Bike Rider

We always say that a trip to nana and papa's produces new milestones for our children. This trip was no exception. We waited until Saturday to drive down so that we could have some extra time to play in the snow. Sure enough, it was a balmy 50 degrees when we got to their house. LG was able to play outside and LEARN TO RIDE BAXTER'S BIKE! She doesn't mind it being spidey! We were so proud. My dad and I ran up and down the street I'm sure a dozen times. It was well worth it as now we have a big girl with an exciting new hobby. Another great was her Valentine's gift. There are no words nor pictures to describe how much fun we had trying it out. My mom would not even try in front of us. I finally got the hang of it after almost everything I had was pulled and torn and Scott, well let's just say my ribs still hurt from laughing!
Saturday night Scott and I went to dinner at Georgia Sea Grille. It was delicious and a nice chance to have a date. Sunday, my dad and Scott left home at 530 to head to Daytona. Christopher had pit passes for them so they got to tour the motorcoaches, meet David Ragan and catch a glimpse of this fine dude!
Scott worked all day Monday and Tuesday but we did take the kiddos to dinner Monday night at one of our favorites, Bonefish. I have to say that dinner trumped GSG. Sorry to say. You just can't beat some bang bang shrimp.
We really had a good visit. The kids and I got to go to nana's church and enjoy a spaghetti dinner. LGK watched The Parent Trap at least a dozen times! Ben caught up on his sleeping - during the day!
Lillee, we are so proud of you and cannot believe it has been 6 years that we have known you. WOW - you are such a big girl. We are gearing up for a fun "birthday week."

Snow Storm 2010

You guessed it! School was out again today. With a hint of precipitation in the air, schools immediately closed. Well, the snow didn't start until around lunch time. Valentine's parties were postponed boo hoo. How will Bax ever survive without seeing his one true love on this special day?
Knowing that school was closed last night, Elizabeth ended up spending the night with LG. They got to sleep around 11 I think after watching and dancing to Wizard of Oz. Scott left out around 6 a.m. this morning so we all hung out, finally got dressed and ran to Dunkin Donuts with Niki and Katelin. There were several sweet little couples inside of DD that seemed to be enjoying their lattes and AJC. That was over once we arrived! After consuming and entire day worth of calories, the girls and I came home while Niki went to stock up for the big storm. When she came back to pick them up we peeled them off the ceiling and sent them to her playroom!
This may be a long post but with the girls gone, I thought I'd pick up my camera and document a day in the life... oh, plus a little snow storm.

It started snowing about 1:00. The house was so quiet until....

Ben sensed something was up. I think he wanted a snowcone!

This little angel was very sweet all day today. Busy, but sweet. This was about a 12 minute doze off while watching 101 Dalmations. At one point he was Luke Skywalker and I was Darth Mall. If you are wondering why I was Darth Mall, that would be because I had two swords! I've decided I need to know more about Star Wars I guess if I'm going to have to play it daily.

Then he got up and decided he needed some vitamins. I'm taking it because he has not thrown up all night that there must not have been too many left. Note to Children's Chewable Hannah Montana gummie Vitamins.....3 year old boys CAN open your bottles. Please make more secure.

Then we made some hot chocolate. Nothing says humility to Godiva like pairing it with some Wal-Mart/Ingles marshmallows!

Once there was enough snow to play in a little bit, we sent dad an email to the Fulton Co. jail.

He really enjoyed making it himself.

Oh yeh baby - we made these again. Don't worry. We had a whole list of deliveries to make. We have so many friends with Valentine's birthdays. Isn't that backwards people? Shouldn't you be conceived on Vday? I'm confused? Dropping off goodies around the neighborhood gave us a chance to get out of the house and drive around in the sea of white. Here's my little delivery guy.

One of the highlights of our days is checking the mail. I was so excited to receive another Etsy purchase for the birthday party. However, you can imagine my disappointment to find this....

It's part of my budget plan people. I cannot rightly justify spending money on Britney and Jessica any longer. I can assure you that when I win the lottery and begin subscribing again that Jennifer will still be single, Brad and Angelina's relationship will still be under the microscope, Chris Brown will be in court again, Violet Affleck will be the cutest little girl and baby Suri will continue to be the baby fashionista! Goodbye People. I will miss you. I will see you in Rite-Aid where I will pay full price for you there and nix my entire Dave Ramsey plan completely. Ugh.

We were out on our birthday deliveries to go pick Mary up and what did we see????? Yes, the infamous snow suit with the lift ticket still attached.

Here's our house in the snow. It really was beautiful.

I have always loved this house. It's right down the street from us. Pool??? Not sure?

Here's the old homeplace. Doesn't it look so lonely?It's just waiting on someone to love it.

Scott finally got home after driving in the slush. I handed the baby over and we all bundled up and headed out. My darling muddy snow angels.

There are times, really there are, when they truly love each other. It was fun to run up and down the street with no traffic. I think anytime it snows people get nervous about the hill. Bax and I quite enjoyed going up and down! We were monster trucks. I think he senses we have 4 wheel drive.

Our pitiful snowman named Octimus Prime. Octimus was about 4 feet tall until some little 4 foot tall person knocked him down and ate one of our candy cane ears.

Thanks to Daddy who came out and took our pic. He didn't get a lot of snow time because he was hanging with Ben but we had a very fun time.

5 months

Sweet angel...this is your sweet, mischevious, up to something, about to make mom a package face! You could absolutely be naked all day long - very happy baby when you are in the buff!

We tried peas today for the first time. You actually liked them.

This is your after church pose. Wednesday nights are a little chaotic around here. We usually don't get home until around 8 and I turn into military mommy. I really don't mean to but I know that everyone will be happier the next day if they have a good nights sleep. Is that so wrong?

Sock Hop

She looks SOOO big!

Lillee may have been dressed for a sock hop but Bax was all decked in Spideywear! A few holes here and there aren't too bad for a 2 year old costume right?

Scotty and Lillee went to a sock hop last Friday night. The boys and I stayed home, ordered a pizza and watched Pirates of the Carribean!
She had a great time with her daddy. He suggested they go to Truett's for dinner since it is an "oldies diner" but when she found out they could go eat first she only wanted the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday! Gracious!

These two are inseparable! Very cute!

The Real Key Family

So I've heard a few comments about the blog recently. Well, if I was a fancy blogger, I would be seeing those comments on the blog. However, these people I'm assuming would like to remain nameless so they have only called to express their strong opinions. They are of the belief that I have lost my "mojo" or as another put it "the blog is fake." Now, I have a few thoughts on this...
I think about 78.435% of my brain capacity is gone. I'm not kidding - it is caput finished gone. I have a very difficult time remembering anything. Maybe this is why I am posting pictures and doing a very QUICK rundown when said event happens. I can also tell you that I am probably doing more kiddie posts. Well friends, that would be because that is what I do all %$#^ day.

One friend commented a long time ago, pre-kid for her that my blog should be titled "I Love My Kids ..." Well, I changed some things up and posted funny things that were going on in our lives. That was in the time of babysitters, staying up past 10 p.m., having a few beverages now and then, traveling. Now, take a journey with the Time Travelers Wife and fast forward to tantrums from Baxter, some defiance from Lillee Grace, some screaming from Ben. Really, it is not that bad but sometimes it is just easier to stay home and document the goings on of our little home.
We have just settled into a rhythm here and it is nothing short of NOT A SCHEDULE. That's absolutely fine but I've found it quite hard to get to where we are. Baxter has put up quite the fuss a few days. That has made things very difficult and I will say I've looked for my resume probably 1/2 dozen times. I do look at these days and they are so limited. Ben is already so big and I know that when Bax goes to PreK next year (crossing fingers everyone) that I really am going to miss him so much. Just that month in August before Ben was born Bax and I would take naps every day when he got home from school. That was so nice. Lillee really has been growing up before our eyes also. I think she is so big and helpful and then I turn around and she's grown. She's loving kindergarten!
Back to my mojo - there's no funny business. I mean if you call Lillee seeing the Broadcast Television Test with the eight vertical colors on the screen and beeping sound the opportune time to teach Baxter his colors funny, then I guess there's humor to be had! Or if you call the ox in my car on the stick that sits in the passenger seat funny, there you go.

Yes, strange things happen to our Griswold-like family. They are strange, wild, funny things. But right now, I'm clinging on to our sweet family, I'm cooking, I'm organizing, I'm trying to find our balance and teach these children values and discipline. Forgive me if I've lost my mojo for awhile.

It's a Love Story

Next week you will be 5 months old! You are becoming so much fun! I am already missing that baby stage I have to admit. Yesterday Lillee Grace had a fever and stayed home from school. It was a test to see if I could handle all 3 of you ALL DAY LONG! We did have a small break with Baxter at school. We had lots of fun laying in bed watching 101 Dalmations.
Ben, our entire family is IN LOVE WITH YOU! You are so easy.

• There have been a few times when your teeth hurt so badly I've told dad that I'd get up in the middle of the night with you if you would stop fussing. Wow - yes, it was that bad.
• You are going to bed any time between 7:30 and 8:30 and sleeping until 6 or 7 a.m. Praise Jesus for that! You like to be rocked for a few minutes but then put you down, paci in and put your silky frog in your hand. It's so sweet.
  
• There is rice cereal in almost all of your bottles and you eat it at the table sometimes. We are still working on that. No food as of yet.
• I promise you weigh all of 17 lbs. What a big boy!
• Your exersaucer provides a few minutes of entertainment for you. We just found one in the garage so now there's one for upstairs and down. And the Bumbo is great!

Thank you for showing us how much we could love another Key baby!

Weekend Wrapup

You guessed it! A meal like this does not come from my cooking. My parents came Friday just in time to pick LG up from school. Unfortunately, temperatures took a plunge and it was FREEZING Friday and then the rain came in Saturday. My dad wanted to work on the playhouse but wasn't able to start until Sunday. It's really coming together and will be so great. So, all there was to do was hang out - which was great! Mom, Lillee, Ben and I went to a few little antique shops/thrift stores looking for teacups for the birthday party. We did find a couple plus some other fun treasures. Then we hit Wal-Mart which was extremely painful. What a mess on Saturday. I need to refer back to this post when even remotely thinking of going there again!

Bax did lots of playing.

And lots of playing, painting, studying for sight word test, and playing.

We tried to "organize" the basement. Eeek. It is for now and hopefully will stay that was for a little while.

More painting!

our organization and finished painting projects! Still raining so we did lots of

this

and this

and lots of this!

and a WHOLE LOTTA this! LGK went to a parents night out Sat. night at the dance studio so Scotty and I enjoyed a little date night at Mexican in McDonough.

Of course, the mutt was here with her satellite dish on. Ugh - when will she leave this earth?