Keepin' it Rural!

Ha! I really hate that word "rural"...it's so hard to say!

Anyway, we've (Mostly Adam!) been hard at work planting our garden and building a chicken house for our new chickens. Or "chitnens" as Alabama calls them! ha! This is when we first planted the garden back on March 22nd . It is doing really well! Even our little squash plants came back to life and are doing great with lots of little baby squashes! The only thing that never came up was the potatoes we planted. I think maybe we planted too late. We have corn, squash, bell peppers, onions, green beans, watermelon, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries (but the deer ate them!) :-(, and muscadines. We really have no idea what we are doing but it's a lot of fun to see the vegetables grow! Here are a few pictures of the garden yesterday.

Adam has made a "fancy" chicken house and it looks so cute! We are borrowing a few of Maxine's chickens until our biddies are bigger. We've gotten six eggs since Thursday. We are just really hoping no snakes come around! This is Adam in the building phase and here is the finished product! Isn't he so talented??? I told Adam that the chickens from Maxine probably feel like they are on a little vacation to a 5 star hotel! ha!

Alabama is so funny when they crow she says "You hear my new chitnens?" or she will open the door and say "You go in your house. This is my house. You can't come in here, okay?"

Easter 2011

We had a great Easter, although, a bit busy. We got up early to see what the Easter bunny brought! Alabama was excited to see although the few days before Easter she told us she didn't want him to come! In her basket she got a stuffed lamb, a bag of gummie life savers, a M&M's egg, a book, and a hairbow. We got dressed and went to the Sunrise service at my parent's church so that we could see them for Easter. This picture is as good as it gets for our family Easter picture....maybe we'll try again later. We ate breakfast there and then headed to Evans to our church. We had an AMAZING service! The music was wonderful and the preaching was inspiring! The praise team sang "Arise My Love" and it was as if we were there with Jesus! It was sooo good! We had a packed house and I think maybe a record number of people there! After church, we went to Adam's parents' house and ate lunch and had an easter egg hunt. Adam's sister, Georgia and her family were there, too. This is Alabama with her cousins; Anna, Morgan, and Ethan. So cute! Alabama had fun with her cousins and was so glad to see Morgan! She talks about her all the time!

After we ate, we hid the eggs and Alabama was really into finding them!

It was a long day and she was worn out so she took a little nap before we went back to church for the Spring Fling that night.

We had a fun time with our church family that evening! We had so much going on, volleyball tournament, a bus pull, inflatables, hot dog supper, and an egg toss, too!

I made Alabama this bunny shirt and I thought it turned out sooo cute!

Yes, I'm still here!

I haven't blogged in so long partly because when I get behind, I feel like I have to catch up before I can write anything else. But....even though I still haven't posted any of the birthday party, I'm going to post anyway!

Alabama was so funny yesterday when I had to make a delivery at Martina's florist. The lady asked us if we needed help and then started to talk to us for a long time. She told Alabama how cute she was and that she liked her outfit. (Side note: When we went to see my niece Morgan in her cheerleading show a few weeks ago, Alabama wanted to wear her "Go Dawgs Outfoot" (Ga Cheerleader oufit) so now she associates the word outfit with the cheerleader suit.)Sooo, when the lady said that to her, she started saying pretty loudly "Go Dawgs", "Gold, Black" (our thomson bullldogs colors!)! ha! The poor lady had no idea what was going on! I tried to explain, but I'm not sure she ever got it!

Later that night, she was playing with my sister, Audra, on the floor and she told Audra "I'm leaving." But she had her passy in her mouth so it sounded like I'm lemon. When Audra kept asking her where's the lemon, she got frustrated at her and told her "I'm going Bye-bye!" ha! It was like if you don't understand real words, I'll have to use baby talk with you!

She is absolutely obsessed with flip-flops now. Only, she calls them "shoe-flops!" She asks everyone, "Where's your shoe-flops???" "You wear shoe-flops like me do?" She wants to wear them every. single. day.

She has a semi-imaginary friend/cousin now! ha! Apparently her cousin, Jenna, has moved in with us! I really didn't know that kids had such big imaginations so young! She will tell me all the stuff that Jenna is doing, that Jenna wants something to eat, etc. When I tell her Jenna is at school, she says "No, No, Jenna right here!" We will even get in the car and she tells Jenna to buckle up. Sometimes, as we are pulling out of the driveway, she says "Mama! We left Jenna!!!!" and I have to stop and say "Get in Jenna!" It is really the funniest thing! I need to get it on video how she acts with "Jenna". ha!

Two

Alabama,

I can't believe you are two years old now! It has gone by so fast, but I also can't remember what life was like without you! Here is what you are up to at 2 years old!

- You love to talk and do it all day! I can't even count how many words you say now....A LOT! You also say up to 5 word sentences.

- You love to sing and play the "drums" and listen to music and dance! Some of your favorite songs are "If all the Raindrops", the "Fruit of the Spirit song",

- You are very sweet and love to give hugs and kisses *especially Eskimo kisses!

- You weigh 31 pounds and are 35 inches tall. You wear size 24 months - 2T clothes. You wear a size 6 shoe.

- You have lots of friends and love to play with them and pray for them, too!

- You are a very great helper and love to help me clean or make something.

- You love to be outside in your playhouse and you always want to go outside with Daddy when he gets home.

- You still love to watch Barney and now you like Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck, too.

- You can recognize McDonalds anywhere! ha!

- You are so sweet to use your manners and say "Please", "Thanks", and "Pardon".

- Your favorite food is "chick-chick". You also love suckers and want one daily. Another favorite food is strawberries....just like your Mama! ;-)

-You are little Miss Independent! Everyday I hear "I wanna do it myself!" Whether it's getting into the car, eating, putting on clothes, going up/down steps, whatever!

- You are trying to push the limits and see how far you can get with us! You know and can quote that it says "Obey Mommy and Daddy" in the Bible but you don't always put it into practice. You are really a very good girl most of the time, though!

- You are still a great sleeper. You sleep anywhere from 10-12 hours a night and take a 1-3 hour nap in the afternoon. :)

-You love to color pictures and play with play-doh and do any kind of art project. You tell everyone "I make that!"

-Your imagination is growing everyday! I love to see the things you pretend!

- You also have the best memory! You can remember things that happened a LONG time ago (like losing your balloon at Glenn's or the cow coming to Chick-fil-A, or that you didn't like Santa Clause). I'm really amazed!

-You love to read books and we read several every day and night! A few of your favorites are the Goodnight Bible ..particularly the part about Noah!, Put me in the Zoo, Barney book, Princess book, and Goodnight Gorilla.

-I have to be very careful because you repeat everything! Like you started to say "Oh, man!"

-You are learning to use the potty and are doing very goood! You love to get M&M's when you go!

-You can recognize purple, pink (your favorite!), blue, green, red, black, white, yellow, and orange colors! Such a smart girl!

-You can count to three. You have gotten very good at repeating your ABC's after me!

-The shapes you know are a circle, star, and moon.

-You act shy when you're around people you don't know but are not shy at all at home! ha!

I know that God had great plans for you! I am so blessed to be your Mama and ask for Grace to raise you to love Jesus and serve Him all the days of your life! Your sweet little personality is so precious and I am loving these days we have together in this season of life!

I love you,

Mommy

Where does she get this stuff???

Alabama says the funniest things and I have no idea where she gets it from! ha!

For instance, she started sometimes calling me "Mom" instead of Mommy or Mama.

Also, she started telling me "I'm fine." As in "Alabama, do you need to potty?" No, I'm fine.

or "It's time to take a nap." Uh-uh, I'm fine."

Another things she says that cracks me up is she will say "Ummmm..." before she tells you something...she's really thinking hard about it! ha!

Two Year Pictures- Take 1

I tried to take a few pictures of Alabama today, but they didn't all turn out so good. The sun was a little too bright...I should have waited an hour later or so and it would have been much better. Anyway, here's a few good ones I thought I'd share! The first ones are in a dress I made her back in December.

Then I took some in her pink tutu with a lollipop that goes with her party theme! -CANDY!

Valentine's Day 2011

On Monday, we had a fun Valentine's Day (with the exception of Adam still being sick). I tried to do a few little things to make the day fun for Alabama even though she still doesn't really know it's Valentine's Day. She wore her cute pants that I added the ruffle on to make them longer (and cuter!) and looked adorable with the shirt that Bo and Kathie got her! We stopped at Sonic and got us a cherry limeade before we went to see Aunt Judy and Granny and take them the Valentine she made them. They also gave her a cute card with $3 in it. It was fun to see them for a little while. Alabama was "sharing" Granny's cake and ice cream. She says "I want shum". After we left there, we went home and ate a few heart shaped chicken nuggets :) and Alabama took a nap and stayed with Adam while I went to Augusta to pick-up Alicia and run a few errands. When we got back, Alabama opened her gift from Alicia (two cute pink jackets from Target and some V-day suckers) and then went to the mall with my sisters. They ate at Chick-Chick-A (as Alabama calls it!) and Audra was so excited to take her to Build-A-Bear. (she's been wanting to go for a long time) but apparently Alabama wasn't as excited. It was going great while picking out a cute monkey but when it came time to stuff the monkey, the "machine scared her" because it's pretty loud. Even today when she plays with the monkey she tells me " 'chine scare me" and retells the whole story, just like she does about Santa and the cow at Chick fil A. ha! So she cried and wanted her Mommy and really wasn't into BAB after that. But anyway, they had fun and apparently a really big cookie and she has a cute monkey that has a Georgia cheerleader outfit on. It's really cute.

While they were gone, Adam and I stayed home and ate spaghetti on the couch in our pajamas and watched Jeopardy and a couple other shows we never watch anymore. It was a good Valentine's Day!

When they got home, she opened a little present from me and Adam. I gave her some stickers and some nail polish and I'd already given her a little Valentine book that is really sweet. (Please disregard me in this picture!) She loves to have her toes and fingernails painted pink!

Here's the Valentine with all of her loot including some Valentine's from Nana that she sent on Sunday (hopefully we'll get to see her one day this week or this weekend!).

I hope your Valentine's Day was fun, too!