Noccolula Falls

Our trip to Noccolula was a beautiful day, but quite windy giving us a little chill. Luckily Magan had brought long sleeves for everyone except me. This is a great place for the kids and I was looking forward to our first day trip in awhile.

We began in the pioneer village where they also have a deer park. You can get very close to the deer and pet them through the fence. You can see that Davis had no problems sticking his whole arm threw the fence to pet the deer, this changed when one bit his finger. :)

We then went to see their lion, and other fun animals, before proceeding to the covered bridge and rock formations.

This is what I was looking forward to because I knew how much the boys would like climbing on the rocks. They loved it, we made our way through the rocks and climbed up one of the big walls of rocks. Magan got our picture on top. Later as Davis and I joined back up with Magan, I noticed that Sam had gone back down into the formations, and then I saw him climbing out by himself. He is a pretty brave little guy.

Sam and Davis then went with me down to the bottom of the falls while Magan took care of Anabelle up top. I did get one picture of the boys at the bottom before the camera battery died.

We played at the park, threw sticks in the water and watched them go over the falls, and then got on the train for a short ride back to the front of the park. Oh, and the only annoying part of this day is that my window on the explorer is broke, and Magan and I had to continually push it back up all day.

All the kids to myself…

KidsMarket night, and here I am alone at the house with the kids. All asleep right now, and the house is so quiet. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that Anabelle will remain asleep for another 3 hours till Magan gets home in the morning. I have the bottle and milk ready, I think I am prepared if she wakes up.

So this is I think my first night out with all the kids and so far…so good. Magan brought the kids to me at work around 3 this afternoon (right after feeding Belle), and after taking Davis to the bathroom (not so easy with 3), then picking up the bulletins, We went to the McWane center!

Sam and Davis had a blast, and we basically had the place to ourselves from 4pm till closing at 5pm. They had a new naturescape exhibit showing a lot of the birds of Alabama. Here they also had a tarantula, hissing cockroach, and large scorpion (I really don’t know how this worked with the birds of AL, but the kids liked it). Until I held Davis up and he saw the spider…He screamed and jumped back.

We then went down to pet the sharks and sting rays. Davis gets up and ready, but when I tried to help him touch the shark…He screamed and jumped back. Sam “pet” the shark TWO TIMES, but the sting ray would not get close enough. We then walked through the aquarium section and the exit has a large picture of a shark. I heard Davis playing and running around the corner and wouldn’t you know it…He saw that picture and screamed and jumped back just like it was a real shark. Me and Sam both laughed at him this time.

I then took the kids to Lakeshore where I was to meet Magan (Apparently you just leave your pile of clothes on the floor with your name on it if you need a shopping break) for Belle’s last feeding. But I wanted to push this as far out as possible as long as Anabelle was not fussing. So we wondered around Walmart, then ate at O’Charleys.

Then met up with Magan, fed Anabelle, came home, kids in bed, writing this blog. Took the boys to the bathroom 2 times at McWane, and 1 at O’Charleys…that is a large task with 3.

And I don’t know if Magan will blog about taking Davis to meet the Easter Bunny at the Brookwood Mall, so here is a picture of him.

That’s all for now.

A Sweet Little Smile

She doesn’t fight with her brothers…she rarely cries hard…she doesn’t do much right now besides eat, sleep, and poop. But she smiles each time she sees you, and goos when she knows she has your attention. You can’t help but smile at her.

She has Sam wrapped around her finger already, and Davis “likes her”. That’s all for now…I am sure she will get her share of blogs once we start getting to all of her “firsts”.

I have just realized as I looked for a picture to post with this blog that Magan takes ALOT of pictures of Belle. But she is doing a great job, and www.lilywhitephotography.com is doing well also. It is really neat to see all the fun pictures hanging on the walls that she took. Pretty Amazing.

Sam Stories

Magan had the boys at Walmart the other day, and Davis got to pick out a new monster truck for his birthday. Sam was saddened that he did not get a toy and began some pouting and fussing. Magan explained to him that it was not his birthday, and his birthday was coming up next. Then as she was getting some things for her on the crafts aisle, she also picked up some construction paper, glue sticks, and scissors for Sam to work on things at the house. She showed him these things almost jokingly that these were just as good as a monster truck. Then when Sam saw them…His eyes got big and his smile widened as he shouted with excitement “You’re Getting Me Art Supplies! Thank You Mom”.

Since we have brought the “art supplies” back to the house, Sam has been a card making fanatic. He is constantly making pictures and getting us to help him spell people’s names so he can write them a card. He has also started using his scissors to cut out shapes that apparently he clearly sees what they are. We have no idea what these little pieces of paper are, but to him they are a boat, a knife, a diamond. Last week he made an assortment of these little pieces of paper and put them in a Ziploc bag to take to church. With a very serious face he passed out the cards to all the “little kids” that he made one for, and he then passed out the scraps of paper to all the “big kids”. I saw several people thank him…but then did not know what to do with this little piece of paper he had just given them.

Sam came up to me the other day, and asked me about what things I liked, because he was making me a card. The picture below basically shows all the things I like and I think he did a good job with my card…

Dad and the Boys at Zoo

Magan did her all night sleepover in a parking lot at Lakeshore a couple of weeks back. She does this twice a year for the Kids Market extravaganza. Because she arrived home at about 8 in the morning, and the boys would probably be fighting all day, I decided to let her rest and take the boys to the zoo.

It was a beautiful day, and I basically just followed the boys to whatever they wanted to do. They had a blast playing in the kids area, then digging for dinosaurs on the Alabama Wilds trail, and of course on the Carousel. The B’ham zoo is in somewhat of a mess right now as they get ready for Trails of Africa next year. They have pictures of what it will look like and it will be very exciting. Some new animals as well.

Davis’ Birthday at the McWane Center

Our little guy is three and we invited the family and church family to celebrate him turning three. The party went well, everyone met at the McWane Center at 10am, and we played until his party at 12pm. We also got to enjoy a rather large party room right next to “Just Mice Size”. Davis and Sam got to dress up as Buzz and Woody, which led to a very confused Davis that morning asking me about when they would get the candy for “Palloween”. He also kept looking out the front door for our Halloween Blow-up Pirate (which was stolen last year, please contact the authorities if you see a blow-up pirate with duct tape on his feet this year).

The Party went well, the hot dogs were good, the cake was good, and Davis had a blast. I think he made everyone smile towards the end of the party as I thanked everyone for coming. I asked him if he wanted to say anything, and with no hesitation he said in his little voice “Thank you for coming to my party…and thank you for the presents”. Thanks to all who made it and made it such a great day for our little guy.

How much to you love Mom?

Granny found a place for AnabelleAnd back at home after a fun filled day...

Two Davis Stories

#1 During our weekly “Little Church” on Monday evenings, we all sat down to read a bible story. Sam and Davis enjoy these weekly times on the couch, and they get to lead prayers and lead songs. We sometimes have some trouble with getting them to stay still on the couch during this time, but most of the time they are great and participate.

After the opening prayer, we snuggled up close on the couch to begin the bible story, when Davis ran off to his room. “I’ve got to get my baby” he told (Or yelled at us, Davis is just naturally loud) us. Returning to the room with a baby stuffed giraffe cradled in his arms, I just shrugged and began reading. Then as I looked over at him very interested in the story, I noticed he had raised his shirt and was breastfeeding his baby giraffe. Needless to say, this delayed the reading for awhile as we laughed and laughed…

#2 Davis had received some money from Granny for his birthday, and we gave both Sam and Davis one dollar each to put in the collection on Sunday morning. The basket was being passed from row to row, and Davis was tracking it ready to make his deposit. Yet when it was finally his turn, he decided some of the other “monies” were very interesting and began picking through the basket, before Magan or I could grab his little hands. We were finally able to “convince” him to DROP HIS DOLLAR. I guess our next bible lesson should be about the money changers in the temple…