Happy Grandparents Day!

We celebrated Grandparents Day this month at school.  All the kiddos' grandparents were invited to bring in a favorite family dish and enjoy in some activities to compare the past to the present.  My class had a blast.  It's times like these that make me think of the fun things Brody and his sissy will have showing off their grandparents at school.  You'd think that having them live over 1.000 miles away would stop them from coming to these special events, but our family is one blessed bunch with grandparents that travel great distances for their grandkids.  Thank you Granny, Papa Don, Nana, and Papa Clark for everything you do for our family.  We love and miss you all.  And we cannot forget about Papa Joe.  Happy belated Birthday on Sept. 9th!  We love you and think of you always.

Monkey See Monkey Do

One of the days while Daddy was at the station, Brody and I decided to make play-doh for the first time.  I wanted to make it just in case he tried to put it into his mouth.  I thought if he played with it on the floor on top of a cookie sheet there would be less association that it's food, as there would be if I put him in his highchair.  He was very skeptical about it at first.  He poked at it with a wooden spoon.  Then touched it with his finger.  Oh, there went the spoon in the mouth.  There went the bottom lip after I said no.

After a little consoling, he loved molding the play-doh into balls and throwing them.  Balls are one of his favorite things.  If I'm not mistaken I think he says the word "ball" better than "ma ma."  (Yes, I am having a hard time letting that one go)  I was all concerned about Brody putting the play-doh in his mouth that I completely forgot about Wrigley wanting to eat it.  Wrigs thought Brody was playing fetch with him. (However, Wrigley's definition of fetch is Brody throwing a toy and Wrigley taking it and jumping on top of the couch to tease Brody.  Brody then gets upset.  Wrigley jumps down and drops the toy.  The cycle then repeats itself.)  Anyways, Wrigley ate the ball that Brody threw and that was the end of the play-doh for the day.

It's a GIRL!!

I still can't believe we are having a little girl.  I'm definitely going to be in trouble in trying to resist in buying all those cute girl clothes and accessories.  Now, onto the hard part, HER NAME!!  We had a boy name picked out for our little one, but couldn't agree on a girls.  Let's just say, as in the show FRIENDS, "veto is starting to sound good."  One thing we are sure of, she is a little active one.  Brody was very calm, laid back, even yawning during his sonogram.  His sister, on the other hand, was a different story.  She was doing somersaults, covering up her face, and kickin' up a show.  Nonetheless, we are thrilled to soon meet our new bundle of energy!  We asked some of Jackie's fellow teachers where they had the 4D ultrasounds done and decided to not go back to Holmes (where we had Brody's ultrasound).  We arrived at the office just the two of us.  They told us on the phone that any children under the age of 7 would not be allowed in the room.  Fortunately, we had Papa Clark here with us visiting and stayed home with Brody.  So we're in the room I asked the tech when it came time to announce the sex, if she would just let us know when she could tell what the sex of the baby is and see if we could tell.  Sure enough you hear about those 3 lines and as soon as they showed up on the screen i exclaimed,  "It's a girl."  I then immediately turned to the tech to confirm.  An option we didn't have with Brody's ultra sound was to get a DVD of the session.  It was pretty great to watch the DVD and hear our reaction when we found out it's a girl.  Excitement doesn't even begin to describe the feelings i had in the office.  The craziest part is, we are only half way through this pregnancy and I said to Jackie.  For the next child, i don't want to find out the sex since we already have one of each now.  I think she still just wants to get through the second one before she even thinks about the third.  Weird!!  Anyway, here are some pictures of our baby girl.

Visiting Great Grandpa Al

While we were in IL, we visited Brody's Great Grandpa Al.  My grandpa kept commenting on how sweet of a boy Brody is during our stay.  Brody enjoyed the yummy crackers grandpa gave him (Grandpa EVEN let Brody double fist his crackers which made him Brody's favorite man).  Unfortunately, Brody was not old enough to have the jelly beans on his table yet.  He was one determined little guy in trying to crawl on the table and get them though.

Brody's First Trip to Seaworld

We spent one of our last two days of summer vacation at the exciting SeaWorld.  It was our last family outing before I had to go back to work. We met my friend Liz along with her two kids Logan and Ella there as well.  Brody did extremely well, considering he didn't have a morning nap.  Here he is getting his picture taken with Shamu.  At first he was very interested in the whale.  Yet, after he came closer to him, he wanted nothing to do with him and tried to climb over Stuart to get away.  Maybe, just maybe, he overheard someone say he was a killer whale.

Speaking of killer whales, we went to see the Shamu show first.  I'll admit, it was a bit of a disappointment from the last time I saw this show.  The trainers did not get in the water this time around because of the " incident" that happened a couple of years back.

Playing the drums

Watching the stingrays

Such a sweet boy!  One of the shows was delayed for some lightning in the area.  Glad they felt safe for all of us to sit on METAL bleachers to wait for the show to start!! Brody took advantage of the delay and took a much needed power nap.  

Brody was amazed at the dolphins!  They were putting on quite a show for him.  We then had to watch the whale and dolphin show.  Good thing we were there just in time. 

They had Brody's full attention

Brody loved drinking from Daddy's camelbak.  Well, he wasn't technically drinking out of it, but he certainly liked to try. 

I can't believe that after 5 hours at Seaworld in July we were able to get a family picture of everyone looking at the camera and smiling!  Brody holding on to his new friend.  We thought that this would be a great back up from his puppy stuffed animal that he always sleeps with.  No such luck though.  He still prefers his puppy over the others.  I am not looking forward to the day when we loose him.

A Cool Fool In a Swimming Pool

Our little man has spent his fair share in the water this past summer.  He would be happy as a clam floating around in the pool with his raft.  After awhile, he wanted to be held so he could splash everyone.  By the end of the summer, he became our little splashin' man.  Here's a glimpse of our trip in IL, we swam at the Stuckey's (my sister's in-laws) house one of the  days with my family and the Stuckey clan.  The water felt good from the hot, humid weather.  IL definitely seemed much hotter this trip around.

Brody and Aunt Krista

Smiling in the bright sun with Addy and Aunt Krista

Rough housing with Uncle Tim and Bray

We then spent the day at Knights Action Park with Aunt Heather and the girls, Nana, Papa Clark, Granny, and Addy.  The big hit in Brody's eyes was the whale fountain.  Water never tasted so good.

Brody and Kami

Our fearless Brooke sliding down the slide

Addy and Hadley enjoying the "big kid" slides

Last but surely not least, one of our many outings at the good ole Ron Jon water park.  Brody LOVES hanging out with his buddies Logan and Ella.  Logan always wants to hug his little "cousin".  It's so sweet.  

Logan and Brody

Daddy's buddy