The Ussereeds

If it were appropriate, or normal, for everyday families like ours to have blended names like celebrity couples do, we would have been the Ussereeds last Tuesday! The Reeds had us and the Weavers over for a fun family night. Jack was so excited about going to Shelby's house that he couldn't fall asleep for his nap. Or maybe that's my wishful thinking....I think he's on the verge of dropping his nap, which is so frightening.

Here's the little gang at the kid table eating their kid food (which looked good to me!). Notice the Reed children actually eating their food. We had to pull every trick out of the Eating Coercion Bag that night..."Firemen eat peas!" "You can be big like Daddy if you eat." "No playing until you eat your hotdog." Seriously, can you imagine someone having to strong arm you to eat a hotdog? Or take a nap?


Jack and Shelby posed for a moment. They enjoy hugging one another.

Finn stuck his finger in a light socket while we were there. It was so scary! Just kidding....Jack and Finn got their hair cut earlier that day. Their toddler stylist knows how to get a laugh out of everyone. After the cut she gives them "crazy hair", which means a faux hawk for Jack and really messy hair for Finn. They howl at themselves. Jack's faux hawk fell, but Finn's crazy hair was still rockin' by dinnertime.

I think JP liked his mac n' cheese. Check out this messy eater pic. And check out those curls! What a handsome little man. Thanks, Reed fam, for a fun evening!!!

Here's our pooch. Yes, Scout is still alive. He's still the only child that's allowed to sleep in our bed. This picture was taken last Thursday after our fetching time. I wish I could say he could catch a frisbee like the pugs next door can, but alas, he cannot. He's just content, I suppose, on being beautiful. Apparently our ex-next door neighbor who's looking to rent out the house he used to live in is not so in love with our precious Scout. After a rather hilarious encounter with this man, a retiree, he informed me that Scout leaves "gifts" in his yard on a frequent basis. I politely told him that no, Scout is not allowed in his yard and that on the very infrequent occasion that he does deliver a "gift", that we quickly transport it to another location. This did not satisfy our neighbor. He then compared the size of the gifts left to the size of the dogs that live nearby and said he KNEW it was Scout. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry that this is what I have to look forward to when I have more time on my hands. Maybe I, too, can become a turd expert. Er..."gift" expert.

The boys are showing their true Ussery blood. Here they've created their own circuit training exercise. A little push ups, a little sit ups, some running in circles and finish it off with some bed jumping. They love this Iron Gym thing. It hangs in the doorway and they can do pull ups on it. I'm trying to increase Finn's time on the Flexed Arm Hang, but we're only at about 3 seconds. That would not win him the Presidential Fitness Award. Do any of you NC public schoolers know what I'm talking about? A little V Sit anyone?

Yesterday I got the trains out. This can mean one of two things: 1. I really want to play constructively with the boys and have fun with them or 2. I need them distracted from whatever is taking place in the house at that moment. Yesterday was a reason #2 day. I was distracting them from the heating repair man who was there for the 4th time in 6 weeks. We woke up yesterday to our home being a frigid 59 degrees. Poor Finn was moaning in his crib when he woke up. But, Jeremiah (yes, we're on a first name basis now) fixed the heater, and we were warm as toast last night.


Stay tuned for John's blog about his recent camping trip to Cumberland Island....