July 9-11, 2010

Weekends are always crazy!
FRIDAY
- We were invited to go swimming with Charli Ann & Josi at her grandmothers beautiful pool. We jumped at the opportunity, not only to play with CA & J, but also to swim further than 4 ft at a time!! It was a fun day and we really had a great time. We love spending time with them. Unfortunately, it started thundering and my kids HATE HATE HATE storms. So they all freaked out and we had to leave. We really have to work on their fear of storms. (They get that from me.)
- Friday night was the last night of Girl Scout camp and Ila & Cash came to stay with us while Paige helped out. Those two are so fun. Cash is just now walking and Ila is wild as a buck...so fun!!
SATURDAY
- Saturday we went to Shelbyville to pick mom's garden that she and dad were so worried about since they were on vacation. When I got there, the cows had gotten out and had demolished the entire garden! So sad. All their corn was gone.
- It was also Grammy's birthday, so even though they werent there, we left her some surprises on the table for when she got back.
- Brian had been fishing since 4AM with Uncle Dave. They had a great day on the river and decided to feed the family with their harvest. We had a greasy fish fry along with Brian's signature hush puppies. (Me and the kids had hot dogs!) Michelle & the Porter brood joined us and went swimming in our huge pool! We love it when the Porter babes come to play.
SUNDAY
- Sunday morning is God's way of testing my patience. Getting ready for church is terrible. It's worse than getting ready for school. But we love our church so much and feel so blessed to be able to worship Him so freely.
- After church we went to the Chinese restaurant (Cora's favorite).
Seems pretty ordinary! That's the way we like it!

July 8, 2010

Family means so much to us! We were treated with a stay from Connor Johnson (We say his full name every time we say it). today. His daycare takes this holiday week off every summer and Brian's sister, Kristi, struggles to find someone to keep him during this week. We gladly accepted because he really is a sweet kid and you dont even know he's here. While having a new playmate here is always fun for the kids, it's bonus for me. Bert loves Connor J. (he says Connor Johnson is his best friend) and they play so good together. Because Bert is out of the way, the girls tend to play better together....all of which means no one is bothering me!
- Since Connor was here, everything was new again even to my kids. They played in our little 2ft swimming pools for hours, played in the mud with the trucks, re-discovered our play-doh toys and jumped on the trampoline.
- Connor does not like to take naps.
- Cora went back to Girl Scout camp tonight. They learned how to properly dispose of old American flags...so they had a flag burning. It was 100 degrees today...that fire was definitely uncomfortable.
- Bert & Mae helped Brian build shelves in our garage and put them up. Mae mashed her finger with a hammer (figures...she's lots like her dad)
- Uncle Dave rode his bike to our house. That was pretty funny to see.
- Mae was so tired tonight that she was asleep by 8:30 tonight. That's really unusual for our summer schedule.
I love summer and I love my family!

July 7, 2010

Another perfect day at our house which means nothing particular happened.
- We slept later than normal this morning....8AM. That is by far unusual for us 6AM risers.
- After breakfast of Fruit Loops we headed out to Huntsville to take back the blue jeans that we bought for Mae that didn't fit. She is REALLY into blue jeans despite the 100 degree weather we've been having.
- My kids think that Huntsville, AL is a different country! (honestly, AL sometimes feels like a different country) They love to point out when we've crossed the state line. We rarely ever go to Huntsville so its kind of a big deal. We went to Parkway Place mall and returned the jeans and found a pair that fit this time. She wore them out of the store!!
- We rode the "cow" elevator, which is their favorite part of the mall. The "cow" elevator has the Chik-Fil-A cow painted on it and it's pretty cute.
- After the mall, we went to Publix to do our weekly Wednesday grocery shopping. I just recently discovered the joys of Publix with their steering wheel buggies which keep me and my kids on speaking terms while we're there and double coupons! Wednesday they offer a penny item, this week it Publix salad dressing. YAY!
- We came home and the kids watched a movie that we bought at the Goodwill on Tuesday. Then we took Cora to Girl Scout Twilight camp at the Kiwanis Park. This is a week long camp from 5-8. She seems to be having a good time.
- Spaghetti for supper! The kids favorite but not really Brian's. What is it with men and spaghetti?
- Mae, Bert & Brian went swimming in our luxurious 2ft swimming pool.
- After I picked Cora up from camp, I walked 2.25 miles on the road with Cora.
Not very exciting but exactly the way I love it!

My Coupon Obsession

With times being tough and the mouths that we feed are getting bigger and requiring more, I have turned to the old-fashioned way of shopping....COUPONS! However, this is not your granny's coupon clipping. This way of shopping is cranked up all the way!! Several new websites have come out explaining the new coupon craze and that is exactly what it is....CRAZY! But I'm into "crazy" so I went with it.
Using multiple coupons, online coupons, competitors advertising, register rewards, CVS bucks, making back-t0-back transactions at Walgreens, hours of planning. sorting, clipping, filing and organizing will save you a ton of money but will send your sanity spiraling down aisle 5...but again I dig crazy.
Today, I tackled Publix with $34.50 worth of clipped coupons that I knew I would use and my coupon book (just in case I missed something) AND with my 3 kids in tow. (see, told you I'm into crazy). I spent $115 and saved $70.11! That included Tide, a big bag of Charcoal and Gatorade powder (8.00 a pop but keeps my overheated contractor husband from having a heat stroke). I left there with $.24 bottles of Glass Plus and 8 cups of FREE yogurt and ranch dressing for $.01!

Crazy, yes! Hooked, absolutely! Smart, no doubt!

The two websites that I love:
www.southernsavers.com
www.faithfulprovisions.com

Mr. PEEbody

My son is officially potty trained!! YAY! Thank goodness, right. While I'm more than proud to say that we no longer purchase diapers anymore, I do wash loads of underwear everyday. As most moms do to little boys in the summer, I encourage him to pee in the grass or by a tree. This is fun and it helps to get him to go outside of his underoos. However, I think the free-ness of just going anywhere outside has created a behavior that is borderline inappropriate. Here is a list of some of the inappropriate places...

- Crowded church picnic. Instead of facing the bush that he picked out that was right beside the popular bouncy barn, he turned to face the crowd so that he could keep an eye on the fun!! I'm sure we received numerous prayers that night after that display.
- Elefun. This happened in the middle of my kitchen, NOT outside. He removed the nose to the Elefun toy and pee'd into the fan that blows the butterflies out. He was proud of that!
- The cats' water bowl. I had just filled it up on the HOT summer day and I turned around to see him "helping" me water the kitties!
- In our sweet neighbor's driveway.
- Every outside toy that we own. Hope it rains before anyone comes for a play date.

These are only the ones that I caught him in action. No telling where else he has gone. Even with this, I still am proud he's out of diapers. Pee on, son!

No need to try to catch up from Dec 2008...

So facebook has consumed my life and has kept me from this blog and most likely no one looks at it anymore. But I've decided to come back to it because despite my efforts to keep a journal of hilarious things that my children do, I'm not very good at that either. So, since I sit here at this computer more than I grab that journal, I will start to journalize our daily activities here. (That is my intention anyway.)

Baby Faces

Okay, I saw where Heather was tagged and pulled her 4th picture from the 4th file and so on. I was curious about my own 4th photo so I went on a scavenger hunt. My picture turned out to be sweet Mae on the day Bert was born. I was shocked to see just how much she and Bert look alike, so I decided to do a little comparison between the three. They're all 20 months old in the pictures above. I thought it was pretty interesting and that I would share it with all of you. (Note that Cora already has a full pony tail at 20 months.)

I feel like I'm looking at the pictures on Sesame Street and singing "one of these things is doing its own thing". Cora looks SO much like me and Mae & Bert look SO much like Brian. Maybe one day we'll have a "mixed" kid.

Santa is Coming!

We visited the "Host of Christmas Past" fun during November. It is really a fun time because they have snow for the kids to play in, Santa, shopping and a train. Here's a few pics!

Happy Fall!

Here's some of our Halloween and Pumpkin Patch Pictures! Look at how big my children are!!!

Big Bert.

Bert is getting HUGE! At almost 20 months old, he's an absolute B-O-Y! He's fun and exhausting. He loves to sweep and eat honey buns. He can repeat anything you say and it's so funny to hear him go down the hallway calling for "Mae". He loves his DaDa ( the lady that keeps and spoils him during the week) , his PaPas (both of them) and his DADDY!

Mae turns 3!

Can you believe it! Mae Watt is 3 years old. Even to this day, if any one just says "Hey, Mae, how are you?" She'll say "3" or just hold up 3 fingers. She was so proud to turn 3 years old. This makes me really sad! Our friend, Mrs. Debbie showed up and painted faces at her birthday party.

Our First Day of School!

Cora started pre-kindergarten at Ralph Askins School (where she will go through the 3rd grade). Even though it's just Pre-K, it was still tough to think of her going to a BIG school. She was sooo excited and she is in Mrs. Wright's class, who is a really good friend of ours. Brian took her on her first day. She was not only excited to go to school, she was SO excited that her daddy took her in his big truck.

Mae also started her preschool/daycare again. She is in the big class and she takes her back pack just like Cora. There are two frogs in her classroom that she has personally named Ally & Ally after her friend from church (everything is named Ally after her friend from church). She has to show me these two frogs EVERY morning. It's really cute. She is such a big girl!

It's been a LONG time!

I have a million excuses for why it's been a while since I've updated this blog. The biggest excuse is that I got a new job in August teaching at Lincoln County High School. The hours are great but it's been a major adjustment in our family to go from staying-at-home to back-to-work. Let's get started getting you all updated on us.

The Royal Princess Party

We celebrated Cora's 4th birthday with a Princess Party. Cora's "girl" is Belle and she really thought she was a princess. We had a great party. We made flip flops and decorated cookies. The girls had a tea party in the castle (our swing set). Everyone looked beautiful! We decorated their swing set/play house into a "castle". I felt like I was decorating for a wedding with so much tulle! I must admit, I love having girls (and a boy)!!!!!

Cake Decorators

Cora turned 4 on Thursday, June 19th. So we decorated cakes for her birthday. It was great! Cora had raisins and sprinkles on hers. Mae put whatever she could find on top of her cake. Bert supervised and added his own special touches too.

Our cakes are available for weddings and birthday parties.

How does your garden grow?

We have a beautiful little garden growing in our back yard. It's an 8x8 square so you would think that we wouldn't be able to grow too much in this little garden...think again. We have it jam packed with Cherry tomatoes, Sandwich tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumber, corn, red peppers, sweet potatos, cantalope, watermelon and pumpkins!

Here is the picture from the day we planted it. I'll keep you posted as it grows!

(I should probably point out that Mae is still going through her naked phase. I posted about this almost a year ago and we haven't gotten out of it yet!)