Saturday, April 30, 2011

A walk in the Park

Okay, more like a lot of quick sprints, some crying, some swinging, some running, but you get the idea…

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About to slide down

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2.0 Playing too!

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Addie was in Diva Mode, as you can see.

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Riding the Horsey. She kept yelling “Neigh” over and over. Ha.

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Sliding town the twisty slide

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More climbing and Sliding.

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Then Addie decided she was tired. Luckily, Sawyer was nice enough to let her borrow his ride for a quick break.

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Party Time!

I took Addie and Elias to a birthday party today at a local park. One of their friends was turning 2.

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Climbing through the tunnels.

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One of Addie’s favorite things was when another one of our friend’s made balloon animals (or swords!) for all the kids.

Addie and her pink sword

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Addie and Elias of course had a sword fight.

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It looked like Elias was going to win for a minute…

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But Addie was declared the winner when Elias’ sword popped during the fight.

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Happy 2nd Birthday to G!

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Such good manners!

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After her sword popped, she was lucky enough to score a Butterfly!

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Elias, of course, needed a matching one!

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Time to slide…

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Time to go home!

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Playdates

Playdates…my how they have changed…

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Friday, April 29, 2011

Bounce House

I think it’s fair to say that we’ve gotten out use out of the bounce house we got for Addie’s birthday last year. She still loves it, and I love having it!

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Elias coming in to play too

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Graceful Addie. Ha.

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Cutie.

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Elias having fun falling down.

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2.0 enjoying some fresh air.

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These babies all LOVE to be outside! We are SO ready for summer!!

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Their facial expressions make me laugh.

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Action shot.

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Feeling Blessed

April 27, 2011 will go down in the history books. Our Sweet Home Alabama was literally torn apart by tornadoes. Now, I’m not one to get scared in storms. Truthfully, I hardly ever pay attention to them. The tornado sirens have gone off MANY times since we moved to Alabama, and I always just ignore them. However, something was VERY different about this day. Ryan was, of course, at work, and Jewells happened to be at our house. They were going to head back to Huntsville, but decided to wait until the weather cleared up. I am SO glad they did. We watched, horrified, as Tuscaloosa was ripped apart.

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Then, we realized it was heading straight for Birmingham. We packed up a few essentials and headed down to the basement to finish watching the storm coverage while the babies played downstairs.

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We watched as a MILE WIDE tornado tore through the Birmingham.

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We had the closet under the stairs open, and as soon as Christy and I heard the “train” sound, we sent the babies in there to watch movies. We stayed with them for the next few minutes, while still watching the big screen in the playroom.

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It came and went pretty quickly, and we never lost power, though it flickered a few times. We had no damage at all to our house, and we were all safe. However, we were VERY blessed. Houses were demolished, many people lost their lives, entire neighborhoods are gone. Pictures are playing constantly on the news, but it does not do justice to the devastation you see in person.

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I will say, it is AMAZING to see people come together the way they have. There are donation boxes everywhere you go. People are generous. Everyone is helping when and where they can. One of the reasons I LOVE living in the south.

I read this on Lib’s facebook page, and I think it sums it up pretty well. “There will be truckloads of Southern fried chicken, tons of potato salad and thousands of gallons of sweet tea served over the next few months. Some will come off of the back of a local pick-up truck, some from the flat bed of a farmer's "ton truck" and many meals will be served from a 3x6 folding "church table". That's how they do things down here.”