Jack Turns 3!!!

Jack turned three on the 23rd, which is crazy and awesome and unbelievable!!! It blows our minds that we're starting our forth year as parents. It's equally as nuts that we've only had our precious little boy in our lives for such a short period of time. If you could measure our love for Jack in years it would be at least a gazillion eons or so.

Jack had a great birthday. The weekend long celebration began with a visit from Mimi and Poppy. They arrived on Thursday, and to say the least, Jack was thrilled. He wanted to do everything with them. Friday was spend finding things to do indoors while it poured outside, and Saturday was thankfully sunny enough for some time outdoors.

No matter what we were doing there was a lot of three finger showing going on. Everyone was asking Jack how old he was going to be and he had no trouble telling everyone.

This is Jack's pile-o-presents. You can see that he discovered our birthday present hiding place (under our bed...not very original, huh?). Take a look at the gift on top of the pile. Jack disappeared for a moment while we were cooking dinner. After some mysterious paper rustling sounds, we rushed to find him fist deep into this gift, which was a circular saw. All boys need one.

This was a gasp shot after seeing his work bench. He loved all of his gifts. His favorites were the work bench from Mimi and Poppy and the Better Batter that Gigi and Papa Johnny got for him. We played baseball in the 95 degree weather this afternoon for 45 minutes, and then he came inside to hammer and "work on my house".

Jack's birthday dinner was a cookout with hamburgers, chips, and his all time favorite that he's never allowed to have....sweet tea! (decaf of course). He didn't eat worth a flip, but we surely did!

Jack loved his guitar birthday cake. He immediately broke into some serious air guitar when he saw it coming his way.

Sorry for the neck craning, but here's a picture of his rice krispy treat cake. I recommend these cakes for birthdays...no baking, super easy, very yummy and little mess!


Happy Birthday, Jack!!!!

Anni Up!!

On August 9th, John and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. We laugh when we think back to our original plan of 'starting a family' around the five year mark. Psych:) But, here we are with two handsome sons, one purchased hairy son, and five years of marriage under our belts, ready to experience many, many more together! (Years, not children)

We took a 24 hour getaway to Charleston last Friday night to celebrate. The drive was pretty dreary on the way up to C-Town, and we were dreading the two hours of hunger until our late evening dinner reservation. But then we saw a light from heaven....

...And OF COURSE we stopped.

After our Kreme fill, we headed to The Charleston Place, which is an awesome hotel should you ever be looking for a place to stay. We parked the car and walked to the restaurant (Cypress) and had a great dinner. John and I did our usual thing of gazing into each other eyes in between thought provoking, intellectual conversation. Or...rather, we eavesdropped on the table of six next to us and were angered at their impersonation of Will Ferrell from the movie "Anchorman." Hey, we're a great fit, what can I say?

This pose is a shout out to Jack who has recently started saying, "Hey Mommy/Daddy!!! Wook at me!" We turn to look and all he's doing is propping his hand against a piece of furniture and kicking one leg out behind him. Hilarious!

On Saturday we had a yummy breakfast at the hotel restaurant. The blueberry pancakes were the best I've ever had. To work those off (which may not be possible) and to stay in tradition of Ussery family vacations, we couldn't settle for aimlessly wandering the city streets or relaxing by the pool. We needed to fulfill our inner thrill issues and get some exercise at the same time. So, we visited the James Island Park climbing wall. John has climbed before, but I have not. It was a lot of fun and an incredible workout!

Here's John, who made it to the top several times. I only climbed twice, but I made it almost to the top. I made a point to keep talking loudly about "my two sons" so that the other experienced climbers would either think, "Wow! She's got two kids and can still climb like that!?!" or "Oh...that explains why she's terrible." It was probably the latter that was more accurate, but it was so much fun anyway, and we'll definitely go again.

John anchored me while I was climbing, so no pictures to prove that I actually made it off the ground, but here I am in my harness. John did a great job encouraging me and not letting me fall to my death. Thanks, baby! You've always got my back!

Thank you, John, for an exciting anniversary trip!!! And thank you to everyone who watched the boys so we could go. You're the BEST! As always, they enjoyed your company more than ours!:(


The summer months have been quickly passing, so we've tried to make the most out of our last few weeks of late night sunlight. The other night we took Scout to the dog park at Hampton Lake. Jack clearly enjoyed it more than Scout did!

Finn is officially walking. He can fall down where there's nothing to grab onto to pick himself up, but he manages to stand right back up and keep going. On this particular night, he literally walked his pants off.

Jack's all time favorite thing to do in the evenings is to hit baseball. He can occasionally hit it without the tee, but prefers to hit with it. He gets better each time. If you ever get a chance to play with him, fake a miss and you'll probably hear, "Oh no...it's okay. Keep your eye on the ball."

Here's Jack and his partner in crime, Gracen. This picture was too funny not to post.



Okay, so is everyone else as bleary eyed as the Ussery family from staying up until the wee hours of the morning watching the Olympics? Hasn't it all been amazing! We've tivoed the entire games so we can watch what we want. Unfortunately that's been almost all of it except for that strange indoor cycling stuff. We've discovered that....
-John can do an amazing interpretation of how the gymnasts walk from one event to another
-Bela Karaly (former US gymnastics coach) is 100% crazy right off the bat, and we love him for it.
-Michael Phelps is obviously not human.
-We apparently know more about gymnastic scoring than we thought because we'll yell "You've got to be kidding me!!!" whenever a sorry score pops up on the screen.
-Trampoline? Seriously?

GO USA!!!!! (Call if you know of any post Olympic Depression Support Groups starting up next week!)
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Bahama Mamas

Last Thursday, four of my fellow mama buddies and I packed our bags and headed to the Bahamas for some R&R. I think I can speak for the rest of the gang when I say we had the time of our lives! John not only held the fort down with the boys, but he got Finn walking more and clinging to me less! Surely they missed their Mama, but they had some much needed Daddy time. Thank you, John, for making this trip happen!!!!

Here's our group...(L to R...Sandi Reed, Me, Amy Shell, Kim Reed, Britt Bader, Leslie Albert and Maureen Sandor)

We stayed at the Atlantis, which was wonderful. It offered the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. This was the view from our balcony. The water was beautiful, the beds were cozy and the water slides were amazing. I have to admit that the water slides were probably my favorite thing to do. Sitting on the beach without chasing toddlers and worrying about anyone drowning was great, but the part of me with thrill issues enjoyed the water slides!

Another favorite part of the trip was eating dinner! We would eat light breakfasts and lunches and then have a nice dinner. This particular restaurant was on the Atlantis grounds, and it was so beautiful. The food was great, and the gentleman in the photo was the entertainer. The best part was not having to ask the hostess for crayons and not having to pass Cheerios out to the masses. We had adult conversation and were in no hurry to leave! It was awesome!!!

The first night we were there, we came out into the street to see a parade coming our way. This was one of the performers. Their costumes reminded me of the dancer girls from Vegas, but their sound was very unique...as were the dancers. Very cool.

Here's a picture of the hotel. We stayed in the far right building with the connector in between the buildings. I would recommend The Atlantis to anyone of any age. There was something fun for everyone!

Here we are waiting for our table for our last dinner. We were smiling because we knew we'd get to see our babies the next day. It was an incredible trip. We all voted to make it a habit to get some girl time to ourselves every once in a while.


Thanks to all the girls who went along for an amazing time! And a HUGE THANKS to our husbands for letting us go, taking such great care of our babies, and for not burning our houses down!