Savannah, Here They Come

You never know when you are going to encounter someone that will become a friend for life...someone that will be in your life forever! That was exactly what happened to me five years ago this August as I walked into my first official "teacher workshop". I sat down next to another young woman and we have been friends ever since. My first year of teaching we taught 6th grade together. She was my lifesaver. We even had babies born exactly four weeks apart...to the day. The next time around it was almost 3 months to the day. Unfortunately, my friend Jessica and I only lived in Springfield, IL for 3 years at the same time. We moved to Evansville, IN for Nate's residency. Now, 2 years later, they stopped by for a few short hours as they are beginning a grand new adventure for their family. They, as I type, are on their way to Savannah, Georgia. Paul has a job there, and they are getting to live in a part of the country they have dreamed of living. I am so excited for them as they begin this new adventure. There is a selfish part of me that is sad because now we are over 10 hours apart instead of 4. I guess now we just have friends that live in a cool place to go visit!! I am already trying to get Nate to pick a travel date for us to go visit in the spring! I am so glad that we got to spend a little bit of time together today as they headed east.

Here is our crew in all of their glory...
Mikayla age 10 is holding Malayna age 11 months (almost), Maddie Shae age 7 holding Nolan age 8 months (almost), Hallie Kate age 3, McKenna age 3...who knows how many this shot will hold years down the road! At least the four big girls are looking at the camera!

Maddie Shae is cracking me up...she is looking and smiling at the camera in every shot!
Lulu is not happy that we keep having Mikayla take the bottle out of her mouth for the picture.

Oh yeah...go Maddie...full on smile! HK and McKenna are starting to get bored with this game!

Nolan is definitely checking out Maddie's smile!

Lulu decided that the bottle has been taken out one too many times!

Nolan is definitely trying to help Lulu out...give her that bottle!! HK is starting to get a little concerned by all of the crying. Maddie still has her groove on...oh yeah! Or Nolan could've gotten ticked off because he just realized the girl to boy ratio is 5:1, and he is not happy about that??? Who knows why crying is contagious?

The divas are reunited!

These two are two peas in a pod! The girls had a great time playing this afternoon...definitely could've gone on for a few more hours!

This move that McKenna busted out is classic!

Had a popsicle break, of course!


These girls are so entertaining and fun to watch!


"Buh-kenna" & "Pallie Kate"...that's what they call each other! These are the two crazy divas/princesses that were born 4 weeks apart when Jessica and I taught together in Springfield. I should've waited and told HK that McKenna was coming about 5 minutes before they arrived. If she asked me once, she asked me 1,000 times when "buh-kenna" was coming, when her company would get her, when is Ms Jessica and Mr Paul and the girls getting here...so on and so on! They were actually going to get here Thursday evening but had car problems. HK was already in bed when they realized they would not be here until Friday morning. I had to go in and tell HK the girls would not be here to sleep in her room tonight and explain why. She was very concerned and wanted to know how the car crashed. I had to explain that it didn't crash... that a part just broke. Then she wanted to know if Mr. Paul had his tools out. Yes....Then she said..."He will fix it and then it will probably go." She was sastisfied until morning, and then the questioning of when they would arrive began all over again .

Paul & Jessica...I pray the very best for you all as this new phase of life begins! I am so thankful for your friendship! You will never know how much you have impacted my life, and I would do just about anything for you guys! I love you and your sweet girls! I can't wait to stay tuned in to your world through your blog! I look forward to many more pictures and memories together!

I Want Some Corn!

I have decided that Nolan definitely has a fascination and great desire to devour some corn on the cob. If you remember back to the 4th of July he was eye balling Greatie's corn on the cob. He was not happy that she wasn't sharing with him.

Well last night we had corn on the cob...and let's just say he was staring his Daddy down for that corn... even gave him the eyebrow raise! He even began to make some great sound effects!
"Oh Daddy...I think I could gnaw on that pretty good for awhile!"

"Ahhh yeah...Daddy is the sucker. Uuummm--Mmmmm! This is gonna be great!"

"Hold the phone...Hold your horses...I really don't care what you hold....just give me back that corn!"

"Oh please...I just need one more gnaw!"

"What did I ever do to deserve that kind of torture. You know they say you can't eat just one...same thing applies here...You can't just gnaw once!!!"

The Worker Girl Strikes Again

"The Worker Girl"...this is what HK calls herself when she gets her tool box out to fix something. She didn't share her tools with Nolan, but he got an ice cream cone instead. He's trying to figure out why he got this instead of a tool? That's okay though...she pretty much is always confusing him!


Okay...he decides the ice cream cone is better than a silly old tool anyway! HK is fixing his highchair.
HK: Watch me very closely No-won. This is how you use the hammer.
Cheese
Whack...oh you knew her desire to use a tool on his head was going to get the best of her at any moment! At least it was just a soft tap...and not a real whack.

Now does that look like the face of a sweet sister that would use a hammer on the nose of her brother??? This is her official "sweet" pose. When I tell her to smile sweetly for me...this is what you get!
Her hair is officially long enough...sort of...for a high ponytail again. I think it makes her look like so much older.
I was fixing supper and looked over to make sure that Nolan was not being terrorized to terribly. I saw HK just sitting and staring and did not see Nolan anywhere. Upon further examination...
Here is where I found him. No...he did not crawl. He has been able to roll both ways for awhile, but he would rarely roll belly to back. He has now discovered that he can roll, turn, and scoot to get where he wants to be.
Hahahahahaha....look what I can do now Mommy!

Correction

For some reason last night when I was typing, I thought today was Thursday.
However, I just realized that today is just Wednesday and therefore it is not Aunt Chloe Ann's birthday day today!!....ooops!

Since today is Wednesday and now tomorrow is Thursday, I can correctly say today Happy Birthday tomorrow Aunt Chloe Ann.

Are you confused? So am I.

So whatever...Happy Birthday all week!

Home Again, Home Again...

Ahhh, to be home again after several days.
We were gone from Thursday-Monday. We had a great time, but it was nice to be home again and even better to finally see Daddy!
HK & Nolan played in the floor together most of the morning after getting home on Monday.
When I looked over...HK had covered them both up with some of Nolan's toys under the blanket as well. I saw these adorable little feet poking out.

Oh and eventually the smiley face began to poke out...

I finally made her pull it off of their faces...quite frankly because I did not trust what she might do under that blanket!!!

"Look Mommy, we are cozy and playn' with toys."

"Bubba I gettn' your boogies"....Sorry buddy I didn't catch her sooner! He did not like this too much!
"Uh, sissy I think you got the boogies. I think you can quit diggin in my nose now!"
"Come on Mom...what were you doin'. You can't just leave me at her mercy like that. Have you ever had a 3 yr old girl dig in your nose?"
Oh and they were so glad to spend time with Daddy!!!
Nolan: "Look Mom...I am flying"
HK: "I can do it too. Watch me!"


"Look Mommy...we are snuggling!"
It's nice to have some quiet days at home before taking off again.
Daddy is so excited for vacation...then we all get to go off together for a week!!!
We are so excited!

Dancing Cousins

Saturday evening we went to birthday dinner for Aunt Chloe Ann.
As always when Ryan and HK are together...there is eventually dancing.

This time, however, they had a new dancer...make way for Abigale! That girl could cut a rug. She was so stinking cute!!! She was having a ball and had good rhythm for such a little one!

Nolan couldn't even concentrate on taking his bottle he was so distracted by the dancers. I'm not quite sure what he thought about them???

Abigale: Hey little guy, wanna see how hard I can rock you?

Abigale: I'm sure you all don't mind if I shake him up a little do you?
Nolan: Uh Mom, are you paying attention over here...not so sure about this one. I saw her crazy dance moves a few minutes ago!

Abigale: Just relax. It will be okay....I'm just a bundle of fun and laughs!
Nolan: I guess she is okay, Mom. Just don't let her get too carried away!

Happy Birthday Aunt Chloe Ann...actually tomorrow, Thursday! Have a great one!

Celebrating Allie!

This past weekend we had a baby shower to celebrate the upcoming arrival of my first niece, Allie. It was a fun day! We are all looking forward to her grand entrance into this world! I was so busy during the shower that I almost forgot to take any pictures.

Thanks to Brooke and a couple others for being such a great sport in the crazy game! She was awesome!

I had some great help with the spread of food (thanks Rachel & Cathe for everything)!

Old friends catching up...


HK had very specific instructions that she could hand Aunt Heather the gifts or throw trash away. She was not going to open any gifts. If she did, she had to go home with Grampy. The last time I let her help I created a monster (sorry Sarah). I do not want my kid to be the bratty kid that thinks all gifts are always for her! She did not try to open one gift. She did hand them out until about halfway through she decided that playing with the other girls there was more fun.

Mothers & Daughters....friends from the old days

I am very thankful to have such an amazing sister-in-law!

Betsy, Heather, Bekah, and Rachel

Grandma Gray & Heather

Such an excited Mommy & Daddy! We love you all three!