Full circle....

Santa brought some brand new bedding for Luke's big boy bed. So, Monday after Jeremy got off work, Luke helped Jeremy take his beloved crib down! Luke is such a big helper these days. We were excited that Mom kept Uncle Paddy's old bunk beds and that the bottom "bunk" was the perfect size for Luke's first big boy bed!



Luke was so excited about his bed that he couldn't resist trying it out before it was completely made up! (And yes, that is my 6 month pregnancy belly, and yes, i have 3 more months to go, and yes, i am as HUGE as a house already!)


As soon as we had it made, he jumped in the bed and got in this pose all by himself and said "Now THIS is a big boy bed!" He is such a ham for the camera!

He FINALLY did it!!!.....

Last Monday morning, it FINALLY happened..... I was awoken at 7:45am to the sound of Luke saying "I did it!" and it WASN'T from the monitor... Luke was standing right beside my side of the bed. He said "Mommy, I was calling you! I climbed out and I didn't bump my head!" Up until this point he would never even try to climb out because he didn't want to 'fall and hit his head' (not sure where he got this, but we were happy to keep him in his crib as long as it lasted.) He has been asking about a big boy bed for a few weeks and we had already decided to move him to a BIG BOY bed after Christmas, so timing couldn't be more perfect. He has done amazingly well with his new found night time freedom and only had one night in two weeks where he kept getting up. Just one more milestone to mark off his list and it's always bittersweet :)

MeeMaw and Papaw's Visit

MeeMaw and Papaw came to visit us from GA this weekend, so they could come to the This is Christmas presentations at our church. I was so excited when they pulled up in the drive way!


Since it was so close to Christmas they came bearing all of the Christmas gifts from that side of the family! On Friday night, we went to the mall and I got to pick out a $15 dollar toy from Granny Plank. I decided to get a Cars plush Lightening McQueen and have slept with it every night since. On Saturday morning before we headed up to church, we had the Payne side Christmas. I got a cool new kitchen like my cousin Emily has!


I was also totally excited about my Cars themed underwear!


Aunt Alyssa, and my cousins, Madison, Jared, and Emily got a huge goodie bag. I LOVED the snoopy clock and silly bands, and my Cars hat and gloves. I also got a Cars chalk board and crayons and Snoopy kleenex!



My Aunt Christy also got me a goodie bag! I was excited about my new dinosaurs and my Snoopy lamp! I had my mommy set up the lamp in my room as soon as I opened it!



I was so happy to spend some time with Meemaw and Papaw and I was especially glad they (along with GM) were able to take me to the first This is Christmas performance so I could see my Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, and Doc sing! Even though the performance was over an hour and a half, I was a perfect angel the whole time!

Another one of the highlights of the weekend was watching Home Alone for the first time! As you can see, Mommy didn't know who was enjoying it more, Papaw or Me!

Thanks to all of my family for the wonderful gifts and getting Christmas started off right!!!

Thanksgiving 2010

I didn't take nearly as many pictures for Thanksgiving this year! It was our year to celebrate Turkey day up in GA and Luke was super excited to see his cousins and Mamaw and Papaw!


Here's the whole Thanksgiving gang!


Luke REALLY enjoyed playing with his cousins all weekend long. They had SO MUCH FUN!


Emily and Luke were two peas in pod!


Luke and Jared were TOTAL BOYS! Luke was big enough this year to "rough house" and a couple of times I had to look the other way, take a deep breath and remember they are B-O-Y-S!

The weekend flew by and as we were pulling in the drive way after our 6.5 hour drive Luke said "Let's go back to Mamaw and Papaw's!!!!" I replied "When?" Luke said "RIGHT NOW!" :) Guess we will be planning another trip up there SOON :)

Collin is HERE!!!

Collin McDaniel Saunders was born on 11/23/10 at 5:42pm, 6 pounds 9 ounces, 20 inches long! He is a beautiful baby and I am so glad that he is here and that both Mom and baby are happy and healthy! I didn't get many pictures because I was much more interested in checking on my sis and oooo-ing and ah-ing over that precious baby! In case you can't tell, we all are in LOVE!!!

Double Belly Shot!

Today was the last chance for a double belly shot, since my baby sister was admitted to the hospital tonight so she can be induced at 6 am tomorrow morning. She is due Nov. 28th and I am due March 28th. Sending her and Kyle and baby Collin lots of good thoughts and prayers tonight and tomorrow. I can't wait to meet the newest member of the family!!!

Our Little Pilgrim!!!

Friday morning the 3 and 4 years olds had their annual Thanksgiving Program! I was super excited about it and Luke was, too! He has been practicing his songs for weeks now... He loves music class with Ms. Lori! The three years olds were Pilgrims and the 4 year olds were Indians! Mimi, Jeremy and I were there, of course, but I was so happy that all of the great grandparents, Mae Mae, Gran Jack and Gran Betty, could be there, as well!



I was so impressed by how well all of the kids processed in!


The program was precious! I was amazed by how many songs they sang! Most of the songs had hand motions and sign language with them and you could really tell how hard they have been practicing! (Luke is on the middle row, the third one in from the right.)


I was SO proud of my little man and I could tell he enjoyed it as much as we did.


After the program, it was time to head back to his school room for a Thanksgiving feast!

TGI (almost) F!

HOORAY! It's almost Friday! I am super excited that tomorrow is Friday because Luke's class will be performing their Thanksgiving program! He has been singing his songs for weeks now and I can hardly wait see it!

We're having a baby......

GIRL!!!!!! Luke is getting a baby SISTER!!!! Needless to say, we are beyond excited! Luke had said all along that the baby was a girl, so it was no surprise to him. I, on the other hand, thought that it might be a girl because my pregnancy has been so different from Luke's, but at the same time just thought it would be another boy. Luke went to the ultrasound with us and was excited to see the baby on the "TV's." The only thing he was interested in was seeing her eyes, which as you can tell, we can't see all that great on the ultrasounds, but he was great. I was also relieved to hear that all of her organs, heart, liver, brain, etc. all look normal and she is healthy. We are truly blessed! I thank God every day for Luke and this little miracle growing inside me!



(saw this on a fellow blogger's site and couldn't resist putting a little bow on her head!)
Also, it's a little hard to see on this scanned picture, but I love that she looks like she is going to put her thumb in her mouth!

Announcement....

ANNOUNCEMENT COMING SOON!.... But I literally haven't had time to up load pictures. Hope to have some time this weekend......

In the mean time, enjoy these little snap shots into these gems of conversations between Luke and I this week:

Conversation 1:

Let me set the mental picture for you. Picture Liz and Mom sitting at the table. I, the frazzled mom, am cleaning up the FULL cup of sticky coke that Luke just spilled. Luke has been banished back to his seat (no high chair, so he has freedom of movement and boy is he moving Up, down, out of his chair, in his chair...a WILD man...got the picture...)

So, me in my frenzy, look straight at Luke from the sink and say in my "mom means business" voice say "LUKE! If you don't sit down in that chair, I' am going to whip your TAIL!"

Luke replies in his sweet little angel voice "But, But, I don't have a tail???"

Needless to say, Mom and Liz BUST a GUT laughing and I, in turn, start howling, too!

Conversation 2:

Later that same night after we had all calmed down, out of the blue it went like this:

Luke: Ears hear.
Me: Yes, they do! What do eyes do?
Luke: They see!
Me: What does your nose do?
Luke: It blows boogers out!!!

These are just a snippet of what comes out of this clowns mouth. I am loving his crazy little 3 year old self!!! Happy Friday!

Whirlwind Weekend....

Friday tipped off a crazy whirlwind of a weekend....


8-11:15am- I worked at Rotary and was super excited to get off a few minutes early!

11:30-12:30- ate a leisurely lunch by myself at the Atlanta Bread Company and got a had a nice chat with MMGK and talk to Liz who could literally have that baby at any moment (Things are happening and she has TOTALLY dropped!) I can hardly stand the wait!


12:30- pick Lukie up from school where they had a full day of fun Halloween festivities, complete with costumes, pizza, crafts and apparently a LOT of candy. Luke was bouncing off the walls!

12:45-2:00- nice long outing to Lavretta park to burn off some of Luke's sugar rush energy!

2:30-3:00- put back on the pumpkin suit to visit daddy at work! He was still wound up even after the park and we had to make a pretty quick visit. No sugar rush crash for this guy!

3:00-4:00- killing time at target to pick up a few last minute costume things for a Saturday night party!

4:00-4:30- met Jeremy at the Pumpkin patch to get our yearly "pumpkin patch" pictures. Luke ran around like a mad man yelling "PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS!" He did settle down long enough so we could get some decent pictures! He did NOT want to leave the patch. The only thing that got him away was the promise of carving the pumpkin as soon as we got home!




4:45-5:30- the carving of the Pumpkin began! Luke was a little interested at first but quickly lost interest. He want to make a "scary" pumpkin and I wanted a cute/happy one, so we compromised and made a smiling pumpkin with scary teeth!


5:30-6:30- I got ready for a bridal shower while the boys (mainly Jeremy) continued to carve.



6:30-11:00- Mom, Liz, and I went to a shower for our soon to be sister in law, Alan (Alan is the one between Liz and I and her sister, Louise is sitting next to me). It was such a great party and she got so many nice things! Man, I wish I had another one of those delicious brownie bites!



11:30pm-Crash in the bed! What a fun filled crazy day, and the fun doesn't end here. Saturday and Sunday are just as busy! More fun weekend festivities to come!

My first Show and Tell!

Today is my very first show and tell! We were supposed to dress up like a community helper and I decided to be a train conductor! Thanks to Mamaw and Papaw and Aunt Christy's Christmas gifts last year, I had all of the things I needed! What made it even better is that I will get to tell my class that my Papaw used to work on trains!



It was so much fun to see what my other friends dressed up like! This has already been such a fun day!

Wordless Wednesday

Luke 2 weeks old:


Luke 3 years old:


Luke has literally slept like this all his life! So funny!

Girl or Boy?

It has been fun thinking/dreaming about if this new little one will be a boy or a girl. Luke seems to grasp that he will be getting a new brother or sister as well as a 3 year old can. Just the other day I was leaving the house and he ran over to me saying "I want to give the baby a kiss!" and sweetly kissed my belly! He also likes to "talk" to her as you can see in the pic.

I think understanding this whole baby thing has been a little easier for him since my sister is having her first baby at the end of November! Luke has seen her growing belly and said from early on that she was having a BOY! And he was RIGHT!

Here's to hoping Luke will be two for two because he has said for months now what I am having a GIRL. Only time will tell and I just hope and pray that this baby is perfectly healthy! Oh, and the day that Luke told us that it was a GIRL when we asked him what we should name her, he said "TRUCK" and then Jeremy said what will her full name be? and he said "DUMP TRUCK PAYNE!" And he as called 'her' TRUCK ever since! Ha!

Happy Wednesday!

Pledge of Allegiance

Check out what Luke learned at school! We were driving in the car one day and he just busted out with the WHOLE pledge. I was blown away and didn't even know they had been learning it! He has learned SO much since school started and his teacher told us last week that he wasn't getting "challenged" enough in his age group, so during what she calls the "academic" part of the day he is going up to the next age group level! Part of his homework today was to look through a magazine and cut out pictures of words that started with the letter S and the letter D. Is he REALLY this old? Are we already at this point? Just yesterday he was my little baby boy and now he can say the pledge. Time puh-leaze s-l-o-w down! Enjoy the video (and please ignore the mess that is our desk in the back ground)!

Jess' Top TEN

Top TEN reasons for my lack of blogging!!!!

10. I have been spending many an afternoon watching Cars, over and over and over again because this is Luke’s new favorite movie!

9. I have been eating pineapple like it is my job, why pineapple, you ask?....who knows? It just sounds good to me.

8. For the past few weeks,/months I have been motivated to do absolutely NOTHING.

7. I am too busy drinking gallons and gallons of V8 juice.

6. Instead of doing anything productive in the afternoons, my new favorite pastime has been taking naps. It seems that Luke has decided to give them up and I have taken them up!

5. I have been too busy trying to think up yummy creative meals that DO NOT include chicken, since the thought of eating chicken makes me want to gag.

4. I spend the afternoons that I am not at work in Luke’s castle (which at the moment is his red tent) trying to hide from the dragons!

3. I have been eating about every two hours, to try and get this ever constant nauseous feeling to go away. It gets some better, but never really quite goes away. It’s been awesome. Just last week, I had to pull the car over and got sick on the side of the road. I don’t who was more mortified by it, me or Luke?

2. I can’t seem to get any thing done because I have been running to use to the restroom every 5 seconds!

1. And the number ONE reason, for being a blogging slacker in case you haven’t figured it out already: WE ARE PREGNANT! We are super excited and baby #2 is due on March 28th! I am already coming out of the 1st trimester, so, thankfully, some of the yucky feelings have subsided! And maybe, just maybe, the blogging will pick back up!

Homework for 3 year olds?!?!

Monday was a momentous day because this was the first day Luke has ever come home with HOMEWORK! I was shocked! Since when did THREE year olds get homework? They are learning to write their names and so this was a trace- the- letters practice sheet that took all of about 4 minutes. He was SO proud to take his homework folder in to his teacher the next day. He ran up to her and said "Wook Miss Carwa! ( thats "Look Miss Carla" for those of you who don't speak 3 year old)!". Then he ran over to his friends and showed them! It was precious. Hope he stays this enthusiastic about homework since this is only the beginning!

Last Beach weekend of the Summer!

Jeremy had an OT conference over in Orange Beach last weekend and since he had an all expense paid weekend at the beach, Luke and I decided to tag along! We had beautiful weather and the beaches were pristine! All in all it was a nice and relaxing weekend!


On Saturday afternoon, we ventured down to the beach where we stayed all of about 30 minutes. Luke turned around to us and said "I'm done with the beach!" We headed straight to the pool where we stayed a good long while. We ordered pizza in that night so we could watch the AL v Penn St game.



Luke's favorite part of the weekend was getting to play on the condos built in bunk beds. He absolutely adored them! Do I see bunk beds in our future?


We stopped by the Souvenir City to see the big shark on our way out of town! Bye Bye Beach, until next year!

This is ALABAMA football....

Last weekend, Mimi, Jeremy, Luke and I headed up to Tuscaloosa for THE opening game! This year was special for many reasons:
#1- We didn't have to take a stroller. Luke loved being able to walk like a big boy! He did great!
#2- We didn't have to take a diaper bag!!! Since Luke is now, dare I say it out loud, potty trained, we would head out to the game without a diaper bag! I can't believe he is such a BIG boy!
And #3- Mom and Dad got four tickets in the brand new South end Zone. This was SUPER nice because we had really nice seats with arm rests and cup holders AND because they have an air conditioned area with a decked out all you can eat buffet!...They had stadium dogs, nachos, salad bar, fruit and veggies, chips, popcorn, ice cream, sandwich bar, hamburgers, chicken. Pretty much you name it, they had it!


Luke loved sitting at these bar seats! It was great because we got to watch the team warm up and EAT!


Once Luke got used to the crowd noise, he could cheer with the best of them! He kept yelling ROLL TIDE!!!! Everyone around us kept looking back and smiling. Aside from a busted lip (don't ask, his face met the seat) and scraped legs (falling UP the steps on the way out---only MY child could fall UP steps!), Luke was totally into the game!


On the way back to the car, we had to pay tribute to the "Bear" statue! We can't wait until our next game!