Party Time!!

Last night we had Luke's birthday party at my parent's house. Candace cooked some yummy chicken taco's and we had cake and ice cream. He chose a monster truck cake this year and couldn't wait to dig in to it.
Eating cake!

Checking out his birthday presents.

Apparently when your child turns 5 years old, they grow up over night....literally. Today Luke was tired and grouchy and pushing all kinds of buttons. Finally I had enough and made him take a nap. He wasn't too fond of this idea and decided he was going to fight the nap tooth and nail. After much arguing he went to his bed only to come out about 10 minutes later. He thought he would trick me into thinking he had been asleep (for the whole 10 minutes he was in there.) He thought of everything. He had messed up his hair and his bed. He walked in all squinty-eyed, trying to look like he had just woken up and said "I had a good nap." Little did he know, his sister has already tried all of those tricks!

Tomorrow we're off to Spring Valley Beach for some water park fun. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll have a good day.

Happy Birthday Luke!!!

"When's my birthday gonna start?" has been the question of the week. The big day is finally here! Yes, my baby boy turns 5 years old today, at 7:00 pm, to be exact. I can't BU-lieve he is already 5 years old AND will be starting Kindergarten in a few days (that would be 12 days and counting!) Seriously, one day we were anxiously awaiting his arrival on a HOT July day, and I blinked and now his 5! How did that happen?! If anyone out there knows the secret to slowing this growing up process down a bit, please enlighten me! He has grown up so much this past year and is becoming a little man.
Over the past year he started to pre-school in "big school" which was a big change for him, and he loved it. He played Tee-ball for the first time and now is considering trying out for the majors. (Just kidding, but he was so proud of himself). He was a cowboy in his pre-school play and had to talk in front of a group of people....MAJOR accomplishment for him, because he is my shy child. He got to fly on an airplane for the first time and he went to Disney World for the first time, where he got to meet his favorite character, "Plu-dog". He loves to wear his cowboy get-up EVERYDAY. Another major accomplishment this year was conquering his fear of swimming pools. Now he will actually get in the pool instead of just hanging out on the steps and loves to jump of the diving board. And last but not least, HE CUT HIS
HAIR, which resulted in a new do for him!

To celebrate his birthday, we will be having a small family party. I had planned to take him to the park today, but it's raining, so that won't be happening. Instead he chose to go eat lunch at his favorite place in the whole world....McDonald's and we're going to the Natorium to swim. Saturday we are taking him and his buddy Sam to Spring Valley Beach for the day. He can't wait for that!

We're Still Alive.....

Okay, it's my fault....I've done it again......it's been FOREVER since I've updated. I know, I know, BAD BLOGGER! What can I say except, life is crazy right now. Although, as crazy as it is, nothing is going on worth blogging about. How is that possible?! Anyway, here's the catch-up version of our lives:

I'm FINALLY finished with clinicals! Those pretty much took up my ENTIRE summer, but they are over now and I am so relieved. I had to play catch-up twice this summer between the Disney trip and Kaylyn's hospitalization I got SO far behind with getting my hours. Getting 90 hours and working and doing all these crazy projects for community clinicals and keeping up with my other class in 7 weeks (that's all the time I had left after Disney and our stay at Hotel de Children's) just about drove me crazy but I made it....AND I managed to do it without pulling my hair out! Whew! What a relief! I have one more project I'm finishing up for community clinicals I have to turn in at the end of the week and this semester will be O-V-E-R!! Only one more to go....Come on December!

The kids have been great this summer. Just hanging out. They've been staying with Candace this summer and Kaylyn has really enjoyed spending time with Chloe....Luke....notsomuch. Don't get me wrong, he loves Chloe, but Chloe loves to aggrevate him and she wants to boss him around and he get's a little tired of it.

Kaylyn has been taking summer dance classes this summer and is in dance camp this week. She gets to start taking hip-hop this year and really loves it. She was showing me some of her new moves the other night and her cute new dance. She just found out today, that her class will be dancing with "the big girls" at the dance recital next year and she's so proud of herself. I'll try to get some video on here soon of her new moves. Some friends of ours invited her to go with them to Louisville, KY next week to the Six Flags there and to see some of the sights Louisville has to offer. She's REALLY excited about the trip. I'm a little nervous. She's never gone that far away from home, without a family member, for that long. I know she'll be fine, but I'm still a little worried that she'll get homesick and I can't go get her. Well, I guess I CAN go get her, but it's a 9 hour drive, so I couldn't get her very quickly. I've never really worried about her going places because she's such a social butterfly and it's never really phased her, so it didn't phase me, but she's gotten pretty clingly lately. Hopefully she'll have fun and not get homesick. If so, I may be looking for someone to ride shot-gun to Louisville! After her trip, it will be back to school. She'll be in the 3rd grade this year. Can you believe that?! She's growing up too quickly!

Luke has just been being Luke. Funny as ever! He says and does some of the cutest things lately. The other night when Kaylyn was showing Candace and I here new dance moves, she decided she would practice doing "the splits" (she's almost there, but not quite). Anyway, Candace told her she used to put on "stockings" so her feet would slide easier when she was learning to do the splits. Luke disappeared to his room for a minute and then came in and said "I've got my stocking on my feet."........He was wearing a Christmas stocking on his foot. He's also been going through some regressive behavior. I guess it's from spending so much time with Chloe this summer. He's been talking like a baby lately and when you tell him to stop with the "baby-talk." He deepens his voice about 10 octaves and starts talking like a "man" as he says. Oh, Luke.....Who knows what he will think of next? We are getting ready to celebrate his 5th birthday on Thursday. He's really excited about that. We will have a small family party on Thursday night and then we are taking him to Spring Valley Beach on Saturday. He can hardly wait!

Chris has managed to make it nearly 6 weeks without being sent to Mobile to work! That's a record! Hopefully he will be able to stay home for a while longer. We know he will eventually have to go back, but we hope it won't be soon.

I guess that sums it up. I'll have some new pics on here soon. I promise!

No He Didn't!!

Yes he did! Notice the mack-truck-sized gap in the front of Luke's hair?? And the left side of his head??Yes, Luke decided he'd try to give himself a haircut last night. I walked in his room just in time to see him whacking away at his hair with a pair of Kaylyn's school scissors. I gasped "LUKE!! NOOooooooooo." But it was too late. The damage was done. I told him we would have to go get his hair cut off this morning. He cried. I cried. Julie, the beautician cried. All morning while we were waiting to go, Luke kept sobbing "I don't want my hair cut off." "I'm going to look funny." And my personal favorite "My head's gonna be cold." Maybe he's learned his lesson.
Here he is getting those beautiful curly locks cut. All of them. Falling to the floor. At first she thought she may be able to just give him a trim to blend it in. But as she started cutting, the left side was much shorter than she thought and there were straggly curls sticking out everywhere. As she gave me the look that said "I don't think this is going to work." I said "just do what you've got to do to make it look right."

The finished product. He doesn't even look like my little boy anymore. *sigh* We did manage to escape the dreaded buzz-cut, which I thought was our only option. Luckily his hair is thick enough to somewhat cover the gap in the front, we'll just have to keep getting it trimmed until it catches up. Oh well, it's only hair. Yes, I know it could be much worse. Yes, I know it will grow back. And yes, for those of you who are actually happy about this haircut (Ahem....Paul and Pop) it will grow back, hopefully soon!

Can You Tell He Dressed Himself?

This is Luke's newest preferred attire. He insists on wearing this cowboy get-up EVERYDAY (usually with shorts and a miss-matched shirt). This kid just cracks me up sometimes!

4th of July Celebration!

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July. We had a fun but loonnnnggg day. We started the day by going to Chris' Aunt Brenda's house for a cook-out and swimming. We were here for most of the day. The kids had a great time swimming and catching up with their cousins who they don't get to see very often. By the time we left they were completely exhausted and water-logged. Last night we went to watch Thunder on the Mountain, which is always an awesome fireworks show. This was quiet an eventful part of the evening because Chris locked his keys in the truck! Not the first time this has happened. You would think he would have learned his lesson after locking his keys in the truck the first 9465 times :) Anyway, we finally got them out with a coat-hanger and a screw driver just before the show started. (I'm telling you, he's done it so many times, he's an expert at breaking and entering locked cars!) Oh well, no biggie, he got them out, and we weren't stranded in Birmingham...

When we got home last night, we discovered that Crimson had decided to take a hike. We've had a problem with her jumping the fence lately, but she's never left sight of our house. When we got home, she was no where to be found. So, off I go, driving around looking for her (at midnight). Didn't find her. I was hoping she would have found her way back home by this morning, but she hadn't. Off I go again, driving around looking for her. I found her about a mile from the house walking down the road, and covered in mud. Of course, it was one of those times I had left my phone at home (you know...because, I never have it when I need it). Since she was covered from head-to-toe in BLACK mud, I couldn't put her in the car, didn't have a phone to call Chris to come and get her in the truck, I was afraid if I left her to go home and get the truck she wouldn't be there when I got back...what to do??? Have her follow me, of course! I drove home at about 4 mph with her trotting along side the car....I had no idea my car would go that slow! Just kidding....that's a joke about me and my driving habits! Anyway, she's home now, and hopefully will stay there. Any ideas about how to keep a 75 pound golden retriever from jumping a 4 ft fence? Maybe last night scared her into staying in there, she hasn't gotten out at all today!

All of the younger cousins enjoying the pool
Armed and dangerous! I don't know about everyone else, but I think the inventor of these water-soaking-gun thingy's needs their tail whipped! Anyone else agree?? The kids spent most of the day shooting each other with these things, which isn't that big of a problem, but when they got bored shooting each other, who do you think they turned to?? I think I was shot IN THE FACE with these things about 800 times yesterday!

Yes, that is my son who, until last week, was TERRIFIED of water. I'm talking, we had to pry him kicking, screaming, and clawing off the steps, and once you finally got him off the steps, it was survival of the fittest. He usually won, with the loser of the fight having battle wounds as proof of his victory. That was, until, Paul decided to just throw him in the middle of the pool. Once he realized his life-jacket would keep him afloat, he became an instant water baby. You'll even notice in most of these pics he's jumping, voluntarily, into the pool! I'm so proud of him for over-coming this fear. Although I have mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, I'm glad he can have a good time at the pool instead of just watching from the steps as everyone else is splashing around the pool. But on the other hand, I now have to constantly worry about him around water, when before I never had to worry about him voluntarily jumping in a pool.

Kaylyn has always been a little fish. She's really become a strong swimmer this summer.Totally loving Thunder on the MountainI attempted to shoot some of the fireworks. These are not the best fireworks pics in the world, in fact, they really don't look like fireworks, but I thought they were cool pics.