Too nice to come inside!

My mom and I were talking about how great the weather has been and we agreed we have definitely had a Spring this year! Sometimes it just gets hot too fast but all of April was so nice. So we have been staying outside most of the day.

Mawmaw and Pawpaw brought the Kali and Kayla to play Sunday night and we grilled and had a picnic.

A hand full!

Riding with Daddy on the mower

Walking to feed the horses graham crackers, this is Fancy and Chance. Sweet horses, very kid friendly!

We really are not city folk but the boys have never seen train tracks (only from the car window) so we walked down some in Perkinston, MS yesterday. They thought it was so cool and even found a rock to keep.

We went to my Aunt's (Dad's Sister) funeral yesterday. Helen Brown, she was institutionalized her entire life with brain damage from Reye's Syndrome and high fevers as a baby. As one of her caretakers said yesterday, "she is now walking straight and completely healed at home with her parents in heaven". It was a nice service and a beautiful day!

Young at Heart

That is the name of my Granny's group from her church that take day trips and long trips together. Yesterday they went to Landrum's Country and we surprised them and met them there! I personally had a great time, I've never been there before, it was so cool! The boys on the other hand weren't as excited as I had hoped. Harrison fell and had a bad scrape when we arrived and Hudson was so scared of the animals, namely a beautiful peacock "peatock", it kept yelling out (I don't know what you call that....crowing??). It was great to see Granny and Aunt Doris though.

You can see the happiness and excitement in this pic...

Tuesday we had an impromptu dinner date with the Crager family at Eatza Pizza and then we went to Mason Park to let the kids get the wiggles out. It was a great night and like we said, we couldn't have planned it, impromptu is a great thing with kiddos! It was a great night.

Sadly, this was the only pic with every kid in it. They LOVED the gumball machine.

Harryhuddy

The boys went with Mawmaw, Pawpaw and Aunt Martha on Friday night to the Covington County Relay for Life event. They go with them to this every year, but this year was special...Mrs.Linda and Aunt Martha made the victory lap with the SURVIVORS; whom both fought and won against breast cancer in 2009. They both had a double mastectomy and Aunt Martha had Chemo. It was a hard year for both of them. We are thankful to have them both with us and for the special moments. 2010 is going to be a better year and we pray for them to remain cancer-free!!

Aunt Julia and the girls went Friday night as well and they told me that after the National Anthem was sung or the prayer was said and it was quiet....Harrison turned around and said, "I tooted!".....aaaaah boys.

Here a few pics from today:

Liam and Nanny came to play! Liam calls the boys "my twins" and refers to them as Harryhuddy, in singular form, its cute :)

We are trying to teach them how to pump their legs when they swing...

Somebody got in Time-Out today for pouring out the Motrin bottle on the Wool rug and making a mess at lunch....big mess!

My handsome guys before church :)

Hey Nah Nah!

This is what we hear when Harrison wakes up and comes in the room. Nah nah is what Hudson calls Harrison. He CAN say Harrison but he has always called him this and now it is trickling out of our house and others are catching on. We used to joke about how kids can start nicknames that stick for a lifetime...like the mechanic my Dad knows "Peanut".... The speech therapist calls Harrison "nah nah" and the grandparents do too and I even catch myself during the day calling him that. Oh well, I really don't think it will stick, it's a term of endearment for now.

"Hello?" The boys talking on their cantaloupe phones

Charlie sunning on the deck.

Pappy (Joel's Dad) so sweetly came up one day this week and made us a a bed for our new Crepe Myrtles, bought us a Dogwood and planted it, cut out a dead top of Maple tree and helped me pick out shrubs and trees to finish out the side of our house. It was nice to spend some quality time with him and soak up his landscaping knowledge. The boys helped him dig and work in the yard.

For you other bloggers, I have received my blog book from blog-2-print, I am planning on booking my blog yearly to pass on to the boys and their children to pass on their "story". I was really happy with it!

We lost a special person this week, my first cousin "Jaybird" Shaw. He was in a car wreck and left behind his parents (Aunt Pat and Uncle LJ, my Mom's brother), his two children and his brother and his family. He was like no other. He was one that if you saw him coming you started smiling because you knew you were in for a laugh and a good neck hug. Fly away sweet Jaybird we will miss you here, but we WILL see you again someday.

Easter 2010

We had a Glorious Easter weekend this year! The boys really understood it more this year, they loved hunting eggs and waiting for the Easter Bunny. We went to one of my oldest friends house Friday and let all the kids play and dye eggs...I agree with her post here that it is so special for old friends to get together with our kids and watch them play when it seems not so long ago we were having slumber parties joking around about the days our kids would play together! Saturday we went to my parent's house for a family crawfish boil, great day, great food, great company! The cousins had so much fun together, dying eggs, hunting eggs, playing drums on the pots and eating! Sunday we opened Easter baskets, I think out of all the cool things the boy's favorites were ZsuZsu pets and a Mickey Mouse PEZ dispenser! Mawmaw and Pawpaw met us at church for a great service. We have been visiting Salem Heights Baptist church for awhile now and that is where I take H and H for Mother's Day Out so it is great that they are familiar with everyone and run into the 2-year old class when we get there and never look back! After church we had lunch and an Easter egg hunt with the Nelson family and home to nap. I was EXHAUSTED! That night we went to the Easter program at Salem Heights and it was truly GLORIOUS! We were so impressed and moved by the talented and extravagant performance, after years of hearing the story we learned details of the Crucifixion and Resurrection that we did not know before. My babies were so sweet and well-behaved this weekend they made it so fun!

While egg hunting Harrison decided that A.) he did not want real eggs in his basket, they were heavy and had no treat inside, so if he found one he would either put it back or give it to Hudson. B.) all he really needed was the treat, plastic egg halves weren't important so he would take the candy or prize out and put the shell back or put it in Hudson's basket. Hudson thought it was great...more eggs for him!

Lucy, Hudson, Liam, Harrison, and Grayson

Lucy, Nanny and Hudson dying eggs

The crawfish were so good, Dean used a spice mix recipe from Southern Living it was fresh and yummy!

Mawmaw and Pawpaw came to church with us!

Shubles and Rakes

I think it is safe to say that Spring is officially here! I went ahead and bought flowers and ferns to spruce up the front and I just LOVE the look of freshly planted flowers on our porch this time of year before they grow and get scraggly or can't survive my style of plant care ;) I had helpers this time to put the dirt in the pots and pick up the trash. They got mini shovels "shuble" and rakes, real metal ones and we have already had one upside the head, Hudson recovered quickly and a lecture was given about shuble safety. I am on HIGH alert for snakes this year, I just know one is lurking around the corner inside and out. I have been telling the boys how we don't like snakes, they will bite and NOT to go near the "lakepond" because they are living down there. I don't want to instill fear just a healthy amount of respect because I'm not positive they wouldn't want to pet one!

I am taking my last Masters class in a classroom (the very last one coincides with teaching) and I think I make a much better student as a Mom! I am loving it and this is the class I have put off for 5 years because I thought it was so hard! It is called Secondary Methods. Maybe its the adult time and conversation but it is working out a lot better than I expected. I am still beating down doors for a job but this is just an awful time to get a job in education in MS! We shall see!

I haven't posted in awhile because I feel overwhelmed about how many pictures I have taken and trying to choose what to talk about! Since I am doing this blog for my kids it makes me think what would I want them to remember in 30 years? So here are my favorites from the past two weeks

We went to Atlanta for a long weekend to visit Joel's Dad and Stepmom, one day we went to an international farmer's market....there was EVERY type of food here vegetable, fruits, spices, meats....cow tongue, pig head, ox blood, and other animal unimaginables available...we left with baby bananas, sugar cane and apples :) Here they are feeling a prickly pear of some sort.

Joel and Hudson playing

This is a swing that they have in their backyard that Pappy built, the arbor frame has a muscadine vine on it and the swing has a loooong chain and springs, he says that's the secret to a good swing (verb), I want one and have been talking about it for a long time...looks like I am going to just keep on talking.

It kind of hard to see the swing here but the chains are so long, its great!

Harrison getting his haircut, he LOVES to look in the mirror and smile and cheese for himself the whole time its hysterical...he gets it honest!

Here is the now butchered, and laughable entrance to our neighborhood.... Only now imagine two old birdhouses on poles stuck in the top of each column....more to come on this monstrosity soon!!

We went to one of Daddy's Laurel High School baseball games, they loved it!

Hudson will pose for anything, I thought he was smiling.

This toy caused a few wrestling matches in Atlanta, Harrison staked his claim.

Joel is chasing Huddy with a crab at the market, if fresh blue crab is not you maybe you would prefer dried sardines or dried baby shrimp...no?