Fun With Fam

Over the Fall Break weekend, we went down to see family and for Josh's high school reunion. We had a good time - Mamaw and Papa watched all the Oklahoma grandkids that night: Tana, Kota, Graeson, Jaci, Case, and Liam. It was a full house when we got there - even Grammy came to visit that weekend!

We had a good time at PawPaw and Memaw's too. Case as usual finds plenty of things to do out in the country!

The boys showed Mamaw their costumes (more pictures to comes!) and Liam walked around with help from the walking toy - won't be too long until he will be walking on his own!

As usual, C and Jaci are best pals. One reason it's so hard to leave is because I hear Case cry, "I want to stay here...play with Jaci!"

This time around there were two other little ones joining the fun. Graeson can keep up with them well and no hows to bug Jaci - he's been practicing on his two older sisters. He was so funny and onery! After Rocky and Jeremy got there, I would hear, "Leave her alone!" It's like Jaci has a little brother - ha!

L Child tried to keep up with the big kids. They all would be playing in a room, and the walking ones would come zooming out followed by a crawling, yelling Liam. As if he was saying, "Where did you go guys?"

Big Brother Help

Little by little, Liam has began to eat solids again. Hurray!

Case likes to help feed Baby. He's pretty good and L Child seems to like it when Big Brother feeds him.

An Impromptu Date

So Wednesday afternoon, Josh called me and said, "Would you want to go to the Carrie Underwood concert?" Of course!

He had gotten free tickets from a friend. They were good tickets - first level above the floor. My parents happily agreed to watch the kids, and we got to go on an impromptu date! I don't know how long it had been since we had one of those - probably before C was born.

The opening acts were pretty good. I really enjoyed Sons of Sylvia - they really were performers - especially the guy jamming out on a mandolin. That's right: a mandolin.

The next opening act was okay - he was a typical redneck country singer: Billy Currington.

Carrie Underwood was awesome! These are pictures from the part of the concert that she sings on the bed of a truck suspended from the ceiling and drives around the arena. Pretty cool.

Fun at Mama's School

The boys visited me last week for a couple of hours. We played in the office. L Child pretended to be a mad scientist. Case played with a tennis ball. C had some candy. We went for a walk on campus visiting the fountains. Case threw leaves in the water. Liam ate leaves. C had more candy. Then the boys played with a tennis ball in my hallway. After we had created enough havoc, we went outside to wait for Immie and Bunny.

Casen's Photo Shoot

Casen wouldn't pose by the pumpkins, but he would pose by the new truck tire!

Fall Photo Shoot

I only got one picture of Case's face so really this was a Liam Fall Photo Shoot. Liam is at the wonderful age where he poses for me.

My Dear Second-Born

Dear Liam,

Years from now, you will probably look back at albums and blogs and realize that you don't have as many pictures and videos as your big brother. You don't have monthly photo shoots to show your growth. Sometimes I feel guilty about that fact, but then we have moments like these pictures show. Your big brother is so busy, he doesn't have time to pose for his fall pictures. So you get your own personal fall photo shoot. I think I took about a hundred pictures of you with the pumpkins - you are so cute!

And one more thing: be thankful you are the 2nd-born child. We might not even have pictures of the next one.

Love you sweet child of mine,

Your Mama

No Rest for the Weary

Sometimes we are racing.....

Sometimes we are driving to see JorJor on the Big Boat at Navy Basic....

Sometimes we are trying to catch up with Big Brother...

Whatever it is, we keep on moving. Not the time to rest!

One of My Favorite Sounds

Can you hear it?

Liam's squeal of joy, yes, that's his face of joy.

Wait, he might have been yelling at me because I made him sit down in the tub for the millionth time.

Liam's Eating Surprises

From the time he was born and smiled up at me, Liam has been surprising me. Being so different from his big brother Case when it came to nursing, I thought that Liam would love solid food. Not so much.

Liam's gag reflex is strong - so much so - he scared his Wednesday night bible class teacher when she gave him cheerios.

He can now "eat" cheerios and yogurt melts. I say "eat" because he likes to suck on them and usually will spit them out before they make it to the back of his mouth.

We did discover that he loves apples! He likes to eat them with Case - even granny smith ones.

Though he loves his bottle, he can use a cup pretty well.

I included the picture of his Look in the high chair. This is one of many of his faces when we try to feed him solid food. He seems to be saying, "Are you kidding me? Where's my bottle??!!"

Brothers

Aren't brothers swell?

Parents Beware of Elmo

So yeah, this DVD is disappearing at our house. When Case got it last Christmas, he started saying, "Mine!" a whole lot more. We thought it might be from this DVD, but he's also 2.

Fastforward to today - Case hasn't watched it in ages. He watches it, and since then he has been screaming like Elmo, "That's mine!!!!"

The moral of the story? 28 minutes of "Mine!" outweighs the last 2 minutes of Elmo actually sharing. Even an almost-3-yr-old can't put the lesson together at the end of 30 minutes.

Dora

Having an almost-3-yr-old, we watch a lot of Dora.

Totally appreciated my friend Stephanie sending this to me...