did i really just say that?

1. could you please call me when you need to be wiped?!! if i have to clean dirty off that potty one more time...

2. do not hit your brother with that helicopter.

3. the refrigerator is not a toy.

4. we keep our pee pee in our pants. yes, i know that i don't have a pee pee. just keep yours in your pants!

5. i don't care if you are a viking...don't touch your brother.

6. stop licking the cabinets.

7. stop slobbering in his ear.

8. yeah...anthony dixon (msu football player) probably sleeps in his underwear. he's such a big boy.

9. yes. girls have bellybuttons.

10. we don't run over people with tractors.

11. don't put sand in his hair. don't put sand in your hair. just get away from the sand!

12. you're right. referees have pee pees because they are boys.

road trippin'

we packed up on monday and hit the road for atlanta. by we, i mean me along with the little people.

yes, i drove to atlanta. by myself. with a three year old and a 16 month old. it was a long trip.

especially since william apparently has a bladder the size of a pea and an uncontrollable to urge to pee every 45 minutes or so requiring me to pull off the side of the road for him to take care of that urge.

especially since wes decided to not eat the goldfish that i handed him 1 by 1 but rather see how many itty bitty pieces he could crumble each one into and then fling them as far as he could.

especially since the dvd player broke and refused to play more than 8 minutes worth of Cars which left me listening to whining about how lightning mcqueen wasn't on the tv.

especially since an 18 wheeler flung a boulder at my windsheild and scared william so much that it brought him to tears thinking that the windsheild was going to break.

especially since atlanta has no gas meaning that i had to wait for 30 minutes to get gas somewhere in podunk alabama to insure that i could get out of that city when i wanted to leave!

especially since wes didn't want to do anything (including sleep) except pet and point at aunt holly's cats...


and destroy her house.


but, it was all worth it and we'd do it all again to get to meet alexandra...grandkid #6 on the henson side of the family.


the little lady arrived shortly after lunch on tuesday looking much like her older sister. and, the hospital waiting room wasn't all bad. if you have an msu football helmet with you, you can play football just about anywhere!


a mask and a hairnet come in pretty handy, too!


congrats on the new kid, holly and frank! and congrats, ari, on your new big sister status!


but, if y'all decide to have another one...can you wait until my kids are somewhere around the age of 10? :)

wheezer-ific

on sunday morning, wes woke up with fever and ill as a hornet. he would not drink anything, and he sure as heck wasn't going to eat anything. along with those wonderful symptoms, he was having difficulty breathing which was evidenced by a horrible wheeze. you could look at his little belly and chest and tell that he was working really hard for some air. so i gave him a bath in a super steamy bathroom to try and loosen him up. that didn't work, and then he threw up on me, the changing table, and himself as i was drying him off. (yes, he got a second bath.)

i don't know where it is written in the rule books that children must get sick on weekends (specifically sundays) when there is no dr's office and few pharmacies open. of course, the pharmacy i go to isn't open at all on sundays.

i didn't feel the need for another trip to the ER. and i really didn't want to go sit in some free clinic where we would contract something else to go along with what we already had for sure. so, i did the next best thing...i called my neighborhood pharmacy...aka, the waterer house.



these lucky neighbors of ours have had their share of illnesses with all three of their kids. so i called knowing that they had a nebulizer and some albuterol lying around somewhere. within the hour, i had both delivered to my back door.

after 4 days of a whole lot of this...

along with lots of tylenol and sleep, wes is as good as new. and we didn't even have to leave home.

now, if those waterers would just put in a drive-thru, they'd make a killing!

where's the love?

tonight after william said his prayers, we told God what we were thankful for from today. after the completely obvious...football helmet, football, trees and lights...i asked him if there were any people that he was thankful for.

the conversation went something like this:

me: are there any people that you are thankful for?

william: brooks. but he wasn't at school today. and i'm thank-va-ful for ethan, too.

me: anybody else?

william: yeah, and i'm thank-va-ful for riley.

me: is there anybody else that you are thankful for? (leaning in thinking that the closer i am, the more obvious i will be)

william: yeah. what's that girl's name at my school with the pink sandals?

me: i don't know, william.

william: you know...the cute girl.

me: yeah, i still don't know who you are talking about. isn't there somebody else you are thankful for?

william: oh yeah, wait!! jenkins!

me: is that all?

william: yup. night, mama.

i'm just the one that keeps his world spinning, but there's no need to be thank-va-ful for that when there's brooks and ethan.

and a cute girl with pink sandals.

it's tough to be a state fan

this past weekend, we packed up all the little people and headed to starkville for another day of tailgating and a superb football performance. if you happened to miss the game, we lost 3-2. no that was not the score of the soccer match...it really was 3-2.

but hey, at least the tailgating is fun!!

william taking a break from his chicken nugget to practice using his cowbell...


wes getting in a little cowbell practice time, too...


brotherly love at the tailgate...


we spent the first part of the game up in the MClub with wes so he would have some room to run around and not have to stay confined in the stands. when we made it back down to the stands, we find that even though the game isn't exactly high quality, when you have a box of popcorn and a good buddy (ben surholt) next to you...that scoreboard doesn't matter.


i'm not really one to complain about our players. this is evidenced by the fact that i cheered my head off for jamont gordon the last few years even though i'm not a jamont gordon fan. but, he's a bulldog, so you gotta cheer for the guy. and, it's not like they are out there wanting to lose...

but seriously, i realize that our punter had 2 great punts saturday night (he should have...he had enough practice), but how many times does he really have good punts. um...like next to never. the guy is averaging about 30 yards/punt. for real. for a punter in the sec that is just unacceptable. i mean, he kicked a 24 yarder against auburn! 24 yards! i'm a 28 year old white girl with toothpick legs, and i'd be willing to bet loads of money that i could punt a ball 24 yards! i know there are some guys standing on the sideline that can punt that far. or a soccer player on campus. or an engineering geek in a lab somewhere. for crying out loud, get us a punter. with the outstandingness of our offense, we're gonna need one!

or i'm gonna need lots of boxes of popcorn to get me through this season!

touch a truck

on saturday morning, we made our way to the park to check out the 2nd annual touch a truck. william had a blast last year, and there were even more trucks there this year to tickle his fancy. wes even got into driving everything he could get his hands on.


pretending to be just like major allen, though he could probably use a smaller helmet.


checking out the back of an ambulance with my new buddy, mr. emt.


chillin' on the gator.


piloting the police helicopter.


he thought being a mailman was way cool...


until he got to be the ups man. (this is one of two life ambitions for this kid.)


and here he is getting instructions from the garbage man on how to drive the garbage truck...


his #1 life ambition!

i didn't think we were going to be able to pull him off the back of this thing. but, a promise of a trip to starkville for the football game got him slowly down. oh, and some popcorn once we got there!

splishin' and a splashin'

on friday morning, emma claire asked william to go to the splash park with her. he's not one to turn down that kind of offer...especially from a cute girl. so, off we went to check out the splash park.

i didn't get many good pictures because i was too busy chasing wes around. it took william just a second to warm up, but then he decided it was great fun.


this was about as much of the splash park as wes wanted.


he'd rather chase the ducks around than play in the water!


william's favorite was getting behind the barrel of this water gun.

as we got in the car, i asked william if he had fun. he said, "yeah. i shooted people with that gun. i shooted that little baby, and he cried." i told him that the baby's name was john david, and it wasn't very nice to make people cry. he then told me to turn around and go back, and "i will tell john david that i'm sorry i shooted him." (so, leigh ann, there's an apology for john david being shooted.)

of course, as we got a little further down the road i heard him mumble, "but, he shoulda just got out of the way and he wouldn't get shooted."

*sigh*

and then some tears were shed...

ok, so if you recall i took wes to get a haircut a few months ago. and then i chickened out once we got there. i have had a really hard time even thinking about letting go of those blonde curls. lately, however, i have gotten several comments that made me bite the bullet and make an appointment.

"how old is she?" (what...are you freakin' blind? girls don't wear dump trucks!)

"she's so cute!" (and you are an idiot. see all that blue he has on!)

"well, if he wasn't built like a linebacker i'd say that's the prettiest girl i've ever seen." (ok, that one was meant as a joke, but still...)

it really wasn't the comments that got to me, because anybody that knows me knows that i've never really cared what other people think. it had more to do with the fact that he sweats like a pig, and when we go outside his hair is wet and stuck to his face and down his neck within minutes.


so, this morning at 9am, wes was sitting in the fire truck getting his big boy haircut.


and, his mama is sitting here in need of some sort of antidepressant. because tomorrow we are going to get his driver's license. and then, we're moving him into the dorm.

i know time can't stop, but it could at least slow down a little!

say ahhhhhhh!

this is one of my favorite things to do. forget books before bedtime...just give me a toothbrush and some toothpaste, then watch me go to town!

a good day for william (and the bulldogs)

this weekend, we left wes in inverness and drove to starkville to cheer on the bulldogs. obviously, we didn't do a good enough job last weekend, so we were there in full force yesterday. william has been so excited about football season, and his jersey has been washed to death in the last few weeks. so, as he stepped foot on campus for the first home game of the season, he was thrilled!

i mean, how could a three year old not love it? before we even went in the stadium, he hit up every tailgate tent on campus for snacks. seriously, for supper he ate a half of a chicken strip, 5 grapes, 14 cookies, 3 brownies, and m&ms. he got to ride the escalators in the depot numerous times. got to walk through the blow-up helmet. got to watch the band walk through the junction (the kid's got some rhythm). got to go up to the MClub and watch the players dance (aka stretch). he was in heaven.

when we finally got in the stadium, he was completely into the maroon/white cheer before the game!


the past two years, it's been a little difficult at the games because he gets ansty after about the first quarter. not any more. he took it all in and actually paid attention to what was going on...the football players falling down, anthony dixon, the drummers in the band, dancing to the music between plays, anthony dixon, the referees (love those guys), the huge box of popcorn that he ate in the second quarter, bully, and did i mention that he likes anthony dixon?

at one point he stood up on his seat and yelled, "come on! take it to that secondary! they ain't got one!!" after a brief moment of confusion, i realized that he was enjoying yelling everything that the guy in front of us was yelling. luckily, he was a pretty mild-mannered fan! and all that yelling must have done some good because the bulldogs finally put a 1 in the W column.

i think it's safe to say that william enjoyed his time in starkville yesterday. it was quite obvious that he thought he was still at the game this morning during church. what, with all the cutting a rug to holy, holy, holy and the belch he let out during kurt's prayer! he was even demonstrating the different football stances to people at lunch. poor kid...i hope that spirit doesn't get crushed by the guys in maroon next weekend when the SEC schedule begins.

on second thought, as long as there are cookies at the tailgates and popcorn in the stadium, he'll be up for a trip to starkville any day!

mamoo and taylor

at the end of this past week, the little people and i headed to the delta for a few days. i get their pictures done in greenwood, and it was time for wes to get a few made. while we were there, my grandparents came over to hang out. i tried to get some pictures myself, but this was as good as i did...


wes apparently already had his fill of picture taking because he was having none of that...

oh well. maybe next time.

while i'm on the subject of my grandparents, i had to share a memory. i used to go stay with them every summer for a whole week. now my kids do this with their grandparents (and, oh, what a sweet, glorious, quiet week that is)! anyway, when i stayed with them, we would head up to baskin robbins every single night after supper. every night. without fail. so, so awesome. and every night i got the same thing...chocolate. and every night taylor got the same thing...vanilla. because, you know, we like to branch out and do different things. mamoo, obviously the crazy one in the bunch, ordered pralines and cream every night. i'm not sure that i've ever even eaten a praline, but i know that do not want it anywhere near my ice cream. that mamoo, she is a wild one! she also called me pissant for the first half of my life. it's a wonder i'm not in therapy every week! :)

i only hope my kids make fun memories while they spend time with their grandparents in the coming years. and, i'll be dang sure to make some of my own in the peaceful, stillness of my house while they are gone. or...maybe i'll just take a nap.

back to school...finally

william has asked me non-stop since the beginning of summer to take him back to school. so, he was so excited on tuesday morning when i told him to go brush his teeth so he could go. well actually, his words were, "ok! when you pack my lunch...put it in my lunch box. put a peanut butter and jelly in there. and some carrots. and some stuff to dip them in. and a capri sun." he was not happy with me when i told him that it was not a lunch day at school today. but, he got over that and was happy to pose for a first day of school pic (with a 1 because it was the first day).

we do the carpool line, and i'm nothing more than vapor once we get in the line in that parking lot. his teacher opened the door to get him out, and he couldn't get out fast enough. he didn't even tell me bye. all these other moms are crying while dropping their clingy kids off, and i didn't even get a wave! i can just feel the love! it's ok, though, because i'll get some love when it's lunch day at school and he wants a pb&j. and some carrots. and a capri sun. yes sir...i might even get a wave for that!

thank you, hurricane gustav!

while we don't yet know the damage caused on the gulf coast by hurricane gustav, i do know that yesterday it gave those of us in the northern part of the state an 80 degree, overcast afternoon with the perfect amount of wind to make two little people very happy!