Toy Story 3

Wesley left Sunday (Father’s Day) to attend Paw Paw’s funeral in Mississippi. We had planned on seeing Toy Story 3 Sunday evening, but understandably had to move that to when he returned. So Tuesday, we dropped off Philip with a wonderful family from church, the Coalsons, and headed to the movies.

Since the day Wesley found out we were pregnant, he has been looking forward to taking his child to his first real movie. Wesley loves going to the movies. Notice that I didn’t write: Wesley loves the movies. I wrote: Wesley loves going to the movies.

He loves the popcorn, Cokes, previews, everything about going to the theater and he couldn’t wait to share this experience with his child. To be completely honest, I was shocked that he wanted me to go along with him and Jackson! But I was so excited as well to share in this fun time.

We got to the theater VERY early. Wesley reminded me that was a good thing so we had time to get our popcorn, look at all the preview posters and get the best seat. Once settled in, we all enjoyed the show. Wesley and I got a little emotional – if you are a parent and have seen the movie, you understand.

Jackson was in heaven because his favorite obsession – a trash truck – made several appearances throughout the movie. I don’t think it counts as being disruptive when a three year shouts, “Mommy, it’s a green trash tuck with two persons on the back” during a movie, is it? Too cute for me!

It was a special night and a great way not only to celebrate Father’s Day..oh, and also, our 8^TH Anniversary! Not very romantic, but oh well! That’s the way it is - Happy Anniversary, Wesley!

Enjoying his popcorn with Dada

Toys will be Toys and Boys will be Boys....look at the pictures below to see the first "trick" Wesley taught Jackson when he got to the theater...

Lean into your popcorn and get some out with your tongue...

Ready for the show to begin!

Sitting behind us were a couple of teenagers who had a nice chuckle when I brought out a camera . I wanted to turn to them and say, just wait until you have a baby one day!

Thankfully for Jackson's sake, I didn't learn that Popcorn is such a choking threat until after our visit to the movies. Don't think he will be getting much more of this treat anytime soon!

Always prepared! Just in case the movie got scary, I brought along his blankie. Good thing because a few of the previews got to him! Never fear - his blankie was near! (Sorry for the bad picture, but it was a dark theater!)

In loving memory...

Well, my productive day, took a drastic turn shortly after I posted my last blog. Though Wesley’s trip was an impromptu decision, it couldn’t have come at a better time. He arrived in Knoxville Wednesday night to find everything normal at his parents’ home. Within hours, that changed when his mom received a call from NHC that his grandfather, Paw Paw, had had a rough day.

Lynne and Shannon quickly ran to his bedside where Wesley, Jack and Joel joined them at different times throughout the night. Thursday afternoon, in a peaceful moment, surrounded by family, Paw Paw went home to meet his Lord. Almost three years to the day after Mommie died, Paw Paw joined her in what I am sure was a joyous reunion.

It was a sudden and quick death, but what a blessing that he was surrounded by family. Wesley ended up staying in Knoxville until Friday afternoon. He wanted to be there to help his mom for a while but also wanted to give her time to grieve.

Lynne has been the caregiver for her parents for five plus years and has done that role with grace and style. She took on all the stress of life in assisted living and made sure they were happy, comfortable, and had the best care possible. She truly is an example for all of how to respectfully honor your aging parents.

I am so glad that Paw Paw was able to meet his youngest great-grandchild when Philip (and Jackson) visited him in May.

When Wesley left Knoxville, Macey and Cole traveled with him. Happily, we rearranged our weekend plans and had a blast with Cole and Mace. The highlight of the weekend was visiting the Coke museum downtown. We all enjoyed the break from the heat and the endless supply of Cokes we downed at the end of the tour.

Though the visit came under sad circumstances, we loved having them here and look forward to doing it again soon!

Heading to the museum...and please, no comments about how my beautiful little niece is now taller than me!!

Oh, boy! The Coke museum!

Attempting to get the 3-D glasses on Jackson for the World Cup movie.

I just wonder what is he thinking?

All of us with the World Cup mascot

And with the Polar Bear

Wesley, Mace, and Cole enjoying the endless supply. Though we tried it all, we all agreed that the best is the Classic (plain or with Vanilla or Cherry!)

Give me some of that Coke!

Jackson LOVED trying the Coke. We only gave him a little and that was plenty! Philip wanted to join us too...maybe next year, we will actually put something in his cup!

Productive Day

Last night, Wesley packed up the boys (even Flash) and headed to Knoxville to spend some time with his parents, sister, niece and nephew. Here's what I was able to do today without the boys around:

1. Sleep In

2. Enjoy a hot Starbucks

3. Run in and out of: Home Depot, Michael's, Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wolf Camera, Steinmart, the bank, Hallmark, UPS store, the bank (again), Publix

4. Work out at the Y

5. Watch The Proposal (again!)

6. Clean the House

7. Catch up on Laundry

8. Work on the new kitchen decorations

WOW! I didn't even realize how much I did until right now! I was so productive so why don't I feel good?

Oh, because I didn't get:

1. A day filled with Jackson's laughter

2. Toothless whole-mouth grins from Philip

3. A kiss good morning from my best friend

4. Annoyed by a barking dog whom I love even though I say otherwise

Thank you, Wesley, for giving me a day by myself so that I could finally get some things accomplished and start to feel as though I have my head above water. I really feel more organized and on top of things, BUT I really really missed my boys!

Though it is busy, crazy, and non stop around here, it's the way I like it! So glad that I have you, Philip, Jackson and Flash in my life!

But, I did enjoy that hot Starbucks this morning!

Swimming Pool

Wesley took some time off yesterday and we all headed to the YMCA pool. I tell you it is stressful packing up two little ones for the pool! We had to make sure we had towels, diapers, swim suits, food, bottles…it took a good hour just to get everything ready to go!

Once we arrived and got sunscreened up, Wesley and Jackson went to play. After 20 minutes, they called "Adult Swim" and closed the pool to the little ones for 10 minutes. During that time, Jackson and Wesley played in the fountain area and Philip and I joined them.

I wanted to see how Philip would do in the water so Wesley and Jackson tried to slowly introduce him to the fountains. Well, at least Wesley wanted to do it slowly...

Nice and Easy...

No, Dad, do it like this!

Whoa! There goes Baby Philip!

How does your garden grow?

I have attempted to produce a small garden for four years now. The first year, we hit the jackpot and had a bounty of delicious tomatoes. Guess it was beginners luck because the following two years produced nothing but dead plants and disease.

This year, I took a different approach to gardening and instead of planting in containers, I went in the ground. We cleared out a small flowerbed due to dying shrubs and decided that instead of purchasing new bushes, we would plant my garden here.

In April, all four of us traveled to Home Depot to pick up plants. I knew I wanted to try tomatoes and some herbs. Wesley wanted to try peppers, and we let Jackson pick out a squash plant.

We came home late, but went ahead and put all the plants in the ground. I think we were all out there until 9:30! Towards the end, Jackson and I were shinning the flashlight for Wesley as he finished up the fence (we had to put up a fence because of the local rabbit!)

So far, we have had great success with most of the plants. The only things that haven't worked were three seeds I tried my luck with - Dill, Tarragon, and Chives. The Cilantro seeds took root, but the others didn't produce anything. All the starter plants we put in the ground, have done great.

Thursday night we enjoyed the first of our harvest - a little banana pepper on our salad.

We are hoping to enjoy some squash here soon and then tomatoes come July!

Here was the garden mid-May:

And here it is today!

Jackson by his squash

Truthfully, I know very little about gardening. We are excited that his squash plant has gotten so big, but have no idea if that's a good thing or not! Looks pretty though, and Jackson is proud!

Pepper Plant

Squash Plant - We were not expecting the beautiful yellow flowers to bloom but that seems to be a good thing because we do have some vegetables on the plant.

Tomato plant

Rosemary

Basil - This plant has thrived in our garden! Only bad thing, is I don't know what to do with it all! If anyone has a nice recipe that uses basil, please let me know!!!

Cilantro

Ice Cream in the Mailbox?

Tuesday Wesley and Jackson were on the front porch at my parents’ house when my mom, dad, Philip and I, who were sitting inside, heard an ice cream truck drive by. My dad looked outside and saw the truck slowly driving up the street.

Knowing Jackson had seen the truck, I began to wonder what the conversation had been between Jackson and his dad about the truck. It was then that Jackson ran in. He was talking a mile a minute. I asked him to slow down and he said. “ That ice cream man left me some ice cream in the mailbox.”

What? That made no sense.

I looked up to Wesley and his response was. “ Oh, yeah, he was asking tons of questions out there about the ice cream truck. I couldn’t understand what he was saying so I just said “yes” to everything. Whoops!”

Mimi overheard this little exchange and quickly sent someone outside to put an ice cream treat in the mailbox. Wesley and I had already left with Emily and Ryan when Jackson found the treat in the mailbox. Mom said he was so amazed!

He was even more amazed when he dropped the treat on the ground and Pop Pop found an identical one in the freezer!

Is there anything sweeter than the sound of laughter?

I have been meaning to post this video for awhile now. I love that technology allows me to use my phone as a video recorder and I was able to capture Philip's first belly laugh.

Here he is with Lynne during our May visit to Knoxville. As you will hear, he really got excited whenever Lynne would say "Uncle Ryan." Who knew Ryan was so funny!

Nashville Visit

We arrived home last night from a 10 day visit to Nashville, and we had a great time! The fun started last Monday when we hitched a ride to Tennessee with Emily and Ryan. They came down for the Memorial Day weekend and since Wesley was going to be busy with Mission: Atlanta all week, we headed north with them.

The week was filled with so much! Here’s all that we did:

Monday: Celebrated Memorial Day at Mom and Dad’s with the entire gang.

Tuesday: Went to Lipscomb to visit Emily at work and then went to get new shoes for Jackson.

Wednesday: Erin and Elizabeth Jones came over to play. Jackson was a little rowdy with sweet Elizabeth but she held her own.

Elizabeth, Jackson, and Philip. Jackson really wanted Elizabeth to smile for this picture. I wonder why she didn't? Maybe because Jackson was about to strangle her!

Jackson and Elizabeth playing

Sweet Philip!

Wednesday night: Ashley, Erin K, and I went to dinner at Yoho’s and then went to see Sex and the City 2 – perfect Girl’s Night!

Thursday: Philip had his 4 month pictures taken. He did a great job – here’s a sampling from Facebook of one of his pictures.

Seriously..could you get much cuter than this?

After the photo shoot, we went over to Laura, Ford and Cody’s house for some fun. The older boys played so well together. The little ones are too small to enjoy each other now, but soon, they will be big buds as well! It was so nice to be with Laura and see her precious boys.

I have to laugh at this picture! It appears we have a Bender/Rozell posse on our hands. Hate to break it to you boys, but you aren't so scary in your diapers and Elmo shirt...oh, and the car seat puts a damper on your look as well!

Cody has the right idea - the way to scare them is with the fake bugs!

Thursday night: Jackson and I went to the annual Civitan Picnic with my dad. Susan and her crew were there as well.

Jackson loves his cousins! Here he is trying to get Joshua to go play baseball with him.

It was a hot, humid night!

Friday: We chilled out Friday morning and then went over to Aunt Alice’s to visit with her and Great Pop-Pop

Aunt Alice has a electric chair to help get Great Pop-Pop up and down the stairs. Jackson thought it was great. He loved riding it, but loved pushing the buttons for Baby Philip and Aunt Alice to ride even more.

Saturday: The Original plans for the week were for Mom and Dad to travel back to Atlanta Saturday morning with the boys and me. Because of this that and the other, we had to change plans in the middle of the week. The new plan was for us to stay in Nashville and Wesley would come up Monday to pick us up.

Since we were now in town, we were able to watch Joshua and Caleb in their All Star baseball game Saturday morning.

Jackson loved watching Joshua and Caleb but wished he was out there with them!

Joshua and Caleb had a huge cheering section - Aunt Alice and Great Pop Pop came, Drubby, Pop Pop, Jackson (Mimi, Philip, and Susan were in the shade when I snapped this picture)

Little Drubby settled down next to Big Drubby

PRICELESS!

Saturday evening: My mom and I went to a wedding of a dear friend, Jenny. When I first received the wedding invitation, I was sad because I wasn't going to be in town. When the plans changed midweek, I was so excited that I would be able to celebrate this exciting time with Jenny and friends from Nashville. The wedding was beautiful and Jenny made a gorgeous bride.

Sunday: We went to church with Mimi and PopPop.

Monday: Jackson and I went over to my cousin, Lynn’s, pool. Susan, Joshua, Caleb, and Rebekah joined us and it was a blast. Wesley arrived while we were there and it made Jackson’s day. He didn’t leave his Dada’s side the entire time in the pool.

Tuesday: Tuesday morning, the four of us went over to West End Church of Christ to visit with Louise. It was so good to be with her and catch up.

Jackson helped me make muffins for the staff at West End

Tuesday evening: Wesley and I went out with Emily and Ryan. They treated us to dinner at their favorite restaurant, Bonefish Grill – yummy!!

Wednesday: We packed up and headed home. It was hard to leave after such a wonderful week! Mom and Dad spoiled us all rotten and we thank you for a great visit!

Here are some more random pictures from the week:

Early walker?

So proud that he could sit up - for the 2 seconds it took to take the picture!

We had several great visits with Drubby and Net.

Philip loved being held by his Net. She has the magic touch that worked for Jackson, Joshua, Caleb and Rebekah too!

Too cool for words

Uncle Melvin came by for a visit on Tuesday afternoon and snapped this family picture.