Family Funnies

Brad and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Cabo this summer just the two of us. One thing we did there was go deep sea fishing. Before we got on the boat...

Brad: "Maybe we should stop to buy some Dramamine?"
Me: "Nah, I've never been motion sick in my life." (If our life was a movie, there would have been some dooms day music played here)

About an hour into our five hour fishing trip...
Me: "I don't feel good" :(

Lucky for me, I felt miserable until we had only 45 minutes left when I finally puked over the side of the boat five times. Ironically, Brad got mad at me for not getting our 130lbs catch fully in this photo, but I told him my primarily goal at that moment was just to not throw up on him or the fish :)

After seeing photos of our Marlin, Grayson had been begging us to take him fishing, so one Friday night we went to our friends' Matt and Rachel's neighborhood to fish. Grayson was so excited when he caught a fish, but was very disappointed when we made him release it.

Grayson: "But, I really wanted to take him home and cut him up and eat him."
Brad: "Buddy, that wouldn't even be enough meat for a chicken nugget."

At another point during our fishing excursion, Grayson threw his line backwards and it got stuck in a tree.

Grayson: "Look! I caught a tree!" (followed up by his cute little victory dance)

"Mr. Matt" also let Grayson fall into the pond three separate times that night (yep, we blame Matt) :) So, Grayson definitely had to ride home naked.

Oh the memories we're making!

Other Grayson Greatness

(I decided during one of our recent frequent trips to Chick-Fil-A to order Grayson grilled chicken nuggets instead of the normal fried ones.)
Grayson: "Mommy! There's something wrong with my chicken nuggets!"
(Lesson learned: if you want them to eat grilled, you have to start them off on grilled cause once they get a taste of the good stuff, there's no turning back.)

Grayson: "Mommy, you and Daddy have brown hair."
Me: "That's true. We are brunettes. Do you know what color your hair is?"
Grayson: "No."
Me: "You're blonde, well dirty blonde."
Grayson: "I'm not dirty, I'm clean!"

Grayson: "Mommy, you're going to die." (Don't ask how this morbid conversation started cause I don't know.)
Me: "That's true Grayson. Someday we're all going to die."
Grayson: "Yeah, but you're going to die soon."
Me: "Well, I hope I get to live until I'm really old."
Grayson: "But, you ARE really old Mommy."

Grayson: "Daddy, where do boogers come from?"

(I walked out in a skirt and top to go to my 10-year high-school reunion -- I guess I am old)
Grayson: "Mommy, that's a little bit too short." (with a very concerned look on his face)
Keep in mind, it was all of an inch above my knee, but good to know he'll keep me modest :)

(We were driving home late one night.)
Grayson: "Can we stop to get a drink at Sonic?" (Can you tell whose child he is?)
Brad: "Buddy, it's so far past your bedtime, it's not even funny."
Grayson: "It's a little bit funny."

Camdyn Cuteness

While our "Little Miss Thing" doesn't have enough words to make too many funny stories yet, she is still showing us her personality in her own little one-year-old way.

She already gives meaner looks than what I've seen most adults make. Just ask the nurse who tried wave bye to her after giving her her vaccinations. I'd say the look was worth a thousand words. "Seriously lady, you think I'm gonna smile at you after that?"

When I took Grayson to pre-school story time at the library, Camdyn crawled right in the middle of the circle to listen and participate. During every song, she would find her way to the middle of the circle to dance for everyone. One-year-old and already a ham!

She did start walking at 12 1/2 months, but literally, every time I pull out the camera to capture it on film, she drops to crawl, which is why you won't see that milestone recorded here.....she likes to be difficult.

And all the things I've always chalked up to Grayson being "all boy," Camdyn is doing the same things. So, we've come to the conclusion that we must just make really crazy children. Although our house feels like controlled chaos most of the time, we love every minute of it! Our beautiful, crazy children are either keeping us young or giving us pre-mature gray hair (maybe both)!

Thanks to everyone to keeps up with my random, sporadic blog posts!

Uno!

Our baby girl celebrated her First Birthday last week! We didn't have a party for her (I know, we're bad parents!) We realized after Grayson's first birthday that having a party for a one year old is really more about the parents than the child. And as the parents, we just don't want to deal with the stress of a party until she is old enough to appreciate it (maybe age 3?) :) Luckily for Camdyn, various things brought several of our family members to our house in the days surrounding her birthday, so she was plenty spoiled with gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles!

And of course we let her experience the wonderful rite of passage of shoving cake in her face! And because she is already pretty much obsessed with food and eating (although you would never know it by her little petite size), it didn't take her long to dive in! I think the best part was when she decided to poop while she was eating the cake, which made for pretty much a disastrous bathing experience because she was covered in nastiness from head to toe!

I'm not walking yet although I'm still fast enough to get into all kinds of trouble (like regularly trying to eat dog food and removing each tip from every door stop in the house.) I am little miss independent. I don't really love to cuddle or be held; I'm way too busy exploring the world for that kind of non-sense. I am expanding my vocabulary daily with my first official word at 11 months (uh-oh). I've since added "Da-Dee," "Ma-Ma" (although I think this one means "more" because I don't usually say it in correlation with mom, but usually with food),"Hi," "Bye," "Ta" (for our dog Tag), "Yay," "Yum," "Sop" (Stop - an important one to know when it comes to my big brother and Grandma's pesky dog), and "Tanks" (Thanks). My Daddy already has me trained at giving out high-fives. I adore my big brother; he is the only one who can always get me to grin even when I'm at my grumpiest. On the rare days when I wake up before him, I quickly find my way back to his room and bang on his door until he comes out. I'm growing by the day and my parents are soaking in every minute of it! I am one loved little girl!

Our sweet one year old! What a joy you are in our lives! What a testament of God's perfect plan and unending faithfulness! We love you Camdyn McLaine!

Just a little tid bit from our sweet life

We spend alot of our time making sure our son doesn't kill our daughter :)

A sweeter one

Fun in the tub

Happy 4th!

A little comedy from our boy who always keeps us laughing...

Brad: "Grayson, did you know that God made you special? He put you together in Mommy's tummy!"
Grayson: "But, how did God get in Mommy's tummy? And did he have tools? Did he use a hammer and nails to build me?"

Brad came through the living room and lovingly slapped me on the butt.
Grayson: "Mommy, Daddy just spanked you and grown-ups don't get spankings."

Brad: "Where do you want to eat?"
Haley: "I was thinking about C-H-I-C-K-F-I-L-A."
Grayson: "I was thinking about O-R-G-J-T."

Grayson: "Mommy, my monkey is going to get 55 spankings for not listening, for messing up my room, for not sharing, for not being kind.... Mommy, is it okay if I give my monkey 55 spankings?"
Me: "Sure, buddy!"
(For the record, we've never given him 55 spankings :) but I guess he feels the need to exert his authority over somebody)

Look Whose Crawling Now

8 months

I'm 8 months now. I'm up on my hands and knees rocking away and will begin crawling any day now. But, even without crawling, I get where I want to go, even if it meets dragging myself across the room or rolling repeatedly until I reach my desired destination. I am already stealing my big brother's toys, and call me a tom boy, but I love playing with cars. I adore my big brother, and my face lights up every time my daddy walks in the room. I've just started a little bit of solid food in the last couple of weeks, and I'm determined to feed myself, which makes the whole feeding process fun for mom and dad. But, that's okay because I have plenty of extra meat on me just from mommy's milk. I'm quite the little chunky monkey, especially in the thighs. I am a really easy baby and bring so much joy to my family and everyone around me. Even when I'm fussing, I will still look up at whoever is holding me and grin. So far, I am a determined, strong willed little thing just like my big brother. I guess I have to be that way if I'm going to survive in this family!

Four!

As is becoming the norm these days, here is another post that is well over a month old.

Our baby turned FOUR back in March. I think this birthday hit me harder than any of the ones before. In fact, I felt like I was going to burst into tears the whole week of his birthday. I just didn't know how it was possible that we could have a four year old. He just transformed from a little toddler to a big kid right before our eyes.

He was very specific about what he wanted for his party this year. I guess the days of us having ideas for his parties are over :) About six weeks earlier, he had gone to a birthday for one of his friends at church and from them on, he was very clear that he pretty much wanted the exact same party his buddy, Canaan, had. So, at his request we had a Cars themed birthday party at a park near us. It could not have been a more gorgeous day (Pics Below).

I think the most important thing about Grayson turning four is that it means that we survived three! :) Although there were many moments during his "terrible threes" that I wondered if we both needed counseling, his little season of rebellion and defiance went away just as quickly as it began. Of course, we have now entered an arguing phase, but that is nothing in comparison. I will take arguing any day over the daily outbursts of anger and wondering fearfully every time we went out in public if I was going to have to pick him up over my shoulder kicking and screaming and carry him out of whatever restaurant or store where the meltdown happened to occur.

Now, I find myself looking at him daily and just thinking what a beautiful, good big kid he is. We did resurrection eggs with him this Easter, which was so neat. It was so special to see him understand for the first time the very thing on which our faith is founded. About a week after Easter, he even told me, "Mommy, that toy is red, just like the blood on Jesus' head from the crown of thorns."

He is also in a phase right now that he loves to use big words even if he doesn't know what they mean. Recently, he'll just go around yelling: "Japanese" or "Guacamole." He also started really emphasizing his vowels in certain words that comes out as a twang, making it really clear which state we live in, although, with the accent you would think he's from Podunk, TX instead of Houston :) It's incredibly sweet to watch him with his little sister too as I frequently hear him say, "It's okay, honey" or "Camdyn, you are so precious!" OR "Stop all that fussing, I can't concentrate." :)

While we hate that he is getting big so fast, we are so proud of our big four year old and it is such a gift to watch him grow up!

2011 Family Photo Album

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Every year I put together a digital photo album of our family photos. I love doing it because I love telling the story of our year with pictures and seeing how our kids have grown in just a few short months. I usually give myself a self-imposed deadline of the end of January to have it completed. Needless to say, I didn't quite make that deadline this year, so yay for it being completed before the end of April :) Anyway, if you spent enough time with us in 2011, you're probably in it. Also, even on full screen, some of the photos and captions look really small, because the actual photo book is bigger than a computer screen....so sorry about that. Enjoy Family & Friends!!!