My Sister

My sister is awesome. She is smokin' hot, super funny and the best sister anyone could ever ask for. One of the reasons I love her so much is that she humors me in my photography addiction. She lets me be artsy. She humors me and plays along, and here's what we get. Thanks for playing along, Dookuh!

Remember the rapid fire feature I mentioned as an excuse for some 8000+ pictures? Well, take a look. Stay tuned, we have more! I may not get them up before I go to the beach, but I will post them eventually. Enjoy!

Getting Beach Ready

Jack and I made Chex mix tonight to take to the beach. YUM.

A couple more

I meant for these to make it in the Memorial Day weekend blogs. Jack actually was still enough to get these 2 sweet pictures!

Memorial Day

We had another great day today, playing at Popo and Momo Jo's, doing a little shopping and checking out the University of Tennessee gardens. There's a lot of shade and trees and flowers and different plants. It was beautiful and we all had a great time. See for yourself!

Abbott's laughing at Popo.

Look how sweet and angelic Jack looks. (Looks can be deceiving)

Best Buds

Playing Peek-A-Boo behind the big leaves.

Jack and Momo Jo took time to stop and smell the flowers.

Whenever anyone is sad, I tell them to think of "Lillies in a Cornfield" (long story). These are not in a cornfield, but they are very pretty and would make me happy if I was sad.


I didn't get the name of this flower but I liked how it made stars in the middle.

Jack is picking a baby strawberry. He really didn't pick it, but he wanted to.

A view of the gardens from a swing inside this really cool trellis.

We had a great weekend and hope everyone else did, too. Jarred, Jack and I are off to Gulf Shores, AL this weekend to spend a week on the beach with Jarred's family. Our internet will be limited there so I don't know how many pictures I'll be able to post, but I'll try to get some up. I have a few more pictures to post this week so stay tuned!

We all love John Deere!

I think this picture pretty much speaks for itself.

Memorial Day Weekend- Sunday

Once again, we played outside, cooked out and just had a great day. I've taken tons of pictures so I'll probably upload them to snapfish again at the end of the weekend. I'll send out an email once I do that. Here's a few good ones from today.

Jack splashing in the pool.

Taking a drink from the fountain.

Oops, got on his face!

Cowboy Popo. (and a little silly Popo)

Jack & Daddy.

Super cool Jack. Take note at the placement on the ears and nose.

Swinging round and round.

Just chillin' with a strawberry popsicle.

Cousins torn apart by their love for their...

Gangs??? It appears as though Abbott is making a sign for the "East side" gang, while Jack seems to support the "West side". Hopefully they'll set aside their differences and learn to love each other.

On a more serious note, how do I know this about gangs?? I'm in da hood, yo.

Memorial Day Weekend- Saturday

Kelly & Abbott drove in Saturday morning and we spent the day outside. It was a little warm, so in the middle of the day we took a break inside while Jack and Abbott slept. After naps we went right back outside and enjoyed a great pizza dinner that night. We're doing more of the same today!

Peek-A-Boo!

Squirting Mommy.

Abbott's hangin' out in the sunshine.

Jack & Popo playing with the bubbles. Jack ended up pouring them all out.

It's not a true Memorial Day weekend without a good game of baseball.

Eee Ducks

We have to take a detour from I-40 right now in order to get home from just about anywhere in Knoxville. When we come home from Popo and Momo Jo's house, we come down Neyland Drive which drives us right by the river. On a couple of occasions we've taken Jack down by the river and fed the ducks. We can also walk along the river and see the university and just enjoy being outside. During football season this area will be filled with hundreds of boats called the Vol Navy. It's really impressive and I'll post pictures of that when football season starts in 108 days (I'm not counting). Anyway, back to my story. As we drove home today, Jack saw the river and said he wanted to "eee ducks". So, when Jarred got home from work, we went down and saw ducks. We even picked up a loaf of bread on the way so we could feed them.

Jack's excited about feeding the ducks.

This was the first time we saw baby geese.

We shared our bread with the little birds, too.

We took a walk down by the waterfalls. Kids were playing in the water. Jack said he did not want to, "dit wet."

We decided to eat at on of our favorite restaurants, Calhoun's. Jack sat patiently in this chair while we waited for a table. Lucky for me my camera snaps fast, he sat patiently for about 30 seconds.

We had fun feeding the ducks and now we're looking forward to this Memorial Day weekend. Kelly and Abbott are coming in tomorrow and I'm sure we'll have a great time!

Don't Give a Toddler Tea

Sounds like a good name for a book, huh? The full book title could be, "Don't Give a Toddler Tea and Other Lessons I've Learned." (Before I tell the story, these pictures don't have anything to do with the story, I just get in trouble if I blog without Jack pictures.)

Jack loves to "nrink Mommy wa-er" or "nrink Momo Jo dee". Every once in awhile we'll let him have a few sips of our tea or Dr. Pepper or whatever we're drinking. If I recall correctly, I believe there's a certain Aunt out there (Lissa) who let Jack "nrink Witta dabby." None of these random drinks had much effect on Jack except for the short burst of craziness. Well we get to do things we don't normally do at our grandparents, or our great-grandparents so one night for supper I filled Jack's sippy cup with tea.

Things went well and Jack really wasn't any more hyper than normal. After dinner we played outside, took a bath and began the wind down for the night. Now, this was the night that everyone was in the mood to play hand and foot and we were all ready to go. Kelly was getting Abbott down and things were looking good for my team to win yet another game. :) You can ask anyone that has been around Jack at bedtime and they will tell you that he goes to bed with no problems. WELL, this night at 8:00 I say, "Jack it's time to go night night" and he just breaks down. "No night night, no night night." I put him in bed and he proceeds to cry for 30 minutes...

and finally I go get him. He is awake as can be and we try to calm him down by reading books. We all take turns reading a book and calming down. And finally at 9:00 we try again. He again just cries and cries and I'm sure that any minute he will calm down and give in. NOPE. 9:30 rolls around and I again go get him. By this time, everyone else has given up on cards and gone to bed. Jack and I sat quietly in the dark and tried to go to sleep. Finally I convince Jack to come lay in bed with me and I get an enthusiastic, "OK!"

Fast forward 30 minutes to Jack and Mommy in bed... Mommy is pretending to be asleep and Jack is pretending to go to sleep. He lays his head down on the pillow and says, "night night, Mommy." I say, "night night Jack." I tell Jack that I need to potty and he can play with his cars in his bed. I put him in his bed and leave the room and he cries for a minute and then we hear silence. I sit in Poppa's recliner for a good 20 minutes until I finally got to get in my bed. It's 10:30.

Fast foward to 2:00 am, and I hear this crying voice say, "No Jack night night. Eee Momo Jo. Eee Nannie Poppa." He keeps crying so I pick him up and change his diaper and try to lay him back down and leave the room again. No luck. I try to lay him in bed with me. No luck. He says, "it Poppa chair." So, we go sit in Poppa's chair, in the dark and try not to wake up Popo and Momo Jo sleeping on the sofa bed. No luck. Momo Jo wakes up to use the bathroom and Jack cries to sit with her. After a few minutes of this, I ask him if he wants to go lay in Mommy's bed. Again, "OK". We spend the next 30 minutes exchanging different night time dialogue.

Jack: "Jack lay Jack's puyow"
Mommy: "ZZZZZZZ"
Jack (sitting up): "Jack eee nannie poppa."
Mommy: "ZZZZZZZ"
Jack (laying down): "night night Mommy."

Finally, at 3:30 he is asleep in my bed with me laying normal in the bed and Jack laying horizontal. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep and neither did Popo or Momo Jo. We vowed never again to fill Jack's entire cup with tea. I think Popo said he had to be 17 before he could have tea again. Oh well, I'm sure it's not the last lesson I'll learn about raising kids.

Berry Pickin'

We went for a walk down Meredith Road yesterday and found a few wild blackberries. Here's a few pictures from our day. I can't figure out how to rearrange the photos once they're on here, so sorry they're out of order.

Jack running down the road to find blackberries.

Taking the easy way with Popo and Momo Jo.

Snuggling with Baby Abbott after a long day.

Jack and the East Texas background.

Baby Abbott is enjoying his walk.

Popo's found a bunch of blackberries.

MMMMMMM

Cool old tree on Meredith Road.