The Leonard Family: August 2011

Saturday, August 27, 2011

A SICK house... just about!

Well, it hasn't been the best week here at the Leonard's but overall we are doing alright! It all started last weekend ...we had such a great weekend with a baby shower for Aunt Julie here at the house and Mimi was in town visiting and spending time with the kids! It was lots of fun.... then the stomach virus attacked the house!!! Mimi, Steven, and then Mommy were all victims. It was miserable. LUCKILY, the kids seemed to be fine. We think Lucy might have had a touch of it but nothing too bad.
Then....Lucy started acting a little funny on Wednesday. She wasn't wanting to take her bottles at school (if you have ever seen Lucy take a bottle you would know that this is HIGHLY unusual! She usually freaks out and attacks it when she sees it) She was happy and active and doing fine otherwise. We called to ask and the doctor and they said they thought it was teething and her mouth was bothering her but since she was so happy they weren't concerned. Then on Thursday, we took her in to see the doctor because she had a low fever. Dr G checked her out and said she looked great but was fighting a little virus, otherwise physically fine. THEN... on Friday it all went downhill for poor sweet Lucy! After a VERY LONG night, we took her back to the dr. this morning (looking completely pitiful) and the small virus turned into double pink eye and an ear infection. The virus turned into a head cold which caused the drainage into her ears and eyes! POOR girl! She is doing better tonight and we are hoping she will get some good rest. It has been really tough seeing that bright eyed little girl look so sad. She is a trooper and we are proud of her! Her first cold...well, it's been a rough one!

Jack is just hanging in there at 90mph! Hopefully if we make it through this weekend with him, then he will have been the lucky family member during our SICK WEEK!

Besides the sick cloud that has been hovering over our house the past week, things are going great! Lucy has continued to do well at school, Steven's job is going great and he is really enjoying the training and all of his "tests", Jack is loving his new class at school and they have said he is doing awesome! He comes home everyday to tell us what a "great job" he did on his school work that day! He is so fun right now!

Now...if the temps could just stop dropping we would be in good shape. Fall is near... Oktoberfest is already in the stores!

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Tybee Island 2011

Whew! What a week! We had a great time at Tybee with the family. It all started Friday afternoon when we picked up Steven from his last day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It felt a little ceremonious picking him up and taking him away! It was sad to say goodbye to such great friends. Steven spent eight years there making lots of memories! We were happy to be heading to the beach for a week!
We spent all day Saturday at Salt Meadows with the Leonards (on Tybee..so we were already on our way!) It was really special to see all the family together. ALL of the grandkids (Steven's generation) was there and all of the great-grandchildren except for John Michael. The party was actually for John Michael so that was a bit ironic! (He was drafted by the New York Mets and had to report to training! We are all very proud and did lots to celebrate him even though he wasn't there!) Jack loved playing and really loved spending time with his cousins! He was the only boy (I think he really enjoyed that!!!) It was a great time with AMAZING food! Fresh crabs right out of the creek, low country boil, clams from the creek, Uncle Mike from Augusta made his famous pimento cheese and crab stew, Aunt Karen made her shrimp salad, and Bubba made some tasty wings! (As you can imagine..there was a LOT of food!) Lots of fun memories!

Aunt Neese and Jack

All the great grandkids (less John Michael)

ALL the grandchildren

Jack really struggling with all the girls

The Leonard men

Sweet Lucy asleep in the hammock

Jack and his blue crab (starting young!)

By the time we got to the beach house that night we were all worn out and ready for bed! The kids went down and we got some good time on the porch having a drink and catching up with Sally, John, and Granny! We spent the week playing on the beach in the morning, getting snow cones in the afternoon, taking turns making dinner at night, jumping waves, playing animal rummy (fun card game that Jack was really good at playing), making sand castles and drip castles, playing Cranium at night, watching Lucy get stronger and faster playing around the house, walking on the beach, collecting shells, walking all the way to the end of the pier, feeding the birds on the beach, eating a HUGE platter at the Crab Shack, climbing all 178 steps at the Tybee Lighthouse, and shopping at the little beach shops! Steven and I even got one night out for dinner! We went to AJ's on the back river and really enjoyed ourselves! There was one small little detail of the night... there was a HUGE storm that we watched roll in! The wind and rain were crazy and the tornado sirens went off on Tybee! Not quite the setting we had in mind... but the beer was cold and we were alone! We were happy! Luckily the kids were safe too with Aunt Mimi, John and Granny! They practiced storm drills in the bathroom!

Sweet Luce! What a figure!

Playing in the pool on the beach

BIG waves

I love this!

Jack and Aunt Mimi building sand castles

Granny with her boys and little Lucy

Granny's girls

Feeding the birds (trying to get him to throw the food OUT so they dont take it out of his hand!)

BIRDS!

Mommy and Daddy with their sweet man

Silly Mommy

Silly Jack

Snow cones turn your tongue colors!!!

Sweet little man

Look at this cool pirate!

Lucy must have needed watering!

Flying a kite for the first time! Loving it!

The Leonard boys flying a kite!

Granny and Jack waiting on the CRAB cake!

Sarah made a crab cake for Granny's birthday! (We celebrated early - she will be 80 in October!)

Whoa that is really tall!

Heading up all those stairs! A little sweaty!

Mimi and her babies!

Neese and Jack

Family picture (We took a ton before we realized the humidity fogged the inner lens - SOOOO disappointing!)

Sweet Jack

Giving Daddy kisses

Getting love from Mommy

Sharing the platter at the Crab Shack

Eating a crawfish!

Brother and sister!

Gigi and her great grandbabies

The Leonards on Tybee

Lucy had a pretty memorable trip. She got TWO teeth down there! One on Sunday and one on Monday! Those are her very first teeth! She looks cute with them and loves to give big gummy grins now to show them off! She started cruising and moving between different pieces of furniture and is even trying to stand up in the middle of the room. Of course, she got a few new bumps and bruises along the way too! She ate two handfuls of sand and played on the beach for the first time! She is so much fun right now and SOOOO Busy! She definitely keeps us going all the time!
Jack continued his love for the beach. He talked about going to the beach for two weeks before we left. He asked everyday if it was time to go! He LOVED jumping in the waves and digging in the sand. He also LOVED eating crab (nothing makes me happier than to see him enjoy seafood like we do!) He is becoming such a big boy and is so great with Lucy! He had so much fun playing no matter what we did!

We are home for the weekend and Daddy starts his new job on Monday! We are so proud of him and excited for him!

And for the most exciting part....the van did great on her first beach trip! Oh how we love our van! Hahaahah!

Check out all the pictures!
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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Changes Changes Changes!

Wow! It's been a few weeks since our last post! I don't know why....we have just been sitting around taking it easy... Hahahaha! I dont think that is possible anymore! As usual, we have been pretty busy! Well, more like LUCY has been very busy!!!
I think our life has DEFINITELY changed since Lucy has become mobile. She is crawling everywhere (VERY QUICKLY) and pulling up on everything! She started crawling a few days before the 4th of July and went from slowly getting around to flying around the room! It has been an adjustment for us! It is lots more work to watch both of them now! She just loves it and nothing makes her happier than exploring and investigating everything she can see! She is getting into Jack's toys a lot more too. He is handling it pretty well, and still a big help with keeping away things that are "too small" for Lucy! It gets more fun to see them interact! So that would be one of the first changes in our life right now! Another change for Lucy is that she started school! She is now going to Woodchase with Jack and we are so proud of her! She has done really great! She cried for about two minutes the first day Steven dropped her off and has done great everyday since then! Her teachers are very impressed with her. They say she is very social and very happy! They also said she is VERY BUSY! (That actually made me feel better because I thought I was overexaggerating her busy nature!) The director told us that she has not even seen her upset! We are just so proud of her!

So, for some of the other big changes.... Tomorrow is Steven's last day at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It's been a very bittersweet decision for him to leave his team there after eight years. He has developed some very special friendships and accomplished so much professionally! We are so proud of him! An opportunity came along that he could not turn down and we are very excited about the new adventure! He will start working with Applied Medical on August 15 in medical sales (Surgical devices). It has been a very stressful few months while this process and these decisions have been hanging around. The timing has been tough too since the race is only a month away. Steven didnt want to leave so close to the race, but again..we couldnt pass up the opportunity for him. We are also very happy that "Uncle Scott" works there too. He's been very supportive and seems to love his job which is very reassuring for us! We are so incredibly proud of Daddy and know he will do so great at his new job! Way to go Daddy!!!
So..... with that change, we no longer have the Avalanche for the family! Well, what do you do with a Honda Accord, two kids and LOTS of gear................ YOU GO BUY A MINIVAN!!!!!!! Yes, the Leonards are now official minivan owners! AND WE LOVE IT! Ohmigosh! It's the best thing ever! We get excited whenever we get to go anywhere and drive it! Jack loves it and especially loves his "magic" door that closes with a button! OH it's' just fantastic (No, I never thought I would be this excited about a van!)
PLEASE check out the link for The Swagger Wagon... Hilarious! We got a Toyota Sienna! www.toyotaswaggerwagon.com

Things are going really great and we feel blessed everday for our little family! We dont ever lose track of how fortunate we are! Fun times ahead!!!!! Maybe not so many changes though! Hahahah!