Posts to come...I hope!

It's been a crazy few weeks in which I really needed at least two of me, but since that isn't possible we have been pretty much a split family for several days. Here is what has been going on in our lives and hopefully I can work in some time to provide more details and pictures...assuming I actually get them off phones and cameras. For reference, and in case you didn't know, we live in Dothan and Eric's kids live 3 hours away in Loxley/ Robertsdale.

May 10th - we went to Gulf Shores to meet up with my aunt, uncle, cousins, and their kids
May 11th - we stayed the night in a hotel in order to spend some of Mother's Day with Eric's mom before making our 3 hour drive home
May 12th - Jarom had his soccer banquet
May 13-15th - Joey Destin FL trip to be awarded scholarship(s)
May 15th, 6pm - Joey Senior Awards Night, Robertsdale
May 16th, 8:30am - Jarom's senior breakfast
May 18th, 3pm - Jarom had his Baccalaureate Ceremony in Dothan, Joey had his in Robertsdale and of course they were at the exact same time
May 18th, 6pm - Joey also had his baseball banquet in Robertsdale
May 19th, 10am - Jayson had an award ceremony at school in Loxley
May 19th, 6:30pm - Breanna had her Miracle League banquet in Dothan
May 19th, 7pm - Joey's graduation
May 20th, 9am - Turkey (aka Kylie) had her 6 month well child check
May 20th, 10am - Jarom had his Honors (Senior) awards ceremony

and now we get a bit of a break until Jarom's graduation stuff starts up again next week! Although I do feel like I have forgotten quite a few things from our hectic schedule, but I think you get the point that I have tons of posts to make (including about 2 months of posts I am already behind on)!

Family Fun Day 2014

Dothan hosts a yearly Family Fun Day for those who participate in Dothan Miracle League, Special Olympics, and Special Needs Citizens of Houston County. They had several activities for the special needs citizens and their families, including bouncy houses, air baseball, games, face painting, carriage rides, and food! They provided free lunch for everyone as well as snow cones and drinks.

Bre taking everything in

Sherriff's Helicopter

University of Alabama and one of the two trucks they brought and the Dothan City Bomb Squad

University of Alabama's second truck

Troy University's truck

Carriage Rides, Bre would not go on a ride

New Years Eve

Today is our last full day together for winter break and we decided to treat the kids to a day at the local fun center, Fun Zone. Since the kids couldn't fully decide on what they wanted to do, I made the executive decision to purchase everyone a package, including one for Eric, because grown men are just kids in disguise. Their packages included: admission, roller skating, laser tag, a meal ticket (for either pizza or a hotdog and a drink), 10 video game tokens, and 4 activity tickets that could either be used for laser tag (took 2 tickets), rock wall climbing, bumper cars, gyro chair, or jump shot (jumping on a trampoline while shooting basketballs).

Bre, Turkey, and I were just spectators for the day, but the first stop for everyone was laser tag! No one was positive who actually won, but all of them seemed to enjoy playing and they all raved on how long their game lasted, I guess other places they have played had shorter playing times. From what I gathered they divided up in two teams, Eric, Jarom, and Joey versus Heidi, MyKayla, Jordyn, and Jayson. After laser tag they all wanted to compete against each other on the rock wall. Although their were 4 climbing areas only three people were able to climb at a time. Because my life and time revolve around Turkey (aka Kylie), I missed getting pictures of the first climbers Jarom and Joey, the pictures I have of them are of their second climb later that day. Between all the climbs, Heidi was our top climber clearing all but one wall multiple times. The rock wall rules were you could continue climbing until you had 3 falls. Heidi's first round resulted in 1 fall and her second round resulted in no falls.

After our time at the Fun Zone, Eric and I took the kids for yet another surprise, FIREWORKS! We chose to purchase a prepackaged bundle as it was already close to 6pm and we hadn't started to cook diner yet. Due to our neighborhood of slightly 'older' neighbors, I told the kids (Eric included - remember just another kid!) that they could either spread out their fireworks throughout the night, starting around 10pm or light them all off at midnight. Based on the amount of fireworks we had and the fact that some of our surrounding neighbors started lighting fireworks at about 9pm, the kids decided to spread theirs out over the night, coming in here and there for some snack food and to celebrate the 'first' ringing in of the new year. Due to the weather, a bit cold and drizzling, Turkey, Bre, and I stayed inside so we weren't able to get any pictures and my pyro family tore open that package the second we got home all choosing what they wanted to light and when. Sadly someone (cough, cough, Eric) forgot to get some punks and all I have at the house is matches, so Eric was the only one allowed to light any of them.

As most know Eric's birthday is 1/1 and due to his birthplace, we also celebrated his birthday with the ringing in of the 'first' new year. The girls made him red velvet cupcakes and his kids gave him an Alabama block calendar for his office and I bought him an Alabama name badge clip and Alabama car rugs. Again lame-o me forgot to get any pictures, but we did remember to get an updated picture of all the kids together (since our last one was from Christmas 2011 - yep we are that lame!)

Jayson being my tester to determine where and how to take our picture

The Brady Bunch clan!

And here are some pictures of our time at the Fun Zone!

MyKayla

Jordyn

Jordyn and Jayson

Heidi (Jarom's girlfriend)

Eric

Eric and Heidi

Turkey (aka Kylie) just chillin'

Jarom and Jayson showing their mad skating skills

Jarom with Joey waiting to do the same climb

Joey

Family Soccer Game

In an attempt to get the kids out of the house and burn off some of their energy (okay sugar rush) from all the sugar they have eaten in the last 24 hours we took them down to the local park. This park has numerous baseball fields, batting cages, play ground, bmx track, tennis courts, soccer fields, plus the indoor area houses a gym, swimming pool, and basketball/ volleyball courts.

Eric's kids forgot to bring their baseball/ softball stuff so almost everyone decided to hangout with Jarom while he worked on some of his soccer drills (his high school soccer team starts practice 1/6/14), while Heidi and MyKayla decided to try their hand at tennis. Since the majority of my time and attention were focused on Breanna and Turkey (aka Kylie) I didn't get as many pictures/ video as I would have liked, but at least I got some! Yay me!!!

They're playing Basketball

Well I thought I would be creative and find either a great basketball song or lyrics to attach to this post and attach fun pictures that match up to the lyrics. As of right now, I got nothing. I know there are some 'basketball' songs, however the lyrics not appropriate to post or associate with our family. So here are some of my 300+ pics of the kids playing basketball on 12/24/2012.