Monday, September 29, 2008

Bama Buddies


This weekend Liz and Zach came over to watch Bama play Georgia. Bryan is so excited to finally have a "Bama buddy" to watch the games with! These two guys are very into their team! We were all dressed in our Bama gear- Bryan insists on it for game day. Liz and Zach are so easygoing and fun. They take the madness that goes on in our house in stride. And of course my kids ADORE them! Luke loves to join in on the high fives whenever Bama does something good. Bay thinks Liz is just so cool. She told me yesterday that she wishes that Liz could be her Aunt. :) I'm pretty sure Luke has a crush on her. Luke usually picks on Zach and tries to wrestle with him the whole time he's here but when Liz was here look plopped down in her lap and looked very happy. :) And if the night wasn't enjoyable already, Bama gave us nothing to worry about as they came out ready to play and took no time showing Georgia what they were made of!! Roll Tide!! Woo Hoo!

Liz and my girls. (Bay tried on her 80's outfit for them.)

Luke and his buddy Zach. The kids LOVED his Bear Bryant hat!!

Liz was letting the kids take pics with her VERY nice camera. Yikes. I don't think she realizes how destructive toddlers can be. :)

The girls were raiding the candy dish. :)

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Unpredictable

The interesting thing about being a parent is how your life becomes completely unpredictable. When you wake up in the morning, there is no way you can guess at the type of madness that you will encounter. I mean really, I've never woken up and thought... "I believe someone will poop in my bathtub today." (Yes, it happened this week. I do have pictures. I will only show them upon request. I'm not expecting too many.)
So I can't say that I was completely surprised when our Sunday didn't go exactly as planned. When we woke up we had every intention of going to church. Bryan and I are sitting at the table finishing up our breakfast when out of the corner of our eye we notice a giggling toddler shaped blur speed towards our bedroom. We heard the door shut and our heads snapped up. "Oh no, what is she up to??" I say to my hubby. We jump up and go to check things out. We are not totally surprised to find the door locked, this is a new trick that she has learned since we moved. Normally though, she is in her own "child-proofed" room when she does it so we aren't too worried. Not this time.
We immediately start knocking and asking her to let us in. We have found this works better than barking threats through the door- who wants to open the door to an angry person threatening violence? Normally, she comes to the door after a few seconds. Not this time. Next came the bribes. "Oh Presley, let us in and we'll give you a piece of candy... ice cream?...wanna go outside??... PRESLEY FAYE ROSS!!! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!!!
Nothing.
Shortly after the drama began my Dad showed up. He rode his bike over for a visit. We were really happy about that because my Dad can usually break into any lock. Not this time. He tried all of his tricks, the credit card, master key, butter knife, nothing worked. He even tried pleading with Presley himself.
At some point Bryan realized that Presley had moved on to our bathroom and locked that door as well. So while Dad and Bryan worked on the lock I sat beside the bathroom window and tried to reason with this stubborn child. When I first walked up I knew what she was doing because I could smell the lotions and soap coming from inside the bathroom. Begging her to come let me in wasn't working so I decided to try to keep her at the window as much as possible until the guys could get the lock opened.
Once she came over to the window and pulled the blinds back a bit I was able to see some of the disaster that she had created. First, she'd "washed her hair" with soap and lotion and probably a bit of baby wash. She had also "washed" the floors, sinks, counter tops and bathtub a bit too. She had spent some time flushing a roll of toilet paper a little at a time. Then she moved onto my makeup. After painting her face and a little on the floor, she brought the chapstick over and started decorating my window and a bit of the wall. All while I am screaming for her to stop! I told her to drop it. So what did she do. She dropped it of course. In the toilet!!
As I am outside trying to reason with the worlds most stubborn two year old, the guys have started drilling a hole in the lock on the doorknob. They'd seen it done before, how hard could it be?? We wanted new doorknobs anyway right??
Presley comes to the window at one point, looking kind of sleepy, and says "Mommy, I want you to hold me." "Okay" I tell her. "Go open the door." I hear her run over and try to unlock the door and then she runs back and says "I can't do it." Apparently, it's pretty hard to unlock a door when you have lotion and soap all over your hands. I told her to go get a towel and wipe her hands off. Not so smart. She runs over and turns on the bathtub. This is the point where I start to panic. I started having visions of her falling in the tub, or the water scalding her! I send Bailey in to tell her Daddy what Presley is doing. Not too long after that I hear Bry enter the bathroom so I ran in the house to see what kind of damage has been done.
The guys decided the best thing to do was to just bust a hole in the door. Her safety was way more important. I walked in the bathroom and asked Bry if he'd spanked her yet. "Nope." He says. "Well then, get outta my way." I tell him. My Dad takes off out of the bathroom because he can't bare to see one of his precious Grandchildren get a spanking. Is this really the same man that raised me???
Needless to say, we missed church. She ended up spending a total of one hour in our bathroom. Thanks to a phone conversation with Joanna I did take some pictures. (You are taking pictures of this?? Right, Ange???) Hope you get a kick out of this. Presley sure did!
Dad trying to get the door opened.
I can't tell...does he look unhappy to you??



Presley looking at me through the chapstick/lotion smeared window.


You can't really see all of the makeup and lotion smeared everywhere but I think you can get the gist of the damage from this photo.

She was not happy about having her fun interrupted!

I wish I'd taken the picture before he wiped off her makeup!


Nice, huh?

Saturday, September 13, 2008

My neice and nephews

There's nothing I love more than being a Mommy, but being an Aunt comes close. I have been blessed with the most beautiful and precious niece and nephews. I love spending time with them and try to do so as much as possible.
On Monday Joanna, Ella and Seth came over to visit while Bubs was out for a "business dinner". Jo and I had this great idea to buy one of those cardboard houses and let the kids color it and then play in it. It was fun and the kids loved it but it wasn't as beautiful as we thought it would turn out to be and it really wasn't strong enough to withstand hurricane Luke. We ended up just watching Disney movies, playing outside and letting the kids take turns riding (with Bryan) on the riding lawn mower. Here are some pics...
(More about our week below...)

On Thursday, me and the babies met Bre, Jo and kiddos at the Playground of Dreams. There was hardly anyone there so the kids felt like they owned the place. The playground is fenced in and there is only one entrance/exit so we were able to sit and chat more than normal. After a while it got really hot though so we went for a walk. They have a walking trail with another smaller playground at the other end. The kids loved running around on the trail and discovering treasures (bugs, rocks, sticks, etc.) We were struck by how many kids that we have. Of course, we are aware of how many kids we have, it's hard not to notice. :) But when they are all together like that it's just crazy! We were outnumbered big time. :)

I am so grateful that I live so close to my siblings and am able to have such a great relationship with them and my niece and nephews. I can't imagine not having them as a part of my life on a regular basis! They bring so much joy to me and Bry and the kids. It warms my heart to see my kids playing with their cousins and how much they love each other.

Here are some pics of our fun at the park...

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Tea for Three




This is the scene I walked in on the other day. Bailey found her old tea set while we were unpacking stuff and so she set up a little tea party for the babies. They dressed for the occasion in hats, tutus and whatever else they found tea party worthy. She even had rules for what is proper for such an event. I heard her tell Luke (the pirate), "No swords at the table". Surprisingly, he responded with "Oh, I'm sorry" and he put his sword to the side.
There is nothing better than seeing your kids playing together and getting along. They have so much love for each other. They have their little "fights" like everybody else but when one of them gets hurt, the other two rush right in to give kisses. They are super protective of each other, Bailey turns into a mama lion when she thinks her brother or sister is being mistreated. The babies are the same way for her and each other.
It makes me feel like, even in all the craziness that is our life, that we must be doing something right for our children to have so much love and respect for each other.