Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Funny....

Give this kid a football & he will entertain.....


This picture was taken by cousin Becca a few nights ago. She took Eli to her place for a few hours while I helped Aunt Marie get ready for the new baby... who literally was already on his way... but that is another post altogether.

Anyway... Becca posted this picture on her facebook page & i stole it....

Her caption sums it all up....

"Future Heisman."

When i commented on how funny this was.... her reply was that he found the football & it was "all down hill from there!" He LOVES a ball, any ball, anytime! He is bound to play sports....

boys... boys.... boys....

Sometimes i wonder.... Did God give me boys to teach me patience?
And then i think.... If so, i am FAILING miserably!

Here's a prime example.... boys are just different than girls. Bottom line. I am learning to accept that they will never be as easy as girls. They wrestle, they fight, they go FULL force 24/7. They say things like "poopie" just so they can laugh at themselves. Girls would NOT do this. Well, most wouldn't anyway...

Girls also wouldn't take this.....


and make their Daddy's have to do this......
And then have the nerve to giggle everytime the situation was discussed. Now you are probably thinking, "that ELI! he is a sneaky little thing." But let me tell ya, it was the FIVE year old Jackson who SOOOOOO knew better. His cousin Leah came running upstairs to deliver this message, "Aunt Rachel! Jackson put that thing that holds the toilet paper down the toilet!" Yep.... when i went RUNNING down to save the day.... it was too late.... he had FLUSHED the toilet (i guess to see what would happen...) and it WENT DOWN!. Soooo, when his Daddy came home from work, he had a new project to do.... take the toilet off the floor completely to get the rod back out.....

sigh......

boys are just different. I am learning to accept it. Please pray with me for that patience i need.....

amen.

Delivery!

Over the 4th of July weekend, i was looking online for some bookbag deals for the boys. I knew i wanted to get Jackson a nice one since he will be using it much more this year than last since he is heading to Kindergarten in a few weeks (sigh). And i wanted to get Eli a special one since it will be his "first" official bookbag. Well, i came across a super bargain at Lands End. They have an "overstocks" section & i ended up getting Jackson a bookbag for 11.99 and Eli's for 9.99. I went ahead & threw in the matching/connecting lunchbox for Jackson since it was also on overstock for 4.99! Seriously, i can't get them bookbags or lunch boxes that cheap at Target! So i went ahead & plurged & monogrammed them both! After we got back from our mini beach vacation, the package had arrived. They were SOOOOO excited! They wore them around the house all day & Eli asked for his "backyardigans lunch box" to put in his. (See, i knew better than to order him a lunch box because he is still obsessed with his old one that he got just to take lunch to mema's house!)

"Pool" House!

A couple of weeks ago, we rented out the same beach house as last year from the two families at church who own it. This year, however, we split the rental with Grandaddy & Grandma Tee as well as Uncle Jeffery & Aunt Malissa, & Aunt Becca's family too. It was a full house! But fun times were had! We affectionately dubbed this the "pool house" since all we did was eat, sleep, & hang out at the pool in the back yard... we never even hit the beach! I realized, literally the LAST day we were there, that i hadn't taken a single picture. (very unlike me!) so i snapped a few right quick! This is most of them! I didn't even get a picture of everyone who was there! It seemed like we rotated turns in the pool so rarely were we all in there together....... but here are the boys with Emma & Leah....

Eating ice cream after the big swim......Jackson drying off... he did this a lot & i felt like i had to reapply sunscreen constantly (you know that label .... it reads "reapply after 2 hours in the sun, excessive water exposure, or towel drying...)
Getting ready to throw a torpedo in for someone to fetch.... i bet it was Jonathon was was going after them!
Here's Eli showing off his "Dora muscles".... he discovered that he liked the swimmies about halfway through the stay... he liked the extra freedom it gave him when we combined it with....
the fish float....... he would hang out in there all day if we'd let him...Jackson on the other hand.... he was swimming under water.....
above water......

jumping off the sides doing "cannon balls" after Kenneth & Uncle Jeff showed him how....

And he must have learned something else on this trip because once we were back home, we went to our regular weekly pool date a couple weeks later & he said, "Watch Mama!! I am going to do a "pencil!" He CRACKS me up sometimes, but he knew just how to do a pencil! And a cannon ball, and another cannon ball & another cannon ball. I am pretty tired of getting soaked at this point! Ha!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

I love my cricut!

Have i mentioned lately how much i love my cricut? This is what Randy got me for Christmas & while it was a pretty expensive gift, i feel certain we have probably already gotten close to our money's worth out of it! It is great for scrapping, but i have also been cutting out vinyl with it! I love to do this! I gave a red platter (from a yard sale) a cute little monogram love for my "plate wall" in the dining room.....
For the record, Randy totally doesn't get the whole "M" thing. He thinks this is ridiculous & doesn't understand while we have plates on the wall for one, and two, why we have to put an M or "moss" on everything! Men, they just haven't any style sometimes!

Any who, i also couldn't figure out what to do to make this plain green speckled plate look better to put on my kitchen wall. So.... i took it upstairs, & gave it some cute vinyl pizzazz too by putting a cute little bird in the middle. Isn't is adorable?!

And while i am giving you a sneak peak of the house here, i will go ahead & post this picture. Randy hung my curtain rods in the living room tonight finally & it looks "homier" already! (Once we moved all the junk around the windows it did anyway!)... Even he said it looked much better!
This is not a good picture, but the cute little green wreath hanging between the windows was also a bargain. I just love it & i only paid $3.99 for it!

4th of July!

For the holiday weekend, Randy & I took the kids to Nanny's for the weekend. We had not been to Wilmington since April & that had to be a record time for longest interval! Since Randy was off on the Friday & Nanny was too, it just made sense to get a long weekend in with Nanny & all the festivities that Wilmington has for the 4th. I am so glad we went because the kids (& us) had a blast & we got to do some really fun stuff! We took the kids pick blueberries....

{I think Eli ate as much as he picked. He LOVES blueberries!}
{Jackson was more preoccupied with blowing the bubbles with the big bubble wand, but he was willing to pose by my bucket full of blueberries!}
{And he is always willing to pose with me to take a picture when i hold my arm out to take it myself. He loves this!}
And after that, the kids got to ride in the back of Peto's truck (only down her driveway & my heart was thumping the whole time- it was not my idea!) to go gather fresh eggs from her chickens. And fresh they were, Peto literally showed Eli how to move the chickens over to get the eggs underneath! Jackson wasn't as sure about this whole situation & just preferred to hold the bucket. Peto did convince him to pet a chicken after she caught it by the tail though!
{just before taking off down the driveway}{I was in panic mode watching them from Nanny's truck.... but they thought this was the most fun ever!}
{checking out the chickens in their coups}
{showing off his egg he got!}



{Peto showing him how to move the chicken over....}


After this, we went back to Nanny's, & the boys played in a blow up pool Nanny had gotten. It was certainly a hit & the greatest part was that she set it up right next to her covered patio so we got to watch them in the shade!We hit two fireworks shows while we were there also. The first was the fireworks at Carolina Beach from the back of Nanny's truck. These were a good "warm up" to the show downtown on the riverfront the following night. I forgot my camera in the car that night, but we got there right before the show started & managed to get great seats around the back of an office building that backed up to the river. We were out of there in 20 minutes too when it was over. It was an excellent show & the boys liked it, even though Jackson covered his ears the entire time. They also got to throw some "Pop-its" at Nanny's house which entertained them for quite a while before we ever left for the show.The covering of the ears was a theme for Jackson's weekend, because we also went to the "currie parade" which was the first annual one for the area. It was definitely a small scale parade, but the kid's didn't care. We got to see Uncle Ed pulling Currie's oldest resident in his horse drawn carriage and the kids especially liked the kid sized motorcycle & 4 wheelers.Nanny & i also made homemade ice cream over the weekend too! We went out to Sears just to buy them on the 4th when they were on sale. I have been eyeing this particular one since helping my friend, Theresa, make ice cream last year in hers. It doesn't require salt or ice- you just freeze the inner barrel. It was awesome! We made blueberry of course & to appease Randy (picky!) we made vanilla. But honestly, the vanilla was a flop, so we will find a new recipe for that one before trying it again!
We hope everyone had just as much fun celebrating our country's independence as we did!