Music calms the soul

As Parker's present from Brian and I for his birthday he received what he's had been hoping for a bass guitar. He started lessons last week and is discovering his love for music. Parker can be the highly emotional type and can get easily annoyed with his siblings. Over the last week Brian and I have noticed when we send him to his room to calm down has become his music time. He will practice several times a day basically till his fingertips are sore and he needs a rest. Afterward he is a happier more relaxed kid. He had his second lesson tonight and his teacher was amazed how well he has progressed in just a week. The attention from his teacher and the praise is a good thing for Parker. And I hope he continues to find peace in his music. We are wanting him to be able to play us a Christmas song by December and you bet I will record it and share it with each of you here, like it or not! :)

Kids Under the Influence

Tonight while I shared my bottle of water with Collin. He tells me how Mimi taught him how to drink out of the bottle the right way and he demonstrated how he now does it. It was pretty cute too! This is one of those nice moments about the kids spending time with our family and close friends. Obviously we love and trust the people we leave our kids with and it's always special to the kids when they get to learn from another adult.

The kids have gotten to spend more quality time this summer with Brian's parents (Maw and Das) since they moved a mile from us. The kids love hanging out down there and anytime Das stops by they will beat him to his car if he invites them to ride home with him for a visit.

There are many examples of how much the kids value your time and efforts. I hope you all know we appreciate your love for our kids. The special trips, days out having fun and small life lessons really do shape them and mold them. I will make sure they remember you all when they accept their Academy Awards or Nobel Peace Prize.

So thank you all. You know who you are and please don't think your taken for granted .It really means alot to us. You know the saying It takes a village to raise a child, You all are apart of our village and I vote we name that village Crazy Town. Everyone in agreement? :)

Some pics of our trip

If you would like to see a few snap shots of our California trip click on the picture above. It was neat to see the sites but there really is no place like home. All went well with the kids and we missed them alot. Now we have to get serious about preparing for the upcoming school year. What happen to summer break?

Howdy from California

I feel like I am living out the story of one of my favorite childhood books where the Country Mouse visits the city. In the story the mouse in awe of the sights,sounds and smells of the big city. So Brian and I headed out to California on Tuesday morning. Brian has one of his yearly conferences in San Jose and I was lucky enough to tag along. (Insert many many thanks to Doron, Mimi,Maw,Kristi for playing nanny for us. You guys rock and we are very grateful!)

So the flight on Tuesday was long. The first leg was from Birmingham to Las Vegas was 4 hours. We were almost the last to board and the plane was packed. Being Southwest we had no assigned seats so we took what we could. I was sandwiched between a business man who looked like Willy Wonka and a old Asian lady with horrible breath. People who know me well know I have a super sniffer and if something stinks I am usually not shy about calling it out. Poor lady kept wanting to talk to me and between the breath and her accent I couldn't face her in order to understand her so I just nodded in hopes that I didn't agree to something really bad. Do you have any idea how hard it is to not touch people on either side for 4 hours while trying to either mouth breathe or either not breathe in too deeply so you don't have to smell? Oh yes it was a long long ride.

I bolted off that plane ASAP and waited in the concourse for Brian to join me. I could tell as soon as his face appeared his seat situation must have been as uncomfortable as mine. He was squished in the middle seat between a large old man gambler and a sprawled out business man that wiggled alot. So the flight from Vegas to San Jose was a dream , not only did we sit together we had an empty seat next to us so we could relax alittle.

I have never been to California before so I am really enjoying the new surroundings. I am pretty amazed by the flowers,trees ,brown grass, and the beautiful hills and valleys. The beach blew me away with the rocks,cliffs and the freezing cold blue water with huge waves. The people in general seem nice, sorta hippie-ish but diverse too. I got a kick out of this man sitting indian style in front of the grocery store with a loaf of bread and jar of peanut butter making himself a sandwich on the sidewalk, Oh and it was night time so not your typical picnic time of day where I come from. He didn't appear to be homeless but I guess he was hungry. I seemed to be the only passerby who noticed or found it funny. I wanted to take a picture but Brian said No,:( darn. Haha!

Anyways we're having a good time and I will be posting pictures soon. I am missing the kids but they are having a good time with out us I am sure. Hard to believe we are 2 weeks away from school starting . Wow!

Birthdaypalooza!

The very first year of celebrating 3 birthdays in one week (July 9th Hudson,July 12th Parker ,July 14th Macy) was pulled off successfully. Don't assume I am claiming it was easy task just that we did accomplish it. Here is an overview of each ones special day.

Hudson's party was intended to be a outdoor swim party with a Rubber Ducky theme. But the morning of the party we had the most rain we have had in a month so plans changed. It turned out pretty cute and he had a nice crowd of friends and family to help us celebrate. I think the 1st birthday party entertainment is seeing what the little one does when given the cake. Hudson had these ADORABLE Rubber ducky cupcakes that his Godmother Doron made. She and I had talked at length about how they should look.We brainstormed and searched online and took the best ideas and made our own creation. I was so happy with how they turned out. Hudson took alittle coaxing but he did finally dive into the cake with both hands.

Parker has been talking for 6 months about wanting a bass guitar. Our good friend Corey is an awesome musician and just so happens to be a bass player in a local band. He gave us advice on what we needed to get for Parker and insisted he would like to be Parker's guitar teacher. We told Parker that the expensive gift meant a scaled down party. He decided he wanted a boy party with his closest pals. I thought it was sweet that he included his big brother Logan on his closest pals list along with our Godson Nathan and his friend Sam from down the street. They all headed to the bowling alley with Brian and Nathan's dad Steve for an afternoon of male bonding. He asked for a cookie cake to share with everyone. He made out like a bandit with the gifts , gift cards, ds game, digital camera from Mimi and Popi and a new Dsi from Maw and Das. He is very excited about starting his guitar lessons this week. What more could an 8 year old want?

Macy celebrated her birthday with a spend the night party with 5 girlfriends. This is was her first sleepover party. With Mom being home alone we were lucky enough that it worked out to host the party there. The girls loved having the whole upstairs room as their hangout space. We went shopping, swimming, tie dyed shirts, had pizza and cake and loads of fun! Thank you Mimi for letting us invade your house. The cake turned out fabulous, it was similar to one Macy and I found online. I showed it to Doron knowing she could make something similar and it would taste awesome too. It took alittle convincing to get her to want to attempt to make it. But of course it turned out to be so cute, everyone loved it! Macy had a great birthday defiantly one to remember.

After doing this much party planning for 1 week a year I should be an old pro when it comes time to help plan the weddings, haha! Thanks to everyone for making their birthdays special, We love you all.

And lastly three year olds are always willing to give you a surprise to keep them in the spotlight. In the mist of the Birthdaypalooza week Collin decided to try out his hair cutting skills. Here is the before and after pictures. I tell you never a dull moment around here.

Happy Birthday Hudson

Here are a few highlights of Hudson's first year. Happy 1st Birthday Hudson! Click the picture for the slideshow.

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July 4th

July 4th 2008, 5 days before Hudson's Birth
July 4th 2009, 70 pounds lighter with lucky #6 our lil' Firecracker

Moon Crew Annual 4th Picture

Swimming, BBQ, Fun,and Fireworks! There was minimal fussing, no injuries and plenty of good food. We had a great day!