Mother's Day - Prattville

My mom's birthday was the 11th. My sister wasn't able to come Mother's Day weekend, so we decided to celebrate the weekend after. We had a wonderful lunch and then birthday cake celebrating the birthday girl. I think there is something so sweet about so many grandchildren standing around their Nana singing Happy Birthday. We all love her so much and I was so glad that we were all there together to celebrate the amazing mom she is.

Afterwards, I grabbed the camera for some pictures of all the kids playing outside. (Who am I kidding, that was my plan all along. I'm trying to recoup the grandchildren pictures from Easter that were lost in murder, fire, car break-in.)

Some of Hollon's favorite toys at Nana & Gran's are the cozy coup, Dora chair & play house. I didn't get any pictures of her in the playhouse, but got a few of her loving the coup! 

Strong Gaines pushing Hollon in the car

Cousin picture!

This fall, we will add {one more}!!

Gaines (2), Marrell (7.5), Jake (7), Woody (3.5), Hollon (1.5) & Maddox (11.5)

Photo Jackpot!!! (well, for these kids at least)
Everyone somewhat looking forward

My brother has 2 girls, and is close to all of his nephews. Jake being the oldest, he is super close to Uncle Billy. He loves Uncle Billy and Uncle Billy likes to do the typical uncle things. Like pestering Jake. And getting Jake to tell an extremely long story. And scaring him.

My brother is just casually talking to Jake. Asking him about his favorite subject - snakes.

And then he pulls this out from behind his back

And Jake freaked

I pushed my luck to try to get one more group picture.

FAIL!

Gaines & Hollon starting to meltdown
Woody & Marrell looking nervous
Maddox trying to contain the cray-cray's (aka - Hollon & Gaines)
And Jake still worried Uncle Billy will scare him again with the snake

Gaines is OUT

Hollon is DONE

All is better. Hollon is in her Dora chair.

And then they jumped on the trampoline and all was better again

Hollon was like "wait for me guys!"

Woody decided he was done and crawled up in Nana's lap

If he can't be in Nana's lap, the next happy place is with his alphabet. 

My sweet girl...

Just a little girl talk

Happy Birthday & Mother's Day Nana!!

Last Day of School - Hollon

Friday, May 13th was Hollon's last day of Mother's Day Out for the 2016-2017 school year. She has had a wonderful first year at Westwood.

(Wearing the outfit she wore on the first day of school)

Morning snack can't stop just to take pictures

Lately she has been sticking her leg up on the coffee table while watching TV

Running from my picture taking

Hollon's teacher this year was Mrs. Kathy. Hollon loves Mrs. Kathy. If you could bundle everything that makes a perfect teacher for a bunch of 1 year olds, you would get Mrs. Kathy. We just love her!

Hollon went to MDO 3 days a week - Wed/Thur/Fri

Each day, there were 3 other kids in her class. It was a mix of what kids were in her class which days, but they were - Megan, Christopher, Ford, Eli, Greyson, and Jack. Hollon started out the year, very laid back. She would let kids take toys from her, she was kind of shy. Since 2 of the 3 days she went, it was her & the rest were boys, she quickly learned to stand her ground. Her teacher would joke that Hollon ruled the class. She liked to put those boys in their place. Each of the kids were precious and sweet and I'm so glad they will all be together again next year!

After the kids would dump the toys out of the bucket, Hollon liked to sit in it and sway.

Hollon's favorite things at school:

• Her favorite toys are the baby dolls and balls
• She loves music class and wants to be up front
• Her favorite song is This Little Light of Mine
• She loves it when Mrs. Kathy plays music in the class and they can dance
• She likes to end the dance party with "ta-da!!"
• According to her teacher, all around, Hollon is happy, friendly, loves to play, loves to be around other kids, can be kind of sassy if she is in one of her moods, a little bossy & independent, but has a sweet, sweet heart. And a wonderful little giggle. 

Pictures from the beginning of school & end of school:

Week in Review - Baseball & Bubbles

Monday morning, while we were all getting ready, we found Hollon like this. Relaxing in her pajamas playing with her camera.

Brother had a baseball game Monday night

Afterwards, we ate at Buck's Creek. The kids love it there because they have arcade games.

Ready for school on Tuesday

I took her outside to try to get some better pictures of her dress. It was just a plain regular cheap-o Old Navy dress. I added the fuchsia pompoms at the bottom & sleeves (well, I bought them, Mimi actually sewed them on) and I monogrammed it. I was so excited with how it turned out. But all throughout the day, the pompoms started falling off the strings. So Hollon left a pompom trail everywhere she went.

She could have cared less about my attempted photo shoot

Bring it on Wednesday

Messy hair don't care

I finally wised up and bought an automatic bubble blower. Why on earth did it take me this long?!?!? The kids (even Jake!) loved it!

(Warning, way too many pictures overload. They were just so excited.)

Some of Jake's neighborhood friends came over. Any time they come, our driveway looks like a bomb exploded. 

They all got wet spraying each other with water guns, so I took out the sprinkler and let them run around in that. 

Ready for Thursday

Looking over her list

Hollon reading one of her favorite books, Goodnight Moon

Thursday night, Jake played in a tournament with some different boys from his league. They have been doing coach pitch all year, but this tournament was machine pitch. Jake's one time up to bat, he got a hit. But our team got killed. Which meant we had to be back in Trussville at 8 Saturday morning.

Friday was Hollon's last day of school for this year. But there will be a different post on that!

Back at the ball field early Saturday morning.

 Little sister did her thing, and as usual watched none of the game

She stole an older girl's Mad Libs & pencil and refused to give it back

The good thing about playing the early game, is if you loose (which we did), you still have your whole Saturday!

Most of these boys were a mixture of Jake's last 3 years playing

It was a great baseball season! Each year, Jake gets better and better. His regular season team won their last 6 games to end with a winning season. 

 We ate lunch out and then went back to the house to hang out. Later that evening, Jake had a baseball friend come over to play and we grilled out. And Hollon had to have the bubble machine come out again.

But then she got tired of chasing the bubbles, and decided to bath in them.

She would put her hands over the opening, so the bubble mixture would become soapy in her hands.

And then she would wipe it on her arms and legs

She was a sticky, bubbly mess

And then she took notes about the day

Brother obliged and had a sword fight with Hollon

It was the end to a great week!