Knock knock...

Tonight, while carrying out the bedtime routine, we were all goofing off a little in Landon's room. He started talking about a part of mass that is sometimes sung...the breaking of the bread (that's according to Google...I don't know all the proper names for the parts of the mass...Mary, if you're reading this I might need a refresher. :))

He wanted to sing it but he gets so embarrassed when he sings so he asked me to come into the living room and sing it with him. When he gets embarrassed he gets a little goofy but it made me happy that he's learning so much about the mass and that he likes to talk about it.  We sang it together. 

Then. Out of nowhere. He says..."knock knock"

I ask the obligatory, "who's there?"

He says, "little old lady"

I say, "little old lady who"...while mind you, still in the religious frame of mind and a bit confused as to how we transitioned to a knock knock joke so quickly. 

He says...about as dry witted as possible, "I didn't know you could yodle!"

I could not stop laughing!!!!!  It was surely a "you had to be there" moment but it's one I don't want to forget. That kid can be so unexpectedly funny sometimes!!!  Turns out he and Jim read that joke is his Highlights magazine last night...man I sure love my boys!  

Snow Fun 2015!

I've been hoping for snow all winter long and in the last couple of weeks we have finally seen a little of the winter weather I've been waiting for!  The kiddos have had fun playing outside and...aside from a few days I spent with the flu so have I!  We've done a little sledding, gone on walks, enjoyed hot chocolate and we've had fun just being together!  We've had spaghetti and popsicles for breakfast (just the kids...grody), we've watched a few movies...the kids have had too much electronic time and I've enjoyed seeing all the fun snow day pictures posted by our friends.  School has been out several days and I've worked from home quite a bit. The kids have enjoyed extra Nana and Papa time and although Jim has been very busy with work, he's been home a lot to play too!  Tomorrow is probably our last snow day this year and I plan on working a little and playing a lot!  Landon has cyber school work and I have some fun little experiments planned...I hope to make our last snow day together super fun!

Happy Valentine's Day 2015

A few weeks ago I decided it was about time to dust off the fancy camera and have a good old fashioned photo shoot for Valentine's Day!  The kiddos have grown and changed so much and I haven't been so good at taking good, quality pictures!  They're just pretty fun these days!  They adore one another and I hope they always do.  We love you Landon and Maddie Kate!

Basketball

Landon had basketball evaluations today and he's never so much as dribbled a ball. During evaluation they have the kiddos dribble, move side to side and shoot baskets. He had trouble dribbling but he made a basket during shooting!! We have started a new tradition at our house where daily we talk a out our high and low for the day. Tonight I told Landon that my high for today was seeing him make a basket and in the sweetest proudest voice I've ever heard him use he said "that was mine too". I know it seems minor and even silly but the pride he showed made me so happy!! He's growing up so fast and lately I think about how it seems like yesterday he was born and he's already nearly 6! I'm so proud of the ornery dude and I hope he grows up knowing how much I love him and how proud of him I am.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Landon - he's 5 years and 8 months old…and he started Kindergarten!

I'm 8 whole months late on Landon's 5 year old post…and I was 7 months late taking pictures.  Oh well - as they say, better late than never!

Wow - he's almost 6!  As trite as it may sound, it seems like yesterday that we were hurrying to the hospital on the day he was born.  The last 5 years and 8 months have been a frenzied blur of craziness, happiness, sweetness, orneriness and also full of blessings.  Our dude is growing up.

Landon's favorite color is orange, his favorite food is cheese ravioli (seriously, he'd eat it for every meal every day), his favorite thing to do is play on the iPad and he told me a few weeks ago that he likes his daddy better than me.  That's fantastic.  You know what, it didn't even bother me…I was actually just really happy for Jim.  Ha!  I know he loves me…and all joking aside, he's a pretty great kid! 

Landon absolutely adores his baby sister…and when they're not bugging the you know what out of each other they are so sweet together.  He protects her and she looks at him with great admiration.  I hope they always share a close bond.

Landon's learning so much every day.  He is very inquisitive and his favorite part of the day (aside from lots of time with the iPad) is story time with his daddy.  They have their special time every night.  They read books, tell stories and look up neat stuff on the internet.

Here are some pictures from our super late photo shoot.

Kindergarten!  Our dude started Kindergarten this year!  I think he was most excited about not having to take a nap in Kindergarten.  Jim and I took him to open house the day before school started to see his classroom and to meet his teacher.  He had to do a little scavenger hunt to find the important areas in the classroom and he got a treat!  I know he was a little nervous and I don't know how excited he was on the first day but he got right up, got dressed, ate breakfast and we took off.  We decided that dropping him off in the pick-up line would be best.  I was afraid if I went in with him he wouldn't want me to leave - and we had just been there the day before.  We talked all about it so he would be ready and he got out and with the help of the principal took off towards his classroom…and I cried all the way to work!  I wasn't sad about how fast he's growing up - I cried because I felt an enormous amount of guilt for not walking him in on the first day.  I surely didn't anticipate having that amount of guilt!  I kept envisioning our guy being lost and confused and seeing all the other moms and dads and wondering why I shoved him out of the car and made him walk in all alone.  It was awful.  I felt better after talking to Jim and Aunt Sissy.  Luckily, Landon never mentioned it and he had a great first day!!  He's only had a couple minor blips in the first couple of weeks.  One day he didn't finish his work and another he got a little warning for tackling a kid on the playground.  Not finishing his work was not surprising to us…tackling a kid on the playground, very surprising!  Our dude is not typically very physical with kids he doesn't know and would rather play minecraft than football…so, we got a little more to the story from Aunt Sissy (she works recess duty but wasn't there that day) and it wasn't a major deal.  We had talked to Landon about whether or not he was being mean or just playing and he didn't fully understand why he was in trouble so we kind of let it slide.

Overall, he's doing great so far!  He did ask today if Kindergarten was over though - so we may be in for a long year!  Ha!

Landon - you're a pretty awesome little guy and we love you to the moon and back and a bushel and a peck.  XOXOXO

Rosemary Beach 2014

We spent a week this summer in Rosemary Beach, Florida with our friends the Wades.  Rosemary is in the 30a area between Destin and Panama City Beach.  It's a cute little community with lots of fun shops, restaurants, and the beach there is beautiful.  We left on a Saturday morning at 5:30am and because I was nervous about how the kids would do on an all day road trip I planned a few fun things for the trip.  I made a map for Landon to follow, printed a fun scavenger hunt of things to find outside while you're driving, loaded up on snacks and bought several little treats and wrapped them up - they got to open one every hour or so if they were good.  They thought that was the best idea ever…according to Maddie Kate it was totally awesome!  Landon's favorite treats were the mystery mario figures.  It took us 13 long hours to get there and the kids were so much better than we thought they would be.  We saw this beautiful sunset as we rolled into town.

We spent the first day on the beach and the kiddos loved it!  Maddie Kate jumped right in like she'd been to the beach a million times and Landon did the same.  

One night we all drove in to Panama City for dinner and a sunset pirate cruise.  It was so much fun!  The kids got to have a water gun fight, dance and help shoot a pretend cannon!  We bought them souvenir swords and they practiced saying "arrrrrgh matey!"

We met up with the Hankins one day at Charlie's Donut Truck in Alys Beach and got to see them again one night for dinner in Seagrove at Louis Louis which is owned by a family from Little Rock who used to own restaurants here…the owner, whose wife tutored Jim in french, even seemed to remember Jim!  After dinner we visited Seaside for souvenir shopping and ice cream,

Landon learned to boogie board and loved it!!

We saw dolphins, played in the waves and built a sand castle!

The last couple of days there were quite a few jellyfish in the area…Landon even caught one!  After that, we decided we should spend more time at the pool.  The pool in the little community we stayed in was nice and we had it to ourselves most of the time.

Landon had a few milestone moments on our trip!  He decided he would swim without his floaties at the pool and we were so proud!!!  He also lost a tooth!  

The tooth fairy found him and left him $5!  

We had a fun trip with our little family and can't wait to visit the beach again soon!