First BBQ of 2011

So happy! Today was the first barbecue of 2011. Our friends, The Halls, invited us over for a barbecue at their house. The weather was perfect. It was the first day I've worn shorts all year. We had all sorts of food. I brought a pasta salad and a fruit tray. Ronde loves fruit! He ate half the tray by himself. We had grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, bean salad, bread with spinach dip, chips, beer, and pina coladas! There were a total of 7 kids there today. They ran and played in the backyard the whole afternoon. We had music playing and everyone really enjoyed themselves. I'm looking forward to many MANY more barbecues this summer!

Buster

AJ got this pillow pet for Christmas from his Grandma Jones. He didn't really play with it much until recently. He carries him around the house all day. He pretends the dog is hungry or wants to play. AJ even tries sneaking him into all my pictures I've been taking recently. ha! I asked him what his name was and he said "Buster". I thought that was just the cutest name! I so want to get AJ a real life Buster (dog) but I'm not sure if I can handle all 3 kids and a dog. Especially not while we are living in an apartment. Besides, AJ is content with just having a pillow pet puppy :)

PS. Ronde has a bee pillow pet. He uses it as a pillow everynight!

Wildfires and Bingo

Today was extremely windy. I wanted to take the boys to the park since Andre gets off work so early on Fridays but because of the wind, we stayed inside. Later in the day I started to see and smell smoke outside. There was a lot of smoke so I knew it had to be a big fire. I checked the news and to my surprise, there were over 2 dozen wildfires in Oklahoma. One of the fires was in the city I live in. I was actually really nervous and continued to watch the news just in case we had to evacuate. Sadly, many people lost their homes today and I'm very thankful we were not one of them! The smoke finely died down some toward the late afternoon. Thank goodness because I was starting to feel nauseous from the smell of it.

So since we stayed inside today, this is what we were up to. I read Jamal a book and he loved it! I want to buy him some more books that are age appropriate and start teaching him as much as I can. I work everyday with him on sitting up and rolling over, standing and grasping toys but I forgot I should be teaching him animals and colors. You would think I should know this by now but I'm so used to having older boys who already know this stuff.


Jamal can hold his own bottle and sit up pretty well. He still tends to lean forward a lot which I'm working with him on that. I still haven't seen him roll over yet but he has been doing it every morning after he wakes up in his crib.


Tonight I decided to pull out Bingo and have a game night with AJ and Ronde. I love that they are at the age that they understand how to play games. I always try to remind them to play fairly and take turns. Ronde would always ask "Am I losing?". He really wanted to win every game and I'm starting to see a very competitive side to him. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

Show Us Your Life - Kids Birthday Parties

At Kelly's Korner, today is show us your kid's birthday parties. These are collage's of AJ's 1st-4th Birthday parties..





These are Ronde's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Birthday parties

Cami's and diapers

I took a couple cute photos of daddy and Jamal while Andre was on his lunch break today. I also got a very exciting phone call from a fabulous photographer in our area to let me know she had an appointment opening for March 26! Our original appointment wasn't until August 6th because they were so booked. I'm so excited she was able to fit us in with an earlier appointment and I have already bought all of our outfits for the portraits.

Looks who's rolling over!!

Yesterday morning, I walked in Jamal's room to get him out of his crib and was laying on his back! Yes, my child does sleep on his stomach. I was so shocked and excited because I've been waiting and waiting for this day to come. AJ was rolling over at 3 months old. Ronde started rolling over at 5 months old and now Jamal has started rolling at 6 months old! He learned how to sit up before he could ever roll over. The only downside is that I haven't gotten to see him roll yet since he does it in his crib when he wakes up.
I went into his room this morning and this was how I found him again! I should have taken a picture of him yesterday morning, after he rolled for the first time, but I was so happy that I just picked him up and gave a big hug.

I put in AJ's transfer paperwork so he can go to the Elementary School on base for Pre K. I hope they accept him in that school because the schools in our district, I've heard, are awful. I won't find out if they accepted our transfer application until June 1st. I can't wait for him to start Pre K! I also found a tball league that starts in June so I'm going to get him signed up for that too.

Playground Fun, Fire, and Moving

We planned on going fishing today but it was so windy, I couldn't imagine having the baby outside all afternoon. So we went to a playground instead. Andre stayed in the car with Jamal while I took the kids out on playground. The kids played for a little while until a girl kicked Ronde in the face while she was going across the monkey bars. It wasn't her fault though, Ronde just wasn't paying attention where he was walking.

On our way home from the playground, we saw a fire on the rail roads by my house. Andre had to make his first 911 phone call to report it. It was a little scary because the fire was right next to a residential neighborhood. Andre actually ended up driving back by, after he dropped us off at home, just to see if the fire department was there yet. They were and the fire was already put out.

Our lease is up at these apartments and we are still on the wait list for base housing. We could have signed another 6 month lease here but it's just an awful neighborhood. We will be moving to a different city that has a way better school system and less crime.






Our power went out and AJ started apologizing saying "I'm sorry mommy. It's because I was wasting electricity." Just the cutest thing I've ever heard!! Of coarse I told him it wasn't his fault.