Sydney's rockin' new 'do

Friday nights get a little wild around here, as you can see; especially when grandma breaks out her wig collection.

I think I remember looking at early childhood photos of other family members where they had the same hair style





















Her hair lacked volume in the past, but with her new layer cut, her hair will never go flat again















Early Billy Ray Cyrus



















Yep, that's a little chocolate on her lips she is saving for later




















In the "a Young watching tv like a zombie" mode





















Nothin' like rockin' to some 80's jams




















Just so there is no confusion, we let her choose her own clothes now. Don't worry, she doesn't go out in public like this.

Smiley Jax, singin' Sydney

Any meal time is a happy time around our house. Baby Jaxon is even kind enough to show you a little bit of what he has been eatin', eeeewww....

Hopefully she will be on American idol for winning instead of being delusional, we're working with her.

Night Out America

Last night we went to my mom's house. Her town has a back to school celebration called "Night Out America," and since school started back on Monday, they had the festival of sorts last night. We went with my Mom, Grandma, Jana, Katie, Emily, and Corey. Donnie met us after he finished at school.

It is alot of fun - we went last year too. They have a giant slide and jumping houses set up for the kids. At one point, the Princess house came tumbling down and they were yelling for everyone to get out. Some of the kids were screaming and running around confused so Katie went through the house and helped all of the other little kids out before making her escape. She was quite the hero.

They also have clowns, a fire dog, Elmo, and Curious George walking around for photo ops. Sydney wanted to look, but since they were bigger in real life than on the television, she kept her distance.

The Army had a rock climbing wall - which none of us attempted.

They have a stage where live bands perform - I heard two Christian "rock" bands (remember, this is the South). One is the same group that performed at the 4th of July festival at a local church, and the other was a group of young guys. They were probably not even old enough to drive, but they were talented. Their songs had a nice rhythm, but their lyrics sounded more like commercials for athletic shoes than hymns of worship. Anyhoo...

Then they have things from all of the local restaurants and businesses that wish to participate. Here is a list of some of the things they were giving out for free:

Home Depot: Construction aprons and assemble-it-yourself projects. They even had a "workshop" area set up where you could put your item together, using their stuff. Sydney chose a wooden tool box.

Hampton Police Department: I still can't understand why they were there, since we weren't in Hampton. Anyway, they gave out coloring books on safety and crayons, and key chains.

The Henry County police and McDonough police brought in a helicopter and special vehicles for display, and they handed out little badges. The fire department brought in their trucks and handed out hats.

A tanning salon had a "Pluck a Duck" game set up where you could win candy, lotions, leis, and even money. Sydney won a candy flower. It was gross.

Gold's Gym handed out key chains and coupons - as well as info on the gym.

Henry County Parks and Recreation Department handed out t-shirts.

Another group - I don't know if it who it was exactly - gave out school supplies to all of the kids, according to what grade they were in this year. My niece in elementary school received a lot of cool things, my niece in middle school got a notebook and pack of paper. I guess elementary school really is more fun.

There were a couple of other groups around for hobbyists - model cars, vintage cars, other random things - and businesses just there to give out info (like ADT home security), but the main reason we went was for this next group:

Cici's Pizza gave out free slices of pizza.

Longhorn Steakhouse gave out steak and onion petals (YUMMY!).

Nathan's Famous gave out hotdogs, corndogs, and lemonade.

Gezzo's Grille gave out mini fijitas.

Chick-fil-A gave out Chicken strips and their new sauce (really good).

Hooters gave out hot wings - and magazines. Can you believe this place has a magazine? I wondered about the men who openly picked one up and then went off to show it to their wives...

One church gave out snow cones, and another gave out ice cream and otter pops (like from an ice cream truck).

Another church gave out popcorn, and one gave away drinks.

Target gave out blinky lights for your bike, pencils, teddy grahams, chocolate chip cookies, drinks, and coupons. Target drinks were actual Coke products, not the cheapy generic brands which have way too much sugar.

There were coolers of water set up all around the place - since it was out side and over 90 degrees, plus the humidity kills you...

All in all it was a lot of fun and I am looking forward to next year's already!

Sydney really enjoyed her fireman's hat - she refused to take it off even hours later!

Our "new" home

We finally found a place close to campus, in a safe area, and in our price range - very cheap :-). We move in in a little less than two weeks.


It will be nice to finally get settled somewhere for a while - we should be here for the next 5 years. We are also excited because it is close to a big park and the elementary school Sydney will go to (in 3 years).


The neighborhood also seems like a nice quiet area with very little traffic so that is a plus as well.

Once we get settled in I can finally decorate and we can buy some sort of swing/slide/outdoor fun for Sydney. The fence has a back yard, but only around part of it. It was used for a dog so it is more like a cage, but it should work out nicely any way.

1 month down!

Jaxon recently had his 1 month check up with the pediatrician. In his first month he has gained 2 pounds and 9 ounces, and has grown 2 inches. That puts him in the 94 percentile for weight and 95 percentile for height. Sydney was always off the charts in height, but usually hung out around the 80-85 percentile in weight.

I know that the doctor said he is a big boy, but he is still such a little cutie to me.

Pictures

Donnie is like his dad and loves to take a lot of pictures. He can’t take pictures of one and not the other, so here we go:

And when she is at her absolute most beautiful:

The joys of being 2 years old

We were watching a movie the other night and so we let Sydney watch Dora in my grandmother’s room. About halfway through the movie Grandma decided she should probably check on Sydney.

I told her she was probably asleep, but he thought she should check on her anyway. Donnie went upstairs with her, and quickly returned with a screaming Sydney. I went over to see what was going on and almost died. Sydney had painted her feet, hands, face, and grandma’s carpet with bright red fingernail polish! It was EVERYWHERE!

Donnie put her in the bath while we tried to clean up the mess. We called my mom to get some ideas on polish removal. After a lot of scrubbing, most of the five feet of painted carpet looked pretty clean, but Sydney still looked red.

Needless to sat, Sydney is no longer allowed in Grandma’s room.

At Home

Now that we are back home with Sydney and Jax, she has decided that he’s not so bad. Sydney likes to help change his diapers and give him baths. She also likes to give him toys – even though he’s too small to play with them.

The thing she finds most intriguing is his “special baby milk.” She doesn’t understand why Jax doesn’t drink out of bottles. When I tried to explain to her that he’s little and little babies drink special baby milk from their mommies she wanted to try some too. Thankfully she stopped asking after about a week.

Sydney likes to kiss Jax’s feet, but the other day she took it one step further and bit his foot. He screamed and screamed. It was so sad. She screamed too, but only because she had to sit in time out. She tried to bite him again later, but bit my finger instead.

Her jealousy is showing in other ways too. She yells at Jax to “move over” when I’m holding him so that she can sit in my lap too. When I’m nursing him she tries to pull his head away from my breast so that he can’t eat. As soon as he falls asleep, she yells at me to put him in his bed.