Adam's Birthday

I am always glad when Adam's birthday rolls around because I have been considering him that age since Caleb's birthday in July anyways. It just didn't seem right to say that Caleb was seven and Adam was only five. So now he is officially six years old. SIX AND SEVEN YEAR OLD BOYS. That sounds better.

We had his birthday party on Sunday at the Cheshire pool. It went well and he loved all of his army men and gear he received as presents. Emily was so helpful that day with the party. She helped me get everything set up and then swam with Lucie the whole time in the pool. The boys helped me make the camo cake last Thursday.

Annabelle spent the party trying to drown herself in the pool. She wouldn't wear swimmies (I didn't have the time to fight that battle) yet she was fearless in the water and would walk right down the ramp until she went under. Mimi almost jumped in the water a couple of times fully clothed to grab her! It was annoying so I sent her outside with Grandaddy to look at the horses. Thanks Dad! I am going to plan on getting to the pool with her very soon to work on this dilemma (unfortunately this will require me to get in). Emily was helpful with her too.

Hannah, Gray and Caleb

Gentry, Adam and Kiah

I do believe I need to say.......Adam is a ladies man. He loves the women.
I know, I know, we are dealing with this.
One of these days he will make a sweet, loving, cuddly husband to a lucky lady.

Sometimes I am afraid that Adam gets pushed aside in life since Caleb's personality demands so much more time and attention and because Annabelle is just younger and needs more than him. I am trying hard not to do this and I hope that it will help to just be aware of it. Adam is just a really easy, laid back kid. He is sweet and thoughtful, smart and funny, yet all-boy to the core. He still loves dirtbikes and is every comedian's dream because he laughs at EVERYTHING.



Annabelle spotted these "boops" in the top of her closet and set a personal record yesterday for the amount of time she kept a pair on her feet. She was so excited about them and kept running to the mirror to admire herself in them. cute, I tell ya.

Adam has told me over and over again that he wants a mandolin. I have been extremely excited about this because I would LOVE for any of my children to pursue playing an instrument. After lots of thought and consideration, I decided to get him a baritone ukulele. They have four strings (mandolins have 8) and the strings are easier to hold down. Baritone ukuleles are tuned the same as the higher four strings on the guitar, so hopefully it will make it easier to transition when he is older. Well, I went out and bought one last night. I went with a more expensive one because I want it to last and to sound good. (and I am an extremely easy "sale") He is so excited and has spent a good part of the day today strumming a G. Caleb and Kiah have played quite a bit too. Adam plays and says, "sing Moma" so I sing something that has a G in there and pretend that it all "goes."






Well, I have not written anything about our family band yet, so this is my chance! Seth and get together a few times a month to play some tunes with my Uncle Larry, Aunt Carolyn, and my cousin Daniel. Well, that is the core group of us but we usually have a few more here and there. We just love making music together and show off our talents at family gatherings and such. Seth and I have both learned a ton from everyone and finally have some music that we can play and sing together. It is lots of fun. During the summer we spent evenings playing on Uncle Larry's porch or by the fire in the backyard. We spent the first part of this winter in our basement but now how relocated to Uncle Larry's and Aunt Carolyn's new timber-framed house in Black Mountain. The acoustics in there are like no other! I will post some pictures from there later. Here are a few from our basement:


I sing and play the guitar.









Daniel sings and plays guitar too.










Uncle Larry sings, plays the mandolin and guitar. Aunt Carolyn sings and plays some tambourine. Seth plays the bass.

Happy Birthday Adam

It was Adam's 5th birthday this past Sunday. Yeah, you are probably thinking, "Isn't he already five?" That is how I feel. We had a little party for him with the Bartletts and plan on having another little one this weekend down at Bear Creek with the Harrisons. He was precious. Each time he opened a gift, he immediately showed it to Caleb knowing that, in a way, they were for him too. He got LOTS of legos and (as always) some toy dirt bikes. I made him a dirtbike cake for the third year in a row. It wasn't as good as previous years. I had a late night before the party so I was in a bit of a daze while making it. Adam didn't seem to notice though.........he was just excited about the new little toy dirtbikes on top. I can't seem to load the video from the party so here are some pictures instead. Oh my! I almost forgot to mention that it was also Grandaddy's birthday as well. Happy birthday Grandaddy and Adam! We love you!




















Since today is Halloween, I thought that I would say a little about this holiday. I think that Halloween is weird. We are going trick or treating and all and I won't go into "redeeming halloween" or anything like that, I just think it is a weird holiday. It is weird to decorate your house with cobwebs, witches, and demons. I just think that the gore is strange. Completely normal folks put tombstones and coffins in their yards to celebrate Halloween.....and their might even be some demon-type thing coming out of the coffin too. Weird. Now don't get me wrong, dressing up is one of my all time favorite pastimes. And I LOVE candy. I just think that it is weird to scare people and such. Actually, I try to avoid scaring my kids at all costs.

So that is my take on it all. Oh yeah, last note, I have also noticed that Halloween has been an opportunity for women to dress really slutty. You could be a slutty firewoman, or a slutty nurse, or a slutty cat, or a slutty pirate.....or you could even just go as a hooker. I have been a cowgirl (a fairly unslutty one) for the last couple of years because it is easy.


There you go. Everyone go put on your slutty costumes and try to scare the crap out of folks this evening. I will post pictures later this week from our festivities. Kiah and Lorie are coming over for trick or treating. Then, Seth and I are going to see the Widespread Panic Halloween show in Asheville. I have never been "out" on Halloween. We have no costumes and it is all my fault. I don't want to be a cowgirl again. Anyone have any suggestions? We need something that is cheap (but not cheap -looking) available within 5 hours from now, comfortable, and slutty (just kidding) Oh yeah, and something that you do not have to explain to anyone. ........Looks like we will be going as our grungy little selves. During college, we always went down to Bear Creek and since we've had kids, we have just stayed at the house. A post may be in order after my experience tonight.

In the meantime, here are some really cute videos of the kids:

This one is Adam playing the drums in Annabelle's pumpkin costume.


This is after the birthday party. The kids had tons of fun sledding down our slope in front of the house. The slope has been something that prospective buyers dislike about our house but they just don't see the sledding potential. You can sled without snow and it evens out just perfectly so that you never hit the deck. Sorry that the videos are so dark.



Thanks for reading and see ya later!

Adam

It has to be Adam's turn now! Adam will be 5 years old at the end of October but I always tend to think that he is older than that. He seems like he should be five already to me. I suppose it is because I always kind of lump him together with Caleb. I actually signed him up for the wrong class in Arts and Sports Camp (Trinity's Bible school) this summer. They changed it up and put him in his appropriate class for me. He couldn't be in kindergarten this year even if I wanted him to be. He is preschool age! How weird is that!

Any-who, Adam is still my little delightful man most of the time. I remember being amazed at how easily and how often he laughed as a baby. It hasn't changed; he is a comedian's dream because anything makes him laugh. He loves to be tickled which baffles me completely considering I want to scratch the eyes out of anyone who tickles me. I hate it. It is not funny.

Oh yes, back to Adam. He is accident prone which I think just comes along with the whole younger brother thing. I have to be very careful to watch what Caleb does because I know that Adam will try it next and will not have the control that his older brother possesses. Caleb has always been physically advanced (the whole "man-child" thing) and uses a lot of caution when jumping from the top of dressers to beds or riding his bike over homemade ramps. Adam, on the other hand, has no fear. You should see those two on our neighbor's trampoline!

Adam can be the sweetest little thing in the world, but also has a bit of a mean streak. Lately, he is in the habit of walking by Caleb and punching him for no reason or maybe kicking him in the shins. When they wrestle, Adam can pin Caleb. Weird, huh? We have also discovered that Adam is quite artsy. He loves music and to draw or color. BUT, you know what he loves more than that? DIRT BIKES! I think I already wrote about that earlier in another blog so I won't expand on it. It must be mentioned though.

Adam is that kid that is always saying really cute things too. He just recently began saying most of his R's correctly which made me want to cry. From now on when he says something cute, I will remember to blog it so I can remember it forever.