Just a swingin'

These two just love to swing, and the higher the better, for both of them. I have to admit, it was one of my favorite things to do as a kid, in fact, I still enjoy swinging. But I don't think I was as brave as either one of my kids are at their ages. Claxton will probably be one of those kids who figures out how to swing all the way around one day. Lord help me!

Train them early

We believe in training our kids at a young age to pitch in and help out with household chores. Julia's first assignment is to unload the dishwasher.

Dreamland

We have been asking Claxton for some time what he dreamed at night. Normally, he looks around and "sees" what he dreamt about - a toy, Daddy, Mommy, Julia, etc. And normally every morning we wake to screaming from the other end of the house "Here I am Daddy. MOMMY, HERE I AM." This signifies it's time to get Claxton up.

This morning was different. There was no screaming, so I figured Claxton was still sleeping. But since we had swimming lessons today, I went into to get him up. He was not sleeping as I expected. In fact, he was standing in the corner of his crib looking at me very sad.

"Daddy?"
"Yes Claxton."
"Daddy?"
"What Claxton?"
"Daddy."
"What is it Claxton, what's wrong?"
"My swing set. It's broken. Bentley {one of his best friends in the world} broke my swing set."
"When did that happen?"
"Last night. While it was dark. Daddy can you fix it? My swing set is broken. Bentley broke it."
"Claxton, Bentley didn't break your swing set. He wouldn't do that."

I quickly picked him up and took him into the guest bedroom. I opened the shutters and told him to look at the swing set, it's not broken. A smile came across his face... and then quickly disappeared. A look of confusion then appeared.

"But he broke it. The ladder. He broke my swing set."
"Claxton, it was only a dream. It wasn't real. It was like when you pretend."

Claxton remained perplexed all day, trying to reconcile the situation. But one thing is for sure Claxton just had his first dream - first that he remembered anyway.

You can tell it's March

Typical spring weather in our neck of the woods. A few days ago we had on shorts and t-shirts and today we had to bundle up when we went out. Right now it's cold, windy and snow flurries have been falling off and on all day. My entire household is ready for spring to be here permanently.

Easter Weekend

A busy few days

Whew!! It's been a busy few days around here. Over the weekend we have been to three Easter Egg Hunts of which one was combined with a birthday party, and yes we had one in our own backyard and it counts. We, or more accurately, Brian, assembled an airplane. Claxton and I dyed Easter eggs along with a little help from Dad. Went to church this morning and played outside with the kids today (even though a little windy) for quite a while. We tried to get some photos of the kids dressed up this morning, but let's just say they were a little less than cooperative. Maybe next year.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow of our weekend. In the meantime, here's a conversation in the car on the way home from church this morning:

Me (looking at the craft he made): This is nice Claxton. What is the round brown thing?
Claxton: It's a stone. It rolled away.
Me: Rolled away from where?
Claxton: The door to the cave.
Me: What cave?
Claxton: That's where Jesus was.
Me: Where is he now?
Claxton: Mommy, he's looking for stones.
Me: Are you sure?
Claxton: Yeah, he's looking for stones.

I'm just assuming that he got restless before they finished the end of the story so he missed it, or he got sidetracked when they got to the part about the stone and his little boyish mind began thinking about how much fun it would be searching for stones. In any event, seems we will have to keep working on theology a bit.

Happy Easter!

From us to you, wishing you a Happy Easter

Be careful what you dream for

We all know the phrase "be careful what you ask for - you might get it." Well, in this case it could be said "be careful what you dream for - you might get it." My husband has the dream of building an airplane in his garage. That dream came true last night. Something tells me not exactly what he had in mind!

So, not exactly your dream, but your children will be very appreciative for years to come.

And today, we have one very excited little boy.

Time to put the gates up

It has been wonderful not having to go through gates in all the door ways for a while now. But, the time has come again for them to go back up. She is unbelievably fast.

Jumping like Jonah

The "Cars" movie and "Jonah" a Veggie Tales movie are by far Claxton's favorites. There's hardly a day that passes that either one or both don't get mentioned at some point. It seems as though whatever we are doing, he can find a way to bring it into relation to one of those two movies. It's really amazing.

Ever since grandparent's arrived this week, Claxton has been telling them that when he goes to swim lessons he jumps in like Jonah. They probably heard this a thousand times this week. Well, this morning, he finally got to show them that he can really jump like Jonah!

Thanks Ron for sharing these photos.

Adult time

At night after the kids are in bed, we've been playing Wii. We even convinced Grandma D to play and created her very own Mii. I hate to admit this, but we did not capture any photos of Grandma D actually playing. For those who know her, well, it should come as no surprise that she got the hang of it right away. I wouldn't want to embarrass anyone or anything, so I'll just report that she did very well bowling...

On another night, these three were at it. You can just tell there's no competition going on here...

Julia's 1st Birthday Party

Today we celebrated Julia's birthday and had a small, but fun party for her. I could go on and on and on about what a sweet blessing she is to our family, but those of you reading this already know that to be the case. We, including Claxton, just adore her tremendously and are thankful for the joy she has brought to us. Yes, including that squealing stage!

As appropriate for our family, her first birthday cake was a monkey, a very cute monkey. Hats off to Brian for outdoing himself yet again.

Grammy and Julia ready for the party.

Time to sing Happy Birthday!

Yummy, this is good!

Cake and presents...birthdays are fun!!

I'll stop opening presents for a moment and pose for the paparrazis.

Thanks Miss Amy for keeping my brother occupied while I open my presents

Grandma D, I made you a cake in my new kitchen

Ellie, would you like to ride?

Here I am on my new airplane and someone else wants a turn too...

We had tornadoes that touched down in the city not too far from us here today. So right in the middle of the party, we had the local news on to follow what was happening. At one point our neighborhood was even mentioned on the news and of course this was at the same time we were ready to cut the cake. Here's half the crew getting ready to make a mad dash for the basement if needed. Thankfully, it never came to that.

Growth charts

We took Julia for her one-year checkup and she is doing just great. After we got home, I decided to take a look at Claxton's records and compare their growth during their first year. In a nutshell, they both entered the world rather small. Claxton took forever to eat, but Julia had no problems getting the hang of it. She really packed on the pounds the first four months, then begin to taper off quite significantly. But by her first birthday, she weighs 4 pounds less than Claxton did at his first birthday. Interestingly enough, since she has been eating table food she once again eats more than Claxton. When she's hungry we cannot get food in front of her fast enough. At her current rate of food intake, she might just surpass Claxton again. We won't be surprised if our doctor tells us to put her on a diet at her 15-month check-up. Currently she's only in the 15th percentile. A dainty little one.

Claxton:
Birth weight - 6 lb, 13 oz., height - 19 1/2 in.
Five days old - 6 lb, 8 oz., height 19 3/4 in.
One month old - 7 lb, 13 oz., height 20 1/2 in.
Two months old - 9 lb, 10 oz., height 22 1/4 in.
Four months old - 13 lb 6 1/4 oz., height 24 1/2 in.
Six months old - 16 lb, 15 1/4 oz., height 26 in.
Nine months old - 17 lb, 5 oz., height 27 1/2 in.
Twelve months old - 21 lb, 10 oz., height 29 in.

Julia:
Birth weight - 5 lb, 14 oz., height 18 in.
Four days old - 5 lb, 10 3/4 oz., height 18 1/2 in.
One month old - 8 lb, 4 1/2 oz, height 21 in.
Two months old - 11 lb, 2 oz., height 22 in.
Four months old - 14 lb, 3 oz., height 24 1/2 in.
Six months old - 15 lb, 2 1/2 oz., height 25 1/2 in.
Nine months old - 16 lb, 8 1/2 oz., height 26 1/2 in.
Twelve months old - 17 lb, 1 oz., height 28 in.

Family in town this week

We have the pleasure of having Grandpa, Grammy, and Grandma D visiting with us for the week. Our schedule is fairly full while they are here. To start our week off, we had our family photographer come out and get pictures of the kids along with all the grandparents. I'm excited that we will have a four-generation photo. Next we had to get some shopping in for the birthday girl and get ready for her party that's on Saturday. And Claxton is looking forward to showing everyone how he can jump like Jonah in the pool at swim lessons on Saturday. Pictures of all coming soon...

Look who's 1

Happy Birthday to our Sweet Girl

First sleepover

Claxton's very good friend Bentley came to our house for a sleepover. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so they spent a whole lot of time outside…doing the things that boys do…

Being silly while having a snack...

Playing swords...

Playing ball...

Riding the roller coaster...and taking turns very nicely I might add...

I failed to capture a picture of them trying to push the roller coaster cart up the slide. I thought that I should probably stop them from killing themselves rather than find the camera.

And when the day was done and it was time for bed, they were both sufficiently tired enough to go right to sleep without us having to tell to settle down – not even once.

Bentley, you are welcome to come spend the night at our house any time!

Think Claxton will mind if I use his computer...?

Mastered the sippy cup

It has taken Julia a little while to get the hang of drinking out of a sippy cup, but she's got it mastered now. So much so she's become quite the little guzzler.

Keep out of the reach of children

There's a reason manufacturers put that on their products. Let me just say that it is really good advice. Here's how I know. This past weekend we were visiting with my mom. On Saturday during rest time, we actually thought that Claxton was resting. He was quiet for the most part and every now and then I heard him talking, but nothing out of the ordinary. There was a long period of time that I thought he was probably asleep, then I heard talking again. So I figured a sufficient amount of time had passed and I would get him up so he could play. I opened the door and just stood and stared with my mouth agape. He stared back at me. You could have heard a pin drop. I just kept staring in disbelief and in my mind I was trying to figure out exactly what had happened. His face was covered in it, his clothes were covered in it, his hair was covered in it. I moved in for a closer look. His hands and his beloved Firedog and Dog were covered in it. The sheet and the sides of the pack and play were also covered. I still did not know what it was at this point. Another step closer and the odor hit me - Butt Paste. I surmised that he had been able to reach the bag that contained all of his toiletries and he had dumped the entire contents into his bed and then began his masterpiece. And when I thought it could not get any worse, I saw other items that had been pulled into the bed - two of my hairbrushes, my hair dryer, several throw pillows that were in a chair next to him. I cannot even begin to express just how stunned I was. Obviously I didn't notice anything that I really thought he would bother when he was supposed to be resting. HUGE mistake. Because we have to buy so much of this stuff, we always purchase the 16 oz container...and of course it was a brand new jar. When I found it underneath all the stuff it was COMPLETELY EMPTY. He smeared it everywhere he could possibly reach. EVERYWHERE. Our luggage and two of Brian's shirts even got a few spots. We knew from previous experience that this product stains and the label states same. However, we are always very careful with it. The label also states that it helps seal out wetness. And rest assured that when 16 oz has been smeared everywhere, you better believe it seals out wetness. We could not find a cleaning agent to break the Butt Paste. Almost everything had to be thrown away. Our trip ended up being far more costly than anticipated. Bet I won't make this mistake again. And when Claxton gets old enough to get an allowance we may just have to remind him that he's already spent it. "Remember the time you smeared butt paste everywhere..."