Another Year

It's crazy how the time just flies by! Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. We didn't have any extravagant plans as we just got back from our Europe trip. Pictures will be coming soon- we are having some trouble getting them off Pete's computer. :(

I went to school today for one of the four days I have planned for my AP kids to work over the summer. Pete came by with a huge bouquet of sunflowers for me. As one of my students said, "that is just so dreamy!" Yes, I agree, very dreamy! Sunflowers don't look so sunny after midnight, so I will have to take a better picture in the morning. Here are some other sunflowers that we just so happened to get to see in person while in London.

Thanks Pete for 8 years of dreamy marriage and 12 years of dreamy togetherness!

Prince Kent

Pete and Kent went to the grocery store the other day and Kent snuck this cup in the cart when Pete wasn't watching. He refuses to drink out of any other cup now. We now refer to him as "Prince Kent" now that his only uses his blue goblet. Blue is currently his favorite color.

The Cat

It all started about two weeks ago when Cohen kept going up to Pete and saying "kiyee cat, kiyee cat". I wasn't home and Pete and the boys were playing in the living room. All evening Cohen would come over to Pete and lay his head on Pete's knee and say kiyee cat. At some point, Pete looked out the window and sure enough, there was a cat on our back deck. After two weeks, Pete thought we should feed it. Now, I know what happens when you feed a cat. You get a cat. I do NOT want a cat. I heard Pete tell Kent that we should take care of all of God's creatures no matter what mommy thinks. Gee thanks. I really do not like cats. Pete told me to look on the bright side, no rats. We had rats!?!?! He assured me that no, he had never seen a rat, but now we never would. All I could think about was all the little kittens that would one day be running around. That was our compromise. Pete will feed the cat and it can hang around, but the minute it has kittens, he traps them all and takes them to a shelter. Kent named the cat Patches.

Kent's Preschool Graduation

It's hard to believe, but Kent will be going to elementary school next year. He looks older and older each day! Going to kindergarten is very exciting for Kent, he can hardly wait. Last Monday was the first day of summer for the kids, but I had to go to work for post planning. Kent came into my room completely dressed and said, "all right mom, I'm ready to go to kindergarten today!" I really burst his bubble when I told him he would have to wait till August. He really thought it was so unfair that I got to go to school, but he didn't. I have a feeling in 10 years, when he is 15, it will be quite a different story!

Kent with his sweet teacher, Ms. Angela.

Avacados

We eat a lot of avacados at our house. Kent used to eat the all the time-like 1 or 2 a day. He's slowed down some since then, but Cohen has taken over. He would eat them all day long if I didn't limit him. Thank goodness kids are washable!

He may not sparkle in the sun, but...

About three things I am absolutely positive. First, Cohen has ca-razy teeth! Second, there is a part of him--and I don't know how strong that part might be--that still wants to drink his milk out of a bottle. And third, I am unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him!

My Birthday

The Big 3-0. I was not looking forward to it. I really did not want to go to work that day. Kent came in to snuggle with me and Pete and I just wanted to stay there all day. I absolutely love my job and the kids I teach, but having a family and working a full time job is stressful!

As I walked down the steps to my classroom, I saw that someone had painted words all over my windows. When I walked into my room, eight of my AP students jumped out suprising me! They had come in early and decorated my room...super sweet. One student even made me peanut butter cookies with 3o on each one, written in chocolate. They know me so well!

Kent's Birthday

Yes, VERY, VERY late...

Kent had a fabulous fifth birthday. This year we had a joint birthday party with one of Kent's close friends, Lauren, at the Gymnastics Academy of Atlanta. It was the best party and I highly recommend it. Fun was had by all, children and adults alike.

The kids (and adults) had a great time jumping, tumbling, rolling, swinging and falling in the foam pit. Here are some of my favorite photos from the day.

This is the cake I made for Kent. I tried, a cake maker I am not. For the record, Kent wouldn't eat any, again. Cohen, however, quite enjoyed it. Thank you to Betty Crocker for now making a wheat, egg and milk free mix. Makes things a WHOLE lot easier, and somewhat tastier to my wheatafied taste buds.

All the kiddos enjoying the parachute.

I love this one of Pete's sister Misty (left) and our niece Cici (right). Fun for all ages!

Kent running towards the foam pit.

Cohen was not scared of the foam pit one bit (this means it was very scary for me!). He would just run right into it- over and OVER!!! Sometimes head first. He even did a flip. I really thought he was going to break his neck. Pete kinda camped out in there as Cohen would not do anything else, no matter how I tried to distract him. As soon as I looked the other way, he would take of running straight to the foam pit and jump in like it was a pool. Cohen = NO FEAR!

Happy Birthday Kent! You are such a great big brother and such a big boy. You are very helpful and considerate to everyone around you. Your laughter is infectious WE LOVE YOU!

Valentine's Day

Twelve years ago today Pete and I started dating. Here we are at Lassiter's Senior Formal in 1998. We had gone out a couple of times before this and Pete asked me to be his girlfriend later that evening. We were at my friend Katrina's house in the first picture. She also married the guy she took to the dance. Happy togetherness anniversary honey! Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow Fun

Here are some of my favorite pictures from our snowy weekend. They say it will snow again tonight. I can not remember this much snow since the "blizzard of 93" when I was in seventh grade. I mean, we are talking 15 years ago!

Here is Cohen patting a tree. Grandpa has taught him well.

My attempt at a picture of the boys together. Cohen was not cooperating.

More Snow!

Pete did a great job with his first ever post, don't you think?!? The boys really had a great time and the snow was just beautiful. I tried so hard to get photos of Cohen; most of the time he ignored me and kept walking away, fast! It is so hard keeping up with him! The whole time I just kept thinking of those Family Circus comics from the Sunday paper, when they illustrated the path that the baby took all over the yard with the dashed lines. I should've just shot video the whole time so you could hear me screaming, "Cohen, Cohen!" just to try to get him to turn and look at me. He avoided looking at me the entire time.

Cohen took off right out of our yard once we got outside. You'd think we were holding him against his will!

There were several times when I was taking a picture of Kent and would look and see Cohen was nowhere in sight. I would ask, "Where's Cohen?" and Kent would say, "Oh he just rolled down that hill" or "he's going into the neighbor's backyard!" My nerves could take no more, so we moved to the backyard, which is fenced.

This morning I took Cohen straight to the backyard. Everything was SO PRETTY!

Here is Cohen ignoring me as he walked past me. He doesn't even look up! I am screaming his name the whole time! He must think he can get away with it with the hat covering his ears! This is one of the few photos of him moving that I was able to get in focus. He's a quick one.

The pretty view from our side yard as Cohen finds his way out of the backyard.

Snow in Georgia?

Finally it has snowed in GA! I have seen a few occasions of snow flurries and unfortunately black ice, but this is the first time we had the opportunity to play in snow that sticks.

On this special occasion Laura was able to get off work an hour early and I rescheduled all my appointments to be with my family and to play in the snow.

Cohen just has no fear! From the sand to the ocean and now the snow. As soon as we put him down he was off and running through the snow towards our steep hill. I started to chase him, but the fear of slipping on ice took over and I stopped to watch. I knew Cohen would recover that night, but God only knows how long it would take for me to recover from a fall. Well, Cohen took a tumble down the hill; he tuck himself in and rolled all the way into the neighbors yard. All I could see was his little head pop up and down over the hill as he took off running again. It was really hard to contain this kid in the vast openness of our cul-de-sac, so we decided to move into the fenced in back yard. We have a pretty large back yard and Cohen loved the freedom of having no one chasing after him. He went off to be one with the land and every now and then he would return to Mommy. His love for the outdoors is so evident.

Kent and I decided to celebrate this moment with a larger than life snow man! This task seem pretty easy until Kent could not roll the bottom of the snowman anymore. So I took over. I rolled and rolled until it wouldn't roll anymore more. Kent and I tried one more roll and it simply would not move, so we decided that spot was a perfect home. The difficulty of moving that first ball did not cross my mind when making the second ball. I guess I didn't think about having to lift it! The second ball was extremely, extremely heavy. I huffed and puffed and using all my might I lifted that 60lb ball ice. Note to self: it does not matter how fluffy the snow is, it is still water weight. I decided that the head would be a decent size and once we put the head on, he was not tall enough. So we constructed a top hat to make him really big! Kent and I took our time on some of his details. Kent took one of his Valentine candy hearts, which was purple, and we placed it inside his chest so he could live. He had a carrot nose, grapes for his teeth and pine cone eyes. We even put leaves on the side of his hat and gave him a bottom lip and eye brows. It was a great moment to spend with Kent. Unfortunately, we lost our snowman the next day. We found him face down in the snow, but there was no sign of foul play. The coroner said his tiny little purple heart with the quote "Hug Me" on it could not pump enough blood through his large obese body. Sadly, it was a massive heart attack. I should have seen the signs with a 60lb mid section.

Laura had a blast hitting me with snow balls and of course the kids started hitting me. I was about to throw one at her and she looked at me and said "it's going to hurt." I turned away only to give her my back as she nailed me with another one. Thanks for the two days of fun, wished snow could be here often. I know others disliked it, but the kids enjoyed it so much. The only thing I can tell you as I close this post is to make sure you have some kids involved in your life. They are such a blessing!

When Kent Grows Up

On the way home today Kent told me that he was almost a man.

I said, "Wow, you are growing up, huh?" Kent said, "When I grow up I'm going to be your daddy." I said, "no..." and then he responded, "when I grow up I'll be Cohen's daddy." I tried to explain, "when you grow up you will be someone's daddy, but not mine or Cohen's." This didn't satisfy Kent. He asked, "whose daddy will I be?" I told him, "when you grow up you will have a wife and you will have children and you will be their daddy." I thought Kent was beginning to understand because he said, "ohhhh!" I could hear the light bulb was going off! And then he said, "Cohen will be my wife!!!!" I busted out laughing and said, "no, no, Cohen will always be your brother! Your wife will be a girl." This was getting deep! I was waiting for Kent to start asking me which girl he knew was going to be his wife, but he said responded with a disappointed "oh man!" I asked what was wrong and he said, "I just really wanted Cohen to be my wife!"

I am STILL laughing!

Kent's Birth Story...According to Kent

Kent told me this story on the way to school the other day:

"Mommy, when I was a baby, I was inside your tummy and it was really dark! And I could see your chest" (weird I know, I think he meant stomach-he sometimes gets these mixed up!)

"Your tummy got really big and you and daddy went to the hospital and your tummy broke open and I was born! And then I said watch mommy, and then I grew up!"

Looking back, he wasn't too far off...he turns five next week.

Long Time No Write

I know, I know. Many of you have been wondering why I haven't been blogging. I really don't have a good excuse. Most nights I just end up falling asleep before I can blog anything and then I do put it off because I am soo far behind. Writing about things that happened months ago just doesn't seem as fun. I thought maybe Pete would take over.....guess not. I really do love documenting the events of my family and since I don't have a single photo album from after high school, I must continue! Enough excuses and complaining. I vow to not disappoint anymore! No more friendly nudges or questioning conversations. I'm back.

Many thanks to Meredith for my blogging "award" to get me back into the game. It worked. More on that later.