molly

i just wanted you to know that we lost molly this morning. the vet called and said that she made it through the night, but she was in bad shape. they tried to work on her for a about an hour, but she couldn't fight anymore. her body was shutting down. he thinks that it has to have been botulism since it was so fast.

we are obviously heartbroken over the loss of our faithful friend and guilt-ridden since we didn't make the time to spend more time with the dogs since the kids were born.

we struggle with what to tell mm. she knows that molly is at the doctor, but doesn't understand why. poor chance is very lonely and is whining and crying. i think that he knows that his friend in not coming back.

we just have to remember her from the pictures below. the one of her with her head out of the window is my favorite. it was here favorite thing to do. maybe heaven is full of cars with open windows.

my sweet molly..

many of you know that before kids, my love and attention was directed to the best dog in the world...my sweet molly. john gave molly to me as a college graduation gift. i knew that she was the puppy that i wanted, because when we went to pick her out, all the other puppies were gathered around us looking for attention, but molly had her head in my purse...i knew that that was my dog.

molly has been there through 8 years, 4 moves, probably a 100 7 hr car rides, marriage, another puppy, a baby, and another baby with us. Sadly over the past two years, the dogs have had to take a back seat to the two kids...we don't play with them as much, they don't get walked as often, don't get as many dog bones, and have moved outside.

today when i came home, molly was laying in the yard non responsive and having seizures . i called john and the vet. we got her to the vet who has been running all kinds of tests, x-rays, and ultrasounds. the vets aren't sure what this is, but it is bad...they don't expect her to make it. they only theory is that it may either be some sort of toxin or cancer.

anyway, sorry to be bummer, but i just wanted you to know about my sweet molly...she was my first baby and i hate to see her like this.

the kids have been scared of the dogs because they are so big and tend to get too excited when we go outside to play...this was a couple of weeks ago where mm finally played with the dogs.


this is our engagement picture (poor quality due to a picture of the picture)..see i told you, she was my first baby.


this is when she was about 9 weeks. old...i loved those big lips and gigantic paws!

m&m's and macaroni!

yup, that is grady eating m&m's before dinner...someone call the department of children services! this entertained them for the 20 minutes that it took me to make macaroni and cheese, is that so bad! clearly, i am having a tough time with this cooking more resolution...i need paula, ina, tyler, bobby, giada, jamie, and rachel to forget 30 minute meals...i need 10 minute meals!

my sweet grady

sweet grady was baptised yesterday. we had planned to share the day with john's brother's baby, hailey, but with the bad weather, they could not make it. i am sorry that we couldn't share the special day, but maybe it is best that each of them have their own special time.

i must say that there is a reason that most people baptise babies when they are very small...that reason is so they don't eat captain crunch during the ceremony! oh well...whatever works, right?!



i wish that i could have gotten a better picture of my sweet boy. i know that i am biased, but this child looked so gorgeous on sunday...angelic, almost...too bad, we know that he is a little devil, that is always up to something! he is a wild one, even though he doesn't look like it in these pictures.


tell me this isn't the sweetest...he was pooped after the big morning. even though this boy has been given us fits lately, i wouldn't trade him for the world. he is so loving...times like this will help us get through the terrible twos! (a year early!)

happy birthday amy-lee!

it was this sweet boys birthday on saturday...it was the best party complete with his first snowfall...what a great treat!


clearly grady-man and mm had a great time!



here is a rare picture of some of the girls

snow in georgia!

winter wonderland...only in georgia can it be 70 degrees one week and snow the next! we are not complaining though. it was great! i think that we were more excited than the kids.

i think that this picture is hilarious. i guess her mommy didn't want her to get cold!

as i said...the parents were more excited than the kids. i think that they were cold and wet and they didn't really care that this won't happen again for another 5 or so years!


after a long day, this is what the scene looked like at my parents! (my nieces and nephews were there too) too bad i didn't have my video camera (coming in feb) the sound of these next pictures was deafening! i don't know if they were trying out sing/dance each other or just trying to keep themselves awake. whatever it was, i haven't laughed so hard in a very long time...my brother had his video camera...i will try to get him to send it to me so you can hear it for your own ears!

baby, it is cold outside!

it is finally cold here in georgia! the weatherman mentioned snow tomorrow night...probably more like freezing rain, but a girl can hope right...i am dying to play in the snow with my kids! keep your fingers crossed!

mean mommy!

mm had her 2 1/2 yr check up at the dr yesterday. she waited so patiently for 2 hours! dr. susie got called to the hospital so the wait was really long. mm decided that she wanted some gum...i told her that we had to wait for dr susie to come in and look at her mouth first. she was really persistent. (2 yr olds usually are, right?) anyway, i tried to distract her with charlie...the frog in the picture above...the dialogue went something like this...

charlie: no, no...you can't have any gum until after dr. susie comes in.
mm: (laughing because charlie was talking) but i want to
charlie: no, no...dr. susie won't like that
mm: (still giggling) yes, i want some gum, pls
charlie: you can have some after dr. susie looks in your mouth
mm: (grabbing charlie from me-still laughing) i do it!
mm as charlie: NO, YOU CAN'T HAVE ANY GUM!

i died laughing...even though i thought that i was saying it so sweet and funny, she still heard only one thing..."you can't have any gum because i am the mommy and i am mean!"

those teenage years should be fun!

week one (officially) of resolutions

resolution #2-cook more

this week didn't go so hot in the cooking category!

you see...by the time i leave work, pick the kids up, and get home it is at least 6 o'clock...the kids are starving by then, so while i was trying to cook dinner, i gave the kids a snack...obviously, this is what grady thought of the snack...uh oh cereal-o! by the way, captain crunch makes a lovely noise when being stepped on by a 1 year old's crocs...

resolution # 3- be more patient with my kids

this went really well this week! i am just trying to get them busy and entertained. yesterday morning i took the dogs (2) and the kids (2) for a walk...i really thought that this was a bad idea, but it turned out really fun!
i had to hold chance back so mm could throw the ball to molly. molly is getting old and not moving so great... as you can see from the picture, mm was having a ball!

resolution # 1- train and complete a half marathon

clearly my worst idea yet! can i blame my poor math skills on thinking that i could run half of a marathon...fractions always gave me trouble. i think that 13.1 miles may have been a lofty goal...i ran for the first time in a long time tonight...it was not pretty...see below for the proof.


yikes! that is bad. i do have these prettys to help me though...do you think these make me look fast?


I also am adding resolution # 7-get back to updating this blog more often.

nice ham fiona!

only to me, right! i am going to make a long story short...one of my very best friends pelham (aka ashley who lives in pelham, ga...we call her pelham) has showed hogs her whole life...when she came to the big city (lagrange) for college, this was a big topic of conversation that always included lots of laughter! anyway, fast forward 10 years since i first learned that this was an actual thing...pel's nephew's are now big into showing hogs. each year they get their pigs before the show. they decided (on their own!) to name their pigs...da da ta da...FIONA and MARY MADDOX! can you believe it! i have a hog named after me...and man doesn't she have a nice ham! work it girl!


here is mary maddox's ham...looks tasty huh?


here are the proud papa's with their pork chops! braswell and fiona on the left, drake and mary maddox on the right.


to top it all off...apparently the judges agree that fiona can bring home the bacon! braswell and fiona won her age group, class, overall grand york (this is the type of pig) AND grand champion! (check out the belt buckle that braswell won!) apparently drake got robbed...mary maddox was the one that should have won according to the experts...that fiona can be such a sow!

i love it! i hope that y'all do too...my apologies to amy-lee who will be horrified that on wednesday at mighty joes the westmoreland's will be eating pineapple and pig pizza...llllllssssspppp! poor fiona and mary maddox!

my only hope is that this post can increase the awareness that this is an actual event held all over the country! god bless america...and thank you pelham for another round of hog showing laughter! love you lots!

you can see more about where fiona and mary maddox came from here... http://www.sasires.com/

new years day party

we had a few friends over for new years day. we heard giggling from mm's room and went to discover several monkeys on the bed...thankful no doctors had to be called. (it is only a matter of time)


this little monkey was so sleepy she fell fast asleep in the middle of the party! when she woke up, she asked "where are all my friends!"

endings and beginnings

we spent the night at mom and dad's new years eve...we put the kids to bed and went out to our friends party...here is the last picture of 2007 and the first of 2008...you see that the kids played musical beds.

good bye 2007

hello 2008!

happy 2008!

happy new year to everyone!

does everyone have their new year's resolutions ready...my list keeps growing. obviously, i have a lot of things that i need to improve on. here is the start of it.

1. train for and complete a half marathon (i kinda borrowed this from my brother after watching him run his second marathon this year... i knew that 26.2 miles was out of the question for me...i am not sure why i think that 13 miles will be much better, but it is a goal right!

2. cook more- this is more because we waste SO much money eating out!

3. be more patient with my kids- having a one yr old and a two yr old tests your patience a lot! i need to remind myself that this time is so precious and in no time at all they are going to be 15 and 16, and i am going to want them to be toddlers again!

4. appreciate john more- much of this has to do with #3. we (john and i) forget sometimes how lucky we are to have each other... not all marriages are as good as ours.

5. become more organized- okay, everyone can stop laughing now!

6. waste less- i work for interface which is a leader in sustainability. it is really inspiring that i work for a company that has a higher goal that just making profits. we are striving for mission zero: our promise to eliminate any negative impact our company may have on the environment by the year 2020 (read more about our progress and vision here http://www.interfacesustainability.com/ and http://www.interfaceflor.com/default.aspx?Section=1) it makes me realize how much we waste stuff at home.

i think that is it for now, but i am sure that i will think of more!

oral hygiene is very important

my kids are obsessed with brushing their teeth. i guess there could be worse things to be obsessed with!



let's see those pearly whites, grady! (I think that there might be braces in our future!)

mary maddox-the photographer

mm's favorite christmas gift was "her own camera". she took pictures all day. these pictures are of us taking pictures of each other. her little camera is really cool. grady is trying to get into the action too. i don't think the resolution will be very good on a tape measure!

christmas

okay...here is a run down of christmas (a week late!)

we do christmas eve with john's family.


here is christmas morning...can you tell how excited they were?





i love these glasses...santa found them at baby gap...they remind me of some my mom had when i was little.


grady was excited with his easel...now if he would just figure out the the chalk and markers are for coloring on the easel and not for dumping on the ground, we would be doing good.


after we go to christmas lunch with john's grandparents in griffin, we come back to have dinner with my family.

will got a bunch of tools and unfortunately for him the girls were really into them. isn't this picture of maggie hilarious? safety first!

here is sweet will.