Just a couple of things...

Hello friends! We have been to the duck pond and saw 1 duck! Ha! It was almost ridiculous! Anderson and I chased that stinkin' mallard duck all around the pond to try and get him to take some bread. He just wouldn't do it.

When we left the duck pond, we took the pups over to Central Bark Dog Park to let them play in the beautiful sunshine. Anderson LOVES this place just as much if not more than Annabelle and Gus do.He met some new friendsFound an empty orange juice container filled with rocks(that was weird) and was delighted that it made a neat shaking noise!Look at the smiles on these faces! :) Happy dogs and baby boy!

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Do you have Golden Books at your house? I have some that I found from my childhood that were in my grandparent's beach house. These books were not mine, they belonged to this little girlSherry Register and they are complete with her coloring and everything. I have tried looking for her on facebook, but all of the Sherry Register's I asked were not from Graceville, Florida. Well, one was from Florida but she was a couple of years too young. I'm dying to find her so I can send her books back to her. Oh where could you be, Sherry?

I LOVE old books, especially childrens books. My dad had a book when he was a little boy called "Little Black Sambo". I found it also at my grandparents beach house. On ebay, the book that is in that good of condition sells for $275 dollars!! Can you believe that!

I bought Anderson a new Golden Book today and it wasn't the price that Sherry Register's old Golden Book cost, 29 cents. Don't I wish it was though...It was $3.50, but I LOVE how you can buy the new Golden Books and they were first printed in the 1950's!

Chick-Flay

Hello friends! Anderson and I have just arrived home from our outings and he is talking himself (hopefully) to sleep as I type;) I documented here on Monday that we went to the library to return some books and got drafted into doing storytime, which was neat! Well....darnit, if last night we were reading and an overdue library book popped up. Doesn't it always happen that way? In my defense, I don't think it was actually overdue(hopefully not), it had just strayed away from the others. So, back to the library we went and I let him play for a little bit in the kiddos section. They older toddler story time had just let out, so there were older little girls and there was LOTS of bossing going on. So glad I don't have to deal with that:) They were trying to boss Anderson, but he kept telling them "NO" and "Bye" which he says these days for a variety of reasons, but on this day, it was simply because he WASN'T going to be bossed. Ha! I could have told those girls that.

We decided to go over to Chick-Flay as Anderson refers to it and eat and let him play. (Darnit...our gift cards stash that mom sent is dwindling).

I love Chick-Fil-A for a variety of different reasons the first being that they have great food and I feel that it's the best fast food you can get for kids. And they have a killer playground. Also, their customer service CAN'T BE BEAT! When you order at the counter inside, they get you a high chair and then tell you to sit down and they will bring it out...Awesomeness! And they give away all kinds of free things which I have already mentioned in a previous post, including, placemats, mints and sanitizing wipes...that I smuggle out of there:)

But most importantly, it fosters a sense of self-awareness and a can do attitude when children are left alone to play with the other kids. Anderson finally made it up the BIG KID steps and then fell back down again...luckily, I was standing there and caught him. Seriously...I think Chick-Fil-A should already have our order ready when we get to the counter...we go that much!

If you can read this, thank your parents and teachers

Hello friends! We've had a good morning, just cleaning up and reading books and staying inside cause guess who showed back up again...old man winter! UGH!!!

I'm excited because I got Anderson's birthday party reserved at Landmark. I forgot to tell you that it's going to be April 10 from 11-1(if you are reading this and can come or if you are my family and are coming) Also, my friend and old co-worker Laura said that she would make Anderson's birthday cake again this year! She made his cake for his 1st birthday party and she did a fabulous job and it tasted great!
Today, as we were reading Anderson's books, I took inventory and discovered that he had exactly 103 books! I am not bragging please don't think that I am. He just loves to read and I'm sure your kiddos have just as many if not more books. :) I was reading an article in Parents magazine yesterday and it really disturbed me. It said that some poorer parts of the country, it gave the example Lubbock,TX have areas where the neighborhoods don't have any books hardly at all. It gave some crazy statistic like for every 300 kids there are like 3 books. And to boot, the libraries in these poorer areas don't get as much money as other affluent areas. As an educator(yes ,I STILL place myself in that category, cause once one, always one, right?) this really BREAKS MY HEART!

And especially since I taught in a school that was in the ghetto and was low-income, I know this to be true! There is a great website you can donate to to help these children get a jump start in life and get them reading. Go here to see all about it. OR You can also:

1. Go through your bookshelves and pull out books that you will never read again or have owned for more than 2 years and haven't read yet.
2. Pack the books in a box.
3. Call your local library, school, foster home, or children's organization to see if they need books.
4. Deliver the books.

Two months

Hello friends! We were just saying yesterday that it felt so nice and warm out and then BAM, it's cold again today and tomorrow....ugh...dare I say it...more snow! I have always said that I would have liked to live in Canada, but maybe not anymore. :) We got started this morning by taking Anderson's books back to the library and staying and looking around. I looked TERRIBLE, no bath, no make up, sweat shirt and pants and boots...a lovely picture. One of the moms told me that the library story time was about to begin. Okay...Anderson and I went and lots of people were there and Anderson was a WILD MAN! Running all over and then when the singing started...this kiddo was cutting a rug! Hilarious! Sorry no pictures, I was too busy doing crowd control!

These pictures are not from the library, but I wanted to show you a picture of him doing the "centipede" it's where he stomps his feet and looks like he's dancing. My mom taught him this. Ha! And us reading today. I swear to you, we read at least 30 books everyday...maybe more.Today, Anderson is exactly 22 months old! We only have two months until we are about to have a 2 year old! Where did the time go? I was just holding him and feeding him every 3 hours and now....he's just....BIG!We've been talking a lot and planning a lot for his 2nd birthday. We are going to have it in Dothan on April 10(which is a Saturday) and are going to have it here. Since Anderson LOVES all things animals. And I'm ordering his invitations from here. They are SO inexpensive!! And my friend and old roommate, Angela is doing his birthday outfit. I can't wait to get it! We are doing a giveway for you to win one of her beautiful outfits for your child. It will be either in March or April...so stay tuned.

Give me some ideas for a cake...think barnyard animals or any other ideas ya got?

You just call out my name

Hello friends! I'm back, a little sadder than before, but okay. Momma left today and I am a little sad today. We had such a glorious time, the week literally FLEW by! We didn't do anything earth shattering, but simply... just had a great time together. We miss her already! As we were leaving the airport from dropping her off this morning, we heard one of my favorite songs by a GREAT singer, click here...LOVE IT! It truly defines my relationship with this lady!

On Monday, we picked mom up from DFW and took her to a cool little restaurant that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network. Click here to see the restaurant. This place is seriously in a gas station, but the food is delish!!

Tuesday: was pretty cool. We went to Ft. Worth to eat hamburgers at Kincaid's! One of our favorites!!And my momma, introduced Anderson to root beer ;) I know it looks kinda bad..ha!

Wednesday: we took Anderson to the Ft. Worth Zoo again. I know, I know what you're thinking...but seriously this kiddo LOVES this place. I swear to ya'll he's gonna be a zoologist or marine biologist!:)Anderson was squawking like the pelican.Thursday: we just hung around and went to a couple of stores around Arlington. And to P.F. Changs for lunch!Have you ever had the lettuce wraps...SINFUL little things! YUM!

And then to Borders books!(Free entertainment:)And of course, it was so hard this morning to take her to the airport. We cried...all of us(Anderson included). And then Anderson kept telling nunna "bye-bye" after she left and then said "see you next week" that's what he tells everybody.Ha! I wish!!

Hello

Hello friends! I'm going on a 4 day hiatus! My momma is in the air as I type on her way to DFW!!!! YIPPEEE!!! I'll post a blog on Friday to let you know about our fun times! Have a great week!:)

Snowy Stuck in the House Friday

Hello friends! We've had a snowy night and have racked up 12 and a half inches of snow overall!!! This is so unprecedented in DFW! They have NEVER seen this much snow and we haven't either! The most I've ever seen is like 4 inches, maybe.
To give you an idea of how much snow this was. This pic is from 9 a.m.And this one is from this morning...WOW!Last night, as it continued to snow, we had some wonderful chili. It was the best I've ever made...if I do say so myself. ;) And Adam built our first fire in our new house, it was delightful and warm!Yesterday afternoon, Adam got home early from work and he took Anderson out again to play in the snow. But, Anderson kept falling down and crying because the snow was so deep and he couldn't stand up. We walked over to our neighbors house and watched the father build a snowman and as we were leaving, Anderson started screaming "byeeeee" cause he didn't want to go. The lady told me something, but I couldn't hear her because of his screaming and I said "you're having fajitas" and she laughed and said "no, we're here if you need us". I don't think I wouldn't have felt so bad if it wasn't a Hispanic family...I feel awful!

Anyway, I said all that to say that there was a snowman building contest happening on our street. So fun! It was the men and not the kids who were building the snowmen th0ugh. Ha!
And of course...THE BEST ONE ON THE BLOCK!!! ROLL TIDE ROLL!!! :)Adam didn't go to work today because he couldn't even get out of the driveway, so we've just been hanging out all day again, not doing much. We are getting out in a bit to go look around and go eat...I've got CABIN FEVER!!

Dashing!

Hello friends! We have been dashing through the snow all morning! 5 and a half inches so far! Well technically I've only let Anderson stay out in it a total of about 30 minutes, but we've still been dashing...okay;)I have 1,567 pictures to share with you. Are you ready? Well.... really it's more like 15.

I woke up this morning panicked because it was 6:30a.m. and Adam was still in the bed. I was relieved to find out that his work start time was delayed an hour. It took him a WHOLE HOUR to get to work this a.m. and usually his commute is around 35 minutes or so.

When Anderson and I finally woke up around 7a.m. this is what we saw!
Gus and Annabelle were less than thrilled with the thick snow! Ha!I let Anderson play outside a little this morning with his froggy rain boots on that double as galoshes too!Momma and Anderson...just pretend that I have on my mascara and red lipstick..yikes!And after lunch, we went back out because the neighbors across the street were building a snow man. This is Jaci, she is 5 and a doll. Anderson kept hugging her and then would turn around and lick the snow man. We've also been reading lot of books and watching Sesame Street because it's FREEZING outside and I don't want to drive anywhere in this lovely weather.

Hope you are bundled up South Alabama...it's headed your way!:)