Any Doubt

Just in case there was Any Doubt that this girl is a girly-girl, here she is at breakfast, painting her toenails with a paint brush.And then I was instructed to "Ma-ee, sock, off" in order to have a pedicure myself.
Before today, she wouldn't let me paint her toenails when I asked but then after I got showered and ready today, I asked her and she sat right down in my lap and now has light pink toenails! She kept lifting her foot to her mouth so she could blow on them to dry. And, for those of you wondering, I won't be taking her to get a real pedicure any time soon. Seeing as that I don't get regular pedicures, sister is gonna have to earn that!

Are You Ready???

Because we are. One week from today we will watch the Dawgs, in their Silver Britches, tee it up Between the Hedges against Louisiana-Lafayette. It is the beginning of football season and I can already hear the Redcoats, smell the hot dogs and beer and feel the roar of the Bulldog Nation. From now until December we will watch every Saturday with anticipation and always a nail biting finish to see where the Dawgs will take us this season. In this house, we bleed Red and Black. We are ready to Finish the Drill. G.A.T.A. Glory, Glory....Go Dawgs!!!

If you are not a Dawg fan and you are reading this, first, let me apologize because I know it's hard and second, may the force be with your team this year and enjoy the season. Unless you are a Vol, then sorry, I got nothing for ya. Put that ugly orange on and we'll talk in December.

You Know Your Husband Works From Home...

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you have seen my status updates that start the same way. You Know Your Husband Works From Home....

...when your daughter walks around the house with the phone to her ear saying , "Shh, call". There were a couple of others that I can't remember now but the latest was...

...when your five year old wants to try on a bluetooth "because I've never done that before Mom" and then walks outside on the front porch to pace and "talk" where it's quiet. Just like Daddy does!

Little Miss Accessory

This girl likes her accessories...in excess. To her, more is better, forget less is more! After getting all dolled up, she grabbed her purse and said, "bye bye".Opened the door herself and she was truly thinking she was going somewhere.
After I got her back inside, she found the hat which had to go on immediately. My Little Miss Accessory.

Cram

It has been busy week. School is going very well for Brice. He doesn't always like to answer questions about it but will talk about it on his own.

I, out of character, have been cramming to get all of my continuing education hours done this week for work. They are due Sept. 1st. This is so not like me.

I have also been working on my volunteer duties for the Zoe Rose Memorial Foundations "Rainbow of Roses" Celebration that will be held in October. We are trying to get word out to as many people as possible so we can honor as many angels as possible.

And, lastly, we took Anna's pacifier from her and she did beautifully!

So, my blogging has been slacking and I am going to Cram lots of pictures in to this post to make up for it. The week before school started we had shutters put in and we are enjoying them so much. I took some pictures for your viewing pleasure. You're welcome.




And here is Carly, flying solo. Well, with a cut paci.
With Brice, we went cold turkey because he had chewed the tip off. With her, I just cut the very tip the first day and told her it was broken. She replied, "trash". I didn't throw it away just yet though. She slept with it that day and then the next day, I cut a little more. Again, we still had the "nah" to sleep with but not to suck on. (Not sure why she called it a "nah".) And then last night, the pacifier didn't even go to bed with her. She didn't cry once for it or throw a fit. It just went so well, I couldn't believe it.

Nah, nah, nah, nah...nah, nah, nah, nah...hey, hey....Good bye!!!!

Shiner on My Thigh

I did this to myself on August 7th. These pictures were taken on August 14th and my bruise is still with me. I do not bruise easily but when I hoisted Brice's new bike out of the rack at the toy store, I knew this was going to bruise. How many colors do you see on my Shiner??? The knot in the center of it is still there! This post is just meant to hold you over until I have time to truly blog. I have been working on my continuing education hours all week for work.

Friday, the 13th, Again!

Crazy kids! We've had a good week. Brice has adjusted to school very well. He is tired but hopefully can recover a little this weekend. Today marks my nine year anniversary at Northside. This is so hard for me to believe. Sometimes I feel like I've just started there and then other times I realize how many changes I've see happen there and know I'm now a veteran!

Today is also 20 months for our little Anna bug. Getting closer and closer to that big 2 years old! She is crazy. Running around, saying new words every day. She loves to help out with anything. She loves Justin and I equally but usually picks one of us as her favorite for the day. Some days I swear she would crawl back inside me if she could, she just can't get close enough to me. She loves her babies or any baby for that matter and likes to care for them, feeding them her sippy cup or pancake and then wiping their mouth off. Yesterday, she was telling "Emily" to "si, si" (sit, sit) as I was putting her in her chair. She loves Thomas the Train, and Hello Kitty. And over the past week, I have found GUM in her mouth twice. She finds a package (which has now been moved to the top of the pantry), opens a piece, and walks over to the trash can saying, "trash, trash" while she's smacking away! Brice taught her how to spit it out so she comes to the trash can and spits her gum in when she gets caught! I need an extra set of eyes for her.

So, on this Friday the 13th, we are very blessed. To see why we love the 13's, you can re-read this post if you like!

Just Because

These pictures were too funny to not post! Anna ran around with these on her face for a good forty minutes.

Kindergarten Kid

Our little man was off to school today. And, as Uncle Greg pointed out, it is 8.9.10 which I will now always remember the date that he started! He had a great day and was very talkative when he got home. Apologies to the relatives that didn't get to speak to him. After his first interview, he was declining others. Poor kid should've had a press conference!

Here he is at breakfast, a little nervous about the bus. He had a couple of questions about it that I could tell were on his mind. Here I am explaining a few things about the layout of the school and what time he's able to go to his classroom.
He was feeling better after some pancakes and a rundown of what to expect.


Representing his future school!

The bus arrived a little early which surprised all of us and was a good thing in the end. Kept me from choking up...until I got back inside that is.

This image has been burned in my brain.

And then, he sat down on the bus, slid over to the window (just as Justin told him he used to like to do) and looked out it and the bus drove down the street. Justin then decided to follow the bus and try to get a picture of him getting off at school. Justin accidentally went in the car rider entrance but was able to get some pictures. Turns out, Brice spotted Justin and knew he had turned in the wrong entrance! I think this made Brice feel good to know that his Daddy was right behind him or maybe vice versa!
And, then Anna and I went about our day with minimal tears. I cried again around lunch time when I was looking at other people's first days on facebook. Just started thinking that maybe he was scared or uncomfortable about something. After that I was good though. Anna and I went to Sam's, played, read "Where's Baby's Belly Button?" about ten times, and napped.

I was so excited though when this happened...
And, he got a new bike! Don't worry, this isn't going to happen every year! He was just way overdue for a bigger bike and I think it worked out nicely that he got it on his first day of "big school". Next year, he'll have to settle for some freshly baked cookies or something.
It's official: We have a Kindergarten Kid!

Sleepy Minnie

Tomorrow after I put Brice on the bus, Anna and I are going to get busy doing things like this...And working on these types of lists...
...which will hopefully take my mind off of Brice being at school all day and make this sweetie a Sleepy Minnie.

Thanks to Uncle Josh for the shoes and purse (not pictured)!

88 on 8/8

Happy 88th, Grandpa! We love you! Hope you have a great day.

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear, Great Grandpa! Happy Birthday to you!

Hope this picture of your great grandkids is the best present.

Screeching Halt

As I am sure most of you can tell from my posts, I have been ready for school to start for a while. We had a very busy summer but I didn't feel like we over did it either. I truly enjoyed spending time at the pool with the kids, a few camps and then of course the beach. And now, here we are three days shy of the first day of school. We met Brice's teacher this afternoon and I can tell he is excited and of course a tad nervous. Who isn't when they are starting a new year, not to mention a new school?

And, I'm not gonna lie. It was weird for me. As we were walking into the school, I couldn't deny the lump in my throat and the heartbeat in my ears. I'm just so shocked at how quickly these years have flown by. I felt like I was back at Dolvin Elementary meeting my teachers and finding out where I was going to sit in class. I feel like I want one more year with Brice even though he is more than ready. I was standing in the bus line to get the information, looking around at all the kids, and wanted to point a remote at my head and rewind it full of memories of Brice. I just know all too well how this works. He will start kindergarten on Monday and then by Friday he will be walking across the stage with a diploma in his hand. I wish I had some brakes sometimes because I would put a screeching halt on all this growing up so fast.

I didn't think I was going to be emotional about this but now I am finding that I am. I don't want to be, I just am. It's not the fact that he's going to school or riding the bus, it's just that it goes so fast and I don't want to want anything back. I want to do it right the first (and only) time but sometimes life seems to just goes too fast for me to even stop and evaluate if I'm doing a good job or not. I know Brice is going to do a good job, no question. I just hope that he and Anna have no question about whether or not I'm doing a good job.

I guess we'll find out next Friday, right? You know...when he graduates!!

Cake Boss Obsession

Brice has become obsessed with The Cake Boss. He saw one of the shows when we were down at the beach and ever since then, he wants to make these cakes. He does use play-doh at least. He has set up his bakery in the basement. He did a really good job, I think.
A few borrowed kitchen essentials for baking.
Pouring "chocolate sauce" onto his cookie cake that he made for me!
My mom came up this afternoon to see the kids and she was sucked right down to the basement where she proceeded to feed the frenzy with pretend orders being phoned in. This particular customer wanted a "sea life" cake.
Here is my little baker with his apron on. Go Dawgs! And below, you will see the golf cake that someone requested. Not sure how long this Cake Boss Obsession is going to last but I guess it will get us through the end of summer!

Beach Trip 2010

We had an awesome week down in Panama City! To say it was hot and humid is an understatement. Some of my pictures are hazy because the lens kept fogging up. And, I'll be honest, it was so hot, I didn't feel like taking lots of pictures. And when you're not feeling it, you can't push it! I do think I captured the moments though enough to give you an idea of what we did while we were there. Lots of swimming, digging, and eating!Playing on the beach. Anna did not stand in the sand, ONCE. She only sat on the beach chairs or sat on a towel on the sand. One word: DIVA.
It was super windy the night we ate at Sharky's. I just kind of threw Anna's hair back the best I could to keep the knots to a minimum.
Acting a little crazy.
Brice used to be able to stand up straight in the shark's mouth. He has grown too much.


She is wet from the pool, not the ocean. Again, would draw her legs up and cling to me if I tried to take her in the ocean. The waves were pretty rough the first couple of days we were there.
Anna's new word for the trip was "cuncreen". She enjoyed having the sunscreen spread all over her and then wanted to pretend she was doing it herself.
Brice's first airbrush T-shirt. He picked out the colors by himself. And wore it to dinner two nights in a row.
The highlight of Justin's beach trip was taking Brice on a five hour fishing trip for the first time. Although they didn't catch many fish (no one on the boat did because they were only allowed to go out 9 miles rather than 15 due to the oil spill), they had a great time together and a couple nights later we walked down to the marina and Brice was proudly showing off "his boat" and exactly where they sat. I think that was a run-on sentence, sorry.

Anna and me at Schooners. The girl dipped her fries in tartar sauce and colored like a mad woman. She also didn't flinch when they shot the cannon at sunset. I think we have a beach girl on our hands.


Brice challenged Pa to a race. Pa, the one who had just run five miles that morning. I know who won but I won't say it aloud. ;)


Lieutenant Dan!! Sorry, I said it when they buried his legs and I'm saying it again.

Hanging out in the condo wearing big brother's shoes.
Breakfast on the balcony. I love doing this and so did Anna.
Our view in the mornings, very early mornings.


Brice enjoyed digging holes deep enough for his legs to be buried.
Robin's drink of choice. Diet coke, Whiskey and a lime. She ain't playin' around, folks.
Do you know where this is???? Captain Anderson's!! Brice loves these divers and Anna wasn't afraid. She climbed up in that seat no problem.

Waiting at Captain Anderson's. Justin's face says, "We better get seated soon or our kids are gonna lose it!". The kids did great even with the wait. Justin, on the other hand...
More waiting...
..but so worth the wait! Yummy dinner and even more yummy desserts!!
He wanted his picture by the cannon.
Aunt Kelly became "the next best thing" when I wasn't around. Anna was extremely attached to me this trip and didn't want to swim with anyone else if I was there.

Anna laughing hysterically at Brice blowing bubbles.


At Margaritaville, Brice's favorite.
Getting tickled by the Pa-monster. Luckily we didn't wake Jack up. And, yes, I got to hold Jack this time! My camera batteries died at the end of the trip so I was lucky to get as many shots as I did. Until next year!!