Cody's 2nd Birthday Party

We had a bunch of our friends and family over and everybody wore RED in honor of Elmo. When Cody came home and saw everybody at his party, he was in shock for a few minutes - this look is priceless!

Yes, the cupcakes ended up looking like "Smokin' Elmo" once I put the candles in - we all got a kick out of it. Here is a picture of Cody blowing out his big "2" candle.

After the cake, Tradd insisted that we do the "great balloon drop" like we did last year... so of course we did it. Clay is brainstorming ideas for a balloon shoot for the next party (to shoot the balloons back upstairs without having to come down and collect them manually). The kids love it when all the balloons bouce into the ceiling fans. Abby even got into it! Grandad ended up hiding in the big cardboard box.

FYI: A big, empty cardboard box is a must at any kid-friendly party! It was just a big box that we cut windows and a door in it. At one time, there were about 5 kids in there having a good ol' time.

Later, we played "Pin the Nose on Elmo"

the kids got carried away with it and noses were stuck everywhere!

Then, Cody opened his presents and was so excited by everything. Cars seemed to be the most popular gift. Aunt Tracy gave him a track to put them on. Here is a picture of Clay & Chad reading the instructions.

Here is a family photo...I think that's the only time we were all together in one spot all evening. This last picture is of Cody finishing off his cake for breakfast this morning....who says birthdays have to be in one day...make a whole weekend out of it! : )

Birthday Time!

I couldn't sleep last night. I was so excited for Cody's 2nd Birthday!

I offereded to bring cupcakes to school today for Cody's class so I started baking last night and came up with these lovely Elmo head cupcakes! They still need a nose though, so I am going to buy some M&Ms and put the orange ones on for noses. (I'll just have to eat the other colors of course!)

Several months ago, I read an article that says you take the age the child is turning and you add one to get the number of guests you should invite....so that would be three. It sounded like a good idea at the time. I started thinking about other kids his age and so I thought: Mackenzie, Emma, and of course Cody has to have Hannah over even though she is almost 12 (she is his favorite person). Well, that's three....but now there aren't any boys! So I wanted to invite Christopher, Cooper, Tradd...(and Coleman is invited of course even though she's only 1)...and I should have DJ to play with Coleman. Well, as you can figure the list grew a little bigger than three.

So, my brain kicked on last night and I came up with more Elmo games and decoration ideas to do. I don't know if I'll actually do it all or not, but it is fun thinking about it. I'll post more pictures later after his party and see how well I do with it all.

By the way, Happy Birthday to our friend Madyson!

Mady and Cody share the same birthday even though she is a few years older...how special! I remember when she was just a little girl. Look how cute she is. We love you Mady!

All I can say is...WoW

I found this comic strip that just hits it on the nail with the whole "WoW widow" feelings. For those of you who don't know what World of Worldcraft is...be thankful, very thankful!

Turning "Peace"

This Friday, Cody will be turning two!

So for the past week or so, I have been trying to get him to respond "two" (while holding up two fingers) when asked how old he will be on his birthday.

Instead of saying "two" on cue like I want him to, he says "peace!" Peace? Is he a hippy?

I was curous how he got "peace" out of "two" so I asked his teachers at school. They said that Morgan 's mom (Morgan is a little girl in his class) always says "peace" when she drops off Morgan. So it sort of makes sense now....when I have him hold up two fingers, he thinks of Morgan's mommy saying "Peace!" It's cute....as long as he doesn't end up like the guy in the picture....dude.

Attention Morgan's mommy (if you are reading this) Cody seems to listen to you much more than me. So can you teach him that bed time is at 7:30pm, the cat isn't a toy, and that mommy wants to watch something other than Mickey Mouse on TV? Thanks. : )

Abby eats carrots

Abby has ventured into eating solid foods! She has had applesauce, bananas, peas and carrots so far. She looked so cute sitting in the high chair eating her carrots - I just had to get the camera out and try to catch it on video. Trying to feed a baby and take a picture at the same time isn't as easy as I thought it would be. This is as good as I could get:

You Might Be a Redneck If You Have A....

I had some good comments about the man with his redneck wheelchair (a lawnmower with oxygen tank strapped on the side)...see last blog entry from our trip to Ohio.
Well, here are a few more pictures that I think you'll enjoy:

Redneck Boat















Redneck Gingerbread House (notice the car in the front yard)









Redneck Grill













Redneck Horse Shoes















Redneck Pet Carrier













Redneck Motorcycle (that guy would have made one of these, but there is no place to stick the oxygen tank!)

Trip to Ohio & West Virginia (and Tennessee)

We traveled to Proctorville, Ohio to visit my family. It is near Huntington, WV (The Home of the Thundering Herd - Marshall University). That's where I went to college - Go Herd!!! We had a great trip up thanks to my mom who bought us a DVD player for the car. We watched 1,000 episodes of Mickey Mouse clubhouse, but it was worth every minute of it!

We stopped off in Charlotte and went to the Apple Store at the mall. Clay picked up his Christmas present there. Its a long story, but somehow we ended up going all the way to Bristol, TN before we realized that we had gone over 70 miles out of our way. We ended up staying over night in Virginia before finishing our trip on Thursday.




I was so excited to see my Grandma - I just love her to pieces! She even babysat the kids so Clay & I could run around and do a few things. She played ball with Cody and got on the floor to encourage Abby to roll over. Grandma has a stuffed squirrel on her wall in her living room that Cody insists that it is a "kitty". He found a nut that he wanted to feed it and kept calling out to it saying "kitty, kitty, kitty". We all got a good laugh out of it.



My Uncle Mike and his family came over to say hello while we were at my Grandma's house. I can't believe how big Taylor is now - she is a beautiful young woman and it seems like just yesterday she was just a baby. I wish that I could have seen my other cousins while I was visiting, but I didn't get to this time...maybe next time around we can all get together.






We always like to visit the Proctorville Flea Market when we are in town. There are always interesting people to see in addition to all of the unusual items for sale - this trip didn't disappoint us one bit. As we were leaving, we saw a fellow getting on his lawn mower. That would have been funny enough, but he had his oxygen tank strapped to the side of it. I had to get a picture of it...if you ever hear about a guy shooting through the air because his oxygen tank exploded on his way home on his lawn mower - you can say you heard about him here first.


Other places we always like to visit include Stewart's Hog Dogs (we went there twice!). They have the best hot dogs and root beer.

We also try to go to Gino's Pizza - we go to "The Pub" for the arcade games and the 8th Street Gino's for their gelato. This time, they were out of the Cookies N Creme gelato that we usually get - bummer!

Cody ended up winning a dinosaur in the game room at The Pub - as you can see Clay & I had some fun with the dinosaur and some raisins...hehehehe!







Here are some pictures from visiting with my dad. I had to take a picture of Abby on the Dale Earnhardt pillow. (I'm resisting a "you might be a redneck" joke right now).




Here is a picture of Cody trying on a pair of my dad's boots - he was super cute!

There were several people that I really wanted to see while we were up there but we just weren't able to get our schedules together. So I guess I will see all of you guys on the next trip!

Happy New Year!

What a great year we had in 2007! We added sweet little Abby to our family and watched Cody grow up into an adorable little man...I can't believe he'll be turning two soon!

Our New Year's resolutions for 2008 are to be better organized with our time and our stuff and to eat healthier (we have added a few pounds since Thanksgiving) and try to exercise on a regular basis. Cody is going to get potty trained and Abby will learn to walk this year.

Clay & I are looking forward to very happy 2008 together with all of our friends and family.