Coming Home

We are enjoying being home and settling our newest family member into our house. Of course, it is wonderful for me to have two extra adults to help. Here are some fun pictures:

Derrick holding his three children. I walked into the room this morning and they were all settled into the chair watching a movie. I would say it was Amanda's first movie, except she slept through the whole thing.


Amanda in her bed. I think she looks like a little caterpillar when she is sleeping.


The next three were taken yesterday as we left the hospital. Amanda wore the same dress that I left the hospital in when I was a baby.



Greeted by the whole family when we arrived home!

Happy Birthday Pop!

Last night was Pop's birthday, and we arrived home from the hospital in time to celebrate it with him. His birthday present was to spend it with all six of the grandchildren. It certainly made for a chaotic dinner. Sometime in the middle of it all we remarked how different last year's celebration was. At that time there were only three grandchildren. My, what a difference a year makes! Here is a picture of Nana and Pop with all six kids: Scott (4 1/2), Callie (3 1/2), Andrew (2 1/2), Reese & Charlie (9 months), and Amanda (38 hours).


And, here is a picture of Pop meeting his newest granddaughter. I warned him that he better enjoy this birthday, as it will probably be his "last." Next year he will certainly be outshined by Amanda, whose birthday is so close.

The funniest thing is that the first grandchild, Scott, already stole Nana's birthday. She is March 27 and he is March 28. Now, the last grandchild has stolen Pop's birthday.

A new addition!

Amanda Christine has arrived!!! She was 7 lbs and 11 ozs and came at 4:43 AM on September 23. We are thrilled, especially big brother Scott. He loves that she looks just like him.

We love September!

I've decided that September is one of the best months of the year. After the summer schedule of either hunkering down at home or traveling long distances, September is the season of local, fall festivals.

This first picture was taken last night at a church picnic where we dedicated our new parking lot. It was a fun evening with bar-b-que and a band. I think that Andrew only ate Doritos for dinner. Here is proof of how much he enjoyed them! (And the kids wonder why we don't have chips in the house.)


Today, the kids and I went to the Athens Area Realtors Association Family Fun Day. It was a small festival, but we had a great time enjoying the activities. One of the first things we did was ride on the back of this firetruck, about the size of a golf cart.


The boys loved the free hats and cotton candy!! Even Ceiling Tile enjoyed her first "taste" of cotton candy (I just couldn't pass up the opportunity for cotton candy.)


Here is Andrew playing in a big vat of bubbles.


And, the pony rides were also a big hit.



And, another reason that we are going to start to love the month of September...
...we expect Ceiling Tile to be born this week! I went to the doctor on for an ultrasound on Monday and he discovered that my amniotic fluid is low. He plans to induce labor on Tuesday morning, so we hope to have a baby by evening. I hope that pictures (and a new name) will be included in my next post...stay tuned!

a future shower singer?

Andrew is definitely our musical child. He has inherited those genes from his Daddy's side of the family, as my side aren't known for their musical ability. We love to listen to him sing, especially when he is on the potty. He belts out songs at top volume. One favorite is "Old McDonald Had a Farm." But it sounds more like "hum...hum...sheep on his farm...moo moo," etc. He doesn't have the words down pat yet.

Today I was encouraging him to sit on the potty and he ran to the living room saying, "I have to get my drum so I can sing on the potty." This was the first time for a musical instrument in the bathroom.




Thanks to Pop, these "drums" are a dime a dozen around here. His office must go through one coffee can per week. I asked for a few and it seems every time he comes he gifts us with more cans. They now hold everything from beanbags to train tracks in my efforts to organize our toys. But, some remain empty to serve as the most exciting option ... drums.

A $15 meal?

When Derrick arrived home last night, I told him that dinner was grilled chicken (which he would grill) on salad. Well, by the time we got around to assembling it, I was starving. Suddenly, salad didn't sound like such a great option. After all, Ceiling Tile needs more calories than that.

My wonderful chef husband came to the rescue by whipping up noodles with Alfredo sauce, topped with grilled chicken and a salad on the side - all served piping hot 30 minutes later. As I sampled the sauce on the stovetop, I proclaimed that it was better than Olive Garden (although he says that's pretty easy to do.) Then, during dinner, I asked what was in the sauce that made it so yummy. The answer...garlic cloves, garlic powder, and a special garlic spice that our friends brought us from France. So, rather than serving a "Three Cheese Sauce," I declared that he had made a "Three Garlic Sauce."

He then announced that we each owed him $15 for our meals. I offered to do dishes instead.

Learning to Sing

Andrew has spent most of his life listening to the blessing before meals. For the past six months or so, he has folded his hands at the table and said "Amen" at the end of the blessing. But, he surprised us last week by singing the blessing with us at dinner. We sing "God our Father" most of the time, in which each stanza repeats twice. He only sings each stanza once, which generally allows him to finish sooner than the rest of us.

On Thursday, I asked him if I could take a video of him singing it. He immediately ran to his drum set so that he could "play" the song while singing it. Here is the result.





Scott also wanted to get in on the "singing for video" action, so here is the video I got of him. You can see how he raced off screen at the end of the video to review it on my camera. After all, the best part of taking pictures and videos is seeing yourself immediately. I guess it's the same thrill I used to have with Polaroid pictures when I was a kid.

Football Saturday

Well, football season is in full swing in Athens, GA. That means, that I spend 7 Saturdays with the kids while Derrick works the football games. I really can't complain. After all, his real job allows him to spend a great deal of time with us on holiday and he doesn't play golf or hunt or travel for work.

I always try to do something special with the kids...almost always something that involves no movie, so that I can listen to the game on the radio while we are working (since we don't have cable or satellite to watch it on TV.) Last week, we were studying the character trait "attentiveness" in school, so we made "Listening Bunny Ears." Here are pictures of the kids showing off their new ears.






This week, we had the delight of spending the morning with Callie, Reese and Charlie. My parents were in town babysitting them. The miracle of the morning was that we actually got a decent picture of them with all five grandchildren. Ceiling Tile did not make the picture. When you are only 8/9ths of a grandchild, you don't get to pose. :)

(We'll have another picture of Ceiling Tile in a week or so, though, when we have one more ultrasound before her birth.)