There's No Place Like Roam

I'm a believer in New Year's Resolutions if for nothing more than to spend a few minutes thinking about what you want to accomplish in the next year. So, I'm going to add our plans for the next year and in December 2009 we can look back and see what we have, or haven't accomplished. Kay: Make significant progress towards a teaching certificate. Repaint the interior of our house. Pick some sort of exercise that I can regularly accomplish. Jason: Keep working on the Buick and take "her" to a few car shows. Carter: Carter wants to finish Kindergarten, learn to play baseball, win a trophy in the Woodstock 5K, learn to draw, and go to Stone Mountain. Hunter: Wants to go to pre-school, learn to write, play T-ball and go to Stone Mountain. Graham: Graham has a big list this year. He wants to eat solid food, say his first words, roll over, sit up, stand up, crawl and walk! I'm sure he will accomplish more than the rest of us!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We went to Grandma Jackie and Grandpa Jims' House on Christmas Eve. Sherry, The McKinney's, and The Ramsey's came over on Christmas Day and we went to Granny Ramseys on the following Saturday. We even met up with the Hammonds family a few weeks before. The boys received WAY too much stuff, as usual. Hunter doesn't think so. He even gave me the business for not buying him a happy meal (for the toy) when I picked up hamburgers yesterday. Can you say SPOILED??? Here are some pics....

This was our second year building gingerbread houses with the boys. Last year we bought the kits and they enjoyed sticking a few candies in the frosting before losing interest. This year, since I'm on maternity leave, I decided to take it a step further and bake the gingerbread, make the frosting and invite a few of the boys' friends over for a little party. Well, of course, it didn't go as planned. The gingerbread simply wouldn't roll out, and refused to be cut into the proper shapes. I was cursing Martha Stewart and her perfect recipe, when I realized the dough had to be pretty much frozen to work. Since it was 10PM at this time, I gave up and decided to buy the kits in the morning for all the kids. After returning from the store and beginning to assemble the four kits, I read that the frosting was supposed to dry for 2-3 hours before decorating. Well, this didn't happen since I finished assembling 5 minutes before the guests arrived. Luckily, no houses were demol

The milk-sucking GRAHAMPIRE Jason's awesome pumpkins Graham's first outing - to Ms. Shea's Halloween Party Carter loves his littlest brother Grandpa and Grandma with the boys We lost, but at least we voted Graham, Week 2 Graham, week 3

Graham Fisher joined the McKinney family on October 24th at 5:56 PM. He weiged 9lbs, 9oz and was 21 inches long. He is a healthy boy and is sleeping well so far. Mom is recovering nicely thanks to two helpful big-boys and a wonderful husband who is handling EVERYTHING around the house.

So, Saturday afternoon Carter decided he was running for President. This idea came from the book he recently purchased at the school book fair "Spongebob for President". He decided to make flyers saying "Carter for Prezident" and put them all around the house. I went upstairs to fold the laundry and came back downstairs to find his flyer creation station empty. I went outside and saw flyers all around the porch, but no sign of Carter. I called his name inside the house, I called his name outside the house and then I caught a glimpse of him halfway down the driveway. I thought he was heading down the driveway, but he was actually coming back up. I said "What on earth are you doing?" and he said I went to Mr. James' house to ask him to vote for me and he gave me a check. I almost passed out! I thought he had conned our neighbor into giving him a campaing donation. After he made it back to the top of the hill he showed me his notebook where he had writte

I've really hoped to create some long-lasting traditions in our family. We first took Carter to Old Baker Farm in 2003, when he was just 10 months old. We have made the journey to Harpersville, AL every year since. We have always gone with different people, but this year we made the journey as a family of 4 and 1/2. We can't wait to take Graham next year and continue the tradition. Hunter and his "Buddy" 2008 Carter has his own tradition of picking a white pumpkin' (2008) Carter 2007 Hunter and Mommy 2007 Hunter pumpkin' pickin' in 2006 Carter in the corn maze (2006) The McKinneys in 2005 Carter in 2004 Hunter's first trip in 2004 (4 weeks old) Carter's first trip in 2003 (10 months old)

Jason and I attended Putting on the Ritz this past weekend. This is the annual fundraiser for the West Anniston Foundation . My heels stayed on the entire time and I didn't bust my tail, so all was good. Today officially ended my Board of Directors' duties/meetings/events for all of my extra-curricular work for October and November. Thank goodness for maternity leave What a relief! :-) I still have two more weeks of work, assuming Mr. Graham doesn't decide to come early.....

We can't believe it! It's almost time for Graham to arrive! 33 days to go and so much to get done before he gets here. I started having contractions this week, so we went out and bought the final essentials we needed and I'm washing everything in Dreft this weekend. I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone by, but I can't wait for Graham to get here! Keep checking for updates! We will post all the news and baby pictures on our blog!

Hunter had his 4th birthday party yesterday and we all had a blast. The kids had fun with the treasure hunt and no one was injured while they took turns attacking the pinata. Be sure to check out the video of Hunter while we sang Happy Birthday. He is still a little mad at us about singing to him. :-)

Ms. Sherry takes Hunter to "Library Day" every Tuesday. The kids listen to stories, play games, sing songs and do a craft. Recently, they had a library version of "The Olympics" which Hunter enjoyed. He received a gold medal and got into a brawl with his brother when Carter mentioned to him that it wasn't a "REAL" gold medal. The picture below was in The Anniston Star this past weekend.

Carter started Kindergarten a few weeks ago at Wellborn Elementary, and except for already missing two days due to a virus, everything is going well. He doesn't tell us much about it (in some ways he seems 13 instead of 5), but his teacher has a blog for the classroom that keeps us in the loop. The commute is all of 2 minutes from our driveway to the drop-off, so I am LOVING that! I had to drag him out of bed the first two weeks, but this week he asks to go to bed early so that he won't be tired. He has been rushing me out the door in the mornings. So, I would say he is enjoying it!

Well, it started innocently enough. Jasons' sister Kellie and family came out last year and his brother-in-law David ran the 2007 Woodstock 5K. David challenged Jason that if they came out again this year, Jason would have to run with him. An easy thing to promise when you have a year to train. Well, Jason got some new shoes and ran a mile the week before the race. However, a 5K equals 3.1 miles. Jason actually did great, only walking a couple of times to catch his breath. While discussing the race, Carter and Hunter got excited about it. They wanted to train and race too. So we signed them up for the Kidstock 1 mile walk/run. They "trained" up and down the driveway for weeks. Uncle David ran with them on race day. Unfortunately, Hunter got tripped right out of the start line (or knocked down on purpose according to him) and didn't race. Carter, on the other hand, did a great job, running his first mile in 9:41. He intends on running every year.

Well, this is week 9 of our summer remodeling. Hopefully in two months I won't be saying our summer-fall remodeling. We haven't really changed that much, just taking care of some much needed maintenance that the previous two owners of our home deferred to us. Since we bought our house through a foreclosure, it was very much AS IS. However, even though we are just doing maintenance, we are changing paint colors and going from a metal roof to shingles, so there is a noticeable difference. After all this time, there had better be!

Well, it has begun. We put off purchasing anything for the baby until we found out he was a he. Since then Hunter has been right in the middle of picking out stuff for the baby. He helped select the crib bedding and approved the paint color for the nursery. When I get in new boxes of clothes (which I largely purchase off Ebay) he helps me go through it all and tells me which outfits Graham will like the best. We have also installed the mobile on the crib, which came with a remote control. Hunter has decided that it will be his job to activate the mobile and make the baby stop crying. (Because you know that is all it takes to stop a baby from crying!) If you stop by the house, Hunter will be glad to show you how it works! :-) Carter is excited about the baby too, but I think he has a better understanding about how this baby is going to impact his life. He keeps telling Hunter "It will be a LONG time before the baby gets here". I'm almost 24 weeks - Graham will be her

Well, its official. We will have THREE BOYS! It makes me tired just thinking about it! :-) We have decided on the name Graham Fisher. We have always liked Graham and the middle name is a nod to the first names of his brothers.

Well, its been a busy month! We headed off to Fort Walton Beach on May 9th for our stay at the Destin West beach resort. We all had a great time! Unfortunately, our vacations are always too short! The boys had a great time at the beach and playing in the lazy river pool, as well as the splash park. We also headed into Destin to The Track, where we rode go-carts and mommy dropped her digital camera into the bumper boat pool. LUCKILY, the memory card was still good. Before we headed back, we went into Pensacola to see our friend Laura & Jason's niece Jocelyn & family. It was a really good trip!

This past Saturday Carter had his first game and Hunter had his first practice. Hunter warmed up to it slowly, but had a good time. Carter has LOVED practice so far, but the game was a different experience. They don't technically keep score, but I would guess the score would have been about 4-30, unfortunately not in our favor. The other team obviously had some seasoned players who were at the upper end of the age scale, and it made a big difference!

I was explaining to the boys that we would have a sonogram in a couple of months, and we may be able to tell if the baby is a boy or a girl. They were excited, because they thought we would have to wait until the baby was born to find out. Of course, Carter wanted to know how we would be able to tell. As I carefully composed my answer, Hunter blurted out - "BECAUSE, if its a girl, it will have a hairbow, and if its a boy, it won't!" Carter said, "OHHHHH!" and I just left it at that! LOL!

Kay: "I need to go to the grocery store tomorrow." Hunter: "Will you get some broughtberries?" Kay: "Broughtberries? What are broughtberries?" Hunter: "You know....The kind you brought at the store!"

The video is a little dark, but its still funny.

Well, I started this blog off by saying that 2008 should be an exciting year. Well, here it is....We're Expecting Child #3! We now have an official due date of October 24th.

We were taking the boys to the movie theater yesterday and we were a few blocks away. We don't go that often, so the boys didn't remember how to get there. Carter ask "Are we almost there?" and Jason replied "We're getting close." After a long pause Carter ask, "Is that YOUR close, or MY close?" Although Carter has started to learn how to tell time, I started thinking about how many times in the first years of their lives that we use phrases such as: In a minute Just a little longer Later It's almost time Getting close Maybe we should have started telling them the actual amount of time much sooner!

Kay was in today's Anniston Star due to her work with the West Anniston Community Development Corporation, a local non-profit that promotes affordable housing, economic development and youth leadership. The article is below: The West Anniston Community Development Corp. showcased its first renovated home on Walnut Avenue Tuesday morning. Photos of the home before work began show a house with damaged walls and floors and in need of new kitchen and bathroom fixtures, as well as a good scrubbing. Now, the house at 2001 Walnut Ave. has been transformed, with a new roof, siding and a completely re-done interior. Baron Sandlin, executive director of the WACDC, said the house was repaired with $25,000 from the Wachovia Foundation and Community Development Block Grant funds. "Other people on the block have cleaned up their properties, but this house was abandoned," he said. "We thought it was a good place to start." He said the home was formerly a duplex, but with two

The family went to dinner with my brother Scott, his wife Lisa, and their son Patrick. It was our anniversary and Lisa's birthday, so we felt the need to celebrate. We decided to take the kids to Fuji in Oxford, AL. The food was prepared right at the table "teppan-yaki" style. The kids were a bit afraid of the fire, but our Chef was great. He did all the regulars (egg roll, volcano, etc.) and also caught his hand on fire and flipped 5 burning bowls into the top of his hat! We were all impressed! I hope we don't have any "try this at home" incidents in our future!