Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan and Mitchell!

The boys and I traveled to Aiken to visit with family on Friday while Scott stayed home and did some work around the house. We missed him so much and he missed us so much too!! My sweet baby boys had their 2nd birthday on Saturday and we had a wonderful day full of celebration. We began the day with lots of Happy Birthday singing on the porch swing...as you can see from their expressions...Mitchell enjoyed it somewhat but Ethan thought we had lost our marbles. He had that look the entire time we were singing (Ethan is pictured on right)!! :-) Daddy called to wish his precious boys a Happy Birthday and they didn't quite know what to think when they heard more singing on the phone. Grandmama Sharon made the boys a special pancake breakfast which they thoroughly enjoyed, and then we played, played, played.

They have changed so much this past year...their vocabulary has really increased and they're beginning to copy many things that we say like "ready" and "alright" and "okay". Ethan calls Mitchell "baba" and Mitchell calls Ethan "be-be". They love eachother so much...they actually gave eachother a kiss today for the very first time. Happy Birthday boys!!!

Stairmaster

This was our entertainment last night before bedtime...Ethan climbing and sliding down the stairs. It was so cute! I hope the video comes through on the blog okay...this is the first time I've uploaded a video.

Superstars!

The Storm!

Tuesday was somewhat of a normal day...sunny and beautiful, a little humid, but nothing strange. Scott was able to get off of work a little early (a blessing!) so we took advantage of that and went to the lake to watch boats...one of our favorite pastimes. As we were watching the few on the lake, we noticed some very dark clouds approaching. We decided to come home.

Only about 15 minutes after we arrived home, we began to have very loud thunder and close and bright lightening and according to our local weather, we had a bad storm coming. Soon after that, the meteorologist said that there was rotation in the storm at Sixes Rd...this was us!! We of course freaked out, emptied the closet underneath the stairs, and jumped in as hail started pounding the windows and wind started blowing the trees everywhere. It was a frightening experience! It was all over in a matter of a few seconds but we were amazed at the aftermath.

We had very large limbs down in our yard and it was full of all sorts of debris, and our house had leaves and small limbs all over it. It was a scary experience, and not easy to clean up, but we were so fortunate. The tornado had just begun its descent on the street behind us and amazingly enough, we had no structural damage and didn't even lose any of our trees in our woods that we can tell at this point. We went driving tonight to the areas that were hard hit and it is so sad...trees down everywhere and tons of houses damaged. My heart aches for these people! I've never witnessed first-hand the devistation from something like this and it really hit me how your life can change in an instant. Amazingly enough, no lives were lost in the storm!

Birthday Celebration

I can hardly believe my babies will be 2 this Saturday! We had a little get-together at an area park last Saturday to celebrate. We had a "Cars" theme...their favorite movie ("tractor, tractor"), complete with 2 Lightening McQueen birthday cakes. Mia and Papa, Uncle Nate and Aunt Julie and cousins, and Uncle Steve and Aunt Blaine were able to come, along with our good friends Beth and Chris and their daughter Abby and their twin sons Jack and Ryan. Scott grilled hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill while our 4 very busy toddlers ran around and kept us all running! We had such a great time!

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

We had such a great Mother's Day weekend...it was like Mother's Day every day! We started out Friday evening by going to the beach at Lake Allatoona and having dinner and playing in the sand until the sun set. We all had such a great time and came home nice and sandy! We ALL worked in the yard on Saturday and the boys LOVED that! They played in their little choo-choo, pulled and pushed their wagon, and pushed their tractors around. They were worn out at nap and actually slept 2.5 hours...a long nap for them! We went to the lake again that evening and had a repeat of Friday evening. :-) The weather was so beautiful and we actually got to see a huge boat launch, which was a real treat on our small lake!

Sunday was lots of fun. For those of you who don't know, I "teach" the 2 year-olds every other Sunday at church. The teacher that I normally teach with was unable to teach this past Sunday due to a family emergency, so needless to say, I needed help!! My dear, sweet, wonderful husband came to my rescue and filled in for Susan. He was SO great!! He was wonderful with all of the kids (this didn't surprise me at all!!) and was a big hit with all of the boys. They all wanted to sit by him and play with him. It was an especially crazy Sunday because all of the kids were very giddy and excited (I guess because of Mother's Day?), so it was like having double of each child! He handled it all in stride and was like a pro!! It was such a blessing for him to serve with me. After church, Scott took us out for a Mother's Day brunch at O'Charleys. It was yummy...the boys could have been a bit more calm but we all still really enjoyed it. :-) We came home, put the boys down for their nap, and we both napped too! That was very nice! We wrapped up the day by grabbing a Starbucks and playing at home. It was so nice! I loved celebrating being a mother! Happy Mother's Day!!

I attached some pictures of the boys playing with their wagon and playing at the park this evening. The "close-ups" are Ethan in the tunnel, and he is also standing proudly at the top of the stairs. Mitchell is in the swing and in the 2nd picture on the dinosaur. He's also the one wearing blue shorts in the wagon pictures. They are growing up so fast!!

Home Improvement

The painters finished painting the downstairs on Saturday morning and did a fantastic job! We painted everything a very light khaki color and it turned out great. It really opens the house up and makes it look bigger. We already feel like we have a new house! :-) Our realtor came yesterday to take pictures and she should be coming tomorrow morning to put the For Sale sign in the yard. Eek! I still need to do some more decluttering in our guest room and we need to move a few large things like bookcases to storage. Slowly but surely we are getting there. I'm just trying to keep it all in perspective and not stress too much!!

Bon Jovi was awesome!! They still sound so great and of course Jon Bon Jovi still has it!! Yes, ladies, he's even hotter than he was back in the day!! :-) Scott didn't enjoy it quite as much because they played lots to the ladies but bless his heart, he didn't complain at all! It was great to get away for a few hours and see a great concert.

Below, the boys are getting into the home improvement mode with us!! Never too young to start, right? :-)

Blaine's baby shower

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and I hosted a baby shower this weekend for our Blaine. We had a great time!! Blaine received lots of cute things for Corbin, including lots of adorable clothes, some cute hooded towels and washcloths (after this shower she will have a hooded towel for each day of the week!) :-), and a beautiful blanket knitted by my mother-in-law. We were originally going to have her shower outdoors on my mother-in-law's beautiful deck (we had my wedding and baby showers out there) but it rained. We moved all of the tables and chairs indoors and it turned out really pretty, rain or shine! Blaine's friend Karen was able to make the shower (in purple) but was already beginning to dilate! She should be having her son Gregory sometime this week. :-)

Afterwards, us girls stayed and our hubbies came with the kids and we had a family get-together. My mother-in-law's sister Char was down from Michigan to take part in the baby shower so we were able to spend time with her. It was fun! The boys spent lots of time playing with their cousins Allison, Natalie, and Gracen. They especially loved playing in the sandbox with Natalie and Gracen.

Yardwork

The boys helped me in the yard last week and they were so cute. First we "mowed" the pinestraw (because you know pinestraw needs a good mowing every now and again!). :) Then they helped me fill in the pinestraw in a new flower bed. They had a great time! It is getting really fun at this point because they can "help" me do things. Even though they lose interest quick, they still have a good time and I can get some things done with them outside. They've started listening alot better and don't run towards the street or into the neighbors' yards as much (key words "as much"!). They still go where they shouldn't occassionally but we're getting there! (In these pictures, Ethan is in grey and Mitchell is in red.)