Through Noni's eyes

When I was young I'd beg to stay at my grandmother's as long as she'd let me (sometimes it was a week over the summer!) and my kids do the same. They love to stay at either Mamaw and Papaw's or at Noni and Pop's house.

My mom was over the other day so I uploaded her camera to a disk for her since their computer is pretty much shot, and it would take me 40 minutes to get her to do it on her own anyway. I love seeing what the kids do at her house unfiltered like this. Here are some of my favorites.

Audrey's favorite thing to do at Noni's is to sit in this rocking chair. When she was a few months younger and would tip over very easily we would hide it. Wherever it was hidden she would seek it out.













This was Aiden's reaction when he was asked to sit next to his sister and give her a kiss. He is usually game for kisses (especially is you are taking his picture) but was not up for it this particular day.















Mom has also figured out how to take movies with her camera. Hers captures sound and mine doesn't...needless to say I am jealous! This first movie is too long but Audrey looks cute wearing her Chinese outfit I bought her in New York while she is bouncing on her horse.




This second video is pretty funny. You can learn two important things about Aiden from it:
1. He clearly loves playing in this car because his knees are hitting the steering wheel with every step he takes.
2. He has had his picture taken too many times.
Pop has created a spot for Aiden in the garage with his own tool bench, tool belt and tools. They could hang out there together all day!

Now that is OLD!

There are two garments that traditionally worn by our family members.

The first is the baptismal gown worn by all the children from my maternal grandmother down to Audrey (I think the count is at 45). Aiden and Audrey have both worn the gown. I need to scan Aiden's pics but here are Audrey's. She was exactly four weeks old when she was baptized by Deacon Mike Edwards at The Church of the Ascension where I have made all my sacraments (baptism, first communion, reconciliation, confirmation, marriage). She slept through the whole thing. Candace Hardy, my dear friend, and Craig Valente, Travis's cousin, are her godparents. We may need to switch godfathers now that Craig's wife is pregnant with TRIPLETS!



















The second garment is a dress that all the girls in the family have worn from my maternal grandmother down. I am going to scan the pics of me and my grandmother wearing the dress but here is it's latest model. Audrey is 16 months in the pictures. Thanks for the beautiful pics, Renee!

Thanks and No Thanks

Thanks for Brock and his silly idea to put this busted puffer ball on his head as a wig. It was the hit of the day.



Aiden's thanks (straight from his mouth): Thank you for Zack and Cody and for chips and cheese.

Audrey's thanks (if she could say them): Thank you for dohs, babas and phones.

No thanks for Bekah's trip to the Emergency room. She was hit in the eye with a ball from her cousin's pool table. Luckily she only had to get liquid stitches but it was still a downer. Especially since her birthday is today.

Happy Birthday Bekah!

Tell All Tuesday (two days late): An Attitude of Gratitde

I got the idea for Tell All Tuesdays from my friend Wendi's website. I thought it was a great idea so I am blog-lifting.

1. The things I give thanks for this Thanksgiving:

• my family
• the health of myself and family
• incredible freinds
• a job I really love
• pets that I love to hate
• all of the time I get to spend with Aiden and Audrey
• date nights with Travis
• the goofy faces in the picture below
  

2. My Thanksgiving traditions include:

• a relaxing morning
• an early dinner with Travis' side of the family
• a late dinner with my side of the family
• When Granny and Papa were still alive we'd play games after dinner and dessert. I'd like to start that tradition again once the kids are old enough to play with us (three rounds of Candy Land does not a game make).

3. The best thing about Thanksgiving for me is: spending time with family and getting to enjoy their company without the stress of gift giving. Plus all the yummy food!

4. My favorite Thanksgiving food is: stuffing.

5. The most exciting thing that ever happened at Thanksgiving was: nothing I can recall. It seems to be a pretty relaxed day. We used to love to watch Aunt Chere "sneak" food to our dog Snuggles. Mom would get so mad that she was feeding the dog the Honey Baked Ham. Also, I used to be in charge of drying the dishes when the ladies when the ladies would wash them after the meal. I loved to sneak the ones I'd dried back into the dirty pile and try to fool Granny and Chere. Sometimes they'd realize what I had done but many times it went unnoticed except for a comment like, "These holidays are all running together because I could have sworn I'd already washed this dish." Little did I realize that my prank caused me extra work too since the dished had to be dried again, too.

6. After the meal: everyone sits around the table and talks before we all help clean up the carnage. Lately Travis has been doing the dishes...not bad, huh? And Aiden likes to put the silverware back in the hutch. We'll see what Audrey does to fit in the mix since last year she snoozed in her swing through dinner. Like I mentioned earlier, I'd like for us to start playing games again soon.

7. To get ready I need to: make desserts since that always seems to be my job. I like to bake and do it better than cook. I need to make sure the kids stuff is all packed since we'll be going from Cathy's to Noni's and will be there late enough for jammys.


I am thankful for you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Aiden's friends at Friends

This year Aiden started the 4 day 4 class at Friends School. We weren't sure how it would go since the end of last year was not good. He started hating school and riding the bus for some reason. Not true this year! he loves his teachers, Mrs. Meghan (or "Mrs. Wagon" according to Aiden) and Mrs. Tricia. He has made lots of new friends and is learning so much! We would love him to be able to stay there through elementary school so I may have to take out some kids to move him up on the list. The pictures above are from his first day. He just waved me and Travis out of the room...very bittersweet!

I'm sensing an unplanned theme...

Last night after calming myself from the excitement of the So You Think You Can Dance finale (Go Sabra!) I headed to bed to read a little before I dozed off. Of course Travis was gone and the kids were asleep so it was nice and quiet.

As I reached my hand into the bathroom to turn off the light I noticed the water in the toilet was wiggling. My first reaction was I can't believe I just fixed this toilet and it is broken again...then I noticed a dark gray thing splashing in the water! Scared to death that it was a rat climbing out of the toilet I closed the door and slid my robe in front of the gap under the door to keep the animal from roaming the house.

Frozen, I shuffled down the hall as quietly as possible to not wake up the kids and called Travis from the living room, telling him he needed to get home to get the rat out of the toilet. As he scolded me for not shutting the toilet lid to avoid us getting bit by a rat I crept down the hall closer to the bedroom, breathing very heavily and hearing that creepy scary movie music echoing in my head the whole time. With Travis yelling in my ear I stood outside the bathroom door listening to the creature flop around in there. Finally I mustered up some courage; I opened the door a tiny bit and peeked in to see if the animal was still in there. Sure enough it was and it was no rat...it was a bat! I saw those little creepy pointed wings flapping in the water and slammed that door again and darted back to the living room.

How was I supposed to get that thing out of the toilet? I love animals just as much as the next person but my first instinct was to shut the lid, lay books on top, then flush the body in the morning. Realizing that was not exactly humane, I gave into my next instinct...I want my daddy! I called my parents and dad came over to save the night. The bat hooked his bat claws onto the bat-towel and dad laid the towel in the front yard. He said my uninvited guest was really tired from swimming so he'd fly away after he dried out. Needless to say every teeny creak and crack that night made me a nervous batwreck!

Good news: the bat flew away.
Bad news: the bat flew away and knows where I live!

Halloween in July Part II

Is there something in the air around us? Aiden and I were cleaning his room and in the time it took me to take a sippy cup to the kitchen he had gotten out his kangaroo Halloween costume and was ready to put it on. He was so excited to boing boing boing down to show Travis in the basement. Of course he also had to take Audrey her costume, too. I was so shocked that it still fit! She looked so cute waddling around with her ladybug antennas.

Update on Pop's Pumpkin Patch: Just when he was ready to chop up the leaves, there are two new green pumpkins waiting to ripen!