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!!!!

Ralphie and Randy

December is here, and Christmas is next week. Can you believe it? I can't for several reasons. 1. Time has indeed flown way too quickly this year and 2. It's 80 degrees here. Sickening. Hot chocolate anyone?

We've had a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving. Jack has had two Christmas performances, we've taken a trip to NC, and we've made the most of every Christmas opportunity around.

Although it's currently 76 degrees outside right now, it was really cold here a few weeks ago. So cold that the boys actually needed their new coats (courtesy of Karen and Brad...THANK YOU!). After I took this picture I realized that I have given birth to the modern day Ralphie and Randy from the movie, The Christmas Story. You know, the Red Ryder BB Gun movie that plays nonstop on Christmas Eve? Jack (Ralphie) has the lisp and glasses thing going while Finn (Randy) is a bundled up munchkin who eats his food like a pig, too.






The other night "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came on TV. The REAL Grinch cartoon, not the movie. Anyway, we let the boys stay up to watch it. Finn watched about as long as it took to take this picture, but Jack really enjoyed it. The day after this I happened to go through the boys' toys to pack up and give away a lot of their things. After Jack got up from his nap he went to the playroom and noticed a few things were missing. He looked at me and yelled, "The Grinch was here!" Sort of.
Along with the kids' parties and things, we've had our own adult events to go to as well. After returning home from John's office party the other night, the babysitter gave us a great report on the boys and said they went to bed so well. Then, we hear, "Hey, Mom! Hey, Dad!" coming from Jack's room. He had stayed up to give us a proper welcoming (which he often does). When John opened the door to let him out of his room, we found him looking like this. Somehow he had gotten ahold of a ball point pen, and somehow that pen got ahold of Jack's face. Our little Maori tribesman.

We attended the gingerbread (jeengabwed) house decorating fun at Hampton Lake the other night. Jack had more fun eating the house decorations than either of us had putting that thing together. It's so hard. If you ever make a gingerbread house from a kit, plan on needing about eight times the amount of icing that they give you. Our gingerbread home looked condemned with it's cracked roof, drooping walls and half eaten shingles. Jack was able to sit on Santa's lap while we were there. He got right to the point with Mr. Claus: "I want a racecar. I want it yellow. And that's all I want." Nuf said.

The Bluffton Christmas Parade did not disappoint. It was the typical mix of fun and freaky. You decide which category the lady below falls into. There were drill teams, a gazillion tow trucks, a strange pirate shrine club, some adorable elementary school bands, and a handful of other things that I cannot put to words. It was fun being there seeing all the families and hanging out my my three men.

Jack had an awesome time. We were reminded again about his gifting of encouragement. John and I would love to take credit for that, but we're convinced the Lord passed this down through his Poppy Johnny. Whenever another float, tow truck, person or group would pass by, Jack would wave and yell as loudly as possible, "Great job! You're doing a great job!!!" Don't get me wrong. He's your typical feisty little boy who slugs his younger brother and steals toys from the innocent, but the kid can really boost the ol' morale. And I LOVE that about him.

We packed the family up last weekend and headed to NC to visit my family for Christmas since we'll be holding the fort down here on the actual day. My Grandaddy and Grandmom treated us all to yet another amazing dinner at the Angus Barn. If you're ever in Raleigh, make sure you go and (close your eyes vegetarians) eat some cow! Even though there were 20+ of us this year, and it was hard to talk to everyone, it was so cool to be with our funny family and celebrate Christmas with a tradition that means a lot to us. Thank you, thank you, thank you! (I know you're reading this because you're our most loyal blog readers!)

Jackie was still at NCSU after finals, so she came along with us this year which was great! It was fun to see her as always. Jack and Finn just love their Aunt Jackie.


Finn was a complete maniac at the restaurant. There were cameras flashing everywhere and he started doing his thing. Whenever he sees a camera light up for a picture, this is the face you get. So we have this shot with about everyone at the table holding him. I did get a group shot, but the table was long and it was a dark picture and a lot of people were mid-filet bite, which is never very attractive. So just picture everyone in my family downing large slabs of beef and you'll pretty much get the picture.

Mama and Finny Finn Finn.

And what would a trip to NC be without inhaling a sizable amount of sweet tea? I've realized that grandparents can get away with a lot. They fall easily for the sugar snack lies and vegetable avoidance tactics. Multiply what grandparents get away with by 1 million and what you've got now is a great grandparent. My Gammy gave Jack and Finn more sweet than Bojangle's serves in an entire day. It was diluted, but it still had it's magical powers over them. And me. Her tea is BOSS! And so is everything that she makes and does.

Finn moved up in the sweet tea drinking ranks this trip by getting his own special cup. Last time he just had a sip. This time, he saw that cup and just knew that something amazing was going into it. It was like a little sippy cup bong of sorts. John and I looked at each other when we saw it and, not having any personal experience with said items, we were pretty sure it looked like something questionable. So you'll be happy to know that I just googled 'bong' and indeed, this cup does resemble one. Oh dear. Like I said, great grandparents can do no wrong.

We were able to do a lot of fun things while we were in NC. My parents sang in a Christmas program at their church, and it was so good! It was neat to see this part of their lives and to know that they love it so much. Jack really enjoyed watching it, and not to disappoint, he very audibly would announce "Great job, Poppy!/Mimi!" after the end of every song. He was a little confused watching some of the nativity parts and seeing a real baby playing the part of Jesus. That may explain why he likes to tickle the baby Jesus that is in our nativities at home. "Tickle, tickle, tickle, little baby, Jesus." I figure that any interaction with Jesus is always a good thing.

We exchanged presents with some of the fam while we were there. Jack's favorite gift by far was his awesome Tarheel's football uniform. He's very excited to announce to anyone that "My name's Jack and I'm a football player." This changes based on whatever shirt he's wearing that day. It's either a football, baseball or fireman shirt. He becomes what he's wearing. It makes dressing for church and nicer events really difficult. The other morning we convinced him to wear a button down because we told him Uncle Jeff (his new favorite person) gave it to him.

And last but surely not least, our firstborn stole the show yet again at his Christmas performances. Recall last year's CBS performance where he laid on the ground while all of the other kids sang and stood on stage. This year we made it one step closer to normalcy. He did stand on the stage. He also picked what must have been the world's most hard to reach booger for the majority of the CBS performance. Not to mention, he was the only child who walked in with a stolen item from his classroom: a hard hat. The other children sang while my little construction worker dug for gold.

And did I mention that the digging just wasn't enough? Jack has the gift of encouragement AND completion. He had to finish the job. He didn't recall the Pick n' Flick technique we taught him. This picture was taken at CBS and the above was taken at his preschool performance. Both performances warranted pickage. Hopefully this isn't proving to be his nervous habit. If that's the case, middle school dances are going to be a blast.


If I don't get the chance to blog before Christmas, I hope you all are blessed by the celebration of Christ's birth!

Giving Thanks the Munchkin Way

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful holiday for us this year. Besides all of the fun with family, friends and food, we had/have so much to be thankful for!

Remember the blog promise I made to teach the kids about Thanksgiving? Well...I can't say that I accomplished it since Jack still refers to the Mayflower as the "May Boat", but we gave it a wholehearted effort. On Wednesday, we threw a Kid's Thanksgiving Feast. A lot of our friends were able to come, and we had the best time!

Here are the children at their peanut sized tables and chairs on our back patio. The weather was a little chilly, but they hung in there. Jen is blitzing it through the Thanksgiving story. Leslie brought a great Thanksgiving book that was on the kid's level. Religious freedoms isn't exactly an understood topic at three, ya know?

Leslie, Eliza, JP and Kim posed in their awesome hats. Several of the party attenders came decked out in their respective pilgrim and Indian clothes. They were so cute! It had been years since I made a girl pilgrim hat. Probably because of all the emotional damage I suffered after being forced to wear a full out pilgrim costume to my Aunt Pat's house for Thanksgiving dinner when I was a child. Pilgrim costumes are only safe in numbers, NOT flying solo, which is what I had to do while holding a 40 pound platter of turkey with cameras flashing all over the place. If I ever lose it, please know it's because of that.

Enough of that....Here are Neely and Shelby listening to the story. It was amazing to see the girls sitting quietly at the table while most of the boys wandered around, chewed on their juice boxes or stared into the sky.

Carson made an adorable Indian headdress and sported it well.

After the hat making and story time, the moms served the kids their feast! We had turkey/cheese roll ups, mac n' cheese, peas, carrots, sweet potato casserole, grapes, pretzels, rolls and cupcakes! I didn't get a picture of the food because I was either trying to convince Jack that it was good, or I was stuffing my own face. Thank you, Moms, for bringing all of the awesome goodies!!! Here's JP enjoying his bread.

Here's Owen, Amy and Lucy. Jack was excited to see Owen at his house. They go to school together and after the party, Jack kept saying "Owen from school was here." Jack and Owen both opted for baseball hats over the headdresses.

Camden enjoyed some mac n' cheese (which was awesome, Jen!) with the gang. As smart as he is, I'm sure he went home and retold the Thanksgiving story to his parents.

Here are some of the busy boys ignoring their food and playing instead.

Do these boxes look familiar? They're the forts that were in our dining room since June. Thankfully this gave me a reason to get them one step closer to the dump. They easily converted into a Mayflower and a teepee. Tomorrow...the dump!

Finn gave the cornucopia cut out a try. Sadly, his head was too small. Which is a first.

Camden was part of the horn-o-plenty, too!

The kids got to make their own cornucopia treats to take home. As always, I prepared too much food, so we've been eating our share of chocolate chips, peanuts, raisins and marshmallows. The woes of over preparing.

So that was our kid style Thanksgiving. It was so much fun for me to look around our home and see all of these amazing friends of ours, none of which I even knew five short years ago. We are so thankful for all of you.


One more thing we're thankful for: make up remover! Jack has witnessed me putting on my make up one time too many. This is mascara art. I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed that he knew where it was supposed to go.

Our Firstborn

This blog posting is dedicated to Jack. He's been having a rough go of it lately with obeying, so we're trying to focus a lot of our attention on him. It doesn't take much effort on our part to realize what a funny little guy we are blessed with. While the days are long and full of discipline measures, we're still so thrilled to be Jack's Mommy and Daddy.

Who says boys can't play dress up? Jack enjoys role playing, and his favorite costume is currently his knight costume. We had some friends over last week and he got excited about all of the praise they gave him after he performed song after song. When he got down from the "stage" (the kitchen table) he whispered to me, "I wanna show 'em my knight clothes." He had this devious grin like 'If they liked the singing, they're gonna LOVE this!'


Jack got a haircut last week, thankfully. His bangs were touching the tops of his glasses, and it was about to send me over the edge. We went for a shorter do this time and it turned out well. Jack was excited that he could put gel in his hair to spike it up a bit. He fixed it himself on this particular morning, so it turned out super spiky. He loves his new "funny hair".

We made this Thanksgiving Tree in an effort to hold to the promise to teach the kids about Thanksgiving this year. Thank you to Leslie who I pawned off the idea from. Jack had so much fun picking out the sticks and shoving them into the florist foam. When it came to writing the things he was thankful for, he answered (as any true Sunday Schooler would...) with God "Dod".

After God, came...

I, too, am thankful for PB&J! This also made the tree:


Hope everyone is doing well!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Some call it a Sugar High, or a Trans-Fat Trance, others a Glucose Gaze. Whatever you call it, our family had a huge dose of it last night. We high tailed it to Gigi and Poppy Johnny's house for some treatin' fun. Without much planning, our small group kids consisted mostly of marine-themed costumes. Jack was a fisherman, Finn was a shark, Gracen was The Little Mermaid and Pavin was a fish. Camden went rogue on us and was an organic banana. It was the cutest costume ever, but as my photo fortune would have it, all of my pictures of Camden were taken in the dark and didn't turn out. But just imagine a super cute little guy dressed up like a banana. So cute! We had a blast with everyone! Thanks, Gigi and PJ for having us over!



Before the sugar coma set in, our boys stood still for just this moment so we could capture their costumes for Halloween 2008. This shark costume has survived many tumbles, melted candy smears, pointing fingers and laughs. It will go down in our books as one of our all time favorite kid purchases. Jack went for the real life style over fairy tale. "I be a fisherman!" is what rang through the streets of Spanish Wells.


Jack, Gracen and Finn do some pre-treatin' relaxation and stretching exercises. They wanted to beg for candy with their game faces on. I think all the preparation worked. Practice makes better!



Pavin reluctantly joined the aquatic themed crew in his fish costume. This pushed his usual laid back style to the limits, but, as always, Pavin persevered and stayed cool as a cucumber in his stroller, not making a peep!



The people who took Halloween to ridiculous measure last year decided not to be outdone again! Jack and Gracen clung tight to their insanely nice Halloween toys that these folks gave them (and the other hundreds of children who came by). Unfortunately, Jack's toy makes noise this year. Next year I expect nothing less than a silent toy that makes Jack eat his vegetables.


Hampton Lake hosted yet another fun family event last Saturday. A Pumpkin Fest! They brought in hundreds of pumpkins used for carving, painting, and even pumpkin rollin'! Jack and Finn had the best time running around the pumpkins in the field. Unfortunately, it rained all day on Friday which made for a very wet pumpkin patch. Within two minutes of hitting the fields running, Finn found the muddiest of all mud puddles. Here he is before the mud slinging began.



To top of his dirtiness, Finley added some paint for good measure. A little acrylic paint never hurt anybody right? I was so upset at first because of all the mud, but John calmed me down and told me just to let him play. I was thinking that our great photo ops were ruined. WRONG!!!!



Finley is turning out to be the weird kid. Without any prompting he stuck this cone on his head. Maybe he was ashamed of how dirty his parents let him get. Maybe he thought it would be awesome and make everyone laugh. Either way, he looked like a little road construction gnome toddling around the parking lot.



The Pumpkin Fest was a benefit for the local Fire Department, so Jack was in preschooler paradise when he spent the afternoon climbing all over the fire trucks. There were several occasions where I saw him randomly give strangers the thumbs up sign.



After the crowds dwindled and our patience was running thin, we let Finn ditch his dirty duds in the back of the car. Thankfully we had packed an extra shirt and a boat load of baby wipes.



So, Fall continues to surprise us with lots of fun activities! We're past Halloween and cruisin' onto Thanksgiving now. I was so sad today to push the cart through Walmart to the tune of "Silver Bells". Seriously? Already? Did we slip into such a deep sugar coma that we missed Thanksgiving? The discount Halloween section was larger than the wimpy rack of Thanksgiving goods, and the entire outdoor section was already filled with Christmas trees! It was so unnerving, but so reflective of how we treat thanksgiving, the holiday and the practice of it. We have so much to be thankful for! To all three of you who read this, I'm pledging this year to highlight Thanksgiving as much as we do other holidays in an effort to teach my boys (at least the older one) the importance of it. I know times are so hard for so many people right now. Illnesses, financial struggles, government instabilities, war...the list could continue. I don't know why these things happen. But for every 'bad' thing, I can think of at least 5 great things, too. And I don't know why those things happen either. I surely didn't earn them. So, the way I see it, I cannot repay God for the gifts He's given me. But I can thank Him. So, here's to Thanksgiving! Join me, will you?

Psalm 95:1-6

"O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker."