Clarey Asleep

Cyle's been playing around with our camera, using more of the features and different settings. He took these one evening as Clarey slept.

Happy 4th Birthday, Clayton!

Clayton turned 4 years old yesterday. He had a great day. It started with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Continued with a gift opening frenzy. Then he got to spend the day choosing exactly what games were played. He was really lucky this year because Dad and Nonna were also home all day to celebrate. For his special birthday supper, he requested crab legs. (Actually he asked for lobster, crab legs and crawfish for dessert...)

He changed his mind and asked for apple pie.
Then he decided he wanted to have a pie eating contest. We weren't allowed to use utensils...




Clayton thoroughly enjoyed the contest and was easily the winner. The rest of us just weren't willing to lick our pie off of the table.


It was a great ending to a great birthday!

Welcome, Clarey Gelane!

On August 4th, we were blessed with Clarey Gelane.

She was born at 11:18 a.m. and weighed 8 lbs 3 oz.

Clarey is now one week old. Levi loves to give her kisses. Clayton says she doesn't really look like a girl because her hair isn't long. She sleeps better when the kids are making all kinds of noise than she does when it's quiet. She's content and happy most of the time. Such a sweet girl.



Today we tried to get a picture of all three kids. As you can see, it was total chaos. I did get a few good ones of just Clarey.

A frog, a crawdad and a HUGE catfish

There is absolutely no denying that I live with three through-and-through boys. This weekend is the perfect example of boys doing what boys do.

While playing in the woods, Clayton caught a little toad named, "Froggy." He's carried it around, tried to feed it a dead fly, "let" it drive his dump truck, and even put it in his swimming pool for a a swim. He also has a play frog that swims around his little pool. So when he put Froggy in and Froggy swam, Clayton exclaimed, "I didn't even have to turn him on because he's real!" Right now Froggy is living in an oatmeal container on our back porch.

This is our fish tank. It is home to Doggy and Dorothy. As of yesterday, it is also home to Clayton the crawdad.


Cyle took the kids for a bike ride. They were gone for a very long time. I couldn't believe they had ridden their bikes that long. Actually, they hadn't. They stopped to play in the creek. And while there, they caught a crawdad. Clayton the boy carried it home in a cup they had also found. Both boys were so excited. They couldn't wait to put it in their fish tank and keep it as a pet. It couldn't fit in the house we had in there, so Cyle and Clayton found a rock house. Clayton the crawdad wasted no time in digging out the rocks and burrowing in. He only comes out to eat. We're feeding him bacon bits. I'm a little nervous about it eating our other fish...Clayton the boy is, too. But not enough to put Clayton the crawdad back in the creek.

Last night Cyle went fishing at a local farm pond. He came home earlier than I expected and I was greeted with him calling in the kitchen door, "Can you get the camera?" He caught this 15lb catfish with his bare hands. See how wet the bottoms of his pant legs are? That's because he went in the water after the line broke and grabbed the fish by the tail.

In this picture you can see his excitement. At least this animal we don't have to feed. We're having him for supper tomorrow night.

Camouflage and Swimming Pool

Yesterday afternoon, Clayton decided to "camouflage" himself with markers. He didn't want anyone to be able to see him while he was playing at the edge of the woods.

After many hot, hot days, Clayton decided to build a swimming pool for himself and Levi. After he dug a hole (started by Cyle, worked on by everyone at the party digging for bones, and finished by Clayton) he lined it with some plastic and filled it up bucket-full by bucket-full.

Levi helped with the bucket filling and carrying.

Then it was time to enjoy!

It was a little slippery.

It was a little muddy.

It was very cold. But lots of fun! They had to be hosed off outside and take a shower after playing in their "pool." It was all totally worth it, though.

A Dino-mite Birthday Party

I decided to have the boys' birthday party a little early. I knew I could do more and enjoy the party more if I had the party before the baby. The theme was, what else?, dinosaurs.


As favors, I made paper mache eggs and filled them with a few dinosaur goodies that the kids got to "hatch" out.


For the younger guests, I snatched up hats in the dollar section at Target and painted them a paleontologist tan. I added a dinosaur patch, "Digging for Dinosaurs," and the child's name.


The main activity of the party was the fossil dig. I had shovels, brushes and magnifying glasses ready for the little paleontologists to use.

A simple banner hung over the site, showed the kids where to dig.

Clayton couldn't wait to get his hand in the dirt. He'd been waiting days knowing about the fossils and hadn't been able to get into them.

Levi really liked the magnifying glass, though he wasn't quite sure what to really do with it.


Ashley loved the tools, but not the dirt.

Digging, digging, digging...

found! To make the "fossils" I bought a dinosaur bone sand mold kit and used quick setting concrete that I then painted white. I did three full sets of bones and not all were found!

After all of that hard work, we needed refueling. Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets were for the carnivores of the group, while french fries and veggies were for our herbivores. We also had "Swamp Juice" (lemonade poured over Pop Rocks) to drink.

What's a birthday party without a cake? A dinosaur party wouldn't be complete without a cake featuring a volcano, some footprints and dinosaurs. (I cheated on the dinosaurs and used these really cute little dinosaur candles my mom sent me.)

The boys got to pick the flavors - chocolate for the top two tiers was Clayton's choice and strawberry for the bottom was Levi's.

Blowing out the candles was lots of fun...

...but not quite as much as eating it. Clayton couldn't resist while waiting for a fork.

Levi ate every morsel off of his plate. It's a wonder he took a nap at all! Thank you to all of our friends who came to help us celebrate! It was a great party!

Papa G and Grandma Visit

This past weekend "Papa G" and Grandma Grossheider came out for a quick trip. On Saturday the boys (Dad, Cyle, Clayton and Levi) visited the Air and Space Museum. They were able to see all kinds of aircraft - from small experimental planes to the space shuttle. Lorie and I were able to get in a little shopping! On Sunday we relaxed at home and caught up from such a busy Saturday. It was so nice to see them and I know they enjoyed seeing the boys!