Like Father Like Son

We had a little bit of a rough weekend in that we found out last Thursday that Lance's grandmother, Allene Newberry Eley, passed away.  She was Lance's last living grandparent, so it was a hard weekend.  We went to a memorial service in Decatur on Saturday and drove down to Arlington, GA to lay her to rest with her husband on Sunday.  It was a difficult but beautiful weekend, full of love, family and dear friends and we are glad to know that she is reunited with all of her loved ones in heaven.

With the process of putting together the memorial service, Lance's parents had some old pictures out over the weekend.  They have been telling me for a while that Davis looks so much like Lance, and I finally got to see what they meant today.  The resemblance is incredible!  I took pictures of the pictures that really stood out to me and I put them in a collage with a few photos of Davis - here is the result...

Grandma/grammy will be greatly missed!  We love you very much, may you rest in peace!

Big week of “Firsts”!

Not only did Davis say his first word this week, but tonight, he got his first haircut!  His hair is so blond that you couldn’t really tell how long it had grown in the back.  I started noticing when he would lean his head back, you could see his hair flow over his shirt collar, giving him a mullet-esque feel.  Since my rehearsal dinner night was the last night I vowed I would ever see another mullet in our house (too long of a funny story for right here), I decided it was time for a cut.  Lance was out at a baseball game, so Harrison and I put Davis on my bathroom counter in the bumbo seat and pulled out Lance’s clippers.  Davis was curious about the clippers, and thought it tickled when it touched his skin so he was moving around quite a bit…made for a tough haircut!  I made a few slip-ups, but I think I did a decent job of evening it out.  Yeah for Davis!  First word and first hair cut in one week!

I took a short little video to show his new do!

Davis' first word, & birthday fun

Its official...we have a first word! "Dogogogogog...", translation, "Dog".  I think he likes the "G" sound, so once he says it, he just keeps going with a big smile on his face.  We have been around a lot of dogs lately, big and small, so he gets very excited when he sees one.  I tried to catch a quick video of him saying it and this was the best I could get...

Davis at such a sweet age, I am trying to figure out a way to freeze time!  He is a busy guy though, when he is awake, he goes nonstop!  This makes it hard when we try to go places because he does not like to be confined but he now stays away from the steps (for the most part), so its gotten a little bit easier at home.  He LOVES to be outside right now too.  He is always standing by the door saying "uh, uh uh", like, "Someone open the door for me already!".  With the "mild" weather, we have been spending a lot of time out on the driveway lately kicking balls around riding bikes.  I suppose this means he will probably be as adventurous as his daddy!

We also celebrated Lance's birthday last week.  He turned a big 32 and had the best birthday present he could ask for - he got to spend the day in Tuscaloosa on a recruiting trip!  He got to eat at his favorite restaurant, Wings, and of course, he had to take his co-workers on a bar tour of Tuscaloosa, so I'm sure he was in heaven.
We were sad we didn't get to spend the day with him, but we welcomed him home with some snickers cupcakes!  Yumm!  They were chocolate cupcakes with a piece of snickers inside, topped with caramel buttercream icing with caramel and snickers sprinkled on top.  Harrison was a big helper and was especially good at helping me taste the batter, you know, just to make sure they were going to taste okay. ;)  To this day, I have to admit, I still like the taste of the batter better than the cooked cupcakes!
Here was our creation...

They were fun to make, but they didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped!  Turns out, frosting cupcakes is not as easy at it looks!

When Lance got back the next day, his parents were so nice to offer to watch the boys so we could go out to dinner.   We hit up Outback for a yummy steak and then came back to sing happy birthday and eat cupcakes with the boys.  Happy birthday Lance...the best husband and father I could ask for!!

Our New Wednesday Routine

I feel like around Wednesday of each week, we all start to feel a little restless so I was really excited when I found out about a few things that are going on at our church on Wednesday afternoons.  A friend of mine teaches Kinder musik classes and she mentioned to me over the summer that she teaches a 4:30 pm class on Wednesday afternoons so she can do the class with her younger son while her older daughter goes to choir practice.  Kids can start choir when they are 3 at our church, so this was perfect timing!  We showed up today for the first class and both kids had a blast!  It can be kind of hard to get Harrison to want to go to church sometimes, so I left the church part out and just told him that he was going to music class with all the other big kids.  They actually have so many 3 year olds signed up this year that they had to break them into 2 classes.  It kind of stinks because all of his buddies (ie, my friends' kids) are in the younger 3's class and he is in the older 3's, but maybe he will make some new friends out of it!  He loved it, although I still can't get him to tell me what he sang.
The class for Davis is a Mommy & Me type of class so I got to participate with him.  This is really the first activity that I have done with just Davis so it was so fun to watch him!  So far he has been the more shy of  my two kids, so I was thinking he was going to be a little nervous and quiet...boy was I wrong!  He just walked around the classroom, dancing, "singing", smiling and laughing at everyone...just hamming it up to get everyone to laugh.  I can tell he just loved being the center of attention and it was so fun to see his little personality coming out!
After the classes we ate dinner with a few of our friends.  All of our husbands generally have to work late, so we sat together and actually had some time to catch up.
Aside from Sunday morning activities, we really haven't participated in too many church activities so am glad to find some new things to get involved in with the kids.  Getting a break from cooking is just a bonus!
I didn't even think to try to get pictures of the boys, but it was nice to just enjoy the evening and just "be", completely in the moment with the kids.
If any of my blog followers ever want more info or want to join the classes, there are still a few openings and choir is open to everyone!

Rosemary Beach

Lance and I took a much-needed vacation without the kiddies this past weekend and I have to admit, we had a blast!  We go on an annual trip with my girlfriends from college and this year we decided to go sans kids.  My parents were so sweet and drove down from Cincy to watch the boys so we knew they were in great hands!  There were 6 couples on the trip and its funny how even as time passes, when you get together with old friends, you just catch right back up where you left off!  Lance and I were one of the first couples to get to the beach, so we headed out to enjoy the sounds of the surf immediately!  We stayed in Rosemary Beach and our house was amazing!  Right smack on the beach, in a little gated community and it had its own pool.  It was also directly across the street from all of the shops and restaurants so Lance and I parked our car on Thursday night and didn't move it until Monday morning...my kind of vacation!  Thursday night, everyone was gradually getting in, so we just ate some pizza, shopped and enjoyed catching up.  We knew the weather was going to be bad for most of the trip so we literally spent the entire day on Friday at the beach.  I parked myself right here:

...and didn't move for the rest of the day!  I can't remember the last time I was able to just sit on the beach without having to chase kids, so it was a nice change of pace.  I feel like you never truly appreciate the feeling of being able to completely relax like this until you have kids!  I have to admit that I felt a twinge of guilt, but it was nice!
Two of my girlfriends brought their kids along and it was great to be able to see them!  I know Harrison and Davis would have had so much fun playing with them, but my kids definitely would not do this:

they were so worn out from playing on the beach all day that they fell asleep around 4:30, then slept through dinner (at a mexican restaurant, nonetheless), all the way until the next morning!  P.s. - this is my friend Allison, her girls Anna & Caroline and "Fairy Godmother Steph"
We had dance parties every night...

and snuggled up on the couch, just catching up!

 We went out to dinner one night at La Crema, a tapas restaurant and it was fantastic!

Ellie, my college roommate Kendra's daughter, also made the trip and she is just soo sweet.  Very laid back and happy just like her mama!  She would just play in the sand IN ONE SPOT, all day.  Kendra may be in for a surprise with a little boy on the way!!

Night out on the town...Allison found out that she passed her boards that day, so you know we HAD to celebrate!!

(me, Allison, Amanda & Jessica)

I had the chance to try Miller High Life for the first time on this trip, and since it is the "champagne of beers", you know I had to drink it out of a champagne glass.  I didn't want to be alone so I convinced a few of the guys to join me. :)  Pinkies up gentlemen...

It was such a great trip, and a fun time was had by all. It definitely would have been better had the weather been decent, but if you're going to be locked up in a house for 3 days straight, I think being locked up in a fantastic beach house, on the beach, with a few of your best friends, is not a bad place to do it!  Ladies - I already miss you and can't wait until next year!!

Takin it easy

Well, we have completed our first week of school for the year and I have to say that it was a success.  Last year started out with screaming and being afraid to get out of the car...this year started with a "goodbye mom!!  See ya later!!".  Big improvement! 

I feel like we have had a busy summer of being on the go quite a bit, but this was our first week where we had to be somewhere at a specific time in the morning.  Because of this, I decided to take it easy and have a low key kind of morning.  Harrison loves getting out and doing things, but sometimes its nice to just mope around the house, playing toys, making projects and just hanging out.  This morning we made a project that I spotted in the Family Fun magazine early this summer and we just finally got around to it!  Its an elephant watering can...it turned out pretty cute, and now maybe Harrison will get back to helping me water plants!

(Don't you love the hair?  Needless to say, its time for a haircut!!)
Davis has just been wandering around, playing toys, cracking himself up and pretending everything is a phone.  I have been trying to teach him to say "Hi!", but so far he just picks up said-object-that-looks-like-a-phone-to-him and says "ahhhhh" and then starts laughing really hard.  I'm not sure if he laughs because he thinks he is so smart or if I laugh a lot on the phone...could be a mixture of both I guess!

His phone in this pic is a toy computer mouse...after looking at this picture, I know, I get mom of the year award for letting him play with a mouse connected to a long wire.  I guess that comes with the territory of having an older sibling.  What can I say, we like to live on the edge around here. heh.

First Day of School

Woohoo!  School is back in session at Summit Baptist Christian Academy, and we are all super excited about it!  Especially this little guy:

I woke him up this morning and he had a big smile on his face, which made for a great start to the day!  I told him today was his first day of school and here was our dialogue:
HJR:  "yeah!  But, I am going to the big kid playground now, not the little kid playground".
Me:    "Yes, that's right"
HJR:  "but, I don't know where the door to the big kid playground is!!".
Me:    "Don't worry, Ms. Sandy will show you where the door is, I promise!"
HJR:  "Ok, but I'm not going on that little kid playground!"
...its always so funny to me to hear the things that they worry about that we wouldn't have even thought about.
He had a great morning (and so did Davis and I!).  When I picked him up, he was excited.  I asked him if he saw any of his friends from his class last year, in his new class...his response, "Yes, Nathan and Bread"...I think we're going to have to work on our school friends' names!  ha ha.  He also said that he saw his friend Reese who is in the 4 yr classroom.  Reese is in our playgroup, so I think he was excited to get to be in the big kid building with her this year!
Harrison had such a great year last year, and he learned so much.  We love his  new teacher and I have a feeling we are going to make this another great year!

He is definitely not a "little kid" anymore...here is the picture from his first day last year...