A Self Portrait

End of School!!!

2011-06-10T10:11:00.004-04:00

Colby's class had their end of the year program about a week before Dalton got out of school. The kids did such an awesome job quoting scripture, singing songs, and reciting passages they have learned during the year. The children recited Bible verses they had learned that corresponded to each letter of the alphabet. Each child had their own part in the program and Colby's part was reciting a Bible verse by himself. He kept this a secret from us because he had never mentioned to us that he was going to do this. I think it was a surprise for all the parents. What a great year Colby had this year at school!!!

Here's Colby with his teacher, Mrs. Bush. We just love her!

Colby with my parents after the program

Dalton had a great year this year as well. He is such a smart little guy and always does great academically. He received a few academic awards, as pictured here in a big assembly on the last day of school.

Dalton with his 2nd grade teacher. We just love her too!

Field Trips and Ancient Egypt

2011-06-08T12:31:00.004-04:00

During the Spring you can be sure that someone class is going to have a field trip to the strawberry patch and this year Colby's class went to Elliott Farms to pick some beautiful strawberries, ride on a hayride around the farm, and have their own Easter egg hunt on the property. Such fun!!

Dalton's class has been studying Ancient Egypt all year long. Earlier in the year they had a project to make a salt dough map of Ancient Egypt. Dalton and his class have learned so much this year about Ancient Egypt so toward the end of the year his class had a big Eyptian feast and celebration. They had a big Egyptian lunch in which they enjoyed Egyptian type food and then they played Egyptian style games. Of couse, as pictured, they had to dress up as Ancient Egyptians. I forgot Dalton had to dress up for this until the afternoon before so I recycled the Joseph coat that my mom had sewn together for some sort of activity he had in Kindergarten and we bought the hat and sash to go around it. I told Dalton he looked like the sultan from Aladin. He looked like a cross between the sultan and Joseph. :)

Spring 2011

2011-06-05T23:46:00.008-04:00

Once again I find myself playing catch up on my blog. Just thought I'd catch up with some things that have been happening with us over the past couple of months as well as in recent days. We've enjoyed family events, baseball, school activities, and trips that I wanted to catch up on in pictures.

Dalton, Colby, my mom, and I enjoyed going to downtown Macon in March to take part in the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had fun riding the carriage ride and getting cherry ice cream. Then, we headed down to Central City Park for the boys to ride a few rides since they were out this week for spring break. We also took part in watching the balloon glow as part of the Cherry Blossom Festival out at Macon State College. It was a perfect night for the balloon glow and the boys seriously enjoyed watching the hot air balloon being inflated and rising up. They were such a pretty sight to see all the balloons lit at the same time!

This year, as I have every year, I tried to go to every school event I could possibly go to because I was pretty sure this would be my last year before I would need to go back to work. I just wanted to soak in as much as possible that the boys had going on at school and be available for anything that was happening at school. I was a driver for most of Dalton and Colby's field trips and tried to come to all of their special days at school since I knew I wouldn't be able to as much in the future. Here are some pics of Dalton's field trip to the Rock Ranch. They learned about the life cycle of frogs and found some gigantic tadpoles in the pond and continued to play around at the Rock Ranch enjoying many of the activities there.

I just love Tiny Town at the Rock Ranch. It is just a kid-sized town that was built with kids in mind. There are dress-up clothes in buildings such as the theater and the fire house that the kids loved putting on and pretending.

Then, in April the boys enjoyed participating in Field Day. This was Colby's first time participating in Field Day and I think he didn't really know what it was all about. I think he thought he was going on a field trip or something. He had lots of fun when he realized he'd get to play lots of fun outdoor games. Field Day is always a highlight of the year and a fun time for everyone!

Camping Virgins

2011-03-02T12:00:00.003-05:00

For President's Day we decided to take a little overnight camping trip. None of us had ever been camping before and figured we didn't know what we were doing anyway so we just decided to make it a quick overnight trip. We left Sunday of President's Day weekend and went to Callaway Gardens to look around and walk a few trails. We all enjoyed walking around the trails and also enjoyed going in the butterfly center, but due to a bird getting in and eating most of the butterflies, there weren't all that many butterflies left, although the ones that were there were very pretty. It was nice too that admission to Callaway Gardens was free for the months of January and February. After leaving Callaway Gardens we headed to our campsite at FDR State Park just a few miles away. We picked out a campsite and put up the tent, then the boys and I went to walk to the lake where the ducks and geese came up to us apparently wanting us to feed them. We forgot to bring any food to the lake with us so a lady with her kids gave the boys some of their bread to feed to the birds. Must've felt sorry for us that we didn't bring any bread down with us. Anyway, after feeding the ducks and geese, we headed back up to our campsite where Shane had a rousing fire going for us to grill hot dogs and to make some smores. Before going to bed we had an intense Uno tournament in which Colby dominated. We all had so much fun, family time! The boys are still talking about our little trip and wondering when we'll go again!

Skiing

2011-03-02T11:10:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of February Shane and I went skiing at Breckenridge, Colorado. I just love skiing out West! The mountains are absolutely beautiful and huge! The conditions were so great this year...more snow than we've ever skied on. We rented a car and I think the driving was the most nerve-racking part of the trip. It was snowing and had snowed so much that I don't think we ever saw the black asphalt of the road the entire time because it was always snowing and had a pretty thick layer of snow covering it. Breckenridge was a fun resort though with a lot of runs that Shane and I could easily do and were challenged on other runs as well. I think this was the coldest ski trip we've ever been on though. I'm usually not cold while skiing because of all the layers I wear, but the last day of our skiing the wind chill was in the -20s and we were a little concerned about our noses getting frostbite since our noses was our only body part that was exposed. We had tons of fun and hope to one day go back.

Catching Up: Part II

2011-02-22T10:59:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm on a roll now in updating my blog. Here's some Thanksgiving and Christmas pictures to finish up 2010. Colby's class had their Thanksgiving program that was just too cute. I loved seeing him dressed up like a little indian singing songs, reciting Bible verses, and poetry. He did an awesome job on everything doing all the motions and words so well. I was very proud of my little indian boy.

Later, in December, Colby's class took a field trip on a Journey to Jesus. We searched for Jesus at a hospital, at the inn, but finally found him here at the stable.

Colby's class sang Christmas songs at a retirement home

Dalton's class did too!

Colby and his class enjoyed their Christmas party

And Dalton's class did too!

After the Christmas parties we took the boys to the Bass Pro Shop to see Santa. They look pretty serious in telling Santa what they want.

After seeing Santa, they were engaged in a fierce game of Checkers.

This year instead of making our annual gingerbread house, we made a gingerbread train. It turned out ok. I think I liked the house better, but the train was fun for the boys.

Christmas at Grandmama and Granddaddy's house

Look what Santa brought!

Shane showing the boys how to use their new bb guns

Catching Up: Part I

2011-02-10T11:18:00.007-05:00

Whew! It's been a long time since I've posted! We've been busy around here with so many fun things going on. Here's a little update in pictures of some of my favorite happenings of the past few months.

Back in October, we all had a blast at the Ga. National Fair here in Perry. The boys had a blast riding lots of rides and then capped off the night with caramel and candied apples.

Dalton played flag football again this year at school. He was much improved this year compared to last year. Covenant has tackle football for 3rd and 4th graders where they play other schools and Dalton says he wants to play next year, although I'm a little nervous about him playing. I don't think he has an aggressive bone in his sweet little body.

Still in October, we took a trip one Saturday to Truett Cathy's Rock Ranch. It was such a beautiful day that we chose to go and we all had so much fun. It seems like they open something new there every year and this year the Rock Ranch opened an area called Tiny Town, which is a little kid-sized town with a prison, church, school room, theater, etc. that kids can go in, explore, try on clothes, and just have fun in this town that is perfectly sized for kids. We also saw Truett Cathy himself while walking around in Tiny Town.

a Tiny Town courtroom

grinding corn

Dalton's class took a field trip to Dausett Trails where they learned about wildlife.

During the weekend of Halloween we got ourselves another puppy. Yep, we're trying again. We had a pretty bad experience with the last puppy we had so we were a little leery about getting another dog. This is Dixie, a sweet little Jack Russell Terrier. She's pretty smart and we all love her. The boys just love on her all the time, almost too much. I think she breathes a sigh of relief whenever Dalton and Colby go to bed because she knows she can just relax.

For Halloween this past year Dalton dressed up as Superman and Colby was Optimus Prime. They had fun dressing up for our church's Fall Festival and going around the nearby neighborhood trick or treating. (and Shane and I had fun sneaking some of their candy while they were sleeping)
Colby's class went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch. They were able to pick out a small pumpkin for themselves, hear a story, and play on the playground.

Finally, in early November we took the boys to a Georgia game. Go Dawgs!!!

Homecoming Week

2010-10-01T11:46:00.006-04:00

Shane on Decade Day (we're thinking late 60's/early 70's) We couldn't decide exactly which decade he was. Dalton was dressed up for Camo Day.

This week at Covenant is Homecoming week, therefore it has been Spirit Week as well. The upper school and the lower grades had differing days so when Shane dressed up for Decade Day, Dalton dressed up for Camo/Military Day. All 3 of my guys have had a lot of fun dressing of this week for the different designated days, and I had a good time finding outfits for everyone.

Shane as Ace Ventura on Character Day

Dalton and Colby for CA day

The big Homecoming game is tonight. Shane's guys have had a tough year so far going 1-3 but are so close to being 4-0. Each game they have lost has been so close and have had some really tough losses. Hopefully they will win tonight and turn things around and get back on the winning track.

Celebrating Colby

2010-08-31T22:27:00.004-04:00

This weekend Colby turned 5 years old. He's such a joy to our family. I can't believe five years have gone by so fast. We celebrated his birthday this weekend with a little cookout at our house with some family. Here's a little slideshow from our five years with our little man.

First Day of School

2010-08-18T22:38:00.003-04:00

Last week, August 11th, was the first day of school for Dalton and Colby. It was special this year because both Dalton and Colby are now going to the same school. They get to ride with Shane to school every day. I think Colby feels like a big boy going to school with his older brother at Covenant this year. The year has gotten off to a great start, and both Dalton and Colby really love being at school and love their classes!

One Last Fling of the Summer

2010-08-16T23:17:00.005-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been busy! Shane had football camp at Jekyll Island a couple of weeks ago for 5 days, and then we had to get ready for school starting back. Since Shane was going to be down at Jekyll for a while I thought I'd go down with the boys for a couple of days as well. I asked my mom if she wanted to come down with us as well. A couple of days before we were going to leave, my mom had a mini-stroke and was in the hospital having lots of tests run to try to determine what was going on. She stayed overnight and was cleared to leave and was thankfully able to still go with us on our trip. We were so glad she was able to come and we had a lot more fun with her along. While Shane was staying with his guys at the 4-H camp down at Jekyll Island, the 4 of us stayed at a motel nearby. We didn't see Shane a whole lot but he was able to meet up with us to go to the waterpark that is on Jekyll. We had a lot of fun going out to eat, playing a little miniature golf, sight-seeing a little at St. Simons, and playing in the water. It was fun to enjoy one last little trip before school started!!

In St. Simons at the lighthouse

We also had a fun time going to Driftwood Beach which is located on the north end of the island. My friend, Rebekah, got married at this area in front of this same tree. The boys had a blast climbing on it while my mom and I nervously watched.

More 10th Anniversary Stuff

2010-07-19T11:01:00.005-04:00

I made up this little slideshow of our trip to Anguilla as well as some snapshots from the past 10 years. Yes, it has been almost a month since our anniversary, but hey, we're still celebrating. Many pictures include the boys as well, because we just can't imagine the last few years without Dalton and Colby.

10th Anniversary

2010-07-11T22:45:00.005-04:00

Shane and I went to the island of Anguilla to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We wanted to go someplace very special. We had researched and planned for months before deciding to go to the resort of Cap Juluca in Anguilla. We were wanting to go somewhere that had a great beach and a place where we could afford to get a beachfront room. Throughout our research we found that this resort had all beachfront rooms no matter what category, and we also found that the island of Anguilla is known for its great beaches and beautiful turquoise water. I previously knew very little about Anguilla and had never even known anyone who had been there, but everything we read about it sounded awesome so we thought we'd try it out and go ahead and book our stay.
Everything we read about Anguilla and Cap Juluca turned out to be true. When we arrived at the resort we were just in awe. And when the lady at check-in told us we had been given a great upgrade we were just giddy. We just couldn't believe we had been upgraded to a pool villa!! We had our own private pool!! We just didn't know what to do with ourselves. When we were taken to our villa I just couldn't stop looking at the view and the huge villa that we were upgraded to. Shane and I just kept thinking there must be some mistake and someone was going to come and tell us that they've made a mistake and tell us we were in the wrong villa.

We've been to a few different islands in the Caribbean, but this was truly the most beautiful place I've ever been. The water was the prettiest I've ever seen and the beach was amazing as well. The resort catered to our every whim and was always there for us no matter what was needed. While laying out on the beach, a beach attendant would bring a chilled towel around 12:00 and complimentary sorbet around 3:00. And whenever you would go pick out your lounge chairs, the attendant would bring a cooler filled with iced bottled waters. Ahhhh!! So nice!! The island has an amazing selection of different fine dining restaurants for being such a small island of just 16 miles long. We rented a jeep for a couple of days to tour around the island to try out a few different restaurants. We went to 4 different restaurants and they were all just fabulous! I loved trying out such new places! Such fun!

I could just go on and on about how beautiful this place was! My theory about the Caribbean is that there are so many different islands with their own unique personality that why would I want to go to the same one again when there are so many other islands to explore. But Anguilla has kind of changed my mind about that. It was such a slice of heaven that it will be hard to ever go anywhere else!

Our villa and lounge chairs.

Fishing in the Gulf

2010-07-07T16:22:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks ago Shane, one of Shane's friends, and I went out fishing in the Gulf out on the flats of Steinhatchee, Florida. We went with a guide. We had been talking about going out with a guide for a while to try to learn a little more and catch a lot of fish. We got an early start and headed out on the water. It was fun to go with a guide because he provided all the bait and took care of everything we needed pretty much and he knew all the best places to fish. We were mainly fishing for trout, but we also went fishing for some redfish. I caught one redfish that was the biggest fish I'd ever caught in my life. It was 28 1/2" long and weighed over 6 pounds. Pretty cool. Here's some pics of some of our catch:

(Sorry, can't figure out why this is underlined)

Here's Shane trying to reel in a pretty good sized shark

Orange Beach 2010

2010-06-21T15:58:00.007-04:00

A couple of weeks ago we went on our family vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama. It was such a relaxing time! The boys had fun playing in the pool and in the ocean as well as playing shuffleboard, going to play miniature golf, and riding go-carts. My parents came along with us, and Shane and I were able to get out on the links to play a little golf one day as well. This is the earliest in the year we've ever been on vacation to the beach and it was such a good time to go. The weather wasn't too hot yet and the crowds weren't all that bad yet either.

"Cannonballllll!!!!!"

Colby chillin' in the sand

We went out to eat at Lulu's Restaurant one night which is owned by Jimmy Buffett's sister. There was a long wait to eat, but there was a lot of things to keep the kids busy and active while they waited. Dalton and Colby joined in on a little volleyball game that was going on with other kids then moved on to building sand castles while we waited. Then, we enjoyed a nice dinner by the water.

We were treated to a spectacular lightning show the first night we arrived.

One of the big things on most everyone's mind down at the beach was the oil spill. We never saw any oil while there and the beach was still very beautiful. There were reports that the oil came ashore the day before we left, but it was reported as being a mile or two up the beach and was just cleaned up and the beach was fine again. Here was a picture of a couple of boats laying some boom in front of our condo where we were. Kind of weird though... they didn't leave the boom there so I was wondering if maybe there was some oil out there and they skimmed it up and then left.

End of School

2010-06-19T14:31:00.003-04:00

The last two days of school included a fun water day at another student's house where they rented an inflatable water slide and then an awards day at school for the last day of school. It was a beautiful day for having fun in the water, eating pizza, and just enjoying each other before school let out for the summer. The awards day included character awards in which Dalton was given the award for being Respectful. They don't keep actual number grades in first grade so they give out these character awards along with a few other awards. Dalton has had an awesome year in first grade. He has grown and matured so much over the school year as well as learned so many new things. I'm always amazed at the chunks of Bible verses he has learned in first grade. Also, I have been impressed with how he has learned the parts of speech in first grade. I just don't remember learning parts of speech until maybe 2nd or 3rd grade.

Here's Dalton with his teacher, Mrs. Bankson. We'll miss her next year!

Dalton excited about receiving another certificate. I think he's so excited because his teacher is also handing him a Hershey bar along with the certificate.

More May Happenings

2010-06-17T14:52:00.003-04:00

The month of May continued with many end of the year activities for Dalton and Colby. There was the end of the year Awana blowout where the kids could enjoy many bouncey inflatables, pony rides, and crazy climbing things. Where were all these cool play things when I was growing up?!?

7

2010-06-13T19:31:00.002-04:00

Dalton turned 7 years old a couple of weeks ago. We celebrated by letting him have his birthday party at a nearby skating rink. This was only the 2nd time he had ever been to a skating rink. He went a couple of months earlier to a friend's party and LOVED it and has been wanting to have a skating party ever since. He's still got a lot to learn about skating, but he has made great improvements each time he has been . Dalton had a great time celebrating with friends from school and church. I even busted out my old roller blades for the big day to skate around a few times with Dalton. Colby wasn't having much of the skating. He wasn't feeling very well on this day and I was only able to talk him into going around the rink about 1/4 of the way when he decided he was done. He ended up having a fever for a couple of days so hopefully the little guy will try it again sometime.

Dalton even tried the Limbo

Colby's Graduation Program

2010-05-27T22:10:00.003-04:00

Colby finished up with Pre-K and had his graduation program last week. It was kind of bittersweet because for the past 4 years my vehicle has made it's way up to Central Baptist's Sonshine Preschool where both Dalton and Colby first began their academic career. Colby will be going to Covenant next year with Dalton and Shane. I think when school starts back my little Explorer may just drive up to Central just out of habit. We have cherished the time that our boys have spent there making friends, learning academics, and learning more about Jesus. We will seriously miss Central's preschool and all the children, our friends, and teachers.

Colby and Dalton with their sweet teacher, Mrs. Lora. Dalton had Mrs. Lora 2 years ago when he was in Pre-K and then Colby had her this year.

End Of The Year Fun

2010-05-27T21:52:00.003-04:00

Last week was Colby's last week of school at his preschool. He enjoyed lots of fun activities last week which included an end of the year bowling party, a water day, and his graduation program. Here is the big man in action:

Colby with his buddy, Josh

Water day was a lot of fun! We were so afraid the water day was going to be a no-go because it had stormed the night before and in the early morning hours, but the skies cleared and ended up being a perfect day for all the fun. There were little pools to play in, sprinklers, bubbles, and other games, but Colby got such a kick out of jumping into the pools. I nervously watched while he flung his body into about 2 inches of water in some of the pools.

Colby pretending to be a seal

Flowers and Worms

2010-05-24T11:59:00.003-04:00

I love the springtime with all the flowers blooming, green leaves on the trees, and everything just coming alive again. I always hate being cooped up inside during the cold, winter days, and it seemed like we had a lot more cold days than usual this year. I just love being able to be outside a lot although it's already in the 90's now. These are some pictures from a day when Colby and I were hanging out in the yard.

Colby found a wiggly worm and then the next thing I knew there were 2 smaller wiggly worms

After an afternoon of playing in the yard there's nothing better than a sip of water out of the water hose.

Strawberries

2010-05-24T11:41:00.003-04:00

At the beginning of May, Dalton, Colby, my mom, and I took a trip to the strawberry patch to load up on some fresh strawberries. It was a beautiful day for picking strawberries and my mom and I came home with a basket each of beautiful strawberries thanks to the great help we had from Dalton and Colby! I loved to just have the fresh strawberries to just munch on for a few days.

April II a.k.a. The Part of April Which I Forgot to Include

2010-05-19T21:14:00.012-04:00

So I was looking at the pictures in the last April blog update that I did and realized I left out quite a few events that I meant to put in there. I had the picture of Vince Dooley in that post but at some point I must've deleted it somehow. I mean, how could I have left out the legend, Vince Dooley, Bon Jovi, and my college friends. Anyways, here comes the 2nd part of the April events...

How could I have left out this picture of the man, the legend, Vince Dooley!? Colby and I went and met him at Academy Sports to have him sign some things for Shane. Coach Dooley asked Colby if he wanted him to sign his shirt and Colby look was basically like why in the world would I want this older guy to sign my shirt. I tried to explain to Colby what an important piece of UGA history and lore that this man was, but Colby wasn't fazed. He definitely wasn't interested in having him sign his shirt. Anyway, it was neat to meet Coach Dooley.

For Christmas this past year, I gave Shane 2 tickets to see Bon Jovi in Atlanta on April 15th. It seemed like forever that we had to wait for the big day to arrive, but they were worth the wait. The boys are starting to show their age, but they've still got it! It was a really fun show and they sang most all our favorites.

Jon and Richie singing Wanted Dead or Alive

Jon and Richie

I'm sure Jon was pointing at me and Shane here.

Richie getting his groove on.

Then, the next day after the concert I went down to Panama City Beach to have a little college get-together for the weekend . I hadn't seen these ladies since college in over 12+ years. It was very surreal to see everyone at first because it was so weird but yet amazing to be around these wonderful gals again. College was probably the most amazing, fun time of my life, and I have such great memories of each of these ladies and also of many who weren't able to be there. It was so refreshing to be around everyone and catch up with what has been happening in everyone's lives over the years and to hear about the journey that God has led them on in their lives. I hope we can get together again some time!!

While eating out at a restaurant, a guy on stilts made us all balloon hats. How fun!!

A Mother's Day video shown at our church in which Dalton answers a few questions

2010-05-15T21:29:00.002-04:00

Another Update in Pictures (April)

2010-05-14T13:14:00.006-04:00

Well, once again I've slacked off and haven't been keeping up with this blog very consistently. Here's another update in pictures for the month of April. It seems like so much has been going on lately with school winding down and other activities. I can't believe May is almost half-way over so I better get to updating what all has been going on...

It has become a bit of a tradition for me and the boys to boil and color some eggs on the Saturday before Easter. The boys love to dip the eggs in the different colors and come up with various colors and see who can make and ugly-colored egg. Then, on Easter after church we go to my parent's house and celebrate Easter with lots of family and afterwards have an egg hunt for the kids.

This year at school, Dalton played intramural basketball. He really enjoyed playing so much, but the little guy didn't know very much at all about how to play. He ended up learning a lot about the sport and having a lot of fun.

At the end of the month, Dalton participated in Field Day at his school. He had been looking forward to Field Day and had tons of fun with all the activities. We were blessed with gorgeous weather for all the fun!

Fishin'

2010-04-24T16:02:00.004-04:00

During Spring Break the four of us went fishing down in the Keaton Beach/Steinhatchee area down in the Gulf. We were a little nervous about bringing both boys with us as we had never brought them both before. Shane took Dalton back in the Fall and he really enjoyed it so we wanted to try to take both boys. We picked a couple of gorgeous days to go, but we didn't have a whole lot of luck catching any fish. Shane caught one fish the entire two days and I don't think I even got a bite. I was worried that the boys would get really bored really fast since we weren't catching anything, but they just kind of made their own fun while on the boat. On our 2nd day we kept seeing a few starfish on the bottom so I scooped up one with the net for them. They were too excited about this. You would have thought we had just pulled in a whopper of a fish. Unfortunately, they saw me earlier dumping the starfish over the side of the boat to wet it to keep it alive and Colby decided he would copy me and try to wet it as well. It was at this point that Colby leaned over with the starfish and fell into the water dropping the starfish in the process. He managed to hold onto part of the boat though so he only became halfway drenched. This kind of cut short our fishing trip for the day since we didn't bring along any extra clothes on the boat. The boys were beginning to get kind of tired of it all by this point anyway so we headed on back home. Colby was so tired from the day's events that he fell asleep beside Shane on the way back to the dock.

So tired

Update in Pictures Part II (March)

2010-04-19T21:10:00.007-04:00

The month of March consisted of Dalton and Colby jumping into t-ball practices and games. This is Colby's first year of playing t-ball and Dalton's 3rd year. They are given a few pitches by the coach to see if they can hit the ball and then will put the ball on a tee if they can't hit it. Colby is having a blast playing and Dalton is doing well too. He has really come along in his hitting, but he's still working on the fielding part. I think one day that part is just going to click in his head and he'll figure out how to catch it better. It's so fun to watch them play. They have kept us busy going to practices and games, but there's not much cuter than your little boy dressed up in their baseball uniform.

Colby and Dalton on Opening Day

It is too funny when a ball is hit in this age group. The kids all just run after the ball to see who can get it first and usually end up in a big pile of kids trying to see who will come up with the ball. Here, another boy apparently has Colby in a headlock trying to get the ball.

Cherry Blossom Festival

We love going to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Macon during March. We'll take a day during the week to go downtown and get some free cherry ice cream, ride some rides, watch the sea lion show, and just enjoy the day together. My mom also came along for some added fun.

Colby and Dalton with Lacy the pink poodle

Dalton and Colby climbing on a Yoshino Cherry Tree in Central City Park

Colby's preschool had its annual Easter egg hunt for all its classes right before Spring Break about a week before Easter. The kids were allowed to find 12 eggs each while on their hunt. Here is Colby comparing his stash of eggs with his friend, Brody.

Colby's class after the egg hunt

At the end of March, Dalton's school has Grandparent's Day where grades K4-6th put on a big performance for the grandparents and parents. My parents were able to come and celebrate Grandparent's Day with Dalton. Here is Dalton and his class right before the performance began.

Update in Pictures...Part I (February)

2010-03-30T11:14:00.007-04:00

Well, I apparently began this blog post about 2 weeks ago, but never got back around to finishing it. It's been way too long since I updated my blog and I'm really going to try to do better about staying a little more up to date here. So here goes a little update in pictures for the past couple of months.

In the beginning of March, Dalton's class went on a field trip to Guiseppi's Pizza in Macon. Dalton and his class had a blast touring the kitchen area as well as making their own pizzas and eating them. Too Yummy!!!

Then, one of the biggest events of the entire year happened at our house on February 12th. It snowed...a lot! It snowed about 3-4 inches at our house and for Perry, Georgia, that's a lot of snow. It snowed last year, but only maybe about half an inch, so this year the boys had so much fun playing in the snow making snow men and throwing snow balls at each other. It really was so pretty. It's been I guess about 20 years since I've seen this much snow around here.

Our house

Then, Valentine's Day rolled around. Colby's class had to celebrate a little later than normal due to the snow day and Winter Break. They were finally able to have their party on Feb 22nd, but the kids didn't seem to care. Any time to get candy and have a party is fine with them.

An update on the month of March is soon to follow....

Spelling Bee

2010-02-04T21:42:00.006-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Dalton was chosen to be one of the representatives of his school to compete in a Spelling Bee in LaGrange against other schools. He competed against first graders from 5 other schools. He was given a word list to study and we worked on it diligently almost every night. He did a great job studying for it! The big day arrived for us to travel to LaGrange this morning. Dalton and the other first graders were sent to a separate room to participate in the spelling bee while the parents were sent to wait for our kids in the school's lunchroom. Dalton was tripped up on the first word he was given. He was given the word "pail" and he said that he started out spelling, p...i... then he realized his mistake and corrected himself to correctly spell the word, but it was too late. The kids were not allowed to start spelling the word, then start over again. It was a great experience for him though. He learned a ton of new words through all his studying that he wouldn't have learned at this point in his first grade career. We are very proud of him!!

On the way home, we stopped to celebrate his participation in the spelling bee and all his hard work with a dessert from Applebee's. Dalton loves anything with chocolate or ice cream so we both shared and dug into Applebee's Triple Chocolate Meltdown. Mmm-mmm!!!

Pajama Day

2010-02-04T21:26:00.003-05:00

Colby with his teacher, Mrs. Lora

One of the highlights of the year I think at Colby's preschool is Pajama Day. The kids and teachers dress in their pajamas and bring their teddy bears and have fun activities with their bears. Colby brought two of his favorite bears, which he has creatively named, Big Bear and Little Bear. Who knows what all they did because asking Colby what all he did during the day is like pulling teeth. Ha! A typical conversation about school with Colby (or Dalton for that matter) goes something like this...
Me: Colby, what all did you do today?
Colby: Nothing
Me: Well, what did you learn today?
Colby: I don't want to talk about that right now.
Me: Well, what was your favorite part of the day?
Colby: Playing on the playground and snacktime

Nice.

New Addition

2009-12-18T22:07:00.006-05:00

We have a new addition to our family. Meet Body Self. He is a lemon and white beagle who was added to our family about 3 weeks ago. We've been wanting to get a dog for a while that the boys could grow up with. They've been begging for a dog or cat, but we're not really cat people so...well, we got a dog. It's been a lot of fun despite all his chewing on everything including us. I've realized though that having a new puppy is much like having a new baby. We have to get up in the middle of the night a couple of times and teach him about pooping and peeing outside. I think we've been buying tons of carpet cleaner and paper towels in bulk. Ugh! Body is super cute though and we love him. He's already grown so much that he is almost twice as big as he was when we got him 3 weeks ago. He's a fun addition to our family!

Football, Football, Football

2009-11-12T16:50:00.004-05:00

Shane and I before a game

Shane in action

We've been knee-deep in football around here for about the past 3 months. We've had flag football games, UGA football games, and Covenant Academy football games. Back in the summer about a month before school started Shane was named as Covenant's varsity football coach. It was very out of the blue since it was so near when the football team was to begin practicing football for the year anyway. Shane was excited but a little stressed out about being the head coach on such short notice. Covenant is in it's 2nd year of having varsity football and the first year of having a senior class so the guys haven't had a lot of experience to draw from. Throughout the season, the team has had around 17-19 players and many, many injuries. Despite this, they finished 3rd in their region out of 6 teams and made the playoffs in just their 2nd year of a varsity program. They play their first ever playoff game tonight against a team they lost to in overtime earlier in the year. GO RAMS!!

Dalton and Colby with the ram mascot at homecoming

Dalton had a chance this year to play flag football at Covenant's intramural program for 1st and 2nd graders. I let him choose to play either soccer or flag football and he chose flag football. I think his dad being the football coach had something to do with him wanting to play football because he didn't know a thing about football and doesn't even watch it when it's on tv. He learned so much though throughout the season and seemed to really enjoy playing. He even caught a few passes and completed a few passes as well when it was his turn to be quarterback.

Dalton hiking the ball

"I'm open!!!"

We've also been going to all the home UGA games despite Georgia having a not so successful season this year. It's always fun to go to the games and do a little tailgating. This year for Georgia's homecoming game all 4 of us went to the game. This was Colby's first ever UGA football game. The boys really enjoyed all the excitement of it all. Go Dawgs!

Halloween

2009-11-01T18:16:00.006-05:00

This past Wednesday our church hosted its annual Fall Festival which included lots of games, food, inflatables, and of course, candy. We love attending this activity every year and this year the weather for it was abolutely perfect. There were estimated to be about 5,000-6,000 people in attendance. Whew! The boys had tons of fun dressing up and playing games and getting candy. Dalton dressed up as a police officer, and Colby was Dash from the Incredibles.

Then, Saturday, we went trick or treating with some friends in their neighborhood. The weather was a little drizzly and misty, but the boys hardly noticed it in the efforts to knock on doors and get some of their beloved candy.

My Handsome Boys

2009-11-01T18:11:00.001-05:00

High Falls

2009-09-18T16:23:00.003-04:00

Our family went to High Falls recently over Labor Day. We were trying to think of somewhere fun to go as a family so we decided to go to High Falls since the boys had never been. It was beginning to get late in the afternoon when we arrived so all we really did was hike on one of the trails and played a little in the water. The boys had a good time. Their personalities on this little expedition shined through as well. They are so different. Dalton was all about following the trail, looking at the map, and making sure we were following the directions around the park correctly. Colby was all about having fun by playing in the water, getting wet, walking all over the rocks, and taking risks. We had a lot of fun and the boys keep talking about it asking when we are going back.

Colby playing on the rocks. It was hard to get him to stop long enough to smile for a picture.

Dove Hunting With Dad

2009-09-10T17:18:00.004-04:00

Every year during Labor Day weekend, Shane goes dove hunting. This is usually the only time during the year that he goes dove hunting. It is a time of the year that he so looks forward to during the year. Two years ago, Dalton at age 4, went with Shane on his first dove shoot. This year, Colby who also just turned 4, was also able to go on his first dove shoot. I guess there's just something about being 4. Dalton and Colby had been looking forward to going for a long time and Shane reported that they both did a good job. They may have scared a few birds away, but they all had a great time being together.

Dalton, Colby, and their cousin, Walker, with birds that were shot.

Colby Turns 4

2009-09-07T22:06:00.006-04:00

Colby turned 4 years old on August 28th. Colby is such a fun little boy who is so full of life. He's so much fun to be around. Even at 4, he's so witty and funny. This year for his birthday, we had his party at Monkey Joe's. When Dalton turned 4 we had his party at MJ's so we figured it would only be right to have Colby's party there as well. Colby had a fun time playing with friends and family as well as eating cake and opening presents. He also celebrated with his classmates in his preschool class with cupcakes on his birthday. We love you so much, Colby! You've brought us so much joy and excitement to our lives over these past 4 years!

Blowin' out candles on his Spider Man cake

Opening presents

Playin'

Cupcakes with Classmates

First Days of School

2009-08-26T23:09:00.003-04:00

First day of school for Dalton

School for Dalton and Colby has gotten back into full swing. Dalton started back a couple of weeks ago and Colby just started back today. Dalton is in first grade this year and goes to school all day and Colby is in PreK at a nearby church's preschool and only goes for half days. Dalton rides to school with Shane and comes home on the bus. I think riding the bus is his favorite part of the day. Dalton loves school and his teacher and is having a great time in First grade. Colby has the same teacher that Dalton had 2 years ago so we feel like we already know and love her. Colby is excited to have Mrs. Lora this year too.

Dalton with his teacher putting his lunch bag in the proper place

Colby and Mrs. Lora at Open House

1st day of school

Showing off his new backpack

Orange Beach 2009

2009-08-25T20:30:00.007-04:00

Our family went to Orange Beach, Alabama in the middle of July. As always, we had a fun and relaxing time. We had a ball with each other playing in the ocean, playing in the pool, playing miniature golf, riding go-carts, riding on the giant ferris wheel, building sandcastles, playing tennis, and even trying a little shuffleboard. My parents were also able to come along with us, making all our time together even better. Here's just a few pictures from our time at the beach.

Building sandcastles

"Cheeeeese!!!"

"Look at all the sea shells I found"

Playing in the pool with Daddy

My parents and the boys

Playing shuffleboard

Getting ready to play a little miniature golf

Me and Dalton getting ready to school Shane and Colby in some go-cart madness

Summertime-Part II

2009-08-20T23:51:00.006-04:00

For our 9th anniversary this year, Shane surprised me with a trip to Washington D.C. He told me about it a couple of days before we were to leave. I had never been before and Shane hadn't been since he was about 6 so everything seemed new to us. We had a wonderful trip. The weather was beautiful and we really had a lot of fun just being together taking in all the sights. It seemed like we packed so much sightseeing into the few days that we were there, yet still didn't quite see everything we would have wanted to see. We went to most all of the museums of the Smithsonian, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, up into the Washington Monument, Arlington National Cemetery, Vietnam Memorial, Korean Memorial, the WWII Memorial, and many more that I'm sure I'm forgetting.

Vietnam Memorial

Arlington National Cemetery

Jefferson Memorial

Washington Monument with the Capitol in the background and WWII Memorial in foreground

Lincoln Memorial

For the night of our anniversary, Shane had made reservations for us at a restaurant called Acadiana. It was kind of an upscale cajun restaurant. When they gave us the menu across the top it read, "Happy 9th Anniversary". Very cool. They let us keep the menu for a little reminder of our special night. Also, they brought us this dessert pictured here of warm vanilla bread pudding. Happy Anniversary was written in chocolate. Everything was so wonderful. We had a really special night and trip.

Summertime-Part I

2009-08-19T17:13:00.012-04:00

So I admit it's been a while since I've blogged, but it seemed like we had a lot going on this summer. It seemed like we were always just on the go or travelling or getting ready to travel somewhere. After Disney, the boys took swimming lessons for a couple of weeks. Dalton really improved a lot over last year and Colby was just learning. This was Colby's first time learning how to swim. He has such a "no fear" attitude about the water. He would just jump in the water whether you're watching him or not and then sink like a rock. I was happy that he was able to learn some foundational skills to build on. He still sinks, just not quite as fast and at times can even swim a few strokes.

Also, this summer, our church had its annual Family Fun Night at the bowling alley. Our boys absolutely love going bowling and so look forward to this event every year. They seriously talk about it all throughout the year. I guess we should actually take them more than this once a year event, but we just rarely go bowling other than with our church.

Nice technique

We always love spending time with family. Dalton and Colby love their hanging out with their cousins. Here is their newest cousin, Aaron, my brother's baby boy. Dalton and Colby loved trying to hold him. They love babies.

Here's Colby with his cousin, Walker, having a blast on the little 4 wheeler.

Back to Animal Kingdom...Last Day at Disney

2009-06-05T22:23:00.003-04:00

Holding the scorpion and waiting to talk to the visitors about it

Honarary Presenters of the Day!

Opening ceremony

Today was our last day at Disney so we went back to the Animal Kingdom. We rode many of our favorite rides from Sunday and a couple of things that we didn't get to on Sunday, but the highlight of the day came during the opening of the park. While we were waiting to go through the ticket line, one of the cast members came up to me and asked me if we'd like to get into the park early and if my boys like bugs. Well of course to both questions! Dalton and Colby were chosen to be Honorary Animal Presenters of the day! At first I thought this was going to be a really big deal like at the opening ceremony at the Magic Kingdom where they choose a family of the day to help open the park and get to ride on the train in the opening ceremony, but apparently Animal Kingdom has only their regular characters in their opening ceremony...Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. It was still pretty cool for the boys though. We were allowed to go in the park a little early and the boys were given safari type vests to wear and Dalton was given a glass case containing a scorpion while Colby was given a net to hold. He was told to hold the net in case the scorpion got loose. The cast member told Dalton and Colby about the scorpion so that they could field questions about it. When the cast members said it was time, they went out to where all the people were coming into the park and let people look at the scorpion and Dalton would tell them about it. There were also other cast members with other creatures, but Dalton and Colby were the only visitors who were chosen to do this. After they were finished they were given a certificate to remember this event and were also given pins to wear and keep signifying that they were Honorary Presenters. Anyway, I thought this was such a cool thing for the boys to get to be a part of. The rest of the day was good. We even met some more characters. The crowds still weren't bad, but on the way out we got caught in a little Florida afternoon rainstorm while we were headed for the exits, which really didn't matter that much because we were already soaked from riding the Kali River Rapid ride. We've had so much fun in Walt Disney World this week. We've all had such a blast and can't wait to come back. It's been pretty tiring though, and we usually even left the parks by early afternoon every day. I think I need a vacation to rest from our vacation. Goodbye Walt Disney World! :)

Jiminy Cricket

Tigger

Blizzard Beach

2009-06-05T21:51:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, we decided to take a break from the regular parks and go to one of the water parks. We ended up going to Disney's Blizzard Beach. It has a really neat theme based on the story line that there was a freak snowstorm in Florida and they decided to build a ski resort, but the snow melted and this was the result...Blizzard Beach. There are tons of waterslides and even enough slides and areas that the boys could play on. They had a blast playing at the park, but I think going to a waterpark is worse on your legs and feet than being at the regular theme parks. You're walking around on concrete on your bare feet and up steps all day. Whew! Even though it was our day to take a break I was still worn out at the end of the day.

Magic Kingdom Day 2

2009-06-04T22:03:00.005-04:00

We Found Rafiki!!

Yesterday we went back to the Magic Kingdom to hit the parts of the park that we missed on Monday. When we arrived off of the monorail the opening ceremony was just ending so we made our way into the park toward Tomorrowland. My parents left to go visit a relative and wouldn't be back until the nighttime so they weren't with us on this day. There was hardly anyone in Tomorrowland right after opening. I guess since Space Mountain is closed for a few months everyone heads to the other headlining rides to get on Splash Mountain or Big Thunder Mountain. We literally walked right on the Buzz Lightyear ride. It's a cool, interactive ride where you have to shoot Zurg and his evil minions and receive points. Throughout the day we toured around through Tomorrowland, Mickey's Toontown Fair, and Adventureland. We also managed to ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. I think these two rides were our favorite rides at Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom at night

Later in the night after my parents came back, my mom and I took the boys back to the Magic Kingdom to see the fireworks and maybe ride a few more rides. I've never been at night and it was so beautiful to see everything all lit up. Main street is so pretty with all the lights at night. The castle is gorgeous at night as well of course. The castle changes colors after a little while during the night. The fireworks were great! They weren't all that long, but there was a nice story to go along with the fireworks told by the infamous Jiminy Cricket. Tinkerbell even flew by us overhead!

Watchin' the fireworks

The boys were so tired after a long day!

Disney's Hollywood Studios

2009-06-04T16:05:00.005-04:00

So I'm getting a little slack at this. I was going to try to post a blog every day while we're at Disney. Well, on Tuesday we went to Hollywood Studios. The park was really neat. We arrived before the park opened to see the opening ceremony and when they let us in, we sent Shane on up ahead of us to get Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania. While we waited for our time to come back we all toured around and rode Tower of Terror, even Colby. My mom rode it with us, but my dad chickened out. Pretty cool ride. Colby has even been able to ride all the rides that I was hoping he could ride. He's right at 40" with his shoes on if he really stands up straight and tall, which is what the height requirement is for many of the better rides at Disney. Colby's been quite the little thrill seeker. Some of the rides I thought would scare the pants off of him, he has really loved. I'm so glad he's been able to ride so many rides and enjoy almost as much as Dalton. The rest of the Studios was great. The parks still haven't been incredibly crowded and we've been able to do most everything we've planned. The boys were able to meet or see many characters here as well. There were some rides that I thought would be kind of boring like the Studio Backlot Tour, but it ended up being pretty good. Disney just does most everything well.

Here's a few characters we met while there:

Lightning McQueen and Mater (Sorry, Mater was cut out of this picture)

Mike (We never saw Sully)

Buzz Lightyear and Woody

Magic Kingdom

2009-06-01T23:04:00.004-04:00

Today we went to the Magic Kingdom. It's been about 17 years since I've been to the Magic Kingdom so I was excited about going back with our family. We arrived early again as we did yesterday at the Animal Kingdom to see the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was pretty cool. The cast members gave Dalton and Colby and the other kids confetti to throw up when they counted down for the opening of the park after Mickey and the crew came riding in on the train to the train station. The park didn't seem overly crowded and we managed to get through most all of Fantasyland and Frontierland. I think the Dalton and Colby's favorite ride was Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We'll go back later to hopefully hit the rest of the park that we missed. The boys are pretty much wiped out by about 2:30, but we still managed to stay for the parade at 3:00. We were glad we did stay, because the parade was actually pretty good and we had a good spot where Dalton and Colby could get lots of attention from many of the characters that came by. After getting back, the boys were suddenly filled with lots more energy and just had to play in the pool at the condo where we are staying. They were so wiped out afterwards that they both fell asleep around 7:00 while just sitting around with us and we had to carry them to their beds. Tomorrow we're heading to Disney's Hollywood Studios. None of us have ever been there so we're all excited about going.

Frontier Donald

The Parade

Walt Disney World~Animal Kingdom

2009-05-31T21:15:00.005-04:00

Breakfast at the Tusker House...Hangin' with Goofy, Colby's favorite

Love the Mickey Mouse waffles

My family and my parents are down in Orlando visiting Walt Disney World. Our kids have never been, and I think I've been more excited than they've been about going because since they've never been they really haven't known what all to expect. We arrived yesterday, and today we went to the Animal Kingdom. We had tons of fun riding the rides, seeing the sights, and watching a few shows. We also enjoyed having breakfast with some of the characters at the Tusker House in the Animal Kingdom. The breakfast was probably the highlight of the day. The characters came around many times to our table for photo opportunities. The boys had so much fun on the rides. Dalton most enjoyed Expedition Everest, a fairly intense roller coaster, especially for a 6 year old. And Colby loved the Dinosaur ride, which was very scary. I was a little unsure about him riding it for fear that he may have nightmares about it, but he thought it was so awesome. The park wasn't too crowded so the lines weren't all that bad today. Some of the rides and shows we saw included Kilamanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, Flights of Wonder, It's Tough Being a Bug, and playing in the Boneyard. Colby was scared out of his mind in It's Tough Being a Bug. It's a pretty fairly kid-friendly 3-D film. So he was scared to death of a bug on a flower coming at him, but big, huge, scary, dinosaurs that try to eat him in the dark he was fine with. Anyway, I do love seeing their faces and watching them enjoy all the sights around them. Tonight as I put Dalton to bed, Dalton told me, "This was the best day ever!" Can't wait til tomorrow!

Dalton and Shane with Expedition Everest in the background

Dalton and Colby before we rode Dinosaur

Graduations Galore

2009-05-24T23:00:00.004-04:00

This past week my two boys had their graduation programs. Dalton graduated from Kindergarten and Colby from his 3 year old preschool class. Dalton's class put on a full program filled with songs, recitations, and Bible verses they had memorized, and Colby's class sang about 4 songs. Dalton and Colby have both learned so much over this past year. It has been neat seeing their little minds soak up so much information. I can't believe my little boy is going on to 1st grade next year. It just doesn't seem like he should be old enough. The year has gone by fast, but we are all so ready for the summer break!

Here is a little slideshow I put together (and Shane helped) of some pictures of the graduation programs as well as pictures from this past year.

Awana Awards

2009-05-21T21:08:00.002-04:00

Dalton and Colby have been participating in the Awana program at our church this year on Sunday nights. While Shane and I are at our life group, the boys are at the church participating in Awana. This past Sunday, our church had its annual Awana awards program. It was totally raining like crazy outside and of course we were running late, and Colby fell asleep on the way to the church. Colby was one unhappy little boy when we arrived and woke him up. I had forgotten their vests in our rush to leave too. Colby was being unusually clingy to me and wanted to sit in my lap the whole time and didn't want to go up to the front when his name was called. Dalton and Colby had a fun time in Awana this year although by the look on Colby's face you probably wouldn't believe that. After the awards the church provided pizza for everyone and inflatable jumpy things for the kids. Colby's mood definitely brightened with the pizza and inflatables.

Aw, such big tears

Dalton receiving his certificate

Colby's First Visit to the Dentist

2009-05-21T20:47:00.002-04:00

Colby made his first trip to the dentist last week. He hadn't exactly been looking forward to going. Every time I tried to talk to him about going he didn't act very thrilled about the idea. When we went though, all 3 of us ended up getting our teeth cleaned. Dalton went first, then me, then Colby saw that it wasn't all that bad so he reluctantly got up into the chair. His favorite part was "Mr. Thirsty" sucking up the water out of his mouth and of course being able to choose a couple of toys out of their treasure box. We all had a great visit with no cavities. :)

Strawberry Pickin'

2009-05-21T20:09:00.003-04:00

Recently, Colby was invited to a birthday party at Lane Packing. He had a great time picking strawberries and playing, so I really wanted to go back and pick some more strawberries and let Dalton and my mom come as well. We went back to Lane on a beautiful day last week and found tons of beautiful, sweet strawberries. My boys absolutely love eating fresh strawberries, especially fresh ones from the field. We all had so much fun looking for these big, red, treasures! I think we ended up with about 10 pounds of strawberries among us. My mom made a yummy, strawberry pie with most of hers while we ended up just cutting them up and eating them. Mmmm!

"Here's a perfect strawberry!" ~Dalton

Me and my boys

Enjoying the fruits of our labor

Colby having fun on the playground

Field Day and Wacky Wednesday

2009-05-18T13:19:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago, Dalton's class had their annual Field Day at his school. The kids had really been looking forward to this day and the day turned out to be absolutely beautiful. The students participated in many activities including a soccer kick, carrying a wet sponge to fill up a bucket, hoola-hoop games, playing with a parachute, and all the kids favorite, the dunking booth.

The students had a wonderful time and wrapped the morning up with a little lunch from everyone's favorite, Chick-Fil-A. Mmmm!

Colby's class recently had Wacky Wednesday where the students were just supposed to wear crazy looking clothes to school. Colby's not all that into looking too wacky in public so this attire was about the best we could do.

After coming home on this Wednesday, I went out to work in the flower bed in the front of our house and Colby came walking outside wearing his firefighter costume over his "wacky" outfit. He wanted to help me in the flower bed so I gave him his instructions on what he could do and he of course went and found some gloves to wear as well. He was just too funny in his firefighter suit, "wacky" clothes and gardening gloves. Here my little helper is showing off his clipping from an old flower that needed cutting.

Easter

2009-04-14T23:29:00.005-04:00

Easter at my parent's house

Easter is such a fun time of the year and one of our favorite holidays. We love to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! It has been neat to continue to teach the boys about what Easter is all about and to see them, especially Dalton, understand more about what Easter really means. We also enjoy coloring Easter eggs. It has become a bit of a tradition around our house to color the eggs. I've realized though, that this must be a dying tradition. It was difficult finding the egg coloring kit this year. I guess it's so easy to just fill the plastic eggs, but the boys have come to love coloring the eggs and the family time and fun that it entails. The boys had lots of practice with egg hunts this year. I think they went to 3 of them this year.

After church, we had a family get-together at my parent's house where we enjoyed tons of food and afterward had a big egg hunt for the kids. Here's a couple of shots of Dalton and Colby in action.

Spring Happenings

2009-04-12T21:31:00.004-04:00

Spring has arrived and it seems like there is so much going on around here. There have been tons of activities happening around here. Dalton and Colby have had Spring Break on different weeks, which is kind of crazy, but also kind of nice in that it seemed like I could enjoy two spring breaks with the boys. While Shane was off for spring break he was able to begin a lot of work around the house. He borrowed a tractor and worked on bush hogging more of our property. We almost have all of it finally cleared off now. Yay! Dalton and Colby love it when Shane gets the tractor. They have so much fun riding on the tractor and "helping" their daddy.

Almost a couple of weeks ago while in the back of our yard I found this nest with eggs in it. When I saw it there was a big black snake practically wrapped all around this nest and I figured the eggs were goners, but surprisingly the snake left the eggs alone and a few days later the eggs hatched. The boys have really enjoyed going out and checking on the baby birds and seeing them grow.

The baby birds on the day they hatched.

The birds at 3 days old.

Mama bird wasn't so crazy about us checking out her babies. I believe the birds are brown thrashers which are the state bird of Georgia.

Colby checking out the birds and the nest.

Passing Down the Gift of Blurry Vision

2009-03-26T23:13:00.004-04:00

Today, Dalton received his first pair of glasses. Shane and I knew when we got married that when we had kids, we would be able to pass down to our kids this wonderful genetic trait of blurry vision. Shane and I both had absolutely horrible vision before having Lasik surgery. It's just too bad that when you have your eyesight "fixed" that it doesn't "fix" your genetic makeup as well because you're probably still going to pass this wonderful gift down to your kids. We knew this day was coming that Dalton would need glasses, but we just hoped that it would be another few years before his bad eyesight showed up. A couple of weeks ago Dalton's teacher let us know that Dalton was having trouble with some things in the classroom, but when she moved him up to the front he began to do much better. She said that he just couldn't see when he was in the back. I took him to an eye doctor Tuesday. I knew Dalton was in trouble when the nurse had Dalton try to read some letters on the wall and only was able to read a couple of rows. The nurse looked at me and said, "Does he know his letters?" I said, "Yeah, I'm pretty sure he does." The poor little guy knew his letters well, but just couldn't see well enough to read them. Anyway, Dalton has been so excited about getting his new glasses. I know his excitement won't last, but he was enjoying moving them up an down on his face comparing his new world with glasses and the world without glasses. I guess I just keep thinking about all the years he'll have to go through with wearing glasses and contacts. He's starting so young with them too. **Sigh**

More Cherry Blossom Activities

2009-03-25T23:31:00.004-04:00

Cherry Blossoms in bloom

The boys with Petals the pink poodle.

The sea lions doing their handstands. I was impressed.

This past Monday after picking up Dalton from school, the boys and I headed out to Central City Park in downtown Macon for some of the Cherry Blossom Festival activities. They really look forward to going all year long. At different times during the year it seems like Dalton asks me when we're going back. They mainly just love going so that they can ride the rides. This year one of the events was the sea lion show. I really enjoyed watching this show this year and the boys did as well. They usually have a tiger show or bear show, but the sea lions were much more entertaining and funny. The weather was great as well. I'm sure Dalton and Colby are already looking forward to going back next year.

Dalton and Colby's favorite part of the day...THE RIDES

Hot Air Balloons and Traffic

2009-03-21T22:06:00.003-04:00

Today, after a long day of working in the yard, our family decided to go to one of the Cherry Blossom events in Macon. We thought it would be fun to go to the Tunes and Balloons event featuring a big hot air balloon glow. The boys had never seen a real hot air balloon in person so I thought it would be neat for them. Actually, for the past 3 years I've tried to go to this event with our family but each year we would get there and it would either be too wet to have the balloon glow or too windy and cold for it. This year I knew they'd be able to have the balloon show without a problem because it was such a gorgeous day out there today. Apparently though, all of middle Georgia must've thought the same thing because I've never seen traffic this bad going to any kind of event in Macon. The event was held at the Al Sihah Shrine Temple park in south Macon. Hopefully, the organizers will never have this event out there again, because it was an absolute traffic nightmare. Only one way in and out. Many people waited in traffic for over an hour and a half only to be turned away after the parking was filled to capacity. But anyway, at least we made it in to park. The boys enjoyed watching the hot air balloons fill up with air and then glow when it became darker at night. I think there were 11 or 12 balloons out there. Was it worth all the madness of all the traffic? Probably not. There really wasn't a whole lot to the hot air balloons... just filling them with air every now and then and they'd glow. I think I've had my fill of hot air balloons at the Cherry Blossom Festival for a while. I'm sure Shane wasn't happy about the whole traffic situation, but he was really nice throughout the whole ordeal. After we left the park, we had to make a stop at Krispy Kreme. The Hot Doughnuts Now sign was on and beckoning us to stop. Those hot glazed doughnuts made all our traffic frustrations melt away. Mmmm!!!

Morning Munch With Mom

2009-03-20T22:20:00.003-04:00

Today Dalton's Kindergarten class had their annual Morning Munch With Mom. After taking him to school the mom's were treated to a little breakfast that I was able to enjoy with Dalton and was given a special book that Dalton had made for me filled with poems, drawings, and writings that he had done. After the breakfast, we (the moms) made our way to the lobby area where the students performed a little program consisting of songs, poems, and Bible verses. I think it was basically like Donuts For Dad from a few posts back. It was a sweet and special time that Dalton and I had been looking forward to. Dalton did a great job and I'm so proud of him.

This is a page from the book Dalton made. Here is a little of what he thinks about me:

Play Ball!!

2009-03-15T20:59:00.004-04:00

Gooooo Braves!!!

Dalton has begun playing baseball for the season. This is his second year playing. He has moved up to a higher division this year so I was a little worried how he'd do with a lot of the kids being bigger and a little more experienced than him, but he is doing fine. He had his first game yesterday and the little guy did pretty well. I think sometimes your kids will just step up and surprise you when you're worried about them. We were worried that he wouldn't be able to hit the ball or would have trouble fielding, but he proved us wrong. This year the kids get 6 pitches from the coach and if they can't hit it, then they have to use the tee. The coach was throwing a little harder than he seemed to be throwing in practice too. Dalton ended up hitting it on about the 3rd pitch. He only was able to bat one time, but he made the most of it. He hit it to the shortstop and made it to first base, then later came around to score. Hooray!!

He swings and hits it!

Receiving instructions from his coach

Running from 3rd to home

Fishing...or trying to anyways

2009-03-15T13:21:00.005-04:00

"I caught one!"

Last week (a week ago Saturday), the weather was so gorgeous that we drove down to Lake Blackshear to take the boys fishing on the boat. They'd been fishing before off of a dock, but we hadn't been brave enough to take them on the boat to fish. When we arrived we let the boat down into the water and all got in it, Shane tried to crank the motor and it wouldn't work. It had just had power just a few minutes before because he had to let down the motor into the water. While drifting around in the water, Shane checked everything thinking it must be a bad connection somewhere. He couldn't find anything so we ended up just using the trolling motor to just ride around close to the boat ramp and let the boys attempt to catch a fish. To our surprise Dalton caught a fish on his line. We were surprised because of all the noise and boats that were nearby because we were so close to the boat ramp. Anyway, he was excited to catch a fish. We had to cut the trip short because we weren't sure how long the trolling motor would last. Shane had to literally pull the boat back up onto the boat trailer by a rope. He's seriously the strongest guy I know. Shane began looking at the motor and finally saw that one of the fuses in the motor was blown. He replaced it with a different one, and the motor started back up. At least we found out what was wrong with it. Maybe next time Shane will really be able to show the boys how to fish, but they still seemed to have a good time just being out there.

SNOW!!!!

2009-03-02T23:34:00.003-05:00

Hooray for snow!!! I've always wanted my boys to see and experience snow. They've always only seen it on TV or in stories and have thought about how fun and exciting it must be to play in the snow. Living in Perry, Ga, you just don't get snow but about a couple of times a decade. If it ever does snow nearby, it always seems like the cutoff line is around Forsyth or Macon, but rarely does Perry see snow. I think the last time it snowed enough to actually have some on the ground, I was pregnant with Dalton 6 years ago. We finally received a little of the white stuff yesterday. We had two rounds of it really. One in the morning while we were at church and then another later in the day around 3:00. The boys were so disappointed that the snow from the morning wasn't still at our house when we arrived home from church. It was snowing like crazy at church, but the closer we came to our house while driving back, the less snow we saw. When we arrived home, there was absolutely no snow to be found. So later in the day it snowed again and stuck around a little this time. It was about the wettest, coldest snow I've ever seen. When you tried to make a snowball out of it, it was like a big ice ball that could seriously do some damage to someone if strategically thrown. The boys had fun with the snow in spite of our lack of good snow clothing for them. We realized we just didn't have proper snow clothes for them. We had gloves for the boys, but they were the kind that the wetness of the snow would soak right through to their little hands after a while. They toughed it out for the most part though. We didn't quite have enough snow for us to build a snowman, especially since we used up most of the snow that had built up on some of the surfaces as snowballs. We really had a pitiful little dusting of snow at our house, but it was definitely better than nothing. It melted almost as fast as it came.

Donuts For Dad

2009-02-25T11:19:00.005-05:00

This past Friday, Dalton's Kindergarten class had Donuts With Dad where the kids' dads come and have doughnuts and other breakfast items with their kids. After the donuts, the students put on a little program for the dads of songs and scripture they had memorized. I sent the cameras along with Shane since I wasn't allowed to come.

Valentine's Day Parties

2009-02-24T13:37:00.004-05:00

Once again, I'm getting behind on updating this, so I'm just going to post some random photos of Dalton and Colby's Valentine's parties. Their parties were on separate days so I was able to go to both parties this time.

Colby loves cupcakes!!

Thank you Lord for cupcakes and Cheetos!!

Fire Station Field Trip

2009-02-11T10:47:00.006-05:00

The 3 Kindergarten classes at the fire station

About to go through the fire truck

Well, I'm still trying to catch up on blogging about some of the activities that have been going on lately. Dalton had a field trip to the fire station this past Friday. It was an older, historic fire station in downtown Macon. The fire chief went on a long spill about the history of the fire station, but of course, all the kids wanted to do was to see the fire truck, hear the siren, and slide down the pole. They weren't allowed to slide down the pole, but they enjoyed watching the firefighter slide down it. The kids took a tour of the fire station and were allowed to climb up in the fire truck. Dalton had a great time! What little boy doesn't like fire trucks!?

The fireman about to slide down the pole

Mimi

2009-02-09T23:12:00.005-05:00

Colby, Mimi, and Dalton

On January 30th, Shane's mom, Janice, unexpectedly passed away. She was 63. She had just been keeping our boys for 3 of the days while we were gone on our ski trip. We picked up the boys around 11:45 on Wednesday night and then just about 36 or 37 hours later she was gone. We believe she must have had a massive heart attack or maybe a stroke. It is still, even a week and a half later, hard to believe she is gone. She loved her family dearly and always made it a point to try to get together as much as possible. I'm so thankful for the influence she had on Shane to help mold him into the man he has become today including love of family, friends, and most of all a love for Jesus. She took such pride and joy in her grandkids. I'm so sad that my boys won't get to grow up knowing her more. It's hard to believe that Shane and his brother have now lost both parents in 11 months. Janice was so loved and will be greatly missed. Our family has been so encouraged over this past week and a half by so many expressions of sympathy, food, and prayers. God's grace has truly sustained us.

Whistler Ski Trip

2009-02-09T13:08:00.006-05:00

Shane coming down

Up around the peak above the treeline

This piece of mountain is called Black Tusk.

Wow, it's been a while since I've sat down to catch up on blogging. I guess I just haven't felt like doing it lately. A lot has been going on so I'll try to keep this in chronological order.

Our trip to Whistler/Blackcomb Mountain Resort was awesome! We went January 24th-28th. Whistler is about 2 hours north of Vancouver, British Colombia, and it was quite a long trip out there. It was pretty much an all day trip to get out there especially since we didn't have a direct flight into Vancouver. The drive up to Whistler is gorgeous. You take a road called the Sea to Sky Highway that has mountains on one side of the road and water on the other sometimes with mountains coming up out of the water. So beautiful! The skiing was great too! That mountain was SOOO HUGE!! We've been skiing in Utah and Colorado before but this place was just much bigger than anywhere I've ever skied. It only took a few runs down the mountain and your legs would just be burning because of how long the runs were. Whisler/Blackcomb has two large mountains that you can ski when you pay for your lift ticket so there were more runs than we could possibly do in the amount of time we were there. They have a new huge gondola that opened this past December that connects the 2 mountains at the upper portions of each mountain so you could just go back and forth between each mountain more easily. The resort was experiencing unusually low amounts of snow for the season so far, but the skiing conditions were still much better than I expected since it had been 3 weeks since it had last snowed. Fortunately, on our last day we were there, it snowed about 3 inches which helped out the conditions a lot.

This is where we stayed. We were just steps away from the gondola. Loved that!

This was from the fire and ice show. The skiers or boarders would come down and then jump through the ring of fire and do tricks. If you look closely you can see someone coming through the ring of fire. I never got any really great pictures of this. We nearly froze to death this night while watching and waiting for the show.

Pajama Day/Spirit Week

2009-01-23T20:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Colby's little preschool class had Pajama Day. The kids and teachers always look forward to this day. The kids had been doing bear crafts during the week and reading bear books. On Pajama Day, the kids were able to dress up in their pajamas and bring their favorite stuffed bear. Colby's bear is named Big Bear. Original, I know. He has a smaller bear that he aptly named Little Bear. Colby had a fun time and I was just glad I didn't have to dress him that morning. They should have Pajama Day more often.

Dalton had a fun week at school as well. His school had spirit week this week and some of the days were Western Day, Sports Day, and Tacky Day. Thursday was Tacky Day, as pictured below. Don't you just love it when you pick your kids up from school and you absolutely HAVE to go to the grocery store and your kids are dressed all crazy like this. It's like you feel like you just want to explain to every person you see in the grocery store why your child looks the way he looks.

Two Down

2009-01-16T23:04:00.003-05:00

Well, Big D (Dalton) lost another tooth. That's 2 teeth in less than a month. Details are a little sketchy about exactly how it came out, but apparently he was playing inside the gym at school when one of his classmates pushed him off of a scooter or something, and he fell and hit his mouth, knocking out his tooth. His tooth was a little loose to begin with but not loose enough to even attempt pulling it. I figured he'd have a couple more weeks before it would be loose enough to pull. Anyway, he was a big boy about it. No tears or anything. One of Dalton's teachers brought Dalton to Shane's class to show him what had happened because Dalton was really excited about it. Big Boy!

So Thankful

2009-01-07T11:32:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to write about this back around Thanksgiving, but I just never got around to it. I just wanted to brag on God for a little bit. God has been so good to us. He has overwhelmingly blessed our family. Just looking back over the past few years, it is amazing what He has done for us. When I was pregnant with Dalton, we decided I would stay home with him instead of working. That was a big chunk of income we wouldn't have, but we had saved and the housing market was still going strong and we believed God would continue to provide for us. HE did!! A little while after having Dalton, Shane decided that he wanted to get back into teaching and began taking classes to get his Master's degree. Then we had Colby. Finances began getting a little sticky with more bills with Shane's college and two kids, but we continued to believe God would provide for us. And HE Did!! Then, about this time last year, we were really stressing about what to do financially. As Shane would say, this boat wasn't sinking, but it had a slow leak in it. The appraisal business was really starting to slow down and it looked as if I would have to go back to work although we really were hoping I'd be able to stay home with the kids at least another year. Shane was almost finished with his degree and was trusting God to be able to teach full time because he wanted to get out of the appraisal business. It really looked like there would be no way financially for Shane to be able to teach and still allow me to stay home with the kids. I just couldn't see how we could cut Shane's salary once again and survive on a teacher's salary. We were trying to trust God for this, but I know I wasn't really believing He'd come through on this. But HE Did!!! God came through for us when things were starting to look dim. Now Shane is teaching full time and is really enjoying it. He's much happier and is less stressed out than he used to be. I'm still home with the kids and may even stay home another year. God has been so gracious and kind to us. We are so undeserving of all that He's given us. Such grace. He has blessed us more than we could have imagined.

Camping Out

2009-01-07T10:27:00.005-05:00

Some of the gifts we received this year included a tent and some camping accessories. We are wanting to begin going on little camping trips with the boys in the future. So, of course we had to try it out and have a little camp-out in the backyard. The boys were begging to do this and were too excited about it. We played an exciting game of Chutes and Ladders and then went to sleep. It was pretty chilly out there, but the boys never complained about it. I think they loved the "adventure" of it.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! (a little late)

2009-01-07T09:45:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I've updated the blog. It seems like so much has happened during Christmas that I've felt like I've gotten way behind in writing on the blog, so instead of writing a lot about what all we did, I'm just going to post a few pictures and maybe a few comments about them. We had such a wonderful Christmas this year though. It was so great to have Shane home during the past 2 weeks. It just seemed like Christmas was more relaxing this year. Also, the boys are at such a fun age now, they just loved everything about Christmas it seemed. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year's (all 2 or 3 of you that read this). :)

Dalton was excited about getting a new bike!

Colby and his dinosaurs

The carnage of our living room in the aftermath of Christmas

Christmas Happenings

2008-12-22T23:09:00.010-05:00

We've been busy over this past week with lots of Christmas parties, Christmas programs, and other Christmas activities with the boys. Colby had his class Christmas party which was a Happy Birthday Jesus party, hence the birthday hat and plate in the picture. The kids also took part in a book exchange in which some of the kids just couldn't understand why some of the other kids were opening the presents that they brought. Many of the children wanted to open the same present that they brought. A few of the kids had minor meltdowns because of this, and yes, one of them was Colby.

The next day, Friday, Dalton had his class party as well as having their class go to sing at a nursing home. I thought it was such a sweet field trip for his class to go and sing for these sweet senior citizens, but some of the parents that also went on the trip were just rude. Some of them plopped themselves down in front, along with all their camera equipment and tripods, making it difficult for the residents and everyone else to see. Needless to say, I didn't get very good pictures of this event, but the children did a great job with their Christmas songs and verses they recited. After the trip to the nursing home, the kindergarten class came back to the school where they had their class party. They made Christmas trees out of upside down sugar cones and decorated it with icing and "ornaments". I'm really going to enjoy the Christmas break and not having to go back and forth to their schools and just having the boys home and getting to sleep later.

Finally, today, the boys and I made a gingerbread house out of one of those kits that you buy in the stores this time of year. I wanted to try it last year but didn't get around to buying one. I figured the boys were old enough now that they wouldn't be too crazy with the icing and candy parts. This was the first time I had ever tried to make one of these. I'm not exactly the craftiest person in the world so I was a bit worried about how it would turn out. The boys were so excited about making this. They so enjoyed helping to decorate the house with all of the candy decorations. They would try to sneak a little taste of the decorations when they thought I wasn't looking. It ended up looking pretty good and we all had such a fun time creating our little masterpiece.

First Tooth

2008-12-18T21:40:00.003-05:00

BEFORE

Big day in the Self house today. Dalton lost his first tooth. It kind of makes me sad. It's just another sign that my little boy is growing up before my eyes. His little tooth was practically able to be pushed horizontally so we knew it was time for it to come out. He was very nervous about us pulling it, and when I was finally able to pull it out, he seemed a bit shocked at first. I also think he was a bit surprised that there was blood coming from the hole in his mouth, although it was very little. I'm a little sad that he won't have those sweet little boy teeth anymore. Sigh.

AFTER

Colby's First Performance

2008-12-17T23:25:00.006-05:00

Colby jingling his bells while singing Jingle Bells

Colby had his Christmas program at his preschool this morning. Colby was just too cute. This was his first time performing in front of people like this so I wasn't sure how he would do. He was actually singing and appeared to be having a fun time up there. One of the funny things that Colby has said or sung actually while singing Jingle Bells at home is, "...Oh what fun it is to ride in a Wal-Mart open sleigh...Hey!" I may have to try to upload a little video snipit of the performance. I had planned all along for Colby to wear a cute winter/Christmas type sweater but the weather turned off unseasonable warm this week. I made him wear it anyway and just whipped it off of him as soon as we got home. We've seriously had some crazy weather recently. The highs for the next 3 days are going to be around 78/79 degrees. UGH!! Granted, I'm not a big fan of cold weather, but I do like to see it a bit cooler than this around Christmas. Fortunately I believe the weather is supposed to get cooler again next week just in time for Christmas.

Dalton even stayed home from school today so he could go to Colby's program

Hometown Parade

2008-12-08T13:07:00.005-05:00

Awaiting the parade to begin

Floats being pulled along by tractors. That's how we roll in Perry.

Tiny ponies. Some of them stopped for the kids to pet them.

We went to the Perry Christmas Parade this past Saturday. It has become a little bit of a tradition for us to go to the parade. Usually it's just me and the boys, but this year I guess I twisted Shane's arm enough that he came along as well. Shane's mom and my niece, Walker, also came along with us. I love small, hometown parades. There were only 2 bands and it's not very long, but it's always easy to find a good spot to watch and chase after the candy that is thrown out to you. The kids loved it!!! They came back with quite a stash of candy. We watched the parade in a spot that was very near where the parade began so the people in the parade are usually more liberal in throwing out more in the beginning. It was like Halloween again for the kids.

Santa on top of the fire truck

The stash of candy the kids ended up with.

"Saxby...You Betcha!!"

2008-12-01T22:31:00.005-05:00

Saxby Chambliss

Sarah Palin

I went to a campaign rally today in Perry for Saxby Chambliss with Sarah Palin as the guest speaker. It was a lot of fun. Chambliss is up against Jim Martin in the runoff election for senator tomorrow. There's always so much excitement associated with elections. I met up with some of my aunts and an uncle who were also going to the rally. We ended up getting there too late to get a good spot and were standing pretty far away toward the back but still ended up with some decent pictures. Sarah Palin is such a rock star. When Saxby Chambliss was introduced he received a lot of good cheers, but when Sarah Palin was introduced she received tons of screams with cheers as well. Good luck to Saxby tomorrow!

Our Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T22:59:00.008-05:00

Frying the turkey

Ummm... Lookin' good!

We had such really relaxing day on Thanksgiving. We all managed to stay in our pajamas all day long until it was time to get ready to go over to my parent's house. We offered to deep fry a turkey this year to take it over to my parent's house for the big family get-together. My family has a large family get-together with many relatives on my mom's side of the family coming over to celebrate Thanksgiving. We usually eat around 6:00 so we had a lot of time to just relax at our house until frying the turkey and going over there. We were a little nervous about frying the turkey, but managed to not set the house or the yard on fire during the process although once we did set the papers underneath the fryer on fire. The wind blew the papers a little too hard once I think. The turkey turned out perfect! A fried turkey is absolutely the best tasting turkey you could eat in my opinion. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!

Here's Colby outside playing in his pajamas as we were working on the turkey.

Thanksgiving Program

2008-11-24T11:37:00.004-05:00

I've been intending to post this earlier, but we've had some computer problems lately and haven't been able to. Last Thursday, Dalton's kindergarten class put on their Thanksgiving program and had their Thanksgiving feast afterward. The kids dressed up as various things such as pilgrims, indians, and turkeys. Dalton was a pilgrim. It was a really good program filled with lots of songs, scriptures they had memorized, and joke-telling turkeys. The children had memorized Psalm 100 and did a great job reciting it. After the program we all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch.

The joke-telling turkeys

Girls Weekend Off

2008-11-17T13:16:00.004-05:00

Mary Paul's Morning Mist Cottage

All of us girls standing on the deck overlooking the creek

This past weekend the girls from my life group from church and I took a little trip up to Shane's family's cottage up in Ellijay, GA. We packed all 7 of us into an Expedition and made the road trip up there late Thursday night and came back Saturday night. We had a much needed time of relaxing, playing games by the fire, hanging out, shopping, eating, and just being away from home and kids. The leaves were still pretty although many had already fallen. It is so relaxing and peaceful up there that I just didn't want to come home. I'm already trying to plan a time that Shane and I can get back up there soon.

The view of the creek running beside the cottage

Black Friday

2008-11-16T19:55:00.004-05:00

I'm gearing up for the day after Thanksgiving sales around here. I haven't bought a single thing yet for anyone, but I know the time has come to begin figuring out what to get everyone. One thing I like to do this time of year in preparing for the after Thanksgiving sales is to check on-line for websites which will list all the sales for the day after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as Black Friday. You can begin checking on the sales for almost all the major stores such as Target, Best Buy, Toys-R-Us, etc. Just do a google search for Black Friday ads and you can go to various different sites that list all the Black Friday ads as they become available. I love to be able to see what's available at each store to be able to compare everything and read reviews on everything way ahead of time. Happy Shopping!

More Leg Trouble

2008-11-12T09:54:00.008-05:00

Well, Shane may have torn his Achilles tendon last week during football practice. It was the last week of practice, too. He had torn his plantaris tendon back in January so when Shane injured his leg this time, he thought he just re-injured this tendon again. He continued to be in pain and it just didn't seem to be getting any better so he went to see a doctor on Monday. His initial diagnosis was a torn Achilles tendon and sent him for an MRI that night. The Achilles tendon is the big tendon that strethes from your calf muscle to your heel. Shane goes back today for his follow up appointment and to find out the results. If it is torn, Shane will probably need surgery immediately. Apparently, this kind of injury should be repaired within two weeks before the tendon begins to lose some of its elasticity. I've read that this kind of injury takes a LONG time to heal so hopefully it will end up being something else or maybe will only be partially torn. Of course, this is such a busy time of year with so many upcoming activities that this is the last thing Shane wants to have to go through. For now, Shane is back to walking around in the big boot again. We have a big ski trip planned this winter and Shane is hoping that whatever is wrong will be healed in time for that. Anyway, we'll find out what's wrong today. Pray that all goes well.
Update: We found out that Shane did not tear his Achilles but rather ruptured his gastrocnemius muscle (calf muscle) and won't require surgery. Hooray!!! It'll only be about 6 weeks recovery time as opposed to over 6 months recovery if it had been the Achilles. He still has to wear the big boot for another couple of weeks though and go through some physical therapy.

Ocmulgee Indian Mounds

2008-11-05T22:04:00.005-05:00

Walking up the hill

The boys from the kindergarten classes on the top of the biggest mound

Today has been such a crazy, busy day. Dalton had a field trip today to Ocmulgee Indian Mounds in Macon this morning. It was such a beautiful day for a field trip out there. I used to go here a lot when I was young, but haven't really been since then. The kids watched a video of the indian mounds and looked at some artifacts and replicas of old, Indian treasures and then we did some walking. We walked and walked and walked! We went walking around to many of the different mounds around the facilities. Then the kids made some clay pots and had their snacks before departing for home. It was a really a neat field trip.

Making clay pots

The entrance of the Earthen Lodge

After the field trip, Dalton and I headed up to Atlanta for an auditon he had. This was the first time he had been called for anything. It was an audition for something to do with Nickelodeon. We'll see if anything comes of it. I really don't expect to hear back from them, but it was a good experience. I'm exhausted from all this running around. I can't wait to go to sleep tonight!!

Reformation Day

2008-10-31T22:08:00.003-04:00

Joseph

Balancing an egg

Dalton's school celebrated Reformation Day today. October 31 stands as the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg and brought about the Protestant Reformation. His class had a pizza party, played outdoor games, and dressed up as Bible characters. Dalton dressed up as Joseph with his coat of many colors thanks to some nifty, quick, sewing by my mom. It was a beautiful day and all the kids had lots of fun!

Getting ready for the 3 legged race

Pizza

Fast Asleep

2008-10-30T23:23:00.004-04:00

When I arrived home tonight with the boys around 9:00 I looked in the back and saw this----------->
Ouch!! I'm always amazed that they don't wake up in agony from how their necks have been contorted.

Fall Festival...Brrrrr....

2008-10-29T15:42:00.004-04:00

Dr. Dalton and Firefighter Colby

My little public servant

Dr. Dalton

My church had it's annual Fall Festival last night. It's always tons of fun for the boys. It's also so fun to see everyone that's there and all the cute little costumes the kids have on (and some adults too). The kids were able to play games, get candy, play on the jumpy inflatable things, and eat some yummy food. The boys had a blast dressing up as Dr. Dalton and Firefighter Colby. It was freezing last night though. I think it was in the 40s with a bit of a breeze blowing as well. BBBRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Cold weather sure has blown in early this year. Just last week I pulled out the boys' long sleeve shirts and now I had to get their sweaters and jackets out too. Whew! I think I'm almost ready for springtime. Just not a big fan of colder weather.

Here's Dalton and Colby from last year. Just too stinkin' cute!

The Rock Ranch

2008-10-18T22:09:00.005-04:00

Standing on the rocks at the Rock Ranch

Corn Maze

Corn House

Today, our family took a trip out to the Rock Ranch, a working cattle ranch owned by Truett Cathy filled with tons of "agritainment" for families. They are having their big family days during Saturdays during the fall. I had never been before, but had heard good things about it. It was pretty cold when we arrived and we had not dressed for the colder weather, but fortunately the weather began warming up some throughout the day. There were tons of fun activities for families to enjoy. Some of the things that were at the Rock Ranch were a train ride, corn maze, seeing/feeding animals, a carousel, pony rides, a giant jumping pillow, electic cars, paddle boats, cane pole fishing, slides, slingshots, jumping inflatables, a corn house (a playhouse filled up to kids' ankles with corn), and many other fun activities. The highlight of the day I'd have to say was the pumpkin cannon. The workers would honk the horns signalling the pumpkin cannon was about to start and everyone would gather around to watch them launch a pumpkin out of a pvc type pipe for about 200 yards over a lake and watch it explode upon hitting the land. Nothing's more fun on a cool fall day than watching a pumkin launched through the sky then exploding into a million pieces!! I brought my video camera and digital camera and they had both died by this point. I so wanted to video this and add it as little video clip here on the blog. Oh well, maybe next year. Anyway, I so enjoyed just being with Shane, Dalton, and Colby, and just enjoying each other while having tons of fun together.

Eat More Chicken

Colby had a little trouble steering and kept running into the hay bales, but still had fun. He thought it was funny that he couldn't drive. Hopefully this isn't a foreshadowing of things to come in the future.

NO YOU DIDN'T!!!!

2008-10-09T22:50:00.004-04:00

So I went to get Colby up from his nap today and when I went into his room to get him up so that we could go to Shane's football game this is what I found in his hair:

Any guesses as to what this could be????

Well, if you guessed Silly Putty, then DING! DING! DING! You win the prize! Yep, a big orange glob of Silly Putty. This picture is actually after I'd already taken a large clump of it out. After many, many tears and a few snips with the scissors I finally managed to get enough silly putty out of his hair to where it didn't look like he had spray-painted his hair orange. I convinced Colby to wear a hat to the game because I wasn't sure how much I botched his hair with the scissors. Needless to say, we showed up a bit late to Shane's game.

Actually, Colby has had quite the day. He dropped a jar of grape jam onto the floor breaking it into eleventy billion pieces, dumped 2 cups of water onto the floor at the oil changing place, and then of course managed to get the silly putty stuck into his hair. The funny thing is that I just took him to get his hair cut yesterday so I'm sure the part that I cut was really botched up. I'll know more tomorrow of how it's really going to look. This is Colby. And although today was a little crazier than normal, he always keeps me on my toes.

The Fair!!!

2008-10-07T22:59:00.008-04:00

Dalton and Colby enjoying the elephants

The whiplash-mobile

Always a classic...the Carousel

Sometimes little legs need to take a break from all that walking

Our family went to the fair on Sunday. This is one our favorite events of the year for us. The kids are both at an age where they really have a good time with everything. When we first arrived, we tried to get there in time to see the circus, but the line was cut off right when we got up to the front so we decided to let the boys ride the rides and then come back for the next show later. The boys had such a great time on the rides. It's so fun to just watch them as they have so much fun. After the rides, we went to the petting zoo and then went back to wait for the circus to start. We had always wanted to see the circus in the past, but for one reason or another it just never worked out. The circus was fairly entertaining and after that, we had worked up a good hunger, so we headed to one of the main reasons you go to the fair...Fair Food! The smells of the food that waft all around are just irresistable. Love it! Next, we just walked around a little and then began heading for the exit, but not before visiting another one of our favorites...Poultry World. Ah yes, the boys just love holding the little chicks and Dalton was so intrigued by the baby chicks in the incubator that were trying to peck their way out of the eggshell. We headed out as the boys were just worn out. A good time was had by all.

Dalton was constantly trying to read the map you're given when you first walk in and was walking way ahead of us directing us to the next stop.

Poultry World!!

Family of Dawgs

2008-10-06T23:42:00.005-04:00

This is a little out of chronological order, but Shane and I went to the UGA-Alabama game about a week and a half ago. I figured I'd post this because we so rarely have a picture of the 4 of us together. Here we are dropping off the kids at my parent's house on the way to Athens. We were all decked out for gameday! The game atmosphere was tons of fun. We had a great time right up until kick-off when Bama took the ball and scored and then continued to beat the snot out of the Dawgs. Hopefully UGA will get back on the right track this week against Tennessee.

Football in South Georgia

2008-10-03T22:56:00.005-04:00

I think the Rams just scored a touchdown. Shane's looking pretty happy.

Whew, it's been a long time since my last post. I guess there just hasn't been a whole lot going on to really write about. As I think I've mentioned before, Shane is coaching football this year at the school where he teaches, Covenant Academy. He is the head coach of the C-team and an assistant coach for the varsity team. I really haven't been able to go to many of Shane's games because Dalton's soccer games fall on the same day and time as his football games, but I was able to make it to last night's game since Dalton didn't have a soccer game. Covenant was playing down in Pinehurst, GA at Fullington Academy, which is only about 20-25 minutes south of our house. Dalton and Colby even came along to watch as well. They were too funny... they kept asking when they could say "Goooo Dawgs!" I had to tell them that this wasn't the Dawgs, sweetie, but nevertheless they still continued to yell "Go Dawgs! Sic Em Woof! Woof! Woof!" whenever the Rams (Covenant) scored. The game was great! Shane's team won 42-16 and their record right now is 3-1. Not bad. Shane's having a great time this year coaching and is really enjoying it.

Ok, I have to share this. Here is a little sampling of one of my thoughts when taking in some of the sounds of last night's game. You know you're in south Georgia, when over the sound system you hear the annoucer exclaim, "Make sure you get your tickets for when we raffle off the pig!" WHAT!?! Did I hear that right? I believe I wanted to know a little more about this pig. Now just what kind of pig are they giving away? Is this a pot-bellied pig? A pet pig? An already choppped up pig which is ready to be stored away in my freezer for future eating options? Or could this be how they refer to their ham? Bless their heart. Whover wins that pig will just be as proud as pudding.

GOOOO DAWGS!!!!!! SIC EM!!!

2008-09-16T00:04:00.007-04:00

Ready for a big play

Steve Spurrier, the Evil Genius, stalking the sideline

Final Score: Georgia 14 South Carolina 7

Shane and I headed up to Columbia, South Carolina this past Saturday to go to the UGA/South Carolina game and to stay with my friend, Rebekah. It's always fun going to Georgia games and it's especially fun going to the opposing team's stadium. It's interesting to see the other traditions of other schools. This game had to have been about the hottest I've ever been when attending a college football game. Wow, I think it was about 95 degrees and probably felt like 100. The game seemed to go on forever as well. The refs just couldn't get their act together. It was like it was each of the refs first time refereeing an SEC game. Anyway, at least the Dawgs won. Hopefully, there will be many more wins to come!

Bend It Like Dalton

2008-09-09T21:12:00.006-04:00

Dalton had his first soccer game today. I guess I can now officially say that I'm a soccer mom. Dalton scored the 1st goal of the game for his team. I was really surprised. I honestly wasn't sure if he would even score at all during the season. Dalton doesn't have a very aggressive style of play and I'm always trying to encourage him to get in there and mix it up with the other kids to try to get to the ball, but I think I realize his strategy now. He'll hang out at the edge of the pack of kids going after the ball and when someone kicks the ball out of the pack, he can go after it on a breakaway and try to score. What a great strategy! He's a genius! Dalton is having a lot of fun playing and understands the whole teamwork thing better than he did on that first day of practice which I previously posted about. Below is a quick video of Dalton scoring his first goal. I was pretty pumped about him scoring!

Happy Birthday Colby!!

2008-08-28T09:50:00.003-04:00

Our sweet little "Joy Boy", Colby, turns 3 today. He is such a fun little guy and has brought so much joy to us all. Here below is a little snipit of the day Colby was born. I think Colby was so ready to come out and he was sure letting people know it.

First Day of School- Colby's Turn

2008-08-27T21:46:00.004-04:00

Ready for school!

Receiving some morning instructions

"Hey Mama!"

Today, my youngest, Colby, started his first day of school in the 3 year old program at the same church preschool that Dalton attended for the last two years. He'll be going 3 days a week. He went into the classroom with absolutely no problems. I think he's probably been looking forward to this day since he's been with me dropping off Dalton every day for the past two years. He seems so little. He's the youngest in the classroom. He actually doesn't turn 3 until tomorrow. I think he had a wonderful first day... no problems and good behavior. It was kind of sad dropping him off this morning. Colby has been my little sidekick for the past 3 years (well, almost 3) either hanging off my hip, holding my hand, or just tagging along behind me. It'll be weird not having him around me in the mornings. I just don't know what I'll do with myself to have 3 mornings a week free to myself. I know Colby will learn a lot and really enjoy being around other kids his age.