house

When my sisters and I get together we spend hours talking about decor - I have always said that there are no better people than sisters to give you their honest opinion about things.... And we are nothing if not honest with each other - so these photos should give us hours of discussions. For the life of me however, I can not figure out how to get photos in any sort of order on this blog. To top that off I should probably wipe off the lens on our camera after pulling it from the beach bag - but for what it is worth here is our new home (in no particular blurry order...) There are rooms that need work and others that were not photoed (kitchen and dining - can't wrap my head around those areas) The grey front room is just getting it's start and will take a long time to be completed mostly because I am obsessed with mirrored antique looking coffee tables and how I am going to get Lars to sign off on the price of one of those puppies is going to take a lot of stratagizing - I don't think that is a word:) But for 9 months in we are happy and settled and loving this home.

Beach 2012

We went to the beach! We have become lovers of the 30A beaches here and when we can get to Seaside beach in just under 3 hours - we are all hooked! I didn't get any cousin pictures, but the kids loved having them there to swim and play games with - and what a treat for me to have Aunt Kim willing to hang with Toby at the pool (by day 4 Toby was done with the sand) so that I could get to the beach everyday with the other two beach kids. Lars was with us for the first part of the vacation - we had a great time spending fathers day with him and his dad - My friend Tomicka came for the second part of our trip - We finished our trip with seafood on the harbor - Oh how we love summer!!! (hoping to insert more photos here... Kim? Tomicka?)

End of school

The boys finished up their school year with an 'honors ceremony' at school. Because this blog is a way to keep a journal for our family and since the boys don't read it, I can be honest about the highs and the lows that we go through in our family adventures. We are at an academic magnet school that we LOVE. There has never been a question that this school was 'right' for Trey. Things come VERY easy for Trey. He easily gets straight A's without much effort on our part as his parents. He is gifted and beyond his years intellectually - I don't say that to brag - if you know Trey and if you know his dad you know that some people are just born brilliant and that is their gift. They are lucky devils - I was not born with that gift - I am a worker and I believe in doing hard things and that we can push ourselves to greatness. Toby is more like me and for that reason I have struggled to know if this school is 'right' for him. While I am so proud of Trey and his prinicpal's award and top accelerated reader award (he read all the Harry Potter books this year among many, many others), I am extremely proud of Toby this year. He pushed himself all year and wanted to work towards greatness. He started in the lowest reading group and worked his way up to the middle group. He became obsessed with taking AR tests. He has developed a strong understanding of addition and subtraction and although we still have to work on his speed in these areas - he wants to get better. At the end of the honors ceremony the principal said that the last award was the most important award of all - it was the good character award. Each day the school recited a good character pledge and the kids in each class were asked to vote for a student that best portrayed these characteristics. Toby's class voted for him - he beamed - we beamed - his teacher beamed - we are all still beaming! Way to go boys, you are both gifted and loved. On to a much deserved summer break!

Trey Baseball

Who knew baseball was so much fun!? Trey became obsessed with playing spring ball during basketball season. There are two things Alabamians take VERY seriously - they are football and baseball. I knew that baseball would not be the fun happy go lucky experience that we have had so far with our sporting adventures - but Trey was convinced and Lars found a way to make it so the kids could keep playing soccer and do baseball at the same time (that way was me - driving non stop from a soccer field to a baseball field - with Lars' help of course:)) I have to document that Lars was very tormented by the boys' obsession with baseball in the beginning. He may have told them that the boy who chose soccer over baseball would be his favorite - they both chose baseball! Toby is a bit of a soccer star this season and Lars' pride is something to behold - but they caught the baseball bug and in the end so did Lars. (He just bought a pitching machine) Toby is still in his T-ball season right now so pictures of him to come - but these are of Trey and his team who tied for first in their division. I can not get over how awesome his coaches were - I will always remember Trey's first home run and how one of his coaches was waiting at home plate for him where he hugged him and threw him in the air to celebrate that run. They did this with each player and I watched that team turn into rock stars by the end - they were unstoppable! Now Trey can not get enough baseball. He wakes up in the morning during the 6'oclock hour and gets on the ipad to check baseball stats. Lars and I wake up each morning to comments like "daddy Chipper Jones got a triple". We love these boys and love seeing their passion for new things!

It's great to be 8

Trey turned 8 this year and chose to be baptized! He really did learn about it and decide for himself that he wanted to follow Christs example and get baptized. What a celebration it was with lots of family coming to celebrate with him.

A few of the Tennessee Longneckers were there too - but I didn't get a picture of them :( Some of our favorite gifts came from those family members that were not there but sent something fun for Trey - Aunt Alison sent Trey a white towel that had his name and baptism date embroidered on it and Kelsey and Mike sent an autographed Cougar football signed from all the players saying Happy 8th Birthday Trey!

Grandma made Trey an awesome blanket to talk about the Holy Ghost being a comforter - he LOVES it. Uncle Erik and Ben were the witnesses and Grandpa and Natalie said prayers with Aunt Kim leading the music. Trey did NOT want a special musical number - he is becoming more like his dad EVERY DAY!

What a weekend it was - there was also bowling and dinner (with 22 of us), swimming and a trip to the zoo! Thanks everyone for such a special weekend for such a special and loved boy. Trey, you are smart and kind and funny. You are tender hearted and a wonderful brother that would do anything to protect those you love. Recently your soccer coach described you perfectly - you are never in a hurry but always in the right place at the right time. I want time to slow down but I am obsessed with watching you grow and experience new things - you do it with such confidence and grace. You are very humble and shy away from attention but that shouldn't fool anyone because you are competetive to the core! We love you Trey!

Don't forget

Life seems to be going fast - and there are so many things that I don't want to forget.

Tonight while snuggling with my boys before bed, Trey got really serious and said, "Mommy, how do you do an armpit fart?" Toby asked what that was and Trey said; "It's this really fancy thing you do with your armpit!"

During spring break, I told the boys that I did not want to spend our spring break 'getting after' bad behavior - to which Toby replied; "Well everyday is your spring break mommy." So true Toby, so true.

During that same spring break a bunch (10 or so) of kids were at our house playing. Our neighbor invited us all over for lunch and so I yelled for the kids to come downstairs and waited as I watched them head out the front door. The house was quiet and so I locked up and headed over myself. Once there we started serving the kids and noticed 2 were missing.... I had left them alone and locked them in my house!!! As JK would say, 'Oopsie Daisies'....

A few Saturdays ago our family had been out for the day running errands when my neighbor called saying she needed to talk to me about something. It turns out while we were gone her son had come over to play and when no one answered the door he checked to see if it was locked - it wasn't (apparently I only lock the doors when I want to leave other peoples children alone in our home) he decided this was the perfect opportunity to spend the day with our Wii. She thought he was at another friends house and after discovering he wasn't there saw his bike at our place, knocked, and when no one answered her "spidey senses" went off - she checked our door and walked in to find her son enjoying the day in our Wii room. Good to know someone was holding down the fort for us! While she explained 'breaking and entering' to her son, we laughed.

Basketball 2011

The boys had another great basketball season with upward.org - We loved watching them play back to back each Saturday morning. On the day of their last game baseball tryouts started right after - there is no rest for the weary around here and they love it!

Remember when...

My little sister got married! This summer we had so much fun celebrating Kelsey and Mike! They met in a biology class where they both realized that the seating was tight for their 6'8" and 6'4" bodies - so they started saving seats for each other in the aisle where their legs would have some room to stretch and the rest is history!











What a wonderful wedding for a wonderful couple!

Christmas 2011

Christmas in our new house was a treat! We made gingerbread houses, watched a lot of Christmas shows, visited the lights at the zoo, looked to see where Elfie was hiding each morning, and loved every minute of being together!

Honestly, is there anything better than waking up each morning knowing that no one has to say goodbye to each other that day? We loved it!

JK was a delight this year as she "got it". She could not wait to see if she got her purple costume and kitchen Christmas morning.

The boys were thrilled about their new basketball hoop as well as their remote control cars and wii games.

I felt that this year the boys especially embraced the magic of decorating the house as well as the feeling of what Christmas is really about. We read Christmas stories each night and they couldn't get enough of them. We also read "the best Christmas pageant ever" as a family and loved it. I think our family time each night while we worked our way through that book and the Christmas stories will be something they always remember and want to continue each year.

We love Christmas!