so I have started giving him a book to look at while I change him. The other day he took his job very seriously. It must have been the choice of book. See for yourself...

So then, (as if thats not cute enough!) thonight Hannah and I thought it would be a good idea to read that particular book to him while we put him nigh-night. (Daddy had to run a work errand so Hannah wanted to help put William down.) So we were looking at the book and I decided on a whim to see if William could point to Aubie. To my surprise, he did!!!! We have only looked at this book a couple of times together and I really don't recall pointing Aubie out to him but I guess he was doing an independant study during all of those diaper changes. He was able to point to Aubie on all 5 pages and he is even hiding on some of them. Of course I had to grab the camera and get proof to show Jason when he got home!

I think we have a natural born Tiger on our hands...unless of course he wants to be a yellow jacket! We just don't have as much Georgia Tech paraphernalia around our house...Sorry Jason!

6 Pack and Guys + 5!!!

2009-06-25T13:48:00.001-07:00

The highly anticipated trip of the Summer has come and gone... We had so much fun though! All 5 of my bestest friends from Auburn came together last weekend in Dallas! (Everyone that is, except Cam...we missed you!!!)

Its still hard to believe that what used to be 6 of us is now 17!!! How in the world?!?! It was the first time all of us have gotten together since Lindsey and Britton's wedding! We have added a few members since then...

It was such a fun trip! I am so sad its over but we girls already have a girl's weekend getaway planned for September. We are thinking Destin as a throwback to our old college springbreak days...AJ'S anyone? Ewww...

So here are some pictures!

Here is the whole clan including Kiki and Doodah (AKA Mary and David, AKA Liz's parents) who took us all out to a yummy dinner!

Most of our pictures came out like this... Nobdoy could stop laughing. I wish I could blame it on adult beverages but that really wasn't the case....most of the time at least!

We really did a pyramid...Maybe this was one of the times the adult beverages were involved...

Lindsey obsessing with the video monitor! Who doesn't like to kick back with a glass of wine and watch their baby sleep?

Our lake front photo shoot in the kiddos matching outfits! 5 kids under 3 years old are NOT easy subjects!!!!

See?

Hannah and Caitlin playing so sweetly. Caitlin wasn't too sure about all of these kids playing with her new toys but she shared great!

Pollard and William playing not so sweetly... They just loved each other too much!

Getting to know the mini 6-packers!

POLLARD!

In getting to know Pollard better I found that he has the most hysterical, explosive, slap your thigh type of laugh! I could listen to that kid all day. No doubt, he is a class clown in the making! If you know his parents, its only fitting. Those 2 keep me laughing non-stop!

CAITLIN

Caitlin has a signature look. Its a nose scrunch. Its almost like she thinks she is smiling. Thats how often is happens! It is super funny! Although Caitlin doesn't posess many words in the English language, she is fluent in Caitlinese. Not to be confused with Chinese! Although now that I think about it...it does kind of have that asian flare to it. Liz, look into it! She could be a genius!!! Seriously, Caitlin rattles on and on in her own little language. Its hysterical! She and Hannah played so sweet together!

PRESLEY

I mean, just look at her! From day 1, Presley has been such a pretty baby. She has not ever gone through the awkward newborn phase... She has a little personality to match! She is laid back and doesn't cry very often. Just a sweet sweet baby. Hannah took a liking to Presley right away!

HANNAH and WILLIAM

You already know about these 2 munchkins! Hannah and William had so much fun with all of the other babies. William loved Pollard but kept trying to hit his face... Pollard just laughed...Love that kid!
Here are the guys on their Father's Day golf outing. Weren't we sweet for letting them out of the house for the day while we managed all 5 children ages 2 and under?!?!
(Too bad they were mandated to "Daddy Duty" the next night while the girls went out to a movie...whoops!)

Group Bath!My little Muscle Man, pushing Caitlin in her pink car!

Pollard in his element!

Linds and Pollard

Hannah and Caitlin in their matching swim-suits

The original 6 with the offspring. Crazy how quick we can multiply! Thanks girls for the most fun weekend ever!!!

Fun in the Sun!

2009-06-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

The kids and I had a great time today playing in the backyard. Jason has taken the yard work by storm this year and it really makes a huge difference! Our backyard is beautiful and relaxing. The splashing and laughter were the perfect addition!