Friday, May 27, 2011

Chattanooga Weekend

So what does Jake do if he is at home when I'm working?

Why, play in a bath tub with no water. Of course!He also gets into stuff like tape....


He is obsessed with Toy Story right now. Especially Buzz & Woody. Woody hopped on for a ride with Jake. (Yes, I know that he is about 2 sizes too big for this toy. He loves it though & won't let us put it up.)

The end of the year party for his M/W/F Mom's Day Out class. He was in a much better mood this time.

Teacher gifts

We moved in with the Bush's Mother's Day Weekend. I don't know who looked more terrified - the cat or the housekeeper. I feel sorry for both. We are very thankful that the Bush's were kind enough to take in a homeless family of 3. Jake has had a tough time sleeping (we are still trying to figure out the best/safest room for him) so that's made for some hard last few weeks. But it is getting better. One thing Jake loves about staying with Mimi & Granddad? He gets to play with their dogs! He loves to walk Champ.Robbie & his friends from Chattanooga get together each year (well, this is the 2nd year) for a guys weekend of competing & injuring themselves, in which they call Man Olympics. I needed to come up to Chattanooga to work in the corporate office a few days, plus I wanted to take Jake to Thomas, so Jake & I tagged along. Since we have no cable at our house, our friends Andy & Margaret invited us to stay with them. Robbie & Andy were gone most of the weekend. Margaret & I and the kids had so much fun!! We just hung out, talked, the kids played. It was very relaxing and nice just to get to hang out.




On Saturday we took the boys to A Day Out With Thomas. (I wish that when I found out I was having a boy, that all those times I said "having a boy will save us so much money because I won't spend it on clothes!" someone would have informed me that I would too spend a ton of money, it would just be on Thomas related items. EVERYTHING related to that train is so expensive!) I'm living & learning. Jake went to Thomas when we were down in Fairhope but that was a different type of train. The Chattanooga was a real enclosed train. I thought that Jake would love it. He did for the first 5 minutes. But when we were going through the woods, he lost interest. Big time. Which meant I was trying to keep him from running up & down the aisle. Not to mention, the train was going so slow, so I think he just got bored. He couldn't see Thomas, so he didn't realize Thomas was pulling us (actually, I don't even know if Thomas was pulling us). Lesson learned - if Day Out With Thomas is an open train in the middle of action, go for it. If it is a real train, off to the side, skip it. Jake had more fun just walking around looking at all of the different trains since it was a real train station. I would still go, I just wouldn't spend the $40 on tickets to ride the train.



Jake & Connor were amazed at all of the different trains. They would have been happy just walking around looking at them (and my wallet would have been happier too).





They loved playing with the train sets

Jake did get super excited when we first got on the train

This is pretty much all the boys did while we were inside. Play with trains. Connor has a big train set in his room, so they both had room to play & not get in too many fights.


They also spent a lot of time outside playing. Margaret gave them water balloons to play with. They loved them!



It was such a fun weekend! Robbie & Andy's team won the Man Olympics (It's okay to laugh. We're just thankful that none of them got hurt.) Jake & Connor had so much fun playing together and it was so nice to get to just hang out with Margaret. We are usually in a group setting, so its not often that we get to just sit back & hang out. It was such a great weekend! Thank you guys for the great time & wonderful friendship!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

The Last 2 Weeks

Wow, what a crazy last 2 weeks! It started with my crazy NY trip & the horrible weather on April 27th. We haven't slowed down since!



The weekend after that (April 30th) my mom was a hostess for a wedding shower for my cousin Tiffany. The brunch was held in my parent's garden. It was so much fun & good to see people from my home town.

Tiffany with her aunts (the hostesses) & some of us that helped out with the shower My cousin Tiffany & her mom, my Aunt Deborah. 2 very special women to me!




My niece Maddox. She is hilarious. (Example: She is in the 1st grade & is starting to have different opinions from her mom on what she should wear. She told me that she & her mom just had different "styles". I asked her what her style was, and she said "fancy". I asked her what her mom's style was, and she said "church-y". Ha!)
On May 8th, we celebrated Mother's Day. That was also the weekend that we moved out of the apartment & in with The Bush's (that story will have to be another blog post!). Needless to say, Jake is confused & it showed. He wanted nothing to do with pictures.







On May 11th was my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom & Nana!! My mom buys Jake these recordable books from Hallmark. (They are super cute & I highly suggest them. Especially for grandparents who live out of town from their grandchildren!) My mom got Jake a Curious George one for Easter. He is so funny because he talks back to her when he looks at the book. I was trying to secretly record him, but he quickly saw me. I just love to hear him say "that's right Nana". Below is him "talking" to Nana.





While we were still in the apartment, Jake figured out that he could climb out of the pac-n-play. Once he climbed out, got a box of wipes & then climbed back in & 'cleaned' with them. Every.single.one.of.them.

Since we've moved, Jake has had a tough time. Especially with sleeping. On Thursday, May 12th, was his Tuesday/Thursday Mom's Day Out End-of-the-Year party. The parents were invited to come at 12:45. When I walked in, this is what I walked in to.
There were kids all screaming running around & Jake was conked out on the floor snoring. His teacher sent me the picture she took of him a little earlier. While they were eating lunch, he got on the floor & laid his head down in his chair. Poor thing! So they moved him to a pallet on the floor, which is what I walked in to.
That night, Robbie & I went to a McCallie (the all boys high school he went to) alumni/future student reception. There were all these parents from Birmingham there talking about sending their sons away to high school to McCallie. I don't know how I would feel about sending Jake to a boarding school. (Who am I kidding?!?! I don't know how we will afford college, much less a high school!) He is going to be stuck at home with us for high school! It was a fun party though & it was nice to meet some new people from Birmingham.




This weekend, we headed down to South Alabama. We got to Fairhope late Friday night & stayed with my friend Stephanie. Saturday (May 14th) we took the boys to a Day Out With Thomas event. Here they are at the house very excited!








Jake was so excited. He kept running up to the posters.



Playing with the trains waiting for our turn to ride Thomas



When we told Jake it was time to go get on Thomas, he grabbed every train he could hold! We told him he had to leave them there for other kids to play with.



The boys - Jake & Grant with their dads



Thomas! Stephanie & I let Robbie & Jonathan ride with the boys



We were trying to get pictures in front of Thomas, but Jake was starting to melt down. This picture makes me laugh though, because you can see the people behind Stephanie & Grant that are actually standing in front of Thomas taking a picture (which you have to pay for). We were cheap & were trying to take pictures in front of the railing. Ha!



Playing on the bouncer They had a little park beside the tracks Refueling



Jake was very excited to see Sir Topham Hatt (again, we skipped the $20 picture & long wait long. We just waved to the fat controller [which cracks me up that was what he was called in the original series!] I'm so glad Jake was fine with that!) This was our first time at Day Out with Thomas. I had heard that it was a cash cow. The tickets to ride Thomas were expensive ($20 a person for a 20 minute ride, no matter the age). But as long as you skipped the extras (like the hat & lanyard for an extra $20) and the pictures by their photographers (another $20), it really wasn't so bad. We are going again this weekend when we are up in Chattanooga. Robbie won't get to go this time though, so I was happy he was able to see Jake see Thomas. Jake got so excited last time, I can't wait for him to see & ride Thomas again!



Grant & Jake playing with trains after we got home






Saturday evening, we went to my cousin's son's wedding down in Mobile. It was so good to see members of my mom's side of the family. The wedding was beautiful & the backdrop for the reception was absolutely gorgeous





These pictures look weird just posted to the blog. But when you scroll through them on the camera, you can see that Jake is dancing. He was too funny! He kept telling us he was at a party.


Congratulations Tom & Ashley