Strawberry Picking

Last Friday night we took the kids to go pick strawberries. Last year mom kept Westin Kate and I took Wade so this was her first time going. It was also Josh's first time going. My first time was three years ago when Wade was one. I know that is crazy but neither Josh nor I like strawberries so we never went growing up. Wade however loves them and WK is starting to eat them some. It was hot but they had a good time. Wade loves going and WK loved running off from us every chance she could. After picking them we walked downtown and got ice cream for dessert. We are so thankful for our fun little town!

Granddaddy Thompson

My sweet Granddaddy passed away almost two weeks ago. I wrote an entire post about it but it is saved on my work computer so I will transfer that over soon. He was such a sweet man and he will be missed by so many of us. I have to write down about this picture that I found. Before his funeral my mom asked me to find a picture with him and WK because they didn't have any at his house. So I came home and found this one. Of course it makes me sick that this is the only picture I have of them. I don't know why I didn't take any of her with them at Christmas. Well for some reason I turned this picture over to see how old she was and the date on the back was 5/11/12. It was so crazy because he died on 5/11/13. The one and only picture I have of him and her is exactly one year before he passed away. Such a special picture. He loved our kids so much and I wish he would have gotten to see them more. We really miss him!!

. Almost three weeks ago my sweet Granddaddy had a heart attack. We got a 

call Saturday afternoon and I called out of work and my mom, sister and I all left and went to spend 

some time with him that Saturday and Sunday. I was hesitant about calling out or work and leaving 

the kids at home but now I am SO thankful I did. I got to spend a few hours with him both days. He 

didn't get great news but the doctor told him he had two choices-he could go home and he would live 

anywhere from 1-90 days and would have another heart attack because he had three blockages or he 

could have triple bypass surgery. Well  I honestly can’t believe they offered him surgery but because 

he was in really good shape (besides his heart) they did. He went to the YMCA three days a week and 

would lift weights and do water aerobics with the Silver Sneakers.  He really didn't want the surgery 

and second guessed it but my dad and his two brothers really wanted him to try. I think the only reason 

he did it was for his kids and because he didn't want my grandma to find him in the garden or in the 

house. He actually had the surgery and was doing great. He was up and walking and eating and we all 

thought he would go to rehab and come home. One of the last few things he said to me was “you all 

sure do mean a lot to me!” I was telling him how many people were in the waiting room for him and 

then he told me that. Oh how I wish I would have taken the kids more to visit them-we hadn't been since 

Christmas and that is just too long.  Last Friday night he started to crash and he went downhill fast. I am 

so sad I didn't get there in time to see him before they intubated him-I wish so bad that I would have at 

least called him last week or gotten there sooner. I just thought I would see him Friday night since he 

was doing so well. I have learned to never take that for granted because things can change way too fast.  

He crashed again Saturday and he passed away a week ago today-last Saturday May 11

sad but my dad, uncles and grandma are just heartbroken. He was their best friend. My two uncles live 

on the same street as they do and one lives right beside them. They got to see him every day and this is 

going to be so hard on them.  We still don’t really know why he crashed but we are hoping the doctor 

will tell us soon. I have always heard that if you really aren't sure about surgery than you should not do 

it. We miss him so much and he was such a sweet man.

He LOVED his garden and had already started planting it this year. At 88 he still enjoyed it. He was so 

proud of his huge tomato plants and collard greens. He loved going to Sheetz with my uncle to eat  

dinner and socialize with friends and he would sell his collards there. He also went to the senior citizen 

place once a week. On Tuesdays the bus would come pick him up and take him there. They played 

games and had lunch together. Sometimes they would even take day trips and my Grandma would pack 

his lunch. I was so honored to meet one of his friends from the YMCA and one from Creekside (Sr. 

citizen place) He and my grandma have been married 67 years and I know this has got to be so hard for 

her-she is staying strong for her boys but please pray for them all. We sure will miss him!!! Thanks to 

Nana and Poppy and Kendal/Matthew for helping out with our kids during all of this. They had so much 

fun with you all and we really appreciate it!!

This picture is so special to me. My granddaddy would go to auctions and bid on stuff he liked.  Well he found this bike a month or two ago and has been waiting to give it to Wade. Just makes me sick thinking that he didn't get to give it to him. Oh how I would change that if I could. I told him in the hospital before his surgery that when he got out I would bring Wade over to let him see it. This picture was taken the day after he died. He never got to see him on it. The strange thing was the day before he died he told my mom and my grandma "look at Wade out there in the hallway riding that bike I got him!" Well of course Wade didn't go to  the hospital but I am so thankful that somehow Granddaddy got to see him on it. I guess he dreamed it? 

Also the day before he passed away he randomly told my Grandma when they were talking "I will never be here tomorrow?" Not sure why he said that maybe he knew it was his time to go? Still gives me chill bumps thinking about it!

Oh and my sister is pregnant!! So glad to have some good news around here. I 

have known for a long time now but glad I can finally tell people. She is 13 weeks and starting to feel a 

little better. They tried for a little over a year to have a baby and they are so excited. We can’t wait to 

meet him or her. I am guessing her but sometimes I think boy so I really don’t have any idea!! Thanks to 

Oldies

My computer has been having some major issues and half the time I can't upload pictures but tonight I finally got it to work. So better late than never...here are some older pictures. The first two are from Moms Day (in April) at Wade's school. We had the best time together that day. His teacher took pictures of us together but I haven't  gotten that one off shutterfly yet. Here are Wade and his buddies at school! He had his last day this week and he is going to miss it so much.

Just a couple of weeks after Wade turned 4 he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. I took these on April 30th. He is such a big boy and is so proud of himself!!

WK wanted to join our movie date night a few weeks ago. Thankfully the movie was over and she went right back to sleep when Josh held her. Her fourth molar is almost in and oh how thankful we will all be when that is over. She started getting her one year old molars around 15 months and they all 4 came in pretty quick.

Wade has had a great T-ball season. He loved it and did so well. He played his last game this past weekend. I will do a post with those pictures soon! This was the first weekend in May and it was freezing. We all had pants and jackets on. They started coach pitch after a few weeks and Wade did great hitting the ball when it was pitched to him. He never had to go back and use the tee again-he got a hit every time. We had one proud daddy and coach!!

15 Months Old!!

Ugh my baby is not a baby anymore-she is quickly turning into a toddler. On May 6th she turned 15 months old. Since I didn't do a 14 month post I figured I would do a 15 month one. Here is what she is up to these days:

• weighs 22lbs (50th%)
• is 30 inches long (40th%)
• wears mostly 18 month clothes-can wear some 12 and some 24 depending on the place
• wears size 3-4 shoe-4's are really big on her but sometimes if we can't find a 3 wide we have go up
• size 4 diapers
• mostly takes one 2-3 hour nap a day-sometimes will fall asleep for 20-30 min in the morning if we are out
• night time sleep is still not great- of course now we are getting one year old molars and that is not helping-goes down at 815p and is usually up crying by 430am (sometimes earlier)
• LOVES to be outside and will not go to the garage door and cry to go out
• cries and has little "fits" if she doesn't get her way-she will arch her back or just throw herself down...it is quite amusing. 
• babbles all day long and says a few words- dada, wade, mama, mo (more), uh oh-she doesn't talk much only when she wants too
• knows some of her animal sounds-dog, cat, lion/tiger, almost has cow down!!
• loves to pretend to talk on the phone
• always wants my phone or Josh's and throws the biggest fit when we don't give it to her
• LOVES dogs-its her very favorite thing right now-she will point and grunt until we take her to see them
• loves for us to read to her and her favorite book is Go Dogs Go (loves any animal book though)
• loves bath time and is going to be a hand full at the pool this summer
• climbs EVERYTHING especially at the park and loves to slide
• loves to sing and starts "singing" when her songs are playing-can almost do the hand motions for Itsy Bitsy Spider-still loves to dance and wave her little arms in the air
• loves to feed herself and can pretty much use a fork by herself (haven't tried the spoon yet-too messy!)
• walks/runs everywhere and falls all the time-this girl is so tough (must be the older brother thing)
• she is mean...just tell her "no" and she looks at you and just stares at you with the meanest little face and those big brown eyes-I can already tell she is going to be sassy
• has started to hit things if she doesn't want it-she was mad and I was trying to give her a paci and she hit it away
• today she decided she was mad at Wade and started pulling his hair for no reason
• she also threw a glass jar of salsa down onto the store floor today because she didn't want it in the cart beside her-oh what a fun time at Home Goods!! 

He is little Miss Trouble herself-please ignore my dirty shower!! Besides dogs her next favorite thing these days are balloons. The next pictures are from Peak Fest in Apex in early May. She was so happy until one of her red balloons went up in the sky!!

I love this picture because they are both mad about something. WK is throwing her hands in the air and Wade is pouting. Good times!!

Oh Westin Kate good thing you are so cute because you are a mess. We love you so much and are so thankful for such a tough and feisty girl. You are going to keep us on our toes for sure. Even as wild as you are you can be the most sweet and loving thing. You love to hug us and give us kisses and you love to be held when you are tired. You just lay your sweet little head down on our shoulders and we love it. You are crazy and I am pretty sure you are not scared of anything yet (except a horse.) You did not want to get close to it at all. You are a little monkey and a little dramatic and you are so funny just like your brother. We always joke around and say if you would have be born first you would have been an only child. We are kidding of course and we know this is just a busy age and we really do love it. We are so happy that you have completed our little family!! 

Life Lately

Since Disney I feel like I have hardly taken any pictures of the kids and I have enjoyed a little blogging break. It was nice to take a month off. We have been home pretty much every weekend and have been enjoying being outside whenever it has been nice. WK is running around everywhere and into everything which is also the reason for the blog break. At nap time and night time I am exhausted from chasing her all day. She is busy busy busy right now.

Wade turned 4 last month and about 2 weeks later I started noticing that he was not napping like he used to. I don't even want to say it but I think his nap is starting to fade out. The crazy part is he is not tired any earlier. He is still going to bed around 830p. I told him tonight if he takes a nap he may stay up until 830p however if he does not nap we are pushing bed time up to 8pm. It always seems like this is so much harder in the Summer time though. We are always outside until almost 8 each night. He hasn't stopped napping every day. He might go a day or two without a nap and then the next two days he will still nap for 2 hours. Up until 2 weeks ago he was napping every day for an hour and a half. I know he is 4 and I should be so grateful that we made it this long but I am going to miss my break during the day. We are working on still staying in his room for 1 hr and 30 min even if he doesn't sleep but he keeps coming out and I keep sending him back in!!

WK has also dropped one of her naps. I have been working on dropping it for the last month and just this week I let her take a morning nap and then she did not take an afternoon nap. So...no more morning nap for her. The only bad thing is that she falls asleep every day in carpool when we are picking Wade up. I can lay her down easily but I wish I could keep her up until we got home. Wade only has two more weeks in school so pretty soon it won't make a difference. WK turned 15 months yesterday (I will hopefully get to that post soon!!) and is such a big girl these days. She is so funny and so DRAMATIC-oh how my boy was so much easier at this age.

Speaking of my big boy-Wade is officially riding his bike without training wheels. He is doing so great and riding everywhere. We are so proud of him. About 4 months ago we tried taking his training wheels off but he was just not ready. Well last week he got his little bike out (the one that we took the wheels off) and started riding it around in the garage like a balance bike. He was keeping his feet down and just pushing around. Well the other day he wanted Josh to help him in the grass and he did it. The very next day Josh was at work and we were playing outside and he asked me to help him in the road. I was so nervous but my sweet neighbor was playing with WK so I helped him once and the second time he told me to "let go" and he hasn't stopped since. Today he rode a good mile while we walked. It really helps using his smaller bike because he can reach the ground with his feet. He is getting too big too fast!!

Disney Pictures

I tried to pick some of my very favorites...this is our first day at Animal Kingdom. We loved the big tree of Life!! Wade of course loved Dino Land!!

Here is our first day at Magic Kingdom. We got there before the park opened each day and watched the show and watched Mickey and his friends come out and do the count down to opening. It was so neat!! The best part about getting there early is that the lines are short and you can easily grab a fast pass for any of the rides that have them.

We loved the new fantasy land and tomorrow land so much. Buzz was of course the favorite ride but Wade also loved the Little Mermaid and Winnie the Pooh. Everyone talked about Peter Pan and how we need to go there first and we did but we weren't too impressed. However the line for that ride was always long!!

Our third day there we went to Hollywood Studio's. We had breakfast with Disney Jr. characters and Wade loved it!! He said that June was his "girlfriend" and of course he LOVED meeting Jake!

So much fun meeting Buzz and Woody-my favorite ride was Toy Story ride at Hollywood studios. We did this 2 or 3 times and I loved it. So did the boys!! It is a ride but its like you are playing your own video game-its so fun.

Our last full day we went back to Magic Kingdom. After the first day we quickly learned that we could not stay up late without naps. So we started going back around lunch time to swim and take naps and then we would go back to the park around 4pm and stay until after dinner. This worked well for us and it worked so much better for Wade. We rode a lot of rides but we also did a lot of the show's. Wade loved the Disney Jr. show and loved all the one's that were 3-D. I loved "Fantasmic" and "It's tough to be a bug" was really cute. The shows were a nice break from running around- I imagine that people really love the shows when they go in the summer. It was so nice to take a break and cool off!!

Wade surprised us and LOVED Tom Sawyer's Island. He had so much fun playing on it. It was really hot that afternoon but they had a blast.

Our last night there we ate dinner at Chef Mickey's and it was great. Wade would get so excited when he would see one of the characters walking near our table.

Wade loved the water slide and the pool. The next time we go we will take a day to spend at the hotel.

Classic Josh on Splash Mountain...we were so proud of Wade for riding the "big kid" rides

One happy boy and one happy girl-don't worry WK you get to go next time!