Goof Troop

Sometime in early June we were invited to an impromptu Friday night pool party.  We very quickly accepted. 

Because we knew it would be fun.

Because it was hot.

Because they offered pizza.

Because I wouldn't have to cook.

Because we wouldn't have to eat my cooking.

Because we would have adult conversation with good friends.

But mostly because of these guys:

We love our children.  And we love our friends' children.  

We love knowing that pictures like these will be pulled out years down the road and that we'll still be friends with these kids and their parents.  

And we'll laugh at how cute they all were and how young we all looked.

Onto the individual shots...

Jack sat still for a second.  Just long enough for me to capture the goggle marks on his forehead.  Should probably loosen the strap a little.

Gracen was beautiful despite the black eye she had(her left eye).  

I can't even remember how she got it.  

Mattie ate 7 pieces of pizza.  Where did it go?

Okay, so maybe she only ate 3.

Pavin is still eating...  

Carson cheesed to show me his chocolate teeth. 

And Finn looked up to show me how well he had cleaned his face.  

Thank you, Lord, for the awesome friendships we have!  

(And thank you, Dana, for the pool pass:)

Bart (Boy Art)

We had a Bart day back in early June.  I remember the day because it was the same day that Papa Johnny returned home from his surgery.  It was a happy day.  So we did happy things. 

For Bart days to be fun I have to be in a natural state of who gives a flip or under mild sedation from the expired pain killers leftover from Finn's birth.  Because I'm a control freak, and I want grass to be green instead of blue, and I enjoy alternating colors instead of the same colors touching one another on a painting.  (And that's just one of my many annoying qualities. )

But....ROY was there in full force which is always good.  Whenever I'd start helicoptering over the kids artwork, I'd just look at ROY.

Jack was so proud of his surf board.  And I was, too.  Perfect in-the-lines watercolor would be so whack.  And so not him.  He was so focused, and it paid off.

Butterfly was equally beautiful.  

Finn, on the other hand, did not get into the whole express yourself through watercolor thing we had going on that day.  

It appears that he prefers to express himself with clothing.

This was early June.  Only a month behind in blogging.  Hopefully we'll catch up soon!

Enjoy the summer!

Out of Doors

When it's not 100 bazillion degrees and the air we breathe in is not direct airflow from the bowels of hell, we LOVE being outside!  Sweaty, sticky, grassy, dirty.  We'll take it!

Finley decided to 'help' John was his car one afternoon.  In his boxer briefs.  If you've read at least one post from this blog, you are aware of our 2nd born's affinity for nudity.  Consider this a step in the right direction.    

After the car washing, he turned to "gardening the jungle", which was in actuality digging a small hole in a natural area with two trees that the boys call The Jungle.  His boots are made for diggin'.  And that's just what they'll do.

This picture was not taken outdoors, but the talent itself did not remain confined to our house walls.  Jack, being the genius that he is, decided upon himself that he should try hanging a spoon from his nose. We don't know where he has ever seen this done or where he heard about this trick, but he went for it and quickly succeeded.  He took his new skill outside of our house and into his preschool the next day for show and tell.  There were surely some boogery spoons throughout Bluffton that night. 

We're not sure if this past year has allowed time for eye hand coordination development, vision improvement, the birth of baseball passion or a little of the three, but Jack can hit a baseball like a mad man.  And he knows it.  And I flinch when he hits the ball and I'm the pitcher.  Every time.  

When we're outside, we make friends.  Of the turtle kind.  

Small turtle 2010 (Henry II)

Small Turtle 2009

Read about Henry I here

Flower planting.  Another favorite passtime.  Finn screamed for gloves of his own, and all I could find were these winter gloves.  Sorry Finn.

Sometimes when I whine and convince John that cooking dinner would send me over the edge, we venture down to the May River for a picnic.  It's my favorite place to go in Bluffton.  Here we are, the happy bunch....I'm happy because I didn't cook.  The rest of them are happy because I didn't cook.  

Win. Win.

Our view...

And who needs shrimp n' grits on the May River when you can dine on Chinese take out?  

Finn ponders life's biggest questions over some sweet and sour sauce  chicken.

Jack's fake excitement over nothing exciting. But still cute.

This is a happy moment.

This was Jack on his last day of preschool this year.  He chose his outfit.  Nice socks.

Popcicles and hose pipes = heaven to boys.  And moms who like playing in the hose pipe, too.  

Can you tell it was a little hot outside?  He needs some wipers on those things.

Finn finishing off the 2nd half of his Spiderman popcicle.  Yum.  Who needs dinner?

Hope you're enjoying the fun sweatiness of Summer like we are.  103 here today according to my car.  So my next post might be of all of the indoor activities we enjoy!

Happy Summer (in 6 days)!

Over a Month Ago...

we went to Atlanta.  All original Usserys, the married ins, and the babies.  Quarters were cramped, but but not our style.  There's a chance all some of the children even slept in closets...just so we could be under the same roof.  And it was so much fun.  See?

Here are the babes setting up for what looks to be a fierce Duck Duck Goose competition.  Baby Austin was so good the entire trip.  He survived Jack putting him in a headlock and dropping him on the floor, and Finn biting (and therfore ruining) his beach ball.  Austin is so forgiving.  We enjoyed every minute with our nephew.

This is one of the few pictures where I can see a little of John in Finley.  Two of my handsome men...

The three amigos.

Austin developed the craziest smile over the weekend.  This is a milder version of it.

We picnicked in the park with some friends of Jordan and Trevor.  There was a festival of sorts going on in the park, so afterwards, we strolled around for a bit.  In the short 2 hours we were there, our boys played with a dead mouse and urinated in public.  Pretty typical picnic!

Here's our oldest boy and his loot.  Whenever we travel, he'll pack his Speed Racer backpack full of valuables:  this fisherman hat from a size 2T costume, the Transformer beach towel, an old camera case, a paper french fry wrapper from Bojangles, a toy car....the list of treasures could go on.  It's cute, and he calls it his "work."  We don't argue.

Another afternoon in another park with another infamous Austin grin. 

Outside of family time, the real reason we were there was to support the GT baseball team in their sweeping victories over Clemson.  The boys loved the games and they LOVED mascot, Buzz.  The T shirts that Gigi bought them are now referred to as their "jerseys" and they wear them all the time.  Jack wore his to school the next 3 days.  Washed of course.

Thank you for a great time in tha ATL, Gigi and Poppy Johnny!  Let's go again.

Five Four Three Two One

5= The minutes spent in the parking lot

4= The number of adults who were present and not paying good enough attention

3= The number of boys who were indescribably dirty

2= The number of baths it took (per child) to get clean again

1= The number of pig statues that were violated

Let me explain...

Bluffton BBQ is one of our favorite places to eat.  And by favorite, I mean one of those places that we find ourselves saying ridiculous things about (i.e. "I could drink the sauce."  "I would sell our children for a rack of these ribs." etc.)  Outside of the fabulous food, though, one of our favorite things about it is the fact that our boys love going there.  They pick their way through their meals like they do everywhere else, but...Bluffton BBQ has stolen our boys' hearts with this creepy pig statue (and the peppermints they can have when we leave). 

This poor pig is missing it's tail.  Where the tail used to be is now a half-dollar sized hole.  Perfect for putting parking lot rocks into.

Here's Jack showing me how old he'll be on his next birthday.  

(And how many minutes it took for him to look like a hobo.)

Here he is showing me how old he'll be on his birthday in 2015.

(And how many rocks he put in that pig's butt.  Divided by 100.) 

And just so you know, we roped our buddies in on the fun, too.  We want our sons to be leaders, after all.

So...in 5 minutes, 4 adults stood idly by as their 3 boys, who needed 2 baths each afterwards, violated 1 lonely, tail-less pig.  

Update:  This incident occurred several weeks ago.  I saw last Wednesday that the pig now has a new tail, and as weird as it sounds, I was so disappointed!  

Our Bluffton BBQ days are surely numbered.

And...I know we've taken a blog hiatus for a while, but that will change.  This is just 1 of many updates we'll be posting to catch up to the present.  We do this mostly because we know you love it so much:), but secondly, because we made a blog book for our parents this past Christmas.  It was such a fun and easy gift that they loved, so we have to have some posts to put into our next book, right?  

Hope all of you are doing well.  We appreciate every prayer you're offering up for John's Dad, Johnny.  Remember you can check out his care page at www.carepages.com.  Search "JohnnyUssery" all one word, and you should find it.  

Poppy Johnny

Please read the following message written by John several days ago:

As some of you may know, on April 23^rdDad (Johnny Ussery) was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.   Thankfully, he was able to undergo a ‘whipple’ procedure at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC on Wed, May 12^th.  They removed a third of his pancreas, his gallbladder, the duodenum, and a portion of his small intestine.  He was released on Friday and will remain in the New York area until this coming Tuesday.

Although there are moments where you feel singled out, we’re not the first family to battle cancer.  We’ve learned that when you feel as though your legs have been knocked out from underneath you…. You lift your gaze, and you find yourself at the foot of the cross.  At the cross we realize that God knows our fear and understands our pain.  We also recognize that He loves Dad more than we can possibly imagine. Dad and the family have been resting in His providence, and have been amazed to see Him at work. 

If you would like to stay posted on his progress, feel free to visit his Carepages.com site (just search ‘JohnnyUssery” (all one word) once you’re at the site).  

As you can imagine, this has taken a large majority of our emotional strength over the past several weeks, but we are so uplifted by the prayers that have been offered up for our family.  Thank you so much for praying for us and praying for Johnny's healing.  We trust in God's sovereign plan despite our lack of understanding at times, and we know that He hears our prayers.  Thank you!

A Boat Load of Spring

First and foremost:  HAPPY EASTER!  We hope you had as enjoyable an Easter Sunday as we did!  Church was awesome as always.  Great music.  Great sermon.  All pointing the celebration in the needed direction:  our risen Lord!  Here are the boys on Easter Morn 2010.  Check out the Easter bedhead Jack is sporting.

Easter baskets from Mom and Dad.  We scored major brownie points here.  They were allowed 2 treats today.  Jack chose fruit snacks and Smarties.  Finn opted for fruit snacks and jelly beans.  And then we sent them to Promiseland. (our church's equivalent of Sunday school.)

It's time to recap!  Since the Snow Storm of 2010, here's what we've been up to:

Haircuts!  Every haircut ends in a faux hawk these days.  The boys call it "funny hair".  If you live in the Bluffton area, Tara's salon is best!  They're located in Moss Creek village.  And no, I don't get paid to advertise.  But we do get free lollipops when we go.

A few days post haircuts, the little Ussery boys and I headed to North Carolina for 8 days!  There was nothing major on the schedule other than to spend good time with family and friends.  As always, we were not able to make all of the stops we wanted, but we know we'll be back soon.  

We visited a certain doughnut place a few times....

I think it was well received.

We went to Poppy's work and found all sorts of gadgets to play with.

We went on a Bob stroller parade with cousin Ava.  Let me say up front that I'm used to running in the LOWcountry, not hilly neighborhoods.  At one point, a lady jogger blitzed by us and Jack asked, "Are we in a race?....cause, mom, you'd be losing."  Agreed.

We rewarded our exercise attempts with playground fun afterwards.  The boys played while I huddled near my niece.  Here's Mimi with her girl.

And Ava with her favorite paci.

The night we returned back to Bluffton, the last thing I wanted to do was cook after a 5 hour drive with the men, so John graciously treated us to Monster Pizza!  It was kids eat free night.  A lot of restaurants have kid's night.  Some offer free kid's meals with the purchase of other things.  Others charge 99 cents for a kids meal.  Apparently Monster Pizza's idea of kid's night is to make food the size of a kid.  Jack was in heaven.

Finn was overwhelmed.

The time change has been a blessing to the Ussery Jr household.  Sleeping in later, staying outside longer.  It is perfect for everyone.  A few weeks ago we had the Denton kids over while their parents celebrated their anniversary.  We stayed outside almost the whole time, playing in the cul de sac.  Finn was wearing his pajamas for some reason.  Maybe it was a lazy mom reason? 

Jack taking G for a ride in his one seater.  Cozy.

Jack has hit the high volume humor age.  He throws a lot out there, and occasionally something sticks.  This was one of those sticky days.  In more ways than one.

He never said a word. He just waited until we discovered his creation.

Last Sunday was free cupcake day at Sweet Carolina Cupcakes

We don't ignore such events in this household.  The guys wanted the green cupcakes, which were pistachio.  If you know Finn, then you probably know this is his favorite nut.  Seriously.  He loves them.

Jack loves pistachios in cupcake form.

Another really cool thing is that Jack has started soccer!!!  He is loving his soccer practices so far.  We can't wait until his first game.  I have quickly learned that I am new to the Bluffton soccer scene.  I showed up to the first practice without bug spray in hand.  Big mistake.  Big.  Huge.  

Looks like we'll be rocking the Skin So Soft sheen for the rest of the season!  

This picture sums up a lot of Finn's life these days.  He's very capable of a lot of things, but just not old enough to participate.  It kills him!  As the baby of my family, I can remember these days.  But they don't last long, Finney boy.  You'll be out there soon enough!

The farmer's market is back in action for the season, and it was a blast on Thursday.  I wish I could say we came home with the most beautiful squash and zucchinis you've ever seen, but in reality, we bought some strawberries and some lemonade and camped out at the bounce house.   Maybe next week we'll hit up the veggies.

It was hilarious watching Jack.  He's such a creature of habit.  Every time he would go into the bounce house, jump 3 times, climb the ladder, slide down the slide and then run to the bubble machine, stick his hand in the bubbles for a few seconds.  Repeat x 100.

We had our first beach day this week!  The temperatures have been so nice lately.  We had planned on a family beach day, but after John had to work Friday, we thought 'No problem!  We'll go Friday and Saturday.'  So that's what we did.  

Friday we bared our ghostly white bodies to all the vacationers.  Saturday we bared our sunburned bodies to the vacationers. :)  Just shoulders and lower backs.  No pain, no worries.  Lesson learned.

We have a fun summer ahead of us.  No diapers!  No aqua dumps (i hope).

John and I have started running together at night.  We've been on a neighborhood running tour of sorts.  We've been running together 4-5 times in 4 different place.  The boys ask to go, and they seem to enjoy looking at all of the nature.  I'm sure this streak will come to a screeching halt when we realize how much we loathe running.  

Here's our view at Belfair.

Our Colleton River route.

You're probably wondering what you should be looking at here.  There was an alligator on that bank, but we scared it when we ran up on it and it took off.  It's somewhere beneath.  Where it belongs!

On Saturday before our 2nd beach trip of the year, we went to Lawton Stables in Sea Pines with the Galbreath family!  Jack and Finn were so excited to see their buds and ride the ponies.  

Jack the jockey:

Carter the pro:

Finntastico:

And Kelsey, the lone girl ranger.  So cute!

Finn was having a conversation with the pony guy.

And something about the two little ones in those helmets was just too funny.

Remember what I said about scaring that alligator back into the water?  Apparently my car wasn't enough to scare this one out of the road today.  Here's a critter out for an Easter stroll in broad daylight.  To the grandparents:  This was not our neighborhood.  And, no, we did not let the boys pet it.

Here we are up close and personal. (thanks to a zoom lens)

So creepy.  Yeesh.

Happy, Happy Easter to you all!  Have a wonderful week!