Thomas..... and more Thomas!

We had a wonderful time on our Day Out With Thomas Saturday for Matt's birthday. Matt and McKenzie were so excited to go - Matt started asking if we were there yet before we got out of the Grenada city limits. We met Nana and Grand for lunch in Eupora and then headed for Thomas! The girls wanted to stop in Birmingham and go to the mall. Unfortunately, we got stuck in a funeral procession during rush hour! We finally made it to the mall, did our shopping, ate at the Olive Garden and then headed to our hotel in Calera.


Matt was literally bouncing off the walls in the hotel. We could see a train sitting on the tracks from our window. Matt was too excited to go to bed and he kept getting up and looking out the window at the train.


Saturday finally came! McKenzie and Matt were so excited walking to see Thomas.


This is the "Ductor" taking their tickets as we got on the train.


Matt loved riding on the train, although he was all business while he was on the train. Here he is playing with Annie waiting for our ride to start.


This was on a little steam train that went on a short ride through the woods. You can see Matt's serious studying train-riding look.


On one of the parked train cars, they had an extremely expressive lady reading Thomas stories to the kids.


There was even a petting zoo. This little goat kept escaping from the pen.


Here's Daddy taking a nap after lunch!


Matt on a train holding his ever-present Annie.


Riding Annie on a real track!


McKenzie and Matt in the jumping thing.


McKenzie loved the slide - Matt never would try it.


Matt did enjoy playing "golfball". Thankfully, he didn't hit anyone.

McKenzie did well, too, with her pink ball.


It was a great day and God took care of the weather for us. The only time it rained was while we were on the train!

Day Out With Thomas

Last December we went to the train exhibit at the Mississippi Ag Museum in Jackson. (See blog post about it here.) While we were there, a man gave me a brochure about the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum in Calera, AL. We saw that they were having a Day Out With Thomas weekend the weekend of Matt's birthday and knew we had to go. So, Friday, I'll be taking off half a day and we'll check McKenzie out of school and head to Calera, Alabama! Our train ride is Saturday at 11:15 or 11:30. There's a really good chance of rain so please pray that either we have good weather or we have good attitudes!!! Betty had an attack of MommyBrain right after we got the tickets in and she accidentally threw them away. Luckily, she later realized what she had done and had to go out and dig them out of the garbage!

Of course we'll post pictures and/or video of the trip when we get back.

Happy Birthday Matt!!!

Today (Thursday) is Matt's third birthday! Here's a short little video of Matt from birth to now. We know "it won't be this way for long". (Pretend like the guy is singing about a boy.)

Easter Time

I have mentioned before that I don't do much Easter decorating because the colors really don't go with my stuff, but I did do a display on top of our desk in the den. I used my McCarty bunnies, the kids hand painted eggs, burlap, ribbon and Easter grass. David, who really doesn't notice a lot of the decorating stuff, said he really liked it. I like it, too because it reminds me of the past years with McKenzie and Matt and their favorite things.

Amanda got me collecting the eggs McKenzie's first Easter. Now every year its tradition to order an egg for each child from a neat toy store in Jackson, Old Tyme Commissary. Each year I have the very talented artist at the store paint on the wooden eggs what McKenzie and Matt are into that particular year.


For example this year's eggs, McKenzie has the girl dancer bunny to represent her first yr. of dance. Since Matt is so into trains, I had them paint a conductor bunny for him holding trains. They paint the name and year on the back.

Max, our cat even has an egg!


My favorite egg so far is the 2006 egg that tells McKenzie is a new big sister. She is the big girl bunny holding the baby's hand. So cute and I love how they even painted her little glasses on the bunny. That Easter Matt was only 5 weeks old.

I also have the wooden Easter baskets from the store that they specially painted for each of them. Its just a fun tradition for us.

In the display I also included a framed picture from two Easters ago. It is one of my favorites! Whatever holiday it may be, I like to find old pictures of them from that particular holiday and put them in frames that I am already using and set them around the house. They make me smile and bring back happy memories of McKenzie and Matt growing up.

PS I added a few new blogs to my inspired blogs column. Great decorating ideas. Check it out.

Spring

We had a good spring break this week. I guess I should say Betty and the kids had a good spring break because I didn't get one! The kids decided that we should eat outside one day at lunch since it was such a beautiful day.

Saturday morning, Matt and I went to Caleb's baseball game in Greenwood. Caleb played well, but they had one horrible inning and got beat 13-9.


Caleb was 2 for 3 with two doubles.


Matt had fun being silly and playing in the grass and dirt.


Aunt Marty and Jordan were there watching Jordan's cousin, Connor. This is Marty washing Matt's ring pop off with water and picking the grass off of it and sticking it back in his mouth after he dropped it on the ground. Thanks for taking good care of our child, Marty!


Cassie and Matt with Ring Pop tongues.


Matt and Jan's niece, Karle, giving Caleb the star treatment and dragging his bag back to the car.

Happy Birthday MC and Jordan!

We would like to wish Mary Catherine a happy belated birthday! She celebrated her 36th on Saturday. Better known as PP(long story), MC is a great sister and aunt. We hope you had a really great weekend.

Today is a special day for Jordan aka Fire Ant Lea! She is 11 years old today. We hope you have a wonderful birthday. She had a really neat party with a few friends over the weekend. You can check it out on her blog.

March Madness

How 'bout them Dawgs?!?!?! Mississippi State earned a trip to the NCAA tournament by winning the SEC Tournament Championship Sunday. Grenadian, Phil Turner (pictured), led State to victory. That inspired me to post this video of Matt and McKenzie playing basketball. McKenzie was the broadcaster/cheerleader and Matt was a determined mad bomber.

Spring Fever

A few days ago, I started getting spring fever, then it turned cold again! But that didn't stop me from doing a little decorating. I had the girls at the Flower Company freshen up my front door wreath with some new greenery and a "springy" bow. I hung my Easter egg wreath beside the back door. It looked a little blah, so I bought two different kinds of ribbon and hung it with that and I like it better. I don't have many Easter decorations because the colors don't really go with my stuff. But I do have some cute bunnies, a door mat and the kids' handpainted wooden Easter baskets and eggs that I will put out in a couple of weeks. I love spring and can't wait to plant flowers and mulch my flower beds. McKenzie is out for spring break next week, so I hope the weather will be nice, so we can get outside and play in the backyard. Here are a couple of pictures of my door decorations.

Happy Birthday Jan!

Today (March 10th) is my sister-in-law, Jan's, birthday. Jan has gone through a few name changes over the years. Her parents named her Janice Aldridge but soon after she and Andy started dating, everyone started calling her "Jan" because that's what Andy always called her. Now Matt calls her "Jane" and she'll answer to just about anything. So, Cassie, tell your mother to look at our blog and we hope she had a happy birthday!

Today is a two for the price of one day! There's another new post after this one!

Baseball is back!

Spring is my favorite time of the year and baseball is my favorite sport. Last Saturday, Caleb's baseball team played in their first tournament of the season and Matt and I went to Winona to watch a game. They won the game we watched 7-2, and Caleb was 2 for 3 with a walk and a double that came about 5 feet from going over the fence. He also was the winning pitcher. Here are a few pictures from the game. Click here to see some more.

Room inspiration

I am exhausted tonight! I finished a couple of hours ago getting ready for my big garage sale. It seems like I have been hauling junk to Mama's house all day. If there is one thing that I have learned today it is LESS is more! These days I crave simplicity and decluttering my house is helping me achieve this. I have been staring at all of this "stuff"around the house and it is stressing me out. Then I realized it is time to do something about it. I also have a little inspiration to do this... Hopefully with the money I earn I can create this look for Matt's new big boy room...Ugh, I hate saying that! I am having a hard time letting go of the baby.

I love this little boys room I found a few weeks ago on a blog called The Inspired Room. I fell in love with the comforter and that dark red bed. A couple of nights ago, I actually found that exact bedding on a blog called Design Dazzle for sale. It is affordable, so I may get that for Matt's room. I am going to keep his same wall color, a robin's egg blue and ceiling color, a khaki. I think it would be cute with this striped comforter. Since Matt is so into trains, David had a neat idea to go to different train depots in the area and take pictures. I then will have them framed with white mats and black frames and put above his bed. I plan on using three pictures.We already have one train picture that David's grandfather took in the 1900's that we will use in the room. I think Matt will love it!

Spring Cleaning Out!

I have been really busy this week cleaning out and gathering stuff for my garage sale on Saturday. Amanda inspired me back in the fall when she started her "nesting" and had a garage sale and earned money for baby stuff. I decided to do the same and earn extra money to buy Matt a big boy bed for his new room I will be decorating in the coming months. It feels so good to declutter our house and make money at the same time. Mama and I are going to have the sale together at her house. I do hope it is worth it after the accident I had while cleaning out!


This is a picture of the wreckage left after I attempted to clean out the closet in Matt's room. I was only going to be in that closet for a minute and I didn't want to take the time to go get the stepladder so I just grabbed one of Matt's chairs and hopped on it. Evidently, I have gained more weight than I thought because soon after I stood on the chair it cracked and started wabbling. I knew I was going down and there was nothing I could do about it. The chair broke and I fell into Matt's basketball goal and tumbled to the ground along with all the stuff that was in my hands. I made a terrible crash and Matt came running into the room and breathlessly asked his favorite question, "What happened?! You OK, Mama?" followed by, "You cracked my chair!". I think he was more concerned about me than he was the chair......I think.