Friday at the Fire Station

Friday morning Beau left early in the morning to go fishing. I got up a few hours later (Sadie slept from 11pm to 8am!) We all got ready and left for the Fire station. Elijah had a great time. It was an incredibly long day...I'll explain as the photos go.

This was our MOM's club group! There were over 50 of us. First we watched a video...

Then the kids learned how to Stop, Drop and Roll. Elijah was the first to try...

They were told to cover their faces while they rolled...

Then the kids watched a fireman put on all his gear so they could learn that even though he may look scary its just a man with a suit on. Elijah was very interested in that...

They turned off the lights and the fireman put his oxygen mask on and the kids could hear his "Darth Vader" voice and see how he glows and shines his lights. Then they were told they could hug the firefighter if they wanted. All this was to teach the kids to go to the fireman if there's a fire, not to be scared. They taught "Don't hide, go outside". Elijah was the first kid to give a hug. No fear...

Then they took a tour of the firehouse. Maddie wanted Elijah to hold her hand the whole time. Elijah loved it - he loves holding hands...

Posing by the truck...

"Grant, this is a pressure valve."

Elijah working the water hose to put out a fire...

A picture with Sparky...

Sadie and I joined Elijah...

Maddie and Elijah looking a little stunned when they turned on the very loud sirens and honked the horn on the truck...

After leaving the fire station I headed to Kroger to get gas before going home. Right before getting to Kroger I started hearing "thump, thump, thump" like I had a flat. I got to Kroger and looked at all my tires, no flat, but I could hear a whooshing. I inspected the tire it was coming from and found a giant bolt stuck in the treads. It was at least the size of my pinkie (the part I could see). I couldn't get a hold of Beau, but talked to my dad who said to drive straight to the tire store. I did that (it was only a few miles away). Just before I could pull into NTB I heard another very loud noise and was sure I just had a blow out. I looked in my rear view mirror expecting to see rubber. Nope, I could see the bolt bouncing down the highway! That's how big it was!! I immediately felt the back of my care drop. This is what I found a few mins seconds when I got to NTB...

UGH! I couldn't get a hold of Aimee, he was still fishing. I called Aimee and she came and got us. I wasn't sure if we'd get all 3 car seats in the back of her car, but we did...

I fed the kids, put them down for naps (which Elijah never fell asleep), Beau came home, I took his truck to buy groceries. I came home, we went and got my car. We came home and I started dinner. This is what Elijah did...

We were a little tired after our long day!

I need to go start getting ready. We're having the youth group parents over tonight for fajitas and a meeting. Better go get started!

Mom's Night Out

Tuesday night was supposed to be Mom's Night Out to get pedicures with our MOM's club. It got changed to Wednesday night last minute. Aimee and I had planned on going and had secured Gary and Beau to keep the kids for a few hours, but they could only do it on Tuesday so we had our own MNO. We still had a great time.

Aimee picked me up after I had dinner and fed Sadie...

We got our pedicures. It was great. However, for future reference we will not get the last two appointments of the day. I think the ladies really rushed thru the pedicures because they wanted to go home so they didn't get all the rough junk off my heals (its really a two man job anyway and its possible that power tools may have needed to be involved). We still had fun though.


Afterwards we drove to Piccomollo and had gelato. Mmmm. It was a great evening so we sat outside and really enjoyed ourselves.

Then we headed back to reality and went home to put the kids to bed. Ahh, to be young and childless...wait...let me think about it...no I wouldn't trade my kids for all the pedicures in the world...now ice cream is a different matter...that's definitely a tougher decision! Ha!

Today I hit the ground running. Sadie slept from 11pm to 6am. I fed her at 6 and went back to bed for a few hours. We got up around 8:45am and I got Elijah breakfast, got ready, nursed Sadie, dressed her and ran out the door to make it to Pilates by 9:30 ( I was only 7 mins late). I've been working out for about 2 weeks now, but only walking and doing the elliptical, today was my first Pilates class in probably 8 or 9 months. Wow!! Did that hurt! I don't think I have any abs left! Its the first time I've ever had to stop and rest or go half way. I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow. Elijah got to do Fit Kids while I was in Pilates and Sadie just stayed in the day care.

We left the gym and drove to Froberg's. Beau met us there and we did our last strawberry picking of the season, bought some fruits and veggies and headed home. We had lunch and I put the kids down for naps. While they napped I made brownies (for the Firefighters - we tour the fire station tomorrow with MOM's club), made some homemade applesauce from some apples that were about to go bad, made some popsicles for Elijah, ran the dishwasher and washed pots and pans. WHEW!! Now I'm nursing and when I'm done I'll cook dinner! I'm sure I'll sleep well tonight.

Beau went outside to mow when he got home and Elijah decided to "help". I thought it was a great picture!

I'm off to cook dinner! More tomorrow!

Memorial Day Weekend

We took a long weekend/mini vacation over Memorial Day weekend. It was great! We left here Thursday after lunch, picked up Elijah from Mother's Day Out and headed out of town. We drove 3 hours, stopped for 15 minutes so I could nurse in a Dairy Queen parking lot then drove another 3 hours till we got to my parents' house. As soon as we got there we sat down to dinner my dad had a glorious dinner ready for us. It was steak, sausage, salmon, shark, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, blackberry cobbler and ice cream (mind you it was just us and Mom and Dad!) It was fantastic.

Friday we got up, had a big breakfast and played all day. Here are some pics from the day...

Elijah played with the neighbors' kitten the whole time. We are totally going to have to get him a kitten (for outside). Bibby has totally made Elijah a cat-lover.

He jumped on the neighbors' trampoline, which he also loved...

Friday afternoon Jon, Katy, Brooklyn and Cale showed up along with Zac and Heather. Zac got the kids a slip and slide. It was, lets say, interesting. The kids had a great time.

The boys decided to "lube up" the kids since they apparently weren't sliding well enough. This is them oiling the kids with baby oil...

Elijah didn't quite get it at first...

A very chilly Elijah and Brooklyn...

Brooklyn was an all-star!

He finally figured it out...

but did need a push every time...



Then Jon decided to get in on the action and show the kids how to do it...

To warm up the kids went swimming in the hot tub...

Brooklyn and Elijah did great together (a few meltdowns, but I think that's pretty good for a 2 and 4 year old). Best quote of the weekend:

Elijah and Brooklyn have their own table they sit at during meals. During breakfast one morning:

Elijah: "Brooklyn, do you want some coffee?"

Brooklyn: "Noooo! "

Brooklyn to my mom: "Elijah asked me if I wanted coffee and I just laughed in my brain! I don't like coffee!"

We spent the rest of the weekend saying we "laughed in our brains"! It was really funny to listen to them talk to each other.

After cleaning up we walked down to Jannie and Papa Larry's for dinner. The kids, first, had to check out the tree house.

I ended up having to leave dinner early. I started feeling bad Friday morning. I had gotten Mastitis (look it up) and by Friday afternoon I had a fever. By dinner time the fever was worse (101) and I had to go to bed.

Saturday afternoon we had the party for everyone to meet Sadie. We had family and friends come in that I hadn't seen in a really long time. We had burgers and cake and homemade ice cream! Yumm!

Papa Larry and Elijah playing with Ethan...

Sherrie and I with our new babies. Ethan is about 4 or 5 weeks older than Sadie. They will be second cousins...

We left Stephenville Monday morning and drove to Rosebud. We had lunch waiting on us and got to visit for a while before heading home.

Janice bought Elijah a bug catching kit. He loves it. He wants to go out and catch bugs all day. Yesterday he was trying really hard to catch a baby lizard!

"What are you talking about, Peepaw?!"

Family portrait...

Four Generations...

These were the kids just minutes after getting back in the car...

and they stayed that way till Houston!


Me and my honey after a long weekend!

We had a great time! Thanks to everyone who helped us by coming to the party, cooking, holding Sadie, changing diapers, playing with Elijah and just having some great conversations!

Elijah's Dictionary

It has seemed like Elijah makes up a word every year or so. Last year he would always say "Bah-bay". It would just come out randomly, but especially when he was somewhere he knew would echo like a stairwell. When asked what it meant he would just say it over again. This year his new word is "Shop-a-doo". He says it all the time. When asked what it means he says, "Shop-a-doo means shop-a-doo!" (with an emphasis on the doo) He'll say things like, "Mama, lets go shop-a-doo!" but he uses it so many ways. So...

Elijah's Dictionary:

Bah-bay - who knows what it means

Shop-a-doo - noun, verb, adj. definition: shop-a-doo

Waking Sadie

Yesterday the whole Ballard Brood was able to enjoy something rare...a nice, long nap all at the same time. Everyone in their own beds...it was glorious! Elijah wanted to help wake Sadie up after their naps and I got a few pics of it...

We are enjoying something else very rare around here...its down right chilly! We had a small cool front come thru yesterday. We opened all the window - we don't usually get to do that here, even if it is cool because of the extreme humidity, but even that is low today. We slept with the windows open and it got down into the 50's! It was great. (of course I kept the kids' windows closed, don't worry, they were nice and warm) It actually reminded me of my childhood. In Stephenville the weather is so nice so much of the time that our windows were open most of the year. I always loved waking up to the fresh morning chill. Hopefully we will get to spend quite a bit of time outside today. Its supposed to be hot again within a day or two.

More later.

Quoting Elijah

Elijah at breakfast table:
"Mama, I see people's tee tee's and poe poe's"

Me:
"Was this at school? I knew I shouldn't take you to the Methodist Church! Guess I need to make a few phone calls!" :)

Elijah just kept eating his cereal.

New blog below.

Mandy and the Turtles

Monday morning Mandy flew into town to spend time with me (her favorite friend) and to help me out. We had a great time (or at least I did...I may have just added a few years onto the time they decided to have kids!).

Monday morning when we were leaving to pick Mandy up from the airport Elijah wanted to wear his toboggan. He looked like a mix between Zac Effron and cancer patient...

Wednesday morning we went with MOM's club to Armand Bayou Nature Center to see the turtles. It was really humid (so Mandy was miserable) but we had a pretty good time.

Looking at the turtles...

Looking at a snake in the water...

Mandy the Nanny. She didn't want this picture taken so I'm sure that she'll love the fact that I'm posting it!

Looking at a huge Banana Spider....

Sadie really enjoyed herself...

Elijah was so excited to see what was next, he was always this far in front of us...

Elijah and Grant...

Elijah looking at the hawks...

Making a turtle craft...

Petting the turtles...

After ABNC we went to a near-by park for lunch. I didn't even pack much for Elijah because I knew he was going to choose to play instead of eat. He had a great time...

My dirty little boy! But how can you resist those big brown eyes!?


After the park we went shopping for a few hours before having to take Mandy back to the airport. Mandy took this picture of Elijah while we were at Pier 1 where I actually finally found an end table on clearance!!

Here's my new end table! Don't you love it! I love finding something you need and then looking at the price tag and its on clearance!! Now I finally have somewhere to put my drink and our lamp isn't on the floor anymore!

Elijah went to "preschool" again today. When I got there the teacher said he fell during a fire drill outside and skinned his forehead and elbow. When we got home I was asking him how he fell. He said, "Tye pushed me and I fell and I cried a little bit". I had a moment of "Where is this Tye, I'll push him and skin him up!" But I showed great self control and just said, "oh, I'm sorry you fell." But I'm telling you, if I see that Tye kid...