Please excuse the shakiness of the camera and the loud music in the background. I was using my iphone and we were in the car rocking it out.

So we are daddy less for 4 days and 3 nights.  I hate being alone  the Chickens hardly count as a whole person so I am basically by myself. If God forbid there is a spider or water emergency while Ben is gone I am the go to person… sigh.   When Ben is gone which thankfully is not very often anymore I can’t go to sleep until I am exhausted otherwise I will just lay in bed listening to all the night noises and the creaking of my big old house and get thoroughly scared.  Now I am not a shining example on how to raise kids. I frequently let them watch things they shouldn’t, eat cake for breakfast and let them stay up WAY to late we are by nature night owls and our kids tend to be the same way.  And last night was no exception we all stayed up to late….

This was Boo telling me she was ready for bed (although this is how I feel at the thought of Ben being gone so long).

And this was Chicken trying to tell me he was not ready for bed….(sorry for the fuzziness it’s my crappy iphone 3g)

We settled down for a good snuggle on the sofa while watching The Incredibles until we were so sleepy we could barely hold our eyes open.  We finally headed upstairs got teeth brushed and Chickens down.  They were out in a second but I still could not go to sleep until after 1:30…. I just don’t sleep well when Ben isn’t home…. only 3 days and 2 nights to go……

Ben got his iphone 4 this week. I am insanely jealous because his phone takes much better pictures then mine.  Here Boo and Chicken posing so Daddy could get a good picture for his iphone wallpaper.

Chicken wanted Ben to take a picture of his light saber..

And here is Chicken showing his fierce Jedi fighting stance.

Later that week Chicken told me that this is what they do in China. I have no idea where he got this from only that he has seen Kung Fu Panda.

And of course the highlight of Ben’s week. The much awaiting opening of Greenville’s Apple store. We did not stand in line to get in but just looked longingly through the front windows.

And the rest of our week was taken up with preparing for VBS at Lifepoint our church.  The theme this year is pirates and Ben worked long and hard on this ship that is in the church.  Of course the Chickens had to test it out after he was done. Chicken trying his hand at steering.

Boo not so happy here. Maybe she was afraid Chicken would make her walk the plank. But we finally got a smile out of her.

Well this year we took  Batman and a Princess trick or treating.  It was quite exciting this year we got caught in the rain.  It had cleared up nicely when we set out but a little half way through it started to rain and I don’t mean a drizzle. But the kids were troopers and did not seem to mind… the need for candy was a huge driving force.  Even Boo had no interest in riding in the car with daddy as he followed us around from house to house.  He opened the tail gate on the jeep and let all the cousins pile in between stops.  The saying must be true “the more the merrier”  because we sure had fun with all the cousins that were able to come. There were six in all Reed, Abbi, Madison, Ansley, Hallah and Katie.  I know the Chickens greatly enjoyed the company.

The Cousins

The process of picking out costumes this year was a little bit of an adventure too. First Mason was going to be a Fireman he already had the costume from a dress up birthday party he had been invited to, but then he got it into his head that he was definitely going to be Batman. We spent quite a bit of time trying to convince him of the coolness factor of a fireman but firemen don’t wear capes and I think that was a big factor playing in his desire to be Batman. So of course being the spoiled chicken that he is we began our search for a Batman costume. This must of been a very popular costume this year  because every store we looked in did not have it in his size.  But we finally found one after much searching at Walmart and it was the last one. After we got home and tried it on it was a bit big so I had to practically take it apart and then put it back together again just to make it fit properly… ah the things we do for our kids.  I remember my mom spending hours on one costume when I was little and now I especially appreciate the time she put into it.  But the end result looked great and he was so excited and that made it all worth it.  And besides Batman has been more then generous with his Halloween loot!

I love my Chickens……especially when they are both asleep. =-)

I was not really sure how he would react to to a sibling but when she came he called her ” his baby”.

Sometimes she was not so sure about this.

But he loved her from the beginning.

For a while it was really hard having a 2 year old and a new baby… I know Mason felt the change, babies take up more time. But at least at the time daycare was a constant for him he had the same teachers and his little classmates.  But that changed when I quit my job to stay home full time.  The adjustments were hard for both of us. I was suddenly with a toddler and a baby all day and he was without his little playmates.  He would  get frustrated sometimes that Kyboo could not play with him, he would try talking to her and then ask me why she would not talk back.  But as she grew they became closer. And in the past six months they have really interacted more  and it’s been so neat to see them  start to play together.

She adores her older brother she wants to do whatever he does. She dragged this chair over to sit right next to him.

It’s been so cute to see her try and be the little mommy to him when he cries or is sad she will rub his back and go “ohhh” it’s so sweet. Don’t get me wrong they fight and the sibling rivalry is really starting to crank up.

But I am so glad we have our Chickens……

and I am so glad they have each other….

I just wanted to wish my wonderful husband and daddy to my Chickens a Happy Father’s Day.. We had such a wonderful day with you and I hope that you enjoyed it too. Just wanted to tell you how much I love you and how lucky the Chickens are to have such a great daddy… We love you!

And I also wanted to thank you for my awesome new website design that you did for me this weekend.. I love it and you are so talented. I love you!!!

So we took a mini family vacation over Memorial Day weekend.  We had so much fun but I quickly found out when you vacation with kids it is so exhausting! Being in a hotel room has it’s drawbacks. Your kids go to bed when you go to bed and since we did not want to go to bed at 8 our kids went to bed at  10 or 11. Which made them slightly grumpier the next day, plus there were no naps to be had since we were on the go the entire time.

We went to the World of Coke the first day and that was fun the Chickens liked tasting all the different coke flavors from around the world and they had some crazy ones. The rest of the trip we managed to cram in the Georgia Aquarium, The Fern-bank Museum, The Zoo and the High Art Museum which Ben really loved.

I would say the Georgia Aquarium was the biggest hit though. I swear these places are ingenious for finding ways to part you from your money. We came out of one exhibit and they had face painting all set up and Mason wanted one. So he got this Spider-man on his cheek and he was sooo proud…cost $5 we got off cheap he wanted his entire face painted and that was $25 his daddy said no way!

It was neat to compare pictures from the last time we came to the Aquarium  Mason was only 8 months old.

He was such a cute fat baby!

Staying in a hotel was a new experience for the Chickens they loved it. Kyboo really liked the huge mirror. Mason kept calling the hotel our new home.

This is the picture I took from our balcony..

And Mason took this one…

I think he was going for the artistic thing like his daddy.

All in all it was a really fun vacation.  Now I am making plans for the beach in September….

We went to the zoo for the first time since Mason was 18 months old.. And as you can see he LOVED it.

And well Boo just looked longingly at the “kitties” aka lions behind the glass.