The "Finnster, et al."

On Saturday Finn, Sam and I traveled to Manchester to spend the night at Nana and Papa's house.  We didn't get to Manchester until almost 8:00 so we didn't have a long time to play before it was bedtime.  At 9:30 we all crashed.  Finn and I slept on the murphey bed and Sam slept in the pack-n-play right next to us.  Finn is so sweet to share a bed with.  If I tried to turn over he would put his hands on my face and sweetly whisper "look at me mom."  He reminds of me Emily when she was a little girl and would say, "face towards me Erin." The next morning we woke up and ate some of Nana's Belgium waffles with Em, Zac, Cooper and Hank. Finn ate two cookies and wished me a hearty "Happy Birthday," After breakfast Finn went to Sunday School with Nana while the rest of us got ready for church.  Cooper wasn't feeling great so Zac stayed home with him. Once again, I watched half of the service from the parlor.  Sam wasn't fussy, he was ...

Last week was a first of its kind - Michael was out of town from Sunday night to Friday afternoon.  I don't mind saying that I dreaded it pretty badly.  But thankfully, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  The reason that I didn't blog had nothing to do with the time constraints of being a "single parent" but instead because Michael took the laptop.  Plus I didn't want to broadcast that I was home alone and defenseless all week.  So I will be posting a few pictures from the week in an attempt to catch up. On Monday Finn made me a batch of cookies.  Yes, they are made of Play-Doh.  I was very impressed with his level of detail and his presentation.  Looks like somebody has been taking notes in the kitchen. On Tuesday Sam rolled over for the first time.  When I went to pick up the boys from Victoria's house Victoria told me that Sam made it all the way over.  On Wednesday we met Daddy at Jim-N-Nick's for bar...

Sunday Morning Grandad arrived nice and early to pick up Finn for the night.  Finn was distraught when he found that Sam was going to Grandad's house too.  We were only kidding with him, but he let me know real quick that Sam was too little to go.   With Finn happily on his way to Tullahoma we packed Sam in the car and headed to church. After church we stopped at the Sear's outlet to look at the patio furniture.  Sam was a little fussy but generally did okay.  When we put him back in the car the bottom fell out.  He cried for a solid two and half hours.  I couldn't console him at all.  I think he is teething (at least I hope he is).  He is drooling and chewing on his hands like I chew on pens, a.k.a. constantly. I gave him some Tylenol but it didn't kick in for almost an hour.  Finally, I was able to rock him to sleep.  He slept for a couple of hours and woke up in a glorious mood.  I have a new appreciation for mot...

Saturday was jam packed full of fun for the boys.  First, Sam tried his hand at the jumpy.  He is starting to hold his head up really well so we thought it might be worth a try to let him bounce for a while.  As you can see, Finn helped out too. Here we have a picture of Sam having a lovely time. The very next second he looked that this . . . A rare picture of Sam crying. Sam is also trying to turn over.  He is one week shy of being four (4) months old.  It looks like Sam is going to be very flexible. Later in the night we took the boys to a family friendly Cinco De Mayo party at Roger and Anna's house.  Roger and Anna are members of our Sunday School class.  Finn had a ball.  He played in the yard with Addison.  He played with Roger and Anna's little girl's grocery cart and he roasted marshmallows - by far his favorite.  At one point Carissa and I thought we saw Finn chasing Addison around the yard with a...

On Friday the "worker men" as Finn calls them came to stain our patio.  It looks so nice.  To celebrate Michael putting the grill together correctly and the patio being finished we decided to have a small cookout.  When Michael got home from work we all went to the store to pick out the meat.  We bought brats and some pre-patted out burgers (bacon w/cheddar, black and blue, and mushroom).  Once home Michael fired up the grill and James, Chelsea, Finn, Sam, Michael and I sat outside until the food was ready. Michael did a great job cooking the burgers.  I was so excited - I have wanted a grill since we moved in and it was great smelling the burgers cook. Later than night Brandon, Carissa, Addison, and Ella came by.  Addison and Brandon hit baseballs in the back yard for a while.  When it got dark Finn and Addison took Finn's cars out back and played together on the patio.  It is really the first time that Finn has played with Addison....

On Thursday Michael, Finn and I attended the Tenth Annual Teen Court Banquet.  Teen Court is a mock trial program in the Sumner County High Schools.  I am not a coach, but we bought a couple of tickets to the banquet to help support the program.  The event took place in the fellowship hall of a Christian school in town.  We left Sam with Gran so that we could spend some fun time with Finn. When we got there we sat with my good friend Samantha, her mother, her husband and their new baby Evan.  There was another attorney that sat at our table as well.  He was rather taken with Finn.  A few minutes after we sat down he offered Finn half of his bread stick, which Finn ate happily.  Olive Garden catered and it was delicious.  Finn had fettuccine Alfredo while Michael and I ate lasagna.  Finn also two more bread sticks, the croutons of all of our salads and two deserts.  Finn was also pretty well behaved during the program - he clapped ...

Today Finn made me so proud.  He walked bravely into Mr. Oliver's office, walked right up to Mr. Oliver and "gave him five!"  Last year at this time Finn would cry at the very mention of Mr. Oliver's name.  This year he answered all of his questions and didn't hide in my legs at all.   How far we have come.  He did however, get a little nervous when I asked if he wanted to give Mr. Oliver a hug. We also made a stop at my friend Samantha's office where Finn talked the secretary's ear off.  When we entered the building the secretary asked me what my name was and I responded.  Finn immediately said, "my name is Finn and I love my Daddy." Today was a much better day for Finn.  We only had one little episode this morning.  Finn also worked out with me. I gave him a little "one" pound weight and he did curls with me.  Finn's  counting cracked me up.  He counted 1 through 20 and then after 20 said, "30, 40, 50."  I guess l...