A Natural born Hiker

So one of our many adventures during our Spring Break week was to take a hike around the beautiful Lake Martin.  It was roughly a 4  mile hike.  Maybe a little more, maybe a little less.  Anyway we all started off strong.  Meredith ran ahead and was the Leader of the pack with Uncle Alex and her Nanny.  Noah hiked a little with them and a little with his dad and occasionally hung back with me and his Mimi.  Approximately three quarters of the way through, Margot decided she wanted to be carried and Noah decided he did too.  Unfortunately Alex was way ahead with Meredith and Margot had secured the prominent position on top of Josh's shoulders.  Which led to Noah having to hike with me and his Mimi.  Now let me just say this hike was a rugged hike.  Mimi fell once...and we all laughed.  She used a walking stick for most of it.  You went up a lot of steep hills and down the same.  You walked along the edges of some pretty steep drops down to the lake.  You went over trees and log bridges.  It was very natural and rugged terrain.  Probably not the best hike for a 3 and 6 year old, but the views were breathtaking.  That being said we were thinking we were almost through and then we kept going....then we thought it has to be almost done....and nope.  So after doing this thing of psyching ourselves out...out of the blue....Noah chimes....


When I started this hike I was Awesome....and now.....now.....now I'm just BULLSHIT!  BULLSHIT, that's all I am.

And everyone who wanted to go on this hike is BULLSHIT too!

My mom and I were rolling, it almost became impossible to finish due to the hysterics... but after another mile or so we and Mr. Bullshit had completed the hike.

Things that roll of her tongue..Margot

Margot: Mom you are da best mom....da best mom and da best dad too.  Okay..... cause my dad always at work. Tank you mom...Tank you.

***

Margot why are your hands green?

Margot:  Cause I was markering.


***

Margot where did you put Mommy's shoes?

Margot:  I can't know.


***

JOSH!  JOSH IT'S TIME FOR THE KIDS TO GET A BATH!

Margot - comes around the corner is her "poutiess" voice..... DON'T DO DAT AGAIN!

Do what?

Margot: Don't say JOSH!

School Time Sweetness

Last night when Josh and I got home at 10pm we realized our master bedroom (which has it's own air conditioning unit) was rather warm.  At 2am we realized the unit was not working.  Bummer.  Well I actually thought something besides bummer, but I was too tired to really think it.  I crawled out of bed and went up to Meredith's bed to sleep for 4 more hours.  At some point I heard my husband downstairs moving, which clued me in it was time to get up.

I didn't, I rolled over and pretended to not hear him.  Who am I kidding, I do that most mornings.  About 10 minutes later I heard the little pitter pattering of feet and realized Noah had come to his sister's room.  I was about to jump up, thinking he was looking for me and then realized he didn't know I was there.  It was about then I heard...

"Mere-dif, do you want to get up early and go play with me.  If you get up now we can play a little bit before school, that way I won't miss you all day and not be able to play with you."

She groggled something back at him...and didn't move.  Then he followed with...

"Well okay, if you change your mind I'll be in the play room, playing cars.  Okay.  Love you."


Let it be known that no matter how you feel about one another as adults, at 5 and 7 you loved each other dearly.  A mother's wish is that, that never changes.

What he Says.....Private Parts - A Hysterical Conversation

The other day Noah rushed in....

"Momma my privates are bleeding!"

"What?!?!?"

"My PRIVATES are BLEEDING!!!!"

"Calm down and let me see."

My very modest child, pulls down his britches and shows me the bleeding...it's not his privates....it's the skin on his body above them....a tiny little scratch that is not indeed bleeding.

"Buddy, your privates are not bleeding, you just have a little scratch....you are okay."

Insert my overly dramatic two year old, who is not modest...in fact she wears her "shakabooty" all the time."

"My pwivates are bweeding too!  My pwivates are bweeding too, Momma!"

"Are not Margot!"

"Yes dey are Wo-wah...Wook mom....Yes dey are!"

"Let me see."

Hurries to pull down her britches too....afterall she loves her "shakabooty";  while my overly-sensitive, very concrete 5 year old complains she doesn't know what the hell she is talking about.

"Margot your privates ARE NOT BLEEDING....in fact YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE PRIVATES!"

"Noah, yes she does have privates."

"Yes Wo-wah I do have pwivates.....see and it's bweeding!"

"What that little butt right there....that's not privates."

"Yes, buddy that little butt right there is her privates....it's called a vagina.... and Margot it's not bleeding, we have several years for that."

"See Wowah!"

A Good Nap

Today we planned to have a playdate with some friends at our neighborhood playground.  However, we are also having wood floors installed and things never go as planned, so we ran into some bumps and had to stick around the house for a while.  Therefore we missed the playground playdate with Margot's little friends.  Her friends still played and then they headed back to Brantley's house for more playing and pizza.  Luckily we were able to sneak away and  join them for a few minutes.

Margot was too busy playing to stop and eat, but thankfully Mrs. Amanda packed her a goody bag to take home.  Margot insisted she eat her pizza when we got out of the car instead of napping.  So she sat down at the table to eat, with all the banging and scraping going on upstairs with our floors being installed and our tile being ripped out right above her head.  I was in the kitchen cleaning up when one of the guys installing the floor asked "How is she sleeping through all this noise?"  And sure enough when I looked over she was out.

It must be so nice to be two and just conk out anywhere.

The renovating begins...again.

We have been living in the house a month and a day now and today we started the updating.  Before today, I've been unpacking and noticing things that I want to change or update, that I didn't notice when I first looked at the house.  Nothing is ever exactly as you want.  I  hear even when you build that is the case.  Anyway today we are getting new wood floors.  Exciting shit right?  Well it would be if it was all over, but no it's just upstairs in the kids room and and the bonus room.  The carpet up there isn't marked with a date and time stamped, but if it is was I bet it would be 1995.  Which at first doesn't sound so old, but when you actually do that math...yeah it's kind of old.

The updating that needs to be done, just brings me back to these days and this post...and this one....and I start breaking out in a cold sweat, but it's what has to happen when you buy and older house.

Let's hope I stay sane this time.  After reading that I marveled at how much life has changed in a relatively short amount of time.  Meredith was 3, which makes Noah about 20 months then?  I had two kiddos at home.  Only two to speak of as well, since I was not even pregnant with number three. Just funny how quickly life changes.

Read-a-thon winners

Every year the kids' school does an annual fundraiser called Read-a-thon.  Basically for a week the kids read as much as they possibly can, minutes counting both at school and home and then the child who reads the most minutes wins.  Well not exactly that simple....our school acknowledges the top reader in each classroom, and they also divide the competition between the lower elementary and upper elementary.  They then award the top three fundraisers for the school medals as well.

This year, read-a-thon was awesome.  Not just because of this either.'

That's right, my sweet Noah got top reader for his classroom.  He was so excited and surprised.

And my big girl, I know at that point she was anxiously awaiting hearing her name being called for top reader in her class.  That's all she wanted was to win.  And when we asked her what exactly she wanted to "win"?  She said she just wanted her name called at the assembly.  She wanted to be a "top reader."  And a top reader she was.  Because after they called the top readers for each class the started calling the top readers for the lower elementary.....and guess what.....

She won, 1st place.

It was so aweome, not that she won, but the determination she had, and how hard she worked for it.  The child literally read during all of her free time for the week.  Who am I kidding, she's still reading during her free time.

And her classroom, won the most minutes for the lower elementary and so they got an Ipad for their classroom!

Here are the rest of the big winners!

But no, that above is not the only reason read-a-thon was so awesome.  The picture below was another reason....

It was awesome, because our awesome parent volunteers and awesome music teacher worked on this.  Imagine the kids singing this, with drums and all.  It was AMAZING.  I am blessed to have such a great school to send the kids too.

Making herself right at home

One of the things the kids love best about the new house is this is literally their back yard.  And who loves feeding ducks more than 6,4 and 2 year olds!

One of the things I love best about the new house is this.  Of course add a few friends in their chairs, all with drinks in hand and life is really good. But then when the kids fall it in kind of puts a damper on things.

But when this furry baby jumps in, without steps to get out, things get real fun.  Since her stroke she can't jump.  Therefore she can't get out without help and since she weighs 90+lbs I can't just lift her out like I did with said kid that fell in.

And then she just looks at you, like what am I supposed to do?  I tried putting a step stool in, but that didn't work.

So I had to call for back up, he had to leave the hospital to come home and help.  And then head back in, because that chair you see, she wouldn't use that either.

Luckily he does Crossfit and was able to hoist her right out.

That damn dog!

Of course she loved every minute of it.

Happy Halloween 2012

I love these pictures, because they are quite simply....US.  here is number 3 imitating number 1 and number 2 decides...Hey I'll do something like that too.

And the big sister, isn't sure why the baby sister is making such a big girl pose and what I tried to explain is she's not....she's trying in a way only 2 year olds can try.

And this is my favorite, it's frame worthy don't  you think?

 And  here we are....not sure that I love the new spot we are taking pictures in, might have to scope out something better.

And my littles....Elmo

A go-go dancer.  She LOVED the costume...pink hair, fun sunglasses, her favorite shade of blue and big sequins...what's not to love?  The name of the costume just happened to be "go-go dancer".  After buying it, Noah said what is a go-go dancer?  And she quickly retorted...a dancer that goes, goes, goes...she never stops.  And folks I left it at that.

And a Green (big surprise there) Power Ranger.

And the big people, we had poodle skirts, the little mermaid, super hero ladies and of course the 589 Stompers who stole the show with their routine.  Lot of fun this Halloween.  

Family Fun Weekend

This past weekend, these wonderful ladies planned a weekend away/reunion for a small part of our family.  Well the only part that typically gets together on any regular basis.  I imagine a family reunion with my entire family would be a lot bigger and also fun.

This weekend was filled with lots of laughter, happy/funny tears, games, eating and drinking.  As always eating and drinking are on our menu.

The kids enjoyed staying up late and playing with their cousins and family.

The big kids did too.   And yes we all took baths that weekend at some point.  Some more than others....I'm not naming any names.

We were also banned from using cell phones/texting/and facebook'ing.  I was the first to lose that game and it was okay.  Although I think I lost first for using profanity first.

Hmmm Charlie must have went out early with phone use too.  We did enjoy the nightly bonfires and thankfully no one was set on fire.

A few people even enjoyed their naps.

We wore purple and gold of course.

We bobbed for apples.

And everyone scored one, well everyone that played scored one.

Lots of adult participation this weekend.

I think Chuck is a winner.

We celebrated lots of October birthdays and even a tiny person's November birthday.

We ate lots of cake and sweets.

We played all weekend.

And we all brought white shirts/sweaters and took silly pictures...per Laurie's request...without complaining I may add.  Here are all the "kids".

And my sweet family.

And Timmy's sweet family

Chuck's sweet family.

And this cute couple.

Awesome...newlyweds...can you tell?

And Rock-n-Roll's family.

The guys

And Crazy old Barb.

At this point these little people were done, unfortunately thankfully Laurie was not.

Because if she had not been done, we would have missed this sweet shot!

And this one.

And one of my favorite pictures of the weekend.   I love my children have so much family that loves them as much as I do.  Family we can always depend on anytime we need them.  It was a GREAT weekend.  Lisa, Leigh and Lindsey we have a lot of planning to do.  Love you all!

Oh and one more because they are dang cute!  And because I had to buy them white shirts.  White + kids 6 and under = disaster at my house.