Surprise kids...we're @ Disney World, not Cousin Eddie's!

So we did manage to surprise the boys' and Lanie (well, she's not too sure of anything) with a few days at Disney. We are actually in-line for Space Mountain as I write this. The boys thought we were just taking a road trip with Nanny and Papa to somewhere in Florida to see some "distant cousins or something." They did see the signs as we got near (you would have to be blind or illiterate NOT to know you were near this place with all the insane signage everywhere) but never did they even ask if we were going to Disney. And the I made the comment "Oops, I made a wrong turn" (which is very unlikely when I drive!) they looked up from their iPods just in time to see us pass under the 'Welcome the Disney World' arch! "Really? We are going to Disney? Woooooohoooooo!!!!!"

Well, we found our hotel and got settled. It's a great resort w/heated pools, a water slide, lazy river, mini-golf and much more. Today, Thanksgiving, we are thankfully visiting the Magic Kingdom. It's gonna be a great day! The boys are excited, Lanie doesn't really know what to think and the grown-ups (me, Meghan, Nanny & Papa) are all smiles. The only character we've seen thus far was Pinochio and Lanie wasn't too keen on getting very close. Now, we are almost to the front of the line. Hopefully Turner won't cry this time...last time he was just 4 and didn't really dig Space Mountain. Godspeed!

And this is why I love Fall!

Extreme Room Make-Over

***The Birmingham News is doing an article this Saturday about the boys "Hanging Beds", so we bumped this post from earlier in the summer to the top page. Turner & Clay were thrilled to get to be in the pictures!***

Several days ago, Meghan and I were talking and decided the boys' room could use a little sprucing up in order to make a bit more useful for them as they are growing up, need a little more space and just to give their room a change. You see, for the past 3 years, their room has pretty much been a place for sleeping, piling dirty clothes, stuffing clean clothes, cramming the junky trinkets from birthday party favor bags (sorry if I offend anyone, but come on parents, you know EXACTLY what I mean), infrequent piano practices, and the occasional "prison" for the typical "Go to your room!" parental command at the end of some stand-off or argument. All that to say they don't spend much time in their room with their eyes are open.

Here's what we had to work with.

Yes, we have a basement that is just begging to be finished out, but of course that takes a good bit of $$$ (which we don't want to spend), time (which we do have), and 2 boys willing to sleep down there (which we don't have-they are too yella). So until all the stars align, we have put that project off. In the meantime, we decided to get creative and make the most of the bedroom they currently call their own and do a room makeover. We knew we wanted to paint and get them some fun, new furnishing. But most of all, we wanted to open up the space so it would be more functional for them and hopefully become a place they would like to use for more than just sleeping. To create more usable space, we were thinking of selling their bunks and building some loft beds. As we were searching images online, I stumbled upon this post on Bob Vila's site which had a few pictures of "hanging beds," something neither of us had ever seen before. It looked simple enough and with a little creative engineering, I figured I could create something similar for the boys. The whole idea behind a hanging bed is to free up as much floor space as possible while still having a bed in the room. What we really like about the hanging beds, besides the obvious novelty of having hanging beds, is that there aren't 4 long legs supporting each bed and taking up space which is what we noticed on most of the loft-style beds we saw. And with further investigation, I figured out how to create the hanging beds from their existing bunk beds, which meant we had no lumber to buy! It was a no-brainer for this frugal couple! So now we had a plan and decided to make it happen. We kicked the boys out of their room, forbade them from entering it until we were done and then we got busy doing our own version of extreme room makeovers. I think the hardest part of the whole deal was moving the boys out of their room for a few nights and cleaning out all the random stuff that they have accumulated over the years from collections of paper airplanes and pencil grippers to rocks and scraps of wood from who knows where. Meghan started the transformation by taking down all the stuff from the walls and applying a few new coats of paint, changing the color from blue to taupe and making it feel fresh and clean. Also, she bought a couple of cool orange chairs to add to their new room. Meanwhile, I began phase 2, which was the bed reconstruction. Enter the drills, power saw, sander, etc. I took the bunks apart, made some measurements, incorporated a whole lot of guesswork and within a few hours, I had them back together. But now they looked a little different because they were attached to the wall and appeared to be hanging from the ceiling!

The first bed almost complete. Doesn't it look like it's hanging?!

I tested each bed's sturdiness and upon realizing they were safe and sound, we began putting everything else back together. There was still quite a bit of work to do with placing all the furniture, cleaning up all the sawdust, making the ladder, and figuring out what needed to stay in their room and what needed to go to the attic, but we made it happen. And after 4 days of the boys being sequestered, we invited them back in for the grand unveiling!

Oh yeah, they like it!

They were super excited and very grateful to say the least! They both told us at least 20 times how much they loved it and appreciated us doing it for them. Now they are wanting to invite all their friends over to see it and hang out in their cool new room! Trust me when I say that before now, they never really cared about bringing their friends into their room. I even overheard quotes like "our room is totally tricked out" and "it's all a kid could ever want." Big points for mom and dad! I think those quotes make it all worthwhile. This is one occasion where we can confidently say that our efforts towards trying to make our boys happy have been overwhelmingly successful!

Lanie swimming! It's amazing how great she's done in the pool this summer.

Sweet Little Baby Doll

Turner's 1st Piano Recital

Tonight we got to enjoy our first of what will hopefully be many more piano recitals featuring our blooming musician, Turner Reese! He's been taking piano lessons from Ms. Katherine for a little over a year now and his hard work is paying off as you can hear in this video. Practicing isn't the most fun but he has worked hard, stuck with it and did a great job in his first performance in front of quite a large crowd. He even got himself dressed in a fine button-down, khakis, AND a tie..without having to be told! It was truly a night of firsts...his first recital, his first time to fix his own hair and his first time to wear a tie. I must say, I am very proud of him. He is quite an awesome kid who will be growing into a young man all too soon. He's got lots of talent and we hope he continues to develop his skills and passion for music.

Bows and Sunglasses

Lanie's new thing, now that she can climb with the skills she must have inherited from her "spidey" dad, is to get in the rocker in her room and pull down all the bows that mommy has clipped to the bow thingy hanging beside the chair. Well, today after she pulled a bunch of 'em down, I decided she needed to wear them all! Isn't she adorable?!

Spidey Sense

So... Jeff went on a field trip with Turner's class last week to DeSoto Caverns. This morning we got an email from Turner's teacher with a note and these photos attached that someone snapped on the field trip:

"I couldn't resist sending these... we've all been laughing and wondering if you sleep all day because you are up all night fighting crime?"

Gotta love a man who proudly wears the Spiderman undies the kids picked out for him!

First Piggytails

I LOVE pigtails! Lanie has *just* enough hair to pull it up now.

Don't you just want to squeeze those thighs!?

Time Flies When You Are Having Fun! Happy B'day Turner Reesie!

Yup, the boy's 9...the last of the single digit years for our amazing oldest son, Turner Reese. It really does seem like just yesterday that the little guy was making his grand entrance into this world and now we are celebrating 9 great years of memories with him. There are so many stories that revolve around this unique creation that God has entrusted us with and we look forward to many more. He is definitely a blessing and we are so thankful for ALL he adds to our lives and the lives of all those he encounters.

As for the big birthday, well, I think he racked up. I don't think I made out as well as he did on my 9th birthday. His loot included a new bike complete with a really loud horn that was hand picked by none other than his little brother. He also got a new Life-Is-Good shirt, a "Swiss Army Knife" (he just recently earned his 'Whittlin Chip' through Cub Scouts so he can safely carry a knife), an alarm for his bedroom to warn him of intruders (that would be his little sister) and a really fun dinner at a local Japanese Steakhouse around the Hibachi. Click here to watch the Qik Video that I streamed from phone while we watched the Japanese Chef entertain us all. By the way, did you know you can stream video live from your phone to the web for free and it's actually decent in quality and easy to do? Check out Qik for more info. From his point of view and mine, I believe he had a great birthday and is well on his way to another great year where I can only imagine what YouTube video this funny kid will choose to memorize next (ever seen Bon Qui Qui? Well, Turner can re-enact the whole thing!).

Easter...a day of celebration and fun!

Here are some photos from a great day of Celebration for the Risen King on this BEAUTIFUL Easter Sunday. I can't remember a more perfect day! The boys woke bright and early @ 6:30 to check out the loot they scored from the Easter Bunny, which included 2 western-style revolver cap guns, clip-on Sharpie's, DS games (Raving Rabbids, of course...what else would the funny bunny bring?) and of course some Peeps and other candy. Oh yeah, he brought them each a bottle of Magic Shell too! I think that maybe he meant that for me! Lanie woke to find that she had scored a Pink Pig, some boppies and some of those magic bottles that have the stuff in them that won't pour out. She's still trying to get that orange stuff to come out. With the way she turns it up, you would think it's a real bottle!
After the kiddos got all hyped-up on sugar and the grown-ups on coffee, we put on our pastels and headed to an awesome worship experience at Church of the Highlands where we joined many others as we praised our Lord...and the grandparents were there to share in the experience too! The church even gave everyone a free copy of the first CD released by the Highlands Worship Team-called Arise, which is appropriate for the day! It's a great CD and as I listen to it right now, reflecting on the day and writing this, I am reminded of the power that music has when it comes to worship. It really is a key to the whole worship experience...at least for Meghan and I it is.

After church, we returned to "Camp Richardson" for an AWESOME lunch outside under the blue sky with the grandparents and Lori and Steve. We stuffed ourselves with chicken 'n' dressing (Meghan makes it and it ROCKS), corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, ham, marshmallow/whipped cream fruit stuff, key lime pie, banana pudding, rolls, etc. and it was all wonderful. We then did a bit of ziplining...yeah, even Papa (Bill) rode it! I must say, even I was a little nervous...but not nearly as nervous as he was! I thought about filming it but then again I worried about what might end up on the camera so I decided not too. Come on...if he would have gotten hurt, it would be bad enough to have it on my conscious that he got hurt on the zipline I built and I didn't really want to be able to relive it all on-command via the Flip Video. But all that aside, he made it SAFELY and with a smile, the kids thought it was great fun to watch and he didn't break anything. However, I do think it's safe to say that it was a "one-time-thing" for Papa. We wrapped things up with a good ol' fashion Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids. It's tough when you know where one is and you see a kid walks right by it! I think I gave a few hints 'cause I just couldn't stand it! The kids had a great time scouring the yard and I think they found 'em all. But because we didn't count them, we may have an egg or two full of moldy skittles turn up in the coming days. And all the while, Lanie toddled all over the yard, found eggs, got her picture made a bunch (which is obvious from the album above) and just wore herself out. She was a real trooper, all smiles and I know she really enjoyed being outside with the all the big kids! Also, as the day winded down, the Turner's and the Vandiver's stopped by for visiting and fun, so we got to share this great day with family AND friends.

From my perspective, this was the best, most fun Easter we've had in a long time and I am thankful for such a great day and all it means! And it was especially fun because we were at our house. Simply not having to travel takes out a bit of the stress that holidays can bring and I know the kids liked hanging out in their own yard, so we hope it becomes a tradition...especially the egg hunt and Meghan's dressing! Traditions are good and we want our kids to have a few that they can look back on as they grow up and have some great memories. Maybe this will be one. Tonight, I will go sleep with a smile on my face because I know how truly Blessed my family really is and how much God loves and cares for us!

The Month of March

Sorry it's been awhile since we've posted, March has been a busy month! Here are a few of the things that happened this month:

We planted a vegetable garden. Strawberries, onions, potatoes, lettuce & cabbage so far! All the boys went on their first real backpacking trip at Oak Mountain over spring break. All the girls had a sleepover with the Vandivers.
Lanie turned ONE!!!
We celebrated with family at home. Here she is in her birthday outfit, anxiously awaiting the partygoers!
The Scout troop had their annual 'Blue & Gold' Banquet. After a long day of fishing we enjoyed a yummy catfish dinner at the banquet!

Clay won 3rd place in his science fair division for his project "Which Shape Paper Airplane Flies The Best?"
Turner won 1st Place! He chose "What's Happening To The Coral Reef?" for his project. The boys were stoked about winning and are excited to do it all again next year. It turned out to be A LOT of work for, um, Mom & Dad, so we don't exactly share their enthusiasm.
It SNOWED! Woowho! Big news for us Alabama folks! It was just enough to play in all morning and had melted away by the afternoon. True to typical Alabama weather it was 75 degrees and sunny two days later. I think we have switched the thermostat directly from heat to cool more than usual this year.
Did I mention that Lanie Lulu turned one!?!? She's a stinker... her favorite word is NO, she's walking, running and climbing out of and into just about everything. The only thing she hasn't managed to escape so far is her carseat and I have a hunch she'll figure out the straps and buckles before too long. It's a good thing she's so darn cute...

Our 1st Mardi Gras!

We spent the weekend in Daphne, Alabama at our cousin's house all in the name of Mardi Gras...some good 'ol fashioned debauchery!  We have never been to Mardi Gras before and since our cousins, who live in a Daphne and happen to have a parade that literally goes right in front of their house (The Loyal Order of the Firetruck) have invited us down for a few years in a row, this year we decided to check it out.  Well, it was well worth the 4 hours in the car 'cause we ALL had a great time.  Lanie travelled very well, loved the attention from the dogs, cats, people, and didn't even cry when the flying beads grazed her while riding in the backpack at the parade.  And do I even need to mention that the boys had a blast with their cousins...as they always do?  Meghan and I had a great time too hanging out with a very welcoming family that really knows how to feed their guests.  We love spending time with our LA (Lower Alabama) family...a great bunch of folks who love to relax and hang out!  I always look forward to our time with them because we never seem to get too busy and it's easy to slow down.  Oh and I almost forgot to mention that we came home with no less than 40 lbs of beads and other "throws" to boot...from just 2 parades!  Thanks for the bags, Stephanie!  I couldn't imagine how much you would end up with if you hit all the parades!  As a matter of fact, I just got finished dividing up beads for the boys to share with their classmates tomorrow (Fat Tuesday) and I didn't even make a noticable dent in their collections!  As many people say, it really was family-oriented with little ones EVERYWHERE...nothing like what I have heard about regarding the crazy scene in New Orleans or even over in Mobile.  The only people I saw drinking a bunch were the people on the floats!  Well, at least I assumed they were partaking of the happy juice.  What else could have been in those GIANT mugs?  All in all, this was a great weekend where some great memories were made and I hope it will become something we do every year.  Turner even told Stephanie that he was going to make sure this becomes a family tradition so we can come spend Mardi Gras with them every year.  Now that's a tradition I hope we can keep 'cause it was fun for everyone!  Happy Mardi Gras!!!

And she's off!

Yup, she's walking! It's not fast or steady, but she is doing it. It won't be long and she will be running from her brothers and mommy...to HER DADDY of course!

Daddy's First Dress Purchase

About a week ago, I went to Orlando for an educational tech conference. While we were there, we went to Downtown Disney so Suzan, my coworker, could buy Tinkerbell stuff for her 5 year old daughter's birthday. Our destination in this giant outdoor Disney money trap was the "official" Disney Store. We ventured inside where they pump happy gas through the vents and all the classic Disney tunes you know by heart softly emerge from the mouse-shaped speakers. Oh and of course, everyone is smiling! I swore I wasn't going to succumb to their immersion tactics, as irresistible as they are, and buy any of their overpriced "stuff." But as you can see from the picture, I caved...as did the 2 other men in my group who also swore that they wouldn't buy anything. I mean come on...could I really go into a store that sells stuff from the "Happiest Place on Earth" -Janet...no comment necessary- and not buy something for my kids? Wouldn't that qualify as child abuse? Well, the boys didn't get anything (well, nothing from the Disney Store but they did each get a surprise) but as I walked through the little girls' section, I couldn't help but think about how cute some of the little dresses would look on my "little princess." I looked around for a few minutes, asked for the opinions of Suzan and Kathy, and picked out the one she's wearing. I think I did pretty good. In fact, I was so proud that I had to try it on her within minutes of arriving home.
By the way, did I mention we didn't get there until 11:00pm...and they close at 11:30?! But ya know what? Sticking with the unspoken Disney Motto-We never disappoint...OR miss a chance to sell something to someone that they can't live without- they don't ever announce that they are closing like they do at the Wal-Marts or Hardees. They simply don't let anyone else in and those inside are free to shop until sunrise if they want. How do I know this, you ask? One of the sweet little girls working there told me, with a smile on her face of course! But her eyes said "will you please pick out a dress and get the h@!! out of here so I can ditch this smile and go have a drink!"

Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy

Okay, really from Clay.

He had this to say at dinner last night about the inauguration:

"How do you say it? Nog-ration? I bet they drink lots of 'Nog' there... you know, egg nog."

I love the way his mind works!

Pinewood Derby 2009

The Pinewood Derby was a real blast this year. We spent a few days the week before working on our cars and thanks to Uncle George and the scroll saw he let us borrow, cutting out the boys' designs were a cinch. We will definitely be borrowing that again next year. Dad did the cutting and some of the detail work, but the boys did some too, like painting and sanding. Next year, the plan is to let them do their own cars with as little help from dad as possible...'cause dad is going to make his own car next year and race it against some other dads. See, Pinewood Derby isn't just for the kiddos...it's very serious for us dads too!
As for Derby Day, we made it a family affair and even Lanie had a good time. It was Clay's first year to participate since he's now a Tigercub and it was Turner's second year (he's in the Bear Den) AND second time to come home with an award. Last year he came home with a 2nd place ribbon for his den and this year, his "Whale of a Car" design won him a TROPHY-1st Place for "Best Non-Car Design." He's very excited to say the least...what 8 year old doesn't love a trophy? Dad is pretty proud too. His car looked very sharp and was pretty fast even though speed wasn't really something he cared too much about (but dad did...and made a few minor adjustments to make sure it was quick). Clay's car, the blue speed machine with it's yellow racing stripe, looked rather sweet and it was fast too. But unfortuntely he's in a den with the family who wins EVERY YEAR! They have some secret technique and build fast cars. It's on next year...we are going to perfect our designs and hopefully give them a run for their money. Look out Bodden's...the Richardson's are throwing down the gauntlet in 2010! Click here to see some more pictures from the day's events.

Zipline Fun!

The kids put their Christmas loot together and ordered the supplies to build a zipline in the yard. Here's what it took...

• 1/4" Galvanized Aircraft Cable-200'
• 1 12" Turnbuckle for taking slack out of cable
• 15 Wire Clamps
• Some really creative engineering on Dad's part.
  

It wasn't too difficult to put up, but due to all the rain the ground was really soft and driving my 1/2 ton truck through the front yard so I could use it to get the slack out of the cable was a pretty bad idea. I have some huge tracks where nice grass once was. Oh well, it's all in the name of fun. Remind me of that when I am complaining about it come Spring and my grass is all jacked up! The kids liked it though 'cause I was throwing mud and grass about 20' into the air. And as I had straps, cables, ropes and ladders rigged up, my wife asked me if I was trying out for the Darwin Awards! Oh ye of little faith. With what I had going I would have surely only gotten an honorable mention! You have to actually die to get an award. I am sure I would have just severely wounded myself. Anyway, it's up...no one has been hurt and it's really fun! Not too high OR fast, it's a great ride that the kids can't get enough. I will mention that Mommy has yet to put her trust in it and ride, but due to the amount of harrassment she's getting from Turner and Clay, I am sure she will soon. I suggested hooking Lanie's Johnny-Jump-Up to it so Lanie could ride but that didn't go over too well. Anyway, it should make for some great times at Camp Richardson for kids and grown-ups alike. The next addition will be a permanent launching platform, but for now, we just climb a ladder and go. Come take a ride!

And They Call It...

Puppy Love

We got a new lens for our camera and I am having a great time playing with it, can you tell? The truth is that I *may* have pulled the opposite of 'the husband getting the wife a power drill' because I bought the lens as a gift for Jeff's birthday last week, but I have spent much more time enjoying it than he has!

Turner & Gizmo are big buddies, especially since Lanie's arrival which meant that Gizmo got the boot from our bed and has now taken to sleeping with Turner every night. Most nights when we tuck Turner in he has both Gizmo and our cat, Thomas, snuggled up with him. He seems to have a gift with animals, they just love him. I'm wondering if we should change his name to

Dr. Turner Dolittle?

The Million Dollar Question...

Is Lanie going to have curly hair?

YEP! Looks that way!

Christmas Fun 2008

We had a great Christmas break this year... First we went to Daphne for cousin Josh's wedding. We usually see them every summer at the beach, so it was a change to see everyone all cleaned up for the wedding considering we spend our summer days together in jammies or swimsuits! We got home and went straight to cousin Janet & Perry's for dinner and games which is always fun. Then on Christmas morning all the grandparents joined us to see what Santa brought and to open gifts. Below are some photos of their loot and our Christmas morning breakfast. The boys have spent their days enjoying their new toys... the electric scooters and Nintendo DS'a are the current favorites. Lanie got lots of goodies, but so far her favorites are a blue foam puzzle piece from a puzzle book and a hot pink drum stick. She has been crawling around the house with one or the other in her mouth like a puppy dog since Christmas.

Freebies & Deals...

Happy New Year!!!

I love bargains, so I thought I would share my newest find. Have you noticed these "Redbox" things in the front of your local Walmart? I did and decided to do a little websurfing to find out about them. Well folks, this is the next Blockbuster or Movie Gallery. Just about every movie rental place around here has gone out of business so this is my new favorite way to rent movies. Yep, we've tried Netflix which is still a bargain if you use it enough. To rent movies on demand at home runs $4 and we rarely get through one without the digital connection messing up, which is a *TAD* annoying. Also, you can now watch lots of things online, but again our internet connection doesn't always cooperate.
Thanks to Redbox, we've enjoyed several movies over the holidays completely free. During December they offered free codes for a movie rental every Sunday in addition to the free code they also offer the rest of the year on Monday nights. And when you sign up online they also give you a free code to use whenever you like. The free signup code is 'BREAKROOM' and you can use it once anytime to get started, even before you signup.
How does it work? Next time you're in Walmart walk up to the box, use the touch screen button at the bottom of the page to hit 'rent with promo code'. Enter your code, it will accept it and show that you have credit to rent one movie. Then it will guide you through a selection process to see everything that's in stock (yep, they usually do have the newest releases in stock). Choose your movie, enter your email address, swipe a charge or debit card, and it spits out your movie and emails you a receipt. Even for the freebies, you do have to swipe a card because it will charge you $1 per night late fee up to a $25 cap if you don't return the movie. Like I said, we have used it successfully several times this month for free without any charges to our credit card.
The regular fee to rent is only $1 per night and movies can be returned to any redbox, not just the one you got it at. When you sign up online you can also check what's in stock and reserve movies at different locations. You do have to make a trip back to return it, but we live within 5 minutes of several locations so it's no big deal. Obviously, if you always forget to return movies (Dad!) then this is not going to be a great deal for you!

I am hoping to get some family Christmas photos uploaded and posted here soon. My goal for the new year is to try and get at least one family post and one 'money saver' post up each week this year so we'll see how that goes!!! I am also going to add some local blogs that have helped me save money this year... Again, Happy New Year!