What we've been up to

We nursed Steven back to health, so much so, that he embarked on a guys' trip this past weekend. My mom and sister had another couple of days off for Veteran's Day. They missed us so much, they made the 6 hour drive back for another three day weekend. We discussed renting an RV and trying it out for a short trip:

Me: "So are you planning to drive this thing?"
Mom: "Well, yeah, I thought I would, but I figured you would drive some too."
Mom: "Did you watch the video online?"
Me: "No, not yet."
Mom: "It seems pretty easy except I didn't quite understand the propane tank thing."

I had a vision of me driving the RV in to something and a huge explosion following. We decided on other activities, but I do see an RV trip in our future. We'd like to take mom on an RV trip out west for her 60th in a couple summers, so I think it'd be wise for us to take a small practice run soon.... to make sure we know how to work the propane tank.

Instead, we went to breakfast at IHOP on Friday and on to the McWane Center for a morning of fun. The rest of the weekend was filled with lots of playing outside, a couple of trips down to our railroad tracks for photo shoots, and several Harry Potter movies.

Let me just stop and say I know now why photographers charge so much for "sitting fees". We had been down there for about 3 minutes and I was ready to collect my $100. I had to laugh or I would have gone bananas. I did have a couple hard working assistants that eased some of the madness. And a brief pause for an actual train to pass was exciting and a bit scary for the kids who I'd just had on the tracks:). It did seem to improve their focus. We got some great shots, but I'm hoping to turn them in to Christmas gifts so I'll only share a few here so the suspense will be great for the grandparents!

My lovely first assistant

One thing I have not been doing a lot of is house cleaning. Who needs lined paper for handwriting practice when you have layers of dust? Some might call it "dirty". I prefer "economical". Especially in these tough times.

We finally made it to Bud's Best Cookies for a tour of the factory today and it was AWESOME! Dare I say that Elle said as we were leaving, "Mom, this was better than Disney World!". Now, I'm certain she did not mean that, but it was really fun and interesting. And we got about 5 bags of cookies, three coloring books, a bunch of stickers, and some hair nets all for free! You should really check this out if you are in the Birmingham area.

Grady was much more excited than this. But I'm not sure he thought it was better than Disney World.

A shark, a knight, a dinosaur & a nose

Here's a quick update for those who are tired of looking at that lovely caterpillar:). We had a fun Halloween weekend complete with a long overdue visit from Mae (my mom) and Maddie. We did a lot of just hanging out and playing, but it was fun. I tried to get my sister to watch Lord of the Rings. She was not interested, much to my dismay.

We have a very substantial supply of dress-up clothes which governed the kids' costume choices this year. Elle choose a shark. Grady was a knight. And the choice that fit Reese best was a dinosaur costume recently acquired from Steven's parents. Maddie also got to choose from her vast array of recital costumes and she was a beautiful ballerina.

Getting in to character

We walked around our neighborhood trick or treating. The kids LOVED it and Reese was thrilled to get to walk, uninhibited by a stroller, down the sidewalk. We came back to the house and dumped all our bags out on the floor and dug in! And then I started re-giving candy out to the kids coming to our door. What can I say, I like to recycle. Really, I just gave all the stuff our peanut-free household couldn't eat anyway.

Steven had surgery this morning on his crazy deviated septum nose. The doctor also found some nasal polyps and removed those. He is recovering pretty well so far. He does have a fairly decent nurse for a wife:). He just went to the ENT last Thursday so this all happened pretty fast. But, for as long as I've known him, I'm not sure he's ever been able to breathe out of both nostrils simultaneously. Now, he'll finally be able to.

The Centipede

I was awakened in the night by this crawling on me:

**This is not my picture but the one from the website. I was too angry last night to take it's picture. It went right in the trash can! And as much as I'd like to say it was this big, it was smaller, but no less frightening.**

It was an exact re-enactment of what happened to Steven over a year ago. I woke up snatching it off of me and throwing it away from my body. I turned the light on and told Steven that something was on me and bit me. After striping the bed, moving it out from the wall and turning all lights on, we found it. And killed it. Then I proceeded to get our bug spray and spray our entire bedroom baseboards, closet and kitchen at 11:45 at night.

Note on the article, the "bug man" says, "Centipedes are poisonous, and they will bite. The bite is painful, but not dangerous." I can now attest that the bite is indeed painful. And it was right between my chest?!

To top off the craziness of the night, we awoke to tornado sirens this morning. I wasn't sure if it was one of the kids crying or the sirens. We were spared from any tornado or any damage from the weather. The only damage is from a centipede's poisonous painful bite:). I think I'm going to make it though...

Watch out for your knee caps

We were trying to put some allergy drops in Grady's eyes the other night and things weren't going very well. He was getting pretty upset and we were trying hard not to get upset. And then Elle says, "You can do it Grady. You're the bravest boy in the whole world." I wish I could say those encouraging words did the trick. It got worse before it got better, but I was so proud of her for trying to encourage him when he was obviously having a difficult time.

Grady has a tendency to climb, hang on, wrestle, and generally aggravate you when you try to sit still for a minute. As soon as I sit down on the couch and gently prop my feet up on the ottoman, some internal signal goes off in his brain and he charges. My legs become monkey bars for my little monkey. Last night, he sat on my legs and I said, "Grady you're about to break my knee caps?!" A few minutes later, we were discussing going to church in the morning to prep him for good behavior.

Steven said, "Grady, what are you going to do at church in the morning?"

Grady said, "Break everybody's knee caps!"

I can happily report that no knee caps were broken this morning.

We've been doing a lot of reading around here. We read by our self.

We read to our little brother.


And we try to get baby brother to sit still long enough to read to him.

We watched the Veggie Tales video Lord of the Beans tonight. Very hilarious.

Everyone took to their special "watch TV" spots and plugged the necessary orifices.

Reese is getting his molars so he has an excuse. I'm not sure what Grady's is for the finger in the nose. Guess he leaves one nostril open so he can breath.

And my mountain man husband worked on his beard while we watched. He goes through a phase once or twice a year where he grows out his hair and his beard. Then there is the summer phase where he takes clippers and shaves it all off with the lowest guard. His parents celebrated their 40-something anniversary today (45th I think?). When we make it that far, Lord willing, that will be 35 more beards and 35 more almost-shaved heads, or maybe he won't have any hair at all by that point. I think he's great, beard or no beard, hair or no hair, because he loves the Lord and is a great husband and friend and an amazing father to our kids. And he made fried green tomatoes tonight:).

The Best Day

Steven and I were sitting on our back porch reading and talking this afternoon. As he was reading me an excerpt from his book, and I was supposed to be listening, I got a little sidetracked by this:

We watched this little guy for a very long time. I'm not sure there was very much progress made in the consumption of this butterfly, but it certainly was interesting to watch.


We did pretend to be National Geographic photographers for a few minutes. That is, until Steven ran in to some metal toy of the kids lying on the ground.

After we had our fill of the lizard eating lunch and the boys were taking naps, we did a bit of work on riding without training wheels. It didn't take him long to catch on.

That was just the encouragement ride so Elle could see just how easy it is! She was a great sport and made many a run up and down the sidewalk. Still a long way to go but it's a start...

And as long as she held her mouth right, she didn't fall.

After the boys woke up, we went to our new favorite spot. It's a little arboretum right next to the middle school in town. There's tons of trees, leaves, trails, grass, acorns and sticks. There's a beautiful old white wooden Presbyterian church. There's a bench swing hanging from two trees. There is no playground equipment. And the kids love it.

The boys did much better this morning at Sunday school. And Grady was so proud of himself. When Steven went to pick him up {because I'm still too embarassed to show myself to the teacher after the showing last week?!}, he said, "Daddy, I did so good, I didn't even cry!"

Pumpkin Patch

We made it to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. It was a nice, bright, summer day in October.

The tractor-pulled wagon ride to the patch was very exciting.

They had a blast climbing and jumping off the hay bales. Grady got a little scared a few times and told a man near by, "You have to help me!". Elle, however, had no fear.

She's out of focus in this one, but I loved her skirt!


This means "I think there is something in the sky".

"I was right. Helicopter."

A little face painting to end the morning.

I love to be able to take several pictures fast and in a row. Some of the faces and expressions we get are amazing. And it's even more amazing that we rarely get one good shot:).

We made it to Sunday school this morning. It was not a good showing. My 3 year old and my 15 month old both pitched some good fits upon being dropped off. And I got buzzed with only 10 minutes left. I wasn't really sure who it might be since we get the same buzzer for both boys. It was Reese. Maybe next week will be better...

The way we do marathons

I really don't understand why well-child doctor visits take so long. But that's okay. I told the kids after our 2 1/2 hour stint this morning, that next time, I was bringing our suitcase, sleeping bags, lunch, toys, etc. I am happy to report that everyone checked out great. It was Reese's 15 month check-up and Grady's 3 year. And Elle got to receive a lovely flu shot.

Reese: 25 lbs 5 oz, 32 3/4 in

He does have a huge head. I have noticed that it is more and more difficult to get shirts over his head and sure enough, his gourd measured in the 95th percentile. However, it's been this big from the beginning. He was growing nicely along his curve and so we'll just say he has a large brain:). The doctor did want us to have his eyes checked because she noticed a slight difference in the way his pupils reacted to the light. At the most, he might need glasses. Nothing major. We checked Elle's vision at 10 months and again at 4 years and she checked out fine so maybe he will too. He got a finger stick and 3 shots?!

Grady: 34 lbs 2 oz, 38 1/2 in

He did great on his vision and hearing tests. However, the circle that he drew was a bit substandard. Again, no worries. Just normal differences in the gross motor and fine motor stuff of boys/girls. Boys are too busy playing rough and tumble to slow down and draw with a crayon. For now, I will try to encourage him to color and draw when he seems interested, which is more often now that we are doing school at home. Grady got to get the flu mist nose spray vaccine as well as 2 shots.

There was a good bit of screaming during shot time.

Yesterday morning, Elle and Grady had their dental check-ups. No cavities. She did say that Grady will have to see an orthodontist pretty early because he has a crooked bite, which we were aware of. At least that means I don't have to fight the thumb sucking since he'll be in braces anyway:).

We've had a great week enjoying the weather. We've spent a lot of time outside. We went to the park one day and the kids rode their bicycles some around the trails. Grady is doing so well with his bike. Now we need to work with Elle on losing the training wheels! This will be the first weekend we've all been home in almost a month and I have to confess that while I enjoyed our travels and time with family, I am looking forward to a weekend at home. We might attempt a pumpkin patch tomorrow. And maybe even worship on Sunday.

Off to do school since we missed our morning session with our marathon doctor appointment. We're making applesauce this afternoon!