Wordless Wednesday - Pics from Jordan's Cam

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

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

Aunt Melissa

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

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

The Greatest Show on Earth

Below is an exclusive post-circus interview with Oliver. He was allowed to stay up past his bedtime and was rewarded with a Skittle for each question he chose to answer.

Q: What was your favorite part of the circus?
A: It was about da elephants please. Da fancy elephants with hats like Bello has a hat. He has funny hair but I don't have funny hair. I have long hair.Q: How did we get to the circus?
A: On a train and play with Owen.Q: How much did it cost to go to the circus?
A: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7.

Q: What was the first thing we saw?
A: An elephant (Asia) and a clown and a lion and musickit.Q: What did Asia do with the paint?
A: She paint some more.Q: Where did we sit at the circus?
A: We sit right here.

Q: What kind of snacks did you eat at the circus?
A: I eat a pollylop. We sawed a dinosaur and an elephant.

Q: What was Truett's favorite part?
A: Dere was some food at the circus. I take a strawberry fing it was in my mouf.Q: What kind of music was at the circus?
A: It was pretty loud a stuff. It was pretty loud stuff.

Q: What was your favorite animal there?
A: It was da toy elephant. It got a hat.Q: What was Mommy's favorite part of the circus?
A: Dose tigers.Q: What can you tell me about the tigers?
A: Dey say ROAR! ROAR! ROAR! (repeat 10X). Dey roar.
Q: Did you see clowns?
A: Dat first clown was singing. It was singing, talking about da people wiff me. I didn't wear a coat. I didn't want to wear a coat like a clown.Q: What was Dadoo's favorite part?
A: On da trapeze.Q: Can you tell me about the trapeze?
A: Dey go like dis (swinging arms around). Dey swing and dey exercise and dey...Where's da Skittles bag?Q: What was the most exciting part of the circus?
A: Da cannonballs and fireworks.

Q: What happened when they shot the human cannonballs?
A: Der weres fireworks. Dey flash and kaboomed and dey wheeeeeed.Q: I got you a red clown nose. Would you like to wear it?
A: No, I would like to look at dat clown nose.

Q: Who's Bello?
A: I don't know who's Bello.
Q: Was Bello a silly clown?
A: No, he's not a silly clown.Q: Did Truey like the dogs?
A: Dose dogs were chasing round dose people.

Q: What did those funny dogs do?
A: Dey ride a scooter go down da slide. Dey did wear clothes.Q: Do you think Truett had a fun birthday celebration at the circus today?
A: Yeah.Q: Do you want to go back to the circus?
A: Yeah. I want to see a big, big jungle monkey. Der's gonna be a funny, funny balloon and elephant. I like to get a balloon elephant's gonna get a balloon for my birthday October 11th.

Mommy: Thank you for your time, Oliver. Great job. You need to get to bed now.

Oliver: I wanted dat toy.

Mommy: Yeah, it was expensive. How many times did we decide you'd have to tee-tee in the potty to earn the money for that toy?

Oliver: (Asks Dadoo.) Two fousand. But not today, Mommy.

Then he turned to our dinner guests and said, "Would you like to go to da circus and give me a spinning thing?"

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

Aunts & Uncle & Cousins & Kids

My Aunt Bev is in town from Atlanta so we got together tonight w/ all three of my aunts, my Uncle Harvey, my Bedford cousins and all of their kids. I wish I had taken more pictures but we were too busy visiting, eating and chasing kiddos. Oliver still doesn't even know all of their names but he knows they are lots of fun!

We played in the pool after supper and I finally pulled out the camera:

Oliver with Aunt Beverly

Truett with Aunt Jenny

T loved the popsicle but I had to post this funny face.

A terrible pic of just some of the kids. I'll have to swipe some pics off my cousins blogs when they post.

We are so blessed to have a big family on my dad's side. I have always loved getting together with them but it's even more fun now that we're watching our kiddos play together.

Chrys

Happy Father's Day!

It's pretty sad that the only pic I took of my amazing husband w/ our sweet kids on Father's Day was on my phone while waiting for a table at lunch. I'm so sorry, Dadoo. Despite the quality, I love pic!
I did snap this one of Jammie, PawPaw and Melissa with the boys before they headed home. Thanks for coming to see us!
Here is a picture of Dadoo's stepping stones. I should have taken a pic of the ones we made for PawPaw and RoDaddy before we sent them to Abilene.We are so thankful for the dads in our lives. You are loved.

Chrys

Country Cousins

Oh, get ready for a long post! It was a fun day with lots of photo ops...

We traveled to East Texas this morning for a family reunion. Jammie, PawPaw and Melissa piled in the van w/ us and we headed out, stopping at Ham's Orchard on the way. Truett tried a peach but brother declined, of course. O enjoyed counting them and rearranging them, though.And he particularly enjoyed some peach ice cream...
We decided it was time to start testing some of Oliver's allergies but didn't do a good job of trying one allergen at a time. He ate milk in ice cream, eggs in birthday cake and catfish fried in peanut oil. Oops. He was itchy but it was bearable. From now on I'll be more intentional about which allergen we're "testing".

We met lots of family at the catfish place for the annual greasy lunch. (I'm not complaining, it was some yummy food!) Oliver ate fried catfish (???) which he called "bread". We didn't correct him. He was also a big fan of the hush puppy. Evidently he likes anything fried and then smothered in ketchup. Oh, and don't forget the birthday cake in celebration of Uncle Charles' 80th.And after that we headed to the farm and sat outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather and the East Texas trees. Oh, what a dream for little boys! It seriously made me want to move to the country. We've been there before but it was SO much more fun this time b/c I looked at it through little eyes. The farm has everything a boy could want...

Room to run:
A bike to ride: A puppy to love:
A car to drive: (This "vintage" toy car has been enjoyed by lots of kids over the years. Mike worked up a sweat pushing it up the hill over and over. Truett sat in it and made car noises. So cute!)
Grandparents to wrap around your finger:More love for sweet Lucy, the puppy dog: (Truett could hardly stand it - he is CRAZY about dogs! He spent hours calling that puppy with his "click click" sound. He was not scared of her at all and was delighted by her puppy kisses.)
A turtle: (We declined the offer to take him home. He's a country turtle and city life would probably not suit him well.)Tractors:Lemonade:Mud: (A bath and change of clothes was required. This pic is one of my new favs.)
A frog:I don't have room to post pics of the other creatures we discovered at the farm...spiders, cardinals, hummingbirds, crickets. What a blast!

I asked Oliver about his favorite part of the day and he said it was playing with Lucy, the dog. "She is so cute!"

Thanks, East Texas cousins for such a great afternoon. We loved seeing you. Thank you for opening your home to us and allowing our sweet boys to explore and enjoy country life for awhile. It is very appealing!!We missed you, Cousin Kim, and hope to see you and your kiddos next year if not before!

Chrys

Surf & Swim & Sink & Sob

Here's my very quick Surf & Swim review: It's more than we need right now and I couldn't have taken the boys there by myself. But we had fun!

Jordan, Maegan, Oliver, Truett and I headed there late this afternoon and had a fun time but concluded that a sprinkler park would have been sufficient for our crew. The wave pool was scary since Oliver and I got pulled completely under on our first trip out. (He had on a life jacket and he was fine but it put me on edge for sure.)

Here's O after getting soaked in the wave pool. He's looking slightly hesitant for good reason. He recovered quickly, though.We tried it again later but went out to the middle before the waves started. That was the way to do it. Oliver held on tightly. Very tightly. Look carefully and you'll spot us.I would have been completely stressed out without the two other pairs of hands to corral and lifeguard. Truett is fearless and kept trying to eat the water fountain. Then he'd act shocked that water went up his nose. He didn't mind that but squalled and bawled for the last thirty minutes we were there b/c he was hungry and ready to go home.
The baby bungee swing was a huge hit and Oliver was sad that he was too big for it. He tried to make it work anyway.
Oliver has a friendly strangle hold hug for brother: It was a fun afternoon in the sun with Jordan & Maegan but I'll save money and head to a free sprinkler park until the boys are much older and can handle the wave pool. We enjoyed it and got some cute pics, tho!
Chrys

Zoo!

We could hardly wait to use our new zoo membership so we hopped on the DART train this morning. We sat on the front row and the train whistle was loud--O kept his ears covered most of the time.