Dining room tour

The theme of Kelly's "Show Us Where You Live" this week is dining rooms, so I snapped a few pictures to share:

I need to put something fall-ish in the glass jars on the table.

View from the entry-way

Even though we rarely eat in here, I like this room. We like to turn the china cabinet light and the corner table lamp on every night--they give off a neat glow.

Corner table, Alexee's 3 month portrait on the wall.

This is a special piece of furniture because it belonged to Lane's grandparents (their photo is in a frame on top of it). Lane can remember seeing his grandfather's things stored inside.

Here is a close up of the photo of Lane's maternal Grandparents, Nana & Pop. I wish I could have met them. Lane spent a lot of time at their house growing up, and they hold a very special place in his heart. The picture on the right is of my Great-Grandparents and my Granddad & Great-Uncle.

from the living room

This is another framed picture we have in the dining room--one of my favorites of R & A together in their fall outfits. They've grown so much!

Thirty days hath September

Wow, I can't believe September is over. Tomorrow is the first day of my favorite month of the year (November and April probably tie for second favorite)! October usually brings such great weather, beautiful leaves, pumpkin patch field trips, mums, an appetite for soup and chocolate chip pumpkin bread (I'll have to post that recipe!), etc. We have some fun things going on in the coming month, so I'm excited about those: a wedding, a weekend trip (just Lane and me!), a visit to my parents' house, and several family and friend birthdays to celebrate.

Here are a few pictures from this week:

Rhett doing his homework and Lane trying to work out his E.R. schedule for the month. R's assignment was to write a story using as many of his spelling words as he could.

Today we met my friend Lianne and her kids at the park after school. It was such a beautiful day to play outside.

Thinking about jumping...

Jumping!

These little shoes that C is wearing were Rhett's when he was a baby. :)

C wants to do everything that the big kids do. He went down the slide by himself several times.

Tonight Lane and Rhett are at a father/son pizza party at school. It's an event to promote the school's Watch D.O.G.S. program (Dads Of Great Students). Quoting from the informational sheet, this "is an innovative program being used by schools across America which helps them to be positively impacted by the committed involvement of fathers and father-figures in their student's life." I'm sure they're having fun, but I didn't make Lane take the camera to document the evening...I doubt he would have been too excited about that idea! :)

Sweet CGG at 18 months

Our baby boy is 18 months old today! SUCH A BLESSING TO US!

Update:
Well child visit on 9/27/10: 30 1/2 lbs. (93%), 33" (71%)
Doing great
Got flu shot-only cried for about 5 seconds

--Words he says (at least the ones that I can think of right now):
Momma
Dadda
Bogart
foo-ball (his football lovie)
night-night
sissy, and brother (at least something pretty close)
yummm! :) (I love it when he says this when he eats something.)
bye-bye (and waves)
hi (and waves)
ball
yes
no-no
up
uh-oh

--He just started signing "more".

--He loves toothbrushes and cries if we take his away from him to put it back in the bathroom.

--He loves to help clean out the dishwasher. He knows where some things go! A few days ago he knew which cabinet the plastic tea pitcher went in--he carried it over and held it up high toward the cabinet door.

--He likes to play in the utensil drawer; big spools, spatulas, etc. are way more fun than toys.

--Loves to play outside. He knows the word "outside" and will get his shoes and go to the back door. He likes to pick up rocks and sticks and just walk around outdoors.

--Takes one afternoon nap, usually about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, sleeps 12 hours straight at night.

--Likes to feed himself now...a little messy! Two of his favorites: yogurt and applesauce. He also loves granola bars and usually goes straight for the pantry in the morning.

--I try to read to him each day, but he rarely sits still and looks at the books--he's way too busy for that right now!

Yesterday at the picnic.

This afternoon:

Baby Dear

Where did you come from, baby dear?

Out of the everywhere into here.

Where did you get those eyes of blue?

Out of the sky as I came through.

What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?

I saw something better than anyone knows.

Where did you get this pearly ear?

God spoke, and it came out to hear.

Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?

From the same box as the cherubs' wings.

How did they all just come to be you?

God thought about me, and so I grew.

But how did you come to us, you dear?

God thought about you, and so I am here.

By: George MacDonald

Picnic at Pinnacle Mountain

Back: Lane, me, Dad, Rhett, Mario

Front: Aunt Judy & Crosby, Mom & Alexee, Jeryn, Aunt Janice, Micaela & Jaiden

(Here's the complete album of the event, but I'm posting a few of my favorite photos below.)

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year--our annual family picnic. I'm sad that it's over...it's like the day after Christmas. We've met at a different state park each year, and this time (#4) we went to Pinnacle Mountain. The weather was great. It was overcast and about 85 degrees.

I love this picture of Mom & Dad

Crosby likes to wave! He's 18 months old (today), and he's doing so many cute things.

Granddad & Crosby spent lots of time together.

Notice Rhett's smile...he's missing a top tooth. It fell out in his Raisin Bran Crunch the morning of the picnic! I think he looks so cute!
I should have dressed Alexee in a different outfit because she blended in with the surroundings. It was hard to keep an eye on her!
After lunch, most of us climbed to the top of Pinnacle. (Dad & Janice stayed at the base of the mountain with Crosby and Alexee. They went on a walk through the woods and played at the picnic area. Thanks, Dad & Janice.) I think my last hike up Pinnacle was with Lane in the fall of 2002...eight years and three kids ago...it was more difficult yesterday than I remembered! I hate to admit that I'm sore today.

The kids did great!

Mom has been wanting to climb Pinnacle for a long time. I'm so glad she finally got to do it! She really liked the view, and we couldn't keep up with her!

Way to go, Rhett!

Rhett & Jaiden had fun together. J even spent the night with us after the picnic so they had some extra time to play and catch up.

Love this picture of the boys.

I'm already looking forward to next year! Where should we go next? Maybe I can convince everyone to camp out so we can make a whole weekend out of it!?

Accident reports

When I went to pick C up at MDO yesterday, his teacher saw me in the hallway and said, "Before you see your baby, let me tell you what happened." Not exactly what you want to hear when you arrive. She said he was doing fine now and had eaten a good lunch, but he'd fallen on the sidewalk coming in from the playground and hit his forehead pretty hard.

Here's his accident report...

and here's his head...poor little guy!This was last night. It actually looks quite a bit better today and doesn't even seem to bother him, but I think he'll have a big bruise for several days!
He felt fine last night when we went to Razorback Pizza for dinner. He now thinks he's big enough to hang out in the game area with R & A. He played some basketball while he waited for the food.
This was R's homework last night. He was asked to create a list which included at least five things. I guess he watches way too much TV because he had no trouble at all coming up with 12! I especially like the last two shows. One night he was watching House Hunters with Lane before bed, and he told me he couldn't wait to buy his first house!? WAIT just a minute...you are growing up too fast as it is! Please don't talk about moving out and buying your first home.
This morning I ran a few errands during MDO then I cut through our neighborhood to go to R's school to surprise him and have lunch with him. I was just a few streets over from our house when I met a firetruck zooming by. It was so close to our house (and I hadn't been home in a few hours) that I decided I couldn't relax until I went to see if everything was okay at home. I made a big loop, and as I turned onto the street that connects to ours, I saw lots of dark smoke. It looked like it was coming right out of the back of our house. My heart skipped several beats and my knees kind-of went weak, but then I was level with our street and could see that the firetruck was not there. It was one more street up the hill, right behind our house. I saw my neighbor on the sidewalk, and he told me that a street sweeper vehicle had exploded and was burning in the road. He works from home and said he was on the phone when he heard two huge explosions that shook the windows! Thankfully the driver got out of the sweeper vehicle, and no one was injured. We drove by later this afternoon and the city had trucks out there working to clean up mess. It was really a scare.
This is the very corner of our house on the left. And you can see the smoke coming from behind our next door neighbor's house--it was too CLOSE!
After taking a few pictures of the excitement, I made it to the school in time to sit with Rhett. He wanted to be a "tray" today because they were serving tacos. It was so good to get to see him during the day at school. I enjoyed our lunch date! He asked me to walk out to the playground with him after lunch, which I did. He hugged me and gave me a kiss before I left which made my day!
He was closing his eyes to recite the school creed that hangs on a banner in the dining hall. He wanted me to make sure he said it correctly (he did--good job, R!).

After leaving the school, I made a quick stop at Fresh Market to buy milk. I loved seeing the pumpkin display as I walked in the door--I love this time of year (just wish it was 76 degrees instead of 96, but the weatherman says cooler temps are on their way for the weekend!).

Fresh Market always has such pretty flowers for sale, and these were just $3.99 per bunch...couldn't resist!

Fresh flowers and a new fall candle burning (Apple Cider--mmmm!)

After school I took the kids to get ice cream. We sat in the parking lot (so I could share mine with C) to eat it. R & A enjoying ice cream and a DVD.
When we got home we played in the back yard for a while. Alexee pretended to plant flower seeds and wanted me to help her. Don't her little pink toenails look sweet? :)