Jack's Debut

The CBS children's Christmas program was this past Wednesday. While the other children sang, or at least stood there, Jack did this. He fell onto the floor and started screaming. Maybe it's because he was overwhelmed with an entire room full of people watching, or maybe it was the loud music. Either way, we're convinced that he doesn't have a bright future in theater. And that's okay. Or maybe he does have some sort of dramatic streak in him, and since he couldn't sing all the words to the song, he thought the best way to get everyone's attention was to throw a tantum. It worked. It wasn't the adorable, tear-inducing production we hoped it would be, but he was 100% Jack, and we loved it.





Jack did redeem himself by making quite the fabulous gingerbread house the other day. He enjoyed putting the M and Ms onto the house and then eating one to reward himself. I wish there was a finished product to show you, but about 5 minutes after this picture was taken I broke the roof in half. Oops. Jack didn't seem to mind. He calmly said "Oh no. Gingeebwed bwokeen. Eat?" ...meaning 'Oh well...let's make the most of this and eat this junk.'

Our friend Leslie threw a Happy Birthday Jesus party on Friday. It was so much fun. The kids wore these hats and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and then ate cookie cake. There were crafts and treat bags....so much fun and such a creative way to instill in our children what this holiday is about. Jack loves talking about 'Baby Jeethuth". As you can see, Finley just chilled in his party hat once we got home. Jack wore his on Saturday morning while eating his happy cakes (pancakes) and dip it (syrup).



Yesterday John had to work, so it was just another day for the boys and me. John read in the paper that Palmetto Bluff was having a Christmas festival of sorts. There were food booths, crafts, and cookie stations, and at noon, Santa would come. My first thought, which I'm assuming is my 'mother's intuition', said, 'No way. Not without help.' But I didn't listen. We get to Palmetto Bluff, walk 10 minutes to the Santa line, which is wonderfully short, and it starts to RAIN! Fortunately we were standing under a beautiful live oak which reduced what hit us to a drizzle at worst. Santa finally arrived at 12:20, and the boys were able to sit on his lap within a few minutes. It was chaos. But as I was running back to the car, pushing the stroller in the rain with one hand, singing Jingle Bells to keep Jack content, and holding their Santa polaroid picture upside down to keep it from ruining, I felt oddly happy that we had gone forth with the plan. We were wet, but we were happy.

We got home to realize that Jack's glasses were missing a right lens. We did find it in the car, and the nice optician we met a few weeks ago came in the shop on his day off to fix them! That's the Christmas spirit, huh?

We'll be posting more picture soon. Hopefully we'll all be bundled up. There's a cool front coming here! It's been in the 80s this week. Weird being at the playground in shorts hearing "White Christmas" play over the radio.

Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas season!

New Rims & Chapel Thrill

Tah-Dah! So Jack has glasses. Whew....what a crazy past few days it has been. Turns out, he's farsighted, which means he can see far away, but not up close. AND...because of the poor vision, his eye muscles are struggling to keep his eyes straight. The glasses are to help the wandering eyes, which may eventually correct his vision. We found this out when we noticed in pictures that the red eye was picking up on one eye but not the other. How bizarre!!! But isn't he so cute? He looks like the kiddo from Jerry McGuire. Only ridiculously cuter.

The saddest part of it all was when he walked up to our Christmas tree and exclaimed, "I see lights!" I think before they must have been a big blur up close. I guess he's never really known any different though.

This picture is more for the ketchup face than the glasses. So far he's done a great job keeping the glasses on...even while ketchup face-painting! And we were pleased to see that the red eye picked up in both eyes. As far as we can tell, the glasses are helping. He will walk around the house looking over the top of them, though, when he's looking far away. I guess he figures he can see that far, so why use them? We'll keep you updated on the vision progress.


This past weekend John, the boys and I headed up to North Carolina for the Kincaid/Gardner/Williams/Ussery Angus Barn Trip. The Angus Barn is a great restaurant, known for it's beef (as you probably guessed with the name Angus in it) and it's very down home barn theme. We had a wonderful time seeing everyone, and the food was umm umm good! It goes without saying that I took few pictures and the ones I did take were terrible. I am in a photography crisis here. There's something wrong with me if I am taking pictures of crazy people at local parades but missing out on family pictures. Whenever you see me missing a great photo opportunity, please slap me. And then tell me to take a picture. My mom's great about taking pictures of everyone, so hopefully she'll send me some of hers.

Anyhoo...

Before the dinner, we went to our old stompin' grounds at UNC. It. Was. FABULOUS! We didn't do anything particularly incredible, but just being there put us in such great moods. I couldn't count the number of times one of us said, "I miss this" or "I love this place" or "When I die, cremate me and throw my ashes on the Dean Dome" We love UNC. I love everything about it: the trees, the sports, the books, and the general aura of awesomeness. Getting back to campus was a nice break from the UGA, USC and Clemson overload we get living here. While I appreciate sharing in their fanhood and excitement, it just doesn't feel the same. Because it's not the same. Another reason why I'm excited about basketball season.

We did happen upon the Chapel Hill Christmas Parade while we were there. Jackie met up with us, and the boys had a great time with her. There were definitely more floats than in the Bluffton Parade, but still enough random things to note. I do respect how the town embraces the university and likes to paint everything Carolina blue. Check it out:


Hope everyone is having a Merry Christmas season!!!

The Bluffton Christmas Parade

Apogies abound to all of the MILLIONS of you out there who anticipate an Ussery blog on a daily basis. I know...it's been a while, but only because we've been busy doing lots of fun and exciting things. All of which will appear on here soon, but for tonight (after a 6 hour trip with the boys) I'm pooped and will leave you with the "Tale of the Bluffton Christmas Parade".

Here's the summary: The parade was a freak show.

According to Bluffton, nothing says Merry Christmas like...(watch the slideshow)



What ever happened to Christmas floats? You know, the kind with fake, glittery grass hanging from the back with lifesize candy canes and other Christmas themed things decorating it? Apparently all it takes to make it into a parade these days is something that moves, whether it has wheels or legs, with some sort of Christmas adornment on it such as a wreath. And even that is optional. I just don't get it.

So really, the parade was fun. We just had a great time taking pictures of the randomness of it all. Between all of the bizarre additions to the Bluffton Christmas parade were the usual cute, little kids playing handbells and the line up of classic cars with the drivers wearing Santa hats. Jack learned quickly that if he waved and said Merry Christmas to everyone that he'd get candy. After all the dum dum lollipops he ate, I'm surprised his teeth didn't rot out of his head before we made it back to the car.

Here are our sugar stoked bystanders:


Pavin Denton and Finn in the middle of one fine milk coma...

Gracen and Jack before the dum dums....

After the dum dums....

The Elferys

Check this out! It's a jump start to get you in the Christmas Spirit!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1112459415

(You'll have to copy and paste this into web address bar:)

8 hours

Finley wins the Finntastic award because he has slept through the night for the past 3 nights...and because his name fits well into the made up word. Just thought the celebration was blog-worthy. Here's to night numero quatro (fingers crossed)!!!!!

Giving Thanks

We had a great Thanksgiving Day here in the Ussery household. We spent the day hanging around the house watching football and the Macy's parade. I thought Jack would get more into it, but he kept begging to watch "choo choo train" which means the Polar Express to him. My parents came in town for the holiday, which was great. We all ate lunch/dinner (linner or dunch, perhaps?) with John's parents, Jackie, Jeff and Grandma Catherine. The food was great...company was even better. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for!


Jack, circa 2005, in "My Little Turkey" outfit propped up against Fall colored pillow.

Finn, circa 2 days ago, in "My Little Turkey" outfit propped up against Fall colored pillow.

Jack thought it would be helpful to stir the pecan pie ingredients. He would run into the kitchen saying "Mimi and Mommy cook!" Since watching Ratatouille, he's been saying cook and kitchen. And Ratatouille, which he says very clearly. It's funny.

Despite being the recipient of his brother's cold, Finley has been all smiles this past weekend. He continues to be such a happy little guy. He smiles all the time!!! Right now he'll smile and then start coughing up a lung, which makes me want to cry. But he's okay.

Besides smiling, Finn is into standing these days. He's so strong. 13lb 5 oz and 24 inches long last week at the doctor's office! He's huge. I thought Jack was big, but Finn is almost 2 pounds heavier and almost and inch longer than Jack was at 2 months of age. Maybe Finn will be our little linebacker.

If tantrums could kill, we would have been dead yesterday afternoon. This is how Jack woke up from his nap...in his usual fit of rage. I just don't get it. We put him down a happy little boy, duckie in tow, and he wakes up a sweaty ball of fury, hair disheveled, clammy skin and a mouthful of screams.

But after a few moments with Dad, he's all cute and cuddly again.

Apparently Jack didn't want Mimi and Poppy to leave today. Or either he wanted to go with him. John tried coaxing him out at first but eventually had to pull him out of their trunk!

Here's Mimi giving Finn a goodbye kiss.

ROAD TRIP!!!

Sorry it's been a while since the last post. There has been a good reason. We headed up to Greensboro last week to see my family. John took a work/vacation trip to Las Vegas where he risked his life rock climbing for the first 2 days and then attended the National Realtors' Convention for the remainder of the time. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures to share from his climbing experience, but he'll be willing to tell you about it if you're interested.

While in G'boro, Jack, Finn and I made the rounds to see a lot of our family members which was great. Jack knew everyone by name before we left. The best pronounciations have to be "Teem and Kaptee" for Tim and Kathy. "Melissa" is hardly recognizable, but funny to hear his attempt.

Here's a look at what we were up to:


Here's Anna and Owen, my first cousins, hanging out with their 2nd cousins. Anna did an incredible job feeding Finley and then reluctantly passed him off to her brother, Owen. Jack had so much fun playing with their toys and being around them. I'm sure he'd love to be with them more often! Jack also was able to see his other cousin, Adam, who was so good playing with Jack! I did get a picture, but it was only the top of his head that you could see. I'm the worst picture taker.

Uncle Matt and Aunt Melissa (and doggy cousin, Fergie in the background) took care of Jack while I attended a baby shower for one of my college roomies (Erin) in Chapel Hill. Jack had a blast as I'm sure they did. It was fun to see my girlfriends from Chapel Hill! I also got a picture of that, but I didn't want to post any pregnant pictures without permission (although the picture is adorable and is very blog worthy).

Although we missed the familiarity of our own beds and toys, we did take advantage of what all Greensboro has to offer for children. Here is Jack at the Natural Science Center petting zoo. He loved the goats probably more than anything...even more than the tigers. Don't worry, they're not part of the petting part. He called the goats doggies for a while. He even laid his head on one of the goats like he does his own dog, Scout.

Great picture of Jack and John walking through the petting zoo. Look at the leaves!!!! Jack loved the trees and all of the leaves on the ground. One day we were riding in the car and Jack says, "Mommy! Trees are orange!"

Apparently the slides in Greensboro carry as much static electricity in them as the slides in Bluffton. This was taken at Country Park, where I got my first and only bee sting as a child.

Mommy and Finn in the swing at Country Park.

Jack loved the Children's Museum as well. I guess he missed home a little, too, when he decided to play in the sand over all of the other toys and displays that were offered! He enjoyed the transportation set up the best: an airplane with a slide that came out of the cockpit, a real police car, race car, fire engine, and toy train set. He's into that kind of stuff.

Hopefully he wouldn't approach a real train in this fashion.
Of all the kiddy things we did, I think this was Jack's favorite: BounceU! It's an indoor playground with bounce houses everywhere. He was one of the smaller children there that day, but he managed to hang with the big kids. He loved climbing up this incline and sliding down the other side. John was very proud to see his boy climbing!

And here's the Finn man. This was at Jump n' Fun, another variation of an indoor playground. Jack again enjoyed it. Finley and I sat on the floor playing and trying to eavesdrop on a nearby collection of playgroup mothers who were not too friendly.
They all had their daytimers out planning the next playgroup, which was titled "Christmas Craft and Play". Funny.

So, thank you, Mimi and Poppy for hosting us last week! And thanks to Gammy, Pa, Mema, and Deda for entertaining us at your homes! We had a great time and look forward to coming back soon! We love you!!!

Hope all the readers out there are doing well.

Boxers and Elefinns

We've had fun enjoying the Fall this year in Bluffton. Despite the unusually warm temperatures, we've made it out to a festival or two, and last night, we had fun Trick-or-Treating! There are a lot of pictures to post, so on with it....


Jack enjoyed riding on his Daddy's shoulders during the May River Arts and Seafood Festival. This was last Saturday in downtown Bluffton. They blocked the streets off and, as the name would show, had art and seafood for sale! John pointed out that he was surprised I got so excited about a festival that featured two things I care little about. I told him it was just getting out of the house that excited me. It was a lot of fun! Jack enjoyed the bounce house that a church had set up and he enjoyed eating ribs, which he called chicken.

Around 1pm, which is Jack's naptime, we found him doing this. We were standing talking to some couples in our small group, looked down, and there he was. Either he was tired or our conversation wasn't very entertaining.

Jack got to touch a baby alligator at the street fair. There was a lowcountry wildlife exhibit that he enjoyed. They featured little alligators like this one and several types of turtles. One turtle was called a chicken turtle. He must have liked that one because every once in a while when he's doing his jibber jabber talk, I'll hear 'cheeken tuhtul" come out in the mix.

And everyone knows what this is....AIRPLANE! You know..when someone flies another person in the air resting their feet on the other person's stomach? Jack and I play this a lot during the day. If done correctly, it can be a good ab workout. I need that these days. And Jack always needs something to laugh at and cause potential injuries.

Finn chillin' in his Jack-o-lantern hand-me-down outfit.


Here was Finn on Halloween morning before Community Bible Study. Someone commented while we were there that he was dressed as a cowboy, but she was wrong. It's just Finn in his usual state of awesomeness. Looking like a baby stud. Or cowbaby.

Here's proof that he's reaching for his toys now.


AND NOW......Halloween!!!!

Jack went as a boxer this year, ab muscles and all. This was the best picture I could take because as soon as the costume was on, he was in motion. I think he was practicing his boxing shuffle. He looks like he's about to swing at any moment.

In proper 2nd child fashion, Finn was dressed in Jack's old elephant costume. He looked so cute! Finley didn't mind the elephant ears as much as I remember Jack hating them. This gave me hope that he's going to be our calm one. Goodness knows if Jack's the calm one, we're in for it!!!

Our sons: Finn the Elephant and Mr. Jack Balboa

Seriously though, Jack's costume made me think of Rocky, which has caused me to hum/sing the Rocky theme song, which has in turn made me feel awesome all day long. Try it sometime. Follow it with Eye of the Tiger and you might just burst from all of the power.


Finn was content most of the time. He was mistaken for a girl by almost everyone. Probably all the satiny pink that confused them, right?

We went trick-or-treating in Spanish Wells with Gigi. This was my view from the rear of the pack. Jack looked more like a wizard than a boxer with his robe on. He didn't want anything to do with his bucket until he realized its purpose was for candy holding. Then he wouldn't let his "punkie buckie" out of his sight.

This is the house that went all out for Halloween. They had creepy skeletons dressed as pirates in their yard. The folks that lived there were dressed in pirate outfits, and they even had a lifesize skeleton pirate whose eyes lit up. It also spoke. Jack didn't get a good look at it because John wisely blocked his view. Instead Jack did stare at this huge inflatable pumpkin with ghosts shooting up out of it.


When Jack finally snapped out of the pirate skeleton trance, he came out like this. He looks like he's about to go ape on everyone, doesn' he?

The pirate house gave out the best stuff! They gave Jack this light up pumpkin wand that he's holding. It has lights on it that swirl around. Good thing, too, because I forgot our flashlight at home. He also was given a bag of other toys and huge candy bars. It was insane that these folks got so into this holiday. Kinda creepy if you ask me.

Our family of four!

Here is Jack double fisting it with his Blow Pop and Snickers bar. Don't worry. He didn't eat it. He only had a DumDum lollipop and a few Smarties. (However, he also had a haircut that afternoon. Two cookies and three DumDums later, he emerged with shorter hair and a sheen of sticky over his entire body, so yes, he had enough sugar to last a while.)

Here's Finn and his Gigi. She can always get him to smile! (See picture below)

This close up of Finn shows the huge formula spill on his left shoulder. I love babies and actually enjoy the baby stage, but one negative is the smell of semi-dry formula on clothes. It's awful. It rivals the smell of a forgotten sippy cup that once held milk but now has a yogurty-cheese-ish mixture in it.



This elephant costume has come full circle....Jack's on the Left. Finn's on the Right.


Hope you enjoyed our photos. I'm sure there will be more fun soon!