Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

So we bought the Little Superstar stage after playing with Lucky’s at his first birthday party. But ours seems… broken. It wasn’t broken enough for us to notice early on, so we no longer have the box. But when it plays the songs, it plays shortened versions of the songs… not the full song. Which is kind of disappointing to me because it came with cards with the words, but the full song doesn’t play. Also, in the instrumental mode, the microphone is supposed to make it play music when you shake it. This feature also appears not to work. Since we don’t have the box any longer, we can’t take it back. I did some searching online, but found no reports of similar problems. Has anyone else experienced this? Best I could tell there is not a demo mode on the thing, though that is what it seems like it is in to me. But if one does not exist…

Any ideas???

Update:
From Misty’s comment, we looked a little closer, and sure enough, there was a little slot that looked like there might be something buried down in it. So with a little surgery, we fixed the problem! Now… if only the instructions had mentioned such a thing, we might have thought to check that to begin with. But Misty totally wins with that suggestion!

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

offa my head please!

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

From this:

From May 2008

To this:




And I’m sure I could have done many more vases, if I’d wanted to! There are more rose pictures in the album.

So I got dozens of roses for Mother’s Day! I just had to cut them myself.
ETA - I got lots of other nice things too… that I didn’t have to work for myself. Just thought I’d point that out. I have do have a great hubby and daughter.

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

So how might we have spent today, Phoebe’s first celebration of Mother’s Day?

For one, we got her dressed in her new play outfit that I picked up yesterday.

Then she read the newspaper.

She claimed the dog.

And then we used the new tripod to get a family picture.

It’s been a good day around here. Hope everyone else out there is having a good time.

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

From May 2008

From the Daycare, to me. I love it, obviously!

What we gave our mothers.

And a neat photography mistake. I like that it focused on my reflection instead of the picture. It turned out neat I thought!

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

The daycare does not appreciate it when you forget a pacifier. oops! They had a long day with her yesterday without one!
Also, there are some new photos up here. I would post photos, but google is not working nicely for me right now. The bunny and the cherry pictures are the new ones. That finishes out our April pics. Soon we’ll have to get on the ball and post some May ones!

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

Just in case you needed to know… you can only get four 20 lb. bags of rice at Sam’s club in a single visit. Because, really, who goes through that much rice?

Oh, also Idaho and New Mexico is exempt from the rice restrictions. So in those states, you can buy more than 80 lbs of rice in a visit. Good to know.

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

We snapped this shot this weekend as I washed my truck. As of today, that is no longer my truck! I posted it to the classified ads at work and it sold today! We were really shocked how quick it sold.

For the time being, we’ll be a one-car family, but I expect that we’ll go shopping this summer for some nice gas-guzzler to tote all of us (adults, Phoebe, and dogs) around town.

And for the people that know our house because of the truck sitting in the driveway (the new owner knew of it), you’ll just have to find a new way to spot our house. We do still have our blue reflector, just no more Toyota Tundra.

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

Last weekend Phoebe spent time with her Grammy, Granddaddy, and Uncle Jake (my parents and brother). Rick and I, in return, had a weekend to ourselves. We went shopping, saw a movie, and ate out quite a bit. It was a good time. Phoebe also had a good time with Grammy, Granddaddy and Uncle Jake. My mom wrote her a letter to document her weekend. I received her permission to post the letter here. So, here it is:

April 14, 2008

Dear Phoebe Grace,
Today is Monday, April 14, 2008. You spent this past weekend with Grammy, Granddaddy and Uncle Jake - without your Mom and Dad - for the first time. Since I didn’t get a chance to document your first weekend with us in photos, I thought I’d write you a letter. Well, I did take two pictures, both of them were of you and Granddaddy.

On Friday, April 11, 2008, we met you, your Mom and Dad in Red Bay, Alabama and brought you home with us. When we arrived at Grammy and Granddaddy’s, it was your supper time. Grammy fed you, then bathed you and then we went to the church to listen to Granddaddy and the rest of the Canaanlanders practice. You really seemed to enjoy the music and the company of the others. You would just smile at everyone and of course, they thought you were adorable!

You went to sleep about 9:00 p.m. and woke up about 2:30 a.m. I fed you most of a bottle and you went right back to sleep. You woke us up about 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning by talking to yourself and looking around the room. You didn’t even cry when you woke up, you are so happy in the mornings.

After breakfast, you took a nap. You slept about an hour and again, you woke up happy. Grammy and Granddaddy had a good time playing with you. While Granddaddy attended the Ole Miss Spring Game, you and I stayed home. We thought it was too cool to get you out. If it hadn’t been too cool, you and I would have attended the game with Granddaddy. It would have been fun to take you to your first Ole Miss game.

You took another nap around noon and then you ate lunch. You and I had a good time playing until you got tired again. After a very short nap, you ate a snack. Mamaw Carolyn came to visit for a few minutes. After Granddaddy returned from the ballgame, we visited with Mama Jean, Daddy Bill, Aunt Whitney, Aunt Christy and your cousins Kylie and Allie Reeves. You were so cute reaching your arms out to Allie Reeves and trying to get a hold of her. Your cousins Kendall and Rae were not there and you didn’t get to visit with them.

After our visit with the Drewrey side of the family, you, Granddaddy and I went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart in Pontotoc, MS. When we got home, I fed you supper and bathed you. You fell asleep about 7:30 p.m. and slept until 6:00 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Granddaddy had to be at church early for Brotherhood Breakfast, so Uncle Jake sat with you in Granddaddy and Grammy’s room while I took a shower. He found some cartoons for you to watch and you played with his class ring on his finger. Since you were getting fussy and Uncle Jake doesn’t know how to handle fussy babies, I put you in the walker while I put on my makeup. Uncle Jake watched you again while I dried my hair. I was afraid the hair dryer would scare you.

You and I got to church a little after 9:00 a.m. and you had a good time visiting with Aunt Mary Joyce, Ms. Diane, Ms. Bettye, Ms. Judy and Ms. Vicky while I ate breakfast.

During church service, Mamaw Carolyn held you. When Granddaddy, Uncle Leon and Aunt Mary Joyce sang, Mamaw said that you “sang along with them” and you watched Granddaddy the whole time he was singing. You even followed him down the aisle when he sat down. Mamaw Carolyn held you until you got tired, then she brought you to me, but Granddaddy reached out and took you. Granddaddy fed you your bottle and you fell asleep. It was so sweet to watch you sleeping in Granddaddy’s arms.

After church, we had lunch and then we visited with Nanny, Aunt Fay and Uncle Jessie, Aunt Connie and Uncle Randy and your cousins, Michael, Kayla, Haley, Lacey, Hunter and Hayden. Again, you were so cute smiling and reaching out to Hunter and trying to get to him. He was excited to see you and would just smile at you. Aunt Fay shows him your pictures on the computer all the time. Everyone else had a good time holding you and seeing how much you’ve grown.

After visiting with Grammy’s side of the family for a while, it was time to leave and meet with your Mom and Dad in Red Bay, Alabama. We left Nanny’s house about 2:45 p.m. so we could meet with your parents about 4:00 p.m. Your parents sure were happy to see you.

Grammy and Granddaddy were both sad to see you go. Our house sure did seem empty without you, but we now look forward to your next visit with us.

With all our love,

Grammy, Granddaddy and Uncle Jake.

Originally published at The Kings of Huntsville. You can comment here or there.

Today confirmed it! She is growing wonderfully. She is 27.5 in (90th percentile), 17 pounds 2 ounces (75th percentile), and her head circumference is 44 cm (also an upper percentile). She proceeded to get really angry with her shots, and Rick and I got our consolation prize of Starbuck’s on the way home.

She also had school pictures this morning. I can’t wait to see how they turned out!