Tis the Season

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This year I was planning on foregoing the Christmas decor for obvious 16-month-old reasons. But I had a little visit from some elves while I was in Navarre....and I can't help but love the results.

Clayton's shirt is a classic for 2008. It says, "Dear Santa, I really tried this year (honest)".

Such a good little helper.

We try not to say "no" to Clayton but somehow he has managed to fall in love with the word. So, this is a picture of him telling himself "NO" as he touches the ordaments. I can't wait. Christmas is going to be so fun this year with Clayton!

Thanksgiving in Navarre

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

We are getting ready to head to Florida to meet my family for Thanksgiving. So, we had a few things to prepare for: Now that it is winter, Clayton has fallen in love with his sunglasses (guess its good that we're going to FL). And, in leur of Thanksgiving, Clayton has become impatient in waiting for a meal, and has decided to be self sufficient in feeding himself.

We walked in one morning to our little 'toddler' sitting at the table-my how time flies. "When you're hungry, your hungry". I guess I need to be quicker to feed Clayton or watch what I leave on the table. What a resourceful little guy!

Happy Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day to all of the faithful service men.

Clayton and I got to spend the day in Dallas enjoying the festivities. Chris's cousin is part of the Liberty Spirit (Natalie is the one in the middle) that tour the country from NYC. Their show was 60 minutes of love, laughter and tears. It was awesome and the patriotic songs didn't leave a dry eye in the audience.

Clayton LOVED the singing and dancing. Infact, he trying to become an honorary Liberty Spirit by showing off his moves and costume charm.

He finally got his wish to get on stage, and on his way down.... well, lets just say we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Children's ER (PS: if there has to be an accident, I highly suggest it happen in Texas-their hospitals are awesome)!

This time we just got glued. But, he now has matching scars. I told lolli that he is going to look like Frankenstein before he is 2 years old. There is never a dull moment with Clayton. He was even climbing on the tables at the ER. The Doc walked in and said, "I can see why you're here". I have a feeling we're not done yet.

Rock

I can't remember the root of "The Rock" but one day, a couple weeks ago, Clayton started doing the rock...and hasn't stopped since. If you get him started, he's liable never to stop until everyone in a mile radius has experienced the rock.

Yabba-Dabba-Doo!

Happy Halloween!

Bam Bam seemed to fit Clayton perfectly. So, we all dressed accordingly and had a blaste at the ward's Trunk or Treat.Clayton loved following all the kids around to all the trunks, and the rest of us loved the candy he got.

PS. Someone gave him a sucker (that he wouldn't let go of and ate most of the paper to get inside) and the other sucker...well I'm not sure where that came from. I think it was somewhere on the ground. He was diggin' this sucker festival!

Chris is going to miss Thanksgiving this year due to his dental boards, so his whole family came to Oklahoma, this weekend, to surprise him with a big holiday shebang!!

We spent Friday at the Science Museum (always a crowd pleaser) and cooked Saturday morning while Chris studied. He walked in, after studying, and said "looks like a fancy lunch". He didn't really get it until his mom had him get the dressing out of the oven. It was so good! I could have Thanksgiving once a month! Thanks everyone. It was one great weekend!

Arbuckle Wilderness

Out-of-Order!

Sorry everyone, looks like it might be a couple of weeks for the next post...our camera went into the shop this week. So, for all the grandparents, I'll try to dig up some fun old picts this week.

Here is a little something for all of you faithful Conference watcher. compliments of Clayton (of course):

Clayton is making up choreography for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I'm sure they appreciate the jesture.
Ahhh, Conference weekend. This is one of my favorite weekends and Clayton has made it even better! Dispite him turning off the computer several times, I love watching conference at home with the family. Apparently, Clayton is enjoying Conference too. Sorry the picture isn't clear. I was laughing too hard at the "moves" being put to hymns!

Poke Berries

1-800-222-1222... For any of you with children like Clayton, you will recognize this number as the Poison Control number- which we are now on first-name-baises with. Clayton has found some beautiful berries growing in our back yard and they appear to be a tastey treat.
Chris has ripped out every bush we could find...and, somehow, he still found another Berry Bush! This is day 2 of the long journey with Poke Berries. At least today we know what to do...DILUTE.

Chris jokes that he has probably been eating them so long that he now has a healthy immunity to them. They must be yummy because he can't seem to get enough of them!

Tagged

Tagged
I've been tagged by Tricia. The Rules: Answer the questions using only ONE WORD. Then tag four others. I'm going to tag anyone up for a T.A.G. today!
1. Where is your cell phone? questionable!

2. Your significant other? Christopher

3. Your hair? up

4. Your mother? generous

5. Your father? hard-working

6. Your favorite thing? family

7. Your dream last night? spiders

8 Your favorite drink? H2O

9. Your dream/goal? eternal

10. The room you’re in? TV

11. Your hobby? cleaning?

12. Your fear? H2O

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home

14. What you’re not? chef

15. Muffins? nope

16. One of your wish list items? sunglasses

17. Where you grew up? Indy

18. The last thing you did? dishes

19. What are you wearing? pjs

20. Favorite gadget? Roomba

21. Your pets? chihuahua

22. Your computer? using

23.Your mood? waiting

24. Missing someone? Chris

25.Your car? black

26. Something you’re not wearing? shoes

27. Favorite store? all

28. Like someone? yes

29. Your favorite color? blue

30. When is the last time you laughed? today

31. Last time you cried? dunno

Workin' Hard...Playin' Hard!

We had one great weekend with Lolli and Pop in OKC!!

We spent Saturday morning hanging out at the Zoo and taking Clayton's first Carousel ride on this stunning zebra (Lolli's favorite part was the Elvis music playing in the background ;)!

It is so fun taking Clayton to different places these days. He loves the animals but loves to watch all the other kids, even better.

While Chris was in class on Friday, we went to the Science Museum to play a bit. We ended up in an 'Explosion' show where Pop lost all of his arm hair in one hot-swoop (and a big boom-which Clayton loved to say afterwards)!!

Well, that was all the play...Now on to the Work..

Kay and Michael have helped us out TREMENDOUSLY since we moved to OKC. This weekend was no different!!






Clayton has decided that he wants to help too!! We wouldn't let him run around with a screwdriver in his mouth but some how he got my tweezers...and went right to work (he tends to mimic quite a bit now-a-days).
We found the missing screws!



"Fixing" the door kept him busy for about 30 minutes. I had to sacrafice my tweezers, but 30 minutes of self entertainment was well worth it!

Shoes

A small miracle has happened this week. Clayton has finally decided to wear shoes (most of the time). Granted, if they are velcro they have to be undone and if they are tied, they have to be untied...but I'll take whatever I can get. I am 'the mom with the dirty-footed-child' no longer!!!

Cherstin told us where to find these Squeaky shoes. They are our best friend and worst enemy all wrapped up in one little size 4 shoe. Clayton LOVES them (and they teach him to walk correctly, from the heal to toe), Lilli HATES them (she thinks he has stollen her toys and is hiding them in his shoe), AND most people SMILE when they see him coming. However, you can watch their countenance change after they realize that the squeak is not going away.

My original thought in buying the shoes was the result of losing Clayton in JCPenny's a couple weeks ago (and yes, freaked out- even considered putting him on a leash from then on). So hence the noisy shoes. This shoe is perfect: Noisy shoe for Noisy child!

Here is one more Squeaky-Fabulous-Video for all of the Clayton enthusiasts!!

Swing Your Partner Do-Si-Do

Today we spent the afternoon Do-Si-Doing at the church's Ho-Down!

-Chris and Clayton played with the 'fire' while I got a bit of a Square Dance lesson-

Clayton wasn't totally excited about dressing up (as you can see in this picture)... BUT

He really liked the fact that Chris and I were dressed up. He took a special liking to Chris's home-made belt buckel that reads "OU". I couldn't believe how many people asked him where he got it from. I thought that it was obviously that it was made out of tinfoil. He must be a pretty good artest.
The other obsession with dressing up was the hats. We spent the whole night trying to keep our hats on and Clayton out of the Square Dancer's way. He really wanted to dance with them.

We had a great time and even got to try a little dancing with the professionals that were hired to come teach us a little square dancing.




I totally missed MOST of his version of the square dance. But, this video gives you a sneak peak.... 1)Breaking it down AND Then 2) running away from Mom and Dad.