New Year, Same Crazy Life!

I decided it may be time for an update...seeing as how I haven't posted anything since October! The last few months of the year were full of excitement with Hannah's birthday, Christmas, and of course Daniel's Symbol of Success run and WIN on December 30th! Also, we added a puppy to our family at Christmas...what's one more mouth to feed, right?

Hannah turned 7 on December 6th. It doesn't seem like she should be that old, or that I should be old enough to have a 7-year-old! She is our constant entertainer, since she is highly intelligent and energetic (she never sleeps!).

Christmas was a lot of fun this year. The twins were old enough to enjoy having family around so often and all the fun new toys they got! We also made a trip to North Georgia the weekend before Christmas to visit Papa's and Mimi's mountain house for the Grier family Christmas. What a great time we had...even if it was REALLY COLD!

For anyone that has not heard me talk about Symbol of Success, it is an award given by Chick-fil-A to Operators that obtain a given sales % increase during the year. It is Chick-fil-A's highest honor, and this year, Daniel Won! I am so proud of him. In February, we will be going to Chick-fil-A's Operator Seminar where Daniel will be presented with the keys to a new Ford vehicle! I can't wait to walk up on that stage with him. I know I already said this...but I'm just so proud of him!

I think maybe I'll make it a New Year's resolution to keep this blog better updated...so check back often! :)

I keep reminding myself- Every mom goes through this!

Just wanted to take a minute and welcome my friend Michelle to the blogging world...Hopefully you will do a better job of staying current than I have managed lately. I look forward to following your blog and watching little Amesley grow up. I'm excited to read your thoughts and follow your journey in faith- I already can tell how much I am going to learn- and hopefully you will learn from me that the adventures in motherhood are always messy, often frustrating, and usually the funniest stories you will ever hear or tell!

And on that note.... I ended up back at the Honda dealership yesterday, with the twins and Adam (who by the way was dressed as a pirate for pirate and princess day at preschool!). My check engine light on my car came on AGAIN! So we went in, obviously frustrated, and of course they took me right back- no one wants to know what its like when twins start to get bored! My car when hooked up to their code reader again showed the same code that led them to replace my entire computer system last week, but here's the kicker! Yesterday, the lead technician was available to look at my car, and explained to all of the men working for him that a loose battery cable on a Honda will bring up the same code! Yep! You guessed it! My positive battery cable was loose! And they had already replaced my entire computer system! Guess I'm lucky it was still under warranty! I sure wouldn't have been happy if I'd paid for that!

I think Daniel and I are suffering from severe loss of brain cells- after his fender bender and my car mishaps had us down to one rental car, 2 adults, and 4 kids for a day, we were so excited to get the van back. Two vehicles is an absolute necessity in our world and just a few hours was almost longer than we could manage! Then on Thursday night we misplaced the keys to the rental, and it was supposed to go back on Friday! We turned the house upside down for probably an hour before calling a locksmith, who promptly popped the lock and set off the alarm in the car! We were very lucky that the keys were actually in the car- as we didn't actually know until the horn was already blaring! The funny thing is the car was not locked until about 5 minutes before we realized the keys were missing! Daniel had to lock it to keep Hannah from playing in it! I'm filing this story away under the heading of "You might have too many kids if..." My friend Lindsey and I have recently had a running joke about the book we are going to write called "you might be a mom if...". Maybe "too many kids" could be the sequel? If anyone has any stories like this one, I'd love to hear them. I'm really needing to feel better about my parenting and organizational skills these days!

Field trips, Football, and Fancy Footwork!

Just wanted to take a minute and post a couple of pics. Last Friday, I took Hannah and Adam to the Montgomery Zoo on a field trip with Hannah's class. Nana met us there to help me watch Adam so that I could participate as much as might be necessary with Hannah. As it turned out, she was far too interested in her friends to care that I was on the field trip at all- but we still had a fun day. Also, yesterday I climbed up into our attic to retrieve another round of hand-me-downs for the twins that we put up from Hannah and Adam, and I found the little Alabama romper that Steven and Jennifer gave Adam for his first Christmas. I decided that there was never a more appropriate time for that than right now! Look how cute he is! Ava has decided to really walk now. She seems to have decided she'd rather do that than crawl, so she walks usually 15-20 steps before giving up. I'll try to get some video and post it on here soon. Until then, assume that I am far too busy chasing her around! :)

The Rock Ranch

Yesterday we went to The Rock Ranch, which is owned by Chick-fil-A's founder, Truett Cathy, for the first of its 2008 Fall Family Fun Days. Chick-fil-A sent us passes so that we could treat some of our raving fans to a fun day as well, and several families from Columbus were able to enjoy the beautiful weather and family time. We had a great time and hopefully will get to go back again soon when we can maybe just take the two older children and allow them uninterrupted play time. I am posting some pics from yesterday- the ones on the cow bench seem especially appropriate for our family!

09/08/08

We've had a busy few weeks lately with both of the older kids starting school and the babies turning one... its been a while since I've blogged on here and I've got a lot of new pictures to post. I'm going to do one slide of just some fun pics I've taken lately of the kids and then one of some of the projects Daniel has been doing around the house. He recently made our fish pond bigger, as one of our koi had three babies and since they grow so large, we thought it was important to give them all the room they'd need. Also, for the last few days we've been working in the kids bathroom to turn it from cartoonish jungle animals to something that would be nicer for guest at our home. Surprisingly the kids like it better now, too! Ava has been trying to walk some lately, and has figured out how to stand herself up from the floor without pulling up on things. Brody is now deciding that he can let go of things and stand for a moment before he sits down. They both got riding toys for their birthday, and the funniest thing is to watch them push each other around- I love that they play together already! Adam is doing great in Pre-K and we just can't believe how smart he's getting- he's starting to tell us words in spanish lately! Hannah is loving first grade and we couldn't be happier with her school. She had her first soccer game on Saturday and it was a lot of fun watching her and her buddies really play hard- we think they even won! And Daniel and I.....well....I guess we can sleep when we're old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABIES!

Yesterday we had Ava and Brody's first birthday party. They will actually turn one tomorrow. We had so much fun and the babies really loved their cakes. What fun they had making a big mess! Now we know that a twin birthday party looks a lot like Christmas- presents everywhere and a garage full of boxes and trash! Its been a while since I've had time to post on here...things have gotten really crazy lately, so I'm going to take a minute and also post some pics from Adam's first day of pre-K. He has been such a big boy and really loves going to Hannah's school! I'm also including our slide show from the birthday party for anyone that hasn't seen it and would like to. It's long- so watch when you've got some time on your hands!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Back to School

Today was Hannah's first day of 1st grade. She was too excited to start back to school and get to see her friends again. They have moved into the new school building and it is really amazing. Wee got up this morning and I dressed Hannah and took lots of pictures, and then Daniel took her to school. Adam spent the whole day asking how many days Hannah was going to school before he got to go. He's really ready to start Pre-K. Soccer practice starts tomorrow, so we should have lots more cute pictures to post soon. Guess we are officially back in the swing of things!

Boys and Girls

Not a whole lot going on around here this week. We've been trying to get ready for school to start back next week and at the same time enjoy our last week of staying at home. Starting Monday the up and out the door routine becomes the norm again! I wonder how the babies are going to like not being able to sleep late...I wonder how I'm even going to handle it! I think Hannah and Adam have really enjoyed their summer being able to play together all day- I know they are going to miss that. We signed Hannah up for Columbus Youth Soccer last week and found out yesterday that she is going to be on an all girls team that consists entirely of her friends from school. We were hoping that would be the case but weren't sure since we signed her up late. I think practice starts the week after next and then the games will start the second weekend in September. She is really excited about it and I know having her friends out there will help to keep her from losing interest. The babies are all over the place now- pretty much crawling or cruising everywhere they want to go. Ava has taken a step or two on a couple of different occasions, but always decides that diving toward us and making us catch her will get her where she wants to be faster! Today the two of them wandered off and when I found them I had to take this picture. Look at what each of them found out of all the toys scattered between Hannah's and Adam's rooms!

Mommy, Do you like my new haircut?

Okay, so last night while I was playing the Wii with Hannah, Adam decided to give himself a makeover. He came out of the bathroom holding a handful of hair and sporting a great big gap on his forehead!I couldn't really do anything but laugh! Look at these before and after pics!

Family Fun Weekend

This past weekend we went to Mimi and Papa Grier's house for some family fun. We spent the entire weekend in the pool and the kids had such a wonderful time playing together with their cousins. Even Ava and Brody really liked being in the water. I have to say, though, that all that fun was exhausting! We haven't done much since we've been home except rest and recover. Thanks, Mimi and Papa for hosting a great fun weekend!

More About Cow Appreciation

Hi everyone! Daniel just called to let me know that Chick-fil-A's Operator homepage (internal company site) had a special video from Cow appreciation day on it today. I've included a link to it here. Enjoy!

http://www.stanleyleary.com/CowAppreciation/

Finally Sunday!!!!!

We have spent our entire day today relaxing and recuperating from the last week. It's weeks like this when you realize how nice it is that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays. I wanted to take a minute and post a video of Ava playing with their newest hand-me-down toy from the Maddox's. She'll be walking on her own soon! I'm also including a video of Brody's dance moves. Every time he gets close to this toy he spins the wheel and dances away! It's so funny!

Eat Mor Chikin

Cow Appreciation Day lead about 1500 cows to grace the doors of Chick-fil-A, Wynnton Road. It was quite a crazy day! The highlight to me was the crazy singing cows that made their way over from the Springer's performing arts summer program. Check them out!

Okay, so here we are at Thursday of our Customer Appreciation Week. I really thought by now I would have had more free time to post pics and details from the past few days- but something about having four kids and places to go everyday, not to mention my very minor contributions to IF week- well, lets just say I've been busier than expected, and Daniel and Tammy have hardly seemed to even have time to slow down to sleep! Take a look at my slide show- its a mosh of Family Night Monday where kids could make their cow costumes to be used on Friday, Dinner Makeover Tuesday- a fun outdoor party that we took to Phillip and Rebecca Dickerson's house, and our Wednesday "funtivities" (that's what our if team calls them), which include a lemonade demonstration (lemo demo) at which our local cheerleading squad offered us a LEMONADE Cheer and also an awesome luau themed benefit night for Chloe Shiver, a local 5 year old with stage 4 neuroblastoma (cancer). Tonight is our Customer Appreciation Dinner- complete with red carpet and fancy linens on the tables- who ever heard of that at a fast food restaurant? I'll post more pics when I get them!

Customer Appreciation Week

Customer Appreciation Week is officially underway at Chick-fil-A on Wynnton Road. Last night we kicked off this week's events with a Chick-fil-A team dinner at Outback. It was a fun chance to interact with the team in a casual setting and gave everyone a chance to meet Chris, Stephanie, Nicole, and Graham- Our IF (Imagine your future) team for the week. They are here to assist in all the "funtivities" this week. I wanted to include pictures from last night- we have some really good ones of the whole team- but it appears that the camera is at Chick-fil-A right now. Guess that makes sense! We actually have two cameras that we will be putting to good use this week- ours and the one we bought for the store-probably three since I'm sure our IF team has at least one of their own. That leaves me with exactly 0 to use at the house!

Ava is standing up more frequently now and for longer periods of time. If you get her stabilized, she can stand for about 10 seconds before she gets too excited and falls down! I know Brody will not be far behind. Hopefully, after today I will be able to at least momentarily get my hands on the two cameras. I am so excited to get to share this week with everyone- our exciting week at Chick-fil-A, and at home! Check back often- its going to be interesting!

What a Week!

Since Friday of last week, Hannah has been at Mimi's house with Madeline. I said last night that its a bit like summer camp for them because they have had fun activities to do all day every day. I'm not sure how we're going to keep her entertained when she gets home now that the bar has been raised so high. They've been riding their bikes, going to the movies, out for pizza, to the mall, attempted to go to the closed museum and so fed the ducks instead, and all of that mixed with more time spent at the pool than they could ever hope for! What fun!

Adam has really missed Hannah this week, though. Daniel took him to see Kung Fu Panda on Friday and he has been doing karate moves for us ever since. Monday we had a play date with his friend Sarah Beth. She was in Adam's class at school last year and has a brother, Macon that is just 2 weeks younger than the twins. They had so much fun!

This has been a VERY busy week for Daniel, coming home from vacation to the end of the month and the week leading up to Project IF(Customer Appreciation). Tammy-our marketing director at Chick-fil-A- has come up with a lot of really great ideas to make next week and Cow Appreciation Day (next Friday) a huge success. She has over 2000 people signed up to visit our store dressed as cows and receive a free meal! Her goal is to have the largest turnout in the entire chain. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures!

SeaWorld

Here are a few more pictures from our vacation. Lindsey just emailed me the ones from SeaWorld. Of course I forgot my camera! Hannah and Adam absolutely loved the Shamu show!

Beach Vacation

Sunday we left for Daytona Beach, Florida. We went with the Morgan family and had a really fun time. All of us missed our babies alot though. Ava and Brody stayed home with Mimi and I think they all really enjoyed their time together. Florida was fun, but we sure are glad to be home! Brody started pulling up while we were gone, and I think Ava has finally cut her second tooth. It doesn't take long to miss a lot! Here's some pictures from our trip---- and check out Ava's new trick- she started this the day before we left! Also, you know I can't pass up showing off Brody's sweet smile every chance I get!

Goggles and Bows!

Today we met Lindsey at Burger King so all the kids could play. Then we went to Target to get a few things we still needed for our beach trip- we leave Sunday! Yea! Hannah and Adam were so excited about their new goggles that the very first thing they did when we got home was get them out and model them for me. Don't ask me why, but Adam thinks having goggles on also requires rain boots- Go figure! Also, Ava is maybe finally getting enough hair to hold a clip, so Hannah decided to fix her up- I think we need some WAY smaller bows!

Mmmm....Carrots!

Today we had a great Father's Day. We got up and went to church and then out to lunch at Johnny's pizza. Then we came home and I took a nap- have I mentioned what a great husband and father Daniel is?! We've had a relaxing afternoon just enjoying our family time together. Lately we've been trying to feed the babies some soft table foods- the carrots we fed them yesterday seemed to be a big hit! Here's some fun video of them chowing down!