Are you ready for football season?

Better yet..are you ready for ALABAMA football?

ROLL TIDE!!!

Afternoons at grandma & papa's

I'm so sad at how much Hudson has grown up since he started preschool. He's Mr. Independent now and wants to swing every afternoon when I pick up the girls from my parent's house. It makes me nervous just watching him hold on but he acts like it's nothing. I keep thinking he should still be in a baby swing. : (

I love this one..he's looking at my dad here.

Fun times! : )

My ode to summer

 I'm sad.

It's officially over.

I can honestly say this has been this is the funnest (is funnest a word?) summer I've ever had. Now, if you came to my house this summer you may have seen grass that looked like the house was abandoned. Wilted, dried up dead flowers in pots on the front steps. Shriveled and burned up ferns hanging on the front porch. If you went inside you would see dust bunnies multiplying in the corners and laundry on the loveseat that needed to be folded. But you know what...that stuff is not what me and my family are going to remember about this summer.

We are going to remember feeling so proud when we watched this back in June. 

 and I hope mine and Madelyn's children look back on their summers and think of the fun they had playing in Laguna Beach with their family. Their grandparents that took them to play mini golf at 10:00pm and fed them ice cream for breakfast. 

 We won't remember the 10 hr roundtrip car rides it takes to get to the beach and home. And how I may have wanted to gauge my eardrums or remove a voice box temporarily. or the smell coming from the car after leaving a milk sippy cup up under a seat in 100 degree heat.

 I will remember lots of laughs with my mama and daddy and my sister...
and the rest of these folks that I love so much.

 (Hudson is ready for Alabama football. He has the touchdown pose ready!)

We will remember lots of good meals (and drinks) at Margaritaville.

  Hudson was checking out the salt coming down from the plane hanging from the ceiling.

Of course, it wasn't always happy fun times at the beach. They did have their moments.

and how I wish I had pictures of Tatum's eye rolling..but I don't.

I will remember my kids being this age...this stage of life for each of them. 

Tatum is still wearing braces and doesn't have a cell phone. (Which I'm pretty sure is some world record or something. Unless you live in a remote village in Africa..or your Tatum).

Anna is still wearing hair bows AND smocked stuff.

and Hudson is wearing pull ups and loves his blankie.

 See ya next year lake..I will miss you.

Bye pool..we'll miss you.

 We should apparently we shriveled up prunes after this summer..it seems we were near water every chance we could be.

Good-bye summer...I heart you the most out of all the seasons.

Hello Fall...and football season. : ) 

My Birthday

My Birthday

It was all I had hoped it would be.

Not really.

Because I was hoping for nothing. As in, going home on a Friday night, eating takeout, having a shower and in my pj's by 7:00, nothing.

I got a gift that keeps on giving. Poison Ivy. I'll pause for a second so the jealousy can sink in. Just know..I'm not a little allergic to anything, if I'm allergic to it..then it's going to take down.

I have no idea how I got it (and it doesn't matter how many times you question me dr...I'm still not going to know how I got it) and I have no idea how it came to be on the back of my thigh. By birthday night, I'm a week into it and it had spread from the top of my thigh to the back of my knee...oh lord the itch.

Gift #2...no sleep. I know I've mentioned this before...I'm a beast without sleep. Since Hudson has started preschool he has been sick. a lot. and sadly he has inherited the gag gene from me. Which means runny nose & coughing will quickly lead to puking. So trying to prevent puking every time we hear him start to cough one of us was springing from the bed and running upstairs (which is super fun @ 2am) and warding off puke. It also means bringing a almost 2 yr old with his flailing arms & legs back to our bed. Which means no sleep for me. and it could possibly mean me=beast as well. I'll give you a moment to again relish in the jealousy.

Birthday night. Billy doesn't follow directions and plans a small family gathering. As the day went on and the crankier I got, I nixed those plans. So good. Back to PJ bound by 7:00pm. Except for the plans Tatum made to go to spend the night away from home. Ugh. So we decide that we'll just drop T off and go to dinner. Against my pj wearing longing better judgement. I should have went for the pj's.

So..on the ride Tatum informs us that we need to feed her before we go to sleepover. Which changes things because now we've got a time restraint. So we're in the car (which I've also dubbed as hell) and picture it. Billy is driving. I'm itching like crazy (and may be hiking up skirt rubbing benedryl all over myself while going down the road). I'm struggling to keep my eyes open. I'm short on patience. Which are really great things when you're in the car with 3 kids. Anna has stolen borrowed my ipod and is singing a little louder than she's realizing. Hudson is screaming. Not crying. Screaming in the backseat because he doesn't want to be in his car seat. Screaming (nerves are now SHOT). Tatum is in the 3rd row "where are we going to eat? I'm starving. We're not going through a drive through are we? I don't want Cracker Barrel." Now, imagine singing, screaming, whining all going on at the same time. Fun times ya'll. Fun times.

Gift #3: Amidst Hudson's tirade he lets out a cough..cough...then gag. About that time I'm turned around and catching puke in my hands while going about 50mph down the road. Jealousy. I can feel it.

Billy pulls over. I'm outside pouring water (keep a spare bottle of water and paper towels under your seat. You will thank me for this later.) over my hands. Cleaning Hudson up. Who is still mad. and screaming. Anna is now singing and gagging. and Tatum is now mad (and mouthy) that we're definitely going to have to go through a drive through seeing as Hudson spewed more than I could hold and is now riding diaper only. What can I say..she's full of compassion.

I'm pretty sure the highlight of the night was when I realized I must have a stronger stomach than years past seeing as I consumed Chick-Fil-A nuggets and fries on the way home. Without  washing my hands. (at least I did run water over them..)

Happy Birthday to me!

On Saturday, I did have a birthday do-over. The 3 people below and I had lunch at Logan's (for free..because they messed up our order..a good thing or bad? I'm thinking good since it was free and it was yummy). I mean, I knew the day was going to be good when Anna came down in her Lilly Pulitzer dress, her Vera Bradley purse, pink heeled flip flops and pink flower in her hair and proclaimed "You can never wear too much pink. Can you mama?" {heart melts}.

 Yes I whipped  my camera out at Logan's.

 This is what you get when you have a baby boy trying to get out of his highchair and you tell him to smile.

 The gang and I hit Hobby Lobby after lunch. That night we had the small family gathering (and more cake), which was fun.
I'll take the Pink, steak (don't read that as pink steak. I like mine well done), hobby lobby birthday over car hell puking birthday any day!
Can't wait to see what the next year has in store for me. I just hope it has plenty of softsoap, water, and paper towels.