PHeather's PHamily

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Sigh

Should've looked more closely at what they were doing in the backyard. But it was so peaceful inside! And J and E and I were able to get some school done in peace! And look how proud they are. Lol. They definitely had fun!

January

Celebrating Popeye's birthday at our house... As you can see we are getting good use out of that Minion banner. :)

Most patient dog... As you will soon see he looks very different now.

We had a really bad storm one night and the next morning the boys rescued a turtle from our neighbor's pool. It looked exactly like the one that was in our driveway a few years ago that I posted about on the blog. Maybe it was!

Best buds.

Someone finally put Mr. Potato Head together all by himself without screaming and throwing him across the room in frustration. Lol.

Enjoying dinner with Grandy...

My dad went with J and E and me to a swim meet in Alabama one weekend when Phil was out of town. Mom stayed at home with D and R, bless her heart! The guys and I had a fun trip. :)

Movies and popcorn at a hotel is just the best for these guys.

Bernie got a serious haircut... and shrank about three sizes. It had to be done... his mats were out of control. I tried to keep up with them and would usually just end up cutting them out because they were too hard to brush out... and then he ended up looking like a homeless dog with mange. His hair has grown out a lot since this picture and we'll probably end up keeping him trimmed. It's just so much easier to manage. But P.S. the non-shedding thing is SO AWESOME!!!

My dad found a large green caterpillar on a plant in our front yard (which turned out to be milkweed), and after some research we figured out that the caterpillar was a monarch! The boys were SO excited, so we got out our butterfly home, chopped down a bunch of milkweed, and put him in there. After a few days he started acting a little funny, and then one morning we woke up and he had made himself a little cocoon! So, so cool! Unfortunately, I probably should have brought him inside after that, because we had some cold nights and we think he froze in there. He never emerged as a butterfly. :( We're going to keep our eyes peeled for another one when it starts to warm up a little more.

Enjoying dinner on the porch beside the fire on the night Daddy got home from out of town.

My dad was so kind to bring us up a truckload of wood, so we've been able to have a ton of fires lately.

The big boys got to stay up and watch the Superbowl this year! They were so excited!

And so happy that Denver won!!

Buddies drinkin' cocoa by the inside fire. Reid and Davis share a room now...

Evidence of Bernie's grow-out... He is not a snuggler and will only stay up here for a few minutes, but I force him to snuggle a bit every night.

After many months of searching on craigslist for the perfect one, we finally got a piano!

Emmett hard at work on the snap circuits he got for Christmas...

Again... the most patient dog.

Poor D woke up screaming in pain one night after a few days of complaining that his belly hurt, so Phil and I spent 5 hours in the ER with him that night. After X-rays and ultrasounds and blood work (we were thinking maybe he swallowed something that wouldn't pass, or maybe his appendix burst), the doc said that it was probably just some big poo. Yuck. So we went home totally exhausted at 3:30 A.M., bought some prune juice and some "other things" the next day, and he felt much better the next evening. This was Saturday night, and let me tell you... Saturday night in the ER (even just a pediatric ER) is a scary, scary place. God bless those doctors and nurses. Seriously.

Falling asleep on the couch the next morning... Poor baby!

My audience for my workout one morning...

Kept Reid busy one afternoon letting him trim the branches off of the Christmas tree. He clipped off every single branch and loved every second. He was out there singing to himself and just clipping and flinging branches. Lol.

It's a marvelous day for a Jeep ride... (all four boys are in there (six with Phil and Bernie), but it's hard to see D because of Bernie's hair).

Monday, March 7, 2016

Jackson's 8th Birthday Weekend (back in July)

I've had these pics uploaded and waiting to post for five months. Guess I'll finally get to that today. :)

Now I know I am truly becoming a Floridian because looking back at these pictures I cannot WAIT for pool and boat and beach time!! I know the heat will be unbearable, but summer is so much fun! And I can't believe how much J has grown up since his birthday in July.

J wanted to have a Star Wars pool party, so we did our best to make that happen. Here we are before heading up to our neighborhood pool...

And then Emmett and Reid wanted a picture... and so did Davis.

Workers were expanding our pool deck that day, but luckily we were still able to swim and we stayed on the other side of the pool out of the way. Popeye played lifeguard...

Here's my friend, Tenley, and her adorable twin boys...

Rigging the Darth Vader piñata....

I bought a Darth Vader cake mold on amazon and attempted a Darth Vader head cake. Getting that icing black took a LOT of food coloring.

J with his best bud from next door...

And other buds from CC and the neighborhood...

We are so thankful for our wonderful friends...

This is the kindest, sweetest, most loving little boy. He is SO good to his little brothers and so obedient and honest. We were sure blessed when he entered our lives. I love his tender little heart.

Later the men all played in the pool while the ladies chatted on the deck. :)

All of my sun-kissed babies...

I titled this post "Birthday Weekend" because this was a weekend full of celebration and fun, starting with Thursday when J's pool party was. My parents were in town for the weekend, too, which made it extra fun. These pics are from Sunday, which was J's actual b-day.

Legos for the Lego master...

Oh, how I love this boy...

Okay, out of order, but on Friday we were able to take a boat out for a few hours. This was July 3, so we didn't think our friends would have any boats available to rent, but we were able to get one for that morning and it was amazing! Such a beautiful day!

Davis was grumpy about something and my mom and dad were so cute out there trying to cheer him up. And whoa our backyard looks so different in the summer and winter... Right now it is mostly just gross brown masses of sticks because most of that green you see is overgrown kudzu vine and it loses its leaves in the winter leaving gross dead-looking sticks behind. But it looks very lush and green in the summer. We would love to have a lot of it cleared out back there someday, but that will be a huge project.

Then on the Fourth of July we had an extra special treat because our friends invited us out on their boat to watch the fireworks! Phil was on a Delta trip and my mom stayed behind with Davis (she's so good about being the one who stays behind... She's always so selfless and thoughtful) and my dad came with J, E, R, and me. Hard to get good pics but you get the idea. Super fun!

Here we are back to Jackson's actual birthday... He set right to work on his new Lego sets!

And then we went across the street for another party that afternoon! The two girls who live across the street both have the same birthday as Jackson! So you can see that J got a fun-filled, party-packed weekend for his birthday this year. :)

Reid never left Avery's side for the whole party...

New rollerblades! My boys are rollerblade obsessed. Every morning when we get done with school they go straight outside to blade. Even Reid has his own pair now and he's getting pretty good!