Tree cutting party

We spent the weekend cutting down trees, vines and shrubs that were either growing in a less than ideal location too close to another tree, or the tree was diseased or dying. The kids had fun hauling branches and wearing large work gloves (that seemed to be the highlight of the day) to carry the twigs and branches. We now have a HUGE pile of branches and limbs that will have to be hauled away in the truck and the yard looks a little more manicured now. The kids really wanted to decide which trees should go as I went around and put ribbons on the ones that were to be taken down. When I told them that they were not able to decide on the tree removals, they then took to the pink ribbons being placed around the trees and played with them for quite some time. We all really enjoyed the awesome weather we had over the weekend as 70 degrees in February is something to celebrate! We ended the weekend with a nice bike ride and Joshua came home wanting more bike time after complaining initially that he didn't want to go and that his back was hurting during the ride...love the change of attitude!! I can't wait for him to start riding his own bike and getting to experience the joy of being able to ride on his own!!

Joshua's favorite time of day

Joshua was working on his homework tonight with Doug and one of the questions was "What is your favorite time of day?". Doug asked Joshua what his answer was. Was it in the morning, lunchtime, when he gets home from school? Joshua answered, "What time do you get home Daddy?" Doug told me after the kids were in bed that Joshua's answer about brought tears to his eyes. What a sweet boy we have!

Singing at the top of her lungs!

Taylor received a Disney Princess Valentine's card from Gran and Grandaddy last week which plays a pretty little princess toon. Taylor "LOVES" it and has been trying to sing the song herself. Tonight, she was even trying to add vibrato and singing the last word in each phrase with much enthusiasm. Too cute!!! This little girl is going to have to get into music as she gets older because she definitely has a passion for it!

Mommy has been downgraded to "Mom"

I'm not sure how this happened, but I am mostly "Mom" to Taylor now. She still says "Mommy" at times, but mostly it's "Mom"...not sure how I feel about this. Does this mean that she feels she is too old to say "Mommy" now?? I still want to be "Mommy" to her. She just sounds too grown up saying "Mom". Joshua still calls me "Mommy":) Thank goodness for Joshua! I may have to bribe Taylor into calling me "Mommy" still! She's growing up too fast!

Weekend with the cousins

We headed to Charlotte this weekend to visit the Michalaks as Doug continued on to VA to discuss Gran and Grandaddy's financial papers with Aunt Tricia. We were greeted by three excited cousins and joined the Michalak gang inside. We had a fun weekend, low key for the most part with the kids having some play time outside and exploring the creek behind the house. Up until recently, they had not explored the creek area and so it was a new and exciting experience to walk along the creek to see where it took us. Taylor and Lindsay enjoyed throwing sticks into the creek and the boys had their light sabers and were trekking through the brush and jumping back and forth across the creek. Ashley and Doug M were putting rocks into a straight line through the creek trying to build a dam to eventually form a small waterfall...a work in progress as the current state was mainly a scum sifter. The kids managed to stay dry and it was the highlight of their weekend. They also enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and playing with the Wii. Lindsay and Taylor got along really well and played the whole weekend together with very few toy issues. One night while we were there, Angela was tucking Lindsay into bed, and Lindsay said, "She (Taylor) only talks when I'm around" in a matter of fact way. Angela asked if she was talking about Taylor, and she said "yes". Taylor is quite shy these days and tends to speak selectively, so it was very impressive that Lindsay picked up on this. I'm glad that they enjoyed each other's company this weekend!

Joshua loses a tooth and the loses the tooth!

Joshua and Taylor were out jumping on the trampoline today and all of a sudden Joshua comes running inside bawling. He tells me that Taylor knocked his tooth out and he shows me. He was so distraught because he told me that she had knocked out his "parent" tooth! I said, "Joshua, that's not an adult tooth that you lost, that's your baby tooth! The one that has been loose fell out". A sudden calm came over him when he realized that it was a tooth that would be replaced! But...at the same time, he was still upset because he dropped his tooth in the yard on the way in to tell me about his tooth. Doug and I searched for the tooth at least 20 minutes with no avail. He was concerned about the tooth fairy coming when there was no tooth, so I told him that the tooth fairy would know that he had lost his tooth and that we would make a cut out tooth from paper and put it in the tooth fairy pillow instead. He was satisfied with this idea and all was right with the world once again:)

Learning to write

Today, Taylor and I were working on writing letters and numbers, and noticed that she picked up the pencil the right way and was writing out letters...I've maybe shown her a couple of times how to hold a pencil, so this was quite exciting! Her writing is already very neat and she seems to be interested now in learning to write so we need to jump on this and push her to learn all of her letters. Great job, Taylor!

Panda naming at the Atlanta Zoo

Taylor went on a zoo adventure this morning...we were supposed to meet Zoe and Michelle Drye there, but they weren't able to make it, so we toured the zoo solo today. This morning was a baby panda naming and so it was quite the media event. Cameras everywhere and many important looking people walking around in business attire...not the typical zoo adventurists! We missed the naming which started at 8am and was presented by Jack Black...the panda was named "Po" by Dreamworks studios as they were going to film the second "Kung Fu Panda" movie and Jack Black was the voice of one of the characters in the movie. We walked over to the panda exhibit and saw Jack Black being filmed in front of the pandas. At the time, I did not know that any celebrities were supposed to be there, and I looked at him thinking that he looked familiar. And then it hit me who he was. I think that that was my first celebrity siting other than eating dinner with one of the heads of the Chicago mob during a nutrition conference years ago. I should have taken his picture, but didn't know if I was allowed due to the filming going on...oh well, I'm not one to be too star struck anyway. We spent the rest of the day touring around, playing in the kid's area and riding the carousel. We fed the parakeets which was a treat and the tiger came right up to us at the glass of his exhibit area which was a thrill for me for him to get so close to us. We never did get to see the baby panda that was named! We did watch a mama gorilla and her baby sitting right behind the glass in their exhibit. All of a sudden, one of the male gorillas came up and slammed his fists up against the glass which scared the mama and her baby away from the glass. I guess that he didn't want people to be close to the baby...recently, the glass in the gorilla exhibit had to be replaced because a gorilla cracked the glass doing that! Another exciting day at the zoo!

My little Valentines

Valentine's Day was sweet as ever this year. My boys and girl made it very special! Joshua made me a card saying he loved me and Taylor had fun playing with heart stickers and paper. We had dinner by candlelight and used heart paper plates and napkins that Grandma and Grandpa had sent to eat Valentine mini cupcakes from the store which were yummy. Joshua wanted all of the lights turned off to make it a true candlelight dinner, but we wanted a little bit of extra light. I made a Valentine's wreath earlier in the day out of cupcake papers and a foam wreath wrapped in ribbon. It turned out pretty cute...got the idea from a mom that used to be in our MOPS group...she had posted the craft on facebook so I thought that I'd give it a try. The kids had gotten a Valentine's package from Grandma and Grandpa and cards with $5 each from Gran and Grandaddy. This also received Valentine's gift bags with goodies from us. Doug and I enjoyed a sweet Valentine's with our little Valentines!!

Our Romantic!

Doug and I were discussing our Valentine's Day plans. We are going to go out on the Saturday before Valentine's Day and then celebrate with the kids on the actual day. Joshua chimed in on the conversation and said that he was going to find some beautiful soft music for our celebration. I don't know where he learned about Romantic music...but I think that this boy is going to be quite the romantic one day! He has such a big heart and just loves people and I can't wait to see the amazing man he will be someday...but then again, I can wait because I get to enjoy during these younger years!!

Kiss Off!

Little Miss Taylor has recently started wiping off kisses after Doug and I give her a kiss goodnight! The little squirt lets us kiss her and then takes her hand and wipes it away. One night, Doug started planting as many kisses as he could on her head so that there was no way that she could wipe them all off. She laughed and thought it was funny. Silly girl. I hope that this is just a phase and that she will enjoy her Mommy and Daddy's kisses again one day soon.

Smiley faces everywhere!

Taylor LOVES drawing smiley faces everywhere! I find them on sheets of paper in the kitchen, in my planner, on random sheets of paper lying around the house. It's impossible to be upset that she draws in my planner when the smiley faces are so darn cute and I get to see a little Taylor masterpiece when I open my planner! Love that girl!