We All Have A Hillbilly Bone

Two weekends ago Caleb, Mckinlee and I traveled to my hometown for our annual Hillbilly Day Festival.  I have to admit that I absolutely love Hillbilly Days, and I enjoy going every year.  Unfortunately, Nick could not make it this year due to work.  It was different this year because I had two children, and a lot of my friends were not in town, but it was so much fun. 

When we first arrived on Thursday we traveled downtown to the Tiki Bar (a man cave) with my dad and visited with people.  Friday my dad and I took Caleb to the carnival, and he was so spoiled.  He really enjoyed the rides that day, and we had so much fun watching him.

However, the highlight of his day was playing this "fishing" game.  Basically you pay 5 dollars to pick up two fish, and really all Caleb wanted to do was play in the water. However, papaw decided that he needed to play this two times....I think Papaw has a hard time saying no, but Caleb was so thrilled. 

We also got to get together on Friday with Blair/Ashton, and the Foddrills. It was so good to get our little guys together again and to show off miss Mckinlee.

Saturday The Foddrills and I took the boys to the carnival again.  Caleb was NOT a fan that day. He cried on every single ride. We did run into a certain little cutie you may recognize from here, but Caleb was a crying mess the entire time. 

We had so much fun visiting with family and friends, and the little ones were so spoiled and loved.  It was a great visit home. 

 Caleb found my old baby doll and really took a liking to it.  He would "feed" his baby, kiss and burp it. It was hilarious!

Easter Weekend

This Easter Weekend was one of the best that I can remember.  Holidays sure do mean a lot more to you when you can enjoy them through the eyes of a child.  I am so thankful to serve a risen Saviour who has blessed me with more love than I could have ever dreamed.

Saturday we had a Easter cookout planned with my mama group.  I love my mama group, and I am so thankful for the friendships I have made through it.  Before the cookout we ventured to meet the Easter bunny, and proceeded to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes in line, in the middle of a tornado warning.  Caleb was great in line and Mckinlee slept.  Caleb kept pointing to the bunny and said that he wanted to sit with him, but once we got up there this is the picture we got...

After the bunny we arrived to the cookout a little past fashionably late, but it was so much fun.  We had planned to have an Easter egg hunt outside, but due to the weather the festivities were pushed indoors.  Caleb was a egg hunting champ.  He caught on the idea right away, and he would hoard as many eggs as possible. I think he had four in his arms at one time.  Mckinlee enjoyed sleeping through the egg hunt.

Sunday morning Caleb discovered that the Easter Bunny had made a visit to our house.

He was in love with the cozy coupe that the Bunny found an excellent deal on ;).  (Can we say 20 dollars!!).  That was it for him.  He could have cared less about what was in his basket.

  We planned to attend the 10:30 service, but we made it to the noon service instead.  Caleb refused to stay in the nursery again, and we actually made it with both babies through almost the entire sermon.  Mckinlee started getting fussy so Nick took her out. When he did Caleb proceeded to yell "Daaa Daaa Daa".  I gave him a book to keep him quiet but he proceeded to say "Woof" for the dog "kitty" "mmmm" for grapes, and "fish".  I decided to go ahead and take him out, and when he saw me packing up our stuff he stood up in the chair and started waving bye bye to the entire church.  It was hilarious.  After church we did a little photo shoot, well Mckinlee did.  Caleb would not get out of his car.

When I tried to get Caleb to take a pic this is what happened...

We then headed to Nick's parents house for Easter dinner and another egg hunt.  His family always has a big get-together and his grandpa makes the most amazing bbq ever.  Caleb and Mckinlee each got an Easter basket there as well, and Caleb LOVED the egg hunt!

 It was a little chilly so lil miss did not come outside. I just realized we never got a picture with all four of us :(. 

Mckinlee and her cousin Peyton...he is 2 weeks younger than her! haha She is so tiny.

It was a wonderful Easter!!

Mothers Intuition?

Today I had a crazy experience at nap time.  The babies were both sleeping, and so was I.  Mckinlee was beside me, and Caleb was in his pack n play in his room (since I have not transitioned him back to his toddler bed).  Anyway, I had a weird dream in which Caleb walked into my room after his nap, and I was surprised that he was out of his pack n play.  I asked him how he got out, and he walked me to his room, and the pack n play had toddler bed rails on it instead of the tall sides.  Weird dream, anyway it gets even weirder.

I started to hear Caleb mumble in his bed, and I was taking my time getting up because I was still pretty tired.  All of a sudden I heard a THUDDD and a Scream and his soccer goal (which is outside his pack n play) started talking.  I jumped up and ran in his room to find him laying on the floor crying.  HE CLIMBED OUT OF HIS PACK N PLAY AND BUMPED HIS HEAD!! I scooped him up and looked him over and over making sure he was okay.  Poor guy was scared to death as was I.  

After I calmed him down and got him some lunch I remembered my dream.  Mothers intuition? weird!!

Needless to say Caleb is back in his toddler bed as of tonight.  I can't have my baby falling onto the hard wood floors from his bed anymore :(. 

If you look close in the middle of his forehead you can see the pump knot starting to form :(.  

Scrub Scub Scrub

I have to admit that I love bath time with our children each night.  It is always a time when they are both happy, and just do the cutest little things.  Some nights we will bathe them individually, sometimes together, and hubby I usually trade off kids each night for some one on one time with them. 

Caleb is at the age where bath time is full out playtime.  He LOVES to catch the water running out of the faucet in a cup, pour it on himself and yell "wooo".  We even turn the faucet down to where it is running water very slowly, because the child basically has a heart attack if you turn the water off.  He loves to pour water from one cup to another, squirt us with toys, play with washcloths, his boat, and clean/bang on the tub.  He loves to snuggle if you take a bath with him, and he will help wash his face and body.  He also likes to sit in the tub until all the water is drained, and then he will wipe the tub with his washcloth for forever afterward. 

Mckinlee LOVES bath time.  She never really cried at all when we started giving her baths.  She loves to lay in the water and kick her legs, and she does not care at all when Caleb dumps water on her. He like to "help" bathe her, and actually does really well with only dumping water on her tummy.  He also likes to point to her eye/ear etc.  We always say "wash her belly" and he will "wash her feet" and he will.  It is so cute.  Of course he always has to throw about 12 million kisses in there as well. I love the fact that he loves her so much. 

I also love to take a bath with Mckinlee some nights as well.  I forgot how amazing it was to just lay and snuggle your baby when they are that little.  I will hold her in the water, and she will just stare at me.  Oh it melts my heart.  I sometimes give her night nursing session in the bath, and she is always so relaxed and will eat so well. 

Bath times are so special, and there is just something about a clean, pj'd baby that makes your heart go pitter patter.  I always sit and take in their sweet baby sent, and try to push it back into my furthest memory to always remember. 

For The Best

I have been meaning to post about this for sometime now, but I have not had the chance.  A few weeks ago we had to find our dog Sydney a new home.  The decision to do so came with a lot of heartache, and discussion, but we knew it was best for her. 

I do not know if you all recall, but in November Sydney escaped from our backyard and was hit by a car.  We basically wiped out our savings with vet bills in order to heal her broken legs, and she was forced to live indoors during the time.  Let me just begin by saying Sydney has always been a very very high energy dog, and indoor living and her do not mesh well together.  Shedding and the fact that Caleb is allergic to dog dander indoors is also not a good combination.  Anyway, we were so excited to let her be free in our backyard again once her leg healed. 

Unfortunately, Sydney was not satisfied with our very spacious backyard once she was better and she just kept finding a way out of the fence.  Hubby would repair one part, and then she would dig another hole, and another etc etc.  Basically, there were a few nights when she got out where we could not find her, and we were certain that she was gone for good.  Thankfully she would always return home, but we could not shake the fear that something was going to happen to her. 

Once Mckinlee arrived I did not want Sydney in our house. We have all hard woods, so the dog hair would overtake everything, and Sydney was just way to hyper for me to deal with at the time.  Basically it came down to the fact that she could not stay inside due to the new baby, and she could not stay in the backyard because she would escape and possibly get herself killed.  Therefore, she literally spent almost 90% of her day in our laundry room.  It was so sad because that was no kind of life for her.  It was then that we decided that we needed to find her a new home with lots of land to run on, and a place where she could be as hyper as she wanted without any problems.

We listed her on craigslist, and we had a lot of people call, but none that we felt comfortable with. Finally, a US Marshall called, and he wanted Sydney.  He had tons of land, other bird dogs, and he also wanted to train her to be his narcotics dog.  So after a discussion, and a few tears we took Sydney to her new home.  It wasn't without pain, but we knew that she was in a better place where she could thrive, and be the dog she was meant to be. 

My heartstrings were pulled the day after we gave her up.  It was a beautiful day and I took Caleb in the backyard to play.  His favorite game was always throwing the ball to Sydney.  He found her tennis ball that day and started looking around saying "Sis. Sis", and then he held up his arms like "where is she".  My heart was very sad at that moment. I honestly did not think he would notice she was gone.  :(

The man who adopted her gives us updates every now and then.  She has passed 7 of the 10 tests so far to become a narcotics dog, and everyone was so impressed with how smart she is.  She is also doing wonderful with his kids and family, and is very happy.

I have to admit I wonder sometimes how she is, or what she is doing, but I really feel as though we made the best decision for her and our family.  We will just stick with our little spoiled yorkie and two children for the time being...trust me that is enough.  We will still always love and think of our wild and crazy Syd though (or Sis as she was called 90% of the time). 

Picture Overload

We took so many pictures yesterday that I love.  This post is going to be filled with photos so I apologize in advance.

An Extraordinary Day....that didn't go as planned

Today was a GORGEOUS day.  A day that made you want to get out of bed, run outside, and take in the happiness of Spring.  It was a day that brought smiles even when things did not go as planned, and that made you long for the warm perfect days of Summer.

This morning we woke up in time to attend the second service of church.  We had not mastered this since Mckinlee arrived, and I was so excited that we made it out the door in time.  Once we arrived at church we dropped Caleb off in the nursery and headed to service.  Once the sermon began his number popped up on the screen, and when I arrived in the nursery he was really upset, so I just brought him in the service with us.  He was being very good, but then little miss started fussing because she was fighting her sleep. I stepped out, and apparently when I did Caleb broke down again.  Needless to say, we packed up our stuff, and decided to just go home.  At least we tried.  However, I did not let this get us down because it was BEAUTIFUL outside.

We decided to go home for lunch, and let the babies nap, and then we had a fun day planned.  After naps we planned to go see the Easter bunny, and then head to our favorite park for pictures and playtime.  We left our house once Caleb woke up from nap, and we headed to the mall.  We took both babies inside, only to discover that the bunny was on break for another 40 minutes.  We decided to just try again another day.  Well that was the second thing in our day that did not go as planned, but it was fine.

We headed to our favorite park which is about a 20 minute drive from our house, got the babies out of the car, and then I started to take pictures.  It was then that I discovered that I left my sim card at the house!!! I was so upset.  We decided to go back and get it, but just to go to another park.  Third thing that did not go as planned.

We got to the house, I ran in and grabbed the card, and we headed to the park close to my home.  Once we arrived there we noticed that the medieval fighters were back, and there was not a single parking spot.  UGHHH. Fourth thing that did not go as planned. At this point Caleb was screaming because he wanted out of the car, and Mckinlee was screaming because she was hungry. I climbed in the back and fed her a bottle of breast milk, and we decided to just travel once again to the original park.

So all in all things today did not go quite as planned, but it was a beautiful day regardless, and I had so much fun with my little family.  We even got some great pictures after all.  I hope your day was just as beautiful.