Friday, December 21, 2007
Check out this cool website - I want to get on for each of the kids!
http://www.frecklebox.com/
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Brandon had a great time helping too. He carried in all kinds of lightweight stuff and refused all assistance. He thinks Mark's house is his to with as he pleases now (ie opening cupboards, closets and drawers...and playing with anything that catches his attention). Hopefully he won't bother Mark too much when he visits...
Mark & Nick teamed up to carry in the bigger/heavier stuff that Dad designated as the "boy pile."
Taking a breather while things were being more suitably arranged in the house to make way for the mattress & box spring.
Brandon was too.
There were no complaints to be heard, since Laedyn got picked up at the slightest whimper. Not that she whimpers much in the first place. Look how happy she was to be right in the middle of all the action. She's happiest when she can see everything that everyone is doing. At a minimum, she requires that Brandon be in sight. She just LOVES watching him.
Even Jennifer came over to help out.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Brandon wasn't too sure he like this dragon. He thought it was a little scary!
I think this might have been Brandon's favorite part of going to the zoo...a big hill to run up & down. Of course he had tons of energy to do that, but it was too tiring to walk around the zoo. He rides on the front footrest of the stroller when he isn't making Nick carry him.
They had all these cool stone animals with festive Christmas lighting. Brandon wanted to have his picture taken at ALL of them.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
I always like the view coming across the river from Arkansas into Tennessee, but with the sun shining so brightly all I got was alot of glare & reflection from the car windows. So here's the sign welcoming us to Tennessee instead...
After the runners were rested enough to leave the finish line festiviteis, we met them at Westies - a restaurant with a HUGE menu, and a ton of wild rice dishes. It took a REALLY long time. In fact, Jackson (who is 4) fell asleep while waiting for the food & didn't wake up the rest of the time we were there - even when his Daddy carried him out the door to go back to their hotel. Jackson ran/walked the 5K with his Mommy. I guess it really tired him out! It was a beautiful day. It was also my first time walking along Beale Street. I thought this facade was interesting. I like the way they kept it intact. The patio setup inside reminded me of the bar in New Orleans that's famous for those urrican drinks - Patty O'Briens (SP???)...
We went to the Memphis zoo in the late afternoon. I'll post pictues of that next.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Laedyn thought I was a crazy lady laying on the floor trying to get her to look at me.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
After Nick had the bird settled into the roasting pan (on top of a couple metal cooling racks), I poured melted butter over top and sprinkled it with season salt. Then I poured a can of chicken broth into the roaster with some diced carrots, onions and celery. Once the turkey came out of the oven it was falling off the bones - literally. We all thought the bits of carrots were really yummy too!
The night before, I made mini corn muffins and a pumpkin pie. We used Marie Callendar's frozen pie crust & it was really good. Better than those Pillsbury roll out ones. Mom also made a pecan pie. I found a recipe that called for Maple Syrup on top of what's normally in a pecan pie. How could you go wrong with Maple Syrup??? (we're talking the real stuff that originates in a tree here) Well - this was DEFINATELY the WRONG way to go. I compared it to a toxic dirty diaper. It had this HORRIBLE aftertaste. I shudder to think of it even now as I am writing about it. We had to throw the whole pie away.
Here's the complete spread (well the pies are in the kitchen & the toxicity of the pecan pie is as yet undiscovered). I made sour cream mashed potatoes - just because there was a partial container of sour cream in the fridge that needed a purpose. Mom made a Waldorf Salad and steamed some freh green beans. I think the Waldorf Salad was Brandon's favorite part of dinner. I also made fresh cranberries (with Splenda), gravy, and sweet potato casserole covered in marshmallows. Brandon was getting really excited about eating & banged his head. You can see he's holding a kids cold pack on it. He cried a bit, but once food was on his plate, his injury was forgotten.
After dinner we had chocolate martinis. The first batch I mixed 2 shots of vanilla vodka + 1 shot Godiva white chocolate liquor + 1 shot kaluah. Then a poured chocolate syrup on the inside of the class in an artistic design. They were pretty strong. The second batch I changed to 1 shot of vodka and 2 shots of Godiva plus the 1 shot of kahlua instead. That was a much better combination - if I remember correctly. (hahahaha. Yes that's the correct recipe.) Try it - you'll like it! Although I didn't take any pictures of it, we played some Mexican Train too. That was fun for a change. Nick doesn't like to play games, so it's nice to have someone to play with for a change.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
https://r.espn.go.com/espn/contests/theheismanvote/thanks
Monday, November 19, 2007
What American accent do you have? Your Result: The West Your accent is the lowest common denominator of American speech. Unless you're a SoCal surfer, no one thinks you have an accent. And really, you may not even be from the West at all, you could easily be from Florida or one of those big Southern cities like Dallas or Atlanta. | |
The Midland | |
Boston | |
North Central | |
The Inland North | |
Philadelphia | |
The South | |
The Northeast | |
"What American accent do you have? http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Quiz Created on GoToQuiz |
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Brandon was invited to a birthday party at River City Gymnastics. He liked the thought of the party but wasn't too sure he wanted to go to the gym. He'd gotten tired of Little Gym and thought this was the same thing. After about five minutes though, he was having a great time. In fact, when playtime was over he cried because he wanted to jump and play some more. The kids had to line up to move from the first boucy activity to the next - an obstacle course.
I have no idea what Brandon is doing to his pants here. It looked pretty funny though.
Here they are going around the obstacle course. No one got tired of doing it even though they all been around the circle about 30 times.
They even had a huge bounce house set up in the middle of the obstacle course.
At the third activity area, they had a trampoline, a foam pit and a tall platform with a couple of slides that dumped the kids into the pit. There were 3 ways to get to the top of the slides - a rock wall, a ladder and a knotted rope. Brandon got about half way up the rockwall before he wanted to get down & climb the ladder instead.
I thought this slide looked pretty steep (the drop off was nothing to sneeze at), but Brandon didn't seem to share my concern. None of the kids did. They all had a blast sliding off into the foam pit. I think Brandon must have climbed back to the top 8-10 times.
After the playtime was done, the birthday boy (Christopher) got to sit up on a tall platform where everyone could watch him open his gifts. The coordinator called each guest up one at a time & they got to sit up there with Christopher & watch him open the gift they brought for him. The coordinator also kept track of who gave the birthday boy what gift. They did this at Little Gym too - it was SO nice to have someone deal with it all so I could take pictures & talk to the other parents.
Here's Brandon watching Christopher open his gift. Brandon picked it out all by himself. It was a Hot Wheels thing with a couple of cars. The cars could go down ramps on either side and crash into each other. Brandon is all about his Hot Wheels and matchbox cars these days.