It's Sarah's turn to play

Now that Will is going to school for a few hours 3 days a week, Sarah is finally getting her turn to go do fun things with Mommy by herself. She is also getting to go play with friends her own age (as opposed to tagging along to Will's playgroup).
Last week, we met one of my friends from college and her little girl, who is about a month older than Sarah, at the duck park. A good time was had by all. I love watching little kids learn how to play with each other. It is so funny to watch them go from being shy around each other to grabbing each others hands and running around laughing hysterically within an hour. Hopefully, we'll get some more chances to play soon! Here are some pictures!

Aunt Ginny and the kiddos in the van

Grandpa and Will on their way out to the Mooney

Grandpa and Will doing the pre-flight inspection

Grandpa with the kiddos and the Mooney

Loving it!

"I could fly this thing, no problem!"

I'm pretty sure Will was laying down refusing to get out at this point :)

Bye-Bye Grandpa and Aunt Ginny

Grandpa and Aunt Ginny on their way back to GA

We were having a good day until...

we took a little trip to Wal-Mart today after I picked Will up from "school". He got out early today, because our local school system got out early. So, since he was out early and I needed to get a few groceries before we went home, I decided to take them to the McDonald's that is inside our Wal-Mart for lunch. Lunch went really well. Will was in a GREAT mood so he was being polite, sharing with Sarah without me having to ask him to, and ate all of his lunch without me having to remind him 700 times to do so. By the time we finished eating, I was in a great mood! Things were really just going well! I popped Sarah down out of her chair and went to grab our tray to take it to the trash. In the meantime, Sarah, who NEVER watches where she is going and is ALWAYS going full steam ahead, trips right over the heel of one of my shoes. She flies across the room smack into the table behind us, and of course, catches the corner of the table with her eyelid. GREAT!! I pick her up, and I promise you, she did not make a sound for at least 30 seconds. Then, out came the blood curdling scream everyone expected to hear, and then another one, and then another one, and so on, and so on. She cut her eyelid right open. When I was finally able to calm her down, I was trying to look for the positive in the situation, so I decided that I was just lucky that we were standing in a Wal-Mart, because at least I could walk to the opposite end of the store and get a butterfly bandage to try to force the cut back together. Why would I think that Wal-Mart would actually have that kind of thing? Of course, they didn't. We settled for a "Doh-Doh" (Dora--she's obsessed) bandaid, and she actually left it on. She's even taking a nap with it on. Poor thing looks pretty pitiful.
My mom reminded me that this is pretty much the exact same age that Will was when Sarah was born. He also cut his little eyelid open on a table in my hospital room.
Just in case you were wondering, things really have not improved around here since the accident. It's just been one of those days. It is raining today, and I guess they say, "when it rains, it pours"

The Pumpkin Patch 2008

Race for the Cure 2008

Crime and Punishment...or Rewards

So, we've started a new little reward system with Will. He's been acting out quite a bit lately, and quite frankly, we were at our wit's end with him. We were getting quite tired of telling him to go stand in the corner, etc. So, he now has a behavior chart. There are 15 different behaviors/chores listed on the chart. Some of them we expect them to do everyday and others we would just like him to start working on, realizing full well that it will take a while for him to master some of them. At the end of the day, we go through the chart with him and he either gets to use the green dry erase marker (a treat in itself) to give himself a smiley face or Mommy and Daddy use the red dry erase marker to make a frowny face. Once he gets 50 smiley faces, he gets to spend the night with "Mimi". Spending the night with Mimi is the most exciting thing in the world to him, so he does actually work hard to get those smiley faces! Even better, I can just remind him that a certain behavior will cost him a smiley face and that's usually enough to get him to change the behavior. It's working out pretty well for us. Will is soooo logically minded, that it is right up his alley! Here are some pictures I took of him working on his board with Stephen the other night...


And, just for fun, here is a picture of Sarah during the behavior charting...something's telling me, the chart is not going to work for her!!! :)

Uncle Tim and Aunt Andree Visit

Uncle Tim and Aunt Andree came to Birmingham on Sunday afternoon on their way back to Columbus, MS from a wedding in Nashville. The kids always love to see them, so they were super excited. They were even more excited when they saw that Tim and Andree brought them Pop Rocks!! Will has had them before, but Sarah had not. Of course, they loved them, and it was fun for us to watch them eat them. I think Stephen actually enjoyed watching LE, the dog, eat them more than he enjoyed watching the kids. We had a good dinner and good conversation so what more can you ask for.
The next day, Uncle Tim headed back to Columbus and Andree and I hit the big consignment sale here in Birmingham. I hit it twice a year religiously. It's where I get the bulk of the kids' clothes and sometimes score some good stuff for Christmas presents.
Andree and Tim are going to have their first baby in March, so she was excited to look at all the baby gear they have. She racked up! She came out of there with some great stuff including a jogging stroller, a moses basket, the cutest baby bedding, a bouncer, and some clothes...I'm sure I'm leaving something out. She seemed to be very happy with it, and I couldn't be happier for her. It is so fun to start getting all the baby stuff when you're pregnant with your first, but especially if you get some awesome deals on it in the process! Stephen graciously kept Sarah for us that morning and was even able to take her down to the hanger with him. She loved it, and he said she was really good. Andree and I picked up Sarah and then picked up Will from school and had a good lunch at Sarah's favorite place, "Nonalds" (McDonald's) Andree and I got to talk about our purchases and the kids played on the awesome outdoor playground they have. We only had one slightly scary moment when Andree and I thought one of us (both of us in skirts) were going to have to climb to the very top of the play equipment (through the tubes) to bring Sarah down. She eventually made her way down, thank goodness!!! Everyone had a good day, and Andree and I could not have been happier with our purchases!
The next day, the kids and I took Andree to the furniture store where we bought our crib, changing table, and glider. I think she found one she likes so it was a really productive weekend. After that, Andree headed back to Columbus, and I took the kiddos to our local science museum, The McWane Center. We had a blast!
Thanks for coming Aunt Andree and Uncle Tim! See you soon!
Here are some pics of the kids with the Pop Rocks

What a Night!!!!

Let's see...we were having a pretty good day today. We set out to go to our local playground for a picnic lunch, but when we arrived, we remembered that today was the day for our community's annual art show. It's a great event where a bunch of artists come to display their artwork. Local restaurants provide food (for a small fee), and their was a great little area where the kids could go to do all kinds of art activities with help from some of the local high school students. Will loved it!! It was a nice morning, and then we came home and both kids took good naps. In fact, I had to wake Will up to get ready for his first "school" birthday party. He was really looking forward to this party, and I was also looking forward to meeting some of the other parents and watching the kids in action.
So, we got everyone up and ready to go. It was 3:40 and we were headed out the door for our 4 o'clock birthday party. I checked the address one last time before we left, but for the first time, noticed that the time for the beginning of the party was actually 3! Ugh!!!! So, I ran downstairs, hustled the kids into the car, and off we went. We arrived in the neighborhood at 4 (an hour late) only to realize that, in the confusion, I must not have read the address correctly. So, long story short, we got there just as they were finishing up the Happy Birthday song. Will didn't seem to notice or care, but it wasn't exactly the way I wanted start off with the other parents...Oh well, it could've been worse.
On the way home, we figured out exactly how much worse it could get. Will graciously let Sarah have the light stick he found in his goody bag. A few minutes later, Sarah is yelling, "Mommy, bee, Mommy, bee" and pointing to her eye. In Sarah language that means, "my eye hurts" I thought she had an eyelash in her eye, so I leaned back there and tried to fix it. Well, the screaming only got louder and pretty soon she was absolutely thrashing in her carseat and screaming at the top of her lungs. Pretty soon, I realized that she bit a hole in the light stick and got the stuff from the inside in her eyes. Apparently, that really burns! Stephen drove us to the nearest gas station, we squealed into the parking lot, I jumped out, ripped a screaming Sarah out of her carseat, ran her inside to the bathroom and tried to rinse her eyes out with water. If you can imagine, this was a little bit like trying to wrestle a shark at the end of a fishing line, but worse because there was also screaming, hitting, and kicking involved. I thought for sure someone was going to call the police. I did the best I could, but she didn't seem much better. So, I decided to take her out to the car and go back in to get a bottle of water with a squirt top so I could really get it in her eye. While I was back in the store, she managed to fall out of her carseat only to add insult to injury. I squirted her eyes out again and threw in a red sucker for good measure. The screaming continued for another 10 minutes on the road. Then, she finally calmed down. I glanced to the backseat where Sarah would take a couple sucks on the sucker and then throw back a few sips from the water bottle (much like an adult might have done with a beer during tonight's Auburn/Vanderbilt game...) I only wish I had a picture of her from that particular moment. Her eyes were beat red, and only open ever so slightly. Her hair was completely disheveled, and her outfit was soaking wet from all the water. She was a sight! The moral of this story...
Never, never let a young child have a light stick unsupervised!!!
Well at least the night can't get any worse...thank goodness we're playing Vanderbilt tonight (we have not lost to Vanderbilt since I think 1940...)
Yep, you guessed it...Vanderbilt 14---Auburn 13

Thank goodness for hurricanes...

I know that sounds weird, but because a hurricane was headed straight for LA at the beginning of September, our friends Ryan, Christine, and their dog, Wylie got to come visit! Hooray! To give you a little background, Christine lived in the apartment next door to Stephen and I in Dallas. Shortly after she moved in, she found and adopted the cutest little dog name Wylie. We became really good friends with Christine and Jack, LE, Aubie and Tigger became very good friends with Wylie. It was a great set-up! Christine was actually the first person that I told (other than Stephen) that I was pregnant with Will. :) There's actually an interesting fact about Sarah that is tied up with Christine as well, but I'm going to leave that one out. Christine was dating a guy named Ryan at the time, so whenever he was in town, we all got to hang out together and we had some good times. As you know, we moved to Bham shortly before Will was born, but we've kept in touch. A little over a year after we moved, we went back to Dallas to go to Ryan and Christine's wedding! Yay! (for those of you who remember, that was when Will came down with his first ear infection, and it was a double one shortly after we made the 9 hour overnight drive with him...Stephen didn't have such a great time on that trip) Ryan and Christine moved to PA where Ryan worked and they've been there until they recently moved to Louisiana. I am so happy that they are so much closer! Thanks to Hurricane (can't remember which one), they evacuated and were able to come visit for an afternoon. Wylie's Daddy and uncle decided to give him a little haircut while his Mommy and aunt were out shopping the day before they came. I'm going to post a before picture of Wylie and I have a couple pictures of him from their visit. That should be all that I need to say about that. :) Anyway, thanks for coming Ryan and Christine!! We loved seeing you guys and hopefully, we'll make it to LA soon!

Wylie before:

and Wylie after...

If you're visiting...

leave us a comment and let us know. It's neat to see who keeps up with us! :)

What we've been doing during the month of September...War Eagle!