September

Well, I'm officially a bad blogger! September has been crazy for us, as it always is with birthdays and life in general. I'm happy to get this post under the gun of September ending. I know I would have been sad when I printed this into a scrapbook if there was no September 2008.

September is a month of Birthdays for our family. Our niece Anna Beth turned 1. Isn't she cute?
I turned 30 this month - yikes! 30 is definitely different. Things are aching and sagging. It's rough.

Wes turned 31 this month, too. He said 31 sounded alot older than 30. I'll let him think that until next year when I turn 31! He built a cornhole game which he is very excited about. I see many cornhole afternoons in our future.
We made a fast trip to Auburn for the LSU game. It was a fun day and we did make it to Toomer's for lemonade, but not to the game.
Bonnie turned 6 months old and is sitting up pretty good now. I hope to freeze her here for a while. It goes by too fast.
We had two great visits with my mom, Muddie. One when she was here for my big 3-0, and we just returned from her house yesterday. It was so nice to be back there, as I had not been since Thanksgiving of last year. I miss my family so much and cried when I had to drop Mom off at the airport. It's getting harder to be so far away. I wouldn't change Marietta, but I wish it was closer to Louisiana. Speaking of Mom, can I give her props for flying out to Atlanta, getting in the car with me and driving to Louisiana, all in the same day. Then, driving back to Atlanta with me, and flying back home to Louisiana all in the same day! She's the best and hung the moon as far as I'm concerned.
We got to visit with my brother Frank, his wife Sabrina and his daugher Taylor while we were in Louisiana. His motto is "Uncle Frank will spank!" Although, I don't think he would ever follow through with it. Lucy was her cousin Taylor's shadow for 24 hours. Little girls love bigger girls, I guess.




Unfortunately, while we there, my children were wilder than ever. Poison control was called for Annie, spankings were levied for multiple messes. It was unusual for them. Here is Annie on the phone with Wes having to explain what happened. Luckily, Muddie did say we could come back.

All the calls to poison control and messes cleaned up are worth for moments like this. I love capturing these girls doing something together. Pretty soon Bonnie will be in the mix, too. I should mention, though, that this was taken shortly before I found these two smearing Muddie's fire engine red lipstick all over Annie's face and dress. When it came time for punishment, Lucy stated that, "Annie was the only one that did it," thinking that this would excuse her from punishment. What she doesn't understand is that as I came upon them, I heard, "Do it, Annie, do it!!" I haven't figured out who the mastermind is yet, but we certainly have one who carries out the actions and a cheerleader, too.

Hope you had a great September, too! We're looking forward to a great October!

School Days

Lucy and Annie started preschool this week! It was really fun and they both love it. Of course, I was trying to take pictures before school on Tuesday, but, as usual, they were not interested. (can anyone give me tricks on getting them to look at me and smile - while i'm holding camera!).

They were way more interested in the rolly polly's on the ground. Lucy did give me a little to work with, though. After naps we went to our favorite ice cream shop for a "First Day" treat.

Labor Day

Happy Labor Day!! Hope you all are well. We've been here for the weekend. We had planned to go to Columbus for a birthday party, birth and to play in Auburn, but Bonnie came down with a cold and we stayed at home. Which ended up being great, b/c Annie has moved to her big girl bed! She had been scaling her crib repeatedly, so we bit the bullet. The first night, Annie crawled up in the bed with Lucy and that was how they slept all night. Looks like we'll be getting even less sleep around here, but it's still fun.

We were sad not to be able to take the girls to Auburn on Saturday. But, thanks to Chick -fil-A we got to garb it up for some free food today. Our friend the Murrell's joined us. There weren't that many Auburn folk there. Wes did see one other Auburn couple who remarked, "See, Auburn people are frugal!" when they saw us.

Even the babes got all dolled up for free food with fam!

And this was a moment of fun we had over the weekend! Happy Labor Day!

Cooped Up!!

Whew! We have been cooped up here with all this rain! Thank you, Lord, for the rain, but Momma is going crazy! Annie has started climbing out of her crib and packnplay! Naptime is getting crazy, as well! Here are a few things we've been doing.

We tried out pigtails, or "pink tails" as Lucy and Annie call them. Not the best look for us, but it was fun.

We've colored so much that we've started to color on Bonnie, too! As usual, she takes it with a smile!

We did find a fun quick craft, for girls. I'm always looking for quick, cheap activities to do at home. It makes me feel better to have something tangible at the end of the day to look at and say, "We did this today." It keeps me from looking back on the day and remembering all the times I said, "Let Mommy fold the clothes, feed Bonnie or unload the dishwasher first." By no means is this something to blog about, but it gave me 20-30 minutes of happy interaction. If you want directions and the ballerina, I'll email them to you. Lucy insisted we dress up to make the ballerina, too, which made it even more fun.

Yesterday, I sighed and asked God to give me a little more energy or something to keep moving with. I looked over and saw this. This always makes me smile. I hope to have several of these pictures to look back on. (I changed this one to black and white and cropped out the mess that surrounded them!)

Hope to see you all out in the sunshine, SOON!

Kelley Olympics

Lucy and Annie are taking cue from the Olympians. This morning I found them "flipping" into Annie's crib. They could not have been prouder of themselves. I considered trying to get them to stop, but they were so happy that I couldn't. I did have my, "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt" speech ready in waiting. They both performed for their Daddy tonight, who proceeded to laugh hysterically when they did it. So, Annie will probably be climbing out of her crib soon and moving into a big girl bed. We caught Annie on film frame by frame.

We give her a 8.5 for difficulty and a 10 for execution!

The Olympic Coach! Very Proud.

Champion in training.

7 Year Itch

Wes and I have been married 7 years today!! Alot has happened in 7 years! We have fought, we have laughed, we have cried, and it has been FUN! Every peak and valley has brought us closer to the Lord and closer to each other. Wes is a true lover of life and it is contagious to our children and to me (if I let it be). Here are a few pictures of the last 7 years. Wes has seemed to get smaller as I have gotten bigger! If there is a seven year itch, I'm itching to see what the next 7 years has in store for us. Thank you, Lord, for orchestrating this wonderful family and marriage! Happy Anniversary!!

New Things

Here is our "Bonnie Jump Up!" Lucy and I got this for Bonnie today. When we got home the girls loved Bonnie being in it. I guess Annie couldn't tell the difference in us saying "Johnny Jump up." All of the sudden she shouted, "It's Bonnie in her Bonnie Jump Up!"

Could be a new habit at our house (it sure did save some time!). Although Bonnie got doused alot, she did survive her first bath with the big sisters!

Update

We're still here! It has taken me a while to post (my main fear of starting a blog.) Here's an update on what we've done the past week.

Last Friday the girls school supply list came in the mail. I was in heaven. Wes said I had "school supply euphoria!" I absolutely love school supplies. They make me so happy. Somewhere in me I guess there is a teacher, although I cannot imagine since I don't believe I have enough patience. I do get giddy over pencils, pens, paper, crayons,etc, etc. I love the act of getting organized for school. Anyone who talked to me last Friday thought I was crazy. I was truly on a high about school supplies. Lucy, Annie and I went to Target Saturday morning at 8AM to get our supplies. Here's a picture of our loot.

We went on a mini-trip to Columbus to see Memaw and Papa. We got to visit with our kissing cousins, Wilson and Woodruff. Here is everyone in front of the "Ice Cream Girl Truck." Memaw and Mimi bought 4 popsicles and they had the best time trading off with each other.

And today we had our first family water balloon "fight." (not really a fight, but a fun activity). Lucy loved it as you can see. There aren't any pictures of Annie, because she was not having it.

And here's the latest of Bonnie. Still such a joy along with her sisters.