Just another day in the life....

 

Meg has really warmed up to Jack. She started giving him hugs today. You can see that she has also learned what to do for the camera! :)

Will the REAL Righty Harrison please stand up!

YAY!!!! We FOUND RIGHTY! :)

This little elephant went to Russia with us to bring Jack home. It was a gift from his Godmother, Kendra. This elephant was LOVED LOVED LOVED by Jack from day one. He held onto it and wouldn't let go. It was his security thing. I have countless photos of him holding this elephant in every location we have vacationed because it literally went everywhere with us.

Two summers ago, we left our condo and couldn't find Righty anywhere. The lady who owned the condo ended up finding him in the fold up couch and mailed him back to us. Shortly afterward, he went missing again, and has been gone for over a year. I have felt sorry several times for the loss of Righty because it was such a sweet part of Jack's babyhood.

Well, guess what! Last night Jack had a sleepover and we got sleeping bags, etc. out of the attic. Now remember we've used these sleeping bags on MULTIPLE occasions in the past year, but somehow or other, Righty appeared on the living room floor this morning, and I can only assume he fell out of one of the bags when the boys were cleaning up from the camp-out. I am SO happy to have him back!

These Boys Can Swim!

Swim team practice has been going strong for a few weeks, but today kicked off our first meet of the season. It was against Old Natchez Country Club, a big rival. This team is coached by a former Olympic Swimmer and they generally have good, fast swimmers. However, I must say that I will take our FABULOUS Coach Catie ANY DAY over any Olympic Swimmer. And our Flippers just ROCKED the pool today! I forewarn you that I took 342 photos, so if you don't have much time, don't click on the link over there. :) But if you want to see some amazing shots of some awesome kids doing what they do, then feel free.

This is the best activity the boys are involved in. This is a neighborhood group of kids that has come in four short seasons to form a very cohesive team. To think back where we were four years ago to now, our kids are doing their strokes appropriately, they are tagging the wall, they just know what to do. It's amazing to see it come off! The kids are so sweet. They have swim buddies and they all support one another, they are using good sportsmanship, and they are making lifelong friends and memories that I know will tie them to our neighborhood and neighbors for years to come. I just love our neighborhood! I am so happy we live here. I was just so proud of these kids today... especially Liam. He swam hard, won a second and third place, and overcame nerves to get in that pool and do his thing. Jack did great today too! The great thing about Jack is he does it all with a big grin on his face. He is well known at the pool for grinning ear to ear when he takes his breath, you can clearly see it in the photos! Connor was even so well behaved. I'm proud of them all for the work they did today!

Only one week 'til we leave to get the M and M and this will no longer be a "boys only" blog! :)

Summer is for sleepovers

When Brian left town, I planned to let the boys have lots of sleepovers and lots fun. We accomplished one of two goals. This week has been a blast. We have just been on summer time schedule, no chores, just hanging out together and having fun. But we only managed one sleepover. However, it was a fun sleepover. Liam's best buddy, Connor, spent the night with us. Jack enjoyed him as much as Liam did, I think. We caught lightening bugs and bumble bees (Liam's new favorite passtime) and picked apples off the tree. The funny thing was that the apples then became missiles that could be launched back and forth between our yard and the next door neighbors. The boys would lob the apples over the fence and the neighbors kids would lob them back, which eventually turned into an "Apple War" that evolved into and over the fence water fight with the hoses. It was such a fun night for all the kids.

I was getting everyone popcorn before the movie and I heard Liam and his friend in here talking, I had to laugh, the conversation went like this:
Liam: Remember when you just loved me a little bit. Why did you just love me a little.
Connor: I just knew you a little so I just loved you a little.
Liam: Yeah, that was back in the old days when you didn't know me alot.
Connor: Now I love you alot.
Liam: You're the one I needed. I love you!

Now, I was laughing my head off at the "back in the old days" comment, but how many six year old boys do you know who met at age three and are like bossom buddies? These two truly love one another.

The night ended with the boys on the pull out sofa. But one by one, starting with Liam's buddy, Connor, they ended up in my bed. So, this morning I woke up with four boys in my bed (all four!) I took a photo of it, but I am typing this post on Brian's laptop and my camera software is not on here, so I will have to add the photo later.

Now we are off to end our week of "vacation" with a movie. We are going with the boys Aunt and Cousin (my beautiful niece, Reilly) to see Kung Fu Panda. I can't wait to have popcorn, coke and candy for dinner! :)

Ahhh, Summer!

Okay, I LOVE summer. No schedules, no homework, no bedtime, no alarm clocks. And on top of that, my favorite shoes in the whole wide world are flip-flops, so needless to say, summer is time for happy feet! :)





So, today was a big day for us at the pool. Connor actually started swimming on his own, unassisted, under water! :) Yeah! Very exciting stuff in the life of a family who LIVES at the pool. Now if I could just figure out how to not burn one part of my body every day in the sun, life would be perfect!



Connor really loves rubbing Liam's head. So does everyone else for that matter. It's really funny, one of our neighbors is due to have her baby next week and she has this gorgeous tummy. She's been wearing a bikini to the pool. She rubs Liam's head while he rubs her tummy. :)


Oh yeah, one note, you might notice that I've added the Ray Stevens song "the Streak" to the blog music. That's because my house seems to be an exhibitionist resort. Each of our three boys have enjoyed going around in the buff, the youngest being no exception. Connor was out standing in the front yard yesterday with no pants on and at least three different sets of neighbors stopped to talk to us. So I thought this could be our summer theme song! :)

Life with Liam!

I noticed when I looked at the blog that most of my posts lately have been about Liam. But the kid is just so funny that he gives me great material to work with. Like todays insert for example. Liam came into our room last night about 11:00 with this big goofy grin on his face. Me: LIAM! What have you done? Liam: I cut my hair. I wanted to look cute. AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! So, downstairs we go, Jack close behind because he can never miss a minute of action or an opportunity to heckle his brother. I got out the clippers to try to fix the mess Liam had made. But there was nothing to be done except....

I took the camera to catch Liam's first moment of expression when he saw himself pretty much bald! The look of amazement on his face is sweet, but a little scary. I'm thinking the shock didn't quite have the deterrent affect I was hoping for. Oh my!

Yesterday was the last day of school. Connor and I went to Jack's class pic-nic. It was fun and surprisingly, I feel ready to say good-bye to second grade. With Liam leaving Kindergarten, it's so much sadder than for Jack to be leaving 2nd Grade. In third grade, Jack has to move to another end of the building. He's on the "big kids" hall now. But he's ready. I'm looking forward to the new adventure with him.

Another really big milestone at our house is that LIAM LEARNED TO RIDE HIS BIKE on Tuesday! He wanted to learn while he was in Kindergarten and I informed him he only had two more days. So he got out in the street and worked on it by himself (he didn't want me to touch the bike) and little by little he got it. This is such a big deal for him, you have no idea! Anyway, we ended up riding down the street in front of our house with me screaming cheers at the top of my lungs and before you know it, there are four neighborhood families standing on the sides of the street cheering for him as he rode by. Some of the older boys up the street came out too and rode along side him giving him encouragement. It was the SWEETEST moment!

Today is the first day of summer. Both boys have planned sleepovers with friends to celebrate the occasion. Connor will be stuck at home with mom and dad so we may take him to a movie or something. Last night we ended up having an impromptu block party as one friend after another just showed up to ride their bikes down our big hill. Each time their parents would pull out a lawn chair and the next thing you know, we're grilling and our neighbor has lit a fire in his fire pit and it's a full on party! That's the thing I love about this neighborhood. There are so many kids, and we have so many friends here. I just don't take it for granted. Of course, it doesn't hurt that my kids have two of their best friends right across the street and their mom is one of my best friends. :)

Well, we're off to school to pick up report cards and show everyone Liam's glowing dome! I told him to look on the bright side, he won't need a swim cap for swim team this year.

Good-Bye Kindergarten

Today was a fun, but sad day for me. It was Liam's Kindergarten Pic-nic. This is a tradition for Moore students. They reserve a pic-nic spot and take the kids every year. I have been fortunate enough to attend both Jack's and Liam's class pic-nic. It's sad though, to be saying good-bye to Kindergarten for Liam. K is such a sweet year. It's so much more loving and kind than first grade. It's such a sheltered and protected time. Once they leave those classrooms, alot more is expected of our kiddos. It seems there aren't enough hours in the day to learn everything required of a 1st grader. So, while I know it's a great thing that Liam is moving on to First Grade, it means he's growing and maturing as he should be and he's accomplishing all the things that a six year old should. But still, it's sad to close that door and say good-bye to those sweet friendships (where boys and girls play together and EVERYONE gets along), good-bye to Mrs. McKinney our sweet teacher who has been a little angel on Liam's shoulder this year, and good-bye to another school year altogether.

First Communion

Jack had his first holy communion today. I can't believe I have a son old enough to be taking communion. It was a really sweet service. Father Ed started the service out with his cell phone ringing. He had his hand on his hip and was looking around like someone had forgotten to turn their phone off. Then he says, "Oh, it's mine. Oh look, it's the Pope." and so on and so on. So he pretended to talk to the Pope and get a blessing for the kids. It was really cute. The childrens liturgy at Christmas should be so easy! :)

Look how handsome Jack looked in his communion gear! He is very excited to take communion with us next Sunday at church. Maybe this will make church more fun until the new wears off. I am so proud of him today. My baby is growing up, though. Here are a few more photos of the day.

Spring Concert Stage Fright

Okay, yesterday was Connor's spring concert and it turned out to be a total disaster, or very funny, depending on how you look at it. He was so excited when he saw me, he kept saying, "Mommy, hi Mommy!" And waving very big. He was actually positioned on the opposite side of the stage from where I was sitting, so I moved to the other side of the auditorium to get a better camera angle on him. When he saw me, he started screaming and crying and did not want to sing. So he sat in my lap through the entire concert.

Afterward they were having a trike parade through downtown Franklin. Waiting for the line to start moving, he decided to pop a wheely on his tricycle, it flipped over, he hit his head on the sidewalk, and that was the end of the parade for us. We loaded up the car, went home, and called it a wash! :)

When we got home, I took some really adorable photos of my beautiful niece, Reilly. Just another day in the life!

Introducing Leon Harrison

Have you ever seen a prouder smile on the boy? My dad bought Liam a horse for Christmas and he named it Leon Harrison. Leon was my grandfather's name. Don't call the horse Leon, his name is Leon Harrison and Liam will quickly correct you if you don't use the full name.

We had a little Christmas party here at the house and Liam told Santa the only thing he wanted was a horse. I guess after last year's "all I want is a puppy. If you can't get me a puppy, don't get me anything." Liam thought he would aim higher. Of course, if Pop hadn't pulled through, Liam might have found himself disillussioned with Santa because I certainly wasn't signing up to keep a horse at any boarding stable.

Anyway, we are so excited for Liam because this is one thing that is just his, he takes so much pride in the fact that he has a horse and it's something he has that sets him apart from both of his brothers and all of his classmates. And it really is a very pretty horse!

Here comes the son....

Get it? hehehe

Okay, we had a fun and busy weekend. Memphis won their final four game so they are going to the National Championship tomorrow! Go TIGERS!!! The Schenkels and Simmons came over to watch the game and we had a great time. Connor and Carly were so cute hanging out on the bean bag chair I had to get a photo! Carly is my god-daughter and I tell you what, I could eat that girl with a spoon! She is this precious three year old with a personality just like her mamma. She's going to be fun to hang with when she is about 15. Watch out world! The other big event of the weekend was tiling our boys bathroom. Those of you who have been to our house know that room has been an eye-sore for a very long time... like maybe a few years. Anyway, one fish down the drain and a plumbing mishap later, we have new tile and it looks awesome! I have to give my husband some major credit. He has become quite skilled at tiling. He did this project totally on his own and made about 100 trips up and down the steps to cut tile, etc. But look at the finished product... AWESOME!

Well, maybe you can't get a good feel for how great it looks, but the tile are subway tiles (shaped like bricks) and he did a fantastic job. The baseboards have to be replaced now and the grout is still not in, but the major job is over and I LOVE it. Now the rest of the finishing touches will be up to me. I will have to paint the cabinets (the red, blue and orange don't look polished enough for the new tile, besides, they won't lend themselves to a boy/girl bathroom anyway.) I will paint the ceiling and touch up the wall where the tile removal pulled some of the paper down. I'm actually thankful for the project. Maybe that will keep my mind off the long week ahead of us.

We are waiting to see if we actually get registered in St. Petersburg on Monday, April 14. The agency is telling us that if we are registered on the 14th, we might be able to travel on April 20. I am VERY excited and hopeful. Please, please pray for us that this is the date. I am just about to come out of my skin waiting to meet our daughter!

Easter

I just couldn't resist posting some photos of the boys in their Easter outfits. I think I am going to be bombarded with phone calls from girls in a few years! I'm not biased at all.... ha

Life in the fast lane...

Well, some wouldn't exactly consider my life the "fast lane", but I beg to differ. A couple of weeks ago, Jack took home the trophy for the fastest pinewood derby car in the Wolf Pack (cub scouts). Now this is quite an honor in itself, but the bigger excitement is that he ALSO took home second place overall in the entire PACK!!!! That means he will compete in the District Pinewood Derby on April 26. This is so exciting. Last year he also took home first place in his den, but did not place in the pack, so we didn't get to go to Districts. But two years in a row of winning first place in his den is pretty impressive so now we have a reputation to uphold for sure. And next year, his little brother will be in on the action too.

Liam has had big adventures lately too. Pop (my dad) bought him a horse and Liam is over the moon for him. Liam named his horse "Leon Harrison". He talks about him all the time. It's funny because there are certain clothes that he won't wear to school, a dark pair of jeans, certain button-down shirts. But he always wants to wear these when he is going to Pop's to see his horse. I have really got to take a trip down with him soon to see Leon Harrison because Liam is getting pretty upset that none of us have witnessed his riding accomplishments.

One other thing that has happened since our last post is that Jack was selected as an All-Star for the basketball league he played in this winter. He turned out to be quite the little player. He got more and more agressive with each game and actually ended up with two fouls the last game due to agressive blocking... you can imagine that Brian was very proud. But what you can't imagine is that I was the crazy mom on the sidelines screaming continually... I never thought I'd be THAT parent... but never say never, right!

This is Jack with his coaches.

Finally....

Well, very surprisingly, it snowed tonight. FUN! You can never trust the weather people. True, I didn't get anything done tonight, but I did get to take pics of the boys in the first snow of '08!

Also, my poor Vincy boy had to stay overnight at the animal hospital. :( He apparently swallowed a ton of his bed stuffing last night while the rest of the house was sleeping. Although he was a perfectly behaved dog today while I had a guest in the house, I knew that was not my Vince and something must be wrong. So a visit to Dr. Jim proved that he had swallowed a stomach full of stuffing and wasn't passing anything. $500 later, we have a healthy dog again, but now Brian is sick! :) This, of course, brought on a discussion about how much Brian was (or was not) willing to spend to retrieve the stuff he swallowed. Apparently, Vince is going to have to curb his appetite for non-food items... there is a limit to how far Brian is willing to go with this. hehehe But thankfully, Vince has no trouble "passing" things such as Power Ranger hands, toy lizards, even parts of toy cars. And in the process, we have the added benefit of being purged of all the meaningless toys that find their way into our home. Anyway, unfortunately, Vince can't learn from experience. But we can, we've changed the bedding, you can bet, and will be more careful going forward. So, let's hope there are no more scopes in Vince's future... but who could resist this face? What a gorgeous blonde!

The new year has started off with a bang! The boys are back in school and I can't believe that we are now working on the second half of the 07-08 school year. My babies are growing up too quickly before my eyes! It's hard to believe that in this calendar year, Jack will be a nine year old third grader.

Jack is playing basketball and loving every minute of it. This has been a great year for him as his team has several friends on it and his coaches are great. The atmosphere is more laid back than last year, but that doesn't mean we aren't a bundle of nerves during the games. Last week his team lost by one point, 36 to 37. It was down to the wire and Brian and I are wondering how we will survive Middle School sports if we get this charged up about 8 year old rec. league basketball! :)

Here are some photos of our crazy days:

Dog Gone It!

It turns out that we should start a non-profit for dogs... we'll call it, "We've gone to the dogs" or some other such accurate description of our home. We have two (yes, TWO) "rescues" at our house right now. First, there is Meg, or Meggie Moo, as we have taken to calling her. She is the sweetest most precious Golden puppy you've ever seen. Don't ask me why I'm not keeping her for myself because I couldn't give you a good answer to that one. Here she is asleep in her food bowl... did I mention she is narcoleptic?

She really is a perfect pup and Vince loves her. But the real reason we can't keep her is that Vince has a major come-apart when she falls into her sleep sessions. He barks, licks, bites, paws, and generally tries to get her to wake up at all costs. It's really sweet, but I think it's a little more neuroses than I am able to deal with at this point. I think Meg has found a good home and will be going to live with her new family today. I will really miss her!

Then... there's Bogey's twin... Amy. (I couldn't resist having a friend for Vince named Amy, even if it's only a temporary friend.) Anyway, Amy is a Cocker that came up to my dad's house and wouldn't leave... so I took her in to save her life. Things of no use don't last long on a farm. Especially an unwanted dog that doesn't work, so here she is. She is available to a good home so if you are so inclined toward Cocker Spaniels, please consider her. She's sweet, but no match for my 90 pound Vince, so she too must go. Hopefully soon before we have to kennel her for the holidays.

Then, I can't leave the post without a precious photo of Meg and Vince... this is just the sweetest thing ever and I really am going to miss this precious baby!

Finally, by some stroke of luck, I figured out how to log back in to the site... I passworded myself out! :) Anyway, six months brings alot of changes in this house... we now have a second grader and a Kindergartener. We just returned from the beach and here are the highlight photos... what a great week!

Jack loved the beach. His favorite thing was a skin board that he bought. He spent most of the week trying to perfect the technique. He was fearless in the waves and actually loved the sand this year. He drove the golf cart and fished like a mad-man.

Liam was troubled with swimmers ear the entire trip, so he wasn't as lively as usual. But he was totally happy because his best friend, "Connor Hills" was there at the same resort and he woke up every morning wanting to hang out with Connor Hills and his brother, Wyatt.

Connor loved the sand, just like last year. And on the last day of vacation, he actually swam his first few strokes in the Beachside I pool. Maybe we'll have another little swim team member on our hands next year! :)

Now, I just couldn't let the post go by without sharing a few highlights photos that I think speak for themselves!

A.K.A. "the Toddler Posse"

Attack of the Babysitters (our girls Jessica and Madi), is it possible to adopt two teenagers?

A New Year

Okay, so I haven't posted in almost two months... like everything else in my life! :) But since my last post, alot has happened. We are half-way through first grade, I can't even believe it.

And we have another boy in our house,
Vince the wonder dog!

Here he is at only four weeks... awww!

And here he is on December 23 at 6 1/2 weeks. Liam told Santa that he didn't want anything else, but a puppy. So, I guess that's one way to get what you want; only ask for one thing.

Also, Connor is officially, sort of, pretty much potty trained. Does one accident a day count? So, life is always changing around here. We'll update you some more later. Check out my link to Shutterfly galery for more photos from our fun and crazy Christmas. http://www.ephesiansone5.shutterfly.com/action/

Thanks for visiting!

The Joy Project

The Joy Project

Weekend on the Farm

What a weekend we had at Pop's!

I love this photo of the boys walking down the road together; tired, dirty, and happy!

We met Pop at the lake for some fishing, then the boys had a grand time at his house... getting as dirty as boys can be, riding tractors, three wheeling, and "burning stuff".



Liam caught his first fish ever! It was a small blue gil. He was so excited. But when he tried to pick it up it finned him and he slapped it! :) That's our Liam. Brian says he is "Arlis" on "Old Yeller".

This pond is behind Pop and Trish's trailer. We built a fire, roasted hot-dogs and marshmallows, and had some very tired boys on the drive home.


Brian was in hog heaven getting a son to actually watch part of a football game with him. Bad news though, it was UT! :P
http://www.shutterfly.com/view/pictures.jsp For more photos of this fun weekend, check out the photo album at Shutterfly!