The fastest weekend ever!

What a great - but fast - weekend. Friday night we saw Bill Cosby and Sat. we spent a lot of the day getting ready for Luke and Sara to visit. We also decided to have a "few" people over to watch the Alabama/Georgia game. Well, a few turned into a lot! I am not even sure how many people were here. It was a great night for everyone though. The kids played in the bouncer we rented and on the swing set - the adults watched the game on the wall (Jamey borrowed a projector) and we all ate too much.

We really enjoyed Luke and Sara - even though their visit was short. The kids always go right back to them, even if it has been a few weeks since we saw them last. Even after he had been gone over a year, they never stopped talking about him.

Sunday we went to church and then ate lunch in Cathedral Square with the people from church and it was beautiful outside. The kids had a blast. They played duck, duck, goose and had relay races.
Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Luke is always up for some wrestling or throwing children in the air. He is usually good about catching them too.

Here are all the kids at the party Sat. night - all Alabama fans by birth except for the one child in the pink shirt. Poor Shannon was born to parents who cheer for LSU - sad, really.
Me and my girl - really I couldn't love her any more.

Posing for the camera -
Stephen's speech has grown so much in the past month! Sentences such as "Iwant that" Sissy night-night" are common now. It does make thing easier when trying to figure out what he wants!

Mr. Cosby

One chair - One table - one bottle of water and a box of kleenex. This is what the stagehands had to set up for the Bill Cosby show tonight. And it was WONDERFUL! I have loved Bill Cosby since, well, I have always loved him! His show consisted of him sitting in a chair talking to the audience and he was wonderful. His facial expressions and stories were exactly what I hoped they would be. What a great night!

I was pretty star struck sitting there watching him. He just seems so iconic (is that the right word?) and I love the fact that I have seen him in person and pretty close up too! Our seats were pretty far up - but then we got moved to the floor by some Beau Rivage show guy!

Thanks to my mom and dad for keeping the kids.
Luke and Sara are headed this way tomorrow for an Alabama/Georgia game party. Jamey says this is where I should say "Roll Tide"! :-)

Visiting

Ansley and Josh hanging out in the first picure and below this Ansley and her favorite D-Jo - Elizabeth. Elizabeth is starting her new job next week and will be traveling all over the place. I am going to link her blog to mine.


Jamey's grandma and Stephen have a look out the kitchen window. Probably looking for Molly - Melia and Josh's hyper dog!

Here is a picture of Ansley and Grandad after eating a black ladybug cupcake - Thankfully, it did wash off the tongue eventually.

We have had a good week so far. Everyone is healthy and we visited with lots of family recently. MY parents went to GA to visit Luke and Sara this past weekend and Sara is still dealing with some major wisdom teeth issues! But she seems to be on the mend now.
Ansley is blending sounds beginning this week - for those of you outside the world of elementary education, she is putting a consanent and a vowel together - she can read ta, te, ti, to, tu! Well, I am impressed anyway.
Saturday morning Stephen kept saying " I go cheese. I go cheese." I thought at first he was asking for cheese, but that wastn' it - a little bit later we saw a commercial for, you probably guessed it - chucky cheese and he began pointing and calling me to come look. Chuckycheese is not my favorite place (Although now that Blue Rabbit's "forgot" to pay its state taxes and now has chains on the front doors, I guess our choiced are limited in that department.)

Work for me has been really busy. I barely have time right now to check email that is work related and I am hoping things calm down soon. I have seen so many kids this week I can't even remember them all - some for flea bites all over their little bodies - a few little boys who lost their mother in a car accident this summer - a girl who is obviously sick with sinus/allergy/asthma issues who needs to see a dr and I can't get anyone to take her. Sometimes I feel like I am running in circles. A big part of my job unfortunately is test coordinator (even though it SHOULD NOT BE MY JOB) and today at a meeting we heard a rumor that it would be taken from us soon. I could not be more happy. I literally have to stop my other duties for at least 2 weeks per quarter during testing and it is so frustrating.

But on a good note - Jamey and I are going to see Bill Cosby Friday night! I am very interested to hear him. I will let you know how it goes. And Luke and Sara are coming for a visit this weekend. Good times!

One more day

One more day and we will have made it through this long week. Nothing especially exciting happened - somehow this week just seemed to drag. Stephen has been a little under the weather - but we are not exactly sure what it is. Theories range from just being tired to cutting 2 year molars. Neither of my kids have ever had teething issues. While I had friends whose babies cried, ran fever and drooled like mad, the only reason I knew my kids were getting teeth is by checking! We had his ears checked today and the dr. said they were clear of infection. Hopefully he will be his perky self again soon.
Ansley had her first "test" at school on vowel sounds and did really well. She sings her vowel sounds around the house and especially in the bathtub. She is really inspired to sing while bathing!
And to brag on her a little bit - we just finished reading through a kids version of Alice in Wonderland (not the original but still a chapter book!) and we have now moved on to Little Women - which Ansley calls "Little Woman". She likes it so far - She is getting used to listening to me read books with little or no pictures. I love to read to her while she lays next to me - she looks at the ceiling and I can almost see the little wheels turning as she attempts to picture the stories.
She is looking forward to staying with my friend Morgan next week while her school is closed for a few days. She is in love with "baby Peyton" and can't wait to visit with him.

And we hope Sara Self is feeling better soon! Wisdom teeth extraction is just plain NO FUN.
I will post some new pictures this weekend. We are going to a football game tomorrow night (I hope it is cool outside!)

Sleepover

Last night Ansley went to her first official sleepover! She has stayed overnight with my parents and Jamey's parents many many times, but this was with friends at a birthday party. I was nervous about it - not because I thought she would miss me (my children have never been ones to cling to me) but rather I am aware that all too soon sweet little girls playing princess begin saying things like "you aren't my friend." and "we are not going to play with you." Of course, none of that seemed to have occurred considering when I picked her up she asked why I was there. And the party was actually at the home of very close friends . I don't know why I worried - I don't remember any traumatic sleepovers from when I was a child. Mostly I remember them being really fun. I guess what is bothering me is the fact that she is old enough now to have these little relationships that I have no control over and that does mean that she will get her feelings hurt. But she is mine - and she still believes that there is so much good in the world and I want her to stay that way for as long as she can.
Last night was apparently great - full of great food, fun games, fingernail painting and much more.

She even got to watch Hannah Montana - (yikes!) and loved it all.

Countdown to Disney

You may have noticed that we are on the countdown for a Disney trip and we are all starting to get more excited as the days go by. When Jamey was growing up, they were Disney fanatics - going many times a year. Jamey's parents even woke them up a few school mornings and had the car ready and packed for a trip to Disney - how cool is that! We have not been to Disney World since Ansley was about 11 months old. She is not exactly sure what Disney World is - she has seen pictures and knows she will see all the characters (and no, much to our dismay DESPITE the fact that the Wiggles come on the Disney channel, they do not make appearances at Disney World! Whats up with that????) Anyway - we are all excited. My family is going - Jamey's family is going. Even some of his extended family is meeting us down there.
So - as of today - 75 days until we leave. We have awesome dinner reservations - golf time for Jamey and his dad - spa time for the girls - and so much more.
Here is a picture of Ansley is Disney World 4 years ago - She was not thrilled about Tigger.

Friday afternoon

You gotta love Friday afternoons when there is nothing scheduled for that evening. Even though there is no way we will actually stay home and relax, it is nice not to be so scheduled for the evening. I think we may venture to Lamberts - a restaurant in Foley which is famous for throwing rolls at their customers. Not really my favorite place to eat (the communal serving pots turn me off a little) but Ansley LOVES it. She went last spring and the waiter pretended to squirt her with ketchup and she has talked about it ever since.
Stephen had a great week - although Tuesday he managed to bust his head on the patio out back ! The worst part is the fact that I saw the whole thing. I swear it was in slow motion - he tripped while running and didn't get his hands under himself to catch the fall and fell forehead down on the concrete. A terrible thud and subsequent screaming made for a chaotic 5 minutes. But he recovered, has a nice mark on his forehead and was up playing in the backyard within 20 minutes or so. Other than that, he has had a great week. Daycare is going so well.
For some reason, Stephen has renamed Jamey's dad. He has called him "gandad" for months but now calls him something that sounds like "babu". Stephen thinks it is hilarious. He will say, "no gandad. BABU!" None of us can figure out this renaming. It is funny though. It is like a little joke from a little boy who knows its funny but isn't quite sure why.

pictures from last weekend

Here are some pictures from the Sat. before Gustav.




My mom babysat for us Friday night and the kids fell asleep together watching cartoons.
Ansley has learned how to give Stephen a ride on the tricycle. Makes me so nervous but he LOVES it!

Eating a snack together after school -

Our feelings on Gustav....

These two pictures generally give you the idea of how thrilled my children are at begin stuck in the house all day.




And since schools are closed tomorrow, we get to do this again! Hopefully the weather will clear enough for some long walks. We made a mad dash to Chickfila tonight for some free chicken strips and then made a stop at CVS for some playdough to get us through the evening. And now begins the media's obsession with Ike and soon to be Josephine.