Trip to "Jack-ess"

A month ago for Labor Day Weekend, Brad and I took the girls to see the Greers in Jackson, MS ~ or as Alli calls it, "Jack-ess, Mississippi."
The trip over there was a long one, with Boots unhappy the majority of the trip, and we had to stop every 15-45 minutes for Alli to potty. It was a long day, but we knew it would be well worth it, and it certainly was! The picture above of Alli and Maddox proves that! They had a blast seeing each other again, and they had both been excited for days before we made the trip. Alli even had me make a chart to count down the days. I have a picture of it and will post it later, because it really was cute; however, I have "stolen" these pictures from Emily's blog, as I have not had the time to go through ours and doctor them before posting. Thanks, E!

We had such a great time, even though Boots ended up sick and teething while we were there. We were able to see the Greers' beautiful new home, Stephen's new office, and meet some of their sweet new friends & neighbors. Alli and Maddox slipped right back into their old routines of playing, eating, and having the occasional "no, mine!" argument. :) Emily and I were both happy to see them fall right back into place with each other. The trip back home was a better one; it only took the expected 8 hours, and since Boots wasn't feeling well, we gave her benadryl, which ended up being our saving grace. We had a great time and cannot wait for the Greers to visit in a couple of months!!

Boots got some good lovin' from Maddox, as well!

Twelve Years

Alli said the most precious thing to Brad the other day, as she ran to him and threw her little arms around his neck....

I cannot believe it has been twelve years since my Daddy died. Twelve years. I am 32 years old now, and whenever I stop to think about him, I revert back to a little girl again ~ my Daddy's Little Girl ~ in the way I still love him, still miss him, still need him and want him with me in my life.

So, I will say to him what Alli said to Brad so recently, because the words still ring true, whether you are 3 or 32, when you are a Daddy's Girl:

"You will always be my Daddy!"

And I will always miss you....

Alli's First Couple of Weeks

Alli has officially been in school for 2 1/2 weeks now. Her teachers often email pictures of the children doing special activities at school, so I wanted to post a few of the ones I have of Alli.

First day of school, on the playground with Kate Norris:

First week of school, painting with Davis Walker (notice she is using RED paint):

Making Friendship Salad with her class:

Last Friday, Alli was the "Mail Woman; since then, we know she has also been the "Caboose" and the "Door Holder":

We are so blessed that the transition from MDO / "little girl school" to EDS / "big girl school" has been such an easy one for Alli and for us. We are truly looking forward to a fun, exciting year!

This week will be a busy one, as usual.... Brad is on call today and continues with his q2 call schedule that will last a week-and-a-half, total. Yuck. We are going to the Ronald McDonald House "Golf Ball" tomorrow night, which should be fun, and spouses are invited to our yearly kick-off Junior League meeting on Tuesday, which will also be fun. I have my first parent-teacher conference on Wednesday and am sure to get a good report. :) (I'll let you know.) Next weekend, we are hosting supper club on Friday and are having a group of friends over on Saturday to cook out and watch the game. Of course, our "regular" schedule of meetings, Bible Study, etc. is on course, too. Whew. Pretty much par for the course at the Buckler household! :) Soon, though, I promise to post a few pictures of our recent trip to Jackson to visit the Greers. It has been too long since Maddox has made an appearance on our blog with Alli. :)

Alli's First Day of Preschool

August 20, 2008 ~ Alli's first day of preschool at Episcopal Day School.

Alli was very excited on her first day of school! Her teacher, Mrs. Scroggs, has been teaching at EDS for 52 years, this being her 53rd. She is amazing! Several of our Augusta friends had her when they were 3 and attended EDS. The assistant teacher, Mrs. Arthur, is a friend of mine, and she is just terrific and so creative. Alli loves both of them!

In the parking lot, outside of "The Village," where the 3 year olds' classes are. Alli goes 3 days a week (Mon., Wed., Fri) from 8am until 12:30pm. Daddy, Mommy, and Boots all walked her into her classroom for the first time and helped her find her cubby. Such a big girl!!

Alli's new backpack ~ she picked it out, herself!

Alli talks about school non-stop these days. Every day when I pick her up, she asks me if I can just leave here there "forever." One of her favorite things at school is circle time in the morning, when "Douglas" talks to the kids. Douglas is a puppet that has been around for a while, apparently, and Alli loves to hear what Douglas has to say. She also seems to particularly enjoy Catechesis and Spanish, but she also enjoys Gym time and Library. They definitely keep the kids busy with Science, Music, Art ~ you name it! She loves it and loves telling me her favorite part of each day. They assign "work jobs" every day, which is fun, and Alli recently go to be the Mail Person; they emailed a picture, so I will post it soon in another post. The only thing she hasn't loved about school has been the color block she was assigned for circle time. The children are all assigned a color block on the carpet,which helps with keeping everyone in order (ie ~ all blues line up at the door, etc.). If you know Alli, you know that her absolute favorite color is RED. Well, she was assigned PURPLE, and was not very happy about it for 2 days. We have really been playing-up purple as being a fabulous color. She has apparently "adjusted" to being purple, although she will still remind anyone who asks that it isn't her favorite ~ RED is her favorite. :)

Before school started, Alli got to go meet her teachers and see her classroom. Our little Blue Eyes (as Papa calls her) could not have been more excited!

Boots started Mother's Day Out at our church for this year a week before Alli started EDS, so Alli and I got some good Mommy-and-Alli Time. One of those days, we went to Build-A-Bear. It was a special treat we had wanted to do with Maddox before the Greers moved, but it just never happened. Alli had lots of fun picking out her bear and helping stuff her. I think her favorite part, though, was giving her bear an "air bath."

After choosing a very prissy outfit for her bear ~ complete with a tutu, metallic sandals, and sunglasses ~ Alli and "Teddy" posed for a picture.

Mommy-and-Alli Day continued with lunch in the food court (huge slices of pizza) and a cookie monster cookie with lots of blue icing for dessert!

We do arts and crafts a lot for Mommy-Alli Time in the mornings when Elizabeth is taking her nap.

Blue Eyes

This is actually how Alli sleeps. She piles a TON of stuff into her bed ~ books, dolls, and anything else that she can haul up there ~ and sleeps. Before falling asleep, though, she loves to read to her dolls and stuffed animals.

Our sweet girl.... We are so proud of her! She is growing like a weed, and she is a sweet, thoughtful little girl. She is truly empathetic, and she loves her baby sister. Her latest thing to tell us (quite regularly) is, "I don't want another family! I want my Mommy, my Daddy, and my Baby forever!"

Boots' First Cheerios

A month or so ago, Elizabeth tried Cheerios for the first time.
Such a big girl!!

Checking it out....

Into her mouth it goes... Hmmm.....

...and back out it comes ~ with a second "unknown" Cheerio!
(We thought it had fallen in her lap. Oops.)

We are happy to report that Boots is now an avid Cheerio-eater, although she currently prefers the more flavorful "Puffs."


Here are some more sweet pictures of our sweet baby girl.

A friend who recently met Boots commented that it is hard to tell the color of the girls' eyes from the pictures on the blog. Well, they are very BLUE, as you can see from the picture below.

Getting measured, as we do every month.
Here, Boots' 8 month measurement on her measuring blanket from Aunt Karen.

G-Rated Naked Baby Pictures to Follow:
(she'll kill us one day for posting these, but they are just so cute!)

Elizabeth loves her play table! She pulls up and even has begun to "dance" to the music.

As for "Boots Updates," let's see....
She currently has 4 teeth completely in, with a 5th almost all the way in, and a 6th pushing its way through. She still isn't sleeping through the night. She did for 5 nights 2 weeks ago, but she put that to a quick halt. She'll get there, though.... No, she never took a bottle very well, so we are now working on a sippy cup. She is much like Alli with her temperament ~ very "easy" and "good". For a little insomniac baby, she really is very happy. We get comments all of the time about how "smiley" she is, and it is true! She is very busy and loves to head directly for outlets and cords. Boots is happiest when her big sister is around; she loves to watch and interact with Alli. If Brad walks into the room, she squeals and gets so excited and will even scream if he doesn't come immediately to her. Already a Daddy's Girl. :) She loves me, too, although mostly, I am honored by being her favorite food source (as Alli says, she loves to "bress-a-feed.") She has even gone through phases of smacking her lips when I walk in the room. Literally. She is stubborn and as head-strong as an 8 1/2 month old can be, but she is a sweet, precious, happy baby girl!!


Okay, so these last two pictures are not of Boots; they are "late posts" from the Amos Lee concert last month. So amazing!

Stories From July

We have had such a terrific summer!! I can't believe it is already coming to an end. The picture above and the ones below are all from "Movies Under the Stars." We saw "Shrek the Third," which Brad and I found very fitting, since our second date was to a MUTS in Atlanta, and we saw "Shrek." :) We took a picnic, let Alli play on the playground, and the girls had a blast!! A few days later, Brad and I began to get emails and phone calls, saying we were on the front page of the Augusta Chronicle online. We had been "spotted" at Movies Under the Stars.

We have been doing our "regular" activities, as well, as the summer has continued. I have been taking Alli to the Y to swim, and Brad has taken her across the street to Linda's house to swim, as well. We have enjoyed several playdates ~ especially one last week with a group of little girls that will be in Alli's class this year. What a fun way to meet new friends!

Brad and I had a special date this past Tuesday night. We drove to Atlanta to see Amos Lee at Variety Playhouse. OH MY GOSH!! He was even more amazing in person!! I was in absolute heaven and didn't want it to end! The artist who opened for Amos was terrific, as well; I think her name was Dana Kurtis. Boy, could she sing the blues! It was very worth the late drive back to Augusta ~ we would do it all over again, no questions asked! Beforehand, we got to enjoy a couple of hours hanging out at a tavern in Little Five Points and people-watching. Thank you so, so much to Alli and Elizabeth's Gigi (Brad's mom) for coming to Augusta to keep the girls while we went on such an extravagant date!! We certainly couldn't have done it without her! We also had fun hanging out with Mom and Ben ~ my ultra-cool Mom, who had tickets to the concert I was dying to go to before I did!! (And not giving her enough credit, I didn't even think she would know who he was. WHEN will I learn!?) :)

This year for the Fourth of July, we joined our friends the Lewises for their annual neighborhood parade and picnic. The Pattons came, as well. We had a great time, even though it poured on us as we paraded around the neighborhood.

Some of the "big" kids playing.

Ashley pushing the babies in her new double jogger: Lauren is on the left, and Elizabeth is on the right.

Peyton and Alli, looking like little drowned rats after it poured.

Elizabeth wore the same dress I wore on my first Fourth of July, and the same dress Alli wore on her first Fourth.

We actually got the children to be still for a group shot. Well, sort of.

This is Elizabeth in a little sunsuit that was mine as a baby; Alli wore it, as well, and I have a very similar picture of her.

Oh, the chubbiness!! She literally has rolls on top of rolls!!

One of Brad's attendings, Dr. Boedy, has a very impressive garden. He has given us all sorts of goodies and has even invited Alli to come and pick her favorites, blueberries and tomatoes, whenever she wants! Brad has taken her over there a couple of times already, and she loves it!

In order to help distract Elizabeth from getting into Alli's baby dolls, I got her a little one for herself. Alli got one, too, but hers looks a little bit different. Alli named her doll Miss Miriam, after her MDO teacher this past year; Alli named Boots' doll Fancy Baby.

Still not taking a bottle very well, so we have introduced the sippy cup!

Alli's new school, EDS, has numerous summer camps for the kids to enjoy. Alli attended one called "Fun With Fish" a few weeks ago. She had a BLAST!!! She got to meet and know her new teacher, Mrs. Scroggs, and got to meet several future classmates, as well.

Our little Drama Baby! Lord, help us if she is even half as dramatic as Alli!

I think I have mentioned previously that Alli loves to read these days! It is truly her favorite past-time!

Boots' favorite past-time is pulling herself into a standing position, and quite often, cruising the furniture. Here she is, waiting on me when naptime was over the other day.

I think this will forever be one of my favorite pictures. Alli was dressed up like Princess Cinderella, and she asked her Daddy to be her Prince and take her dancing at the "Glass Ball" (aka, the kitchen). This evening, she asked me if I thought her Daddy might want to marry her one day when he isn't at work, because she loves him so much. I told him I couldn't imagine a better Prince Charming for her!

Last, but certainly not least, after some of my recent posts, I have received numerous requests over email for more "Alli stories." And yes, she makes us laugh all of the time!! :) So, here are a few of my personal favorites....

One day, when Alli was quite frustrated with me, she told me that she wanted to go and live with another family. I humored her and said, "Okay, but there will be a different Mommy and a different Daddy." Well, that was just fine with her. We went through several things that would be "different" ~ her sister, her toys, her school, etc. None of it mattered, and I was convinced I was going to pack a bag for her and let her sit on the front porch and wait for this imaginary family to pick her up and "rescue" her from her life with us, when she said something about Dede (my Mom) being there. I said that no, Dede would stay with our family. Well, that was it. When she realized that she couldn't take her Dede with her, Alli decided to stay with us. Needless to say, that really put Brad and me in our places!! :)

Ask Alli what she wants to be when she grows up, and she will tell you "A Mommy." Ask her what she will do as a Mommy, and she will tell you "Pump milk." That's right. Apparently, that is what Mommies do. We "pump milk." Actually, you don't even have to ask her these questions; she is more than willing to just share with you her life dreams and aspirations....

Just a she is obsessed with "pumping milk," she is also obsessed with anything else that has to do with babies and pregnancy. These days, a favorite activity is to walk around the house with a doll under her dress and "in her tummy."

And for those of you who love the little sassy stories....
When she doesn't want to do something, she will look us straight in the eye and say, "Princesses don't _______ (whatever we are wanting her to do ~ take a nap, eat supper, etc.), and I am a beautiful princess."

One of my favorite stories is from when she was not quite 2 years old. We were in Seaside, and Alli had found a stuffed mermaid that she wanted in a store. She walked straight towards it, picked it up, and said, "Have it," as she walked right back out of the store with it. Brad said he can just see it now: Alli is 16 years old and points at a flashy little car and says, "Have it." Being completely wrapped around her finger, he will say, "Buy it." :) Oh, and by the way, we didn't buy that mermaid for her, but my Mom did. :)

I was putting Boots in her carseat and told Alli she could play in the grass for second while I got Boots situated, but I told her not to go past the sidewalk. She told me that's where she wanted to go, and I reiterated that she needed to stay nearby. She put her hands on her hips and said, almost sweetly, "Please don't tell me I can't do that. Mom, I am not a child."

(This happened today.)

Also just today, a sweet story. Alli got up from her nap and told me, "Mommy, I dreamed about God. I told myself I would dream about God so I wouldn't have bad dreams, and I did! I had good dreams about God, because he is so nice!"

And one more sweet one.... Yesterday, when we were talking about hugs and kisses, she told me, "I have lots of hugs and kisses, because hugs and kisses grow from my heart."

So precious.
And yes, we definitely have our hands full!