A Turtle named Diego

Way back when I first found out I was pregnant and we told Blayne, he had sort of a funny reaction. Anytime we would pray about the baby or talk about the baby or anything he would then remind us about the baby in HIS belly. A baby turtle to be exact. And because he is so stinking cute and him praying for his baby was so stinking cute, we went along with it. So for most of the nine months that I was pregnant with Sawyer, we were also praying for this non-existent baby turtle. When I listened to the baby's heartbeat, we would also listen for the turtle's heartbeat (which was located suspiciously close to Blayne's heart). And when I got big enough to feel Sawyer moving around, Blayne could feel his turtle moving around too. It was adorable!! However, we had one rather large problem. There was no turtle. I sorta joked all along that we would have to come home from the hospital with a baby and a baby turtle and then explain to Blayne that we got his there too. Anyhoo, the Tuesday before Sawyer was born, we let Tolkie out one morning and she was acting kinda funny in the backyard.... so I told Blayne to go check on her and see what she found. And, you'll never believe this, but it was... A BABY TURTLE!! Tolkie was attempting to eat it and we saved it. But it was the cutest little baby turtle!! Isn't God cool?!?!? I mean, really. He didn't have to give us a baby turtle, but he did. And he didn't do it for me but for Blayne. We figured that the baby turtle probably came out of Blayne's belly (through his belly button) sometime in the night and then got outside. And Tolkie found it the next morning. Makes sense, right?? =) Here he is, with his little turtle named Diego.

People scoffed when he would tell them he had a turtle in his belly (and rightly so) but here is the proof!!
I dunno why he looks so scared....
This shot is just because I love his outfit. Shorts and cowboy boots - a little boys uniform.
Teaching Diego to swim
Aren't they just so cute!?!? And isn't God so good, to give us a baby turtle the SAME STINKING WEEK that he gave us a wonderful baby boy. Man he must love us.

Train Day!!

How embarrassing. It's been almost ONE WHOLE YEAR since I posted anything. Dang. Part of me feels like I should go back and play catch up before I put anything new on here but since I know myself pretty well I know that won't happen anytime soon. So I'm just gonna soldier on like there was never any delay! And then if I get the time and inclination, I just may go back and fill in some of the gaps (haha, yeah right...).

So, moving on! Yesterday me and Blayne had Train Day. We rode up to Lakeland with Mom (at an ungodly hour of the morning I might add) and then spent the day hanging out in downtown Lakeland. We went to the Children's Museum, walked down to the Pizza Palace for some lunch and then walked around a lake on our way to the train station. It was such an awesome day! We had seen a train coming through Sebring a few weeks ago and that started Blayne talking about how he had never been on a train and how he wanted to go on a train ride. So I figured out that trains ran between here and Lakeland and decided that the next time Mom went up there we would tag along and then ride the train home. I told him about "Train Day" at the end of last week and the countdown was on. Every day he would ask if train day was here yet and then we would count on our fingers the number of days left until train day. He also probably said a million times leading up to the big event, "I never been on a train fa-fore (before)!!" He was so excited! The ticket man gave him a little paper conductors hat, he sat right next to the window - jumping up and down practically the whole time - we walked back to the dining car and got a little snicky-snack... we definitely had the whole experience! At one point I thought the man in front of us just might turn around and ask Blayne to please stop messing with the tray table. When he discovered it, he felt the need to open and close it approximately 5 times in the span of about 90 seconds. Whoops. As excited as HE was to be on the train, most of the other passengers were not so thrilled, ya know? But he didn't turn around, thank goodness! My punk camera died after only a few pics but I did get some on the video camera as well as some cute vids of him waiting on the train and then the jumping up and down part. Here they are:

In the space shuttle at Children's Museum
Arts and Crafts! He painted a picture of a rainbow.
Lunch at the Pizza Palace.
My sweet boy. =)
What a beautiful day! This was on our walk around the lake to the train station.
Me and my boy(s). =)
So I guess swans are kind of a big deal in Lakeland. The Queen of England apparently gave the city a pair of swans forever ago and now they have tons. This was one of the weirdest swans I've ever seen though! Pretty, but weird.
The awesome conductors hat.
Waiting ever so patiently for the train (which was almost AN HOUR LATE!).
Finally on board.
In the dining car, having our snack.
We had such a great time!!

***I will have to come back and add the videos at a later date/time because we got a new camera and it would seem that I don't know how to convert/upload/store the files in a way that blogger recognizes. How annoying.***

Heeeere Come the Gators!

Blayne has officially been introduced to the world of the Gators. The Orange and Blue game, the annual spring scrimmage, was a few weeks ago and I decided to take Blayne. He'd been asking to go to a Gator game forever, I found free tix, we had to get out of the house anyways (cause Sean would be sleeping all day) and I thought it was high time he got to go see the most awesome team in the world play football. And we had such a fun day!! We got up early and got moving (and despite the awesome traffic on the FL Turnpike) made it to Gville and headed to the stadium. I probably should have prepared Blayne for how big it was going to be. I think he was a little overwhelmed. There were over 50,000 people there though so it's understandable. Here's his first look...
This is what he was staring at
I wish I could've been in his head to hear what he was thinking about all this. I think he thought he might actually get to get on the field and play some football! He ended up loving it though, he did the Gator chomp and sang the songs and ate hot dogs and drank Gatorade (of course!). The only disappointment was that Al the Alligator did not come say hi to him.
Me and my boy cheering on the teamBeautiful day for football!Future Gator
After the game we went to the Butterfly Rainforest for a bit then walked around the campus by the Bat House and Lake Alice. We even got to see an alligator. It was a perfect day!
I love hanging out with him!And this is approximately 5 min after we got in the car to head home. =)

More Pics from Hot-Lanta

Here are a few more of the pictures I took when we were in Atlanta for Ely's birthday (a month ago.... why is it so hard for me to remember to get on here?!?!?).

Birthday Boy!!

Me and my biggest bro
All the kiddos
I don't think Blayne quite understands how this works
I'm actually pretty impressed (with myself) for this pic!!
Clearly this is something we need to work on
Mommy Bird (aka Natalie) sitting on The Egg (aka Blayne)
My crazy kid
Part 2 of my crazy kid
Sweet Hannah Rose
Me 'n Baby Caleb
Look at that kid!! Is he cute or what?!?!
And I must say, I'm pretty impressed with myself (again!) for devising this clever shot.This is his new smile. I don't think I'm a huge fan... but he still looks pretty cute I guess! Hanging with his cousins in the playhouse
These two look like trouble. Big trouble. It appears that Ely is teaching Blayne how to work that weapon!

So I'm issuing myself a little challenge here but I won't give details until I've completed it. That way, no one can hold me accountable if I don't. Heh heh....