Tornado Destruction

First off, I want to thank God that all our friends or family were safe after the horrendous tornadoes and severe weather that central Alabama experienced yesterday.  Secondly, I am praying for all those who lost loved ones due to these storms (as of tonight the death toll was almost 200 just in Alabama alone) or experienced damage to their homes.

I have said this several times and others from Mobile agree...  Give me a hurricane any day of the week over a tornado.  Ever since I moved to Montevallo for college, I have been extremely uneasy whenever any of those tornado sirens go off.  Granted we had a few scares with hurricanes in Mobile, but they just don't seem to cause the extreme damage that tornadoes cause.  I can't thank God enough that my family and home were left extremely unscathed compared to just about everyone else in the area.  We were without power for about 12 hours on Wednesday, but that is the extent of damage.  We didn't have any trees down or hardly any limbs down in the yard.  It was a wake up call when Gabe came home early afternoon yesterday with pictures of his grandparents yard or to see all the amazingly scary pictures posted on Facebook, etc.  I'm stealing a few pictures that Beth took of Grandmother and Granddaddy's yard.  Those massive beautiful oak trees they planted so many years ago were knocked down, but luckily didn't damage their home.     

With Pop in this picture, you can really tell how massive these trees were.

It's crazy to think that Gabe, Meagan, Abby and I were at the Krispy Kreme in Tuscaloosa just a few weeks ago and now there is nothing left of it.  I spoke to a friend of mine who lives in Northport and luckily they are fine, but she knew a girl who lived right behind that Krispy Kreme that didn't make it.  Gabe said there were several Regions employees that lost their homes completely.  It's just so surreal to look at the pictures on CNN and other news websites to realize that those pictures could have been of Leeds/Moody if the mile wide tornado had taken a path about 15 miles south of where it hit.  This whole thing has been a sobering experience.  All I can do is just pray...

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!  Ours was filled with Easter egg hunting, playing and visiting with friends and family.  Mid-day Saturday was spent at two Easter egg hunts.  We visited Mimi and Pop's church hunt first and then headed over to U-Ba's and Aunt Beth's church hunt.  I had envisioned Nicholas searching for eggs, really wanting to hunt them down and put them in a basket.  No such thing occurred.  At both Easter egg hunts he was more of a people watcher than interested in hunting down any eggs.  Here are a few pics from Saturday.

Checking everything out before the hunt

 Looking cool in his shades

 Even with Mimi and Daddy pointing the eggs out, he was just NOT interested

Cute pic with his cousin Meagan

Of course you know he loved the bubble machine at FBC Moody.

I'm the king of the playground!!  Or as Nicholas says "Ta-Da!"

 
Saturday afternoon we headed over to Nini and Hollie's house for a visit with Nicholas' third grandmother.  I forgot to take any pics, but they just love Nicholas to death and we enjoyed spending time with them and had a great dinner.

Sunday morning the Easter bunny did stop by our house.  Nicholas of course was a big fan of the Mickey bubbles.  We were pleasantly surprised to have the 9:30 church service not super packed (thanks to the church adding an extra service today).  The ladies of course love having Nicholas in the nursery.  They consistently tell us every time we pick him up that he was so sweet and good.  I did ask if he socialized much and they confirmed what I thought and said that he mainly keeps to himself.  We can hopefully get him into a Mother's Day Out program at some point so he can get used to being around other kids his age.

Still has a bit of bed-head in this picture

Then Sunday evening was spent having dinner with all the Davenport clan up at Mimi and Pops.  After dinner we attempted the egg hunt yet again and despite Meagan and Abby's help, Nicholas still wasn't all that interested in hunting down any eggs.  

And to end the evening, Nicholas put himself in Sadie's cage.  For whatever reason, when Sadie is out of her cage, Nicholas likes to climb in and even shut the door.

Happy Birthday Granddaddy!

We want to wish Clayton Martin (aka Granddaddy) a wonderful birthday!  This loving and generous patriarch of the Martin family is 87 years young today.  We hope and pray that your wish comes true and you beat your sister past the 90 mark.  We love you!

 All of the Martins gathered last night to celebrate.  We had a great time and good BBQ.  Nicholas really enjoyed chasing after all the girls.  He was also a fan of Sam (as you can see below) and kept wanting to rub his head, tickle him and also enjoyed a few of his toys too! 

The funniest thing happened to Nicholas.  He had on these cute overalls.  Well he was playing with Abby and Ava in the other room and he walked into the room where all the adults were chatting to discover that his diaper was around his feet (and yet his overalls were still fully in tact).  He had wet his clothes and unfortunately part of the bathroom floor.  No one knows how he managed to get his diaper off and around the overalls.  (My guess is that he is not used to wearing overalls and was pulling on them and somehow caught one side of the diaper to make it come loose).  So the rest of the night Nicholas went pant-less.  Ironically, Gabe purchased a package of the "Jeans" Huggies diapers (you know the commercial "I poo in blue") earlier that day and if we had put them on him, he would have looked completely normal.  So here is what he looked like for the last bit of the evening.   

Here is Anna sweetly wanting to "share" Janie's new duckie stuffed animal.  She is so close to walking and before long she'll be joining the other kids in running around everywhere. 

Nicholas is a hoot in so many ways.  He loves being outside and playing with sticks, berries and especially his bubble machine.  He has no fear for any creatures including bumble bees, lizards, ants, etc.  We were walking to the car on the way to the birthday party and Nicholas proceeded to immediately find an ant and squish him with his finger.  Nicholas has also discovered the art of procrastinating at bed time.  After his bath, we normally will drink some milk and read a book.  When I pick him up to put him in bed, he will suddenly want to read a different book or drink more milk.  The cutest thing is when I'm holding him and we are telling daddy "nigh-nigh" he will use another procrastination method of putting his hand behind my head and Gabe's head, push our heads together and a say "pease".  So we kiss and then he will just say "gain" and "gain" over and over.  It works a few times, but not for long.   I will definitely praise him because once he is in his crib there is no crying or fussing - he either goes right to sleep or just plays/talks quietly (except for the wrestling maneuver he did a few weeks ago).            

Nicholas also has the ability to get into trouble.  However, I was surprised at what happened just a few minutes ago.  Nicholas climbed up on the coffee table (which is a no-no).  I spanked him, pulled him down, told him no-no and just a few seconds after that he said "Sorry Mama".  Granted I would prefer that he not get into trouble, but at least he has a conscious about it (or pretends to ;-).       

Nicholas "Macho Man" Davenport

So the funniest thing happened tonight.  Usually when we put Nicholas down for bed at night he might talk and roll around for a few minutes, but will go down pretty easily.  Tonight just a few minutes after I put Nicholas in his crib, we heard this really loud thud coming from his room (which is usually him just laying on his stomach and kicking his legs on the mattress).  Thanks to the wonderful technology of the crib cam, we discovered this was not the case. 

Nicholas always sleeps with his blankie.  Well tonight Nicholas would stand up in his crib, throw his blankie down on the mattress and then "body slam" the blankie by jumping up and landing on his butt on the blankie.  He did this over and over and over again and needless to say was VERY entertaining to watch.  Oh some of the things this boy does is just too funny!

Our Anniversary Getaway

To celebrate our fourth anniversary, we decided to rent a cabin in the Gatlinburg area.  We stayed for the weekend (which to-date is the longest I've ever been away from Nicholas).  The cabin was perfect for what we were looking for and even though there were others somewhat nearby, we seemed to be the only ones on the mountain.  We decided to just stay in the cabin to relax and not worry about hitting up any of the tourist attractions in the area.  Everything was nice except we both agreed that it was very hard falling asleep at night.  Everything was too quiet in the mountains - we are used to a myriad of sounds at night (trains in our backyard, sirens passing by at all hours, our fan loudly working to cool the room, our sound machine as well as Nicholas' monitor sound machine).  The weather was great!  We even got some snow the first night.  Granted it wasn't anything compared to our first anniversary snow experience (thank goodness), but it just made the mountains that much more serene.  Happy 4 years babe!

Here is a picture from the loft area of the cabin which had a pool table, dart board and basketball machine). 

Thanks so much to Mimi and Pop and Gigi and Pawpaw for watching the little man while we were away!  I know he loved all the attention.  Then this past Saturday, we had a great time celebrating Anna's first birthday party, followed by a BBQ with our friends the Spanicks and Perrys.

It took Nicholas a few minutes to warm up to everybody, but before long he was visiting/entertaining everyone. 

He wanted to wish Anna Happy Birthday up close and personal like!  So cute!

Luckily she didn't mind him testing out a few of her birthday presents.

Luckily Reagan didn't mind him testing out her toys either at the BBQ...

My Favorite Time of Year is...

Consignment Season!!  Ever since I discovered local church consignment sales several years ago (initially at Asbury UMC), I have been in LOVE!  From the beginning I have found amazing deals on baby and kids items.  Gabe likes to say that we are renting the toys until we sell it back in the next sale.

Early on, we were blessed to have all the wonderful showers that friends and family threw for us, so we really didn't have to buy much.  Granted he still receives plenty at Christmas, his birthday and for no reason at all, but these consignment sales are a wonderful place to fill in the blanks, support local church youth programs and sell what you don't need/use/want all at the same time.

My favorite by far is Trussville United Methodist Church's Growing Kids sale.  (It also helps knowing that since we go to church there this sale helps support the nursery that Nicholas goes to every Sunday.)  They are electronically superior to any others I've seen, which makes the checkout process a million times faster than other sales.  Growing Kids is also very organized, spread out and well staffed (or I should say volunteered :-).

So my deals this sale are:

• 2 polo shirts
• 3 cute outfits
• 1 pair of shorts
• 1 swimsuit
• 2 t-shirts
• 2 pairs of shoes
• 4 Mickey plates that I just couldn't resist
• Brand new Tadoodles crayon set that works in the tub (Great find thanks to my friend Alicia!)

And all this for $50!!!  I am very proud of my finds and as of tonight they have sold about half that amount of my stuff, so I am optimistic that my consignment check will more than cover what I spent.  Can you tell how much I love these sales?!?

Toddler Talk

Over the past month, Nicholas' vocabulary has exploded.  He now says (or attempts to say) anything we say.  For example, Gabe answered his phone today and said Hey Dude, which Nicholas immediately repeated in his cute toddler voice "Hey Dude".  With all the birthdays recently (shout out to Lilly, Pop and Abby) we've tried to get him to say Happy Birthday, but it comes out "Happy To" - close and cute enough to work.  He's able to count to 2.  And as Mimi said the other day, if I had a nickle for every time he says "pease" (AKA please) we would all be very rich people.  Granted it's great that he is polite, but I think we may have emphasized that one a bit too much. 

Vocabulary that he pronounces correctly:

Mickey, Minnie, Donald - he wakes up and asks for Mickey (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), which I am happy to put on for him while I fix his breakfast
Duckie - his favorite bath time toys right now
Alrighty, Hold On - He hears that second one quite a bit  as everything is so urgent for him and now he is good at repeating it
Can I?
I did it!
Juice, Water, Milk
TV - ah how they learn early
Toast, Chicken
Cracker - We have about every flavor of Goldfish in our house and I have to say that I still like the original the best
Shoes/Sock
Hand, Head, Eyes, Ears, Toes - Nicholas can tell you where all of these are
Clock - It's so interesting to see him make connections - Nicholas pointed to my watch the other day and said "Clock?"
Catch!  - his throwing skills aren't all that great (many of the throwing items end up behind him), but I'm sure over time Daddy will work with him on that

Some words that need a bit of translation:

Cudur = Color - Although he is rather rough on his crayons, he loves coloring (a Mickey Mouse coloring book of course).  I'm thinking a good toy for his birthday will be one of those "colors" that only works on special paper and therefore won't result in blue and green marks on our coffee table. 
Saby = Daisy -  Minnie is one of his favorites, but he does like Daisy as well (with Mickey of course being his all time favorite)
Set = Yes - Nicholas seems to be able to say Yea, but doesn't really try to say Yes too much.
Bankie = His o-so-special blankie that he can't live without
Nana = Banana - A good morning snack for him right now
Gape = Grape  Luckily this has been a recent snack of choice for him (along with crackuhs of course)
Side = Outside
Pay = Play - Nicholas has been a big fan of playing outside since the weather has been decent recently.  Swinging in his swing, watching the bubbles come out of his bubble machine and picking berries off the bushes and throwing them. 
Ticker = Sticker - he loves playing with these.  They have a tendency to end up all over the house (I found one in the dryer vent), on his nose, but he loves putting them on his hand. 
Buboos = Bubbles

It is rather hard to get Nicholas to stay still long enough for a picture (as Beth can vouch for at Abby's birthday party this weekend).  Here is one of him trying to put all the berries from the bushes in our back yard into a plastic pipe.  Nicholas loves putting toys or whatever he finds into boxes, bags or any object where he thinks the object belongs (and I have to say that he is very meticulous about this - so funny to watch!).