Interesting questions...

Last night I was asked an interesting question by Aiden (and yes...during bedtime).  He is laying in bed and yells out, "Does it hurt to push out a baby?"  What?!? Now when he says "push out", he is talking about from your tummy.  He has no idea what area the baby actually gets pushed out from.  I tried to explain that the baby grows in the Mommy's tummy and then just comes out.  Trust me... they have asked for more details but at this point I have just changed the subject.  Why don't my boys believe that babies come from the stork.  I am not sure how to explain these types of things to my kids, especially boys.  Lately they have been very interested in babies so I am now getting lots of questions about how it all works.  What's a Mommy to do??

Random thoughts...

Some of the random thoughts from Aiden today:

• Walking into Daycare this morning, Aiden sees a picture of the Statue of "Delivery." (Liberty)
• "Mom... I have blonde skin."  Well... Alrighty then!
• Getting ready for bed, Aiden says that he would like to fight a robber but first he would ask the robber to change to God's team.  If the robber says no, then he will have to go ahead and fight him. At least, he gives the robber an option.  (how kind of him)
• Instead of going to sleep... he is discussing how to get to a hotel that is under ground.  He isn't really sure how it works but Nana never forgets anything so he will just have to ask her.

And now... I think he might finally be asleep.  It must be hard to get settled with all of these interesting topics going through his brain!

Meet Mo, Teddy and Little Bear...

The story of the boys and their bears...
When Ethan began daycare at 11 months, they told us to bring a small stuffed toy from home that would make him feel comfortable.  Well... no one explained to us that the animal we chose to bring with him, would be the animal that he would then no longer be able to live without. 
Meet Teddy.

We are not sure where Teddy came from but he has now been through a lot during Ethan's 6 1/2 years of life.  In this picture, you can see that Teddy no longer has a nose or mouth and his eyes are different colors but he has always been there for Ethan.  Teddy has gone missing quite a few times as well but he always (so far) has returned to his home.  One year, we went to the Orangefest for Halloween at the Methodist church and somewhere along the way, teddy dropped and we didn't realize until we left a few hours later.  He was gone.  Ethan was extremely upset and I even shed a few tears (probably envisioning bedtime).  After about a week we started to hear some rumors around daycare that someone had found Teddy and he was waiting for us at the church.  Ryan and I went to the church thinking the worst and after some searching... Teddy was found!!  Again, I shed a few tears and Ryan wouldn't admit it but I thought I saw a small tear in his eye as well.  Somewhere along the way Little Bear has been added to Ethan's collection of must haves. 
Meet Little Bear.

Now that Ethan is going into the 1st grade, he no longer has to carry them everywhere he goes but he still needs them to sleep at night or if he is sad. 

(Now I know what Ryan does on Monday's when we are at school/work.  He did a photo shoot with the bears.  So now the bears can add modeling to their resume along with comforter and friend.)

Best Friends

Aiden's bear is named Mo (aka Monroe).

I was determined that Aiden would not have a stuffed animal that had to tag along with us everywhere we went.  However, when Aiden was one year old he had to go into the hospital for about a week.  During that time, we brought Mo from home to help comfort him.  Of course, now Mo is a permanent fixture in the family.  (so... not only did we add a bear, but look how big Mo is.  Why didn't we look for another small animal??) Mo attends most activities and has been lost numerous times as well and like Teddy, always seems to find his way home.  We thought Mo would be a little easier to replace if necessary since he is a Build a Bear but Aiden did not take well to "New" Mo (original name... don't you think??) and he is now lost in Ethan's colleciton of 200+ stuffed animals.
So... this is the story of our bears.  I am sure that there will be plenty more stories to share in the future!

Doggie Hospital Visit...

(Brodie with Aiden)

I don't think I got to sit down and eat dinner until around 9:45 last night.  Right after work, I had to run to the store for a gift.  As soon as I made it in the door, Ryan and the boys were ready to go for a walk in the woods. 

The boys were excited because Ryan got a permit yesterday so he could start taking them fishing on the Eglin Reservation and this meant that we can now walk in the woods across from our house (without getting into trouble).  So I changed really quick and off we went.  We got about half way through the woods and we noticed Brodie panting really hard and making some weird noises.  We didn't think anything of it until we are almost back to the house and his breathing seemed to be getting worse.  Everyone that passed us would stare at him.  Ryan even tried to carry him for a little ways but adding an extra 90 lbs was a little too much for him to handle.  Once we got him inside we knew right away that he wasn't doing well and needed to take him to the vet.  His breathing never calmed down, he was trying to stand up and his legs would cross and  he would lose his balance.  We packed the boys up, took them to Mimi's and then we were off of the doggie hospital.  They immediately put him in a cold bath with ice packs and started taking his temperature.  The first reading was 108 and they were worried.  Since it took us so long to get home from the walk, he had been having these symptoms for over an hour.  They were worried about him having a heat stroke and with that, there wasn't much they could do.  They worked hard to get his temperature down and gave him some shots and an IV.  After about an hour, his temperature started to drop back down to normal but they had to monitor him overnight.  We said our goodbyes for the night and went to leave.  We are horrible because we forgot to close his gate and at some point while we were paying, he decided to get up and try and follow us out.  He pulled his IV out and caused a commotion.  He looked pitiful standing there.  He probably was trying to figure out what was happening and why we would leave without him. 

We called at midnight to check on his blood work and he seemed to be doing a little better and we were told we could pick him up in the morning. 
We were told that he is too old to be walking outside in this heat and we are lucky we didn't wait any longer before getting him in.  So... after a hefty vet bill, we have learned that Brodie will not be taking family walks any longer.  He is allowed to go outside to do his business and that is it.
We are very happy that he is OK as last night could have had a horrible outcome.  Lesson learned!!

Another tooth bites the dust!!

We took the boys to see Despicable Me on Saturday night.  (btw... very good movie.)  During the movie Ethan comes strolling over to our seats with his hand open and another tooth is out.  I believe this was his 4th tooth but this one was a special tooth. We have been talking with him about wiggling the two teeth on either sides of his two front teeth.  Since his two front teeth have come in, the ones on the sides have gone behind them and now nothing is forcing them out.  The dentist said he needed to wiggle them every now and then to get them loose enough to fall out without having to get them pulled.  One special tooth out and one to go.  I have faith that he will pull the next one out as well.  If it comes down to the dentist pulling it or Ethan pulling it, I have my money on Ethan. 

The tooth fairy made a special visit on Saturday night.  Ethan put his tooth in the tooth fairy pillow and even remembered to leave the ribbon handle sticking out from under his pillow.  He remembered that the tooth fairy doesn't want to disturb him sleeping so he has to help her out a little bit. 

Barfield Reunion

On Friday and Saturday the boys and I attended the Barfield family reunion.  The entire weekend is filled with singing and eating.  This is a long tradition for the Barfield's.  Most everyone on the Barfield side is talented with either music (instruments) or singing.  I remember growing up, we would have our Friday night sings in the church and we would actually have an audience.  This was a small church but it was always packed.  Everyone came out to listen to the Barfield's!
My dad has 10 brothers and sisters and each family always takes turns singing.  With this many brothers and sisters, you can imagine how many cousins there are so there is a lot of singing.  A lot of my cousins can play many different instruments and I always find it amazing that they will start off with the guitar and then on the next song play the drums and then end up on the piano.  (Not sure what happened with my brother and I with the musical instruments).  Now that I am an adult, I no longer have to sing at these reunions. :) Nana and Papa are now trying to recruit the grand kids. 
My dad is the youngest in his family and I am the youngest grand kid.  I always find it funny.. but we wear name tags so everyone can figure out who belongs to who.
                Nana and Papa with all of their grand kids.

Ian eating a snack.

Mommy and Aiden- Notice the name tags!!

Aiden and Uncle Chad

Aiden and Ian- you will notice that there aren't any more pictures of Ethan.  He stayed outside majority of the time playing with his cousins.

Nana and Ian

Nana and Papa

This is what  Aiden did most of the day. He wasn't feeling great on Saturday.

These are Papa's brothers and sisters.  (going from left to right) Aunt Ethelle, Aunt Francis, Aunt Judy, Uncle Eddie, Uncle Lowell (aka Joe), Aunt Edna Mae and Papa.  We made sure to remember those that have passed away but are still a big part of our family... Uncle Buster, Uncle Charles, Uncle J. R. and Grandma Barfield.

For some reason, everyone calls Uncle Lowell  Joe.  This had been his nickname while growing up.  Now... wouldn't you think that they would have picked a different name for my Dad other than Joseph?  From my understanding, there were actually 13 kids all together but 3 passed away as infants.  I guess by the time they got to my dad they must had run out of names.  So... Papa is called Bud by his family. 

Uncle Chubby playing the tambourine- and no... I am not sure how he got this nickname.  As you can see, he is not actually chubby.

We spent the night at Uncle Chubby and Aunt Carolyn's house.  The boys love spending time with them.

Aiden being cheesy.

We had a great weekend with the family.  Since our family is so large, we have relatives that live in many different states.  While a lot could not attend, it is great to catch up face to face with our cousins, Aunts and Uncles. 

Grease Lightening!

On Wednesday, we went to see the Grease musical at the Northwest Florida State College.  The boys were very excited because they got to attend "college" plus got to see their first musical.  They are still talking about how they went to college.  Some of our family on my Mom's side got together to attend and we ended up having 2 entire rows of the Sasser clan.  Needless to say, both of my parents have large families.  We probably could have almost filled the auditorium if everyone had decided to attend.
I was so excited about the music portion of the play that I forgot about the story line of the movie. This was probably not the most age appropriate musical to call their first.  The boys could have used some ear muffs during a few sections but overall, it was a very good musical.  For the rest of the night I had all of the Grease songs in my head. Now, as I am typing, the songs are replaying in my head.

Fun day with Mommy and Daddy!

I actually had Monday, July 5th off from work so we had a full day.  We started off with the boy's swim lessons.  They are both doing great!

He could float for hours.  This amazes me because I couldn't float to save my life.

After resting for a while, we went to see Air Bender.  The boys now think they are the next avatar.  Here they are working on some of their moves.

Then after the movies, we put up the slip and slide and we played for a while.  The entire family took turns and I have bruises to prove it.  I realized I am not as young as I used to be.

Daddy's turn

Thankfully we did not get any pictures of Mommy's turn.  Daddy did get some video but that will have to stay in the family vault.
Although our day was very tiring, we all had fun being together as a family.  That is a rare day for us to have a full day together.

Kid's Blast (VBS) Cont.

This year there was an illusionist who was the guest speaker for VBS at church.  He illustrated his messages by doing tricks/magic so the kids could better understand.  The first night he had Ethan come on stage so he could find some coins hidden around his body.  Ethan ended up shooting coins out of his nose which he thought was very cool. 

If you look closely you can see the coins coming out of his nose.

July 4th!!

We started our 4th at church and then went over to Mimi and Poppy's for some lunch and a play date with the puppies.  Later that evening we had fun over at Laurel's. The boys swam most of the night and then we enjoyed some fireworks.   

The boys and Stevie enjoyed the sparklers

Ethan trying to get a little too close to Stevie with his sparkler

That's better

Now for the poppers.  Mommy got one in the leg (which they thought was hilarious)

Their favorite place- swimming pool

One of those days!!

Yesterday, I seemed to be a little more stressed than normal.  I am car pooling most days with Amy (from work) and so as I sat in the passenger's seat, I was really trying to think happy thoughts .  I walked in to the house to an extra child in our living room.  (One of Ethan's friends went to Kid's Blast (VBS) with us last night.)  The kids had a "blast" at Kid's Blast this year but it made for a long day for Mommy.  On these nights, I didn't have a chance to change or rest until around 8:30 each night.  So... last night I got home, changed and sat down for a few minutes.  I then realized I needed something upstairs and as I reached the top steps, I immediately began thinking something doesn't smell right.  I look in the boy's room and find a nasty surprise from one of our Ryan's dogs.  Mommy is not happy!!  First of all- per Dr's orders- the dogs are not supposed to be in Aiden's room.  Come to find out...this must be their favorite spot during the day while we are not home.  Well, now that I know, the door will be shut each morning. 

After all is cleaned up, I go back downstairs and try to relax just a few minutes before the boys have to go to bed.  Ethan comes running out of our bedroom crying that his bears now have stuff on their faces and it will never come off (insert extra drama here).  I go into the bedroom to find out what this mysterious "stuff" is and it is my Bare Minerals make up. It is all over the bed, both boys, their clothes and two bears.  It seems Aiden was a little curious about Mommy's make up and then couldn't get the lid back on after he made the mess. After a few loads of laundry, Mommy finally got to rest for those few minutes.  Just another day in the Holt household!
On a side note- Aiden's shirt is now ruined after pre-treating and washing.  If make up stains a shirt and it is permanently ruined, is this stuff ok to put on our face and how come it never seems stay on our face for a full 24 hours??  Something to think about!