Ella and the potty

Ever since we went to Hilton Head (blog coming on that), Ella has wanted to sit on the potty. I guess just watching Lani sit on it and us talking about it, she decided she wanted to sit on the potty. She will be 19 months this week, so I not thinking potty training right now. But every time I change her diaper she says "potty" and goes to the door to the bathroom. So I started letting her sit on the potty at night before I put her to bed (will add pictures later). She thinks she is so big. She sits up there and has the biggest smile on her face. Then of course she wants to get the toilet paper and wipe. So I pull off one sheet for her...you know don't want to waste too much :) So anyway, we have been doing this a couple weeks and tonight she wanted to go potty as usual. So I put her up on the potty and the next thing I know she is tinkling in the potty. I was so surprised! I said "yeah Ella" and she just smiled! Our excitement for the night!

Finally...

It's been what, 3 weeks since I have written anything. I have lots to update, so we will see how much I get done. I am going to back date my blogs b/c I am using the blog for when I scrapbook. Robert has been in Chicago all week and got home last night. It was a good week and the girls did well. Last night we went to eat dinner with the Fuhrman's and it was Will's 1st Birthday. We went to Corsino's, which I had never been before, and had a great time. The food was wonderful and the kids had fun seeing each other. We got to sing Happy Birthday to Will and eat cupcakes. It was a great night!

Today we were up and going b/c Lani had soccer pictures at 8:00 and then her game at 9:00 of which I had to bring snack and drink. Robert is the assistant coach so him and Lani left for pictures while I got Ella ready and went to get the snacks. Lani had her first game (b/c what was suppose to be her first one got rained out) last Saturday and Robert and I were both out of town. Mom said it was so hot and Lani got tired of playing and came over and told her "I'm done". So after a not so fun first game, today was great. The weather was perfect and all the kids did great. Lani even kicked the ball at one time! I love sports and it was so much fun be able to watch for the first time.

We have had a fun afternoon playing outside and enjoying this beautiful weather! It's nap time and then off to my parents for dinner...and of course the Auburn game...WAR EAGLE!!! Hopefully better than last week.

Church Sprinkler Party

Each year Sheila plans a sprinkler party for the younger kids. She had to postpone it a couple times due to weather but we were finally able to have on Thursday. It ended up being great b/c the weather was so much cooler and the kids sure don't mind playing in the water when it's cool and it's a lot nicer for the parents. Sheila was not able to be there so Grayson and K.C. got all the pools and sprinklers set up for the kids and helped with all the lunches. The kids had fun and it was nice to visit with some friends.

After the sprinkler party we got to go meet Robert's family to celebrate Amie's birthday! We ate some yummy Mexican and the kids had fun seeing each other. The Gulledges and Amie's in laws got to join us which was nice as well. Happy Birthday Amie!!

Trip to Bham

While Robert is out of town, we decided to head to Bham for a visit. It happened that my parents were going to be going up as well to help Beau put up his storage unit. So, we all rode together and headed up to Bham Monday afternoon. We dropped my parents off at my grandparents and had a very quick visit. Then we headed over to my friend Melissa's house. We are friends from college (not the same Melissa from the Mt House trip) and lived together a couple times while there. We do pretty good keeping in touch with each other, but life gets busy with kids. So it was good to see them and have plenty of time to visit. She was sweet to fix us all dinner and the kids had a good time playing together. She has Josh who is 5, Kate who is 3 and Chase who is about 21 months. So our kids are close in age. We spent the night with them so after putting kids to bed, I got to visit with her and Boyd. I love getting to talk with them and getting to catch up on everything.

On Tuesday, we headed over to my sisters house and let the kids play while dad and Beau worked on the storage unit in the back yard. Our kids and the Stalcups (behind my sister) all had fun playing together. After the new storage unit was up, we cleaned out the old one and tore it down and drug everything out to the street. It made the backyard look so much better. Late afternoon we left and were planning on visiting more with my grandparents but ran out of time. We told them a quick goodbye and headed back home. Next time we are going to visit with my grandparents before doing anything else. I love my sweet grandparents and love getting to see them. I sure am blessed to have all my grandparents still living!

Mt. House getaway!

What a fun weekend!! I got to go to my parents Mt. House this weekend with some of my AOPi girl friends from college. We have tried to get together at least once a year to catch up and visit with each other. We have been to Gatlinburg, the lake, Auburn and this year I planned for us to go to the Mt. House. When I planned it, I was planning on Robert keeping the girls. Well, it ended up he had to leave for Chicago early Sat morning for the week. Therefore I had to work it out with grandparents to keep the girls for the weekend. It all worked out fine though and I got to leave Friday mid morning with Andrea to head to north GA.


We got there a little before Melissa and Elizabeth who came from Bham and then a few hours later Brie made it down from Cincinnati. We missed Lauren, Melanie and Crissy! Hopefully we can all get together next year!


We started our weekend off by heading to eat at Blue Ridge BBQ and we walked in about 3 minutes before they closed. They were very nice to still serve us and we ate our yummy food outside on the porch. They have good BBQ and wonderful BBQ chicken salad - YUM!!! After our good dinner we headed to the grocery store to gather our food for the weekend. Then went home to relax and talk. We all slept downstairs in the bunk bed room which has 2 sets of bunk beds with queen beds on the bottom and twin on top. Melissa was worried about the Mountainnnn Mannnn! Really, he was our joke all weekend.


We woke up late on Saturday and slowly took our time before heading out to tube the Tacoa. We found our place and waited for Nick to load us up on the bus. He was having a hard time getting everyone straight and figuring it all out and his girlfriend just sat in a chair while we were the ones offering to help him. But we got loaded up and headed to the river up stream. Now Melissa was not so sure of this tubing b/c she really did not want to see snacks....terrified of snacks. Of course Nick has to mention that there are snacks but if you stay towards the middle of the river you should be fine. Elizabeth and I got out into the river while Melissa, Andrea and Brie were a little behind b/c Melissa wanted there tubes to be tied together with her in the middle. She did not want to float close to the side! It was a nice slow float down the river with little rapids...I mean little! Of course Melissa was the one to get stuck on a rock which was hilarious. But we had a fun time on the water!


After tubing, we headed back to the house for a quick change before heading to the downtown Blue Ridge. We only had about an hour and a half before all the stores closed. We walked around a little bit and then got some food at Great Eats which is a French cafe. That was the first time I have eaten there and it was really good also. Then we finished our shopping at the General Store where we got some fun old fashioned candy for us and the kids and then to the Chocolate shop for some fudge! Yummy! We headed back home to hang out and then had a great dinner! Brie had made us some homemade salsa to snack on (oh so good) and then Andrea cooked out some chicken, Elizabeth cooked some vegetables in the oven and we had baked potatoes. We ate outside on the big table with the candles mom had left out for us! It was a wonderful night.


Now for the real fun...we later got in the hot tub. We were all looking forward to relaxing in the hot tub. Now my parents house is in a subdivision, but with very few houses. They are on the top of the Mt with no one really around them and very dark. Again, Melissa has been joking on the Mountainnn Mannn (you would have to hear her say it) all weekend. So we get in the hot tob and it doesn't take long before Melissa is moving towards me asking if I heard that. No Melissa, didn't hear anything. A few minutes later, there is some more rustling. Melissa is not so sure about this anymore. Then all the sudden Elizabeth jumps which makes us all jump and Brie puts her head under water! We all jump out and walk up to the door laughing so hard. Melissa is sure the Mountainnn Mannn is down under the hot tub. I tell them I'm sure there are some racoons and other wild animals out in the woods. After several minutes we head back to the hot tub, no jets this time. As we are sitting there, we finally figure out the noise Melissa kept hearing was when water would splash out and hit the deck and then fall to the ground below. Melissa could not ever really relax so after a short time we headed back inside. We had some good laughs with that! You just have to know Melissa!!!


Oh, forgot to mention we watched the Auburn game...where we played awful....and won with a score of 3-2! Wow!


Sunday morning we got up and cleaned up everything before heading to town to eat at Repaz's for brunch! Again, a wonderful restaurant and brunch was great! We didn't have one bad thing to eat all weekend! We then said our goodbye's and everyone headed back to their homes. It was such a fun weekend and so good to see my friends and catch up. I wish we could do it more often. We sure did miss Lauren, Melanie and Crissy! I'm looking forward to our next reunion girls!

Field Trip to the Vet

Lani had her first Field Trip this year to the Veterinarian or Animal Hospital as they called it. We almost forgot to wear our green Frazer shirt until Lauren called wanting to borrow one back that she had given to me. Glad she called :) Rebekah and I rode together and took Lani, Luke and John down the road to Taylor Crossing Animal Hospital. This place is very nice! What's funny is we drive by it going to school and one day Lani mentioned seeing some dogs playing. I didn't know what she was talking about. So one day she showed me and I saw the big fenced in area where the dogs get to come outside and run around and play. Rebekah said she had never noticed it before either.

Well, the kids had fun watching the vet check out the sweet lab and then they got to see some x-rays, then they got to see on the TV screen inside the dogs ear (as well as one of the guys working there :)), and the favorite was watching the dogs run out and jump in the dog bone shaped pool. Those dogs were having a blast chasing the ball and jumping in and out. And then finally was watching them play on the play set area. It was a fun field trip and the kids really enjoyed it!

First Soccer Game

I don't remember if I have posted about Lani playing soccer, but she is getting to play for the first time this year and she is playing through Frazer, Sonshine Soccer! I tried to get Robert to coach but he was not so sure about that. He played in High School and I knew Lani would love that. Robert said maybe next year. Well, my friend (Susan) from work's little boy, Drew, was playing. They ended up being short on coaches so they called Drew's daddy, Rob to coach. Rob played sports in high school, but has never played soccer. He agreed to coach, but Susan called me and told me Robert had to be the assistant :) So Robert ended up getting to coach! Lani was very excited.

Monday was the first game and we all got ready and headed out to the fields. Everyone had their blankets and chairs out and the kids were practicing on the field. They annouced each team and each player on team and blew the whistle to start. Literally a minute after blowing the whistle, a big bolt of lightning came out of the sky. So we all had to pack up and head to the cars where they eventually called off the games.

We ended up going to eat with the Macrory's at Mellow Mushroom. Mattie had come to the game along with Preston's grandparents (Mattie and them are best friends), so we all had a good time visiting at dinner. The kids obviously didn't mind missing out on the game!

Hilton Head

After our exciting week of birthday celebration and shots, we got to head to Hilton Head. We left Friday, but Lani had to first go to school so during Chapel she could go on stage and be wished Happy Birthday. Every child that has a birthday that week gets to go on stage and say hey to mommy's and daddy's and then everyone sings Happy Birthday to them.
So after that, we headed out for the week long trip to Hilton Head. In one car was me, Robert, my sister, her baby, Zoe and then Ella. We were in Robert's dad suburban so we had plenty of room. In the other car was mom, dad, Lani, Cole and Judah. So as we head down the road mom had packed food for us to have a picnic. On the other side of Columbus, we look on the GPS for a park area. It finds one and we head to it...it showed green space, but all we saw was a trailer park :) No stopping for picnic there and we headed to our usually stop at Lane's which is similar to the Peach Park. We ate our lunch while be attached by flies and then let the kids play on the playset for a little bit before heading on down the road. We got to Hilton Head around 8:30 and had to get the kids straight to bed.

Here is a run down of our week (Beau came down Sunday and Robert had to leave Tuesday):

1. We got to stay in 2 two bedroom condos instead of our normal 3 bedroom condo. Mom and dad in one with Cole, Lani and Judah. Me, Robert and Ella and Ashley, Beau and Zoe in the other. It worked out great except Lani and Judah kept talking at night and wouldn't go to sleep so Judah had to sleep on a pallet in the room with mom and dad. Of course Lani and Cole woke up all week around 6:00 - glad we were in the other condo - thanks MOM!!


2. We started things off with Ella tripping out the door to the patio and busting her lip up bad. She had a big cut inside and it got swollen for a few days, but she was good to go.


3. We swam a lot and the kids loved it. Cole was doing awesome swimming by himself and Lani did well also. Ella and Judah would play in the pool, but had fun in the splash water area. We threw Lani and Cole in the air and let them land in the water. By the end of the week, my dad and Beau were throwing Lani way up in the air. She loved it. But every time Beau would throw her he would say "oh no" b/c it was so high and she would start to do flips and he thought she would get hurt. But she loved it and kept going back for more.


4. We did smores one night at the firepit which is always fun for the kids. Ella kept eating all the marshmallows and Lani had fun roasting hers. We then went to the ocean while it was low tide and the kids got to run around in the water and play. That's the best time to go out there. It's totally different from our beaches in the gulf and not nearly as pretty, but it can be a lot of fun.


5. We rented bikes and went riding several days. I took the bike trailer for Ella, Lani and Judah rode on the bakes of the big bikes and Cole had his own. We rode a little to far one day and Cole got very tired, but he made it back.


6. There are activities for the kids so one day the 3 older ones went to a pirate party. Mom and dad took them and they got to go on a scavenger hunt. Cole found the prize for everyone and then they got to make necklaces. They had a good time. The next day Lani got to go to the Princess party which she had done last year. She got to dress up in a princess dress and have a cookie and juice. Then she made a bracelet and a tiara. She loves it!


7. We played putt-putt one night. Last year we got there and had just started playing and Lani started not feeling good. She had a temp and didn't want to walk anymore. So we missed getting to play and took her back to the condo to get medicine and go to bed. So it was fun to get to play this year. Me, Beau, Cole, Lani and Judah played while mom and Ashley kept up with the little ones. The course is a lot of fun with waterfalls and such. Judah did not want anyone to help him and had fun playing on his own. Lani and Cole ended up with the same score and I beat Beau - good game though Beau!


8. Lani met a little girl at the pool named Annie. Of course she loved her name b/c she is all into Annie now. She was just a little older and so sweet. We got to know the family and they were very sweet. They live in NC and come to Hilton Head the same time each year that we do. So hopefully we will get to know them better and the kids will have fun playing. Dad is going to try and play golf with the men next year.


9. We went to the Sandbox which is a fun interactive playhouse for the kids. They have a post office area, an airplane cockpit, a kitchen, a rock climbing wall, a pirates ship, a construction area and then upstairs is books, arts and crafts and puppets. It is very cute and the kids love it. We had a little picnic outside (which went much better this time) before heading inside. They played with everything and had fun before heading back to take naps.


10. One night me, Robert, Ashley and Beau got to go out to eat dinner by ourselves. Oh, how nice! We went to Truffles, same as last year, and the food was so good! We enjoyed our evening out and are so thankful to mom and dad for keeping the 5 kids for us!


I think that sums up the week! It was a great time with lots of fun activities to do! We look forward to our family trip every year! Thanks mom and dad for a great vacation!