A Tale of the Toe and the Tongue

The foyer.

The long, lost, forgotten room in most homes.

Or is it a room? Can it be considered a "room" when there is no place to sit and contains no closet??? It's these type of questions that keep me up at night.

Anyway, my foyer has been pretty much vacant since we moved in 7 years ago. I threw down a rug, put up a beautiful hall tree (that has never actually been used) that Sylvia "loaned" me, and stuck a lamp on a table to use as a night light. Other than that... forgotten.

In fact, until I had children, there were days at a time, I never actually stepped foot in my foyer, because I had no need to go upstairs. Little did I know that 2 children later, they would become like stadium sprints I did a hundred times a day.

Sometimes I think... If I have to walk up those steps one more time today...

So, I decided to do a little decorating.

Enter, what has become affectionately known as "The Toe" and "The Tongue" pictures.

We had this picture taken of Trace when he was 6 months old.
Out of the little red bowl spills a little red... toe. But it looks like a little red... well, you know.
What's your guess as to how many more years I'll be allowed to keep that one up? But I smile every time I see it. :)

Then Keatyn turned 6 months and... yeah, well we missed it. Poor second child.

But this is her at 8 months. Now known as "the tongue." I could just bite that little tongue right off! I had the photographer change the green background to black so it would match Trace's "toe" pic and framed them together going up my stairs.

I have been collecting black and white pictures since Trace's first year at Hixson Pres.
They have an amazing photographer, Suzanne Lemery, come every year and take pictures of the kids in their "natural" setting without really posing them. I have his from every year at school and one of both of my little loves together this fall.
I've been adding to my "future" black and white gallery with pictures from Andy and Kadi's wedding, the 4 generations, and our trips to Destin, but never got the nerve to actually hang them. I'm way to anal and symmetrical for my own good.

I was mainly concerned about putting a million holes in my walls before I got it figured out and even took all my pictures out of their frames to tape them onto the wall first before actually getting a hammer and nails. Then my very talented and smart mother-in-law told me about using sewing needles to hang lightweight pictures and we spent the better part of a day doing just that. I love it!

(I'm now noticing from the picture a few are crooked and am fighting the urge to stop typing mid sentence and go fix them. :)
I found this plaque at Hobby Lobby, and it summed it up perfectly.
Now my foyer is no longer naked (unless you count "the toe" hee hee) and it represents all of which I adore most in this world!

Thank you Sylvia (yet again) for helping me complete my vision. Lord only knows what my house would look like without you!

Mexican night with my Amigos

I couldn't believe it, but we wrangled the boys into another "group" date. I'm sure they would much prefer to keep the kids while we have our girls night out and avoid hearing our conversations about childbirth, gossip about sorority sisters from college they've never met, and endless tales of our/their children, but every now and then we like for them to tag along ;)
We went to Leslie's this time and decided on a Mexican fiesta. Right up Jimmy's alley. Leslie did all the meat, and we brought the fixins.

I love that we are raising babies together. Three of our bambinos will start Kindergarten together this fall... how is that possible??? And Iris' daughter is only 6 months older than Keatyn. It's been almost 20 years since we all met, that is so hard to believe! I love these girls so much and can't imagine doing life without them!
And we think we'll keep the boys too!

The morning after...

I found these pictures on my camera of "the morning after" the dual birthday parties. This was the morning I woke up feeling as though I had swallowed shards of glass. As I stumbled to my coffee maker in desperate need of warm liquid to soothe my sore throat, I turned to look into the living room and saw this...

Oh joy.

Now, while there was no alcohol involved in the partying the day before (which is what usually comes to mind when you hear the phrase "the morning after") I somehow managed to erase this extreme mess from my memory until it greeted me again at dawn. And that was just Trace's presents, Keatyn's were still wrapped neatly and waiting to be opened on the hearth.

(I'll admit, the floor looked like that for about 3 days until I had it in me to clean it up.)

My coffee and I went upstairs to get little bit and discovered her big brother had gotten to her first...
After all... she was a birthday girl too!

So we dove in, opened ALL the presents and it felt like Christmas morning all over again.
(BTW, she loves her butterfly wings GiGi)
On Trace's actual birthday, Jimmy insisted he have something to "open" so he ran to Academy and brought home a BB gun. I thought 5 was a little young, but there was no convincing daddy of that.
He's officially a big boy now!

Can a mama brag just a minute?

The other day I accidentally left my cell phone in the car while Trace was at school. When I went to pick him up, I noticed a text message from his teacher, Ms. Jennifer, and my heart sank. I immediately thought he was sick or hurt and they were trying to reach me and couldn't. So imagine my surprise when I read this instead...

"Trace is such a great encourager. He's always telling others
that their work looks good and that he likes their hair or shirt.
He's also good at cheering them up."

I love my boy's heart.

These are the things I want to read about and remember in 20 years. Yes, the stories of him pulling the fire alarm at church or break dancing during his basketball game will be precious memories, but this is why I blog.

He has such a kind spirit and a loving way about him that (even though I'm his mother, and a tad biased) makes me adore him.

Now, don't get me wrong... it ain't all roses ;) Need I mention that he knocked his baby sister off the hearth tonight during their "pillow fight." Have you ever seen a 1-year-old pillow fight? Seriously?? Or the fact that we nearly had World War 3 during dinner trying to get him to eat the miniscule amount of tilapia I put on his plate. I finally gave him the "teacher stare" and told him things were gonna get ugly if he didn't chew and swallow those last 3 bites of fish. Sigh...

(By the way, this teacher stare is why I'll need botox injections between my eyebrows for the rest of my life. Apparently, I spent most of my 9 years at Woodmore sporting this look.)

My prayer has always been for his heart. That it would stay kind and not harden in this insane world, that he would always love and love deeply, that he would be a man of character and strong values that found the good in everyone and help to raise people up. I've got millions and millions more prayers ahead of me on my children's behalf. A mother never stops!

Ms. Jennifer will someday know, when she has children of her own, just how thoughtful and precious a simple text like that was to me. It was so random and unnecessary of her to take the time to tell me that.

Now granted, next week, her text may say something totally different, but I'll take the good with the bad and just continue to be proud and grateful I'm his mama.

Oh Embassy, Oh Embassy

Well, I'm all outta order, chronologically and apparently mentally. But I didn't want our fun family trip to Atlanta a few weekends ago to slip by unnoticed. Anytime you put 5 people (2 of which being 5 and under) and 27 bags together for a one night stay in a hotel room, things are bound to be interesting. This face says it all (notice 2 of the 27 bags that made the trip in the background)...
The kids and I went with mom and dad to the Embassy in Atlanta for my cousin's husband's 40th surprise party. Bring Trace to a hotel with a glass elevator, a water fall in the lobby, and an indoor pool and he's hit the pinnacle of happiness.
I had no intentions of striping down but it was 250 degrees inside that pool and I feared passing out and falling in head first while holding my precious cargo.

Casey really outdid herself. She had a montage of Kevin through the years playing on the big screen and even put together a "This is Your Life" kind of game show challenge for his mom, stepdad, brother and sister-in-law to play. It was hilarious.
They had buttons to push that lit up and everything. SO much fun! Ironically, the sister-in-law crushed them all.
She had everyone bring lottery tickets and made a huge 40 out of them (behind Papaw.)

She even hired 2 babysitters to keep all the kiddos downstairs in the "kid heaven" basement so the adults could actually eat and talk. It was such a great night!

Trace was bound and determined he was gonna sleep with Papaw on this couch all night long. Luckily, for Nana, he finally decided on her bed and slept horizontal in a double with his toes etched into Nana's side. Good times, good memories!
Atlanta... we'll be back!

Birthday Mania... Part 2

So, part 2 of our fun filled day, began with pulling up to Chuck E. Cheese (in the rain) to see a line outside that extended halfway down the outside wall.

Take me home please.

In all my years (some of which include working there) I've never seen it that crowded. I'll hand it to our dear family and friends, if it wasn't my child's party, I'd have dropped the gift at the door and hightailed it home.
I can't believe he's a whole hand!
Getting his birthday crown.



"Please someone put me to bed!"

The new ticket blaster. Cool, very cool.

I loved this! The best way to give money. Trace pulled and pulled and each dollar bill was taped together.
OK... that face is worth standing in line to get in, enduring pure pandemonium on a rainy Saturday night, and every penny we paid for the party.

First loves...

I'm not sure what's going on with the head cock.

It was such a wild night, Trace brought 80% of his gifts home to open and I'm completely confused as to who got him what. Thank you cards are gonna be difficult.

But he loved his party and it was a fantastic day celebrating our 2 little blessings!

(And I'm done til next year!!!)

Birthday Mania... Part 1

It's 9:38 p.m. as I start this post. I'm beyond exhausted but wanted to at least get some of this done so the time stamp would show Keatyn's actual birthday. She turned 1 today, and to say it has been "a day" is a major understatement... but such a day of blessings.

I won't get far with this tonight, maybe a few words and a few pictures, because hosting not one, but TWO back-to-back birthday parties plus a basketball game in one afternoon feels about like the equivalent of going those 9 centimeters on Pitocin, without an epidural, as I did exactly one year ago today.

But again... TOTALLY worth it.

OK, I literally can not hold my eyelids open a minute longer (much less make coherent sentences) so for now... goodnight.

But to the little angel sleeping soundly in the next room...

You are pure sunshine to me. I absolutely adore you. Your mama loves you more than you'll ever know (until your sunshine is born, that is.) Happy Birthday precious girl!

To be continued...

********************************************************************
Good morning. Well, I awoke from our big day with a sore throat, so while my people have gone to Sisty and Granddaddy's to have breakfast with everyone who came from Alabama, I'm at home in bed.

Anywhooo, back to yesterday. We celebrated Keatyn and Trace's birthday. He doesn't actually turn 5 until Tuesday, but we decided to do both parties on the same day so we knocked it out at one time. Jimmy's family we so sweet to come from Alabama and my cousin Casey and her family came from Atlanta, so to do it all at one time, just made sense. We had his basketball game at 1, our whole family (30+) over to the house at 3, and then went to Chuck E. Cheese's at 5 (that'll be part 2.)


Pre-game and pre-party pictures...
My mom's BFF, Jane, bought Keatyn this ADORABLE shirt from one of her many facebook fetish baby clothes auctions. Her granddaughter is the best dressed girl around! I love this shirt and will keep it forever. Thank you so much Jane!

No, no there's no crying on your birthday!!

Trace attempted to "help" and ended up taking a chunk out of the cake. Gotta love that boy!
This may be my favorite picture of the day.
A pretty party dress, a bottle, and your daddy... what more does a girl need?



Bless Sara's heart for being here, AND she braved Chuck E. Cheese on a rainy Saturday night. I questioned whether Abel would make an "in person" appearance at these parties.
Smash cake...
What exactly is this?
Humm, not bad...
Are they really just gonna stand there and let me eat this?
Maybe I'll share.


Yes, that is her THIRD outfit of the day (she had to have a little evening attire for her big night out at CEC.) Her Sisty bought her this for Christmas and made the headband to match. So precious!
I have this exact same picture of Keith (making this same face) and Trace at this age. He's the baby whisperer.
She got a little play time with her cousin Mallory before we had to rush off to the next party.
Jimmy, the kids and I actually left our house full of people, with the instructions to clean up (I'm kidding, although they did!!) lock up and meet us at Chuck E. Cheese for Trace's party.

It felt kinda weird leaving our own party, but we had to be there 15 minutes early to begin round two. (Are you tired yet???)

Stay tuned...