Nana and Hoppy Visit

Aunt Whitney invited Nana and Hoppy up for President's Day Weekend!  The kids had a long holiday from school so it worked out nicely to have a fun trip planned in the midst.  Caroline woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready in her bubble cherry smocked outfit to go see Nana!

Nana and Hoppy brought Jac up with them to help out Ash a little bit.  He loved playing with Caroline! 

We met them up at Mellow Mushroom for lunch and they had a balloon artist there!  The kids thought it was the best! We were the QUIETEST table there... can't you tell?

We dropped the kids off at Whits after lunch and headed back home to get ready for our wine tasting date night with Chris' boss and co-workers!  We had a blast!  The wine tasting was FUN and we learned a lot about what wines we like and which ones we hate!  After the wine tasting (and purchasing $80 worth of wine for our own tasting later!) we headed to Capitol Grill for dinner with his boss and co-workers!  We didn't get back home til after midnight!  We are CUH-RAZY! 

This picture screams (CUT MY HAIR CUT MY HAIR!)

Everyone went with us to church on Sunday and after, we headed to our house for some ribs that Chris cooked the day before on the egg... they were yummy!  Nana and Hoppy headed home shortly after lunch.. we had so much fun for the few days they visited! 

Park is singing obviously...

C-Line is all about her "buh-bee" now.  Anytime you say "buh-bee" she runs to the play room to find "buh-bee" brings her to me, pats her back then throws her back down on the floor to go find a truck or train to play with!  :-D

Play Dates

After fall when the really cold days came (or should I say when we'd have a cold spell in between 80 degree January/February days) we sort of stopped going outside during the day.  We would always go out on the warm days, but never on cold.  Til one day, I was literally pulling my hair out on our 5th straight day of really cold weather and so I bundled the kids up in their jackets and headed out!  They LOVED it!  Caroline showed off all her skills and shocked me by climbing all the way up the ladder by herself and coming down the huge slide... by herself!  I had no idea she could do that!

Park has to get a haircut just as often as his daddy does... about once every 2 weeks.  I cut both of their hair myself, but it feels like that is all I do between the two of them!  So - I decided I would cut Park's 2 sizes shorter than usual and it was SUPER short but I got used to it and I could go 4 weeks between haircuts this way! 

We met Tanner at the library one day for story time!  He, like a nice gentleman, took off her socks and played with them the entire time.  He has a sock fetish!

So on one of our 80 degree February days, we rode Park's bike to the neighborhood playground and back.  He fell off his bike... hard... 3 times but I made him get back on and keep riding.  The poor kid was bleeding and all scraped up by the time we got home.  I did feel a little bad and his had this horrible scab on his nose for more than a week!

Caroline and I had a PJ date to Chick-fil-A one afternoon while Park was in school.  I had to run a few random errands and didn't have enough time to go home before picking Parker up so we hit up CFA!  Caroline did not care she was in her PJs (I guess I should clarify that I was not in my PJs!)

She cleans up pretty well... but THIS is what I wake up to!

Mimi and Papa came to town sort of last minute one weekend in February so we made a last minute trip to see them at Amy's house in Marietta.  We always love seeing Mimi and Papa!

During a normal play date with Sisi and Dylan, we all went to wake up C-Line and the kids all begged to get into her crib so I put them all in there!  They thought it was awesome!

Just a random shot I got of these two cuties after breakfast one day... meet Parker and his sister, Chubs!  (Yes - she still always props her feet up after meals!)

Angela watched C-Line and Park one afternoon while I went to my doctor's appointment... Caleb is still much bigger than Caroline (he weighs the same as Parker!) but at least she not dwarfed by these bigger kids any more!  I love her chubby cheeks and legs and arms and belly!

Park HAD to squeeze in for a picture too... he sometimes just can't stand to not be the center of attention... wonder where he gets that from!

Visiting Bubba and Ms. Sarah

We try to go visit Bubba and Ms. Sarah at least once every month.  They are only an hour and 15 minutes away from us so whenever we have a free morning, we go!  When Nano was so sick for so long, I always swore that if I didn't have a job, I'd go visit her all the time.  I hate that we hardly ever got to see her in her last year of life.  I think Bubba is far from being near the end of his life, but I love going to visit lots anyway! 

Bubba was a little under the weather, but he made a huge meal for us and brought it up the driveway to Ms. Sarah's house (he lives one driveway over from Ms. Sarah) and we ate and spent the afternoon at Ms. Sarah's house.  She has young grandchildren so her house is super kid-friendly!  Bubba came out to play with us for a few minutes then went back inside to rest.  But Caroline loved walking around Ms. Sarah's yard with Bubba for a little bit... that girl can't say "Mama" to save her life but she LOOOOOVES saying "Bubba".  "Bubba?!  Bubba?!"

 Ms Caroline... accompanied by her belly gut!

It was a beautiful day the day went down there!  I literally ran around outside kicking a soccer ball with Parker for 30-45 minutes... we had a blast.  This made me realize WHY it's so important for me to stay in shape!  I was running non stop for 30 minutes and was able to keep up with his 3-year-old energy!  It felt great!

Ms Sarah played Twister with Parker!  He thought it was the greatest!

Ms Sarah is super special because she has a golf cart!  In the eyes of an almost 4-year-old, this makes her awesome!  She even let him steer and drive... he's so spoiled.

On our way back home, we drove a few roads down from Bubba's to see the "Snapping Shoals"... Park thought it was awesome and begged to go swimming!  LOL

You think he was worn out?  It was a nice peaceful trip back home... Parker slept the whole way and Caroline stayed awake and sang to me for an hour and 15 minutes!

Valentine's 2013

To start off our Valentine's month, my best friends and I got together to make Valentine's wreaths!  It was an awesome craft night (Chris thought we were SO weird for doing this - but I had a blast!) and after we made our wreaths, we watched The Bachelor... I'd call that a pretty successful girls night!

Amy was there, too, but she wanted to be special and not make a heart wreath like the rest of us so she  wasn't allowed to be in the heart wreath picture!  We are cruel friends...

The day before Valentine's, Parker had his Valentine's party at school!  He made this precious hat he loved wearing all day.  Sienna is in a younger class, but she got sick that morning before school so she stayed home... but Parker was happy to get her treat bag from school and bring it to her house for her!  He was so excited to take it to her!

Waiting for Sisi to answer the door...

I had to go into the office on Valentine's Day but when I came home, I was SO THRILLED to find a special Valentine's just for me, some decorations all over AND a full plate of cupcakes waiting for me!  Ms. Deven is the best... she used to be Parker's favorite preschool teacher and so when I was looking for someone to babysit for me every week when I went into the office, I prayed lots about it and Deven literally just popped into my head.  Lo and behold, she was available on the days I needed her and the kids look forward to their "Deven Days" every week! 

Happy Valentine's from my Valentines!

Chris was out of town on Valentine's this year, so I took the kids out for a date night at Moe's!  We had a blast!  We only had a few "instances"... one where Parker literally poured an entire container of salt on the boy sitting behind us... but that's pretty tame actually!  This was the first time I've had to order 2 kids meals while there.. normally P and C can share... not anymore!  Ugh - going out is going to start being expensive!

When Chris got home later, he surprised me with this sweet "family" necklace from Solomon Bros.  I have been eyeing some sort of necklace that symbolizes my precious family but haven't really found one that I really liked... or one that I would consider wearing every day no mater if I'm dressed up or casual.  He did an awesome job picking this out and I love it!

It is not easy for Chris to surprise me... every time he tries to plan an event or a gift, I ALWAYS find out!  This was a total surprise which made it that much better!  Thanks babe!

Weekend in the Mountains!

Chris' boss has an amazing cabin up in Sautee Nacoochee, GA - just outside of Helen - and the purpose of this cabin is for his employees and pastors of churches to go enjoy it for free one week a year!  We normally book it early and go during Octoberfest in Helen but this year it booked up much quicker than usual!  So, we decided to try it out in the winter since we've only ever been in the fall (and also in the summer when we went for our babymoon!).  We went the first weekend in February and we invited my sister and her family up, too!  

The cabin is FULL of some great, um, decor... if you can call it that.  This fellow greets you as soon as you walk in!

We wasted no time building a fire as soon as we got there!

We loved spending some time away from "it all" with some family.

And Parker and KK loved having each other to play with!

Caroline loves wrestling Uncle Doug!

Me and the kids...

We played lots of card games with the kids!  Uno is our current favorite.

On Saturday we drove 15 minutes south to Cleveland where the Cabbage Patch Kids Babyland General Hospital is.  My grandparents used to take us here all the time when we were kids... so it's way fun taking our kids now!

About 15 minutes after we got there, it started snowing like CRAZY so they were going to close early, but they showed us one more "birth" of a Cabbage Patch Kid... the kids thought it was awesome.

It was a girl!  And we (the audience) got to name her!

This was literally after only 10 minutes of snowing!

Caroline wasn't too sure...

KK and Park thought it was the greatest!

Her first taste of it...

It snowed our entire way back to the cabin!

And THIS is what we found when we got back to our STEEP mountain road!

The CBI cabin - called Bear Lodge.

Our view from the back porch of the cabin.

Chris and I loved sitting in the hot tub while it snowed!

We took a short walk in the snow to a lot that is for sale... tempting!  :)

We stayed in the rest of the day and night and tried to play this IMPOSSIBLE game where you put this card on your head and you can ask yes or no questions to figure out what it says... NO ONE was able to do it! 

The kids found ways to be entertained indoors!  When all else fails, put the kids in a laundry basket!

We had a blast playing in the snow the next morning!  Aunt Whitney and Garrett loved it!

Doug helped the kids build a snowman!

Caroline was NOT  a huge fan.

KK hates looking into the sun...

We named the snowman Mr. Steve the Snowman, so we had to add in a mustache!

So the first day we walked into the cabin, Caroline FREAKED out as soon as we walked in.  She HATED all the dead animals all over the walls!  She would point and cry and point and cry NON STOP.  By our last day there, she warmed up to them... but she still wasn't all that excited about them. 

We ended up staying Sunday night there after my sister and family left and we enjoyed a really quiet snowy night on the mountain!  We watched the Super Bowl then went to bed and woke up around 7 on Monday morning and still got home in time for Chris to get to work and Parker to get to school!  Thanks to CBI for always opening your home away from home to us... we love our times at Bear Lodge!