much.

The boys and I are still in Alabama. The news of yesterday’s magnificent winter weather was a bit hard for me to hear. I really was sad to be in gray, damp Alabama instead of the winter wonderland of Chattanooga. I watched facebook and twitter statuses stream by describing the sledding, shredding, slipping, and sipping (hot cocoa!). All I could think of was Fuller’s snow boots, snow suit, and gloves tucked away in the mud room missing out on the fun.

It didn’t help that I married into a family that isn’t afraid to be vocal of their dislike of winter. They actually tried to convince me it was a good thing I was just watching it rain instead of improvising sleds for Fuller out of cardboard and cookie sheets. And I’m quite aware that my husband, who prefers warm to cold, wishes he was here instead of there.

But, no, I’m not pouting. Instead, yesterday Fuller spent some time on the make-shift links next to the lake.

Fuller’s love of Wii golf has made him interested in real golf and the little plastic clubs here at the lake were insufficient for Grandpa Albert. So a trip into town ended up as a shopping trip for kids’ clubs. These will live here at the lake, for all grandkids to enjoy. And yes, Fuller has enjoyed them.

And I promise, as Fuller has fun outside without his snow boots and snow suit, I’m not pouting.

Much.

Tebow has earned himself a nickname, “Tebow the Tornado.” He will walk/ stumble his way to an area of a room, destroy it and then move on to the next area. He takes great pleasure in toppling block towers and thinks that Legos/ Duplos should reside in the natural state of a pile on the floor. In fact, Grandpa Albert has occupied Tebow for many minutes by building brick towers out of Megablocks and Tebow will then take them apart in seconds, as if telling Grandpa Albert there is no reason for those bricks to be stacked on top of each other.

Which is why Fuller’s Christmas gift of the Jenga game is confusing to Tebow.

He sees this:

Isn’t it begging for tiny hands to knock it over? Tebow thinks so. And when we end up playing with Tebow around, Tebow reaches, grunts, and whines while Fuller and I take our turns playing the game.

The first time Tebow saw us playing, I was the one who lost, knocking the tower down when removing a crucial block. Tebow saw the blocks, picked up two and threw them down in anger. My baby was angry because he was not the one who knocked down the tower.

Someday we will let him play in our reindeer games, but right now, I guess we need to stick to playing Jenga when Tebow is napping. We can’t have a game ruined by a tornado.

Soon after we got to Lake Martin last week, I mentioned wanting to go to one of the Auburn basketball games. It happened that Auburn would be playing Kentucky, so we got excited and made plans. But apparently a lot of other people got excited as well (probably mostly Kentucky fans) and when I checked the ticket site on Saturday morning I found out the general tickets were all sold out.

Rain dashed our ideas of buying from scalpers so Albert and Linda generously gave their tickets to Fuller and me.

This gift was generous because Albert and Linda have magic tickets that not only get them entrance to the games but access to the hospitality suite (aka free food, drinks, and Fuller’s favorite: POPCORN!). Also, it meant they were going to keep Tebow while Fuller and had a mother-son date. It all adds up to generous giving.
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Last Wednesday the kids and I packed up the car (I did most of the packing, Tebow did a lot of whining, and Fuller was fetching things like a good kid), kissed Damon goodbye (though I did help him move our bed first), and drove to Lake Martin to spend a few weeks with Grandpa Albert and Grandma Linda.

While trips to Lake Martin are usually of the rest/ relaxation/ spoil the grandkids variety, this trip is actually more of a relocation for us for a few weeks. We fled from Chattanooga with the dream of returning to a home with a newly renovated master bedroom/ main bathroom.

Yes, that is right! Damon has made the foray into the final big project for renovating our fixer-upper! I’m beyond excited, but I sit lakeside enjoying pretty sunsets and nature walks, my husband has been tirelessly working in the evenings doing demo work, plumbing, and framing. From what I understand work on the new drywall began today, so things are progressing.

Our time here at Lake Martin is relaxing (this place kind of oozes relaxation) but I have cracked the whip a little, bringing the homeschool books, pencils, and even the safety scissors to keep us moving along in the education arena. But we have traveled a little- visiting Grandma Great in Auburn yesterday. Fuller and I took in the Kentucky versus Auburn basketball game last Saturday, which really added to the family fun (it was like a little mother-son date!).

We hope to go back in the next few weeks, but until then we are looking forward to seeing the changes and enjoying our time here in Alabama.

I have decided the reason parents like to give kids new pajamas on Christmas Eve is so the pictures they take Christmas morning shows the kids in crisp (slept-in) clothes. I like the idea of giving my kid the PJs so the pictures I take look nice. And this year was the first year we did it!

I actually never really gave the Christmas morning PJs much thought, except in 2006 when we went to Lake Martin and I forgot to pack Fuller ANY PJs. Damon and I found ourselves at a tiny dollar store trying to cobble together an acceptable pajama ensemble so he looked ok on Christmas morning.

This year I spent quite some time looking for PJs for Fuller because all of his current pajamas are actually on the too small side. While he is quite skinny and can squeeze into them ok, it shows how much height he has gained when his long sleeved pajama tops look like short sleeves and his long pants are all high waters.

Which leads me to my purge point: we have started to purge the house as we ready for the next big renovation. And purging means I will finally go through Fuller’s drawers and remove all items that are too small for him. Which will cut down on the amount of time he spends doing his morning jobs, because I haven’t had to tell him to go change because the shirt he put on is too small for him.

Happy purging! It’s a new year, time to take out the old.

Christmas 2008 was the Christmas we received the Wii game system as a gift. It has been such a fun thing for our family to have, providing lots of good family fun and an excellent way for Fuller to release some energy on rainy or freezing days.

This Christmas it was no surprise that Fuller’s Christmas list included a few Wii games.

Mariokart was a game he had seen at Best Buy once, long ago, and it stuck with him because it was something he could drive. When he saw it on Christmas morning, with his name tag on it, he was thrilled. Apparently he took to the game right away and can do really well when he wants to. Unfortunately that is a game I can’t play with him since it makes me motion sick. Damon however, can earn lots of father-son points with Fuller when they play together.

Fuller also got Wii Resort. This made his list because he had seen it at Luke’s house. Fuller was surprisingly good at the archery and loved the flying he could do.

While Wii games aren’t the only things Fuller got for Christmas, they are definitely the most used right now. Once we start school back up, it will be back to scheduling Wii time and choosing our games carefully.