farmer's market

Gram picked up this fun game for Thomas in some of her travels. It's called "farmer's market" and it's kind of a matching game. There are four cards, each with a different colored farmers' cart. Then there are animals for each of those four colors. At your turn you flip over an animal and if it matches the color of your card you get to put it on there. My mom gave it to me for Thomas the last time I was in Fayetteville and I totally forgot about it. This past weekend I ran across it and Thomas and I tried it out yesterday. He LOVED it! It's great because we get to talk about colors and animals as well as work on taking turns! Brax got home in the middle of it and got to join in on the fun.
This fun definitely ended when we told Thomas it was time to put it away. There were many tears. And his first worlds to me this morning when I got him up were, "Farm cards? New game?" We played again this afternoon and he was MUCH more cheerful when I told him it was time to put it away.

Morning Fun

On Monday morning we had a few fun projects. My grandma sent me a list of fun crafts that she remembered from when we were little, and one was binoculars made from toilet paper rolls. Thomas really liked looking out the window for birds and squirrels.

Then he pulled out one of our end tables and started climbing under it. I thought I'd put two together to make a tunnel and then build a fort behind it. The whole time I was building it Thomas asked to climb in. After I was finished, he only went in once. Oh well...it was fun while it lasted!

Favorite Phrases

I wanted to pass along a couple of Thomas' favorite things to say, mainly so I don't forget.

"Eat now!" is something that Thomas says about 649 times a day. He says it before meals, during meals, and directly after meals. If he's particularly hungry or bored he says is OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. One day last week when I was feeling especially frustrated he stood next to where I was sitting on the couch and said it probably 20 times in a row. We do feed him. He just really likes to eat-although only very specific foods.

"Something different!" is the other phrase that Thomas uses constantly during the day. It can apply to anything. Food, toys, games, sometimes I think even parents! :) A couple days ago I got Thomas us from his nap and his first words to me were, "something different!" I hadn't even suggested anything yet.

He really is a wonderfully content little bud, but he is two and definitely testing boundaries!

Roll Tide!

Today in honor of Alabama's football kick-off week we (actually Mimi and Papa) got Mae her first Alabama outfit. She'll be a football season baby-Brax is in fact predicting that she'll be born the day of the Mississippi State game-and I can't believe how little the outfit is! We're so ready for football season to start!!!! Roll Tide Roll!

Let the Rearranging Begin...

Today Thomas, Brax and I put together the new crib for Thomas' room. (It's really only new to us. Once again Hanson has come through with a perfectly timed hand-me-down!) Our pediatrician recommended that we leave Thomas in a crib-as long as he wasn't trying to climb out-until he turned 3. He isn't trying to climb out, so we're heeding her advice. However, we are moving Thomas' crib, changing table and rocking chair into Mae's room in the next few weeks. We wanted to make sure Thomas' new crib is going to work for him, so we went ahead and set it up. Thomas very much wanted to help and as always Brax was really good at figuring out ways that Thomas could actually help! Tonight will be the trial run. We've already prayed that the new crib won't signal "please climb out," but if he does try to climb out the crib converts into a toddler bed, so we'll just roll with the punches!

Heritage

I'm working on a heritage wall at our house and I'm on my second free trial on www.ancestry.com. I LOVE geneology and old pictures of family. I think part of it is my history degree coming out, but part of it is just that these people are part of my past, and Brax's past, and our kids' past. As I've been up to my eyeballs in pictures from both of our families I've been reminded of what a great heritage we have, especially in two areas. Generations of people who have loved and followed Jesus which I'm so thankful for. And also, generations of people who worked HARD! I only hope that we can carry on with the great examples of the people that have gone before us.

I just had to post some of my favorites. I currently have way more of my family, so I had a harder time choosing. I hope to get as many as I possibly can from both of our families!

Brax's Family:
1. Brax's Mom and her Dad, Edward
2. A sweet silhouette of Brax's Mom's mom, Virginia
3. Brax's paternal grandparents J D and Catherine on what we think is their wedding day (they eloped)
4. Brax's parents at prom (they were high school sweethearts!!!)
5. Brax's Grandmother Virginia, her sister and a friend

My Family

1. Grandpa Wayne

2. My dad (I mean how cute is that?!)
3. Grandma Lu
4. Grandma Bonnie
5. Grandpa Gordy (I think he looks so cute in his little suit!)
6. Grandma Bonnie and her family right before her brother ships off to WW II. To me this looks like the quintessential WW II picture!
7. Grandpa Gordy and his sister Lorraine
8. My mom

Busiest Week EVER!!!

Last week was the busiest week ever. It was lots of fun stuff, but we were exhausted at the end. On Monday Thomas went to the doctor with me. He did great and it was a short appointment. Everything's looking good! Then after Mother's Day Out we had a play date on Tuesday afternoon with Kati Ann and Bobi Ann. You can click http://adventureswithkatiann.blogspot.com/2008/08/playdate-with-thomas.html for pictures.

Then on Wednesday we met Iana and Luke at the pool in Arab. It was a nice toasty 65 degrees. A little too cold for two little buds to swim so we spent most of our time on the playground. (I know Iana through my friend Rebecca in Newnan and it was fun to hook up with them. We don't have any pictures of this.) After this we popped in on Mimi and Papa for a few minutes!

Thursday was our craziest day. All these pictures are from our trip to Birmingham. My friend Claire was going to be there, so we went down to meet her for lunch. It was so fun to see her! And we thought if we were going down we might as well see a few other people as well. So Thomas and Isabel had some play time. Thomas alternated between calling her "Is-bel" and "Bizzy." They had fun together, and only one sad moment when they were hugging and fell over. Then after lunch with Claire, where Thomas got to play on the playground at McDonalds we went to the Kings. We got to see the whole family including Puddles the rabbit, who was a big hit with Thomas. If only we lived closer we'd have another built in babysitter in Marly! And last we met Allen and Areta at Taziki's for supper. It was sadly a short visit because Thomas was VERY tired! It was fun to get to see them even if it was really short!

I was so thankful that we didn't have any plans for Friday!

Teepee

Thomas got a Tee Pee for Christmas from Pops and Gram. We played in it at their house and it's been put away since. However, in the last few weeks our back deck has gone from a construction zone to a play area! Thomas can ride his tractor out there, play with toys and now play in his Teepee! We're still inundated with mosquitoes, but we do lots of bug spray and turn on a big box fan to try and deter them!

Crafts!

I'm always trying to think of things that Thomas and I can do together, or just that Thomas can do. I think because we're home all day everyday sometimes we get into a rut of doing the same things. Well in talking to a friend and then just browsing at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby we've come up with some fun crafts or "craps" as Thomas calls them. We've played with yarn. That wasn't as much of a hit because Thomas really doesn't like to have glue on his fingers. So, it was mostly him picking the color of yarn and me gluing them on the page. We've also done water colors which was lots of fun and glitter. I was a little nervous about the glitter because I knew it would be messy, but Mary Faith and Drew did it, so I gave it a go. There was glitter all over the table when we were finished, but Thomas had lots of fun and the Dust Buster was a huge help. We had to throw in a little football! It's coming so soon! ROLL TIDE!