We Live in a Beautiful Place

John had an awesome idea the other night of going to South Beach to hang out and watch the sunset. We loaded up the kids, paid our $5 to get into Sea Pines (ugh) and trekked it to the sandy beaches. This is about the longest drive we could make to go to the beach, but since it's on the backside of the island, we got to see an amazing sunset. Check it out...

Jack and Finn were so excited to go to the beach. Finn was not a huge fan of walking on the sand at first, but he warmed up to it. Jack on the other hand, stripped down naked without us realizing it when we made it to the end of the boardwalk. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was going in the water. It was warm that day, but not that warm. So, on went the clothes again.


Finn enjoyed watching a group of kite surfers. There were 3 or 4 of them out there, along with a handful of other sunset watching groups. One couple told us that they come out every night to see the sunset. They've lived here for 11 years and only miss it when it rains. How cool is that?

This mini trip to the shore got me all excited about the summer. Last year Finn couldn't walk and he was a little afraid of the ocean. This year will be much different. We're hoping to get Jack into some swim lessons.

I love this picture. Jack was curious about the kite surfers as well. I think he thought they were walking on the water.


Here's one of the surfers. He's not on the water, but on a board with wheels. It looked like a funky skateboard of sorts. Being the competitors that we are, we all wanted a go at it ourselves.

Beautiful ending to a beautiful day!


It got better....We left the beach and had a blast at dinner with Papa Johnny and Gigi. We went to a local Gullah restaurant and had some great food and entertainment. The boys were the entertainment of course.

Have a great week everyone!

We Got Out of Dodge

Sometimes you just need to get outta dodge. That's what we did last Friday. The boys and I loaded up the Denton crew and headed over the "big, big bridge" to Savannah. Afterall, it is our new favorite wandering spot. The trip wasn't perfect to say the least, but since that didn't seem bother any of us, you could assume we needed the little getaway pretty badly. We had a difficult time finding parking and finally surrendered to a parking garage. After parking on the 6th floor, unloading the kids and passing out Ritz crackers to the masses, we discovered that the elevator wasn't working. Unpack the younger kids from their strollers, convince the older ones that the stairs are FUN, and there we went, dragging our strollers and our children down 6 flights of stairs. Jack and Gracen were crying because the rails were too cold to touch. It was hilarious and maddening all at the same time. We hit the streets in search of lunch only to get the "Sure, you can eat here if you're willing to wait 2 hours" talk from Paula Deen's restaurant. No thanks. Fuddruckers here we come. The kids screamed the entire time, but the food was good, we didn't have to clean anything up and it was a change of scenery. Thank you, Lord, for options!

Onto our next hunt: cupcakes! If you didn't know already, cupcakes can change your life. Or your day. And that's what they did for us last Friday afternoon. What started off as a series of unfortunate events turned into a sugar high bliss. We entered the doors of Mabel's Cupcake Emporium (Yes, "you want to go to there"-Liz Lemmon), and everything got happier. See?


The kids were sticky from head to toe, but it was worth their good moods, the photo opportunities and the bystanders' comments on what cute children we had and what fun parents we were. Little did they know our inner OCD, clutter/mess-hating personalities were screaming on the inside, counting down the seconds until we could whip out our wet wipes like a gun at a western shoot out.


Gracen and Jack were all smiles as soon as they entered the gluten/sugar/trans fat haven that is Mabel's Cupcake Emporium. Jack gave it his thumbs up approval. That's equivalent to a 5 star hotel rating or a 4 star movie review.

Jen and I gave the parking garage attendants a thumbs up approval as well for ending our little excursion on such a high note. One of them retrieved the car for us so we didn't have to make the 6 floor trek in the uglier direction. How does that country song go, "there are angels among us?" If you're in need of meeting any, there are 2 that work at the parking deck on the corner of Drayton and Congress in downtown Savannah, GA.

John is a great dad. I was gone the other morning for a little bit and I returned to him playing with the boys in the driveway. It's nothing super special or out of the ordinary, but it's what I love about coming home whenever I'm gone. My four men! (counting Scout)

Remember those magazines called Highlights that were in every doctor and dentist office in the country? (Do they still publish that?) Well they had a game called hidden pictures in every volume where there were ...guess what...hidden pictures in one busy looking scene. Wait...I just realized that this illustration is not going to work, but I really want to leave my shout out to Highlights in here, so I'm going to move on. Anyway, you'll notice that something is missing (not hidden) in the following picture. If you're having a hard time, here are some clues....Vision....Crossed Eyes....Lenses....Rims....Ralphie. Indeed, Jack took a 4 day hiatus from his glasses wearing. During his Friday afternoon naptime, he didn't want to nap and got bored, I suppose, and thought that popping his left lens out of his glasses was really fun and cool. We looked for that lens for collective hours. Jason and Lauren helped. We took the sheets off of his bed, we looked in books, we looked for it in places that it would have been had he decided to swallow it. (not fun or cool) Never found it. Still haven't found it. Jack got a replacement set of lenses in his old frames on Tuesday. He immediately burst into singing "I can see! I can see! The leaves are green! The leaves are green!" Maybe this new appreciation will keep him from playing his $130 game of hide and seek again.

This cake was made last night to get pumped for the UNC/Duke game. It was also made to entice me to eat again, since my appetite has been low for a while. Not sure exactly the cause, but I think it has been because of the game, which is the dumbest thing in the world. Outside of duke basketball in general of course. Do you really think that me posting the day after the UNC win last night is by coincidence? We've all noticed my lack in blogging lately, so of course I had to say a big, fat GO HEELS on this thing. Since this was the first game of at least 2 this season, I know well enough to save the trash talk until we win the 2nd. So, game well played. UNC just happened to play better last night and I wanted to say congratulations to them.


Funny Jack Story:

Some children have imaginary friends. Our oldest son has an imaginary word. Not in the sense that we don't hear it when he says it, but in the sense that the dictionary doesn't recognize it as real. The word is "schupang". Pronounced "SHOE-pang". We don't know if it's a noun, verb, or exclamation. So far, when asking him what shupang is, we've gotten these responses:

-"it's a poopie loopie, doopie" which we assume is just the beginnings of potty talk for our 3 year old
-"schupang is for the bed" which was said while sitting in his bed
-SHUPANG! which was yelled after banging his knee into the table.

We don't know what it means exactly, but somehow, oddly, it seems appropriate in many settings. Let's play a little blog Balderdash...What does schupang mean to you?

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!!!!

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!