Basketball & Birthdays

Saturday was a busy day. We had an 8:30 basketball game for Henry, followed by a laser tag birthday for Henry's friend, Taylor, followed by a family birthday lunch.

They guys had fun recounting their laser tag stories as they ate pizza afterwards! Henry has already said he wants his birthday party there next year!

Happy Birthday, Taylor!

It was hard to decide between cake and presents, so Grant and Grace opted for both at the same time!

At the birthday lunch we celebrated five birthdays. The total number of years of life of all five birthdays was 138, so Aunt Karen decided to put that on the cake!

This last picture is Grant before church today. He turns three on Friday, and I broke down and put him in big boy clothes for church for the first time ever! He was so proud! I'll still be putting him in some sweet stuff too, but I guess I have to let him grow up a little bit. At least I have a girl to dress up in whatever I want (hopefully for a long time!!)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

On Thursday it seemed it rained and rained and rained!! It was absolutely pouring. So, we played inside, painted, and even opened the door to sing "Rain, Rain, Go Away".....although unfortunately that did not make the rain go away!

Untitled from Brooke Patterson on Vimeo.

Look What David Did!

Yes, I must apologize for dropping off the face of the earth for the past week. Grant was sick for five days last week, and the weather has not allowed for many exciting events. However, I do have one exciting thing to report: we have a screened in porch! Spring, where are you?!? We cannot wait to enjoy this new space, and I can't wait to decorate it with some new furniture. I was so proud of David. I really wanted to screen it in, and all you have to do is mention an opportunity to find a new place to put a TV and David will jump! So, on MLK weekend, David decided to screen in the porch, and he did it! Some of the screening had to be completed during the following week, but the porch was 90% done in 3 days. He had a couple of friends come over at different points to help him out, but David also did a lot of it all by himself! I love having a handy husband, and I hope he instills skills in our boys so that they can do stuff like this for their family one day too. :)

So, here is a pic of the recently completed porch. Furniture to follow.

In Need of Some Exercise

With the cold and wet weather the kids desperately needed to run and play. David has been busy screening in our porch all weekend, so I took Grace and Henry to a jumpy place where we met friends on Monday. (Grant was with Mimi and under the weather.) The kids had a great time. I'm very thankful for places like this to take the kids to get their wiggles out when we are having yucky winter weather!

When Grant got home from Mimi's, he was tired and ready for a nap. Grace was too. So they both took naps on the couch. They were so cute I didn't want to move them to their rooms!

Happy 60th Birthday, Papa!

Saturday night we had a birthday party for Papa, complete with festive garb for him to wear! The kids had a blast helping him celebrate turning 60!

These last two pictures are documenting Grant's little adventure while we were cleaning the kitchen after dinner. We wondered where he was, and we found him digging in to Papa's cake. That sweet boy loves to eat!! It gave us all a good laugh to find him sitting there stuffing his face. At least it happened after we had all sang and had some cake ourselves!

Henry had a great time Saturday am at his game. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to take good pictures in the gym!!

Mini-vacation!

Last week David had to spend the night in Montgomery one night for work. He decided we should all come with him and stay at the Embassy Suites. Henry's only question was where would he be sleeping. Grant's only question was whether or not they had food. Grace's only question was whether Santa Claus would be there. Our kiddos crack me up sometimes. Grant also referred to the Embassy Suites as the "ponytail" rather than "hotel." I finally gave up on correcting him. He's still mentioning our trip to the ponytail.

It was a quick, fun trip. The kids loved it. In the last pic David built a ramp with the ironing board for Grant to send his cars down. He thought that was great!

Struggling Mightily....

with my camera! I have had the hardest time taking pictures of basketball this year. If I slow down my shutter speed to let in more light so the pictures don't turn out dim, then I cause them to be blurry. So all my basketball pictures are either light and blurry or dark and clear. Hence the reason I am refraining from posting many action shots from basketball. I've got to read up so I can do better on this! I know my camera is pretty smart, but when the user is not, the camera does not do me much good. I'll work on it! And photographer friends--feel free to email me with some input on this!! I need help!

In the mean time, here are some still shots from last weekend. Henry had a great time at his basketball game, and on Friday night we got to go see Konnor play!

(This last picture is of our cousin Konnor resting on the bench for a minute! We loved watching him play last weekend!)

Going out with a Bang

Let's be clear. For some people age three may be worse than age two, but at our house the terrible twos have always proved to be just that. I say nothing is worse than two, and someone should have brought me a drink and a box of tissue to my children's second birthdays to help me prepare for what was to come between two and three. Between potty training, letting kids have a little more independence, and their realization that despite what you say, they can do as they please until they get caught....I think two is probably as bad as it gets....at least until they are teenagers.

So just in case I had forgotten that Grant and Grace have another four weeks in their reign as terrible two year olds, they are making sure they go out with a bang. A big bang. There will be no sailing quietly into the sunset of three without notice of two's passing. Oh no. Not at our house.

So what did they do this time, you might ask? Well, for starters it was more than one thing. :) Yesterday I was getting brave and decided surely I did not have to wait until nap time just to take a shower. Surely now that they are getting so "big" I could manage to leave them to their own devices for ten minutes. The outside doors are locked with childproof locks. What could they possibly do if I had a good TV show on and instructions to sit still? What was I thinking? Grant quickly alerted me there was a mess in my closet and then took off running. I figured my shoes were all in the floor, as they sometimes do this and try them on. Oh no. This time all of my clothes were in the floor. Every item within their reach was in a HUGE pile in the floor. It was awful. If only I'd taken a picture for ya'll. I was too frustrated to think of this! :)

Then Grace somehow forgot how much trouble she had been in a mere five minutes earlier and opted to exercise her creative artistic skills by taking a brown eyeliner pencil and drawing on her newly painted beautiful dresser. And nothing (including a brillo pad) will get it off. One drawer will have to be repainted.

So to anyone who thinks two is a delightful age, feel free to borrow G & G until February 3rd, because two two year olds is about to do me in!! (I have to write this all down so I can remind them one day of how they tormented me!!)

However, mischievous may be the case one minute, and as you can see below, sweet the next. Later in the day I found these two cuddling on our bed watching a movie. Henry took the first pic of Grace :) I can't help but love my little scoundrels :)

Catching up with Good Friends

Over Christmas we enjoyed catching up with some friends we have not seen as much as we'd like lately! One night we had Norah, Sawyer, and their mommies and daddies over for dinner. The kids had a blast! Another night we had our old neighbors, Mollie and Becca, and their mom and dad over for dinner. Grace loved getting to hold baby Becca, although she is quickly becoming a toddler and not a baby anymore!!

Christmas Night

Two final pics I forgot to post from Christmas:

One is a picture a concert the kids performed for us, Mimi, Papa, Grandmother, Uncle Michael & Aunt Lindsey. The other is the kids enjoying the cupcakes after singing Happy Birthday to Jesus!