Just hang with me. I’ve got one more set of pictures from our Labor Day weekend and they are quite funny as they include all of us trying to get a picture of the whole family. That’s six adults and 10 kids…should be interesting, right?!

The kids enjoyed playing in the pool on Saturday afternoon after naptime.

H hanging on.

Liam loved the little rings and did quite well.

Peek-a-Boo

Floating Josiah. This has been one of his favorite swimming positions. It does look like he’s struggling but he’s really laughing.

I believe this is Ace. He is a little fish if ever we had one. This year he’s really enjoyed jumping in the water and going under. I believe next year we’ll do swimming lessons and he’ll take off. Just another Michael Phelps in training!

I harbor a secret desire to raise twins. I was really hoping that we would be able to adopt twins, but right now, Mark says no, since we’ll have a little one with the one we’ll be adopting. Anyway, you can only guess how much fun I had playing with my new nephews. Well, not really playing but looking at them. I even got them both to smile…which was really cool. I don’t have any pictures of Mark holding them…one of the things you realize after you leave. However, he didn’t hold them too much which was probably good since he had some kind of food poisioning/headache induced explosion on Saturday night. After his release, he felt much better though.

One guess who my baby lover is…

Yep, babies are right up his ally. While Zoe and Liam were content to hold one, Ace had to hold both of them and give equal lovin’. He really didn’t want to give them up. That’s Ace with N on top and Ace with TJ on bottom.

Liam thought they were pretty cool too.

So cool that he wanted to poke their eyes out! I don’t get this weird fascination with poking baby’s faces. Liam gets points for being able to tell them apart…or have really good guesses. He was able to guess/tell them apart when Grandmere was holding one and Aunt B was holding the other. Pretty impressive. Now he calls all babies TJ and N.

Zoe was content to hold on to N for a little bit and get in a photo op.

Sorry, we didn’t allow Mr. Josiah to hold any. He did come over and “give some love” by way of the manly pat (hit) and that was about it.

Lots of pics…let’s get started shall we?!

Ahh yes, Little H, who happens to be 8 months (to the day) younger that Liam. Notice the lovely Alabama football in hand…just a little way for this aunt and uncle to bring corruption (all in good fun)!

Liam working hard with an excavator (I think that’s what it’s called).

The twins with their mama. This was after their feeding at night and they were wide awake! Let’s see, we’ve got TJ on the left and N on the right. I think. Anyway, they’re cute aren’t they?

Having a talk about where to attack, I believe.

We gave H chalk for his birthday and they decided to trace Zoe with it. Notice that Ace has a bow, Liam has a pointy stick. O is on the lookout. Yep, gotta trace where the body fell.

See??

Tire swing fun.

Going on a hunt for something??

Here come the ladies in hot pursuit.

Ready aim fire!

The chickens. Zoe got to gather eggs with cousin J and she really enjoyed that.

Rabbits. We didn’t tell the kids they were going to be food. Some things are better left unsaid around my poor city kids.

Zoe enjoying the tire swing.

Irony. Auburn shirt, Alabama football.

O just a swingin’

This is Josiah’s version of swinging.

Some very tired and hot boys! Playing is such hard work.

So, after visiting U of A we headed to visit family. Mark’s brother and his wife live in “the country.” Hence, the title. My kids loved being outside almost all day. On with the pics.

This is O, she’s a week (exactly) older than Zoe. To say that Zoe enjoyed a couple extra girls around is putting it mildly. The only thing she didn’t enjoy was the singing and talking at bedtime…but she got over it.

They all went for a ride in the pick up truck to gather apples. Noticed that Liam is in the cab while the others got to ride in the back…hmmm, wonder why???

Ace with Cousin G. She’s exactly one month younger than Ace. Aunt B and I plan these things, ya know. Make it easier on the grandparents!

Zoe with big cousin J. They had a blast too. See the Alabama and the Auburn. Yeah, we’re all that kind of family (the kind with conflicting teams…but really it’s not a big deal).

Liam got to ride on Uncle B’s shoulders to pick apples. I believe he also gave Uncle B a few pops in the face when pulling them off…such as the reason for the turn away.

Zoe and J working hard on the farm!

I’m finally posting pictures from last weekend. Yeah, I know I’m behind. Give me a little credit. I celebrated being back in the kitchen by baking yesterday. Four loaves of sandwich bread, 48 crescent rolls, and 4 dozen muffins later…I was pooped. Here’s pictures from our visit to Tuscaloosa…with commentary (I can feel your excitement as you begin to scroll.

Here we have the apartments that I first lived in when I moved to T-town. Mark and I were three months away from marrying. Although he visited often, he never stayed…and I have no clue how my parents, nor his allowed us to live in this place. Yes, this was the site where, after being married for four months, he awoke one morning to find his car had been keyed overnight by the transvestites that lived below us. Nothing like seeing an over 6′ man wearing a silver tight mini skirt, I tell you! Of course, they didn’t just casually key it, they keyed lovely happy sweet words of encouragement on it (not really) and then promptly slashed his tires. Their reason (once they found them, for they had moved pretty quickly before we could get a clue) was that they didn’t like the way Mark looked at them when he was coming in. Aside from the brief sightseeing we did on Saturday nights (we were poor college students…or at least he was) Mark never really looked at them at all. To compensate for letting the hmm, men??, get away, the apartment complex allowed us to move across the street to this apartment…

Which happened to be the apartment that was burlarized on Halloween night while I was at work and Mark was at class. Luckily, I was late getting home. After this, we thought it best to find another apartment to move into while Mark finished out his last year at U of A. So, we found this wonderfully, awesome apartment (no, I’m not being sarcastic this time). I told Mark I still think about how great this little complex was and how nice the apartment was…and not too expensive either.

After a trip down memory lane we grabbed lunch and headed to the Quad at the University of Tuscaloosa. However, we circled the quad several times looking for a place to park. Once there we enjoyed lunch and the kids enjoyed running around…until Ace stepped in the ant bed at Denny Chimes. The picture at Denny Chimes reflects their happiness after that!

Okay, if you are an Alabama fan, ya gotta love this picture Mark took. He’s such a great photographer. For those non-Alabama people, this is the top of Denny chimes, one of the beautiful trademarks of the campus. It’s right in the quad and a very popular place.

See our happy troops!!!

Stay tuned…more to come!