Playing with Cousins

Being from a large family, I have lots of nieces and nephews. Journey is my mom and dad's 17th grandchild and Wright is their 19th. We are in a rare situation in that everyone lives within an hour of each other so the kids all get to play with each other often. Every Sunday evening it is a standing date for everyone to go to my mom and dad's for supper unless it is a birthday weekend then we all go to the birthday kid's house for supper. Two of the cousins Journey and Wright see a lot are in these pictures. Bradley and Breanne are my oldest sister, Gina's kids. Bradley is 11 and Breanne is 6. Pretty much since we moved back to Missouri we have gotten together with Gina's family once a week to play, eat, and watch TV (American Idol and WipeOut). In these pics the kids are playing at our house. Wright actually will take chalk and write lines on the chalkboard, but that is pretty short lived and he then eats the chalk and pukes. :) Bradley is trying to fence Wright in with couch cushions in their picture, but found out fencing Wright in is just about IMPOSSIBLE-but he had fun trying and Wright certainly had fun getting out! Our decision to move from Jonesboro back to Moberly was hard, but I am so glad to be close to family while our kids are young!

Everyday Play

Seems like the days fly by. We are doing well and have so much to be thankful for. The kids are healthy and a lot of fun. Jeff is home more right now with the winter weather keeping him from being able to do as much outside (so he's begun our breakfast nook-YEAH!!) I really am a very lucky person and I try to remember all my wonderful blessings every day!!! Here are a few pictures from our everyday play. Journey and Wright play well together with Wright wanting to do EVERYTHING that Journey is doing. The picture of the two of them in Wright's crib is a daily occurrence. When Wright wakes up in the morning or from a nap-Journey is usually the first one in his room to greet him!! In that picture you see him practicing his newly acquired "skill" of playing peek-a-boo! He just started a couple days ago and is hilarious. He has all the energy and idea down, but lacks the ability to actually cover his eyes yet. He usually puts one or both hands on top or back of his head and throws them off with a whoop. We of course act very excited and surprised. He sometimes will get one hand over an eye-but it's an accident when it happens!!

Girls' Night

The Monday night after Christmas was a girls' night at our house. I started "Girls' Night" quite a few years ago with my 3 oldest nieces with the idea that the other nieces would join when they were school age. We have always had it over the Christmas holiday and only missed a couple times. The time we spend together has taken many different forms. We have been bowling, on a scavenger hunt, and volunteered to distribute food for a local charity. We did not have our Girls' Night last year due to my mom's health issues, but the 3 oldest approached me at Christmas with the idea of having a sleepover with all the nieces at my house. I said SURE! Journey is one of 8 girl cousins on my side of the family. Kelsie is 14 and her sister, Haylie, is 11. Paige just turned 12 and her sister, Lilly, is 5. Victoria is 6 and her sister, Kylleen, is 3. Breanne is 6. When I was pregnant with Wright and we didn't know if our baby would be a boy or girl, my mom said she hoped for a girl so Journey would have a sister. Journey was constantly playing with these girls then and I would often here them playing "sister". I told Mom I thought Journey already had some pretty good "sisters"!

I think everyone had a nice time playing and visiting with each other. The night and next morning included: paints and crafts, Bendaroos, musical pillows, dress-up, puzzles, pizza, brownies, Taylor Swift music, Camp Rock and a Bratz video, Monkey Bread for breakfast, finger and toe nail painting, and a puppy scavenger hunt! Of course NO ONE got "enough" sleep, but that's part of it-right!

Oh yeah and don't worry about Wright. He was right in the middle of everything with lots of very happy babysitters to dote on him. He was hilarious after his bath. I took him, wrapped in his towel, out to the living room where all the girls were. They immediately surrounded him, giggling about his wet hair laying down instead of sticking up. He liked their attention GREATLY and thought he was pretty big stuff. He began to show off by forcing some loud laughs back at them, which then brought on a gigantic episode of laughing and giggling from everyone-even ME! I'm guessing Wright may want to be around for one more girls' night, maybe 2 and then he'll want to be outta here!!!

"Jabberwocky"

Wright is at such a fun age. Yes the "hide your toilet paper rolls, put your trash cans up, cabinet and drawer emptying, looks like a hurricane just hit, what's in his mouth and where did he get that" stage! Besides that though, we love to listen to him babble endless syllables with very meaningful expression and take lots of little steps to outstretched arms. He also surprises us with some words every now and then that seem improbable at first, but then he'll say it again in a meaningful manner so we'll count 'em! Like "hot". If I have just taken something out of the oven and I walk by the stove with him on hip, he'll look at it very interested so I'll say "HHHot" very exaggerated and then he'll repeat it right back very exaggerated. Wright is also very good at saying "uh-oh". He's been practicing this one for a while as he drops and slings things off his booster seat tray. He usually says "uh-uh" but has the right inflection (high-low). He knocked something off a TV tray today in the livingroom and then looked right at Journey and me and said "UH-OH" with perfectly round lips on the "OH." HOW CUTE!!!!!!!!! He also definitely has a word for "kitty", but it's more like "tata". Jeff swears he has a word for "tractor" and Jackie swears he says "okay" to her. . .very likely they could all be "tata" but WE KNOW what he MEANS!!

Little Drummer Girl

A month or so before Christmas, Journey was playing the drums alot on all the pots and pans in our kitchen. So I was not surprised when my brother, Bobby, asked Journey what she wanted for Christmas and she answered a "drum set." A week or so later we were looking through the Wal-Mart sale paper and pointing things out to each other. Journey and I were looking at different pages. I pointed something out and then Journey said "A Drum set!" I was very surprised to see her pointing at a set of POTS and PANS!!! I told my brother I didn't know exactly what she expected to open from him then. She seemed very happy with this "drum set!" I still snicker every time I think of this one!!!!