Wells' First School Program!

Wells had his 2 year old end of the year program at school Tuesday, April 19th. He was so excited about this program and talked about all of the songs he would sing for days and days leading up to it. He LOVES school!!! Mrs. June (his music teacher) is quite the hit and he just loves music class. He only goes to school Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I love that they have music on Thursdays because it is the highlight for Wells! I wasn't quite sure how he'd do because he really loves Mommy and when I am around, he is stuck like glue! I'll let the pictures tell the story...


It all started out so precious as the children held hands walking in to greet the audience (by the way it was just his class of 7 children)
He was all smiles saying, "hey mommy! hey daddy!"

Then he realized he was singing for Mommy, Daddy, Gaygay, Dandaddy, Uncle Kyle, Sue & Graeme (my australia parents), Yaz, and 20 other parents/grandparents he didn't know. And he began to think, "this won't be so fun after all".

Both hands went as far in his mouth as they could go and then the tears flowed and he ran to me a couple of times. But I was proud of him that he went back for the rest of the program. Oh...and every other child sang and smiled :)

Then his best friend in the class, Hill, started to cry and he figured ,"Oh yeah! I'm not the only one who thinks this is too much to handle!"

Then a smile came on the very last song while he barely shook his rattle and tried to make Hill laugh.

Once the program was over he ran into my arms and said, "mom, are you proud of me?" And that melted my heart! I felt so bad for the little guy crying the whole time in agony while his friends sang! But of course I said I was proud with a huge smile! And on the way out the door he yelled, "mom, I sang great!" what a hoot!

(****I will be posting all my adventures with my australian parents once I get all the pictures in. I dropped them off this morning at the airport and lots of tears were shed. we had a BLAST!!!!!!)

The Aussies are Coming!!! :)

For those of you who don't know, MY FAMILY FROM AUSTRALIA IS COMING TOMORROW!!! I've told anyone and everyone for the last 6 or so months. Spring of my senior year in college, I opted to leave tuscaloosa and enter the world of oz to do my student teaching. It was the best decision I've ever made!!!! It was absolutely unreal. Not only did I get to teach in an incredible school, but I travelled all over my favorite country in the world (besides ours of course!). It truly was surreal. I lived in Geelong, Australia (which is about 45 minutes from Melbourne). What made the experience even better is I got to live with one of the greatest families out there. The Ross family (the librarian at the school was the mom) took me in and treated me as their daughter. There were three boys and I LOVED it! I always wanted a brother and while I was there I got three! Sue and Graeme are the parents and Cameron, Stuart, and Andrew were the boys. I see them as a second mom and dad. We have talked a least once a month since I left 10 years ago. And NOW they are coming to see me! They have already gone to LA, Palm Springs, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and tomorrow they travel to Bham. People have repeatedly asked them, why? I laugh, but am beyond thrilled. They are staying for 10 days so I will have tons of posts either while they are here or when they leave. Here is our itinerary while they are here: Wednesday- arrive at 4:00 and we will celebrate Sue's birthday (which is today) Thursday- Just Graeme, Sue and I will go to Memphis for the night Friday- Graceland! I'm sure this is the only time in my life i'll go, but why not! they were dying to go! Saturday- Alabama's A-Day game and a luncheon where Saban will speak. I can't wait to show them what football is all about Sunday- Chris and Graeme will go to a braves game in Atlanta Monday- My dad and Graeme play golf Tuesday- Friday- Mentone, Chattanooga to the aquarium and choo-choo Saturday- they leave:( Do you think we will be tired? These were all their requests so we are pumped! Now here are Graeme and Sue! This is a sign at the Birmingham Zoo in the "Kangaroo Kountry" area. How fitting!

****There is another new post after this one****

Spring Fever

loving our snacks outside

smelling (and picking) any flower we can find

wearing our lightweight spring outfits!!

wrapping up so mom can take walks (in the not so lovely weather)

and loving on our doggy....this is ALL the time :)

We are LOVING spring, but we want it to stay consistent! I feel like a terrible mother dressing my kids in shorts for school then pulling up to carpool to find out it's freezing once we open the door!! But I really shouldn't complain, as it is one of the most pleasant springs I can remember! Yes, we are having the weekly tornado watches/warnings, but all in all it is great! Until summer comes to melt us away, we are having daily picnic lunches in the backyard, playing tee-ball in the front yard, taking daily stroller AND wagon rides, blowing LOTS of bubbles, and going to every playground we can find! Needless to say, we are living it up!!

90 Days Bible Reading Completed!!

I.AM.SO.EXCITED! I thank God so much that He gave me the time (which I swore I'd never have) and the discipline (which I've failed to have the other four times I tried) to read the bible all the way through. I thought 90 days sounded crazy and didn't understand why you would want to cram so much in such a short amount of time. But now I get it. It was the most amazing experience I've ever had in bible reading. It is sad that I based my life and faith on a book that I had never read all the way through. It is something I so badly desired, yet never did. It just flowed like a novel (with some really tough parts here and there) and I honestly looked forward to reading every day. I feel like I understand so much more than I did before and it is just amazing to see how the prophesies from the Old Testament were fulfilled in the New Testament. I just never put it all together before. There is just SO much I want to learn, but I know that is all part of God's plan. There is so much in the Bible, that we could never feel that we had it down! I just pray I can do this many more times while I'm still on this side of heaven. After reading through Revelation today, I am SO much more excited for Christ's return. I would encourage ANYONE to do this. I thought this would be the "hardest time in my life" to read 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours each day, but when will it ever be easy? God didn't say anything in life would be easy, but it WILL be good. So go for it!! It also helped me to really set aside the same time everyday for my quiet time. I was having a tough time before trying to figure it out when you aren't sleeping normal hours! The next session that Amy will lead will be starting on July 11th. To find out more about it, go to the 90 days bible reading schedule. Let me know if you have any questions. I want to do it again! I'm not sure if I'll do this one or the one she will do in the fall, but I promise you won't regret it! My next goal is for Chris and I to do this at the same time. Thanks for my friends who prayed for me and encouraged me while I was doing this! Now I just pray that God will constantly give me the desire to read even when I don't "feel" like it.

Funny Kids!

I know it's been a while so I wanted to share what is going on with us. We are crazy busy with these two, but loving every minute. There is nothing exciting or new going on, but we love our little family and just take one day at a time!
Okay, Wells and Claire are really funny these days!! We are truly LOVING the 14 month gap now that they are 17 months and 2 1/2. She just does everything he does (including trying to talk all the time). I LOVE watching them play, laugh, etc. with each other. They both love to pretend read and they love to be read to. We sit in his room lots of mornings or late afternoons and just read!! We also spend lots of time outside trying to soak up the spring weather that we know is a tease! We go to the zoo, mcwane, and the library just about every week!! And because their mama is social, we spend lots of time playing with other friends!!
Here are some funny things they do right now:
1) Wells gets confused with the difference between women's chests and bellies and often asks anyone that is blessed up top, "Do you got baby Jesus in your belly?" nice...
2) We have caught him sneaking the kitchen chairs around the kitchen trying to get into the tall cabinets where his treats are (yes we know we are in trouble since he is doing that at 2 1/2)
3) He sings in bed for at least 2 hours every night before falling asleep (he's doing it now at 9:51 pm and he went down at 8). quite the night owl
4) Claire is bypassing saying individual words and is trying to say phrases. She is real good at "here ya go" and "what's that?" but everything else sounds like pure jibberish. She sounds foreign
5) Claire peers over her glasses when she is mad at us...so funny! haven't caught it on camera yet
6) Claire has my laugh...yikes! Here it is....




I'll post again when I get a chance! I'm on day 65 of reading and still loving it!! So i'll get back to more frequent posts and catching up with all of you after the 90 days! Hope everyone is great!

Lately...and more snow!

First I wanted to let all of you know that Claire's surgery went GREAT! It was a rough first two days, but she was great after that and actually started walking on Thursday, only 6 days after the surgery!!! She is so proud of herself and so are we. So thanks for the prayers and hopefully we are finished with doctors for a while! I had the flu last week as well so we are ready for health. In other news, our house went on the market yesterday! We are just going to pray and see what happens. We have LOVED our neighborhood so much and will miss being beside two of our best friends!!! We are hoping to move to Vestavia (now is the time to laugh Vestavia High School friends!!! You all knew I'd be back one day!). Last bit of news, the reading is going great! I'm on day 41 and still loving it!!

Now onto the snow. Well, since we couldn't play in the last two snow days because it was pure ice/sleet, we decided to make the most of this one! Both of the kiddos decided to wake up at 6, so we took advantage! We ate breakfast, threw their coats over their jammies and away we went to play! You definitely will not find Chris or me in any of these pictures, but the kids...of course! We stayed out for about 30 minutes and that was enough for my babies who HATE to be cold! We had a blast. Here are the pics. I think these are the first pictures I've taken since Christmas...sad! This first one is my best attempt at one of both of them.

Claire loved walking around in the snow, but she really wanted to
keep up with wells...it didn't happen!!

Notice I only have one of Wells where he is even close to me!

This child LOVES to run, climb, jump and just be a boy! He is also extremely social...

go figure! He talks to all the neighbors and knows them by name. He cracks us up!!!

The Bible in 90 Days

I've slacked a little on blogging lately, but for a very good reason! I have ALWAYS wanted to read the bible all the way through and have tried every year for the past couple of years. I always seem to fall away come April and it is so frustrating. I love doing bible studies and learning more about God's word, but there are some really confusing parts. I'm sure this is due to the fact that I don't have a good grasp on the Bible as a whole. SOOO...in light of that I decided to jump on board with http://www.momstoolbox.com/ and read with 1000 other ladies all over the country for 90 days. It started January 3rd and will END in April. Yeah!! It is NOT and I repeat, NOT a new year's resolution, but it's something I've always wanted to do. For me, 90 days seems way more feasible than a year. My cousin did this twice last year and really challenged friends and family to do this. You can read all about the Bible in 90 days ministry from her website/blog. She did not start it, but has taken the ministry to the blog mom world. Let me tell you it is AMAZING. I have never understood more about the bible than I am understanding now. Now don't get me wrong, there is always going to be tons more to find out and God is never through with us. I just finally feel like the covenants, stories, history, and prophecies are all connecting and making tons of sense! This is not a time to study the Word, just simply read it and get a good overview for when you do study it in portions. It is so much easier for me to get into the stories and let God reveal truths to me while reading it more like a story instead of in small chunks. It takes about 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours everyday. We are held accountable to our group and check in every Monday. Amy, the momstoolbox writer, coordinates it all and leaves a devotion for each day if you have time to read it. She just started it last year, but plans to do it twice a year from now on. Some moms in my group are reading it with their husbands and older children! Isn't that amazing!! Fun goal for the future. Anyways, go there to learn more, but I STRONGLY encourage any of you to do it with a group or with her in the future. I am on day 19 and truly LOVING it! Now that I've written this I know I will get more accountability and I am thankful for that. I have found the time that works for me everyday and I try not to break away from it. Therefore, my social life through blogs or telephone has become pretty much non-existent. But it's worth it. I've also found that God is truly blessing my time and showing me more creative and productive ways to use it. I am writing this post to encourage others and not to get a pat on the back because it has nothing to do with me...(I'm 31 and just now reading it through)!!! But I'm excited so I wanted to share this with others in hopes that maybe in September you can jump on board with her next 90 day reading. I hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year! Ours has been awesome except that Claire is getting tubes in and adnoids out in two weeks!! oh well...it's MUCH better than last year at this time! :) Pictures will come when I start taking them again!