Easter

Easter was a fun and exciting time around the Ussery, Jr. household this year.  We went to an egg hunt in the neighborhood and spoke enough about the resurrection of Christ to where the boys were consistently answering the question "What is Easter about?" with "Jesus rose from the dead and is alive!" instead of the usual "Easter eggs" response.  This is progress, people.  And we are excited that they are learning about Jesus.  There's no better time of the year to do so.

We attended the egg hunt in our neighborhood, which was perfect.  The crowds were few and the eggs were a plenty!  

And they're off....

We were excited to hunt with one of our neighbors.  This little guy is one of our cul de sac kiddos.  Our cul de sac has 5 boys in it.  A girl would just not survive the jeep off roadin', stick fights or tree climbing I suppose.  

The Fab Five 

(I say 5 because we're expecting #3 on November 3rd! YAY!  We are very excited.  Yes, it was planned.  No, we will not find out the sex of the baby.  No, I am not getting a mini van.  I think that covers most of the usual questions.)

This is what 6 mini Snickers will do to you when consumed before 11am....

Easter Morn:

Jack stylin' by the tree...

Our poor hair-blind son, Finley, fake smiling by the tree...

After an awesome church service at LCC, we headed to our new favorite hang out: Oldfield!  The boys were so good at lunch.  I was nervous when I saw the white table linens and water filled glasses when we reached the table, but there were no tragic spills or behavioral issues!  An Easter miracle!

And the boys ate well!  Another miracle!

Easter was a fun day spent with our little family, enjoying one another and celebrating our risen Savior!  

(while wearing seer sucker and stuffing our faces)

Hope you had a super Easter!

Addition

Here is some math.  The boy way.

This hair...

+

These scissors (or a pair similar to them from Jack's school)

=

Jack's new do!

Here's how it went down:

I picked Jack up from school two weeks ago.  His teacher greeted me at the door and told me that Jack had cut his hair and that he was not happy about it.  He had tried to tape the hair back into place with Scotch tape.  I asked him what made him do that and his reply was "You never told me not to."  Thankfully we have a very flexible hair stylist who worked us quickly into her schedule that day and the end result was....

a Spring buzz cut!

 Boy Math Problem #2:

This little button nose...

+

This little lego

=

Well...I think you know where that lego went.  No picture to prove it, but our pediatrician can show you how far he had to stick the foreign object retrievers up Finn's nose to dislodge the little, red lego.  Some have asked if I kept the lego.  The answer is no.  I can't imagine why I didn't want to save a boogery lego that sent me back to the pediatrician's office an hour after I had gotten off of work from there.  Hopefully the photographed lego is not the original's understudy.

The more girls we're around, the more I'm learning that boys are, indeed, very different.  

But they sure are cute.

And they don't sweat the small stuff too much.

They might make your hair raise on occasion, 

but after awhile, you realize if you can't beat 'em...

Turning the boy tides for a moment, we have a new addition to the Ussery family....

Eliza Jordan Smith

4/4/11

8lb 4oz

21.5in

Eliza is the daughter of John's sister, Jordan, and our brother in law, Trevor.  She has an older brother, Austin, who is eagerly waiting to share his toys with her:)

And more good news....

John's dad, Johnny, had ANOTHER CLEAR SCAN last Thursday.  April 23rd will mark the one year anniversary of his pancreatic cancer diagnosis.  After surgery, 6 months of chemo and 6 weeks of radiation, we are thrilled that there is currently no sign of cancer in his blood work or CT scan.  We continue to seek the Lord on his behalf that the cancer would never return!  Praise God for His goodness and mercy!

Outside

Spring is here.  And by Spring I mean pollen.  And since we love bathing in the yellow stuff, we've been outside a lot.  Here are our favorite outside things to do:

1.  Congregate at the end of the driveway and discuss the bigger issues in life:

-how to adjust a bike helmet strap

-how big the branch was that you just broke off of the ex-pretty tree in the yard

-how Owen got 2 gummy bears at the school birthday party and you got 3.

These are important things, people!  They need to be discussed.  And there's no better place than the end of the driveway.

2.  Use the outdoor planters for something other than a plant cemetary.

This is a very uniquely titled game.  You ready? 

Toss.

Toss is played by throwing the bean bags into the planter.  There's a point system because we're competitive like that.  And they are real points, with real numerical values.  None of that smiley face, everybody wins business!  

:)

3.  Retrieve rogue beanbags from the prickly bushes.

Jack, who is deathly afraid of all bees, wasps, hornets, and yellow jackets is NOT afraid to crawl into these spiky bushes to fetch his toys.  It appears he is more fearful of the potential sting than the inevitable bush spike poke. I don't know what this means.  Other than I don't have to crawl in the bushes to fetch the toys.

4.  Hopscotch!

Jack knew how to draw a board and play.  I don't know where he learned this.  Maybe it's innate kid knowledge.  Like how they KNOW how to multiply a tablespoon of maple syrup into 2 tablespoons on the front of their pajamas.  Who teaches these things? 

5.  Shark Teeth Prowling

Jack is a shark tooth treasure seeker of the highest order.  Sadly on this particular day the shark tooth supply was low, but Jack, being the happy go lucky kiddo he is, had a great time anyway.  Love that boy.

6. Beach Hopscotch

Second only to driveway Hopscotch.  

Love this picture of Finn jumping.  He's a jumper.  I could do an entire post on jumping Finn pictures. He's just hoppy.  And fast.  And Tigger-ish.  And he has great jumping hair.

7.  Boat watching

It appears that boys love all things transportation.  But boats take the cake. Finn wanted his picture taken with this boat, so we seized the moment.

8.  Playing in the woods

There are woods across the street from our house, but the boys can't play freely in them yet because of a creek that is there as well.  So, whenever they get some woods time, they freak out. They love it. 

This photo was taken at JP's party.  They roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, threw rocks, swung sticks, and pow wowed in the woods with the best of them.  Such a fun party.  Right up a boys alley.

(Side Note: Last week I pulled 3 ticks from my children after an hour of woods time.  Beware, Blufftonites.  The ticks are on the prowl!)

9.  Doing anything with Dad.

When John gets home, the boys are done with me.  I can tell by the look in their eyes.  

I say, "Let's go play outside!" and they moan and say they are tired.  John walks in the door and says, "Let's do chores FOREVER and eat nothing but broccoli!" and they shriek and squeal and hug his neck.  What is that? 

Maybe I am boring. Maybe they are boring.

Maybe he's just a great dad.  

Yup. That's it.

10.  Hugging at a pretty sunset.

What? Your kids don't do that? :)  

Don't worry.  Just a cute picture.  Has only happened once.  I probably told them to hug.  Don't go ask your kids why they don't hug at sunsets.

11.  Showing off all of the gross stuff we find.

Thankfully this one was of the wind-up species.

12.  Turning a beautiful picnic into Goofy Face Contest #219.

Look at Finn's face.  It's like he's taking in the skill and thinking, 'okay...pinky goes here, tongue here...and yep, what we have here is an awesome goofy face.'

13. Turning a beautiful picnic into Choke Hold Contest #57

At least everyone looks happy!

14.  Rolling in the grass with your favorite brother.

Perhaps the best of all things you can do outside!

Welcome back, Spring!

Bawla

Jack finished his 2nd basketball season a few weeks ago, and by far, this was the best season of any sport we have played.  After a few games, the boys seemed to understand the object of the sport.  Granted...there was a lot of grabbing the ball and running full on Heisman style sans dribbling going on, but they at least knew when they scored a basket for the other team:)

Jack had fun playing with some of his soccer buddies and his favorite neighbors:

He was even bummed when he sat the required quarter out.  

(This is an improvement from Soccer Season #1 when he excitedly announced that he "got to sit out and take another rest!")

Jack pretty much answers only to "Iron Curtain" these days.....

...or Steve Nash.

We were so proud of our boy!  He had so much fun and improved mostly on his defensive skills by the end of the season.  Way to go, Jack!

While Jack played, Finley was such a good little bleacher climber.  He would cheer for his brother in between disappearing underneath the seating.

Don't let the jersey fool you...Finley cried so hard because he wasn't old enough to play that the coach caved and gave him an extra jersey.  Poor kiddo. It's so hard to be the youngest sometime!

And now....

Onto T Ball!!!

COMING SOON 

Thirty Thoughts

Today is my 30th Birthday.  I'm not announcing that because I want a Happy Birthday message from you.  I honestly just feel so blessed today that it had to be shared.

Thirty Thoughts on my 30th Birthday:

1.  A lot has changed in 27 years:

2.  I am now 26 years removed from my first (yes...that implies that there were several) mullet haircuts.  I refer those years as the "Joe Dirt" era.

3.  I've known this hunky man one third of my life.  Bow chica wow wow.

4.  My family means the world to me.  That's nothing new to being 30.  It's just something I should point out every day.  They are beautiful on the inside, outside, and backside:

(Butts from L-R:  Daddy, Mama, Matt, Melissa and Ava (in her mom's arms), Finn, Erin, Jack, John)

5.  God chose the best family for me to marry into.  (And the tallest family, I might add!) 

6.  This never should have happened:

7.  This REALLY never should have happened.  I don't know what's worse:  the purple brick background, the permed bangs, the thunder dome haircut...

ai yai yai

8.  I am so thankful to live where we live.  You cannot ignore the Lord's creativity when you live near the coast!  Look at that beautiful sky!

9.  In the next decade of my life, this little guy will go from 3 to finishing middle school:

10.  And this one will go from kindergarten to driving a car.  And I'm not talking about the Power Wheels kind. 

:(

11.  Thoughts 9 and 10 were brought to me by my friend Erin.  Which reminds me that I am forever thankful for the 30 years of solid friendships that God has given me.  Everywhere I have lived, worked or played, I have enjoyed because of the people that have spent time with me.  Thank you for investing your time in my life!!!

12.  John asked me this morning if I automatically woke up with osteoporosis.  

13.  The solid arm punch I gave him answered that question.

14.  Now that I'm 30, will I think making this face is too immature?

15. or this one?

16.  Now that I'm 30, will I forget what Jack looked like when he used to hold milk in his cheek and dress like Mushmouth?

17.  Is the flexibility it requires to pike like this be possible now that I'm 30?

18.  It took me 28 years to learn that I enjoyed painting.  So thankful that it didn't take 29 years.  Painting has been a huge blessing!

19.  In my 30 years of life, I have experienced 30 Christmas Days.  That's a month worth of Christmases.  For some reason, it seems like it would be more than that.

20.  Will the 2011-2021 decade respect the thirties like the 80's did?

21.  Four years ago we vacationed in Sedona, AZ.  The resort we stayed at had a gym.  The gym had an employee who asked how old I was when signing into the gym.  I asked her how old I had to be.  She said 16.  I loved Sedona.  And the gym.  And that lady.

22.  Birthday donuts are as good as birthday cake.

23.  I wonder how many more nieces and nephews the next 10 years will bring us.  I'm pretty stoked about the 2 (almost 3!) that we have now!

Ava

Austin

24.  My auto insurance could have possibly decreased had it not been for the whopping 35 in a 30 ticket I received 12 days ago.

25.  This image will make me happy in my 20s.  It will continue to bring a smile to my face in my 30s all the way to my death bed. 

26.  Today at lunch Jack asked how babies get into a mommy's belly.  Yikes.  Let the games begin.

27.  Also at lunch, an elderly lady overheard the boys talking about my b-day, and she turned around and sang Happy Birthday to me.  It was sweet.

28.  John just called and asked how I was feeling.  I said old.  Then I proceeded to tell him that indeed, osteoporosis had automatically set it, that all of my bones had broken, my teeth had started falling out and I've wet my pants all day.  He said he has never been more attracted to me.  The should totally add a new wedding vow:  for old and for older.

29.  I am still younger than John.  I am still younger than my brother.

30.  Thank you for reading this incredibly long, self-indulgent post.  Blogging is like affordable therapy for me, and it's a way to remember things.  Cause now that I'm 30, I'll probably forget. 

I'm eternally thankful to my Lord and Savior for the countless blessings He has given me!  Thank you, Lord, for 30 years!