Let's Go to the Movies

For a full marble jar, Caleb was treated to a night out with Mommy and Daddy and no brothers...

We went to dinner and then took him to see his first movie at the theatre. The ticket taker did not play along with my action shot, do people not normally take pictures of their children going to the movies for the first time? Caleb even got to bring along a friend. Really, Mommy invited one of her friends who just happens to have a child Caleb's age to come along. But they (and we) had a great time experiencing this first together. Obviously, the ticket taker was prepared this time and played it a little more cool...

And it would not be the movies without a combo meal that was more expensive than his dinner.
They both did great and sat through the entire movie, and when it was over Caleb said "I want to watch another one." A fun and succesful first trip to the movies!

As we were going to bed Corey and I talked about how easy it is to go somewhere with just one child, it almost felt like a date night!

Delay

Apparently my life is currently operating on a two to three day delay. It snowed here on Thursday night. Unfortunately, that meant it took me two hours to get home from work. But fortunately it also meant that school was out on Friday. So we had Daddy home for the day, and lots of fun playing outside...

Is it redneck to push your children down the hill in your back yard in a diaper box? In any case, the boys had fun.

I left my curling iron in Kentucky.

Somehow when packing up all the stuff from my five-person family's five day stay in Kentucky, I forgot my curling iron. I know they are cheap, but I am going to be back there in two weeks so I hate to buy a new one.

And I am completely over my straightener. This is mainly because if I curl my hair I can go a few days without washing it, but if I straighten it I will have to wash it the next day because it looks greasy. I know there are those of you who get up every morning to wash and style your hair, but I just cannot bring myself to do it. It is hard enough to get up and spend some time with Jesus. Time with Jesus and a shower would have me up around 4.

So last week when I was getting ready I was forced to dig around behind all this...

in order to find these:

Hot rollers. Anybody still use them? Yeah, I hadn't used them in a while either. And the last time I used them I had long hair without layers. And I hear that pregnancy can do weird things to your hair. And I thought it best to spray them and take the time to clean my bonus room before I took them out. Which all might explain why I seriously underestimated the power of some hot rollers...

You can read about my call for help here.

Our time away

Aside from just getting to hang out with my family, I used to love going back to my hometown because of all the yummy food. Now, I honestly look forward to going because I know that means I will not have to clean my house for several days. Before I had kids I felt like housecleaning was something I did once a week, but now it is constant unending process--a little vacation was nice!

But skipping out on housecleaning for several days is not the only reason I enjoyed my time away, it was also because...

I had lots of help with my littlest guy.

I absolutely love hearing this little guy call me Aunt Sumer.

My husband got to watch the Auburn/Alabama game with my brother. Corey is an Alabama fan, and my brother went to Auburn. Luckily for Corey it worked out in his favor but either way it was fun for them to watch it together.
The big boys always have tons of fun when we are there. I got to watch KY Nana and her sisters run into the streets gathering up more candy for my kids at the Christmas parade than they got at Halloween.

And we get to play our new favorite game with two of our most favorite people.
Glad Christmas is only a few weeks away!

Frustration

It is frustrating to try and get three little boys to all look at the camera and smile -- at the same time. It is frustrating to try and not ruin the family evening of Christmas decorations by being stressed out about the possibility of broken ornaments, s'mores smooshed on the couch or floor, and tushies getting burned on the fireplace.

And a few weeks ago, I would have said it was frustrating for my husband to say the new decorations I wanted for the tree were an "unnecessary expense." But the frustration was all gone when the tree was up, and it was decorated with ornaments from my childhood, and cute things Caleb has made in years past all clumped together on the few branches he could reach, and nobody got hurt (or yelled at) in the process.

Bowling

Like so many of our friends, we too, have started a marble jar at our house. Caleb gets two marbles in the jar for good behavior, and one marble taken out for bad behavior. He actually got about half a jar of marbles dumped into his jar while he slept too, because Daddy did not think it was filling up fast enough the first time to continue being effective. And when he filled the jar, he got a trip to the bowling alley. Luckily, the kiddie lanes are not oiled...

And a trip to the bowling alley would not be complete without a snack...a "spicy blue" drink and popcorn for all that good behavior.
And, of course, Silas lucked out being that he made no marble contributions, but also got to reap the benefits of a full jar.

A Proud Moment

We might be behind on this little milestone, but if so I dont even want to know because I was very proud of my biggest little boy today.

And at any rate, I just cannot believe he is old enough to do these things, time does go by so fast. My mother-in-law says that the days go by slow but the years go by fast. Only three years in and it already seems too fast.

Dedication

Our baby boy was named William after his great-grandfather who is a loving and Godly man. Corey and I were thrilled that he was able to attend the baby dedication at our church on Sunday.

We chose the middle name, Canaan, because it is a physical representation of the promises of God to His people. And our Canaan is also an amazing representation of God's love and promises to my family.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:3-8

Thanks to KY Nana and Nanny for making the trip down for this special occasion as well. And thanks, Pop, for basically missing the whole ceremony to keep Silas quietly entertained! We love you all!

And just for fun...this is my friend Amber and I at our shower just a few weeks before Canaan was born.
And this is us standing next to each other a few months later publicly dedicating ourselves to the goal of raising our babies to know and love Jesus Christ.

The Land Before Time

Let me begin by saying thanks to Sandy for the little dinosaur/dragon costume that she gave to Caleb three years ago, and thanks to Amber for the great costume swap idea which left me only one dinosaur costume to buy. And a big thanks to Pop and Nana for making a trip out to see the boys and (most importantly) for bringing a tray of nuggets. The boys all had a great time last night...we trick-or-treated at a neighbor's house, played in Pop's car, and then headed to church for the Fall Festival.


Caleb shed the hat as soon as we arrived, but loved playing all the games. Silas quickly learned that the games were all to hard for him and he just made a beeline for the candy bucket in each room. He probably ended up with twice as much candy as Caleb, including SIX bags of (my favorite) peanut m&ms. Corey only likes plain m&ms so he accused me of coaching the little guy.

Finally...

I have watched my blog slowly slip down the Big Nanny blog roll, as the days ticked by waiting for my brother to send me some beach pictures. But considering that the three of them let the five of us tag along to their free weekend in a beach condo, I won't actually hold it against them! Thanks again, Yanceys, we had a great time!

So last week we went to PCB with my brother and his family for Fall Break. I have a nephew who is two, so that made a house of four adults and four boys ages 3, 2, 1, and, 6 months. We spent our days at the beach, and at nights walking around the new Pier Park and then playing games after the boys went to bed. The boys played well together (for the most part), nobody got sunburned (except Corey, but that is really just a given), and we survived the grueling eight hour trip (with four extra stops just for Caleb to potty). And thank you all for all the prayers, because praise the Lord noone else got sick from whatever stomach bug Corey had the night before we left! Enjoy lots of pictures...

The Yanceys Caleb loved climbing on the rocks with Uncle Shane.Nathan also loved climbing on the rocks.

And all of the boys loved exploring the "caves".
We all share a love of popcorn - except for my weird husband and Canaan who needs some teeth first - so we made a couple of trips to Popcorn Kingdom.
Canaan was not a big fan of the beach, it interfered with naptime.

Last year, Silas was not a big fan of the beach (it interfered with naptime),

but this year he had a great time.

We spent several days at the state park beaches which were amazing. There are deer that will almost walk up to your car, crabs running across the roads, and no hotels to crowd the landscape. Perfect for our kids to be able to play in the water, dig in wet sand with no waves, and find lots of seashells.

Silas and Daddy headed out to the beach.

Futile attempt at getting all the boys to cooperate for a beach picture. He seems so sweet here, but actually he was being defiant and uncooperative.
But they were all more than happy to cooperate for a picture at the random turpentine mill.

Silas and Daddy riding the waves.

Uncle Shane and Canaan.

Meredith (aka Aunt Yoshi) and SilasWe cooperated for our picture. And we weren't even bribed!