Memorial Day

We had a good day. Here's Logan looking at his cousin on our way to my parents' house. Now, smile for mommy...

"I'm bored....I think I'll chew on my toe for a while...."

Tomorrow, I will post pictures of what Logan did today. Here's a hint...it involves playing in the water....

Guitar Man

20 Months

Sweet Logan,

You are 20 months old today! In 4 short months, I will have to stop referring to you as ____ months old. (At least, I think that's the rule!). I have no idea how much you weigh or how tall you are. Whatever it is, it is perfect. We've been too busy having fun to worry about such things.

The past 20 months are starting to show. So many hours of sleep lost. So many clothes outgrown. Toys are starting to show wear and tear; paint is starting to wear off of some toys. Book pages have been torn. "Shrek," unfortunately, has not worn out yet ;) So many kisses, so many snuggles. So many laughs, so many songs sung. So many splashes in the bathtub. So many moments I've spent worrying. So many moments I've spent just loving you. The best 20 months of my life. Thank you for being my son.

I love you so much, my heart just feels like it will explode.

Mommy

Enjoying Our Saturday

Something about my Office...

I don't typically write about work here, because I'm sure none of you care and quite frankly, I don't like to think about work when I'm not there. But I had to share this funny story...a couple years ago, right before Logan was born, we needed a temporary employee in our office. I hired C, as she had worked for me before and I knew she was a great worker. She worked for us a couple months, got us all caught up and she left. About six months later, we needed a temp again. I wanted C, but she was pregnant and due right around the busy time we would be needing her. So, I hired L. L is the wife of Zeb's friend from high school and she was an excellent worker, as well. She temped last summer and came back a couple months ago. I have a new position in my office and really wanted L to apply. She thought about it, but decided to stay home with her 3 year old and her new baby who is due in a couple weeks. So, L's last day is tomorrow.

I hired M, who is an internal hire and I know her work ethic from having worked with her the past several years. I'm excited about her starting on Tuesday. She came into my office yesterday and wanted to talk to me to let me know that she just found out that she is pregnant. Moral of the story -- if you know anyone who wants to get pregnant, have them work for me. I mean, not that I have anything to do with it, but I'm definitely seeing a trend here!

So, as I'm making food for a little party for L's last day tomorrow, this is what I found my boys doing tonight...
We are looking forward to a great weekend. We have a lot going on this weekend and in the coming weeks, so stay tuned....

Some Pictures

Logan got to play outside this weekend. And tonight. I think we'll be doing a lot of that this summer. He didn't like his frog pool from last summer. Evidently, he was young and naive last summer. This summer, he understands the dangers of a pool that looks like a frog, so he won't dare go near it. We resorted to playing in a rubber maid container full of water. It was fun. Really fun.

So much fun, why don't we just go ahead and get in it? Who needs a frog pool anyways?!

And he played there for a very long time, both this weekend and tonight.

Tent Time

I was on a mission to find a suitable tent for Logan...one that was big enough to have some fun (not like the one we purchased last week that only he could fit into and he ended up carrying around with him), yet small enough to fit in our living room. And find one, I did. And it's grand!

We put it up last night while Logan was sleeping, so this morning, we brought him out to the living room to show him. It felt like Christmas for me & Zeb!!! He was very excited and kept saying "Oh no." I recorded part of it, and just as I shut off the camera, he said, "Thank you." I promise, he did! He loves his tent. It now has pillows in it (we pretend we are sleeping) and a lawn chair for him to sit down. He doesn't spend a lot of time inside it...it's mostly running in and out of it. But I think it's going to work just fine.

And if you're wondering if I care that I have a tent taking up most of my living room, I don't. Because Logan loves his tent and a tent in my living room reminds me that I have a precious little boy who is growing into a big boy right before my very eyes. A tent in my living room is a reminder of the wonderful blessing that precious little boy is in our lives. A tent in my living room makes me happy beyond belief!

Logan

There are so many wonderful things about this age and I keep thinking that I need to write them down but I keep putting it off. Lucky for me, our son wakes up at 6:00 (or earlier) even on the weekends, so I have some extra time.

*Logan learned some of his colors. We didn't teach him. Obviously, he learned them somewhere, but not from us, so it was fun for us when we said, "What color is this?" and he answered...correctly. He can even say purple.

*He likes to add syllables to words and make his own words. For instance, "book" can be "bookie" or "bookette."

*For breakfast this morning, he ate half a banana, an entire scrambled egg, and is working on some toast as I write this.

*He can make several animal sounds including cow, cat, monkey, elephant, snake, dog, lion and dinosaur ('cause, you know, we know what dinosaurs sound like).

*Every time I blow my nose, he starts blowing out of his nose and needs a tissue, as well.

*He much prefers the homemade tent to the one we bought. We are returning the one we bought.

*He loves to drink ice water from a regular cup (with our help) and always says "ahhh" after he takes a drink.

*He also loves to drink bath water. This, he can amazingly do from a cup with no help at all (disgusting, I know). He has a cup in the tub to play with and he started drinking from it the other evening. I took it away from him because he wouldn't stop. So, he started just dunking his head in the water to take a drink. I guess he likes the flavor???

*When Logan says no, he means no. But "no" with a smile means yes.

*He has started talking in a really high-pitch voice when he gets excited. Really high and really loud.

*As soon as a I get the video camera or the camera out, he freezes. He was doing all of his animal sounds yesterday morning and as soon as I got the video camera out, he stopped. I think it's more that he just wants the camera than anything else, but it makes me sad that I can't get some of these moments on film.

*The only way I can get him to come inside after playing outside is to tell him he can take a bath. Evidently, taking a bath is the only thing more fun than playing outside.

*Usually, when we put him to bed at night (still 7:30!), he will cry until I shut the door. By the time I get to our room to turn on the tv monitor, he's laying down and out for the night. Even though he gets up at 6:00 on weekends (will I ever be able to sleep in again?!), he is a great sleeper and I LOVE his schedule.

*He has started pinching kids and pulling girls' hair at the babysitter. Lovely.....

*He likes fish. When we go to the doctor's office, he loves to look at the fish.

*He loves other children. He needs a brother or sister. The other day at the doctor's office, he would run up to every child he saw and say "HIIIIIII," and then follow them around. Some kids are okay with that, others are not. As we were leaving, he was telling everyone "Bye. See you!"

*Although we've never watched Sesame Street at home, he loves Elmo. We never told him who Elmo is (again, must be something he learned at the babysitters.) He has some books with Elmo and an Elmo toy. He also drinks juice from a box that has Elmo on the front of it. It's the only juice he will drink. He does not like juice. But he will drink Elmo juice. Kudos to the marketing people who came up with that one. I will now pay some $2 - $3 for 4 boxes of Elmo juice instead of buying apple juice in a big jug from the Walmart brand for $1.99.

*He and Charlie have been annoying each other lately. Charlie jumps too rough on Logan and Logan repays him by trying to lay on top of Charlie. But every morning when we wake up, he runs over to where Charlie sleeps to say good morning.

Flood

After the floods in Nashville, I called our insurance agent to get some quotes on flood insurance. Kept putting off actually buying it. Guess what I'll be doing first thing Monday morning? Fortunately, this is the street coming in our addition, not our street. We live on a side street off the main entrance. We came home this evening and this is what it looked like.

We had a lot of rain last night, but it was all clear this morning. Evidently, the rain this afternoon was just too much too fast.

We are praising the Lord that our street did not flood. PRAISE THE LORD.

This poor car...evidently, a woman drove right into the water, not realizing how deep it was. She got out safely.

What?!

Who would let their little boy eat like this? Who would take pictures of it?

If the end result is this adorable picture, I guess I would!

I have no idea where he learned to do that, and I will not allow him to do it again. Well, I did let him do it tonight, but only to show his daddy, and then -- NO MORE! But seriously, having a little boy is so much FUN!

Tonight, we set up a "tent" for Logan with his soft chair, some pillows and a blanket. I have never seen him so excited. He was running around the house and just laughing and talking and then running back into the tent. Charlie got on the couch and jumped on the tent, making it collapse and all three of us just laughed and laughed! It wasn't long before the tent came down (well, mostly, we were holding it up with our hands and that gets tiring)! So, we headed out to find a tent. We ended up getting one, but Logan was out by the time we got home, so I have no idea if he'll end up enjoying it as much as the one we made. If he doesn't, I'm returning it.

Logan and daddy in the homemade tent

As we were driving around on a mission to find a tent, Zeb and I agreed that there is nothing better than being a parent!

Zeb's Graduation

Can you find Zeb in this picture?

So much on my mind tonight and I want to write it all down before I forget. Zeb graduated from college today with his bachelor's degree. What a wonderful accomplishment!

We are so proud of him, his hard work and his dedication to completing this degree. It isn't easy going to school, working full-time and being a dad. But he did it! And I believe he's a better person for it.

I think Logan was jealous that his daddy was getting all of the attention.

He went to graduation extra early this morning because Lou Hotlz (former Notre Dame coach) was the commencement speaker and Zeb was hoping to meet him. He did get to meet him. I think that was probably the highlight of Zeb's day! I think that it is amazing that Lou happened to be speaking at Zeb's graduation. Zeb has wanted to meet him for so long and today, on one of the biggest days of Zeb's life, he also got to meet one of his heros.

Zeb and Lou Holtz - Best Friends Forever!

Lou's speech was good. He gave the graduates three keys to success:

1. Always do the right thing.

2. Always do your best.

3. Show others that you care.

Logan was such a good boy during the ceremony.

He slept for about 45 minutes, but the time he was awake, he was good. He enjoyed all of the clapping and yelling. He is definitely more of a little boy now than he is a baby. I love that little boy!

This evening was the graduation party for my niece's graduation from kindergarten. We opted not to have a party for Zeb (his request -- I very much wanted a reason to order a bakery cake!), so in our hearts, we were also celebrating Zeb's graduation tonight :)

Samantha said her graduation party was "Amazing."

There were several children there, and Logan tried to keep up with them all. Just another reminder that he is a little boy now, not a baby.

He is talking up a storm. He says many words and new ones every day, but when he gets going, he's having this conversation and talking away and you just have no idea what he is saying. It's usually in the car and he will start shaking his finger and pointing at things and once in a while, you recognize a "PawPaw" or "tree" or "car."

New toys at McDonald's -- SHREK!

Samantha and Zeb were so excited that they graduated the same year!