My Little Claire Peep

Well, Summer is almost over - we start school on Tuesday!!!! I can't believe Emma Claire will be starting kindergarten - where has time gone? With the new school year comes all sorts of fun and exciting things - like auditioning for the Fall Play with the local children's Theatre group! Emma Claire is finally old enough to audition and after 2 weeks of Theatre Camp - she was ready! She sang Rubber Duckie from Sesame Street and her monologue (if you can call a poem a monologue) was Little Bo Peep! She was the youngest of the 5 in her group - her cousin, Chandler, was right there with her (she's a seasoned veteran on her 10th show, I think!) She was happy with her audition and that's all that counts! We won't find out until Sunday if she was cast, so waiting is the hard part - for ME anyways, I don't think EC has thought about it at all. She has such a good spirit about it - We were praying together before her audition and she prayed," God, it's okay if I don't make it b/c I can always still go watch the show!" Seriously, she never ceases to amaze me! God is so good!

***The oufit was borrowed from my friend, Melissa, whose daughter is in the purple - isn't it a great Little Bo Peep costume? - her mother made it!

The other highlight of our weekend was Mr. Turtle!

Will and Wilson found him while doing some yard work on Saturday. We kept him until Sunday afternoon (so we could show him off to all our cousins and friends!!) then let him go free!

Of course my bunch ain't afraid of ANYTHING!!!!!

Last Friday was the final showcase for Emma Claire's Theatre camp - you can see from the pictures that she LOVES being on stage - she was somewhat of a Stage Hog during the imagination time - the teacher would yell out a word and they would have to act it out! Emma Claire somehow always managed to be front and center! Her teacher was a little afraid that she might fall of the stage at one point!

(a piece of bubble gum)

(chocolate)

(a duck maybe??? I can't remember)

(frog)

(cat)








THEN, Emma Claire was the Fox in the GingerBread Man skit - don't you just love how she's holding her tail????

they giggled alot!!!!

Emma Claire peeped out from behind the curtain a few times before the show started!!!

We are spending as much time as we can at the pool this last week and Wilson has started swimming!!!!!! NO FLOATIES!!!!! Yesterday he went of the diving board and slide MANY times and swam the 10 feet or so to the ladder - he's still 2!!!!!!! I can't believe it myself, well, actually I can - Wilson is amazingly gifted physically - he can climb on top of anything and jump off and always lands on his feet - much like a cat! He's a cross between a cat, monkey and now a fish! I pray that God will show me how to encourage him to use those gifts to His glory!

NO MORE BOTTLES!!!!

After seeing multiple images like the above over last weekend, and filling up multiple bottles at the Hampton Inn breakfast area, I woke up Sunday morning with a resolve to make our house "bottle-free"!!!! I have been prepping Wilson on this for awhile now, and the plan was to implement it right before school started back. But I was determined and Wilson was surprisingly willing......

With SUPER-HERO strength, WILSON put all the bottles and in the trash can and took it outside to the BIGGER trash can and waved goodbye!!!!

I have to say it has been much easier than I ever imagined. I can't say that Wilson is eating or drinking any better or worse, except that now he's probably only getting about 16 oz of whole milk instead of 24 oz, BUT that will come. Besides, he's nearly 3 years old (you may wonder WHY my 3 year old is(was) still on a bottle - Well, Wilson has had feeding issues since he was born - no Doctor has ever figured out why- and we've had MANY tests and invasive procedures run - and then Henderson came along right about the time that I should have been taking Wilson off the bottle - so MORE bottles)!!!!

He has only asked for the bottle about 3 times since Sunday, but I just follow up his question with "Where are the bottles?" and he says, "The Trash can!!!!" Henderson hasn't even seemed to realize that they're gone! It's amazing how resilient children are - I mean, that bottle has been Wilson's "Paci" for the last 3 years - he would go to bed with it at night and then 4 hours later we would still be sucking on an empty bottle - I know, HORRIBLE for his teeth, but at least I knew he was getting SOME nourishment - if you've been here for long, you know of Wilson's issues with eating!

Hopefully he won't LOSE weight as a result, but only start eating and drinking more and more!!!!

The Wedding

We had a WONDERFUL wedding weekend - every part of it was fantastic!!!! The children did great, from the rehearsal (only picture I have of the church) to the party and the wedding and reception. I learned at the rehearsal that the BOYS.DID.NOT need to be present during the ceremony. They were climbing all over the altar and steps!!!!

The After rehearsal party was a alot of fun, though Henderson was a handful - note NO HIGHCHAIRS!!!!

Typical Emma Claire fingers - she's eating shrimp - she makes these fingers often when she gets in a mess - always needs wet paper towels!

All the bridesmaids and groomsmen were so nice and patient with all the children!

Matt and Katie love all our children too!

My mom and her sister, Brenda at the bridesmaids luncheon.

My dad's sister, Margaret, and his sister-in-law Annie (she's from England and has the most fabulous accent!!! - I could listen to her talk for days!!!)

Katie and all her bridesmaids.

The girls (my mom and sisters)

Katie and my mom and Matt's mom and grandmother.

Katie telling her engagement story

Right before the wedding

After pictures, before the wedding - they got stripped down and that always leads to silliness!

The babies after they walked down the aisle - Will intercepted them and brought them back to the room - a post about those bottles coming soon!

They both made it down the aisle! Wilson with his arm over his eyes and Henderson lagging about 10 feet behind just looking at everyone and toddling down with his cute self! Will came in the side door at the front to take them out and the music stopped just as he was exiting and you could here Wilson cry out "I want my Mommy!!!" It was a little comedic relief!

A quick photo shoot of my own after the professional pictures - ***all these pictures are completely unedited by the way!

And the RECEPTION!!!! The boys absolutely had the time of their lives watching and dancing with the band!

Emma Claire was little Crazy Girl!!! I caught her about 4 times "trying" to do the WORM on the floor - she CANNOT do it - she pretty much lays on the floor and rocks back and forth - she's seen her cousin, Chandler, do it for years - bless her heart, she tries!!!! (no pictures, though)

WE had a BLAST at the reception! All the family danced to "We are Family!" It was SO.MUCH.FUN!!!!!

The Beautiful Bride and Groom!

I LOVE this picture!

Wilson just plopped right down on the floor to eat his cake (or icing)!

Congrats Katie and Matt!