Tagged by Darby

Ok, so my sister-in-law tagged me on her blog to play this game quite some time ago and I'm finally doing it!! The way to play is go to your fourth picture folder, post the fourth picture, and tell four things about the picture. Then tag four blogger friends to play along!
What a random picture!! It was taken last year during Nursery Rhyme Week at school. My class made bumblebee costumes to wear and learned a new Nursery Rhyme about a swarm of bees. The little girl in the picture's name is Madison. I teach with her mom now and she told me that Madison prays for me every night still. I think that is so sweet!

Tag...you're it!! Jodi Juneac, Laurie Jernigan, Summer O'Neal, and Danielle Smith

I'm Back!!

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So, here's the deal...I can't get my pictures to download on my laptop (which is what I use all the time) and apparently it takes me FOREVER to go downstairs to use the other computer. My deepest appologies to those of you who have been awaiting an update on "the gang". I decided to go ahead and do a slide show for this one since I will be doing one entry to sum up our October happenings.

The month started off with my annual family girls trip to Gatlinburg. It was a wonderful weekend of catching up, eating, and shopping. Sometime early in the month we took the boys to a carnival at David's younger siblings' school. They enjoyed playing games, eating snow cones, and getting blue hair while we were there. David and I have enjoyed a wonderful season of Alabama football games. As always, we are so greatful to my mom for coming to spend time with the boys so we can enjoy that time. One of the weekends that Gigi was in we visited the pumpkin patch. That is always a family favorite!! Last year the boys picked very small pumpkins and I didn't get one in order to help carry them so this year I opted to get my own thinking surely they could carry the ones they picked. Not quite. Mom got the boys some corn while David and I carried FIVE nice sized pumpkins to the car. Needless to say, David ended up carrying 4 out of 5 because I'm a bit of a wimp!!! We also took a family trip to Gatlinburg with David's family. It was a short, but fun weekend. The boys really enjoyed the picnic at the Chimneys where they climbed on the rocks by the river. I was so lucky they didn't get wet because I had packed very poorly and had NO extra clothes. Sometimes I'm not very good at planning for what all a boy can get into. But they did good and stayed dry!! Lastly, we celebrated Halloween. The boys didn't hang very long during trick-or-treating. Fine by me!! They were so cute the next morning "making trades" with their loot!

That about does it for October at a glance. I promise I'll try to do better during the coming months. However, I am having orthoscopic jaw surgery next week and I'm not sure how that will affect me. Keep my appetite and energy level in your prayers. I won't be able to chew for six weeks. That takes me through the holidays up to New Years Day. Thanks in advance for those prayers. I'll keep you posted on my recovery. Love to you all!!

Baptism

This past weekend David's younger brother and two sisters were baptized and we were able to take the boys to the celebration. About a week before I gave the boys a heads up because we were going to have to leave a birthday party early to go and I wanted them to be prepared. Of course at that time I had to explain what a baptism was. After hearing that the preacher dunks the person under water, Mason responded with "Well, I'm never doing that!" I told him I hoped someday Jesus would change his mind. So during the baptism celebration there were 30ish people getting baptized and the boys did great. They sat on our laps and really took everything in. At our church the water is on ground level and all family and friends are invited to stand around it during their loved ones baptism. So the boys also got an up close and personal look at three children "going under". Towards the end of the service I whispered to Mason that when Jesus does change his heart and it is his time to be baptized then Uncle Stan could come do it. His response... "Can I wear my goggles?" Guess that's what seems important when you're five!

A moment at the beach

Last weekend we took a very short, highly anticipated trip to the beach. Two nights is NOT enough time for the beach (David would probably disagree because he fried in the one day in the sun), but better than nothing! This is such a wonderful time for the beach because the weather is perfect and the crowd is low. We spent the day Saturday enjoying playing mostly on the beach. Daddy and the boys found a "gully" full of crabs so they caught them and put them back in the ocean. Such fun for five year old boys!! Mason's highlight was making a football field in the sand and playing ball day and night. Nathan's activity of choice was badmitton. I had taken a bag full of games that could be entertainment and he was digging thru looking for the perfect one, picked one up and said, "no I need something a little more challenging"!! Cracked me up!! So badmitton it was. Maybe tennis will be his sport (it sure isn't anything else). We enjoyed our visit with Nanny and Buddy and a brief time with Gigi and Pop. Gigi and Pop were able to spend this weekend at our house on their way back to Knoxville. They stayed with the boys while David and I went to the Bama game. The boys always enjoy their time with them.

Bring on Football Season!

Let me say that Mason just cracks me up!! He gets all nutty about the sport of the season. For the past several months it has been baseball. He is quite the collector. He felt the need to own about 20 bats, many balls, glove, batting glove, bases, batters helmet, and catchers helmet all for play. So here we are on night one of football season and all the stuff comes creeping out of the wood work. The picture of Mason in the football helmet is when he came upstairs after retreiving the items he needed to watch the game. The one in front of the couch is when he had all the teams layed out picking who was going to play. And the other one is him "taking a knee" in the middle of his "field" (notice the teams on each end). I just had to share the humor of my evening.

My Favorite Time Of Day

Now don't get me wrong, I am enjoying a little "freetime" these days, but I look forward to the arrival of the bus at 3:15 like no other!! At about 3pm I start watching the clock so I'm not late for my appointment. I go to the porch at 3:10 because I wouldn't want to not be there should the bus be on the fast track or something. I promised the boys I'd always be there waiting for my "big hug" and that is just what I plan to do! I just had to share a video of my little sweeties getting of that BIG yellow bus and running all the way home. My, oh my, they are so big!! Yet, so little!! I love getting them in and talking all about the exciting things they did at school, getting snacks, and lots and lots of love!! For those of you who know me well will enjoy knowing that I no longer feel it neccesary to go to bed the minute the boys do, because I'm not as worn out at the end of the day as I have been for the past five years. Time does change. And it has brought me to another special time in life. And in all the things I am accomplishing now the bus's arrival is BY FAR my most precious time of day!!

Kindergarten Here We Come!!

What a big day in the Williams' home. Nathan and Mason started school today. I just had to show some of the pictures from the photo shoot this morning. They had a great day. They are in separate classes and it didn't seem to phase them. They said they saw each other a few times, but didn't talk to each other!! But each of them had many things to talk to me about when they got home. I was going to get a picture as they got off the bus, but they were running so fast for my long awaited "big hug" that I couldn't get the camera to focus. I am sure I will have many more posts soon about this exciting time in our lives.

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Our pretend beach day

Our outing of the day today was a visit to Oak Mountain State Park's "beach". It may not be the real thing, but we had a great time. I just wanted to share a few of the pictures of our fun. The picture of Nathan being covered in sand is the perfect example of his personality. Completely laid back, and go with the flow (usually). Mason fell asleep on the way home and after THREE hours we finally got him awake. I think he was catching up on sleep from the weekend.

Tomorrow will be another fun day for the boys. David and his grandparents are taking the boys to Tuscaloosa. They are going to the Bryant museum (to see trophies), visit the athletic facilities, maybe the baseball field, and eat at Dreamland. I really didn't think Nathan would want to go, but he does so hopefully he will have fun. Mason will love every minute (maybe not the driving minutes)! Hopefully they will get some good pictures that I can share.

Quick Funny

I just wanted to share a quick story from tonight. The boys and I were at a friend's house and we were talking about how Nathan had a chest xray yeasterday. My friend asked Nathan if the doctor saw his heart, lungs, and ribs. His response was..."No, I don't eat ribs". She and I were rolling and he just continued what he was doing. Kids just crack me up being so matter of fact!!

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What in the world?!?!

That is exactly what we were saying on Saturday night when both of our boys were getting in the tub and this is what greeted us!! This "rash" was all over the boys upper legs and bottom area. I immediately called my dad, the nurse, to get medical advice. He said to apply hydrocortizone cream and give them benadryl. By that night, Mason seemed to be responding to the medicine and improving a bit. Nathan, however, was covered!! I called after hours just to make sure I shouldn't take action. The nurse said it was probably just an allergic reaction to something, but I couldn't think of anything "new" that would have caused this. Well, the boys have had a cough that I thought was allergies for a couple of weeks and I wanted to take them in for that anyway and now this so we made an appointment for Sunday morning. David took them because I needed to go to church, and come to find out they both had walking pneumonia!! I had no idea. Speaking of having no idea...Mason also had a double ear infection!!! They are responding great to the antibiotic!!

Funny story - today we were in the car (I had to go turn in a utility bill to the school to prove we still live in this house) and I mentioned that a friend of mine was taking her little girl to the doctor. The boys had to know why of course and I tried to give them the easy answer by saying she has a big cough like you and her mommy wants the doctor to check her. Mason said, "you mean she has walking pneumonia?" Too big for his britches I tell you!!

The Foam Zone

The weather here yesterday was beautiful and I decided we'd head to the zoo. We are used to visiting the Knoxville Zoo, which we love, and I had been procrastinating taking the boys to our zoo because let's just say it is lacking. But the boys have been asking and when the weatherman said we were looking at 80 and low humidity, I figured it's now or not!! They did have a new area called the "foam zone" which the boys LOVED!! Unfortunately, it was priced separately from the zoo and they could only play for a few minutes per token. It made fun pictures though!!

Chattanooga Choo-Choo

Last year when we got out of school mom and I took the boys for a weekend in Pigeon Forge, but this year I just couldn't work that in. So instead we took them to the Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Thanks to Gigi we were able to stay in a train car for two nights. The boys just love staying in hotels!! We got there around bedtime on Friday night and then slept in on Saturday morning. We rode the "charlie" around the complex (you would call it a trolley) and then took a bus down to the waterfront. The boys spent most of their time playing in the water in front of the aquarium. Luckily they can't read so they had no clue that was an aquarium or they would have wanted to go, but I was trying to save some $$ and do less expensive things on this trip since we had just done Disney!! We walked across the river on a pedestrian bridge, but didn't want to walk back so we took a water taxi. That was fun because the driver let the boys drive. When we got off there was a great playground and of course they loved that. When we rode the bus back to the hotel I told mom to get off at warehouse row to shop and I'd take the boys back. Well, she wishes she hadn't. First of all, there was NOTHING there and second of all, she got locked in a store!!! Yep, locked in. The lady left for a break and locked up!!! She was able to finally get someones attention who knew the lady and knew where she'd gone. And would you believe when she came back she just rang up mom's purchase like it was normal!! Fun times. It was a great beginning to summer!!

Graduation

It is hard to believe that the boys are old enough to go to Kindergarten, but here we are. They had their official graduation from preschool, and are just waiting for August. Gigi was able to make it for Graduation. She has been here for all their big events at school and we couldn't imagine this day without her!! After their ceremony we were going to take them to lunch so I suggested O'Charlies. They usually like it there and at least it was a decent meal for the grown-ups. We'll that was a Big No in their book and since the lunch was supposed to be about them we went where they wanted...Burger King!! Go figure.

The big trophy!!

All I can say for this season of t-ball is...we made it. There were definately times when I thought at least one child wouldn't make it to the end. But they played with their eyes on the trophy. They were so excited. At this moment they are both saying they're never playing any sport again. We'll see what they say come fall!! As for now, I'm enjoying not having to spend all my extra time at the ball field!!

Disney!!

We had a wonderful time on our Disney Vacation. We kept it a secret from the boys until the morning we left which was so much fun!! We woke them up at 4:30am and shared the news. They were excited, but confused. Mason said, "But it is the middle of the night". I said no, really it is four o'clock in the morning, but our plane is leaving soon. I should add that this was also their first flight. They did great on the plane and loved it!! The second part of the suprise was that my mom and dad were going with us. They flew to Orlando out of Knoxville and we met at the airport. It worked out that their flight was just 15 minutes earlier than ours so they waited at the gate for us. Nathan spotted them immediately, but his response was hilarious. He didn't act suprised or confused or anything, he just started talking to them like they were supposed to be there!! Mason on the other hand was speachless. The rest of the trip was great. Nathan was quite the ride boy. He loved them. Mason liked them, but could do without the lines. They really enjoyed playing in all the play areas. I could go on and on with details, but I have a lot of catching up to do.

I'm Back!!!

Wow!! I can't believe I haven't posted on my blog since the end of March. It isn't for the lack of things to share. During the time I've been "away" the boys celebrated their 5th birthday, we visited Disney World, finished t-ball (yippee), the boys graduated from pre-school, and we visited the Chattanooga Choo-choo. I am quite certain that their have been other events as well, but these were the highlights. I will post a small amount about these events to catch everyone up, and then hopefully I will be better about blogging this summer!!

The fun has begun!!!

Well, Monday night was the Muckdogs t-ball opening game and boy was it fun (or funny I should say!!) and COLD. I wasn't sure Mason was going to make it to play in a game because practices were a bit rough, but he did and I'm glad. He really loves sports!! Nathan likes t-ball and is very compliant (as with anything), but I wouldn't say he loves or even likes sports!!! They both hit the ball good and thought they hit home runs because they were the last two batters so they were able to run the bases!! The funniest story of the night was when Mason was put at the catcher position. He got down on his knees and I could hear him saying "Strike One"... He thought he was the umpire!! I was laughing so hard. I am very excited that the weekend of the boys birthday my family will all be here for the big 5 YEAR celebration and get to see the boys play a game. Always a new adventure!!

Best Party Ever

"That was the best party ever" was all my boys could say after going to a friends party last weekend. It was a Bama football party. The parents painted a field in the backyard and built a goalpost. Big Al even came!! It really was a great party. Now the boys are full speed ahead planning their 6th birthday. The 5th is already planned!! They want one JUST LIKE JAY'S. We'll see what the next year holds!!

Nursery Rhyme Day

Last week at school we had Nursery Rhyme Day at school. Mason went dressed as the spider from Little Miss Muffet, Nathan was Baa, Baa Black Sheep, and I was a bee!!! A bee, you ask??? Rather than asking my parents to come up with a costume for their child I decided to use it as a teaching opportunity. Thru the course of the week my students learned a new nursery rhyme about a swarm of bees and yes, we were the swarm!! They enjoyed making their costumes and reciting their rhyme for the younger children. It was a fun day!!

Snow Day!!

Well, it FINALLY snowed here in Alabama!! It has been years since we have seen any of the white stuff. Now here me, we didn't get much, but it was enough to play in and sled a little. It was funny because as the kids went down the hills the snow would disappear so they had to keep moving spots and yards. The whole street was out!! It was a lot of fun, and it has been a fun, lazy afternoon as well. I just sent David to the store to get the stuff to make chili tonight. What a great day to just stay at home!!!