Macaroni & Cheese, Please!

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to post them anyway. I meant to do it right after I took them, but somehow got distracted and then forgot about them. Anyway, I was feeding the kids lunch one day and walked out of the kitchen and into the laudry room to start a load of clothes (we're talking about maybe 15 feet from my kitchen). About 3 minutes later when I returned to the kitchen this is how I found Hudson:

So I walked into the kitchen and said, "Hudson, what are you doing?" His reply was, "Look at me Moma, I'm being silly!" I asked if his mac-n-cheese was too hot and he said "nope, I'm just being silly." He was actually standing in the refrigerator eating his macaroni & cheese, but the best part was he had no utensils.....just eating straight from the plate with his mouth!! Gotta love a kid who likes bring a little humor to the table (oh excuse me, refrigerator). He never ceases to make us laugh!!

Where's Ella?

Ella has become such a little "busy" body. She is everywhere and into everything!! Her two favorite pastimes seem to be putting whatever she can find in her mouth and climbing into or onto whatever she can find. Now, you would think she would follow her brother's around and do whatever they are doing....but, no it's just the opposite here. Ella will go M.I.A. for a few seconds and then we're off on a mission to find her and see what she's into now. As soon as we find her Brady and Hudson join her in her mischief. Here's a few pics of me catching Ella in a few of her adventures. In the past few days she has started climbing in the toy basket, climbing in the media cabinet, the bathroom cabinet, boxes in Andy's office, and my linen closet! Oh yeah, she even climbed into the shelf of laundry detergent at the store the other day! It's "triple the trouble" at our house....Oh the joys and laughter of three children ages 4 and under!!

Trip to the Aquarium

Sorry, it's been a while since my last post. Last week we were very busy with VBS/Mini-sports camp at our church. I directed a 4 year old class and Andy helped with the golf mini camp. We had over 1,400 kids in attendance....Praise God!!! While I had a great time at VBS, I was completely exhausted when it was over.....I think I'm still trying to recover!



Jane, Angelle, Me, & Jennifer

Saturday, We took the kids to the Aquarium in New Orleans. We met up with some of my friends from college. We're all spread out across the country now and don't get to see each other as much as we would like to. It was great to visit with the girls and their children. Although, chasing three mobile children around the aquarium didn't allow for a whole lot of visiting time, I did manage to do a little catching up. It's so hard to believe that we've been out of college for nearly 10 years........okay, that makes me feel old!! It seems like just yesterday we were in hanging out in the Pi Phi chapter room and our only worries were an upcoming exam!! Wow! How quickly our lives have changed! It was great seeing everyone and their precious children. We just need to make sure we get together every year!

Trip to the Hub City!

Andy took the afternoon off and we went to have the kids picture made in Petal. I'm ashamed to say that other than a quick Easter pic and Christmas pic, I've only had Ella's picture made one time, which was when she was 3 months old. I know that's awful of me and I feel terrible. I did so good at having the boys pictures taken at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. I don't know what happened.....I guess it has something to do with her being the 3rd child. Well, I tried to make up for it yesterday. The plan was to have some formal ones made indoors and then head outdoors for some fun outdoor pics of Ella and her big brothers. Well, let's just say things did not go as I had so perfectly envisioned. It started raining about 30 minutes into our drive and didn't let up until about 20 minutes after our session was over. Since Traci's studio is an hour and a half away and I had already made plans to go yesterday afternoon, I was NOT rescheduling. (I know there are lots of good photographers in the Jackson area, but I've been using Traci since Brady was a baby....I wanted Ella to have the same formal picture that I have of Brady & Hudson.) We were just going to make the best of what we had to work with......thank goodness Traci has such an awesome studio and is so creative. Getting three children ages 1, 2, & 4 to cooperate was defninetely a challenge, but they did great and I think she got some pretty good shots. I'll let you be the judge of that....to view go to http://www.tracigoodwin.com/ then chose to view proofs. It will then ask you to login - andicruthirds - and then for my email address - acruthirds@hotmail.com Leave me a comment on which ones are you favorites!

After the pictures, we drove over to Hattiesburg to see our old neighbors and dear friends Dawn, Ashton, & Gentry. They lived next door to us in our very first home! Ashton was 6 and Gentry had just turned 4 when we moved in...they are now 15 and 13! We haven't seen them in a couple of years, so we were completely shocked at how much they have grown! We picked the girls up and then headed to Chuck E Cheese for dinner, our kids needed to get out of the car and run around......a sit down restaurant was not an option for us.......too bad because I sure could have eaten some Crescent City Grill. After Chuck E. Cheese, Dawn was through at work and met up with us at Marble Slab. It was great to catch up with the Dawn and her girls......we miss them so much! Sorry, to all of our other friends who live in Hattiesburg that we weren't able to visit......hopefully we'll be in town again soon and have more time to visit everyone.

Ashton, Dawn, & Gentry

Andy, Gentry, & Ashton

Happy 4th of July

We had a very relaxing and uneventful 4th of July. We hung around the house most of the day, which was actually pretty nice....we never get to do that very often. We joined some friends this afternoon for BBQ and swimming at The Club. The weather wasn't the prettiest, but the kids didn't seem to mind.....they still had a blast at the pool. Happy 4th of July to all of you!

Brady & Hudson monkeying around before our trip to the pool!

Brady's got this swimming stuff down pat!!

Ella taking a little "prance" around the pool!

Hudson, just being Hudson, relaxing in pool!

Kelly & Justin come to visit

Our friends, Kelly & Justin, came to visit this weekend. Kelly and her sister, Shelby, use to cheer for me when I was teaching and coaching in Hattiesburg. Andy and I became good friends with their family......they were like our second family. Kelly's now a senior at USM majoring in Elementary Education and Justin recently graduated from USM school of nursing (first in his class I must add). Justin had to take his nursing boards in Jackson on Saturday, so they came to stay with us for the weekend! We had a GREAT weekend.....lots of fun and laughs!!! The kids had so much fun with Kelly and Justin.....Sunday morning Brady woke up and asked if they could spend one more night. While Justin was taking his boards on Saturday, we drug Kelly to a swim birthday party at the YMCA. She was a such big help with the kids (thanks Kelly). They are such a great young couple. They are much more mature than Andy & I were at their age. Sometimes I forget that they are in their early twenties. Justin is already back in school taking classes so he can apply for medical school......we're hoping he is accepted to UMC and will be moving here soon!! After this weekend, they may be having second thoughts about moving so close to us.......I think they left here reassured that kids were no where in their near future! Thanks for a fun weekend Kelly & Justin. Best of luck, Justin,with your boards and your classes for Med School!

Kelly & Ella - instant friends

Brady, Hudson, & Justin- playmates for life!

Aren't they sweet!

Like father, Like son!