Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

Wow! I can't beleive that it's been a month and a half since I've posted! We have been crazy busy these days! School is almost over. I can't believe that my little girl is almost a first grader! It's funny that at the beginning of the school year she cried every morning for nearly 2 months straight and now she's crying because school is coming to an end. She's made so many friends. I've been able to meet some of the parents and exchange phone numbers so that we can get the girls together over the summer. I'm just hoping and praying that she has some of her close friends in her classroom next year. Lord knows I can't handle another 2 months of crying every morning!
Brennan is such an amazing little boy! He has the cutest little personality! He is a little jabber box. Talks non-stop. He loves to dance, and his favorite song right now is Huntin' the World by Colt Ford. I've got to get a video of him shrugging his shoulders and bouncing to the beat. Funniest thing I've ever seen! He loves his sissy and wants to do everything that she does. Of course this just annoys Ashlyn. She really is a great big sister though. She talks to him with this motherly voice. It's the sweetest thing! Brennan is starting to sit on the potty. He hasn't actually used it yet, but at least we're headed in the right direction. He loves giving kisses and hugs, and he's the first to make sure no one is left out. He would hug everyone in sight if I would let him. =)
We went to the beach over Memorial weekend. The kids had a great time. Ida, Bradley, and Brooklan met us down there Saturday afternoon. It was nice spending some time at the beach with them.
This past weekend we went out on Lake Norman. It was Brennan's first time on a boad. He loved it! He's definitely all boy...........love all things that have to do with balls, cars, trains, and boats. Ashlyn went tubing for the first time. She did a great job. I took a turn tubing, and man am I sore this week. I forgot how much work it is to try to hold on while being pulled through the main channel!
Yesterday Ashlyn, Brennan, and I all went in for a hair cut. I was just planning on having a few inches cut off of Ashlyn's because it has become unmanagable, but we ended up cutting of 10 inches and sending her hair to locks of love. It's still just barely long enough to pull up in a pony tail. I was worried that she would freak out after we cut that much off, but she loved it! And so do I! Now bath time will only take 10 minutes instead of 30 because of all the tangles every evening.
Pictures will be up shortly.

Cody Happenings

I apologize for the time lapse between posts! It has been crazy busy around our house! Here's a quick recap with some pictures to follow.

Easter was a pretty eventful weekend. Ashlyn woke up Easter morning with a stomach bug, so we had to skip church and just hang out at home all day. The kids were up early to see what the Easter Bunny had left them. By Sunday afternoon she was feeling a little better so we decided to do an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. Then it was off for some icecream for a funfilled afternoon.

Mine and Brennan's birthday was jam-packed. First I went with Ashlyn on her fieldtrip to the Baa Moo Farms in Olin, which is just north of Statesville. If you've never been I highly suggest booking a trip there! Ashlyn got to experience many firsts.............milking her first cow, bottle feeding baby calves, going on a tractor ride, seeing all of the amazing farm animals first hand, and much more. It was by far the best field trip of the year! After the farm we headed over to Brennan's preschool for a class birthday party. He thought he was King of the class! Then we went to Kobe's for our birthday dinner. My choice of course since I absolutely LOVE that place! Once we got home it was the kids bedtime, but since it was Mama and Brennan's birthday we all piled in the bed for a little play time. Brennan loves to tickle, and since we were having a tickle fest he was in heaven! He climbed on my back, and I thought he was going to tickle me, well to my SURPRISE he put his face on my back and bit me. I'm not just talking a little bite.........he bit a good chunk out of my back! I screamed so loud that it scared him and then he started crying hysterically. That was probably the worst pain that I've felt in a very long time.

That weekend we decided to have a girls weekend at the beach. NO BOYS ALLOWED! It was my mom, Mammaw Sherrill, Annette, Christi, Ashlyn, and me. We had a great weekend! Ashlyn was a hoot! She kept telling us that we all needed a beach boyfriend. Her main mission was for Annette and Mammaw. She told Mammaw that she needed an old boyfriend and Annette needed a fat one (so not true!). You know how kids are though. Then she told Annette that she had "wild" hair and she needed to do something with that hair before she could find her a boyfriend. Saturday we laid out on the beach all day and then went to Broadway so that Ashlyn could enjoy the rides since it was our last night there. It was a great trip and I can't wait to go back!

This past weekend was Abernethy CDC's 30 year anniversary. They had all kinds of food, games, and rides for the kids to enjoy. It's hard to believe that it's been up and running for 30 years! I once attended there. That tells you how long they've been open! I ran into one of my teachers there from when I attened............Mrs. Linda! I just LOVED her! I talked to her for a while and looked at some old pictures of our class when I was a little girl. It brought back some great memories.

That afternoon we FINALLY had Brennan's birthday party. It had been cancelled a couple of times due to sicknesses. We had good food, good times, and alot of laughter with good friends and family! He has played and played and played with all of his new toys. He was one tuckered out boy by the end of the night.

Skateland

Catching up

Wow! Sorry it has been so long since my last post! I've been meaning to get on here the past couple of weeks, but I just haven't been able to find the time. Life is good. I'll start by telling you what the kiddos have been up to lately.
Ashlyn is loving school. We've had birthday parties and some sort of adventure almost every weekend. She has grown up so much since starting school back in August. She is reading on her own, simple books that is, and is able to count to 100. Now that it's warming up, she loves to play outside nearly every afternoon if the weather permits. Her favorite activities are coloring and doing anything crafty. She loves to dance and do flips from one room to the next. Her favorite TV show is Spongebob. She has a fit if she isn't able to watch at least one show before bed. (insert eye roll) She is my quiet, but very sneaky child.
Brennan is my VERY LOUD child! He has no idea what quiet means. ha! He absolutely LOVES music, and would dance to anything! His favorite song is Imma Be by the black eyed peas. I am so tired of hearing that song because if he hears it once you have to play it over and over again unless you are prepared for a major meltdown! =) He loves any and every kind of ball. We have hundreds of nice expensive toys, but he doesn't even know that half of them exist. All he cares about are balls.................basketballs, baseballs, footballs, soccer balls, bouncy balls, any kind of ball and the kid is happy as can be. His favorite activities are dancing, balls, EATING, and anything that Ashlyn is doing. He wants to be just like his big sister.................this annoys the you know what out of Ashlyn!
The pictures above were taken at Skateland. Oh the memories! Startown had skate night this past Friday night. Ashlyn got the hang of it pretty quick. Brennan on the other hand did not like the fact that he could not control his feet from rolling instead of walking. He didn't want anything to do with those skates. ha! I figured that I would be able to skate with the best of them....................I mean we used to go there all of the time when I was growing up. Boy was I wrong! I was TERRIBLE! It took me a few rounds until I felt ready enough to be Ashlyn's crutch. I mean................. I didn't want to be the one making her fall! LOL!

Sledding Video

SNOW, SNOW, SNOW

Brennan will probably hate me when he's older.

He had towear some of Ashlyn's pink boots since

I couldn't find snow boots for him anywhere!

Whee!!

Me trying out our new sled.

I can't remember the last time we had this much snow. We had close to 10 inches at our house. Saturday we went sledding. I haven't gone sledding since I was a child. We had a blast! I'm sure we wore Britt out. He was the one dragging the sled back up the hill and pulling us up and down the driveway. Brennan was so funny! He looked like a puffy marshmallow. His arms and legs were so padded that they wouldn't move. They just stuck sraight out. In every picture he has the same pose. What fun!!!

Let's laugh a little!

I feel like everytime I write I'm constantly complaining about this or that, well we'll say 80% whining/complaining and 20% talking about the loves of my life like family and friends that brighten my day!

With that being said, I wanted to do a silly post. One where you just write about all of the crazy, laughing so hard you cry when you think about it now, times. They can be from when you were a child all the way up to your adult years. Here goes nothing. Get a box of tissues ready and you may want to make a circle of pillows on the floor around you because you may fall off of your chair in laughter!

1) When I was around Ashlyn's age, 4 or 5, I thought that it would be oh so funny to lock my mom out of the car as she went to check the mailbox in the POURING rain. I got a good kick out of it, but she did not find it so amusing. =) My favorite show was Scooby Doo and I still remember to this day that I was punished by not getting to watch Scooby Doo that afternoon. Oh the horror! =)

2) My mom and dad had just started letting me answer phone calls. I thought that I was super special. It made me feel like I was a big kid now answering phone calls and all. Most days it was just grandparents and aunts and uncles that called, but one day a very nice man called and asked to speak to my dad. As you know kids DO NOT LIE, so I politely told the man "he will be with you in a minute. He's in the bathroom pooping right now." My mom jerked the phone out of my hand and tried to cover up my story the best way that she could. Needless to say I didn't answer the phone much anymore for about another year.

3)I was always small for my age. As most of you know in highschool all I wanted to do was be 100 lbs, but 97 was the highest those scales would go. Gosh if I only had that problem now! =) Anyways when we would go out to eat most restaurants have a policy where children could eat free as long as they were under a certain age. Mom would always tell me before going in "now today you are going to be 3." I was used to my age changing everytime we went out to eat. We were in the line at Western Steer and mom forgot to tell me my age that day. I looked straight at her once we got to the counter to pay and said "Well mom........how old do you want me to say I am today?" My mom nearly flabbergasted said "just tell her your real age honey." I know she wanted to crawl in a hole and hide.

4) There was a magic book that I had been wanting for months and months. My parents would not get it for me so I had a plan. I got all of the coins out of my piggy bank and put them in a ziplock bag. Once we were at the mall I took the book up to the counter and as the cashier told me the total I poured all of the coins on the counter. The look on that man's face was pricelss! My parents ran over and apologized profusely. They ended up paying for the magic book after all. Hey.............money is money, and I wanted that book! =)

These are just of my childhood. I have more coming from a little later in life!

Can you guess where these were taken? If you guessed a drag show then you are correct! =)
Ida and I went to Charleston the day after Christmas to visit her friend Steve and his boyfriend. I told them that I had never seen a drag show before, so that's where we went. I had the best time! It was definitely an experience!

Christmas and New Year's

I can't believe that it is 2010! Where did 2009 go? The past year has flown by! It's been a year with many ups and downs, but all in all 2009 was pretty good. I just hope that 2010 is a year full of smiles and laughter, and less heart break.

We had a wonderful Christmas! The kids got so many toys that we need to hire a construction company to come out and build an extra room onto our house! =) I've opened box after box of toys that the manufacturer makes nearly impossible to get into without some wire cutters and a screwdrive (why do they package these things so ridiculously?), and we still have boxes sitting in our living room unopened! My kids are soooooooo spoiled!

I LOVE Christmas, but I hate when it's over and all of the decorations must come down. I always say that "next year I'm not putting everything out.............just the tree" and I end up buying more and more decorations to add to my headache every year. Does anyone else do this? It just looks so pretty once EVERYTHING is up.

I usually don't make any New Year's resolutions, but this year I have a few in mind that I'd like to stick with.

1. Go to church every Sunday.
I have been taking the lazy way out and sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Growing up I was raised to go to church every Sunday, and I have not been a very good role model for my children when it comes to church. I'm going to make an effort to get everyone up and ready so that I can hopefully make a difference in their lives and mine.

2. Be more patient with my children.
Ashlyn is 5 going on 15. She argues with me 24/7. It drives me nutty! I start out calm, cool, and collective and then 5 minutes later we are both in a screaming match. I'm going to try to handle these situations with more patience and less raising my voice. This one is going to be a tough one!

3. Make time for others.
It's tough finding extra time to do much of anything these days, but somehow I find extra time for a nap on my weekends off. I'm going to try to cut out naps and make better use of my afternoons spending quality time with family and friends instead.

These are my BIG goals this year. I do have a few others that I'm working on also. 2010 is going to be a GREAT year..............I can feel it!

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures!