To the Zoo for the Hundreth Time

My sweet boys!

Who comes to the Zoo to actually see the animals anyway?

The Attack Rooster! ;)

Walker trying to imitate his brother playing the drums.

The new elephant!

The boys and I went to the Zoo today to see the new elephant exhibit. The "Trails of Africa" finally opened up over Spring Break after nearly a year or two of construction. Jake's favorite zoo animal is the elephant, so he was soooo excited about going to finally see the elephants. The new exhibit is amazing! I'm pretty sure Jake could have stayed there all day. He was mesmerized!

Anyways, it was such a fun day with my two boys. The Birmingham Zoo never gets old! :)

Just a little taste of "my zoo" in the mornings!

Spring Football Practice

Jake kept running up to the fence and showing any football player that would look his way his new Superhero toy. His also kept screaming "DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!" to no avail.

Jake also saw the injured players running the stadium stairs, so Jake got the brilliant idea to do the same. Do y'all have any idea how big that place is? I almost had a heart attack trying to keep up with him! Coach Callaway gave Jake and the big boys on staff these football jerseys for Christmas, and Jake thinks he is so cool in it. :) Even if it is 5 sizes too big! ;) Walker was just as content as he could be eating his chicken nuggets and fries and watching the football players...and his silly brother, of course!

This past week was the first week of spring practice for the UAB football team. Since Tyson has taken on his new roles of special teams co-coordinator and safeties coach, he's been super busy this week and hasn't been home much. :( The boys and I got to really missing him, so we loaded up Saturday and braved the storms and headed to Legion Field. We didn't get to stay long because it started pouring, but we did get to see Daddy in action running his drills. Go Blazers!

Can We Get Into the Pool Yet?

This is the only way I could get Walker to sit still for a picture!Jake on the same slide when he was 9 months old!

Jake showing off his new haircut. I am trying to let it grow out again, but Daddy missed a few places, so we had to get it evened out.

Testing the water...literally and figuratively!

For his knee's sake, I sure hope he's walking by this summer!

The boys and I took a walk to the park yesterday and pretty much had it all to ourselves, so we decided to see how the pool felt. :) The water was soooo warm! In fact, Jake has been begging to go to the pool, but I keep telling him that the water is too cold. Well, as soon as he felt the water, he said, "it's not too cold! Can we go swimming now?" Ha! How do I explain that one? I promised him that we might give it a try at Walker's birthday party, which is in a few weeks. I did not intend on having a pool party for Walker's birthday, but it looks like it might turn out to be one if it stays this warm. So exciting...at least for Jake's sake!

Hand-Me-Down's and "The Big News"

Walker (11 months)- March 2011

Jake (15 months)- April 2009

As soon as I found out that I was having another boy, everyone immediately told me how awesome it would be for hand-me-down purposes. I'll admit, I have been able to use some of Jake's baby clothes for Walker, but for the most part, I've had to get Walker new clothes. With Jake being a winter baby and Walker being a spring baby, the sizes were off for the season. Well, Walker is quickly catching up to where Jake was when he wore spring and summer stuff, so I pulled out Jake's old clothes and I found this Jon Jon. I LOVED this Jon Jon on Jake...it just fit him so much better than other Jon Jon's. I'm so excited to see it on Walker. :)

I had to put this one on here...this is Walker making his shy face. I have so many baby pics making this face. :) Love my little mini-me!

On to the "big news"...I totally didn't mean to leave y'all hanging. I just completely forgot that I never blogged about it. :) And it really isn't that big of news, it's just big to me. So are you ready? Wait for it...wait for it....I'm going to be a Preschool teacher! Ok, for those of you who know me, go ahead and laugh now...I know.

For 3 years now, I've stayed home with the boys during the week and worked a shift or two during the weekend. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to have stayed at home (for the most part), but I'm ready for a change. I'm ready to be at home on the weekend and spend time with my family, and I'm ready for Tyson to get a break. Poor guy works hard all week long, and then he comes home and has to take over Daddy duties AND Mama duties. Tyson does an awesome job, but like I said, I think we could all use a change. I'm still gonna keep my job at the hospital, though, but I'm just going to minimize my hours.

I'm really excited about this opportunity; starting in September, I'll be teaching the 2 year old's 5 days a week for 4 hours a day at the boys' school. I hate that the boys will be going to school 5 days a week, but I think they'll both enjoy it and I'll still be able to see them a good bit. Walker is going to be in the classroom right next door and we'll actually have recess with his class. :) And Jake won't be too far away either. :)

So anyways, that's my "big news." Not too big is it? It's big to me, though, when I've gotten used to only working 1 day or week. :) Wish me luck!

Chalybe Fest

The little brothers took over the Jeep when the big boys weren't looking...Walker thought it was hilarious!

Kaitlyn, Bricen, and Walker at their first Chalybe Fest

Walker met a new woman, Laurel, who just moved in behind us.

Bricen and his pretty blue eyes.

I stripped Walker down and let him go to town on the pizza. I think I may have found his favorite food.

Kaitlyn wasn't happy that she didn't get any pizza. ;)

These two nuckleheads...

...love each other more than anyone else in the whole world (besides their families of course)...

...yet they got into a fist fight at school before Spring Break. BOYS!!!

Couldn't resist this one...Jake had to go potty, so Ryan and Brantley followed. Of course, though, Jake got a little stage fright and had to wait until the other boys were done and had walked away. So modest!!

I think Ashley pretty much summed it up in her blog; "Chalybe Fest," which is what we have come to call our back yard get-togethers, is a little different than it was back in the day. We used to put our kids to sleep, turn on the baby monitors, and had a little adult-time in the backyard. For some crazy reason, we decided to let the kids in on the fun this past weekend; it was fun, but just a different fun. ;)

As Ashley mentioned in her post, 1/3 of our trio is moving. :( The Turners are moving to Oklahoma this summer as Ryan will start his fellowship in ophthalmology. We are so excited for them, but I'm super sad at the same time. We're definitely going to have to make the most of their time here, so I'm sure there will be lots more Chalybe Fests to come.

Our Break

Sunset from Day 1.
This is the view as you walk out of the back door of the condo.

Seagrove Beach has the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen! Maybe even more so than the Bahamas, Jamaica, and St. Lucia!

Tyson and I camped out in these chairs the whole time.

Our chairs again. Can we please go back...like now?

Meanwhile, these two little turkeys were giving my parents a run for their money! :)

Jake and Buzz...his new BFF.

Family photo...attempt 1.

Family photo...attempt 25 or so.

We just got from the best Spring Break EVER! Tyson and I went to Seagrove Beach, Florida and enjoyed the week all to ourselves! Believe me when I say it, we totally needed it! My mom went back and forth on whether she'd keep both boys for the week (Lord knows they are a HANDFUL!), but at the last minute, she came through and kept them both. She must have seen the stress on our faces and felt bad for us.

So, Tyson and I enjoyed 3 whole days of eating out, sleeping as late as we wanted, playing on the beach, and just doing whatever we wanted without a care in the world. It was AMAZING! We also got to spend some time with our friends from the coaching business, the Smarts, and my cousin, Trey, who was Spring Breakin' it in PCB.

Jake and Walker enjoyed their time at my parents' house and only got spoiled a little bit. ;) Everytime we would call, Jake would say that they were having a "cool party;" in fact, as we dropped him off in Thomaston, Jake said, "ok, y'all can go...we're about to have a cool party!" Ha! So glad to know that we were missed.

Before we headed back to Birmingham with the kids, we hung around Thomaston so that we could see my grandparents. I LOVE my Grandparents so much, and I'll take any time I can get with them!

Thanks sooooo much to my Mom and Dad for taking care of the kiddos for us! I know it wasn't easy, but we really appreciate it!