Restful days

We are now on day 7 of the stomach virus for poor Davis!  Harrison got sick one day but recovered fairly quickly.  Poor Davis is still having a rough time.  Hopefully we are on the tail end of it!  The only upside is that I have finally found time to write a post!

We started the month off strong, with Davis' first t-ball team.  He has so many little buddies on his team which has made him feel so comfortable.  I can tell he gets so excited for every game and practice and I get excited to see friends who I rarely get to see anymore!

And Harrison has been enjoying getting to see his old buddies and NOT have to play baseball :)

 

This has been a big month of firsts.  Davis also had his first time singing in the choir during church service.  Up until age 4, they only sing a few times a year at the Wednesday night church suppers, so he was excited/nervous to sing in front of the congregation.  I was so proud of him and very impressed that he knew all the words since the few practices right before the "performance" were cancelled due to the snow days!

Speaking of snow days, even though we had a few false alarms, the boys got to enjoy the snow for a day or two.  I think they had more fun sledding down the steps over sledding down the hills!

They got excited to play in the tree house again - way more fun in the snow!

Since we had a few days off, I decided it would be fun to make a special breakfast for the boys while they were out playing in the snow.  There was a cinnamon roll recipe that I had been wanting to try for a while and it was a success.  It was perfect timing, because they played outside for a about 1.5 hrs, then came in for a hot cinnamon roll.

While we were waiting for the snow to hit one day, we opted to get out of the house for a last minute visit with a friend at CFA.  Do you think these two have missed each other?  They had big discussions of how many children they will have and how old they will have to be before they get married.  

Lance and I were invited to a silent auction the night of the oscars to support the Center for Family Resources.  We had a great time and even won a prize!

The boys had a birthday party at Brunswick Zone - I think this was their favorite party of all time...they are still talking about how they want to have their next parties there.

Just before this, Harrison had his 7th birthday.  We started off with a birthday dinner at La Parilla for a picture in the favorite hat...

 and got to celebrate with a party at Central Gymnastics.  The boys are both taking lessons there and love it!

He chose to have a cookie cake, which apparently is his "7th favorite" dessert???

Lance's dad recently found one of his old bikes and got it out for the boys to play with.  These are lovely tricks he taught the boys.  Lord help me.

First Cub Scout Trip

This past weekend was Martin Luther King Weekend and Lance and Harrison had their first Cub Scout trip planned.  They drove down to Charleston and got to spend the night on the USS Yorktown air craft carrier.  A few weeks before the trip we told Harrison what he was going to get to do.  He immediately said he wasn't interested.  We couldn't figure out why, until he finally confessed that he was afraid they were going to have a battle/war while he was on the ship.  My nephews have done trips like this, so they assured him that wasn't possible.  He still seemed pretty weary.  The night before the trip he told me that he and his dad were going to sleep in a hotel at the beach with a hot tub and they were just going to look at the ship.  (I told him if they actually did that without me, they would be in trouble!!)  I told his teacher about his apprehension about the battleship, and she just never ceases to amaze me!  She wanted to help him, so she had one of her previous students who had gone on the trip, come talk to him.  I mean...ugghhh....just amazing!  I think that really settled him down.  When I brought all of this up to her, she said, "Oh, I am aware of the trip!  Harrison told the class what he was going to do and the entire class clapped and cheered for him".  So sweet!! 
Friday came and Lance picked Harrison up early from school.  They were supposed to arrive by 6 pm, but Lance called me about 30 min before that and told me that they had gotten into a car accident on a bridge.  I panicked, but thankfully they were in bumper to bumper and were only going about 5 miles/hr.  I think Harrison was shaken up but everyone was fine.  Lance said the officer saw his uniform and asked if they were headed to the battleship.  He said he was an eagle scout and that was always his favorite trip. I think Harrison thought that was really cool.  Unfortunately the driver at fault in the accident said he would follow Lance to a gas station, but he took off.  Thankfully he just got a few scratches on his bumper. 
Once they finally arrived, they had a great time.  Lance sent me pictures throughout the weekend which was fun.  Lance thought the sleeping situation was "less than ideal", with 48 people sleeping in a small room with bunk beds, 4 beds high.  I'm sure this part was a little more fun for the kids than it was for the grown ups!
Welcome to the ship!

 

Looks pretty nice to me!

He really learned quite a bit on the trip!

 

A boys dream!

Captain Harrison

He was very impressed by the canons

 

Fort Sumter:  I told him I needed at least one picture with both of them!

 Flags that were flying during the first shots of the Civil War.

Fun weekend!

 

"Dad, put your hand on the plane and I will take your picture"  Lol!

Lance said he got a little stir crazy after a day and a half on the boat, so he took Harrison out off the ship for dinner the second night.

While the boys were gone, Davis and I had a fun "Davis Day", where he got to pick what we did.  He had a playdate at Chick Fila.  (We walked in, and all the kids were playing, except for Davis and his buddy who were cleaning the benches??)

He was most excited to ride his skate board at the skate park.  Unfortunately since it was so nice outside, it was packed with older kids, so we just practiced on the sidewalk around the skate park.

We went to Yogli Mogli, the library, Firehouse Subs, and he had a spend the night party at his grandparent's house.  This was the first time he spent the night there without Harrison and I think he really enjoyed having them all to himself!  I was worried he was going to have a hard time with Lance and Harrison leaving, but he did great and didn't cry/fuss at all.  I can't wait for him to get to go on the trip in a few years!

After the boys got back from their trip, we got them to bed early and Harrison slept in pretty late.  It was gorgeous outside and since we didn't have school, we spent the whole day at the park, riding skateboards/bikes/scooters, playing on the playground and climbing rocks.  

  It was a beautiful weekend and definitely one to be remembered!

A "little" recap

The last half of 2014 ended up being so crazy with the move that something had to drop.  Keeping track of my kids on the blog just happened to be that thing.  Hopefully I can keep it back up for 2015!  Just a "few" pictures to summarize the last half of 2014 for the Randolph Family.

After the end of school beach trip, we had a little less than a month to finish packing up our house to get ready for the move.  After we closed on our house, we headed over to take a small break before the storm, which is moving.

 

Davis had his first dentist appointment and felt like such a big boy.  He was a little nervous, but did great!

 One of the boys favorite parts of the new house (and mine!)...my bathtub...

The week after we moved, we packed back up, and grandma and granddaddy Randolph took us on a trip to the beach.  They had won a trip to a beach house in an auction, and generously invited us to join them.  The trip happened to fall on the week of Davis' birthday (July 4th) so we got to spend his birthday at the beach!

 

 

Fireworks on the beach - so fun!  You can see the barge with the fireworks behind the boys...

Amazing!

First day of school at our new school!  He was a little nervous about meeting all new friends, but warmed up quickly and has a phenomenal teacher!

(School bus comes A LOT earlier at this house, so its still dark when we catch the bus!)

Blessing of the backpacks at church...I love this tradition!  The kids bring their backpacks to church to have them blessed and they get a little cross to put on their backpack.

 

This was a big year for me as well.  I started teaching at Davis' school this year in the two day twos.  I am really enjoying it and have an awesome assistant teacher and a sweet class. 

Davis and I on our first day of school!

 Lance began building a tree house for the boys...his talents have no end!  First board up!

He lost his first tooth!

Last year, before moving was even a thought in our minds, we booked a beach trip with all of my college girlfriends and their families.  I think there were 6 couples and 11 kids!  It was a crazy, fun week, and we really didn't take too many pictures.

 

My aunts came for a visit!

 

 

 It was so nice to have all of my awesome aunts here for a visit!  

I had anticipated getting to Tuscaloosa quite a bit this summer, but with the move, it was just too hard.  We finally made it for Granddaddy's birthday.  

 

Harrison gave Granddaddy a break from paddling on his birthday.  The kids LOVE these little boats to ride around the lake.

Lots of football fun with cousins this fall

  Apple picking for the first time!

 

My favorite pic of the boys this year:

 

More visitors, my bestie Teresa and her family came right before halloween.  We FINAlLY made it to Boo At The Zoo.

 My parents and sister came to visit for Halloween

Turkey bingo at Harrison's school.  So fun, you win a turkey for Thanksgiving if you win Bingo!

 

Teaching little brother how to ride a bike.  So sweet!  He hasn't quite picked it up yet, but he is close!

 

We hosted our first Thanksgiving

 

The main chefs took over the kitchen!

 Neighbors joined in the fun

 

First Christmas in our new house!

We then drove to Tuscaloosa to spend Christmas at Grandmommy and Granddaddy Koeppe's house:

 We got back in town right before New Years, so we picked up a bunch of fireworks in Alabama and had a few neighbors over to join in the fun!

It was cold but the kids had a great time!