So, seeing as how I am way behing on posting, I thought I might try to bring everyone up to date on the Whitaker household. We have abandoned the Tigers temporarily. After the Vanderbilt game, Brother went and traded our Auburn tags in for Curing Childhood Cancer for him and Breast Cancer research for me. He said he wanted his money to go for a better cause. My poor little ones just don't understand why they aren't in auburn every weekend--rollins wants to move there. Here is a picture from her last game to attend this season.
I guess the big event of October was the birth of my brother, Jon's son, Christopher Cash LeCroy. He was born October 22 at Gadsden Regional weighing 7lbs 13 oz and was 21 inches long. Rollins and Grady have fallen in love with their new cousin. Rollins wants to hold him all the time and claims that he talks to her.
Also in October, we attended Carsyn's 1st Birthday. This is the daughter of Brother's cousin, Clark and his wife Cassie. They live in Birmingham and had her party at Overton Park, which Rollins and Grady loved.
Oh how I wished we had parks like this in Guntersville that you could just walk to. I have begged Brother to move to Birmingham, Huntsville or Nashville, but he just can't leave Guntersville. I love big cities and the small communities you find within them. There is such a variety of things to do and I think it would be wonderful for the children. As for now, I guess we will just stay in Guntersville.
We also took a trip to the Pumpkin Patch with Rollins and Grady's nursery school. Rollins absolutely loved the pony ride, which she wouldn't do last year. Grady wouldn't even walk in the rink with the ponies. He has developed a lot of fears right now, and he has become very clingy. I am not really sure what has brought this on, but hopefully, he will grow out it. We can't even go to Sunday school because he won't stay in his class. He immediately starts crying and throwing up. It gets very frustrating, but his doctor said to make him as comfortable as possible in public places so we try to do that. However, Grady did love the petting zoo. He thought the animals were the coolest things at the farm. In fact, he was the last on out of there. I am so glad he enjoyed them.I absolutely love this picture. I have no idea what they were talking about, but knowing the two of them, I am sure it was some deep conversation. I love watching Rollins and Ann Daniel together. It's the sweetest relationship I have ever seen between two children. They genuinely love eachother and can't wait to see eachother even when they have only been apart for a few hours.
Here is another picture of Rollins and her favorite cousin. Everywhere we go, we have to pick up surprises for baby June Bug as rollins refers to him.
On November 12 I turned 30. I have to admit, that it was kind of depressing, because it's another decade passed. My 20's were fantastic. I graduated from college, worked in the corporate world, lived independently, got married, and had two children. I felt like I accomplished so much. Anyway, for my birthday, Brother and I had dinner with our dear friends Stewart and Kate White at my favorite restaurant, Polly's Chop House. We had a wonderful meal and even more wonderful conversation. I am so thankful to have a friend like Kate. We don't get to see eachother that much during the school year, but we make up for it in the summer on the lake.
I just thought this was a cute picture of Grady. It's finally getting cold here, so now the kids have to wear their warm clothes to go outside. They absolutely love being outside and the only thing Rollins wants for Christmas is a trampoline. For those of you who have never seen our backyard, you are not alone, because we haven't either. There is a nice slope all the way to the golf course. We have never even been back there. The kids just have to play in the front yard. So Rollins Christmas present is going to end up costing us a lot more than we bargained for seeing as how we are going to have to build a back yard now. We hope to get started this week. I am just as excited as the kids, because I like being outside as well.
When Rollins was born, my mom became like her second mom. I often wondered what would happen when we had a second child because I called Rollins my mom's child. Well, when Grady came along, my grandmother took him over. She would come to the shop everyday just to hold him all day long while I worked. She was the only one that could get him to sleep by holding him and he recognized her voice everytime she walked in the shop. I am so thankful I had her there to help me. For the 6 months I breast fed him, she would come to us, then she kept him at her house when he started taking a bottle. Since we sold the shop, he doesn't see her everyday, but he hasn't forgotten about here. This picture was taken at Soup day at nursery school. He just loves his grandma!
I thought this was a precious picture of Rollins, Ann Daniel and baby Cash. I think rollins and AD just adopt eachother's family. Rollins even calls AD's grandmother, MiMi.
Oh how they love eachother!
Finally, I will tell you about this picture. I enrolled Rollins in gymnastics with my old coach in Huntsville at Southern States Gymnastics. Brother thought she might be too young, and I didn't want her to feel pressured to do something she didn't want to do, so I told him we would just try it out to see how she likes it. As a former gymnast, I can see talent, and I knew Rollins had it, but I wanted her to find out on her own. I have been absolutely amazed at how well she has done. Her coach couldn't believe the upper body strength she had, which happened to be my weak spot. The gym she is at is extremely competitive, and I just hope she chooses to stick with it. Her coach has started making her do 2 boy style push ups if she falls off the beam, but I have noticed that no one else has to and they fall off everytime they walk the beam. Her coach talked to me after class one day and said she does that because she knows Rollins can do it without falling off instead of her just trying to go down the beam as fast as she could. When we got home, I told Rollins to tell daddy what she has to do when she falls off the beam, she held up 2 fingers and said, "i have to do 2 pushups". Then she showed him how she did them. He thought it was mean, but he just doesn't understand. Last week, she didn't have to do a single pushup, though. My brother, Jon, loves to do stunts with her because you can do anything with her, because she is so tight. You can do full extensions with her while she is doing a cheer and she never even falls. I have to admit that I am so proud of her. She has definitely impressed me and gone far beyond my expectations.