It's a ZOO out there

Instead of taking a family trip, Jamie and I decided to have a stay-cation this year and just hang out at home.  I was kind of disappointed but it's actually been alot of fun!  I hate that the boys aren't getting to go to the beach this summer, but then again, it's not like they realize they are missing out on anything.  Plus we've made it our mission to make this week a fun one! The first day of our stay-cation, we headed to the Memphis Zoo.  We were kind of afraid it might be a disaster because the day before we had decided to take Collier's paci away and he was pretty fussy and irritable. However, the day couldn't have been better and the kids did GREAT.  It was really, REALLY hot, but they loved every bit of it and behaved perfectly.  Noah was really into the crocodiles and clapped while watching them and Collier had fun feeding the birds. That is, until he swung his food stick and knocked the bird off the tree branch, scaring it to death! The food stick was a long stick with a clothes pin attached holding a cluster of bird feed.  Collier confused it with a golf club and kept swinging it like one, sending the cluster of food flying in the air.  Although I have to admit, I can see how he could have made that connection as it DID in fact resemble a golf club.

We went at our excursion with a very laid back approach and knew that if the kids got hot/tired/fussy, we might have to leave sooner than planned, however they hung in there like champs and we were able to see the entire zoo.  Towards the end, they were both pretty exhausted and crashed as soon as we got to the car.  Our day at the zoo made for a very fun adventure and kicked off our stay-cation with a bang!

{feeding a parakeet}

 {Collier's golf club}

 {very hot and very tired}

 {Noah had a lot of fun!}

Partyin' It Up

June/July is the month of birthdays for my family.  June 11th was a big milestone for my Dad as he celebrated his 60th birthday.  After the past 18 months, it was even more special that he is HERE and HEALTHY for this birthday.  We had all of our family gather at Mom and Dad's to help us celebrate his special day.  All of Dad's brother and sisters (and spouses), his mom, and several of my cousins came, as well as my mom's twin sister, Carol, who came in town for the occasion.  It really meant alot to Dad to have everyone there and we all had a great time!

{Noah and Carol, my mom's twin sis} 





{Ha! You mom's understand what it's like trying to get 2 to sit still for a picture}

{Me and Lindsay, 28 weeks preggo}

June 27th is my sister's birthday and 4 days later on July 1st is her husband, Derrick's birthday. To celebrate, we all went to dinner then enjoyed a delicious Beth Ledbetter cake at my house.  Since Lindsay is 7 months pregnant during this terribly hot summer, I gifted her with a hot stone pedicure, which she (and her poor swollen feet) were happy to receive. 

A few weeks ago, several of Lindsay's best friends and I hosted a baby shower for her and baby Harper.  She received so many adorable outfits, some of the practical items such as diapers/wipes/lotions/bath wash and even some of the must-have's such as her swing and a diaper genie.  Have I mentioned just how excited I am to meet my sweet little niece in August?!?  I absolutely CAN'T WAIT!  In fact, I think I'm probably as excited as my sister is... and every Wednesday I send her a text saying "Happy (insert appropriate week #) Week!" or in the case of this week, "Happy 32nd Week!"  It's such an exciting, special time and I couldn't be happier for her and Derrick.  I am over the top thrilled that it's a baby girl and can't wait to love, snuggle and spoil this precious baby.  I am even excited to stay the night to take on the nightshift rocking and feeding baby Harper!  Oh and the clothes... it is so much fun getting to buy all the precious pink and purple frilly, smocked outfits. She has a few more showers coming up later this month then the countdown for Harper's arrival IS ON.  Yeah, I'm just a tad bit excited about this little girl getting here!

{all of her friends in attendance}

{Lindsay and the hostesses}

Brink Boys Recap

Noah is a full-fledged walker now! It's truly amazing.  He has been walking some on his own for a while but lacked motivation/desire to do so in the house.  My guess it's because he's in his comfort zone at home and he knows he can get around much quicker by crawling while at home. It was kind of frustrating because I would see him walk at school and church. At the end of May he did away with crawling and just decided it was time to walk, all the time.  He has also learned how to go from sitting to standing without any assistance or without holding onto any objects for support.  He began doing this completely on his own, just out of the blue at the end of May.  We are so so proud of him! We have recently added speech therapy (private therapy, in addition to what he receives through the school system) and hope to see some progress in his speech and more attempts to begin talking.  At times he does make noises that seem like he is trying to communicate with us and several times in the car, he will 'sing along' to songs that he likes.  Its a softer sound, not his usual sounds that he makes when he's excited or trying to talk.  He really loves Adele, Gotye, and Drive By - Train.  He always claps along to those particular artists/songs.
Collier is 20 months old today and at such a fun age.  Yes, there are the temper tantrums that seem to come as 2 is drawing near but the good definitely outweighs the bad.  He still has the same sweet, funny, energetic and happy little disposition.  He is like a little sponge, just soaking up everything he sees and hears.  He surprises me daily with things that he understands and knows.  He is able to follow simple commands, for example, he will throw his dirty diaper away in the garbage when I ask him to and in fact, now does it without being asked; just yesterday I asked him to share his blocks with his brother and he put 2 of them in Noah's lap.  Some of his new words are: Harper (his soon to be cousin's name, sounds like Ah-pa), Papa, Mimi (sounds like Ne-Ne), MawMaw, flower (fla fla), balloon (boon), green (geen), blue (boo), dude (dew), cool (gool), Mickey (ghee).  He has recently become a huge fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse so we hear alot of "ghee" and "dat doh" (hot dog).  He has been testing his limits in learning how to walk up and down ramps, taking steps down off curbs and walking backwards(?!?) so if there is ever a slope in the grass or a ramp (at church) he walks up and down, up and down it. He has mastered steps and goes up and down the steps of our front porch on his own and knows that he must hang on to the railing. I am trying to raise him to be independent as it really just makes things easier since Noah needs so much help.
I recently took both of the boys to the pool (by myself) and they had a great time playing in the baby pool (gotta love the fence that surrounds the baby pool!).  I eventually got brave and put them both in the big pool with me (floatees on of course) and at first they were both nervous.  Okay, Collier was terrified and screaming (which of course upset Noah). So yes, I looked like Mother of the Year forcing both of my children to play in the big pool, despite their screams of protest. I was definitely getting 'the look' from the other mothers.  However, after a few minutes of boucing and floating in the water they both warmed up to it and were laughing.  By the end of the day, Collier was jumping off the edge into my arms and trying to swim and float on his own!  After 2 hours of playing at the pool, we loaded up our caravan of towels, toys and snacks and headed home.  I glanced back during the drive and I had not 1, but 2 little boys passed out in the backseat.  Despite all of the effort that goes into taking both boys by myself, I believe we will be visiting the pool more often this summer!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to this man! 

He's a pretty special daddy... one that loves spending one on one time with each of his boys; enjoys his 'boys' night's where he keeps the kids (and lets me have some 'me' time); can't wait until they are old enough so he can take them to the golf course and teach them his favorite sport; sets a great example by being a hard worker; always puts his family first; every Sunday morning, he gets the kids fed, bathed and ready for church and gives me a break from doing it; isn't afraid to keep the boys overnight/for an extended period of time by himself; works hard to allow me to stay at home because he believes its whats best for the kids; reads them books and gets down in the floor to play with them; bathes the boys every evening before bed; is proud of our boys; is encouraging and loves to give praise when they learn or accomplish something new; hugs, kisses and gives them lots of affection; loves them unconditionally; makes going to church a priority and wants our children to be raised in a christian home. 

He's a pretty GREAT dad and Noah & Collier are very lucky and so blessed to have him as their dada!

And I'm lucky and very blessed to have this man as MY dad!

Summer Days...

My kids have kicked summer off with a bang and we've kept pretty busy the past few weeks!  First things first, with hot weather it's a must that you get a summer haircut.  So I took both boys to their barber for haircuts.  This was my first time to take both of them without Jamie's help, but I must say, I managed quite alright.  Noah used to be completely traumatized every time we attempted a haircut but he's gotten used to it finally and even sits in the chair by himself... although he still freaks out whenever they pull out the buzzer to trim his side burns and the back of his hairline.  He HATES the way the hair tickles him when it gets all over him so I always have to give him a bath as soon as we get home.  This was also a special day for Collier since at 19 months and 1 day, it was his first 'official' haircut (May 23rd).  I've trimmed his hair a few times, but never done an all over cut.  I didn't necessarily plan on it, but when we got there I asked if she could fit him in so it was sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing.  However, I'm not real sentimental when it comes to hair so it wasn't that big of a deal for me.  He was such a big boy and sat in the chair all by himself enjoying a sucker, while Jewel trimmed him up.  He even scored a First Haircut Certificate to document this momentous occasion.  They both look so cute with their new 'do's!

We spend one evening strolling the streets of downtown Florence perusing through arts and crafts from local vendors at First Fridays.  The boys favorite part was the listening to the band and dancing in the streets! The first week in June was Vacation Bible School at our church.  Collier technically isn't old enough yet, but since I was helping in the 3-4 year old class, he got to participate with our group.  At one point we had 11 kids ranging from 19 months (Collier was the youngest) to 3 1/2 years old.  It was tiring! But both boys had a great time and I enjoyed helping out and having adult time with all the other girls that were also helping. 

On Wednesday night, we had our VBS wrap up where the kids sang all the songs they had learned that week and then we had an ice cream party where they were also able to play on a huge inflatable waterslide.  My boys didn't go down the slide (Collier was too young and me or Jamie would have had to help Noah get up the slide and I didn't want to put on a bathing suit in front our church group!) however, they stood at the bottom of the slide and loved getting splashed as each of the bigger kids would come down!

And what's summer vacation without a few days of lounging around the house enjoying doing absolutely NOTHING?  Thank goodness my boys and I have the same frame of mind when it comes to taking it easy every once in awhile!  We made a big pallet in the den and watched movies until daddy came home from work.