It's Official

It is official...Riley is walking. Just a day ago, she preferred crawling, today she walks. My baby is now a toddler. Here she comes.

Klinger Lake

Our trip to Michigan began at 5:00am. We boarded our plane at 7am and arrived at Klinger Lake around 12:30pm. Jamie's mom grew up in Michigan and it was important to her that we all visit her stomping ground. All being Jamie, Charlie, Beth, myself and the kids. We had a really great time filled with lots of family, friends, boat rides, grilled food, sunny afternoons, cool nights, fireflies, a beautiful lake front cottage, and who could forget the Christmas trees. Here is a small peak into our trip.

The boys aboard the plane

Our first cruise around the lake.

Around the 2nd day, the fun which began each morning at roughly 6 am, started catching up with little Georgy

Tom, Charlie, Jamie and George

Against his natural disposition, Jamie agrees to a picture.

Josh, swimming in the very cold lake. You can just see how crisp it is.

After a bath in the lake

Grandpa meets Riley and gets to hang with the boys.

Riley's cousin Ava and a true admirer of Josh and George.

Twilight cruise

Uncle Beth and George

Uncle Dave,Tyler and Dammaw

Charlie's 36th birthday

Remembering Kidd

Jamie and I watched a dear friend whom we haven't seen in almost 10 years, say goodbye to our dog Kidd yesterday. It's made a huge impression on me and I haven't been able to quite shake the image out of my mind.

Matt and Mary, our close friends watched Kidd grow up. We spent 4 or 5 years together each hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains with our dogs, bringing them to parties, going tubing down the New River with them, lets just say, spending lots of quality time with our pups. So we graduate college, go our separate ways, live life...Yesterday we were privileged to be on the same coast and have Matt and Mary at our house. Before they left though, as we all talked about how and when we'd see each other again, Matt bent down, pet Kidd, gave him a hug and said 'goodbye', knowing the next time we saw one another, he wouldn't be around. As heartbreaking as it was, I couldn't stop thinking how each of us, if given the opportunity would rather say goodbye to our dogs than not. The whole experience brought me back again to being present with Kidd and remembering how much we've shared together. He is such a good dog. (I know I haven't said that in a long time)

Owl Game at its Finest

Dialogue between brothers.....

Josh: Hey let's play Owl game!
George: Yea. (Jumping up and down totally excited).

Owl game for those not sure... Jamie finds a place to hide in the house. Then, he hoots like an owl and the boys follow the noise ultimately to find him. Hide and seek Robertson style.

Josh: Okay, you hide George and I'll find you.
George: Alright, where should I hide?
Josh: Hide in Riley's room where there are no monsters.
George: Okay. I'll hide right here behind the chair.
Josh: Okay.
George: Hooting, hooting...
Josh: Looking, looking.....George? Where are you?
George: Right here.

Josh finds George and both start laughing hysterically.
I mean really. How funny. I had to document that one. Much funnier watching it though.

Balloons make memories

Yesterday I decided to brave Harris Teeter to do my first trip ever.... shopping with coupons. It was surprisingly really easy.
Each boy pushed his own cart as we donned the isles looking for the best bargains. Since I was new at the whole coupon thing, the trip took a tad longer. I concentrated on things like 12" pizzas, 5oz cans of tuna....ect. I've never paid attention to detail in that way, so again the trip took longer than usual. The kids however were great. A very pleasant first experience. One I will do again. So as we were checking out, our cashier asked the boys if they had earned and would like a balloon. Indeed they would. We walked out with smiles on our faces and balloons in our hands. Fun, fun, fun. When we got home, the boys played happily with their balloons, as I unpacked the groceries. Georgy however, discovered pretty quickly that when you squeeze a balloon as hard as you can, it pops. And pops loud. He cried. I consoled and explained. Knowing that Joshua had a phobia of popped balloons, I noticed that he was quiet during the whole ordeal. Turned out he was in his room silently crying. Not about the popped balloon either, but about Georges' reaction to the balloon. It dawned on me instantly that brotherly empathy he was feeling. As we sat in the hall comforting one another I'd recall the many times my sister and I shared eachothers experiences and the feelings that went along with them. The memories we made out of just living life together. When things started to settle, Joshua looked at George and started to laugh. If for no other reason than to take his mind off of the balloon and let him know things were okay. In that moment I remembered the countless times I thought only my sister had that special way of being silly to make everything okay. I'm guessing now as a mom watching her sons, that it is just an older siblings way of creating magical memories simply from a popped balloon. A store trip turned into a memory. A way of saying I love you without words. Corny, but true to me. I am so happy that the boys have each other to enjoy that bond I still share with my sister. Unshakable.

Camp Creation

Today was a big day in George's life. Today marked the first day that George would go to camp. Hosted at Josh's preschool, both boys were registered to attend Camp Creation. For three days, they would focus in on a wide variety of ways illustrating how God created the world, how He wants us to listen and obey, and how God wants us to love others. We prepped Georgy a bit before hand knowing he tends to have a hard time initially separating from us to go out on his own. ** After all he is with either Jamie, Joshua or I 99% of the time.** So he was pumped. We arrived at the activity center to sign in, dropped Joshy Joe off at his "beach ball" room and headed down the hall to drop George off. Although a bit apprehensive, we were surprised to see that Joshua's teacher from the previous year was volunteering in George's class. This calmed his nerves and made for a really great "first" experience. He came home with a new t-shirt that I can't peel off of him, a book he made as well as a snow globe with a few of God's (pretend) creatures inside; a sea horse, snail, fish ect.

I am so proud of George. His growing up goes unnoticed sometimes. Although this makes me sad, it only pushes me to strive to be better for him. He gets my comfort and understanding as a second time mom. The respect of eye contact and "really" listening, the ease of loving touch and kind words that spill out of the pride in my heart for him.

Great job today George. God has wonderful things planned for you.

Riley Clair

Today is Riley's first birthday, and I can't describe first birthdays any other way than the saddest, most thrilling day. Such an oxymoron I know. Jamie brought our little birthday girl into our bathroom this morning and we both just beamed, knowing today was such a special day. We sang Happy Birthday to her in unison, as she arched her back and whined...almost begging us to stop the horror. This is a huge birthday for Jamie and I. It marks our final "planned" first birthday. We are high fiving every month that goes by where we aren't pregnant. Both of us are fully settled in our family of five. I have such high hopes for all of my children, but today is Riley's special day and so as I reflect on her past year I can make a few distinct observations...................

She LOVES her daddy. She loves his special way of holding her, and demands him as soon as he walks into view. Of course there is never any objection on his part either. Who knew I'd be competing with the cutest, softest other woman in my house. She loves to nurse. Both boys weaned themselves at 9 and 11 months. Not Ry. She loves the closeness and routine of being with mommy. She adores her brothers, each in very different ways. Joshua looks out for her and takes the true role of big brother. Making sure she is yelled at when she dips her fingers in Kidd's water bowl, pulls her away from the TV when she is attempting to push buttons, makes silly faces at her to distract her from rolling away during a dipaer change, seriously enjoys watching her laugh, which in turn makes him laugh, is excited when she accomplishes a milestone, and the list goes on. Whereas with George, she loves how he actually plays with her. Get down on the ground and play, type of play. He will keep her company playing cars or pulling books off of the bookshelf. George can make Riley belly laugh which is big family fun in our house. He does something silly to set her off, and then they both repeat the game over and over again. Riley loves to eat. She can pile off three scrambled eggs easily. She love watermelon, cheese, blackeyed peas, frozen peas, sausage, burgers, chicken, fish, shrimp, cottage cheese, applesauce, pasta, casseroles, yogurt, crackers...Im writing this list out so in 8 months when she wont eat a thing, at least I can look back and know she got off to a great start eating. Ry loves her bath, swinging on the swing in our backyard, watching her brothers push trucks, and just recently going to the beach. She is very at home along the shoreline. The waves rolling in and out covering her legs with bubbly salt water. She splashes in the tide pools licking her salty fingers and then looks up at me to make sure its okay. She plays with sand toys attmepting to dig. She is everything I imagined a little girl to be like. I can't wait for all of the memories we will make, and relish in the ones already made. I am so proud of her without her even doing anything yet. I just know God has wonderful moments planned for her. I'm honored to be a part of that. I'm crying thinking of how sad I am that my baby is growing up, but so thrilled to have witnessed this first year. Which takes me back to how sad yet thrilling this birthday is. I love you Riley Clair!