January

Outside of booger picking (see last blog post), we have attended several birthday parties, gone to NC for a wedding, purchased a bounce house and have taken part in the daily insanity that is Casa de Ussery.

Our first soiree of the month was Camden's 2nd birthday party. We were treated to an awesome day at Island Playground (the indoor bounce house haven of the lowcountry) and to lunch at Moe's. Camden was so cute diving into his cupcake. He was such a fun (and talkative!) little host. If you ever meet Camden get ready to be amazed at this child's unbelievable vocabulary. He's so smart, cute and hilarious. What a great combo. Happy Birthday, Camden! Thanks for letting us share in your day.

Finn wore his party hat...er...plate well. He looked like a kid from Newsies after he ate his cupcake, but replace the newsprint with chocolate and you've got the idea.

Earlier this month we went to dinner at the Reed's. We had so much fun watching the kids play in their back yard. Jack was trying to impress Shelby with his wagon pulling skills here, and the rest of them were cackling so hard. We had a fun dinner and the kids played so well together. After we ate we got a little worried at how quiet the kids were, because that's never good with kids, right? JP had taken his diaper off and had swished it the toilet upstairs. For those of you who are trying their best to destroy the Earth like I am by using disposable diapers, BEWARE. If you over saturate one of those puppies, these little gel beads will spill out like some sort of nasty sludge all over the place. NOT easy to clean up, is it Kim? Just a warning.

On January 17th, Erin Coltrane and Josh Smith got married! Erin and I (and 6 other cool ladies) roomed together our senior year at UNC. There were 3 Erins (The "Trifecta") among the 8 of us, which made for some confusion. Lots of head turning. Two of us married men named Josh. I'm the oddball who married a John. Anyhoo...their wedding was absolutely gorgeous and thrilling to be a part of. Thank you for letting us share in your marriage ceremony! What a blessing. Congratulations, Erin and Josh!!!!! I cannot wait to see you both again.

Here are some of the roomies doing the house dance at the reception. What? You don't have a house dance? What's wrong with you? We were a little rusty, but once we got going it was like riding a bike. We all joked about how we'll bust out the house dance at our own kids' wedding receptions, how our kids will hate it and want to disown us., and how we'll love embarrassing them with our post dance awkward high fiving.

Congratulations, again, Erin and Josh! Your wedding was awesome!

We are now the proud owners of a bounce house. My grandmother (aka Gammy) gave Jack money for Christmas so he could pick out what he wanted. He's known about the money since it was given to him. Although he has very limited knowledge about dollars and money and what not, we're trying to at least teach him that it doesn't grow on trees. Well, on one of our trips to Target, Jack saw a Spiderman jacket that he just had to have. He asked if he could get it with his Gammy money, so I swallowed my loathing of all character clothing and let him get the jacket. It was about $3 on the clearance rack. He made one other purchase of a $1 "baby Speed Racer" as well. So, needless to say, we had a lot of leftover Gammy money. When we went to NC, we of course had to go to Target, just to see if NC Targets were better than Bluffton Target, and Jack saw the bounce house. He wanted to use his Gammy money to get the bounce house. I tried to explain to him that his Gammy money would not be enough for a bounce house, but then a little red sticker on the box caught my eye. It, too, was on clearance and indeed, the Gammy money would suffice. Jack is so Dave Ramsey. On clearance. Paid in full with cash. Atta boy.

Here's another atta boy headed Jack's way. This picture just warms my basketball loving heart. John and I will occasionally let Jack stay up late to watch basketball. Sometimes it's because we want him to have a little one on two with us while Finn's in bed, but mostly it's because a game will start and neither one of us want to pry ourselves away from the TV long enough to complete his 15 minute bedtime routine. Terrible, I know. But this was a 'just for fun' night. On his own, Jack went to the playroom, dragged his chair into the living room, got his duckie and plopped his little butt down for a night of basketball watching.

Jack has been having a rough time lately with acting out and just being a little more obstinate than usual. Thinking he needed some attention, Gigi came and kidnapped Jack for one evening this week. They had dinner together, played and just hung out. It was just what the attitude doctor ordered. He came back a new being! Thank you, Gigi! He also pocketed the orange harmonica seen here.

This morning Jack and I got bitten by the painting bug. He saw me painting and begged to paint something "of my own!" Here is his masterpiece! Apparently blue, orange, pink and red make one funky shade of purple.

John sneaked this shot of Jack this morning with Scout. Out of nowhere Jack laid down with Scout in our bathroom and just cuddled with him like this for a while. We asked him why he was doing that and he said, "I hug him because he's my best friend."

Thank goodness we put the paints up before Jack got the grand idea to mark his legs up with an ink pen. Here he is displaying his body modifications. Check out his shins. This was hilarious watching John take this picture because Jack was all giggles and then he got very serious, much like a high school boys sports team photo. Whatever you do, don't smile. Smiling is for girls and for little boys who aren't cool enough to draw on their legs. Maybe that's what he was thinking.


Last night we attended the bash of the year: Kim's 30th birthday party! We had the best time. Kim's hubby, Pratt, planned and executed the best dance party. I honestly think my feet are bruised from all the dancing (and some rather uncomfy shoes).

Here's Pratt, Kim, Leslie and Gerrit (the DJ of the night). Gerrit did an incredible job keeping the party going with all kinds of fun music, In honor of Kim's love of musicals, all the ladies hit the floor to Dancing Queen, boas and all!

Happy Birthday, Kim!!!! Thank you for letting us celebrate with you!!!


So far the February calendar is a lot less full than January. We certainly won't let that stop us from insane amounts of fun. Hope everyone is doing well!!!

The Boogie Men

Socially inappropriate content to follow. Read at your own risk.

I pick my nose. (May be worth noting that this is John’s turn at the wheel.) I’m not proud of it. But to be fair, I come from what I assume is a long line of nose pickers. My father is a great man in his own right, but passed along the vice… and I to my boys. Perhaps it passes with the surname (which of course would be to assume its genetic). More likely, however, is that it’s nurture - an acquired taste (don’t get carried away… haven’t eaten a booger in ages).

So Jack and Finn don’t have a chance… in more ways than one, but specifically as it pertains to the nose picking. We’ve tried to mitigate the damage by teaching Jack to avoid booger consumption with the phrase “pick it and flick it”. He typically responds by going to work to find more buried treasure and pipes up with a “wook daddy, I fwick it… no, ith stuck… I can’t fwick it!”

Our policy as it applies to nose picking is not unlike the defensive philosophy opposing teams used for Michael Jordan – “You can’t stop him, you can only hope to contain him.” And so with time we’ll try to teach the boys context. Pick it and flick it in the back yard: great. Pick it and flick it at a job interview, first date, funeral service, delivery room, or anywhere J Crew clothing is worn: really bad idea.

The point of this particular blog? Good question. Honestly, it does seem like a poor judgment call to air out our dirty laundry on a blog. That said, hopefully you’ll extend some grace to our boys on the off chance that they announce their discovery mid Sunday school. Some of the blame should be shared with their parents... or at least their father.

MC n' HNY

Whew...I can't believe the holidays are over. It's 2009, which means that all of the groups, organization and companies that have big goals to reach by 2010 better get their act together, huh? There's been no mention of any resolutions around our home this year. Even if there were, blogging about them probably wouldn't be the best option. Anyway, Happy New Year to everyone who reads. We hope you have a blessed 2009.

Christmas was so much fun for us. John's family was in town and my parents came on Christmas Day. John was also home more than usual on the days before and after Christmas. We tried to take advantage of this rare opportunity, so we went to Savannah. Going to Savannah has become one of our favorite things to do. We don't exactly do much when we go other than walk around the squares, eat at cheap restaurants and take fun pictures. But we like it, and so do the boys.

Look, folks!!! It's Paula Deen!!!! We experienced a Christmas miracle of sorts, at least for parents of 1 and 3 year old boys. We walked passed a restaurant, asked them how long the wait would be and they said, "Wait? There's no wait! Common' in!" Hallelujah!!! Triple hallelujas for the restaurant being The Lady and Sons, which is Paula's restaurant. It was yum. Finn proved that he is like his Mama in more than just the physical appearance category. He chowed on the collard greens like they were going out of style.

On the 23rd, we packed up and had a family slumber party at John's parents. Jack had the pleasant surprise of meeting Santa, who stopped in to "see if Jack was behaving." Jack was jumping up and down when he realized who was at the door. He quickly ran to get his reindeer antlers because he knew Santa would be pleased. And he was. He brought Jack the "white race car" (Speed Racer) that he had anticipated. Finn also scored big this year. Per the usual, I got wrapped up in the moment and didn't get any good pictures of the kids and their loot.

This was Christmas Eve morning with John's family. He and his mom and sister, Jackie, posed for a quick shot.

We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church that evening. It was so cool. Candlelight, Christmas music, people wearing red sweaters even though it's hot outside, everyone sitting with their random relatives from out of town, coming together to celebrate why Christmas is the mother of all big deals, to learn about the greatest gift ever given. The gift you don't have to wait to get, or save money to buy and is recession-proof.

On the day after Christmas, we went back to Savannah for some more exploring fun. We found a really cool gas station, a huge playground, and a cupcake store. The boys were upset to leave both the cupcake store and playground, so we're unsure which was their favorite.

2008 will go down in the Ussery annals as the year of firearms. My parents gave John an over under (never even knew what that was before 2 weeks ago) and his parents got Jeffrey one as well. We're both the type of people that when we get something new we have to try it out. That is a difficult thing to hide when you buy a new coat and live in Bluffton, especially when it's 80 degrees on Christmas Day. Anyway, John gave the gun a whirl a few times over the holidays. Jackie was really good at shooting clays. Jack did okay the first time, but we chalked it up to his poor vision and inability to hold the weight of it. (THAT WAS A JOKE. JACK DOESN'T EVEN KNOW THERE IS A GUN AND FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH HE THINKS ALL GUNS SHOOT WATER.)


Step aside, Annie! Check out Mama Uss with her shotgun!!!! YEEEHAW!!!! I would tell you to be fearful of your life, but it appears that being not 100% terrible at some other sports does not mean that you're a good shot.

Jack rocked in the holidays with a new do. This was by far the most pleasant trip to the salon we've ever had. Jack sat there and let them cut his hair, clippers, razors and all. I wish I had a picture of the amazing mohawk they left him with. He looked like a little Travis Barker sans the full body tattoos.

If Finn did have a resolution, I hope it would be to master eating with utensils. He does amazingly well for the start...then when he's done with the food, he moves on to art time. He's the canvas for sure.

On New Year's Eve we celebrated with an impromptu dinner with the Dentons and Norrises. The kids were maniacs and were dancing and playing all over the house. It was so much fun. They're all little buddies.

After everyone left and we put Finn to bed, we had some bonding time with Jack. We didn't really know how to celebrate with a 3 year old on New Year's Eve, so we threw in some bubba teeth, snapped a photo and called it a night.


Did anyone happen to catch the airing of all the daredevil insanities on New Year's Eve? John and I were too sad to watch Dick Clark so we flipped around only to find multiple channels of people doing seriously scary things! Isn't there a better way to ring in the new year than trying to back flip a pick up truck? Wait. Yes, there is. It's to jump a dirt bike onto a 100 ft. structure that only has a 40ft. long landing and then basically free fall back off the structure, breaking and lacerating your hand in front of a gazillion people. We couldn't stop watching as crazy as it was. It made our bubba teeth stunt look amazingly normal.

Happy New Year, blog readers!!!!