The Beach: Part 1

Look who's FINALLY walking!!

But he loved crawling at the beach so the waves would splash him in the face. :)

The protective big brother.

Building a sand castle with Daddy.

Cousin Jace showed up! My boys were so excited to see him!

Cousins!

Jake went "jelly-fishing" (like on SpongeBob)...but he only managed to catch himself.

These two are besties for sure!

We just got back from a 1 week stay in St. Simons Island. My parents rented this pimp house, and we ended up staying longer than we expected. We did not want to leave!

We went to the beach almost every morning, came home jumped in the pool, ate lunch, got back in the pool, and played until supper. It was awesome! Both boys LOVED the beach; Walker ate so much sand and salt water that we thought he'd get sick, but he was fine. He was fearless just like Jake. Jake FINALLY learned to swim before we left Birmingham, and he was almost over confident at the beach. I looked up a few times and Jake was up to his shoulders in the ocean...so scary for this mama...especially since I have a fear of the ocean floor. ;)

This was definitely one of the best vacations of all time! Thanks, Mom and Dad, for making it possible. We love you guys and miss y'all so much already!

MaMa's 80th Birthday Party

My grandparents and all of their great-grandchildren

MaMa and Granddaddy with Walker, Jace, and Jake

My dad and my nephew, Jace

MaMa and Granddaddy with the 5 grandchildren

MaMa and Granddaddy with my Aunt's children

My dad and my boys

My grandparents, my mom, my sis, and me

Bahaha...Jake said Granddad wasn't very good at blowing up balloons!

My grandmother and her best friend

On June 18th, we celebrated my grandmother's 80th birthday with a little get-together in her hometown of Cochran, Georgia. I say it was a "little get-together," but I think over half of the town came by to give her their well wishes. It was such a sweet party for such a sweet woman.

I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I felt terrible that day and put Tyson in charge of the kids and the camera. Needless to say, not very many pictures were taken. Ha!

Happy 80th birthday, MaMa! We love you so much!

A Cheesy Farewell

me, Ginger, and Ashley...Chalybe besties
the baybays- Kaitlyn, Bricen, and Walker

Ryan and Brantley

My Guitar Hero

The best shot I could get of the 3 big boys- Brantley, Jake, and Ryan (playing the air guitar)

There's no better way to say "goodbye, we'll miss you" without a party at the hot, chaotic, sensory overloading, germ-infested, arm-pit smelling amazing Chuck E. Cheese. As Tyson put it, "Who's idea was this anyways?" Bahahaha...your wife's!

Ashley and I have wanted to do something for the Turners before they head out for Oklahoma, so we came up with a pool party, a backyard fiesta, or Chuck E. Cheese. Well, we do the first 2 all the time, and the boys love Chuck E. Cheese, so we thought "why not?" We had fun and enjoyed our time with the Turners, but it would have been nice to be able to talk to them a little more and just hang out without all the stress that comes with a place like that. I told Ginger that the next time they leave, we'll have to do something different. ;)

Ok, enough about Chuck E. Cheese...we'll miss you so much Ginger, Ryan, Brantley, and Bricen!!! It sure has been nice having a doctor a few doors down to look in Jake's ears, check Walker's pupils, and answer all my crazy questions. Thanks, Ryan. And Ginger, I don't know what I'd do without you. Thank you for teaching me to cook and helping with my botched recipes, for being so awesome and loving to my 2 boys, and for being the most dependable and loyal friend I could ever ask for. We are going to miss y'all soooo much!

*On a side note, I'm going on a little bloggy vacation and will return in a week or two...or more. Tyson just started his 4 week vacation this week, and I intend to enjoy every minute of it with my 3 boys. Have a great week...or 2...or 3!

Goodbyes

Our last get together before the Bowers move. :(

It was still a fun day at the pool, though.

All my life, I've been the person that moved. I moved from Fitzgerald to Tifton at 8, to Thomaston at 16, to Athens at 18, to Atlanta at 22, to Statesboro at 26, and to Birmingham at 27. I've never had good friends move away from me (other than after college). Well, by the end of June, we will have had 4 sets of our best friends move away in a matter of 2 months. :(

At the beginning of April, our friends, the Friends, moved to Athens; Will is now the offensive line coach at Georgia. We are so excited for the Friends to make it to the SEC, but we definitely miss them. Will was one of Tyson's best friends on UAB's staff, and Carrie and the girls were like family to me and the boys. Carrie is one of the sweetest people ever; I'll never forget right after I came home from the hospital from my D&C in Feb. 09, Carrie was the first person to my house with a big ole thing of food in hand. She is just so thoughtful like that. I'm really going to miss them this football season.

At the end of May, my friend Mollie and her family moved back home to Elizabethtown, Kentucky; her husband, Brent, is now the offensive coordinator at their hometown high school. Mollie lives a life very parallel to mine- stay at home mama by week, nurse by weekend, and football widow. She is the only person understands my crazy life...cause she lives it, too. Work is already lonesome without her, and the zoo will never be the same without her and the triplets.

And in 2 weeks, we will say goodbye to the Bowers. Worth and Ashley have been here for 4 years as Worth completed his residency at UAB. Worth got an awesome job in Valdosta, Georgia as an anesthesiologist. We are so proud of Worth and super excited for them. We don't get to see the Bowers as much as we would like, but it's just reassuring to know that they are so close by. We've spent many a holiday with them, and I'm pretty sure Jake thinks of Ellie as family.

And lastly, we will also say goodbye to the Turners in 2 weeks. Ryan has completed his residency in ophthalmology, and they are moving to Oklahoma where Ryan will do a 1 year fellowship before moving on to Mobile, Alabama to finally begin his career. Since Ryan and Ginger live 2 doors down from them, we see them almost every day. Our boys have grown up together and are best friends and we've spent almost every holiday together; since neither of us have families here, we really depend on each other for almost everything. I can't imagine what day-to-day life will be like without the Turners.

I really hate saying goodbye; I much prefer "see you later." And with these 4 sets of friends, I know I will see them all later. In the meantime, though, we love you all and will miss each of you so much!

Swim Lessons

I had to hide behind the bushes to get these shots. :)

Walker and I played at the splash pad while Jake had his lesson.

A much needed lunch break!

Jake started swim lessons last week with "Miss Taylor." Despite crying for the first 5 minutes the first day, he's done great and has fallen in love with her. I was really afraid I would have to drag him kicking and screaming to the lessons, but he actually has fun and looks forward to seeing Miss Taylor each time.

Taylor says Jake is doing great and is right on track to be swimming by the end of the lessons. The only problem, though, is that Jake doesn't like getting his face wet, and he's going to have to overcome that fear before he can learn to swim. Either way, I'm so proud of all that he's done and that he is really embracing these swim lessons.

If anyone in the Birmingham area is looking for a swim instructor, I would highly recommend Taylor. Just let me know if you'd like her contact number!

Just Walker

My mom came for a quick visit this past week, and she asked if she could take Jake home for a few days to give us all a little break. Lord knows these past 2 weeks have been super stressful with all the illnesses we've been dealing with! Tyson and I are already really missing Jake, but we know he is having a blast getting my mom and dad's undivided attention. And Tyson and I are really enjoying having just Walker to ourselves. This is the 2nd time we've had one-on-one time with 1 of our children, and I've come to realize just how important it is.

So what have we done with our time with Walker?

• We have really worked on our walking. Walker has been taking lots of steps, but he still crawls more than he walks. He is sooo close to walking!
  

• We have played outside with Kaitlyn and ridden our 4-wheeler a lot.

Does this look familar?

Ponch and Jon (aka Ryan and Jake) taken in April 2009 at 15 months

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  We have played inside A LOT since it's been so hot. Walker's latest favorite toy is the cozy coupe that my mom brought down from the attic.

• And lastly, Walker has been blowing tons of kisses!! Walker definitely misses his brother, but he has had a lot of fun loving on his Mommy with no distractions!

As you can tell by the pictures, Walker is feeling well and is back to his normal self. Praise the Lord! Our pediatrician called on Tuesday to check on Walker, and he said some more of Walker's bloodwork came back from the weekend and more of Walker's numbers were off. Basically, we have no clue what caused the swelling, but whatever it was, it definitely did a number on my poor baby. His mumps ended up coming back negative, so the doctor is pretty convinced that it was probably something viral. Eitherway, I'm just glad he's better and didn't suffer any complications from it all. We are so blessed!