John Deere Green

Bringing Grandaddy lunch...$5.00

Getting to ride in a BIG tractor...priceless!  

In the past few years, Blake's parents have both retired from teaching.  With many years in the classroom, it was time for Grandaddy to focus on what he loved the most....farming!  Since then he stays very busy during planting and harvesting seasons.   But has lots of free time otherwise! So recently, Little Man got to take his first officially tractor ride!   He wasn't scared and sat all by himself in the "buddy" seat.  I'm sure it will the first of many.  

Grandaddy and LM

Waving "bye bye!!"

All aboard....

Getting ready to take a ride!

Waving to Mommy and Grammie!  

Our days between Soap Operas! :)

It's funny.  Lots of times I get the question, "So, now that you stay at home, what do you do all day?  Do you watch Soap Operas?"  Are you kidding me?!?!?  No.  In fact, the truth is, sometimes I feel busier during the day now than I did when I was teaching.  However, it's a different kind of busy.  One that I wouldn't trade for the world.  Staying at home with my little babe has been so rewarding.  I feel blessed that I have been able to marvel at this sweet face from day one...

and now I'm doing the same on day 633 (yes, I calculated it!)

Did I mention I have the best job in the world?

So, what are we doing with our days?

Little Man and I have a fairly busy schedule.  We have regular weekly play dates, story hour at the library twice a week, music class for toddlers, play at the park, or frequent Hopscotch's Play Place.  Other days we go visit grandparents or even just hang out at the house for the day.   

Thought I would share some of our fun times.  Just some things we do while I'm not watching Soap Operas!  ha!  

Reading w/ our buddies Laurie and the twins, Luke and Jackson!  

Laurie and I use to teach together, but now we both stay at home with our boys!  

They were all concentrating so hard!  

Luke is telling Layton all about baseball!

Now he is showing him!  Isn't this cute?

Layton learning his alphabet! *notice the horse in his left hand...it is practical glued to him!*

Lunch at Cosmo's with Jacob! 

Playing at Hopscotch!

Push Jackson, Push!

Layton and I attend a music class called Musikgarten w/ Ms. Kari!  She is wonderful!  She used to be a Middle School music teacher, but now she stays at home w/ her daughters and teaches toddler music classes. 

Music class - putting up our instruments!

So, the rest of the day is spent running a few errands (grocery shopping, Target!), preparing and eating lunch followed by Layton's nap.  This is my time to pick up, clean the house, do some laundry, work on homework (yes, I'm back in school!) and think about what to fix for dinner.  We also like to take an afternoon walk around the neighborhood.  The day passes so fast that before we realize it...Daddy's home!!!!  

Did you see any time to fit in a Soap Opera?  Ah, no....I didn't think so either!  :)

Mad Science!

Our small group from church recently visited the Nashville Children's Science Museum. I was extremely excited about this trip due to my former job as a geeky science teacher - this was "right up my alley"!  I was anxious to see what fun demonstrations would be set up for little ones.  To my surprise, it was all age appropriate, yet everything was still fun and educational. Little Man really enjoyed all the gadgets and hands on toys.  We all had a great time (parents included!).  We'll definitely have to make it an annual trip. 

What does this do?

Hold on, Anslee's driving!!!

Ms. Addison, our newest and littlest member of the group, hung out with the big kids too! 

Anslee sharing her snack with Jake

Sweet Jenna

Andrea, Brooke and me

What's under the door? A dinosaur! 

Putting the bug back together....

Our day ended with a trip to PF Changs!  Yummy!  We have a huge group....so here is half of us: Anslee, Josh, Brooke, Meyer, Catherine, Luke, Jake and Jenna.

And the second half - Brad, Addison, Kara, Tom, Me, Andrea and Alexis.  Blake must have been hiding when this picture was taken?!  Imagine that! ha!

I finally snapped a picture of Blake holding LM at dinner.  He was so exhausted from a full day of fun and soaking up all the new things he learned!  :) 

My sweet babe on the way home!  Are those lips sweet or what? 

Weekend at the Lake House, part 1 and 2

Weekends are as peaceful and as relaxing as anyone could imagine.   Moods instantly change for the better and the laid back atmosphere is highly contagious.   

There is really nothing like it! 

What is it? 

A lake house.  (*The only thing better would be a house on a sandy white beach facing the Gulf*)

In the past few months, we have traveled to the lake house several times.  One weekend was strictly a "girls weekend"!  The other was with our good friends and their boys.    

Our girls weekend consisted of....no husbands or babies, good food (Patti's), massages, facials, shopping and relaxing afternoons to quietly talk and play games.  There was no "schedule" and we slept in as late as we wanted!  It was definitely "what the doctor ordered". An unforgettable weekend with some of my best girls!  Ah, now that I am thinking about it....I can't wait to go back!  :)   I was sad that this is the only picture that we took.  

The second weekend was with the Love's.  We had been talking about spending a weekend away for a long time.  It finally happened!  The little boys had so much fun!  We grilled out, went swimming, watched movies, shopped, slept, played games and made smores.  

Ready to run after a long car ride...

N and L are so close in age (3 days apart) it's like having twins.  

After a swim, both boys were tired!

Wrestling...boys will be boys!  *notice N is on top in both pics*

Cindy and N

Cindy and I were so excited to have a "couples night" after the baby boys had gone to bed.  We thought we would watch a movie, pop some popcorn or play cards!  But, to our surprise, this is how we found the big boys when we went downstairs.  ASLEEP!  Yeah, we didn't let it rain on our parade, we still stayed up and had some quality girl time!  

Blake and I were so grateful to his parents for opening up their house for us to use, back to back.  Thanks Grammie and Grandaddy!  Thank goodness for the lake house and thank God for good friends!  :) 

I'm way behind.  Look for several new posts and lots of pictures...coming VERY soon!  

Eggs in his Basket

Little Man went to an Easter egg hunt at his Grammie and Granddaddy's church this week.  I was excited for him to experience his first, "hunt"!  It was quite chilly and a little windy, but it was fun!  I wasn't sure Little Man would know what to do, but was I wrong!  He did great!!  :) It was so sweet to watch him calmly hunt for the eggs.  Every once in a while, he would look up at us with a puzzled look on his face, shrug and say, "Where?"  We would point to a hidden egg, then he would shuffle over and pick up his treasure!  Ahhhh, it melted my heart!  

Hunting, Hunting!  

Easter eggs

Putting them in his basket

More eggs!

Grammie the boys

L.M. and his cousin, Clay

So sweet!  

Saying hello to Uncle Bryson

Love this picture!

He was so tired on the way home.....exahusted from all the excitement!  :)

Happy Easter!  

As as much fun as we had, I want to make sure Little Man knows the true reason for Easter.  It has nothing to do with eggs, baskets, bunnies or chocolates.  But EVERYTHING to do with an empty tomb that proves my Savior LIVES!!!

Did I mention....

these are my FAVORITE boys in the whole wide world?

Ok, just checking!  :)