Her first...

Sleepover!

Melody and her bff, Ava, have been begging for a sleepover for a while now.  So on Sunday night we finally decided to give it a whirl.

We had a fun movie night.  And then it was bedtime.

Kind of.

It was really like play-in-the-bedtime!

Finally after about an hour and a half, I had to separate them. I moved Melody into our bed and both girls were out in about 3 seconds flat.

They are so cute when they're asleep.

Enjoying breakfast the next morning.

When Ava left, Melody looked at me and said, "I can't wait until my next sleepover!"

Batgirl, Cinderella, and Princess Aurora

Halloween is not one of my favorite "holidays".  Ok, let me be honest, other than the candy I don't really like it at all and I don't like the fact that it lasts a week.  There, Ok, I said it.

That being said, I do think it's cute to see my kids dress up.  (Of course, I get to see it fairly often, since dressing up is a frequent occurrence for us.)  This year, we had a Batman (shocker, I know,) a Batgirl, and Spiderman.

I even got a chance to dress up too.  I was an Auburn fan. (Yes, I've already been told that was a cop-out.)  One of my oldest and closest friends, Anne, was in town this weekend.  It was great to get to spend a whole weekend with her as I definitely don't get to see her as often as I'd like.
(And in case you can't tell from his expression, Charlie was pretty worried about the spiders hanging from the ceiling.)

And like any true girl, Melody had multiple costume changes.  She began as Batgirl, moved on to Cinderella, and for the grand finale decided to go with her old standby, Princess Aurora.  Really, you just can't go wrong with Sleeping Beauty.  And as Melody told me Friday, "Grruls weally wike to change der minds."

And now off to enjoy some of that candy.  And least these three days of chaos weren't for nothing, right?

  Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

Radioactive Jack

This past weekend we went yurting with five other families from our Sunday school class. Yurting is a lot like camping, except instead of a tent we stay in a yurt. (For the record, I never plan on tent camping. I'm actually not sold on yurting again either.)

Here is the yurt.

The children had a blast. Melody got to hang with her BFF, Ava, as well as a few older girls who fawned all over her. (Yes, she was in princess heaven.)

Here is Little Jack, Ava, Big Jack, and Melody.

This is Addie. Melody and Addie just love each other and stayed together most of the weekend.

Jack got to run around with the older kids, riding bikes and scooters.

We took several walks to the water fall, or water fountain, as Melody calls it.

And let's not forget about the staying up late and eating s'mores.

Since the kids were getting to stay up late, we gave them all those glow-necklaces and bracelets so it would be easier to see them in the dark.

My kids love those. They love them so much that they insisted on wearing them to bed.

So, late Friday night, we tucked them into the yurt and then walked back outside to where all the adults had their chairs placed, sitting around chatting. After about 15 minutes Alex walked back to the yurt to make sure the kids were asleep.

As expected, they weren't.

Jack was, however, glowing. All over.

Apparently that's what happens when one chews through the glow necklaces and the glow-making agent leaks out.

And now Jack is known as Radioactive Jack.

Sprrrring Brreak!!!!

I'm not going to be around much this week.

It's Spring break for us and we're headed for Florida. In fact, I'm probably in the car right now.

I'm going to be chillaxin' with my bestie for a few days.

Or at least doing as much chillaxin' as these children will allow.

I do have a few post scheduled and 'll try to check in whenever I'm not helping Lauren keep six kids in line lounging with a margarita.

Peace out.

A best friend...

is a shoulder to cry on.

helps you out when you need it.

sticks with you through the good and bad.

laughs with you.

encourages you to make bold fashion statements.

PSF and God Bless Baby Jane

The Sacrament of Baptism is my favorite sacrament.

While it's supposedly a mere ritual, I personally believe that a change truly happens when on is baptized.

Even in precious little babies.

All of my children have fabulous godparents. I feel it is an important role to undertake.

I was honored when I was asked to be godmother to this sweet baby, Jane.

And thankful to her parents for blessing me with this role.

Hosted by Cecily and Sue

friends, pumpkins, and better parenting

As we had a lot of fun stuff going on this weekend, I decided to do an update.

Parent conferences were taking place at Jack's school on Friday so he had the day off. (I know you're wondering...he got a stellar review and received all Es and Ss on his report card!) After my parent/teacher conference Friday morning we were happy to get to spend the afternoon with our friends the Snellings. Yes, we took our customary picture, however, all the ones I got were so bad that I couldn't even bring myself to post them. It was difficult to get a good shot of six excited children (ok, baby John was pretty chill) but I actually think I had some weird setting on my camera that made all my pictures turn out like crap badly.

On Friday night and Saturday morning I was fortunate to hear Dr. Tedd Tripp, author of Shepherding A Child's Heart speak. I had heard good things about this book and learned so much at the seminar. I wish I had read the book 5 years ago! There are two verses that are basically the foundation of Dr. Tripp's parenting philosophy; Proverbs 4:23 and Ephesians 6:1-3. His philosophy is that parents should focus on the reasons behind the child's behavior, not just the behavior. God has given us authority, as parents, over our children and it's our job to claim that authority and use it to teach our children to submit to God's authority. I have started reading the book and encourage you all to do so as well.

We went on our annual excursion to pick out the pefect pumpkin on Saturday as well. It was really cold. You might not be able to tell how cold it is since we are just wearing measly sweaters and light jackets. Obviously I was ill prepared for how cold it actually was and did not dress my children properly. I'm bummed too because I had gotten this really cute hat for Melody and it would have been the perfect day for her to wear it.

Charlie and I


quite a change from last year!

This year all he wanted to do was run away.

until we caught him

and forced him to take a picture against his will.

Then it was on to the important stuff. Seeing who was stronger, of course!

And let's not forget about finding the perfect pumpkin. Melody thought this was it. "It's so cuuute!" she proclaimed.

And of course we took a little time out to be silly

before we ran off again!

Hope y'all had a great weekend too!

nature walk and a day with friends

Wednesday morning, Charlie, Melody, and I met our friends, Ava and Jack, at the pond and went on a little nature walk.

Here they are trying to sneak up on some ducks. That's Ava's brother, Jack. We call him Little Jack.

Where was Charlie? Right here, very interested in this leaf, which, by the way, he did not eat. Shocking, I know.

Here they are on this big swing. They are all looking at this dude trimming the hedges near the pond. All except Ava. She's trying to hug everyone at one time.

Look fish!

There they are! We saw a few turtles too. And, for the record, these giant goldfish really freak me out.

We're missing one...

There he is! Yes, I know, this is about the cutest picture ever.

Just as we were about to leave he spotted the fish. He didn't want to go at first, but then he saw another leaf which distracted him. Who knew a leaf or two was all he needed to be happy!

War Eagle!

We rang in the 2009-2010 college football season yesterday in true form; tailgating!

We had a blast wearing our Auburn gear




Looking for bugs on trees


And then climbing the trees despite the bugs.

We got to hang out with old friends

We ate barbecue and brownies

And the best part was the final score:

Auburn 37
LA Tech 13

A far cry from most of our games last year.
I'm glad Auburn finally decided to play some football again.
Waaarrrrrr Eagle! Hey!

the camera and the sprayground

If you have kept up with my blog for the past few weeks, you'll know that I have been looking for a new camera.

After much looking and much debating and much list-making, we have decided to get two cameras.

I really want a DSLR (yes, I know I'm no photographer, but I can learn!). Alex just likes the convenience of a small, compact point and shoot.

Like any smart, married couple; we compromised! We agreed that we would get a small, inexpensive point and shoot now and then a higher-end camera around Christmas. Now, Alex does not want to take a higher-end P&S out of the running, but I'm pretty much married to the idea of a DSLR. And let's be honest; I'm going to get one. Hubs knows how it works: a happy wife equals a happy life!

After a little looking we ended up getting a Nikon Coolpix for our compact P&S model. I was actually surprised at all the features it has and the quality of pictures.

I got the chance to really test it out when we went to the new spraygound in Roswell with our friends Amy, Kate, and Baby Brendyn. And let me just say; the sprayground is an awesome idea. Seriously, why did it take people so long to think of it and why do we only have two (that I know of) in the entire Atlanta Metro area?!

Charlie mostly hung out by this one little spout and just had a blast.



And grabbed a drink when he needed it.

Melody splashed

got rained on


and jumped to her hearts content.

What a great day with friends!