John's baby

It was finally warm enough to play outside "a wittle bit" this afternoon. John held Wyatt so we could relax...
I mentioned that JD loves to hold PatPat's hand on the way to Heather's house every morning. Here is a picture to prove it. I hope that they are always this close. It just does not get any sweeter.

First Word

Our little P bear had another big first this week....his first "word".

Just like Andrew and John, his first word is a shout out to good ol' dad!

"dada dada dada"

Even if it's not "mama", it is still music to my ears.

Hand holding

Ashley takes the boys to Heather's house in the mornings.
Wyatt sits facing backwards with Andrew and John are on either side of him; every morning John holds his baby brother's hand the whole way there.

I can not think of many things sweeter.

Monday Already

We had another busy weekend and I can not believe that it is Monday already. I was really sad this morning on my way to work because I felt like our weekend went by too quickly and I wanted more time with the boys...all four of them (including Ash). :)

Friday night was pretty low key. Ashley and I both thought that not laying down on the couch during a movie would help me stay awake; umm, sorry Ash, no dice.

Saturday we split up; Andy and Ashley went to Chapin to check on our boat after a terrible wind storm came through and beached our boat in Ashley's parents yard. It was still there. Not taking on water.

(Do we actually have a boat? Oh yea, I remember when we used to go to the lake a lot).

Saturday I took John for a haircut and a visit with Granna Ann. PatPat came along with us...although you could easily forget that he was there. John saw his friend Eliza at Granna Ann's. He was a man of few words, but he loved the cheetos she had to share!

Later Saturday we went to our neighborhood Halloween party and then to a baby shower for some friends of ours.

Sunday took the cake. FBC had a Fall Festival complete with candy, food (ish), music and games. The boys had a ball. The loved the helicopters. I think we will continue to come year after year. Nana, Papa, and Chad came along with us which made the boys even happier. Hopefully they will continue to come with us; I can only imagine what it will be like keeping up with everyone once Wyatt gets mobile.

That was it. Weekend over. Monday already.

John's conversations

My conversations with John are usually about one of four subjects: trucks, chicken biscuits, trash cans, and daddy. He loves all these things (not in this order).

Tonight Ashley had SALT, a weekly Bible study that he has been a part of for a few months.
While I gave Wyatt his bottle tonight, Andrew laid on the couch begging for me to rub his head and John walked around pretending to talk on my cell phone.

(Phone to ear)
John: "Hey, Hey Daddy. Wha' you doooin'?"
silence
John: "You at church Daddy?"
silence
John: "You take you Bible?"
silence
John: "okay, bye Daddy"

2 minutes later....

"Hey Daddy. Wha' you doooin;"
"You take you Bible?"

3 minutes later....

"Hey Daddy. Wha' you dooooin'?"


You get the picture!!

New Pictures

Wyatt's head is actually bigger than John's; it's not just the camera angle.

If there is a re-make of "Home Alone", Andrew is ready. He is cuter than Macauley anyway!

Same ol', Same ol'

Our lives are pretty predictable. We get up to the sound of the twins talking, laughing or crying. I dress the boys and feed Wyatt while Ashley showers and gets dressed. He takes them to Heather's while I shower and get ready. I leave for work. Ashley works all day. I work all day. We talk on the phone a few times. I leave work and go get the boys. We come home. Getting them to come inside is a fight. I make dinner while Ash entertains the kids. We say our blessing and eat. I bathe the boys all at once, Ash cleans the kitchen. We all play on the floor until bedtime. I make Wyatt's bottle and Ashley reads to the boys on the couch. Wyatt falls asleep in my arms and I carry him to his room. The boys kiss their dad goodnight and I take them to bed. We say our prayers, give kisses and hugs and then I leave the room. It is the same thing pretty much every day. Same ol', same ol'. Some might find it boring. Mundane. Lacking spontaneity.

Of course there was a time in life when Ashley and I had no plan. We just waited to see what the day and night would bring and never thought about the next meal or bedtime.
Times have changed. We have changed.

It warms my heart to see Andy and John laying across their dad while he reads the same book 15 times with just as much enthusiasm the 14th time as he had the 1st. I love to watch my PatPat falling asleep, heavy eyes, mouth barely moving around his bottle. Breathing slowly, smelling so sweet.
I wish these days would never end.

Almost perfect trip

This weekend me, my mom (Granny Meg), and the boys went to visit my brother and his family in Chapel Hill. It was a fast trip and so good to see the my niece and nephews...and so good to see my boys seeing their cousins. We were also able to celebrate my brother's recent promotion to full professor at Duke.

It was a rough start. Mom and I could have driven to Disney in the time it took to get to Chapel Hill on Friday night. First, we went to see Granna Ann, then I got on I77 going in the wrong direction and was so busy talking that I did not notice until I had been on the road for 20 minutes. In my own defense, it was raining. I had wanted to leave in time to miss 5:00 traffic in Charlotte. Instead though, we were caught in 5:00 traffic in Columbia. And then did I seriously forget to pack diapers?? How does that happen? So, we had to stop. We wanted to eat at Chick-Fil-A. We saw a sign that there was one off of the exit....the sign failed to say it was 5 miles and 3 turns (2 of them u-turns) off of the exit. After eating dinner (John ate off the floor and fell out of the booth onto his head) we were finally on the road. We got in late, but it was good to be there.

Saturday we had my grandparents over for lunch and the kids played and played. Instead of "PatPat got a letter" (the boys' song for Wyatt taken from Blues Clues) David's kids sang "PatPat got a stinky"
Sunday we all went to my brother's church. Thomas actually read two separate passages. He is barely 5 and is reading like a third grader. And he is just as sweet as he is smart (just like my brother).

After a lunch at Firehouse Subs, complete with fireman's hats for everyone, we were back on the road. The trip was kind of a blur. 6 kids under 6 will keep you very busy.

It was almost perfect. It was missing one thing though...Ashley. Daddy. Uncle Ash. Sweetheart. Ashley stayed behind this trip and although we had fun, it was not the same without him.

Lots of first

Just when I was totally convinced that PatPat would be my most developmentally delayed child (due to girth) he has proven me wrong and been doing all kinds of exciting firsts! He is sitting up without assistance for long periods of time and even started holding his own bottle today!! Tonight we pulled the jumperoo out of the attic (in case you are not familiar, it is basically an exersaucer with springs) and P bear jumped his little legs off. If he keeps up this level of exercise for long, I fear that his rolls will disappear completely.

After baths the boys all played together on the floor. Below you can see the PatPat sandwich! The big boys love to hug and kiss PatPat. He is so lucky to have two wonderful big brothers. What more could a little boy want................except maybe a baby sister in a few years. (don't say no Ash. just think about it)

Man I love these three so much I can barely stand it!!

Alone together

Another fun weekend has come and gone. It was busy and fun like most of our weekends, but there was one big difference. Ashley and I were alone. Alone together. Quiet. No bottles to be made, no Noggin on TV, no fights to break up, no tears at bedtime.
Friday night Ashley and I went out to eat Mexican food and came home and rented a movie, that despite being an action flick, put me to sleep (sorry Ash, some things will never change). Saturday we slept late and for maybe the first time since we have had children, we did nothing. We did not go out to eat breakfast, or lunch, or go shopping, or buy groceries....we did nothing other than talk and watch football. Saturday night we went to the wedding of a friend of ours in Sumter. It was a gorgeous wedding and was a perfect end to our weekend together. There is nothing like going to a wedding to make you think about all the things that you love about your husband. It doesn't seems like long ago that it was us exchanging vows, grinning from ear to ear, holding hands, sweating.
Sunday we met Ashley's parents at church to reclaim our baby bears. Is it possible that the twins grew over the course of one weekend? Could Wyatt have gotten sweeter? I missed them a lot but I also realized that I had missed Ashley since we last spent time alone together. I hope we can do that again soon, Ash. You make me smile.

Boys' Big weekend

We had a wonderful and very busy weekend. The party got started at Country Adventures on Friday night. We met up with a bunch of our friends from FBC and went on a hay ride, picked out some pumpkins, ate hot dogs and morj (S'mores) and saw lots of farm animals. The bunny rabbit was the biggest hit.

We had a wonderful night. Wyatt and John were asleep before we got out of Blythewood.

The next morning Granddaddy Terry and GG came for a visit. After playing with their new toys (the twins got motorcycles and P bear got some stacking rings) all 7 of us piled into 2 cars and headed to see Krissy. If you do not already know, that means we went to the zoo; Krissy is the giraffe that the boys love. They were predictably happy to see her, but chickened out at feeding time. G-daddy Terry and Daddy had to do the actual feeding, but it was exciting! NOTHING however was better than the merry-go-round. Thank goodness for Ash. Just looking at the merry-go-round makes me feel sick to my stomach, so riding it is totally out. Their daddy always comes through for them!

After a few hours walking around the zoo, we headed to Fuddruckers for lunch. The big hit at Fuddruckers was the bacuum cleaner. :)

Sunday John was not feeling 100% so I took Andy and Pat to church. Nothing could keep me from being there to hear Kathy Ritchie sing God is Here. What an amazing and moving song!

Nana and Papa came by with some awesome surprises for the whole family that afternoon! Thank you Papa for our Fedex stuff! We love you.

If this post seems totally disjointed, Ashley Lindler's playlist is to blame. It is hard to type about your weekend while singing Rusted Root. Reminds me and Ash of our old days!

Smart Mouth

Ashley came inside tonight to find Andrew already out of time out. I let him get up...maybe too soon.

Susan: "Andrew, what do you say to Daddy"?
Andrew: "sorry, sorry daddy".
Susan: "Andrew, what are you sorry for"?
Andy: "I sorry for being a fart mouth".