"I'M GONNA LIKE ME!"

Every night, before I kiss the kids "good night," I read them a book. For AJ, we have been reading a chapter book called "Jake Drake Class Clown" and I read one chapter each night. In the book there is a teacher named "Miss Bruce" who is really boring and strict, so I created a really obnoxious voice for her and the kids LOVE it! In fact last weekend I was trying to get Ansley to bed so Joe offered to read to the kids since he was home. While sitting w/ Ansley in her rocker, I overheard Joe starting to read about "Miss Bruce" and the kids stopped him and said he wasn't reading it right! They then imitated the obnoxious voice I have created for her! It was funny, Joe was laughing hysterically! Of course Joe now does her voice better than me!

Anyway, tonight I read Aleigh a book called "I'm Gonna Like Me" by Jamie Lee Curtis. It's a great book about how no matter what a person does, however silly or embarrassing, it's important to like yourself first and foremost! After I put the book down and explained to Aleigh that it's always important to be happy with who you are and believe in yourself. I also told her that when you love yourself it helps you to love others even more. Aleigh looked up at me w/ her big dimple filled grin, and said "Mommy, the best thing that ever happened to me is you and daddy! Since you and daddy love each other so much you got married, and if you didn't get married you wouldn't have me and I wouldn't have you and daddy!" My eyes teared up! I am just so proud, not just of the sweet little girl that she is, but of Joe and I for making sure our kids know how important it is to appreciate love and life!

Ansley got to go and play with her friend Hayley for a little while today! They were so cute! We are going to try and make it over to see Tammy and Hayley more! Tammy and I have always had a great friendship and it's going to be so fun to watch Hayley and Ansley grow up together! Tammy took some great pictures of our girls today. I will post them when I get copies.

Oh, I had to post this photo of Ansley completely crashed out in the shopping cart at BJ's! Remember, the shopping carts at BJ's are double seaters, so they are longer and that's how she was able to lay down. Joe fed her a bottle and she was out for almost the entire shopping trip! She was so tired!

Joe is going to be on MTV!

Last Friday night when Joe got home from work he said he wanted to share a voice mail message he received that afternoon. The voice message was from a guy named Ted who is the associate producer of the MTV show "Made." It's a reality show usually involving high school students who want to be "made" into a cheerleader, football star, prom queen..etc. For this particular episode, it's a high school student who wants to be a basketball star. Apparently he was lacking a bit of aggression so they heard about Joe through one of Joe's adult students who was training w/ the kid. Anyway, they were requesting Joe to train this kid in Krav Maga (an Israeli type of martial arts involving a lot of combatives and street fighting).
Anyway...today was filming day! Joe was able to get Bryson, Lisa, Jared and Scott (other instructors) to be a part of the class and build up this kids confidence. Once filming was over Joe called me and was so excited that it had gone so well! He said that they were able to get him (the kid) to break 3 boards! Joe said the look on the kids face was priceless when he was able to break the first one after confessing that he didn't think he could do it! Joe was really proud of him! He said that he kept up and made it through the whole 2 hour class.

The show will air in January! We will keep you posted....Bryson's in it too!

Movies Under The Stars

My mom called this morning and informed us that there was going to be a "Movies Under the Stars" at the Avenues (awesome outdoor shopping complex in Peachtree City). We packed our chairs, blankets, sweatshirts and snacks and joined my parents and The Dimmigs to watch "Horton Hears A Who." It was a lot of fun, even though I paid no attention to the movie! The kids had a blast and the babies were awesome! Ansley was SO mesmerized by the whole idea of being outside and seeing a big movie screen! In the photo below Robin is holding her while she stares at the screen. Tessa fights sleep so well and is such a trooper! She is adorable and we had a blast with her today!

The little ones just love my dad!

Robin held Ansley and started humming to her. She was in total Awe as she listened and was slowly soothed by the sound of Aunt Robin's voice!

Slowly going...

going........

GONE!

still gone and cozy in Aunt Robin's arms! It was absolutely precious!

Special Friends!

Today we had a fun and long overdue visit with Robin, Tessa and Drew! They came over this morning and spent the morning with me and Ansley (AJ was w/ Joe at Karate and Aleigh spent the night with Madrina aka Robin Dumas). We had fun watching Ansley and Tessa play for a good part of the morning, then Ansley was ready for her bottle and nap! I can't believe how grown up Drew is! What a sweet and pleasant 12 year old she is! I can't believe she is already 12! What I love is that she still enjoys spending time with us and being at our house! Hopefully she won't ever grow out of that. Like the rest of my kids, Ansley just adored Drew!

When Joe got home w/ AJ, Drew and AJ played the Wii while we waited for Ansley to wake from her nap so we could go out to lunch. After lunch at Red Robin, we went shopping at Old Navy and found the cutest costumes for Ansley and Tessa! They are different, but both ADORABLE! You have to wait and see when I post pictures for Halloween!

WHEN I GROW UP...

Last Friday was Career Day for Aleigh. She has known that career day was coming up and has been absolutely CERTAIN that she wants to be an Artist when she grows up! My response to her was "Wow, that's great Aleigh! What kind of artist do you want to be? There are lot's of different artists. You could be a photographer, like Malin, a dancer, a hair dresser like Madrina...." Her response to me was "No mommy! I just want to be a regular artist!" Well, what exactly is a regular artist? She explains it as "You know, the kind of artist that draws and paints a lot!" I then asked her "Why do you want to be an artist?" and she answered "Because it's fun and I get to draw and color and paint all the time!"

Aleigh TRULY could color, write, paint, and draw ALL DAY LONG EVERY DAY!!! You could take everything else away from her and she would be alright, as long as she had some paper and stuff to write and color with!

Here is a picture of Aleigh before she went to school on Career Day...keep in mind, she chose what she was going to wear. You can't force her to wear anything she doesn't want to wear. She picked out this clear, plastic, artist apron....not how I imagined her dressing...but I am not the one wearing it and I have to let her be the sweet little individual that she wants to be.

Joe helped her draw a picture of what she wants to be when she grows up.

Our Freaky Dancer

Just a little something for your entertainment!

He sure keeps us entertained!

And so the fun begins...

She is barely 7 months old and already all over the place and into everything!!! She doesn't want to sit still, even when you are trying to hold her! She is another busy little AJ....but a lot more tame!

I was able to get some shots w/ my cell phone today (our camera's battery needs to be charged) of Ansley trying to get in to Aleigh's basket under the coffee table (the table is pushed to the side so that Ansley can have more room to play on the living room floor). It was so funny watching her pull herself up to her knee's, reach into Aleigh's basket and get a strong grip on Aleigh's American Girl magazine! She grabbed on to it and tried to get it out, but it was stuck. She froze and kept turning around to look at us as if to say "someone help me get this!" We just watched her!And she yanks hard enough to knock herself off balance! Usually she would probably cry, but she was determined to get her hands on that magazine and didn't care what happened in the meantime!

"I can't wait to rip into this magazine and eat the pages!"

"This is so much fun mommy! I can't believe your letting me do this!"

No, I don't let her eat magazines on a regular basis, she just worked so hard for that magazine, I had to let her have a little fun w/ it. It was an American Girl magazine and we get plenty of those in the mail! I did put her in her Johnny Jumper right after I snapped this shot!