For Nathan

All of you who know us outside of the blogosphere know that Brian's sister and family lived out here near us for about a year. During that time, Helen and Nathan (Leslie's son) became nearly as close as brother and sister. They were partners in crime and I dare predict that they will continue to do so the remainder of their lives.

The last few time we had the opportunity spend time with them, and we had our camera out, I made sure to capture it. Here are a few things in memory of the time spent with our sweet Nathan.

This was fun time with the sidewalk chalk. This is a drawing depicting Nathan's tractor and wagon. Helen always rides in the wagon and Nathan always drives.

Running around the church fellowship room.

When Helen got her new tricycle, Nathan got a BIG WHEEL! He was so precious riding that thing. He didn't want to pedal it, he wanted to push it. He'll get it soon. If not already...

We miss you Nathan. Helen asked about you this week when we went to church. She wanted to know if you'd be at church. Of course we said no, but that's her way to let us know she misses you.

Trike and Jannie

I know Christmas is all kinda gone, but I wanted to take a moment to note a few things just so I'll have it archieved.

This year we spent Christmas at home, without traveling, but the weekend before, we went to visit the Pendley side of Brian's family. We had Christmas twice that weekend. Once at Eric and Haley's house and once at Deedee's house. The "everybody" get-together was at Deedee's. The more personal, immediate family christmas was at Eric's.

Brian's parents and siblings met early that morning to exchange gifts together and to let the kids open all of their loot. It was really fun because we had a YUMMY brunch and then had presents. Helen got her very first Cabbage Patch doll, according to the birth certificate the doll's name is Bobye Jannie. I thought it was the dumbest name. It just doesn't FLOW at all plus it just really sounds completely back-hills redneck to me. (And I'm from those back hills so I can say that. hehe.)

Here's Jannie. Her aunt Leslie bought it for her and I was thrilled. I loved cabbage patch dolls as a child and I am so glad Helen got one. This was the best shot I could get with her and the doll. She was ALL over the place and wouldn't open one more gift until that doll was out of the box. So Dad got to work on that....

The next gift was a few outfits, both of which she wore that weekend because they were SO cute. Then came the trike. Mimi and PawPaw bought her a Radio Flyer tricycle. It came pre-assembled so she was ready to ride immediately.

I loved this shot. She and Brian were trying it outide on the concrete. She didn't quite understand how to make her feet work to make the pedals go. She's still working on that actually. When it gets warmer, we'll be all over the street working on it. So in this picture, she's just got her feet on the pedals as they rotate....sort of.

Cousins

Since Ty and Leslie moved out here last July (2007), these two have become as close as brother and sister. This was at a church function a few weeks ago (just getting the time to post it). Aren't they adorable!

We're going to miss them when they move back to Alabama!

Flippin and Flowin

Just a fun pic of Helen and Daddy flipping. Helen climbs up, then she holds herself upside down for a few seconds and then flips over, landing on her feet. They have such fun! She loves to flip and ride our backs...or shoulders.




Something funny that happened today:

Brian called the house to chat for a second about this and that. I let Helen talk to him for a few seconds. She put the phone up to her head and because her mouth was so close to it, Brian couldn't understand. He said, "Helen, I can't understand you baby, hold your mouth away from the phone a little bit." Well, she gives me the phone and proceeds to physically HOLD her mouth with her hand. She grabbed her bottom jaw and walked away! LOL! HAHAH! Bless her sweet innocence.


Something funny that happened last week while I was keeping Nathan:

We are in the process of potty training. Helen has a small potty in her bathroom, but sometimes she likes to use the big potty. This particular time, she wanted to use the big potty when I took her to the bathroom. Of course, Nathan was in tow. As I was pulling down Helen's pants to put her up there, Nathan tells me that he has to peepee too! Since Helen was on the big potty, I told Nathan to wait just a second for Helen to finish or to use the little potty. Well, he wanted to do NEITHER. He HAD to peepee right then and in the big potty. So Helen had just gotten settled on the potty when Nathan immediately drops his drawers and proceeds to walk up to the same toilet to pee. Note he is just barely too short that he is unable to position "his parts" correctly to ring it. So as I finish saying, "wait just a second or use the little potty," he has a steady stream a flowin'. So whilest I am keeping Helen from being peed on and from falling INTO the toilet, I am deflecting pee (with the not-so-free hand) from getting all over the floor, the bathtub, and Nathan. All this going on at once...you can imagine how it turned out. Yep: Pee on the tub, pee on the floor, pee on Helen, a little bit IN the toilet, and A LOT OF IT ON ME! That potty break took quite a bit longer than the norm. All I could think of during this entire encounter was Brian and Leslie's childhood story I like to call "Just Scoot Up." HAHA! What a day.

Guess it could be worse.

Nathan, Emily, and Helen....a Saturday full of blessings.

It happens some weeks when Ty and Leslie have to work Saturday shifts at their jobs. With their industries, sometimes it calls for working a Saturday. However, when they work the same Saturday, we get to spend time with Nathan. Helen loves it for sure. She has a little buddy to hang with.

This Saturday was one of those days. I have attached a few photos that I took of them. There weren't many good ones because they wouldn't hold still long enough to get one. However, these are some of the better shots:

After the first hour of bringing out the first half of Helen's toys...all in the living room...they got a little hungry and stopped to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and eat a snack. Notice the glass has been removed from our coffee table (permenantly). Helen loves to sit inside the recesses and so does Nathan. It was actually his idea (a year ago) while they were living with us. He loved to be in the table to watch his toons. Guess he still does. (That cute green chair never gets any lovin.)


For some reason, everything had to be on his head. And if it was something that he thought he could put on his head, but wasn't able to get it on his head, he would bring it to me and ask me to put it on his head. LOL! I don't know what that means, but it sure was funny. He made all kinds of things into hats.

The calm before the second storm...the rest of the toys came out fast after the snack. Grapes and Multi-grain Cherrios....MM!

Nathan was only with us for three hours, then I loaded him up to take him back to Leslie. I went to get my "hair did" and came back come with another visitor: EMILY! She's a friend from church whom I tutor on occasion in math. She's such a bright student, but sometimes gets a little fumbled. Maybe her teacher goes too fast, but once she gets it, she's got it.

We had lunch, came home, studied for a few hours, and before her ride arrived, we played around with the camera.

So photogenic! Isn't she so gorgeous!

She tries to make silly faces.....

...but not matter what she does...she's still pretty.

Helen came in and wanted to have some fun with us too. She LOVES Emily because she's so energetic and her personality is magnetic! She actually babysits Helen when we have the need. They played around on the kitchen floors for several minutes. I kept trying to get a good shot of Helen. Then Emily wanted me to try to get a shot of her head and Helen too. Um....well, it worked...but something just isn't right about it. Helen sure is cute.

Beach Trip 2008

Orange Beach, Alabama...aaah. Nice! I love the beautiful beaches there and the laid back atmosphere. We usually go in late summer or early fall after all the nutty kids have gone back to school! This year's beach trip was so beautiful. The beaches were so clean, and the water was so clear. Even the jellyfish stayed away so that Helen could get in the ocean. (as a side note from a previous post, Helen called her swimming pool "Daddy's water") When we went to the gulf, I wanted her to know the difference, so we called the ocean "God's water" and she seemed to understand that.

The trip had two legs. The first leg was to Notasulga to drop off Nathan to PawPaw and Mimi's house and spend the night to start our second leg the next day to the beaches. On the way down, the kiddies got a little restless! We sang songs and at the last few miles, all we could think of to do was to make silly faces and "bobbing heads" to the music on the radio. Here are the pics of all of us sticking our tongues out, then of the head banging. (because head bobbing is a motion, none of us really look like we are doing anything! LOL)










That night for bath time the kids wanted bubbles....well I gave them bubbles! There was more bubbles than water! LOL They had a blast. But Nathan REEEEEALLY liked it! Here's the funniest shot!



We went with Brian's brother Eric and his wife Haley - two super, wonderful, sweet people! We all came in on Friday, but Saturday was our first day to play. Most of the morning, Haley and I played with Helen at the beach and in the ocean. I'm not sure if Helen ever really understood why the water wouldn't stay still. She knew that the waves would come in but didn't undestand why they didn't stop. She stood at the water's edge for a while just kinda looking at it while she sunk further into the sand. She didn't like that at all, but she didn't care until she realized she couldn't get her feet out! LOL! Of course I was standing with her, but it was funny to see her trying to pull herself out. She played a while in the sand with the sand castle stuff, but she mostly spent her time trying to put as much of the beach sand back into the ocean as she could. She'd run and throw as much goopy sand that she could hold with as much force as her arms could thrust into the ocean. She probably did that for twenty minutes without stopping!



The pools at the condo were fun too! Helen enjoyed the "walk-in" pool. Helen played in this most of the time. There was also a kiddie pool for the little ones, only a foot and a half deep all over, with a giant mushroom waterfall at one end. Helen liked the pool, but didn't care much for the shroom. Something about the water falling on her head she didn't like. We tried it with her several times to show her that it wouldn't hurt her, but she fussed, so we just let her swim.



She couldn't quite understand the innertube, but she left it on long enough to get a picture.

This was a fun fountain pond thingy for the kids to play in. The fountains would come up and go down. Helen bent down to look where the water went and when it came back on it hit her in the face! HAHAHA! (I mean, poor girl!)


We ate lots of seafood, but mostly at The Original Oyster House. Man, that place is good! This is a picture where Helen was looking at a big boat coming in or a bird...or something. Doesn't she look just like her daddy!!! That face is all Brian!

I think the best seafood we had was actually homemade at Haley's mom's house. Helen calls her Ms. Angel. They had a big shrimp broil with corn cobs and potatoes and sausage! OH...it was "slap yo' mama good!" Everything was wonderful! They had a little pond out back where some ducks had taken up residence. Helen loved to watch the ducks. She says "cack cack cack!" She's not quite gotten the "Quah" sound!






Sadly, we only spend a couple of days in Orange Beach because Gustav chased us away. But maybe later in the year we can go back before it gets too cool. Although, once a year is about all that I can get Brian to go to the beach. He's not much for it. He'd rather be at the lake. For me it's the atmosphere. I love everything about it, from the sand and the smell of the ocean, to the people and the fun little shops, from the fresh seafood to the endless starry skies. Ah.. It makes me relax just thinking about it! :)

I hope you all have had a fabulous summer. I hope you enjoy the pictures...more below.