Battle Tested

This weekend was full of lots of fun as the four of us got to spend a great deal of it together. Friday was dinner and a movie, and Saturday included two parties. Of course the hit was the sixth birthday bash for our pal Britton. There was a crew of eager soldiers, and the immediately got ready for battle.

They were eager to conquer the fierce obstacle course.

After their successful completion, they were sporting their hard earned battle helmets and dog tags.

This is a battle tested squad, and they had such a wonderful time. Thanks, Brit! Hope you had a wonderful sixth birthday, buddy!

p.s. Sam was a fan of the cake pops, too!

Back home

We are back from the beach and had such a wonderful trip. There is so much to share, but I will most likely recall it in bits and pieces and share a lot of photos. We returned home to very chilly temperatures and a basement that is practically complete. Since we have been waiting so long, Josh & I were eager to get some furniture (that had been sitting wrapped up) into its proper place. Before that, some cleaning had to be done. We got one room sort of in place Saturday night and another Sunday night. There is still much to be done, but I'm sort of seeing a light and thinking we may actually enjoy a football game or two down there soon.

The beach was so much fun; and the weather was fabulous. I had my doubts about whether we would be able to set foot in the ocean or the pool outback, but we couldn't have asked for better weather. It was overcast a couple of days, which translates to longer beach time with little ones. We rented a house with some great friends, the Shaws and Yorks and our boys had a grand time swimming, running, jumping, singing and just being boys! When Jack and Andrew weren't plunging into the pool they were in the shadow of the "big boys" Tate & Brit. I took so many pictures, which I will eventually upload, but there is still so much catching up to do they will have to wait. So, here are just a few to wet your appetite!

Lasers

The title to this entry is intended to be read the way Dr. Evil says laser in the Austin Power movies. If you haven't seen those, I'm incredibly sorry. Anyway, last Wednesday evening we went to Stone Mountain Park for the Laser Show Spectacular as it is called. If you haven't ever seen the laser show, I'm more than incredibly sorry...I'm a little embarrassed (for you!) It's really a summertime tradition in Georgia.

We met up with the Shaws, Bates & Hills and let our boys run wild until the show began. Most of the lawn was blocked off because of the damage caused by the park's brilliant Snow Mountain idea. Hopefully, it will be fully repaired by Memorial Day. We ended up over to one side in a rocked-in viewing area. It was probably better because the kids were corralled. Jack loved hanging out with the big kids, especially his buddy Davis.

Jack loved the show. He watched for a while sitting with Josh and for a while sitting with me. The weather was a little chilly, but we bundled up in jackets and enjoyed the show...until we reached the end. For those of you that have seen the Laser Show, you know that Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" always closes the show and is accompanied by a ridiculous amount of fireworks. Well, they didn't just move good ole Lee (which I could have tolerated), they completely removed the song from the show. Yes, it was quite disappointing. I'm afraid Jack will soon grow tired of hearing his parents say each year, "the laser show used to be so much better..."

Brrr...Fore!

Who needs to be in school to celebrate Spring Break? Certainly not us. We've been on the go all this week. It's been a lot of fun, but I'm exhausted and am aiming to be in bed by 9:30 tonight. If I can get my Easter goodies finished, I should make my goal. Despite my demanding schedule, I decided to update the blog.

Tuesday morning we departed town dark and early. (Normally I would say bright and early, but it was still dark.) My dear sister agreed to spend a few days with us and watched Jack for us all day while we were in Augusta at the Masters practice rounds. Josh has been several times, but this was only my second trip. We had four passes, so Josh's dad joined us and our friend Derek. We made great time, didn't hit too much traffic and managed to walk through the gates about 8:30 a.m.

For those of you in this neck of the woods, you know Tuesday wasn't exactly what you might dub ideal golf conditions. Now, Augusta is south of us, but not south enough to make a huge difference in temperature. It was windy and downright cold at times. When I bought these fabulous green pants for my spring wardrobe, I did not imagine how they would look with a wool coat or how they might feel with a pair of tights underneath them. Despite the chilly weather, we had a great time (although it was almost spoiled by a temporary depletion of pimento cheese sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies.)

Because of the weather, there weren't a lot of golfers on the course. We managed to see Phil Mickelson & Charles Howell, who were both out very early. We watched Gary Player, Ernie Els, Henrik Stenson & Retief Goosen play a number of holes together. This is Player's last year competing at Augusta. Although he didn't get on the course at all, we managed to catch Tiger on the practice tees for about an hour. Even though it felt like winter, it certainly looked like spring everywhere you turned. As usual, the course was immaculate and the azaleas were in bloom.

We returned home to my poor frazzled sister who had been carrying for a yucky baby. I guess Jack got a nervous stomach or something, because he threw up a few times about 2 1/2 hours before we got home. He never showed any other signs of being sick, so that was a relief...otherwise we might have had to cancel our trip to the LaserShow! (More on that later...remember I'm on a schedule?)

Eggstra, Eggstra!

Okay, so the title is cheesy, but I couldn't think of anything creative. Jack has officially gotten the Easter egg hunting fever. After two hunts in two days, he's really gotten the hang of it. Sweet Merideth got Jack an awesome bucket to use for his hunting.

Our church held an egg hunt Wednesday night after supper. Things got kicked off with the youth putting on a puppet show for the kids. Jack had seen one once before (I think last summer), and I was pretty sure he would like it. When we walked in, they had put out the little chairs for them to sit in, rather than sitting on the floor. So, Jack sat next to Merideth's boys Tate & Brit. Even though he's a good bit smaller and younger than they are he looked so big sitting in that little chair! I think you'll agree. It was as if he'd aged a whole year over night (I think his new haircut helped too). Our little boy is growing up fast.

After the show, the little ones headed out to the playground to hunt eggs. Jack quickly got the hang of what he was supposed to do with the eggs. He liked throwing or hurling them into the bucket, but we had to point them out. He managed to find three, which was plenty. Then he moved on to the slide. I'm pretty sure his favorite part of the night was the cookie topped with colored sugar.

Today, his preschool class had an egg hunt. This one was held inside because of the yucky weather. Granted, these eggs seemed to be more obviously placed, but Jack had no trouble figuring out exactly what to do with them. He gathered his pile quickly. We had fun playing with the others in his class...although today it was just Jack and the girls (Carson, MacKynna & Amelia). Jack's best buddy, Andrew, is still recovering from RSV. He's on the mend though and we look forward to catching up at his birthday party on Saturday!

You can see lots more pictures from our egg-citing adventures here.

S'mores, anyone?

Friday night we had a few friends over for dinner. With the hectic-ness that surrounds the holidays, it felt like it had been a while since we had been able to just catch up with one another. The kids really enjoyed each other. And despite four boys under the age of 4, the adults managed to survive too, but not without a few twists.

After dinner, we ladies began clearing the table, putting away the food, cleaning, loading dishes, etc. I asked Josh to get Jack out of his high chair and wrongly assumed that meant Jack would then be under his supervision. Well, the fellas all stayed in the dining room continuing to talk (and they say all we do is gab!) About 10 minutes later, we realize that we are down one little guy...Jack. We look in the laundry room, our bedroom, and he was nowhere to be found. Then, we hear him crawling around UPSTAIRS! That's right. He crawled all the way upstairs and was just hanging out by himself. I know you're thinking, "why don't you put up a gate, blah, blah, blah!" We have a gate, actually two of them, but they are sort of a pain in the rear (especially at the bottom of the stairs.) I typically only put it when it's just me and Jack and I'm not in the room with him. Anyway, since he was perfectly safe and sound we all got a good laugh out of it.

We also managed to keep the house from catching on fire. We have a little S'mores maker with a lazy susan. It is a lot of fun and I knew the older boys would like it(Tate & Brit that is, not our husbands, although they enjoyed it too!) Tate may actually have a future in professional S'mores assembly. It kept wanting to make them for everyone. He managed to eat a few himself too. In fact, this is one of my favorites!

Where we're going...

Jack can officially see where we're going...not just where we've been. This week signified the turning around of the car seat. I know he didn't grow any overnight, but he just looks so much older and more grown up sitting so upright...weird, I know! Must be one of those mom things. As you can see, he's still silly when turned around.

Wednesday night we asked the Shaws to join us at the Magical Night of Lights at Lake Lanier Islands. I'm a sucker for Christmas lights and a little eager to begin some silly holiday traditions with Jack, I guess. The lights were good...Britton (the Shaw's nearly 3 y/o) enjoyed them the most. At the end of your driving tour, there's a silly holiday carnival. Thankfully, Jack's not old enough yet to care about riding anything.

Brit took a trip on the carousel and the train, while the big boys tossed skee ball. Derek one a nice prize for all the kids. We finished our stay with a stop at the fire pits, where you can roast marshmallows. (Which they charge for by the way...as if you didn't pay enough to ride through.) Overall, it was fun and I would go back. If you do decide to go: 1. try to get as many people in your car/minivan as possible (I think 9 is the limit); 2. bring your own marshmallows and coat hangers and roast away (we even saw a family who brought their own graham crackers and hershey bars!); 3. pre-purchase your ticket online (you save $10 from the gate price) and use the coupon code 5253 when checking out to save an additional $5.

It's the season of thanksgiving and the season for a very big celebration at our house. Jack turns ONE on Friday! Wild, right? It seems like I just started this blog and now he's a year old. Here's Jack with someone I'm very thankful for, his great grandfather. It was great spending time with family today for Thanksgiving and all the great food ain't bad either. Enormous thanks to Josh's sister and her fiance who delivered a massive spread for dinner (they felt bad b/c Josh was on call and couldn't join me and Jack in Athens). We thought they were bringing by a plate, but instead brought enough to feed an army! How thankful we are for such wonderful family!

Visitors

Thursday morning found Jack and I welcoming visitors again. This time in the way of his Grandmommy and cousin Sean, who were out of school for fall break. They arrived just before lunch and we all had some time to play before meeting Josh for lunch. Sean really enjoyed feeding Jack. Although it usually ended up being a little messy, the two seemed to be having a great time.

They played most of the afternoon until I basically made Jack take a nap. He might have been content to skip it all together. We watched a movie while he napped and I started on dinner, which I needed to take to some friends in our Sunday School class. After Jack had dinner (with help from Sean), I set off to deliver the meal. On my way home, I got a call from Josh who was finishing up a shift at the free clinic and was ready to break away for dinner.

We met him at the clinic and then headed to El Campesino, one of Josh's mom's favorite places here. We always have such great service there and the wait staff loves Jack. They are always teasing him and making faces for him to laugh.

On Friday morning I had a MOPS meeting to attend. Grandmommy and Sean decided to stick around and play some more with Jack while I headed to the meeting. We had a great meeting and a wonderful speaker, Ivy Hall of Initials, INC, which is based here in Clarkesville. Ivy's a great speaker and a phenomenally sweet person. She is one of those people that no matter what whenever she is talking to you she makes you feel like she is truly interested in what you are saying. I feel like I probably don't always give off that same impression...something to work on.

After the meeting, Tate & Brit came home with me for the afternoon, but not before a stop at Josh's office with Andrea & Andrew. After our brief pit stop we picked up Wacky Packs and lunch for everyone at Sonic and headed home. Grandmommy, Jack & Sean were all waiting on us. We also had another visitor!

We're having the yard re-seeded in hopes for a more positive result and the guy was there tilling up the backyard. The boys couldn't wait to get outside and watch the real live tractor. Even Jack enjoyed it oohing and aahing as his hair blew in the breeze. Just after lunch our company left and it was just me and the little boys. We sure enjoyed our visit from Grandmommy & Sean.

After Derek picked up the boys, I started on dinner. Once Josh got home, the three of us enjoyed a quiet evening at home. We watched a movie after putting Jack to bed. It was one of those relaxing evenings that is the perfect ending to an active week.

Saturday morning we headed down to Athens for the UGA/UT game. We enjoyed a fun tailgate with the Carrs and a nice victory for the dawgs. We're halfway through the season and our easiest games are behind us. Here's hoping the dawgs can finish strong like they did last season.

What a Weekend

What a weekend it was. It was a busy one that was full of fun...with the exception of a few hours on Saturday evening. But at least both Florida and Tennessee lost too! Friday night some of us tailgated at our house before the Raider game. Andrea made some excellent Taco Soup. After packing up and heading to the game, we settled in our seats. We hadn't been there more than 30 seconds when the rain began to fall. We hadn't brought umbrellas or hoods or anything! So, we headed back home. Jack played for a bit before heading to bed. Here's a shot of him playing with his new laptop from Cissy. In case you haven't noticed in my last couple of posts, he's pulling up on just about everything these days. He's a big explorer.

We waited up for the Walshs to arrive and were excited when they rolled into town. They got a tour of the house and even a sneak peek at sleeping Jack. We hadn't seen Mike & Liz since they got married over a year ago; so we did some serious catching up before finally letting them get some rest. After all, we both had a big day in Athens on Saturday.

Early Saturday, the Walshs got to meet Jack before heading down to Athens for their full day of tailgating. We took a little more time getting ready and leisurely made our way to Athens. We ran a few errands before joining most of the family for lunch. Jack enjoyed the moose at Loco's. He wore a new outfit for gameday :)

Later we headed downtown for an afternoon with food and friends. We had a great time tailgating with the whole Carr clan, my family and the Walshs. It was a big day for Jack too. He loved Ms. Mickie's mac 'n cheese and banana pudding. There are tons of pictures with the group. The food was great, and the fellowship was even better. Here's Jack getting some banana pudding from his Aunt Lisa.

My mom took Jack home with her and the rest of us headed to the game. In case you were in a cave all weekend, we lost...BIG. It was painful to watch, but we stayed till the bitter end. I have to admit that if I had been at home I would have quit watching.

Sunday morning we went to church with my parents and then all went to lunch afterwards to celebrate my dad's birthday. We also dropped in on a shower for Terri and John, who are getting married in less than 2 weeks. Then, we headed home. It was a long day, but we enjoyed spending time with family and friends. Here are a couple of cute photos of Jack waiting on his daddy to get out of the shower tonight b/f Josh headed to work.

Fair or Foul?

There were definitely no fouls around here on Tuesday as we ventured out to the Chattahoochee Mountain Fair at the Habersham County Fairgrounds. We met the Shaws and 2/3s of the Yorks there. It was great fun and wonderful food. We saw animals in a petting zoo...and no this one is not kissing Jack although it looks like it.

We also watched a really cool bear show. They even rode around on a motorcycle. It was fun watching Tate & Britton on the rides, although at times they seemed a little unsure about why they agreed to ride. I think they had a lot of fun. We also ran into Jennifer & Davis and Erin & Gus. They were celebrating Davis turning 2. What a fun place to celebrate your birthday! Apparently, it was his second night in a row at the fair! Lucky boy!

The night concluded with everyone enjoying a funnel cake and the big boys enjoying glow-in-the-dark swords. Very cool!

Catching up from the weekend

What a great Labor Day weekend it has been. It's drawing to a close as I type this and I'm actually missing some college football to do this, but it's just UT v. UCLA. Anyway, our weekend began on Friday as we hurried down to Athens to take in the Habersham Central football game at Cedar Shoals. My mom met us there and enjoyed spending time with Jack. My dad does the play-by-play radio broadcast for the small high school I graduated from. (So small they didn't even have football when I went there). So, you'll notice mom listening to their game while she watched a different one!

Since the visitor's stands were packed we ventured onto enemy territory. Luckily, we happened upon Bo, Madeline, Derek & Tate. Jack enjoyed playing with two familiar faces. It was a pretty hot and humid evening and the night quickly turned unfortunate for the Raiders as they fell to Cedar 23 - 14. Jack was very well behaved for his first game, which is good news since we have season tickets to the home Raider games.

Saturday was the official start of college football for us because it was Georgia's home opener. The dawgs took on Georgia Southern. My mom happily watched Jack while Josh, Dad and I headed to the game. It was a pretty hot day. The temperatures hovered around 89, but it felt much hotter. We stuck it out and stayed for every snap. Next week kicks off at 3:30, so maybe we'll get a little bit of relief from the sun.

Saturday's game also signaled the introduction of UGA VII, the newest english bulldog to grace the sidelines at Sanford Staduim. He's a cute little guy, although I'm still partial to VI, who was a perfect looking bulldog. This photo of him on ice is pretty cute. Sometime in the second half they showed him on the big screen asleep in his dawg house. I guess he knew we had the Eagles under control.

After the game we joined my mom and Jack to visit my Papa, (Jack's great grandfather) who has just moved into assisted living. It was good to visit with him, but he's quite confused and pretty sad. Next time you say a prayer lift one up for him as well. My parents and uncle are working very hard to ease the transition, but it's just not that easy.

The five of us grabbed a quick dinner before Josh, Jack and I headed home. We got home in time to see most of Bama's derailing of Clemson. The ACC is not looking so strong this year. Oh, and we watched it in High Definition. Yes, I broke down and ordered the premium content. We've had a HD television for several months, but I just didn't think it was worth it to pay extra for HD channels. This summer I agreed to order it in time for football season, and not a moment too soon...they hooked it up on Friday afternoon!

Our Sunday was pretty normal. We had the nursery, so I managed to snap a few pictures of Jack in his class, which was neat. We just had 2 kids...our Jack and another Jack. Go figure...we picked the new most popular name for a boy! After church and a fun lunch at the japanese place, we all took a nap! Josh had to work, so then Jack and I headed to evening church. I subbed for KidzLife, so I missed our great discipleship class we've been participating in, Boundaries w/ Kids.

Monday was a pretty lazy day for us. Josh caught up on the sleep he missed while working all night in the ER. Jack and I just played as quietly as possible. Later Josh joined us to hang out. I was cleaning up after dinner, when I heard a lot of rustling in the living room. I found Josh reading the paper, and Jack in the floor destroying the sections he had already been through. Needless to say, he was covered in newsprint!

Snoozing away

As I write this post, the little man is downstairs in the pack 'n play asleep, which is not so unsual because he takes naps each day. Today, however, we've been out and about all morning and didn't get a good long morning snooze, so I wasn't sure if he'd take a good afternoon nap or be a crab all afternoon. He was asleep when we got home about an hour ago. I got him out of the car and put him right in his pack 'n play to try to get him to go back down. I just went to check in on him again, since he's been so quiet and found him in this hilarious position. Anyway, I thought it was so funny that I tip toed out and grabbed the camera. I know it's hard to see clearly through the netting in one photo, but you can get the drift!



Last night, we were walking around in the yard and I caught a glimpse of how pretty the sky was. It was just after sunset and the sky was that beautiful purple and pink color, and we could see the mountains in the distance. We have such a lovely view from the backyard that I often forget and take it for granted. Anyway, I snapped a couple of pictures, although they don't quite do it justice. We certainly are blessed to live in not only a friendly community, but a beautiful one as well.



Today Jack and I went to the park to meet some friends from MOPS and then ran a couple of errands before having lunch with some friends to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Merideth, Tate & Brit; Andrea & Andrew; and Missy & Trevor helped me celebrate. They surprised me with balloons and cupcakes. Here's a funny photo! This was probably before Jack stuck his finger in the cupcake. Remember, he was due for a nap! Instead of licking off the yummy frosting he just cried about it...poor kid's got a lot to learn!