Hello Sunshine

I hear "Outside. Slide.  Peez." everyday.  She loves 'em!

Monkey see, Monkey do.

new favorite pic.  :)

blog? What blog?

I didn't plan on a month long blogging hiatus.  Oh, life.  A bit crazy around here.  Good stuff, hard stuff... all God stuff. 
Here's a snippet of things we've been up to:
1.  My laptop is currently infected with its 3rd virus.  (Yes, I had anti-virus software and yes, I am getting a different kind).  And Mike's laptop finally died after many many years.  We are blessed to have some tech savvy people in our church that are helping my poor laptop!   Mike has taken over my laptop for the time-being, so I've had little time online.  Which is both refreshing and yet, very frustrating at the same time.  :)

2.  It's basketball season and we are in the throws of ACC play.  My Heels had a rather dismal start, but have had such a dramatic turn around.  We LOVE watching the games together.

3.  I seem to go in Reading Frenzy spurts.  Right now I can't put books down.  Have you read Radical by David Platt?  Wow.  Life-changing, hard, and refreshing all at the same time.  I'm reading it with a friend from church and it is kicking our tails!  I'm also diving into Inside The Revolution: How the Followers of Jihad, Jefferson, and Jesus Are Battling to Dominate the Middle East and Transform the World.  It is so very insightful and yet terrifying!  My dad introduced me to author Joel Rosenberg and both his non-fiction and fictitious books on Middle East tensions and what Bible prophesy has to say about it.  In light of all the chaos happening right now, believers need to know how to pray.  I also highly recommend his The Last Jihad series (fiction).

4.  I'm looking for part-time work.  So the little computer time that I have had has been job searching and resume tweaking.  Ugh.

5.  Home Projects.  Mike just replaced our kitchen and Master Bath flooring.  Love it!  We have a long list of things to tackle.  Mike is not a giddy kind of guy...he is about as mellow as they come.  Except when it comes to some power tools.  Seriously, a nail gun made him hyper with excitement.  So funny to me!

6.  Sickness.  Off and on all of us have had something for the last month.  Jackson is the latest - he was devastated to miss the Valentines exchange at school.  They saved them for him, though.

7.  The house is alive with the sound of music.  My kiddos are nothing short of obsessed with the movie The Sound of Music.  Hannah tries so hard to sing along with Jackson, but it usually comes out "Doe... a doe.  A doe doe doe.  Ray.....Yay!".  She begs me often to watch the movie (we fast-forward to all the singing parts). 

8. Dancing Queen:  Hannah's got some new moves. I have NO idea where she picked them up. She made a grand performance at a Super Bowl Party we attended. Oh my!
Video below shows both her trying to sing Doe a Deer AND her little shaking moves...

winter what-nots

My kids.  They drive me crazy.  They make me laugh.  I utterly adore them.  With Jackson still Tracked Out, the freezing cold weather, and an ice storm, we have had a LOT of time together indoors.

They may be 4.5 years apart, but they certainly know how to pester each other.  Going for the full sibling experience, I guess.  One minute they are chasing and giggling... the next they take toys from each other and scream out.  Hannah is not so sure about having Jackson at home with us during the day as she definitely acts out when my attention is centered on him.

Jack is wii-obsessed.  He would happily play all day long if I let him.  I took cue from my friend and set up new parameters for his play:  However long he spends on homework or reading, he gets that same amount of time to play wii.  No more arguing and he's more motivated than ever to get school work done.  He is really impressing me with his reading abilities lately.

Caught!

Hannah has entered into a new phase I call the "stinker phase".  She is quite mischievous and active!  The girl is ALL over the place and very sneaky...  Hides my hair brush.  Sneaks candy.  I went upstairs to grab her shoes and in the 30 seconds I was gone she had climbed onto the kitchen table, grabbed and pencil and decorated my notebook.  She is testing the limits in virtually every area.  Where is my sweet, docile little thing??!  :)

For all her recent rambunctiousness, she has become the extreme snuggler.  She often leads me to a chair, tells me to sit, and gathers all her beloved objects (usually nite nite blankie, sippy cup, doll, and magnadoodle) for a lengthy snuggle time on my lap.  I love this!  However, she does have a knack for picking inopportune times - like when I'm cooking dinner or helping Jackson with homework.  Hannah gives me hugs and kisses all day long, and often tells me "lub you".  Melts my heart!

Her vocabulary has really multiplied and she will chat up a storm.  She will sit on my lap and go on and on with real words mixed with babble.  She's putting more words together: "Mommy, cups.  Juice.  Peeeez.  Yummy Yummy"  (translation: I am thirsty. Please give me yummy juice.)

doesn't she look like a stinker?

Other cute quotable moments:

Hannah calls the Chewbacca action figure, "Lion", and makes it roar.  It's a new favorite for her.

At a blended service our church had with another church that is primarily African American, Jackson said to me, "Mom, they say AMEN alot."

Jackson: "Well, I love Beauty and the Beast.  It's not a girl movie.  They do lots of cool battles."

"Fake Birthday" (aka Lego Star Wars party)

Jackson has taken to calling his small friend party the Fake Birthday since it wasn't ON the actual day.  So funny.  This year's party was very small, but memorable.  Since he is the big 6 year old, he had a lot of input into the party this year.  The theme was Lego Star Wars.

Not just Lego.  Not just Star Wars.  It had to be Lego Star Wars.  Which ended up being a very fun and easy theme to work with!

The boys went through vigorous Jedi Training with their trainer (Daddy).  We had the soundtrack playing as the young Padawans (that's SW speak for Jedi's-in-training) arrived.  They were presented with their own Light Saber (small inflatable ones that light up). In case you are wondering... 5 & 6 year-old boys LOVE love LOVE light sabers. There was quite the exuberance!
The first activity was Light Saber training (keep balloons in air as long as possible using the light saber). 
Next, they worked together to free Hans Solo from an ice prison (Hans action figure frozen in ice block).  Then, it was Blaster Training (nerf guns taking out a line of 6 bad guy action figures). 

We then took a break from training for a little present opening and refreshments of Yoda Soda, a light saber cake, ice cream and a few other snacks.  The table centerpiece was the Millennium Falcon (courtesy of daddy's childhood collection).  These young Jedi were raring to get back to training!

The Padawans then had to tackle the biggest obstacle yet -- Destroy the Death Star (ball pinata we painted silver).  Jackson was insistent that he had to have a pinata this year.  This worked perfectly with our theme.

We then lined up the boys for an Awards Ceremony where each received a Jedi Knightship certificate signed by Master Yoda himself.  They REALLY got into it and were so excited!

The remainder of time was spent playing with Star Wars action figures and ships, playing a Lego Star Wars wii game, and whopping each other with light sabers.  Hence the importance of them being inflatable.  :) 

According to Jackson, it was the "coolest birthday ever".  He was grinning from ear-to-ear the entire time.  Even Hannah loved it.  She stayed in the middle of every activity just like she was a 6 year old.

Christmas in TN

So, we learned that even if your cul-de-sac is plowed... that doesn't mean that both lanes of I-40 will be clear for travel.  It took about 8.5 hours to make a usually 6 hour trip to TN.  We went 9 miles in 2 hours through the mountains with no place to exit.  Praise God the kids were really good... having a DVD player and goldfish for dinner probably helped.  :)

We had a fabulous time with family in Knoxville. Presents galore, great food, lots of resting, and fun.  The kids both loved seeing Elle and Emerson again!

Mimi got Elle and Hannah matching jammies!

Granddaddy, Mimi and all the grandbabies!

Gearing up to watch the bowl game.  Daddy had a UT shirt on under his sweatshirt, and Uncle Tyson had a UT sweatshirt he wore to the game.  Who would've thought our teams would ever meet up in a bowl??

Snow Beautiful

It snowed Christmas night and we woke to a beautiful Winter Wonderland of 7-8 inches.  Mommy, Jackson and Hannah were thrilled!!  (Daddy doesn't enjoy it quite as much, but he's a trooper!)  The snow was pretty deep for Hannah, but she plowed right through, giggling the whole time.

Our first venture out, we sledded and played with neighbors Chris, Aaron, and Rees. 

Lola and Hannah excited to see each other.  This was seconds before a large Lola smooch!

Rees and Hannah

Then we built "Dan" the Snowman, made snow angels, and sledded some more.

Hannah was so tired, but didn't whine one bit.  She loved it, despite the look on her face!

I'm sure the snow lingered for days, but we had plans to trek to TN.  Our town actually sent 3 plows down our little cul-de-sac within 2 hours of the snow stopping.  So, off we went to Tennessee the next morning.

Christmas Morning 2010

Hannah's new ride.

Mike and I had to drag Jackson out of bed  (seriously, not a morning person!), but it didn't take too much coaxing.  As Daddy carried Hannah downstairs, she said "See!  See!  Woooow!".  Santa brought her a Cozy Coupe, elmo, puzzles, and little people farm.  The Coupe was the favorite, by far!  She has played with a neighbor's car for a while and she is thrilled to have her own now.  She gets in and out of it all day long! 

Jackson got a new scooter, Star Wars game, Star Wars Crossover transformer, transformers, books and a few other things.  Star Wars has definitely been the theme for him!

Grandmomma came over for our tradition Christmas breakfast (Monkey Bread, sausage and eggs), and spent some time playing with the kids and their new toys.

Our Griswald Christmas (aka One Christmas We Will NEVER Forget)

(other potential title - If My Husband wasn't a Manly Man, I would have a Bug Infested, Burnt Down Home)

It has been a hectic, yet fun-filled Christmas season.  Jackson understands more and more about Christ's birth and the reason He needed to come "save us from sins".  Hannah was started to say "Jesus" ("Jeez Jeez") and could point to characters in the nativity scenes.  My heart was happy.  We were all geared up for some family celebrations and a quiet Christmas at home.

Then some odd things began to happen.

After Jackson's family Birthday Party on Christmas Eve morning, we were resting around the house for a little bit before venturing out to Granddaddy and GranDee's for dinner and presents.  I went to grab their presents from under the tree when I saw a bug on the window next to the tree.  That's weird, I thought.  I killed it and then went in for the presents.  And that is when I saw them.

Uninvited Christmas guests.  Many, too many tiny black bugs.  Ones I had never seen before.  They were everywhere under the tree and some in the bagged presents. 

I'll admit it.  I freaked out a bit.

Every present was removed from the tree, taken apart and inspected.  Mike moved the tree over some and I vacuumed tons of dead bugs from under the tree.  What were those things and HOW did they get in my house??

And then I looked closer.  Through a gap between branches I saw the trunk of the tree.  It was black from bunches and bunches of those black bugs.

That is when I really wigged out. Oh my goodness, it was disgusting!!

Mike and I threw on a movie or two for the kids while we quickly grabbed all the ornaments off the tree.  Then we drug it out on the deck (with gloves!) and Mike took all the lights off.  I continued vacuuming like a crazy woman and inspecting every nook and cranny for more of those suckers.  And felt itchy all over. Ugh!

And then he sprayed a LOT of raid on it.  My hero!  :)

And in case you think I am exaggerating, here's a look at the tree (post raid):

We are considering artificial for next year.

Even though he was less than 10 feet away, Jackson was so absorbed in the movie that he was totally oblivious to what we were doing.  After the movie finished, he turned and said "Hey, what did you do to my tree?!".  At that point we could laugh about it.

Daddy removed the scrawny tree we use in the loft and put all the presents under it.  Let's just say Charlie Brown would be proud.

We changed clothes, cleaned up, and went on our merry way.  Disaster averted.  (Can you imagine if we had left town for a week and came home to a larger infestation??  **shudder**)  With a little google research, our only guess is that the tree came with a bug or two... that we didn't see...and the warm temperatures in our home caused the eggs to hatch in the 4 weeks we have had the tree.

But wait, there's more...

Christmas Evening I was sitting at the dining table decorating cookies for my daddy and watching the snow fall.  I smelled something odd... like plastic burning.  The scent would come and go.  Mike and I wandered all over the house smelling everything to find the culprit.

The scent got stronger.  We finally discovered the smell was strongest around a light switch, which was confirmed by the switch plate feeling abnormally warm.  I had the cell in my hand ready to call the fire department out to my house on a snowy Christmas night. 

Mike talked me down. 

He took the plate off and inspected.  Fortunately we have a good friend, Fleegle, who is an electrical guru.  He and Mike worked out the problem - a burned out or faulty dimmer switch.  Praise God that I have a handyman husband!  He removed all the bad parts, taped up the wires and we'll get a new switch after this snow has subsided.  Scent is gone.

I still asked him sleep on the couch just in case something else was going on with the wiring, so he could be close and could alert us if we needed to get out.  The switch is just below Hannah's room and really scared me.

Can you imagine the potential disaster if we had not been home??  God is good, friends.  Very good.

We are now enjoying the remnant of a White Christmas.  It is beautiful, and it has kept us from leaving early to visit family out of town.  Which, we see in hindsight, is not such a bad thing at all.

Our Six Year Old

Jackson, life with you has always been an adventure.  Your curious mind, boisterous energy, wild imagination, sweet spirit, and love for people make you such a fun guy to be around!

At age 6 you love:  SCHOOL (you are so bummed to be away during track out), anything legos, anything Star Wars... and Lego Star Wars is just icing on the cake!, play fighting/karate with Dad, anything chocolate, Wii, books, anything Dinosaurs, and nerf guns.  You really love to "teach" us the things that you have learned at school.

We love you, son!  We are so very proud to be your parents.  God has blessed us with a great adventure with you!

Just because I am feeling nostalgic, let's take a walk down memory lane... (age 1 and birth pics to be added)

Age 2

Age 3

Age 4

Age 5

5 1/2 years old