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…

Snow!!!!

The boys were dying to go out in the snow when it started coming down, but it was FREEZING!!! We stayed out a few minutes then came in to thaw out. After we woke up from nap time and Dad got home we went back out and had a fun time.
They rolled a big snow ball with grass all in it, I called it the hairy snow ball. Four days later that ball is still there!!!!!
Sam thought it was hilarious b/c his glove rolled off in the ball. Davis loved throwing balls and cried a little b/c his hands were cold. I think they went numb b/c he stopped fussing and just played.
Miss Belle hung out inside were it was warm and was very happy with that parental decision : ) Plus, I got to go back inside were it was warm to tend to her!
I tell my story better through pictures so here's a load of them to help us remember out day!

Disneyworld without the Family

So here is a picture from last year. The only difference this year is that Magan, Sam and Davis were not there.

I finally got to go on a business trip to Orlando, but did not get to bring the family because Anabelle is so little…even tho I still tried to talk Magan into it. But anyway…just a quick blog for the Disney fans.

I arrived on Sunday night and after waiting for baggage, riding the bus to the rental car place, driving to the Downtown Disney Hilton, Checking in, Riding the Bus to the Magic Kingdom, Getting on the Resort Monorail, Waiting for the monorail to begin working due to some computer issues, Riding to the Grand Floridian, then walking through the lobby asking for directions to Narcossees, I finally arrived for my dinner reservation shortly before 8:30 PM in time to watch some of the fireworks over the castle.

My dinner was excellent. The view was wonderful, I had a direct view of the Castle and Space Mountain, while watching the monorail make its rounds. I began with a Ceasar Salad that was delicious, then had one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time…crab crusted Mahi Mahi over potatoes. Here is a picture of my dinner (I found it on another blog of someone who at the same)

And now I will jump to Tuesday where I was able to use my free ticket (I volunteered the week before by donating blood) to enter EPCOT. Wearing my “Honorary VoluntEAR” badge, I quickly ran to the Spaceship Earth ride which I was unable to ride last January during our trip.

And my route for the remainder of the day went as follows:

· Got FastPass for Soarin.
· Took the Behind the Seeds Tour of the Land Pavilion Greenhouses (Please…no one should ever choose to take this tour).
· Rode the new “Sum of All Thrills” build your own roller coaster ride in Innovations (This was really neat).
· Rode Test Track (My favorite at EPCOT).
· Watched the American Adventure at the USA Pavilion (First time for this show…It was really great).
· Ate Supper at the German Pavilion (A Meat lovers fantasy…then the chocolate desserts were awesome).
· Rode Soarin with my FastPass (This ride just makes me smile). Went shopping for souvenirs at MouseGears (10% off with Disney Visa).
· Rode Test Track, then Rode Test Track Again (Did I mention this is my favorite, and if you are in the single rider line, you get to skip the annoying preshow video).
· Watched the Fireworks show (Probably the best of the fireworks shows at Disney).

Fun Day back in the Sun

I will begin my blog on Martin Luther King Jr day with a book recommendation, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. I am about 2/3rds of the way through this audiobook, and it is great. It tells the story of black maids “the help” working for white women in Jackson, MS during the civil rights movement. It talks about the racial lines that were not crossed in those days, and how those lines were passed down from one generation to the next. It is amazing to me to know that this is the way things were only about 40 years ago. We’ve still got some issues, but we’re making progress, one generation at a time.

OK…just wanted to also write quickly about the fun things we did today outside. Magan and I were cleaning in the basement and the garage, and I looked out the window to see Dave dragging his big wheel up the little hill behind the house. This was strange to me, because Sam is more of the thrill seeker, and Davis is usually scared about speeding down hills. I ran outside just to make sure he was ok, and then he came down pretty fast, but stopped short of the swingset. Sam witnessed this initial trip down, and immediately wanted to join in the fun…but he first ran to get him and Dave some “helmets” (plastic police man hats).

Here are some pics of them as they went up and down and up and down the hill…

And back in the house, Magan had found a barn that works for their megablocks, which we found out made a good base for our tower to the ceiling. So I moved it over to the bunkbed ladder where they could build it really high. They had a blast and made the tower several times. The picture below is 2 seconds before it collapsed…then was kicked and punched to the ground.

And Davis got to hold a little lizard, It was "his friend"

This was the other night, but it is usually where they like to sit on the couch. :)

The Boys and their Sister

While I do not think we realize fully yet the transition from 2 to 3, it is great that Sam and Davis seem to have taken the addition of Anabelle very well. They both hold her, and kiss her, and sometimes will not leave her alone, but they are very sweet with her. It seems that wherever we lay Belle down to nap, the boys end up choosing that place to pull all of their toys over and play. They just want to be near her.



Sam just constantly wants to hold her. He often laughs at her little hiccups or sneezes, smiles so big when she is holding his finger. He is also our designated pacifier installer, because if she is crying, he immediately wants to make her feel better, and the pacifier stops the crying. He wanted to hold her the other night, and Magan and I were working on the computers in separate rooms. I heard everything get quiet for awhile, and when I went to check on him, I found him asleep sitting up holding her. It was pretty sweet, and I’ve got a picture below.



Davis tells me all the time “She’s cute” and he likes her, but I think he is ready for her to start playing with him. Jokingly I told him the other day that she would be throwing the ball with him soon. Shortly after that, I saw him throwing the ball at her on the couch! I had to quickly explain “not yet”.

Back at Home

We stayed at the hospital until Wednesday, Dec 2nd, and then came home to our family of 5. I was able to have the whole week off, so it was just us and lots of visitors bringing lots of good food. The next week MaMaw and Nanny were both able to spend some nights at our house to help magan out while I went back to work.

(Above) Minivan is getting Crowded. :)

MaMaw had to leave early from the hospital so she had to wait until she came to our house to hold Anabelle.

The Sartins...

She told me that should couldn't sleep without me. My first little nap with my princess Belle. :)

Pam and Benet brought cookies! Their excuse to come over and hold belle.