This past weekend was wonderful. I had such a nice time hanging out with the family! First, Friday, we ran around a little bit and then met Honey for breakfast. Daniley played in the Chick-fil-A play area and we let Danslen slide down with her once. I was at the top with Little Darlin' and Honey was at the bottom. I was telling Daniley to hold her like this and like that, and I figured Honey was thinking "Surely she isn't really about to let go of her." LOL. Suddenly Daniley and Danslen appeared at the bottom of the slide...upside down. LOL. They flipped over around the curve, and it didn't bother Danslen until Daniley used her as a crutch to get up. Haha. I was even going to let Daniley try it again but she didn't want to, so I took Little Darlin down a time or two myself. We were so busy playing, that I COMPLETELY forgot Little Darlin' had a well baby checkup at 9:30 am. Oh don't worry, I didn't remember til 6pm so it was no use stressing over it then! :-)
Saturday we went to yard sales, just me and the girls, while Dan worked a while. We had such a good time together. Nothing is like being with them by myself. We just all laugh a lot, especially me! Saturday night, Daniley got an invitation to spend the night with James and Eli at Honey and G-Paws house. Now to me, this was a big deal, because Daniley has never spent the night with any other kids except for at our house. I was hoping to get a good report, which mostly I did. She and James play really well together, not perfect, but really well. While she was there, we took in the game at Danson's with the rest of the gang. Fun fun fun fun fun, as always!
Sunday morning I called over to Honey and G-Paw's and delivered Daniley the special news: "We're going to the pumpkin patch today." I heard, "The pumpkin patch? Oh my gosh!!" LOL. She was excited to say the LEAST. We met up with Rachel, Art, and Everett. We petted the goats, chickens, and pigs, and rode a horse.

Then we went down to the patch where Daniley and her Dad found the perfect pumpkinwhile me and Little Darlin' snacked on the vines.
Man, this stuff is DELICIOUS.
Well, then again, maybe it isn't so good.Then we sat down for a family photo, and Little Darlin' got her a wad of hair (one of her favorites) and Daniley yells and then gives it back to her for another wad. LOL.
And here are a few more irresistable pictuers of the Little Darlin'!!

Weekend. Friday. Stayed home. Mistake? Maybe. I got a little bored, which isn't good for the nerves. Especially with 2 kids. I'll plan better next time.
Saturday.. Family reunion, an annual event we always look forward to. I love my Thornburg family. They are all about as crazy as I am. They are also a musically talented bunch. Daniley tapped with our cloggers and sang after we borrowed a guitar from the audience. She is getting a tad more shy than she used to be so I was proud she got up there on the spur of the moment. We hadn't practiced or anything, it was all impromptu. Next year, we'll be ready. ELVIS. She loves him. We'll start practicing now. :-)

Playing at the family reunion.
I have never really watched a Harry Potter movie, but this picture is something like I had in my mind.


Peer Pressure: noun. Here's the definition:

Huntin' for tadpoles


Bentley and Me

Saturday evening--game on! Bama time at my place. Honey and GPaw joined us too. Honey found her a new grandbaby Bentley. She held her just the same as she has always held her own. I heard the offer "Brooke, if you need to run some errands just drop her off at my place." If I didn't think Honey meant it, I wouldn't have just wrote it either. Honey is awesome. She played with Daniley during the game, and Daniley gets SO WOUND UP when Honey is around. I SWEAR she does not act like that all the time. There's something about Honey that excites Daniley like no one else. She asks for Honey every day. I guess because she sees so much of LeLe and MawMaw, she just wants her Honey every once in a while. Speaking of Honey, I nearly had to call her in for backup Sunday. I usually don't ask for weekend help, but Sunday I was pretty close. The combination of Dan, Daniley, and Danslen was not working out too well for Mommy. I intended to get to church, and at a minimum, get Daniley there, but we failed. We could NOT get our crap together. After several more hours of feeling couped up, we decided to go to the park. There we had a baseball dinner, and stayed until well into the night. It was a fun way to wrap up the weekend. Next weekend, we have plans...so hopefully I won't get so frustrated being at the house. TGIM. That's all I have to say about this weekend!



Wrapping up the night


One last note: If you are tired after a LOOOONG Saturday, and you put your 3 year old to bed without reading her a Big Girl Tinkerbell Book, she WILL awake you crying at 2am, and let you KNOW that you did NOT read her a Big Girl Tinkerbell Book, and you will have to pay the consequences.

Today I saw Daniley picking up Little Darlin' in her "new room." Just the fact she was allowing Lil' Darlin to lay on her new bed was all but a miracle. The other night me and Little Darlin' were going to sleep up there with Daniley and Daniley stayed over to one side leaving a good 12 inches between her and Danslen. She was NOT happy about Danslen being in her bed. She layed up there awake for about an hour and a half until finally Danslen and I went back downstairs to my bed so we could ALL rest. Anyway, today, Daniley picked Danslen up! She was doing pretty good and they both seemed happy. And she was standing on the mattress on the floor so the scenario was pretty low risk. I told her to put her down anyway, and she basically just gave her a throw. Danslen didn't seem to mind; she didn't even whimper. :-)

Today I hung around the house which is more on the unusual side for a Friday. Last weekend was so busy I was looking forward to just doing some cleaning and organizing. While I was organizing the attic, Daniley found our beach loot and went outside to play. I swear she played in the rocks for about 3 hours today. We've been letting her play outside by herself some. We just open the doors and check on her about every 5 minutes. She stays right up near the house. If you seem concerned...we live in a totally private area. Any car coming up the driveway sends us an audible alert. No one can see our house, and we can't see anyone else. So it's pretty safe for the most part.

While they were supposed to be napping I went downstairs to check on them and found Daniley OUTSIDE. She said Danslen wouldn't shut up screaming, and in fact she WAS screaming when I arrived on the scene. One rule Daniley is going to HAVE to learn is that she can't go outside without permission. I forecast a few whippings. LOL.

Finally, one last little detail, Dan just totally cracked me up. He's downstairs playing with some Boston speakers. He got everything hooked up (2 new ones) and clicked a button, and said 'OH YEH, I CAN TELL A HUGE DIFFERENCE.' Click. "That's terrible." Click. "That's awesome." Then about half an hour later he found out they weren't playing any sound...AND NEVER WERE. Oh my gosh I went into hysteria! Men!!!!!!

Well I'm happy to report...Daniley has finally showed some interest in Lil Darlin'. Yesterday evening she was waking up from a nap and cried a little bit, and Daniley took her BRAND NEW BARBIE and layed her up on the bed to comfort her. Then a bit later Lil' Darlin' was in her Bumbo and Daniley was shaking Danslen's head back and forth. It was a bit rough but Danslen was laughing all the same. I told her to try to be a bit more gentle, but I am careful not to get on to Daniley every time she touches Danslen. So a couple seconds later I see Daniley pushing and pulling the Bumbo around the floor, with Lil' Darlin' still sitting in it. Daniley is running from one side of the kitchen to the other scooting the Bumbo with Lil' Darlin' in tow. Then she decided she was going to put her on top of the rolling plastic drawer set I had brought home and roll her around on top for a bit and as she started to pick up the Bumbo, yes, with Lil' Darlin' still in it, I had to tell her she couldn't do that. LOL.

I can remember this time last year. Danson was about to get married. I had just recently discovered I was pregnant. I was fighting the nausea but the busy-ness of everything kept time flying and kept me going strong. I didn't have a free weekend from August until January. I don't think I've ever had a year like that before. This year is not quite THAT busy, but it's still making a good showing. This weekend was pretty intense. Friday I took the girls to Homestead Hollow, following the recommendation of Poppa (Robert Elliott). We weren't in the gate 5 minutes until he spotted us. It was Daniley that he noticed in fact. We had a pretty good time. The arts and crafts stuff was about what I expected. If you've ever been to Christmas Village you've seen it ALL (and then some) so there were no surprises. But I did buy a couple Christmas gifts and a thing or two for myself. The most ridiculous thing, however, was the $6 I paid for a glass of lemonade. They may as well have had a gun to my head because it was highway robbery just the same. I let Daniley do a few activities. We had a wonderful time. I love Fridays!!





We've got to get Pawpaw and Deb to take us on a (horse) trail ride. A few spins around the wheel isn't all that satisfying (even though it was still fun.)

After returning home, Dan came home and took the girls while I had some time off ALONE. OMG! REALLY??? ALONE??? I never get that. Sometimes I wonder if Dan realizes how hard I work to keep everything rolling smooth at home. He helps me tremendously, but many things he does are outside and I watch the girls while he's working. He has time to just be by himself, even if he IS doing back-braking work, and I almost never do. So anyway, a couple of my friends and I met up. We hadn't seen each other, or at least had time to actually chat, in years! It was more than wonderful. I didn't make it in til almost midnight. Probably been a decade since I rolled in that late. LOL. Then Saturday morning it was back to reality. Up at 5:45am so I could have breakfast cooked for Honey's birthday. The biscuits turned out good (no surprise, I've been practicing!). Breakfast was lovely and shortly after we were on our way to take Daniley to be in the fire prevention parade in Montevallo. Aunt Jo invited Daniley to ride in the firetruck.
This was a drop-off for us, because after that we were on our way to the Vintage Motorcycle Festival. OMG, there was a 1960 red cycle with a red rocket side car.

I figure my family would kill me if I tried to put the girls in a sidecar! (Yeh, I guess it might not be that safe.) :-( From there, biker party at Downing's, where we had a hamburger and pretty much hit the road so we could rescue Lil' Darlin' from LeLe's. Daniley spent the night with Aunt Jo, and somehow, someway, she was GOOD, it was reported. ;-) They had a good time. When I picked her up today I stopped by Danson's to see Bentley, and from there I was talked into going to the Shelby Iron Works fall festival. Daniley ran around with Brayden (also now known as The Nephew, "Mom where's the little nephew at?" Always be cautious with that you tell her.). They played in the leaves and chased each other around until finally it was time to come home. Good wine and Chef Boyardee make a nice Italian dinner, except we didn't have any good wine, so there. HA! Made brownies...and now it's time for bed! Sheweee, what a weekend!

I loved this little dress. I wish they would stay the same size longer.

Dad and Sugar Booger having milk and cookies...and a tea party.

Friday night after the parade Daniley had company. The girls were all so good and they had so much fun!! Daniley was already asking them to come back by Sunday. I have some cute bathtub pictures that I'd love to share, and even though everyone is fairly covered, I'm pretty sensitive about showing kids on here that aren't fully clothed. Oh well, it will do for the annual photo book! ;-)



Daniley and that dang tape measure...("Mom, DANG is a bad word.")...all she wants to play with is the tape measure.
Saturday after taking 4 kids to yard sales, bathing 4 kids, and feeding 4 kids, and making cupcakes with 4 kids (and licking the bowl with 4 kids, me one of them), it was time for... 2 more kids!! LOL. (The more the merrier!!) It was James' mini-party! He's turning 3!! He was pretty shy at first but he eventually came around. He sure does love Danslen. He was kissing her up!! Happy Birthday to my too cute nephew JAMES!!
And for what it's worth, 7 out of 8 people in this picture are looking at the camera! WOW!!

Friday was the homecoming parade. It wasn't that great...the high school doesn't even let the kids do big floats anymore (too much classman vandalism I'm told). But it was still a fun time. Daniley loves ANY parade. Also, it was Bentley's first parade. So that made it special too!

Daniley loves chapstick. The other day we took a quick nap (me included) and when I woke up, I saw where she laid her chapstick. She balanced it there for 2 hours!

Few things in life are more precious than sleeping babies.

So Brooke had the baby and we haven't missed a football game yet. She came home from the hospital and a few hours later, ROLL TIDE it was! Most of us watched the baby, not the game. We tried to take some pictures of the girls and you can see, this is complicated. I couldn't pick out just one to share.... Danslen just wanted to get Bentley. She was grabbing, poking, pulling hair, kicking, all that, yeh. Daniley just wanted to get up...AWAY FROM THOSE DUMB BABIES!! Hahaha. I guess the only innocent one was Bentley. Just give her a couple months. She'll come around. :-)

Here we are just as Bentley arrived. Bentley is our newest cousin, my brother's daughter. She is precious and then some! Daniley has already talked about Bentley more than Danslen. She's pretty excited about a new cousin, but still not kissing any babies at this point! ;-) She told someone this weekend: "Brooke had a baby in her tummy. Bentley. She's my little cousin." So sweet!

It's hard work learning to sit up.