It's Rainin.... Baby Stuff ! HALLELUJAH !!!

Tuesday night we " Salem Chicks" threw a shower for our Kelly. Much planning ( and lying... more on that later) went down to get everything just right for our dear friend . I must say , it went off without a hitch and I think everyone had a blast. Well, I had a blast :-) So here are some pictures and I will comment as we go along... I promise I will get to the lie before it's all over!




The cake turned out better than I could have hoped for ! If you live in the Tampa, Lakeland, and Orlando area ... Karen is your gal for cakes! She used to work for Disney and WOW!!! Bonus , it's REALLY yummy!






Thanks to my sweetie pie hubby , I only had one baby to worry about for the evening!




Noah got in some rug time with Aunt Kelly before everyone arrived!



Abby Johnson and Noah


We were so thankful and blessed that Kelly's family could make it to the shower ! A special thanks to Sister Beverly, Kimberly , Brooke , Lindsey , Kerry , Abby and Brady for making the effort to come out and party with us !




Brady Johnson and Noah :-)




Noah and Lindsey Kickin it on the floor while Aunt Kelly opened presents!




OK , I'm not going to post EVERY picture of EVERYTHING she got , but she got some great stuff! Absolutely one of the cutest moments of the evening was when Kelly opened the diaper bag/ Backpack. Brady looks at Aunt Kelly real funny and says " Is that for Jos-u-a when he goes to school ?" SO CUTE !



The turtle hat was priceless ! It also came with a matching set of pj's!





We even had Lindsey model it for us :-D




Mommy even got some gifts for her . I HATED wearing the hospital gown when people came to see me and the boys ! My Mom always bought me some new PJ's for the hospital at my baby showers and they were some of my favorite gifts . So , Kelly HAD to have a few new pair herself. everyone needs to feel pretty after they have been through that mess!





Abby and Brady got the turtle and duck for " Wonder Pets " ! So sweet ! I'm not sure how to type out how the duck says " This is serious!" . Kerry ... HELP please :-)




All of the Miller/Spezzano family bought her highchair! Awesome gift!



I must say all of kids were very well behaved but I was soooooo impressed with Brady! I have three boys of my own that are MADE to mind at all costs but they would have bee miserable having to sit and watch quietly for that length of time! He was SO good! Here's to Brady making it through the " girlie party" with flying colors!






Now to that lie I mentioned earlier! About a month ago 8 of us went in together and bought the stroller/ car seat combo for the " shower" gift. I must confess before you all reading this that I have LIED like a rug for weeks covering our tracks! We kept having these bewildered conversations about who might have bought it and I would throw our different suggestions as to who may have made the purchase. Unfortunately we did not get a picture of the look on her face when we finally brought it out of the back room after all the other gifts were open , but it was great!





There is nobody in the world that deserves all of God's richest blessings as much my friend Kelly ( oh yeah , and Jim ! ) !! She has stood with me through good and bad ... two pregnancies in two years , there was A LOT of good and bad !
So , I publicly praise my Lord for such a wonderful friend , who I know will be a great mother . Come on Joshua we're all waiting for you !!!

Disney On Ice

Last night we went to the Forum to see Disney on Ice. I wasn't that excited about it and I'm pretty sure Brent would have rather eaten cow chips but once we got there it was FABULOUS!!!! We had awesome seats on the fourth row from the ice... the excitement was building the closer we got to 7:30. So , all that being said , about fifteen minutes till show time I sent Brent and Connor to the bathroom and to get ONE snack. You realize that it is all a HUGE scam! They get you in with reasonably priced tickets an then WHAM they get you at the concession stand. When they came back all of my instructions had been totally disregarded when Connor saw Cotton Candy that came with a " Flounder" ( from the little Mermaid) hat . Well, Brent decided that if he got Connor one he HAD to get Owen one , how unfair would that be?! So here they come with two bags of pure sugar ( otherwise know to parents as CRACK) and a bottle ( a very nice Disney on ice bottle ) of lemonade. I think to myself " Self , the $10 you sent with them did NOT get all that " , and I was right ... Highway robbery! My $10 got ONE of the bags of cotton candy and super cool flounder hat. OK , get over it moving on... Owen didn't like cotton candy , so he HAD to have some popcorn. Let me pause for a moment and say , it is a good thing for the kids that Mimi and Pop aka Brent's parents came with us because I nearly stroked out at the cotton candy. So , off Brent goes ( with a large wad of Pop's money YEAH!!! ) to get Owen a bucket of Popcorn ( Super cool Disney On Ice reusable bucket ) and his own bottle of lemonade. O k , we are set ... We have spent a small fortune on snacks , but we're set.

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Look how cute he is... Maybe it was worth the $10 :-D

And Photographic proof that even the most unlikely people turn into complete ding bats when they have kids!!!

Grandparents catch the " Ding Bat" bug too :-)

Now , too the show ... IT WAS AWESOME!!! I really do think I had more fun than the kids. The Lion King was first on Mickey , Minnie , Donald , Daisy and Goofy's Magical Vacation....

Next up was the Little Mermaid, and let me just say I think I would have sold my right arm when I was kid to see this one. Ok , the truth is I'm 26 and I was SOOOOOOOO excited !!!

Sebastian was awesome!!

I loved the Ursala costume!

Noah can sleep through anything !! :-D

Next was Lilo and Stitch ... Not my favorite , but still cute!!

After Stitch we had an intermission . YEAH potty break :-) During which Connor weaseled his way into a snow cone in a Stitch cup .... more sugar !

Now one of my favorite parts ... The Mary Poppins Dancers came out and sang " It's A Jolly Holiday" and "Supercalafragalisticexpialidocious"

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Sorry , it was really dark in there , this was the best I could do.

Last , but not least was Peter Pan....

Hey Bekah , it's Tinkerbell!!!

At the end they all came out together and danced... it was great!

All in all , we had a great night. Full of sugar and all other kinds of bad for you food , but they ALL had a great rime. Even Noah liked all the lights. And even though he wouldn't admit it at the point of a gun , Pop had fun being with kids while the were enjoying themselves so much.

If Disney on Ice is coming to a city near you and you have kids , GO! Or if you are like me and LOVE the Little Mermaid , no matter what age you are and how ridiculous it looks, GO!!!

New Pictures Of The Boys

I realized yesterday while talking to G.ma ( actually she told me ,I didn't have to realize!) that I haven't posted new pictures of the boys in a while .

This is Connor's " leave me alone I'm watching Sid The Science Kid" smile. He doesn't look like a " little" boy anymore!




Noah sitting with Connor on the couch. Notice the look on Connor's face ...



Noah having floor time , otherwise known as " OWEN leave Noah alone!!!" time:-D
Also notice his " Wilkinson Eyebrows" !




Owen ( stinker) doesn't like to look at the camera right now... Sorry this is the best I could do!

All three of them watching PBS... even Owen will sit still for " Super Why". PRAISE GOD!!!

Swimming Lessons

This week has been extremely busy for everyone in the Wilkinson/Franklin/Ellerman household. As most of you know , Troy, our working partner had a heart episode last Friday on the job. He is doing well , resting at home , but that means a lot more work to go around. Oh yeah , bonus, Mom and Dad left for an association in Georgia and after that North Carolina , so we have been shorthanded this week big time. Poor Brent is totally exhausted , thank God , Jimmy could help out with our biggest property this morning !

While Brent has been running around in circles , I have been taking Connor to swimming lessons. We had a horrible time getting ready for his first lesson Tuesday morning. He had every excuse in the book for why he didn't need or want to go . Finally it came down to " It's not your choice , you ARE going , and don't you dare embarrass me." So, down the road we went ( with a serious case of the pooch mouth ) , I left Owen with Gran Gran ( Sister Bobbie) for the first lesson. I could just see myself in uncharted territory holding Noah and trying to make sure Owen didn't end up in the pool with all of his clothes on. No thank you ! So in we walked ( after threatening him within an inch of his life) to Ms. Karen's pool area, and it was like a light went on. He LOVES it! I'm soooooooo glad , for those of you who have kids this age you know that sometimes it can go either way. Now he tells everyone he sees about his magic toes and airplane arms that help him float. Confidence booster , BIG TIME! Now he wants to do everything he has liked but been afraid to try. Which reminds me , I have to look up golf lessons for a 4 years old :-D Who knows ... maybe we have the next Michael Phelps or Tiger Woods! Either way...

Where is Owen ?! Again....

Do you as Mothers ever feel like nothing is sacred? I know that we give up "self" to become wives and mothers , but I'm talking about personal things. Every single day if Owen Spencer Franklin is alive , and awake , he will climb whatever he can to get to my makeup bag. This , for some reason , is the only thing that I can punish time and again over and it does NO good. I'm not sure what the attraction is , but he is willing to take whatever I have to dish out for one minute alone with the precious bag of unspeakable goodies! Well, this past week , Mom and I ( more Mom than I because of someone... Owen aka beast aka eyelash curler bandit) were deep cleaning the house. There I was happily dusting away ,and it hit me... Where is he? PANIC! After looking in the first most obvious place , the kitchen ( food duh ! He has to keep up his 36 lbs girlish figure!) , nope not there, STINKER! I ran to bathroom , there he was , for untold , countless minutes he had been sitting in the bathroom floor with my makeup bag wide open. After seeing that he had been digging out every single square of eyeshadow that Bekah brought me this spring ,I had one of those moments. The kind of moment where you realize that nothing you do at that moment could possibly been sane. So , I wiped his hands and face off , they were all shades of lovely shimmering colors, and sent him out to Grandmommy. UGH! Oh well , I guess at least this time he wasn't fully clothed in the bathtub , or greased up with hair gel or any of the other many things it has been before ! So this is a warning to all of you that will be seeing me in public anytime soon , it may not be pretty! Mom's also need at least 5 lbs of make up on before they leave the house to avoid looking like the walking dead:-D

P.S. Bakah , will you be with Urban Decay again this year ? If so, take a massive duffel bag with you:-D

Silence is Golden

This morning as I was driving across town to pick Connor up from his Dad's house I realized one of the great blessings of living back at home with Mom and Dad... Mom offered to watch this little guys while I took my 45 minute jaunt across town ( they were both still sleeping - No fair!) . Ahhhhhh What is this strange phenomenon ?! Quiet?! You mean I get to listen to whatever I want , and BONUS I don't have to answer a thousand questions or try to quite Noah by singing " There's a hole in the bottom of the sea" ?! I must confess I drove slower than usual on the way there :-D

Notes On A Scandal

I know that all of you reading my blog out there are aware of the "scandal" that surrounded Brent and I getting married. You know ... They were having an affair , or my personal least favorite , they got married so fast because she was pregnant. If anyone wishes to speculate on Brent and I , fine. You are entitled to be wrong, God knows, but lets get one thing perfectly clear. March 24th and January 18th do not equal illegitimate child. Owen was taken two weeks early ( January 4th) due to complications by c-section. He and I were in serious danger of hemorrhage due to low lying placenta. I realize that there are a myriad of differences in opinion about my divorce and remarriage , but let us all be comforted knowing the God knows the truth. Please if anyone feels the need to " talk" about what happened , fine, but lets leave Owen out of it. I have no wish to discuss or defend what happened 3 years ago , and I don't think that it is any longer appropriate conversation material. Whatever our differences may be , surely we can look past them for the sake of peace in the church. I'm sure everyone will agree that the church should be more worried about Satan than tending others gardens . Let us all take a long look at our own backyards:-D