Playtime

Playtime was fun tonight. It consisted of Luke climbing on top of Sam and bouncing on him. We were all laughing like crazy.

Saturday at the mall

We took the whole family to the mall Saturday for a little jumping. Although Luke weighs 25lbs (which is the minimum weight requirement), the scrawny teenager in charge wouldn't let him jump. Argh! So Sam jumped, Luke watched, and Laney waited patiently for her bottle.

Saturday was also the day Luke started using ketchup. I tried giving him a taste of it once before and he wanted nothing to do with it. But now he loves it. He even dips his blueberries in it.

What a helper!

camping out

Ron and Sam set out Sunday night to camp in the backyard. Ron got the tent set up with lots of blankets and they headed out around 9. To comemorate the occasion, Ron gave Sam a compass. He was thrilled to have a "real" compass instead of just the toy compass he already had.

All was well until 2am when Sam quickly came down with the Croup. You may remember Luke got it just a couple of months ago. Sam has been doing okay other than barking like a seal. I've decided to take him to the doctor today because it's not getting better yet. Hopefully a shot of steroids will fix him up...

Spaghetti anyone?

Here we have Luke, finishing up his 3rd helping of spaghetti. Seriously.

Laney - 2months

Our little Laney Grace is 2 months old. She wasn't in the mood for pictures, so I didn't get many good ones. But here she is looking at me then posing with Sam...

Sam and Luke had fun playing outside today.

Even Buddy the dog got in on the action.

Laney

Laney had a good day; she enjoyed being held by Baba Dee and Grandee...

dinner at Rosie's

After several attempts at a good picture in which heads were cut off and balloons were in faces, we finally got a good one.

Ron's Racin'

Keep Ron in your prayers today. He's finally at the big race, the Leadville 100 in Colorado. He flew out of Huntsville 5:30am Tuesday morning and comes back Sunday at midnight. Being a single parent is tough! I say that, but really the week has gone very well. I've had either a babysitter, mom, or mom-in-law here to help me with bath and bed times every night, so I haven't had to do it alone. Thanks guys!

He called me early this morning before they started and the wind chill was 33 degrees. Brrr... His goal is to finish the race under 12 hours; so maybe by 7pm central time he'll be done racing. I'll keep you posted...

UPDATE: Ron finished in 11 hours and 5 minutes. He got a medal and a fancy belt buckle. Hooray!

love that smile!

keepin' it real

here's my kitchen, the heart of the home as they say... it was nearly spotless when i woke up this morning. with a kitchen that looks like this why am i sitting at the computer? time to clean...

1st day of pre-school

Sam had his first day of pre-school yesterday at Whitesburg. His teacher is Mrs. Blevins and he really likes her. When I picked him up he was excited to tell me what he had learned. He didn't want me to take any pictures so I had to sneak a few...

Christmas Stockings

Becky reminded me that I have some stockings to make. Thanks, dear, for adding another item to my to-do list. I owe you one... :)

So I made Sam a stocking and have a picture from Christmas '07 to prove it. It's one of those felt stockings you can get at most craft stores. You know, the kind where you have to cut every piece of fabric and painstakingly apply a bunch of shiny sequins?

I bought one for Luke, but by the time Christmas came around all I had accomplished was some cut fabric. So Christmas '08 includes a picture of him in Ron's lap holding the bag. That makes me laugh...

The way things are shaping up, Laney will be lucky if her picture is of her holding the receipt in which I have at least purchased the stocking kit! I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens. Merry Christmas all!

brothers

isn't that sweet?

and then not so sweet...

playtime is fun for a few seconds. if we're lucky it's fun a little longer than that. and then, inevitably, poor luke gets bullied by sam (in this picture sam pushed him over after getting out of the hamper) resulting in sam being disciplined. one of these days luke is gonna' give it back to sam...

While I was loading the dishwasher Luke made his way to the dining room to play. I found him like this...

No wonder he has so many bumps and bruises.

Pet Peeve of the Day

Today's pet peeve (in case you were wondering):

When people say "I could care less about..."

People, it's supposed to be that you COULDN'T care less about whatever. Saying you could care less implies that you still care...

Getting that off my chest felt good. Thank you. I'll get back to cleaning, which I couldn't care less about right now. :)

the boys

the "raiford boys" came over for a couple of hours today to play with sam and luke. after some good playtime and grilled cheese sandwiches the boys are in bed and i'm trying to get my house under control. notice sam is giggling while luke is diving in to the food ignoring everything else around him. also notice that all 5 boys are wearing striped shirts...we did NOT plan this, i promise! ☺

playtime

we went outside and played for about 30 minutes yesterday and came in after luke turned bright red... while sam and i enjoyed sitting on the driveway chalk-drawing, luke was running all over the place.

Rick and Bubba show

Friday, July 31st Ron and I started our 10th anniversary out right at the Rick and Bubba show. We arrived at the studio at 6:45 and were surprised to see my brother there. Thanks to his family we had a bright yellow poster waiting in the studio wishing us a happy anniversary. Stannon has been a longtime friend of the show, so Rick, Bubba and Speedy picked on me for being his sister. Then they got serious and all said he was a nice guy...

Rick has been known to do a drum solo during the breaks. He is recovering from surgery on his arm and was warned not to get too crazy on the drums. This was his first time back on the drums since his surgery and it was driving Speedy crazy. Speedy kept yelling at him from across the room "your doctor said not to play drums...". By the way, Rick is very talented.

...a shot of Rick, Speedy, Greg, and Bubba right after one of their bits on air...

Here we are outside the studio

We had so much fun at the show that we already want to go again. One of the best parts was when the guys went to commercial breaks. They kept talking about the things they had just said on the air but with more detail. We got some juicy details that we wouldn't have heard just listening on the radio. It was a fun 3 hours!

10 years together...

Ron and I went to the Highlands for a special date Friday night. We had never been there, so we thought our 10th anniversary was the perfect time to go. The food was absolutely incredible! Everything we ordered came out perfect! They even served honey ice cream at the end of the evening...

Father's Day...a little late

I just realized I never posted Ron's Father's Day collage. I had so much fun taking these pictures with the boys. Seems like so long ago that I was pregnant and wondering whether it was a boy or girl...

our babies...

You may remember a few months ago I posted a picture of myself and 3 pregnant friends. Well, the four of us had our babies and decided to get together for a few pictures. (Check HERE to see the extra pictures on Ashley's blog.)

Eva (11weeks), John Calvin (7 weeks), Kate (6 weeks, 2 days) and Laney (6 weeks)