SENT FROM MY iPHONE

Because our computer is fried. Well, I'm hoping it's just the power cord but something tells me it's more than that. Whatever the case may be I really really hope the hard drive is still intact because I have a lot of things on that computer I really don't need to lose. Not only my precious pictures but all of our tax information I've been working on for, oh just the past six months. I don't have a very good back up system. And by not very good I mean non-existent. This computer is not even a year old. Times like this make me want to kick my own butt for all those times I've been meaning to get an external hard drive.

UPDATE:

The diagnoses: Lightning.

I took the computer to one of Chris' computer-savvy friends. He opened up the tower, hooked it up to a few different gadgets then went, "[sniff sniff]Oooh, do you smell that? That's NOT good." Apparently my sleep wasn't the only thing to go kaput when the storm came through the other night. The silver lining is that the hard drive is fine. He was able to back up everything for transfer onto whatever will take its place. Whenever that may be.

And now I must go. Blogging from my phone is getting on my nerves in a big way because it isn't doing what I want it to do. I must publish this post now before I am also without a cell phone due to the fact that it was thrown against a wall.

Happy Thursday. We have our last practice game tonight before we officially get into full swing (get it? full swing? I know, I know. I'm heelarious) with the regular season Saturday. Word on the street is Norton Vinyl is the team to beat. :) We shall see...

BUELLER'S FIVE-YEAR CHECKUP (SHOTS- YIKES!)

I don't think I've ever met a child more ready to get his "Kindergarten shots" over and done with than Jackson McHugh Norton. Mac is so very ready for Kindergarten. The current school year is still in session yet he's counting down the days until the fall when he will start "big school." He also knew that his immunizations had to be up-to-date which meant he was going to get a few shots at his five-year checkup. I was going to put it off as long as possible and tackle that appointment some time this summer. Mac came to me not too long ago and asked if I would go ahead and schedule his appointment, that he was ready to get it over with. So that's exactly what I did.

When Grant had his five-year checkup we made a day of it. It was just the two of us. Then after the appointment was over lunch was his pick, and then he got to get a little prize. Of course we had to do the same for Mackey.

His appointment was a couple of weeks ago, and he's still telling people how he "didn't cry AT ALL" when he got his shots. He's a tough cookie, that's for sure. He got his finger pricked and got three shots and never flinched. Oh, and he had to tee-tee in a cup too. Naturally he thought that was the coolest part. :) I'm so proud of him for being such a big boy, but more than that we're happy and blessed he's healthy.

Waiting... he was a bit nervous:

Vision screening:

Weight and height:

He weighs 42 lbs. and is 42 inches tall. Both the nurse and his pediatrician joked that he's a perfect square. heehee

Blood pressure check: 

Or as the boys call it, "getting that thing done that hugs your arm really really tight."

More waiting once we were called back to a room. The nerves were making him a bit silly:

Our pediatrician, Dr. Trumbull:

I cannot say enough great things about that man. He's a good, Christian man. He's a devoted husband and father to five children. He's not quick to dole out an antibiotic if we're there for a sick visit but will give it if necessary. He gives tried and true advice and guidance on everything from helping an infant sleep through the night to discipline for all ages. He listens and takes his time. I don't remember a single visit where he's made me feel rushed. He even praises parents on occasion (I particularly like that part - HA!). My children look forward to seeing him. He's wonderful!

And Nurse Brandy must be doing something right too, because this picture was AFTER she gave him the shots:

After the appointment and calling daddy to give him an update it was where else but McDonald's for lunch and Toys R Us for a prize. And he deserved it!

We have our blue slip on hand and are officially ready for Kindergarten!!

OUR WEEKEND AND SWEET B VIDEOS

My weekend was grand. Just grand. I got to spend it with my favorite people. Rachel, Mary Lou and Claire came into town Thursday afternoon. Friday morning I sent the boys to school (because I decided to be selfish and enjoy a little me time) and went to breakfast with Martha, the girls and Dawnie. We laughed and laughed and laughed. And laughed some more. It was pure awesomeness. :) Friday afternoon my mom had some one-on-one time with Bethany while we went to a practice game for the boys. 

Until our jerseys are ready the team wears gray pants and blue shirts so we can all match for practice games. Reid wanted to be like his big brothers so we were able to come up with a uniform for him too. 

Saturday morning the boys had another "fake game" as Bueller likes to call it. All of my family was there - all 6 of us, my parents, both my sisters, and my nieces. And I have not one picture to show for it. Not sure how that happened but it was a fun nonetheless. 

Saturday afternoon the boys had a birthday party to go to. Lucas (the birthday boy) and his big brother Dylan are on the boys' baseball team. They were on our spring team last year. They're a sweet, sweet family, and we're excited to go through the season with them again. 

Mac with the birthday boy:

This is Pretty Girl, Dylan and Lucas' little sister:

She's so tiny but has the biggest personality. She's a little spitfire. She's also smitten with Mackey. It's so cute to watch how she smiles and waves when she sees Mac at the ball field. :)

While we were at the party some rough weather came our way. But on our way back home as we were pulling into the neighborhood, we saw this:

I love rainbows. They still amaze me. 

Bethany and I had so much fun yesterday watching old videos. We have one from when she was 5. It was neat seeing her at the same age as Mac and Towns. There were a couple of parts in particular that were so sweet and hilarious that we rewound and watched them no less than 20 times. Because one of my favorite videos of her was recorded over by one of the boys by mistake, I took a video of the video with my phone to post here. The quality is terrible, not only because it's a VHS tape but because my VHS player isn't the greatest either. Then like I said, I videoed that video so it has a lot going against it in the way of quality but it's still precious to me. And the audio is the funniest part anyway. :)

In this video she's walking through my Nana's kitchen telling my uncle that she has real diamonds in her ears and that he needs to get some for Aunt Sandra. It cuts her off as she's saying Sandra but she says, "Hey, let me tell you somethin". I have real diamonds on my ears, and I want you to buy some for S..." HA!

In this next one Bethany is sitting at my grandmother's dining room table watching my mom and grandmother set the table. We were having a family get-together to celebrate Thanksgiving and B's birthday so my mom made Bethany her favorite cake. Only it must not look like her favorite cake because she questions my mom about it. Before she asks her about it she's looking at the cake and thinking mighty hard with her little hands folded. :)

Bethany:  "That's my favorite cake?" 

My mom, assuredly:  "Yes it is."

Bethany:  "Well it don't look like it, it's white." 

Then my mom reassures her it is her favorite cake and that it's pink, just a pale pink."

Sweet, sweet, sweet. I cannot believe that was 10 years ago. It definitely made me realize I need to be videoing the boys more. Times flies and these videos are precious and priceless. 

The other night Chris looked at me and said, "Here's little Grant coming through the kitchen."

I looked over and thought it was Grant on his knees being silly. Only it wasn't. It was Reid wearing Grant's glasses, and it was scary how much he favored Professor. 

Hope you had a grandiose weekend too.

MONSTER JAM, MOTORCYCLE, TOMATOES, ETC.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Thank goodness the time change occurred while we were out for Spring Break because it has kicked our tails - all of us. I knew Monday morning would come early but I didn't think the "day" would begin before Sunday even ended. At 11 p.m. Sunday night Reid woke me up saying he didn't feel good. He was burning up with fever so I put him in bed with us and tried to go back to sleep. Between his wiggling and the fact that it's really hard for me to go back to sleep once I've been woken up, the next thing I knew Mac was joining us as well complaining of his ear. At one point Chris sat up and in a stupor from lack of sleep said, "Um, baby, I think all three boys are in bed with us." And in my own lack-of-sleep-induced stupor I think I said, "Then go put them up." Like they were puppies needing to be put back into their kennels. Grant was actually still asleep in his own bed but I guess between the wiggling, the "I'm thirsty's," and the tossing, turning, fidgeting, and kicking (ok the kicking was from me when Chris fell back asleep and started snoring) we felt sure every bed was empty but ours. It was a long, restless night and I hate it when my babies are sick, but I love the fact that it makes them want to cuddle. And they sure were cuddly. Mac is much better and the verdict is that he has some negative pressure but no infection. Mac was a very sickly baby until he had tubes put in his ears and had his tonsils and adenoids removed two years ago. His tubes have since grown out, and we're starting to see some issues with his ears once again. We may have to visit the idea of a second set of tubes but for now it's a wait and see kind of thing. Bueller is better now and was ready to get back to preschool. Reid has bronchitis and was officially diagnosed with asthma. I've known he's had it for a while, but we just got the official diagnoses. So like Professor, he's on preventive medication twice a day. I'm not happy about it. I also don't like seeing him get winded so easily or cough when he runs around and plays which then makes him start wheezing. So for now we'll follow doctor's orders but I'm already in search of an alternative to steroids. Turbo's still hanging with me until he's fever-free which has yet to happen.

We had a fun weekend. Really fun. And now that it's almost the weekend again I figured I better get to it and finish this here post.

FRIDAY:  MONSTER JAM

It's a little boy's paradise, seeing big trucks with big tires jumping over and smashing cars, doing donuts (or pancakes as Turbo likes to call it because he can never remember the term is donuts), and hearing them revving their engines. To be honest I like it too. My dad took me to a monster truck show or two when I was younger, when Big Foot was big. I remember it being a ton of fun. I have so many fond memories of doing not-so-girly things with my dad:  hunting, fishing (poor guy had so many hooks to bait and fish to get off since we wouldn't do it ourselves that he rarely got to fish himself), watching bull riding on t.v., watching Discovery Channel with him on Wednesdays while my mom was at choir practice. I hope things like this are making the same type memories for our children.

Headed to the show:

Bueller protecting those ears:

If only I could do my camera justice. :)

As a parent, I DESPISE souvenirs at things like this. 

This stupid "hat" (I can't believe Professor actually put it on), made of foam and torn up before we even left, was $15. Really? That's why we only got one of them. It was sold with cotton candy, though, so it was SO worth it. HA! Chris knows we can't get just one of anything so he told them we would look at t-shirts on our way out. Not only was the smallest one ginormous but they also started at $25.00/ea. He looked at the boys and said, "Hey guys, do you just want to skip getting a shirt and I'll give y'all each $10 to put in your wallets?"

YEAAAAHHHHHHHH!! Thanks, daddy!!

SCORE!! Chris, my love, you are a genius. 

Take a look at the picture below?

No, I wasn't taking a picture of random people. I was trying to get a picture of that big spot light. Or biscuit shooter if you ask Reid with his wild imagination. Or maybe it doubles as both. Before the show Reid was looking around and saw it. He pointed to it and said, "Oh, look momma, that thing shoots biscuits out."

I have no idea.

SATURDAY:  MEEMS HAD THE GRANDS, I HAD A DATE WITH THE HUBS

My mom was here bright and early Saturday morning to get the boys. She was headed to Selma to visit my grandmother, aunt and uncle and asked to take the boys with her. We worked it out for them to spend the night with her and dad so I could have a little break and Chris and I could have some much-needed alone time. Many thanks, Mimi and Granddaddy. It was fabulous. We rode the motorcycle to the lake and had dinner at a restaurant on the lake. We couldn't have ordered more perfect weather.

SUNDAY: SWIMMING, TOMATOES, AND ARE THERE ANY CHILD LABOR LAWS I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?

After early church and Sunday school the boys were back home. It was another day of perfect weather. I said a post or two back that swimming was still out of the question. My children proved me wrong. Those crazy cats went swimming.

Don't let the pictures fool you, though. They didn't last too long and were little popsicles when they came out. Turbo especially was. He can't quite handle the cold water like his brothers can. Each time he would jump in and come out of the water he would lose his breath a little. He had my mom and I in stitches every time he would do it. But he still hung right in there with them. I took a little video of him with my phone although I'm not sure how much you can tell from it.

The ONLY thing I dislike about this weather is that the bugs are back. Big time. Thankfully Grant, a/k/a Billy the Exterminator, came to my rescue. 

Chris and I typically plant our garden after Good Friday. Being that March has been pretty warm for the most part, it's made us a little more anxious for tomatoes. We have a separate garden just for tomatoes, but we always plant a few plants in plastic drums. They're not very pretty but the plants usually do quite well. We have been blessed with great tomato crops in the past but late in the season last year we were plagued with blight in our "tomato garden." We like to do the ones in individual containers as a back up. 

The boys were very interested in helping this year so we took them up on it. Um, are there any child labor laws I need to be aware of? Because they worked their little fingers to the bone. HA!

They loved every minute of it. Well, Grant and Mac did anyway. Reid decided he would keep an eye out for any predators that might come our way. Again, the imagination.

Grant loved learning how to use one of daddy's power tools.

Bueller just likes to help.

By the end of the day...

 

 that's how we all felt. haha

TGIAF! In case you didn't know, that's "thank goodness it's almost Friday." :)

CHURCH SIGNS AND SICK BABIES

I'm working on a post here and there when I can, but right now I'm busy nursing a couple of sick kiddos. They, of course, take precedence over everything else. In the meantime, a couple of church signs I've read:

"Peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of God."

And my favorite:

"Don't give up! Moses was once a basket case." :)

We're on the mend. Be back soon...

FROG RACE

It's our last day of Spring Break. It's a beautiful, sunny and warm (actually pretty hot - which I love) day. Any sunny day with a temperature above 70° of course makes the boys shed most of their clothes and head straight for some type of water. Since actually swimming in the pool still isn't an option, what else is there to do?

Why, have a frog race in the pool of course.

But not before they tortured little ol' me. Monday night and the early part of Tuesday was rainy which meant the boys were outside as soon as the rain stopped to look for frogs. Since there never seems to be a shortage of them around here (yay me) they each found one. Again, YAY ME! Why is it fun for these boys to taunt the person who brought them into this world? Just why? But it sure is. For them anyway. After running in circles around the car and through the swing set a few hundred times to get away from them I managed to put enough space between them and me to threaten, "I'M GETTING THE PADDLE AFTER ALL THREE OF YOU IF YOU DON'T STOP RIGHT NOW."

Whew. It worked. Goodness they're seriously going to make my heart stop one day. Once they had my blood pressure at stroke level they moseyed on over to the pool to start the frog race.

Patiently waiting to see whose frog will jump in first:

This kept them entertained for over an hour. 

Boys. 

I don't get them. Probably never will. 

But I love trying to figure them out. :)

SPRING BREAK 2011

Well it's only Wednesday of our Spring Break but if I don't post about the things we've done leading up to and so far this week then my memory will fade. So I'm giving fair warning this one will be lengthy.

Last weekend was a weekend full of beautiful weather and doing nothing but enjoying time with my family. Which is exactly how I love spending weekends. We practiced baseball and enjoyed visiting with new friends. We ate then tried to burn some of those calories by making fools of ourselves doing Just Dance 2 for Wii. Many thanks to Sissy for that one - we've had many, many, many laughs.

And even more sore muscles.

We stayed outside A LOT,

played on the swing set,

Bethany talked me into attempting a back flip on the trapeze bar. She did it and insisted I try. She made it look sooooo easy. It is not anymore. There is evidence in the way of a video proving I finally got all the way over. It will not, however, make its way here.

We were wishful thinking about being at the lake. Mac is into it, boy. Look at his face. HA! 

  

My crazy kids even took a dip in the pool. And I do mean literally A dip. As in they dipped themselves in and came right back out. It was so cold it took their breath away but that didn't stop them.  

I can't imagine who came up with that idea...

Turbo decided to play it safe on the steps.

Of course we had some downtime too.

Then Sissy and I finally had a little time to ourselves on Sunday which always makes me happy. It was the perfect end to a perfect weekend.

We kicked off the official start to our Spring Break with a trip to Auburn to spend the day with my dear friend, Shea, and her two beautiful kiddos. We don't get together much but when we do it's like we picked up right where we left off. There's a lot to be said for a friend like that. It took the kids a bit to warm up to each other, but once they did they had a great time and played so well together. We went to lunch then on to a local park. 

Once we had our fill at that park, Shea mentioned there was another park/playground up the road she wanted to visit:  Auburn's Nature Playground.

We both agreed it was by far the best park we've been to. I love that it wasn't your typical park with swings and monkey bas. The kids could just be in nature and use their imaginations which is something our children thoroughly enjoy. The kids' favorite was probably the sand.

Mine was the giant "Eagle's Nest."

Since it was all of our first time there we had to decide what we wanted to explore.

I'm still sore from the nature walk Shea insisted we go on in search of the pond. Hey Shea, I did some research. Did you know the trail is FIVE MILES long??? That would  be why my legs are still sore. HA!

Thanks for having us. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

Yesterday was more baseball. Of course. We had our first practice game last night. I think we were all a bit anxious to see how we compared to another team in the league. We won 11-2. This is my blog. I can brag if I want to. :) So I will. Grant got two inside-the-park home runs. Mac did great as well. I got two short videos of them at bat. Naturally I didn't have it ready for either of Grant's home runs. Go figure.

Mac:

Grant:

I'm so proud of all our boys. I must brag on the hubs too, for taking this on and having the patience of Job with those boys. It takes being stern while still making it fun and being their friend, along with a balance of constructive criticism and positive reinforcement. I know I'm a bit (ok, a lot) partial but I think he has all that and then some. We have a great little team with some sweet families. The games start in a little over two weeks. Can you tell I'm just a wee bit excited?!?

In Froggy Incentive news, I'm blown away by how effective our little chart has been for Reid. It has changed his whole demeanor for the better. When he gets really tired he'll still want to be held but that's fine by me. He's become so independent that I look forward to those tired times. He wants to walk everywhere by himself, dress himself, just do for himself whenever he can. He has even started helping me pick up around the house some.

You might notice we made it to the lily pad a bit early. He was having some attachment issues at preschool so the days he walked like a big boy and was a big boy at school he received two stickers. And I'm not so sure he didn't sneak in the cabinet where I keep the stickers a day or two and add another one while I wasn't looking. heehee He's done great, though, so we went to Toys R Us today and let him pick out a little prize. It's working so well I think we'll start with another chart tomorrow. :)