Happy Birthday Mom!!

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday so I'm a little late in posting in honor of my Mom's 53rd birthday. As usual she started her birthday helping someone else. I needed to be at Bay's school at 7:45 yesterday and Mom insisted that she come over and watch the babies for me while I went. I hated doing that since it was her birthday but she wouldn't hear of me calling anyone else.

That is just how she is. She rarely thinks of herself and will go out of her way to help anyone, especially her kids. The only times I remember her ever doing anything "selfish" are the times when we have forced her by buying her a gift certificate to a spa or sending her on vacations. Otherwise, she probably would never do things like that.

Anyway, the kids and I ran to the store the night before and got her some flowers, balloons and a cake and made her a bday banner so when she came in we could surprise her. She was so excited when she saw all of it! She says that I always make people feel special on their birthdays but she doesn't realize that I learned it from her! For as long as I can remember she has taken the day off on our birthday and she would come check us out of school and take us to do something fun. She did whatever she could to make such a big deal out of our birthdays. I have always loved that and I wanted to do the same for my kids.

Anyway, I just wanted to say Happy, Happy Birthday Mommy! And to say a few thank yous for some of the things that you've taught me and done for me...

Thanks for teaching me to find and hold on to the joy in life.

For teaching me to laugh at myself (and others), :)

For showing me that there is always a silver lining.

For reminding me that people are SO much more important than possessions.

That a smile can make someones day.

Thanks for being such a goofball so that I have someone to laugh at and make fun of. :)

Thanks for loving my babies so much and being such a good Grammy to them.

Thanks for loving my hubby like he is your own son and not always taking my side. :)

Thanks for teaching me your only as old as you feel.

Thanks for being my mom.

I am so grateful that God blessed this earth with you 53 years ago. I can't and don't want to imagine a world without your smiling face lighting it up everyday!! I love you!!

Totally Rad Birthday Surprise!!

Well, I can't believe it but we actually pulled of an awesome surprise party for Bryan's 40Th birthday! The theme was totally 80's so of course we had to have it at a skating rink. Everyone came dressed in their 80's best and let me tell you it was a sight to see. I was really impressed by everyone's creative costumes. We posted 80's slang all over the walls, had a PAC-man cake, played 80's movies and all 80's music.

Bryan thought he was attending a Sunday School reunion party. And since it was so close to Halloween we just decided to make it a costume party. He had NO IDEA! I am very impressed by all of our friends and family and their ability to keep a secret. Thank you so much to everyone who came and helped out! We are so blessed with such wonderful friends and family! Bryan said that when he realized that he'd been tricked that he actually tasted metal b/c his adrenaline picked up so fast! I guess we need to be more careful about surprising the old man. :)

It was such a fun time! I think we may have to make it an annual thing! What do you think guys?? Are you up for a yearly 80's party?? After seeing how much you all enjoyed dressing up and skating, I would think so!

Enjoy the totally wicked pics of our gnarly group of friends and fam!!

Just another bath...

I was giving my kids a bath tonight when a thought struck me. This is probably one of the last times that I will be giving all 3 of them a bath at the same time. Bailey usually takes showers now. She is getting to that age where she needs my help less and less. Every once in a while she will hop in the tub with the babies just for fun, but it is rare.

I remember giving Bailey her first bath like it was yesterday. We were so excited and nervous! She was so tiny and helpless and we weren't really sure if we were doing everything right. I don't know if it was because she was cold or what but she screamed when we put her in that water. From that day on one of us always got in with her until she was ready to get in on her own. After we started that she LOVED bath time!! She just needed to feel Mommy or Daddy close to make her more secure. And once she knew we were going to be there if she needed us, she was able to go it alone.

It won't be long before the rest of her life will be like that. We will spend all of these years teaching her, comforting her, guiding and loving her and then one day she will feel secure enough to go it alone. And she will know that we will always be here if she needs us.

I just wonder who is going to comfort us when that time comes!

Funny how a routine bath can send your mind in such a direction.

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. :)

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?

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...

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.