Thursday

An unusual day today in that I took only one picture--this one of Rhett after school. He had a Kleenex held against his bottom tooth when he climbed in the car because he'd pushed on it too much and made it bleed a little bit. It's really loose now, but he told me not to pull it because Miss J has a cool, special "tooth necklace" that you get to wear for the day if you loose a tooth during school hours. :)

Alexee packed herself and R an after-school snack ("sree" [3] Oreos and a juice pouch each), and we went to the park after picking R up. It was 82 degrees today! Crosby loved swinging again today. Rhett pushed him for a while, which C thought was funny. R and A also held C while going down the slide a few times, and they all enjoyed that.

We had an early dinner because the kids were already hungry when we got home from playing at the park. Lane got home in time to take R to soccer practice. While reading to Alexee tonight I realized something that made me a little sad...she no longer says "w" in place of "l" (now little instead of wittle, Daddy's name is Lane instead of Wane", etc.). She can also say Crosby's name correctly now instead of "Troveys". I noticed that for the first time just a week or so ago, and I'm going to miss her cute name for him. One of my favorite words to hear her use right now is "actually".

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday and we don't have any big plans for the weekend. Just one soccer game. We've been out of town two weekends in a row--and both super fun!--but I'm glad I don't have to tackle packing 4 suitcases in the morning!

Petting Zoo

We made a quick after-school trip to visit my sister yesterday. We wanted to see her and the kids of course, but we also wanted to meet Max. Alexee loved playing with him. I think Rhett loved aggravating him (trying to get him to eat rocks, pulling his tail, etc...typical boy stuff). I like Max's little mouth because it looks like he is smiling all the time. :) Here are a few pictures of us playing outside:

Alexee said, "Hey Momma, make my picture with the goat." I think it's so cute how she posed with her arm around him.

Cousins are great! Rhett and Jaiden are always happy to see each other. Jaiden said she should just skip her school today and go to school with Rhett for the day instead.

One of my favorite picture of the day: Rhett pulling the goat's tail--ha! And Alexee and Jeryn calling the horses.

For fear of us getting bored with a goat, my sister took us over to her friend/neighbor's house where we saw many more animals: a mare and colt, chickens, rabbits, turtles, a frog and baby possums.


It was a really fun trip, and the kids had a blast seeing all the animals. By the time I saw Rhett holding the possum though, I was focused on one thing: getting the kids in the car so I could use the baby wipes and hand-sanitizer on them! (The possum was cute...in his own way...but looked way too much like a rat to me--ha!) The kids usually do dinner then baths, but we reversed that order last night!

Thanks, Mic, for a fun afternoon! We hope to come back soon.

Rhett's Rainbow

R standing beside the pretty rainbow that he painted in his school art class:

13 Months

Sweet Crosby is 13 months old today.

He isn't walking yet, but as of this week he loves walking behind/pushing this little car. He can really go fast, and he thinks it's so funny. He now has eight teeth--4 on the top, 4 on bottom. We have just a few more jars of baby food in the cabinet, and after those are gone I think he will be done with baby food and completely on "real food". Some of his favorite foods are grapes, turkey, waffles and scrambled eggs (cut into small pieces) and yogurt and applesauce. He is drinking whole milk now--usually four bottles a day (we need to switch to a sippy cup, I know). When we were in Flippin two weekends ago he learned to shake his head "no" and he does that a lot--he thinks that's funny too! He loves to go for the stairs and when I go after him he looks over his shoulder, laughs and shakes his head no! He is SUPER happy and good--such a JOY!

Weekend with Grandparents

We had a really fun time visiting Lane's parents last weekend...See photo album here.

This was Crosby's first trip to their house. As with R & A, we took C's picture with Bob & Rose Mary on the front steps:

I looked back at the pictures of the other two kids' first trips:

Alexee in June '08:

And Rhett in July '04

Lane and his Dad were playing in a golf tournament, so Lane, Alexee and Bogart went to their house on Friday afternoon. I stayed home with Rhett & Crosby because Rhett was scheduled to have a soccer game Saturday morning, and we planned to drive down on Saturday. However, it stormed/rained out both the first round of golf and the soccer game. The boys and I waited out the storm and got there early Saturday afternoon. By that time the sun was shining. We took the bigger kids to the city park while Lane's Mom stayed home with Crosby for his nap. Here are just a few pictures from the weekend--there are a lot more here.

On the train at the city park

Jumping from step to step in Grammy & Bobba's back yard

Lane and his Dad leaving for their round of golf on Sunday

Musicians

At the school playground

(where Lane played when he was in elementary school)

More hair bow holders

I was excited to receive a request for a hair-bow holder from a friend that I grew up with. She e-mailed me these pictures of her little girl's nursery bedding to use as a guide. I just love the bright, cheerful colors:

I hope she likes it!

Here are two others similar to this one:

*Please contact me if interested in a bow holder for your little girl's room...I'd love to hear from you!*

First step!

Today didn't start off quite right, but at least I got an extra hour of sleep. Crosby woke up at 5:45 a.m. (not unusual these days--he's kind of stuck on that time right now), and I took a bottle to his room as always. I gave it to him to hold in his bed, and I curled up in the chair beside his bed. He almost always just drinks the bottle in about 30 seconds, plays for a few minutes, then wants out of bed so we get up and play in his room until time to wake R & A up. But today he drank his bottle and fell back asleep, so of course I did too! Lane came in 15 minutes before our usual departure time--the room was totally dark--and said, "Jamie???". The first thing I did when I opened my eyes was push the indiglo button on my watch and realize we were BAD late. I jumped up in a panic, grabbed C (woke him up), woke A up and ran to the kitchen to fix breakfast, make coffee and pack lunches. Thankfully Rhett was already awake and dressed. We were out the door just five minutes behind schedule and R got to school on time--whew!

Alexee entertained Crosby for a while this morning with this train. You push the button down and it zooms on its own. Crosby laughed and clapped--he liked this toy!

R had a haircut appointment after school today, but we had an hour between pick-up line and the appointment so we stopped at the park to play. Probably not the best idea for the kids' crazy allergies, but they still had fun. R and A love this spinning thing and wanted me to spin them as fast as I could. It made me dizzy just to watch!

C loved the baby swing today!

These are busy but fun times. I wish they'd stay this size for a lot longer...

I'm so blessed to be their Mom.

When did Alexee get so tall and grown up!? She was just a baby herself when Crosby was born, but she has changed SO much in a year. Today she wanted to put on make-up with me (she does that often) and she wanted to try on one of my dresses and shoes. It was way too big of course, so she asked if she could wear it when she got as big as me. I also painted her nails with the new purple polish I bought for her at the grocery store on Sunday--she loved it!
Rhett was grouchy when I picked him up from school because he didn't want to go get a hair cut (he doesn't like to sit still, I guess). But he got in a better mood very quickly when we went to the park.

Racing down the slide

I like R's expression here!

Watching the big kids

When we got home this afternoon the kids and I were in the kitchen, and we saw Crosby take his FIRST STEP (12 months, 27 days old)! He stood alone for several seconds in the middle of the floor in front of the fridge, then he took one little step toward me and sat down and clapped for himself (we all clapped, too)!!! I wasn't ready with the camera when he took the step, but I grabbed my phone to take one of him clapping/celebrating! Way to go, C!

Proud!

Lane took R to soccer practice tonight, and I made Southern Living Enchiladas and a new corn casserole recipe. Even with my extra hour of sleep today (ha!) I'm tired tonight and wondering why I'm not in bed instead of sitting at the computer?