Kindergarten

These babies all started kindergarten this week. This picture was made in Destin in June of 2005. They were all 1 (impossible to get a picture of all 3 looking at the camera at the same time). Hard to believe they are now in kindergarten! Seems like just yesterday we were changing their diapers, trying to wean them off their pacis (or finger for Connor) and starting mother's day out.

Madison was sooooo excited about going to kindergarten. She had a great day! I went to the school at her lunch time to help her class with going through the lunch line. Those little kids & their lunch trays were too cute. Madison even drank milk (chocolate)! She has had maybe 2 cups of milk since coming off her bottle when she turned 1. She is in the same class as the girl that lives across the street, who rides the bus home in the afternoons. Madison came home from school today BEGGING to ride the bus. I decided to let her ride tomorrow. What am I thinking! She's my baby girl! She can't ride with all of those kids!!! I have to leave my house at 2:00, get in carpool line around 2:15 (or it will be soooo backed up), wait for her to get out at 2:40 then drive home. I got home at 3:13 today & the bus came 10 minutes later. So, if she rides the bus it will be a lot less to deal with but I hope it's not too much for her. She has been asking to ride the bus since she was 18 months old. Just pray she will be ok. The bus driver is very sweet & said she would look out for her & Casey. Bottom line: I am not ready to let her grow up! Sniff, sniff!

Summer Fun

Last Sunday evening Allen turned on our sprinkler system to make sure all of the heads were working properly. The kids decided to cool off & have some fun. I asked Madison why they were using their ring floats & she replied, "just in case it floods we will not drown". Too cute!

We went swimming last weekend while Allen was off & the kids had so much fun. As always, they wanted to be thrown in over & over. Trey goes under & comes back up with eyes & mouth wide open & smiling. I took him to the ENT Wednesday for a check-up from having tubes put in & everything looks good. The ear infection he got 4 days after getting his 3rd set of tubes has cleared up. Since Trey likes to go under so much, the ENT gave me drops to use after swimming for the rest of the summer to help prevent another ear infection. Praying they work.

Here's a funny picture of Tyler from last week. He & Madison went through my jewelry & Tyler thought he was soooo cool with my jewelry all over him. I told him his daddy would not like this & he said "I love it!" Better keep my eye on that boy. :)

July 4th

We had a great 4th of July. We slept in late then went swimming with Marsha & Joey. I tried using ear plugs on Trey, since he has another ear infection, but he didn't like them. He loves to jump in & go under, which he is not supposed to do. Oh well.

Allen throwing Trey in...he loved it!
Allen put ribs on the grill to slow cook while we were swimming & boy were they good! After swimming we stopped by the house for a quick bite to eat before going to see the fireworks. Marsha's mom joined us & we had ribs, fresh corn from the garden, baked beans, mac & cheese (for the kids), brownies and homemade ice cream.

On our way to see the fireworks!
After eating we went to Marsha's dad's house in Montevallo to watch the American Village fireworks. (His property backs up to the American Village property.) He put together a hay ride for us to ride out to the field where we could see the fireworks & the kids loved it. The kids also enjoyed seeing his horses, cows & donkeys.

Madison enjoyed petting the horses

Trey, not so sure about the horses

So curious

After a long day & no naps the kids passed out as soon as we got home. We had to wake them up at 10:30 Sunday morning! They were absolutley exhausted.

Beautiful Sunset

I stole this picture from a fellow church member & wanted to share. It was taken last night at the fireworks show at our church. Beautiful!

3rd Time's A Charm, I Hope

Trey had his 3rd set of tubes put in this morning. Everything went well. They came for him at 6:45 & he was back to me by 7:00. He never fussed. He crawled up into Allen's lap & tried to go back to sleep. We left at 7:30 & were home by 8:00. I put him straight to bed & he slept until 1:30. Wow! I checked on him a couple of times to make sure he was breathing & he was just fine. Madison slept from about 11:00 until almost 2:00. I slept for all of an hour, even with the phones turned off. I guess the kids were exhausted from such a busy weekend. After naps, they both played so good together the rest of the night.

Waiting to go home...

Our weekend

Allen took Friday off so we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. Fun. Trey & Madison both love that place so my sister gave the kids gift cards for their birhtday's so we used those. That place will drive you crazy but the kids love it. Friday afternoon we met Allen's parents in Cullman & the kids went home with them for the weekend. Yeah! They had so much fun. My in-laws took them swimming Saturday then they all went to dinner with my parents. Madison told me that she forgot to miss me because she was having so much fun. We picked them up Sunday afternoon. While they were gone we decided to clean out the area of the basement where Allen keeps his tools & stuff. When we moved, we just dumped it & never went through it to organize it. It was impossible to find anything. I wish I had thought to take a before picture. Allen made a workbench with a piece of pegboard on the back so that he can hang his tools, nails, etc. & be able to find it easily. We found a very nice shelving unit at Lowe's on sale for $40, half off. Yippee! It feels so good to have it organized now.

Working on the base

Base done, now for the top

working on the top part

the finished product
Sunday night we went tailgating at the church & then watched fireworks. The children's department's theme was a luau.

the girls love watermelon

The Alabaster Fire Department came in time for fireworks, just in case, and Trey loved looking at & sitting in the fire truck.

me & Marsha

some of the fireworks from church

I will post more pics to the kids' website later tonight.

My friend...

Got to give a shout out to Marsha. Today is her 32nd birthday. Happy Birthday to one of the best friend's I've ever had! Can't wait to celelebrate. Lots of love!