Trains, Planes, and Automobiles

Jack has always been horrible never been good about haircuts.  The last time I took him to Mrs. Lesa, I was by myself and I had to hold him down while she cut his hair.  Every person in there needed a xanax by the time we left.  EESH!  I decided I would try one of those “kiddie” haircut places.  The closest one around is in Jones Valley, but heck, if he wouldn’t scream I’d go twice that far.  Andy and I both went, and the place was quite charming.  It had a waiting room aka play area for the kids and each of the haircut “chairs” were in fact airplanes, trains, and cars.  Jack chose the airplane for his ride haircut.  He loved driving the plane until she brought out the scissors.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story. 



He's catching on that something strange is about to happen.



We have no "official" after picture, but I think this was made later that night before VBS.

Needless to say, it’ll be a while before I do that to myself again!!!

Swimming Lessons

We decided to let Jack take swimming lessons this year.  The goal was to get him accustomed to the water and to hopefully avoid any fear.  Next year, hopefully, he will be able to actually learn to swim.  Jack and Eli took lessons from Mrs. Laurel.  Mrs. Laurel teaches school and only does swimming lessons as a side job.  Her children are all on the swim team and are wonderful swimmers.  She has a lot of experience with “little swimmers”.  She was so patient with Jack.  He loved lessons and wasn’t afraid a bit.  He was actually a little dare devil.  His lack of fear ended up being a worry to me.  He would walk off the steps, sink to the bottom, and come up smiling.  That stinker…

Our 2nd little miracle

This summer has been great.  Andy and I both have been able to spend a lot of time with Jack.  We have mostly stayed home since I’ve felt so yucky.  You remember when I told you that we wanted to have another baby.  We weren’t sure if or when that would happen.  Thankfully on June 15, I found out that I was expecting our 2^nd little miracle.  Shocked, overjoyed, scared…so

many emotions came over me.  I was completely surprised.  We were trying to have a baby, but bloodwork earlier in the month had us assured that June wasn’t gonna be our month.  I had resigned myself to the fact and went to Birmingham for a progesterone shot so I could start my cycle.  They always do a pregnancy test before the shot, just in case.  The nurse told me I was pregnant and I literally about passed out.  I had gone to the dr. by myself that day.  I drove home in a daze.  When I got out of the car, I just held up the test for Andy to see.  I think he was just as surprised as me.  We waited until that Sunday, Father’s Day, to tell our parents.  It was very special and I can’t wait until we get to meet this sweet baby .  He/She is expected to arrive Feb. 17^th, 2012.  I have almost made it through the first trimester.

Hopefully, I’ll be feeling lots better soon.  This pregnancy has already left me feeling much yuckier than the last.   All praise and honor goes to our Lord, the Giver of life. “With God, nothing is impossible!’



Our first glimpse at baby sims 2!



April 27, 2011

 Happy Birthday Jack

I can’t believe it’s been two years since I met my beautiful baby. 

 In some ways it seems as if he’s always just been here.  The past two years have been the most rewarding, yet challenging, of my life.  It was wonderful to spend the day celebrating our little guy.  Andy and I both planned to take the day off from work to be with Jack.  FYI: I think it should be a law that you get your child’s birthday off of work…at least until they start school.  J  The day was forecasted to be very stormy with a high likelihood of tornadoes.  We had planned a trip to the zoo, but decided not to go due to the weather.  The day turned out to be one of the deadliest weather days in Alabama.  Thankfully, our area was spared.  The only problem we had was being without power for 5 days.  We were very blessed.  Jack’s birthday party was scheduled for April 30, but we rescheduled to the next weekend.  That’s two years in a row that his birthday party has been rescheduled.  Last year it was due to the tornado that came through Albertville.  We had his party the following weekend and it was a blast.  He had so much fun playing on the playground with friends. The theme this year was “dogs”.  Jack LOVES dogs.  He always has.  Here are a few pics of the day.  Happy Birthday sweet boy!  We love you so very much!

The morning of Jack's birthday. We had "birthday" cinnamon rolls.  That's a special treat around here.

He was so excited when he saw the balloons and, more importantly, the playground equipment.

Jack and his best bud Eli.

Jack's "mawnmower" from mama and daddy.  He loved it!

3rd Hunt = Epic Fail

Jack was so tired from Saturday that he slept until 8:00.  That is LATE for him considering he's up by 6:30 every morning. I must admit that I was so thankful for the extra sleep, but it kind of put us in a rush for church.  The Easter bunny brought him a light-up airplane with candy, a soft little duck, a marshmallow football, some books, a bubble gun, and some hot wheels.  He was so excited about all of his surprises.  He especially loved the book about trucks. 

 After playing, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  When we were ready for church, I told Andy that I wanted to get a couple of pictures of Jack. WASN'T GONNA HAPPEN! So I got really mad decided to just forget it and try after church.


I did actually manage to snap a few during Sunday School. This is the best picture of him that I have.  :(  I wish he'd  been standing.

 Surprisingly Jack wasn't that bad at church.  This is where the day takes a nose dive.  We went to my parents' house for lunch.  Why I didn't fix Jack something to eat immediately, I'll never be quite sure.  I don't know what I was thinking.  Instead, we took another shot at a photo session.  STILL WASN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

So I got really mad put Jack's play clothes on and he went outside to play.  At about 1:15, lunch was ready.  Everybody was called in to have the blessing.  Jack didn't want to come in and definitely didn't want to eat.  He proceeded to yell cry, "Nooooo, Nooooo, Owside! Owside!"  He did this about a million times.  We fought with him tried to get him to eat for about 25 minutes.  It was terrible.  We finally snuck out the front door and left.   We went home and he  slept for about 3 1/2 hours.  It took me that long to stop feeling like I was going to have an anxiety attack.  The meltdown was a direct result of lack of food and sleep, two of our basic necessities.  Looking back on the day, I can see the mistakes that I made.  If I'd made different decisions the situation could have been avoided.  We could have spent the day with my family, hunted Easter eggs, and had a good time.
Mistake #1- not getting up on time and getting ready before the little one woke up
Mistake #2- fixing cinnamon rolls for breakfast...I never do that, I just thought it would be a nice treat...Jack needs more than sugar...DUH!
Mistake #3- not getting him something to eat immediately after church
Mistake #4- getting all wrapped up in everything looking/being perfect...not focusing on the real reason for Easter
Oh well, lesson learned and now documented for reference next Easter.   Even though the day didn't go as planned, I'm thankful I serve a risen Savior.  

Hula Hoops, Hot Dogs, and Hunting, OH MY!

Saturday evening we went to our 2nd Easter egg hunt with the Oliver family. I think we counted a total of 33 people that were there. It was wonderful to get to see everyone. You could just tell that everyone was glad to be together. Pop and Grandmother were especially glad to have us all together. We had yummy food and laughed so much! Somehow hula hooping made its way into our last Christmas gathering. Some of the "older" Olivers showed off their hidden hula hoop talents. Yesterday, Aunt Becky brought two huge hula hoops. Apparently, they don't sale extra large hula hoops at Wally World...wonder why? So, my Uncle Bill made a hula hoop. We took turns with it and I can't even begin to tell you what a workout it is! Wow, who knew? It really was funny to see everyone taking their turn. Even my grandmother, who is 81, took her turn!

Jared taking his turn!

Dad showing his skills!

Aunt Kristi was really good!  I have a video of this that's hysterical, but I won't do that to her. :)

After the hula hooping fun, the little ones hunted eggs.  Jack exercised his mad egg-hunting skills once again.  OH, he was really scooping them up until he encountered his first real dyed egg.  He was very interested in that.  He kept dumping his eggs out so he could find the real one.  He eventually fed it to the dog. :)  He played so hard...sliding, jumping on the trampoline, and running around with all his cousins.

Where is that egg?

What is all this stuff?

Do NOT let go Aunt Maggee!

Church Egg Hunt 2011

Easter, like all the other holidays, has been very busy for us.  We started out the celebration with an Easter egg hunt at church on Saturday. There were games, egg hunting, and good food.  They had Jack's favorites, hotdogs and cake.  We got our first glimpse of how Jack was going to like hunting eggs.  He did so good and was saying, "mers, mers (more)" as he was picking up the eggs. Although, once he discovered that there was candy inside he got distracted.  Jack had a lot of fun and so did I.  Jack was so sweet and as always loved being around all of the other kids.

Peepaw and Jack



M &M (Mackey and Maggee)



Mrs. Sonya helping Jack balance an egg on his spoon.

Jack wore these sunglasses all day! :)  I guess his baby blues are gonna be as sensitive as his mama's.

He ended up with quite a loot!