What would YOU do for Halloween Candy?

If you've been around much, you know a little about the trials and tribulations of Wilson's low weight and non-existent eating. Here is our latest saga....

Last night Will had to work late, so I fixed the children their dinner early. On the menu was macaroni and cheese, black eyed peas and strawberries (I realize there was no meat, but Wilson rarely eats meat anyways, and Will was planning on grilling chicken when he got home and I knew EC would want to eat again anyways, and she did eat chicken with us), so back to the story. Emma Claire made a happy plate (as usual) and immediately asked for a piece of halloween candy - I said "yes" and she got her candy. Well.... little brother saw her get candy and of course he wanted candy too. He had eaten all his black eyed peas, but none of his macaroni and cheese or strawberries (2 foods that he normally loves)!!! I tried my best to tell him he had to eat his food all gone in order to get some candy and he seemed to understand, but was determined not to eat and still get the candy - he even attempted to pull the kitchen chair over to the counter to get it himself. I was very diligent in taking him back to the table and trying to get him to eat. After a while I knew there was no way he was going to eat his mac and cheese or strawberries, but b/c he seemed to enjoy the black eyed peas, I figured he would eat more of those and that would suffice. Well, he appeared more open to the idea of eating them, but everytime he would open his mouth for me to put a spoon full in, he would gag. I kind of thought he was just putting on a show UNTIL after about 3 times of doing this over and over he finally let me put them in his mouth and....


OUT ALL HIS DINNER CAME!!!!!
He threw up and threw up and threw up some more.

Needless to say, Wilson got his candy =)

{The funny thing is, he used to do this as a baby when I would try to feed him peas}

I Guess there will be no force feeding Wilson anymore!!!! =)

Idols

At school this month, the children have been learning about the life of Moses. They started with Moses as a baby and have worked up to his adult life. This week, they have been learning the Ten Commandments. Emma Claire is a rock star when it comes to saying Bible verses. She says them over and over and even turns them into songs sometimes. Well, the other night she was reciting some of the Ten Commandments and this is how the conversation went:

EC: You shall not worship idols.

Mommy: (Assumming she knew, but not sure) Emma Claire, what are idols?

EC: (pointing to her eyes) "Eyeballs" mommy!!??? (in her sarcastic, duh, don't you know that mommy, voice?!!)

Will and I laughed soooo hard and then went on to TRY and explain what idols are - in the times of Moses it would have been like a cow or a statue, but today it usually is something less-obvious, like money or fame or people.

How I love these blessings God has given me - they keep me on my toes and keep me laughing everyday!

Wild Weekend, Part 2

If you haven't read Wild Weekend (the previous post), you may want to scroll down and read it first, this is the continuation.

These first pictures are from Saturday morning - I forgot to mention that our day started out with a visit from an examiner for our Life Insurance Policy. Will and i had to answer a billion questions about our health and give blood and urine samples - all without having eaten within 8-10 hours (which for me is a HARD task) and while keeping 3 rowdy children contained and quiet! I finally took them in the living room and we had a pajama photo session!

****Wilson's eye appointment went great (well, he wouldn't say it did - having 4 drops put in each eye, then having blurred vision for half the morning is not his idea of "great") he has "intermittent something" - I can't for the life of me remember the term, but in lay terms, one of his eyes drifts outward when he focuses on things at a distance, but his eyes are looking "together" much more than they are apart. So, at this time we will not do "the straightforward, simple surgery" to strengthen his muscles. We are just to watch him and come back if it seems that the eye "wanders" more than not. For now, NO SURGERY - thanks for any prayers, I know mine were answered!

Now, onto the rest of Sunday, after the end-of-year cheerleading/football party at Bryant-Denny we left early to go to Emma Claire's Fall Choir program at church. She did AWESOME - she scored a front-row position close to all her friends!!! This little girl sure loves to sing!

AFTER the hour-long Choir program, we got the boys out of the nursery and set up our tables at the TAILGATE PARTY (at the church). Will's dad picked up a pizza for us in between the cheerleading party and the choir program and we ate and chased the children around for nearly 2 hours. There were jump castles and obstacle courses and a huge rock wall. I couldn't believe Emma Claire climbed all the way to the top, but she did -- that's my girl!!!!

Daddy and brother cheering her on!

Henderson was quite content most of the time in his exersaucer - he's growing so fast!!!

Big Al made an appearance, which Emma Claire was exuberant about - Wilson, not so much, but at least he's not one of those who screams his head off the entire time Big Al is around - he just likes to keep him at a "safe" distance.

(I'm not exaggerating when I say she absolutely LOVES Big Al!!)

(notice the "clinger")

All in all it was an AWESOME, but busy weekend -God has blessed us so richly with great friends and family, a great church and a great preschool. Last night we went to the Fall Festival at the childrens' Dayschool. It was a lot of fun too - a post and pictures to come at the end of the week or Monday. Emma Claire gets to dress up at her Ballet class this afternoon and tonight we go trick or treating on Sorority Row! All I can say is thank goodness my brother-in-law is a dentist - b/c after this week, I imagine there will be lots of cavity bugs in our mouths - the candy bowl on our counter is filling up quickly - any ideas how to get rid of this without a particular 4 year old noticing????

Our Wild Weekend

The weekend started off slow and relaxing (after I turned down an outing to see High School Musical 3 with some of Emma Claire's friends and to use Parent's Night Out at our church), knowing what the weekend held, I knew we just needed to be at home! Will left Saturday morning to go to the Alabama game and the children and I went to my SIL Ellen's house to let the children play. The weather was awesome, so they played outside and had a blast. I left EC there while I took the boys home to nap. I went to pick EC up at 4:00 and she was in the shower with her cousins (because they had a little too much fun in the water hose and sand box =), so I threw (not literally) Wilson in there with them (got that done)! We got home a little before 5:00 and I began getting dressed for a wedding. Mallory, our babysitter got there at 5:00 and I was able to finish getting ready. I went to the wedding - which was fabulous, I wish I could go into more detail, but my time is VERY limited - it was at the brides' house, there were 3 huge tents and the food was out of this world - it was like a fairy tale (or at least a Hollywood movie).

Sunday morning I got myself and all 3 children dressed and we made it to church at 8:25. After church Will got home from the game and made a grocery store run =). Then the fun began......

At 4:00, Emma Claire's cheerleading/football team had their end of the year party at Bryant Denny Stadium - they got to meet Glen Coffee (an Alabama football player) and then they got to cheer the team on in a scrimmage! They thought they had hung the moon - having the stadium all to themselves - I have to say it was kind of neat!

Okay, I'm officially out of time - I have to take Wilson to the eye doctor- say a prayer for us if you read this before I'm back with another posting - NO SURGERY!!!! I'll post about the REST of our sunday evening when I get back!!!!! so long!

Fourth of Fourth

I've been tagged to do:

1. Choose my 4th folder
2. Choose the 4th picture
3. Explain it
4. Tag 4 other people

Since this is relatively easy, I'm game - all those others, well, I'm horrible at talking about myself, so I'm still working on them (6 quirky things!!)


Well, this picture is of Emma Claire this past spring at a work picnic for Will's work. She was climbing up the playground and I snapped the cute picture! I was 8 months pregnant at the time with Henderson.


I tag:

1. Darby
2. Abby
3. Lindsey
4. Leigh


More coming soon about our wild weekend!!!!

Halloween and Pirates

Last night we went to CHOM's (Children's Hands On Museum) 1st Halloween Carnival. It was alot of fun, though there were alot of people there and it was very crowded! My battery in my camera died and my dear friend Ashley was sweet to take these pictures and send them to me this morning (she "gets" my obsession with blogging=). It was not very stroller friendly, with all the people crowded around (not that Henderson was very excited about being in his stroller anyways), so between holding him, chasing Wilson through crowds of people, and somewhat trying to keep up with Emma Claire, I was exhausted at the end. One funny thing, on one of the tables was a little "tree" with mini tootsie pop suckers decorating it - you pull a sucker out and see if it has a certain mark on it and that decides the prize you get - well, Wilson discovered this and while I was feeding Henderson (close to the front door, so at least if I couldn't keep my eyes on Wilson the WHOLE time, I knew he wasn't leaving the building) well, Wilson must have gone back 8 times to get suckers, finally the sweet young girl, literally carried him back to me - I know she thinks I'm a horrible parent, but what are you to do - he's 2??? As we were walking back to our car, I was thinking, "that was not fun at all, I couldn't socialize with my friends OR watch my children for all the people" and Emma Claire starts saying, "That was the most fun I've ever had mommy!!!" Well, sure, you were pretty much unsupervised doing what you wanted, getting candy and prizes, what 4 year old wouldn't love that?! Well, I'm glad she had a great time. I really was lots of fun and well-done, but maybe next year CHOM will learn from their mistakes and spread the games out over the whole museum and not just one floor.

The next picture is from the beach on the Pirate Cruise. I was not there (I came back on Thursday, but I left sweet Emma Claire there until Sunday). They say it was a blast, that it was the highlight of the beach trip (you mean playing in the sand while mommy is acting like a beached whale isn't the highlight???? =) Emma Claire came home talking all about the REAL TREASURE they found in the sea and the REAL TATOOS she got from the REAL PIRATES!!!! Oh to be 4 again!!!! But I've been on it before and it IS lots of fun!

The next picture is the 4 older children at the beach (after I had left) - you see, we think nothing of our boys and girls getting baths together, b/c they're cousins, but Mary Alice is our friend, not our cousin, so maybe Patton and Mary Alice in the bath tub together is not such a great idea - or maybe it is, just to have black mail pictures to put on a big screen their senior year of high school when they are dating maybe??????!!!!!!

The Cat

Okay, so I know you are all tired of seeing beach pictures, but I just got a CD from Will with more pictures on it and I had forgotten all about the CAT - on the BEACH!!! Now, I'm not much of a cat person, I like them fine, I'm just more of a dog person, anyways, I wouldn't think that cats would like the sand, but boy did this one! And Emma Claire being the animal lover that she is, couldn't resist. We were told that this cat had scratched and bitten a child the day before, so I told her no touching, only look and don't get too close to his face. Well, from far off and with my zoom on I catch this...

(Sorry for the "bottom" shot, but this shows you how fearless EC is when it comes to animals - she would've had her face underneath that chair if I hadn't been watching!)

She and her cousin are both "caught" -- Emma Claire thought she was hidden behind the chair!!!

and she knows it - it's still hard to see, but she's looking right at me, knowing she's about to hear about it - no more kitty for them!!!

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It's off to work we go!

Wilson got sunscreen in his eyes on the last day and cried and cried and cried - I felt REALLY bad, maybe I went a little too far trying to protect him - I cleaned them with a warm washcloth as best I could, but only time would take the tears away!

Camera

Thanks for the comments on the pictures, as for the camera it is Olympus brand - I have had it for 4 years now - it was my first digital camera - it has been very trustworthy over the last few years, though I would like a new one b/c it is rather bulky and pretty slow. I'm really not a great photographer, I just take alot of pictures and get lucky with only a few.

I thought this was a funny picture - it was snapped by my father-in-law as we were trying to get everyone ready for the family picture!

I could just eat his little face off!

On a cloudy morning, Will took Emma Claire to the Alvins Island where they have alligators and sharks - she loved it!

We have a busy week coming up leading up to Halloween and Homecoming. The children will get to dress up in the Halloween costumes 4 times before Halloween even gets here - CRAZY!!! It's busier than Christmas - but all fun and games (literally). I hope to have some great posts coming! For now I'm working in the mornings and helping my in-laws paint their new house in the afternoons and evenings when I'm free (aka when Wilson is napping or someone else is keeping him - 2 year olds and paint sure don't mix!)

Our Week at the Beach in Pictures (and a few words)

We had an AWESOME week at the beach this past week. Emma Claire is still there until Sunday with my dear friend, Ashley, and SIL Ellen. I miss her alot, but I know she is having a blast {though they say she is not missing me a bit =( } I think she gets that from her mommy!!! The weather couldn't have been better, the children were great (other than Wilson waking up and staying up b/w 4:30-5:00 am EVERY morning - but that's another post entirely). As you can see in the pictures, the water was clear and as smooth as glass the first 3 days, but then overnight turned very rough - but good times were had - Emma Claire loved the little hermit crabs - I bet we caught 100 of them! All of the children played well together (all 9 of them at one point), had a great time, as did the adults - thanks to our ground floor, right on the pool condo. It worked out perfectly - we could let the babies sleep or sit in their exersaucers inside while we watched the big kids out at the pool - our patio was 3 feet from our chairs!!! I'm so very thankful for such wonderful family and friends to spend good times with!