Fun with friends & cousins

We took the week to come to Alabama to visit my bestie, Teresa and my sister. Harrison has been having so much fun hanging with his buddies that he doesn't get to see very often. I have been trying to take pictures throughout the week but it's always so hard to remember.
Harrison & Madeline posing:



Davis and his sweet friend, Paxton. Davis just crawls all over the place and gets into everything. It was amazing to see the difference in boys vs. girls because Paxton would just sit happily with her toys, smiling and dancing.


When visiting with the kids, its always hard to really try and catch up since we spend most of the time mediating and chasing, but we had a great time!
Next up was visiting my big sis in Tuscaloosa. Harrison just looks up to his cousins so much so it's always fun to watch him run around with them. This first picture clearly shows the theme of our visit...


This is a picture of the boys at a restaurant watching a video on my iPhone. My nephew, Trey, got an itouch for his birthday so both Jack & Harrison wanted to play games just like him. Julie also has an itouch so the boys would walk around with our iPhones/itouchs, making sure they were all playing the same games. Thankfully the games they wanted to play were all free. I felt like it was a glimpse into my future since boys love video games so much. Hopefully I have a few more years before I have to really start dealing with the video game craze!
The other funny event involved the water squirter...see below:


Harrison & Jack discovered that when you put your hand over the bottom of the squirter where the water come out, when you push down the handle, it will make a "tooting" sound. They thought this was hilarious! I can tell you that my sisters and I never would have played this game when we were little!! Crazy boys! Overall we had a great week, it went too fast as always! I will end with a cute video of Davis motoring around the pool. We went with Julie and her boys and he loved that he could touch the bottom of the kiddie pool, so Jr would walk around the pool, chasing the toys...

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Our world right now

Trains taking over the family room...(I have to admit, this is my biggest track creation yet-very proud!)


Cars and baby toys exploding in the dining room.


Thank God it's summer so we can get outside and escape the madness which is my house right now!


....awww, this is the life ladies!

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2 Year Old Preschool Comes to an End

Today is Harrison's last day of 2 year old preschool and I can't believe how fast this year has flown by!  He has learned so much over the year and I have been so happy with the Summit Baptist program that he has attended.  Ms Amanda and Ms Melissa have been so sweet and Harrison has loved every minute of it!  I tried to explain to him this morning that this was going to be his last day of school but I don't think he really understands what that means yet.  I know he will really miss his teachers this summer!  I think the biggest concepts that he picked up this year are being able to sing all of his ABC's and recognizing a few of the letters.  He knows his shapes and colors and he can count to 16...sometimes 20 on a good day and he even knows a decent amount of Spanish (1-10, gracias, hola, and a few animals).  Such a proud mama am I!  We were reading a book about numbers the other night and when he saw the number "8" he said, "Look mom!  Its ocho!!"  It really caught me off guard and I thought it was so funny that he knows the Spanish name for it over the English!  Having double majored in Spanish, I am really envious that he is learning it at such a young age!
We had to miss his end of year school play this week because he caught the stomach bug so I was really sad about it but at least he doesn't understand right now what he missed!  In the scheme of things, I know its not something to worry about, but it still would have been fun to see him up on the stage singing with all his school buddies!
Here is Harrison on his first day of pre-school:

Harrison on his last day of pre-school:

They grow so quickly and when you see them everyday its hard to notice all the changes, but its amazing how he truly has changed into a 'big kid' over the course of the year!

All About My Mom

In honor of Mother's Day this weekend, Harrison's teacher sent home a project that they did where the the teacher asked a series of questions to the kids about their moms and they posted them on a piece of construction paper.  Here were Harrison's answers:

My mom's favorite color is: Red
My mom is 2 years old.
My mom has red eyes and blue hair.
My mom cooks the best dinner.
My mom brings me to the basement.
I love it when my mom goes to the gym
My mom loves blue
My mom looks so pretty when she wears her jammies.

I thought this was too funny.  You can tell they asked these questions right after the tornados came through the other day b/c we don't have a basement but we spent the night at my in-laws house, in their basement.
So cute & definitely put a smile on my face for the day!

Take me out to the ballgame

Lance's dad recently bought some baseball tickets and thought this would be a good time to take Harrison to his first baseball game.  We have been telling him about it for a few weeks and every time we pass the stadium on the way to the zoo, I point out the big baseball stadium, so he has been very excited.  Unfortunately the night before the game, Harrison came down with a fever.  He seemed to be feeling better in the morning so I thought that getting out of the house and getting some fresh air might distract him and make him feel better.  I was definitely wrong about the feeling better part, but he did have a fun day!  When we got there, we met granddaddy and headed over to the cartoon network area.  I had never been over there, but they have a mini baseball field, a big tunnel slide and some other fun games for the kids.  Harrison picked up a bat and one of the workers pitched a few balls to him.  I was shocked when he "knocked it out of the park".  Of course I missed the shot of him actually hitting the ball, but here is one of his attempts.

On our way to our seats, we passed a few of these huge baseballs.  Harrison was intrigued...

"uugghhh - Its too heavy!"

We had amazing seats but they were in the sun so Harrison didn't really want to sit for too long.  We spent most of the day walking around the stadium, but thankfully there are a lot of fun things for the kids to do there.  He saw a little girl with her face painted so we tried to find the face painter, but no luck.  I couldn't pass up this shot...

Watching the game by the big Coke bottle

They have a little a little area where kids can run to a base and Harrison had so much fun running like the baseball players.  Go go go!!!

We did this over and over and over and over...

We made Harrison sit for a photo op before we headed out.  I wish I would have angled the camera so you could see the field.  We had such great seats, probably the closest I've ever sat, too bad I didn't get to actually sit and watch the game. :)

By this point, I think Harrison's fever had started to come back so we had to leave, but overall, I think he had a fun time.  Looking back, I probably should have kept him home to let him rest but he was a trooper!  Go Braves!  Whats sad is that I don't even know if they won or not!

Here are just a few other cute moments from the last few weeks.
Harrison's school had spirit week last week and the kids got to do something fun each day.  Thursday was crazy hair day, so I gave Harrison a mohawk.  I should have taken a picture in the morning, but we were a little rushed, so here he is at the end of the day...

Harrison got this bubble wand for Easter and I made homemade bubbles for him...they are the best ever!

These bubbles are huge!

Poor Davis hasn't made it to this blog post.  He got to stay at grandma's during the baseball game and I swear he was on a picnic blanket behind me in these pictures!  Here is a cute video of him to end the post.  Harrison has been eating a lot of popsicles lately so I have been letting him give Davis a lick or two.  Its pretty funny because Davis makes a sour face everytime you let him have some but then he gets mad when you take it away!

I feel like Davis has been learning so much just in the past week.  He was waving to me and pointing to his nose.  He also started playing the game where you say "How big is Davis??" and he puts his hands in the air.  He gets the biggest smile on his face and is so proud of himself.  Hopefully I can get all this on camera soon!

Happy Belated Easter

Its been a little busy around here lately but here is a belated Easter post!  We had such a wonderful Easter this year, spent with Lance's side of the family in Atlanta.  It started for us on Saturday night when we put out a few carrots for the Easter bunny.  Harrison thought he was going to be really hungry, so the Easter bunny got 4 carrots...(as you can see we are very into silly faces lately)

When Harrison woke up in the morning, this is what he found!  The Easter bunny ate almost all of his carrots and he brought Easter baskets for Harrison, Davis and even one for Mommy & Daddy...how did he know that Mommy & Daddy needed new coffee cups!?!?  I clearly have been a slacker and forgot to get Davis his official Easter basket this year.  Oops!

Say, "I love Easter"!!...or at least look at the camera!  Getting TWO boys to look at the camera at the same time is not always the easiest task, especially when both of them are mobile!

We got the boys up early enough that they could find the Easter eggs that the Easter bunny dropped off at our house, then jumped in the car to head to church.  After church we went to Grandma & Granddaddy Randolph's house for an Easter brunch and would you believe that the Easter bunny dropped off even more eggs at their house?  60 eggs in fact....all for 1 child to hunt!  He was in Heaven!

That Easter bunny sure was good at hiding those eggs...

I LOVE this picture...

Can you help me open this Easter egg Granddaddy???

We had to switch to a bigger basket to hold all the eggs and then it was time for opening them.  I can't even imagine how many jelly beans he ate that day, but what kind of Easter would it be without an overload of jelly beans!?

While Harrison hunted for eggs, Davis had fun getting to play with all of the toys inside without the threat of his brother taking them.  He had an entire room full of toys and what did he carry around all morning?  A piece of paper that Harrison uses as garbage to put in his toy garbage truck.

Davis and Grandma enjoying Easter.  Davis loves to clap and wave his hands around now, so here he is showing off his tricks...

It was a beautiful day and we were so thankful to be able to spend it with family.  Especially after hearing of the recent tragic event in Tuscaloosa, I am reminded of how blessed we are to have all of our family and friends in our lives.  Harrison has been talking about Easter in school for the past few weeks and will randomly say things like "Mommy, did you know that its Lent!", or "Mommy, Jesus' body is gone!!"  Its so sweet to hear him learning about the meaning of Easter and it has been fun to read stories to him and help him learn about the Easter holiday.

Spring Fever

Well Spring has finally sprung!  The daffodils are blooming, pollen is in the air and I think we have all developed allergies from enjoying the great weather outside!  With the exception of a few days, we have been having beautiful weather in Atlanta, which has been great for getting outside with the kids after a very cold winter!  We have also kept very busy over the past few weeks which has made it hard to update the ole' blog!
A few weeks ago, Kennesaw hosted another Touch-A-Truck event.  We took Harrison last year and he wanted nothing to do with the trucks.  I decided to have a Harrison-mommy morning so the two of us walked to downtown Kennesaw for the event.  He was so excited the whole way and kept talking about all the trucks he was going to see.  Unfortunately once we got there, he really didn't want anything to do with any of the trucks.  I climbed onto a school bus with him b/c I thought once he got on the bus he would like it.  We sat down in a seat and he immediately said, "okay Mom, I"m all done now.  Can we go play on the playground now!??!  Please?!!?"  Ha!  I guess not much has changed since last year!  He did like looking at all the trucks, but didn't want to get too close.  The only nice part about it was that we didn't have to stand in any of the long lines!  I finally gave into his pleas and we hit up the playground...

After about an hour, we were thinking of heading home when we ran into Harrison's friend Matthew.  Matthew likes trains even more than Harrison, if thats possible, so we took them to play on "the General"(an old caboose that was used during the Civil War)  Of course, the only thing the boys wanted to play on, was the train that is there 365 days a year...nevermind the trucks that were brought in for the big event!

It was funny b/c at one point the boys were on opposite sides of the train so I told Harrison to go find Matthew and say "surprise!".  He did and Matthew thought this was too funny.  This turned into a "fun" game of yelling "Surprise" as loud as they could to each other on the train.  I'm sure the the other parents and kids just loved us!  I figured, if they were having fun, go for it!

Next up was our trip to Cincinnati.  I was nervous about the trip b/c this was the first time that I was traveling with both the boys (by myself) since Davis started crawling.  To my surprise, they both did great!  I made two long stops on both legs of the trip to let the kids stretch their legs and they didn't fuss at all!  I'm not sure I could say how well the trip would have gone without a dvd player - it is a total life saver!  Unfortunately once we got to Cincinnati Harrison came down with a cold and had a fever every night for about 5 days.  Thankfully it didn't seem to slow him down so we were able to enjoy the trip.  Mom and Dad have their house on the market so we had to scramble to get out 2 of the mornings we were there, but overall it was a great trip.  Harrison's favorite part, as always, was going down to Lunkin Airport.  They have a really nice playground and you can sit right next to the runway to watch the planes and helicopters take off and land.
Here is Davis enjoying the swings:

Davis having fun with Granddaddy

I tried to get a picture of Harrison and his Grandmommy but he was running too fast to track down.  After they boys were done playing we had a picnic lunch and then headed over to watch the planes.  When we got to the runway, there was a huge Air Force plane taking off.  Harrison usually loves sitting outside, watching the planes but this one was so loud we had to go inside to watch.  I think this picture makes it pretty clear what he thought about this plane -

We also had the boys pictures taken while we were up there.  I needed to get Harrison's 3 year pictures done as well as Davis' 9 month pictures, so we just did one big photo shoot.  Since the boys were sick, I was worried about how they would turn out, but I have to say they did great!  I think Harrison could have a future career as a model - he was having so much fun posing for the camera!  I took a picture of each of the pictures:

 

We were only able to get Davis to smile in one picture.  He is either very smiley or very serious...not much in between.  He was so serious the whole day so we had a tough time getting a smile out of him.  We let him crawl around for one picture and that was ticket!

 

Davis has his serious face in this picture but I love it because it shows his "studious" demeanor.  I will be curious to see if that part of his personality sticks - I'm not sure how you can have too serious of a  personality growing up in this family! 

 

Other than the airport, I think the highlight to Harrison's week was when we went digging for worms and splashing in puddles.  I feel like boys need to be boys, so as grossed out as I am about bugs, I know that Harrison is fascinated by them. We had a few rainy days, so we went out one morning and dug in the garden for some worms.  I put some dirt in a tupperware bowl and let Harrison put the worms in the "farm".  He had so much fun and would just pick up handfuls of worms and carry them around.  He loved watching them wiggle through the dirt.

At the very back of my parents' back yard, there is an area where water always pools up when it rains...its like a little stream that runs the length of the backyard and gets pretty deep on one side.  After a rainy morning, I let Harrison put on his rain boots for a little splashing around.  It started off with some innocent fun splashing, but once he saw the really deep puddle (about knee height on Harrison), he just went crazy.   At first I tried to get him to stay out of the big puddle/pool, but he was having so much fun that I just let him go to town.  He was soaked from head to toe but he enjoyed every minute of it.  My parents have a utility sink in their laundry room which leads straight to the backyard, so we would just throw Harrison in the sink and bathe him there after he got all muddy.  It made me jealous of #1 - their flat backyard and #2 - their laundry room!  Someday! I'm bummed that I didn't get any pictures of this - It was quite the sight to see!

Overall we have had a fun spring, hopefully I will be better about keeping up with posing pictures.
I will end with this cute one...Lance scored some tickets to the Saturday round at the Masters this year so he wanted to buy something for Harrison while he was there.  I told him that he loves wearing Lance's hats around the house so he should try to find a kids hat.  Boy, was that hit - he loves his new hat so he can be just like daddy!

 

Here he is serenading me with "I'm in the Lord's Army", his favorite song of the moment...

Phew, sorry for the long post!