in case you have been missing these cuties...

we have been having a lot of fun as silly amphibians

and chip pirates

looking into the past

so i have seen this a couple places and have had it in my mind that i wanted to try to do something like this in lagrange. i want to do grady's room so i was searching for old photographs of lagrange on google...i was really looking for an old pic of charlie joseph's, but couldn't find anything...google lead me to troup county archives website which had tons of old pics. i looked through all of them and almost fell out of the chair when i saw 309 waverly way pop up! there was actually 2 pics, one from 1936, right after our house was built and one from 1939. it was awesome seeing how much it was so much the same and how much it has changed...

get dirty!

we did it...we finished the 2009 atlanta muddy buddy! and, if i do say so myself, we did really well! i was really proud of myself...i really worried that i was not going to make it and let pelham down.

what is muddy buddy you ask? it is a 10k run and bike with a buddy. each buddy starts running or biking and comes to an obstacle, both complete the obstacle and switch...you continue leap frogging each other until the finish line that is complete with a mud pit that you crawl through with your buddy. (by the way, this trail is part of the 1996 olympic mountain bike trail..yikes!)

here is the proof!here we are at the beginning...see how clean we were!


we were VERY nervous.

here i am finishing before the mud pit.

and here is the pit...apparently we were supposed to crawl on our bellies and not on our knees...oh well! pel decided to crab crawl.




here is some of the group that pelham runs with in south ga.

john was so sweet and got up at 5am and drove with the kids to cheer us on. it was awesome to see them along the trail. they were even dressed in hot pink for us! we signed mm up for the mini muddy buddy, but after she saw everyone going in the mud, she decided that it was not for her! they didn't even want to give us a hug. it was so funny!


until next year!!!

by the way, this is the mud before...looks innocent enough doesn't it?!

all dressed up...

and some place to go...we went to a beautiful wedding last night so we had to put on our finest! if i do say so myself, i think that we cleaned up pretty nice. thank you beth and ken for inviting the kids...they thought that it was really special that they got to come to the wedding.

the kids only came to the reception for a little bit and then they were off to spend the night at grandmama's and grandaddy's. we were having fun in the grass while we waited for them. isn't this the cutest pic...they love each other SO much...can't you just see it in their eyes?

grady has come up with this really goofy smile. it is pretty funny...



love my cute family!!!

happy birthday mary maddox!

4 years is the amount of time that this little person has been on this earth...i have known her forever. i can't wait to spend the rest of my life loving her.

we celebrated her birthday at montessori before the end of the year. it is a really neat ritual...the kids walk pictures from every year of their life around the sun. i am not sure that have seen a more excited child...it must be hard for her to wait all year and see all the other kids celebrating their birthday.

as you can see, she took being the line leader very seriously...her and amos aka "boyfriend"knew just want to do.

grady sat on line with mm and stayed after we left. she loved showing him off. i hope they always love each other this much.

we had her party today...we had an alice in wonderland theme. ms. bobbie was a hit!!!


have you ever seen a cuter alice?

happy birthday mary maddox, i love you!

the beach

as so many of you have pointed out, I am WAY behind on this little blog. i have missed lots of birthday wishes which i will catch up on...so without further udo, here are some pictures from the beach.

mom just celebrated her 60th birthday...happy birthday mom!!

the weather was bad, but we still had a great time...grady tried to drag dad into the ocean!

this is unusual...the kids didn't mind posing for me!


and another!
love this one!maggie and mm playing in the sand...love those freckles!


our little friends...one of the 10 deadliest animals...porteguese man of wars! ...fortunatley they were babies.our little leprechans!

i am in love...

with this little boy...


i can't help it...i want to eat him up...he has been saying the funniest things lately...here are few samples.

yesterday grady had a 3 1/2 hour nap...needless to say he was not at all sleepy at 8:30. it went something like this...
grady putting his head under the covers and being really still for a minute and then shouting...mommy! i am a camel! wiggle wiggle, giggle, giggle, fidget, fidget, and then back to the hiding camel. so i brought him downstairs so he wouldn't wake up mm. he laid with john for a while and continued with the wiggles, giggles, and fidgets. i finally decided enough was enough. i picked him up and brought him in the den to lay on the couch. after a few wiggles and giggles he looked out of the window and pointed to the moon and looked at me and said, "mommy, can you turn that light off?" i said, "grady, that isn't a light, it's the moon.." he said, "no mommy not the moon, that big circle light!" we laughed and he wiggled and giggled a little more. finally i said, "grady, if you weren't so cute, i might have to kill you" (please note, this was close to 10 o'clock!) he looked at me and said, "not today, mommy, tomorrow!"

and then the kicker was this conversation...

grady: i lergic for p-nuts.
me: no, grady, you are allergic to all nuts...peanuts, walnuts, cashews, pecans...
grady: ...donuts?

it was the cutest thing! he sounded so upset!!

the moral of the story i have starting writing all of these funny things that the kids say at the time they say it and i put it in a big jar in the kitchen. i don't want to forget all of these things!

happy new year!!!

happy new year everyone...this is the last picture of 2008. please notice grady's hand on the baby doll's thigh...hopefully that is not a sign for the things to come in 2009!

and...here is the first picture of 2009...

mm woke up ready to start the new year...

grady...not so much!

december in a snapshot...or 10...

so here is a run down of christmas...

we rode the pink pig...waiting in line for santa...got out of line for santa...

went to callaway gardens to see santa...waited 10 minutes, but had to listen to santa scold his elves because they didn't close the line good enough and it was time for his hourly break, that lasts and hour...
mm had a christmas program at montessori to which she wore a tank top...(this changing after she is out of the house is starting WAY too early! thankfully she had a jacket at school that they made her wear...THANK GOD!! please notice all of the cute outfits on the other children)

a second program at daycare the same day...please notice the cute shirt that we forced her to put back on. (as a side note for future reference...it was 76 degrees this day)

a terrific carousel ride in the valley...who knew this was here!! it was super fun, but cold!

mm decided to ditch her hat...boy, we are going to have issues when she is a teenager if she is this opinionated about her attire at 3...eek!

we left milk and cookies for santa, carrots for the reindeer, suckers for ollie (our elf on the shelf), and da ta da da...all of the kids binks for all the babies all over the world that need them. santa was so kind to deliver them for us and we didn't even have to pay postage!

when i downloaded my pictures on christmas morning i found this one...santa must have been playing with my camera...he must be in the market for a new one...or maybe he was doing market research for his elves...or maybe, he wanted ollie to see what he looks like from behind so he wouldn't end up like his boss!

here is the mess they left behind!

and here are my two little elves coming down the stairs. isn't it sweet that they are holding hands!so there you have it...christmas in a nutshell...in between we spent time with our wonderful family and friends who we are so thankful for! we love you all.