Come Here......Come. here. Come Heeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrreeeeeee.

Netflix has introduced my boy and girl to the Huxtable family. Stephen likes it, but Ansley loves it. We are almost through with Season One and she sits and doesn't move during an episode except to laugh and laugh and laugh.

"This show is great." Ansley says. "You have to watch this, mama. Have you seen this??"
She is laughing out loud as I type this at Cliff trying to find a spot in the bed with Vanessa (who sneaked into a scary movie and is now too scared to sleep alone) wedged in the middle flopping arms and legs. 

"This show is like listening to a story."  Ansley said.

Jamey and I used to watch it a lot before we had kids. One of the best scenes ever is when Cliff is standing in the hallway upstairs telling the two youngest girls, "Come. Here." The girls don't move. "Come. Here." he repeats. and again - the girls don't move.

Jamey and I hear ourselves saying that all the time. We laugh every time and we probably will forever.

In other news, Jamey was very upset that I failed to mention his 1st place WIN at the MOT rib cookoff last weekend! So congrats to Jamey and Jeremy for bringing home the 1st place prize.

Anyone out there on Twitter? Add Hillbillydew and you can have the honor of following the winner of the 1st annual MOT rib cookoff.

One week til our break for Mardi Gras!

A few pictures from Christmas (better late than never)

(Thanks, MRW!)

In the garden.....

We spent much of this weekend outside. The weather was just too good to pass up. After taking my dad to a wonderful breakfast for his birthday on Saturday, we made a stop by Lowe's to purchase some "keep Tilly in the yard at all times" materials and some compost for our garden. Here are the kiddos sitting on top of the pavers to make sure they don't fall off - surely that was a good shoulder, back and arm workout pushing two kids and a pile of concrete pavers around....

 

Here is Stephen ready to turn some dirt and add some compost.....Yay for dirt and worms!

We all got in with our shovels....and SURPRISE!

Last fall, Ms. French (aka, Great-Grandma and Mamaw Jo) gave us some sweet potato tops she had placed into a jar with water....fast forward a few months - and remember this garden has been completely untouched all those winter months - and we have a surprise crop of sweet potatoes!!! In total, we dug out maybe 20 or so sweet potatoes - about half of them are actually big enough to eat. Crazy!! The kids thought it was great. Heck, I thought it was great!!
The kids have also taken up daytime residency in a FABULOUS tree in the backyard. We saved it when we picked out this lot 5 years ago and I had visions of Ansley (and future siblings) sitting exactly like Ansley is now. Here she is showing up a sweet potato from her garden.

The planting will come next!!!

Stephen's musical debut....or Stephen rocks the Paper Jamz...

Ansley spent an hour or so this afternoon making candy suckers for her friends at school. She really worked hard and did a great job. We took a class a few weeks ago to learn how to make them. I enjoyed the hour with my girl.
While Ansley and I were in the kitchen, Stephen and Jamey very nicely cleaned out my car. I went out at one point to check on the boys and found Stephen throwing cheerios out of the back seat into the grass one at a time. "Mama, this is just gross. Where did all these cheerios come from? Someone put them in your car!"
"Really?" I said. "I wonder who could have left a trail of army men, cheerios, and legos in my backseat?"
"It is like a mystery, mama. Like on ScoobyDo!" he said.

Here are a few pictures of Ansley hard at work in the kitchen. 

Here she is melting the chocolate in the microwave...

The chocolate is melted and ready to go...

 

Pouring the chocolate into the molds...

Here are some of the candies wrapped and ready for delivery in Ms. Brown's first grade class...

 Here is a closeup of one of her creations...

 After candy making, we turned to cookies. We will deliver these to a few special people tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Duke Family!

Homeschool??

Ansley and Stephen play school quite a bit. Or I should say, Ansley tries to talk Stephen into playing school. He is much less enthusiastic about it than he used to be. He will end his time with Ms. Debbie in May this spring :( and will start K4 in August :(

Ms. Debbie has been so wonderful for all of us. I told Jamey we may have another baby just so I can go visit with Ms. Debbie every day.
A few weeks ago, as Ansley was trying to convince Stephen it would be fun to sit in the "desk" and listen to her teach him "long vowel sounds", he told her, "I'm going to wear my underwear to school!"
"What?" Ansley said. "You can't wear only your underwear to school. It is not allowed. Unless you homeschool"
"What is home-school?" Stephen asked.
"It is where you stay home and your mommy teachers you instead of a teacher at school." Well, that was enough to sell Stephen on the concept on homeschooling right there.
"Imma homeschool, Mama. Me and you. Ansley will go to school and I will homeschool, ok mama?"

Um.....I am pretty sure homeschooling is NOT in our future...of course, never say never, but it is not in any of MY plans anyway.
So we are trying to positively talk about K4 as much as we can! Stephen is ignoring us on each attempt. Oh well - we have time, right????

up in the ATL

It was a great weekend in Atlanta. Despite torrential downpours and figid temps, the Duke and Self family had a great time. Here are a few pictures of the trip: 

^Disclaimer - I left my camera in Mobile - so all of these pictures were taken on my phone. So they are not the best, but they get the job done. Steve gave the kids their own cameras, so it will be interesting to see how those pictures turn out when we get them developed!

Ansley's doll Kit took a trip to the American Girl Doll Store Salon and Spa (Yes, you read that right - the DOLL went to the salon.) My mom and I were amazed such a thing existed - yet, it does. Ansley loved it. Honestly, I loved it too. Stephen? Not so much. He hit the brakes at the Pink doors to the store and flat out told the store greeter, "There is now way I am going in there." He was very happy to have his Grandad and Mamaw take him to the Disney Store...

Here is Kit at the spa....She seemed to enjoy the pampering. I know I would have. :-/

 Ansley with her loot from the American Girl Doll store...

 Ansley and Kit. Kit is sporting glowing skin from her facial and body scrub, and freshly styled new hairdo, and a new winter outfit.

 Big Steve and Little Steve....

 Ansley giving Stephen some love at the Fernbank musuem

 Very impressive bubble wall by Jamey

 Stephen and his uncle (for some reason Stephen decided to just call Luke "Uncle" instead of "Uncle Luke" which cracks me up

 Ansley and Jamey touching the sting rays and sharks at the aquarium (which is AWESOME, by the way.)

 Ansley sitting on some rocks. She was not excited about taking a picture...

 A fish.

 A White alligator.

 A sea dragon. This is a daddy one and he is PREGNANT. Stephen had a VERY hard time with this concept. He looked at the lady talking like she was nuts. "I am glad I am not a Sea dragon, " he said. 

 D-Jo and Punky posing for the camera

 Stephen and Jamey get up close to the giant sting rays

 A very beautiful jellyfish. Looks painful.

 Notice the weather? Yeah - it was like that 90% of the time. They were engrossed in a movie in this shot. They were waiting to show their excitement at our daily adventures for outside the car I am sure.

So I quit facebook...

Really?
yes - i did.
And I will just say I know it sounds ridiculous. I went from being a constant facebook presence - to nothing at all.
I did this for several reasons, but definitely not b/c I think facebook is a bad thing. I think it is a GREAT thing really - but I was just on it too much. Plain and simple. I actually had my seven year old say to me, "Are you STILL on facebook?" I took that as a sign. Apparently I like to look for signs. My mom said this weekend, "Think the sun coming out is a sign? You always look for signs" about something we were discussing. I said, "Do I say that a lot?" and she said, "You do say it quite a bit."
So here is my confession - I was actually checking facebook while pushing my son on the swing last week. I mean, if that is not ridiculous, I don't know what is. Hello. My name is Lettie and I spend too much time on Facebook. 
So here I am facebook-less again.  I thought about giving it up for Lent. I thought about just taking it off my phone. But I knew what I had to do. Although I did have to google the steps in actually deactivating the account. And did you know facebook asks you about 3 times if I really wanted to deactivate? Yes. I am sure. I mean, I think so. Yes. Definitely, maybe.... yes.....
Do I miss it?
YES. I am not going to lie.But I am starting to miss it less.  But mostly I miss seeing the pictures of friends travels, adventures, and kids.
I am not sworn off for life. Or maybe I am. I don't know. I can just answer for today. And today, I need to focus my time better. I need to have time to keep up with housework, cook, grocery shop with my girl with my full attention on her, play Uno Moo with my boy without my phone in my hand.

So if there is anyone out there who thinks I am officially nuts now, feel free to say so. I don't mind. I know I am nuts. Melia told me I could text her my status updates to help ease the pain...
So far, I have not had to take her up on it - but you never know....
:)
Happy Sunday night to all, blogging friends!