Happy Memorial Day!

I love holidays! Not just one, but all of them. I especially love Memorial Day because it is a day all about remembering. Remembering family and friends who have died, remembering all of the brave men and women who fight/fought for our freedom, remembering just how blessed we are to be here...

I know some people like to go to special services, and others like to visit graves, but personally, I like to spend time with family and friends and share stories about our loved ones and heroes who are no longer with us.

It's probably because cemeteries creep me out, and I am not an early riser so I can't make it to special ceremonies...

Anyway, today we celebrated by enjoying America's passtime - we went to a Braves' game. I was a little worried because according to The Weather Channel, there was an 80 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms today, so I thought for sure we would get rained out.

I was also a little worried because we were taking Jaxon and Sydney with us to a game at 1 p.m. (super hot, and right during nap time). And I was worried because we were going with a group of friends, some of whom we went to a game with last month and the Braves lost miserably. If they lost again today, surely our friends would think we brought some kind of curse a long with us and would not want to go with us again :-).

Thankfully, my fears were all for naught. The weather was hot, but hot and sunny, so not a drop of rain. Jaxon had a great time at the game, and showed no signs of missed naps (Sydney, on the other hand was not exactly the ray of sunshine one would hope for). The Braves won 9 to 3, and are now in first place in their division.

The best part of the day (other than being with friends and family of course) was after the game. The Beach Boys gave a concert at Turner Field. I absolutely love the Beach Boys, so I was very excited for this! Only two (Mike Love and Al Jardine) of the original five were there (two are dead, and the other is Brian Wilson), but they sounded great!

Donnie and I stayed with our kids, but the rest of the group took off. We moved to seats close to the visitor dugout, and we had a perfect view, and the sound was great. Jaxon and Sydney fell asleep about halfway through (they played for about an hour and a half), but Donnie and I enjoyed it :-).

They sang my most favorite song, and a lot more. Sydney's new favorite song is "Help Me Rhonda," and she has not stopped singing it since she woke up.

So that was our wonderful day, we hope all of you had a great day too!

Zoo mania

We can’t get enough of the zoo apparently – we have upped our visits from once a week to twice a week, and during Spring Break, we went three times!

The kids love the animals, and I just love getting out of the house.

This kid loves trains!

The Easter Bunny brought Jaxy a few Thomas the Tank Engines and a whole lot of track. He has since spent every waking moment building track and racing trains. He has even convinced his granddaddy to join in a few times.

Pictures!

We went on a little walk to a park by the university president's house to take a few pictures. The park is beautiful, but Jaxon was not to pleased with the idea of posing for photos.

Here are a few shots (we have a bout a million of Sydney, who was more than willing to strike a pose, but only posted a few)
















































































Easter Egg Hunt at great grandmother's house



























Do you think this kid likes candy?






























Sydney wanted to make sure she didn't miss a single egg



























Loading up on candy-filled eggs



























Katelyn and Sydney checking out a giraffe's skull at one of our many trips to the zoo during
spring break.



























Birds of a feather




























Jaxon sneaking a taste of Quin's cake - this was encouraged by his aunts Angela and Jana...
























Quin's birthday: before cake





























After cake

Getting ready to celebrate Donnie's birthday

It's been a while

So I haven't posted in a couple of months - but not because of a lack of things to write about :-)

I know this is really lame, and sort of a slack job, but once again, I present you with two months in rapid review:

In January we celebrated Sydney's 4th birthday. She had so much fun at Katie's birthday party that she decided to do the same thing, so we celebrated at Michael's. Sydney chose to decorate aprons. She loved choosing paints, stencils, and glitter to decorate her princess apron with. We invited a few of her friends and some family too (for some reason the teenage boys were not so in to decorating princess aprons).

The week after her birthday, Sydney started back to a preschool co-op. It is a cute little group of 5, and they all seem to get along well. They have been on a couple of field trips already - one to PetSmart and the other to a fire station. They all thought that was pretty cool.

The weather started to show signs of improvement for a week or so, but it was all a trick and a few days before Valentine's Day it snowed again! The kids were so excited - well, Donnie and Sydney were excited, Jaxon just wanted to hang out in his big red car.

There was actually enough snow to build snowmen this time, so we had a little family in a yard for almost two days :-)

Valentine's Day was nice. Donnie made breakfast, and gave us all gifts. Church was cancelled because of the snow, so we just stayed at home and relaxed.

The rest of February was spent battling colds, stomach flus, and overcommitted schedules.

Sydney gave her first talk in Primary on Feb. 28. She spent all week telling me that she wanted to "song to my friends about Jesus," but when the time came, she actually spoke and did a great job!

She can't read, so we didn't write anything down, but it went something like this:
"Hi, my name is Sydney. I know Heavenly Father and Jesus love me, and I love them. I know
Jesus died for us. I am thankful for Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

She was really proud of herself, and the next week she said the prayer in Primary all by herslef. She really is growing up so fast.

Last week was my birthday. Donnie made breakfast, and let me sleep in. That night we went to eat ribs with the kids and came home for birthday cupcakes and ice cream. Donnie bought season tickets to Theater of the Stars for me, and I am really excited to see Phantom especially.

On Friday, we went out to dinner with our friends at Pura Vida, and then came home for cookie cake (my most favorite birthday treat) and ice cream. It was a lot of fun, and my friends gave me a couple of good books, "These Is My Words" and "The Middle Place," chocolate, a spa bath set, and a gift certificate for a pedicure. It was the perfect birthday (and really nice since I was able to spread it out an extra day).

Today is Donnie's birthday, so it is his turn to be spoiled! Unfortunately, he is a little sick, so it will not be as nice for him as my birthday was for me :-).

A few weeks ago, Sydney and I went to buy Donnie a present. I always want to buy him the perfect present, but he is hard to buy for. He never wants anything, and so I can never get any ideas from him. Well, Sydney and I were coming home from a birthday party for her little friend, and it suddenly hit me.

There is a driving range close to our house that Donnie likes, and since the weather (hopefully) is going to brighten up soon, I thought I had the perfect present. I bought Donnie a gift card for 6 buckets of balls, and while I was there, I talked to the owner to get a few more ideas. I decided to buy Donnie a private lesson with one of the shops pros. She is actually a golfer on the LPGA, so I thought it would be cool for Donnie to take a lesson and get a few tips from her.

I was so proud of myself for coming up with a good Donnie gift. He would be so surprised when he opens his present - except that I had Sydney with me. So I spent the next 15 minutes explaining to Sydney what a surprise is, and how Daddy would be so happy if we wait and tell him on his birthday. I told her not to say a word.

As soon as we walked through the door, Sydney said, "Dad! Mom and I bought you a birthday present today. It's a surprise from that place where you hit golf balls."

Thank you Sydney. Next time, I am shopping alone.





































































February snow day

Sydney's "preschool" group at the local fire station

Snow day!

Something freakish is happening around here. For the last two weeks, the temperature has barely risen two degrees above death. Then, last Thursday, it snowed!

I know, many of you are saying, "Winter = cold weather," and yes, it is January, but this is also GEORGIA. Maybe Mother Nature didn't get that memo.

The snow started about 3:30 p.m., and stopped falling after only a few hours, but we ended up with...wait for it...ONE INCH! The temperatures never rose above freezing (and probably won't until Monday afternoon).

Sydney could not wait to go outside and play in the snow Friday morning, but was only met with disappointment when she realized she could not build a snowman or throw a snowball.

This is a shot from New Year's. Sydney loved the fireworks - from a distance, Jaxy wanted to touch the pretty "colored lights."

We really need to keep an eye on that kid!

Christmas

I know I am a little behind in posting, but since we just finished packing away our Christmas decorations (I mean JUST - Donnie is loading the boxes into the attic as I type), I think I am doing pretty well.

We had a great Christmas. We were able to spend a lot of time together as a little family and as a big family too.

Donnie's family has a tradition of gathering on Christmas Eve for a "shepherd's meal" and a little nativity program. This year Donnie's sister who lives here was kind enough to invite us to her house the Monday before Christmas for a shepherd's meal. She also invited a bunch of other families over for the night too.

Everyone brought food to share and then we followed the same program that Donnie's Idaho family does. His mom put together a great booklet with the scriptures and hymns, and we used that as a guide.

It was nice to spend time with others and to have our kids engaged in the story of Jesus's birth.

We continued our new tradition of taking the kids to ride The Pink Pig at Macy's. Sydney loved it (we took her back again last Saturday), but Jaxon wasn't so big into the loud voice-over accompanying the ride. I was a little disappointed with his reaction - especially since we waited for one hour and fifteen minutes to ride the thing.

We also spent a day at Stone Mountain. They had a lot of cute activities going on, and since it was pretty cold we spent a lot of time indoors at different shows. Sydney really liked one show where four elves sang Christmas songs from around the world (as Santa moved from place to place he would call the elves to report his progress and they would sing a song from that area).

Some of the songs were strange - like the Italian Christmas donkey - but others were really fun - like when the kids were able to shake maracas and sing "Feliz Navidad."

We grabbed some hot chocolate and stood outside to watch the Christmas parade and visit with Santa. Sydney ran right up to Santa (when it was our turn), umped on his lap, and started listing her desired gifts. Jaxon took one look at the man in red and started screaming for his life.

We were finally able to have a picture made, but only after I sat down in front of Santa and held Jaxy in my lap. He did appreciate the candy cane Santa passed out afterward though. He also liked looking at all of the lights. Almost every tree in the park had some sort of decoration on it, and Jaxy would excitedly point and yell, "TREE!"

We also made ornaments again this year. Sydney made a reindeer (Rudolph), Donnie made two snowmen on a sled, and Jaxy and I made a gingerbread house (using foam and stickers). He tried to eat more than he tried to apply, but it still turned out well.

On Christmas morning, my parents came over for breakfast, and to watch the kids open their presents. We had to wake Sydney, and she was reallyy sleepy. When she came into the living room, we told her to go see what presents Santa brought for her, but instead of running to the toys and checking them out, she sat across the room staring.

Santa brought Jaxon a vacuum cleaner (seriously, that is what he really wanted), and he wouldn't put it down to open his presents. Sydney really enjoyed unwrapping her gifts, and when she finished, she moved on to her brother's.

That afternoon we went to my grandmother's house for dinner and more presents. It was nice to spend time with family and enjoy some yummy food.

On New Year's Eve we went to my parents' house for food and fire works. We spent the evening playing games, waiting for midnight. Allison (and her family), Jana (and her family), and Mauri's kids all spent the night too, so it was a packed house - which made it that much more fun.

Now the fun is over, and it is back to the real world. Donnie still has a few days off before classes start, but I am back to early mornings, so the fun is over.