PawPaw

This is a picture of the first time PawPaw came to meet Holdyn all the way from Las Vegas. As you can see, from day one, they had a connection. I have tons of pictures to post but I more importantly need to get this photobook finished and shipped to me asap. I also had the 'death' talk with my 4 year old today. More on his reaction of that later, but something a 4 year old should never have to try to wrap their small brain around and understand. Please pray for Holdyn (and the entire family) for peace and healing. Just so glad to know they are staying on top of his pain and keeping him comfortable. We love you Paw Paw!

Pure Sweetness.....

Holdyn has been so busy this summer that he has had a hard time letting me get many pictures of him (hence the overload of Hadley!) Holdyn starts back to school next week. He will be in Mrs. Debbie's class at St. Anne's. He seems excited and we couldn't be more thrilled to see what this school year has in store for us! But until next time, I thought I should share some pure sweetness with you......

A Wild Adventure!

I have been hearing about a program in Savannah called 'Toddler Tuesday' at Oatland Island Wildlife Center and I have been dying to take the kids to check it out. I heard they did a childrens program then you got to go see all the animals outside and go to the petting zoo on the grounds. It has been way too hot so I have been putting it off. With Holdyn starting school in less than 2 weeks, I figured we better get on it because the program is only offered in the morning. It was a last minute decision but we woke up Tuesday and it seemed to be cloudy and not AS hot as it has been, so we packed up the kids for our unknown adventure and headed out the door. After a 30 minute drive we arrived to find out that the topic for the day was turtles! We got to see turtle shells, learn about their skeletons, and pet live turtles!

 Pops and Hadley listening to the turtle lesson and then we sang some turtle songs! Hadley was about ready for her nap!

 Holdyn pet the turtle.... with 1 finger! Haha! I was proud he at least was brave and touched it!

 Pops excused himself to go to the restroom so I was in charge of the turtle artwork project. Holdyn had fun gluing his but just wrote his name on it. I helped Hadley glue her legs, head, and skeleton to the turtle then that child went to work like picaso. She colored away!! It was time to finish up and head outside for the next activity. As Pops was walking back down the hall he heard a little girl screaming her head off. He said it sounded like Hadley but Hadley never cries!! He was surprised to find out that it WAS Hadley screaming because her mean mommy had to pry the crayons out of her hands! We might have a little future artist in the family, just like her great grandpa Len, or "PawPaw"!

 We got a map and figured out which route we would head out on. Let me tell you (mostly I will like to tell my wonderful husband!) that this trip would not have been possible without a double stroller!

 We decided to hit the alligator exhibit first. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen to get to watch baby alligators hatch right in front of your eyes!! See how tiny the little guy is?!

 It was nice that parts of the 'railing' were plexi glass so kids could see the animals and you didn't have to hold them up over the rail to be able to see.

 Speaking of alligators, they found an alligator in our neighborhood pool this week!! Cricke! I will be checking the water next time before we get in!

 Sister was so tired but she stayed awake and was amazed to see all the animals! (Yes she had a full diapie!)

 Here we were looking for the Red Fox. We found 2 of them! Hadley was busy having a snack! The cool thing about Oatland Island is it wasn't like the animals were living in a 'fake' zoo setting. There was no grass cut, no additions, etc. it was animals living in their pure natural environment which was so cool. Also dirt trails would take you to all of the trails to get to each exhibit. It was so nice because they obviously do a great job keeping up the trails because they were VERY stroller friendly and it was very easy to push the stroller (full of 75lbs!) even on uneven dirt trails. They also had the park VERY well marked and it was nice to know exactly which way to go to see what animal. They had tons of directional signs which was a huge help!

 This was the cutest donkey ever! It's like he jumped out of the Shrek movie!

 Bahaha! How cute is this sheep?? What would daddy think if we had a pet sheep?! Hmm....

Pops comment to this cow "Wow that could make a lot of meals!" How horrible but he was HUGE!

We decided at the begining to only do have of the park so we still have to go back to see all of the other animals on the other side of the park! Doing just half was perfect for the kids because they were right about at their limit of loosing interest. We spent an hour in the classroom singing songs, learning about turtles, and doing art project and we spent an hour and a half outside walking around seeing the animals (and remember that was only half of the park!) We ended up leaving there around 1:30 then we headed downtown to 5 Guys for lunch. It was a great day and I am excited to take the kids back to see the rest of the park! They had an awesome time!

When a baby cries....

When a baby cries, most people shudder. After 'meeting' so many amazing women in blog land, I have learned that a babies cry is comfort. I just heard my 19 month old crying from her crib saying 'MaaaMeeee'. How blessed am I? 2 amazing children that we immediately got pregnant with both. Even our miscarriage baby. That baby had a heart beat for 7 weeks until it stopped and couldn't keep beating any longer. This was on March 1, 2009. The doctor said wait 3-4 months to try again for everything to 'heal'. We had a D&C so we wouldn't have to deal with any middle of the night ER visits with another small child at home. After the surgery, Dr. Tucker said he mainly removed a placenta 'sac' and a heart. The baby really wasn't forming at all that the rate it should have been for a 7 week old fetus. I believe in things happening for a reason and instead of bringing a critically ill child in to this world that would not survive (and suffer in unnecessary pain), nature knows when to take it's course. I specifically remember calling on March 10th, 2009 for a positive pregnancy test appointment. Within 10 minutes my doctor was on the phone calling me and he said ' MAN!! That was fast!!' We kept things low key until about 10 weeks and knew that this new baby was healthy and growing properly (this was Hadley).I have been bitten by the baby bug this week. I know it's only because Holdyn has been gone for almost 2 weeks and the bite will vanish quickly when he returns on Sunday! I have missed him so much. His smell, his hugs, his kisses, rubbing my fingers through his hair. I haven't heard an emergency siren in almost 2 weeks and I am longing to hear that on Sunday night! We also got mail from his new teacher today. It was explaining about open house and what we need to bring and when we need to come and he has a little 'homework' assignment to turn in when we go to open house. I am leary of Pre-K this year and I don't know why. I (and Holdyn too I'm sure!) am going to miss Ms. Maria and Ms. Jeanie so much that it is going to be so hard to accept a new teacher. I know, I know, we will do this every year and Ms. Maria has RAVED about the school Holdyn will be going to and how amazing his teacher is, but I guess I will just have to wait and see for myself to be comforted. What would my dear husband say if I ripped him our of this new Pre-K to take him back to his old school (and drive an hour both ways) for one last year with Ms. Maria... for mainly MY comfort. Ok so he would probably think I was crazy and kill me!! Ha! I promise I will give this newness a chance. I hate new situations.... just like Holdyn does. Holdyn needs to hurry home so the baby bug will go away!!!

Comfort

The past few weeks (Since we have been at MawMaw and Pops while building our house) we have found Hadley finding comfort in laying in her bouncer drinking her cup of juice with her baby. It is so cute!

Beach Babe!

We took Hadley to the beach today. It was her first time to go. Everybody makes me pick around this time what we do since my birthday is on the 5th. I HATE picking what to do. I can't make a decision for the life of me. Both of my kids were born right at Thanksgiving and Christmas so they are going to get to deal with that also when they get older. It is N.O. fun!! I wanted to go somewhere on a quiet beach where we could park close and not have a long haul to the water and not many people around. What was I thinking?! It was 4th of July weekend... hah! The place was packed but both kids had an amazing time. Even baby got drug along. Poor baby had to have a bath when we got home!

 She kept her hat on for about 2.5 seconds but she does have her daddys olive brown skin! I am jealous!

 Hadley loved the water and dove head first in! She took and threw tennis balls to all the groups around us being such a flirt!

 HoHo loved the water also but he really likes building sand castles!

 Honey bun enjoying the summer weather!

I told Robbie next year we justneed to rent somewhere in FL or GA and just stay for a long weekend. It is way too exhausting with 2 kids packing up all that you need just for a few hours then leaving and having to unload everything. Totally not worth it! I see a beach house in Destion ON the water for us next summer!