Ari is 1!!! (Well, not officially until Jan. 31, but we celebrated early.)

My dainty little girl doesn't want to get messy! LOL

The dainty little girl didn't last long! Daddy got a great action shot. I just wish you could hear the laughter that went along with this picture. She was having way too much fun!

She really enjoyed her cake. She was smiling and laughing the whole time. I didn't get chocolate like I did with Joshua, but the vanilla was just as fun and messy.

Clean up time. I can't tell if she was happy about getting clean or not.

Chit Chat

Michael commented that I hadn't updated my blog in awhile. My response was that nothing really exciting or interesting happened to me this week. He says that one never knows how interesting things can be to someone else. So, prepare yourself for my "exciting" week!
;-)

KIDS

Ari refused to eat much this week. She wouldn't drink much milk. I'm guessing she wasn't feeling up to par. Yesterday and today she finally decided that she was hungry.........thankfully. Still only 2 teeth. Her top gums are swollen and apparently sore if her crankiness is any indication.

Joshua is his typical 2 year old self. Happy and funloving one minute, cranky and whiny the next. Somebody please save me from moody 2 year olds. He is having a great time at school. He loves Ms. Michelle. He loves his friends. He talks about Abby and Hayden a lot when we get home. Oh, I think I have ruined him. When we are in the car and I have the new Bon Jovi CD in he sings along and tells me to "turn on the music Momma." It's really cute!

SCHOOL

We had our 100th day this week. It was pretty fun. We all changed classes and each did a project with the kids. They really enjoyed it. I had several kids out sick this week. We have a nasty bug going around. Unfortunately, I had to send 2 boys to the principal's office this week. One was threatening others and one threw a girl's shoe into a mud puddle while we were on the playground in 40 degree weather. I have no idea what either of them were thinking.

ME

I think I had a touch of the nasty bug going around. Luckily I'm feeling much better now. It just disappeared yesterday at 9am. Weird. I thought I broke my toe. I ran into my rolling cart about 5 minutes after thinking to myself that I had better move it or Michael may trip over it when he gets home. Leave it to me. Turns out that it's only bruised. It is feeling much better too.

I've decided that trying to lose weight is going to be the death of me. Why can't someone just invent a magic pill? You would think with today's technology that it wouldn't be that hard. I was doing great and had lost 5 lbs, but for some reason this week I feel like I went backwards. I haven't stepped on the scale yet to test it though.

One exciting thing did happen this week, at least for us. We bought a new laptop computer with a wireless router. Now I can surf the web while sitting in the living room watching tv or upstairs in our room if it gets too cold downstairs. I'm loving it. Now I haven't decided if this is a good thing or not. It just gives me further access to my obsession.

Now that you are bored to tears with my life you can leave a comment to make me feel better. LOL

Brotherly Love

Is there any wonder that Joshua loves his big brother?

The love of my life and my precious girl!

While Momma and Joshua go off to work hard at school, Daddy and Ari stay home and practice their flying routine!

Ari's hair cut.

This is before. It was so long and always in her eyes. I hated getting it cut, but as you can see it really needed it.



This is after. It really did turn out cute. I didn't like it at first. It made her look like a completely different child. It has grown on me since though.

She did really well. I thought she would be afraid of the stylist, but she wasn't. She was just curious about what was happening. She kept trying to watch the stylist's hands as she would go up to cut. She kept tilting her head up so she could see. That didn't make it very easy for her to cut it, but at least Ari wasn't screaming.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt!

Some of my favorite shots from Amelia Island

This lighthouse is actually a vacation rental home.


This shot is downtown on the docks.


It was really nice of this pelican to stretch just in time for the photo op.

I believe this was taken down at American Beach.

Michael really is a good photographer. I love the pictures he takes. I'm loving the new digital camera with a bigger zoom too!

Joshua and Ari

Poor thing looks like he could use a friend!

Ari looking "so cute" in her spiffy outfit she got from her Namma!

Are you sure this is MY dog?

Out beside the laundry room at my aunt's house there is a huge mud hole where the washing machine drains. Georgia found it.
Is this a happy dog or what? She really enjoyed playing in this mud hole. She didn't enjoy the bath quite so much though. She tries to hide if you mention Georgia and bath in the same sentence. Smart dog.
Yep, that is really my beautiful Georgia Girl. No longer white.
Here she is looking like the tough bulldog that she is not!

So it begins...............again.

School started back this week. We had a day to work in our rooms, thankfully, and a day of inservice meetings. The kids came back on Thursday. They were surprisingly well behaved. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. It seems like everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We all were able to share our treasures. I really enjoyed hearing them talk about what they got from Santa and seeing the sparkle in their eyes. I hate to see that sparkle disappear when they stop believing. It's really sad.

It's been a tiring week having to get up at 5am again and I am so glad that today is Friday. Hopefully, Joshua and Ari will sleep in tomorrow or Michael will get up with them. At least I didn't have to get them up this week to go to school. Michael was off and kept them and when he went back to work Christian kept them until I got home. Saved my sanity not having to deal with them in the mornings and saved us money on daycare.

I think I am going to take Ari for a haircut in the morning. The front goes down past her nose and nothing will stay in it to keep it out of her eyes so I guess it's time. I really hate to cut it, but it drives me nuts seeing it in her eyes all the time. I'll definitely post before, during, and after pics. She doesn't like strangers much so it should be interesting. Wish us luck!

Joshua sings karaoke!

Joshua had a blast singing karaoke on Christmas Eve with my mom. If you want to see the video just click the title above the picture. You will definitely get a kick out of it.

Happy Birthday Honey!!

Today is Michael's birthday. I won't get to spend much of it with him since he has to work, but I thought I would just take a minute to wish him a Happy Birthday here. He is my one true love and I appreciate all that he does for our family and the love that he saves just for us. We love you Honey and hope that you have a wonderful day!

Finally!

A picture we can use for Christmas pictures! It is so hard to get them to sit for a picture all together. We were finally able to get one last night. It's not perfect, but I love it!!

My Christmas present has arrived!!

I've wanted a king size bed for so long and now I finally have one. It was delivered yesterday and not long after it got here I was napping. I slept for 2 hours!! It felt great. Now I just have to watch the kids closely because it is much higher than our old bed. If they fall off of this one they will get hurt. Georgia can't jump up on this one and that makes me happy. No more chewing on my pillows or comforter. I can get my down comforter back out. WOOHOO!

It is so big! You can really get lost in it. I had to stretch my arm all the way to reach Michael last night. There is definitely room for the kids when they happen to stumble in with us. I would always get pushed out of the bed when we had our queen. No more!!

I'm in a picture sharing mood tonight!

I swear we don't tell him to make funny faces at the camera!


Apparently she has been watching her brother!


Hey mom, this picture of Ari kinda looks like a picture of me. I can't remember which one, but it sure does look familiar.


Is there any way to get a 2 year old and a 10 month old to cooperate in order to take a nice Christmas picture? If there is, we haven't found it yet. I swear we took 50 pictures and none of them were all that good. Oh well, I guess we try again next weekend.

Christmastime is here!

Look at that face!! Isn't she just too cute? She loves bows. I think all the bows on the gifts under our tree have been torn off. She never bothered the tree until we put the gifts under it and now we can't keep her away from it.
Joshua has decided that all the gifts under the tree are his. He's not interested in the bows! He wants what is inside the wrapping.

Apparently he sleep walks!!

Oh my! This is scary. His daycare teacher came to my classroom this afternoon to inform me that Joshua was sleep walking at nap time today. He got up off of his cot and walked around the room. He never opened his eyes and she put him back on his cot. He never woke up. I guess I will have to put the gate back up. I'm scared he will fall down the stairs now. He has been coming in our room almost every night and I thought he was awake, maybe he isn't.

IT'S GREAT TO BE A GEORGIA BULLDOG!!! S......E......C CHAMPS!!!

GOOOOOOO DAWGS!!! SIC EM!! WOOF WOOF WOOF!!!

Well, we pulled it off. We are the SEC Champions and Sugar Bowl bound. It was a fun game, at least for Georgia fans. No real nail biting drives. No getting on my knees on the floor. I was never really nervous at all, which is actually pretty amazing for me.

It will be sad to see this senior class leave, but now I will have to keep up with them in the NFL. It gets harder and harder to keep up with all the UGA players in the NFL. Just goes to show you what a great program Georgia has.

Thank you Coach Richt and thank you Bulldogs for a great year.

My Bulldogs are going to the championship game tomorrow!

It's not the National Championship game, but I'm happy with the SEC. It IS only the best conference in college football. Okay so I'm a little biased, but hey, I'm entitled.

I'm not all that confident we can beat LSU, but I am hopeful. After all, UT beat them and we beat UT. Looking at all the stats and such we are pretty evenly matched. It should be a good game. Of course I will be sitting in front of my t.v. and biting my nails. (Side note........you can always tell it is football season by looking at my fingernails.) I may even be on my knees on the floor near the end or hiding my face in a pillow during every play and watching the replay. I just wish I could listen to Larry Munson. He makes it even more fun.

I'm excited and nervous, but as always.................GOOOOOO DAWGS!!!!

How do you teach first graders when you have no voice?

This was something that I had to figure out these last 3 days. I completely lost my voice, yet I still went to school. Let me just say that it really isn't easy to teach when you can't talk. The kids loved it and I had very eager interpreters. They were actually pretty well behaved for me not being able to talk. Hey! Maybe I will start whispering all the time so they have to stay quiet and pay attention! LOL

They did enjoy being able to speak for me. They all wanted to be the one who translated to the class and when the office called in on the intercom they all would answer. And, wouldn't you know that while they never usually call me on the intercom, they called a dozen or so times when I couldn't talk.

My voice is much better today although it still goes in and out. I'm just hoping that resting it over the weekend will help and I can talk normally on Monday.