Zach's Birthday. . . Bella's Surgery. . . I am waaaaaaaay behind. . .Let's catch up!!

Hi again. . . it's been awhile.  I hope I can remember everything that's happened since the last time I was here.  I have been one busy wife, mom, and photog lately so excuse my lack of blogging!  :(

First up. . . ZACHARY TURNED SIX!  Hard to believe I know. . . but, here are pictures to prove it:

We had his party at Lofty Pursuits.  I am ADDICTED to their ice cream.  YUM.  So is Zach.  They have a really cool shop - if you haven't been you should check them out!

My cousin made 48 adorable lego themed cupcakes PLUS the bigger lego cake especially for Zachary. She outdid herself - everything was perfect!!

After the kiddos arrive the candy making class began.  Wes was awesome.  It was amazing to see the candy making process.  The kids loved it and so did the adults.  Everyone got to take home their own bag of homemade candy.

We also enjoyed the great Mickey!  He did all sorts of juggling tricks for the kids. He is a HOOT!  We enjoyed having his family celebrate with Zach this year.

Everyone seemed to have a great time and Zachary was so excited to have all of his friends there to share in his big day.

A few days later I took him out to get some "real" photos. . . we had a great time together!  I love the photos I was able to capture . . . he was so genuine which doesn't happen often when he's smiling for my camera.  He did great!

And now on to other updates . . .

Chase Parker enjoyed a Daddy's Breakfast day at his school recently.  The kiddos all performed a little show for all the dads.  Unfortunately Paul's phone was not charged and he didn't get any pictures. You can imagine that I was NOT a happy camper.  Stacey Dugger came through and saved the day though. She snapped this one and sent it to me. . .

Paul, of course, loved spending the morning with him but said he did not participate in the show at all.  Just sat there . . . no singing, nothing.  Why can't he be like that AT HOME?

Instead we get this type stuff. . .

He is our crazy little dude. . . always keeping us hopping!!  :)

Let's talk about Bella now. . . whew.  What a story!  A couple of weeks ago she came in the house from a potty break and I noticed just a very slight smidget of blood on the floor.  I checked her paws.  I found one very small prick in one of her paw pads.  Nothing major at all though.  Called the vet to see if there was anything I could put on it and they told me just to TRY to keep it as clean as possible.  A few days went by. . . she even went to Zach's class for show and tell.  She was acting fine.  No limping, no bleeding, nothing.  Chasing squirrels, eating fine, etc.

It was the day of her obedience training. . . her trainer Gill had just arrived.  Bella was sooooo excited to see her.  So excited that all of a sudden her paw just started GUSHING out blood.  All over my rug. Of course she couldn't have been on the hardwood floor when it happened!

I freaked out.  Gill calmed me down.  We called the vet and finally, after soaking through towels of blood, decided to take her to the vet.  Now, remember how LARGE she is.   Remember how WHITE she is.  Remember how OCD I am. . . it was not a good mix.  Gill was a wonderful savior that day though.  She kept me calm and she even road with me to the vet holding Bella's paw the entire way.

We quickly saw the vet and left Bella there to be examined.  She called me a little while later and told me she had found multiple pieces of glass in her paw!  What?  I didn't understand how she could have gone DAYS without showing any signs.  It was very strange.  Nevertheless, she had to have a little surgery to remove it all.  Then the cone of shame came.  Now we are good again.  Boy am I glad!!

Here is her get well card from her trainer. . . LOL!  She did not find humor in it.  :)

Here is Bella Kate with Zach at Show & Tell. . . all the kids adored her!  You would have never known she was walking around with glass in her paw. . . poor puppy!!

And now more cute pictures. . .

Zach enjoyed cupcakes with his class to celebrate his birthday at school!!  He shares his birthday with Dr. Seuss - did you know that?  :)  Chase Parker loved coming to big school to join in the party!

And. . . we have a THIRD tooth gone!!  :)

And we have recently celebrated Aaron's birthday as well as my dads. . . lots of opportunities for my sweeth tooth to act up lately!  Look at this ginormous guitar cookie that my sister in law made. . . AMAZING!

I think that is it for now. . . I am all pictured out.  I'm sure you are too!

Winston Blue Birdwell

Winston Blue Birdwell

Well, sadly, we lost our last kitty this week.  Blue, or more commonly referred to as "Boo", is playing with Pootie, Alex and Jessi now.  He was my first kitty ever.  I will miss him.

Even though in recent months he annoyed the stew out of me I am finding myself wishing that he were here to annoy me now.

He was with us a very long time and was, for the most part, a very good cat.  He loved his mama for sure.  Slept with me almost every night.  Once in a while he would sleep on his daddy's side of the bed, but mostly me.

He was tolerant of the kiddos but liked to watch them from afar.  He was not very fond of the new girl in our house. . . Bella Kate.  He was barely tolerant at best.

What a mischievous cat he was!  And, if he didn't get his way. . . lookout.  His most annoying trick was to bang the kitchen cabinets in the middle of the night if he wanted food.  THAT was a VERY BAD stage we endured.  He would choose the cabinets that had the inside child locks on them and take his paw and open it enough for the locks to catch and then let it go and . . . WHAM!  Loud noise.  Middle of the night.  Parents were RAGING mad.  He had a few tricks up his sleeve like that.  Cats just somehow know they will always win the game.

But, he had his endearing side too.  He was very affectionate.  He loved attention.  He loved our former kitty Pootie so much.  They got along from the minute they laid eyes on each other.  I'm so glad they are together now.

We will miss you Boo.  Who knows, maybe we will see you again one day?

Our First Visit From The Tooth Fairy!!!

 FIRST TOOTH GONE. . . 5 years and 11 months. . . February 16, 2013

I can't believe my first born lost his FIRST tooth!  And, what's even harder to believe is that I don't have it to put in my keepsake box.  :(  I wanted to see that little tooth!  I wanted to keep that little tooth! I wanted to show it to his future wife one day!  :(  Not gonna happen apparently.

He woke up last Saturday morning and was talking to us and his Daddy said, "uh, son, you feel like something is missing in your mouth? You're a little buck toothed!"  Zach didn't even know he had lost it.

He rushed to a mirror and was so excited but then his excitement turned to extreme concern.  Would the tooth fairy indeed still visit if there was NO TOOTH?  We assured him that yes she would. . . and she did!  He loved his gift (Angry Birds watch) and $3 from her.

What's really hilarious is the fact that CHASE PARKER went to school the next Monday morning and told his teacher that the tooth fairy had come to visit him.  She told me this that afternoon when I picked him up.  She said she was searching around in his mouth all day for a missing tooth!  Little dude had her convinced that he received the visit himself.  It all clicked with her when I told her that his BROTHER was the one with the missing tooth.  :)

I'll leave you with some other cute pictures from our week. . .

What We've Been Up To. . .

 Let's talk about Bella Kate first. . .

She's a new student in obedience class!! Yay!!!  We found an awesome trainer that comes to our home every two weeks to "school" us and Bella.  As she says, "it's 75% owner training and 25% dog training".  We have been amazed with Bella's progress after just two lessons.  Not that she was a horrible dog to begin with but I had definitely taken us down a naughty road by letting her become alpha dog of the house.  I had forgotten that MOM is ALWAYS alpha dog!

It's funny how I would never think of letting my husband or kids go a day without reminding them who  is queen of the house but I'll just let that dog slide right on by!  She is my third child, my baby.  But, we are getting our home in order again.

She has done very well.  So far she has learned to be very well mannered when guests come over (not sniff or lick them to death!), eat her food when it's put in front of her (no more grazing all day long when she feels like it), lets mom go out the door first (alpha dog thing!), patiently waiting her turn in "line" for affection (when daddy comes home he greets mom first, then kids, then Bella), and NO MORE LOUNGING ON MOM'S MASTER BED!

Here is our secret training tool. . . .I'll let you guess how Altoids work on training a dog.  ;)

She just had her second lesson and now we are learning to sit and stay until given the command to move.  We practice about three times daily for 10-15 minutes at a time.  So far she has been perfect.  I am amazed!

I'm loving all this dog stuff I'm learning.  It all makes perfect sense and MOST of it can even be applied to my 2 year old son!  :)

Love, love, love Gill Hepple!  If you are looking for a trainer look no more.  Just contact her here!  She's phenomenal and will make an awesome difference if you follow her directions and do the work required.

Is she not just drop dead gorgeous??

Notice no pictures of Bella on my bed anymore. . . she is enjoying her own master orthopedic bed.  :)

This situation got diffused by mom before it became a "situation".  :)  I love how Bella looks so relaxed here (even got the foot stuck out like she's just chillin') but we all know both of them were on high alert!  hahaha!!!

And, in other news. . . Zach and Chase Parker are doing well.  Zach's bottom two teeth are REALLY loose now. . . can't believe it.  I'm about to add tooth fairy to my long list of mom duties.  Amazing how fast they are growing up.  And, both are loving school.  

Zach is becoming a great little reader fast.  He seems to really enjoy learning and enjoys excelling.  I'm so proud of him!  He will often times want to write sentences and have me "grade" them.  Here is a recent note he wrote. . . warmed my heart completely.  Everybody say awwwwww. . . .

Speaking of pictures we had a fun time one morning making silly faces for the camera. . . this is what we came up with.  Check out Chase Parker sneaking through in the lower right corner!  haha!!

And this is me, keeping an eye on my man!  hahaha!  We were being so silly that morning. . .

Speaking of silliness. . . have you guys had fun in the silly mirror at Lofty Pursuits??  Oh it's total fun!!

I've discovered how delicious their ice cream is and we have had to visit there often.  Such a neat place!   Have you been to their new location on Timberlane Road?  You should check it out.  We decided to have Zach's birthday party there this year. . . amazing that my boy will be SIX YEARS OLD!  wow.

Here's the little birthday invite we sent out to his friends and family.  I think it will be a fun day.  The kids will get to pick their ice cream and they will also enjoy a candy making class and take home their very own homemade candy.

In other news. . . Paul and I enjoyed our first night ALONE together in over 2 years.  Whoa.  Yes, BOTH boys spent the night at Grammy's house.  This was Chase Parker's first time away from mom and dad and apparently he didn't miss us.  Never once asked about going home, about us, nothing.  He did great!  Grammy and Papa survived too.  Apparently he got up a couple times during the night and came in their room. . . at least it wasn't in MY room that night!  Yay!  Paul and I enjoyed a nice date night and didn't even get home til 1AM!  Whoohooooo!!  It was nice!  So, mom and dad. . . anytime you feel the urge again. . . just let us know.  :)

And, last on my list of news. . . Chase Parker is doing VERY well with potty training.  He's got number one down perfectly.  No accidents, wakes up dry, goes to the potty all by himself (even at night - yay!). . . love it!!  We are still working on number two. . . enough said.  :)

And, I'm still loving my photography business.  It is definitely my passion - enjoying it SO much!!  Hard to believe this month marks six months that I have been in business!  

I currently have a special running for high school seniors.  It's that time of year to start thinking about graduation announcements, etc. so you need some professional pictures!  If you know someone with kids graduating please pass this along. . . 

I think that's about it for now. . . I'll leave you with some cute Chase Parker pictures!

Fun Times. . .

Well, it's never boring around here.  With 2 year and 5 year olds PLUS a 40 + year old man in my house it's just never a dull moment.  We have been enjoying this gorgeous weather for sure.  Playing outside, taking walks, riding the plasma cars, picnics, anything and everything.

My dad recently asked me about taking the boys to Birdsong.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a bird sanctuary in Grady County, right near the Georgia state line.   We decided to take the boys this past Friday after school.  It's quite a long drive. . . I'd say at least 45 minutes from our house.

I had never been before - the boys had and were excited to go back.  When we arrived no one was around except one lady in the office.  We had fun going in the gift shop (Zach picked out a toy snake and Chase a magnifying glass) and then watching some cardinals and walking around the grounds.  A little chilly but it was fun.

After we were done we picked up Grammy and headed to Whataburger for a dinner out.  Paul was flying that evening so he didn't join us.

Here are some iPhone pics from our trip:

And in other news. . . we've decided to put our home on the market!  We THOUGHT we had decided to build a new home in a new neighborhood we had found but the longer I see the sign out in the yard (it's been out a week now) the more I'm starting to get cold feet.  But then again, I am excited to possibly build again - we had SO much fun when we built this home.  We do have the urge to do it again but the thought of actually doing it all with two kids is becoming more daunting by the day.  But, for now, at least we have the sign out.  If a contract comes in we will have to REALLY make a final decision.  I created a website for our potential buyers at 

http://greenmont.blogspot.com/

if you know of anyone who might be interested!

We have had a good new year so far.  One of my resolutions is to cook more.  So far it's been going well.  Homemade veggie soup, Burgundy Pork Tenderloin, and Ham & Sweet Potato casserole are among the menu choices this week.  We will see how everything turns out!

The boys are having a great time - Zach enjoyed Literacy Week last week and enjoyed his Favorite Book Character parade at school.  He dressed up as Dr. Seuss's Cat In The Hat!

So. Stinking. Cute.

And some more cute pictures. . .

Fun at Books A Million embarrassing Daddy has he was looking for magazines.  They were running up to him with different hats on as he is surrounded by lots of other people.  It was hilarious.  I did nothing to stop them.  I just enjoyed the show.  However, my turn for embarrassment came soon enough.  As Zach was running up to him wearing this NASA hat he also loudly exclaimed, "Daddy!  Chase Parker has a stinky POOPIE!"  Yep, that was my cue to swoop up my children and leave.

The ants have been busy. . . neat thing to watch.  I never had an ant farm as a kid.  I'm enjoying seeing the changes they make day to day.  :)

I took a holiday hiatus from my photography business but now and getting back in to the swing of things!  Here is our Valentine's Day special running now. . . . and speaking of getting into the swing of things, I need to go get ready for my shoot coming up this evening.  Can't wait - I just love this stuff!

 And, that's about it for now. .. have a great week everyone.