A Sign of Spring

Such a cheerful thing to see blooming in our front flower bed today!

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This was one of my favorite books when I was little...

...and this was one of my favorite pages.

Ducks, Elevators & Tractors

Saturday morning we wanted to get out of the house for a while so we took the kids downtown. They had fun seeing the ducks in the hotel lobby and riding the glass elevators. Well, Alexee was actually a little bit scared on the elevators. It didn't help that Rhett kept saying things like, "How do these things work? What if the cable breaks?"

We had to watch Crosby--he wanted to go for a swim with the ducks!

Watching the elevators

The ducks were hard to catch in a picture

(wonder why? ha!)

Alexee is always in fast-motion!

She wanted to wear two different bows in her hair :)

Looking out over the river/downtown area--great view!

While Lane and Alexee went to get the car, I took the boys over to see the tractors on display at the Home & Garden Show. I think they could have spent the rest of the day there! :) I love all these pictures of them checking out the machines:

Boys are so fun!

I like how they're leaning over and around each other to push buttons/pull levers.

They did not want to leave! Rhett said, "Let me just look at this one more thing!"

I wish I would have remembered to take at least one picture, but Saturday night Lane and I had a fun dinner out at Bravo! with our friends Brad & Leslie. We were in a Bible study group with them for several years, and now we miss seeing them on a regular basis. We always have a great time visiting!

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Blurry, but I thought these were cute of R & A walking in to church today:

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Tonight when I was reading to Crosby before bed, he got out of the chair, grabbed a ball from his toy box and said, "be right back". It was SO CUTE. I waited to see where he was going...he opened his door and went out in the hallway to try to shoot a basket on the ball goal that hangs on the playroom door! :) I don't think he really had plans to come "right back". I picked him up and took him back to his room to sing a few songs (Jesus Loves Me and Twinkle Twinkle are our two usual songs) and put him in the bed. Then I said, "I love you. Can you say 'love you'?" And he did!

A few things about our week

It has been a non-holiday, no-snow-day, non-spring-weather kind of week this week. I'm not very good about taking pictures or posting when that's the case.

A few things:

--Crosby has decided he's too big for the high chair. He really wants to sit on bar stools with R & A, but this isn't a good idea because the stools don't have backs. He can climb up there by himself though, so unless I move them out in the garage I'm not sure what to do.

--Getting Rhett to do homework each night is a frustrating task. And this is only the 1st grade. It doesn't help that A & C are always running around like wild animals while R is needing to concentrate, but if I send him to his room to do homework he won't stay focused. Last night I was checking his reading worksheet about Nicky and Marta and saw that for one of the questions he had filled in the blank with "I don't know".

--Alexee explained her sleep struggles to me by saying, "At night my eyes just keep saying, 'stay awake, stay awake', but in the morning when I have to get up my eyes keep saying, 'stay asleep, stay asleep'." (I understand--mine do the same thing!) Lane told me that one night when he was reading to Alexee she asked if Bogart would be with us in Heaven. Lane said "yes", and she said, "good", and then went right back to her books. Yesterday I was folding laundry and she came in and said, "Daddy said Bogart would go to Heaven with us. Is that right?" She got another "yes" from me. :)

--Yesterday morning Alexee wanted to play Baby Hospital with all her dolls and stuffed animals. Here she is listening to their heartbeats. I was in charge of giving medicine. After everyone was checked, she sang them a lullaby and put them on her bed for their naps.

--After school yesterday I got everyone loaded in the car to go to the library, but just then I got a text from Lane saying that it was supposed to hail/possible tornado so we should stay in if possible. So we went back inside, Alexee cried because she wanted to go to the library, Crosby cried because Alexee was crying, etc. We went upstairs and turned on the weather and played frozen yogurt shop--Rhett's request. He was the owner, Alexee was an employee and Crosby and I were the customers. Here were the specials for the day--see if you can tell which one Rhett came up with on his own? :)

It wasn't long before the tornado siren started, so we went to the closet under the stairs. Rhett had his Nintendo game to keep him occupied while Alexee and Crosby found a box of foam peanuts to play with. Here we are taking shelter (thankfully nothing happened--it rained really hard and the wind blew and the sky turned a weird yellowish-gold color, but no hail/no tornado).

--American Idol Top 24 has been decided. I think it's going to be a good season. I've been surprised at how much I've liked the new judges, and there are many really talented people this year. I was sad to see Chris Medina go though. I cried and cried the first night they showed his story.

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--On a sad note, my parents' sweet neighbor, Mrs. Doris, passed away earlier this week. She would have celebrated her 95th birthday in just a few weeks--that's a lot of years! She was a really neat lady, and we were blessed to know her. Physically she had grown so frail and weak, but her mind was extremely sharp, and she was always fun and interesting to talk to. Last summer I e-mailed her a picture of R, A & C at our downtown library (she and her husband lived here many years ago), and this was her reply (age 94!):

Good Morning! How nice it is to be greeted by the pictures of three adorable youngsters first thing in the morning! Would you believe that when I was Rhett's age, a bi-weekly trip to the library was my favorite outing? I well remember my Mom patiently persuading me .. that I didn't need to take ALL the books home that particular Saturday -- that we could leave some to take home on our next visit The Library was a one-story structure then, located at Seventh and Louisiana. We walked a mile to the end of the street car line, and then rode the street car down town.

Your mention of buying school supplies at this time of year brought me back to the present: To me, school is supposed to start the day after Labor Day -- we always had a three months' summer break. Of course, we had so much less to learn back then.

You got my day off to a great start! Thanks!

Love,

Doris

They had no children, so my Mom has been really close to her, especially since Mr. Guy passed away. Mom and my Aunt Donna were with her in her hospital room when she passed away Tuesday evening. She will be missed.

Mom, Alexee & Rhett with the birthday girl

(March 2009)

Great Weekend

Even though our family went different directions yesterday, we all had fun. Lane took Rhett and Alexee to Hot Springs to visit his parents. Crosby and I would have loved to see them too, but it's a little more complicated with C because he would have needed a nap and L wanted to take R and A to lunch and Mid-America museum. So Crosby and I stayed here and had some one-on-one time, and he took a long (2.5 hour) nap in his own bed.

Lane forgot to use the camera that I sent with him, but he did take just a few pictures with his phone:

Alexee, Grammy & Rhett having lunch at Purple Cow

Rhett and Lex at the museum

Thanks, Grammy & Bobba, for a great day and for A's b-day gift and all the kids' Valentine goodies!

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Meanwhile, Crosby and I ran a few errands then we went to the park to play before lunch. I'm usually so busy trying to keep an eye on all three kids at the same time that I don't seem to get to actually play with anyone. Not today though! Crosby and I climbed on the playground equipment, I pushed him in the swing, we dug in the rocks, went up and down the stairs, went down the slide, etc.

Weeee!

While he was turning these gears I went on the other side of the glass to "hide". He thought it was so funny when I knocked on the glass and he saw where I was. He came running around the corner to find me--laughing all the way! :) He has such a sweet, fun-loving personality. What a blessing he is!

Knock, knock...

There you are!

Next we went to lunch at one of my favorite places--Old Mill Bread Co. He was so good. He hasn't had a good dining-out record lately, so I was very happy! When I brought my food to the table he saw the steam coming from the soup and said, "Oh, hot!".

my cute lunch date

Yum

sunflower veggie sandwich and asiago cheese soup

He'd played hard and had quite a time keeping his eyes open on the way back home. This was at the stop sign just around the corner from our house. I carried him inside and he took a long nap and woke up refreshed.
While he was asleep I straightened up things around the house, did a blog post, then did something unusual for me to do during the day: sat on the couch and looked at a new magazine. It was so quiet around here. It was a really relaxing afternoon, and I was thankful for the little break. :)
When C woke up we went to a shopping center nearby and strolled around for a while. We went in some stores, just to browse, before going in Fresh Market to pick up a roast and other groceries. Lane and I are wanting to make a few changes to the colors/decor in our living room and bedroom. I saw this in one of the stores C and I went in yesterday--this is the color scheme I'd love to do in our bedroom/bathroom. I think this bedding is so pretty!

I love this too!

Leaving Fresh Market with our groceries.

He looked so sweet riding in the stroller, soaking in the sunshine.

Lane and the kids made it home safely around 5:30. It was a good day.

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We had another wonderful church service this morning. We are in week two of an interesting sermon series on the Tabernacle. We had Laurie's roast for lunch then Lane worked in the yard and Rhett played outside with his neighbor buddies. I worked around the house while A and C napped, then we went outside too. It was 74 degrees, but very windy today. I noticed while we were out that our jonquils are getting ready to bloom--crazy that they were covered in snow barely a week ago! Come on, spring!!

1st Grade Valentine Dance

Due to the snow last week, the first graders had their Valentine dance and classroom parties last Thursday afternoon. The teachers taught them the dance steps, assigned partners and practiced before the party. They were asked to wear their dress-up clothes for the event. I had R pose for a picture before leaving for school that morning, and Crosby wanted to be in the picture with him. :)

Lane was able to come home early that day so he kept Crosby at home for his nap while Alexee and I went to R's school. Alexee wanted to dress up in a "poofy dress" since it was a Valentine party. The party started at 12:30, but she put this dress on at 8:30 a.m. and wore it to the shoe store and to Sam's to pick up the class cupcakes beforehand.

Mrs. H had the boys practice a bow and the girls a curtsy before going out into the hallway for the dance. Rhett is on the back left of the picture, getting a little wild with his bowing. I think he included a 360 and a few jumps and laughs (as did most of the other boys!). ha! Teachers are amazing people. My nerves go crazy within five minutes of walking into the classroom.

I think it's safe to say that the girls were probably more into the whole dance idea than the boys. Rhett's cute partner, Kate, kept hugging him. I'm not sure what he thought about all of that.

The teachers lined everyone up, and Rhett started a pretend boxing match with Kate.

The line of 1st graders stretched way down the hall.

Even if the boys hated every second of it, they did look pretty cute!

R & K did a really good job. I overheard one of the other moms say, "Look at them, they're doing great!" Rhett looked at Kate and in a goofy voice said, "We're famous!" ha!
Everyone then went back to their classrooms for snacks and Valentine cards. I thought Sam's made cute cupcakes (they tasted good too).

Rhett was sweet to ask Alexee to pull up a chair beside him for snacks.

Mrs. H commented that they sure look alike. Alexee got kind of shy and told me that she didn't want anyone to look at her except for me and Rhett. She seemed fine sitting right beside R though.

She wanted to help with his valentines, and he was nice to let her. I was proud of him.

He even shared some of his candy with her.

Me with two of my sweet valentines.

On the way to the park yesterday after school we picked up one of R's classmates/friends. I overheard R say to him, "Boy am I glad that dance is over with. I might not ever go out in that hallway again."