Corn Dawgs

Last Saturday, October 16th, we met some friends from church up at Corn Dawgs.  There were a bunch of us with kids of all different ages, so we split up to let them all find something they would enjoy.  Richard, Karen, and Ryleigh met us up there too. 

There was way more stuff to do than last year!  Some of our (and by our, I mean Taylor's) favorite things were: the flying pig, the swings, the corn kernel box, the petting zoo, dancing to the live country band that was playing, and the corn maze, of course.We ended up staying from 5:00-9:00 pm and there was still a ton that we didn't even get to.  All of the kids (both big and small) had a blast!  We left with bellies full of corndogs and funnel cakes and lots of good memories. 

 

Battle of the Badges

On Saturday, October 2nd, we headed up to Coolray Field, at the Gwinnett Braves Stadium, to watch the Firefighters take on the Police in a best of three Battle of the Badges softball tournament (or as Brent likes to call it Pigs vs. Plugs).  Taylor, G-Daddy, and I, met Nana and Papa at the stadium.  The weather was gorgeous and it was tons of fun to watch the guys play.  There were lots of cool things for the kids to do around the stadium, so Taylor stayed occupied. . . most of the time.

The Police took the first game and the Firefighters took the second.  With it all tied up at one game a piece, the final game would decide the winner.  It was a very close game, but the Firefighters took the trophy!  Here are some of my favorite pics from the day. 

  

  

  

   

Goodbye My Friend

My friend from high school, Josh Keyes, passed away Monday night.  He had been in a terrible accident about four months ago and his body was unable to recover from it.  He was a fighter and held on as long as he could.  It's hard to think about losing someone that was so young and still had so much "life" to live. 

Josh and I played soccer together in high school and then as adults, we played in a co-ed league together.  When I think of Josh, I think of this goofy kid, who always had a smile on his face.  He was genuine and loved his family.  He could make anyone's day a little brighter just by being around. 

I will always remember him getting to the indoor games late and laughing about it when we messed with him.  Then, he'd step on the field, run like a mad man for a couple of minutes, and usually score a spectacular goal or come off talking about being old or out of shape.  Just picturing him in my head puts a smile on my face. 

Goodbye my friend. . . you will be missed.

Tay Turns 15 Months Old

Today is an exciting day for lots of the people that we love.  Taylor turns 15 months old today, it's my Daddy's birthday, it's my parent's 33rd anniversary, and it's Amanda's very first day of teaching.  God is so good to all of us and today has especially reminded me of that.

Taylor, it's hard to believe that another month has already flown by and that you are officially 15 months old today!  You continue to amaze your Daddy and me every day.  You are full of life and have so much personality for someone so little.  Even though you can show out from time to time, for the most part, you are a happy go lucky kid who is constantly laughing, talking, and smiling.

We are constantly on the move and so are you!  You still love to go up to Creekside to watch Mama and Daddy play soccer, but this month you have been watching two other sports too!  You watch lots and lots of college football with us, but your new favorite sport to watch is your Daddy playing softball.  You had a blast watching and cheering for him (and the other firefighters) one Monday night.  Next weekend, we'll get to watch daddy's team play at Coolray field!

You have expanded your vocabulary and can now say: cookie ("caca"), cracker ("cacr"), Hey Bruiser ("ey Boo"), book, no sir (while shaking your pointer finger), hot ("ot"), hello ("ello"), and our personal favorite Go Dawgs (which you do while swinging your right arm around in the air).

You can do lots of new things now, like find your ears and hold your nose while you talk and make funny noises.  You try to snap your fingers in the car while we sing to the music.  You have a mouth full of teeth and love to try new foods!  The last time you let me stick my finger all the way in there, I counted twelve teeth. Four of them were molars (two on top and two on the bottom), but you've got new teeth poking through all of the time.  For some reason, you love putting things in the trash can and opening up the toilet lid. . .must be a boy thing!

You still love to be outside and try to find any way you can to get us to take you out to play with Bruiser or on Ryleigh's swing set.  You love the park and show now fear of the "big kid's playground."  You love to go down the slide backwards and on your belly.  Today, we went to the park with G-Daddy and had the best time.  Every time you fell down, we'd say "brush it off" and you would brush your hands together, get the wood chips off, and then you were off to find something new to do!

You always find a way to get into some kind of trouble or at least try to before you get busted.  If you find anything that has steps or handles, you'll climb it!  That includes (but is definitely not limited to) the oven in the kitchen and your big dump truck.  Although you can be a mess sometimes, I love that you have your own way of doing things and don't seem to do things the "normal" way.

 You love your "brother" and he is extremely patient with you.  You still love to take all of Bruiser's toys and try and get him to play tug of war with you and a rope.  The funniest thing you've done lately is try and ride Bruiser like a horse.  You sit on him, bounce up and down, and laugh while he just sits there and takes it.  I know he's thinking that you'll get your payback in a couple of years when he can really chase you around! 

 

The other day, when we were leaving the house, I said "Say bye-bye to Bruiser."  Usually, you turn around with your backwards wave and say "bye bye" in a high voice, but this time, you turned around and headed back to the living room.  I immediately thought you were going for Bruiser's kong (which had peanut butter in it), but instead, you kneeled down, patted Bruiser's back a couple of times, gave him a hug, and then headed back to the kitchen, where you turned and said "bye bye."  That is one of my favorite things that I have ever seen you do.

We went to the doctor today for your 15 month check up.  You weigh 20 lbs and 5 oz and are 30 1/2 inches tall.  Even though you are a great eater, you're still a little on the lighter side, so Dr. Morgan gave us some stuff to bulk you up a little bit.  It turns out that you had an ear infection, so we left there with a bunch of samples and two prescriptions to get filled.  You did great until Nurse Rose had to give you three shots.  That was not fun at all!  You only cried for a minute.  We found the baskets with lollipops and stickers, which made you a little bit happy.  When we left there, we headed to Publix to get your prescription filled.  Of course, we stopped by the bakery for a sugar cookie and then headed to Chick-fil-a for a little snack.  By that point, you were back to your normal self, with three battle wounds (a.k.a. - bandaids) on your thighs.

I love you Tay!

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. . . Oh My!

Okay, so maybe just lions and a couple of elephants!  On Friday, September 10th, we went to the Barnum and Bailey Illuscination Circus show at the Gwinnett Arena.  Mom, Dad, Amanda, Jeremy, and Alex (Jeremy's little brother) went to.  We got there an hour early, so we could go down on the floor and meet some of the performers and see some of the animals.  I was hoping that Taylor would see them before the show and get used to everything before the show started.

What we found out, was that in addition to baseball mitts and the Chick-fil-a cow, Taylor is freaked out by clowns or anyone that looks somewhat creepy in a costume.  It was actually pretty funny.  Every picture we tried to take before the show either shows him staring at the performer with total disgust or just plain fear.

Once the show started, he really liked it. . . but not as much as he liked the pretty, brunette woman sitting in the row behind us.  He would turn around and "talk" to her, while laughing and giving her his best smiles.  What a little flirt!  He paid more attention to us when we bought cotton candy!

Here were Taylor's three favorite parts of the show:

1.  The elephants (as long as he was watching them from far away)

2.  Mama's cotton candy and Alex's snow cone

  3.  Intermission (because he could run and run and run around outside with his Daddy)



Overall, it was a great way to celebrate the end of the work week.  I can see why it's called "The Greatest Show on Earth!"

I Will Not Forget

It's hard to believe that nine years ago today, the Twin Towers were hit.  I can remember exactly where I was, who I was with, and the overwhelming shock, terror, and paralyzing fear I felt as I watched the horrible images on the television.  So many innocent men, women, and children died that day.  I can't help but think about them and how the lives of their families changed forever that day.

I also remembered the overwhelming support and assistance so many Americans showed during that time of need.  People showed generosity, kindness, and genuine love.  I am grateful to the firemen and policemen who worked day in and day out to search for survivors and instill a sense of safety and security.

I pray that God will bless our nation and keep up safe.  To all of those people who died, were injured, or were heroes nine years ago today. . . I will not forget.

A Day at the Lake

We spent Labor Day (September 6th) with Brent's parents at Lake Oconee.  The weather was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't wait to get the boat on the lake.  Tay is a water baby, but has only been on a boat once before, so we weren't sure how he would do for the whole day.  When we got him on the boat at the dock, he loved it. 

He was laughing and pointing at everything, until. . .

. . .we put the dreaded life jacket on him.  He was not happy and proceeded to let us (and everyone else on the lake) know about it.

Once we found a little cove, we put the tubes in the water.  I hopped in one and we put Taylor in there with me.  He wasn't too sure what to think about it at first, but he never cried.

Once he was back on the boat and remembered that he had his life jacket on, he remembered that he wasn't supposed to be happy.  I started to feel nauseous and a little sea sick, so we headed to shore to eat lunch.  On the way, Taylor fell asleep and was out cold.  He spent half of lunch knocked out on a bench.

After lunch, we hit the water.  Brent and I did some tubing and of course, every time Brent said "Watch what I can do" or "I have an idea," it usually ended with me some how flipping over him, flying off of my tube, and being flung into the water.  The funny thing is, I can't remember laughing that hard in a long time.  Brent did some wake boarding and then we all got in the lake for a little swim.

Taylor and I hopped in the tube and were floating along behind the boat, minding our own business, when all of the sudden, 65 pounds of fur and claws leaped in the air and landed on me.  I had Bruiser freaking out in my lap, while I was holding Tay up in the air, trying to make sure he didn't get kicked or knocked out of the tube.  I've got to say, it was pretty hilarious to see Bruiser do it again later on when Brent was in the tube.  There is just something funny about a dog in a life vest.

A day at the lake was the perfect way to spend our Labor Day.