Why we have grandaddys

The kids sure do love going for rides with grandaddy. Gretchen will run over to him and just climb right up in his lap. This is the joy of living in Tifton. There are lots of thing that I don't like about this little town, but I know of a few Great reasons for being here. One is Grandmom and Grandad. This is time that my children are so lucky to have. I never knew my grandparents except for one of my grandmothers and even then we only saw her every few years. My kids get to see their Great Grandparents everyday. I know that they don't appreciate this privilege like they should, but to me it is priceless. I am also grateful that we get to spend time with Davids parents. They are so selfless to let us come in their home and take over their space. Nana helps with Gretchen so much. I can going to the grocery store all by myself. it is great.

rats in the house

Estella has a pet rat named Minnie. She loves that ugly rat so much. I can't believe that I let her get it, but as a mom you learn to compromise. She really wanted a pet donkey, oh and it was going to stay in her room with her. she was going to train it to go outside and everything. I knew that David had a pet rat when he was young so I thought it would be a good bonding thing for him and her so I told David to go take her to get one. She has had Minnie for almost 3 years. That is almost half of her life. Little did I know that rats don't have a very long life span. Back in September Minnie got really sick and I thought for sure she was going to die, so I tried to prepare Estella for it. David and Estella took her to the vet. they didn't think she would make it either. They gave her some antibiotics, and faithful Daddy gave it to the rat and gave the rat breathing treatment several times a day. I just prayed that somehow she would make it thru. Estella was really having a hard time with going to a new school and all the changes that had been taking place. I just worried that she couldn't handle loosing Minnie right then. Amazingly Minnie inproved and did well until about a week ago. I think Estella is more stable now and I have talked alot to her about minnie and letting her go. I think minnie will probably die soon, but I am so hgratful that she has held on a little longer till Estella could get more grounded. We will miss her but we know she will be waiting for us along with dutchess in heaven.

So there is this apartment complex that we always pass when we come to Tifton. When I was about 4 months pregnant with Amelia I suggested the name Amelia to David as we passed by the apartments. He said, uh no. then when we found out she was a girl I put it on the name list anyway. well then we decided that we really wanted to name her Hazel after Davids Grandmother. I never decide what I am going to name my kids till I see what they look like. I know most people think I am crazy, but hey to me they have to look like the name I choose. So with Amelia we know we were going to have her middle name be Hazel, so we had to figure out what name we wanted to go with it and the morning we went to have her David said how about Amelia. Isn't it so typical that a man has to feel like things are their idea. I told him that I suggested that names months ago, but of course he didn't remember. Well, as you all know we did end up naming her Amelia. I know it is sad that there isn't much meaning behind why we named her that besides an old apartment complex we would drive by, but atleast her middle name is very meaningful.

Anyway, since we have moved down here and Amelia can reconize letters she has noticed that the apartments have her name, so they are now HER apartments. Oh, and don't think you can try to explain it to her. She is determined that they are hers, infact Estella and Amelia have gotten into quite a few argurments over this. Amelia just tells Estella that she is just jealous because she doesn't have any apartments. Isn't childhood the greatest.

Gretchens 1st Birthday Aug 28, 2008

So it may be late but better than never right? I have been meaning to post these pictures since August. Gretchen had a great first birthday. We had to improvise since Aunt Annette is all the way in Atlanta, and I have no sams near by to cheat and go buy a cake, so I decided to do a strawberry one. She seemed to like it. I may have taken two cake decorating classes,but that don't mean they taught me patience. I just can't spend all that time decorating for someone to just cut it up and destroy all my hard work. I know I am so in the running for mother of the year Huh?

A Boy!

Did I read that right? It's a boy? I am still a bit unsure myself. Come on I don't make boys. The doctor says it is so I guess in about 4 months we will see if he is right. Estella is so excited. she wants a brother so bad. I keep telling her it isn't all its cracked up to be, no offence to my 4 wonderful brothers, but really all they do is pick on you. It has definitely been different this pregnancy. I was actually sick in the beginning. I have been so tired this time too. I guess I can't blame it all on the fact that its a boy I ain't getting any younger either. Really though we are all excited, except for Amelia- she really wanted another sister. I am sure as soon as the baby gets here she will be just fine. She was so great with Gretchen, and she is my little nurturer. She just loves little babies. Last week I was put in the hospital, because I was feeling like I was going to pass out. I think I was just overly tired, because Gretchen has an ear infection and I was up all night with her. they ran all kinds of crazy test, but couldn't find anything wrong so they sent me home!! thank goodness. It still happens a little here and there but for the most part I feel much better. Gretchen has been on her medicine for almost a week, but this morning she woke up with a 102 fever. It freaks me out when my kids start running high fevers. she is happy but burning up with fever.

The Happiest place on Earth

This past weekend we had the great opportunity to go to Disney World.It was so much fun. Travis and Sarah totally hooked us up. We went to the Magic Kingdom on Friday. The girls had a blast. We didn't meet any character's this time except for Donald( the only reason we met him was because we were in the right place at the right time and the line wasn't long) We decided that we weren't going to spend the entire day standing in line to meet people. The girls wanted to but we wanted to do things that we never had before. It was a great day the park was a bit crowded, but we still managed to do lots of things. We got back to Sarah's and I don't think I even remember my head hitting the pillow. I was so tired. Saturday Travis went with us to Hollywood studios. It was also a fun park,but I think it is geared toward a bit older children. the girls loved the honey I shrunk the kids play area, and they loved the toy story ride. We also saw the Muppets 3D show and we watched a parade. but by about 3:00 the girls really wanted to go back to Magic kingdom. David and I really enjoyed spending the day with Travis. It was nice to visit with him and hear how he was doing and what was going on in his life. We left there and went to Epcot. We met up with Sarah, and Travis was off to work, then we rode a few rides at epcot. Can I just tell you how fun Soarin is. Oh my gosh it was Awesome! we also did the nemo ride and test track. then it was back to the magic kingdom for the parade, Fire works and of course one more time on splash mountain. That is definitely the girls favorite ride. We also loved spending the evening with Sarah. The only problem was the girls fighting over her.

We then drug and I do mean drug ourselves to the car and back to Sarah's. Poor Sarah had to go to work at like 6:30am. We slept in till about 9:30 and packed up and headed for Tifton. It was a great trip THANK YOU SARAH AND TRAVIS! We Had a blast!!!

We didn't take Gretchen with us. She stayee with Auntie Helen. I am sure she had more fun here than she would have with us. maybe in about 3 years we will take her.

Oh how they grow

This week has been quite interesting. First I must take a few minutes to brag about Estella. She is student of the month, and she is SOOO excited about it. She spent several and I do mean several hours working on her poster that they hang outside the class so everyone can read about her. She filled in all kinds of interesting facts about herself, then came all the coloring of the entire paper. She finally finished the last little bit of coloring, when oh to her surprise Nathan ( her 2 year old cousin) decided to help her. While she was gone from the table Nathan made quite a few modification to the paper, mostly black crayon scribbling ones. To say the least she was devastated. So I went into school with her the next day and explained to the teacher what happened, she got a new poster and started all over. Estella Also has learned how to tie her shoes.This may seem like no big deal to you but to her and myself this is huge! Not quite as big as potty training or getting yourself dressed, but still it is big.


I also got the privilege of spending a lot of quality time with Granddaddy this week. We always t go to the gym together on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I guess Grandaddy just can't get enough time with me on those short drives or the weekly grocery store trips, so he decided on Wednesday to trim his fingernails with the table saw and kinda missed and caught the end of his thumb. Off we went to the emergency room to spend 5 and a half hours of "quality" time together. The first few hours were pretty boring we just sat around and made small talk, but then I started asking Granddaddy about different events in his life and wow how the time flew by. I learned so many interesting things about flying, marriage, raising children, etc.
Granddaddy is so great. I am glad that I was given the opportunity to take him. He makes me feel so loved and appreciated. In the end He got 7 stitches and a big bandage that I changed this morning. It is looking pretty good. No signs of infection.

Gretchen is officially a big girl. she is not nursing any more and she has the hang of the sippy cup. She has become best buddies with Granddaddy. She is also loving the fall weather. We have been playing out side all week and she loves it so much.

Amelia has had a few fun day at school. They had Red day Wednesday and she was determined that everything had to be red, even her panties, I told her that I didn't want her to show everyone her panties, she assured me that she wouldn't even though they were red. Today was dinosaur day, she decided she didn't want to do anything for it, but she seems to really like her new school. She has also really been getting into singing lately. This is a big deal to me because she has always been so quiet and don't want the attention on her. She don't sing in front of many people, but at least she is singing. She has learned some really cute songs at her new school, and she loves to carry around the primary song book and play church. Amelia has also been enjoying the weather and playing outside alot.