From oldest to youngest...

Lolly

The Tooth Fairy is going to be broke...

In the last month, the tooth fairy has been shelling out money to our oldest child.

Tate lost his first tooth recently and it was so not the traumatic experience I was expecting. I'm not sure what my expectations were. I truly don't have much to go on here because when I was a little girl I had lots and lots and lots of dental issues that resulted in my teeth being pulled at various times so I NEVER had to pull a tooth on my own or have my parents pull a tooth. In fact, I only remember having one SLIGHTLY loose tooth which had to be pulled before it came out on its own.

In my limited experience, and in my vivid imagination, having and pulling a loose tooth had to be a most painful thing requiring doorknobs, and string, and slamming doors, and twisting and pulling, and torture devices, and all that stuff.

I also thought there would be blood involved, possibly lots of blood. Much to my surprise this tooth pulling business is no big deal. Tate lost his first tooth about a month or so ago. He twisted it right out, came and told us, and we took pictures and that was that. No blood, no gnashing of teeth, no crying, nothing. In fact, it may have just been one of the more exciting days of his life. That night he put that sweet little tooth under his pillow and the tooth fairly promptly left him five bucks. The next morning, he was even more excited and started wiggling that next loose tooth so he could make some more money.

Well, just this week, that second little tooth came right out. Again, we did not assist him with the extraction at all. He twisted that little booger right out, minimal bleeding and again with extreme excitement he came running to tell us he had pulled his tooth. Wow. I had no idea it would be this easy. What isn't so easy is that Tate expects five bucks from the tooth fairy for EVERY tooth.

I don't know about you but I'm thinking there are 3 kids, soon to be 4 in my household alone, and each have 20 teeth at five bucks a tooth....that will likely lead to a very broke tooth fairy.

My question is .... what is the going rate for baby teeth these days? The tooth fairy has been so excited about the ease of teeth pulling and maybe a bit of a softy and has shelled out five bucks for the first two teeth but I have it on good authority that she is re-thinking the situation and is considering the fact that if five dollars were given for each tooth for each child, that would total $400. That's a lot of moo-lah for teeth.

Speaking of teeth, what should the tooth fairy DO with those baby teeth? I'm sure she would love any suggestions and I will be sure to pass them along.

Lolly

Tidbits

Tidbits is defined as a choice bit of food, information, or gossip. Don't 'cha just love tidbits? Here are a few "tidbits" that I find interesting or funny or odd about the kids and their current behavior, likes/dislikes, etc. Some of them I just want recorded somewhere so that I remember them later.

1. Tate likes to wear shorts with a belt and a tucked in shirt to school, yet when going to church, he prefers to wear his shirts out loose with no belt. This strikes me as odd because you would think he would want to look neater at church than school and vice versa but, alas, that is not the case.

2. Cora thinks the funniest thing in the world is when she burps and poots. She finds this funnier than the boys ever did. I'm finding out that little girls are a whole different breed.

3. Ben is obsessed with the remote control. He carries it around with him if he has to leave the living room or he hides it under the pillows until he can return. We often can't find the remote because he has carried it off somewhere and left it.

4. Ben sleeps on the couch. He has his own room (which he has slept in before) but he prefers the couch. If we move him from the couch into his room, we find him back on the couch the next morning.

5. Tate is obsessed with baseball and kickball at this time. A few months ago, it was trick bike riding and scooters. He becomes obsessed with a certain activity or activities and has a one track mind.

6. Cora loves, loves, loves the water and would take a bath 3 times a day if I would let her.

7. Cora hates hairbows but loves to have her nails/toes painted.

8. Ben and Cora are night owls and Tate is early to bed/early to rise.

9. All three kids love to sing and sing a lot of Christian/gospel songs but will barely sing at church.

10. All three kids are cuddlers and we often have one or more on our laps or in the same chair as us.

So, there you go...just a few tidbits about the kiddos.

Lolly

Mother's Day 2010

Here we are ready for church on Mother's Day 2010. We ran late for church to get these photos. We had to use our iphone to get these photos because the battery in our camera was dead. Why does that always happen when you are in a hurry and want to get a quick photo?

Why is it so difficult to get 3 children and 1 adult to all look and smile at the same time? Regardless, we have a few pics to commemorate the event.

Craig and the kids had decorative plates made for me with each child's name, date of birth, and birth stats written on it. They are just what I wanted... (I gave Craig some hints as to what he might want to buy, colors he should choose, info he should include, etc.) I haven't decided yet whether I want to hang them or buy those plate holders and put them on our bookshelf. Ben wanted to know if he could have his breakfast on his....ummmm, no, honey, these plates are special, decorative plates that we do not eat on....

I also received a gift certificate to have other decorative family or seasonal plates/platters or whatever made by the same person who did these. I can't wait to figure out what I want. She is a local artist who does some really cool stuff so I am super excited about this.

For our mother's day meal, we grilled out hotdogs and hamburgers and made homemade icecream. Can it get any better than that?

Lolly

Our First Camping Trip in our new camper...

Remember my camping/camper fever posts a while back? Remember we bought a really great used camper? Well, after a few repairs and minor changes (like a new quilt, curtains, etc.), we tried her out. We went on a small camping trip for my birthday to Duckett Mill which is just down the road in Gainesville on Lake Lanier. We rented a campsite next to some friends of ours and we had a great time!

We had to schedule our time around Tate's ballgames so we got there late on a Thursday night (after his ballgame) and stayed until that Saturday (which was my actual birthday). The plan was to come home by lunchtime on Saturday because Tate had another game that afternoon.

Craig took the camper early in the afternoon on Thursday to get everything set up. He said it was fairly simple and went without any glitches (which was good!) When we arrived, we basically just got ourselves settled, ate a late supper, and the kids and I went to bed while Craig and his buddy, JT, talked into the night. Being me, and the way that I am, I had to get stuff arranged the way I wanted it before I could do much of anything else. Plus, the kids and I were tired so we went to bed.

One note on my supper that night....our friends had grilled out so the kids ate the leftover hotdogs that they had. I opted for a turkey and cheese sandwich with my choice of chips as of late...chili cheese fritos. Why is it that when you camp, a simple sandwich and chips taste like the best thing you have ever put in your mouth? It was scrumptious, I tell ya. And, the amazing thing about it, the turkey was not even the fresh, deli turkey. It was the pre-packaged stuff that is somewhat inferior in my humble opinion. But, I digress. It was the best supper I have ever had. Ever.

(Preparing to go fishing....)

The next day, Friday, the kids and Craig played hooky from school, and we continued to camp. Craig, JT, and our boys went to run a few errands...pick up a cookie cake, shrimp, burgers, a scooter, that sort of thing. After lunch, we went fishing. The kids loved it. But, what they loved more was picking up rocks and throwing them into the lake. We continued to do this for a while until Cora, thinking it to be a rock, picked up dog poop, realized it was not what she thought, freaked out, wiped it on her shirt and started to scream. It was rather gross. She stunk. Luckily, I had wet wipes to wipe her down with which helped somewhat. We also had to strip her down so that cut our little excursion short. We opted to go back to the camper to bathe our stinky, little dog poop picking up child.

After a nap, we just hung out with our friends and some more friends joined us as well. Of course, we grilled out again. Enjoyed some birthday cookie cake that was made for me and Jill (her birthday was 2 days before mine so we had a combo birthday trip). After much running, and playing, and scooter riding, and playing ball, and s'mores making, we headed in for much needed baths and bedtime. It was glorious. Truly, a great first trip in our "new" camper. No major glitches, no major things forgotten.

During the night, it began to rain. I kinda liked it because the rain sounds great when in your camper. Then it began to storm a bit which doesn't really bother me that much. Then, the thunder and lightening picked up more so Craig and JT began packing the campers up, unhooking what needed to be unhooked, hooking up to their trucks, that sort of thing. By the time we were ready to go, they were absolutely soaked. But, it really didn't put a damper on our trip. It was still glorious. It was my birthday, after all.

Best of all, we tried out our "new" camper and loved it. We actually want to go back. Success. We had this fear that we would find out that once we owned a camper, it wasn't as much fun. But, turns out we love it. We can't wait to go back. Except we have no time to go back...it will have to wait until after the baby. Then, we can go back. And, waiting is ok. Because that will make us enjoy it that much more.

Lolly

Catchin' up

So, today I said to Craig...I want to do "such and such" and take pictures and put it on my blog and he said, "What blog?" and he is right. I have been doing a miserable job of keeping up with this and I really, really want to because I really do enjoy it. My intentions are to keep it like a family scrapbook/journal and have it printed out one day. With that said, I am going to backtrack a bit to Spring Break and Easter and Mother's day in an effort to "catch up" and hopefully, I can stay on top of this thing. I mean, I know I won't possibly be busier than ever in a few weeks so why not try to do one more thing?

And, in all honesty, I don't want to disappoint the masses. I can't tell you how excited I was when I logged on today to find out I have FOUR FOLLOWERS!!!! How exciting! And, I am truly not being sarcastic here because I was really excited to see that I had followers...how fun is that!!!!

So, to those of you who are my FOLLOWERS, thanks! you made my day....now I know I am not just "talking" to no one.

Lolly