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!

Urgent Prayer Request

Allen has a friend, Dan, whose wife, Lillian, really needs our prayers. She was recently diagnosed & treated for colon cancer. The colon cancer is gone but now it has spread to her brain. She has been receiving radiation for 1 week & has 2 more weeks to go. The prognosis is not good. She is around 30 years old & they have a son that will be 2 in July. Her dad just died last year from cancer. Please lift this family up in your prayers. Please pray that the radiation treatments work. The doctors will know more about her prognosis in 2 weeks when the radiation treatments are finished. I'll keep you updated as I know more.

Trey

Trey had a bad asthma flare-up 2 weeks ago. When I took him to the doctor I was told that he had an ear infection which probably caused the asthma flare-up. My pediatrician told me to go to the ENT for the 2 week recheck because his tubes were not working anymore & he wanted them replaced (due to his history of bad ear infections, past history of asthma flare-ups with ear infections & his speech delay). So we went today. His ear infection is gone & his lungs sound great. Trey is scheduled for a new set of tubes (his 3rd set) on Monday morning at 5:45.

He was recently evaluated for Speech therapy & qualified for treatment. The therapist said he is speaking at a 17 month old level (he's 25 months old). He has started saying more just in the last 2 weeks but we are going to go ahead with ST, which will start in the next week or so. He passed all of the tests that they did except the communication part. He is right where he is supposed to be developmentally but a little behind with talking. The speech therapist & ENT both think that his history of multiple ear inections may have caused some of the delay. He understands everything we say to him & can follow through with everything we ask him to do but he just doesn't say much. As Marsha says, he sounds like Curious George! Just a lot of grunting. LOL!

Hopefully with a new set of tubes & speech therapy starting up, he will be talking our heads off soon!

Visit to Muscle Shoals

Friday was my mom's 60th birthday & Sunday was Father's Day so we went up to Muscle Shoals to visit family. Saturday morning we went to Allen's mom's house to swim. The kids had a great time. Neither are scared of the water. Trey loves to jump in & never cries when he goes under. He comes up smiling. Madison is perfecting the "skills" she learned last week at swimming lessons. She can swim better than me!

We had a surprise birthday party for my mom Saturday night at a local Italian restaurant. She was so surprised! We all had a great time together.




Sunday we visited with Allen's dad & my dad before coming back home. We enjoyed our time visiting but it sure is nice to get back home. The kids were so off schedule. It will take me a week to get everyone back on track but it was worth it.

My dad with the grandkids, including Ayda (Katherine's baby)

Disney World

We survived another trip to Disney World. Kids loved it. Madison prefers the pirate ship pool & waterslides at our condo over going to the parks. Probably because it was soooo hot! It was so crowded the day that we went that it was hard to enjoy the park like we had in the past. Neither Madison or Trey enjoyed waiting in lines. But they still had fun. She especially enjoyed Tyler & Marlee going with us. They all had so much fun together!

Waiting in line

Enjoying Dumbo!

Trey cooling off with his mister fan

My favorite meal, Lobster & Crab Claws from my favorite restaurant, Fulton's Crabhouse in Downtown Disney. YUM!!!!!

Marsha & me at Disney WorldFUN TIMES!!!!!!!

On our way!

Friday we drive to Tallahassee, half way to Orlando. Saturday we hope to be here by early afternoon. Our resort has a huge pirate ship with lots of waterslides & water cannons for the kids to play with. There is also another pool with a water slide & a huge water play area.


Sunday we plan to go here, Animal Kingdom.


Then, the park the kids are dying to go to, Magic Kingdom.

Should be a fun trip. Marsha, Joey, Marlee Grace & Tyler are going with us. Even though they have had the worst week ever (see Marsha's blog http://mommyroach.blogspot.com/), we will still have the best time. Pray the rain moves out of Florida SOON!

Recital & Party weekend

Madison had her dance recital Saturday morning at the BJCC. She did pretty good considering the lights & crowd freaked her out a little. She didn't want her hair rolled but I finally talked her into it & it looked so good! She even let me put make-up on her. She looked so grown up! All of our family came for the weekend to watch her dance & she was so excited to have everyone there.

Saturday evening we had Trey's birthday party. He had so much fun! He played in the sand with his trucks & jumped in Marsha's jumpy thing until 10:00 p.m. He got lots of presents & loves them all. I'm not sure who gave what so thanks to everyone for his gifts! Special thanks goes out to Marsha for her potato salad and to Dan for his crack dip (YUM!). And thanks to Dan for taking pictures of both events. I got a new camera & he knew how to adjust the settings to take the best pictures.

Sunday after all of our family left we took a long & much needed nap & were lazy all day. It was great! Now I have to pack us for vacation. We leave Friday for Orlando. Kids can't wait!

I hope to have pictures from the recital & party posted to the kids website later this evening, if it works.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Is it vacation time yet? The last 2 weeks I was busy preparing for Madison's birthday party, out of town guests, shopping for Mother's Day, shopping for Trey's birthday and going to school programs. This week I am busy planning Trey's birthday party for Saturday (pray it will not rain), getting ready for more out of town guests and Madison has her dance recital rehearsal Friday night & the recital Saturday morning. Whew! After church Sunday I'm sure I will start packing for our vacation that starts end of next week. It can't get here soon enough!

One of Madison's favorite things to do when playing outside is to ride her Dora hot wheel from the main level garage down the driveway & end in the grass. Since it's downhill she goes pretty fast & loves it. I keep thinking I will put a stop to it before she gets hurt but I haven't yet because she has so much fun. Well, tonight I had to put a stop to it. Trey decided he would do the same thing & ride his bike down the hill. I couldn't catch him & he veered off into the front yard, flipped off of his big wheel (which went flying over him) & rolled a few times in the yard before coming to a stop. He barely cried but you could tell he was scared. He rubbed his head then wanted back on his bike. I can't imagine what would have happened if he had landed on the concrete. I can already tell that this summer will be full of bumps & bruises. He is such a boy!

Happy 2nd Birthday Trey!

Hard to believe that Trey turned 2 on Sunday! We got him a big dump truck, a Cars big wheel (he loves to ride Madison's Dora hot wheel & boy do they fight over it), puzzles, t-ball set, tool box with tools, a set of "power tools" that really work, clothes and a Bob the Builder movie. We are going to have a construction themed birthday party next Saturday. He LOVES to "fix" things like his daddy. He immediately went to work on his dump truck as soon as he opened his tool set. Too cute!

I had a great Mother's Day! Allen & I got a lot of things done around the house in the morning then we spent the afternoon outside with the kids. Saturday night Danielle kept the kids so that Allen & I could do some shopping for our upcoming trip. We went to dinner at Bonefish & it was sooo good! It was nice to actually be able to enjoy a meal in peace & quiet. BIG thanks to Danielle for keeping the kids. You rock!

K4 Mother's Day Program

Madison's K4 class had a Mother's Day program today for all of the mommies. They were all so cute! They sang songs then we went to the gym for a reception & to look at their art work that was displayed on the walls. Madison made the flower that I am wearing & she was so proud! It hit me today that she has only 4 days of K4 left then she will be at big school for kindergarten in the fall! Sad!

These are some of the pictures Madison made for me this week. I love that she thinks I weigh 30 pounds!