Memorial Day at Camp Grinnell!

This past weekend we spent at my parents house. It was so much fun going out on the boat, swimming, and just having a relaxing fun time with family. I didn't do a great job of taking many pictures, but here are a few from one of our boating outings!

CHEESE!! This was the face I got when I asked Davis to smile for the camera. Oh so cute, and you can see his gigantic teeth!


Davis was able to be captain of the ship with Dan and with his Gramps. Each morning, noon and night we frequently heard 2 words from Davis's mouth... "boat" and "pool" I think we are raising a little boy who loves the water!

My precious Davis and I hanging out! Soon we'll have two! Can't believe in just over 2 months we'll be a family of 4!!!

Bye, Bye Bottles!

Over the last couple of weeks I've been transitioning Davis to not drink from a bottle anymore. I think perhaps, this may have been harder for me then for Davis since I went from cuddling him while feeding him my milk, to really enjoying our time as I cuddle him and feed him some cow milk and now cuddling with a sippy cup? Just doesn't happen for quite as long!! Now our longest cuddles are over some good books several times a day.

Before baby #2 arrives, I thought this would be a good milestone for us to conquer in becoming a big boy. Davis never did say goodbye to his bottles, but I did this morning by putting them away until #2 needs them.

In fact, I don't even think Davis misses them at all.

Bye bye bottles!
Hello sippy cups!

Uncontrollable Giggles

• As I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning, just a few feet away in the family room I heard uncontrollable giggles. (always a good sign, so I thought!) I kept peeking in and saw Davis and Scruffy having a blast together. Davis playing keep away from Scruffy with one of his toys and and Scruffy jumping up to get it. We've been really excited to see Davis and Scruffy become such good friends.

Well, a new discovery has happened.... despite all the uncontrollable giggles, I then found Davis with scratches all over his face and his arms. Did I ever hear any crying or sign of pain going on? NO! Still, to find my little boy all scratched up and that in the pleasure of playing he didn't even notice the pain was a little bit hard for this mommy.

Guess many of you seasoned moms would maybe say that I better get used to it.

The scratcher.

The scratched. (and the instigator!) You can vaguely see a few scratches on his head and cheek, but they had died down before I thought to take a picture!

Happy Mother's Day!

For Mother's Day, my precious boys gave me the best present--- a weekend with them! All the undivided attention I wanted (or a long shower while Dan played with Davis :)) I love them so much and was so happy to have all this time with them!

Saturday, we spent the morning at a park downtown where you can feed the ducks and they will literally be within feet of you. Davis loved the ducks, but it was the geese we had to watch out for! They seemed like they could have been a bit vicious, but we all had a great time!
Up close and personal with Davis's favorite animal... "Quack-Quacks!!"




This is where I found my boys after my nice relaxing shower Sunday morning. They were busy preparing breakfast! Davis was the official spatula holder and Scruffy was the official manager of the kitchen. :) It was so yummy and a very special treat. I even had a card especially colored by Davis!



It's hard work being the spatula holder... especially when it is May and your parents are still dressing you in fleece pajamas!
The truth of it is that Davis doesn't keep a blanket on him in the night (somthing to do with most of his life so far being in the wonderful tropics of the Philippines...) so he prefers to be warm!

We also did go and fly kites Sunday afternoon before a Mother's Day dinner at one of my favorite places... Cracker Barrel! A full, but very fun weekend!!

Thanks Dan and Davis for giving me such a special weekend!

What makes a prodigy?

It's become clear to us that our eldest son is a child prodigy. He definitely has the two key ingredients that are necessary to obtain this status.

Go ahead, let your one-year-old child bang on the piano.

We got bugs in our house

Ellen's dad let me borrow his blue 1973 VW Beetle for the last 5 months, and while I was driving it, I caught the Volkswagen fever, and decided that I had to get one of my own. So I finally settled on a black 1974 Super Beetle. So, since we now have a garage full of bugs, I thought it was worth a picture:

Swim Time Davis & Scruffy

My parents gave Davis a present that he (& Scruffy & I) will enjoy all summer! This is a great kiddie pool that we enjoyed for the first time yesterday. It was so funny watching Davis as he first entered what had to have appeared as a giant, shallow bathtub. He just walked around and around and I kept encouraging him to sit, but he didn't do that until about 10 minutes into being in the pool.

We then decided to be adventurous and invite Scruffy for a dip, which turned out to be a hit for both Scruffy and Davis! Scruffy kicked around and eventually was soaked... Davis got used to it and ended up playing hard, splashing and kicking around.
Easter Eggs and tupperware have lots of great uses! All Davis needed was a package of eggs and some "boats" for them and he could have been entertained for hours....

Oh... and many have resquested to see me pregnant with #2. :) Here I am at 26 weeks! Baby Brooks #2 is already 1lb 14oz (as of this past Monday) and is quite an active little guy!

Sidenote: (Didn't Dan and Dad do a great job painting our kitchen a very happy yellow?!)

Stuff about Me

Ok, I was tagged by a friend to do this and was also tagged for 100 things about myself, but I don't think I could be that creative and come up with so many things, when I need to quit procrastinating and go do the ironing!

What was I doing 10 years ago?

I was a sophomore at Auburn, loving college. My life was the Auburn band, Lakeview Baptist Church, and maybe a little bit of studying. :)

5 things on my to do list:

1. Iron the clothes
2. Finish Davis's baby book so I can begin #2's!
3. Water all the newly planted flowers. (my first time as a gardener!)
4. Take a nap
5. Read toddlerwise (We are trying to learn how to discipline... tough when he is SO cute, not as hard when he is disobeying!)

5 snacks I enjoy:

1. Chocolate
2. Just about any bread with butter on it
3. Grapes
4. Jelly Beans
5. Donuts

5 things I would do if I were a Billionare:

1. Pay off our house
2. Go back and visit the Philippines.
3. Travel to lots of other places
4. Give lots of money away
5. Hire someone to clean our bathrooms. :).... my least favorite chore...

bad habits:

1. Reading emails and not writing back
2. Procrastinating about the important but not urgent
3. Snacking on junk (but its yummy!)
4. Procrastinating about tons of other stuff
5. Teaching Davis weird noises. (maybe this one isn't bad!)

5 places I have lived:

1. Rochester, NY
2. Birmingham, AL
3. Auburn, AL
4. Songtan, South Korea
5. Manila, Philippines

jobs I've had:

1. Babysitter
2. Camp Counselor
3. Cashier at Goody's Clothing
4. elementary teacher
5. Mommy! (the best job of them all!)

Spray!!

This past weekend Davis and I switched places with my Dad as he so wonderfully offered to help Dan paint the inside of our house! They did an awesome job, worked so hard, and even hung Dan's grandfathers porch swing up on our front porch!

I went to the lake with Davis to spend time with the rest of the family while they did the makeover! (Pretty good deal, huh?!) While we were there some good friends of ours gave us some of their deck chairs for our backyard (thank you!) and a picnic table for Davis, so when we returned home today, Davis and I decided we'd hose it off.

Well, we actually didn't end up cleaning it more then just getting it wet because the hose ended up being so much more fun! (maybe tomorrow....)

Needless to say, the hose is now a new favorite toy and I really think Davis's favorite job is going to be to water the flowers!

Our Home!

I thought many of you would like to see some pics of our home that we recently bought. I love it a lot. (and so does the rest of the family!) It had been on the market for awhile, so we were able to get a really great deal. I think God had it waiting just for us.... It has so much more then what we need. We are ready for our friends to come and visit. We have a guest room waiting!

Our home! Scruffy is sitting on the front porch enjoying the view. It is even on a culdesac surrounded by very friendly neighbors. :) Great for safe bike riding!

The backyard has plenty of room for lots of play and it even came with a play set! We hear that these things are very pricey and really hard to put together, so our kids can be thankful that the backyard already has one! I am most excited about all the trees. This spring it has been really fun to watch the buds become leaves!... I had forgotten all about this process!

While Davis and I play in the backyard, this is where you can usually find Scruffy. Dan and I joke about him constantly reminding us that he is an indoor dog... We thought the backyard would be paradise for him, but unless he is doing his "business" then he prefers to be on the porch or inside... only occasionally where the action is!