Already?

Aw 'ell no. I can't believe I woke up to *this* a couple of days ago. I'm going to be the size of a beached whale by the end of this. Someone looks like they've been drinking wayyy too much beer.

FREE CONE DAY!

I'm so behind this year. Normally I'm on top of this kind of stuff. Since I tend to hand out this information, today is free cone day at Ben & Jerry's! Enjoy your free ice cream. I might even try to get me some if we're having a good day today. :)

Easter, since I haven't posted Christmas yet.

First of all, a couple of photos from the neighborhood egg hunt. Juston has more, I just have to put them on my computer, so they're still forthcoming. We did not have anything fancy like a bunny petting zoo or games, but the kids didn't care and had a blast. I think about 25 kids total showed up to gather the 500 eggs, so each kid got plenty - some even had overflowing baskets. The parent feedback was also really positive, so it looks like I'll be planning another one of these for next year.

Frankie and Diego are ready to go! (Diego's excitement was palpable. He was there when we stuffed the eggs and apparently he'd been on pins and needles for a couple of days just waiting to get his hands on some candy.)


Lazy eyes, but he was having a good time. He managed to get the hang of it and was gathering up eggs without any help!


Easter morning - the Easter Bunny, he did come.


All dressed up for church and eating the traditional Easter morning breakfast of m&m's. Doesn't he look smart in his fancy new church clothes? It took a lot of effort to get him something new to wear (shopping? yikes.) but since I usually only get him new church clothes at Easter, I wanted to make sure that he got something good.


Frankie was being mr. crankypants and would NOT smile for anything, so here's the best picture we could get.


After church he loosened up a bit and played with his new giant bubble wand. If you have kids, these are seriously the best. They require very little effort from an adult and make huge bubbles.


We had some friends over for Easter dinner. They brought already cooked steaks and potatoes, for which Juston was exceptionally grateful (the smell of food preparation literally makes me vomit, so I cannot be around any cooking, so no, Juston can't even cook for himself. We eat a lot of cereal.) He even exclaimed more than once 'real food at my house!' Poor Juston, throw some sympathy his way and then roll your eyes. They also brought over huntin' eggs, which were hidden in the backyard. This time, Frankie had the drill down. I think he got more eggs on Sunday afternoon (only one other kid) than he did on Saturday at the hunt. We're already developing his competitive nature. :)



We had a fun Easter. I'm looking forward to next year when I can make my traditional dinner and actually boil some eggs for coloring. We *might* color eggs this summer anyway if I get to feeling better, so if some random pictures of egg dyeing pop up in July or August, just humor me.

My Squishy.

Apparently we have several salamanders living somewhere in our backyard, and with all of the rain, they've been coming out to play! Frankie found this one, and wanted to watch it but was not interested in touching it. He then wanted to set it free, but he didn't quite understand that Mr./Ms. Salamander would not then come quickly back for more fun, aka getting sloshed around in some tupperware by a two-year-old.

Ramped Up!

We *finally* had some nice weather this past weekend - it's been raining for what seems like weeks on end. In fact, it resumed raining last night sometime. But our Saturday and Sunday were lovely! We took advantage of the rain-free days and pulled the tarp off of the skate ramp. I don't skateboard, nor do I have any desire to learn, but the boys had a lot of fun playing on the ramp.

My stubby feet and I were there, but we were lounging on the deck and taking photographs. :)


Bridget was also there, as usual. She is one fine lookin' dog!

An old man on a skateboard.

An old man doing a handstand. I've known Juston for about ten years and I had no idea that he had this talent.

Frankie's handstand, with a little bit of an assist.

Climbing to the top 'by self' - almost there!

Success!

I'm the king of the world!

Once at the top, it's time to slide to the bottom.

Good times and hours of entertainment!

Egg Hunt Tomorrow!

So I'm not sure how many of my blog readers are local, but I'm in charge of our neighborhood egg hunt tomorrow! If you are still looking for something fun and Easter-related to do tomorrow, please pay us a visit and get yourself some candy. Also, ignore my weak graphic design skillz. I hope to have some pictures to post from the event and from Easter (Frankie has some *awesome* plaid shorts), so new posts coming soon!

In your FACE

Frankie gives a shout out and demonstrates the proper way to use a bubble gun.



(BTW, an update about me: I'm still really sick, the Zofran clears up a few hours in the early day, but by evening, everything is still coming back up. I've only had one blissful day of non-vomiting in the last four weeks. If anyone has any unusual advice, I'll take it. Otherwise, I've probably heard it, tried it, didn't work. We're hanging in there, watching way more TV than normal, and living on instant oatmeal and pop-tarts.)

Confirmation

Yep, it's official. (As if all of the vomiting didn't tip everyone off.) I've been M.I.A. for the past several weeks because this one is doing a number on me - I've been quite sick for a few weeks now and I've lost eight pounds already since becoming pregnant. I'm going to pick up some Zofran today - fingers crossed that it offers some relief! I also promise not to make this blog all about being pregnant - I'll complain over on Facebook. :) Just thought you might want to know. Oh - EDD is Novemeber 7th.

P.S. There will be at least one more post on this subject because I told my mom I'd scan in the ultrasound. But that would require me sitting upright at my desk, so I haven't done it yet.

Safety First!

Our evenings look a lot like this nowadays. Good thing he's wearing his helmet to drive the dumper all over the ramp.


Frankie and I were sick all weekend, so Juston did ramp repairs and painted it blue.

This is real?

I'd loved to have sat in on the brainstorming meeting when someone came up with this idea.



In other news, a post is coming....soon....I've just had lots of other things going on lately!

The Ramp

So after five years of big talk about doing it, Juston finally did it. He built a skate ramp in the backyard. This is what happens when you can't afford to build a garage because it requires $6k in concrete but still want to build something, I guess. Juston's older brother Jason and his cousin Thayne came out this week to help and from what I can tell, they've had a great time bonding and using power tools.

Juston and Jason in the early stages.


This old billboard, donated by Cartoon Network to our cause, is the tarp that covers the completed ramp. Frankie and Bridget had fun running around on it.


Frankie doesn't really like power tools. He'll grow into it, I'm sure.

Bridget may or may not like the power tools, but she does like to chew on sticks outside and get in the middle of things.


Nice view, eh?


Frankie's first test run on the middle of the second day of operation 'skateboard ramp.'


Frankie watching.


Jason and Thayne sheeting the ramp. All that's left is a tiny bit of sheeting and another coat of paint and we'll be in skateboarding session. Maybe now is a good time for me to learn...

Last week, with feeling.

I've slacked on blogging because I've been unmotivated. I've been busy with work and company and sitting outside while Frankie digs in the dirt for hours on end whilst I grade midterms on the deck. It's been fun. Last week, it was nice outside (yes, five days after the snow, we were in shorts). So we went to the zoo - again. Here's a few that look like many others I've taken, but, you know, Frankie looks cute, so I'm posting them anyway.


I had to bribe the Frankster with a lollipop to get him to stick his head into the Elephant cutout.


Usually Frankie doesn't want to ride the animals on the carousel; we end up riding in one of the stationary buckets. This time, I pretty much forced him up there, and once the jaguar started moving, he loved it. His little buddy Anna (to the right on the baboon) was also having a great time!


And lastly, our house in the midst of the week's earlier snowstorm. It looks almost serene and not quite as 'aluminum siding and vinyl fence' grungy in the snow.

Snow Day

As those of you who follow the weather know, Atlanta got a heap of snow today. It was raining when we went to church, and by the time the first meeting was over, it was coming down as snow, and hard. By the end of church, it was sticking to everything and the roads were covered in slush. Now, at the end of the day, it's all melty, but we got several hours of hard snow today, the likes of which I haven't seen since moving here four and a half years ago.

For your viewing pleasure, snow pictures, round 1:

There's snow on the truck!


Frankie and I walking to the car - he was NOT happy.


Driving home, view through the windshield:

Frankie sings!

Drummer Boy

Some of our awesome neighbors (shout out West End!) had a Fat Tuesday party last night. We all had a blast, but I think that Frankie had more fun than anyone else. Not only did he have fun cheering for Nia's birthday and eating red beans and rice and king cake, but he reveled in all of Asher and Ezzy's toys - especially the tiny drums. I can promise that we won't be getting one of these any time soon.

"Helping"

Frankie loves to "help." I put "help" in quotes, because, usually he's just making more work for me. I think that most people that have young children can relate.

Here he is, "putting away the laundry." This involved putting things I'd already sorted back into the laundry basket and then throwing them all over the floor.


Back on the day before Valentine's Day, we made Juston chocolate-covered fruit because we love him! Frankie did more sampling than helping, but he did dip a few strawberries that ended up with very little actual chocolate on them. At least we had fun. :)

The backlog.

I'm starting to realize that I'm not being very consistent with this blogging thing. I've been moderately busy lately and scoping out the real world, you know? Shoot, I haven't even posted the Christmas pictures yet, which is kind of a problem. Someday. Anyway, here's a bunch of images that Juston sent me a little over a week ago, so you can stay up-to-date on our lives. Lucky you.

Every Thursday afternoon, we go to Kid's Gym at the College Park Recreation Center. I would highly recommend it - it's basically freeplay gymnastics, and the kids love it. It's also very affordable. If you live on the south side and you're looking for a fun activity, this might be it! Anyway, Juston took a personal day on a Thursday a few weeks ago so he could edit a friend's short film and came on a field trip with us.

The water fountain - always a highlight.


Sliding around on some plushy gym playthings.


Prepping for some big air onto the trampoline.


Snowmen - one of Frankie's obsessions. Juston made this play-doh version on demand.


Frankie likes to chase Bridget around and try to clasp her legs in the grip of his plastic pliers. And no, he's not wearing any pants. Whenever we're at home for an extended period of time, he goes nekkid from the waist down to encourage using the potty. It does work - he's never had an accident and when he goes he comes and gets me so I can look at his 'work' - but he can't really be half naked all the time, can he?


From our family visit to the dentist a couple of weeks ago. I was in the hygienist's chair and Juston was Frankie-tending in the waiting room.


About three weeks ago, we went out to dinner for our friend Dan's birthday at a pizza place up in Vinings. Little did we know that on Saturday nights, they had live music! Frankie and I decided to dance, and the nice musician pointed us towards his maracas. Frankie was having so much fun that he had to make his excited face.



Lastly, all bundled up for a President's Day family bike ride.