Stone Mountain

 For our sixteenth anniversary, we went to Stone Mountain in Georgia.  There's so much to do there, especially since I was last there as a teenager twenty years ago.  Rocco and I attempted the sky hike.  It's a ropes course high up in the trees.  Rocco hung for the first level then he was ready to get back down to the ground.  

 Seeing as he is the cautious one of my two children, I was so very proud of him for going as far as he did!

 He preferred the kids' course.  It had a zip line at the end; he held on tight and swung like a monkey all the way down and back.  He was amazed at his own strength and bravery.  His daddy and I were proud of him for this, too!

 Maverick thought he was big enough for the course, too.

We had some lunch at one of the cafes.  The boys did a good job sharing their slushy.  

Check out this brotherly love in the candy shop where we bought some buckeyes and fudge.

God blessed us with a beautiful day.  The weather was absolutely perfect.

 While Jason watched the sleeping baby, Rocco and I played some Putt Putt golf.  Look at the sign along the way.  I'm not far from my old  home town!

 On the first hole Rocco made a hole in one!  He is named after a famous golfer you know!

Later we took the 45 minute train ride around the mountain.  Maverick sure enjoyed it!

Our family...

I just love this candid shot!  They look so happy. 

  Later we rode the tram up on top of the mountain.  Once we were up there, I took off hiking with the boys.  Bad idea...I had to hike back up it!  At least we had some shade along the way.

 Rocco on top of Stone Mountain...Later he told me that he had prayed along one of our stops near the big rocks and shaded trees.  It was a beautiful place to worship.

Maverick on top of Stone Mountain...

 Geyser tower was another adventure we embarked upon that day.  It was a roped in climbing course with spontaneous water jets that soaked you when you were least expecting it.

Before the laser show, we ate at one of the restaurants on site.  I'd say the corn was little man's favorite!

My favorite part was just being with my family all day.  It was a great trip.

Aug 29 - monthly update

Rocco started second grade.  He's in Mrs. Massey's class.  Thankfully Will Cox, Rocco's best friends, is in his class this year. Riley Baker, his former girlfriend, is in there, too.   Unfortunately Hunter, Hayes, and Gunnar were placed in the other second grade class.  So far things have gone well at CSE.

Rocco is a very good big brother.  One day Maverick had been crying and I could not get him asleep.  Rocco sang him his very own made up lullaby.  "Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep little baby...because we love you, and we care about you, and we know you haven't slept all day." And you know what? He went to sleep!

 Seventeen months old and still growing like a weed.  It was back to work for me full time this year.  I was sad, but oh so thankful that I had last year only working part time so that I could be more of a stay at home mom.  I'll forever cherish that time I had home with my babies.  This year I'm at Southeast Elementary teaching math and science to sixth graders.  It's about a twenty minute drive from the house.  I've been working late hours trying to stay up with the pace of being in a new school, new grade, and new subject.

Our boys love to get a bubble bath.  Here they are in our big whirl pool.  (If you look extra hard you can see Rocco's blue orthodontic glue on his back teeth.  Just that little bit of glue has corrected his under bite caused by grinding teeth.  Thankfully braces will come later rather than sooner.)

 I can think of nothing sweeter than my nana interacting with little Maverick. She was feeding him breakfast one morning.  Look at that little bird mouth open for some Cheerios.  Something is extra special about great-grandparents!

 This little man loves a sucker!  He'd almost eat the stick when he's through with the candy.

 I love picture shots from behind.  He was busy playing with his little Disney train that his nana and granddaddy gave him in this picture.

July 29th - Monthly Update

Intelligent, handsome, sweet...the total package.  That's my Rocco.  I just love his new look in his glasses.  Sometimes he'll drop his head, pull his glasses down, and give me that look.  Here it is below.  He makes me laugh all the time!

 He is still very much into Teen Beach Movie.  He's even watched the short segments on Disney that teach you how to do the dance moves.  He doesn't miss a beat!

This summer we've had friends down from Texas ( the Carlson's), went to Charleston and the beach at Isle of Palms, worked in my vegetable garden, and enjoyed sleeping in (then again Maverick tends to get us up early). Nevertheless we've enjoyed being out of school.  We love picking blackberries.  Maverick would eat them all up if we let him though, and we would have none left to cook if we don't watch him!

And just look at our sweet little man.  The other day in the dark I was holding him. We kept rubbing noses like Eskimos do when they kiss.  He would just giggle and do it again.

Maverick just loves bubbles.  Rocco usually pops them first, but he is just fascinated when I blow them.

We really have to watch him now.  He's into everything.  He can now climb up on the kitchen chair and then onto the table.  I can no longer put my vase of flowers up there for fear he'll break it.  I'm also afraid he's going to climb up there and fall.  That's why the kitchen chairs are no longer resting near the table but near the living room.  The stairs are still barricaded, too.  The high chair is usually blocking the pantry door or else he would get into the candy stash.  "Bite bite, mmm!" he'd say. Oh the way your house gets turned around when there's an active little one!

If there's a hat lying around, Maverick will put it on.  Half the time it's on backwards, but he's as cute as ever.  He knows he is something big and special.  That smile on his face says it all.

Summer Update

 The second week in July, Kim Lan and her three kids came to Georgia.  They spent almost a week with us.  Joe, the oldest, is so tall and handsome now.  He will start high school this fall.  Sam is still as sweet and lovable as ever, and Maile has grown into a beautiful young girl.  We first met the Carlson's on our adoption journey to Vietnam.  Don and Kim Lan adopted Maile the same day that we adopted Rocco...and from the same orphanage.  We try to keep in touch with them so that the kids can always have that connection.

Through the week we did several things.  We went to a couple of water fountains to stay cool in the summer heat, had a picnic, picked fresh veggies from my garden, shopped, rode around on our land picking blackberries, made a fresh cobbler, and the guys even went out for a boat ride on the river.

 Drew, my nephew, has enjoyed getting to know the Carlson boys.  He always comes over to hang out when they're in town.  We've been taking this picture where all the kids are lying in a circle for a while.  This year Maverick was here to join in.

Rocco recently got a four wheeler.  One of Jason's friends had a son who had outgrown it, so he gave this cool ride and helmet to Rocco.

Before school started in August, I was able to make it on a four hour ride to South Carolina to see one of my best friends, Jennifer.  We spent the night at her house and then we headed to Charleston for a couple of days.  She took her youngest son, Liam, too.  We enjoyed the Isle of Palms beach, saw some history, walked downtown historic Charleston, and saw a beautiful historic Magnolia Plantation.  (Several alligators were just feet from us on the tram ride!  The old rice fields are now swamps.  There were bamboo forests, beautiful, old live oaks with Spanish moss, and all sorts of flowers.)

Rocco was as brave as I've ever seen him at the beach.  With a life vest, he rode in a lot of waves.  

 Here we are at Magnolia Plantation.  We call this a Maverick sandwich.

 Downtown Charleston...

On July 19th, a new Disney Channel original movie came out.  Teen Beach Movie would turn out to be Rocco's latest craze!

The movie came on tv, and we recorded it on our DVR.  Rocco watched it over and over until he could sing along with the songs.  He's learned the dialogue so well that he goes around the house acting like the biker, Butchy, wearing his sunglasses and saying, "Surfers, thought I smelled something fishy."  He can even do the dance moves to some of the songs like Cruisin' for a Bruisin'.  Lala is the main biker girl.  I think she is Rocco's first celebrity crush because he's told me several times, "Mom, I just can't stop thinking about Lala." Here she is...

Seven Years Three Months Old

                          
 For over 70 months now I've been taking his picture in the same blue chair.  Well here's an updated blog post...but no blue chair.  We were so busy I forgot!  But I have plenty more pics to show what we've been doing.  The picture above was taken at Berry College on the mountain campus.  I took the boys there with Carolyn to take the boys' pictures for the fourth of July theme.

Early in June we took a trip to the mountains with my parents and niece.  The coolest thing Rocco did was zipline.  Yep, he did it with me first.  Then, the next day he was ready to go again.  This time he went with papaw.  It was a 700 foot line of wire attached to a pulley that pulled you high in the sky backwards and then shot you forward.  Exhilarating!

Another first this month was driving a go kart all by himself!  This was at the Nascar Speedway Amusement Park.  Daelyn is in the yellow car behind him.  

They also rode the roller coaster together several times.  At two different parks!

What a sweet picture of my two boys in their matching tiger pajamas.  This was taken in our condo. 

A couple of weeks later we went to another amusement park.  This one was in mommy's hometown.  Lake Winnepesaukah.  My family enjoyed going.  Here is Tyler trying out the scrambler with the kids.  This was Rocco's first time on the ride.  Looks like he is enjoying it!

Some cold, cherry snow cones cooled us off on that warm summer day at the park.  

One day I went to Lookout Mountain to see one of my best friends.  We go all the way back to middle and high school.  Heather now has three kids.  Here's our bunch together. Honestly Maverick did have a good time that day. He was just a little ready for a nap in this picture.  The kids played in kiddie swimming pool, turned it into a mud bath, had an outside lunch picnic, played ball, and cooled off on the slip and slide.  

The garden that I planted has kept us busy as well this summer.  Here are some of the crops God blessed us with!  Rocco was my big helper when it came to watering the plants.  He'd go on golf cart rides with me down to Elton's spring, or our secret water spot on Melson Rd, or down to the cow watering trough to fill up our empty milk jugs. Then, I'd pour it all over the growing vegetables.  Thankfully this was the wettest summer I can ever remember.  We had a great harvest!

Here's a new costume Rocco has.  I think he makes a handsome ninja.  These toy knives were more items he's collected for his bunker (corner at the bottom on the stairs barricaded to keep Maverick out).  This picture was taken at mimi and papaw's house.  

And here's some more fun he had at their house with his brother and cousin, Daelyn. I sprayed water on them as they rode around in the driveway in the pink Barbie car.  Fun memories!

Fifteen Months Old

At 15 months, Maverick is our curious, little explorer.  He has managed to find the candy stash in our pantry.  Often he'll put the entire piece in his mouth...wrapper and all.  Every now and then he'll bring the Milk Duds, Starbursts, Skittles, or sucker to me and ask, "Bite?"  Then, if I do decide to let him have it, he'll keep saying "Bite-bite....mmm!" over and over until he gets it in his mouth.  

Don't think that he eats junk all day.  He rarely gets candy.  Here he is having his first real banana at mimi and papaw's house. The only problem is that he thinks he is so big he gets upset if you just give him one bite.  He wants the entire banana, and then he thinks he can cram it all in with just one bite.  

Maverick LOVES to eat!  He'll have a mouth full and be handing out more food in his hand asking you for a bite-bite.  The other day I gave him a small bite of my apple danish.  That wasn't enough.  He took off with the entire treat!

Maverick got to go to the Smoky Mountains for his second time.  The last time he went, he was just four weeks old. Jason, Rocco, Maverick, and I went for our first family trip after he was born.   At 15 months he was certainly into more this time around.  Rocco, Maverick, Daelyn (my 4 yr old niece), mimi, papaw, and I stayed at Oakmont Resort in Pigeon Forge.  We really enjoyed the Fun Zone, a place with lots of kiddie rides.  The one thing little man could do was the large slide.  I rode with him in a large potato sack.  Once we reached the end of the tall slide, he would turn around and try to climb up it.  He wanted to go again!

We also enjoyed swimming at the resort pool.  Little man didn't last too long there, though.  He was too independent for his own good.  Maverick thought he could just walk right off the deck into the large swimming pool.  He has no fear.  For his safety, we put a life vest around him. As long as he didn't think we were holding on to him, he was fine.  He did NOT want to be restrained or controlled by any of us!   (Notice the strap in the top, left corner of this picture?  Don't tell him but that's how we monitored him in the small baby pool!)

Daelyn was so good with Maverick, acting like his second mama and taking care of him on our trip.  

What a little stinker.  When he found his diaper wipes box, he just put himself in it.  Sometimes he'll do this in my cooking pots when I'm working on supper.  For now he can fit inside them, but I can tell you now he won't be able to for much longer.  He's a growing boy!

This was the month for amusement parks.  Weeks after our mountain trip, we also went to Lake Winnie.  My brother, Tyler, and I took our kids to the park for several hours in the evening as the sun was going down.  There were a few kiddie rides that Maverick could do.  We all rode the boat chute, a log flume ride that goes through a tunnel and ends in one long hill that splashes you into the lake. Maverick also got to ride the Lady Bug, Bumblebee, Cars, Wacky Factory, and even the little boats.

In our house, we seldom wear our shoes.  So you'll find many pairs in our kitchen floor by the door.  For some reason, Maverick loves to put them on his feet and hands.  He'll walk around the house in these over sized shoes.  At least he's getting better about not eating them.  That always made me cringe.  I'd much rather him take off with a toothbrush in his mouth. . . which he often does.  When we can't find our toothbrushes we can usually find them in his toy box.

We've been swimming at nana and granddaddy's this summer.  As long as little man thinks he is in control, he enjoys it.  But...if he ever thinks you are holding him it's all over.  The fit begins.  Mr. Independent.  MAVERICK...we named him right.

Just look at that sweet face!  I love it!  This was one day when Carolyn and I took the boys and Sydney to the park.  Man did he love walking around in the cold, creek water!  He pitched a big one when we had to leave.

And what would little boys be without their super hero outfits?  Cutest little Super Man ever!  Rocco dressed up like Spider Man, and I had two handsome heroes on my hands...

Bath time is fun around our house.  The boys often take one together.  Look at those happy smiles!

This shirt is so cute...and appropriate.  He's really not any trouble, but he sure can find some messes to get into!  He found his brother's markers.  Look at how he decorated his face!  He loves to make us laugh.  Recently he's learned that his nose is fun to pick.  He's not really picking anything out...he just likes our reaction.  EEW..YUCK!  Our little stinker thinks it is hilarious to gross us out.  He'll start eating his toes and licking his feet if he knows it will get a reaction. And he's all boy.  He thinks his poots are funny.  He's not even two yet!  We're in for it come next March.