Funny Farm

"All I want for Christmas is 

an up-to-date blog

an up-to-date blog..."

I don't think Santa is going to give me that this year... but hopefully before too far into the New Year I can get caught up and stay there. We continue with our time in Alabama this summer. One of our MUST-DO things on our list when we were here is go to visit my Aunt Debra & Uncle Tommy and Tabitha. The boys have so much fun exploring the Kiker Farm!

"Horses and doggies and kitties, Oh my!"
Ha ha, I love Emit's expression down below with the kitten that wasn't too keen on the way he was being handled. 

Sticky Note Moment: On this trip to the states, I was on my own with the boys 95% of the time. I'm not trying to get pity here, because I am so thankful that Dallas let me bring the boys with me for so long because I would have gone nuts being away from them for that long. But this also meant little-to-no privacy. We were in airports, hospitals, stores, zoos, restaurants...public places constantly. {may be too much info from here, but it's MY blog} :) Which meant when 'nature called' it was a group trip to the bathroom for everyone. Now.. without getting too graphic, I just have to get this down because I don't want to forget the 'bathroom fun' we had. So, as you all know... boys and girls pee differently, right? And for most of us girls, we do the 'hover effect' in public bathrooms. At least that's how I roll for anyone interested ;) No sitting on the seat for this gal. So every single time I peed, the boys were in the stall with me, because remember from the carnival post... I can't leave my kids in public places, even just outside the stall. Just ain't gonna happen. So, we find the big stalls and all go in and do our business as a family...now back to the point. It never failed, every time I would hover to pee, my boys would both squat way down and look straight up to verbally inspect mommy's technique. It just got funnier and funnier to me as the trip went on. Needless to say, I was so thankful to get back home and pee in semi-privacy :) 

Back to the Farm... the boys both got to do a little horseback riding with Tabitha! Joss is giving us a hearty "Yee Haw" on top of Gigi in the pic just below here to the left. My little cowboys :) Joss LOVED Gigi--AKA Big Horse. Emit was a little less than thrilled about riding the Big Horse, and wanted to ride the Baby Horse instead. I think her name is Muffin. She is the cutest little pony, and full grown. My cousin bought her for $100 and said she eats about the same amount of foods as a dog...I asked if I could put her in my suitcase and bring her home. Might be a little tricky staying in my weight allowance though. 

Aw, my sweet Emit on the Baby Horse. I don't even remember what made him go over and sit under this tree to pout, but he does it so well.  

My cousin, Dewayne, lives right next door with his kids. My boys usually head over for a few minutes to play with them too. The girls usually get a little gun-shy when my boys are around and just watch them like they are nuts.  

 The final stop at the farm was of course the Migthy Machines!!! Always fun to see the machines on the farm. 

I took the boys to the library one day, but that was the only day we went. They got excited about the books and all, but the being quiet part... well they just didn't want to get on board with that. Just below those pictures are ones of them playing at a drainage ditch. This was our go-to parking lot for wi-fi access. My parents didn't have internet at their home. They both have access on their phones. I went to this parking lot on JSU campus a few times to get online. This particular day, we went and picked up a pizza, brought some remote control cars and made a little outing of it. They loved playing by the 'river' and wanted to go back there a lot. I love how doing simple things can be such a big deal with the right attitude :) 

I tried to keep up with some kind of workout routine...the first couple of weeks I did pretty good. It helped me with my 'sanity' and energy, and anyone that works out knows that you just feel better when you're working hard. Joss got his new passport while we were there. Considering it expired before we even left and I wasn't sure they would let us fly, I was very relieved to get his new one updated. And didn't his little picture turn out so stinking cute!! Oh, melt my heart. That day was actually really fun. I worked hard to get him excited about the picture because he tends to get really shy if we go around a stranger, like a CVS photographer, and then he'll tuck into my legs and bury his head and be in tears before I know it if he's not in the mood to mess with someone new. So I talked it up, gave him plenty of warning of what I needed him to do, made sure he knew what we were doing it for (the passport, which allows him to travel, which will allow him to get back home to daddy and then come back to CC & Poppy, etc). Seriously, it was an all day pep-talk. He got to stand way high up on a chair and ta-dah.. first picture was perfect! I was so thrilled and relieved and now every time I see his sweet picture I'll remember what a big boy he was for me this day.

Don't know if you noticed the "Sleeping Joss + Sleeping Emit= Happy Mommy" car collage above...but that about sums it up. These two turned into Wild Things on the interstate. I'm seriously going to put together some of the video clips I got of them... you'll see for yourself :) So yes, sleeping fellas in the car made mommy happy! We spent a lot of time running back and forth places. These pictures of my mom were a little before this actual visit, but they are good ones so I wanted to share them. Flashback a bit...for their Anniversary celebration this year, my dad buzzed my mom's hair. Don't they make a sweet duo!

My dad was helping me wear the boys out in the hospital room... mini boot camp! They boys have surprisingly good form in their push-ups too. I like to think they learned that while doing P90X with us. 

There is something I just LOVE about Emit's sweet little hand hanging out the window. We would get so excited about being able to roll the windows down after we got off the interstate. We don't have AC in our truck on the island... heck, that truck doesn't even have a handle that works from the inside...but I think I've covered that before :) All that to say, we like to ride with the windows down and fresh air blowing in our faces...a lot!!