Spencer loves to bake. We made pumpkin cookies to give to his friends for Thanksgiving. I did the icing, but he did the measuring, mixing, and cookie-cutting. He was SO excited about these cookies. He told everyone at school that he made cookies for them and he could barely enjoy the party because he was so ready for dessert.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Friends
Dean came to play this week. This is Spencer's best friend from school and his first male friend that is his age and unrelated. Here they were playing their version of keep away from the gators that live near Spencer's bunkbeds. And i'm giving up on editing photos on my imac. So frustrating. I make the edits and they never transfer to flickr or blogger. So sorry that they have red eyes and aren't cropped. But aren't they cute??
Vote for Shelby
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Aidyn girl
yep, i know . . . the hair. we even cut some wispies to try to end this look but Aidyn's hair wants to fall forward. and the girl cannot be tied down by pretty bows. trust me, she had one on her that matched that pretty green and she took it out and stomped on it. oh well. daddy will be pleased if she ends up a tomboy.
Aidyn smiles
Thanks Aunt May May for taking and sending so many beautiful pictures of our family. I need to hand the website passwords over to you so you can takeover bc your photos are beautiful.
Big Brother
Spencer has been a great help to me lately while we have all been sick. Some examples from this week while Jeremy has been away from home:
Monday we had a "take cover" tornado warning and Spence helped build our pillow tent in the bathroom and helped me keep the babies calm by singing songs to them. He was so brave the entire time we were in "hiding" as he called it.
And last night we needed to make a quick run to the library so I put Preston down while he was upset. I loaded the van and gathered the kids. it took me at least twenty minutes. during this time Preston stopped crying. i came back through the den to discover the screaming Preston had been silenced and put to sleep by his big brother. I grabbed the camera before spencer knew that I had seen them. Spencer had found a binky and used it to soothe Preston to sleep. He was still holding the binky to Preston's mouth just to keep him asleep--like he was holding his finger in the dike.
preston 4 months


Preston is a happy, funny baby. He is laughing now, especially when Daddy plays with him. He ate rice cereal for the first time Sunday and he loved it. We are so proud bc Spence wouldn't take it for the first month of trying. We are hoping the cereal will help to spread out the feedings. He weighed 14 lbs 6 oz at his four month appointment.
He loves "riding" in his jumper/swing that my dad affixed to our great room ceiling beam. (of course we have to keep close eyes on his siblings bc they like to push him a bit too high). He also moved to his own room Sunday and he slept through the night in his crib, only waking once to eat. So this week has had some major changes for the four monther.
Wish we didn't have to cancel our Arkansas trip for this weekend bc we are ready for MMKN to meet the little guy. Christmas will be here soon and we promise you guys can hold him first.
Preschool party
Spence was the first one to arrive to class on Halloween. Mrs. Stephany was in the office and he didn't recognize her. (she was wearing a huge blonde wig that she isn't wearing in this photo) He was a bit scared to go to class with this strange teacher. He really likes Stephany and the boys in his class. Again this year he is the youngest of eight.
Three year olds.


We made fridge magnets with kids' photos on them. They loved decorating their pumpkins. Jeremy and I were in charge of crafts and were the helpers for Spencer's preschool party. Next time we should get a sitter for Aidyn and Preston bc it was too much of a zoo having them with us and entertaining 8 three year olds. The kids enjoyed themselves and were really wound up for Halloween.
Preston's first Halloween


Trunk-or-Treating with Phillip, Mary Alice, and Jack. Preston is Big Al--his dad's arm is obscuring his Bama jersey.
Trunk-or-treating is Huge in Nashville. All of the churches do this here and it is open to public; whereas in Atlanta our church did one with a fall festival but neighborhood carnivals were more popular. So this was our first experience of hundreds of trunk-or-treaters coming by our vehicle for treats. Jeremy tossed out mini footballs along with our candy so it didn't take long for us to run out of treats. As he blared the fight song from his truck, he made kids say "Roll Tide" instead of "trick-or-treat"--isn't he messed up??
Trick-or-treating

Aidyn is a dragon courtesy of Mrs. Juanita, just hard to tell from this angle. And Spence was the Knight trying to slay her. (sorry angela, that pink dragon costume you bought for her two years ago may not fit for another two years) The kids had fun trolling the neighborhood for treats while Lindsay and her Belmont friends passed out candy and cooked supper at our house. We have really enjoyed getting to see Lindsay so much, and are happy that she isn't any more embarrased to be seen with us now than she was in 7th grade. So Valarie, Matt and Sam, wanna choose a TN college too? and note, They asked to play Apples to Apples.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Sick
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Friends
They are both enjoying school. Aidyn's personality has come alive since she has been going to mother's day out. She likes playing with other kids and gets excited when she sees her building. Her artwork seems pretty forced. Her teachers say she is too busy playing to stop and do crafts. Sounds like art time at home too. She is weighing in at 18 1/2 pounds at 21 months, but her small size doesn't deter her from taking on bigger kids. She is a spitfire.
Spencer likes his school much better than last year. He actually talks about the other kids and all of the fun they have. Last year he never mentioned his teachers or other students so we are glad that he has become more social and wants to go to preschool. His teacher says he loves storytime the best but has yet to take a nap during rest time. No surprises with either of those.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
My three boys
hmmmm. . . no wonder we get so many comments when we are out and about, they do look alike, don't they??
Preston's first Football game
How sad that all of our kids' "firsts" sporting events have been to see college or pro teams when we (J and M) hadn't even been to pro football until we became adults. when they are old enough to remember all these games we will likely live somewhere without a good team. oh well, they will enjoy the perks as long as we can.
Who to cheer?
We left from church, so Spencer changed into his jersey once we got to the game. Here you can see he hasn't chosen a jersey yet bc we took both Warrick Dunn and Vince Young. After several minutes of debate, Spencer chose the Titans jersey over the Falcons one. And he chose wisely, bc the Titans won.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Weighing in at 14 pounds, Preston is huge to us. He started rolling over sometime in the last two weeks but we still haven't seen him in action. We just look down and find him on his back after we have placed him on his tummy. He loves to talk and coo with us and enjoys interacting with his siblings.
Monday, October 01, 2007
Pumpkin Patch
Last Friday we took the TN cousins to a pumpkin patch at Hicklen Farms--a one hundred year old farm. Spencer's favorite part was when the boys rode in a Gator with me and Mary Alice across the farm to pick out mums. He has loved these John Deere wagons since he was tiny and always loves riding in them. We also choose corn stalks and pumpkins at the barn. Aidyn enjoyed the cat and dog. And Jack loved running through the hay maze. We were the only customers with children so it was a great time to visit the pumpkin patch. The farmers had fun activities for the kids, including coloring their own mini-pumpkins. Spencer also liked running through the pumpkin patch and seeing all of the enormous pumpkins still on the vines. The farmers were a fun, elderly couple and they clearly loved having the kids there and spent the entire visit making sure the kids had fun. We will be making this an annual autumn trip.
