keeping track of life

How do you keep up with all of the things you have going on? I keep everything in a little pocket weekly planner, day timer, which I always have in my purse. I am a snob about it...it must be an actual "Day Timer", not a day runner or a day tracker or a day whatever. I LOVE IT! You keep track of your whole week on just one page, there are these little tear off corners which make it easy to keep track of what week you're on, and the planner is slim and tiny and hardly takes up any room in my purse. There have been a few panic-stricken times that I thought I had lost it but I luckily have never actually have. I have had one every year since 1998, when I was first introduced to them by my friend, Mia. It's funny to look back on the old ones and see what I had going on. It's also a great place for me to keep track of my kid's milestones. Allen's tried to convince me lately to use Google calendar, but the thing is, I don't have Google Calendar with me when I'm at playgroup or at the park, etc. I guess if I had a blackberry, that would work, but since I don't, I'll keep my day timer for now. It works for me and for our family.

Yeah for my 100th post...if you're keeping track. :)

Pumpkin Patch

On Monday we went to a little pumpkin patch at a church down the street. Aferwards Allen and Everett carved our pumpkin. Everett wanted to do a scary face this year with lots of teeth. Here are some photos of the evening:

Halloween post still to come...

She's 6 months!

Allen is famous

Allen was featured on a new blog about our area...Peachtree Corners...because he's been biking to work (9 miles) once or twice a week. I'm so proud of him!

She's so advanced

Camille is already sitting up on her own...it began pretty much around the 5 month mark. Everett was almost 7 months when he began to sit up. I think this little girl is going to be quick to do a lot of things. She can already roll over both ways and she can even scoot a little bit on her tummy. I know she'll be chasing around after her big brother soon and I can't wait! My only fear is knowing what to do with the marbles, game pieces and leggos we have all over the floor once she becomes mobile! I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

On a sad note, Everett lost his blankie bear, that he's slept with since birth, over the weekend. We were on our way to Gatlinburg, TN, for a family reunion and I stupidly let him take it with him into a gas station. I think he dropped it at the little arcade they had there and none of us noticed. We called the gas station a few times but they said they didn't find it and we went a different way home. I was more upset about it than he was, mainly because I wanted it for the memory. He does have a blanket that he sleeps with too so that will have to suffice.

Here is the last photo we have of Everett and his blankie bear, in the car just before we lost him...sniff, sniff.

Working with Daddy

Allen is about the most patient person I know and he's so great about letting Everett share in whatever project he's working on at the time. It's great because Everett learns so much and it gives Camille and me a little girl time. A couple weekends ago, Allen went out to work on the chimney on our roof. When he said he was bringing Everett along, I just had to break out the camera. I don't know many dads that would bring their 3-year-old up on the roof with them. It was pretty cute and not as dangerous as I thought. Our roof is pretty flat on that part of the house. Please excuse our nasty gutter...we're going to replace it soon.

i heart my kids

I'm in love with my kids these days. They are both in really enjoyable phases. Maybe I'm just in a good mood because it's Friday. I love that Everett will spend an hour by himself in our backyard digging for worms. I love that he'll sit in the back of the car singing, "Black, black sheep, have you a wroll?" at the top of his lungs. I love that he will boldly ask other kids at the park, "What's your name?" and "Do you want to play with me?" and even if he's met with resistance, he will continue to have fun on his own, playing with his imaginary friends, Bingo, Monkey, or his new friend, Dinosaur. He's never met someone he doesn't consider a friend. He's so full of love.

I love that Camille will light up a room with her smile and will literally laugh out loud. She smiles and laughs even when her brother is all in her face and pulling on both arms. I love that she'll sleep on a blanket outside at Stone Mountain during the laser light show and even sleep through the fireworks at the end. She is so easygoing and handles every deviance from a schedule we throw at her. Though past 5 months with her have been a whirlwind, I can't imagine my life without her.

Having two kids is tough with the feeding battles, potty training efforts, discipline issues, lack of sleep, etc. But I wouldn't trade it.

Stinging Caterpillars

Allen and Everett were working out in our yard on Sunday, trimming back our iris plants, when all of the sudden Allen sat down and felt a horrible sting on his rear end. A few minutes later he came across these crazy looking caterpillars and when Everett touched one, it made his finger sting really bad. Then Allen realized he must have sat on one. The stinging lasted for about half an hour. Allen looked them up and they are called Saddleback Caterpillars. It turns out that we had tons of them all over our iris plants, just snacking away. Who knew working in the yard could be so dangerous?

Here are some photos:

Potty Trainin'

We finally decided to ditch the diapers for Everett last weekend and it's going well so far. He's had about 2 accidents a day and still hasn't gone #2 on the potty yet, but we're convinced he'll get it soon. It's definitely nice to not have 2 kids in diapers anymore!!

Everett also now has an imaginary friend named Bingo that goes around with him most of the day. Bingo has eaten lunch with us the past two days and plays games with us too. I wonder...Will I have to potty train Bingo too?

Bye Bye Home Phone...Hello Verizon

In a few days we'll be canceling our home phone and begin only using our cell phones. We've had T-Mobile for years but we don't get service in our house which means up until now we've had to have a home phone. We just switched to Verizon, which has great coverage, and now we can ditch our land line.

So, if you want to reach us, you'll have to call our cell phones from here on out. Thanks!