Long time, no talk!

As you can see by this post, we're now into October. And the last post was sometime in June. So obviously Mommy has been a tad bit busy, preoccupied, too pooped to write or just plain lazy - maybe a little bit of all of the above. So I'm going to try to get back in the swing of things, but I'm not making any promises. One of the things keeping me from writing in this blog is the amount of time it takes to download pictures! I spend at least an hour choosing pictures and then trying to get them downloaded. So from now on, you probably won't see too many pictures - sorry!!

So I'll try to catch you up on what's been going on. In July, you had your annual dentist appointment. You did so much better this year than last (they even had in their notes how much you did not enjoy the visit!!). But this year you were such a trooper. And guess what, you have an extra baby tooth!! They said it's fairly uncommon, but they have seen it before. So we'll just have to see if, when it falls out, another takes its place! Yes, you are very unique!!!!

Emme and Papa came up for a visit around my birthday and we all went to the Cheekwood treehouse exhibit. You were only slightly impressed, but you did find a few that you liked climbing through.

For Labor Day (can you see I'm whisking through the summer - I'm trying to remember what all we did!!), we went to Little Rock to see our family. Emme and Papa had a surprise waiting for you when we got there - a ping pong table! Mommy had one when she was growing up, and she loved it!! You seen to have taken to it as well. That was all you wanted to do while we were there. You got pretty good at it too. We need to practice a little bit more though before we throw you on the pro ping pong circuit! We also went to a water park in downtown Little Rock and a train restaurant where little trains bring your lunch to you - so cool!!!! You got to pick vegetables in the garden with Emmy and play in the barn. We went to visit Grandpa and Meemo too. They loved seeing how you guys have grown!!

Then in September, you went to Abby's 4th birthday party which was a Dance Party!! How fun!!!! They had a dance floor and a camera taping everyone while they danced. You're not quite the dancer that your little brother is, so it took a while to get you out there, but you did love the music!! The party favor was a CD of the dance music, and it has become your favorite thing to listen to in the car. Luckily it's good music that Mommy likes too!! Your favorites are Fireworks (Katy Perry), Love Song (Selena Gomez) and Moves Like Jagger (Maroon 5). There's one you've just started listening to called Fergilicious by the Black Eyed Peas but your sweet little ears hear it as Berkilicious (as in Berkley, your BFF at school!). It's so cute!

At the end of September we made our annual trek to Pickwick Lake for Uncle Jay's birthday. We got to go on a boat ride with KK & Granddaddy's friends, and you got to go fishing at their house! You watched Granddaddy catch quite a few fish, and you even touched them!! But you wouldn't hold them by their mouths - just their fins!

In early October we went to see Disney on Ice. You were enthralled!  Between that and the popcorn you pretty much didn't move! Leaving was a different story. I think you were just a little too overstimulated, and something set you off when we were leaving, but you threw one of the biggest fits ever!! Lots of screaming and hitting! Whoo, Mommy was so stressed out after that that we had to go straight home. We were supposed to go eat dinner with Ellie and Miss Stephanie, but Mommy just couldn't do it. I'm SOOOOO ready for this phase to be over with!

One weekend, you, Daddy, Granddaddy and KK went camping! It was your first camping trip. From what I hear, you loved it. You guys roasted marshmallows, went on hikes, played in the dirt - all of your favorite things!! I'm sure there will be many more camping trips in your future!!!

One little tidbit of information about you - you have become hooked on "eggs, toast and cheese." It's basically an open-faced egg and cheese sandwich which we have for breakfast a lot. But now you want it every night for dinner, and you scream if I tell you we're having something else. Trust me, it's a lot easier to fix that than some other things, but we need to work some variety into your diet!!

Now we're on to the Halloween season. I'll post all of our Halloween events in the next blog. Hopefully that won't be in January!!!!

Until then, we're working on fewer temper tantrums. The enticement of Old McDonald's (McDonald's) seems to be doing the trick, so we're going with that right now!!!! Whatever works!! Kiss Kiss from Mommy!

Destin Trip #2

So now we get to our second trip to Destin in 2012! We don't really choose to have these trips so close together, but it's just the way they work out. But hey, I'd go every week if I could!!

So this second trip was our friend trip with Uncle Jay, EP, Grant and all of the Clarks. There were 2 of us missing though. The mommies and daddies (including me, reluctantly) all agreed that it would be in everyone's best interest if the babies (Jake and Kate) stayed with their grandparents. As you'll find out while you read this, it ended up being a very good decision on our part.

So we drove down on a Saturday and settled into the house (the same house we've stayed at for, I think, 3 years now). Well, probably not 2 minutes after you'd found Ellie and Abby, the "booty" and "poopy" words began - plus a lot of tattling! Now, I just really don't have a problem with those words (and neither did anyone else), so Miss Nicole had a family meeting right after we got there. Basically she told you guys that we didn't care if you said booty or poopy, so there was no need to tattle on anyone. But you guys obviously didn't listen very well, because there was a lot of tattling that week!

We had a kids table for you guys which was PERFECT for all of your meals. And that way all of the adults could sit at the big table all together. Not that that actually happened, but it could have!

Sunday we hit the beach! Unfortunately Mommy had gotten some bad news that morning - Beepo had passed away, so it was hard to enjoy the beach to its fullest, but seeing you play helped!

Miss Nicole had brought a blow up boat which was the best thing in the whole wide world!! You wouldn't go in the water, but you WOULD hop in this boat and ride the waves. It was awesome! And the water actually wasn't that cold, so it turned out to be a perfect solution for everyone!!

On Monday, we hit the beach again and hung out in the pool in the afternoon. That night was girls night for the mommies. So you kids and the daddies went to Pompano Joe's for dinner.

This is where the wise decision to keep Jake at home comes in - Mommy had to fly to Little Rock on Tuesday to go to Beepo's funeral on Wednesday. So Daddy was there by himself taking care of you from Tuesday until Thursday. That would've just been too much if Jake was there too. So it all worked out like it should have. Meemo and Grandpa would have loved to have seen you, but it would have been too much for everyone to fly back and forth, plus you were too young to even discuss what was going on, so they totally understood why you stayed there. FYI - you should know what great friends Miss Nicole and Mr. Jeremy are - they gave Mommy one of their free flights on Southwest so I didn't have to pay an arm and a leg to get to the funeral (just an arm!).

When Mommy got back on Thursday, it was time to go to our annual outing to Baytowne Wharf with all of the kids wearing their coordinating outfits! You guys love to play around at that place, so it's kind of hard to wrangle you all for a picture, but once we did, I think we got a great shot!

We went to eat dinner at our usual spot (I can't remember the name now - Hammerheads, maybe?), but they always have live (and loud) music, so it's perfect for you guys. You all love to get out their and shake your groove things! It's hilarious to see your dance moves. You guys also loved to pretend that the pole was a microphone and sung into it.

And of course, as we do every year, you get to play with the lobster claw from someone's meal! I'm not sure how sanitary that is, but it keeps you occupied, so we'll go with it!

We were actually able to get a somewhat decent family picture - minus Jake :(. 

And then we capped off the night with just a little ice cream (I'm being facetious - do you see how big those scoops are!?!!?)

The next day Mommy's friend Miss Carrie and her little girl Chloe came to the beach to play with us. They were in Destin at the exact same time, but since Mommy had to go to Little Rock for most of the trip, we only got to see them once. Miss Carrie said that Chloe had been terrified of the water all week, but once she saw you guys in the boat, she wanted to get in it too. You, Chloe and Grant all went for a ride in the boat and loved it! Ahh that boat, what a lifesaver!!!

You also loved our pool. Actually I think you probably would have preferred to stay at the pool the whole time, but we have a pool in our neighborhood, and we don't have a beach, so I wasn't about to stay all week at the pool at our house! But you loved playing with Abby and Ellie in the pool when we did.

The next Saturday we all packed up and went home. That's a long drive, but thank goodness for TVs! What in the world would we have done without it - maybe talk!!?!?! Heaven forbid!!!! :)

Well, I'm still behind on my updates, so I'm going to save all of June's activities for the next posts and then hopefully I'll be caught up!!! There's just not enough time in the day!!

Until then, Kiss Kiss from Mommy!

Destin Trip #1

Well, here we are about a month after I really should have been posting this, but that's just how things are going these days! At least I'm writing!!! I have so much to tell, but I'm starting with our 1st Destin trip of 2012. This is one of our annual trips that we take when Emme and Papa go down to Destin. You, me and Jake stayed for a week, but your Daddy had to work so he came down with us for about 3 days, and then he had to fly back to Nashville. Unfortunately, while he was there it was quite chilly!! Like, so chilly we were wearing jackets. But we were able to do some fun things while he was there.

We tried to get you in the inside pool, and you did it for a while, but when your lips start quivering, then it's time to get out!

That night we went to Harbor Walk because they were having a kids fest. Of course, we had to wait until your nap was over, so by the time we got there, it was almost over! But you did get to ride a train, look at some boats on the harbor, and watch some little girls Irish dance (you were mesmerized!). You and Jake wore your matching sailboat outfits that Emme made you and you looked SO cute!!!

The next day it was still pretty chilly, so we went to the little amusement park close to the condo that had lots of fun things to do. We did bumper boats and you got to ride some rides. They also had a game area (kind of like Chuck E. Cheese), so we checked that out. Well, you wanted to play some game where you spin a wheel and it lands on the number of tickets that you win. So you spun the wheel (with a little help from Mommy) and it landed on the JACKPOT!! Normally these games spit out like 4 or 5 tickets MAYBE, but you hit the jackpot of 1,000 tickets!! It was hilarious!!! The machine was spitting out these tickets for like 10 minutes and you had more fun running around the place with these huge string of tickets. The machine actually ran out of tickets, and Mommy had to get someone to help us fill it up so you could get all of your winnings!!! You had so many tickets that you picked out like 3 or 4 prizes, and you didn't want anything else, so they had to give us a raincheck that we could bring back to get more prizes!! FYI - next time I go to Vegas, you're coming with me!!!

After about the 3rd day, the weather was perfect! We hit the beach just about every day, but you really liked the pool a lot better. The sand didn't interest you too much (I think you needed some playmates there to make it more interesting), but you loved the pool. One day while we were at the pool, some college age girls came to the pool and sat down on the side. You couldn't take your eyes off of them. It was time for us to leave, so I gathered you up and tried to get you to go, but you took your sweet time because you were too busy staring at them! Once we finally got away from the pool, I asked you if you thought those girls were pretty, and you said, "Yes, they were REALLY pretty." Your daddy would be so proud!!!

One afternoon, I thought it would be fun to do something a little different, so you and I went to a movie! We went to see the Lorax. It was really cute and you seemed to like it. Of course, the popcorn always helps!!!

Unfortunately for all of us, the condo doesn't have Sprout or the Disney Channel, so we had to rely on Emme's computer for some downtime entertainment. Luckily we were able to find some Lazytown episodes on the computer, so this was your nightly routine!



Since we had that raincheck from the amusement park, we decided to go back and play there. We rode the bumper boats again, but this time it was you and me vs. Papa. Well he showed no mercy with the squirt gun and Mommy got soaked! I think that was your favorite part (the squirt gun). We also rode the go cart this time which we didn't do the first time.

We strategically planned the end of the trip to coincide when Emme and Papa were leaving, so that Papa could ride back in the car with us and help. Everything was OK until about the last 2 hours, and poor Jake had had enough of that ride! But you did great with your movies!

The very Monday after we got back, you started a new class at school. They moved you into a new class hoping that maybe a new environment would what you needed to stop those horrible fits you were throwing. And guess what, it totally has (at least at school!!). I'm not sure what was causing them, but I'm just glad things are better. Now don't get me wrong, we still have our battles at home, but they seem to be somewhat better.

The next weekend Mommy had to go to Little Rock to help throw TJ and Sarah a baby shower and to see Beepo since he wasn't doing so well. Since you guys had just been in the car for about 8 hours for 2 weekends in a row, we thought it would be best if you stayed home with Daddy (and of course Granddaddy and KK came up to help!). I know you were well taken care of, but I did miss you lots!

I just thought I'd also throw this picture in too because it's so cute! This is probably a once a week occurrence in our house these days. It used to be more, but it's gotten better in the past few weeks (knock on wood!). You guys sure do love our bed - but I can't blame you guys too much, because it really is soft and comfy!!!

There's more to come! Hopefully it won't take me another month though!! Until next time, Kiss Kiss from Mommy!

Hoppy Easter!!

It's been a while since I've written, so I'm going to have to break up this post because we've been doing so much!! I'll start with Easter for this one.

Your Easter activities started off with an Easter egg hunt at school. It was a little crazy with everyone running for eggs at the same time, but you managed to find 26! I think that was the most anyone found. You were a man on a mission!!! Mommy and Daddy had so much watching you in action!

That night we went over to Abby's house to dye eggs! We decided it would safest if you guys weren't wearing shirts! I think that was a very wise decision. You guys had so much fun.

Then for Easter weekend we went to Ripley. On Saturday we went to a safari zoo close to Ripley. They had all kinds of animals for us to feed, including a giraffe and goats. They had an Easter egg hunt there too! On our way out, we drove through the zoo and got up close and personal with ostriches, pigs and a longhorn!!

Granddaddy had brought out his camper, and you and Jake played in the camper for a long time! They keep threatening to take us camping in it! I think it would be fun, but definitely an adventure!

On Easter morning, the Easter bunny had brought you and Jake Easter baskets so you guys have fun going through those! Then we dressed you and Jake in your matching Easter outfits that Emme had made you, and we all went to church. After church you had ANOTHER Easter egg hunt! This one was probably your favorite because these eggs had jellybeans and Goldfish in them!!

One more development this month is that we've quit soccer. Yes, I really, really, really did not want you to quit, but it was just getting to the point where you were becoming more of a distraction at the games than anything else. Each time we went I would ask you if you wanted to go, and you'd say yes, so we would attempt to take you and get you interested in it. But on one day before practice, you said you didn't want to go. So at that point, I knew it was going to be more of a challenge than ever before, so we quit. We may or may not try it next year. We'll just see what the year holds.


That's it for this update. I'll post about our annual Destin trip with Emme and Papa in the next blog!! Kiss Kiss from Mommy!