The Farm

I realize it is mid-July but I am backing up a few weeks to our 4th celebration. We drove to "South Georgia" to the farm where Rhett's grandmother aka Gamma grew up to visit with family and celebrate the 4th of July! Let's just say that getting a picture of my three at these ages is tough. This was the best I could do. As you can see Gus is growing well and most of his weight has settled into those kissalicious cheeks! He was a great trooper on his first road trip. His brother and sister were too. Are we the only people in America who do not have a DVD player in our car? I've never really thought about it until recently. We just all sing and talk and sleep and do all the same things I used to do in the car when I was little. We did go through each Kindermusik and Praise Baby CD several times on this trip and Ford continuously requests "Uppabubba" (Twinkle, Twinkle) from the back seat but after one stop at Mickey D's to feed the littlest guy, let the bigger ones play on the playground and for 4/5 of us to enjoy an oreo McFlurry we were good to go. And so we arrived in the what some people call "God's country" and what others refer to as a place where "people cling to their guns and religion". Either way there is a particular charm there and I like it.

This is our best attempt at a Shirley family photo ever. It will most likely be appearing on a Christmas card this year I'm sure.


I realized we haven't had a photo of just the three of us since the delivery room so we snapped this one . . .


When I ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she looks at me quizzically and says "A Mommy" as if wondering what else she could possibly want to be. I think it is a pretty high calling myself and I know already that she will be a wonderful mother. She has a mother's heart. Here she is loving on her cousin Graham . . .


It had been a long trip down and once we got settled in our hotel the night before Claire and Ford acted like they were at a slumber party - laughing, giggling and staying up really late - so the price was to be payed the next day. May I introduce you to the Hornet . . .

I borrowed this nickname from another blogger, Darby who has a fiesty little boy. It fits tired Ford quite well and has become a part of our vocabulary around here. Claire can be heard saying "Oh no, Ford is the Hornet again" or "Ford, are you the Hornet?". Well the Hornet showed up at the farm due to the lack of sleep but luckily he crashed - quite literally - on the floor with his beloved Hippo and of course Paci (or na-na as he calls it) while Rhett set up his packnplay for a much needed nap. After we put him down we headed straigh for LUNCH . . .


This is the way we do lunch in the south. This is not even the dessert table and those burners on the stove are full too mind you. Yum. I love me a covered dish luncheon.

The kids spent most of their day on this old tire swing in the yard. They swang and ran and played and swang some more.














This is Ford trying to convince the big kids to let him back on the swing after he fell off. He thinks he is all grown up. I have to remind him and myself that he is ONE! He is up for anything and loves to laugh and have a good time.

Tish got some little baby love since her baby, Graham, is growing by leaps and bounds and is, well, a chunk! I can't believe this time last year we didn't even know Graham yet. My how the time if flying by . . .


By this point in our journey I was pretty well worn out so I put my camera aside but our adventures did not cease. We headed over to Cordele to visit some old friends from medical school that we had not seen in the 5 years since graduation. It was funny to think that the last time we were together we were just two couples and now we have SIX children between the two of us! We had a wonderful time visiting with them and getting to know their precious little girls and darling new baby boy. We had a yummy dinner and some good laughs before we headed back to our hotel. We drove down a hilly country highway with the Lake Blackshear fireworks ahead of us for many miles. I looked behind me to see three sleeping tired children in the back seat, ahead to see a wonderful fireworks show and beside me to see my wonderful man and smiled - my heart feeling really full after a wonderful day of family, good friends and sweet memories.