Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day...the Pool is Open!

Well we spent our first Memorial Day in Nashville since we have been married.  We always go to the lake and we were so sad because we love it there and missed Grammie and Pop and cousins so badly, but we have been so busy that we needed a little down time.   So we decided to stay home and have a little impromptu Memorial Day Pool Party at our house...and we had the best day!  The new house has a pool (which is NOT something we were looking for in a new home, but is wonderful and a little terrifying at the same time) but it was so relaxing and enjoyable!
The boys helped make the decorations.  Nothing fancy but they LOVED coloring and cutting their own stars (well Drake needed a little help cutting them out at the corners) and we talked about why we were celebrating.  Hunter and Drake are so proud to tell you that we are "honoring the military, especially the ones that died."  
 My children are now obsessed with making stars and Hunter asked me right before bed time if we could do it again tomorrow.  If I had known they were going to enjoy it so much I would have had them making stars years ago!!!  GEEEZ!
 The boys took some intense swim lessons this past week and were so excited to be in the water.  They are officially fishies!   

Drake and his best buddy Davis
Hunter LOOOVES to go down the slide now!  He can go down and swim to the ladder or the other side of the pool now which is so wonderful for me.  Maston introduced him to going  down the slide with his kick board and now he loves that even more.  He probably went down 100 times yesterday.




This was a really cool Pirate Float equipped with a sword, steering wheel and gun that shoots out water from the pool that Hudson and Dylan brought.  Lisa said she got it Target (as if I needed another fabulous reason to go there!)

Oh my goodness.  11 boys, 4 and under and this wasn't even all of them!  There were 3 more boys (so 14 total) and only 2 girls.  But they were all pretty cute and after we fed them some supper they were good sports and took a picture for us.  We couldn't believe it


Some dads.  I just love this picture.  I think because for some reason it reminds me of college.  

More sliding

Getting back out...

walking back to the slide...

And down again!

Maston showing us how they were taught to float in swim class.  The instructor would have them jump off the diving board, come up and float on their backs and when he said it was time, the would flip over and swim to the side.  And that was just after 1 week!  Our swim instructor is so fabulous that if you live in Nashville and are looking for a good one call me!

Frank diving

Bella about to take her turn going down the slide with her kick-board

Oh Night Swimming.  There is just nothing like it!  I think all the children swam, changed clothes, changed back into their bathing suits and back out again about 5 times through out the day.  Someone was constantly in and out of the pool.  But it was perfect.  

Sweet Drakey enjoying night swimming!




Some Mommas


And then they found a frog




Amidst all the food, family and fun,  we remember all our troops who protect our freedom.  Specifically the ones who have died in service.   We honor you and do not take it for granted.  We are thankful to God for all that you have done for this country.
  
Thank you Uncle B for serving in the Air Force!  We are grateful for you and love you!

God Bless America!




Saturday, May 14, 2011

You can run but you can't hide!!!!!!

They're baaaaa-aaaaack!!!!!!!
The 13 year cicadas!!!!!!
The last time I remember these guys was 13 years ago, when I graduated from high school (did I admit I graduated 13 years ago?  YIKES!)  In our graduation video you cannot hear speakers, announcers or hardly anything.  You just hear a constant hum that is louder than any microphone from the noise these little guys (or maybe not so little) put off.  And the whole time in the video all you see is us girls picking the cicadas off our white dresses constantly.  It is a memory I will never forget and it never dawned on me at the time the next time they would be here I would have a family.  My boys are mesmarized and loooove these ciacdas.  What a novelty they are to them!  
We spotted our very first one on Mothers Day last Sunday






This is the shell the climb out of, so there are now HUNDREDS of these everywhere.  On plants, walls, fences, trees, the ground.  You name it, they are hatching and each day this week there are more and more and more!


It's hard to tell in this picture but on this one little plant there are about 20 shells.  And the feet of the cicadas and the shells are sticky.  They are like sticky bushes.  It is crazy.

But speaking of Mothers Day last week, I just want to say Happy Mothers Day to everyone!  Especially Grammie, I am so lucky to have such a wonderful and loving Mother in Law, and to Mimi/Mom, who is my best friend.  Kyle and I are lucky to have such amazing women in our life!

Mothers Day was very nice...after church Kyle brought home some sandwiches from one of my favorite spots and we layed by the pool all day long.  The boys were content all day and we had such a relaxing afternoon.

At School, the 4s preschool classes have a Mother Day Tea, which was just the sweetest.  They made hats for all the moms, and once all the moms had arrived they brought us into the classroom, sang 3 songs (which I of course cried all the way through) and served us a plate of food, that the kids all made themselves. 









This was the present all the kiddos had made us for Mothers day.  They had wrapped them themselves and i wish I had a picture of that!


The Kiddos fixing our plates. They served us mommies first and then went back and made their own plates.



Hunty bringing me my plate of food....it was so yummy!



The children actually made all the food in the classroom themselves.  The teachers asked the children what they wanted to serve us for the tea and they came up with the menu themselves.  (One of the teachers told us the one of the children mentioned they should serve us wine because that makes mommies happy, and though the teachers agreed, the suggested it might not be a good idea to do that at school:)
Menu:
Homemade hummus that they made that morning
Carrots and Pita Bread to dip in the hummus
Fruit skewers the children assembled
 Pretzels they dipped in frosting and rolled it in sprinkles



It was such a sweet and fabulous program!!!!!
But one more thing...the morning after Mothers Day we found a frog in our swimming pool.  Since then we have found 2 dead chipmunks, and 2 dead lizards (do they not see they are heading for a body of water?  Do they fall out of the trees?  I just don't know.  But what I do know is that I can hardly take it.  I only hope that with a lot of activity in the pool this summer the animals won't want to come so close!)
Anyways, the frog was fun for the guys.  





Hunter getting the frog out with the "pooper scooper"  there are lots of things wrong with this picture!

 

 And last but definitely NOT least!!!!  Divot is done with chemotherapy and doing FABULOUS!!!!!!!!



Monday, May 2, 2011

"Belles" and Bows

What are you putting in my hair Mom?

Oh, a bow?  Well thank you.  While your at it, could you give me some lipstick too please?

Yes that was just what I needed to compliment my brown and black frock

I better rest.  After all it is not easy to look this good!

My beautiful Bella-Girl!