Organized Chaos

Eat Snow!!!

2011-02-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

I had been whining the whole time we lived in the South that I was a Northerner. I never did adapt to Southern 'winters'. But I forgot that in actuality Cameron is a Southerner. Born in Alabama mostly raised in South Carolina. So the southern 'winters' was all he has known. Now he loves to look at snow but he hates the actual coldness of it all. Oh and heaven forbid it gets windy!! But we had snow on the ground and it actually felt good outside so Hannah was on a mission to have a snowball fight with Cameron. She was quite sweet about the fact that she wanted to be a part of Cameron's first snowball fight!

To back step and give you insight into Cameron if you ASK him to do something he will always say 'No'. Even if you know it will be the best experience of his life if you give him the option he will say no and when you proceed forward he gets frustrated. Hannah is still struggling with this concept but this morning she did great and just got Cameron bundled up through all his protests because she knew once he got outside he would be fine. He was a smidge fussy outside but she just ignored him and started playing. Sure enough in a matter of 5 minutes he was fine and you will be able to tell in the upcoming pictures he was having a grand ole time!!

Poor fella's gloves are to big so he had to just pick up chucks of snow instead of molding them into snowballs.

And it was definitely much easier for him if Hannah was kind enough to stay very still and let him walk up on her. I think stealthiness will come later in life ;)

Victorious!!

Stay still Hannah!!!

Hannah tried to get him to say 'Eat snow!!' but he wouldn't do it!! Somewhere along the lines he got the idea he has a mind of his own and he is not Mommy and Hannah's puppet. Silly boy!!

Archery

2011-01-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

For two years Josie B had her 15th Birthday planned out. She was going to go fishing and learn how to clean and cook a fish with her Uncle Jeff. Well OK then!! But of course those were the plans for South Carolina. When we moved here to DC I wasn't sure how to make it a reality. So I told her she had to think of plan B. And she came up with Archery. She wanted to spend the day learning and doing archery.

For starters I will point out that yes I am aware I have an odd little duckling for a daughter!! Fishing and Archery. To know her on a day to day basis you wouldn't think those activities were swirling around in her little noggin. Just goes to show you can never tell what your kids are thinking.

So once again I am in an area I don't know trying to find a place to let this kid do some archery for her birthday. I just had no luck finding anything near us that offered just a day pass for us to come as a family.

So Plan C!! We were going to buy her her own equipment and find an area to let her shoot away. Surprisingly enough the metro DC area isn't stocked up on huntin' supplies.

She settled for plan D which was mall, movie and Dave and Busters. Poor kid. But as a joke her Dad and I did get her the Nerf bow and arrow set and all of us regretted it for the whole week following her birthday. She wasn't stealthy about it she had no problem announcing we were about to get shot right before she did it.

And then a couple of weeks ago a Dad in the home school group announced he was trying to set up an archery class for our kiddos!! I e-mailed him immediately and said YES! sign us up.

So there we were yesterday at the army post Ft Belvoir which is only 20 miles away. Needless to say they weren't in any of the basic searches I was doing a couple of months ago. But I never would of thought to look at an army post!

I so love this picture because you know these two teenagers only hear the Charlie Brown teacher during their safety lecture!

Figuring out which bow they are most comfortable using.

Hannah chose the Legalos bow. Who needs technical terms when you're a nerd!?! ;) Both girls showing off their stellar form!!

I just had to show off the picture of Josie's release to point out those long elegant fingers of hers!!

Learning how to remove your arrows without elbowing or jabbing someone in the eye. The instructor was kind enough to relay some pretty graphic stories on how this could go wrong.

They didn't have any of these fliers to take home so I took a picture of it in case we want to just come back as a family. Oh but yes I was frusterated when I first found it because Josie B could have had the Plan B birthday she had been dreaming about for hours!!

The class goes on til May. We come every other Monday! I promise to only bore you with the highlights ;)

a boy and his shish

2011-01-21T08:46:00.000-08:00

Or I could of named this post 'Kara and Jason are weak parents! And when their littlest walks around the house being adorable with a flier about Beta fishes they get all gooey inside and run off to the pet store and buy him all that he needs. But later decide to justify it by saying it's an early birthday present.' But obviously that didn't fit.

But he did. He walked around with a flier he had from the pet store. For hours all we heard about was Beta 'shish'. And he is obsessed with Hannah's tank. Everyday he sits in his chair and watches them. For awhile it was just 2 in that big ole tank and he was content with just them. Hannah has added numerous more and it only makes him happier. So we knew letting him have his own little tank with his own little 'shish' wasn't going to be a waste.

Um hello? How does this face NOT deserve it's very own 'shish'!?!? We are only human people!!!!

And Cameron decided to be very very literal with naming this one. Beta. Why give yourself a headache trying to come up with a cool original name?

I really wish you guys could see our Hannah with him. She includes him with everything that has to do with this tank adventure she is on. Everything! He follows her around like a shadow and she loves it. Their relationship this past 6 months has been amazing and years from now when she is gone on to her own life I really hope he has the ability to remember it.

Another early present ;) Target had Legos on clearance!!! And since he was right there in the back of the cart it was next to impossible to hide them. I want to point out two things in this next picture. One: Legos are so much more fun when you play with them in your roos. I assume this is the theory because that seems to be the way Cameron prefers it. Two: look at the top of his head!! Bugger got ahold of a pair of scissors!!!

He does need a trim soon. His hair is way to long and that makes it hard for his flippy dippy do to do what it's supposed to, flip and dip.

Spellcheck by the way is none to happy with my determination to keep typing 'shish' but that is how Cameron says fish and we here in the Davis house find it to cute.

Fishies and Birdies

2011-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

For Christmas the girls wanted fishes and birds. Hannah has been obsessed with fish lately and wanted to move up from a bowl to a 20 gallon tank. I have honestly been impressed for the past couple of months. She bought books and magazines to read up on it. She goes to websites to chat with other people who own tanks. She constantly goes to the pet stores and will talk and talk with the people that work there. So OK I couldn't argue with her getting a tank. Cause to be honest I was afraid it was going to be a 20 gallon algae producer. She only has 3 guppies right now. Which she named Fishstick, Captain Barbosa and Will Turner :D

And now on to Josie B's fine feathered friends. Whom by the way I wanted to name Meat Loaf and Pork Chop. I tell you what when kids get older and start having their own opinions they are no where near as much fun ;)

Here up front we have Asa. Which is Japanese for morning.

And in the back we have Mayonaka. Which is Japanese for midnight. I actually did get to help a bit in naming them. Josie wanted to name them Morning and Midnight and knowing her love of Manga I mentioned seeing what the Japanese words were. She loved it and there ya go I still get to help :D

So Cameron likes the birds. They are OK. But he LOVES Hannah's aquarium. So much so he will sit there forever and just watch those 3 little guppies swim back and forth. Who needs popcorn and a movie when you can have popcorn and an aquarium!?! And when we can't find him we go straight to Hannah's room and find him in his green chair looking at 'shish' :D

Of course we move in 6 months and I imagine moving with all these new animals is going to be a piece of cake!

2011 Word and Resolutions

2011-01-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

New Years on the Potomac. It was just us cold and with sparklers but I loved it. I know the kids did too. We get to say we rang in 2011 on the banks of the Potomac looking over at DC. Kind of find that super cool :D

Can you see Josie's face in this? A natural sweet smile! Only because she didn't know she was in the shot ;)
If you look you can see Washington Monument to the left and the State Capitol about the middle.

Reagan Airport. I love this shot.

I am about to babble so I thought I would reel you in with more photos. Suckas!! ;)

One of my favorite bloggers that I have been following for YEARS is Ali Edwards. Adore her. Own all her books. Plan on being her for Halloween ;) Each year she does a One Little Word project.

http://aliedwards.com/2010/12/one-little-word-2011.html

I always come up with a word but forget it by the end of the week. Kind of like resolutions ;) But this year I am determined. Just a slight word that I will try and live by. She said her word chose her and I waited patiently for my magical word to choose me. I had moments of excitement when I thought I had found my sweet little word but the more I would think about it the more I realized the words didn't practically fit into my life. And right now I kind of need to be practical. So I went in pursuit of my word:

Organize (frick it's in my blog title for corn sake!)

to sexy huh? I need to organize our house we are moving in 6 mo. for the 3 rd time in a little over a year. Organize our photos. 17 yrs worth of photos are a hot mess right now and I find that unacceptable. I need to organize and then in 6 months organize again Cameron's therapies and therapists. I am still in a constant struggle to organize my brain for this homeschooling adventure.

But that is the boring part of that word. I want to organize my time better for friends and for me time. It keeps me sane. I want to organize our finances better so we can take cool family adventures in this unbelievably cool area we live in. I want to organize my craft supplies to use what I have and create things that always lift my spirits. I want to reorganize my budget to take workshops as opposed to constantly buying supplies that do eventually collect dust in my house ;) I want to reorganize a grocery list that has been stuck with the same meals over and over and try new foods :D After saying all of this it makes my word 'organize' a bit more exciting for me!! So in a way it is my word to live 2011 by and my Resolution. To live a more organized life!

So bring it on 2011 Kara Davis is about to organize the heck out of you!!!

Twenty Eleven

2011-01-01T18:14:00.001-08:00

I have known for awhile that I was going to make my return to blogging on January 1st. I liked the thought of starting off on a new chapter in life. What I didn't expect was our PC crashing and having no access to our pictures. I had intentions of doing a recap of the year 2010. Cause what a year it was. Full of allot of disappointment. Some unimaginable heartbreak. And of course beautiful moments with family and friends. I have no clue when Jas can get our PC up and going so who knows you all may get the 2010 recap in Feb. Better late then never!!

The most obvious thing that I keep thinking about this first day of 2011 is on Jan. 1st 2010 we thought we were moving to England. Here on Jan. 1st 2011 we live in Washington DC. Never saw that coming!! But I still see it as an adventure!! How could it not be? We live in the nation's capitol!!! Who'da thunk this MidWestern girl from little ole Danville Illinois could see the Washington monument when she walks out her front door!?!

My intentions are to be better at taking you guys on my adventures. Being the normal day to day life adventures that are just as important as the ones that have us out and about here in DC!!

Happy 2011! See you all SOON!

Hannah's Sweeney 16 Birthday Party

2009-10-14T22:55:00.001-07:00

To know Hannah is to know that her absolute favorite movie right now is 'Sweeney Todd'. Last year for her birthday I took her to the actual play. This year she asked for her 16Th Birthday party to be a Sweeney Todd themed party. And for her gift she asked for a Mrs Lovett costume. And I had planned a Ghost Tour activity for her and her friends. So as the planning went on we decided to combine her costume with her party and have everyone go to the ghost tour in a Sweeney Todd costume!!

Well to make a long very heart breaking (for Hannah) story short when her Mrs Lovett costume arrived it fell apart within minutes. And it was not cheap. So it had to go back and we settled on Vampires! Her second favorite thing. But that isn't going to stop us from calling it a Sweeney 16 party.

Jason's fabulous birthday banner!

One of the only shots of Cameron. Needless to say he wasn't coming with us on a ghost tour in downtown Charleston. Our friend Mike Buytas was kind enough to watch him and let him play with his Lego's which now we have an addict but that is for a whole other blog!!

The girls getting into their costumes!

My friend Ali doing the vampire make-up!

Pretty yet , of course, scary!

The dining room! Hannah was allowed to pick out what the girls would have for dinner. Potato salad, mashed potatoes and hash brown casserole!! lol I threw hot dogs in for good measure!!

The girls decked out and ready to go!! Except for Josie who is proving a point. The point? Oh heck I don't know! She is 13!! I am sure I was making the same point when I was her age!

Downtown waiting for our tour to start. I just thought the light post was a good photo prop!!

Oh she was having an absolute blast!

Our tour guide! He was quite humored by the gaggle of 'Vampires'!

ooooh I wonder what is down this dark a dreary alley!!!

Waiting to go inside the dungeon.

The girls listening intently!!

http://www.oldexchange.com/html/history.html

We are actually in a dungeon in a building that is pretty old. I shall leave a link for you to click on if you are interested.

The birthday revelers so very tired!!

I also had some of my girls there with me enjoying the night!!

And out 'family' picture that doesn't feel right at all without our little man!

Back at the house for CAKE!!!

After the cake the girls got into PJ's and went into the living room for a midnight showing of Hannah's Sweeney Todd movie. Which form what I hear most of them didn't even make it through the first 15 minutes!

Surely this will be a 16Th Birthday party Hannah will always remember :D

Sweet 16

2009-09-29T18:29:00.001-07:00

It is true. She is sweet and she is 16. We got lucky with this one. She is FUNNY she is level headed when it comes to all the peer pressures that come with being a teenager. She loves her brother (and her sister no matter what they think sometimes). She is polite with people and strangers. She is good to her friends. Her teachers love her.

She is all about vampires. She reads constantly. She loves music. Especially women that rock. She also loves musicals and soundtracks. She is in the choir and drama club. She doesn't really watch TV. But she can do some serious texting.

Her favorite food is the potato. My potato salad and hashbrown casserole is her favorite. She will walk to the store herself to buy brownie mix. And I have to constantly buy her apple juice. Her favorite drink.

And my favorite thing about this girl is she is not a sheep. She does what makes her happy. Wears what makes her happy. And above all KNOWS what makes her happy with no outside influences. She finds friends that thinks the same way instead of changing herself to fit into any group. I love her so much for that!

Mommy's favorite smile which I have to admit was a bit cuter when she was 3.

Cameron 'froze' like this so I could take his picture.

One good shot of Josie B. It is all I ask for!

Hannah with her cake. Which was a half dozen ice cream cupcakes at Cold Stone Creamery.

Jason wasn't home for her birthday. He was back int eh states that very day though. So we kind of saw that as a pretty cool present.

This was just a small gathering to celebrate her actual birthday. Her real party will be this weekend!!

Happy Birthday to Miss Hannah Noelle!!

He is home.

2009-09-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Life just does not seem normal at all when he is not here. I try my best to maintain normalcy for the kids. He was gone for 8 months. No matter what I do to try and make up for it there is no getting around the fact that things are so very very different when he is gone.

But the reality of it is when he comes home there is no perfect home coming. It takes work to acclimate. Right now we are still working on it.

One thing I really want to work on is getting back into the groove of this blog and back into the groove of Snapfish!! Pictures and stories are so important! And if we really do move to England I am going to want to make sure everything we do there is documented and shared properly. So back into the groove I go!!

Awesome April

2009-05-04T10:42:00.000-07:00

A whole month in one blog. WOW!! Jeff called my blog stale and even though his harsh words were the truth it doesn't mean they didn't hurt ;) I do love doing this blog for you guys I am not sure why I have slacked. I have a new addiction now with Facebook. And Jason is able to get on Facebook and chat with me every once in awhile. So I do tend to find myself sitting on that website waiting for him to pop up and say HI!!

So one way or another I was a bad photographer/documenter for Easter. I got a couple snaps of different activities. Here is Cameron with Melissa and her daughter Madison dying eggs.

I love the look on his face because he wanted to put the egg in but how to do it without risking the possibility of getting anything on him.

Here is actual Easter Day. Or as we referred to it. Waffle Fest 2009. I had some friends over and made a great Waffle Dinner. That's right.....dinner! We had Brinner for Easter. And it was great my friends. Legendary almost. We had Banana Chocolate Chip, Apple Strudel and Blueberry Wholegrain!! Lots of other goodies to go with it. The weather was great so we all ate outside! A simple Easter but good.

Autism Walk of Charleston 2009. I set it up with my close friends that we would meet at the park and set up our own picnic next to the festivities. It worked out perfectly. The weather was beyond gorgeous and of course we enjoy everything they have set up.

Oh this punching bag is about to feel the wrath!!! The fury!! The anger!!

Um......is he cuddling?

Our picnic area!

These series of pictures are about to show you why this blog seems more dedicated to Cameron then anyone else in the family!!

I swear I don't beat that Josie kid enough.

My friend Melanie with baby Nathan.

Zyllah and Cameron.

These next couple of pictures were taken by Naomi.

Here is the silly boy! Our inspiration for attending this walk!

Here we are a couple of days alter with our new neighbors! Melissa invited them over to participate in Cameron's therapy! It worked out perfectly! We shall definitely have them over more and more!

Playing 'Red Light Green Light'!

And now we are frogs.

Head shoulders knees and toes!

And of course only on a military base does a play date get interrupted by the Anthem. lol

Cameron's favorite water toy.

I am in the house looking out the window now. The kid is evil!

A quick synopsis of April. The kids and I are all doing fine without Jason. OF course we miss him terribly but we are getting through it the best way we know. By living life and having fun while doing it!

Expose': Holiday Celebrities Tell All

2009-03-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hannah's latest play!! This one was actually in the drama room at her school. Which was much more intimate and easier to get pictures. I only took pictures of Hannah because the flash was right in their faces. Oops sorry ;)

Look for the writing in * cause that is Hannah putting her two cents in.

*stage that was used for all 11 scenes*

*YAY CAMERON*

Cameron loves watching Hannah on stage! The whole crowd can alwasy hear him asking 'Where's Hannah?' and of course gettign excited when he sees her 'It's Hannah!'

*alright truth be told i wasn't supposed to use the cap but i needed something to make my entrance DRAMATIC haha*

*what my scene was about was Cupid looking for love at a speed dating thing and my character was Pandora (the creepy goth chick)*

*tisk tisk tisk cupid don't you know not to tell the truth*

* RESPECT THE HOLIDAY CELEBRITIES*

*i was also "witch" for the last scene *

*take a bow *

After the play.

Another great performance by Hannah Davis!!!!

Build A Bear

2009-03-18T15:45:00.001-07:00

OK this has to be the best activity we did the whole time we were with Jason!! The hotel we were at was right next to the mall. So we took the girls clothes shopping and saw that they had a Build A Bear!!! We don't have one near us. When I saw that they do voice chips I knew we had to do this for Cameron!! We spent allot of time figuring out different ways to make this separation easier. This will be perfect!!

Another small bit of back story. Cameron's favorite book is 'Going on a Bear Hunt' Jason read it to him every night before bed. So when we knew we were going to get Cameron a bear it worked out that Jason read the first few lines of Cameron favorite book. So when Cameron pushes the button on the bear it has Jason reading 'We're going on a bear hunt we're going to catch a big one what a beautiful day we're not scared' Cameron LOVES it!!

But let's start building the bear!

Picking out our friend.

Playing dead! LOL

No screaming no head banging but he likes to do this when things aren't going his way. He didn't quite get why we were making him do this.

He makes me laugh.

Stuffing the bear! Now he is finding this fun!!

Picking out our bears heart! It was so cute he kissed the heart before he gave it to her but of course we couldn't capture that moment!!

Washing our bear!!

Picking out the bears outfit. When we went in we were going to dress it as a military bear but Jason wasn't to excited about the uniform they had. So we kept it simple with shorts and a t-shirt. Daddy has been known to wear those too.

At the dressing room.

Making it's birth certificate. Cameron named him all by himself. It is affectionately known as Daddy Bear.

So sweet!!

The girl told us that the voice chip was good for about 1000 plays. We actually got nervous after 2 days!! LOL Cameron loves to hear his Daddy's voice. And even though it has been a couple of weeks since we made Daddy Bear Cameron still loves to listen to it. Which is thanks enough to us for taking him and getting the bear made!

Bowling for Buzzards

2009-03-12T10:17:00.000-07:00

Well it has been two weeks since the kids and I traveled to North Carolina to visit Jason and I am finally getting on here! Since I need to spend most of my time preparing pictures to share I will keep my typing to a minimum!

Recently we learned that Cameron thinks a bowling alley is pretty cool. So I put that on my mental list of activities to do with Jason during our visit!

Help from the girls.

What good form!!

Plotting out her next move!

Mouth full of cookies!

Jason helping out because the method Josie showed him seemed a bit scary. You know the chuck it down the aisle method? Let's try rolling......we roll the heavy bowling ball!

Josie is not impressed with this method.

Obligatory pose!

Matching profiles. Poor Josie.

Hannah looks so different!! She is having fun trying out different looks. And being my kid you knew it was going ot happen!!

Our babies.

I had to throw this one in because Cam's face makes me giggle. Bossing Josie around is hard work!!

The weather for the weekend we visited was horrible!! Freezing rains for almost 2 days straight. So finding a nice indoor activity for the whole family was nice.

More to come!!

Cameron's Crazy 'C' Birthday Party

2009-02-16T19:25:00.000-08:00

January 18Th. Obviously a couple of weeks before Cameron's real birthday but we wanted to celebrate while Jason was still here.

A little help making his cake. Wait til you see it here in a bit. Awesome!! He has no clue right now how cool it is going to be!

A quite moment with Daddy before the guests arrive.

All the revelers after we filled their belly's with 'C'heese pizza, 'C'hips, 'C'rackers, a veggie tray with 'C'elery, 'C'arrots, 'C'ucumbers, 'C'hex mix and 'C'aprisuns!!

Moving on to our 'C'raft. The kids got to paint on their own 'C'apes. Here is Melissa with her daughter Madison.

Present time. He actually enjoyed unwrapping this year!! Thank You so much to everyone who spoiled him!!

Now it is time for that awesome 'C'hocolate 'C'andy and 'C'ookie 'C'ake!!!

Seriously what kid wouldn't just love this kind of cake!?!

Later on that night playing with one of his favorite toys. Much love to the Buytas's for getting it. OF course poor Naomi was with me at Target when we hit the after Christmas clearance racks!! We made out like bandits!! And so did Cameron.

Playing with Daddy.

A nice simple evening with our friends to celebrate our little man turning 5!! The best part!? Spending the whole night coming up with 'C' words that could be incorporated into any part of the conversation. It amused me and Mike to no end. Try it out you will be surprised!!

BIG boy bed

2009-02-13T16:14:00.001-08:00

The joy of blogging and taking pictures is I get to tell a story the way I want to. Well the pictures here truly do not tell you how the story really went. Cameron's official big boy bed got delivered today!! I have been excited all week. The delivery men left literally 5 minutes before Cameron got home from school. Which was perfect because in my head I was going to have a little boy that was so surprised and shocked by his new bed!! I had it all set up with his new Wall-E sheets and his killer cool Incredibles comforter that he has been in love with since I got it last weekend.

So here is my dilemma. Should I just let you guys see the pictures and assume how my moment went or tell you the truth?? Well first I will let you see the pictures and imagine how it should of went.

Seeing it for the first time.

Oh yeah the thing is HUGE! But I wanted a Captain's bed for the extra storage.

I know even with his foot stool he has to hop up!!

He went back and came around the corner again.

Ok and here is the truth. All those pictures were either luck or staged. He could of cared less about the bed. He still could care less about the bed. The only thing he cared about is he wanted his Incredibles comforter OFF of that bed. He did not want it on his new Wall-E sheets. I finally folded it down at the foot of the bed and convinced him to stop.

For the ones concerned about our bedroom 'theme' (and you know you are out there) we are going for a Disney Pixar's room. Once I get his Car's posters up I will show you all around. But I did want to share with you the new piece of furniture in our home and one of these days Cameron is going to realize how super cool it is and I will be there with my camera ready ;)

Monday Mornings

2009-02-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

Well this used to be our normal Monday routine. Every Monday morning Cameron goes out to Mt Pleasant for Speech with Sarah and Occupational therapy with Christine. A couple of weeks back Christine went on leave to have her first child. Congrats to her of course!! She will be missed. But thankfully I had my camera with me on her last day. I thought it would be nice to show you the cool things Cameron gets to do on Monday mornings. This kids has got the perfect way to start off his week. Prepared to be jealous!

Saying good bye to Christine. Once again a battle of the titans!! You will look at me dang it!!

I am going to throw my shoe at him.

HAHA!! In your face!

After Christine we go play with Sarah. Here he is in the main playroom. We let him burn off some energy.

Sarah joining in.

Yes he does fly around this room at warped speed. There is so much to do!!

Time to get to work. Yes playing Cranium games is Cameron's version of work.

Listening to Sarah.

Making a choice.

His reward for cooperating is to get to play with some of Sarah's goodies.

Here he is working on First...Then. First you do a puzzle piece. Then.....

You get to spray your therapist with water.

Silly boy.

The end of our visit.

A sneak peek into Cameron's therapy on Mondays. After this I take him straight to school. It is a long day for him he normally spends every Monday evening watching a movie. But once again I point out what a awesome way to start the week!!

Giddy Up

2009-02-05T14:04:00.000-08:00

I did it!! My Blog was FULL. I had hit full capacity. I could not add anything more to this poor thing. Of course the last time I did that Jason put on his cape swooped in and saved the day. This time I had to actually figure things out for myself. Not a strong trait in my female family history. So after hitting the side of the computer a few times I remembered something Jason did and voila I am back!! (Jason never reads my blog so I can put that I was hitting the computer with no fear of repercussions.)

A friend of mine had a carnival themed birthday party for her 6 year old son. How fabulous is that!?! The best part was the horse they got to come and give the kids a ride. The first time Cameron has ever come up against one of those and we were curious.

I seriously just love this shirt Mom got him!

Meeting the horse and sizing each other up.

The mount.

Steady Eddie.

On the move.

We seriously were ready in case he decided to freak out but he didn't.

But this look on his face cracks me up. He stayed on the horse for a couple of laps but it was serious business!! We are not here for a leisurely stroll.

Liam's turn!

Peace out with Josie B.

Hannah didn't want to. And I am kicking myself for not getting a picture of Megan. The girl is 5 ft and 7 and I think 5 feet of that is all legs! We teased her she could ride the horse if she held her feet up so they wouldn't drag.

My friend Carrie put on a fabulous birthday for her son Justin!! That is one lucky boy!!

Happy New Year 2009!!

2009-01-24T12:44:00.000-08:00

Cameron in his roos playing with his new toy! I have almost the same shot of Jason but decided none of you are really ready for that!

OK here we go a night out for the adults!! It is New Years Eve and Jason and I are going to the Buytas's. This is why we came home a couple of days early. Naomi's parents are in from England spending the holidays with her. I want to meet them!

Jason showing off his usual level of enthusiasm!!

Zyllah hosing down the neighbors yard that might be considered a bit hotter and slightly more charred after our fireworks display. Basically what I am saying is the neighbors yard was set on fire from an errant firework. The men stomped it out in good time and we might of had a good laugh considering we had consumed a few drinks. But I promise you it was a small patch and no one got hurt.

This picture was taken immediately after we found out it was the New Year!! I have high hopes for a great 2009 but a small part of me was sadden by the fact we will be spending most of it a part. At this point we had a little over 3 weeks left til Jason was set to leave for 8 months.

I had him retake it. Granted the cleavage looks great but half of one of my cheeks is missing ;)

Now these pics are from Naomi's camera!! May I have the pleasure of introducing you to Zelda and David Gunn. I knew I was going to love them the minute I walked in the door and saw David in a kilt. A legitimate Scotsman in a legitimate kilt.

Naomi and Gigi.

Seriously a man in a kilt!! Being friends with Naomi for all this time is finally paying off!! (let's see how often she checks my blog on how fast I get in trouble for that one lol)

This poor girl is responsible for entertaining me for most of 2009. If she knew she might not be smiling at the moment. I will keep it a secret from her for as long as possible!!

Happy 2009 everyone!! Here's to another year of memories that I get to blog and share with you!

Hendersonville

2009-01-23T09:53:00.000-08:00

There is a new hands on children's museum near where Bruce, Jason's Dad, lives!! I love the atmosphere of downtown Hendersonville anyway so it is nice to have another excuse to head over there.
Cameron building his Lego Race car!

Bruce. Cameron had quite the paparazzi following. No other kid was that cool that is for sure!

This kid was a blur. We have allot of out of focus pictures of him because he didn't stay put for very long!

His fingerprints were placed on everything in this place even if it only lasted a few seconds!

Almost everyone in this shot is in focus except for Cameron.

Hannah getting ready to make a really big bubble! He did stay put for awhile at this!

Josie's turn!

Rice table.

The grocery store.

Obviously I will think twice before sending Hannah to the store for me.

This is a couple doors down. I forgot the name but it a museum dedicate to minerals, rocks and geodes. Hannah wanted to go. It must be in her Davis blood cause Bruce, Troy and even Jason loves this stuff!! Me not so much. I stayed at the Children's Museum with Cameron and Josie. I should of kept the camera cause Josie was playing 'Pie Shop' with some younger kids. Pretty sweet. But we do have shots of Hannah popping open some geodes.

A good visit with Bruce that was way to short. But this Davis family is tired and worn out. Ready to get to our own home with our own beds. Now it is time to ring in 2009!!

Celebrating Christmas Turner Style

2009-01-22T18:30:00.001-08:00

pant pant pant

Ok here we go!! One more fabulous family gathering. One more present opening extravaganza!! Just when you thought my children could not be anymore spoiled you are about to be proven wrong ;) But it is Christmas and they deserve it!

Some yummy treats Grandma Loni picked up. The kids got sugar rushes by just looking at them!
Grandpa Marvin and Grandma Ann. Sitting and watching and .hopefully, enjoying the chaos surrounding them!

I am beginning to think this is how Uncle Troy and Cameron cuddle.

I would say this is more like it but if you look Uncle Troy's muscles are bulging because he has Cameron in a death grasp. Oh yeah this is the guy I asked to care and love for my son this summer while I am in Chicago.

Oh good heavens a Christmas tree exploded!!

Let the chaos begin!!

Except for these to wise men. They just sat here discussing important stuff and let then presents come to them!

Sergeant: It's... it's bedsheets!

Mr. Potato Head: Who invited that kid?

A drawing board for the computer. Jason actually got one too. But his was for adults and didn't come with a Diego cartridge. He got gypped ;)

Oh I love it that Joshua got an educational video!

The year of the Twilight gifts!

You have no idea how much Jason and I loved the fact that this kid got a monkey puppet. If you knew Justin you would understand. It was so perfect!

Grandma Ann FINALLY getting what she has been asking for almost 15 years!

A picture of her boys in uniform. There are more. Of them together and of them with their Mom. She absolutely loved it!

Jason's gift to his Mom. A lovely sketch of each Grandbaby!

Oh my lord!! Is it normal for someone to have such massive cheeks!?!

Jonathan

Once again many shots were taken and once again the words 'Josie stop!' were said numerous times. She will eventually outgrow that right!?! But a none to shabby shot!! All because of Jason and Troy.

A good day with Jason's family!! Our holidays in Illinois are almost over now. Next we are going to visit Jason's Dad during our travels back to South Carolina!!

The greatest day of all the year!

2009-01-19T12:22:00.001-08:00

Christmas morning was a quiet simple affair! Just the way I like it. Christmas Eve is very draining and I like letting the kids just spend a simple day enjoying their gifts, watching Christmas movies and eating some good food. All in their PJ's if they really want to! Since they had opened their main presents the night before we saved stockings for Christmas morning!

Cuddling with Aunt Krista!

Hannah getting a new 'Twilight' poster!!

Cameron with some new watercolors.

Josie with some new baking supplies. It is starting to become a Christmas stocking tradition!!

Some pretty things to make Maddie's hair gorgeous!

Cameron patiently waiting for Grandpa to open his colors. I did have Christmas PJ's for him!! lol I totally forgot. Oh well he loves his Buzz PJ's!!

More goodies!

Later on int he day and all of the grandkids are piled up on the couch!! Gabriel and Josie are infamous for their face making during picture time. This is seriously the best shot I got out of MANY!!! Josie and Gabriel are no longer invited to Christmas :P They can sit outside on the porch and think about what they have done! lol

My sister Kelly and her boys. Our first Christmas with her in way to many years!

Gabriel, Eric, Kelly and Austin

Miss Maddie!

It was a good day! We enjoyed ham and hash brown casserole!! We got to play games and watch movies. I can't think of anything better!!

And we end the day with a good book :D

We get a few days rest before we gather and celebrate with Jason's family!!

Christmas Eve 2008

2009-01-03T22:08:00.000-08:00

Here we go bring on the festivities!!!

My cousin Tia with her daughters Alyssa and Alora. And poor random boy she grabbed off the streets to pose in a picture with!! OK maybe not. I do believe this young fellows name is Gavin. And in the big scheme of things he is her Step-Grandson.

My nephew Austin. Kelly's oldest.

Me and my cousin Tija having a stand off. She has the exact same picture of me. Except for....well I am prettier and have a bigger camera :P lol

Um has my brother or my Dad moved at all!?! Smart men!

My Dad with his sister my Aunt Rena! Tija promised them candy if they would be good and give us a picture!

Now there is a normal Josie picture!

Now this is when the craziness starts!! Present time present time!

And then before the wrapping paper could hit the floor we booted their butts out!! OK maybe not quite that extreme but we still had lots more unwrapping to do!! Jeff and Erin spend Christmas Eve with us (yeah) and then leave bright and early Christmas morning to go to her family 3 hours away. So after our cousins left we pulled out all of our presents! Lots and lots of presents.

Bring on Round 2!!

Poor Cameron was so confused! Didn't we just do this!?!

OK I kind of feel guilty posting this but Erin was actually happy about this present! I am not sure how I caught this exact expression on her face.

Maddie caught in one calm moment. This girl was 100 miles an hour. She loves Christmas!

Krista with her beloved boots.

Kelly's first Christmas home in 10 years!! All four of us were here to unwrap presents together!! So fabulous!

Eric being a trooper for me. He knew what he was getting. He went and picked it up!! But we must looked shocked so Santa will come back next year!!

My Mommy!!

And Dad!!

My sister Kelly's youngest son Gabriel.

Wearing his Combat Camera shirt to boot!! So not planned I promise!

After everyone else was done the photographer and videographer got to actually sit and unwrap. These next few pictures are taken by Krista!

This shirt is so stinkin' perfect!

Poor Erin is so allergic to my Mom's cats. She is such a trooper!! All drugged up but with still a pretty face for me!

Kelly and Gabe!

Eric snuck in. Darn were is Austin!?

Cameron with his fave toy for the evening. I took allot more pictures that I just couldn't blog. I know it seems I didn't get any of my kids but I really did. They are always on my blog. I wanted to show off my other family members!!

Jeff, Kara, Kelly and Krista all grown up!!

All the adults. No kids. They were all over the place playing!!

WOW!! We did it!! We got through Christmas Eve! But there is more so much more!

in Danville!

2009-01-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

Here we are the day after we got to Danville. A plan had been made prior to our arrival. A plan where we needed stealth and above all people who knew how to shoosh!! Jason Grandma has wanted a picture of her two grandbabies in their uniforms for a very long time. So this Christmas Lana has decided to make her wishes come true. So off Jason went in all of his bluesery finest!! I guess I should of stood on a stool. Good heavens he is tall!! I will share the pic of Troy and Jason as soon as I get a copy!

Well this right here is a Christmas present in itself!!! Miss Josi B putting some effort into giving her mother a decent picture of her!!

Then what in the world does she go and do to the cat!?!?

Here we are at Grandma and Grandpa Turners house. Kids getting schooled on how to play a proper game of Bunco!!

I never understood the ability to watch someone else play on a computer.

Uncle Jason helping Steen give Aunt Kara one of those precious faces she enjoys so much!! He is so going to learn to hate us one day ;)

The face of innocence!!

Jon in is way late Birthday present from his Aunt and Uncle. To me it should be considered worth the wait!! We did have stripes sewn on the arms!!

Jason and Jon discussing the down and dirty politics of sketch artistry!!

Yep this is my son upside down. And yep that is his beloved Uncle Troy holding him upside down. And triple yep this is the man I asked to take care of the right side up Cameron this summer while I go to Chicago for a couple of days.

Now this is what I am talking about! Get home and see your women peeling taters and getting some dinner DONE!! Thank goodness my sisters don't read my blog or I might be in some trouble ;)

Hannah delicately petting our sweet Logan!

Just wanted to share with you guys how pretty frost can be on a window. In case you need to gage how very cold it is outside this frost is on the inside of the window!! Which basically means. BBBRRRR!!! I was in heaven by the way!

Sweet little picture of new baby Jackson. Only a couple more and my Mom can finally get her 'Crazy Cat Lady' tattoo!!

Sisters.

Back to Grandma Ann. Hannah is listening to her tell stories of when Jason was a kid!! Is she old enough to be able to process some of the stuff she is about to hear!?! lol Should Jason hide his head in shame!?!

Twas the night before Christmas Eve!! Poor Cameron is already done and the holidays have yet to even begin!!! Stay tuned to watch the Tables family throw wrapping paper around all willy nilly without a care in the world!!

why we go crazy in December!

2009-01-01T21:24:00.001-08:00

I will do my best to keep this brief because I have so much to share with you guys!! These are some events that we attended the weeks and literally the few days right before we left for our trip home to Illinois!!

1st Combat Camera Squadron Kids Party.

Making Gingerbread Houses at school!!

Cameron on Mrs Carle's lap!

Dancing to some great Christmas tunes with his class!!

That happy little face next to Cameron is Albert. I love his smile!

Giving and receiving gifts with Melissa! The girl went straight to the Crayola aisle!! Cameron's favorite brand :D

Playing new games with Zahra!!

Making cookies with his women!

Hannah's Choir performance! It was way to dark to take pictures! But even getting a few blurry ones is better then none!! Thank goodness Hannah is in the center!!

Good ole fashioned Baptist revival song. Very upbeat and it was impossible not to clap along. TO be honest I wish the whole program was like that!!

Sorry I am not saying much! I wanted to get these out so I can start on pictures of our Christmas Extravaganza at home!!!

Thanksgiving 2008

2008-12-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

I love Thanksgiving!!! On every single level. I don't care if the stores are putting their Christmas up after Easter (well it feels that way) to me the Holidays do not start til Thanksgiving!!

And what is the best way to introduce the holidays!? A lovely cheese and cracker tray, pickle and olive tray and a veggie tray!! I forgot deviled eggs!! Came so to canceling but decided to press forward!

Another tradition!! Christmas movies. Every year I get close to wavering the few days before Thanksgiving! But the Christmas movies do not come out til Turkey Day!! Liam and Cameron watching 'Olive the Other Reindeer'!

Obviously we are over at the Buytas's! Thank you Mike for inviting us!! Thank You Naomi for unlocking the front door ;)

Jason and Charlie. Oh good lord he is going to end up one HUGE dog!

Um who in the frick falls asleep BEFORE eating turkey!?!?!

If only my blog had a scratch and sniff option!! This was one darn good turkey!!

It's time to eat!! It's time to eat!!!

Oh look proof I was there!

I have always wondered what those huge dog crates were for and now I have it figured out!!

Kids are in the crate so now we can play with the dog!! Of course the first phrase that comes to mind is 'Awe bless!'. Poor thing actually looks scared in this shot!!

Naomi tried to have a quiet tender moment with him but this boy was fired up and ready to play! 5 seconds later he was down and all over the place!!

Now this is were I would end my Thanksgiving blog on a sentimental note. But I won't. The next day Cameron amused us quite a bit with numerous drawings of him and Liam playing in that dog crate. What in the world happened in that crate the ignited my son's imagination!?! I guess only the boys will know ;)

Liam is in the crate under a blanket. My favorite part about this one!?! Cameron drew himself with a Mohawk!!!!

Cameron , still hawkin', and Liam in the cage but from a different perspective. We were so confused until Cameron said 'wash hands'. AHH!!! They're looking at the sink!!!

Oh look at this one! The house is much more decorated!! All of these pictures were drawn over the course of the day. Everytime he did a new one we would grab the camera! I think I could fill a whole album with pictures of his MagnaDoodle alone!!

Thanksgiving at the Buytas's was lovely! And stress free. Well for me I don't know about Mike he did most of the cooking ;) But ooooh my it was a good turkey!!

it's always Hannah Hannah Hannah!!

2008-12-02T06:54:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving week was all about the Hannah! Her play 'The Princess Stories' and her PowderPuff Game. She had so much fun at both!

I am not sure if I am allowed to use the word 'cute' to describe a high school play. Does it bring down the street cred when Mom says 'Oh that was so cute!'? But it was. And to be honest these kids were quite funny. Teenagers have found out one thing that much younger kids just don't have. Embarrassment. And even though they were on stage cause they wanted to be they were so quiet and rushed through their lines like crazy. We loved it! Let them work through the stage fright and go on to become great performer's!!

Oh Hannah's face is covered. She is in the back row with the yellow hat. She is a part of the Seven Dwarfs. She is 'Exhausted'.

Here she is in the second story. As that narrator! I know I am biased but I so believe this kid is a natural performer. She looks at the crowd she uses inflection on her voice. The hardest part for her is her retainer. Poor thing. This is also the part where I hang my head in shame. We remembered to bring the video camera!! We just didn't actually remember to use it!!

The whole team on stage performing!!

They all deserve to bow!

Of course they were nothing without this girl ;)

Here we are back at the school the next night to watch Hannah on the football field. And of all nights here in South Carolina it was fricking COLD!! I was watching Jason prep for the game in perplextion cause he was putting on all kinds of clothes! Now I know why.

She is out of hot cocoa the bum!! She just wouldn't smile for the camera :P

OK I can find Hannah right away in this picture. Maybe it is because I love her more then all of you guys love her!! ;) Isn't she the cutest one out there!?!

OK she is the one holding up the pad in celebration!! The Freshman team just got a touchdown!!

Number 55! That was the number Jason was in his brief high school football career!! I am not sure what happened back then but he doesn't have a darn thing to do with football now. One of the main reasons I find him uber dreamy!! ;D

First game over. We took Cameron back to the van to wait for her next game. But when we went to watch it we didn't take the camera!

The Freshman team didn't do so well. Hopefully they learned some valuable lessons to bring back to their game for next year as Sophomores!! I know I did. Thermals, gloves and thermoses of cocoa!! And possibly some face paint. Depends on how dedicated I feel to the team!! Maybe get Jason and Cameron to paint their chests!! Maybe I can actually learn what else there is besides a touchdown!! ;)

Jeff and Erin

2008-11-26T19:50:00.000-08:00

Oops!! It is time to share these pictures! Sorry once again I am Slacker Blogger!! But I assume that you all have accepted that about me by now and we are moving forward!!

Wendy, Naomi and me at Naomi's Guy Fawkes celebration!! Jeff and Erin got to experience it even though I didn't take pictures. Sorry I was in social 'look at me' mode ;)

As you have already seen the day after Guy Fawkes we celebrated Josie B turning 10 plus 3. Monday the 10Th we sent the girl's to school and then we took Erin and Jeff downtown! Talk about perfect weather!! It has to be my luck. I rarely ever go downtown and when I do it is pretty gorgeous out!

I love boats. Not exactly being on one but they definitely make for good water shots :D This one is taken at the Battery.

And so are these pictures of the newly engaged!

And these two who have been trying to figure out this thing called life for 15 years now!

As soon as we get it figured out I will let you all in on the secrets ;)

Poor Cameron. Patiently waiting for these silly adults! Don't let him fool you this boy loves the water. He was sitting here for awhile!

The Hoot and a Holler Comedy Team!! And yes we are our biggest fans!!

Pretty Erin!

We have to get a self shot with the little man!

OK These next two shots make me so happy! But they were with my pocket camera! :( Still so sweet though!

In case you are ever in downtown Charleston there are ALOT of uber cool restaurants down there. But when the girl who didn't eat breakfast is asked at 1:30 where she wants to eat lunch you end up at Bubba Gumps on Market Street. It was good food don't get me wrong but not where we should of eaten when you are trying to show off!!

See the look in Jeff's eyes!?!? "We came all the way to South Carolina and this is where we are eating!?!?!" OK Being his older sister I can read his eyes better then most and I promise you that is what they are saying!! ;)

Hmmm....I haven't known Erin long enough and she looks awfully sweet in this picture but I bet she is plotting my demise!! Thank goodness I am adorable :D

I think we had a good day walking around. I did take alot more pictures but I always feel like I am going to bore people with my endless shots of the houses. We had awesome weather. Cameron was beyond amazing and when we were done we took him to Ben and Jerry's like I had been promising him.

We ended this night with a Mashed Potato Bar and some Kung Fu Panda with all the kids. The next day Jeff and Erin headed back to Chicago!! It was a short but sweet visit that I hope they found worth it so they will come again!!

for me!

2008-11-18T11:09:00.000-08:00

Something awfully pretty. That I made just for me. She will be getting a special frame. I made some other pretties. But I can't share. Christmas is coming ;)

Sewing on paper by the way is uber fun. I am addicted ;)

Josie B turned 10 plus 3!!

2008-11-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Two teenage DAUGHTERS!!!

Anyone within a 100 mile radius has heard me say that for about a month now! I have TWO teenage DAUGHTERS!!!

We are accepting all sympathy cards at our current address ;)

But on to the party!! Miss Josie B's Taco Bar Fire Pit Marshookie Extravaganza!!

Waiting for the rest of our guests!! Well lookie there!! It is my brother Jeff! Jeff and his fiance (what a pretty word) were in town for a wedding. How perfect! So they extended their visit to include some days at our house.

Peace!

Oh yes. The Alphabet Avenger does not only work on Halloween!! Many words are out there being misspelled on any given day of the year!! At this point and time he finds it necessary to twirl around and make himself dizzy. I am not sure what super power it helps but he does!

Cameron calls her Gay-gen. She loves it. And he loves her.

It is time to make some taco salads!!

Miss Carrie and Justin.

Miss Erin who was an invaluable help to me this whole day!! I can't imagine what my stress level would of been without her!! If you live near her and are planning a party I highly recommend getting her!!

OK we haven't seen this Squishy in almost a year and this is all we get!?!?! Look Brenda it is Lillian!!

Seriously what is a birthday party without a fire!?! Last year Mike made me a spoon out of a piece of wood and his stunning survival skills. This year I got a fork!! I have to maintain a friendship with this guy so in a couple of years I can have a full table setting!!

Jell-O jigglers! It was put on for pictorial purposes only. But it so rocked my world! I love making cakes during this birthday season!

For my Josie B!!

The choir!

Happy Birthday to you!

But we are not done!! A little surprise for our Megan!!

The best part is she had been at our house all day and had no clue I had made her her very own little cake. Her birthday is very close to Josie's. Everyone deserves a choir to sing them Happy Birthday!!

I guess all of our fabulous singing woke up the baby :D

Jenny and her doppelganger.

Time for presents! She got some Target cards and cash! Which for a teenage girl is PERFECT!

Her new Chicago shirt. Which yes she loves! Both girls love anything that say Chicago. It is were Jeff and Erin live. They tell anyone who ask.

Her Guitar Hero game for her DS. From Mommy and Daddy. Anything to help her extremely long bus ride!

On an official note I think my girls are done with the bigger parties. They sure do make their Momma happy but my babies take after their Daddy. Larger crowds overwhelm them and make them nervous. Even if it is a crowd of family and friends. I have a year to process this information and next year plan small family events.

Now MY birthday is going to be HUGE ;)

SO much love tot he people who came to our house though to help us celebrate our Miss Josie B going into a new phase of her life. The teenage years!!

Twas the weeks before Halloween.....

2008-11-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

I was going to get you guys caught up on Josie B's birthday before I realized I hadn't finished talking about Hannah's!. I will keep this brief!

Here we are Ali, Hannah and Kara right on our way to go to 'Sweeney Todd'. A very different experience for a kid primarily raised in a movie theatre. She loved it!!

But here we are the next weekend and well a movie theater!! Opening weekend for High School Musical 3!!

The Usual Suspects!! Raven, Zyllah, Josie, Megan and Hannah.

Naomi and I sneaked off to Starbucks. Every time I look at this picture I think of the lyrics 'These are a few of my favorite things!'

Back at the house for pizza and cake! Cameron making sure that Jason does it just right!

Black and purple are West Ashley High Schools colors. So we went with those! These girls are getting ready to rock out with their roosters out!

Sorry it is sideways :D

Daddy always ruins the good pictures!!!

No worries the goofy looking man went away!

Just wanted to share these so we can now move on to Josie B and my brother Jeff. He and Erin came for a great visit!!

Halloween 2008

2008-11-01T19:32:00.001-07:00

Hands down my biggest blog ever!! I will try and keep the chit chat to a minimum :D

We did homemade costumes this year! I tell you what if you plan in advance they are so much fun to do!! Jason and Cameron's are hands down the best!! As you all know Cameron is a alphabet fiend! Over a year ago Jason was doodling , as he does, and came up with a picture of Cameron as 'The Alphabet Avenger'!! Well I decided that that was going to be an awesome costume!! And it came together perfectly!! IT is supposed to look like he did it himself. Which is why his cape is a kitchen towel and the clothes are a mish mash of PJ's!

Showing Daddy his take off skills. But all he wanted to do is get in the van and head over to Mimi's!! It was time for some serious Trick or Treating!

Jason made it himself. I don't think an explanation in really needed. Feel free to chuckle. I do every time I look at this!

The Buytas's neighborhood! We are over here cause after Trick or Treating the Buytas's are putting on a party for the older kids!

Josie taking Cameron around!

You have all heard her name. You have all definitely met her daughter Megan (perky white blond gazelle type thing) but here she is in the flesh!!

SARA!!!

A new friend of mine!! Miss Carrie! Poor darlin' is taking on a HUGE new project with me and Jason's Squadron. Basically she is becoming a minion of mine. But more on that later ;)

Scary Josie B!!

That cake is mine and it freaking ROCKS!!! I have been planning it since last year when I did the all black wedding cake! I knew I never wanted to work with black again so I started off my plans with a white cake and went from there! The knife at the top with the blood coming out was the last bit I came up with. Seriously I love this cake! Pooh I didn't get a better shot of Naomi's cheeseball. My second favorite thing on this table!

Hannah! Don't you fear it is just a wig!

Now here is my second claim to fame! I found a Jell-O mold shaped like a brain!!! heehee! I plopped that sucker right in the middle of the punch! The kids faces are grossed out because they didn't know it was there. But they all loved poking it afterwards! lol

LOL the best part of this picture of Liam in these fabulous heels!?! Jason found it quite funny to get numerous shots of this. Called Mike over to show him his son and as he was laughing and showing off the pictures........

this was happening in the hallway!!

Lordy be. What is it about sons of Combat Camera men!?!

Closer shot of my rat enjoying his cake!! God I hate rats! Even plastic ones that sound like a bicycle horn when you squeeze them! But he made the cake!

A lively game of 'Who's your Mummy?' whoever can wrap their partner the fastest in toilet paper wins!!

A slight mess afterwards!

I am not sure the name of this game. Basically you guess what is in the boxes. After a certain level of comfort a real hand comes at you! We were so ready for some high pitched teenage girl screams! But they all stayed rather quiet!

Seriously? The cake? Again? But only one more thing I promise! Look I also poured strawberry Jell-O unto the cake so it looked like it was seeped in blood!! Cake tasted like straight up strawberry! Rather good.

Zyllah as Cruella Deville and their boxer puppy Charlie as a Dalmatian!

The whole gang! Naomi is such a trooper for doing this!

Naomi as Mary Poppins!!

I am not even sure how to explain what they were doing. It was funny and it made them happy for quite sometime!

They had one of those motion sensor bowls that the hand moved and it made a scary noise. These pictures are funny but a video would of been better! At one point he was going through their kitchen cabinets to find new stuff to throw in it!

Only Sara and I will find this picture funny. Here is Megan explaining how things are! lol Dead serious moment by the way ;)

Oh thank you Buytas family for making this one of the best Halloween's ever! I know my girls will remember it for quite sometime! Sara you were such a trooper for putting up with me all night! Especially since you were risking severe sunburn with Jason in the room! I hope everyone had a safe and fabulous Halloween! We did!

Cameron vs the Camera!

2008-10-11T10:50:00.001-07:00

Silly Cameron! Though he could take on his Mommy with her camera and win!! I am a patient camera clicker. Here is the set up. Cameron just had school pictures. Which everyone knows is extremely expensive prison head shots. And with a four year old!! Forget it they all just look like a deer caught in the headlights. So I was going to take his official pre-school picture! But when!?!

So it is an overcast day and Cameron pulls his wagon out of the carport. Poor kiddo wanted to take a stroll. But I know how rain works in S.Carolina it can come fast and in buckets. So I felt bad but he just sat there in his wagon waiting for me to get the hint. So I did what most Mother's do when they feel sorry for their child. I got my camera! Lighting was good and he wasn't moving. Perfect!!

See look this will go smooth. A good shot right out of the gates. Just one more good one to make Money happy!
Look a leaf. Don't worry if you want more of the leaf just ask cause I have oodles more on my card.

Or a weird green thing that makes peoples sinuses/allergies go crazy!!

I shared this picture because it shows he still has a baby face.

Maybe if I ignore her she will just go away and a neighbor will look outside and feel sorry for me and take me for a walk!

I guess no one is looking out their windows.

And my Mother is definitely not going away!

Seriously did you pay attention to the weird green thing!?!

Yeah Money will take this one too!! All done Cameron.

OK I lied but now I am done!

It never did rain this evening!! It has been raining ever since though! I had to sacrifice Cameron's happiness for two good pictures!! Ha Ha! I would do it again in a heartbeat ;)

Just when you thought she couldn't get any cooler!

2008-10-07T16:03:00.000-07:00

I am sure one wonders if Miss Kara is ever proud of herself when she takes these kind of goofy pictures and there is really only one answer to that. YES!! Seriously I am really only out to entertain myself and if anyone else giggles then that is just icing on the cake!

For my blog loyalists we have discussed the fact that my main military squeeze does not enjoy cooking on the grill. So 15 years later after waiting and waiting for him to just immediately discover the joy of grillin' and chillin' I decided to try. I kept it simple. Marinated chicken breasts, fresh corn, and garlic bread. Veggie stuffed portabella's were roasting in the oven. And well I am not gonna lie to you but it appears I pretty much ROCK!!

At this point and time MR and Mrs lmn-O are standing behind me ;) Mrs lmn-O has known me to long but this is Mr lmn-O first intro to me. Might as well throw the poor guy into the deep end ;)

No wonder Jason hates this. It is so boring!!

I don't think I mind the grillin'!! As long as it's not hot outside!! And living in South Carolina that gives me about 2 weeks a year to grill!

And don't worry Mom I didn't embarrass you to much! ( I always wonder do you ever just blush and not know why!? I am out there doing something loud and annoying I am sure!) Mr and Mrs lmn-O had a great time and a great meal ;)

from Play-Doh to War Games!

2008-10-06T19:50:00.001-07:00

All of this can be achieved in one pair of super dooper underwear!! Does this kid have ANY clothes!?!

Making a bus with his Play-Doh. I have carving tools to use with clay and that boy picked them right up and used them properly......and well.

Those 'feelers' on the front of his buses always crack me up! They are supposed to be the rear view mirrors but they seems to get bigger and bigger with each bus he makes!

His creations are having a nice little chit chat.

Now we are going on to taking over Jason's game when he stood up to get something.

Testing....testing...1...2.....

Well I will be dipped in butter but I think he is actually doing it right!!

Oh heavens I hope we don't have another gamer in the house!!

At this point Jason is quite amused because Cameron is actually on-line playing against some of Jason's co-workers. I won't name names cause I don't want to embarrass them ;)

Just a couple of snapshots I thought I would share. The girls were at the movies! I love having the base theatre so close. It let's the girls feel grown up too!

Pet Fest 2008

2008-09-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

Our last morning with Miss Kati! And the base was having a Pet Fest at the pool. All our babies were given the option of swimming like their breed intended. Basically at this point and time we are not in awe of the breeds we are in awe of the WHIMPS we brought all the way down here!! Once again be glad you stayed home Sara! This is Ace with Megan. This big boy was cracking me up. It was so obvious he was barking at her to tell you to save herself. He was so serious!

Hannah coaxing Zoe into a sweet sweet surrender. Become one with the pool. Swim away like other retrievers before you!

A quick pause for everyone to admire Miss Megan's inevitable future in swim suit modeling!

And this is Zoe swimming to the edge. I am thinking in T minus 5...4...3...2....1....oh yeah she is biting us all!!! Actually it was a more of a 'I know when you sleep' kind of look.

Ace and Megan!

Now it is time to convince Kati. BTW Kati has enough power to make Jason tumble over. She has well for making up that leg deficit. Don't count her out she is a strong woman! And this woman says loud and proud! 'Hell No I won't go!!'

Cameron is quite confused why we are trying to be entertained by shoving unexpected dogs into his swimming pool!

Hannah trying to bond woman to woman with Kati. Trying to explain the swimmers build that some of us women can pull of so well!

And Kati said no! I don't even have pictures of her mere seconds in the water she got out so fast and was strutting out the door!

Jason with his ladies!!

Our last shot of Kati Bo Bati. The three legged wonder dog!!

Danielle's parents were able to come get her. She will be family she has known her whole life. That made letting her go so much easier. What time we did have with her was precious! Thank you Danielle for trusting me with your dog. She was definitely a pleasure!

Happy 15th Birthday Hannah!!

2008-09-28T19:19:00.000-07:00

Hannah is 15!!

And all she got was a big ole cupcake with funny purple icing!! And handwritten decorations by Daddy!

Oooh what did she get? It doesn't really show but she was confused on what gift could be hidden in this amount of shredded paper.

Tickets to see Sweeney Todd on stage. She has become quite the movie musical addict and right now this one is her fave. Odd choice but that is the joy of being a teenager I guess. We go October 11Th. Me, Hannah and our friend Ali!!

I would love to tell you that this pose was staged but no he was dead serious!! We were dragging out the cake eating process and he was done!! This cake is actually two pieces. He saw me bring the cake mix in and was in obsession mode through out me making it, cooling it and icing it. I wish I could of captured the moment that the two pieces were on the cooling rack and I literally look over to see one missing and a blond head running into the living room!! So not kidding. But obviously I got it back!! lol

This was just Hannah's cake with her family and Ali. Her actual birthday party will not be til the end of October. We will be having a movie premiere party with her friends for the upcoming High School Musical 3 at the theaters. See she may scare some of you with the love of Sweeney Todd but she is still a young teenager at heart who wants to go see HSM3!!

Happy 15Th Birthday Hannah. You can stop now!!!

Up with the Battery!!

2008-09-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

Up with the Battery!! So says Mikey all the time. For those of you who need a reminder he is the fire god from quite a few months back. It was Military Appreciation Night at the Charleston Battery. Soccer. Mike Buytas loves the Charleston Soccer Team. With an intensity only football addicts might relate to. So basically I have no idea cause Mr Hubby Man doesn't like sports (yeah). But I figure since we get in free let's go support Mike!

Here he is tailgating! The boy was grilling shrimp. After I found that out I could of cared less what sport we were watching!!
Cameron wearing the proper bumblebee attire!

Yeah soccer people! Sorry it had gotten dark and I may have a uber cool camera but not a lens needed for action shots. I am pretty sure everyone knows what soccer looks like. Even though most of us have only seen it with 6 year olds wandering around aimlessly!

Mike with his crew. And their amazingly huge flags! Makes me want to quote Eddie Izzard but I am sure that will only confuse the masses.

Cameron and Noah shouting into a horn in each other's faces. They thought it was HI-larious!!

Ali and Kara. They put on a fireworks show after the game! The fastest firework show I have ever seen but really really good!

Wow I am thinking the only thing that could of made this picture better would be my friend Sara. But NO she didn't come. So me, Naomi and Ali had to be gorgeous all by ourselves!

Not going to lie to you guys but this was a stressful night for me. Jason was not home yet so I went alone with the kiddos. And as we like to point out Cameron had a GREAT time. Which normally means I was chasing him and going crazy.

But in the end I got to say I went and supported Mike and his Charleston Battery!

Grandma Loni

2008-09-23T18:00:00.001-07:00

Oh good heavens time flies!! It has been two weeks since Jason's Mom, Lana, came to visit!!! It was a quick visit. She had to take care of puppy business in N. Carolina so she took a few extra days to be with us. I hate to say it but she kind of got gypped. She came in the middle of the week and with school and therapy there just wasn't any time to take her anywhere. She did get to spend one evening shopping with the girls and having dinner with them. Both of the girls came home so I found that to be a good sign ;) She got to meet Zahra and watch her interact with Cameron. And she was kind enough to take us out as a family to our favorite place, Jason's Deli, and afterwards Cold Stone Creamery!! Personally I think that was worth the drive right there!!

These pictures were taken by Lana's camera and they were the best!!

Jason and his doppelganger!

Classic Josie face. Sigh.

OMG my babies are getting so big!! I hate it!

I was grabbing Hannah and forcing her to jump up and down. He thought it was funny. Gotta do what we gotta do!

I hope the next time Lana comes to visit we have more time. Go to the beach. Take her downtown. You know all the basics! But we had fun in the time that she was here and I think that is all that matters!!

Why grown men cry!

2008-09-21T20:31:00.001-07:00

Well ladies and gentleman the best way for me to say this is the men aren't confident enough in their sense of self esteem they may want to look away.

I can't say to much about these pictures cause Josie took them all. She said they were dancing and posing. Oh lord the first time I saw these I had tears in my eyes from laughter!!

Enjoy!!

I know I am really revealing my age but does it look like he is about to go all Marky Mark white boy rapping on us!?!

OK all the men out there. You can look again!! The overwhelming manliness is over ;)

Zahra and Mah-Krista

2008-09-19T09:39:00.001-07:00

Don't ask me Cameron named her!!

Here they are! Cameron's new ABA Therapists! Everything is in place and the schedule is now movin' and groovin'! Melissa, no matter what Cameron says, comes three mornings a week before Cameron goes to school. And Zahra joins her for two of the mornings. We are still trying to work it out that they join him for a little over an hour each week at school. So far that hasn't worked out but I will keep you informed!

This is Zahra! Oh my goodness what kind of therapist did we hire she is blowing bubbles straight into his eyes!?!

Actually the wind immediately blew them the other direction. Heehee just keeping you on your toes!
Melissa cheering them on! But! Cameron calls her Krista. Oh yeah. I knew he was going to struggle with her name and after we tried Mah-Lissa he went straight to a name he already new. Krista. We have wasted quite a bit of therapy time trying to get him to pronounce it correctly and he absolutely refuses to even try to say it right. She is Krista. I am sure as far as Cameron is concerned he has it right and it was her Mother who got it wrong in the first place ;)

Cameron's favorite thing to do with Melissa is go outside and play with chalk. They write out the alphabet and 1-10. He is so proud of her!!

He decided to give Melissa a chance at blowing bubbles!

I guess he is more impressed with her chalk skills!

He was close to leaving for school when I took these. But these ladies are really rockin' my world right now! And Cameron's! Be prepared to see allot of their pretty faces and I will keep you posted on all of Cameron's inevitable progress!!

self discovery

2008-09-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

I am 35 years old so it is very rare for me to find out anything new about myself. I had a million places to be today and was running around in and out of places and the last place I was was Lowe's.....

p.s. having to go to more then one store to find a 40 inch round flourescent light bulbs for my laundry room was Mother Stinkin' annoying!!

p.s.s. for future reference if anyone out there has to buy a 40 inch round flourescent light bulb they are NOT at Wal-Mart the ARE at Lowe's ;)

anyway back to self discovery. I am hot, sweaty, tired and done at Lowes and decided to lift my spirits in the garden section. That is when I walked into the big ole Christmas section. And this is when I realized I cannot sweat and look at Christmas decor at the same time. No. It is really pushing my natural boundaries to have Halloween right now but Christmas!?! Not in capris, tank top and a river of sweat going down my back!! It was so UNnatural!! And I love Christmas decor! Come back in Novemeber and find me skipping in the aisles!!

pant pant ok all better :D

How to scramble an egg!

2008-09-09T17:29:00.001-07:00

What you THINK you thought you knew about scrambling up some eggs is wrong all wrong! Ladies and Gentleman Cameron Davis is about to enlighten you........

First you make sure you got your self a good egg.

Then you whack it on the counter. If you are not sure if you whacked it well enough try a couple of times. Having egg goo going everywhere is a sign that you have reached peak whackness.

Dump the leftover egg goo into a bowl

Put shell back into carton for later disposal.

Try and get goo off of fingers. BUT as we shall point out here we are doing this with a level of calm!

Take the lame fork your Mother gave you to whip eggs.

Get rid of fork and find the whip for your self!

Poor into skillet that has your Mother's hash browns ready to go!!

Hands down this is thee most important part of this assignment. After you pour the eggs into the skillet you give yourself a big ole thumbs up!!! Cause gosh darn it you did a good job!!

Proceed to stir the eggs with a spatula to only have it taken away brief moments later because you were doing it with way to much vigor and eggs and hash browns were being flung everywhere!!

And just when it looks like the eggs have cooked to peak perfection some fresh cracked pepper on top will make it real nice!!

Serve to your Mother on her Happy 35Th Birthday and make her a very happy Mom!!

First day of school.

2008-08-22T19:40:00.000-07:00

Actually this is the night before. Miss Josie B climbed in bed with Cameron. It was a cute moment til I ruined it with my camera! Way to go Mom. I left soon after.

Hannah and Brittany getting fluffed before heading to their first day of HIGH SCHOOL!!! I know I have had a Freshman for officially one week but it still strikes me as weird. I thought every step along the academic trail was big. But when you send your kid off to their first day of high school you really realize how fast they are growing!

OK this is after school. I didn't get any before cause there was allot of traffic and I just dropped the girls off and went with the flow. When I went to pick her up I was 15 minutes early and I sat in the parking lot. It really hit me then that this school is HUGE. The windows turned into flashing red eyes and the front door had huge teeth and made gnashing sounds. It took everything in me not to storm in there and demand my child back because last time I checked she was only 5 and I needed to put her back into Kindergarten!!

But I promise you I kept all that irrational panic inside! Except for a text or two to Ali and Naomi ;)

In this picture Hannah is looking at her hand and I will tell you why.

She fell. Oh yeah right about where she is standing now. I had my camera out to take pictures of them and she saw me and started running towards me. And she tripped and she fell HARD. But this is where I got to see a glimpse of a pretty rockin' kid. She bounced up and laughed. And kept on laughing. I know she was embarrassed but I know at 14 I would of died!! I would demand I never go back again. But she laughed and teased herself. We talked about if anyone brought it up she was going to tell them it was a part of her Secret Agent training! It didn't get her down. She is so excited about her new school and she has already made friends and relationships with her new teachers. She inspires me.

I just couldn't get far back enough to get the school building. This will have to do for now!

The next morning all three of them were going back to their schools. They each have their own school. Which is really weird to me. Really I didn't plan things out very well cause these schools are nowhere near each other. But we will get through.

The best one at 6 AM of Miss Josie B!

And Mr Cameron who is in afternoon classes now so he is actually well rested. His first day didn't go well. New schedule, new classrooms, and new teachers. That is hard for any kiddo. As I type this he got through his first week like a champ and this week I know he will be a pro at it!

He was so excited he ran to the van and climbed in and tried to buckle himself in. Now he rides the bus.

Cameron also started therapy last week. I hope to get pictures soon of him with his new therapists. And of his new teachers! It was a bit of a whirlwind last week and I did what I could.

I am sorry it took me so long to get back unto the blog train. If anything I did leave you with some perfect pictures of my Baby Bro!!

Adorability Factor

2008-08-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Isn't my baby brother thee cutest!?! I have more to share of my baby sisters but you seriously can't look at this baby boy without saying 'awe'!!

It's no wonder he is the favorite!! My Dad and Aunt came up with 6 kids and only one is a boy!! So they had to make him extra cute!! Cause check out his competition!! My cousins Tija , left hand, and Tia.

OK I have to go do more playing and show you some baby sisters!! I don't think you can handle this much cuteness in one blog!!

Bigger is Better!!

2008-08-06T15:07:00.000-07:00

I have to share this blog with you really quick cause after it is posted my sister Kelly will most likely put a hit out on me!! Thank Buddha she is in Illinois cause as far as I know Guido doesn't travel out of the states!! lol

Oh yeah bay-bay who in this picture is representing some serious Aqua Net love!?!?! 1990 and I just don't think I could of gotten it any bigger!!! I tell you what I think today's teenage girls are just lazy! They don't have the dedication like we did back in the day!! And yes you are looking at bright blue eyeshadow, bright blue eyeliner and bright blue mascara all at once!! How does one go about bringing styles back!?!

OK it is just to easy to make fun of the styles of the late 80's early 90's so I will just stop now. BTW my daughters were not int he least bit amused with this picture. More along the lines of confused. Why in the world would I go out in public looking like this!?!

Prisoners in our own home!

2008-08-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

More on that in a minute! First I shall share a few pics from here and there. Here is Cameron and Daddy with new Disney wall murals. 4 huge color pages for $1.40 at Target!! Good heavens I get a rush from those pretty red clearance stickers!!

Cameron and Money's new Play-Doh friend. I had swirled Play-Doh to make kind of like cinnamon bun shaped circles and he stacked them and added the accessories :)

Making a cake for Money!

Now we are on to the aforementioned crisis!! Someone was hypnotized by pretty red stickers and found some killer bargains for a cute little man. This particular toy was $1.50. Attach to the end of a hose and 'voila!!' you have insta-fun. I was finishing dinner and Hannah was with him but she came inside to get something. Next thing I hear is 'Cameron stop!'.

Yep these are all through the window.

The face of Eeeee-vil!

Come on guys I promise not to spray you!!

Thank goodness for Jason's military training! We sent him out with the first wave of troops. He is the only one who made it!

Poor birds.

I also got him 'Lucky Ducks' for $4.00!! Seriously a big ole bag of new toys and I think we spent $10.00. What a good day!

Later that night Hannah, Josie and I went to the Midnight Party for the release of 'Breaking Dawn' by Stephanie Meyer at Books-a-Million. We went with my friend Ali and her daughter. I didn't take my camera but Hannah had her face done as a vampire so we of course took a pic when we got home!

Just some simple stuff to report here from S.C.!! Jason leaves bright and early in the A.M. for school in Florida. He will be gone 6 weeks. Not to long and I always feel a bit of comfort knowing he is just stateside!

Also in case some of you don't know Cameron calls me 'Money' not Mommy. It took him over 3 years to come up with that so I love it!!

there has to be a change

2008-07-31T15:18:00.000-07:00

Cameron and his Money November 2007.

That was taken last year at Cameron's school. We are getting ready for Thanksgiving lunch. I find myself going to this picture alot. When I see it I see a Mom looking at her son with love and a little boy who is holding on to so many secrets. That is what Autism with my 4 and a half year old son feels like to me. Secrets. Jason and I are forever wondering what is going on in his little head. And of course ALL of us are trying to figure out a better way for him to actually tell us. We are a family in constant frusteration because all we want is a way to communicate with him. But as with most kids with Autism he is the ones calling the shots and we just go along for the ride. Hoping that somehow we stumble upon something that works.

Well life threw us some curve balls. We have lost his teacher of the past year and a half, Mrs lmn-O, because the school, in all of their infinite wisdom, thought it would be best to close down her classroom. We lost RaRa and the boys. Our beautiful boys. Hunter and Parker have moved to Arkansas. They are missed everyday. These people had a HUGE impact on Cameron's life. But we move on.

We are starting ABA Therapy. It is a much more intensive approach to Autism. We never approached it before because in all honesty Cameron is one of the most low key Autistic kids you will ever meet. None of us really thought he needed it. We have met Zahra his new therapist. Tall and gorgeous by the way ;) And this is going to be consuming. 3-4 therapy sessions a week. We have a therapy group calling us back to give us info on new speech therapy and occupational therapy. Which will be at least one 2 hour session a week. And as of right now he will be in school from 11:45 til 2:30 everyday starting the 19th in Mrs Carle's classroom. ACK!!! But it all equals new hope for me.

And what do we have if we don't have hope?

Smooch the Squishy!!

2008-07-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

I really don't want any new ones! I just want to go back in time and squish and queeze on this one!!

Cameron at 35 weeks.

Oh and I wish we had a scanner. I could share some serious chump a lump from a Baby Hannah!! And the wee diminutive Josie B.

How much would we Mother's pay to have just a moment to go back and hug and kiss them one more time!?! Blame my cousin Laurie for the moment of nostalgia she is the one who got me started ;)

Brace Face!

2008-07-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hannah FINALLY got her braces last week! We have been waiting for about 2 years. Poor thing is almost 15 and has yet to lose one of her canine teeth. But the Doc so no more. Her two front teeth are , obviously, to far back and they were actually pushing her bottom jaw out of alignment. Time to get to work!

Or at least pose for the crazy mother with the camera and then let the tech get to work ;)

The last picture to be taken of Hannah before 'the change' :D

Hardening the 'concrete' that will be holding the metal to her teeth.

Isn't she such a freaking trooper!?!

Getting to see her braces for the first time! She didn't get her bottom row done yet. With her two front teeth scraping across her bottoms row so often we have to wait for them to shift forward a bit.

Dr. Barbieri. The man is a freaking hoot!!

But here is the sweetheart that did the work today. She was actually surprised I wanted her picture!! ( I am terrible but I forgot her name! )

Of course the first days with Hannah were funny because she spent all her time stretching her lips overs her teeth. And she is a bit over zealous about what she cannot eat. But she did have much soreness. Which we know will change as she goes in for tightening.

So check back in my blog two years from now and I will show you Hannah's new smile!!!

More S'mores please!!!

2008-07-17T16:36:00.000-07:00

Our first weekend in Illinois!! Had a little family get together with my Aunt Rena, cousin Tija and a plethora of random children!!

It was a great dinner of course but we were there to enjoy a fire! Jeff had a fire pit up in Chicago and he brought it down for the family to enjoy!

After watching Eric attempt getting a blaze afire my sister shoved him out of the way and took over ;) OK there was no actual shoving.

What's gonna work? Teamwork!!

Maddie amused by all the adult silliness.

Jason's so hot smoke......never mind I already used that one ;) I do enjoy the 'Magnum' look he took out for us!!

My Aunt Rena and my Mom making sure us young whippersnappers don't cause a ruckus and/or burn down Mom's house!

Tija had a bag of marshmallows, Hershey bars, graham crackers, one stick......and a dream!

Impatiently awaiting this 'dream' we were just talking about :D

Just as good and tasty as we thought they would be!!! Thanks Tija!!!

Of course many people are missing form my pictures! Allot more family were milling about. But it was such a good evening. The weather was perfect for sitting around a fire and watching Tija make S'mores!!

Don't call it a comeback!!

2008-07-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

Actually we can and we WILL!!!

Right there on the side of Cameron's head. Yeah right there!! Do you see it!?!

Oh yeah baby that is a flip!! The inevitable beginnings of the infamous Flippy Dippy Do!!!! I have been waiting for MONTHS!!! I just think my little man looks....well like Cameron when he has a more longer carefree hairstyle. His Surfer Do. Not that he didn't look like a big boy with the shorter hairstyle I just never felt like it fit his personality! And of course the fact he actually has flip capability really helps.

OK yes a whole blog on Cameron's hair but anyone paying attention knew the level of despair I felt having to cut it all off a few months back. Finally seeing that little flip on the side of his head made me smile :D

And so does this picture. He is saying 'Cheese!' :D

4th of July

2008-07-15T09:13:00.001-07:00

We had a family gathering at my Mom's house for the 4th of July. Jeff and Erin came down from Chicago and my Dad came over after he put in a full day at work. We were all there.

With corn! Miss Maddie's helping us shuck the corn!

This is Jeff and Erin's dog Betty. Poor thing looks like she is scared of the camera!! Don't let her fool you she has modeled for us before!

Sitting around enjoying the weather!!

One of Krista's many flower babies!

Dagnabit!! Once again a few seconds late! They were actually giving each other a hug! Still sweet!

I am so HOT smoke gathers around me!!! ;) See how Erin is gazing at me lovingly!?! Or she is in awe of my cotton like hair ?Josie broke my iron. Which I , of course, think is a plot to make me look goofy!! Because of her I had to go naturelle!

Jason loves this picture! Can you tell by Miss Maddie Boo's eyes she is up to no good!?! :D

Chit chatting with the ladies!!

Jeff saying something amusing to my Mom. So I assume. I don't find him in the least bit funny!! ;)

These cute little frogs where posing right next to me. So of course I took their picture!

Not a posed shot at all.

Jason off to the side not giving a hoot what the internal temp of the pork was as long as it wasn't raw when he ate it!

Cameron loved this game!! Could of cared less about the actual rules to the game. Didn't see a need to actually play against someone. But it made him happy. A as we all know that is all that matters ;)

MOM!!!!! Jeff is throwing things at me!!!

Erin playing Candy land with the little ones. I am not 100% sure but I doubt Cameron was playing by the rules here either!

OK now we are all at Troy's house. He lives farther out in farmer land so we could sit out on his deck and see the Oakwood fireworks without dealing with traffic or actual humans.

This is not a good picture but it still makes me smile. Troy has a hot tub next to his deck. Most of the younger kids were in their suits sitting in it as the fireworks were going off. Can you think of a better way to watch fireworks then chillin' in a hot tub!?!?!

Jeff, Erin and Krista!

Jason actually had to do a bit of PhotoShopping on this picture to get it to work but here is Jeff and Erin. I think this picture is cool!

Dang it!! What a uber cool picture but yet Krista is not here. She had to leave cause Maddie was pretty wet. As these guys were leaving I had Hannah take a quick picture of the adults. Who new that it would actually turn out!?!

This is more along the lines of what I was expecting!!

Thanks for taking the time to check out my latest installment of Illinois blogging. I have more lot's more. I hope to don't lose interest cause if you guys were fussy enough you could remind me I never finished up on my Brenda blogging. I have such an interesting life I am easily side tracked. HA!!!!

Beasts of Burden

2008-07-14T08:51:00.001-07:00

OK only one more interruption before I get back to Illinois blogging. I have been wanting to get these three babies all in one shot for a couple of days now. But they were never all three together close enough. You all of met Zoe and Mac-gyver. Up front is Miss Kati. She belongs to my friend Danielle. Whom by the way we adopted Mac from. Her and her family just recently moved to Germany. At a rather last moment she found out that the airlines won't fly out a dog in this heat. So she was frantically trying to find Kati a temporary home til the weather gets better and she can get her to Germany. To make a long story short Danielle cried and pointed out a few times that Kati has ONLY 3 legs. What is a warm hearted person like me supposed to do!?!?! Of course I took her in. And to be honest we were nervous but it has gone so smooth. Zoe is not 100% on board yet. Which is why I couldn't get a picture with all three. But as the days go by and Zoe realizes that most of her life really isn't changing she is accepting this new friend. Mac has known Kati so he immediately started licking on her face the minute he saw her. And I don't think he has let up since. My little man is a lover not a fighter.

So I have warned most of our local friends not be alarmed when they come to the front door. It looks like the ASPCA over here!!

Autism: The Musical

2008-07-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

www.autismthemusical.com

It's next to impossible nowadays to say Autism hasn't touched your life in some way. Be it a family member, a friends child or the family you see at church every Sunday. I highly recommend this movie. For everyone!! It is not a clinical look at Autism it is a look into the lives of the families who live with it on a day to day basis. And at the end if there isn't a tear in your eye......never mind cause there will be!! Jason and I cried most of the movie. In a good yet heartbroken way. So much hope and painful reality in one and a half hours. It was worth it though! Such a beautiful movie!! With unbelievably beautiful (and flawed) parents, teachers and of course children with Autism!

Gracie Lou Freebush is SIX!!!

2008-07-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Ever since they named her she has been Gracie Lou Freebush to me!! 'Miss Congeniality' for my non-movie addicts.

My first Illinois blog!! I have to let you know that I am blogging backwards. Jason accidentally took my first half of pictures and put them on his work computer!! So instead of making you wait any longer I am working with what I've got and that is Grace's 6Th Birthday party at Grandma Loni and Grandpa Paul's house!

One of the only shots of me in Illinois so I thought I'd better share. Getting ready to head out and par-tay!!

Yeah Troy put Jason on grill duty. I warned Troy.....more then once. Jason does NOT enjoy grilling. We actually had numerous discussions about this fact while I was home. I came from a grilling family!! All men in my family sleep with a turner in their hands a piece of charcoal under their pillow. So I got married assuming my hubby would be grilling every summer. Um....15 years later and no. Not saying he hasn't stood in front of a grill but he has never caught on to the joy of it all. So Troy gave Jason grill duty and was a bit shocked that Jason wasn't as thrilled as he should be.

Yeah that face didn't look any happier til we were all done eating ;)

Forget 'Land of Lincoln' we are in the 'Land of CORN!'

Josie and Justin!

Hannah and the Birthday Girl!!

Grandma Ann gave Cameron a bus!! Cameron LOVES buses! But I just couldn't get him to look at me. Onery little bugger :D

Our oldest nephew Joshua with his little sister!!

Jonathan who becomes a teddy bear when he is around his Grandma Ann. I loved this moment and I adore this picture!!

Actually this was supposed to be a picture of Joshua's ugly foot!! This kids int he background is just a bonus ;)

Paul and Grandpa Marvin. Who had surgery a few weeks prior!!! He was doing GREAT!!

Josie delicately eating a hotdog!!

Jason playing with the kids. He was smiling by now!

Well no sport scholarships for Josh! ;)

I am not sure what they paid for these kind of front row seats but I hear they were killer!!

This girl is into High School Musical!!! Sorry I have no cake pictures they didn't turn out!!

I am trying to figure out a way to get Justin here on a regular basis!!! He kept Josie outside ALL day!!!

Alright I am keeping this short because I have so many pictures to share and I don't want to bore you all ;) Jason already brought me the rest so no worries there!!! My next excerpt will be 4th of July!!!

Oh yeah we are at the beach AGAIN!!!

2008-06-17T20:27:00.000-07:00

You seriously might want to go pop some popcorn and get your self a nice beverage before you start this one!!

The Davis Invasion! Not like any I have experienced before! Why? Because it included Jonathan, Justin and Grace. They have never been to our home before. Where we ready? Could we handle it? Did I own enough Tylenol!?! No need to fret because in all honesty this was a GREAT visit. Troy and the 3 youngest. Joshua stayed behind to help out Troy and Jason's Grandparents. But as we all know from last summer's post he has been to the ocean. These three are landlocked so it is time for them to see the coast!!

Jonathan had no concept of what he was about to see. He asked over and over about how big it was. I told him that the beach and ocean was bigger then any cornfield he was used to seeing. That kind of gave him a concept. I wasn't there when they officially saw the ocean for the first time. Jason and Troy took them. But these pictures are from Saturday. Hannah didn't come because she didn't want to deal with the sand. (Can you say teenager?) It kind of worked out better because without her we all fit into the van.

Justin!

The waves were pathetic! Bad for body boarding perfect if you just want to bob around in the ocean. Which I did and loved it!

Josie showing Grace how to pose like a surfer girl!

X marks the spot and Miss Josie B is getting ready to dig!!

I have no idea but Oh my Lord this picture of Jonathan makes me giggle every time!

Cameron in his Mom made tent! We had forgotten our umbrella!

Miss Josie digging with all her might!! Pay attention to the water line right behind her!

Yeah this is about 10 minutes later!! The tide swooped in fairly fast!! We had to move all of our stuff farther in land.

Poor Josie B. I think it's time to give up pretty girl!!

Action shot of Grace!

Jon looking naturally happy. He is a pretty serious kid so seeing him enjoy himself and being able to catch the moment is pretty dang cool!! BTW for you out there Troy. I love his 'heh' chuckle/laugh. It could not be anymore YOU!! :D

Now Justin is a natural happy go lucky kid! Easy to make smile and laugh. But I love the action and happiness in this picture!!

I feel like there should be 'Jaws' music along with Josie crawling behind the unsuspecting younger ones!!

Personally I can't think of a better more content way to enjoy the ocean!!

Now this is where the tide coming in made the beach uber cool!! Running along the shelf and crashing into the deeper hole that is there. I LOVE these shots!! Look at all their happy faces!! What a fabulous moment between cousins! Josh and Hannah where missed right now!

Gotta share more!

I tried to do the 'posed' shot at the end of our beach visit but I gave up fairly quickly. These are some tired water logged kids. No need to make them put up with me and my camera!!

We had a really really good visit with Troy and the kids. I know I fed them to much unhealthy food. They got to go to the beach. I let Troy actually use MY remote for the TV once or twice!! Painful but I think my Mother (and therapist) would be proud ;)

The week went by so fast and I am ready and willing for any other times they think they want to swing by!!

The end of Hannah's Middle School career.

2008-06-08T17:24:00.001-07:00

I have allot of pictures to share but really not that much babbling (gasp)! Here are some more of Hannah right before her 8Th grade dance. We of course live so far away from the school that she got ready on her own. Jason took her and then hung out at a Bookstore near by. She came home from the dance with her eye makeup smeared from tears and said she had a great time and she would never forget it! I guess it got all sentimental at the end :D

Here we are the next morning at her graduation ceremony. Thanks for waiting cause I did promise pictures of her dress she picked out! I am not going to lie! I didn't like it at all. Oh never mind I can babble!! Here we are at a store and we try on and look at all kinds of dresses and we pick one she likes. I am not kidding you as we were leaving she sees this orange pile on the ground and picks it up. Pure excitement! It's orange with hibiscus and it said one size fits all! For some odd reason I am nowhere near as stoked. Sorry it looked so bright and gaudy as she was sitting there holding it. She didn't even want to try it on. This was her dream dress. I started to fuss with her but she is to much like her Dad. Meaning she doesn't argue at all. FINE!!! Goodness knows I won't lose her in the crowd!!

Well I can admit when I am wrong. And I did and I will. Personally I think she pulls it off. She looks like she can hula with the best of them. And it is very much Hannah. Which is all that matters.

We got there in killer time! I had allotted and hour and we were there in 30. So we got great front row seats and got to watch Hannah practice with the choir!

OMG!! It gets even better. Hannah is on the same row as we are!!

Here she is walking up and getting ready to get her diploma ( I think they actually call it a completion certificate but you know what I mean )!

There you go it is in her hand! She is no longer in Middle School!

At the end of the ceremony the graduating class got a well deserved standing ovation from the crowd!

The choir!

The look on Jason's face after sitting on a wooden pew for 2 and a half hours. Dreamy eh?

And this is where, my dear readers, when everything fell apart. I won't get into gory details but this is the end of our pictures.

But there it is! Another phase of Hannah's life is over. A new one is about to start! It is a odd feeling to hate and love something at the same time!!

Also much love to Hannah's friend Megan that came along for this very long and hot graduation morning for Miss Hannah! You are beautiful inside and out!

Hannah's picture

2008-06-04T16:08:00.001-07:00

Her official 8th Grade picture. I just took it as she was leaving for her school dance. She will be in high school next year. I still don't remember when it was I blinked!

Davis Weekend

2008-06-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

You know after I typed this all out for my CAFW Yahoo group it dawned on me that other people might want to know how the weekend went. So here ya go!

Another fabulous weekend!! But I definitely pushed my limits!!

Friday was Combat Camera's day at IOP. We all converge at the VFW and cook out and of course frolic in the sand. We always get a pretty big crowd and it's always nice to reconnect with people you just don't get to see all the time! We took Josie and Cameron out of school so they could go. We offered it to Hannah but it was 8th Grade Field Day at her school. She was torn but I told her these were her last days at this school and we go to the beach all the time. So we were there 10:30 to 3:30. Long day! But we ended it with a family movie night with some good ole Indiana Jones!!

Saturday we were out the door at 11 to make a frantic Birthday present shopping spree at Target for Zyllah's 13th Birthday party!! I mean seriously there is no love if it isn't last minute!! Actually I knew what we were getting her so it helped ;) Lucky bugger gets to go on a cruise with friends in July so I bought her a travel scrapbooking kit!! I told her I would help her when she came back with her uber cool pictures!!

After the party the Buytas family kept Cameron and we headed out to FINALLY see the new Indiana Jones.

Then we came home and I fed kiddos and straightened up my house and had Del and Sara over for Kara Coladas!! Woohoo!! They left at a reasonable hour and then til 3 in the morning my spine and body was kind enough to remind me that I kind of pushed it over those 2 day. OUCH!! is really the only way to describe it!!

I was supposed to go to the beach with my friend Danielle Sunday morning but it just couldn't happen. I did take my girls out shopping cause Hannah had to buy her graduation dress. I will just say I was shocked at what she picked out but you will all have to wait for the inevitable blog to see what it is ;) We ended up at Starbucks but please don't tell Del!! ;) Sunday night was spent watching more movies with the girls cause I just had to rest!

This week is actually going to be just as crazy!! Last week of school. It is Hannah's 8th Grade graduation!! Next year is high school..........actually I am not emotionally ready never mind she will be in Middle School FOREVER!!!

Off to the Market!

2008-06-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

Girl's Day!! Of course Brenda coming alone wasn't the original plan. But life took over and she wasn't able to bring her son Taylor. PoohBugLicious ;) That was for you Bren! When she called to tell me it would just be her I knew then I would work it out that we would have a day to ourselves! After massive planning on my part , because obsessing is what I do best!, I thought that it would be cool just to take a stroll around downtown. Believe me with camera in hand you can't be bored strolling through downtown Charleston.

Our first 'official' picture together! In 8 years we have maybe 2 others together! Shameful! We were friends in Utah for 3 years and Alabama for 2 and a half. Embarrassing indeed!

The prettiest girl in all of Alabama I tell ya!! She knows it too ;)

I was emotionally prepared to hit a mess downtown! Summertime alone is a cluster frick down there much less a holiday weekend!! But we were heading down there on Monday so I guess most people were heading home. But when I got on the Interstate the first thing I noticed was the lack of traffic!! And we found a parking spot so fast downtown I seriously got nervous. Something was going to go wrong later!! Oh well great spot let's start struttin' it!! We walked a bit down King Street. Went into a couple of stores. Hated that I didn't have money but then was glad cause it would of all been GONE!!

Then we hit the Market! http://www.charlestonlowcountry.com/specialpages/citymarket.html

A smidgen of history for you!

Then lunch!! To be honest I rarely ever go downtown! I had no idea the best place to eat. All I knew was Brenda doesn't like seafood. Which is kind of a big deal on the coast ;) Since we were on foot I just kind of stopped at the first place we saw. We ate rather fabulous fried potatoes as an appetizer and then of course was way to full for our meal. Normal :D

Back in the Market. Haven't been here since I brought Jeff a year and a half ago. Yeah we never come downtown ;) Such duds.

Here we are 'shopping'! I hate to say it but these shots are set up :D The market is full of artists selling there wares. I know how they feel so I kept my camera tucked away most of the time. I wanted some shots of us enjoying our time here. So we stopped here. Another shout out to Jeff cause this is where he bought Erin's pendants!!

http://sweet-grassbaskets.com/history.htm

Sweet grass baskets are very important down here. I really just can't get into them cause they are a blog into themselves. Take a minute if you can to read the history. Very cool. I took some pictures while upsetting one woman but just kept moving.

Then there was this shot. Straight from the hip so my camera was barely lifted up and no one probably knew. Jason did some Photo Shop work to it so it really brought out the green in the fresh sweet grass!! This picture is so cool to me!!

I mean seriously how can you walk past a Ben & Jerry's without going in!?! I think it is illegal to walk past in some states ;)

It had the cutest little seating area in the back that we rested and chit chatted for awhile.

Brenda is going to be mad at me for posting her picture. But doesn't she look like a advertisement for ice cream loving!?!? I promise I didn't 'catch' her making this face she is posing for me!! :D

We are strolling back to the van now so we can go to the Battery. So many more pictures to take!
I am going to share my other pictures in a 3rd Brenda blog! I don't want to overwhelm people with my Beautiful Brenda!!

Brenda's Big Beautiful Beach Blog

2008-05-28T11:52:00.001-07:00

I had to think for a second on how to rearrange those words so I didn't offend Brenda ;)

Here we are at the beach again!! Our friend Brenda came in town this weekend to visit us!! We have known her for over 8 years now. Stationed with her in Utah and then again in Alabama.

But first we have Emilie's first time at the beach!! I love having my camera out for the first time little ones get to feel the ocean!

Here is my Brenda!

Emilie had a flippin' blast!! She had no fear of the water and poor Danielle was never off alert. I said we need to just get her a bungee cord and let her run towards the water all she wants cause we can just yank her right back to us :D

This is Emilie's friend Jerad. Sorry this is small I resized it wrong and don't want to stress myself out trying to fix it ;)

Cameron found himself a new BFF. Aunt Brenda took him out in the water whenever he wanted.

Can somebody tell me when the heck it was I blinked!?!?!

Oh thank you Josie!! Still looking like a little girl......not by much though. She is going to devastate me soon I can tell.

This little man cracked me up!! Do you see the sand ALL around his mouth!?!?! You can tell he has never missed a meal but you would of thought the poor thing was starving the way he was shoveling in the sand :) So cute!!

The Liberation of Aunt Brenda's feet!! Actually allot of us got our feet liberated by Cameron. But these piddies int he picture happen to be Brenda's! Josie would cover our feet and then Cameron would set them free!! He found it all very exciting indeed!

I so adore it when the girls play with their brother. Josie raced with Cameron for awhile. So sweet!!

This picture just made me and Brenda so happy. Cameron is making a weird face and Miss Josie B's rump is all up and proud. Beautiful colors though :D

Zyllah working on her fabulous turtle!!

If I can give you one sincere and beautiful comment about Naomi's children is they are all so amazing with Cameron. With all children. I have seen all three of them handle younger children in such a way that always melts my heart.

I assume Liam is saying 'Wheee!!' :D

Two words describe this girl to me in this picture! Gorgeous and ornery!! I love it!

Alright Cameron says we are done now!! Another good day at the beach with friends and family!!

I have more blogging to do of my Miss Brenda! Stay tuned!!

Field Trip

2008-05-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

I love field trips!! I love Cameron's class field trips!! Mainly because he has such a small class so it never feels overwhelming. And we are all responsible for transporting our own kids so we aren't on anyone else's schedule. We all get there at the same time but we can leave when we are ready!!

Off we go to the Charleston Children's Museum!! http://www.explorecml.org/ I guess by most museum standards this one is pretty darn small. And the only time that really affects your enjoyment value is if you go on the weekends cause then it is pretty packed! But we had most of the place to ourselves and so we had a great time!!

Jason has been bogarting the camera so almost all of these are by him! ;)

I love that Jason's so tall. He just holds the camera up as high as he can. Tip toes and everything! We are now learning a golf ball goes faster down the ramp then a ping pong because of weight.

We are now learning how much force we put behind slamming the ball on the ground determines how high it bounces back up!

The Dad's each have a balloon with a different amount of air in it. We shall see which one stays in the air longer after they let go!!

The kids of course thought this was hilarious!!
Now we are out and about in the displays!

The WaterWorks room. Always a favorite!!

Painting with water!

Waiting and watching....and of course being A-dorable!!!

An attempt at making Cameron happy!! Which by the way it did ;)

This is Jason with the puppet. Cameron thought it was great!

All they want is *Freedom!!*

They have the coolest art room that lets kids just wander around and go crazy but I just couldn't get Cameron interested this visit :( He also had alot of fun on the boat dispaly. So much fun that it was hard to get his picture he was running around so fast!! I love it when we get a chance to come here!

the Hunt

2008-05-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

The lone hunter stalking his prey.

Waiting for the right moment, he pounces on the unsuspecting clover.
After a gruesome display of predatory carnage, the hunter lifts his kill in triumph!

(Close-up of carnage--viewer descretion)

And like most young predators, he takes his kill back to his mommy for praise.

(p.s. you all know I didn't write this. This is ALL Jason. He makes me laugh.)

a BIG beach blog!

2008-05-06T07:08:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday guess where the Davis's are!?!? At the beach of course. But my theory is the more the merrier so Felisha and her three kids followed us there and then the Buytas family met up with us soon afterwards!!

Baby Hiram in his beach tent. I left him in there maybe 5 minutes before I had to cuddle ;)

Silly people left me alone with this baby AND a camera!! This is one of a couple :)

Where is this poor babies Mother!?!? Out taking a short walk with her girls!

Baby Hiram's first feel of sand and the ocean. You can't barely make out the water but it is there. And in typical baby fashion he didn't understand what the hullabaloo was all about :D

BTW have you noticed his hair? A perfect little mohawk that he has had since birth! I adore it! Jason made the point though that it isn't a mo-hawk it is a fro-hawk ;)

Little Kelli! We wore this baby out! She was falling asleep standing up by the time we left!

Look what I taught Kyra! She knows that when the other person makes the I love you hand sign and touches her hand it means I love you, too.

I totally missed the money shot between Zyllah and Kelli!! They were both laying on their bellies facing each other. By the time I had gotten there with my camera Kelli had gotten up. Still a cute moment though!

Pretty Z!!

Liam having fun while his Dad ran up and down the water to give him a ride!

Jason making a cool pathway for Cameron's truck!

Look Naomi I was wrong!! Here is a perfectly good picture of Raven and Josie!!!

Sshhhh...

Once again that silly Mother left me alone with him and a camera ;)

Jason's action shot! Realistic?

Cameron still loving that maze Daddy drew!

Felisha got to take a LONG relaxing walk with her girls. I am so glad I got to give that to her. Her husband has been gone for 4 months and she has two months to go.

What a good day! Any day on the beach is a GOOD day!! What makes it a even better day is when you remember to put sunscreen on everywhere!!! Oh yeah and of course friends ;) I sit here and finish off this blog with serious blisters all over my shoulders and purple skin on my chest and knees. 34 year old woman people!! My Momma raised me better!

Wait a minute!! Naomi e-mailed me a 'somewhat' better picture of Raven!! And of Jason's derriere ;)

Uber Cool!!!

2008-05-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Jason can be so freaking cool sometimes!! I have always loved it when his artistic side comes out. With him it is pretty much a daily basis. I never get bored of it. But when he comes up with something new I am always pleasantly surprised! We went to the beach yesterday, another blog about it next, and Jason started drawing in the sand.

It took him awhile but this is the masterpiece he came up with!!

A amazingly cool maze for Cameron, and all the other kiddos, to go through!! Cameron LOVED it!!

Isn't Jason so cool?