Lunch Share

Abby's class had "Lunch Share" yesterday with 2 other classes in the Parish Hall. There was over 100 people, and good thing, because there was a TON of food!! Chick-fil-a nugget trays, mini sandwiches, pigs in a blanket, pasta salad, chips, fruit, veggies, cheese & crackers and every single kind of dessert you could imagine. Abby was in heaven!

 

I love that the school does this every year....it's a great way for the parents to all meet, and for both of the 4's classes to hang out together. Case in point - one of Abby's buds, Olivia, is in the other 4's class, so she doesn't get to see her much. Abby made me promise that we'd sit with Olivia at Lunch Share, so I might or might not have boxed out a few kids & parents to snag 4 chairs in a row at a table :)

I'd do anything for my blondie :)

 

Sidenote: Nate's class had Lunch Share too - at the same time, of course. So, Greg went to Nate's class but forgot to take pictures. Daddy-fail!

Christmas Travels, Part 3

Yes, I'm still talking about our Christmas break. Last blog post about it, sorry! :)

 

We traveled to Johnson City, TN to see Greg's family on January 2nd. We were greeted by Mum Mum, Granddaddy, Aunt Gena, and Greg's favorite - Ripley! (Please note that Ripley is a dog and Greg is NOT a dog lover, so I was being sarcastic :)

 

 

 On our way into town, we stopped at our favorite burger place, Pal's! This has become an annual tradition and our whole family looks forward to it! They have the best cheeseburgers, frenchie fries, and strawberry milkshakes....

Nate was looking forward to playing the Wii as soon as we got there, and Aunt Gena was a good sport and played game after game after game with him....

 ....while Miss Priss found a friend & a comfy chair to watch :)

 The Givens had shipped all of their Christmas gifts to our house ahead of time, so we were able to open them up on Christmas Day. The kids were spoiled with lots of games, arts & crafts projects, and books.

However, we brought our presents for Aunt Gena, Mum Mum, and Granddaddy to TN, so there was a very brief gift exchange :)

Then while Granddaddy was cooking up a Shrimp Creole dinner feast, the kids roped Aunt Gena into playing more games....Jenga, Mastermind, Uno, and Battleship to name a few. She is a saint, I tell ya!

Click here to watch a quick video of Abby being hyper.....dancing and doing sign language!?

Greg's BFF

Right before bed, we had a little excitement....Nate's fifth tooth came out! (Must have been that delicious chocolate cake that did the trick :)

 He was sharing a room with Abby & Aunt Gena that night, and I didn't want the "Tooth Fairy" to disturb them all, so we told Nate to leave his tooth out in the living room, on top of his bookbag that says NATE on top. We didn't want the Tooth Fairy to get confused since it wasn't the house she is used to coming to :) Worked like a charm!

 

 

 We had to head to Atlanta, GA the next morning, for a friend's baby shower. So it was a quick trip to TN, but a good one!

 

 

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One of my college roommates, Natalie, lives out in Los Angeles but was in ATL visiting her in-laws over New Year's. She is pregnant with her first child, and we were lucky enough to be able to drop in on her baby shower!!!

 

 

Yes, I know she's gorgeous. I'd hate her if she wasn't so nice :)

 

 

Her cute little family came from Pinehurst, NC

Nat's sweet sister-in-law, Jenn. Crazy story about her....In Murfreesboro, our neighbor
was Jenn's sister!! Small world!

Nat & Scott are waiting to find out the gender, so the shower was all greens and yellows and grays and elephants. So cute!

The Fortes and the Givens

And thus, our Christmas travels came to an end. Not without a little excitement though....as we were nearing T-Town, we heard that there was a tornado watch and sirens were going off. Two of my neighbors were texting me and telling me they were hiding in their closets!! So scary! This was about 15 minutes before we got home, but luckily it passed quickly and one never touched down in Tuscaloosa. (One did in the neighboring city though!)

 

Needless to say, when we finally pulled into our driveway, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It was a fun 9 days, but it's also nice to be at HOME SWEET HOME.

Christmas Travels, Part 2

After leaving my sister's house on the 28th, we headed to my parents' house an hour away in Clemmons, NC. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at a new restaurant called 2520 .....to all my Clemmons West folks - it's the old Dockside place! So good! I made my kids eat some popcorn shrimp, but I had crab cakes & risotto.

On Monday the 29th, Mom & I ventured out to Skate Haven with the kids, which used to a favorite  hangout of mine back in middle school. Yes, you read that right....middle school! I used to go there to skate & hold hands with my boyfriend of the month. And buy jumbo stickers and eat sno-cones. Ahhhh, the good ole days! :)

Abby has been roller-skating once before, at a birthday party, and really enjoyed herself once she got a hang of the rolling walker. Nate, on the other hand, was a newbie but I was hoping he'd get the hang of it pretty easily.

I'll be honest, after the first 10 minutes, I was ready to leave. My ankles were killing me (oldhead alert!) and both kids were whining & saying they weren't having fun & that it was too hard.

 

We pushed through, and then all of a sudden, about 45 minutes into it, the lightbulb clicked for both of them! Abby never let go of the walker, but she was very confident doing it by herself and started to pick up speed. And Nate passed on his walker to Nanny! :) (She didn't need it to skate, but some idiot kids kept stealing our walkers if we left them unattended for a second. So she was the walker-babysitter, ha!)

 

 

Sno-Cone break, followed by the Dice Game & Cha-Cha slide. So fun!

Click here to watch a video of Abby skating with the walker.

 

Click here to watch a brief video of Nate skating on his own. (And Abby whining, ha!)

No visit to the skating rink is complete without a game of air hockey!

We were feeling adventurous again the next day, and tried out a new place: Airbound Trampoline Park. I have jumped at a place like this with the kids in Birmingham before, so I decided to sit this one out and be the paparazzi instead :) Nanny & Greg gladly participated with the kids though!

Click here to view a video of Nate flipping into the foam pit

Click here to view a video of Abby jumping into the foam pit

 Nanny is quite a sport.....though I warned her those foam pits are SUPER hard to get out of, she still wanted to try it out. Well.....let's just say she needed a hand from Greg to pull herself out :)

 

Greg & Nate played a few very intense games of Dodgeball!

 Click here to view a dodge ball video where Greg is protecting Nate as long as he can.

Click here to view a jumping video of Nate, but Abby takes over!

That night, Greg and I went out on an early New Year's Eve date! (He always runs a race on New Year's Eve at midnight with my dad, so I can't even remember the last time we had a date actually ON New Year's Eve. Not that I can stay up till midnight anyways though....)

On the 31st, we split off into two groups during the day. The boys went to a Wake Forest basketball game....

Nate got on the Dance Cam!

 ....and the girls went to see the new Annie movie! I had warned Abby that it would be a lot different than the original one. Still, she was super confused when it started and kept asking me "When is the movie starting!?" She thought it was just another preview, ha!

I swear we ordered a "small" popcorn...

 

Abby loved the movie, even though it was a bit long. And not surprisingly, the singing & dancing were her favorite parts. Click here to watch a video I secretly recorded of Abby singing "Tomorrow." (She sang this and "It's a Hard Knock Life" for a solid hour after the movie. You're welcome for not posting all of that! It's cute for about the first 10 minutes :)

 

Then, our last day in NC, Becky and her family joined us at our favorite park, Tanglewood! It was a chilly day, but the sun was out and the kids had a ball. The love these 3 cousins have for each other is so precious!!

 

 

 

The day was topped off with a delicious feast cooked by Nanny. According to Greg - a harsh critic - it was "her best meal ever!" Pork tenderloin, brussel sprouts, okra, roasted red potatoes, and field peas. Aunt Bebe & Nate both found the quarters in the field peas, so they are destined to have a lucky 2015!

 

We loved all the time spent in NC with my parents, and are so thankful they are active and able to do such fun activities with the kids! I hope I can be like that one day if/when I'm a grandparent!!

 

......Stay tuned for Christmas Travels, Part 3.......yes, we did a lot of traveling :)

2014: A Year in Review

2014 was a great year for our family! 

I love doing this post every year..... to look back on all our adventures & to see how much the kids have changed. Click here to see last year's post.

 January

Snow in Alabama! This was really more of an ice storm than a snow storm, & lots of friends got stranded on roads in town. Very scary! We were lucky though, and just got to enjoy the snow. And the kids were out of school for 2.5 days, so they loved every minute!

February

Poppy introduced Nate to his coin collection, state quarter map, presidential dollar coins, and everything in between. And Nate has been obsessed ever since!

March

Abby got more creative than ever when it came to piecing together her outfits. Color is clearly her friend :) (And for all of you that know how much of a control freak I am, you know how hard it was for me to let her go to school like this. But I did!!)

April

My new all-time favorite picture of the kids, at our house before Easter mass.

May

Abby had her first "recital" in gymastics. The theme was the Olympics and she loved standing on the winner's podium with her gold medal.

 June

It was realllly hard to narrow this down to just one picture! Our annual beach trip to SC is one of the main highlights of our year, and it was so fun having Anderson there to play with!

 July

Greg accomplished a major goal....he completed the Hot 100 bike race! (Yes, it is 100 miles long, and it is hot hot hot in July in Alabama!!) He did awesome and everyone loved watching him cross the finish line, especially a little blonde cheerleader :)

August

Nate's Pokemon Pool Party for his 7th birthday will go down in history!! The fire alarm went off - accidentally - so we had to stand out in the parking lot for over an hour. Luckily, the kids had fun watching police cars & fire trucks pull up!!

 September

We enjoyed yet another season of tailgating on the quad and cheering on our favorite football team. Roll Tide!

October

Nate was so excited to be in 1st grade, because it meant taking his first ever field trip! We went to a pumpkin patch and although the weather was a.w.f.u.l, the kids had a blast!

November

Greg had a conference in Atlanta, so me & kids (and Nanny & Poppy), tagged along. Legoland, Build-A-Bear, and the Georgia Aquarium kept us busy!!

 December 

Nate ended a successful 5 months of Taekwondo by earning his green belt, level 2. We have seen such a change in him in such a short period of time, and love all the confidence & strength he has gained!!

As we say goodbye to 2014, I'm thankful for all our blessings....most of all, our beautiful, healthy children. And I can't wait to see what 2015 has in store for us!