More December happenings

We have had a busy and FULL month! Here are some fun things we did...

Watching Polar Express. Kai has learned the skill of sitting through a full length movie. We have enjoyed watching several movies as a family.

One Saturday we went to Desoto Caverns about an hour south of here to tour the cave and see a Christmas light, water, and sound show. It was a fun day with Nonie and Dagan for all of us. Here, my little outdoorsman is enjoying the surroundings while we waited for our time to tour.

Being silly in front of the Christmas tree

Kai during his Christmas program at school. They were dressed up as Jingle Bells. Too funny.

More of Christmas to come. We were not as camera happy as in years past...

A Woody/Dana/Arden/Esther/Chloe Christmas celebration

We were able to celebrate Christmas early with my brother's family because they were going to be through Birmingham. We had a fun weekend. My lovely husband cooked a delicious dinner on Thursday night and then we had yummy dessert and then got to open presents. None of the pictures do it justice, but the kids just played and played and played together and it warms my heart to watch them.

Watching Toy Story with Dagan

All the kids in front of the tree with their stockings

Kai opening a present with momma

Nonie and the kids baking reindeer cookies!

The step ladder is Kai's seat at the table when we all sit down together. Here, he was testing out the view from the top after we ate on Saturday night (wearing his new "Aubrun" shirt, of course and sporting a new 'do).

We love you Baugher 3s and are sad to not get to see you closer to the end of the year, but are grateful for the time we did have to celebrate with you all. And thank you Nonie and Dagan for hosting all the fun!

Thanksgiving at "The Camp"

Most of the time we spend at least some part of Thanksgiving weekend at "The Camp". (The Armstrongs have hunting property down south of Birmingham including a house suited for those of us who prefer to not spend the wee hours of the morning in the woods.) It is always a nice escape from our busy lives to go down there any time, but extra special when it means spending time with family. And boy did we have a great time! We have MUCH to be thankful for.

Here are some pictures of our woodsy adventures!

No jaunt down in the woods is complete without a four-wheeler ride!

We enjoyed just being outside. The weather was perfect.

Happy Cousins!!

When business gets serious, we have to hear a hat.

Working up a sweat playing inside with Nana.

Kai's boots needed to spend the night outside with daddy's of course.

Off for a first daddy/son hunting adventure!

They have their guns and they are READY!

And they brought back for Momma, two little flying squirrels. Kai kept informing me that they were asleep, but that they would wake up....guess we'll work on that one later. =)

The Calm Before.....The Christmas Craziness!

This sweet boy is beyond excited about Christmas this year.

He comes home singing Christmas carols. He demands that we drive past EVERY house that has lights or decorations. He had such a good time helping daddy get our real Christmas tree all settled in and decorating it with us. He knows who all of the nativity scene characters are and I can only imagine how much fun all the family time will be as the end of the month nears.

So I will stop and enjoy this peace and quiet for the moment.

Fall Fun!

Ride em Kai-boy!!

Loving on Nonie

The Twactor Twain

Pickin' Punkins

A family shot, the first in quite some time

Tea cup ride at the fall festival, loving it

Our strong little froggy

Kai's reaction to cotton candy, not a fan, but quite entertaining!

Delayed, yes. But, better late than never!

We enjoyed welcoming fall in October with a party at Kai's school, a visit to the pumpkin patch with the Baugher family, and the Fall Festival at Dawson. I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is already behind us now! And that means Christmas is around the corner?!

Like father like son

Drivin’ through town just my boy and me
With a Happy Meal in his booster seat
Knowin’ that he couldn’t have the toy ‘til his nuggets were gone.
A green traffic light turned straight to red
I hit my brakes and mumbled under my breath.His fries went a flyin’, and his orange drink covered his lap
Well, then my four year old said a four letter word
It started with “S” and I was concerned
So I said, “Son, now where’d you learn to talk like that?”

Chorus:
He said, "I’ve been watching you, dad ain’t that cool?
I’m your buckaroo, I wanna be like you.
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.
We got cowboy boots and camo pants
Yeah, we’re just alike, hey, ain’t we dad?
I want to do everything you do.So I’ve been watching you."

We got back home and I went to the barn
I bowed my head and I prayed real hard
Said, “Lord, please help me help my stupid self.”
Just this side of bedtime later that night
Turnin’ on my son’s Scooby-Doo nightlight.
He crawled out of bed and he got down on his knees.
He closed his little eyes, folded his little hands
Spoke to God like he was talkin’ to a friend.
And I said, “Son, now where’d you learn to pray like that?”
Chorus:
He said, "I’ve been watching you, dad ain’t that cool?
I’m your buckaroo, I want to be like you.
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.
We like fixin’ things and holding momma’s hand
Yeah, we’re just alike, hey, ain’t we dad?
I want to do everything you do; so I’ve been watching you"

With tears in my eyes I wrapped him in a hug.
Said, “My little bear is growin’ up.”And he said, “But when I’m big I’ll still know what to do.”

"‘Cause I’ve been watching you, dad ain’t that cool?
I’m your buckaroo, I want to be like you.
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.
By then I’ll be strong as superman
We’ll be just alike, hey, won’t we dad
When I can do everything you do.
‘cause I’ve been watchin’ you."

(Rodney Atkins; "I've Been Watchin You")

Ok, so Kai has not learned any inappropriate words from his daddy, but other than that, I LOVE this song, and have since I was pregnant with Kai and knew he was going to be a boy. Michael is such an amazing daddy and if Kai grows up to be just like him that will be perfectly fine with me. They have such a neat bond already.

I know all kids copy things they see other people doing or saying, but Kai wants to be just like his daddy. In the past several weeks, he as started...

- wanting to wear camo or Auburn/football shirts whenever possible

- saying "Go Tigers!" and "War Eagle, Hey!"

- standing up when he pretend goes to the potty (He always says, "I did it!" and then wants to flush. Yes, son, yes you did stand in front of the potty. Maybe next time you can actually GO to the potty?)

- wearing boots, we had to go buy him some boots so he could be just like his daddy b/c he had resorted to wanting to wear his boot-like house shoes EVERYWHERE

- said boots, most of the time, MUST be placed wherever daddy's boots are in the house

- lounging on the couch under a blanket next to daddy to watch movies

- shooting his "guns" (we shoot at a stuffed moose, we do NOT "pow" people)

- standing with his hands in his pockets

- playing with "ABCB's" or "Ammals" on the iPad (and I got fussed at the other night when I picked up the iPad..."No Mama! That Daddy's pad.")

- needing to have a flashlight if we go somewhere in the car when it is dark outside

- spitting in the sink after brushing his teeth (but the funny part is that he doesn't actually spit anything, he just makes the noise)

Oh, and having a fever and cough was their common ground last Friday, no fun.

I love my boys. =)

I am so thankful for all of my family. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Another month?!

Alright. Blogging is clearly not my strong suit these days! We have been busy and I will do my best to catch you up with some pictures.

A camping cookware drumming session

Part of our nighttime routine

Sweet face

Not sure if this would make anyone laugh like it did me, but one morning I told Kai to get ONE thing to take with him in the car. I came back to his room to find this. He has loaded up his tupperware bowl with balls and cars and then put some of his small cars in the back of his big truck. When I walked in the room he was trying to figure out how to pick it all up so he could bring it all with him. It is so fun to see how independent he can be and I definitely got a laugh out of his resourcefulness!

I apologize if anyone finds this inappropriate. I could not resist. Another display of Kai being Mr. Independent. He still does not actually use the potty, but he does enjoy going and sitting on the potty before we get ready for bed at night. He uses his stepping stool to reach the light switch and I walk around the corner to find this. Had to capture it and thought it was cute enough to share.

Looking so cute (and grown up) in his Levi's.

Kai and his "punkin".

We went to the Mt. Laurel Harvest Festival one Saturday and Kai wanted a little pumpkin of his own. This was a fun morning but a little too warm for "fall" festivities.

My new job is keeping me occupied, but I will get some more things posted soon!

Genesis 1:1

This is Kai's first memory verse. He didn't memorize it exactly, but we think he did a great job of repeating it even though he does get a little distracted at times. =) And it is from September...don't mind the Fourth of July head piece that he still enjoys wearing from time to time.

(There is another new post below from today.)

Where did September go?!

Wow. The past month has seemed so long but gone so fast...I realize that doesn't make sense, but that is just the kinda month it has been!

Michael began coaching a 9yo girls soccer team and has really enjoyed that. He coached a boys team (a little younger) several years ago. We had some comfortable weather here and then it got hot again for awhile, but I believe fall is now here to stay until winter. Weather has been lovely the past few days. While Michael is at practice two afternoons as week, Kai and I have been enjoying some exercise taking walks with Nonie.

Early in the month we took a Saturday to work around our house with Kai in Nonie & Dagan's care. We got a good cleaning done and moved some furniture around and continued the process of pulling things out to have a yard sale. More on that later.

The second weekend we packed it up and headed to St. Augustine to visit my brother and his family for a few days. This was Kai's first time on an airplane which was highly anticipated and he did GREAT! We did not do such a good job of taking pictures on our trip b/c we were too busy playing and taking videos instead. It was such a nice and needed vacation and we did not want it to end! We also celebrated Chloe's 1st birthday while we were there. Maybe one day I will quit dwelling on how quickly time goes by? The kids all had such a good time playing together and we are ready for the next visit!

Our return home and back to reality brought with it a new chapter for our little family. The week we got back turned out to also be our last week at our jobs. It is a scary time to be out of work, but we knew that this was part of God's plan for us and have been focussing on that as much as possible. So we have spent the last two weeks at home job searching and interviewing and catching up on things around the house while we have this time. I did receive a job offer from Southern Company which I have accepted and am so excited to begin! I am still waiting to find out when I start, but look forward to what this new chapter has in store for all of us. We appreciate all the prayers we know have been prayed over us during this trying time and know that the Lord will continue provide for us and bless us as we seek to follow His Will.

This past Saturday we had a yard sale and we believe it was a big success!! We had fun gathering things that we did not need or use anymore and organizing it and spending the morning together talking to our visitors/neighbors and making some money. Sunday, we were able to spend the afternoon with Michael's family (most of them) to celebrate more birthdays and then Monday was all about getting rid of the rest of the things that didn't sell on Saturday to keep us decluttered.

Whew! That pretty much catches you up on what has been going on with us. I will try to update more regularly with some shorter posts that include pictures. Here are the few we took on our trip...

Watching the airplanes while we waited

Playing with his cars while we waited

Playing on the airplane

Cousins in the pool! Not a great shot with all the sun in their faces, but the only one I got!

Will post some video later!!

Video...test

Our video camara died awhile back and we were able to pick up a new one this weekend that will allow us to take and post videos a lot easier. This is my test run on posting...

This was the shortest video we had taken so I could judge how long the upload is going to take. Kai pretty much tells us "No" every time we turn on the video camera. But he sure is cute!

August Pics

Here is a catch up in pictures of recent Armstrong (Kai) happenings...

Loves his books at selective times of day. We have three devotional books for him that each get read every night before bed.

LOVES "Jelly". I put this in quotes because it means a peanut butter & jelly sandwich.

He just calls it "Jelly".

Playing on the iPad with daddy last Monday afternoon just before spiking a high fever which led to a very LONG week at home.

He stands most of the time when he is watching something on TV. But he was feeling so rotten that he had to lay his head down. (Sadie did this exact same thing later in the week but I couldn't get the camera out before she moved.)

Most of the week was spent like this. On the couch watching Dora or Diego eating crushed ice.

Kai has an obsession lately with pennies. He just likes holding them and carrying them around. They have now become incorporated into other playing. This is a noise making puzzle which he can put together all by himself. But we discovered that if you cover the sensor with anything it will make the sounds. Kai kept asking me for more pennies until he had enough to cover all of the sensors. I thought this was pretty smart and displayed the obsession well. =)

Kai is better now after some antibiotics although there is still a lingering cough. Michael and I have been battling the sore throats this week, but hoping we will all be well again soon! The weather has become so nice for playing outside and we wanna get in on that!

A budget experiment...

Michael and I have always been terrible at eating out. He ate out less than I did before we met, but then while dating we were always eating out somewhere and when you date as long as we did, you spend some serious money on food!

I did try to cook some when we got married, but so many times it was just easier (and maybe tastier) to grab something on the way home from work since we both work. We also had a hard time with buying meat and produce that would disappear in the fridge and go bad before we got to it.

Michael has started doing more of the cooking each year that we've been married and he does pretty much all of it now. (I know, be jealous of me ladies!) Some weeks we do a good job of making a meal plan, going grocery shopping, and more importantly sticking to the meal plan. But more often than not, we end up just grabbing something quick while we are out or on our way home from somewhere.

We have been trying to stick to a budget in the last year or so and I wondered how little we could spend on food if we didn't eat out so much, or (gasp) at all. We've been using coupons and trying to make smarter purchase choices. I figure eating at home should end up being healthier too for the most part. In July we decided we'd try to make the month of August and "no eating out" month. I was nervous to post about this earlier in the month in case we didn't do so well, but we have managed to do it so far! Our one exception is our company lunches on Fridays. We have really enjoyed those since that has been our only "out" meals. I'll give an end of the month report when we get there.

Happy eating!

How do they change SO much?!

July 2009

August 2010

Still likes to play inside the toy box, but where did my baby go??