Stock in United Artists...

OK! OK! OK! For a family that doesn't go to the movies that often, I think we need to buy some stock in United Artist - we have been to THREE movies in less than TWENTY-FOUR hours!!

1) Ty and I went to see Wanted - absolutely would NOT recommend it to ANYONE - no matter how much you like Angelina Jolie - the profanity is awful and it is REALLY gruesome!!!

2) Richard and I went to see Kung Fu Panda with Cindy, Emma, Robin, and Manze yesterday morning.

3) Ty, Richard, and I went to see Wall.E last night.

While at the Kung Fu movie, Richard kept saying that he wanted to see Wall.E after seeing the previews...I told him that daddy would bring him to see it sometime...no more thought given to the idea....well, when daddy got home, Richard was "all about" the fish and showing them to daddy. Richard ate his supper and then went to watch some TV while we began to fix ours' - it was at that point that a preview for Wall.E came on and it triggered something inside of Richard's little head - he became obsessed with Wall.E and daddy taking him to see it. Ty looked up the times and it was beginning in thirty minutes - did we really want to go outside and put together the new swing set anyway?!?!? Off to the movies we headed - the ticket lady actually recognized me from that morning....Richard did MUCH better with the movie - I took him "walking for about ten minutes and then his daddy took him for about the same - after that he came back in and sat in my lap and watched the rest of the movie. He waved bye to Wall.E as he reluctantly left the theater - it was so sweet. KUDOS to Disney - Wall.E was a hit with my lil munchkin...he jabbered about Wall.E, Eve, the Captain, and the "bug" till he drifted off to sleep.

New Pets for the Sullivans....

We used to have our aquarium filled with beautiful cichlids, but then they went to fishy heaven. We then put our fish from the fair (from two years ago) in there....one of them died last week...he was huge (about 4 1/2 inches long). The one remaining "fair fish" has been hiding under the castle, which is not much fun for Richard (don't know if he is sick or just lonely). Well, before our company came in last weekend, Ty and I attacked the aquarium - new filter system, rocks, the whole shabang! When the Kung Fu movie didn't work out yesterday, Richard and I braved the rain and took a trip to PetSmart! Time for new "fishies" to come to our house to live. I asked for five but the salesman scooped six and I didn't have the heart to put him back so at a whopping 29cents a piece with a two week guarantee, the bag was filled and we were on our way to giving them a new home. After letting the water temp adjust we released them into the tank. Richard fed them their lunch and as you can tell from his face he adores them.

P.S. The "fair fish" (which Richard calls the "daddy" fish because he is so HUGE compared to the new babies) has become so perky and swims around with the babies now - maybe he was just lonely.

Kung Fu for the age of TWO - not such a great idea!!

Cindy sent a text with the invite to go see a movie.... Richard has gone to a couple and done GREAT! Well, don't know if it was the time of day, the distraction of two sweet little friends to jump and play with, or that the movie just was not interesting to him - but we didn't make it through Kung Fu Panda. Oh well, we'll try again later because we always have fun when we get together with our friends from Mrs. Beth's.

P.S. I'll get some pics from Robin and Cindy and add them as well - they have pics of our energetic "not sitting down" kiddos.

What Have I Done?

The other day when I was creating some posts Richard came in the office - he kept saying "colors" and pointing to the desk. Well I didn't see any colors, but due to his persistence I began digging around on the desk and found the "colors" he was talking about. Somewhere along the line someone gave us the colors you can use in the bathtub - Ty and I were going out that night, so I thought hmm - no big deal he can have his bath early so the babysitter wouldn't have to do it...oh my gosh!!! I thought I was going to have a heart attack as he began with his artwork on the sides of our tub - I wrote his name for him (since all true artwork is signed LOL) and he took it from there - he had fun showing Tigger the orange - and coloring EVERYWHERE - even on the floor of the tub. The colors did wash off amazingly easily, but I still think that we will reserve our coloring as an "out of the bath tub" activity!

One Blessing of Being A Teacher...

I am so thankful for my time that I have off in the summer to be with Richard...it makes the dropping him off every day during the school year much easier. Some days we go to the park, some days we go swim, some days we have play dates, but others (like Monday) we just enjoy hangin' out in our backyard. Richard has quite a collection of things to play with (I only have about $35 dollars invested in all of his backyard entertainment), but oh my we sure do have a blast! Richard had not slept well Sunday night and mommy didn't have nearly the energy that Richard had so we both put on our swimsuits, I tuned the jam box to 98.7 and I settled on the swing and Richard had a blast! We stayed out for about 2 1/2 hours till it was getting really hot so in we came and both CRASHED at nap time!

Goodbye NO.... See You Later YES!!!

As we predicted it was incredibly hard to get out of bed Sunday morning so all people in the house over the age of two QUIETLY got up and got dressed and left waking the little ones up till the last possible moment. We were glad to be able to share in worship time with Shawn and Michelle and truly happy that it was "Chip" preaching so that they would be able to hear our pastor preach. The kiddos were off to Sunday School and thankfully, since Richard wasn't in the grandest of moods, Mr. Tony and Mrs. Candace were in class with them. The kiddos had fun entertaining themselves while Ty went to turn in the pager....we headed to lunch...home for naps...and then it was time to say "see you later" just now three years before the next over night visit!!! As Shawn and Michelle got ready to leave, they told Emma to say goodbye - well she did, but not as they expected - she walked over to Richard turned to her parents waved and said goodbye to THEM!!! LOL We all had so much fun and it is great to see how God has blessed both of our families through the years. It touched my heart today when Richard was playing with his race cars - he came over to me and said "miss Emma Mommy" - I promised him that we would see her again soon - so y'all better come stay with us in September!!!

Pizza It Is. . .

After good long naps the kiddos were ready to go again, so off to the cars and in gear to go to Gattis Town. It is terribly hard to convince two two year olds to eat when they KNOW the games are in the other room and they can HEAR all of the children from the WHOLE world in there having fun!!! They enjoyed the driving games, and dancing games, of course the carousel, but I think the all time favorite game was basketball and hey who can complain - with two kids and two parents tossing the balls in we received twenty tickets each time we played the game! Who knows, one of these days we may even have enough tickets to buy a sucker! LOL Richard was NOT tired and had a GREAT time making his flag "dance" on the ride home, but we figured that and eleven o'clock bedtime was pushing it since we had church the next day!

**I asked Ty as he looked at the pic of he and Michelle and our kiddos walking in to Gattis Town hand in hand if fifteen years ago he would have pictured any of this - he said "no, but I sure am glad it is so."

Splish Splash Let's Go Swimmin'

The weather was so beautiful Saturday that we decided to walk over to the pool after lunch. Emma and Richard had a lot of fun - especially throwing the balls for the parents to retrieve and riding on the purple and yellow "boat" (raft = and yes Ty will kill me for the pic because of his hair.) Richard literally wore himself out and fell asleep in the pool while Ty was holding him...so off to the house we headed for afternoon naps before finding some more fun to get ourselves into!

Family and Friends for the Fourth!

Long time friends from TN came to spend the weekend with us. Ty and Michelle were in the choir at Bellvue Baptist Church many years ago...Shawn and I came into the picture years later! We explained to Richard that mommy and daddy's friends Mrs. Michelle, Mr. Shawn, and Emma were coming to stay with us ~ he was seemed to be excited with that ~ he was totally confused when a different Emma than he was expecting came in, but he quickly discovered that she was a "cool" Emma as well...they had so much fun chasing each other, "destroying" his room within about ten minutes, and showing a bit of sibling love as they wrestled each other (they are only one month apart in age.) Mom and Dad came over and grilled out with us and we all had fun watching the kids play (although I think Shawn just about had a heart attack when Richard kissed his little girl good night - breathe Shawn breathe!) We got the kiddos bathed and ready for bed when fireworks in the neighborhood began going off so we went out to watch for a while and when they finished, Ty shot some for us as well. We even had a surprise visit from our former neighbor and her two little boys - she said that they were out looking for fireworks and just knew that Mr. Ty would be shooting them!!

Trains, Trains, Trains. . .

Ty works with and builds model trains and modular layouts - he is passing the love of trains on to Richard....soooo.....we decided that a trip to the Ag Museum to see the trains was a good way to spend another part of Ty's vacation. Richard was so excited. . . I dressed him in his Thomas the Train tee shirt that he absolutely adores because when you push the button on it the sound of a train going down the tracks and whistling sounds off. When we entered the room where the train layouts are his eyes lit up and he began running up and down the aisles. He thought it was wonderful that he could push the button and make certain trains begin their trek around the layout. He had little interest in any other part of the museum so we just said goodbye to the trains and the one aquarium of catfish before we called it a day.

P.S. I love that in the pic where Richard is on Ty's shoulders their faces reflecting in the glass show the emotion shining through!

Fun In The Sun...

We were so thankful to have Ty off of work and home with us last week...the first thing on the agenda: have some fun!!! We spent the day at Geyser Falls - and oh my what fun we had!!!!! As you can tell by the huge grin on Richard's face we will definitely be getting season passes next year! We played until Richard was absolutely played out and then we headed over to the Golden Moon and checked into our room. I highly recommend this! Although Richard did not stay asleep it was great to check in and just rest before heading over to the HUGE game room at the Silver Star... Richard was fascinated by the "big ball" on top of the building! We got a kick out of all of the signs about "Little Richard" as we kind of joked during my pregnancy about the fact that I was carrying BABY RICHARD NOT Little Richard!! When Richard woke up this next morning he watched Elmo's World on his little TV and then we headed down to the huge breakfast buffet. We were sad to have to head home, but we had a great time ~ what a way to start vacation!!!