The week in review

I had several things from this week to post so I decided to put them together. Today was Teddy Bear Day in Christian's class. Last week they all made these cute T-Shirts and than wore them today. Each child was supposed to bring a Teddy Bear to be there friend for the day. They had a picnic together and each bear was given an award. Christian's bear won the most floppy award b/c the legs and arms were pretty loose. Aren't Christian and Caitlyn so cute? On Wednesday we went to the zoo with Lila, Ruby and Sherisse. It was a member morning so we could go in an hour before the general public. We were able to ride the carousel for FREE:) The big kids loved it, Ruby was a little indifferent and Baylor held on to me for dear life!! She would not let me put her on one of the animals so I got on with her. She sat facing me gripping my arms like I might slip away if she didn't hold on tight enough. One time she said "weee" and I asked her if this was fun...she promptly responded with a very spirited "NO".
Lila and Christian have been good little friends ever since she was born (he's a year older). And now we are hoping Ruby and Baylor will be the same way. We all had a great time except for a very frightful 5 minutes when I could not find Christian anywhere. He wondered off to find Lila in the bathroom while I was changing Baylor's diaper. I surprisingly kept cool while I searched around. The man I scared in the boys restroom might not agree, I even had to start asking people if they had seen a little boy go this way or that. My heart leapt into my throat when I see Christian come around the corner with Lila and Sherisse a few minutes later. (He had been given the chance to go with them and he said he didn't need to!) I got onto him in my most 'try not to sound as mad/scared as you really are' voice and he said he just wanted to find his friend. Later on before bedtime we talked about it again and he claims they he told me in his head...I told him to make sure he uses his mouth next time he wants to go someplace different!! I couldn't sleep well last night for all the visions of losing him running through my head.
Here is Baylor in her cute tutu outfit that I promised. She prances around and says "rettee, rettee" (which means pretty). She thinks she's pretty hot stuff when she wears it:)
And lastly, but really first...on Sunday evening most of our cul-de-sac (some people were sick, Jeff was doing school work, etc) went to Las Palmas for dinner together. All the BIG kids rode together in one car and I had to get a picture. It wasn't really planned, but after all the kids played in the rain (some adults too) we all decided to move the fun on down the street. People in the restaurant were trying to figure out how we all went together and one couple finally asked. When we explained how we were all neighbors they said that they wanted to move near us...we've nicknamed ourselves the cul-de-sac of fun. We really are blessed that we all get along so well and that there are so many kids to play with. The ages range from 20 months to 9 years and there is a good boy/girl mix so nobody gets left out.

God bless those who are hurting

To all those that were affected that day and all the families that have been affected since...my prayers and thoughts go out to you today. For many people I'm sure this is just another day, but to so many it is a painful reminder of loss and heartache. I have not suffered like so many, but I am still saddened by those events 6 years ago. It put a fear into many people and changed their lives forever.

I sit here 6 years later thankful for what is being done to protect my families freedom. I'm personally thankful for my brother-in-law who is about to begin INTENSE training to help further protect our country. Thank you Travis for doing what you do...and for loving my sister so much!

Go Greek

Tonight we made our annual trip to the Greek Festival. It is something we always try to make it to because it's just fun. We almost didn't go because of rain, but decided at the last minute to try anyway...the weather held out and we were still able to enjoy being outside. Here are some of the dancers. Christian always enjoys watching them and 'dancing' in his seat. Next year we'll have to try and get some video b/c Baylor was even be bopping along. They had several inflatable slides and jumpy houses for the kids. Christian enjoyed the big, big slide. They also had a petting zoo that Baylor watched from outside the fence. She giggled, pointed and just had fun watching all the animals. There were rabbits, pigs, goats, some chickens and big fluffy sheep.
We ran into Maddie and Ella at the jumpy house (they had their Mommy, Daddy and Sam with them too). The Berry's were along for the fun too, but not pictured.

Baylor wasn't to into the Greek food, but loved every bite of her pizza. She ate an entire personal sized pizza herself. The girl likes to eat!!!
Here Ella and Christian are comparing ring pops. It is always a fun time at the festival and I get my yearly fix of Baklava...it is really quite heavenly. If you have never experienced the Greek Festival plan on it next September. It normally falls a week or two after Labor Day and you can pretty much count on seeing us there every year!!

First Haircut

BEFORE DURING

AFTER

My baby is no longer a baby...she got her first hair cut today. Not a huge difference (b/c she didn't have that much to start with) but it just looks better. No more straggly baby hairs in the back. She was SOOO good while they cut her hair. She started to move her head once and we said "Be still Baylor" and that was it. She has had a model over the past few months when she watches brother so it should be no surprise that she couldn't wait to do something like him! As you can see in the after picture it still does it's little flip in the back, but now the hairs are all the same length and it is just a cuter flip:)

Chuck-E-Cheese

We had our first family trip to Chuck-E-Cheese on Labor day. Christian had been begging for a couple of weeks to go and we decided that was just as good a thing to do as a family as anything else. We all had fun and Baylor LOVED the pizza--of course.

A positive review

Many may remember the Thomas the train recalls (due to lead paint)from earlier in the summer. We had a few (I was surprised we didn't have more) of the listed trains and sent them back. I have been so impressed with how the company has handled all of this. We received a check for our postage from sending back the trains and they even sent us a new train/car to play with while we waited on our old ones to be returned. You can only imagine how excited Christian was to get a surprise in the mail!! Letters were sent out periodically to update us on the progress and we just received the replacement trains in the mail. I could not find the coal car to return with one of the trains (we've lost it somewhere), but they sent one back anyway so Christian once again has the full set.

We hear all the time about how companies/stores handle things badly...I thought I'd give a positive story.

For Mim and Travis

Christian does not ever want to talk to Mim and Travis on the phone, BUT he really does miss them. He will bring them up in conversation out of the blue and as you can see below will talk about them when asked. Just now he looked at their picture and said "I love Mim and Travis." I asked him if he wanted to call and tell them that and he said "No". Who knows why he does that!! The rest of you will just think this is cute, but Mim will have to get out the kleenex. Baylor misses her too. She was carrying around a picture this morning saying "Mi, Mi" (She doesn't get the full Mim out). I asked her if she missed Mim and she said "yeah, yeah" and than gave the picture a kiss:)

We love you both and can't wait to see you in a couple of weeks!!

A weekend of Family-part 2

It's Papa's birthday this week so we went to their house to celebrate on Saturday night. We cooked out hamburgers/hot dogs and had yummy cake:) We thought everything was going to be rained out, but the storm passed over with only a few sprinkles. After dinner it was actually cool enough to go outside. Nana, Papa and the grand kids
"Here's your present Papa." You can see Baylor already trying to open it for him. His present was actually pretty cool. It was a record player that can attach to your computer. Than you can burn CD's from your old record collection. And he has a big one:)
We all played a little baseball game with Uncle Jeremy. Baylor giggled the whole time and Christian seemed to enjoy hitting. When we practiced throwing it to him he even caught it TWICE. He was oh so proud of himself. I think Jeff really enjoyed watching his kids run around the same yard he used to play in.
We took Christian's golf clubs along too. He still needs some practice and to learn that he needs to keep the clubs down. His sister almost got a club in the face right after this picture was taken. He just swings them around like nothing could be wrong with that. He's four what can you say?!?! Nana even got in on the action:)
Happy Birthday Papa!! We love you and are so glad to have you as a part of our family...you always make things fun.

A weekend of Family

My Aunt, Uncle, cousins and Mam-ma all came down for a quick 24 hr visit. Everyone but Mam-ma came for an anniversary party (that's why they aren't pictured--they were gone when I started taking pics) and she just came along for the ride:) It was nice just to hang around Mom and Dad's house with her. We haven't gotten to see much of each other lately and she REALLY wanted to see her great-grand kids. It was nice to see them all--even if it was a short visit. Mam-ma, Mom/KayKay and Christian. His lollipop lit up and was really neat looking
Baylor has a new favorite toy...her princess purse. KayKay got it in Disney world and just now gave it to her. It has a phone, change purse, "money", keys, "lipstick" and of course you see the cool sunglasses! She would hardly put it down and looked so darn cute:)
Baylor decided to sit at KayKay's dressing table and put on some make-up
Here Christian is using the "lipstick" from Baylor's new purse. They thought this was funny.