Wordless Wednesday - Pics from Jordan's Cam

Chrys

Hummers

Our boys are big fans of Hummers.

Hummingbirds, that is. Oliver has been making observations about nectar and "hummies" the entire time we've been in Abilene. After making and then sampling some hummingbird nectar, he decided it was time to fill up the feeder and wait for the hummies to come eat at the Hummer Restaurant.

Here he is, carefully pouring nectar into the feeder. Notice Truett with the Lightning McQueen cup? He's drinking nectar.
I love how Oliver is holding his tongue "just right" to pour the nectar:Now the feeder is hanging and open for business.
(Side note: Please notice O's big boy pants. I don't want to say too much but I *think* we've arrived. Eeeek! He's still wearing a diaper at night but is waking up dry. Yay! This topic deserves its own post, however, so I'll stop now.)

Truett is waiting at the window. He's been signing "bird" and flapping his own little wings whenever he sees a hummie stop to eat. That usually scares them away, of course. (Jammie and Oliver decided that hummingbirds are very shy.)Our beautiful one-year old boy.I wasn't fast enough to snap pics of any hungry hummies after we replenished the feeder today but these are some Jammie took last week:
I think hummingbirds are amazing! Did you know their little hearts beat up to 1,260 beats per minute? And that they are only found in North and South America? And that you could mail 9 or 10 hummingbirds with a single first class stamp?

Okay. I'll stop.

Chrys

A Rainy Sunday Afternoon w/ Jammie

We've gotten nearly five inches of rain over the past few days. While Jordan, Mike, Melissa and I were at the mall taking advantage of tax-free weekend, Oliver and Jammie decided to suit up in Jammie's raincoats and play outside.

I love how he's got his tongue sticking out in this pic:
I don't know many grandmothers who would willingly get drenched. You're a sweet one, Jammie.

Chrys

Onederful

Truett's first birthday extravaganza ended tonight with our family party. After supper we served him his "dog-dog" cake, which was met with shrieks of glee. He tore into it and repeatedly asked for more, more, more!As did his brother:Later we opened presents. He got toys, books and music.Honey & Ro-Daddy made Truett a growth-stick similar to the one they made Oliver for his first birthday.Uncle Matty came over to join in the celebration.Honey & Ro-Daddy made T some blocks that are also a U.S. map puzzle, a Texas map puzzle, as well as an "O" and "T" puzzles. So creative! Jordan and I put the U.S. map together but were missing one block in Texas. I'm sure it will turn up soon. T-Bird is such an animal lover that most everybody had the same idea: stuffed animals. He babbled wildly when he opened each one and carried them all over the place. He got three dogs, a bear, an orca and a bunny!What a wonderful first birthday celebration. Thank you, sweet family. Jammie & PawPaw deserve a special thanks for hosting us and for always being so gracious. What a wonderful weekend of celebrating our sweet one-year-old boy! He's decided he's a walker now and that makes him seem so much older than he did when we arrived just a few days ago.

Chrys

Zoo

Our Dallas Zoo membership can conveniently be used at the Abilene Zoo so we headed there this morning for another day of celebrating Mr. T's first birthday. The rain held off and allowed for a cool, breezy, very un-August-like visit. What fun...Chrys

It Takes a Village...

...to make a 1st birthday cake. Wow! When our cake maker had to cancel a few days ago I told Jordan, "Oh, come on, we can do it!" I confidently told my mom that if she'd bake the cake and dig up all the decorating gear then I'd take over from there.

Well, it was a very sweet adventure and I ate way too much icing in the process. We made two sheet cakes and cut them into the shape of a Giant Schnauzer like the one T fell in love with at the dog parade. Then we decorated. (My mom took all of these pics so she's not in them but, believe me, I could not have done it without her. I had no idea what I was doing.)
I was afraid it would end up on Cake Wrecks but it actually turned out pretty well! I am pleased. We're serving it tomorrow night at Truett's "official" birthday party. We're going to tell him it's Maggie's white cousin.

We used my mom's family decorator icing recipe. I'm not a big icing fan but this is delicious:

1 box confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup Crisco
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup cake flour
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. butter extract

Chrys

Dog Days of Summer

We went to the Grace Museum for Artwalk this evening. The boys played in the Children's Museum and then did a dog art project.
Several trains flew down the tracks while we were there. O loved watching them.Afterwards we stayed for the Dog Parade. We predicted the boys would love it--especially Truett. And we were right.The boys met their very favorite dog, a Giant Schnauzer named Maggie. I told Maggie's owner that Maggie should feel very special--Truett hasn't yet said all of his family member's names but he now says "Maggie". He was crazy about her!After the parade there were lots of fun activities at the park. Oliver won lots of goodies by catching fish.There was a band playing and our music lover was so into it. O "played" the drums across from where they were until they graciously invited him to come over and play the real drum. So cute. He wanted to play the guitar and sing in the microphone as well. Abilene is such a great town.

Chrys

Manly Men

Chrys

A Honey of a Haircut

I've been cutting on Oliver's hair a lot lately and it's a mess. I admittedly don't know what I'm doing so I asked my mom if she would attempt to clean it up for me. We teased her for taking too much off but it will grow. Like a weed. It always does!

I trimmed Truett's a little too:Chrys

Cubbies

PawPaw returned from his baseball trip today and brought the boys baseball caps as souvenirs.
Chrys

Aunt Melissa

Truett always loves his Aunt Melissa...
But she's especially wonderful when she has food. What a mooch he is!

Chrys

Old Glory

Oliver loves to help PawPaw take down the flag every evening.
Our boys learn so much from their grandparents. We are so thankful for them.

Chrys

Pupcakes

Truett's "real" birthday party isn't until Saturday but I have a thing about celebrating on the actual day. We arrived in Abilene this evening and celebrated with "pupcakes" that Aunt Jordan brought over for dessert.After we sang "Happy Birthday", Oliver didn't give T a chance to attempt to blow that lone candle. O swooped right in and did it for him, from quite a ways away. We all laughed.Truett wasn't sure what to think at first. He hesitantly tasted the icing and decided he liked it. But he wasn't so keen on the cake part. I'm one!
Oliver is a fan of the pupcake. Every last bit of it.
Chrys

Freddie Forklift

Several years ago my dad retired from writing and took a job doing predominately manual labor. I initially judged it a waste of his talent b/c he is brilliant and so overqualified for his current position. But my opinion changed when I saw how much he enjoys it. He is fulfilled and I am so proud of him.

And his grandsons are proud, too. Oliver thinks Ro-Daddy has the coolest job ever b/c he gets to drive big trucks, use a forklift and work around construction equipment.

For almost a year now, O has received letters from Freddie Forklift. Freddie works with Ro-Daddy so he sends reports to Oliver about what they've been doing. These letters arrive about once a week and always include old-school polaroids of construction projects they're involved with. Freddie has lots of cousins and he tells Oliver stories about how hard they're working and what they're building.Oliver loves going to the mailbox each day, anxiously awaiting a letter from Freddie. Then he calls Ro-Daddy to tell him he got a Freddie Forklift letter and Ro-Daddy acts surprised.O has quite a collection now of pictures and letters from Freddie. They are treasures to him.

Today at lunch Oliver was inspecting a picture of Freddie's cousin Bubba Bucketmouth. (He said his mouth looks like Mommy's, by the way. Nice.) He hugged it and said, "Bubba Bucketmouth loves me so very much." Yes, Oliver, he does. So does Freddie Forklift.

And so does Ro-Daddy.Thank you, Lord, for a creative, thoughtful and loving dad who loves my children so well.

And thanks, Ro-Daddy. I love you.

Chrys

"Cool Flames"

These "cool flames" made quite an impression on Oliver this morning. He came home from church talking about them and even thanked God for them in his prayer before we ate lunch.

Oh, that kid. He keeps us laughing.

So what do you think...Flames for our minivan?? It's a statement, for sure.

Chrys

Twenty Years!

We're in Abilene for Mike's twentieth high school reunion! Crazy stuff. He didn't really care about going but I talked him into it. This afternoon was the family picnic. Here's our crew before we left:
Tonight was the big party at The Grace. The boys had six eager babysitters and I hear they didn't go to sleep until 10:15. They're loving this!
I knew a lot of folks despite going to school across town so we really enjoyed visiting with old friends. Mike kept joking that I knew more people there than he did.

Twenty years. Wow. I can't say much--mine will be here before we know it.

(Side note: I've had a migraine ever since we got to Abilene so that's why there aren't many pics. I've spent most of our time here asleep.)

Chrys

A Special Treat

We're in Abilene and my college roommate, Dawn, drove in from way out West. She'd never met Truett and it meant so much to me that she made the trip for a short but sweet visit. We ate supper and then O took her girls to play across the street. I got some fun shots of her beautiful daughters.
Oliver loved meeting Lane and Carson. He's been talking about them ever since.
Chrys

Two by Two

"Hey birdies! Ya wanna come wif us? Noah and da boat is goin' to Ab-blue-ene."

I hated to break it to them that there's not any biblical records of Noah's travels to West Texas b/c the boat full of animals seemed to thoroughly enjoy the trip that Oliver arranged.

Chrys

Hugs & Kisses

Oliver loves for Dadoo & Mommy to hug and kiss. He pushes our faces together and even tries to kiss us at the same time. It is priceless. It is evidence to me that a child feels secure when they see love and affection between their parents.
Lord, help us to love one another well.

Chrys

Truey Jump Up

Truett is surprisingly strong. His johnny-jump-up is his favorite place to be.
Even when he's not in it he moves his legs like he is.

Chrys

Sickly

The boys have been congested for a couple of weeks and their coughs have gotten much worse. We finally took them today to a pediatrician here in Abilene who took care of me when I was a little kid.

Poor Baby Truett is the sickest. He has croup and had to get a cortisone shot. We have to watch him really carefully b/c his breathing is wheezy. Mike's folks got a humidifier to put in his bathroom so hopefully that will help. T's ears are well from his ear infection and he weighed 14 lbs, 11 oz so that's all good news. He has a rash on his face that the doctor said is just a teething rash.

Oliver has been on antibiotics for an ingrown toenail that was infected. It wasn't looking better and it turns out he's got a staph infection. So he got more oral antibiotics and ointment for that plus medicine for his terrible cough b/c he has an upper respiratory infection, too. He weighed in at 30.5 lbs.

Since they're both contagious and sick we're staying put in Abilene for now. I've been up much of each night with Truett since we arrived so we need all the help we can get. It is so nice to have family around!

Chrys

Christmas Day

What a fun day celebrating Jesus' birth with our family. PawPaw read the Christmas story from Oliver's new Bible and then we opened gifts. Oliver's new space shuttle, blocks, more Geotrax stuff, music, books, gears and bomber jacket were big hits. Truett got some fun toys but so far big brother has enjoyed them more than T.