Happy New Years!

We're off to par-tay tonight. Excited to be with friends, and the boys!

We are all still getting back to normal habits, the boys in particular. Normal sleeping, eating, and um... other bodily function related issues.

Jack has had some rather odoriferous incidents recently. There was one in particular today that made me anxious for potty training.

Josh told me several times within a few short minutes how much Jack stinked, then he finally came to me and said "mom, I don't like the smell of him". Me neither Josh.

Hope your New Year smells better than ours!

Shew. A week of nonstop visitors from both sides of the family and we are pooped.

We had a great, and tiring Christmas. The boys both took long naps today to prove it.

We are looking forward to heading out to some friends house (with the boys) tomorrow night to celebrate New Years with some friends (of ours and the boys). I still feel like it's a luxury to get to do that!

The boys have been full of new things that they are up to. Josh is officially reading now. I think we are up to two words (other than his and Jack's names) and counting. Every where he sees letters he reads them. Reminds me of what I did when trying to learn Russian.

Jack repeats virtually everything you say and wants to do everything big brother does, this includes jumping off the stairs, jumping on the bed, throwing things, and shooting things (he knows how to make a gun with his fingers and make the shooting noise). He has also told me several times when he has poopies, which I'm hoping means I get to start potty training sooner rather than later. My favorite new things of his are the animal noises. We taught him how to make animal noises, and those are hilarious. The best is how he roars like a tiger. He does it in his throat so it sounds like a real roar. Precious.

I treasure how well the boys play together. Josh told me the other day that Jack was his best friend. I think Josh returning to school will be rough on Jack for a few days, he's loved having his big brother to play with and get in to trouble with.

Hope everyone had Merry Christmas and that ya'll get to enjoy your New Year!

Lord. Have. Mercy.

Josh had his Christmas party today and got a new book about Jesus' Birthday. After reading it we were talking about God and Jesus and related issues. We were talking about how the bad guys beat Jesus up and how he died on a cross, and off that how sometimes it takes more strength not to beat people up (since Jesus could have). Somehow that spun off into how tough God was and I told Josh God was the strongest guys ever, and he goes "no, I'm stronger than God is". Shortly after that I was telling him how we needed to love and obey God and Jesus because that is how we get to heaven and he proceeds to tell me he doesn't want to go to heaven.

Somebody tell me how you parent through that? It always cracks me up when people try to say kids aren't sinful. The sinful and rebellious heart in my child is quite present today.

So if anyone feel like praying for mercy for my oldest child, it could definitely be used!

*edit* he did pray and ask for forgiveness. He told Jesus he was sorry for the bad things he said

Okay, recap of the last month:

The trip to STL was probably the most successful we have had to date. The boys did quite well on both legs of the drive (with the exception of hotel sleeping, but that wasn't in the car) and managed to stay healthy and fairly happy most of their stay. Such a relief!

Josh was sick most of the month. He had to take two rounds of antibiotics for an ear infection (as did Jack) and 5 days after being off the antibiotics we had to go back into the doctor and get on more for... walking pneumonia. Thankfully he is back to himself!

We've been busy finishing up all of our Christmas obligations and after Wednesday are looking forward to a schedule free week. I tried to be intentional about having the week before off where we could hang out and make memories without being stressed. We're excited to have everyone down here for the holidays. Really excited about getting to celebrate Christmas in my own house!

Josh and Jack are Pete and Re Pete right now. They play together all the time, and if one goes somewhere the other goes off to find him. It's fun to watch them and their camaraderie. They have their tiffs, but for the most part I really am amazed at how well they get a long. Such a blessing.

We've been rocking out the Charlie Brown cartoons recently. At one point Lucy tells Charlie that he's so stupid, Josh heard it and gasped and looked up at me and said "that's not nice! Where is her mommy?!"

Hopefully I will slide back into the blogging mindset and have some more cute stories about the boys soon!

So my kids are STILL sick. Apparently the antibiotics they were taking didn't work. We're on another round and if this doesn't kick it then they will have to be injected with antibiotics. It would be super if they were better by the time we left for Thanksgiving!

Thankfully Josh is at least showing a little improvement. He still has a fever but he's being a lot nicer and has more energy to run and play. I think he must have came up and told me he loved me at least 4 times yesterday which is miraculous after the week we had. Mind you I found out he had been sneaking bites of cookies I had made for a bake sale and he may have been trying to cover for that, but I'll take what I can get!

Josh had his Thanksgiving feast today at school. They dressed up as indians, he was super cute. I almost didn't take him to school today since he still wasn't feeling well, but I'm glad he made it. Even if I did have to carry him through the food line.

Jack has officially lost his last bit of babyishness to him. I looked at him the other day and was struck by what a little man he looked like. He's loosing his baby potbelly and really slimming out, which makes him look like a toddler. He's still in the phase of wanting to scream for everything he wants but he knows how to say "please" now and we're trying to make him ask for whatever it is he wants instead of just screaming. We're getting there.

So that's our life right now. Trying to get ready for our trip, half excited, half anxious. Our kids don't do so well traveling. They don't sleep as well in new places and want to be in on all the action. Their eating is also usually pretty off and they run on a pretty constant sugar high. Sometimes it makes it more difficult for Chris and I to enjoy the holiday since we are so busy running interference. Hopefully this trip will go smoother. At the very least the drive should be, I think the extra space in our new car will really help the 10 hour drive the be less claustrophobic feeling.

I'm so grateful for our car. I fit 200 cupcakes in it last night, 75 brownies and 6 dozen chocolate chip cookies. And I still had room for 4 people. Maybe a smoother ride will help start the trip on a better note. Here's hoping.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

*edit* I went into the other room to check on Josh and he had chocolate on his face. He gets in BIG trouble for getting into things on the counter without asking (since I have a cupcake business and he once drank over half a bottle of Tylenol). I ask him to open his mouth and you could see the cookie in his teeth and smell it on his breath. The problem is, I have NO IDEA where he got this cookie. Nothing on the counters has been touched or moved, it's a mystery cookie that is untraceable. Chris said maybe we shouldn't punish him because of the sheer amazingness of his feat. We think he may have a place he hides things in or something. The kid is so stinking smart. DO YOU SEE WHAT I'M DEALING WITH?!

It's been a L.O.N.G. week.

Not only have the boys (all 3 of them) been sick for almost a full week, but we have hit some interesting phases with the boys as well.

Jack has been screaming virtually non stop. He's getting a couple of teeth in, as well as being at the awkward stage where he knows he can just yell to get what he wants, but he also knows enough words to be able to ask for it. This results in him screaming and me constantly getting onto him to "ask!".

He also really likes to yell my name a lot. He calls me "ma" most of the time. Chris always laughs at it because he thinks Jack sounds like a New Yorker when he says it.

Josh has hit a(nother) phase of very poor listening. Amidst his inability to listen there have also been some infuriating behavior thrown in the midst of it. The first one was that he just decided to randomly pee on the carpet. I still can't wrap my mind around why or how... there are some things I just don't understand. The second was that he decided to take a sharpie to our couch. Mind you the sharpie was in my purse (which he knows he's not supposed to get into) and he drew on the couch (of which he KNOWS we only color on paper). Thankfully some BRILLIANT person invented microfiber of which we were intuitive enough to buy. A little bit of rubbing alcohol took it right out. For the record I have removed chocolate, olive oil, tomato sauce, pen, sharpie, snot, and only God knows what else from our couches all except the sharpie with nothing more than water.

I've had people on a regular basis tell me that I'm going to miss this phase when my kids are teenagers and they can talk back. Meanwhile I'm thinking they're crazy because if they knew Josh they would know how much talking back I get. My only hope is that the consistent discipline we do know will make life when they are teenagers a little easier.

There have been too many times this past week where I have questioned my mommy skills and if I'm a complete failure. Parenting is not an easy business, at least not with my children. For whatever reason it seems as though God has entrusted us with more challenging children than other people seem to have. I try to trust that means he's given me the capability to come out the other side a sane person, with well behaved kids. This week has required a lot of trust and faith.

So you know how in that last post, I talked about Jack being a daredevil and it becoming problematic? Yeah, that turned out to be true.

So Friday he fell out of the shopping cart. He kept standing up in the front and he can get out of the buckles, so I put him in the back, because at the lowest part it was up to his chest, and I thought for sure it wasn't mathematically possible for him to fall out, plus he was mainly sitting and playing with a toy. I was wrong. I guess he leaned over the end while I looked away for 30 seconds and flipped out onto his back, getting a nice little chunk out of the top of his head.

Then, yesterday, I had the back door cracked open because I had been cooking and it had gotten smokey in the house. I guess he had gotten outside, which wouldn't be a big deal (we have a fence) except when he went to come back in he tripped over the mat and hit his forehead on the ledge of the door that's covered in metal.

The doctor told us to go straight to Scottish Rite (the kids hospital here, and a 45 minute drive NOT in rush hour traffic). I asked them if I could have a doc check it out to make sure it needed stitches, since I knew it was borderline. They would, as long as I was there by 5. It was 4:30, my kids had no clothes on and I was watching a baby girl who was still napping and the doctors office is every bit of a 20 minute drive not in rush hour traffic. Long story short, by the grace of God we made it there and he didn't have to have stitches.

At this rate I'm going to have DCFS called on me! I'm seriously considering bubble wrap...

So I've discovered two potentially problematic attributes of my children in the past couple of days.

Jack apparently is a dare devil. We went to the park, and he will climb all the way up to the big slides BY HIMSELF. Not only does he get himself up there, but he proceeds to throw himself right on down them. And not always int he regular sliding procedure. Sometimes he decides to turn around on his stomach and go down. This is a little unnerving for me. The kid isn't even a year and a half old and I'm not sure he need to be sliding down slides by himself that are a story high. Not to mention he doesn't even wait to make sure Chris or I are there. Josh had some fears that we wanted to be better about not letting take root in Jack. Apparently we went a little overboard in the prevention. Now we need to work on reinstating some healthy fear.

Last night we had small group, at the end I was asking the babysitters how he did. They looked sheepishly at one another and proceeded to tell me that him and one of the girls were sitting in the corner kissing each other on the cheek. In Josh's defense after interrogating him in the car he wasn't doing the kissing he was just letting himself be kissed on the cheek. Still not ok, but better. After the babysitters told me that one of the other moms piped up that her middle daughter refers to Josh as her boyfriend. So apparently I have a ladies man. I thought the only fighting off of the opposite sex I would have to do was for my mythical (at this point) daughter. Apparently I was wrong. How young is too young to have to start talking about relationships? And does this mean Chris and I should stop kissing in front of him? How am I already asking these questions?! This is all too soon!!!

Conversations with a pint-sized sports fan:

Josh: mom, I can't be friends with Tristan any more.

Me: why not?

Josh: because he likes the other Georgia team, the bee team (that would be Georgia Tech yellow jackets for all you non-Georgia dwellers) and he doesn't like my team.


Thank goodness we live in a football focused state and happen to like the most popular team. If he had this issue with baseball, poor kid wouldn't have any friends. Not a whole lot of Cards fans in GA.

I've know for a while now that Jack was right on the precipice of busting out all kind of language skills. Mainly because Josh went through the same thing, but we've been repeating a bunch of words to him and he just seemed to be mulling them over.

Well this weekend was his weekend. It all started with "nigh nigh" the weekend before (see post below). This weekend we've had apple, baby, baseball (no joke), night night (more pronounced), more, shoe, and more that I am probably loosing track of.

It's been fun to be able to understand what it is he wants and communicate with him more clearly, but on the other hand that was my final "he's still a baby" thing. I pretty much got nothing but a full fledged toddler now. Good thing he's an adorable and fun one.

Josh informed me the other day that he does like girls now and they're not so bad. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing now.

We've had a crazy month of October but things are finally settling down now. I'm looking forward to being more attentive to the boys adorableness to document it better in the coming weeks. I haven't had as much time to just hang with them and I really miss that.

So busy.

Here are a few highlights:

We were getting Jack ready for bed, and I told him to tell Daddy "night, night", and he looked at him and said "nigh, nigh". So sweet.

Josh has some pretty impressive vocabulary but I think my favorite phrase of his is "sawed". As in "mommy, I sawed a big truck". Who needs proper grammar when you have cute phrases like that?

Within the last couple of weeks the boys have started working together a little too well. They have definitely started tag teaming me, which I am not ready for yet.

Hopefully more to come soon.

Josh doesn't get the whole"girlfriend" concept. Praise the Lord. And if he all of a sudden figures it out, he won't be getting to put it into practice for a long, long time. Like 16.

That said...there's this girl. Her name is Annabelle, and she is the sweetest most fun thing ever. I want to steal her. Every time I see her she gives me hugs and I get to get my little girl fix. Apparently Josh sees something similar. When he talks about his friends, she is one of the first to be mentioned, and every Wednesday he always asks if Annabelle is going to be at church.

We were grabbing a quick dinner before church last night and Josh and I were chatting. I asked him if he was excited to get to see his friends. He told me he was, especially Annabelle. I asked why that was, and he looked up me and said "because I love her."

He also looks at her differently than his other friends, he gets all excited and giddy when he's around her, and everything he does he wants to show her, and make sure that she is watching when he does something tough or cool. He holds doors open for her and tries to take care of her any way he can.

I'm not sure what to make of it all, but it's sweet to see his chivalrous side coming out.

April, at her birthday party

June 2009 NexGen Leaders Appreciation Lunch

Fourth of July

Annabelle's mom, my friend Heather, always refers to them as "sweet friends" and I think they definitely are that.

Lots to update on this week.

Most importantly, our car situation. The Honda is officially gone, and letting it go was somewhat bittersweet. Don't get me wrong, we were more than happy to see the car gone after the headache it has been for the last several years. However, there were lots of memories that went with that car. We had it when we got married, had Josh, it moved with us to CT, survived an attempted car jacking, had Jack and moved to GA. And so much in between.

We ended up getting a Nissan Pathfinder on Monday evening. We love it! Not only is it a great family car, but there are so many features about it we love. We plan on having this car for a very long time and we both are very happy with what we got. And of course my studly husband got an amazing price on it too. We feel very blessed! Especially after having that Honda, it feel like we are driving in the lap of luxury, although that may be the seat warmers : )

There has been a ton of rain down here a lots of flooding. So far we have been unaffected by it other than the occasional travel inconvenience. It's made for a nice mellow week since Josh's soccer practice and game were canceled as a result.

I got to take Josh to see the Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs movie today, which he loved. On the way back home he was talking about the boys in his class and how they play together, and I asked him if he played with any girls. He told me no he didn't, since they are bad guys. Well what about mommy I asked? He said he could play with me since I'm his mommy. What a relief. He is full into the whole good guy/bad guy concept right now. He's been learning lots at school, and most recently is starting practicing writing. He's gotten through A's and B's (lower case and upper case), and knows how to write his full name (which is a big deal since those s's have been hard!).

Jack had his 15 month doctors appointment yesterday. He was 25% weight, 50% height, and 95% for his head. That's my boy. Almost all of his appointments have resulted in those statistics. I love this age he's at right now. I've always said my favorite age range is the 1-2year time frame (although I'm loving age 4 more and more). I love watching his little personality emerge, and boy is it ever. I was working on something the other day and he crawled up on the couch and kept flinging himself on my lap. He is getting more and more outgoing, as well as talkative. He doesn't put up with Josh's stuff, and if Josh takes a toy from him Jack will yell at him and try to take it back, while throwing in a few hits at the same time. He's very sensitive to any sort of discipline, much more so than Josh was. Josh would laugh at us and do whatever it was we had told him not to while Jack either listens, or at the least bit of reprimanding pouts or even cries. He has such a sweet and loving disposition about him.

The last couple weeks have been stressful so it's been nice to have this one calm down a little bit, and have the peace of the car situation being taken care of. Other than a lack of sunshine right now, life is good.

Time for the Kelly Family Sports Rundown.

This time of year is kind of like the mecca of sports I think. Baseball is at the peak of it's action with the race for who's going to win the division title, and football season is in full swing. It's rare to see anything but some sort of game on out TV during the weekend, and the TV seems to be on almost constantly, even if no one is in front of it (that way when Chris walks by it he can see the scores).

So here is where we stand.

Baseball:
Our first team loyalty is with (and always will be with) the St. Louis Cardinals. If this game is on we more often that not will be in front of it. I have a whole soap box on why they're the best team in baseball, but I think most of our readers are in STL, so no explanation necessary.

Our AL (american league) team that we pull for is the Boston Red Sox. We liked them before leaving STL, but living in CT and going to a few games only intensified our appreciation. As much as we like the Red Sox however, if they are playing the Cards... forget about it.

Chris will also occasionally still root for the Giants, but seeing as how they pretty much stink, and the town of St. Louis and I have indoctrinated him with enough Cardinal love and loyalty, these happenings are few and far between.

College Football:

This is practically a religion down here. It is insane how crazy people are about their football down here. Shortly after we moved down here we knew we just wouldn't fit in if we didn't have an SEC team we pulled for. After weighing the pros and cons, and Chris going to a game, our alliance now lies with the UGA Georgia Bulldogs.

I also pull for Mizzou.

NFL:

Let's be honest, the Rams aren't really a STL team. Not only do they stink, I'm just not a fan of the organization and how they run it. On the flip side, I've been really impressed with the Falcons organization and how they run things. Especially when the whole Michael Vick thing went down, I thought they handled it very gracefully (and that was before we moved to ATL), between that and the fact that they are actually good, we root for them.

Chris occasionally roots for the 49ers, but again, seeing as how they stink, it's not usually given much TV time.

So that's the lineup. Josh knows almost all of our teams by names and can recognize them. He was yelling for the Falcons Sunday afternoon, and the Cardinals on Sunday night (thank you ESPN). He gets into the games, it's pretty cute.

What team do you pull for?

I have two very snuggly boys today. And I love it.

I'm not sure if it's still not feeling 100% normal with Josh, or if it's being in school and having time away from mom that is making him want to spend more time with me, but whatever it is, I will take it!

He was snuggling with me and I asked him if when he was as tall as daddy he would still give his mommy hugs. He said yes. I said what about when you are playing sports in high school and have a girlfriend? Yes. What about when you are married, and have kids? Still yes. Sweet, but I told him that I wouldn't ask for them at weird times and would draw healthy boundaries. I figured it's a fair exchange.

Josh also memorized his first bible verse for school today. Genesis 1:1. I'm so proud! He is also working on writing the letter "A". Upper and lower case. We are also working on lower case "s" because it's in his name, which he needs to be able to write, and apparently it's quite difficult for him.

So that's our life. Glad to be getting back into somewhat of a routine now, and not wondering about the unknown.

The Toyota is fixed and we are looking for a "new" car to replace the Honda. RIP Honda.

Lord have mercy, has it been a week.

I think it has probably been one of the most crazy weeks of my adult life.

There has been some high points, and some very low points.

Recap time:

Monday- doesn't count because it was labor day

Tuesday- Josh's first day of preschool, he will be going four days a week from 9:30 to 1:30. Big stuff. He did great, and he loved it, I was so proud of him.

I also had cupcakes that I had to deliver that day, as well as making some more for my bible study the next day as well as an appetizer. I also had to write up the recipes for a book that we are making for our bible study group.

Chris noticed his car acting funny, and made plans to get a ride to work the next morning, so we dropped his car off that night at our mechanics.

I noticed Jack wasn't feeling very well.

Wednesday- drop Josh off bright and early, he was a little bit more apprehensive the next day, figuring out the routine, but was great as soon as we pulled up. Rushed over to bible study. Rushed home to squeeze in an hour nap for Jack, rushed to pick Josh up (I am so thankful our preschool is less than a mile away from our house!) and rushed home again.

Upon getting home, I had to feed the kids, get Jack down for another nap, get them packed up for the evening, and prepare for my small group girls that night. I also had to leave earlier than normal to go pick up Chris. During that time we find out that Chris's car is pretty much toast. So now we have to get a new car. A year earlier than thought we would need to.

So I picked up Chris, and we grabbed a quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A. He dropped the kids and I off at church and headed out to the music store where he could pick up some things he needed for the lesson he has been teaching on Friday night. Pick us up at 9:30, and head home. Exhausted.

Thursday- relaxing day. Drop off Josh, go to Target, Costco, and Kroger, and get home in time to get Jack a two hour nap before Josh's pick up time. Awesome. Finally feeling some of the benefits of having one kid in preschool. Pick up Josh and head home. Jack finally acting like he's feeling a little better, but I can tell Josh is on the downhill slope, but still hoping it won't hit him that bad. I get a call that I need to bring snack and drinks to the soccer game on Saturday. Except there are nut, dairy and egg allergies (?!) on his team. Start racking my brain for options. Pack picnic dinner, go pick up Chris again (since we shouldn't drive his car) and head to soccer fields for practice. Pick up a DQ treat and head home. Josh crashing hard.

Friday- Josh wakes up with a fever and I decide to keep him out from school, and make a doctors appointment. Head to the doctors. Am there a long time. Pick up Panera for lunch and head to Walmart to search for snacks to feed team impossible. Home to get the kids fed. One of my small group girls comes over an hour or so later, all the while I'm staying updated through texts and facebook about the impending arrival of my new niece or nephew. We hang out while the kids run around and I try to get dinner made, waiting for Chris to get home from teaching his lesson. We all hung out over dinner (chicken and dumplings with the kids and Chris being under the weather) and then after dessert rejoiced over the birth of our new niece, Anna Leigh Kelly. Chris was a rockstar and got the kids to bed while I hung out a little more.

Saturday- Everybody wakes up early feeling lousy. We decide to scrape together and head to Josh's first game. Josh doesn't eat any breakfast, and is obviously feeling lousy. Jack has three teeth coming in and is ridiculously cranky. It's going to be a rough day. We get to the game and our assistant coach is out. Our head coach asks Chris if he'd be willing to help out, and of course rockstar husband steps up. The game is in direct sunlight and it is bright, hot and humid. The boys start going down fast. Thankfully the game is only an hour. In the last 10 minutes of the game Josh comes off the field crying. He was done. He also didn't understand why daddy couldn't pick him up on the field. His team did win though.

We come home and pretty much crashed the rest of the day.

Sunday- We miss church because we didn't want to expose anyone else. Lounge around morning. Mid-afternoon we finally motivate ourselves to get out of the house. We decide to go look at an SUV at a dealership (since we are in need of a car). Halfway there our Camry (the reliable car) starts making a really weird noise. Chris pulls over and checks it out, and while we can't figure out what it is, we know it's not good, and decide to head home. While praying. While on the way we hatch the plan for me to jump out real quick and grab the Honda to follow him to the dealership right around the corner. As soon as I jump out of the car, there is a loud click and the motor dies. I motion to Chris asking if he did that and he replies no. Stink. Our neighbor with a truck towed us over to the mechanics.

So that is how our week ended. First week of preschool in the books, first soccer practice and game in the books, two broken cars, and a new niece, and a sick family.

I am glad this week is over.

My kids are awesome.

Seriously.

I know I realize that I am biased because they are mine, but I've seen people that don't even know them get a huge kick out of watching them.

Sure they have their faults. Who doesn't. But as a whole...they rock.

They have tons of personality. They are very expressive. They (well, Josh, Jack's not quite old enough to tell) have a passion for the Lord. They both have some of the best smiles I have ever seen. They listen, not always willingly, but eventually, they will listen. They both have sweet dispositions, and like to snuggle. They have both shown a curiosity and hunger to learn. They are hilarious, and love to make people laugh. They enjoy interacting with people and like to have fun.

I love my kids, and I think they are great.

I don't like being in situations where people don't look for the good in my kids.

Good Night.

We started off kind of rushed, but ended with a bang. Wednesdays are crazy. I have bible study in the morning, and youth at night. Chris has to leave right at 5pm (a rarity these days) to come help me feed the kids so I can get them out the door by 6pm with me. It gives him some down time, and the kids get to play with their friends. Any how, getting in the car is always a big relief.

I had a great night with the girls and the kids were in great moods, and didn't cry at all when we had to leave. They were being so good I thought I would do a fun mommy splurge, so we stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way home. We rolled down the windows and rocked out to some Lincoln Brewster. I love that Josh is thrilled with loud music and a beautiful night blowing in the windows. A boy after my heart!

We walked in the door to the song "Don't Stop Believin" by Journey blasting and Chris vacuuming. Now that's sexy. I dropped the donuts, and the kids and we all joined in singing and dancing. After about 3 more repeats and a quick sugar rush, it was off to bed for the boys.

Good times in the Kelly house.

Right now I am sitting with the sweetest baby snuggled up in my lap, and typing one handed. But it's worth it for the snuggles. He has his legs around me and is laying his head on my chest. It smells like the cinnamon oatmeal he had for breakfast. I love that Jack still loves to snuggle so much. For some reason I thought that once we hit that 1 year mark it would all be downhill.

Thankfully I was wrong. He still wants me to rock him before he goes to sleep at night, and he will still fall asleep on me. When I've been away for a little while, all he wants me to do is to hold him. It's awesome. And the reason I need to have a girl. I'm way too addicted to this whole snuggling thing, and I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure after about the age of 5, my boys are not going to be down with the amount of snuggling their mom wants.

Josh has been cracking people up with one line, that bears explanation. There is a commercial for some oil company where a guy walks around and slaps people with the oil dipstick from a car and says "start thinking with your dipstick, jimmy." Chris thinks this commercial is hilarious, which of course means Josh does too, so he's been running around telling people to "start thinking with your wipstick jimmy". The best part is his face when he says it, he mimicks the face of the guy on the commercial, and it is hilarious! He makes kids and adults laugh with this one.

We were taking off in the airplane, and got through the clouds when Josh looked over and told us:

"I can see where God and Jesus live!"

I made ravioli tonight for dinner. We sat down, and Josh asked for some "rolyoli" (read, rolypoly without the "p").

Generally I try to encourage him to proper English, but that one was so cute, we let it slide.

Jack's favorite thing to do in the car right now is to howl like a coyote. He's really loud and he thinks it's hilarious. We'll look back to try to tell him to be more quiet (because it's seriously ear piercing) and he just cracks up when we turn around and then it's impossible for us not to laugh, and the whole process starts over.

My kids may be extremely active and somewhat mischievous, but they sure are cute. And full of personality!

We were just cleaning up dinner and Josh walked in with my small bible exclaiming: mommy, I read this whole bible!" Intrigued Chris and I asked what it said, and here is the story that proceeded:

"God and Jesus were in the world fighting and a guy came and fighted Jesus and hit and made him bleed, but he (Jesus) got up and wiped it off, and then He (Jesus) got him(the bad guy)"

Interestingly, it's not too far off.

I should have updated on this a couple of weeks ago, but I have been really busy, and I didn't want to get ahead of myself. But I think it's official that we are a pull-up (for night time) and bottle free house! Woo Hoo! It feels weird to be without the bottles in particular since those have been a part of our lives for the last four years (Josh used an empty one to fall asleep until he was 3, reason #37 why Jack was never allowed to fall asleep with bottles).

My grocery budget in particular is happy to be without the pull-ups. Those suckers are expensive. I still have a pile of coupons if anyone is interested.

Jack is walking around everywhere and gains more and more stable each day. He's learning more new words and loves to play with his big brother. I pray that they will continue to be so close as they get older.

As much as I wanted a girl with our second pregnancy, I'm very thankful God had another plan. I don't think Josh would have known what to do with a girl just yet (we are at an overwhelming peak of the gun phase) and it's so fun to see them becoming so close, something I'm not sure would have happened right away with a girl. Plus this way I get to make them share a room. Muahahaha.

I feel like other than that there isn't much substantial to update on. I'm not sure if it's a lack of funny comments, or a lack of time to write them down. Maybe a little bit of both. Josh has been in a little bit of funk attitude wise for a little while and there has been more whining than jokes. Hopefully we are over that soon.

Yesterday Josh was eating lunch and told me that he was going to eat a whole bunch so God and Jesus would get really full.

Sometimes I think he gets his stomach and his heart confused, either that or he just thinks they are all connected.

I'll argue that theology at a later date. Maybe after Anatomy class. At least he was looking out for them, I guess.

After a lack of play dates with vacations, and even a hiatus from youth (where he goes and plays with his friends in the provided childcare) Josh got his friend fix this week.

Three of his best friends are Samantha, Jeremy and Annabelle. Those four love to play together at every youth function their mommies are at. This week Josh got a play date with them (and other friends) and got to see them during a small group leader training.

Tonight he gets to see his favorite babysitter too. Which mommy and daddy are pretty excited about! I think this will be the first time since STL that we are going to go out with friends. A night out is a pretty big novelty, but to do it with company is extra special. It will be nice to communicate without having to feed someone, talk over little people, or be interrupted with necessary disciplinary actions. Oh to be a real adult again.

Jack is walking almost exclusively now. He seems a little more unstable that Josh did at first, but it's cute to watch him quite literally toddle around.

Daddy is so proud because he is already throwing balls. We've got another one with a really good arm. Daddy is going to have to start restricting the throwing, no matter how proud he is though if he wants to keep his flat screen in tact!

Not too much else to update on. Just keeping busy with all the school start up activities going on for Josh (gulp) and me with the youth. This school year is going to bring lots of changes. I hope we all adjust well!

Two sick kiddos here. Supposedly just a bad cold, but at least for Josh it is one whopper of a cold. I haven't seen anything other than the stomach flu take him down this hard before.

All he wants to do is drink VitaminWater and lay on the couch and watch Bolt.

Currently Panera's chicken noodle soup is helping to make it all better.

He's funny even when he is sick though. Jack was about to throw something on the floor (which we have been getting onto him for rather harshly since I have estimated that I spend at least one hour every day cleaning him the chair and the floor up after he eats) and I yelled at him"no" to get his attention. Apparently I scared Josh too because he looks over at me and tell me that he had the "pee scared out of me".

Speaking of Jack, I'm not sure how that little trickster has become a master of stairs without even being fully stable on his feet yet, but he has done just that. He's stealthy too. We have to keep the gate up at all times. Chris came home from work and I had just brought Jack downstairs and left the gate down. In the course of going to tell Chris "hi" Jack had already crawled over to the stairs and gotten all the way up them. I run over to find where he is to see him sitting nicely at the top of the stairs grinning at me and clapping for himself. So much for the idea of less busy mornings while Josh is in preschool.

We also got a letter yesterday informing us that Josh will be playing for the Tornadoes soccer team this fall. He's going to look so handsome running aimlessly back and forth on the field.

Now I have to go clean up the disaster in my kitchen that is the result of two sick kids eating lunch. I'd been trying to avoid it with blogging, but there is only so much a girl can say, and so much more that I've got to do.

School starts back here is less than a month. Geez. Normally that date wouldn't effect me, but this year it does. Not only do I volunteer with the high school ministry and the start date of school is correlated to the start date of small groups, but Josh starts school this year.

Mind you it is just preschool, but it's 4 days a week. That's a lot. I'm trying not to think about it because when I do it makes me want to do crazy things. And he's playing soccer. So while last year the start of school came and went without much notice, this year it will bring a busier schedule, trips to a soccer field for practice, lonelier days, and Saturday morning soccer games.

It's so funny Chris and I always talked about these days with excitement, but admittedly I'm getting a little apprehensive now that they are here. I'm sure it's mostly the intimidation of change, and I'll love the freedom and excitement of our new schedule. But like it or not, there is no more escaping the fact that Josh is growing up.

Normalcy for the most part has been restored in the Kelly household. I'm restocked on my usual grocery supply, after this afternoon the house will be completely clean (I use that phrase loosely, meaning that it will have been completely cleaned at one point, not that it still is), we are back on our typical eating and sleeping schedule and have already finished testing the boundaries.

I think it's a little crazy how it takes nearly as long as you were gone on your vacation to recover from it. Again using the term vacation loosely. If you have ever been on to youth camp you know what I mean.

Last night we had a lovely family evening. It's rare that we all have a really good night at the same time. Either Chris is stressed from work, or has something else on his mind, I'm thinking about what kind of cupcakes I'm going to make or how to explain apologetics to 15 year old girls, or one of the kids is fussing because of teeth, they are tired, or just because.

But last night the stars aligned. We had a nice dinner, of which everyone ate well, and then headed over to Dairy Queen to pick up a treat. We took it over to this area in historic Buford where train tracks run right through the historic area. On either side of it there are large areas of grass and benches. We took our treats there and the kids played in the grass, being incredibly sweet to one another while Chris and I got to hang out and talk. The boys got to see two trains go by within a couple feet of them.

We came home and Chris and the boys played with these little plastic army soldier guys (which I got in the Target $1 section, they have a bunch of great stuff for boys right now, those and foam swords). Jack joined in trying to make shooting noises which Chris coined as chemical warfare in the form of spit. Even bedtime went fairly smoothly.

These nights, however few and far between make it all worth it.

I'm home, we're home, and resuming a state of normalcy.

I'll try to do a quick summary here with more in depth posts later.

Camp was good, but for reasons other than I expected it to be, and it was a very different experience that what I had in mind.

Savannah was AMAZING! I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but since our honeymoon, Chris and I have never gone anywhere just the two of us. It was a much needed time away, and what a blessing it was!

It was great to come back home, I got quite the greeting from Josh. I don't think he stopped wanting to be close to me for the first 24 hours and even after that he will still randomly come up to me and tell me he missed me. Jack on the other hand wouldn't have anything to do with me at first. He refused to look at me and gave me a bit of an attitude like he was mad at me for leaving him. After the first couple hours though he was his normal self.

Now if I can get all the laundry finished, and the house all clean, we'll be in business.

We've had a problem recently with Josh occasionally picking his nose and then feeling then need to ingest the results. Gross I know, but necessary information for the story.

Chris had been getting onto him extra hard recently to help him try to kick the habit. After having the incident happen a couple of times today, Chris finally just asked Josh, why do you do that? To which Josh replied:

"Daddy, sometimes I just get hungry and I need to."

Our kid has an excuse for everything.


In other news, I leave Monday for camp, and then on Friday Chris is meeting me half way and we're headed to Savannah to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. Things will be silent for a little bit.

Hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!

I'm making fourth of July cupcakes today. Josh was asking why I was making red cupcakes, and I was explaining to him the holiday and why we celebrate it. I told him that not everyone gets to live in a country where they are free to worship and love God or whomever they want. He thought about it for a minute and then responded with a very sincere and concerned, "aw, that's sad". What's sad? I asked, wanting to make sure he got the concept. "That some people don't get to love God".

Yes it is.

Josh has been coming up to me randomly throughout the day to tell me:

"Mommy, your my best mommy."

I'm not sure what that means, but I like it.

Jack officially took his first steps today. Not sure how soon he'll actually be walking, but we're getting there. Having one that I already have to run around in, I'm actually hoping he gets to walking sooner rather than later. My arms and back are protesting this stage.

Can't believe he's already to this stage. It such a funny contrast. Here you have this little boy, that still looks like a baby, has the cute chunky thighs, adorable fat baby wrists, and the pinchable cheeks, and yet he's doing something like taking a step.

Josh had a great one liner tonight. We've been out all evening, and we came home and were all having a snack before we put the kids to bed. Josh looks up and says "what a nice family snack." Chris and I cracked up. Chris told him thank you for being so nice, and Josh replied "it's my pleasure".

We also had our first major "girl talk" tonight. Josh was at a friends playing, and him and a couple of them were in the playroom. There is a girl that lives at that house, so as you would expect there are dress up clothes galore. I guess one of the girls changed into one of them while Josh was in the room, and he decided to tell us all about how he saw a girl naked (she had her underwear on). Didn't expect to have that conversation at four. Daddy handled it quite well teaching him how to handle those situations, and I quipped in that was a gift God wanted him to have when he gets married.

In typical Josh form he made us laugh out of the situation later. I was asking him what he had fun doing tonight, and he said "I didn't have fun with the girls while they were naked". Well thank God for that I guess.

What a week. And it's only Wednesday.

For the record, so far this year every birthday, or holiday (Father's Day, Mother's Day) someone in our house has been sick.

Sunday Chris got food poisoning in the evening, and it hit me Monday during the day. That's right, Father's Day and Jack's birthday.

Yesterday Jack had his one year check up (everything was good, 50% height, 25% weight, and 95% head, surprise surprise.) and four shots. Josh was extremely good at the doctors, and I told him I would take him to Chick Fil A for lunch and let him play.

After he was done eating he went to push his chair back form the table and instead of it moving back it flipped over with him still in it. He got a nice scrape on his chin and a bump on the head, plus he bit the inside of his cheek pretty good. He got free ice cream out of it.

Then last night I was trying to get dinner going with two fussy children (Jack is teething) and not paying attention to what I was doing. I was putting a piece of chicken (chicken paremsan in case anyone is curious) into hot oil, and it slipped off the fork while I wasn't looking and splashed all over my neck and chest. I finished making dinner, and told Chris about it when he got home. It was hurting really bad, so we finally decided a trip the ER was merited.

The 5 extra strength Tylenol they gave me helped quite a bit, as well as the special cream.

Chris is putting me on probation from cooking with oil. I call it an occupational hazard. At least I don't cut myself.

So far today has been an uneventful Wednesday. We are hoping to keep it that way!

Today Jack is officially a year old.

Bittersweet. On one hand, I remember the time between one and two years being one of my favorite periods with Josh. So I have that to look forward to. On the other hand I am painfully aware of how fast time is going.

As I rocked Jack last night and looked into his sleepy blue eyes, I was aware of the fact that this could be my last time rocking a baby boy that is mine.

If we had decided to only have two children, than this would be it. It would be over. That makes me feel very old. It still seems like yesterday we had just started this whole parenting business, and now we're over halfway through with it. Winding down with babies and moving on to little leagues games and school.

So today as Jack comes and endearingly lays his forehead on me, is screaming at me for more food, while he giggles uncontrollably as daddy blows raspberries on his belly and crawls after his brother every where he goes, I will be extra thankful for this time that we have with our baby boy. Because before I know it he will be a toddler.

I feel like I haven't updated much on Jack recently, so here goes.

He is on the verge of walking. He pulls himself up on things cruises around while holding onto furniture, and can get himself standing without pulling up on things. He's just not interested in taking steps. We'll see.

He also jabbers up a storm. He can say mama, and dada, Jack and he says something that sounds like Josh. He can also say ow, and uh-oh.

Besides talking he has no difficulty expressing himself. He screams at Josh when he takes something away form him, and if Josh is being too rough with him he doesn't hesitate to hit him. He yells at us when he wants more and is already throwing fits when we take something away from him (namely, remotes).

He turns one on Monday which seems absurd to me. It really does fly by. It doesn't help that a lot has happened this year either. It makes me want to cry to think that my baby is pretty much done being a baby and on the verge of being a toddler.

Thankfully he hasn't lost wanting to cuddle yet. I call him "bug" sometimes because he's such a cuddle/snuggle/love bug. He is such a sweet natured boy. Whenever we ask for kisses he leans his head over so we can kiss his forehead, and mommy picking him up and holding him can still make everything better. He lets Josh hug him, and nothing gets him more excited than Josh coming into a room.

On one hand I'm not quite ready to loose my baby, but on the other I'm excited to see more of his personality come out. I'm just praying that it's a little bit more mellow than Josh's.

Josh loves the bible. In fact we even got into our first theological debate the other day. I was so proud. He has his own little bible that he carries around, and will take in the car, and flip through the pages one by one "reading" them. Of course his favorite is David and Goliath. He even role plays it with Chris, alternating which one of them is Goliath and gets to "die".

That's also where our debate landed. He was looking at his bible in the car and telling me the story about how David "shot" Goliath with the rock and he fell down dead. I told him I wasn't sure Goliath died, and he told me "yes, he did mom it says so in my bible" (love that he already believes in the inerrancy of scripture!), so of course I looked it up in my real deal bible. While driving. I don't recommend that. My bible said Goliath fell facedown. Sketchy. So I looked up the Hebrew, and he did die. Josh was rather proud of himself.

It gives me such joy to see him having a passion about God and Jesus and the bible, kindling a deep relationship with all three.

It is also very rewarding in another sense. It's proof that he really does hear me (and hopefully see). For all of the things that I tell him to not to do, and all the manners I try to teach him that seem to fall on deaf ears, there is some tiny little bit that may have sunk in. Not negating God's role in this, obviously he's the main orchestrator already giving Josh a disposition towards himself. But to know that a little something of what I said was heard.

I can't begin to express how encouraging that is. It gives me hope, and encourages me. Maybe sometime soon we'll see some fruit from some of the other things I've repeated to him over and over. Like not shooting at people while we're in the store.

Best line of the day:

Mom, don't touch my bum, it's expensive.

Josh just came down to give me a hug and tell me goodnight. He comes down, puts his hand on my arm, looks in my eyes, tell me he loves me, climbs up on me to give me some love... and farts on me. The he laughs and squeezes out a few more.

This is life living with boys, and why I need a girls some dresses and princesses to balance it all out.

Stubbornness in play:

We go to Kroger a lot down here. Every time we go, Josh asks, "mommy are we going to Krovert?". I've explained to him several times that it's Kroger, but he refuses to believe and still keep calling it Krovert.


He also has this argument that he uses for everything I ask him not to do right now. This is an example of a typical conversation of ours:

Me: Josh, don't put your hand down your pants.
Josh: But mom, some people do it.

Me: Josh pick up your toys.
Josh: But mom, some people don't pick up their toys.


Jack is into EVERYTHING. If I turn my back for two second he has the bathroom cabinet open and his mouth on the cap of the hydrogen peroxide. Problem is I hate those baby proof openers they put on cabinets, plus I want them to learn not to do it.

I feel like my expertise in life right now is tearing/cutting food into minuscule bites, and saying no. I'm looking to expand my resume soon.

Josh has such a curiosity about Jesus and God right now, I love it. At least once a day he asks to hear a "God story", and every night he wants one also. He also prays on his own before we go to bed now.

We were in the car the other day driving and he saw something up in the sky, and then followed it with, "yeah, that's where God lives", I asked him where else God lives, and he said "your heart". But only if you ask him to live there, right? I replied. Have you asked God to come live in your heart? "Hey God come live in my heart" he yelled out.

Not sure he completely gets the concept yet, but I'm glad he's getting there, and has a desire for God to live in his heart.

Tonight he asked to hear the story of David and the rock (the story involves fighting, so he's totally sold on it). At the end he told me that when he sees bad guys he's going to pick up a rock and throw it at them. Seeing that the outcome of that could be potentially harmful, I cautioned him that we can only throw rocks at people if God tells us it's okay. He pondered that a minute, and quipped back "umh, he told me it was okay."

For all his stubbornness and inability to listen, he sure is a great kid. Smart, funny, handsome, and already loves Jesus. I'm pretty proud of my little man!

Birthday Boy:

Birthday Cake:

New round of pictures:

STL Trip

STL Trip and our trip the Fountains

Today was one of those days.

Josh pulled the ottoman down on Jack today. Our ottoman weighs a lot. I don't know how it didn't break Jack's leg.

Josh was in a lot of trouble. He's been on a tirade recently.

I need a lot more patience to deal with the incredibly strong willed child I have.

Thankfully our neighbors brought cake.

Everything is better with cake.

So I realize in all the craziness of the last couple of weeks, I haven't updated this blog with a very important milestone that we hit.

Jack is officially crawling. He started in STL, and when we hit home we was all over the place. The hilarious part, is it's not crawling in a standard form.He has one knee bent in a normal crawling position, but the other he has his foot on the ground with his knee up in a 90 degree angle, and uses that leg to push off.

It's pretty entertaining to watch. However, I'm kind of over it. Having one that I already have to chase around, the whole having to hold him all the time (even when he is pushing away and squirming because he wants to get down and can't) thing is kind of getting old. I'm ready for walking. And he doesn't seem too far off. He'll pull himself to standing, and even stand for a little bit on his own.

We'll see. Just wanted to update everyone on little Jacksters progress!

It feels like I have been gone for a long time. I apologize for my absence. It's been a pretty crazy last two weeks.

First off we went to STL. Which was quite possibly the worst road trip we ever had.

The kids had been sick, but were feeling better by the time we left. The first night we were there we were woken up by Josh at 3am. We were pretty much up with him the rest of the night with him complaining that his ear hurt. We had to take him into the Urgent Care the next day to be diagnosed with an ear infection (really? we had no idea.... sometime the whole doctor thing and having to get told what you already knew was wrong with your kids annoys me, but that is another post.).

Apparently the dose of antibiotics the prescribed him was ridiculously large for him and proceeded to completely wipe out his little intestinal tract, with what resulted in several days of horribleness that I cannot even put into words.

We left a day early. What usually takes 10 hours took almost 13. Josh had to stop to go to the bathroom almost every hour (most of the time not even really going) and Jack was teething and we had no access to Tylenol for him. It was bad. Really, really bad. Like the only reason we are even considering going to STL again is because my BIL and SIL are having a baby, if it weren't for that, well... I think it would be a very long time. Even with that trip Chris is wanting to look into airfare.

But for now, normalcy has been restored. Somewhat. Check our this to get caught up on a new venture of mine.

And I can't help but end with a great line from Josh the other night. We were at the park and he was playing on the tire swing with a girl about his age. I was pushing them, and very much enjoying overhearing their conversation. It was adorable. But the best line came when the little girl was talking about her baby brother and how she was a girl, and Josh replied, "I'm a girl", then I proceeded to call him a silly goose and remind him he was a boy, and that when he turned and told the girl "I forgot, I'm a boy."

If there is one thing (which there's not just one, there is about a million) that Josh brings to our lives it is humor.

This pretty much sums up Josh right now.

It's been spring for awhile here in GA and the bugs are already out, particularly the bees and wasps. For whatever reason they seem to be particularly attracted to our deck area, so as you can imagine Josh has gotten rather used to them.

However he has somehow developed a special name for them. Whenever he sees one he calls out "look, it's a bizz-buzz." So cute.

Jack on the other hand has developed a not so cute habit. He isn't particularly fond of being on his stomach, so when he get there he pushes himself up on his knees like he is going to crawl, but instead of crawling he pushes himself up to sitting position. Kind of obnoxious when we are trying to get him to crawl, but particularly obnoxious when you lay him down for bed time and he does it, and doesn't know how to get himself back down.

One night we had to just let him cry it out, hoping he would get so tired he would just eventually fall over. Sad.

Chris and I have become acutely aware of the fact that our days of being parents to an adorable baby boy are all too quickly dwindling, and that our days of being parents to a toddler are rapidly approaching.

Jack can say "mama" and "dada", and is pretty aware of who they are related to. He also says "dja" for Josh. He's also started shaking his head no at us when he doesn't want something.

We expect him to start crawling any day, but he doesn't seem too interested in it. He'll get himself up on his knees, but instead of moving forward, will push himself up to a sitting position.

He's also eating table food on a pretty regular basis. I make muffins a lot for breakfast, and he'll eat one of those, or oatmeal, and will eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch.

It's exciting to see him growing up, and seeing more and more of his personality coming out, but I wish it would slow down just a little bit.

I just ran into the kitchen because Chris was calling for me, apparently he had poured at the milk and there was a strange consistency to it.

"what's wrong with it"

"you didn't shake it up, nothing is wrong, it's non-homogenized"

"it's gay?"

I love my husband. He makes me laugh. A lot.

Josh totally redeemed himself today, I was sitting down, and he came up, sat on my lap, looked me in the eyes, with both of his hands on either side of my face and said "mommy, your the cutest mommy in the whole world".

Jack had his 9 month check up yesterday. He weighed in at 18pounds and 15 ounces, which put him in the 25%. He was almost 29 inches which put him at 75% and surprise, surprise, his head was in the 90%. So we have a tall and lean kiddo with a big head.

He's doing all sorts of fun things right now, clapping and saying "yeah", shaking his head (like no) when you say "crazy man", waving hi (sometimes saying it), blow "kisses", and he has mama and dada sounds down, although I'm still unsure he gets the association.

He can almost get himself up on all fours, but still isn't quite there. I think he's going to be slow to crawl because of strongly disliking tummy time, and due to weakened muscles from the neck issue we had to get PT for. Oh well, I'm sure he'll eventually get it, or he'll just go straight to walking.

Either way, I'm perfectly content letting him take his sweet time!

Josh had a couple of doozies today, he really hit his tooty stride just before dinner time.

He looked at Chris, after he has tried to tell him something and said "Daddy, this is why we don't talk."

Then just a few minutes later, while I was trying to tell him about how he should be acting he said "mommy, this is over."

My goodness has my child got some sass.

At this moment Josh is running around the house in his underwear, with the bulb side of a turkey baster stuck into the side of them. He is holding a hole puncher and is clicking it and shooting things with it interchangeably.

This pretty much sums up my life right now.

I really wish I could just hit pause on the stage that Jack is at right now. He is so sweet and cuddly, yet so interactive. I wish this wouldn't go by so fast this time.

I had our small group girls over to my house for a pizza night tonight. The boys were around for a little bit once everyone got here, and as everyone was leaving. After all the girls left I told Josh that all the girls thought he was really cute, then I asked him if he like it that the girls thought he was cute. His response was "yeah, I do."

We had a fun trip to the zoo yesterday, hopefully I'll get the pictures up soon!

Just because I haven't recently talked about how much I love Atlanta:

Today I sat out on an adventure with the kids. In researching farmers markets, I kept coming across this one called Your Dekalb Farmers Market, that people raved over. As much as I love (and think it's important) to shop naturally and organically, I'm tired of having to choose my families health, or our bank account. That is why I was researching farmers markets.

After hearing all the raves about their selection and their prices, I figured it was worth a trip. Mind you that was quite the decision. It's a 40 minute trek slightly southeast of the city, with two children, but I decided it was worth the haul. My GPS couldn't find the exact address, and Chris was in a meeting, so we ended up "wandering" around for a half an hour or so before we finally found the place, but I'm glad we did! That part of the city is SO neat! It's filled with older homes, some crazy big, and some small and quaint, but they all have very interesting architecture and charm. It turns out our science center is located in that area also.

Then I found the "downtown" of this area that had a ton of really neat looking restaurants and shops. The best way I can describe it to my STL readers is a cross of Lafayette Square, Clayton and the Loop. I can't wait to go explore that area more.

After I finally got to the market (which is about the same size as a WF's store) and got in, I think I just stood there staring for awhile. Their produce section is probably about twice as big as WF's produce section. And WF's has a serious produce section! They had so much variety (I think I spotted about 7 different varieties of BokChoy), and an organic selection for almost everything. At WF a lime is $.69, here they were $.69 a pound! I got a large container of organic strawberries for $3.99! It was amazing. I think I came home with enough produce to last us for the next 2 weeks.

They also have every kind of spice you can imagine, that they grind themselves, and are breathtakingly cheap. I think I may have walked out with at least 6 spice containers. I got a container of cinnamon (of which contained more than any typical jar) for $.63. Josh really likes cinnamon and proceeded to hang onto the container throughout the rest of the store, sniffing at will.

I could go on and on, their meat selection (lamb, goat, veal, duck, quail, cornish game hens, etc.)and prices, their deli, dairy section.... and I didn't even get to the prepared food area (which restaurant reviewers rave about). My parents come in town this weekend, and I think I may take them there. Any one who is interested in food will love this place.

I know I cannot wait to go back! Just one more reason to love Atlanta. We're planning on going to the zoo this weekend (sunny and mid 70's), maybe that will add another reason to the ever growing list!!!

Jack has started clapping his hand within the last couple of days, it's so cute! He can also get himself going pretty good on the floor, the only problem is that it's backwards.

He's also become very communicative. If Josh yells at him, he will yell back, if Josh clicks his tongue at him, he's make the closest thing to that noise that he can, which is smacking his lips together. He also makes that noise when he is hungry. If Josh tries to take something from him, Jack will yell rather persistently at him until he gives it back.

It's so fun to see all of the new things that he is learning.

Last weekend Chris and I had the opportunity to go out for a little while, and enjoy a lovely dinner. We usually choose to celebrate March 1, instead of Valentine's day, which is the anniversary of our first date. We had originally thought that we (I) would find some amazing top notch restaurant and have a really amazing meal, since it's so rare that we go out. We wanted to do an earlier dining time, so we could put the kids down, but in the dining world, anyone that shows up before 7 is pretty much assumed to know squat about food, and treated as such.

Not wanting to be treated in such a way, and having difficulties justifying the money, I turned to restaurant.com. They have a lot of restaurants on there, and you can choose how large a gift certificate you want. Always read the fine print, but most $25 GC require you spend a minimum of $35. So, you would be spending the price of the GC plus the additional $10 or so that you spend at the restaurant. You usually end up saving at least $15. If you go to a nicer restaurant you can save more, and if you sign up for their e-mail sales, you can usually get the GC for less also.

Which is what is going on right now. They are running an 80% off sale on all of their GC. This means $25 GC are now $2. All you have to do is enter the code DINE during the checkout process. These are great for a really nice evening out without the price tag, or just a casual meal out, when you don't want to cook, but also don't want to have to spend much money to eat out. These GC last for a year, and they usually don't do these dramatic of sales very often, so you may want to consider stocking up (b-days, mothers day, anniversaries, etc.).

The sale is only lasting until Sunday, so hurry up!

Here is where we went: http://www.parkcafeduluth.com/

And here is a picture of my favorite dish there, I think next time, I might just order three of these! Fried Green Tomatoes with warm brie, in a bacon balsamic emulsion.

BOY:

We were playing with pipe cleaners, and Josh happened to have a neon pink one in his hands. He messed with it for a little bit, forming his creation, and then proudly told me to "look mommy!" Cool, what is it I asked?

A gun.

In addition to yesterday's great quotes, here is one from this morning:

"Daddy, step away!"

The intonation is what really makes it.

Josh is in the other room playing with the cardboard box my new Wii Fit came in. He keeps saying"oh Billy" (as in Billy Madison quote) and laughing at himself.

That kid cracks me up.

Yesterdays great lines were:

"whatever" with strong emphasis on the last syllable

"for the love" said with great exclamation

The best though, was the other day he was talking to me and asked me:
"Mommy, do you like it when you drive REALLY fast and the drive off the edge and into the water and CRASH and die?" I said a casual no, and he proceeded with an emphatic "well I do".

As a note with that last quote, he has learned to play MarioKart Wii, courtesy of his daddy, and one of is favorite parts of the game is when he drives off the cliffs into the water and crashes.

We have definitely been blessed with humor in our lives courtesy of Josh!

Jack is in the most adorable phase.

In the last couple of weeks he has just been bursting with personality.

As much as there are beginning glimpses of mischief, and screaming at his older brother when he tries to take something from him, it's so much fun to see who he is becoming.

He still seems to be a little more laid back than Josh was, particularly in the area of getting what he wants. But he doesn't seem shy of expressing what it is that he wants either.

You can tell he is just itching to get in on all the fun that daddy and big brother are having, and is known to cheer them on, but he's still content at times to just snuggle in my arms.

If teething isn't taking over, he may quite possible be the most adorable 8 month old around. Even then, he's still adorable, just fussy adorable.

And he just got baby crocs. That just about pushes the cuteness factor over the edge.

Cute Jack moment:

Whenever Jack wakes up and gets out of bed, if Josh isn't already in his room by that point, Jack just stares at the door waiting for him to come in. If Josh does come in he immediately laughs and kicks his legs in excitement. It's so cute to see the admiration for big brother already showing up.

He also has the sounds "mama" and "dada" down, although I'm not quite sure he has quite figured out who to attribute them to. Although it is when he starts fussing that he usually makes the mama sound, and he never makes the dada sound around me, so maybe I'm not giving him as much credit as he deserves.

He also has his two bottom teeth in and is working on his top ones right now.

Other than that we are all well, just going non-stop. We rotate weeks that we lead the small group, and this week was our week, so it feels as though we've had a little more than usual on our plate. Hopefully the weeks that we don't lead will be a little more relaxed.

Hope everyone has a good Valentine's Day. We are doing...nothing! Well, that's not entirely true, we'll have a fun meal here and have chocolate dipped strawberries, but other than that, no plans. Personally I think V-Day is a little bit of a silly holiday. We usually try to go out around March 1, the day we had our first date, and celebrate that, so hopefully within the next week or two we'll go out for a nice meal (that will be better food and not rushed!). Chris did surprise me with two dozen roses delivered though, so that was lovely. I have a great husband!

Enjoy your weekend, hope everyone is having as fabulous weather as we are!

We went to a real salon to get Josh's hair cut today. The first couple of times he needed his hair cut when he was little we tried to go to some of those kids salons. They totally botched it. So I started doing it. While I think I've managed to do a pretty decent job, it has always been a fight, and not having the right tools, or training, I was never able to do the best of jobs. So I got fed up and made an appointment at a real salon. The one I found here (that I love! Hooray for finding a place to get my hair cut, another sign ATL may be home...) is the same one that I get my hair cut, and is an Aveda salon. If you ever need to find a great salon, search for an Aveda salon, their stylists are trained incredibly well.

Anyways, I will never cut Josh's hair again. I walked into the salon expecting to be embarrassed with the scene he would make at a nicer place (thus the 9:00 appointment time). Imagine my surprise when we left the salon about a half an hour later having not heard one peep of whining, crying or complaining. That has to be some sort of record for him! It has most certainly never occurred during a haircut. Not only that, but his hair looks so handsome. I was one proud mommy.

Hope everyone has a SUPER Bowl!

Before:

After:

I put some new pictures up:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85976&l=e4a48&id=503538528

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=85989&l=d15e5&id=503538528

Here's a little taste:

My dear (and talented!) friend Katie Hillis from one of my favorite families in the whole world took these pictures for us while we were visiting STL.

We're looking forward to this weekend, we're taking Josh to a really neat indoor play area that we have found that is just down the street from us. He's also getting his haircut at a real salon. The kids places usually botch it, and I've been doing it for the past two years. Hopefully that goes well (we're bribing him with the trip to the play area!). This will also be the first time in 3 years that we will be doing something with friends for the Super Bowl! We're having one of the couples we've gotten to know down here over, and we're looking forward to being able to entertain for that celebration again! They have a boy named Crosby who is almost 2, and who Josh enjoys playing with.

Hope everyone enjoys the pictures and has a fun Super Bowl (go Cardinals!).

I've been bad about updating, I'm sorry.

Turns out having a life does make it more difficult to have time for things like blogging. Although I am very thankful to have a life again.

We had a lovely Christmas in STL. Here are the pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80228&l=534c6&id=503538528
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80254&l=f73a2&id=503538528
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=80303&l=62610&id=503538528