The Fabulous Five

GFG: Your Personal Gym!

2012-02-10T15:50:00.001-06:00

I know y’all may be tired of hearing about the gym…but you have to understand that I have been living this place for the last 6 months! You have NO idea the little things that will pop up when you start a new business!

But it’s SO worth it.

First of all, we built this place dead in the middle of where that nasty tornado tore through our town. And it’s a great example of our city moving forward! Oh and GFG stands for God, Family, Gym. That should be your priorities, in that order.

Now THIS is a massage chair!

And one of everyone’s favorite spots…the rock wall!

For those of you too intimidated to stop by by yourself, we are having a grand opening on February 25th!!! 11-2. Come on by! We’ll give you the grand tour!

And I should note that I didn’t take these pictures, the guy that designed our website did! :) www.gfgfitness.com

Telling Griffin & Happy Birthday(s)!

2012-02-09T13:32:00.002-06:00

Today is my sister, Kelsie’s, 21st Birthday!!!!! For real. 2-1. Game over, I’m old. Happy Birthday Kels-Kels! We LOVE you!

Today is also my sweet little nephew’s birthday!! I just love that little bug. He’s a mess! He luffs his TayTay! I can’t believe he is TWO! Allison and I took cupcakes to school for him today and he was SO excited! He kept saying, “Happy Birthday!!” like a million times! :)

A few days ago I blogged about Griffin’s teacher passing away. I really wanted to tell him this week because he is spending the night with one of his friends from his old school tomorrow night and I’m sure that little boy knows since he still goes to that school. I didn’t want him to go to his house and not know and it come up and him find out at his friends house. So I planned to tell him before Friday.

Well when I got home on Tuesday he came running up to me and said he had bad news. I thought he got in trouble at school or something. When I asked him what it was he said, “Mrs. Dover died.” And then he cried. He was upset but not near as bad as I thought he would be. I told him that Josh and I knew but just hadn’t told him yet and asked how he found out.

Are you ready for this? His substitute teacher told him.

Now. I was a little mad at first. Who does that?

The sub was also a sub at the school he used to go to and so she put two and two together and then told Griffin. I don’t know. I just don’t understand why she thought that was a good idea. If she thought we didn’t know then she should have called me??? I’m not mad because I am sure she didn’t intentionally mean to hurt him. And she obviously didn’t realize how tenderhearted he is and how much he LOVED her. And if I would have told him sooner then he wouldn’t have found out from her either. So it’s my fault too.

Nonetheless, he knows now.

The next day I sent his teacher a note because I knew he would be upset. And sure enough at 10:30 yesterday morning the counselor called me. He had been with her that morning and written a letter to Ms. Dover and put it in a balloon and let it go outside. That helped for a few minutes and then he was back to crying so hard he couldn’t do his work. So they asked that I just come get him and let him stay with me for the day. Which of course was fine with me!

When I picked him up his little eyes were SO swollen. :(

We had lunch and then we got a cupcake! Then we went to Toys r Us :) After about an hour or so he cheered up and by last night he was back to normal and fighting with his brother! :)

Adam and Steve

2012-02-06T09:28:00.001-06:00

We had a great weekend! Didn’t really do much. Watched “at” the Super Bowl. None of our favorites were playing so no reason to really be interested.(cough cough Mark Ingram, Tim Tebow) The commercials were disappointing and the half time show???! Oh wow. No, thanks.

Anyway, on to Adam and Steve! On the weekends Reece and I usually lay in bed until Josh gets home from work. Saturday was no different. Once he was home the three of us laid there talking and she started talking about God and Jesus. “God made this…God made that…Jesus has blisters on his hands and feet…then God needed help so he made Adam.” Then she started talking about Stephen. And how Stephen helped God. Josh has a brother named Stephen so I kind of started thinking maybe she was talking about him… So I said, “Stephen?” and she said, “Yes. Adam was a boy and Steve was a girl!”

Bhahaha! Sweet little innocent baby!

Mrs. Dover

2012-02-01T16:21:00.002-06:00

We got some bad news on our way home from New Orleans. Griffin’s teacher from last year, Christie Dover passed away earlier that morning. My heart broke.

A couple of years ago she battled breast cancer for I believe the second time. The year she came back to teach was the year that Griff had her. He LOVED her. And he learned SO much from her. So did I, really. I will never forget the day that yearbooks got passed out. I was picking up the boys from school that day and when I do that I like to peek in on them and just chat with their teachers if I can. She told me that Griff had a little breakdown because he didn’t get a yearbook..with a smile on her face.(We alternate each year with G and P and only buy one yearbook per year..it was Peyton’s turn last year.) I told her that we only buy one and that I was sorry he acted that way. And she very promptly told me not to be sorry, that she had three kids and did the yearbook thing the same way. That I was doing the RIGHT thing. It felt so good to hear that from someone who had older kids than I do.

Anyway, the end of the year rolled around, it was around April. Josh called me when he picked up the boys from school one afternoon and told me that Ms. Dover told him that that day was her last day because she had Leukemia. She got the Leukemia from the breast cancer treatment. And that she started treatments like that next day. She told the kids all about it and when Griff got home we talked about it. He was sad but he was VERY confident she would “beat it”.

I was friends with her on Facebook so I kept a close watch on her :) And Griffin asks about her all the time. And sometimes he will tell me, “Tell Ms. Dover Hi on Facebook for me!!” He has the sweetest little tender heart.

She got better after all the treatments over the summer and then in November things started going downhill a little. I don’t know anymore details other than she’s gone now. :(

We still haven’t told Griffin. I can’t bring myself to just tell him. I’m going to wait until he asks me about her again and then just tell him. I just hope and pray that I have the right words. I know it’s going to be soon because he asks about her every couple of weeks and it’s been about that long :(

New Orleans

2012-01-30T16:22:00.002-06:00

Josh and I just got back from a fabulous weekend in NOLA! I think we will be making a yearly stop there for sure!

Wooo wee. So much fun! Almost too much fun! Nahh, you can never have too much fun! :)

We basically did a whole lot of eating, a whole lot of people watching and making fun of people, a whole lot of shopping and a whole lot of walking!

I was just glad to have my husband all to myself!

You really can’t go wrong in picking a restaurant in New Orleans. We ate at Deanie’s, The Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., Cafe Fleur-De-Lis(twice), La Bayou…I think that’s about it! Besides eating beignets in the middle of the night at Cafe du Monde! They weren’t that great…they were ok, but I would rather just have a Krispy Kreme doughnut!

We took a swamp tour on Saturday. We went with Cajun Encounters. They were pretty much awesome! We saw a TON of alligators which is odd for this time of year! Our guide was even able to lure a gator to the boat and he caught him with his bare hands. eekk.Wash up from Katrina…

And now for some crappy phone pics!

I think I could have sat here all night and people watched! Except I had to pee…and I’m funny about WHERE I pee!

Hubs decided to wear his ROLL TIDE shirt out one night! It was fun, he got some “Roll Tide’s” :)

Mmm. I could live off of this bread pudding! But, it’s back to the diet today!!

I think that about sums up our trip! Oh, I couldn’t get over the amount of people with their KIDS on Bourbon Street! I mean come on people!!!! There were things I didn’t want my husband to see, let alone my children!!!! Geeze.

Happy 8th Birthday Peyton!!

2012-01-24T14:55:00.002-06:00

Happy Happy Birthday PeyPey!!

Peyton’s birthday and party were actually Saturday but we don’t have internet in the boonies so I didn’t get to post!

We started out celebrating Friday night because he wanted to eat Japanese! Totally blew the eating healthy out of the water that night! And the next night. And the next night. I was bad all weekend. oops.

His party was Saturday at the movie theater. If you live around here you know that there are only a few places to have birthday parties. We’ve had one at every place 5 times. So I thought we would do something a little different. I should have known when I went to book the party and they didn’t act like any of it was a big deal that something was up. I like to have my crap in order. They didn’t care. When you book a party they give you a 3 hour time slot. I picked 3-6. They told me that I wouldn’t know until a week before the party which movies would be playing OR the time we would see a movie. bummer. Because again, I like my crap in order. As it turns out, they didn’t know the movie times until the WEDNESDAY before the party and the ONLY rated G movie to see during our three hour window was Chipwrecked at 5:15. For real. 5:15. Party starts at 3..movie at 5 freakin 15. It only takes like 2.57 seconds to eat cake and ice cream and open presents. What in the world was I going to do with the other hour and a half?? So, I called all of Peyton’s peeps and told them not to show up until 4.

Crisis averted? I had no idea how big of a crisis it would have been had I not changed that time!

So, Saturday rolls around and I decided to be at the theater at 3 just in case there were people that didn’t rsvp and showed up. I took Reece with me. I’m walking in with her, a gigantic cookie cake, goody bags, party stuff, etc. I get to the customer service desk and there is no one. Stood there for a few minutes and couldn’t find anyone. So I went to the lady that takes your tickets and she told me where the party room was.

Y’ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I rounded the corner to the party room and it had NOT been cleaned up from the last party!!!!!!!!!! There was chocolate cake EVERYWHEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! On the floor, on the table, on the chairs. There was confetti everywhere. The garbage was overflowing…there was stuff everywhere. And remember, little did they know that my party time was changed until 4.

I got the people to clean it all up. All along trying to find a manager. Never could find anyone. Asked around about what to do about tickets to the movie(we were buying the kids tickets and popcorn, etc.), no one could tell me anything. No one ever checked in with me. Once we got to the movie everything was fine. Oh and they never even checked to see if we had tickets! I bought 13 kid tickets and they were never checked! In fact, I know a couple of the adults that didn’t buy tickets! I would NEVER, because I think that’s a little dishonest but whatevs.

Kudos to you if you made it through!! Now for pics! Which was bad too, because the party room was SO tiny we could barely fit all the kids in there. The adults were in the hallway! And I was so frazzled we didn’t even get a picture with Peyton! ugh.

That’s pure sweetness right there!

Hubby Live from the Gym :)

2012-01-18T09:25:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago Hubby filmed a little video of himself at the gym to rat out one of our friends just being funny! It’s commercial worthy for sure! :)

I heart him!

The rock wall will finally be done this week so hopefully I can get pics up soon!!

HEALTHY Cookie Dough Dip!

2012-01-13T13:40:00.002-06:00

Doesn’t that look good?

Oh to the em to the gee!!! IT IS!

The hardest part about me watching what I eat is watching the sugar. I love sweets! Did you get that?

I LOVE SWEETS.

I got this recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie .

1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained)
heaping 1/8 tsp salt
tiny bit over 1/8 tsp baking soda
1 T plus 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup nut butter (You can get away with using only 3 T. If you use peanut butter, some people say it has a slight “pb cookie dough” taste, so you can sub oil if you don’t want that.) *I used all natural peanut butter but next time I’m going to try to find a different nut butter*
1 and 1/4 cup pitted dates –find these close to the raisins
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 T oats (You can omit)
nondairy milk as needed (depending on the consistency you want. I used a few T.)

In a bowl, cover the dates with 1/2 cup water. Let this sit for at least 8 hours. Then add all ingredients (including the dates’ soaking liquid), except chocolate chips, to a food processor and blend until very smooth.

The part to remember is that you have to let the dates soak for so long. I made this thinking that it probably wouldn’t taste as good as cookie dough. I mean come on, chick peas tasting good? Fooled me! Hubs loves it too! :)

Sanity

2012-01-12T10:12:00.002-06:00

I decided I would do a blog post on how I try to keep my sanity with three kids, a husband, four dogs and a full time job(and by full-time I mean 24/7!). This idea was sparked my my friend, Cherish, when she flat out asked me how I keep my sanity on Twitter! haha!

First things first…you HAVE to have a routine. Kids thrive on a routine and quite frankly so do I. I like things to run smooth. When I get home in the evenings we eat dinner, get baths, read, playtime, bed at 8:30. And when you have another child, try as much as possible to let that child slide right on in to your routine!

Younger kids need an earlier bedtime. And you need a set bedtime every night. We lax on bedtime on weekends and during the summer.

Patience is a biggie. Believe me, I had two boys 15 months apart…I KNOW it’s hard to have patience. Just try to breathe. Even if you have to go to your room and scream into your pillow. Yes I have. And some days it’s REAL hard to keep your cool. And right now it’s hard for me because somebody has a smart mouth. Ahem, his name may or may not be Griffin.

Also, try as much as possible to let your child help you do things. (this one is mostly for the little ones, big kids don’t like chores!) This makes them feel important which in turn makes them happy! Reece likes to help me clean, so I’ll give her a rag and let her have at it.

You also have to remember to make time for YOU! A couple of weeks ago I started running. Even just that 30 minute run helps me keep my cool.

Date night is so very important. We have not been doing very well in this department since we moved! Howevs, we are going out of town at the end of this month so we shall make up! And get back on track of having regular date nights! :)

When doing things out of the norm of your routine like going out to eat and such ask yourself if it’s worth it. If you know your child is going to be restless and cranky at the restaurant then don’t go! Don’t stress yourself out because you aren’t going to enjoy that meal! You’re basically paying to stress yourself out! If your doing other things like going to the circus or to the movies try to avoid picking something that’s during nap or close to bedtime! Those are not fun.

This is all I can think of off the top of my head! I may have more later!

These are just things that I have learned along the way, we are not perfect parents and are still learning ourselves! And just because I feel sane right this very second doesn’t mean that tonight I won’t feel insane! ha!

National Champions x 14!

2012-01-10T09:04:00.002-06:00

Roll Tide! Number 14 is in the books!

Alabama 21 – LSU 0 zilch, nada, ZERO points.

I KNEW all day yesterday that we were going to win. Had no doubt…I wasn’t nervous at all. And that’s saying something because the first time we played LSU earlier in the season I was sick I was so nervous! However, a shut out?!?! WHAT?!?!?!? Total. Complete. Awesomeness!!!!!

And not only a shut out but LSU only crossed the 50 yard line ONCE at the VERY end of the game.

We played almost as clean as we could with only one 5 yard penalty in the last 2 minutes of the game! I feel sorry for whoever caused that one because Coach Saban was ticked!

Image via The Tuscaloosa News

So to all the naysayers and people who thought we shouldn’t go to the National Championship…now you have no reason to say, “well at least they held up a fight” or “they played dirty” or whatever other crap you can come up with because there is nothing! And I like it!

Image via The Tuscaloosa News

Our town was almost blown off the map by that nasty tornado last April and our football team and coaches rallied and brought this home for US! T-Town, never down.

Images via The Birmingham News

And for those of you not from around here, one of our football player’s(Carson Tinker) girlfriend was killed in the tornado. Before that she told Carson that this was their year and they would win in her hometown(New Orleans), on the night before her 24th birthday! Man was she ever right!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!!!

PS-I wonder how the Honey Badger feels this morning?

Gettin’ Skinny and a Birthday Shout Out!

2012-01-06T09:39:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year, Y’all! I rang in the new year asleep in my warm and cozy bed. Hubs rang it in protecting you from bad boys :)

Well yours truly is down to 117 pounds! Oh yea! Doing the happy dance! :) When we moved last summer our scale was broken. So I haven’t weighed since then….until today. I know when I went to the doctor last July I weighed 126 or 127. About six months ago I decided to make some changes in my eating and drinking habits. That means I switched from regular Mt. Dew to Diet Mt. Dew and cut waaayyyy back on sweet tea. And I started watching more of what I ate and how much I ate. I still ate food that was not so good for you, I LOVE any type of pasta or rice. Then there were the holidays and I DID NOT watch what I ate. But I pretty much don’t eat anything fried and I try to stay away from rice as much as I can.

In the last few weeks I have started to be motivated to get in shape…I want sexy arms and to get rid of belly flab. Since I am part owner of a brand spanking new gym I have NO excuse and it will happen! It also helps that Hubs wants to be ripped like The Rock by Christmas. And at the rate he’s going, he will! This week I’ve started counting my calories and I want to get down to 110, get those arms and tummy where I want them, and then get knocked up! :) Sounds like a plan, right?!

Soooo, the sister turns 25 on Sunday!!!! That means I’ll be 30 in a few months! 30!!!!! crap.

Happy Happy Birthday Skanky McSkankerson! We Luh You!!! :)

Oh and you can bet your hiney that we will be having a strawberry cupcake for her birthday!!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-30T15:37:00.002-06:00

Miss me? We had a wonderful Christmas!! Lots of family time and I loved it! My post is so late because we’ve been running around like chickens with our heads cut off because our new gym is opening Sunday! I am going to take lots of pics to put on here…just waiting on the rock climbing wall to be finished and some pictures to be hung! But, if you are local, feel free to stop in anytime :) I’ll give you the personal tour if I’m there, if not just tell whoever’s there that I sent you!(so you can get the star treatment :))

About a week before Christmas was Reece’s Christmas play at school. She was the cutest little angel ever but you got it she didn’t sing or say her speaking part. I didn’t expect anything less! :)

Sorry I look drunk. I wasn’t, we were at church plus I don’t drink. These are pretty much in random order..like I said, I’m pooped!

PS-Why didn’t anyone warn me about all the negative comments I would get about getting my FOUR-year-olds’ ears pierced? She is FOUR for crying out loud and I’m NOT going to hell for getting them pierced!!

Governor Picture!

2011-12-22T09:42:00.002-06:00

Remember this post from my dinner with the Governors? Well I FINALLY got my picture this week! It’s fun to feel important! hee hee!

Little Girl

2011-12-21T10:37:00.002-06:00

It’s official. Because she got her ears pierced! But first let’s talk about Santa!

Every year we take the kids to see Jolly Ole’ Saint Nick. Every year we end up waiting to the last minute to go. So we decided that we would take Reece to eat for her birthday at the mall and then see Santa. Kill two birds with one stone.(and typing that makes me NEVER want to say that again!! Poor birds!) Anywho, we ended up being second in line to see Santa! Yay for that! While we were standing in line I asked Reece if she wanted to get her ears pierced and she said yes. Then she said no. Then 5 minutes before Santa was due to arrive she wanted to get them pierced right that very second. Y’all know I was NOT getting out of line at that point so I told her as soon as we saw Santa we would go. I never in a million gazillion years thought she would go through with it. So we saw Santa…

Bhahahahahahahahahaaaaa! That picture REALLY cracks me up. Santa is not even looking, Reece had a mouth full of pizza, Griffin looks guilty(because he knows that Santa’s not real), Noah is thinking about freakin his freak and my sweet photogenic Peyton looks perfect!! That’s how we roll.

After Santa I asked Reece if she wanted to get her ears pierced now. She said yes. So we headed over to the store that does it, they had Hello Kitty ear rings…I still didn’t think she would go through with it..but she DID. And she didn’t cry at all…didn’t even flinch! I’m not even going to lie, I SO teared up! Hubby said that I was normal because it was a right of passage! No more baby :( She’s a big girl now :)

Before… During… After!!…

I know she’s mine, but she is one gorgeous little girl!!

Happy Birthday Reece!

2011-12-20T10:22:00.002-06:00

Happy 4th Birthday Baby Girl!!! Four years ago right now I was sitting in a hospital bed ready to see your sweet face! While these four years have flown by, I still feel like Daddy and I have soaked up every single ounce of you being a baby! And now I feel like since you are 4, you just aren’t a baby anymore! boo. That’s ok though because you are still a lot of fun. I love your girly self :)

Reece’s party was Sunday. Hello Kitty themed no doubt! She LURVES some Hello Kitty. We had a huge turnout and everyone had a blast!

A couple of before the party shots of the PRISS!

And the party pics..

This is when we were singing Happy Birthday…she HATES attention!

Sweet friends!

See how normal we look with four kids?!?! :)

Kudos to you if you made it this far!! Love Love! :)

Welcome to the World, Adalynn Grace!

2011-12-13T14:58:00.002-06:00

I’m so excited right now I can barely contain myself! My BFF, Jamie, was supposed to be induced today. She has been walking around dilated for several weeks(5cm since last Wednesday!). Her due date wasn’t until Christmas but they decided to induce her today because she very well may not have made it to the hospital in time if she went any further than she already was at home! She got to the hospital this morning and started contracting on her own…so this would have been the day she was born anyway! I went by to check on her around 9ish and the doctor came by and checked her…yep fully dilated! SHE’S FAST!

Jamie asked me to stay in the room while the baby was born. I was SUPER happy that she wanted me to stay! She works in labor and delivery at that hospital and will be birthing my next baby so she said I should be there when this one was born! :) It was amazing, of course. And perfect!

That’s 8 pounds and 4 ounces of sweet baby girl right there!!Best Friends. Sisters. The end. This was taken before the baby was born! She how tiny she is! You can’t even see a belly! Not sure where all that 8 pounds was hiding!! Yes, I have the fever. I just called hubs and told him to stay away! haha! First time to hold her!

I wish I looked that good after giving birth!

Love :)

2011-12-12T10:51:00.002-06:00

Apparently our pictures have been recovered :)

I love Daddy/Daughter love!

Christmas Card + More Pics

2011-12-09T13:33:00.002-06:00

My Twitter peeps have already seen this…but I plan on having my blog printed into a book so I need it here also! :) (edited out our last name to keep the creeps away!)

And here are a few more of the pictures I have from that day! The rest are in limbo :/ my step-dad aka Chief Photographer’s computer crashed with the rest of the pictures on it :( HOPEFULLY they can be recovered!!! We CLEARLY like to smooch! I don’t think we can EVER match my favorite family photo EVER though!

Can we say grown up???

Intruder on the photo shoot!…haha

We were clearly over it by this point!!

Hope you have a Merry Little Weekend!!!

Christmas Parade!

2011-12-06T15:19:00.002-06:00

Last night we attended our local Christmas Parade! It was very entertaining and just long enough! The weather was rainy earlier in the day so I thought that there might not be that great of a turn out..but there were tons of people there!

Josh, the pirate and ReeceGriff felt the need to bring his Chick-Fil-A Peyton refused to be photographed because he was pouting because I wouldn’t buy those stupid light sabers…we have 97,000 already. We heard way more “ROLL TIDE” than we did “Merry Christmas”! But that’s to be expected the day after you find out you are going to the National Championship! Big Al was as much of a hit as Santa…Snowmen working out! :) Sweet little horse dressed up like Rudolph! And we ended with the Jolly ‘ole Man himself! :)

Happy Monday!

2011-12-05T09:21:00.002-06:00

We had a fun weekend! We started off by celebrating Josh’s birthday Friday night at Mugshots. We pigged out. Then we went home and had ice cream cake! (Reece had her face painted at school) It was yummy!

Saturday the kiddies and I did a little shopping while Josh slept. At some point we decorated our gingerbread house but I don’t remember when it was! ha!

Yesterday we made Christmas Cookies! Please excuse my half naked son, he refuses to wear clothes when he’s in the house. They abandoned me with the mess!

Happy 30th Birthday Josh!!

2011-12-02T09:18:00.002-06:00

Today is my most favorite person’s birthday!!! And today he is the big 3-0!!!! I used to think I would feel old when we turned 30 but now I realize that we’re just getting this party started! LOTS to come in our thirties :)

So, Happy Happy Birthday Lover Love :)

And now for some total inappropriateness… I totally grabbed his crotch during our Christmas card shoot y’all! It was my mom’s fault!! She was standing behind the camera and was playing around and said, “grab his crotch” just trying to be funny and not realizing that I really would.

You can totally grab your man in front of your parents when you’ve been married for 10 years people! :)

Happy Birthday Baby Daddy :)

Stuff

2011-12-01T13:47:00.002-06:00

I have GOT to start blogging seriously again. I always have something to blog about but then I get started on the next project and then things snowball!

So, to catch up, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving! :) Ate WAY too much but who cares?! Then we whooped some Auburn bootie. I mean kicked their tails!!!!!!!!!!!! ROLL TIDE. While watching the game we decked the halls :) We have four Christmas trees and I’m thinking we need to add one in the kitchen! :)

This week Josh and I have pretty much finished shopping for the kids. You all will be so proud of me! I made a spreadsheet of exactly what to buy each child-to keep from overdoing like I ALWAYS do-and we stuck to it! YAY! I got our Christmas cards ordered!

And speaking of that, I get so irritated when people say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry X-mas” or anything like that. It’s CHRISTmas people. Don’t celebrate it if you don’t believe in the REAL meaning of Christmas!!!

Anyway, I think that kinda sorta sums things up for us.

Josh’s 30th Birthday is tomorrow!!!!!!!! Old fart!

Thankful

2011-11-23T12:55:00.002-06:00

I have SO SO much to be thankful for. Sometimes I feel too blessed. I have the sweetest, best husband EVER, the cutest little babies, the BEST family a girl could ask for…and I have a TON of family. And have I mentioned that my sisters are the bomb? Reece NEEDS a sister!

My job is crazy fabulous. And then there’s this gym we’re about to open that just adds icing to the cake! So excited about what’s coming with that.

I watched Faces of the Storm last night. I sat there and sobbed pretty much the whole time I was watching. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the rebuilding of this town and look past what we need to be remembering about that day. All the lives wrecked..people who lost their lives and homes.

We ALL need to be thankful EVERYDAY not just that last Thursday in November!

I hope you all have an amazing Thanksgiving weekend. I am going to eat like it’s my J-O-B!

OH OH OH!!!!! AND ROLL TIDE ROLL!!! Can’t wait for the Iron Bowl! :)

Big Mama update and other random thoughts!

2011-11-18T13:41:00.002-06:00

Big Mama went HOME on Wednesday! That’s right peeps, just three short weeks after breaking her hip, she’s already home! yay! That’s just awesome!

Today, Allison and I had Thanksgiving lunch with Griff! It was fun to eat with him but I’m glad that I don’t have to eat lunchroom food again for a while! Our gym is coming right along! (hence the lack of blogging!)So excited! It really is going to be one of a kind! I can’t wait to post pictures and for you locals to come visit!! We’ll be having a huge open house/grand opening and of course you ALL are invited! :)

I hope y’all have a fabulous weekend! We’ll be seeing a movie tomorrow and having our Christmas Card pictures taken! Yippeee!!!

God is Great, God is Good…take 2!

2011-11-10T13:46:00.002-06:00

Josh and I just had lunch at school with Peyton! Yummy Yummy school lunch! haha!

We had to sit on the stage in the cafeteria so the lighting wasn’t so great and it was kind of crowded…so not great pics! :) It was fun to eat with just Peyton!

In other news, Big Mama is going home next Wednesday!!!!!! YAY!

Take 3 next week..the older kids at school have to have their Thanksgiving lunch later!

God is Great, God is Good!

2011-11-09T13:20:00.002-06:00

Reece’s Thanksgiving Feast was today at school! It was pretty much a repeat of last year, except all the babies have grown! And I say repeat because she DOES NOT like to sing/perform in front of ANYONE except for me and Josh! She didn’t sing one word to one song. Nothing. And she’s been singing these songs at home for months! We sing them everyday. Oh well!

Josh has training today. He found out last minute that it started an hour before he thought so he didn’t get to come to the feast :( I don’t think Reece minded too much because Paw Paw got to come in his place! (other grandparents don’t be mad, it was last minute I promise!)

I’m just thankful that I don’t have to worry about her acting up like some of the others were. There was one little boy crawling under the table, and his parents were letting him! Seriously.

And of course I’m VERY THANKFUL for my Isabella Reece!!!!!!!!

Roll Tide’s All I Got!

2011-11-04T14:23:00.002-05:00

Can’t think of a blog title because this town is ONLY focused on tomorrow’s big game.

Seriously people. Seriously. And if you aren’t nervous or anxious then you aren’t a real fan. The.end.

You see those little bumps??? They are really all down the side of his face and on his eyelid! It started with a fever blister type of thing in the corner of his mouth. I get those when the weather starts changing so I assumed that it was the same thing. Griffin is the male version of me so I really thought that was what it was. Then yesterday morning when he woke up he had a few little bumps around it. I thought that was weird so I put some medicine on it and sent him to school. When I got home from work it had spread all over his face. Peachy. So I put some different medicine on it and decided to visit the doc this morning.

In the waiting room.. See, I told you we eat, sleep and breathe Alabama Football in this town! :)

Turns out, we’re not real sure what Griff has. Could be a number of things. The medicine that I put on it last night started drying it out so I’m just going to keep that up, hopefully, if not the doctor gave me something else to try!

We decided that he shouldn’t go to school today just in case. So on the way home we spotted the ESPN Game Day bus. He INSISTED that we stalk it down! ha! And he wasn’t going to be happy until we were RIGHT behind it! He wanted to follow it until it stopped to see if he could see anyone that he knew but I had to get to work!

I hope you all have a fantabulous weekend and ROLL TIDE ROLL! :)

Halloween

2011-11-01T08:32:00.002-05:00

We had a fun Halloween with our little spooks! :)

PS-I was THAT mom that said,”My boys will NEVER be anything scary for Halloween.” Fail.

Prayers Please :)

2011-10-28T15:57:00.002-05:00

My peeps are falling apart!

I blogged a couple of months ago about Gigi(my step-mom) breaking her leg. Well it turns out that it was broken in five places instead of three like we originally were told. And while she’s doing pretty good, she’s still having a lot of issues with it. And she’s still in that boot, you know the big ‘ole black things you see people wearing.

My Mom fell and hurt her arm a couple of months ago, then had a wreck which broke her arm and tore her rotator cuff. She had surgery this past Tuesday to repair all of that. It’s painful, but she’s doing well and went home the next day. It will be three long months before she’s better.

Then on Wednesday night at church Big Mama fell and broke her hip! For those of you who don’t know she’s my VERY independent 83 year-old grandmother! She still lives by herself and everything(my Big Daddy died about 20 years ago). We eat together at least once a week and talk on the phone daily! Anyway, she had to have surgery yesterday to repair her hip. She is in ALOT of pain but she is doing very well. That woman can handle pain better than anyone. Like, she doesn’t even like to take Tylenol! She has a morphine pump and only clicked it ONE TIME last night! SERIOUSLY!

So anyway, I would appreciate if y’all can remember my peeps in your prayers! :)

Jamie’s Baby Shower

2011-10-24T12:54:00.002-05:00

This weekend I hosted a baby shower for my best friend, Jamie! She already has a sweet little boy but this time around she’s having a girl! She’ll be here around Reece’s birthday in December. Another Christmas baby :) The boys spent the day with Josh’s Dad and Reece stayed home to “help”! Isn’t his little pink polo the cutest??

I love how Reece is giggling in the background…

Little boys are ALWAYS contemplating their next move!

And then he tried to corner Reece behind the chair! This is Jamie saying,”you know her Daddy is a COP! Get back around here!” And I clearly was about to pee in my pants from laughing!

And so he decided to let her go…

But we can still have an arranged marriage, right??? PS-Reece’s scrap skirt was made by her Gigi. Y’all know she had to wear her houndstooth and crimson, it was game day baby! :)

Pull to the Right for Sirens and Lights!

2011-10-20T15:54:00.002-05:00

HAD to share this video!

A. Because my husband is a cop.

B. Because my HILARIOUS cousin is the very animated firefighter in the backseat! :)

Griff’s Party Pics!

2011-10-17T15:32:00.002-05:00

First of all, we did a whole lotta zip lining this weekend! Super fun!

Everyone had a blast at the party. These are the only pictures I have because my camera card was full. PARENT FAIL! But, lucky for me, my step-dad was there with his full blown camera equipment. As soon as I get those, I will post! :)

With the birthday boy and my skinny hubby…

He.loves.his.TAY TAY!!!!

And his WEECE!

Sweet little Keltie-bug

This is Josh’s newest co-worker showing off her hoola-hooping skills! bhahaha!

This is when my camera said it was full :/ but more pics to come!

I should also note that we had mexican the night before(on his actual birthday) He didn’t order off of the kids menu, he ordered off the adult menu. He ordered THREE MAN-SIZED tacos and had them eaten in 2.6 seconds!

He’s only 9.

He’s going to eat us out of house and home.

Happy 9th Birthday Griffin!!

2011-10-14T09:23:00.002-05:00

Is he really nine???? NINE!

Man oh man, I know I say it every year…but time just flies. It really really flies when you have kids. Josh and I had NO clue how much love this little guy was going to give us! We are so glad he made us parents! It seems like he was just born yesterday!

We decided to go ahead and let him open his gift from us this morning so that when he gets home from school he can play with it! A couple of weeks ago I decided to get him a zip line for his birthday. It’s getting hard to figure out what to get him because he’s getting older and he has everything. This was something that I knew he would have LOTS of fun with. Then a couple of nights ago we were watching the Duggars and they were zip lining and he was like, “That’s awesome!! I want to do that!” That made me SO excited because he had no clue he was already getting his very own! hee hee! He also got a new Nintendo 3DS!(and so did little brother :))

His party is tomorrow afternoon…a camo party. I don’t get to choose party themes anymore :) I’m sure there will be plenty of pics from that to come!

Our Weekend

2011-10-10T10:21:00.002-05:00

We had a pretty fabulous weekend! I had a couple of projects to work on and I had plenty of help with them! Both of them involved paint and now it is EVERYWHERE in the garage. Oops!

I think we were planning to paint the floor in there anyway. Well now I know we are.

I painted a frame for Reece’s bathroom. I plan to use it to hang hair bows on! Yes, I stole this idea from Pinterest, but it wasn’t used for bows! :) It’s huge! Like 40 inches wide! And, yes, it absolutely needs to be that big! Homegirl has some bows!!

Saturday night was not so great. The K-9 unit at Josh’s work had a really bad wreck. He was on his way to a call and apparently lost control of the car, it flipped several times down into a revene, the dog was ejected and died. :( The officer has injuries that do not appear to be life threatening. That’s just a couple of the pictures that Josh has. When he started showing these to me tears started pouring down my face. This EASILY could have been MY husband in this car. On his way to help YOU or your child or your momma or your grandparents.

THANK A COP TODAY!!

They put their lives on the line EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. I know there are some cops that are not lovable but 95% of them are good people. They are doing this job because it’s what they love. Their wives(or husbands!) kiss them off to work praying every single time that it won’t be the last.

Ok, off the soap box. :)

Sunday was great. We spent most of the day relaxing and ended it playing Nintendo 3DS with Papa! :)And it just doesn’t get any better than that!

Roll Tide, baby!

2011-10-07T10:19:00.002-05:00

Reece may have hated the idea of tacky day yesterday but she had no problems dressing up head to toe for Alabama Day today! :)

She actually wears Bama gear EVERY Friday. She IS my child! ha.

Tacky Day

2011-10-06T10:36:00.002-05:00

Man, girls are something else!!!! I don’t know if it’s just mine or what! Since Reece’s preschool is on campus, they participate in homecoming festivities. This week they have had a different dress up day each day. Well, today is tacky day.

Yesterday when I picked her up I reminded her that today would be tacky day so we needed to find something tacky to wear.

Me: “Reece, don’t let me forget that tomorrow is tacky day.”

Reece: “I don’t have nufin tacky.”

Amen to that Sister!

So this morning I picked out some clothes for her; a pair of different colored striped shorts and a shirt that had butterflies on it which were different shades of blue. It did not match whatsoever so I thought it would be perfect. I woke the princess up, took her to the potty and then proceeded to put the clothes on her.

Reece: “I don’t want to wear this. It’s yucky.”

Me: “Well it’s tacky day, remember? You are not supposed to be cute!”

She then burst into tears because she didn’t want to be tacky.

For reals.

So we changed and all was well in the world of Reece and she’s probably the only one not tacky at school today. I’m sure she doesn’t care and is looking at everyone else like they are nuts! ha!

Wordless Wednesday: Halloween Flashback

2011-10-05T10:41:00.002-05:00

Pretty sure this is my all time favorite Halloween pic!

Happy Fall Y’all!!

2011-10-03T10:00:00.002-05:00

It feels so good outside!(But summertime is still my fav!) I love October! I can’t believe our baby boy will be NINE in a week and a half! This is kind of a brain dump post!

Because if I don’t blog about it, I’ll forget!

*We had our Parent-Teacher conference for Peyton this morning. Josh was sitting in the lobby waiting on me when they did morning announcements…and they announced that Peyton is the top reader in 2nd grade! :)

*The conference went very well. He is the smartest kid in the class(teachers words, not mine!). He is way above grade level on everything. I’ll brag if I want to, it’s my blog!

*We had Griffin’s conference last week. He’s a brilliant kid, too. Got the same comments from his teacher! His ADHD still keeps him off task some, but it’s not holding him back any. Thankfully he is SO smart or we’d be in trouble.

*Griffin is emotional just like his momma. When Molly died he didn’t really seem upset. At the conference, his teacher said that he came to her and cried a little and was telling her about it. That makes me feel so good that he feels like he can go to her!

*April and Josh make smart kids!!!

*For the past couple of years the boys have talked about joining the military. Scares me to death and warms my heart at the same time. Can’t stop them, it’s in their blood on both sides of the family.

*My team beat the pants off of those Florida Gators!!!! ROLL TIDE!

*I did officially decide that Reece needs a sister instead of another brother! :)

Happy Fall, Happy Monday!!!!

Cracker Jack

2011-09-26T13:38:00.002-05:00

After Molly died I kind of decided without talking to Josh(because I figured I knew what his answer would be) that we wouldn’t get another dog. We still have three, Daisy and Chippie inside and Niko outside. And three dogs is enough. Plus it hurts so bad when they go to doggy heaven!

Well the day I kind of told myself that we were sitting at my brother’s football game and I noticed Josh playing on his phone. I looked over and he was browsing the Pet Finder App!

Uh WHAT?

So we’ve kind of had our eyes out for a puppy for the last week or so. He wanted a puppy and I wasn’t so sure about that. That puppy stage, while it’s cute and all, is not very fun. You know, with all the whining and tearing crap up! ha! Plus we had to find something that would get along with Niko. He’s easy to get along with but he is HUGE. Several times since we’ve moved I have looked outside and mistaken him for a deer.

Yesterday my sister, Kelsie, called. She and her boyfriend Parker(or Paka if you ask Reece!) were leaving his grandparents’ farm and saw a puppy just laying in the middle of a dirt road. They stopped and fed him a Slim Jim(almost named him that!) and some snack cakes..he was starving! She sent us a picture and of course I was smitten! So, they brought him to us!

Meet Cracker Jack! Sorry for the blurry cell phone pic! I’ll get some with my good camera soon..

He’s an Australian Shepard and looks to be about 3 months old or so. I mean WHO could throw him out???? He is VERY lovable and sweet! People are crazy!

Niko LOVES him! He was getting kind of depressed so now he has a playmate! :)

Alabama Fabulous

2011-09-21T10:16:00.002-05:00

I just asked my hubby to marry me! Of course there are many reasons to marry him all over again but it was brought on by Scot Wedgeworth! image

Oh. My. Word people!

I first heard of him through Officer Hubby! Yep. It’s a funny little story that I shouldn’t post on here because it involves hubby’s job…but he’ll tell you if you ask! Let’s just say that hubs has been in contact with him a few times. Nothing major, so don’t go thinking Scot is a bad person. But Scot did give hubs a business card and tell him about his upcoming reality show on the Food Network called Alabama Fabulous.

So I went to his website…here…and I saw pictures on facebook here of a wedding he did recently. And now I’m in love with his work.

The end!

So if you are getting hitched, I think you should call him! I can’t wait for the show to air in October!

Oh and of course he has a blog!

So I had dinner with the Governor(s)!

2011-09-16T09:18:00.002-05:00

Last night was the Lincoln Reagan Dinner at The Zone in Bryant-Denny Stadium! I generally don’t get into political mumbo gumbo but it was fun. Our Governor, Dr. Robert Bentley, was honored and the guest speaker was Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi. I could have stuck him in my pocket and brought him home! Super sweet Paw Paw! I didn’t take my camera but I did have my picture taken with both governors and as soon as I get my hands on it I will post!

I went into the night SUPER bummed because my sweet chocolate lab, Molly, passed away sometime yesterday. It really was out of nowhere. She was acting different earlier in the week but she wasn’t acting sick..I really just thought she was pregnant, she had a black lab boyfriend that lives across the street! :) But I guess that wasn’t it. She was almost 10 years old. The best dog ever, really. Labs are SO great with kids. She let Griffin, Peyton and Reece do whatever they wanted to her. She loved them so much. She was also a really loyal dog. If we were outside, she was right by our side. Before we got a riding lawn mower she would cut grass with Josh, taking every step he did.

We’re going to miss her! The only pic I can find at the moment…look how little PeyPey was!!!

Love :)

2011-09-14T16:37:00.001-05:00

I love my kids SO dang much. That is what I woke up to yesterday morning!

Katie and Ben’s Wedding!

2011-09-13T09:59:00.002-05:00

Ahhh. So glad these weddings are behind us! Now I can get to birthday party planning for Griffin and my bff’s baby shower that I’m hosting in October! :)

The wedding was beautiful. It was outside and the weather was perfect! The bride and groom didn’t see each other before the wedding and I will NEVER EVER forget the look on his face when he saw her come down the aisle.

Griffin and Peyton did perfect in the wedding..Reece on the other hand cried when it was time for her to come down the aisle. Kind of caught me off guard since she just did this a few months ago and didn’t have any problem with it! I guess I didn’t worry enough this time around! ha. Plus I thought it would be easier this time since I was in the wedding too. Oh well. She eventually made it down to me. And my sweet little nephew RAN down the aisle and screamed “MOMMY!” It was too funny!

The first few pictures are from the rehearsal, it was casual, hence my jeans! Boys weren’t interested in taking pics with Momma, they were too busy playing in the hay!

So the wedding day comes and the bridesmaids had to be there at 10am. The wedding wasn’t until 5 but we had to be ready for pictures by 1:00. Needless to say it was a LONG day! A few things decided not to go right…like the idiots that made the veil put it together backwards…so Rissie had to fix it… That was SO MUCH FUN!

She may kill me for this…This chick was really ticking me off. Not sure why she was even there but every time something happened….like the thing that was holding the flowers during the ceremony fell as the florist was decorating it…she would come tell Katie…like it didn’t matter so SHUT UP! ha

Sweet hubs! You can kinda see the WADS of fabric under my arm…

I LOVE my sweet boys!

Texas MawMaw!

Lots more pictures to come!

Wedding Pics!

2011-09-08T16:38:00.002-05:00

I just realized that I haven’t posted any more pictures from Josh’s brother’s wedding! In my defense I have only had access for a couple of weeks because the photographer had a sweet baby girl not too long after the wedding! These are ALL from the photographer..Jennifer McAteer! Here is her website http://jennifermcateerphotography.com/ And you should know that I did get permission from her first!

Do you know how hard it is to get FOUR kids to cooperate? Groom and his boys Needs no explanation!Bride and her girls MY GIRL! :) Peyton and E Griffin and Reece Groom looking a lil nervous Here comes the Bride! I do I do I do! Kissy Kiss! Yay they’re married! Fam Jam Who knows?? Sisters! I heart this pic of us! AND I triple heart that my niece has her tongue hanging out! bhahaha! Brotherly advice. LOTS of brotherly advice from Officer Hubs.. Janna and her girls. Pretty sure they can make her do anything! For real! And yes, that would be my child doing flips on the dance floor! Griffin.. I heart Grandpas! And may this go down in history as the sweetest picture EVER! And I’ll leave you with the four amigos! I really hope the wedding this weekend goes as well as this one did! Lucky for us we live only about a mile from where the wedding will take place!

OH did I mention that the dress lady ordered me a SIZE 14!! bridesmaid dress??? Seriously people. My pants I wear are a size 4. I wear medium shirts. So they had major altering to do and there are two big wads of fabric sewn together under my arms! Yipee!

Reece Said…

2011-09-07T13:56:00.002-05:00

I feel like I’ve been blogging a lot about Reece lately..I guess she’s just doing more silly things at her age right now.

She’s been on us like white on rice for a baby sister. We put her off using the excuse that we couldn’t get one until we moved. Now that we’ve moved she’s like “Helllllurrrrrrrrrrrrr, baby sister PULLLLLEASE.”

Until last week.

At which point we were driving down the road-just me and her-and she ever so politely told me that she wants a baby sister AND a baby brother AT. THE. SAME. TIME.

What the what??????????????

And so I said to her that God usually only gives us one at a time and so that was pretty much not gonna happen.

And without ANY hesitation she said to me…

“Oh Mommy! You just gotta eat A LOT so you have two babies in your tummy at one time!”

For reals. Now what?

Roll Tide!

2011-09-02T13:37:00.002-05:00

Here we go!

Pageant Queen

2011-08-31T16:28:00.002-05:00

I was never into doing any type of Beauty Pageant when I was growing up. It was just not my thing. You would think since I was a cheerleader that I would have been all up in that but, no thanks! Apparently my daughter got a different gene(well now that I’m typing this my Grandmother WAS very much into pageants! She was Ms. Senior Alabama!!!). She’s been pretty adamant lately about doing a pageant. But she is SO shy around strangers… I don’t know what to think.

I watch Toddlers and Tiaras because I think it’s HI-larious. She watches with me and that’s when she started talking about it. I will NEVER be like those moms! EVER! Then Monday we went to try on my dress for the wedding and the lady that owns the shop started talking about how poised she is and how she should be in pageants…so I asked Reece if she wanted to look at dresses and she said yes…then asked if she wanted to try one on and at first she said no then changed her mind! I mean, how cute is she???

Hands ON the hips! hee hee!

And just for fun here’s my Grandmother’s picture! I’m sure she’s flaunting a ginormous crown in Heaven!

Working Hard or Hardly Working??

2011-08-30T14:25:00.002-05:00

Our server crashed at our office over the weekend. All of our computers run off of it. We can use our computers for emails and such but the big programs we use to do everyday things are on the server…that’s been in the hospital since yesterday morning!

It had to be wiped completely clean and all of our files had to be restored. Fun times. We should have it back in the morning! I sure hope so because I can’t stand being behind like this!!

So today the sister and I tackled an office project! We decided our dry erase board needed an Extreme Makeover! See all those little lines??We scrubbed them all off! And what fun would we be without a self portrait??!!

KT’s Lingerie Shower

2011-08-29T10:58:00.002-05:00

Ok folks, this post is rated NC-17! Get the kiddos away from the computer!

There, you have been warned! :)

Allison and I hosted our step-sister Katie’s lingerie shower this weekend. It was fun and she got some GREAT stuff! It would have been even GREATER had I not lost my gift. For reals. Still can’t find it!

And that gives you a good sneak peak at my kitchen! :) I’m not trying to be shady about posting more pictures of the house..I’ve just got three kiddos and a hubby to take care of and haven’t had time to get everything like I want it! :) Us with Mom :)

We played a game with Katie that was SO funny. We had asked Ben(the Groom!) to come up with several questions for Katie. Just random stuff that she should know the answer to! Each time she got a question wrong, she had to put a piece of gum in her mouth! At the end of it she had SIX pieces of gum in her mouth! SO funny! My camera died so I don’t have pictures of the fat cheeks! boo. She may or may not hate us for this! bahahahahaha!

I hope your weekend was as fun as ours!

Tay Tay is the FAVORITE!

2011-08-26T13:18:00.002-05:00

My little nephew is the cutest little guy. He calls me Tay Tay, Josh is Uncle Josh(he really can say it!) and Griffin, Peyton and Reece are coushins(cousins)! Love.

Yesterday I brought him one of those little pink snowball cakes and sent it home from work with Allison. A little while later I got this picture!

And that’s why I’m his fav! :)

Happy Birthday E!

2011-08-23T14:27:00.002-05:00

Our sweet niece turned FOUR last week! That’s just insane-o to me! Her party was Saturday at the place where she and Reece take gymnastics! It’s so fun because the adults get to play too! :)

I believe Griffin had more fun than anyone! His head was soaking wet with sweat and he didn’t want to leave.

Hairy Situation

2011-08-17T15:46:00.002-05:00

I think I blogged about this several months ago. Reece has been asking to get her hair cut as short as mine for a while now. While I think it would be SO cute, I’m just not ready for that. I still like to put her hair up in pigtails! So a couple of months ago she got her hair cut just below her shoulders. She loved it but she has still been asking for it “short like mommys”.

I had a hair appointment yesterday. Since we live in the boonies now, I’m not taking Reece all the way home and coming all the way back for my hair appointments. I would just rather take her with me. Plus, she’s no trouble at all. She just sits and eats a snack. Well on Monday when I told her we were going Tuesday to get my hair done she said, “And me too!!! I get my hair cut short like yours!”

Crapity crap!

I texted my fantabulous hair dresser to see if she could cut hers too. And of course she said yes!

Reece settled for a few highlights…

I AM KIDDING!! We were just having a little fun!

…and about shoulder length! :)

I think it’s cute as pie!

Chickens and Pinterest

2011-08-12T15:13:00.002-05:00

First of all, I LOVE me some Pinterest! I think it’s just fabulous! For those of you who haven’t heard about it, it’s a website where you can “pin” different things you find around the internet. That way, when you find an idea for something you won’t forget about it or where you found it! PLUS you follow all your friends and even people you don’t know and get all their ideas too! You have different “boards” to pin things on so you can keep organized! Love!

About chickens. ~~Hubs~~ We eat ALOT of eggs at our house. And so we decided when we were moved into the country we would get chickens! Then once we moved Hubs decided that we would wait until spring. I didn’t really want to wait because it takes several months for the chicks to grow and start laying eggs plus when I want something I want it NOW but he wants to get the coop built and have it ready for them, which makes sense.

And that’s where chickens and pinterest come together! I found the cutest, most fabulous chicken coop on there! Isn’t it so cute?!?!And here’s the blog it came from http://www.therachelberryblog.com/

Ours won’t look exactly like this but it will be very similar! It will probably be early spring before we get chickens. I want at least one “furry” one! Like Tori Spellings..

Image from People.com

I doubt very seriously that I’ll be dressing mine up! haha!

It’s a “c” not an “s” By golly!

2011-08-11T09:58:00.002-05:00

When we picked out Reece’s name(she’s Isabella Reece) we didn’t purposely spell her name with a “c” instead of an “s”. That’s just how we started spelling it and that was how it was going to be! It’s most definitely spelled both ways, Reece and Reese.

In Reece’s school’s computer system or somewhere they have it spelled with an “s”. So each year when she “moves up” I have to tell the new teacher they have it spelled wrong. Yes, I’ve told the daycare…everything I get from them is spelled correctly, it’s must be just one little spot where they have it spelled wrong.

Now that the priss knows how to spell her name she handles things herself! Last night we were in the kitchen and she said to me,”Mommy, Ms. Belissa(Melissa) spelled my name R-E-E-S-E today and my name is spelled R-E-E-C-E and I TELD her that she spelled my name wrong and it’s REECE!”

I heart her!

Back to School

2011-08-10T12:11:00.002-05:00

The kiddies went back to school today! YIPPEE! I think they were getting kind of bored. Peyton was FOR SURE ready to go back. Griffin notsomuch. But whatever. That’s just how it is I guess.

I forgot to mention about Peyton loosing all of his teeth at one time! They just kept falling out and now he’s all snaggly! haha! Actually he lost one of his front teeth, then he lost the tooth on the other side of the other front tooth..so he looked like a pirate! Then he lost the other front tooth and sometime in there he lost another top tooth. I think it’s cute!

Reece actually started her new room at school last week. I was nervous because the teacher she has has only been there a few months, but ReeRee seems to love her!

And then there’s Griffin! Apparently he HATES school and he HATES me. ha. I try not to let the kids get under my skin when they say ugly things to me because they are mad at me but sometimes…like I don’t know after I’ve spent a TON of money on them for things, it really jabs me when they are mean! I also tell myself that if they think I’m mean every now and then, then that just means I’m doing my job as a mom! Annnnddd this is how he was really looking at me all morning…

If anything, I’m honest!

Road Rage

2011-08-09T15:26:00.002-05:00

Most of y’all I’m sure saw my tweet yesterday about almost getting shot. I really wasn’t kidding, I thought the big ole black lady was indeed going to shoot me or harm me in some way.

I was out running errands for work yesterday and was in a turn lane to turn left onto a main road. For you local peeps I was on University Blvd. making a left onto Lurleen Wallace. Well, for umpteen gagillion years now there has only been one turn lane there. And unless you are looking down at the road you have NO idea that they made the lane beside the main turn lane a turn or go straight lane now!! The traffic was too heavy for me to even see the road in front of me…so I had no clue. Well the lady in the lane to my right started driving straight and then decided that she was going to turn left and almost hit me, so I blew the horn…to keep her from hitting me. Once we turned we were at a red light and she was in front on me. She proceeded to open her door and get out and walk towards my car.

I kid you NOT, my friends!

So I ignored her but acted like I was reaching for something like, I don’t know, a gun! She then got back in her car and said something to her son, who looked to be about 10 years old. He jumped up in the back window and SHOT ME A BIRD!!!!!

I do not kid. That’s how we need to be teaching our kids. Way to go.

Our Weekend

2011-08-08T09:53:00.002-05:00

I’m going to try my best to get back on the bloggy train! I’ve just had blogger’s block I guess! We went to the beach for several days last week and didn’t really even take enough pictures to do a blog post with! Lazy, maybe?

My step-sister, Katie, is getting married in a few weeks. Allison and I are hosting a lingerie shower for her at my house! Sounds fun! And it will be except I still don’t feel settled enough! So I spent a lot of my weekend trying to settle in a little more!

The kids wanted to cook, so we did! They made Whoopie Pies…which were Yummo! And they also made those little english muffin pizzas that we made a while back! Well, I should say Reece made the whoopie pies because the only thing the boys wanted to do was put the sprinkles on!

Yesterday was Open House at the boys’ new school! I was SO nervous because they don’t post the class rolls outside of the school anywhere beforehand. You have to just walk to where the classrooms your grade is and the list is posted outside the door! Insane? I think so! It really ended up not being too bad, once we figured out where the classrooms might be. The teachers were SUPER nice and very welcoming for us newbies! Peyton’s teacher actually taught Allison! I remember her from elementary school and she was so nice and a great teacher so I’m excited about that! She was also excited when she found out that Peyton came from the same school she used to teach at! :)

Here’s to my favorite 2nd and 3rd grader having a fantabulous new school year!!!!

Wordless Wednesday:Sassy Crab!

2011-07-27T14:23:00.002-05:00

House decorating: Reece’s Room!

2011-07-18T15:28:00.002-05:00

Let the decorating begin! :)

I’m pretty much done with Reece’s room. For me, that was the easiest room in the house. She’s at an easy age to decorate for and girly things are not hard to find! I already mentioned that her room was done in owls and we finished her mural last night so now I can post pics! When I bought her bedding at Target they had these sticky wall decals that matched the bedding. I usually don’t go for that sort of thing but the owls were just too cute to pass up…so I bought it.

Here’s what we started with… And a fresh out of the tub princess to help… Hubs did most of it on his own..go figure.

Sleepy little helper… She was SO excited to help him! And the finished wall Close up of the SUPER cute lamp! The mushroom pull sold me!

Sweet girls ready for bed! Daisy is yawning, not screaming! haha Chippie chip helped too, but she STILL hates my camera…

I still have little things to do around the room but for the most part it’s done and the princess LOVES it!

Wordless Wednesday-I Gots the Fever!

2011-07-13T10:46:00.002-05:00

Oh the joys of a new house…

2011-07-12T09:51:00.002-05:00

Oh geeze! I have a mess! Let me start out by saying that when I said we were redoing our house that we were moving into I mean we redid pretty much everything! New roof, new heat/cool system, added a bathroom, new paint, new flooring, new cabinets…lots of stuff. Pretty much the only thing we left alone was the hot water heater because it seemed to be fine.

This morning I woke up, showered, took the little dogs outside to potty and started putting on my make-up. Chippie went back to bed and Daisy was running around the house like a maniac trying to see which kid she could wake up. Everybody else in the house was still asleep when all of a sudden I heard a really loud noise and then a gush of water and then just water water water…

Scared the bejesus outta me!

So I ran around the house trying to figure out what was going on. I got to the laundry room, flung the door open to a room FULL of water and water was gushing I mean GUSHING from the top of the hot water heater. I screamed for Josh, he came running and turned it off.

The plumbers were there within the hour and now it is fixed.

Thank goodness because I HATE cold showers!!!

And now let me tell you how flippin fabulous my husband is! You know how I talked about allllll those boxes yesterday? Well, when I got home from work, the kids rooms were unpacked! I heart him. I honestly would rather him do the unpacking, especially the kids rooms because he is a really good organizer and yours truly is NOT. I wish wish wish I was but I’m just not an organized person…don’t get me wrong, I LOVE for things to have a place…I just have issues finding the best way for them to have a place. Does that even make sense?

And speaking of Officer Hubby, he goes back to work tonight. Boo. He’s been off for a little over a week and I think he should be a stay at home dad! I kid.

Boxes, Boxes, BOXES!!

2011-07-11T16:21:00.002-05:00

We’re all moved in!!! But we are MOST definitely not unpacked! I’m just going to take my time and have everything exactly where I want it…even if it’s the garbage can! Everywhere you turn there’s a box. I have the kitchen unpacked but that’s the only room I’m good with right now! How cute are they?!

First Night!

2011-07-08T10:43:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was CRAZY! The first Thursday of every month is usually my SUPER busy day…and it was! PLUS I had to visit my OB/GYN for my yearly check up so that threw things off. OH and about an hour before my appointment Allison and I were coming back to the office after lunch and heard a noise in my car. We looked and there was a big chunk of metal in my tire..so I had to drop off my car at the tire place to be fixed and take her car to my appointment! Not to mention that that yearly appointment is just not fun.

My afternoon got a little more exciting when Officer Hubby called to tell me that we would be spending the night in our new house! He has worked his butt off all week getting things moved!(With the help of my Daddy, Brother and his Dad!)

Most of our things are moved in and we spent a little time putting things away. Josh was in the laundry room and heard the breaker for the hot water heater flip…then we smelled smoke!!! Freaked my freak! So we turned it off and the smoke smell went away. Then poor hubs had to spend about an hour convincing me that the house was NOT going to burn down last night and that it was ok for us to stay there!

We were SO excited about being in our new house! Maybe a little too excited because none of us could wind down enough to get to sleep at a decent hour. It was probably close to 11 when the kids and I crashed on the couch watching The Jungle Book! Sometime around 11:30ish Josh put all the kids in bed and woke me up so that we could get in bed. Then we tossed and turned for a while and maybe drifted off to sleep a little when I heard Reece crying. I jumped out of bed and couldn’t see a dang thing!!!!

The country is freakin’ dark folks!

DARK!

So I felt my way around until I found a light switch and ran to check on her. She was kind of crying in her sleep so I laid with her until she was asleep good again. I don’t really want to start a habit of sleeping with her so I went back to our bed. About an hour later she was crying again. And again I made my way to her room and she was shaking and crying!!!! :( Apparently she was having a bad dream so I took her to our bed where we all slept peacefully for the few hours that were left of the night.

Judge me if you want, I don’t care! My sleep is IMPORTANT! :)

This morning I woke up to get ready for work and had to take a cold shower because of the hot water heater being jacked up. That was fun.

Reece woke up and came in the bathroom where I was showering and was just talking about random things and then she said, “I hope those mens who shot us are gone!”

ohhh emmm geee!!!!

She WAS having a nightmare!!! Poor baby! I felt so bad for her! And I am even more glad that I just let her sleep with us last night.

Our sweet baby nephew is spending the night tonight! Here’s to it being WAY less stressful than last night!!!

House Stuff!

2011-07-01T08:28:00.002-05:00

Looks like we’re officially moving the 9th! This week has been pretty stressful trying to make sure people are doing their jobs.

Don’t you worry your pretty little heads though!

I communicated.

Things will be done MY way. The end.

We are SO excited to move, but I am going to miss our little house we’re in now! There were SO many memories made there! I know there will be new memories to make but still!

And speaking of new memories I was looking at Josh’s notes for the blinds and noticed this…

We’re already calling the spare bedroom the “baby’s room”!

LOVE!

Reece is SO ready for a baby sister! Hope she doesn’t mind too much if it’s a boy! :)

Stephen and Samantha’s Wedding

2011-06-28T14:40:00.002-05:00

The wedding was perfect! Y’all just don’t know how worried I was about ALL THREE of my kids cooperating…well not necessarily “cooperating” but just making sure all three were where they were supposed to be at all times and whatnot. I was mostly worried about Reece because when she’s around strangers she is SO shy. I was the same way when I was little. But she did great! And so did my sweet boys!

I have no pictures of the reception, I took my camera and everything else to the car right before the wedding because I didn’t want to have to keep up with it. And it was so hot I didn’t want to go to the car and get it back out! ha!

When it came time for the father/daughter dance the bride requested that all the daddies and daughters join them…so Josh and Reece had a little dance. Then when it came time for the mother/son dance they requested that the mothers and sons dance. Griffin was sitting at my feet and looked up at me with those big blue eyes and asked me to dance with him. I immediately teared up and then he said, “But I’m too scared” and started crying! He felt SO bad that he was too scared. I, of course, told him it didn’t matter! And we had a pity party! hahah!

Later on he asked me to dance again, and this time he was FOR REAL! So we danced to Sweet Home Alabama! :)

My sweet baby girl and my sweet niece E! It’s SO hard to get four kids to look and smile at the same time! My sweet little fam! Josh’s oldest brother, his wife and baby girl! Griff and Pey with PawPaw H!

Josh with his parents, brothers and sister! Paw Paw and Granna with their grandbabies! Josh with his parents I’ll post reception pics when I find someone to borrow them from! hee hee!

Barnyard, Broke Leg and a Wedding! :)

2011-06-22T09:46:00.002-05:00

Haha! How’s that for a title!

Last weekend we went to my cousin’s little girls birthday party at The Barnyard! So much fun! It was hot as blazes, but anything you do around here this time of year is hot!

Feeding the fish and ducks!

Me and Pamela, aka the birthday girls mommy!(totally cropped my ta-ta’s outta this one! You are welcome.)

Birthday girl, Malerie, feeding the fish and ducks…

Remember Roxie the baby goat from the last time we went? She’s grown… My little diva!

Wondering why there’s not a lot of pictures of PeyPey?? Halfway through the party he apparently got too hot and started throwing up! Not fun. So we had to bail on the party early. :( But we still had fun while we were there!

So about the broke leg. Saturday afternoon I was about to get dressed for a wedding shower when my cell phone started blowing up. My Daddy and sister Kelsie were calling. I called back and Kelsie was crying…my first thought was that Kelsie’s friend who had a really bad wreck the night before had died(more on that later)but, all I could get out of her was that Gigi had fallen out by their pool and was being taken by ambulance to the hospital and her leg was broken. eeek! So I threw on some clothes, ran by Kelsie’s work and picked her up and headed to the hospital. We were there before the ambulance arrived so we stood around until it got there. When they finally arrived and opened up the doors all we could see was her leg…and it was VERY apparent that it was broken.

The x-rays showed that both of the bones in her lower leg were broke, one of them in two places…so it was broken in THREE places total. :( Sooooo a plate and seven screws later, she’s on the mend!

The wedding I mentioned is Josh’s younger brother. All three kiddos are in it and this momma’s a little nervous! Reece doesn’t like strangers, doesn’t like being the center of attention and doesn’t like anyone but me or Josh taking her picture.

Yep, we’re in trouble!

Summer Fun!

2011-06-15T09:12:00.002-05:00

Where have we been? EVERYWHERE! Since the storm on April 27th I really have just not had the time to blog. I have had a few breaks but then I’m too tired! If you don’t live in or around Tuscaloosa I really wish you could have seen the devastation and where this town is now. It’s amazing! We have come SO far in such a short time.

Griffin and Peyton are enjoying being out of school for the summer! They find water somewhere just about everyday whether it’s a pool or a splash pad!

Reece got her hair wacked off! I wanted it trimmed up so I asked her about getting it cut. To my surprise she wanted it as short as mine! She was pretty adamant about that but I just wasn’t ready. I like to be able to throw it up in a pony tail and go!

Before…

And several inches later.. After…

Sassy pants.

Oh and how cute is that outfit?!? My friend Donna made it. Lucky for me she makes Reece cute stuff all the time! I wish I could sew. If I had the time I would SO take that on!

I have to get to work but I still have to blog about a fun party we went to this weekend at the Barnyard! :)

Heaven is For Real!!

2011-06-05T19:38:00.007-05:00

Oh my word! Have you read this book?!?

I read it cover to cover in two sittings! TWO. And I don't like to read. And I'm too ADD to read an entire book in two sittings! It was that good! Hubs read it all at once, I'm not that good.

It's about a little boy who had appendicitis and almost died....a few months later he starts talking about things he saw in Heaven...that's all I'm saying. Read it!

It definitely clarified some things for me about Heaven. I never had doubts about going to Heaven, but I've heard some pretty good arguements about whether or not we would "know" the same people we know here on earth. Like people who have died before us, did we really get to see them again?? I've always thought so but doubted after I heard some people talking. Babies that were lost to miscarrage...if you have lost a baby, read the book. I also wondered about animals and that was clarified for me too!

Go read it!

Baseball and Pedicures!

2011-05-27T12:46:00.002-05:00

Didn’t win the championship! boo. That’s ok though because after only winning three games in the regular season we did pretty darn well to even make it to the championship! :) I’m glad baseball is over for the year!

Here are some highlights from our week full of baseball!

This was after we won the game that meant we were playing for the championship! They were a little excited…

After that game Griffin got the game ball! My little nephew is so dang cute! And he LOVES his Reece! These are the only ones that I can post from last night! The others have our last name on them! My two CLEARLY have the silly face down pat!

Now on to pedicures!

Reece had her first “real” pedicure this week! We like to get our toes did! :) haha! When we first arrived at the nail place she picked orange polish. There was a little bit of a wait and she kept changing her mind..after orange it was green and then she ended up picking blue!

I’m so thankful to have a daughter who I can do “girl stuff” with!

Rest In Peace Trevor Phillips! *Updated

2011-05-26T09:07:00.003-05:00

For those of you who don’t live around here, we lost a police officer in the line of duty this past Saturday.

Officer Trevor Phillips was a motorcycle cop and was working a funeral procession. Someone in the procession decided they didn’t want to be in it anymore and turned out, hitting Officer Phillips.

What a waste of a life. Just because someone wasn’t paying attention his wife and kids are left alone. My heart aches for his wife. I don’t know how I would handle myself if this was me.

**Updated-Officer Phillips was not married and didn't have any children. I was told wrong so I wanted to correct myself! :)

We were at the ballpark when Josh got the call and I could tell in his voice that something was very wrong. Our police officers have been going through SO much in the last month since the tornado, this is another blow. Please keep them in your prayers!

His funeral is today. Visitation from 2-4. The public is asked to attend the procession, I’m going to try to make it over there if I can get off work in time!

And just in case you missed my tweet last night, Griffin and Peyton play for the championship tonight! Go Cardinals! :)

Baseball

2011-05-25T10:56:00.002-05:00

I think I’ve mentioned that the boys are on the same baseball team this year. It’s so much easier than running back and forth between fields trying not to miss anything! This baseball season has most definitely been a far cry from last season, when we didn’t lose any games! As a matter of fact, in the regular season we didn’t win but just a couple of games! I could really care less, I just want them to have fun!

Tournaments started this past Saturday. For those of you who don’t play baseball yet, once you lose two games in the tournament you are out. So Saturday we had two games and I fully expected to be done with baseball for the year! I know that’s terrible to say but I just didn’t think we would win! Well, we won one and lost one! :) So that meant that we were still in it and we had to play Monday night. Again, I thought we would FOR SURE be done that night. Nope, we won again! These boys have just turned themselves around! Then we played last night and I thought absolutely positively without a doubt in my mind that we would lose….NOPE! hahahaha! So we play the same team we played last night again tonight and if we beat them….wait for it…

We’ll play for the championship Thursday night! :)

And, now, at this point I hope we take it all! Might as well! :)

Griffin’s Aquarium Field Trip!

2011-05-24T16:46:00.002-05:00

Slowly but surely I will catch up my friends!!

Last Thursday Josh and I went to the Georgia Aquarium with Griffin’s class! SO SO fun! We had to be at the school at 5:45am, which meant we had to drop Peyton and Reece off at Allison’s at 5:30am, now THAT’s sisterly love! ha! She took them to school and picked them up and handled things until we got back into town at 6pm!

Griffin had to ride the charter bus on the trip to Atlanta, but Josh and I drove my car. I’m all about helping but I would have lost my mind and would have been SICK. AS. A. DOG. on that bus. I get car sick SUPER easily.

Anyway, when we first arrived we figured out where the buses would be coming in. We waited and waited and waited! The dolphin show that we were scheduled to see started at 11:00am and it was 10 til 11 when the buses pulled up! Talk about a mad dash to get all those kids in there on time! My crew wanted to sit in the spash zone, of course! So we did! NO photography is allowed in the dolphin show and they are SUPER SUPER SUPER strict on that rule. The show was AMAZING!!!! If you visit the aquarium do not miss that show!! It was kind of like a play and the dolphins were acting out parts. They are SO smart. I always knew they were but this was impressive!

After the show we met at Centennial Park for lunch and then we spent an hour and a half just looking around the aquarium. The pictures pretty much speak for themselves! I will say though, we like the Chattanooga Aquarium better! I liked seeing the dolphins and whale sharks in Atlanta but if you have kids, Chattanooga is much more kid friendly! Not just the aquarium, the whole downtown area!

You wanna see my skinny hubby?!?!

Freak my freak!

This little guy was SO cute! He was playing with Griff, putting his hands on Griff’s hands!

Dory!!

Nine Years!

2011-05-18T14:51:00.002-05:00

Today Josh and I have been married for NINE years! I love him so much!

It’s funny because nine years ago I thought that people who had been married for nine years were OLD! hahahaha! We’re only 29! While nine years seems like a long time, it really has just flown by. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long at all. But then if I think back at everything that’s happened in those nine years it seems like a lot!

My sister, Kelsie, is keeping the kiddos so we can have a little date! It definitely won’t be a late one because we have to be up at 4am to go on a field trip with Griffin’s class!

Did you hear me?? 4 AM!!!

I haven’t seen 4 am since Reece was a baby! hahahaha! I can’t wait though! It’s going to be SO fun! In case you didn’t see my tweets the other day, Griffin’s teacher found out last Friday that she has Leukemia. :( She had breast cancer about a year ago and apparently this is stemming from the treatments from that. She started her new treatments yesterday, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray for her! We just love her so much! We will miss her on the field trip!

AND PS…My husband is skinny! He’s lost I don’t even know how much weight! He is smaller now than he was when we got married! I wanted to put a picture of us on this post but he doesn’t even look the same in any of the ones I have!!!

Life

2011-05-13T19:56:00.002-05:00

Life right now for us is crazy busy! My job has been busy for the obvious reasons and so has Josh’s. He’s done working storm overtime though so that’s good! We missed him!

I don’t remember if I blogged about it or not but we did finally close on our house!!! :) So we’re busy getting things going with the upgrades! SUPER excited!! I have been really bad about getting things for the house…decorating wise, like bedding. The only room right now that I’m done with is Reece’s! Her room is going to be done in owls! It’s oh SO cute! I think we’re going to paint her room yellow! The boys and I can’t agree on bedding for their rooms…I’m about to use the “mom trump” and just get what I want.

While I was at work on Wednesday I found out that someone wanted to look at our house on Friday morning! We weren’t planning to put our house on the market until we moved out so we had to get it “show ready” in less than two days! That was NOT easy my friends! And it ended up being a big fat waste of time because the people failed to tell us that they can’t move until December!

Anyway, just wanted y’all to know that we haven’t fallen off the face of the earth!

Torn Together

2011-05-01T19:57:00.002-05:00

We’re definitely not torn apart here in Tuscaloosa!!! Everyone has come together! The outpouring of love and support right now in this city is unbelievable. Seriously “Thank You” will never be enough! It makes my heart warm to see this but at the same time my heart aches for the families affected by this.

We WILL get through this.

Hubby is obviously having to work a lot right now. And that’s fine. But it leaves me not being able to volunteer as much as I would like to. Friday around 10:30 I found out about someone who needed to get back to Gulf Shores that was here before the storm. Poor guy had not been to Tuscaloosa since 1993 and this is what went on while he was here. So I talked it over with the hubs and had myself and kids packed and in the car within an hour! My parents still didn’t have power and I knew my brother and sister were getting a little stir crazy so they came too! We packed out the Yukon! :) We came home late last night. Our hearts were never far from T-town and I felt a guilty for not being home, but I knew this man needed to get home and we loved the mental break!

I still have those pictures to post. I want to post them. But I feel guilty. If that was my house I don’t think I would mind…but you just never know how you will feel about that until it’s you with everything you own scattered everywhere.

We have 26 rental houses that are damaged or completely gone. That’s the count right now anyway. We finally can go back to work tomorrow because we have power now. First thing on the agenda is to find our tenants. Some have called so I know they are ok, but we haven’t heard from all of them.

Please continue to pray for us as we continue on this journey.

We’re ok…

2011-04-28T12:56:00.002-05:00

…but our city is destroyed. Gone. This is so devastating. I can't stop crying and thinking about what everyone is going through. We watched the tornado on TV ripping our town apart. It was HUGE. Had to be an F5. Soon after Josh headed in to work...he couldn't stand it, had to go. It was mass chaos and still is.

IF YOU ARE NOT TRAINED TO BE HELPING GO HOME!!!! You are not doing anything but causing more issues.

Right now the death toll in our city is at 36. Josh really doesn't see how it will end up being less than 100. When he called me last night to tell me that they had just found a five year old dead I just lost it and haven't really contained myself since.

There are kids at shelters that can't find their parents.

There are A LOT of people still missing. People are getting pissy with the cops for trying to do their jobs....

Right now Josh is working 12 hour shifts and all off days are suspended until further notice.

We have ALOT of rental property in a major area that was hit(Alberta for you locals). I am sure we have total destruction over there and I am worried about it but mostly I am REALLY worried about our tenants. I need them to be ok but it doesn't look good.

We tried to get some assessment done this morning so that we can get people into houses but we really couldn’t do anything for all the spectators. VERY annoying. But I did get some pictures.

The cross still stands!

Well I have more pictures to post but for some reason I can’t. I will post them as soon as I can.]

I’m off to love on my babies!!

Tornados and Black Eyes!

2011-04-27T10:35:00.002-05:00

And, no, I absolutely have NOT forgot to post about Easter! Just haven’t had time yet!

Our weather has been insane lately. It is NOT fun to wake up to this! Scary stuff. And our fabulous weather man, James Spann, is saying that that was NOTHING compared to what’s coming our way this afternoon. I am about to puke I am SO scared. Josh is at training which is at the shooting range which is almost to the county north of us…the boys are at Allison’s house with her and Noah…Reece is at school and I am at work! Getting nothing accomplished. We are closing early because last time we had a storm come through we ended up across the street at the police department for the whole afternoon. (Which was GREAT, they took VERY good care of us! ;) ) BUT, this momma likes to have her chickens in the nest!!! So I want everyone at home, in the safe spot!

Please pray for ALL of us this afternoon. I know it’s going to be bad.

Ok, onto black eyes. The boys share a room(until we move!!!!). Sometime in the middle of the night Peyton kicked Griffin in his sleep and gave him a black eye!!!!How sad is he? I’m going to take a better picture tonight, I just didn’t have time this morning so I got Allison to snap one with her phone and send it to me! He is mortified! He was so glad school was closed today so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed! I teared up when he told me that!

And if you know us in real life, DO NOT say you saw this picture on here! He will KILL me! I mean it! K, thanks!

Also, Peyton apparently was sucking on his own lip in the middle of the night and has a hickey all the way up to his nose?!?!?! What does my kid do in his sleep?????!!!!

Reece’s Zoo Trip!

2011-04-22T20:08:00.002-05:00

Reece had her very first field trip today! It was to the zoo and Josh and I were both able to go! We loved that we got to spend time with just her! The zoo was VERY crowded with today being Good Friday and Earth day plus a super awesome new exhibit opened yesterday so lots of people were coming to see it! We had the best time, but it started out a little aggravating! We were told to be at the zoo at 9 am, we had all prepaid and had to go in as a group. Well, the teachers didn’t show up until 9:30!!! I was not happy. There were also several parents that didn’t show up until late. If you know me in real life you know that I can NOT stand tardiness!! HUGE pet peeve! My thinking is I have three kids and I am rarely EVER late! So, what’s the big deal with being ON TIME?? Makes me nuts! You know what time you have to be somewhere so wake up early or whatever and get yourself in gear! I was extra mad because we had to be back in town by 2:30 to pick up Griffin and Peyton from school. So they were wasting my precious time with my baby girl and that’s not cool!

Then, once we were in the zoo everyone wanted to stick together. Which was fine until everyone started lolly gagging around! gah! So we ended up doing our own thing with Reece’s boyfriend and his parents! It was great because Josh has known the little boys dad for a long time so they hit it off and so did I with his mom!Train ride! Reece and Lawson…. They walked around holding hands!!!! OMG! This bull elephant is part of the new African exhibit…it’s a really nice addition to the zoo! Poor elephant only has one tusk! I heart them! The other bull elephant… We didn’t get to feed to lorikeets today, they were on a 20 minute break when we went in and we didn’t want to wait! BUT we did find out that they can shoot poop 6 feet!!!!! ha! Ok, the giraffes. I love them and all but we got a little disturbed here! ha! There is a little giraffe that is about a year or so old. She was standing close to the fence eating and the daddy giraffe came over to her. Then she peed and then he…

wait for it….

DRANK HER PEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I. do. not. kid. Goat love! And because you need to know someone loves Daisy as much as I do…

All in all we had so much fun today!!! Can’t wait until next month when we go on a field trip to the Georgia Aquarium with Griff’s class!!! Hope you all have a happy Easter!!!

Blog Funk

2011-04-20T09:55:00.002-05:00

I guess I have bloggers block. Last night Josh said, “ I wish you and your sister would blog about something!” When the hubby notices you haven’t blogged, that’s pretty bad! I really just feel like I don’t have anything to write about right now!

That’s funny because three kids always give me something to write about!

I could talk about Griffin thinking he deserved $40 for a homerun he hit.

I could talk about the NIGHTMARE I had last night. I woke up sweating and in tears.

I could talk about Peyton talking about the dogs “utters”. bhahahahahahahaaaaa!

We’re still waiting to close on our house. Supposed to close by the 30th… I’m VERY anxious for that to happen. Once we close it will probably take us about two weeks to do the renovations we have planned. Lucky for us all the people needed to do that are all at my fingertips all the time! Word.

We’ve been packing a lot but we are really at the point right now that I don’t want to pack anything else until I know a more “for sure” date of closing!

I’m SO ready to be in our new house! It feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere but it’s only 10 minutes down the interstate. So peaceful and quiet and we’ll have FOUR acres of land to roam! :)

Ok, enough rambling for today! We have a busy jam packed weekend coming up!

Meet Spike the Devastator!

2011-04-13T10:53:00.002-05:00

Peyton’s class is studying recycling. They had a little project to do. They were to make a trash monster! It was really perfect timing for us because, since we’re packing to move, Josh had just gone through the boys’ toys and ~~thrown every toy they have away~~ packed what they need to keep and discarded the rest!

I love school projects! Hubby handled this one on his own. The monster even has a light up eye! AND makes a crushing noise! He’s the bomb.com! HA!

Made completely outta trash!

Twenty-Nine, Baseball and My Hero!

2011-04-08T16:02:00.002-05:00

I’ve been 29 for a week now! Feels the same as 28! ha! The boys had a ballgame on my birthday so it was spent at the ballpark! I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way! I love watching them play!

And speaking of baseball, Griffin hit a home run last night! He was SO excited! And so were we! Then on his next hit he got a triple, Peyton was up to bat next and hit Griff in! I love it when that happens-when one or the other hits the other one in! Peyton is still adjusting to the pitching machine but he’s doing really well too!

Sometime last week Josh had a call at work that involved a lady that had a pace maker/defibulator. The defibulator was malfunctioning and kept shocking the poor lady! She lives in an apartment and her neighbors heard her screaming “I’m being hit” and called the cops! Josh got there and the poor lady was terrified! She told Josh to hit her in the back to stop it but that didn’t work. She really thought that she was going to die but Josh got her calm and told her he wasn’t going to let her die while he was there! Finally the ambulance arrived and got her to the hospital and I think she is fine now. She sent the hubby a really sweet card with a long letter thanking him and some balloons! It’s nice to feel appreciated! And it’s nice to be married to a hero! (He says it’s just his job, but whatev!) OH and I added the baseball schedule on here so everyone can just check and see when the games are! Scroll all the way to the top and look to the left!

House!

2011-03-31T13:00:00.002-05:00

We had an offer accepted yesterday on a house that we LOVE! :) So exciting! I don’t want to say too much until I have the keys in my hands, but I don’t see any reason for this to not happen and I do this for a living! :)

This happened a year to the date of my Maw Maw E. passing away. I woke up sad and it was raining. I got the call just after lunch that it had been accepted. You can’t tell me that she didn’t have anything to do with that! After all we’ve been through with this house stuff! Months and months of searching, falling in love with something and nothing going through.

AND AND AND tomorrow is my birthday! So I got an early birthday present!

Daisy

2011-03-28T14:21:00.002-05:00

I’ve wanted a Maltese for a LONG time. In fact, I was going to get Bella before Allison did but then changed my mind and we decided to have Reece instead!(best decision ever!) So I talked Allison into getting her! AND we bought her sister for my Mom!

My Mom already had one, she’s like 13 years old now, my grandfather has one…they’re everywhere in my family. They are just the best little dogs and they are hypoallergenic! No shedding whatsoever! They are also super smart and kid friendly!

Sooooooo, Allison’s groomer called her last week and told her she had someone who had a three year old female that is potty trained AND fixed for FREE! Her name is Daisy. My mom happened to be with Allison when the groomer called and my mom thought my granddad would want her. And he did. But no one was thinking about his 11 year old SPOILED FREAKIN’ ROTTEN Maltese(JJ) that he already has! So he took her and well, JJ was super jealous and Daisy would not mind! That really stressed Granddaddy out and he told mom to find her a home. Meanwhile I told Mom that I needed one. And she said that I should take Daisy. Sounded great but I had to talk to my boss, aka Officer Hubby!

I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was going to say no. I KNEW IT! So I had to make sure he was in a good mood, and that the timing was just right! bhahahahaha! This is really funny to me now, but this really was my thought process! Hubby is very laid back and easy going so I knew that if he knew I really wanted it he would let me get it. I bit the bullet and asked him..after chewing off every single nail I had. I told him it was completely up to him. He said, “I mean, I don’t want her.” So I said, “ok.” Then I just sat there watching him play on the computer and he said, “Well if you want her then get her!” I said, “OK” as I was running out the door. haha! I told him I was just going to run down to Granddaddy’s to see if I wanted her. He laughed and knew I’d be back with another dang dog! ha!

That makes 4 for those of you counting. One is his.

Here she is…

I mean, who COULD resist that sweet little face?!?!? She loves to cuddle and she slept with the boys last night, all on her own! They LOVED it!

I was a little worried about how Chippie would react because she is the Queen and always will be! She likes her too! So there.

And just when you thought you were done with this little story…there’s more!

After hubby got home from work this morning(the rest of us were already gone) he was sitting in the living room petting Daisy. She ran over to the front door and whined. So he thought she needed to potty. So he opened the door and out she went like a bat outta hell! GONE! He chased her barefoot in the rain around and around our neighborhood! He finally had to call me to come home from work and help him catch her! I went flying home and as I whipped it into the neighborhood I saw her running towards the entrance! I stopped and she ran from me!!!!Thankfully one of our neighbors stopped to help and she jumped in his car with him! I really don’t know what would have happened had she not done that!

Josh was SO SO mad! I would have been too. He literally chased her about 15 times around our neighborhood! So their relationship has gotten off to a rocky start! eek!

Hopefully that won’t happen again!

Go Lucy Go!

2011-03-23T10:07:00.002-05:00

Little people really melt me! I LOVE kids. Just in case you hadn’t noticed! If Josh and I could afford 50 kids, we’d be the next Duggar family…no doubt in my mind.

I came across this blog about 3 weeks ago. Sweet Lucy has brain cancer. She stays on my mind all the time. I think of how their life was “normal” just like mine…kids running around the house, baseball practice, gymnastics…every day life until one day when all of a sudden Lucy couldn’t walk or use the bathroom. In a day their lives were turned upside down out of nowhere. As a mom I can tell you that this is EVERY parents worst nightmare. I can not imagine having a sick baby and not being able to “fix” it.

You should visit Lucy’s Mom’s blog if you haven’t already and add her to your prayer list! Read back and you will be SHOCKED at all the things this little 5 year old baby girl has gone through in just a short 20-something days. You can click on her picture above and it will take you there!

Pure Sunshine!

2011-03-21T16:08:00.002-05:00

We had a relaxing, fun time at the beach! We did a little house talking on the way down but after that neither one of us mentioned it until we were on our way home! Made my brain feel better! ha! I was almost to the point of just choosing a house as long as it had five bedrooms and a toilet. I kid, but I was SICK of it!

Other than the kids watching movies we(me and Josh) didn’t watch TV or even take a computer with us! That means no Twitter, Facebook or blogs for four days! It was NICE! I am so out of the loop but I don’t even care! ha!

We just did a whole lot of playing on the beach and a whole lot of eating! Y’all know I got me some Cuban Nachos! Twice!

The first day we were on the beach we went to one of the busier areas. The water was crystal clear and knee deep pretty far out. The boys were out playing in the water and there were a few teenage boys out there too. We were just sitting there watching G and P when we saw one of the teenagers tell G and P to go up on the beach. Griffin and Peyton ran up to us and told us that there was a shark in the water! Keep in mind this is mid-day, not a typical time for a shark to be eating. Everyone jumped up to try to see it but it was gone. After about an hour we decided, along with the 500 other people on the beach, that the water was safe again and we let the boys go back in the water. A few minutes later Griffin came running up to me and said, “MOM I JUST SAW A HAMERHEAD SHARK IN THE WATER!” Well, there was a log out there at the time and Josh has super duper eye sight and was watching the boys like a hawk and said that it was just the log… I wanted Griffin to not be afraid and so I said to him, “it’s ok, there are no hammerhead’s in this water.”

Ha ha ha hahaha.

Oh about 20 minutes later Peyton made a girl friend(girl friend NOT girlfriend!) and was swimming with her. All of a sudden Josh jumped up out of his chair like a bottle rocket and yelled for them to get out of the water…about 10 feet away from Peyton, swimming TOWARDS him was a hammerhead shark.

I. DO. NOT. KID.

It was only about three feet long so it surely wasn’t going to try and have him for lunch! It was obvious it was very young.

A few minutes after that the little fellow swam up on the beach! I guess it was just lost?!?! I don’t know. It made for a very exciting day though!

But it freaked a momma out.

The remaining time we were there we went back to our secret spot! We love it there because there aren’t many people there at all!

But this spot did not disappoint when it came to sea life! We had action there too! There were several really big jellyfish-basketball size, tons of fish, Griffin caught a cute little fish with his bare hands AND he caught a star fish! Hubs also caught a little baby crab. Oh and we ALWAYS see dolphins at this spot and they are my FAV! G studied the oceans and sea life earlier in the year at school so he knows everything about everything! :)

So here are the pics because I’m sure that’s what you came here for in the first place!

I swear on a Mt. Dew that he DOES eat!

I LOVE this man! Do y’all here me?!?!?!

Uh huh..got caught! This picture really cracks me up…

…because this is how we normally are!

I could have sat here for days! It may sound cliché, but I fall more and more in love with my little family anytime we get out of town for a few days!

Zulily, Part 2

2011-03-15T16:35:00.002-05:00

If you didn’t see my first post read it first.

A few days after I sent the ugly email asking what the heck was going on I received an email stating my order had been shipped and it included a tracking number and stated that UPS would deliver my package…

I tried to track the package and the UPS website said that it wasn’t “trackable” yet and to wait 3 days and if it still wasn’t trackable then to contact the shipper…

so I PATIENTLY waited the three days and guess what!!!! Still not trackable!

Can you buuulllieve it???!

I emailed them and explained things AGAIN…

Then I got a little irritated and started doing a little digging and guess what I found out…

they gave me a freakin’ bogus tracking number!

Who’d a thunk it?!

Meanwhile I got an email back saying that they had to wait like 14 days to consider it lost in transit…

HAHAHA!

I was SO ticked at this point. Enough is enough. So I composed myself as much as possible and sent them an email back and told them that I WAS NOT waiting 14 days because they never shipped the dang thing in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!!! GRRR!

I got an email the next day saying that they were “so sorry” and that I should see a refund in 3-5 business days…so I’m waiting on my refund!

DO NOT SHOP THERE FOLKS!

Spring Break!

2011-03-14T16:08:00.003-05:00

It’s Spring Break around here! I won’t be off work the entire week but there is NO traffic in the mornings! LOVE IT! And I love that the boys get to sleep in every day!

We are heading to the beach for a few days later in the week and that can NOT come soon enough! Momma needs a break! Daddy needs a break! Mostly from stressing about our next house. FYI it’s WAY more stressful to buy/build your second home. We plan to get somewhere and STAY for a long time. That being said, if we stay for a while we need 5 bedrooms. That’s alot. Enough said.

Being stressed out makes me want to bake. And so I did! I made YUMMO Oreo cupcakes yesterday!!!

I put a half of an oreo in the bottom…Oh yes I did!

And then I put crushed up oreos in the batter! Oh yes I did!

And they turned out SUPER YUMMY!

Oh yes they did!

In the Line of Duty

2011-03-07T16:45:00.002-06:00

So far in 2011 there have been 35 police officers killed in the line of duty.

THIRTY-FIVE

There have only been 66 days in this year. That’s practically one officer every other day.

That is INSANE and makes me want to puke.

I try so hard not to think about something happening to Officer Hubby but dang. When those numbers slap you in the face you can’t help it.

I feel like I was doing much better with this, but for some reason I’m worried all over again.

I really truly do NOT know what I would do with out him.

Dang, I’m crying.

Zulily

2011-03-02T15:06:00.002-06:00

Ok guys, I feel it’s time for this post. I don’t like to bash companies on my blog but I see SO many of you on Twitter and other people’s blogs raving about how wonderful Zulily is and I am going to share my experience.

I ordered a swimsuit for Reece on February 9th from them. My debit card was charged that same day. My confirmation said that I would receive my order in 10-14 business days. While I think that is a long time when you order something online nowadays I understand their process is a little different. I knew that going in. BUT the 14 business days were up on the 28th and my order is still being “processed”.

I emailed them yesterday to find out what is going on. If I didn’t really really want this swimsuit for her I would just ask for my money back. They explained their process(which I already knew) and said normally it’s 10-14 days but on this particular bathing suit it was 3 weeks. But they told me when I ordered 10-14 days…

This is my first time buying from them and I don’t know if I just got a bad deal this time or what but I really doubt I will be ordering anything else from them.

They have SUPER cute stuff but what good is that if you get screwed around?!?!

New and Improved!

2011-02-27T15:33:00.001-06:00

Soooooo, who greeted you when you visited The Fabulous Five today? Was it Griffin, Peyton or Reece? Or all five of us? Along with the fantastic new blog design each of the kiddies got their very own header! And then there’s one with all of us! :) Love! If you keep refreshing your page you can see all four!

Have I mentioned how flippin’ fabulous my friend Leslie is? She is the best! You need to contact her ASAP and get your blog redone too! Scroll down to the bottom left corner and click on Sweetie Baby’s Custom Blog Design!

Baseball!

2011-02-22T13:13:00.002-06:00

Griffin and Peyton start baseball practice today! Yipee!

This means that Spring really is coming! Yipee!

This is the year that their ages are so that they are on the same team! Double Yipee!!!

We have no idea who their coach is…he left Josh a voicemail yesterday about the practice tonight and Josh couldn’t understand him. I’m a little nervous about Peyton and the pitching machine…but I was nervous about Griff and the pitching machine last year and they got along just fine!

xoxo,

Barnyard Fun!

2011-02-21T09:32:00.001-06:00

The weather around here has been AMAZING for the last week! It’s been in the 70’s and just beautiful. We decided to take the kiddos to The Barnyard on Saturday. They aren’t always open to the public so when I heard they would be, we snagged the chance to go! I’m so glad we did! We had the best time playing with all the animals and they have lots of new babies right now. Y’all know how much I love babies, furry or human! :)

This is Roxie…she could have gone home with The Fabulous Five! Friendliest little baby goat EVER! This sweet little lamb was trying SO hard to figure out how to get back in there with her momma! Some of these pictures were taken with my good camera and some with the camera that the kids throw around…I can definitely tell! HUGE difference in color and quality! I think that camera was our favorite/best investment so far!

xoxo,

Peyton’s PTO Performance!

2011-02-18T16:19:00.001-06:00

Last week Petyon’s class performed at his school’s PTO meeting. And he had a speaking part! :) He was so excited and did a great job! We didn’t have very good seats but thankfully his teacher took pictures and I stole them off of her blog!

He’s the one posing on the left! :) The hubs made it home safe and sound last night! YAY for that. Boo that I got sick yesterday. I don’t know what the deal was, I was super nauseous in the afternoon to the point where I had to leave work. By the time I got home I was achy all over and had a fever. I didn’t sleep well last night, but now I feel fine. Weird.

Tomorrow we are planning a trip to The Barnyard! Can’t wait!

xoxo,

That single parenting thing…

2011-02-16T17:47:00.001-06:00

I told y’all I sucked at it! It wasn’t 10 minutes after I posted that last post when Reece was eating her Valentine candy. I never keep candy in the house so when they get it they go a little crazy with it! So, she had about 5 pieces of candy when I decided that was enough. I was perched on the couch and she was standing in front of me opening a sucker.
Conversation went a little something like this…

“Baby I think you’ve had enough candy for tonight. Let’s let that sucker be the last piece for tonight, ok?”

Y’all she looked at me with out hesitation cut those cute little blue eyes up at me and said…

“No.”

I usually can hold myself together but she just had this look on her face and it just caught me off guard and I LAUGHED AT HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But she still didn’t get anymore candy!

xoxo,

Sweet Valentines!

2011-02-15T19:36:00.002-06:00

I love my little valentines! And I especially love my big valentine! :) Josh and I usually don’t “do” Valentine’s Day but this year he surprised me by being at my office when I got to work(he had just gotten off work). He had a sweet gift and a super sweet letter he wrote me that had me crying like a baby!

The kids made sweet things for me at school and Griffin wrote the sweetest little note in his:

“You are the purterest(prettiest) gal ever cuse(because) you are so nice to me. Thank you for all you have done for me i relly(really) aprecate(appreciate) it. you and dad are the nicest people in the world i am serus(serious)!”

How sweet was that? I AM a good mom! :)

Last night Officer Hubby had to go out of town for work. He and a few other officers from here are taking some classes at the beach! I’m jealous. And if you are a stalker and thinking about kidnapping me or scaring the crap out of me just remember that I have a 100 pound Doberman and a gun. And I know how to use them. BOTH of them. At the same time. Go away!

Hubs will be back in a few days, until then I’m a single mom. I suck at it! Mainly because I’m lonely and miss my nightly foot rub! ha!

xoxo,

Snow!!

2011-02-10T10:21:00.002-06:00

I thought the globe was warming? This has been the coldest, snowiest winter I can remember!

We FINALLY got some snow last night! It seems like all winter it’s been snowing everywhere but here. We’ve had ice and a little bit of snow, but nothing worth playing in. After all the threats of snow we’ve had this year, most of us were wondering if it would really happen. It did!

But our school system did not close today nor open late. :( A few weeks ago they closed an extra day for the ice we had and didn’t really need to be closed but today they could have delayed so that the kids could play a little! I was pretty ticked, especially with us having all the snow forecasts and not getting any..the kiddos kept getting excited and let down! Now that we really got snow they weren’t going to be able to play in it!

So, they checked in school late today! :)

You gotta live a little!

We most definitely were not the only ones with this plan! My facebook is covered with parents saying they are doing the same thing!

Yes, those are socks on Griffin’s hands! He couldn’t find his gloves! And a big fat RTR on campus on my way to take Reece to school!

Now I’m ready for spring! I do not like cold weather!

xoxo,