Abby's Baby

Abby sure loves her babies.  And her speech constantly amazes me.  Yesterday she was trying to carry two babies into the car, but she couldn't climb in the door [and letting Mommy help her isn't even an option].  So she handed me a baby and proceeded to get in the car.  Meanwhile I set the baby in her carseat.  When she worked her way over there, her whole face lit up and she exclaimed: "There's my baby in my carseat!!"  [yes she said all six words very clearly and excitedly]. 

Happy Birthday Party to Abby

Alrighty, I think this might be the last birthday post!  You'll have to bear with me; three birthdays in nine days means lots of birthday fun! 

We had Abby's birthday party Saturday afternoon.  It was a monkey themed party since she loves her stuffed monkey so much.  Once we picked the theme, we realized it really was perfect for her.  She loves her monkeys, she already has a monkey shirt she loves to wear, she does the cutest version of "no more monkeys jump bed," and both she and her big brother are silly monkeys :)  In line with the monkey-ness, we had a monkey- bean bag- banana toss, banana bread muffins, banana pudding, monkey cupcakes, and all sorts of monkey decor. 

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for coming early to help us finish up frosting cupcakes, hanging decorations, setting out drinks, cutting fruits, cooking baked beans, and all sorts of other last minute details.  We grilled out burgers & dogs and had all sorts of other fun munchies.  We are blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members to celebrate with; there were seventeen kids running around!  Abby had a great time with all her little buddies, especially Anna Wynn & JJ.  Those two adored her and followed her around most of the party.  Ryan loved having lots of his friends around too including cousin Maxim, yay!  And yes, Abby did burn herself a bit on the candle.  Despite having blown out candles before, she apparently was so focused on taking a bite she forgot about the flame.  Oops!  But after a two second cry, she moved on to eating the cupcake and all was better again. 

Thanks to everyone who came to party with us and made Abby's birthday such a special event!  We appreciate each one of you! 

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!!  We love you!

Happy Birthday to Coleson!

Not only that, but happy 30th birthday!!  Welcome to being old my Dear! 

To celebrate Coleson's birthday, we spent last weekend down in Atlanta.  Most of the events were a surprise, so that was fun.  We dropped the kids with Nana & Pop-Pop at about noon [thank you!!] and started our adventure with some delicious pizza at Taste of Italy.  It could have something to do with being pregnant, but that was some good pizza :)  From there we headed to Atlanta.  We first went to the World of Coke.  I tried my best to come up with something fun, but not too touristy since we do live in Atlanta and all [and Coleson refuses to do the segway tour with me!].  So seeing as it's been at least fifteen years since either of us have been to Coke, we've never been together, and the kids wouldn't enjoy it, it seemed like a good choice.  It was nice to do something just the two of us.  We saw the vault that contains the secret recipe, a 4-d movie [fortunately since I'm pregnant we got to sit in the stationary seats; those things looked wild!], and lots of Coke memorabilia.  We sampled Coke from all over, which was a lot nastier than I thought it'd be!  By the time we got to North America and classic Coke, my taste buds were shot.  While lots of fun, it's crazy to think that you have to pay them to advertise to you all afternoon long! 

After that we headed to our hotel - the Intercontinental Buckhead [thank you to Barbara & Jim for hotel points!!].  It was a beautiful hotel and pretty cool to realize we'd been there before for an Imedex Christmas party.  We relaxed for a bit before heading to Maggiano's for dinner.  It was the closest place we could walk to and the food was very good.  We were surrounded by high schoolers on prom night which we hadn't expected; that'll make you feel old! 

The next morning we walked to breakfast at Caribou Coffee and then to Buckhead Church.  Buckhead is part of Northpoint, just like our church Watermarke.  The building itself was amazing - set back in a surprisingly lush area with beautiful trees.  To use the space best, they built up with four or five stories and floor to ceiling windows.  The music, lights, effects were all crazy good and the opener was right up there with any concert I've ever been to.  Of course it's too far away and we love our church, but I'm so glad we got to visit and now I'm even more excited for our future, permanent location!

Thanks again to Barbara and Jim for making Coleson's birthday surprise possible!  We really appreciate the hotel points and the babysitting!

Coleson's actual birthday was yesterday.  We celebrated with a big family brunch and my awesome mother made us hiffakickles, yummmm!  Thanks to Dad for manning the griddle of bacon, sausage, & eggs and to Mom for the hiffakickles.  After Abby's party on Saturday, I was exhausted and I couldn't have pulled off brunch without their help.  And as an added surprise to Coleson, the Isbell family showed up.  Thanks for driving all the way out to Canton; I know it meant a lot to Coleson to have David there to celebrate with us [and I got to see Farah, yay!].  After the gang all left, we collapsed on the couch, watched some tv, took naps, and just tried to recover.  We had a nice, casual dinner at the Mexican place.  Coleson's mom was able to join us for that and we all had fun singing Happy Birthday to Coleson, trying on the sombrero hat, and sharing bites of his ice cream dessert. 

So now we are both officially in our 30's and old!  I hope you had a wonderful birthday my Dear and I look forward to many, many more fun birthdays with you!  I love you!

Happy Birthday to me

So Tuesday nights are our small group nights and Nana was watching the kids last night for us.  As a birthday present to me, she offered to have the kids stay and spend the night so I could sleep in on my birthday.  And I must say that was AWESOME!!!  She dropped Ryan off at preschool and then brought Abby home and I slept ten hours last night, yay!  So when I picked Ryan up at noon, it was the first I'd seen him on my birthday.  His teacher, Ms. Kathy, walked him to the car and wished me a Happy Birthday.  I said something about oh no, did Ryan tell everyone.  She said he was very proud of his Mommy's birthday and yes, he'd told everyone.  That was pretty cool in itself, but then Ryan jumped into the car and climbed over to me.  He gave me the biggest hug ever and wished me a Happy Birthday.  Quite possibly the best birthday present ever.  Thanks Buddy, I love you!!

Happy Birthday to you Abby

A bit belated ... but Happy Birthday Abby!!  Our sweet Baby Girl turned two on Friday the 13th.  It's hard to believe she's already two!!  Abby had a great birthday and really loved all the attention she got :)  While she may not fully understand the concept of birthdays, she certainly knew it was hers and that everyone was making an extra big deal about her!  She walked around all day saying "Happy Birthday to You Abby!"  So cute. 

We started the day at McDonald's for breakfast with Grandma.  Abby asked for yogurt and ate every bite.  And Grandma even brought cupcakes too, yumm.  The cashier gave Abby a My Little Pony kids meal toy that she carried around the rest of the day. 

From there, we headed to the pediatrician for her two year checkup.  She did very well, especially when we realized she didn't need any shots!  She weighed 26lbs which is in the 40th-something percentile and was just about 34ins tall, the 50th percentile for height.  Her head is still of course in the 90th percentile.  Her kidneys look great and we'll actually be able to go to Ryan's pediatrician from here on out for basic checkups and sick visits, yay!!  We love her doctor, but we haven't been thrilled with the rest of the practice and we won't miss the 45+min drive to Dunwoody!  We'll check back in with her doctor when she's about 3 1/2yrs just to make sure the kidney's still growing correctly and we'll still have the urologist too. 

After lunch at home, naptime, etc, we went out to dinner with Daddy to Chick-fil-a: Abby's choice!  I'm still amazed that at two years old she communicates so well and knows so many places & people & whatnot :)  She ate every bite of her kids' meal: six nuggets, applesauce, and milk.  We came home and gave her some presents; her favorite was a little pink water bottle.  Kids are silly!  Grandma & Grandpa then joined us for some chocolate chip cookie, oreo, brownie, layered, yumminess, dessert!  Abby even helped sing along to Happy Birthday. 

What a wonderful day of celebrating with plenty more fun still to come!  We love you so much our sweet Baby Girl!  Happy Happy Birthday!!

Ryan on hair care

This actually happened about two weeks ago, but I've meaning to blog about it since I thought it to be pretty funny.  I was straightening my hair in the bathroom when Ryan asked what I was doing [even though we talk about this every time I do my hair, he still likes to ask :)].  So I explained that I was straightening my hair and said something along the lines of: "Mommy likes her hair straight and flat but when I get out of the shower it's big and poofy."

Ryan's response: "Oh, it looks like Abby's hair!"

Poor Abs.

the Petting Zoo

We have a pretty cool little farm near our house where you can walk through and pet all sorts of miniature animals.  We've always enjoyed it and I've taken Ryan several times.  The only downfall is it's crazy expensive!  So when poor Abby came along, Mommy couldn't justify the cost of three people [we could seriously go to Catch Air eight times for unlimited play for the price of the three of us to go once and even if you try to pet the animals slowly, you're still done in about half an hour]. 

But I had a feeling Abby would love it and so I decided a couple of months ago that I would take her for her birthday.  And that's just what we did.  While Ryan was in preschool last Wednesday, Abby & I had a mother/daughter date to the petting zoo.  And wow, did she ever love the animals!  I was so glad we went!  She was right up there petting little sheep and goats and baby cows.  She would pet them and feed them and say hi & bye and wasn't even bothered when the big bullies of sheep tried to pin her in the corner to get her bread.  She didn't care too much for the pig [and seeing as he was standing in his super nasty water trough, I was okay with that].  She also didn't like the turkeys, but I remember that from taking Ryan; those things are ugly, big & apparently super scary to kids!

So happy early birthday to my sweet Abby girl!

Tacos and Rock Stars

Last week Ryan had his first taco!  Mommy, huge lover of Mexican food, is very excited about all the possibilities this opens up :)  I took the kids to Moe's for lunch last Monday because it was where I wanted to go; Ryan of course wanted Wendy's & a cheeseburger and nothing to do with his usual quesadilla.  So when we got there we looked at all the pictures and he settled on a taco, although he was adamant about no lettuce on it!  He ate every bite, as did Abby with her quesadilla.  It was a very fun lunch with my babies!

In other news, Abby is becoming quite the princess of fashion.  Both kids love wearing the sunglasses that the Easter Bunny brought them.  They look amazing of course.  However, Abby takes it to a whole new level.  She likes to pick her own headbands in the morning with no regard for colors or matching.  She will also usually add whatever bracelets [or anything else that will fit her wrist] that she can find.  And the occasional necklace too.  Keeping in mind she did this all by herself, here's one of her looks from last week:

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter everyone!  We celebrated by hanging out some more with Maxim and crew on Saturday morning.  After playing and eating lunch at Nana & Pop-Pop's, we headed back to our neighborhood for an egg hunt.  The kids had a great time and I was very impressed with how well the egg hunt was done.  Abby was all about it!  At one point she set her basket down freeing up both hands to gather the eggs as quickly as she could!  Ryan and Maxim did great as well.  Despite trying to slow him down to save eggs for everyone, Ryan collected twenty-four eggs!  I think the neighborhood must have supplemented the egg donations as they were everywhere.  We enjoyed playing on the playground for a few minutes and visiting with our neighbor friends.

Saturday night we went to the Easter service at church.  Ryan was a little out of whack what with going to church on Saturday and all, so he just came into the service with us.  It was great fun having him in there with us actually.  We loved watching him get into the songs and wave his arms around!  He sat calmly during the service and colored with some supplies Ms. Ericah brought him. 

Sunday morning the kids went to Nana & Pop-Pop's while we volunteered at church.  Then we joined up with the whole family for brunch and some Easter games.  The egg toss got a little out of control [surprise] and we all had a good laugh watching Coleson and Nana chase each other around the yard.  We also had an awesome cheering section - the kids were so cute waving the flags from their golf set.  Ryan then went home with Grandma & Grandpa to plant flowers while the rest of us napped :)  They then joined us for a yummy steak dinner, thanks!

Happy Easter to all and happy spring! 

fun with Maxim

We spent the past four days with cousin Maxim and it was been a blast!  Maxim and Auntie Sarah arrived in town on Thursday and we met them in Cumming for Catch Air & Pizza Hut.  The kids had a great time playing together and Abby immediately took to Auntie Sarah, her new bff.  She would even throw herself out of my arms for Auntie Sarah!  After play, play, playing and eat, eat, eating we all came back to the house for naps and quiet time.  Later in the evening Auntie Sarah left for a movie and we had a sleepover party with Maxim, yay!  After a quick dinner, we rode bikes for awhile.  Abby's tricycle officially became an outside toy and she did pretty well for her first real attempt at pedaling.  As long as she was on a slight downhill and Daddy was following behind her, she was fine :)  Then all three cousins enjoyed splashing in the big tub and convincing them to go to sleep after such an exciting day was no problem at all!

We started Friday morning eating breakfast at McDonald's and playing in the playplace.  Yumm, pancakes!  We then enjoyed walking Target [remember those earlier posts about swimming pools and playgrounds?  didn't happen!  just in time for Maxim's arrival the weather went overcast and down into the 60s, boo.].  Friday night featured a double date dinner for Mommy, Daddy, Auntie Sarah, & Uncle Christian.  A delicious dinner at Pure was followed by walking downtown Woodstock during a street festival of sorts.  Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for keeping our babies for us!  They had a blast dying eggs; Abby had the blue hand to prove it!