Big FOUR Year Old

Our big girl turned four this week.  Most days I can't remember what our family was like before her, we must have been so bored with all that free time.  Ha!  She is independent, strong-willed, super sweet, hilarious, compassionate, lover of all living things (yes, even worms!) and there is never a dull moment around her.  We celebrated her birthday for a week and she enjoyed every minute of it being all about her!  In fact, she may have gotten a little too big for her britches and had to be reminded that her parents are the ones in charge, not the other way around.  Although we stretched out the celebrations, they were all low key and we tried to keep things simple by keeping it just family a few friends.  I have to admit, pinterest crazy parties are for the hardcore moms out there and I am enjoying my low stress party themes.  My one year old birthday party throwing self may not even recognize me today!  So, without further ado, I will let the pictures tell the story of MB birthday week. 

Friends party was a movie date with two friends, she picked My Little Pony.  She almost made it through the whole thing but needed a little reminder of how to act about 40 minutes in.

Sweet girls before the show.

We followed the movie with lunch at CFA, I brought a six pack of princess cupcakes.  Easy peasy!

Birthday cousins that love each other so much.

This is what most of their time together looks like. 

We went through two bags of cotton candy, the highlight of the Braves game for them.

Family time!  We were so glad to be on the aisle since we made about 20 trips up to the concessions, bathrooms or to walk around.  I think I watched about three plays of the game.

This little guy had a blast.  The highlights for him were the blue slushy and blue cotton candy.

One day he will weigh enough to keep the seat from folding up.

Braves game was followed by dinner at the Varsity, grandaddy's favorite restaurant.  I love this picture of me with the birthday girl.

Hotdogs, fries and lots of cheese from Ben.

The best we could do for a cousin group shot, it was wild y'all.

The morning of her actual birthday.

Mandatory photo in front of the birthday sign.

Hugs all around for these two in MB's new chair.  This chair was in my room growing up and Yaga recovered it for her.

Hello Kitty was the cake of choice, thank you Publix for making it easy.

Plenty of sass to go around.

Surprise face over the dress up wedding gown.

Minnie Mouse never looked cuter.

The trip to the American Girl Doll Store will be in a separate post because I am having issues with adding pictures here.

Double Tubes

Both kids have had more than their fair share of ear infections and this year things seemed to get even worse.  We finally visited a ENT doctor and she confirmed that both kids were candidates for the surgery.  They both have mild hearing loss but they think the hearing will come back once they had tubes so that is good news.  I had heard great things about the surgery and since it is such a short procedure, I decided to schedule them for back-to-back surgeries.  I am so happy that we went for it!  One day off work, one trip to the hospital and will have one trip for the follow up visits.  Our surgeries were schedule for 7:30am and we had to be at the surgery center by 6:00am.  We woke the kids up at 5:00am so the day started super early.  Everything went really smoothly and the surgeries started on time.  I was able to go to the operating room with both kids and seeing them struggle and cry as they were putting them to sleep was by far the hardest part of the process.  Ben went first and then MB.  By the time MB was put under, I was able to make it back to the post-op room where Dan was waiting with Ben.  He was still out of it and woke up about a minute after I got in the room.  His eyes opened and he sat straight up and started wanting to get down and run around.  He was a mile and minute and the nurses couldn't get over how well he was acting since most kids are really upset and cranky when they wake up.  MB came in pretty quickly after that and she slept for another 10 minutes or so while we were trying unsuccessfully to keep Ben quiet.  When she woke up, she was more out of it and it took her a while to wake up.  We were released to leave and on the way out, the nurse handed me a bag for the car just in case MB got sick in the car.  I'm so glad she did!  We were about 15 minutes into our trip and she started saying that her pajamas were choking her.  I didn't catch everything quite in time but was able to catch most it.  We were home by 9:30am and by 10:00am, MB was totally back to normal and wanted to eat breakfast.  We even went to chick-fil-a for lunch and played on the playground.  We were totally amazed how well they did.  We are really hoping they have had their last ear infections!

Really hope this is the last time my sweet babies will be in hospital gowns.

Trying to keep Ben still

The surgery center had a closet full of gifts for them to choose from.

Getting juiced up after his surgery was over.

Poor baby finally getting some rest on the way home.

Out of the Mouths of Babes (MB)

The girl is a trip.  So smart and super funny.  Here are a few of our favorite MB stories as of late.

MB:  Mommy, do you want to play Queen and King?
Me:  Oh yes, am I the Queen?
MB:  No, I'm the Queen and daddy is the King.
Me:  Oh, does that mean that I'm the princess and Ben is the prince?
MB:  No, you are Sprinkles the cat who gets in trouble for playing up on the roof of the castle.  Ben is the puppy dog who get in touble with you.
(I now know where I stand in this family.  I have sense been promoted up to princess and have seen a few moments of queen time so that is progress people.)

MB:  Mommy, there are two gods.
Me:  Actually, there is only one true God.
MB:  No, there are TWO gods.
Me:  Okay, what are their names?
MB:  God and daddy.
Me:  Seriously?  That is not okay!
(We are working on her theology, sheesh!)

MB while making a prayer box at VBS craft time:  I'm going to put Ben's name in here because he is a rascal!

Me:  Mary Beth, it's time to calm down and get ready for bed.
MB:  (While galloping wide open in a circle around her room)  But Mommy, my horsie needs a lot of exercise.

MB while in a men's public restroom with Dan:  It smells like a donkey in here.

MB is helping me deal with Ben as he has jumped into the terrible twos with both feet! I often hear her saying the following things:  Ben, I am not going to put up with this today. Ben, let’s have some quiet time. Ben, no sir! Ben, you are not acting very good. Ben, I am in charge of you. Ben, you are driving me crazy today.  (Poor guy gets an earful.)

MB saying the prayer at supper:  God, thank you for making all this food.  Thank you for my baby brother.  He is so cute!   He really loves blueberries.  Thank you for making blueberries.  Amen.

Playing Catchup

So things have been super busy around here and I don't see them slowing down any time soon so I am going to stop putting the old blog on the back burner.  It's my scrapbook and if I don't write things down here, I know I will never remember.  More detailed posts will come later on some of these events but this is what we have been up to in the past several months.

Dan and his buddy Joe started hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Ben attempted the off-the-shoulder PJ look at some point during the night.

Dan and I took a no kids ski trip with four of our favorite friends to Keystone, CO.

MB had international night and learned all about Australia.

Her pin push was incredible and she was so proud.

Ben got promoted from the high chair.

We had a lot of sick days, this was her first breakfast in bed.  Dry toast.

MB helped Ben learn how to scoot down the stairs.

We almost had a decent Easter pic.

My Maw May was crowned the queen.

Dan and I snuck off to Blue Ridge to celebrate our Anniversary.

Six years of bliss!  (Note:  the Brasstown Valley Resort is amazing!)

Ben got lazier by the day.

Ben got to join the kids table in a birthday party.

I finally got documentation that I was the queen, not MB.

We attended a Royal Tea Party.

We had the first popsicle of the year.

And started the learning curve of how to eat a popsicle.

We had parent's breakfast at school and go to see some of MB's favorite "work".

We met Maggie the newest cousin.

We had lifelong friends over to hang out.

Ben had his first double stacked cookie, or should I say three of them?

We welcomed family into town for a family reunion.

We experienced MB's first dance recital, she was amazing!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

We welcomed summer in style.

Last day of school for this girl.

Ben learned how to appropriately say "cheese".

We picnicked at school to close out the year.

The kids convinced mimi to climb up in the CFA playground.

MB finally put her money where her mouth is when it comes to loving animals.

Ben tried to replicate the Joker.

Kids had back-to-back tube surgeries.

MB attempted to catch her first fish.

Ben had his first boat ride at the Milam family reunion.