Omi's Visit

Miller was spoiled with the gift of Omi this past weekend. They spent the whole morning on Friday reading and playing the morning away while it rained outside. Miller can't get enough of his new books from our neighborhood Kid's Sale last weekend. He has his new favorites that Omi wore out on her visit. Of course, they all have to do with cars, trucks, or fire engines. He made sure to point out all the parts of a semi truck to Omi, including the grill, exhaust pipe, cab, and bumper. She got a big kick out of Miller's transportation passion. This boy can sit for 2-3 hours at a time listening and memorizing pages. He can't get enough!!

Highlights of Omi's visit included, baking a strawberry cake with Miller on Friday night while Landon and I went out on a date to one of our all time favorites, Five Seasons in Roswell. Omi joined our family on Saturday at Landon's company picnic in Stone Mountain. Omi enjoyed a little shopping on Saturday, while Miller napped the day away. We enjoyed Landon's cooking on Saturday night as a family. It's always so nice to have an extra set of hands for mealtime and bathtime. It went by all too quickly, as most weekends do. Thank you Omi for brightening our weekend!


After Omi packed up the car to leave this morning, Miller broke out the mop for a little cleaning action. I just had to capture his cleaning fun. If only I could really give him soap and a bucket, I'd have it made. Too bad, he tried to mop the carpet and walls too!

Four Years Ago...

August 26th, 2005 was a special day to remember for Landon and me. It was the night of our Rehearsal Dinner. I was in the reflective mood this afternoon, so to make up for my lack of blogging lately, I thought we'd take a good ole stroll down memory lane.

I love this picture of my dad "practicing" giving me away. This was one of his proudest moments of the whole weekend, I'm sure. But, he wasn't outwardly sentimental about the whole thing. He was more than ready to "give me away". Maybe because I was living in their basement for four years? I think it was because he knew who he was signing me over to. It was a happy occasion, not one to cry about.

Here we are being introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Landon Jeffrey Fokens for the first practice time. It took as a few rehearsals to get the whole flow of the ceremony down.

A quick shot of me laughing with the bridesmaids. By the time I got married, this whole rehearsal thing was a piece of cake for these girls. Most of them had already had their debut down the aisle. I was one of the last holdouts. Everyone knew all of the rules to standing up in a wedding, where to stand, how to walk in, how to walk out, when to smile etc. The only challenge was figuring out how to make my side of the attendants match all of Landon's groomsmen! He has SO many friends.

Look at those stars in my eyes! Our photographer caught me eyeing my groom to be. Oh to be so young, carefree and kid free again!! Notice our matching attire. I'm kind of funny about that.

What I'm really thinking in this last stroll back down the aisle is, "don't trip" and "I'm so hungry!". The church's slick marble had my stomach in knots. Luckily, I scuffed up my shoes for the big day.

We had our dinner at Anthonys later on that night. It was a fantastic evening with close friends, family and out of town guests out on the front porch. We loved that our wedding party and extended family were all under one roof. The porch was decorated in white linens with black tie backs on all the chairs to carry out our black and white theme. Each table was named after a famous city in Georgia (just in case your a details person like mia') Landon and I went back to our rehearsal site, Anthonys on our first married Valentine's Day because the food was so fantastic.

Cheers to us Landon! Looking forward to our 4th tommorrow!

What's Been Going On?

I've been a blogger slacker lately. We're slowly getting our fall groove back. Busy mornings, full afternoons, naptime for Miller, dinner, bathtime, story, packing bags..repeat. Jam packed weekends have been keeping us busy, so busy I've left my camera behind on numerous occasions. Sometimes, I just need a camera-cation. Enough already. And, Miller's not really into slowing down for anything good! The past two weekends we've enjoyed two first birthday parties, dinners out with friends, dinner for newborn Michael Fay, a neighborhood kids sale, yard work, house showings, a casual cookout with Grandmama and Poppy, and tricycle riding with friends on the street. Landon even managed time to prepare and teach a Sunday School lesson. Life is busy, and we're so thankful for this wonderful season of being a family of three.

Things are moving right along for the little mister. Promotion Sunday was quite a jump last week. We've hit the "Big Leagues" hall. Miller's now in a room with birthdays ranging from September 2006-March 2007. So, he's one of the youngest in age in the room, but with his size he fits right in. If he was born 5 days later he'd be with the younger group. I knew we were in for a big jump when the teacher said that they really don't use sippy cups in his room. They take the kids to the water fountain after play time or give them small plastic cups. I chuckled to myself and thought, they'll hand Miller his sippy once they see his water play and splashing. I 've noticed that because of his size, people expect more out of him.
Besides soaking wet shirts from all that "drinking", Miller hasn't missed a beat. He gets so impatient with me as I'm signing him in for class because I don't open the door fast enough. He can't wait to see his friends and has even asked to do Puggles on Wednesday nights. We'll see about that one.

Wish us luck this week as we start plastic cup training! And, don't even ask about the other kind of training. I have a feeling we're in for the long haul on that one!!

Packing Heat

 

Our first adventure in laser tag was a success. We didn't know quite what to expect out of this Sunday School night out, but we were pleasantly surprised by all of the fun we had. I'm not a very competitive person, but anytime there's a competition guys vs. girls...it's game on!
We put on our blinky vests, armed ourselves with ammunition, and packed some heat at the Bounce House. Who knew that inflatables in the dark acted as stakeouts to avoid getting hit?
I wish I had all of the battle action on camera inside the gym. Just picture a bunch of G.I. Janes dodging lasers and running around like crazy from the guys.

 

Look at these men..I mean boys. They had their game faces on ready to defeat the girls. Luckily, on our last go around we finally defeated these laser tag warriors.

 

Landon thought ahead and packed some dry clothes. What a workout. We'll be sore tomorrow!

First Day Back

Happy First Day of School! We've hung up our hats to the lazy days of summer and jumped back into our fall schedule around here. We're excited to get back into the swing of things. Miller is enjoying seeing all of his friends at Ms. Karens. We feel so very fortunate to have this very special lady in our lives. Miller just adores her and his mornings at her home.
Nothing gets me more excited than a fresh planbook and a year of great possibilities. I also feel so blessed to be teaching part time in a school that feels like family. Going down a grade level is also exciting. Change is a good thing. The kids looked so little as compared to beginning third graders. It was a great first day.




I'm always excited to go pick Miller up, hear about his morning activities, and eat lunch with my little man. He rattles off his whole morning like a chatterbox on our car rides back home. School mornings sure do wear him out!
So, here we are with our traditional mommy & me first day of school shot. We're both another year older & wiser:) Landon and Miller surprised me with a bouquet of red roses to celebrate the first day. The minute after Miller and I posed with a rose, he shredded it to pieces!!

Chateau Elan

Happy 3oth Mandy! Jessica, Mandy, Elizabeth, and I had a spectacular "spa-cation" at Chateau Elan to ring in this special milestone birthday. We started the trip off early Friday afternoon. Once we arrived at the Spa Suites, we got the royal treatment and a grand mini tour of the hotel.
We changed into the spa uniform of white robes and slippers to join in on afternoon tea. It felt a little silly dining in white robes, but everyone else was doing it, so we joined in on the fun. It takes getting away from the hustle and bustle of mommy life to really get into great conversation. When else do we have several hours to lounge in robes and sip tea?

Downtown Buford was the hot spot of the night. Mandy's birthday dinner was at Aqua Terra. Our facebook friends recommended this fabulous find. Let's just say that it was a really late & fun night out!
Jessica took full advantage of the fully accomodating service staff at the hotel dialing the help number for the menu of our restaurant, directions, and best of all...ibuprofen at 3:00 a.m.!! Gotta love that service.
Saturday, we enjoyed lounging poolside sans kiddos listening to music and flipping every 15 minutes. Ah, that was the life. Our spa appointments were the last highlight of the girl's getaway. I could really get use to all of the pampering. What a great weekend to celebrate the friend Mandy's been to me for 15 + years. Looking forward to many, many more. Thanks Chad for spoiling us!

The Sprayground

Nothing beats the August heat better than a wet day of splashing in the fountains with friends. We met up with Paula, Jack, Cristina, Sophia and Alexandra today at the Sprayground, a new splashpad at Riverside Park in Roswell. The toddlers were timid of the fountains and mushrooms at first, but it didn't take them long to enjoy the thrill of the water.




Once I told Miller that the moving water was making a tunnel for him to run through, he warmed up to the idea of playing in the sprinklers. There was no turning back once he took the plunge. He was drenched from head to toe, and even gave me a soaking wet hug or two. One of the best things about the park is that the kiddos can hop back and forth between exploring a dry playscape and the sprayground. All of the park's options make it exhausting to chase roaming toddlers in the heat.

Even Jack's crocodile enjoyed the fountain fun!

We tried to enjoy a picnic lunch on the grass, but Miller can never settle down enough to eat with all of the action going on. I think he feels like he's going to miss out of something. It took some coaxing to leave the park, but we'll make sure we return soon! We had a splashing good time!