The Petting Zoo

Last Saturday we had the chance to visit the petting zoo in Sea Pines. We were there to celebrate Jack and Finn's friend, Lucy's, birthday. Everyone had the best time!

Here's the birthday girl. Isn't she a CUTIE!?!?

Jack got up close and personal with the animals. We have failed to teach him the rules of personal space. I also didn't do a good job explaining what to do with the carrots and apples that the other kids were giving the animals, because every time I looked at Jack, he was eating them himself. Maybe I'll start taking him to the zoo whenever he's due for some fruits and veggies.

Here are some of Jack's buddies: Neely, Shelby and Owen on the right. The older kids enjoyed running through the maze of fences and dirt. Mine were by far the dirtiest. We don't like to disappoint. Unfortunately we had to go shopping afterwards. I thought about going home to change, but we forged on, looking like a homeless family.

Finley LOVED the goats. He kept roaring at them, like he does at every animal. He, too, wanted to kiss the goats.

See the horns? See Finn's hiney? Well...the two were introduced shortly after this picture. Don't worry. No one was injured. Finn's shorts just got a little entangled in the goat's horns and the goat went a little nutty. There is excitement everywhere we go.


Funny Jack Story....

Yesterday on the way home from CBS (Community Bible Study), I asked Jack what he had learned. Here's what he said:

"Moses. Then his yard caught on fire. Then fire said, "MOOOOOOSES...HERE I AM!!!" Every once in a while he'll look at me and say "MOOOOOSES" in a really deep (and hilarious) voice.

The Party

So much for "next year we're just throwing a small birthday party". It seems that birthdays have become a favorite part of being Mommy. They are so much fun to plan and so much fun to sit back and watch. Our boys had a Wet n' Wild themed party this past Saturday. Bounce house, waterslides, kiddie pools, tattoos and all! I think it's fair to say that, despite the heat, everyone had a great time.


Jack was the first to christen the water slide. He made the mistake of going down the slide pre-water, so he basically tumbled down the whole thing and landed in a cold pool. The look he shot me was priceless. "This party STINKS!" But once the water was flowing, he didn't stop except to finger swipe his birthday cake.

Jack figured out that he could go backwards in a pike position and not get as much water in his face. It was a very strategic move on his part.

This was another allowed position. I say "allowed" because of course Jack went headfirst, which is the only prohibited move mentioned on the dotted line that I had to sign as the 'adult in charge'. Scary, I know.

In addition to the slide/bounce house thing was a tattoo booth! The rental company (Kidz Play Rentals for all you Bluffton folks...they were GREAT!) brought this along as well. It was a hit with all age groups. I recall several "MOM" tattoos, some tigers, fairies, butterflies, and even a Playboy bunny by one of the sketchier attendees. :) Jack chose a baseball that had flames coming behind it. He called it his baseball with fire. So far he has not given me the go ahead to wash it off.

Jack and Finn each had their own guitar cake. They turned out really well, and the kids loved them. The only time the activity stopped was to inhale cake. Who says you can't eat cake at 10am? A loser, that's who!

I wish I could say that this was definitely Finn's first piece of cake, but I'm sure it wasn't. With Jack, being the first, he was on a sugar free diet until his first birthday when he got his first piece of cake (and freaked out). I can't remember, but I'm sure Finn has indulged himself in the yummyhood of cake before. Why? Because he knew exactly what to do with it. There was none of that hesitant finger poking typically seen at 1 year old birthday parties. No, he looked at it like, 'Oh...you again' and then ate the whole thing.

Jack and Shelby enjoyed their share of icing, too!

The party was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who stuck out the heat with us! It was so great to have our families here to celebrate. Here's Finn with Gigi.

...And Finn with Mimi. The grandmothers took over Finley who ran all over the yard. He did take several ventures down the big waterslide, too, and he loved it. He's a daredevil in training!

This picture was taken on Saturday night after dinner. The boys loved having Mimi and Poppy in town. Happy Birthday to Poppy today! Thanks for all of your help. See you in October!

Mohawks and Waffles

This past week marked the end to our summertime schedule. School already started for Jack, CBS starts tomorrow, and MOPS starts next week. It's about to get nuts at the Ussery household, but I think we're all up for the challenge. Our home has been abuzz the last few days while John was off of work. We've all been thrilled to spend time with him. The boys both got haircuts today, and Jack continues to say the strangest and funniest things.


Don't worry. Jack's hair is not cut into a mohawk. Rather, it's just styled into a mohawk. Danielle, the boys fabulous hair stylist, cut Jack's hair in such a big kid way, but she added some fun for him by punking it out a bit with some 'product'. John and I thought he'd like it better than he did. He kept asking for us to take his hair off, which he didn't understand couldn't happen without some serious damage being done.

And here's our almost one year old who looks suddenly three. After three people thought Finn was a girl, we decided it was time for a haircut. Now there's no mistaking him for a chick. He's such a little dude.

Here's the backside of his new do.

Jack loves waffles, so I surprised him by making some for breakfast on Saturday. He used to be satisfied with frozen Eggos, but now that he's had the real deal, he'll say "NO MOM!!!! Get the waffle maker" whenever I try to serve Eggos for breakfast anymore.

Jack has started giving us the thumb's up sign. I'm guessing he's learned it at preschool, but we'll never know because he tells us nothing about preschool other than "I eat snacks." He's surely his mother's son. Not from the lack of talking (obviously) but more for the love of snacks!

When I bought this water sprinkler ball thing on the summer clearance aisle at KB Toys, I pictured the boys running and laughing through the shooting water with a little Beach Boys playing in the background. Well, no. Jack karate chopped the water the entire time it was on, and Finn stood beside the 4Runner and banged his hands on the side of it. So much for toys!

At the rate Jack's feet grow, he may be wearing these shoes by next summer.

Teethy McTeetherson


Jack has learned the Pledge of Allegiance at school. Here's his typical speedy delivery that he likes to give...oh...and he has to stand on a chair to do it. Enjoy!

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!

South Beach

After a hectic day last week, John had the great idea of heading to the beach for the evening. So we scarfed down our dinner, loaded up the car, and headed to South Beach on the island.


Jack was so excited he didn't want to eat any of his dinner. I wonder why he won't eat it all of the other nights when we don't have anywhere fun to go....?

Here's the birthday man with his boys. John turned 29 on the 23rd. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN!!!!

Finn is taking more and more steps these days. He's mastered our living room by going couch to ottoman, ottoman to chair without using his knees. He's definitely not a true walker, yet, but our days are numbered.

This is Jack's "happy face."

What a beautiful ending to a fun evening.

Back To Bluffton

As much fun as the trip to the lake was, everyone was happy to be back in their own beds and cribs. We had a busy week at home. The boys played mostly in the house, Jack had his last day of Summer Camp Preschool, and I washed, dried and folded the largest laundry pile in the history of laundry piles.


Cute picture of our little man.

Oh, and we can't forget...Jack's new specs! Aren't they so stylish? We picked them up on the way to NC last week, and it's gone pretty well. Despite the initial requests for his orange glasses, I think Jack's pretty much adjusted.

What is it with our boys and ducks? Jack was playing with his ducks on this particular morning when he discovered a new little stuffed duck in a large bin of stuffed animals that we keep in Finley's room. Jack saw it fitting to give the baby duck to his baby brother.

This was taken at Jack's request. "Take a picture of me and my ducky."

Funny Jack Story...

We were playing in the forts last night (yes, they're still around), and Jack asked that we all get into the fort because the monsters were coming. So, Finn and I crawled in behind him. Jack told me to stick my head out of the peep hole to see if I could see them. I told him that I couldn't see any monsters. Jack said, "They look like bears....Two Bears.....and they're orange...and....they smell like cookies!!!!" I asked if he could hear them and he said he could hear them singing and doing the "Oh, Yeah! Dance" which happens to be a favorite made up game of Jack's. So funny that kiddo.