Friends

Matney had some friends come over to play today. Many of our playgroup families are out of town but those of us still here were more than ready to get our kids together. Collin and Mackenzie came over to play today and were into everything!

Peek A Boo! Collin played his own game of hide-and-seek for a while.


The Bumbo chair is out for Halle Kate but Collin remembered his baby days and wanted in as soon as he saw it!

How many kids can fit in a tunnel?

Matney has such a great time playing with her friends. I am SO THANKFUL that we met this group of ladies and their youngins!

Cousins!

Speaking of cousin memories my cousin Christina was here with our cousin Shanna's daughter Katie this week. Did you follow that? Its a bunch of second cousin twice removed kind of stuff that I don't understand. Anyway, here are the girls outside for a little water fun. Christina and I had a great time hanging out too...although I think the girls and I may scare her out of ever wanting her own kids!

Spinning and bacon

When I was little my Grandmama had chairs in her kitchen that could spin. And all 10 of us cousins LOVED to get up on Saturday morning and be the first to get in one of those chairs (instead of the kitchen table non-spinning chairs). We'd spin and spin until we just about sick! They were so fun...and they put us closer to the pounds and pounds of bacon Grandmama had frying in the iron skillet. That bacon was the best. NO ONE has ever made bacon as yummy as Grandmama. And no group of kiddos was probably responsible for the murder of so many pigs...but that is all another story. Anyway, Matney has learned to spin in Jared's office chair and she loves it. Watching her spin and squeal in the chair makes me smile...and totally reminds me of bacon. Random, huh? Maybe its the lack of sleep. Either way I'm thinking we're having breakfast for dinner!

Just because

Just because you need to see how cute she is....
And because you need to know how rotten!

Girls in the house!!!

Our friends, Roger, Amy and their 3 girls, were in town last week and came by for a night. We met Roger when he came running across the parking lot of a church we visited to invite us to lunch. They became great friends and we became members of that church until moving the hour north to where we live now. Amy was the person who's doorbell I rang at 7am flipping out when I realized I was pregnant the first time. They moved to Ohio a year ago and we miss them!

Two other couples who were members of our Sunday School class came up with their girls and we all had dinner. There were 8 adults and 8 little girls...I think the oldest was 7. In case you wondered 8 little girls can squeal. A LOT. It was wonderful to see everyone again! These are pictures from Saturday morning pancake breakfast. In sea of girls Friday night we were so bummed to realize no one took pictures of all 8 little ones together.


The Kunes Family, aka Roger and his ladies! Roger had gotten up at some crazy early hour and gone on a 12 mile bike ride and swim in Lake Lanier. He said the water was 75 degress. The rest of us enjoyed sleeping until the sun came up!
Look at those cute girls! No question that they belong to their Mama!



Jared's future...little girls all over his house!

She's a great squirrel!

Updated 8/4 to add pictures...




Matney was a wonderful squirrel today, even without a stroller. She was having a great time playing when I picked her up. I will post pictures of her super cute squirrel self tomorrow!

And if you saw the blog this afternoon you already know that posting from my phone is not as exciting as I thought. Apperently you can only post about 3 sentences at a time and even those can get all chopped up. Oh well, maybe they'll have a better system soon!

Check me out!

From my phone: Testing, testing. If this works you should be SO impressed!

From the computer: Oh, if you know me you will be so impressed! I just figured out how to post to the blog from my phone. It is late and I really, really should have been in bed a while ago so I'll have to play with it later and see if I can send pictures too. How exciting, especially since our computer STINKS (and that is the nice word). Very cool!

Big girl what ifs...

Just look at our big girl. She wanted to wear my shoes (I know, I know. You are thinking "someone's got to" because you read the post about me forgetting them. Let's all hope it was a one time thing.). Somehow these pictures make her seem like such a big girl. Playing dress up and wanting to wear Mommy's shoes are big girl games. Next she'll want her toes painted...that is a big girl want.

I have to admit that I have shed a tear about tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is Sunday and Matney is "graduating" to the next Sunday School class. She's going to be a Squirrel. Sniff, sniff. My baby in the Squirrel room and not the nursery (not that we don't have one in the nursery too!). But what if she's scared? What if the big kids aren't nice to her? What if she doesn't make a friend? What if her teachers don't know that she really likes to spend her time at church in the stroller? What if...What if she loves it and does great? What if she likes it so much she doesn't want us to come back and pick her up? What if she decides that it is so much fun that she doesn't even notice when we're left once we drop her off? ugh. Going to the Squirrel room is a big deal to this Mama and may keep me tossing and turning all night.

When the noise stops...

When the noise and craziness stops around here Halle Kate is all smiles. Matney was the opposite and loved being around people and in loud places, even as a tiny baby. Halle Kate does NOT like noise or light. When Matney's napping and it is just the two of us I turn off any noise or lights and open the blinds. She is so happy on the flooring talking and smiling. I know that she'll grow out of it and pretty soon she and Miss M will be the source of MUCH noise together! Stay turned for fun pictures...Hotel Heald had 8 little girls here last night. Yep 8 and the oldest one was 7 (Or maybe 8. Only 3 spent the night. But it was loud. very loud.). It was a good taste of slumber partys and things to come. And what did we learn? Start stocking up on ear plugs now!

The Matneys are back!

Jared's family from TX, the Matneys (sound familar?), came to visit last week. We're running Hotel Heald around here for the next month and they were our first guests! Here are some of highlights from their trip.

The Matneys with the Healds. Halle Kate had HAD IT and needed to be at home. I think we'll keep her home until she is older!

The girls with the guys

Aunt Connie got to feed Matney her second to last bottle. We got rid of them the next day, had one night of crying and Matney hasn't acted like she's missed them since. Now if I wasn't washing all Halle Kate's bottles I'd be so excited to have them gone!

Aunt Sassy and Aunt Connie went to Target and Baby Boo got some new jammies. The first night here they might have noticed that hers were getting a tad too small and that I hadn't gone to get more (bad Mama!). Matney slept in a sleep sack, not footie pjs, so I don't have any "leftovers". When Sassy found out we were pregnant again with Halle Kate, but before we knew she was a girl, she started calling her Baby Boo...as in SUPRISE, its a .... I think the name will stick with her for life. I was calling her Baby Boo by the end of their visit.

Uncle Wayne holding Halle Kate. She screamed at the rest of us for most of their visit but she didn't scream at him. Maybe I should pay him to come back!

Ant Sassy got Halle Kate to sleep after an hour of screaming one afternoon. Halle really has a hard time with noise and light. She's best in a dark room so all the coming and going people and noise kept her pretty over the edge for their visit. After an hour of rocking and jiggleing while Sassy kept her head covered by a blanket she finally fell asleep.

Poor Aunt Connie. Matney took to her as soon as she walked in the door and had her playing all weekend. This is Matney in Halle's bouncy seat making Connie cover her in puppy dogs and balls. The two of them had a blast together but I am betting that Auntie Connie slept really, really well when she got home! I also think this is when Aunt Connie taught Matney the word "cool" which she has really enjoyed saying ALL THE TIME. And not cool referring to temperature but awesome, neat, exciting. Thank you, Connie!

While the ladies played with the kiddos here are the guys. Jared was out smoking chicken, Uncle Wayne was checking the stock market and Jared's dad was in his usual place sleeping on our sofa. We don't know what it is about our couch that puts him right to sleep but it happens every time he's here.

They brought Miss M a bubble blower and she LOVED IT! Look at that face!

This is the night they flew in. Had I really taken pictures of all that we did while they were here most of them would look like this...we are eating. We ate and ate and ate...enough that when they left Monday Jared had gained back some of the weight he'd lost since Halle was born and I started Weight Watchers. It was some good food while it lasted though!

We love you, Matneys. Thank you for all you did for us while you were here...especially the laundry fairy that I think looked a lot like Aunt Connie! We love you and hope you come back soon!!