Beaching with the Davis's

Jason's Dad, brother Brent, step-brother with his wife and two kids came to visit this past weekend!! Sounds daunting for those of you who have been in my relatively small house but it went so smooth and I know I can say I had a pretty darn good weekend!!

The reason behind the visit was the Air Show that Charleston AFB puts on for the public. Lots of airplanes are brought in and the base is open to the public. Bruce and Brent are extremely fond of airplanes and have been here in the past to attend. I did not go to the Air Show because it is ALLOT of walking. I am still not 100% so I didn't want to risk it. But the next day we hit the beach!! And if I can bring my beach chair I am always up for that!!! Jason did not take our camera to the Air Show. Yes he has gotten 'the evil eye' (Thanks Mom, you taught me well) and will live in shame for many many years. Never mind that now bring on the beach!!

Mermaid Josie

Dakota!

I like this picture!! All of our colorful beach stuff!


Rebecca

Not a perfect one of Brent but I love how diligent he was looking for goodies in the sand. He actually found some pretty cool stuff!

The rest of the paparazzi!! Bruce and Amy!!

Cameron and Dakota played so well together!! Cameron was his quiet little shadow!

Michael and Dakota!

Hannah is claiming this beach in the name of the Davis family!!

The 2008 version of my Beach Babies!!

Digging a moat around Grandpa Bruce. Amy trying to warm up Cameron. He was shivering!!

Self portrait to prove I was here!!

Michael spent a good chunk of time digging this hole and building the fort like defenses. We stuck Cameron in it thinking he would be thrilled!!

ummm......no

"Help....help me!!"

Seriously that is ALL he said :D

Since we have a 15 year old in the mix I will call them the Davis Beach Bums ;) Jason's step-brother's last name is Davis. Very convenient I think!!

The weather could not of been more perfect!! We all went home with different shades of pink and red but it was definitely worth it!

Alright who wants to come visit!?!? I have plenty of beach and sand to share!! And I make a killer potato salad ;)

Now you try!

http://www.sinetwork.org/

In case you haven't heard me talk about it before Cameron has Sensory Integration. It affects his eating more then any of his other senses. He cannot handle textures in his mouth. His diet is severely limited because of this and we have dealt with therapy off and on for many years trying to conquer it. Noodles SCARE him. It is hard to explain but let's just say NO noodles. Well he has a love affair with the alphabet and I found ABC Spaghetti O's and he got so excited. And getting the food even in front of him with no fear is actually a big part of our battle. So when we talk excitement it is all around. But he just couldn't get himself to eat them. He talked to them forever trying to psych himself into it but he couldn't. That's OK little man. One day hopefully soon!!

Happy Birthday Nao-MiMi!!

Thank God Naomi and I are so photogenic!! And the two of us together!?! Let's just say it is a good thing I have such an expensive camera to capture all the gloriousness ;) Why am I rambling about this? We could go to the opening of an envelope and I would take our picture!! Besides the aforementioned fact we are stunning also because I have so many lost years and lost friends that I have NO pictures with!!! Being that in a normal Military life people come and go with great frequency and I would give anything to go back with my camera and just catch a couple shots of me with my friends. I have loads and loads of pictures of my girls growing up with kids but almost never me. And even though allot of these people are no longer apart of my life now they definitely helped define whom I have become.

But back to the person that is helping define me even more to this day!! So if I end up even more quirkier you only have her to blame!! She turned 32 yesterday!! We had dinner at her house with quite the crew. She offered me a Mimosa and I said YES!! I made her a Key Lime Cheesecake and bought her a Microplane. You just can't properly zest without one!! And I made her paper flowers!!

I had visions of a vase full of these. Like maybe even a dozen!! But then genius here decided to try them out a few hours before the party!! After I mastered the first one which took me 45 minutes! I waddled off to the store to buy her a bud vase. Kind of lowers her expectations ;) I still love them!! She will get more!

Josie was quite excited when we said we were going to Naomi's to celebrate her birthday. She immediately assumed there would be fireworks!! Which I blame on the Buytas's for entertaining her so well in the past. Now she has high standards for any Buytas Party!! And we also explained to Cameron that we were just 'pretending' the cake and candles were for Naomi. We all knew they were really meant for him! He did like he always did and blew out every candle in the house!! But the cake came and went with no fan fare so all Cameron had left was a Off Candle. Which he very kindly sang Happy Birthday to before he blew it out!!

And on this sad pity-thetic Cameron note we headed home!! Thank You Miss Naomi for inviting us and of course thank you for being my friend!!! Happy Birthday!

A Walk for Autism

Oh alright I will be honest up front!! I kind of Sat and Watched for Autism!! The walk for Breast Cancer was quite the strut. So I was nervous how long this walk would be. It was a very short walk. I sat with the wagon with Cameron but the rest of the crew walked. And the whole event was set up to be more kid and family friendly. So next year I will definitely be getting a team together!! It was a good morning the weather was AWESOME!! And all my kids had a great time. And of course we were all there to raise money for Autism Education.

Jason was told by his Squadron he had to tell two stories a month. Obviously through video. So when we found out about the walk through Cameron's teacher he called the people running it to see if he could document the event. They were very excited about the exposure so Jason and Sgt. Shutter were there 'working'. I tried not to bother them but I had to take this picture. He looks so manly and imposing ;)

There was a group of Therapy Dogs and their trainers that Hannah absolutely fell in love with!! I have to admit they were pretty awesome!! Poor Hannah tried but she just couldn't get Cameron as psyched as she was. He would give them a obligatory pet but then he was done.

He is playing peek a boo but the dog had already lost interest.

Getting inked!

oooh is he practicing Kung Fu!?! Some cool martial arts swinging back kick!?!? The next Jackie Chan? Personally I am thinking Rockettes!!

Actually that is how he was kicking his brand new beach ball!! Which by the way was the complete high light of his morning and to him was completely worth getting up way to early on a Saturday morning to get to downtown Charleston!!

The girls were so good with him! Like always! I stayed put most of the time and they would take him back and forth to the events! We were next to a pretty open feild so next year I am brining chairs and setting up a picnic so we can be a bit more comfortable and just enjoy the day!!

12 on the 12th- April Edition

I actually was going to stick with my usual wandering around the house for the 12 on the 12th. I kind of like the theme. But Jason and I decided to go to the beach yesterday so of course that means a much better set of pictures!!! First day on the beach 2008!!


Look I was actually there!!

OK this year I am buying a cart. Lugging all our stuff has to be the worst part of coming to the beach!! Look at poor Jason!

My Surfer Girls....that flows better then saying Body Boarding Girls.

After watching a few people out in the ocean Cameron has decided that it is much sturdier this far in land.


Oh wait a tick!! It is COLD!! No one listens to me :D

Now he remembers how much he loves it!

*Kara is having trouble typing right now cause she is in the fetal position on the floor crying*

This picture right here makes my day, week and month!!!

Jason after he was mortally wounded. He says he is dragging a wee bit lower this year on his body board :D

Josie gets to wear sunglasses now for every picture!! This girl closes her eyes ALOT!! I think she is channeling her Aunt Kelly!! Plus it makes her look uber cool!!

We had a good 2 hours. We lost our sun and it got cold FAST!! But it was so nice to get out of the house and out in the wide open!! I look forward to sharing many MANY more beach pictures with you this summer.

To Know Us......

Is to accept that we are loud and annoying!! At least that is my Mom and Jason's theory!

It's been over a year since my beloved trip to Chicago to visit my brother Jeff!!! 3 days....no kids....no responsibilities....no worries! Except for the scar I got from the bad drug deal that went down at the Green I had a AWESOME time! Right now it is the 'special place' I go to in my head when kids are asking for food and clean underwear! And they never stop asking for either one!!

So Jeff I am going to be honest with you in front of all the Blog World friends and family!! You think you call to often and bug Jason when you do. Well it does and I am going to tell you why!! I am freaking LOUD everytime you call. There is nowhere in the house anyone can hide that they don't hear me. There is NOBODY in my life who gets to me to the volume you can get me to.

And for those of you who aren't married to me let me break down a phone conversation between siblings in their 30's. We sing.....no song you have ever heard of in your life cause it is all made up lyrics. We recite as many movie lines we can think of and/or stand up comedians. We rehash the times in our lives that we have or will be ready to embarrass other people. We do know that we are relatively funny and love telling each other what we have said to shock poor innocent strangers and loved ones. And we laugh LOTS and LOTS.

So I could babble about this all night. Shall we just move on to the pictures of this presentation!?!

This what we do around fine wine and imported cheeses.


In a respectable Mexican restaurant.

What I think of Jeff's inner city driving.

Getting ready for a night out with his high brow classy friends ;)

This one may look wrong but it is perfectly innocent. I am just licking my brothers face to make Josie happy!!

p.s. it DID make Josie happy cause Uncle Jeff is a well known face licker with his nieces and nephews. For some odd reason Josie never caught on to the joy of it all!!


This is Jeff trying to embarrass me.

WOW!! Did that butt make me look fat!?!?!?!?!

Yeah I didn't think so!



Ummm Jeff! You and I take up ALOT more room now!! :)

So Rock On baby Bro!! To the only man in my life who has EVER made me laugh so hard I p.....well you know ;)