Asa's First Laughs - 3 months old!

We just wanted to share Asa's first laughs with you! I was trying his baptism outfit on him so I decided to take a few pictures. When I propped him up on the arm of the chair he started laughing! Melt my heart!! By the way, he is being baptised on May 9th, Mother's Day at The Church of the Apostles. You can watch live online at www.apostles.org at 10:30am Eastern time! We were glad to get him baptized by Dr. Youssef before we move to Florida since the other two were baptized by him.

A Work in Progress...

Dusty was working on our house in Florida this week! They got a ton of things done! Dusty managed to get in some fishing too, surprise, surprise. Well I guess it actually turned out to be just kayaking since he didn't catch any fish, but he did have fun! And now at least he knows that he likes kayaking!

Here is a pic of the house with the new porch columns and the addition being attached to the big house now. They also ripped out the old HVAC system, ducts and all. We are going to be installing an alternative air/heat source other than central. The floors have all been sanded down and look like new! The last thing we will do is stain and poly them (when all the dust is out). They ripped the entire sub-floor out of the addition and added support columns under the floor because there were NONE. So now we get to do laminate flooring out there because the old vinyl flooring is gone! (Yea!) The addition is where Dusty's office and the master suite is. It is really going to be a fun place to live!

"Symonyms"

It is a rainy day here and we are doing some "work" at the table. I was just explaining the difference between "here" and "hear" to Anson. He has flash cards with simple words printed on them and he practices writing them on his paper. We came across the word "here". I said "it's like, 'come here'." And Anson said "or it could be like, 'I hear something'." Pretty good on his part! So I said that hear and here are synonyms. He said, "yea, like M&M's, only different!"
And to top it off he says "symonyms". So cute. I hope he doesn't grow up too fast!

Tell the Truth

I have to write this before I forget... classic Ansonism.


Anson came running into our room the other day and the following discourse took place:
Anson: Daddy, Ella just hit me and I am telling the truth! I don't always tell the truth but I am this time!
Dusty: (Trying to hold back a smile) Well, when don't you tell the truth?
Anson: (not skipping a beat) Well, mostly on Thursdays, Fridays, and Wal Mart days.



Dusty then hugged Anson to his chest so he could not see us both dying with laughter!! Where does he come up with these things? And he is so quick about it! At lease now I know that when we were in Wal-mart and he told me he wished he didn't have a mother, it was just a Wal-Mart Day and he wasn't telling the truth. :o)

Picnic at Grant Park today

Does Anson look like Gavin in this picture, or what?
When did Ella get so tall?

Picking flowers

Anson looks so tall too!

Brother snuggles

Little dreamy blue eyes

Happy Boy!

The Picnic

While Dusty is in DeLand, slaving away working on our house, we are sitting around in Atlanta having picnics! It was beautiful outside today! We found butterfly catchers at Target and decided to have a picnic and try them out. They used them to put their picked flowers in as there were no butterflies to be seen. And after running areound on the playground, they are all napping now!!

Anson's Bedtime Prayer Tonight

"Dear Jesus,
Please help Ella to have a good night sleep and not be afraid of the dark. Amen
Oh, and please let it not rain again. Amen.
Oh, and please God, Oh pretty please, if it has to rain one day only let it rain a little.
Amen."

Background...
Ella had just been complaining that it was too dark in their room. So I said, "Anson will tell you that when you pray, Jesus will help you not to be afraid", hence his prayer. And this afternoon when he was playing outside, it rained on him. :o)

Naptime at our house is interesting... Anson plays "quietly" in his room, Ella sleeps like a rock in Asa's room, and Asa sleeps in our room. But since naptime is the time I use to get work done, I am usually on the computer or on the phone. Asa used to be able to sleep through my noise but not anymore, so this week I tried putting him, cradle and all, in my bathroom for naptime! It worked well! But today Dusty was going to come home during nap time and need the use of our facilities so into the closet went Asa! No sooner had I put his cradle into the closet (don't worry, it's a big closet) Anson walks in and asks where Asa is. When I told him he was in the closet, he chuckled and said "Now that is a strange place for a baby!" His tone was almost to say "Mom, don't you know babies don't go in the closet!" What a kid!

The Rollins Girls' Charleston Weekend

The Rollins Girls!

Mom and Mel (an honorary Rollins)

Brittany and Naomi, Me and Asa, Megan, Whitney(another honorary) and Amber

King Street - shopping!

And outdoor market - art and food

Asa, enjoying his stroller rides all over Charleston! He was such a good boy.

Beautiful flowers at the market

Asa and Toto

The Anson Restaurant

One of the many beautiful churches

The three daughters-in-law

Just a neat column on a house near the ocean

Anson Street!

It was high time for the Rollins girls to have a weekend all to themselves! Brittany came up with Charleston and it was a great pick! The architecture was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and the weather was perfect! We had such a wonderful time shopping, talking and eating! And since we were all there without our children (except nursing babies.. Asa was the only man in the group!) the Rollins men were slaving away being Mr. Moms for the weekend. Oh, wait, what's that? A Gator football game in April? As it turns out, NONE of them kept their own kids while mommy was away! :o) They all stayed with their maternal grandparents! I was amused by this fact. So they ended up having a fun Rollins Men weekend, too, watching the Gators play and then playing some soccer themselves. They also got to go to Gavin's fraternity family day. We love our Rollins Men!

Well, here are a few pics from Charleston. I was so excited to find "Anson St." and the Anson Restaurant!

House Renovations

We are excited to be working on our house in DeLand now! When we went down last weekend it looked like this...

And when we (and Dusty's crew) left two and a half days later, it looked like this!

As you can tell we still have a few exterior things to do (there will be columns on the other side of the chimney where the metal ones are now to match the ones by the door and they will have the darker green accent paint NOT the red). And the inside has been stripped down in many areas and ready to be re-done. My Dad and Mom are already working up the kitchen drawings. So we are on our way! Did you notice the swing set on the right? The kids LOVE it! It was really dirty so we thought it was in bad shape but when the crew pressure washed it, turns out it is brand new! I think we are really going to enjoy living in DeLand and in this house. Keep us in your prayers as we wrap up things in Atlanta and move to Florida, most likely in June.

Good Friday

Tonight I was reading to the kids about Jesus dying on the cross and what it means for us today. When we prayed, Anson said
"Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross so I didn't have to. And thank you that when I die I will be happy and not have any boo boo's. Amen"
I think he understood!!
And Ella, who I didn't think was getting any of it said "Jesus, Ella no die, Amen" .

I had to write this before I forgot!

We have been trying to focus on the real meaning of Easter and trying to get Anson to understand it this year. At the end of tonight's reading, Anson said "I know it is sad when Jesus dies, but it's OK Mommy, he comes back alive again!" Pretty cool.

Have a Happy Easter!