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!

Prayer and Oh So Much Fun!

Okay, I'll start out with the not-so-good news.... Yesterday I took Wilson (along with Henderson and Emma Claire) to his eye appointment. You see, Emma Claire's diagnosis with Amblyopia (lazy eye) came about by sheer accident (or God's providence) when I poked her in the eye one night. Wilson, on the other hand, has an eye that "wanders" when he looks at things at a distance. This was his second appointment after the first one where the doc said we would just wait and see. Well, the news we got yesterday was to come back and see his partner to evaluate for surgery...SURGERY????? On my just turned 2 year old, 21 pound, fiesty red head's EYES???? I thought, maybe an eye patch, maybe glasses (though he would never keep them on), but SURGERY??? We go back for the evaluation on his eye muscles Wed. Oct 22, so please keep him in your prayers....

NOW for the GREAT news!!!!! Tomorrow I will be going with....

+

in this: (photo courtesy of the Honda website)

and we will meet:

+

+

+ (the girls on the ends along with their parents - not pictured)

+ Grandaddy Bud

+ Will (via New Orleans)

Hopefully we will go on this: (Pirate Cruises in PCB - the best 2 hours you and your children will have) http://www.piratecruise.net/

dressed like this maybe!

because we are going to see this for a whole week!!!!

Little man might even get to do this again!

All in all: 8 adults and 9 children (all 7 years and under)

(1) 7 year old

(1) 5 year old

(2) 4 year olds

(2) 2 year olds

(1) 11 month old

(2) 5 month olds

Wow! It's going to be busy, but sooo much fun!

A Big Thank you to Bradley, our house/dog sitter.

God's Will

So this past Sunday our SS teacher asked a question "How do you know God's Will?" Well, I sat there thinking and the idea was that sometimes you see God's Will in hindsight. At the time you may wonder, how can this be God's Will? And you question God. Well, the one thing that kept coming to my mind was Emma Claire's birth 8 weeks early. At the time it was HARD. She was in the NICU for 4 weeks. She was my first child and it consumed me. I trusted God, but it was still very hard. She was born August 27th. The school year cut off is Sept.1st. I know this may sound petty, but I truly believe that God wanted her to be born within that school year of friends. I don't know what the future holds, but God has blessed us with an amazing church, an amazing Sunday School class and a core group of girls (and a cousin, Patton) that will all be in the same class at school and at church. This group of friends are all devoted Christians who radiate Christs' love and are committed to having their children in church. Emma Claire will grow up, not only with a great group of friends at school, but also at church, in the youth group and on through college. My prayer is that they all will encourage each other and stand up for what's right. Here are just few of her best friends!

After the Elephant stomp Saturday, the band went marching by, then Emma Claire and her friends created their own marching band, complete with tumpets, flutes and clarinets!!!

A quick picture of friends in their Halloween finest after Wednesday night supper, on their way to choir!!

Grabbing some shade at a Friday afternoon playdate at the park!

Saturday morning we went to the Character pancake breakfast for the Children's theatre play "Beauty and the Beast". Emma Claire had a blast with her friend Mary Alice. My niece, Chandler is in the play and we went to the dress rehearsal last night and it was fabulous! I'm always amazed at the sets , costumes, and the organization of that many children!

Whew.... It was a Close one!

Well, the Tide has another victory under their belt, but that one was too close for me - I like to win BIG!!!! We had a great time (again) on the quad. This time my SIL, Ellen and another friend thought to bring riding toys (skooters) and we let the kids ride them on the side street (it was blocked off to all but the occasional bus). It was great weather and so much fun - we had so many children at our tailgate! You could find us just by looking for the tent with all the strollers parked by it!

Emma Claire absolutely loves dogs - she kept coming up missing (no telephone numbers on their arms with a sharpie this time - I forgot =( and we would always find her at a nearby tent playing with a dog - I think I'm going to subtly push Veterinary Medicine for her, though that would probably mean a stint at Auburn so... maybe not --j/k=)!!! I mean, there were a lot of dogs out there on the quad... little bitty ones, like the PIT BULL puppy in the tent next to ours that was only 6 weeks old (thank goodness), or EC WOULD NOT have been holding him and letting him lick her. There were some BIG ones too - I mean 150(+)# mastifs and great danes - Wilson calls them horses!!!!. It was crazy, none of them seemed to bark or poop (or maybe their owners were very respectful and picked up after them)- b/c believe me, had they, my children ( Wilson) would have stepped in it or played in it!!! =)

My parents came in town for the game and my sister and her boyfriend and his parents and brother and friends of friends of friends - it was such a great time of fellowship, fun and food (oh it was good food!)! My parents were a great help with the little ones! Thank you mom and dad!

Wilson had a great time playing with his cousin, Mills, and his best friend, Lee. (Mills and Lee's shirts courtesy of http://www.thepattonpatch.com/ ) Check it out! Wilson had his dump truck out there and was running (and when I say running, I mean running - man he is fast) it up and down the street fully loaded with chips, so he could re-energize every now and then - at least he was eating something! Grandaddy Bud was doing a great job keeping up with him!!!

You can see 2 of the 6 strollers in this picture!!!

It's Halloween!!!

Dressed and ready for church on Wednesday afternoon - OCTOBER 1st - we don't waist any time around here!!! Is it wrong that my chidren have as many Halloween clothes as they do Christmas??????

Wilson would NOT look at the camera - so frustrating!!!!

Note the big boy clothes again - the day after Wilson wore his first "big boy" outfit to school he wore a Pirate Jon-Jon. On that same day I got a note home from his teacher asking all the moms of the 8 little boys in his class to please send them in more diaper changing friendly clothes b/c during diaper changing times is when all the biting (of which my son has been bitten 3 times in the last week), pushing and hitting occurs. So, while it's easier for me ironing wise, I still don't like it. Not to mention I have already purchased all of his fall and winter clothes, which consists of about 40 (no kidding here) longalls that all button or snap in the crotch =). I completely understand where she is coming from - I would not want to be the sole teacher of eight 2-year old little boys during diaper changing time!!!!! I politely told his teacher I would try my best, but that we only own 2 pairs of pants (no kidding here either)!!!!!

Weekend in Review

My sister Katie came to visit for the weekend while our "big boys" went to the Alabama game! She brought her dog Tyson and the children had a blast! He is only 4 months old, so I was a little nervous about what he would "do" to my house, but he was great - only 1 accident. She brought his crate, and sure enough, within about 5 seconds, this is what we saw...

Bless his heart, the little rascal just can't help himself - he is a curious little thing!

Big Sis had to follow suit and "prove" she could fit in there too!

We went to the park with cousins Saturday morning (it was hotter than I thought it would be) and we had a great time watching some awesome football games (can you tell Katie is a little discombobulated???)

We celebrated Wilson's birthday (kind of) and Katie gave him his Halloween costume - a PIRATE - isn't he the cutest thing you ever did see?

This is a picture of Wilson wearing his first "big boy" (as I call it) outfit to school on Monday. I'm just tired of ironing so much - it really adds up when you have 3 chidren wearing smocked outfits every day to school - 15 a week!!!! So I'm giving in and allowing Wilson and Henderson to wear "boy" clothes to school at least one day. I know, I'm a little obsessive compulsive - but they're only little for such a short time and when they get big they wear the "boring" stuff everyday! Don't worry, he wore his new smocked Pirate jon jon today - no pictures though, it was rush rush after I woke up insanely late (6:00) thanks to my turning off my alarm to run at 4:30 when Henderson woke up to eat at 4:00 - so so tired!!! =(

We had a great weekend - thanks Katie for the fun visit and "extra hands".