McD's

Happy meals are 1.99 from 4-8 at our McDonald's on Tuesdays. Jake had been wanting to go and since Cara had a friend over I thought it might be fun. As we were pulling out of the driveway, Blake showed up and begged to go with us. Since I can't say "NO" to his cute little face, he came too. So, I took all six to McD's and for 9.48 I got 5 Happy Meals and a large iced tea for me. Somewhere there was a mistake since obviously just the HM's should have been about 10.00. The poor lady couldn't figure out where she went wrong so that was our total :).

We had a very fun time and it wasn't super crazy. A little loud perhaps, but happy loud. I did feel bad that I didn't have room in the car for Blake's brother. Maybe I do need to get a 12 passenger van?
Maybe not...it's nice to be able to say, "we are all out of seats this time."

On this trip, Blake went around and ate everyone's left over nuggets. He said, "Jeni, I'm your best eater."

Fun at the Amusement Park

These two had a blast with Papaw and Aunt Joanna. I don't have pictures because they spent the whole evening and night hanging out together and going on the BIG rides!!
So much fun for them!

Thanks so much!

A Quick Get-Away

Written a couple days ago :)

I am hanging out at a Hyatt with my littlest guy while Jeremy is at a conference for structural engineers. I met up with him here last night since it was close to home and since we didn't get away for that 10 year anniversary trip we had in our heads (someday :)) and because it was his birthday. Who wants to spend their birthday alone?!

We took the littlest guy with us because we weren't ready to leave him yet!

So, we did some really fun stuff here at at the Hyatt...we enjoyed a big dinner with a room full of structural engineers and came back to the room and fell asleep. Well, Jeremy fell asleep and I stayed up watching the rerun of the Grey's Anatomy finale. The dinner was delicious and the company was...entertaining ;)! Since I had the baby with me there were all kinds of questions about foster care so at least I had something to talk about that I knew something about because when they started talking about metric calculations I was lost!

The baby was a great sleeper but was his chipper self at 6 am! So, no luck on sleeping in, but we did have a really good breakfast and B and I have a big day of shopping planned and maybe a nice lunch all by ourselves.

Later tonight we are headed to see "A Night with the Chapmans." Should be fun. I just finished Mary Beth Chapman's book and am excited to see them in person.

Before heading out of town, I had a quick impromptu tea party with Abby. She had "I'm a little teapot day" at school and as I was packing, she organized this little tea party on the living room floor! Love her and of course I sat down for a bit and enjoyed this moment. She decided to invite the baby too and he seemed to have a good time ;)!

Abby's Starts Pre-School

Today was Abby's first day in pre-school. She goes T and Th from 9-11:30. She was just fine and eager to go! She had a great day. She had some friends from the pool in her class and I grew up with three of the families down at the pool so that was fun to see their little ones too!

Multi-tasking :)!

They left their bags at the open house so she had to carry her homework in. They also got
to bring a stuffed animal on the first day.


A great big hug good-bye for Daddy. He looks like he's about to
cry, but really they are just squeezing tight.


Running to the car after a great first day!!

How did she get old enough for school??!!

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Little B

B turned 6 months on Friday so we celebrated with chocolate chip cupcakes since we are big 1/2 birthday celebrators around here!! It is even more important to me to celebrate everything with him since we don't know how long he will be here.

At six months he is sitting, starting to eat solids, he laughs aloud, rolls both ways, sucks his thumb like crazy and is just a happy little guy!!! He went to the nursery for the first time (because Jeremy made me)...I could have kept him with me until he was 2!! He did great, but when I picked him up he instantly cuddled up and grabbed my hair...his security blanket :)!

So here we are at his little party...of course Blake (the neighbor boy) made his way over, p.j.'s and all, when he heard we were having cupcakes. I call him my 5th child.

Gotta love Abby's mix-matched p.j.'s!!

Grandpa stopped by just in time for a cupcake and rocked B to sleep. He just LOVES
to rock.

What a blessing the last six months have been...this is one of those things that has and continues to change us forever...no matter what happens. If he stays... if he leaves. What great times we are having!! To see so many people LOVE this little boy is amazing. The ladies at the pool have been passing him around all week trying to get in some hugs "just in case" he's not there next summer. A few have teared up and told me how much they have enjoyed watching him grow over the summer. Such a blessing. Some people still say how lucky he is to have us, but I ALWAYS think how lucky we are to have him. Every. single. time.

I am SO thankful that when that call came through about a little 5 1/2 week old we did not give in to fear of unknowns and said YES!! Happy 1/2 birthday little man!! LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

Fun Day with Grandparents

My Grandma was in the hospital over the weekend (but is doing fine now) and since it is so close to our house and since my parents had a little free time since Grandma was snoozing away, we went to one of my Dad's friends home for a picnic. His home is on 50 acres and it is BEAUTIFUL. The land is like a great big park/retreat center...it is really something. Two huge ponds to fish in, a creek, fire pits and swings all over, a pool with a slide. I can't imagine!!

It was such a fun afternoon!! The kids LOVED it and it was so peaceful!!

Grandpa and his buddies. He just loves little B. Abby enjoyed swinging with him. There were several of these swings on the property in fun little places.

Sweet Caraline looking for fish in the pond.





I love our little Abby. She is such a funny girl with a little mind of her own. She is creative and imaginative and a free-spirit!!

Great day!! Fun times and great memories!!

First day of School

Today was Jake and Cara's first day of school. Jake was eager to get back to his friends. Cara was excited until we got there and then she cried quite a bit. When Jeremy and I picked her up, she ran to the car and said, "I love it! I'm going to do it everyday!!" Good thing, isn't it?

I love Cara. She is such an encourager. We have been giving her lots of encouragement as school approached. We have told her how good she will be at certain parts of school etc...

While driving home today she must have been feeling like I needed some encouragement because she said, "Mommy, you will be a great lunch lady." I am a "lunch mom" on Fridays. All I have to do is walk around and open things and get kids napkins so the teacher don't have to, but hey, I'll take the encouragement where I can get it :)!