Stone Mountain

In the middle of May my in-laws Fran and Lyle came for a visit. We started their stay off with a trip to Stone Mountain. It is a small amusement park near Atlanta that Steve and I had heard was lots of fun. We drove up Friday after school and stayed in a very nice $80 hotel. Saturday morning we headed over to the park. I thought it was such a cool park. Not nearly as expensive or crowded as Sea World or Disney, but we all still had a great time. The boys Favorite stop is this place called the "Big Red Barn" and I really don't even know how to describe it. There are about 2000 soft squishy balls all over the place and then four stories of machines that suck and blow these balls all over the place. You can put them in guns and shoot them, or throw them at whomever is in your way. There was a huge machine that went up the middle and about every 15 minutes a siren would go off and it would spit out tons of balls all over the place. The boys loved it and it was great fun to watch them play.

{Jacob is collecting balls in his bag so he can go feed them to the machines.}
{This was one of Brandon's favorites. You just put four balls in this thing, turn the wheel and the balls drop off at the end and fall to the first floor from the second floor. }
{Steve was entertaining Brandon most of the time we were here, and whenever Steve needed a rest he would sit on a bench and have Brandon fill up like four bags of balls. It was so funny cause Brandon was trying to put so many in his arms and he kept losing one at the top every time he added on at the bottom. We were enjoying watching him. }
Another thing we went on was the cable car that took us up to top of stone mountain. Once we got to the top there was a huge area of rock that you could go out and explore on. And you could look down over the Atlanta area. It was beautiful.

{You see us down by the chain link fence}
{Fran and Lyle in front of stone mountain. There is a carving of Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis on the front.}

They also had a "4D" movie that was about 20 minutes that was lots of fun. You wore your 3D glasses, but it also spit water at you and your seat moved with the earthquake, and occasionally we would feel big gusts of wind on the back of our neck.

Then that evening we waited until dark for the laser show to start. They put pictures up on stone mountain made from lasers. The theme was southern music and so a lot of the songs were about Georgia and Alabama. It was really neat to see.


Because of the laser show we got out of there way late. We left Atlanta about 11 and had a 3 hour drive ahead of us. Steve once again got us safely home at 2am where he crashed in bed for a couple hours before heading to church the next morning.

New York For Jessica's Birthday!

NYC blog minus pictures. I will be getting pictures next week and will add them.

On April 22nd I flew to NYC and had the first of a long list of vacations over the next couple of months. Jessica Sue was having her 30th birthday on the 24th and my sisters Alicia and Laura and my Mom and I decided that that was a number that should get some special recognition. So...we all flew to her house in NYC where she is working as a teacher at an inner city school(her spanish really comes in handy for this job) and where she just graduated with a Masters in Education. She is one amazing women who has so many things going on. She always seems to be doing something to help someone else. She is awesome!

Anywho... so I got to NYC on Thursday night and we immediately hit the town. Jessica and I meet up with Alicia, Laura and Mom who had been touring all day in the city, and we went for a walk along the Brooklyn Bridge. It was a very cool walk especially at night, and a great opportunity for me to catch up with my family that I haven't seen in a while. Jessica gave us some pretty interesting facts about how the bridge was built and some of the tragedies that came from the building of it. After our walk we went out to dinner. I think it was about 10pm at this point. Only when I am on a childless vacation can I go out to dinner at 10pm. We went to a popular pizza place and had some of the best pizza any of us had ever tasted. MMmmm MMmmm! What a way to start the trip.

The next day we started out with a stroll through Columbia University campus. I loved the older feel of this school. You could tell the buildings were much older with a lot of history.
Then we walked through Central Park. This is one of the places that I didn't make it to last time I was in NYC when I turned 30. It was such an amazing park. Right there in the middle of the city of skyscraper after skyscraper you have this huge area where you get to enjoy nature. It was a brilliant plan from the city planners.
For dinner we went to Chinatown to one of Jessica's favorite restaurants and had real Chinese food. It was actually very good. I loved it and was happy we went. For dessert we went to a place called Rice to Riches. It was just like an ice cream shop but it had a bunch of flavors of rice pudding instead of ice cream. It was interesting. I didn't love the taste of it, but it seemed to be a very popular place. I shared a rocky road rice pudding with Jessica and just kept thinking that if I am going to eat this it might as well be ice cream. :-)

Saturday morning was Jess's birthday! And we started it off perfectly at the temple. She works at the temple every Saturday morning and decided to go even on her birthday. She left about 6am and we caught up with her for a 9am session. I love going to the temple, and loved being there with my sisters and Mom. It was wonderful. After that we headed to an Owl City concert that Jessica's good friend Christy had gotten her tickets for. Christy coming to town was a surprise for Jessica and I am so happy she decided to come for Jessica's birthday. The concert was strange, but it went by quickly. I just cleaned out my pictures on my camera while I waited for them to be done. And then for one of the highlights of the trip. We got to go see "Lion King" on Broadway! I love seeing shows on Broadway and this one was amazing. The scenery and costumes were awesome. I loved it and was so happy to be there. After the show we went out for dessert to Chocolate By the Bald Man. Wow! this was definitely my kind of restaurant. They had so many chocolate choices it was amazing. And I was hungry for real food so I got tacos, but my sisters let me have a bite of their chocolate. So I got the best of both worlds. I will definitely be repeating that experience next time I get the chance.

Sunday was our last day in NYC. We of course started it at church. It was fun to be in a singles ward for the day. Even if Jessica couldn't be with us. She had Stake assignments and had to go to the spanish ward that day. On our way home from church we got to ride in a yellow cab. Yahoo! and then went home for a short nap before we all went our separate ways to catch our flights back home. What an amazingly awesome trip that I can't wait to do again.

On my way home I missed my connecting flight from Atlanta to Augusta cause the plane from NYC took off late. So, I got one more day of vacation and spent the night in a hotel in Atlanta by myself. Then flew into Augusta wide awake instead of late at night and had to hit Target before heading back to Brooklet. :) Perfect ending.

Easter and Spring!

So after our camping trip we were so looking forward to a quiet weekend at home watching conference. That is just what we did and it was wonderful.

On Saturday morning Brandon woke up in our bed and said "I need to go pee." Which was strange since I hadn't talked to him about peeing in the toilet for a couple of weeks. Then he jumps up and runs in the bathroom and takes his diaper off. At that point I figured I better go make sure everything was done correctly. And it was! He had just decided to be potty trained. He did awesome that day. Since then we have had a minor incident or two. For some reason he doesn't tell me when he has to poop. He has done that in his underwear a couple of times. But if I see him trying to hide somewhere or looking like he has to go and I ask him, he says he has to go and does great. I don't know why he hasn't figured that one out yet. Also, he thinks the bubbles that are in the toilet after he pees are cool, so there have been a couple of times that he comes out with wet hands and he has stuck his hand in the toilet. Nasty! I hate that. But for the most part he is done and we are all thrilled.

Saturday morning was spent planting the garden. We had an awesome garden last year, and are so excited to see what we can create this year. Steve even bought some topsy turvy things to see how well they work. They are looking good so far.

{strawberry and tomato topsy turvy hanging from a For Sale sign post. Steve is so smart! }

Then we enjoyed conference for the rest of our Saturday.

Sunday morning after Easter Bunny excitement, Steven gave us a Family Home Evening Lesson on the story of Christ's death and resurrection. He did a very good job and it was great to spend that time talking about Christ. Then Steve and I helped each boy bear his testimony about Christ and we each took a turn too. It wasn't necessarily spiritual, but it was a great starter to get them comfortable with it.

{Jacob with some of his Easter loot. The Easter Bunny brought these slingshot airplanes that were super cheap, and they are very cool. You can shoot them so far. Jacob took his for share day this week.}
{Easter Bingo we played after our lesson. Bad idea to use jelly beans when playing on the couch. They wouldn't stay put.}

We again watched Conference all day Sunday and then for dinner we had pulled pork which is called a "Boston Butt" here in Georgia. It was great!

{The boys had the opportunity of watching the first session of conference with us, and this is how Jacob, Nathan and Brandon enjoyed the session. Brandon got sent to his room and is asleep under Jacob's bed. }

This week has been so nice to have the boys back in school. We went to the 911 center on Monday night with the tiger cub scouts to see how they communicate with and help the community. Brandon and I went to playgroup on Tuesday with the church group and it was SOO HOT at 10:00am that we didn't last nearly as long as we usually do. Wednesday I did an activity for the YW of making care packages for the missionaries. Thursday was going to be a crazy afternoon with 3 different ball games in two places at the same time, but as we were walking out the door to go we got a call that everything was canceled. We were under a tornado watch. We got some awesome thunder and lightning and a decent amount of rain but no tornado thank heavens. Friday morning I went on a field trip with Jacob's class to Georgia Southern University. We went to the wildlife center where they did a bird show and then took us on a walk to see some of the animals in the wetlands. It was a great field trip and I enjoyed spending time with Jacob. Brandon was at my friends house. The afternoon was relaxing, especially since Steven went to a friends house for a couple hours after school. It always surprises me how much easier things are even with one child missing. Now today we did sports in the morning, set up the pool and now Steve has taken all the boys fishing and I am here alone again. Yahoo! He must have taken my hint in my last post. :-)

{Here is a video of the Easter Egg hunt. This is one of the MANY reasons I LOVE Steve. He sang this song for a good twenty minutes as each boy took a turn finding an egg. I think you all will appreciate his song abilities. It makes easter egg hunting so much more fun!}

Spring Break campout

Wow! I love spring break. The weather is great, and there is so much to do. Our spring break started on Friday night with Swing Into Spring! That is opening night of spring sports where the teams get to run through a tunnel, there is food and bounce houses, and then it all ends in fireworks. We have three boys playing sports this spring, and it has already proven to be almost too much for me. On Friday night Jacob and Nathan both played their first Soccer game. This is the first time our family has played soccer. So, Nathan runs ahead of us to get to his game on time, and when I get there everyone is looking at me. They wanted to know where his shin guards are. What?? I know nothing about any shin guards! Well, he can't play without them. Great, so there is my first mistake. Well, the coach comes up with this brilliant idea that maybe one of the other teammates can just switch with him when she subs them out. Sounded good to me. The problem was the girl she asked to share had these guards that you have to take shoe, and sock off to slip them off of her foot. So I am taking her shoes off and putting her guards on Nathan when she says to me. "I think I need to go tell my Mom". OOPPS! I turn around to a Mom on the other side of the field looking at us with a "What the CRAP" sort of look on her face. So I quickly finish switching then run over to her to explain. I said he would just wear them for five minutes and then I would switch them back. That was embarrassing.
Right after that Jacobs game started on another field. So for the rest of the hour I was running with a two year old between the two games, not really being the supportive parent I should be for either of them. Steve was working late that night so he could make up for time he lost to go to school. He did make it for the ceremonies though. I am just going to have to be better at having three kids in sports I guess. :)

Even after that frustration I took the boys on a fantastic camping adventure Monday morning with two other Moms in our ward. No Dads! Not that we wouldn't have loved to have the Dads, they were just all busy with work. We had 3 Moms, 12kids (including 3 in diapers) and 2 young women with us. The kids did an amazing job at starting the fires. I got the hot spot of cooking over the fire which I loved. And I would say we ate pretty dang good during our trip.

The boys hard at work putting up our new 3 room tent. Love the tent! Hate the set up.

This is Nash, a 9 year old boy that stayed with us the whole time. He was awesome!Hot Dogs one night.
See the lake just behind our campsite. We spent some time letting the kids swim and fish there.

We ate lots of smores
Let the kids chop some wood
There was also a playground right next to our campsite which was wonderful. The two year olds stayed busy there.
We went on a great one mile two hour hike
The lovely brown river. This is pretty much how all the lakes and rivers in Georgia look.

We had such a great time and I am so happy that I have friends who are brave enough to go camping. :)

What's new?

Something strange yet Wonderful is happening today! My dear friend Shawnna invited Brandon over to play so that I could have some time to do whatever I wanted. So, here I sit in an empty house and it feels amazing!! I could count on one hand how many times I have been in my house by myself. I am so out of my element and am not sure what to do with myself. But since I had a heart to heart with Alicia about blogging a couple days ago I decided that this would be a good use of my uninterrupted time. There is too much of our lives that you are missing out on because I am not keeping up with my blog!! So here is the latest.

BRANDON:

Brandon has made some great strides since the New Year. He is now 2.5 and such a smart boy. He had a tooth ache sometime in February (getting his back molars) and did not want to suck his binky. He said it hurt his mouth. So, I jumped at the chance to take it away. It was THE EASIEST binky removal ever. Not a tear. So that is gone now, and with it went his precious blanket. Apparently to him they were a packaged deal. Without me even realizing it he started to go to bed without the blanket and is broken from that habit now too(sorry Aunt Laura). I thought that was very interesting though.

He also has decided that two and a half year olds don't need naps anymore, so we are going through that annoying period of an extremely exhausted 2 year old come 4:00pm. He sometimes takes a nap at that time, and then stays up until 10 or 11 watching netflix on the computer. He still has not done the potty training thing yet though. My rule is they will be trained by the time they turn three, so he has a couple more months and then he is DONE!! :)

JACOB:

Jacob is still enjoying kindergarten and is very well behaved. I went to a parent/teacher conference the other day for him, and she said he is well above where he is expected to be at this point in the year. As we were talking I mentioned that he is a great helper at home because he didn't go to Pre-K but instead stayed home with me doing dishes and laundry. The teacher was shocked and amazed that a child who didn't go to Pre-K could be ahead in his kindergarten work. I wasn't. We could all teach our kids Pre-K stuff if we want to.

NATHAN:

As you know, Nathan just turned 7. He is doing wonderful in school. It seems that he has worked out his bad behavior and is doing great in his class. He enjoys scouts and is now playing soccer afterschool. We have invited one of his friends to come home with us two days of the week and we are all enjoying that very much. He raced in his first pinewood derby race this year, and took first out of the three tiger cubs. :)

STEVEN:

Steven just started up baseball again, and he is doing so much better. He really loves the sport. I just wish he had more athletic ability. He is still getting A's in school and just took a test to be in Quest which is like an honors program. We really hope he gets in cause it is a great program.

STEVE:

Steve is doing awesome things. He started back at college in January and is taking 12 credits at Georgia Southern. He is handling the busy schedule so well and is even getting to work before 8am most days!! He doesn't see the boys Monday or Tuesday cause he is gone the whole day. But he is getting great grades and is really committed to school right now. He was recently in charge of a joint YW/YM activity where he did a scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun and the kids loved it. He is also getting geared up to get our garden planted which is going to be awesome. He also has taken on the hobby of making beef jerky. We got this beef jerky gun at a garage sale, and his friend gave him a dehydrater, so here he is making his own "slim jims".

And last but not least, he has purchased himself a new pet. He bought a ball python who now lives in our room and eats a mouse a week. He is a very nice looking snake and the boys and Steve love him.

ME:

As most of you who read this blog know, Steve and I started a biggest loser contest with my side of the family last week. So, that is something that I am thinking a lot about although I lost no weight the first week. But...with Brandon not taking naps anymore he and I were getting so bored at home and didn't know what to do with ourselves. Brandon had even started taking hour long baths for entertainment.

Well, there is a gym here that about 10 women from church go to and they invited me to come try it free for a week. I went last week and I LOVE IT!! They have free babysitting, so Brandon can go in and play with friends while I walk on the treadmill or do a weight lifting class. It feels so good and makes me feel like I am doing something important with my time. I just did a body pump and a body attack class this morning. AWESOME.
I was also given a popcorn maker from Laura for Christmas and put off opening it thinking it was going to be complicated (dumb I know). Well, I decided to open it and try it out at YW's one night, and we have been popping it like crazy lately the kids love it. We use it as a form of entertainment when people come over.

Nathan's 7th birthday

Nathan is now the big 7! It is so fun watching the boys grow up, even if they do seem to be getting harder to handle. :)

Nathan had a very fun birthday yesterday, and is looking forward to a great birthday party on Saturday. In fact he is inviting everyone he sees to his party. Even when I am standing right there, and I say no we can't invite that boy we already have too many people coming. He proceeds to tell the boy "K, the party is on Saturday, it is at my house, my address is..., my phone number is....." The whole time I am standing there saying as politely as I can "He can't come, please stop telling him all of our information!" Like my Mom says, I think our children get too good at tuning out Mom's voice.

Anywhooo. For Nathan's birthday I brought chocolate cupcakes to his class. I spent all morning making these darn things because I have only one muffin pan that holds six muffins. I needed 24 and they take 20 minutes to cook. So I finally get to the school, and we all enjoy our cupcakes. N had told the whole class about his birthday party so all the girls were asking me if N can't have girls at his party. Which I politely told them that is right.

When we were done with the cupcakes I signed Nathan out early so we could go to the book fair, and then he would come home with me just half hour early. At the book fair the Primary president from church was volunteering and talked to N about his birthday. She asked him what he wanted, and he said I just want a dog! Well he has been asking for a dog for about a year, but I am holding off one more year until he is eight and Steven is almost 10, so that they can do the bulk of the work for the dog. Nathan knows this, so there was no surprise. But when we got out to the car, he started bawling saying "I want a dog, I want a dog. This is the worst birthday ever!" Wow! He got to spend a little time in his room for that tantrum, and a warning that his birthday may have to be cancelled.

Well he calmed down in the afternoon and enjoyed his day. We went to Ryan's for dinner which is all the boys favorite (including Steve). Then we came home for presents cake and ice cream. Perfect birthday.



He got a card with $$ from Aunt Kristin and Uncle John.

He got a card with $$ from Nana and Papa, and got to talk to them on the phone yesterday.

He got a very cool nerf gun from G and G Allred, and got to talk to grandma.

And from Steve and I he got a Star Wars Leapster game. (That is a good replacement for a dog isnt' it?)

So now we look forward to his party on Saturday. I think we are going to build a fire and do hot dogs and I gotta think of some fun games to play.

7 wonderful things about Nathan that I love.

1. He is very considerate of others. He doesn't like to see people hurt or upset, and tries to defend them when he can. Including when Steve or I is getting one of the other boys in trouble for something and there is Nathan telling us why we shouldn't be mad at them.
2.He is a very lively excitable boy. Yes it can make things hard when he needs to sit still, but when it is time to have fun, he is the one that can make that happen.
3.He is a smart boy. He is a fantastic reader and continues to get A's on his report card. The behavior side of the report card has some marks, but the grade side is right where we want it.
4.He is excited to start soccer this year. He has never played, but is really looking forward to running around and kicking the ball. Perfect for him wouldn't you say.
5.He is really enjoying scouts and did great in the pinewood derby. So great in fact that he wants to have car races at his birthday party. :)
6.He is my most cuddly child, and I love that. Days can go by without me really touching Steven and Jacob (except for kisses goodbye and to bed) but if Nathan is needing a hug, he just comes up and gets one. Along with saying "I love you Mom." What a great quality in him.
7.He is maturing so much (FINALLY). I have been excited for Nathan to mature a little bit just to keep him out of trouble, and keep me from being frustrated with him. He stays out of trouble at school for themost part and seems to make better choices in general. We are not completely there yet of course. The bus driver had to talk to me the other day because he won't sit down on the bus even after being told ten times, and he got in trouble in primary because he wouldn't sit down and shut up, and was turning the lights on and off in the primary room. But.....we are making progress.

LOVE that Nathan!

Fun in February

January happenings