Take That and Rewind it Back

My blog neglect has caught up with me. To think that there was a point in my life when I blogged daily! It only lasted a little while, but still. Life has been busy as usual. Here's a little rewind of the past 3ish weeks. Starting with the most recent (because blogger uploaded my pictures in this order, and I'm too tired to change it.)

Jackie is home! Welcome back, Jackie! She finished her 2nd year at NC State, and we're so happy to have her home. Jack was so thrilled about having his Auntie back that he made up a song about it. Very Jack-like to do something like that. It wasn't fancy, and I don't even remember what it was, but it was probably to the tune of Happy Birthday or Row Row Row Your Boat. Jackie went to dinner with us and then spent 30 minutes in our noseeum infested driveway drawing with sidewalk chalk. And we love her for it. We couldn't resist a fake laughter photo. Jack has caught onto the fun.


A more normal shot...


Wouldn't this beautiful tree blossom lead you to believe that it's home is in a beautiful, clean, non-busy, non-Taxi crowded, Bluffton-like town? False. This picture was taken in the BIG APPLE! John and I were able to visit Jordan and Trevor at their home in NYC two weekends ago. We had the best time catching up with them and rubbing Jordan's pregnant belly. We walked around midtown, Soho, the village, the park, over the Brooklyn Bridge, saw Mama Mia, ate great food, and soaked in the sights and sounds of the big city. I kept wondering if it was clear to everyone there that we didn't live there. (Why is cool to travel, but not cool to be a tourist?) When we went to Europe a few years ago, it was evident that we were from the states. Oddly enough, because of our shoes. One of the cabbies in Germany said that he can always tell by the shoes. But in NYC, our shoes were the same as most peoples. I'm sure the I 'heart' NY t shirt didn't help;) (joke)

Here we are with Jordan coming back to the city via the Brooklyn Bridge. Our celebrity moment happened on the bridge. One minute we were staring at the skyline, the next we were brushing shoulders with Natalie Portman. I pretended it wasn't a big deal, but I immediately texted some friends the BIG news. (That Nat and I are BFF.)

Who said Trevor and John needed the top half of their heads anyway? More Brooklyn action.

We walked to Times Square after seeing Mama Mia. The show was incredible! The audience was singing through the encore, and John and Trevor didn't kill themselves. A true success!

Thank you, Jordan and Trevor, for hosting us for the weekend, and thank you, Gigi and Poppy Johnny, for making this trip a possibility for us. Thanks to the Dyar family as well for keeping our precious boys part of the weekend.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

That picture was taken a few weeks ago during the super hero naked post bath fun run. The lighting is bad, but it's still a funny shot to me.

Everyone always tells us how much the boys look alike. John and I smile and nod, but we really don't think they look that much alike. Sure, you can tell they're brothers, but they have their own unique looks about them. However....this picture makes me agree with everyone else. These boys do look alike. They were sitting on top of John here, reading a book. They love their Daddy. I can see why. He's the best.


We've never let our children sleep in the bed with us. Not because of SIDS risks or attachment concerns so much, but mostly because we're selfish bed hogs who love to sleep and don't want our children interrupting that at any cost. :) But...then this happened:

Some mornings Jack will get up early, which for us is anytime before 7:30. He'll come in our room and lay down between us with his duckies in tow. About 50% of the time he'll fall back asleep. The other 50% of the time, he begs to watch his "shows" or asks for milk or oatmeal. John can fall back asleep with him in the bed, but I rarely do. It's one of those times with Jack that is so precious I don't want to sleep through it. I just lay there and listen to his breathing and smell him and look at him and wish that he'll never grow up, but at the same time pray that he will. If we have a 3rd baby, I still won't let him or her sleep with us because I'm still a selfish sleeping brat, but I might let some little early morning naps take place....:) Who can resist?

Some recent Jack stories:

-We asked Jack where he wanted to take Jackie to dinner on Thursday night. He said Five Guys. We asked why. He said, "Because it's a special place." We asked, "Why is it a special place?" He said, "Because they have peanuts."
-After passing a rather, ahem, large individual at Target the other day, Jack asked the person, "Can you do a push up?" to which they responded, "I probably can't, but I probably should." Jack slowly agreed with a simple, 'yeah'. I quickly responded by pretending I was deaf.
-Jack was being treated to some Rita's Italian ice on Friday. Poppy was on the phone with him going over which flavor he was going to ask for...grape, lemon, cherry, etc. When Poppy got to lemon, Jack shouted, "Yeah, I like women!" Oh, the joys of preschooler letter switching. I love it.
-Jack told me the other day: "You're the greatest Mommy I've ever seen!" Aw.

Finn stories:

-Finley is a very verbal child. This is new to us since Jack, while expressive, was not as verbose at Finn's age. We sometimes get creeped out by Finn to be honest with you. Someone that small should not be able to say so much. It's downright weird at times. Tonight on the way to church, John described Jack as a knucklehead. No one laughed or showed any signs that this was a funny thing to say. But Finn then chimes in with "That's funny." Sure, those aren't difficult words to say, but he grasped the concept.
-Today Finn pooped outside of his swim diaper on John (and Jack chased that by barfing all over John about an hour later). While I was changing Finn's diaper, he sang a song. Not "Jesus Loves Me" (which he can sing parts of), or whatever else normal toddler song. His song of choice is Ice Ice Baby. He says "duh-duh-duh-duh-da-duh-duh, ice, ice baby" The "duh-duhs" he says to the beat of the intro to that song. It's hilarious.
-Finn will often shout from his carseat, "I'm happy!" And for the most part he is. Other times he's a little demon underneath that cute suit.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Moms out there! Especially to Mimi and Gigi!!!! You are the greatest mommies WE'VE ever seen!

Spare Time

Check out what I've had the pleasure of doing while the boys nap. Click here

Here's Jack's take on Easter....

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. Not that it matters as we know it's not a day to celebrate ourselves, but our risen Lord. Church was great, many people heard the reason there even is Easter, and we enjoyed the time together as a family. After church we went to Hampton Lake for their brunch buffet. The food was good and it was loud enough to cover up our children's clamor. We played on the playground and came home for a little egg hunt of our own in the yard.

Sadly, this was the best picture of the whole bunch. Not easy with three moving targets.

I love kid squat pictures. It's just a cute pose. Especially when it's hovering over an Easter egg. Cute!!

Our pooch. People often ask us how Scout it doing, and if you're curious, he's going well. His face is graying, which is sad to me. He looks so mature, but he's still got a lot of puppy energy. Scout is great with with the boys despite their daily confusion that he's a trampoline.

Yum-Yum

The boys and I travelled to Greensboro last week to see family. As always it was a fun trip full of visiting but never enough time to make all the rounds!

Mimi and Poppy went all out for the boys this Easter. We had a an indoor egg hunt, the Mimi bunny cake and an Easter egg dye party!

Jack and Finley had their first Paas experience. I'm not sure how many changes could occur in the egg dying industry, but Paas has made it a little easier since 1985. Our kit came with cups to put them in so you don't have to wash out any of your own. Thank you, Paas. Still the same ol' vinegary nastiness that stung our noses back when I was a kid. But we loved it!!!! The eggs were beautiful once they were completed.


One afternoon we went to Yum Yum, and, ahem, it was yum yum! The boys inhaled their hotdogs and ice cream. Jack's favorite flavor was lemon, just like his Uncle Matt. Nice, too, that we made out like bandits on a $8 lunch for the 3 of us. We love you, Yum Yum!

Perhaps the biggest treat of all was that Gammy and Pa went with us. We enjoyed their company so much, and I'm pretty sure they have a good time with us, too. It goes without saying that I didn't take enough pictures, but we were too busy having fun and soakin' in some family time.

They have that crazed ice cream look in their eyes after a few bites.


Thanks, family, for hosting us time and time again. See you in May!

Playing Tourist

Two Sundays ago John and I decided that it was time to take a family bike ride through Sea Pines. So we did just that.

Finn kept the anxious bike riders entertained while waiting in line for our bikes to be distributed. Everyone was complimenting him on his studly attire. No, we don't normally let this dirt magnet go around in white polos and seer sucker pants. We had just come from church.

The boys enjoyed one another's company with surprisingly little arguing or "He touched me!" comments.

And here's one for the grandparents. Look how close we let your grandbabies get to an alligator!!!:) AHHHH!!! (not close at all) We took this opportunity to teach Jack about alligators, told him all about their big teeth without getting too graphic. There's an alligator that frequents the pond in our back yard, so he needs to know these things. And the gator in our pond is not nearly this big. Not that it really matters when you're 3 feet tall. We were satisfied that he got the message when we asked him what an alligator would do if he ever tried to pet him. "He will bite my face off." We never said that, or anything close to that, but he read between the lines I suppose. Good thing.


John and I enjoyed the view of the beautiful trees and flowers. The boys enjoyed the view of their father's rear end.


I love this picture of Jack with his Daddy. Jack loves him so much and I thought this pictured captured their mutual affection for one another. We took the bikes to South Beach and had lunch at The Wreck of the Salty Dog. The hushpuppies were YUMMY, but better than that, no wait! Everyone was camped out at The Salty Dog (as usual), so we walked a little further to this find.

After lunch we biked to Harbor Town. The tourists were out in full force, which was fun. It was like a little reminder that summer is coming. And a little reminder that we live in a really cool place. Sometimes you forget that when you get into your normal routine. So, here's to you, tourists! Keep comin', and buy some real estate while you're at it! :)

The boys got ice cream and devoured it. They stood on the stage where Greg Russell normally performs and sang their own songs. I thought they were better singers, but I'm a little biased.

Sharing is caring!


If you ever come to HH, you need to either bring your bike or rent one while you're here and give it a spin through Sea Pines. We had the best time, and we'll surely go with you!

Egg Pick Up

Our church hosted the 3rd annual Lowcountry's Largest Easter Egg Hunt the Saturday before Easter. There were thousands of people, 47,500 eggs and 1 football field. So it wasn't much of a 'hunt' per se, but more of a clean up. Even Finn who moved at a turtle's pace was able to snag a few.

Jack made out like a bandit. He showed us his game face before the madness began.

Finn wasn't sure what to think about any of it. But he looked cute.

A rare shot of the 4 of us! Not a good one, but we're all in it.

Vested

A friend of ours clued us in on a local Awanas group that meets on Wednesday nights. Even though we knew Jack would be starting late in the year, we decided to let him go anyway. And he LOVED it. From the first meeting, he had his eye on the prize: THE VEST.



Jack memorized the verses and references required to earn the vest, and we were so excited to see his joy when we picked him up on 'vest week'. We told him he could have his pick for dinner that night. Here's our vested boy eating his celebratory grilled cheese. Way to go, Jack!



Jack's verses:
"All have sinned" -Romans 3:23
"While we were sinners Jesus Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8
"God loved us and sent His Son." -1 John 4:10

Henry the Turtle

 Remember the 1950’s Disney film Old Yeller?  Setting: 1860’s Texas farm country. Storyline: Dog finds boy.  Boy exhibits coming of age angst, but with time ‘boy finds dog’.  Dog saves boy from wolf.  Dog subsequently contracts ‘hydrophobie’ (which one would assume is a fear of water… but is apparently some form Disney rabies on steroids).  Boy’s mother grabs gun to ‘put Yeller down’ but Boy seeks closure and manhood by shooting Man’s Best Friend himself.  (All things considered a healthy introduction to adulthood for the young lad.) 

 

Which brings us to Henry the Turtle…  Henry is/was a turtle roughly the size of a half-dollar that Jack and Erin discovered underneath the car last night.  Jack promptly named him Henry (with a pronunciation that resembles the Herman's Hermits’ version in Henry VIII: “Hen – Ery”) and started talking to him in a voice not unlike that of Bill Murray’s in Caddyshack.  Erin and I heard a lot of “Aw, ith a cute wittle turtle” and “Aw, Henry’s my favowit… my best friend.” 

 

Naturally, we did what any overindulgent parents would do – we went to Pet Co to buy Henry a home.  Norman, the resident reptilian expert, helped us sort through our options with young Henry.  Norman noted that Henry is a slider something or other and requires a special (and by special I mean expensive) lighting system in his rather elaborate (also expensive) aquarium.  Without the aforementioned environment Henry would develop a "devastating" condition known as softshell, and he would go to turtle heaven. 

 

It became very clear to Erin and me that Henry would miss the wild and his mommy terribly; and we must ‘think green’ and release him to his natural habitat to find his turtle family.  We bought a fish and tank to take the edge off the upcoming ‘old yeller moment’ (sans firearms), but Jack didn’t seem overly interested in anything but Henry the Turtle.

 

The release was largely anticlimactic – and as such it was really funny.  We have a ravine (by Lowcountry standards – 5 ft elevation change) across the street from our house where there’s a tidal creek with brackish water.  We stood over the edge and were moments into our heartfelt good-buys when Jack underhand launches Henry into the woods below. 

 

At this point I just want to know where he saw Old Yeller. Old Yeller.   

 

Fancy Feet Finley

Here's Finn's latest move.  

As promised....

This video is the one we spoke of at the end of the previous posting.  

Really Long Post

This is a posting of epic proportions. Just giving that to you up front. Considering this blog is written with the grandparents and other family members in mind, we'll understand if the rest of you just skip the headings and get to the good stuff. Hooray for pictures AND video in this posting!

We'll start in Atlanta. Two weekends ago we headed north for a chance of scenery. Jordan and Trevor were coming to town so we couldn't pass up a chance to see them! The 4 of us, 2 of them and Gigi and Poppy Johnny all packed it into the condo (or "Congo" as Jack referred to it) for one rainy, fun weekend. We watched lots of basketball and had lots of laughs with the boys. And no, even though the ACC tournament was in town, we didn't make it to any of the games. Turns out we didn't miss much anyway.

On Friday John and I took the boys to ImagineIt, Atlanta's children's museum. Jack had the most fun with this thing. He could use a pulley system to pick up balls and then release them into a bin. Or dump them on passerby.

Poppy Johnny snuck in some snuggles with Finn. I think everyone had fun being with the boys from start to finish for a few days. (Right, crew?)

On Saturday we ventured to the Georgia Aquarium. If you've never been, you have to make a trip. This place is incredible. Jack and Finn both enjoyed it, and the adults all slept better that night knowing how to distinguish a male beluga whale from a female beluga whale. (The males have curved dorsal fins for all you geeks out there.)

Finn perfected his family identification over the weekend. He can clearly say both of their names now, which is precious.

Here's the Ussery/Smith gang sans Johnny in the congo.

One more aquarium pic. Little rubberneckers. At one point Jack asked if the sharks were going to eat him.

It was sad to leave, as it is everytime we're leaving fun and family behind. But it doesn't matter where we are or what we're doing, the boys never cease to crack us up. This is Finn's latest funny face. He reminds me of one of those Christmas caroler decorations with the painted faces you see during the holidays.

This past Saturday was perhaps the busiest I've ever had as a mama. It began with soccer at 8:45 on the island. If you're not from around here you have to understand that going to the island for anything is compared to driving to Canada. At least we talk about it like it's the same. But really it's only about a 5 minute drive to get to the bridge and then only 10 more minutes to get to the soccer fields. But our kids sleep til around 8, which poses some problems with getting dressed, fed and out the door in 30 minutes. But we did it! Jack had his first soccer "game" (which was more of a field full of children with some soccer balls lying around.) HILARIOUS! Here's a cute picture of Finn who, as usual, wanted part of the action.

And here is the future Beckham. Jack was really into dribbling and scoring. He was not into the idea of sharing his ball with anyone, which is good in theory, but not when you're unwilling to earn the ball and instead, you want everyone to have their own ball. He insisted on wearing his shin guards even though they did not need them.

It really doesn't get much better than this for us. Our son, playing a sport, wearing his UNC gear and getting excited about all of it. John and I kept saying "I can't believe we have a child old enough to take to his soccer practice." It was a fun day for us. A first sports day of thousands I hope.

After soccer we went to our first birthday party of the day. Our next door neighbor turned 4 and he had the cutest pirate party ever. My pictures did not turn out so well, but both boys had a blast. Then we attended a 2nd birthday party at 3pm. Finn only napped 45 minutes on the way to the 2nd party. No nap for Jack. You can understand why I felt like the bus driver from the movie Speed, the movie where there was a bomb under the city bus, remember? At any moment, our little happy Saturday full of soccer, sugar and ice cream could blow up into a nasty preschool ball of fury.

The 2nd party of the day was for Wyatt, one of Jack's buddies. He had a great party, too! It was super hero themed. Wyatt was kind enough to let Jack borrow his Batman costume. And boy, did he work it! Here he is peering at me from his bat cave...er, bounce house.

And here...is BATMAN!!!! Jack felt so awesome in this costume. His chest was literally puffed out and he kept patting his chest like this. He probably thought it was his own party.

Jack was stoked to see Mr. Incredible in attendance. They quickly kicked it into Make Believe high gear. There were several attempts to "rescue" the girls from the bounce house and Jack would only refer to this boy as Mr. Incredible despite knowing his real name. Later that night, Jack informed me that "all of my things are amazing." I asked him where he learned that word. Mr. Incredible of course!

The Bat Mobile!

After the birthday parties ended, we headed to church on Saturday night and then to dinner with friends. We crashed fast and hard when we got home, but thankfully everyone slept in until 9 on Sunday!!! Hallelujah!

John was off on Sunday, so we had the rare opportunity of a full family day. John decided we should go to Hunting Island, which was a great plan. It was beautiful! Finn had fun digging in the sand...

Jack had fun attempting to scoop up water into his bucket (although this picture would not lead you to believe that he was having fun).

We found another similarity between our sons. They are both into bird chasing. Just after this picture Finn took off like a mad man towards these birds. We asked Jack what he would do if he caught one. "I'd just pet him."

Someone is turning into a Daddy's boy I believe...

Jack found this driftwood, put it to his head and said, "Look, I'm Rudolph!"

And not to be outdone....

Last but not least, the videos! We went into Beaufort for lunch after leaving Hunting Island. There was a small grassy area where some children were playing. Jack decided he wanted to join them. He ran straight up to them and thought that introductions were not as needed as showing them how quickly you can run in circles. It must have won their attention (or sympathy) because he ended up taking these children to another area of the yard to look at boats together. We were laughing to see how hysterical our oldest boy is, and how he's not lacking in personality one bit. Enjoy!