"Send in the Firetruck...Nathan turned 3!!"

We had Nathan's 3rd birthday party on the Saturday after his birthday. We had a firetruck party!! Our wonderful fire department came out with one of their trucks and let the kids play on it, pretend "drive" it, touch everything, wear the hats, and take pictures on it! After, the firemen came in and joined us in singing "happy birthday" to Nathan. Nathan LOVED it!
I ordered the food for the party from Panera Bread and they delivered it before the party. We had sandwiches, salads, fruit, chips/dip, cookies, etc. Panera did a great job, I had a wonderful lady who worked with me on ordering! I highly recommend this!
Nathan enjoyed playing with all of his friends, and opening gifts.
Nathan loves firetrucks, so he really had a fun time at his party!
In fact, Nathan had a great birthday "week"! We went to the zoo on his birthday, we went to the aquarium with the MOMS Club on the thursday before his party, his nana an papaw came on Friday and stayed the weekend with us, Saturday was the party, and on Sunday we went with my sister, brother-in-law, and niece to Six Flags! WOW....busy, FUN week! I'm not sure if we'll be able to top that "birthday week" next year??!!
Oh well, you only turn "3" once!

Nathan turns "3"!!!

I can't believe my little baby boy is a three year old!!! Nathan turned 3 on August 12th. We were having his birthday party on the following Saturday, so I thought we would do something special for his actual Birthday. So, I asked him the morning of his birthday what he wanted to do that day and he said, "I wanna go to the zoo!!"..... so off to the zoo we went! Brian had to work so it was just Nathan and I. We had a blast! We are members of the zoo, so we like to go often. Nathan loves the animals, and especially the train, merry-go-round, and the park! I bought him an unlimited rides pass, so we rode the merry go round, and train 4 times! We ate lunch, watched a bird show, looked at some of the animals 2 and 3 times, and got dippin' dots....our zoo tradition! He was such a big boy, staying right with mommy, we didn't even carry in the stroller! At the end of the zoo visit, I let him go to the gift shop to pick out a birthday present. He picked out toy binoculars. He LOVES playing with his daddy's binoculars, so he was happy to have a pair of his own!

After the zoo trip, his daddy came home, and we went out to eat with some friends of ours for our MOMS Club "family night out". Nathan and his friends enjoyed running in the rain around the fountain outside the restaurant. Then we got home and let him blow out his 3 candles on his cookie cake and open one gift! He loves to blow out candles. It was a great day! I still can't believe he is THREE YEARS OLD!!

going away to college...

A few weeks ago we were able to go over to Alabama for the day to visit with my husband's family, which included our nephew, Jake. He left last week to go to college in Montana to major in petroleum engineering. He received a full scholarship! We are very proud of him, and wish him the best of luck! I know his family, especially his 2 sisters, will miss him very much! We are looking forward to seeing him again at Christmas, and see how college life is treating him.
We had a great day visiting with everyone! Nathan had such a great time, he fell asleep before we got out of the driveway, and slept the entire 3 1/2 hour drive back home!
The following week, Brian's stepdad had a stroke and was admitted to Huntsville Hospital. He has since been moved to HealthSouth Rehab. He is getting better and we continue to pray for a complete recovery!
And in other news with that side of the family, our niece, Bethany, recently graduated from The University of Alabama with her nursing degree! She also just got engaged! We are very proud of her, and so very happy for her as well! We wish Bethany the best of luck with her new job at the hospital, and on planning her wedding!

Slip & Slide fun!

Nathan had a great time at Caroline's house with her Slip & Slide, so we ended up getting him one of his own! He has run, slid, fallen down, just laid in the water at the end, and had a blast!
Slip & Slides have come a long way since I was a little girl and had one of my own! I need to get the pictures from my mom of the one my sister and I had...that would be hilarious!!

Going back to July....

Ok, so I'm way behind in my blogging, and since I'm not getting much sleep these days, I may as well get caught up!

On July 25th, Brian and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary...I posted the pictures from 10 yrs ago in a previous post.

I got the babysitter and Brian took care of the rest. He told me to be ready by 6:30pm. While I was getting ready the florist delivered a dozen roses. We went to dinner at Anthony's in Buckhead. It was a beautiful restaurant with a very interesting history. Our meal was wonderful! The entire evening was wonderful and I look forward to another 10+ years with my wonderful husband!

Cute song

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"MIA" and a sick dog....

I know, I've been "missing in action" from "blog world". It has been a busy, but fun summer!! I have lots I need to post about, but I may sum it up in one or two posts later this week?? I know this Fall will be busy, so I need to stay caught up!!

One reason I've been laying low lately is because we found out our dog, Hobbes, has cancer...lymphoma. We got Hobbes right after we got married, when he was a puppy. He has been with us for 10 years! He started "coughing" and sounding like he was choking a few weeks ago, then Brian felt some swollen glands under his neck. We took him to the vet where they drew the fluid from the glands, and it came back cancer. They only gave him 4 weeks to live, or told us we could do chemotherapy treatments on him. So we talked to the vet about what the treatments would do to him because we don't want him to be any more sick, or in pain. The vet told us dogs usually respond really well to treatment. They sometimes have nausea, and you have to watch for dehydration. So after we found out it wasn't as bad as the chemotherapy people have, we of course decided this was the way to go!

There is no cure for his type of cancer, but hopefully he will go into remission soon, and the vet said most dogs live almost 2 more years. We drop him off every week (once a week), in the morning, then pick him up in the afternoon. His treatment is for 6 months.

It's so sad to think only 2 more years with him, but who knows, he could live longer....

When the vet told us 4 weeks, we just couldn't imagine, so 2 years sounds wonderful compared to that.

Hobbes is about 107 pounds and very tall! Even though he is that big, he is still a "lap dog". He lays in our laps at night while we're watching tv. He sleeps in our bed every night, and he eats very well. He is very spoiled, and even more so now! When we first got him, we took off work just to be with him! That tells you how much a part of our family he is!

No matter how much he barks, whines, or begs, we still love him very much. The thought of losing him really hit us hard.

He had his first treatment on Friday and he did very well with it. It didn't make him sick, and he actually has more energy, and hasn't coughed lately! We're very hopeful!

He's not just a dog...he's a part of our family!