Mobile 2010 – Day 1 (Belingrath Gardens)

This was also our driving day, and we arrived in Mobile around 2:00 PM. After checking into the hotel, Magan decided this would be a great day to go ahead and get the pictures at the gardens. This was the highlight of her trip, so we obeyed her request to change clothes and left towards the gardens. Arriving around 3:30 PM, we all stayed in the van to take a short nap before going in for the pictures.

Magan was right, it was a perfect day for pictures, and I think our family accounted for about 25% of the people in the gardens, so we had plenty of room to take pictures wherever we wanted. Other than Davis pitching a “I’ve just woke up” fit when we first began pictures, the pictures went great.

Sam and Davis got to run around the paths, even finding a few “secret passages”. They also liked playing in the middle near the Belingrath Home…they had several fountains that were “pooting” their water up. Sam thought it was fun jumping across the shallow water flowing from one fountain to another, and Davis was scared but wanted to try as well. He ran up to the edge and then backed away. Finally when away from me and Magan, I saw him muster up enough courage to make the jump and he made it! He looked around and saw me watching and smiled. I gave him a thumbs up. Then he turned around and tried again, this time landing in the water with one foot. But like I said it was shallow, and he just kept going.

Belingrath Gardens was also one of the places Magan and I went on our Honeymoon, and since this was our 9th anniversary trip, it was neat to see the many places we stopped and took pictures 9 years ago. Here are some pics from 2001, then from 2010. :)

Towards the end of the trail, Magan and I were taking pictures of Mrs. Belle, so Sam took the opportunity to take some pictures with the little camera. He had a blast, and certainly has some of the artistic side from his Mom. :)

And in the end we were the last ones out, we went back to our car, and drove back to the hotel. Sam and Davis were excited to Swim in the pool…then after getting them in bed (they slept together on the sofa bed), Magan put Belle in the pack and play in our room, and we collapsed.

Regions Charity Classic Golf Tournament

The PGA senior tour comes to Birmingham each year for the Regions Charity Classic. I happened to win two tickets, and since Colby and I had talked about going to the tournament, we decided this was the motivation to go. Sam was also going with us because he was free.

We began the day by parking at the Baron’s stadium and riding a school bus over to the golf tournament. This was the first school bus ride for Sam. He had so much fun. Then we arrived at Ross Bridge and realized that this was one ritzy place, and to Sam’s amazement, they even had a large castle (hotel) in the middle.

We went in and began by watching some guys that we did not know hit the ball. All of these +50 year old guys hit the ball further that I will ever hit the ball. One of the first caddies to pass us by got a kick at Sam’s Yankee hat. He spun it around on Sam’s head, and Sam gave him a little grin.

We realized fairly quickly that we had no idea who most of these guys were, but it was still fun to watch for awhile. Fuzzy Zueller walked by us and we watched him tee off at #6. We then walked over to the #1 tee box to watch Hale Irwin and Bernhard Langer tee off, we also got to see Fred Funk tee off. But after that we basically walked around the areas close to the entrance and saw some of the pretty man-made waterfalls. Everything was very nice, but it was time for me and Sam to go see the castle.

Sam was also a big fan of the “freebie” area, where all the vendors were giving away basically free junk, but he had a blast putting it all in his bag. While Colby watched more of the golfing action, I sat in the middle of the vendors, and Sam walked from booth to booth getting his free stuff. It reminded me of myself at various car show expos that my dad attended. I loved getting the free stuff, and remember getting about 100 key chains at one as a kid. But anyway, Sam finished and then showed me his treasure. Then he said he needed to get some for Davis…so off he went to get some for Davis.

After this, I thought he might have some fun climbing in the vehicles Honda had on display for the golfing event. The first one we chose was a large truck and we both climbed in the back. I told Sam to jump in front and drive us somewhere. He smiled and jumped up front…but using the horn to support himself as he climbed into the front. HOOOOOOOOOOONK! Aghhhhh, he immediately let off the horn and both of us shrunk down in our seats so no one would see us. Several people were staring at us, and it was at this time I remembered that we were at a PGA event right next to the #6 fairway…and when we met up with Colby later, he said that he heard the honking and thought “Crazy Kids”…not knowing that it was us.

Sam and I also toured the castle and watched everyone in the super cool swimming pool with a slide. Then we joined back up with Colby to leave in the school bus. It was a fun day.

Brotherly Love

I was speaking to Sam the other night after he had received 4 shots from the doctor earlier in the day. These were I guess his 5 year shots in preparation for kindergarten next year. He was still a little sore, and I was just trying to make conversation with him by telling him about Anabelle getting her shots only a couple of weeks earlier. I told him it must have hurt for her too, and then I asked him “Who would you rather get the shots, you or Anabelle?” He quickly replied “Anabelle”.

I then asked him again, this time emphasizing that it would hurt his little sister a lot, “Are you sure you would want that…then asked again so Who would you rather get the shots?” He looked really saddened as he thought of his previous answer, but then smiled a little and looked up at me and said “Dave”.

Sam graduates from Pre-K

Well, Sam made it through…he knows his ABCs and 123s. He made some friends and hopefully will have a smoother transition into Kindergarten next year. Here are some pics of the graduation. Here is a picture with his teacher, Mrs. Marquita, and his best friend Nathan.

Belle has started rolling over on her belly and it is so cute! The only problem is she forgets how to get back and usually ends up crying a little to let me know there is a problem. This was all fine and good until she started doing it in her cradle last night. I think she must be dreaming or something. The problem is that when she does it she gets her self good and worked up trying to roll back over and then has a hard time going back to sleep.
I had to put her back in her wedge to give her something to bump up against and stop rolling, so that we can both get some sleep.

A lot of the time it ends up at the bottom of the bed and she props her feet on it, lol!
Marcia says she must be airing out those thighs! She does have a lot of rolls down there to air out!

Famous Davis Quotes I'd Like to Remember

Davis may have been slow to start walking but he has never been slow to talking. He has been talking in full sentence form since he was 18 months old. We have laughed at him many times b/c those big words and sentences shouldn't be coming out of such a small body. He loves when we laugh at him and that just makes him talk even more. Here are some of his recent quotes that he uses often:

"I Caaaan't" (do something you've asked him to)
He drags most words out for a long time : )
"I gonna beat you up" (win)
"Stronger" (his strength in relation to yours)
"My weg hurts" (he either wants a bandaid or wants to have something to blame for his not doing what he is suppose to do, including sleeping)
"Dear God, tank you for my mom and my dad and my famiwwwwy" (the start to every prayer)
Let me add what he said in his prayer during little church last night "Help me not to get spankings" "help me and Sam not to fight"
"just a wittle bit" (when he wants to do something that he knows I don't let him do often)
"Stankpants" or "Stomper" (what he says when he gets mad)
"I a crazy kid"
"Yeah Sure"
"It might not" (When I tell him he can't do something followed by a consequence that would happen if he did it that way)

I know there will be many more, just give him time to think of them!

JOY

If I had to pick one word to decribe our newest little Belle it would be, joy.
As I looked through pictures and cleaned cards today I realized that while Scott is the BEST storyteller and blogger in our house, he doesn't really get to see little Belle as much as I do. When he gets home she is close to going to bed and he also has two little boys who are louder and more demanding of his time.
I felt that I HAD to post a blog about our newest little girl. She is about 5 months now and she is getting a little bit louder as she coos and hollers here and there.


Most of the time She wakes up happy and goes down to sleep easily. I know this may change as teeth start breaking thru but right now I walk in the room to see her little feet in the air and her talking to the ceiling, : )




She LOVES to hear her brothers when they come in the room in the mornings. We all four usually end up playing in my bed for about 30 minutes before my feet touch the floor for the day.


She smiles when she sees you, when you hold her, when you play with her, when you sing to her, she is so full of JOY! She smiles and raises her eyebrows, she squinches her nose, she does the wide open smile. When she cries 95 percent of the time it is a soft little cry. I know God blessed us with three wonderful children and all three are special in their own way, but our little Belle, with her little curl on top, is just a JOY : )