Cousin E Turns 1

With all this moving nonsense, I just realized that I never posted the pictures I took of Cousin E while we were home. She actually turned 1 while we were there, and we took advantage of it and did smash cake pictures with her, too!

She was much more into the smash cake thing than Honor was. E had been smashing cake for three days in a row by the time we got to these photos, so she was a pro. And maybe a little hungry.

Well, she was after she got to the cake. She is her mother’s daughter…she had to stop and fiddle with every little piece of debris on the sidewalk on the way to her cake. And yes, I said that to Curly’s face during the photo shoot. No passive aggressive, find-out-how-I-feel-on-my-blog sibling junk here.

E had the bear crawl down – she’d make any football coach proud.

See? She dove right in.

And got right to eating. Meanwhile, Trump and Deputy Guy were occupying Honor and the boys by feeding them the rest of Honor’s smash cake. There was plenty left. It’s a good thing we did hers first – E didn’t leave any to share!

She didn’t let any part of it go to waste. It was on the concrete? So what!

Yum! She is such a cutie and looks so much like her Momma!

Purple icing is so good!

Happy Belated Birthday, E. We’re glad you enjoyed your cake!

Friends, Family, and Slingshots

Yes, I’m still talking about our trip back home. We’ll be back to our regular scheduled craziness soon. I promise. Need to catch up? We started with Caedmon’s first flight, then Honor finally met her Uncle NLB, and we went shootin’ and rodeo’n.

Sunday morning, we went to church and saw a lot of friends. Caedmon got to see Coe (our “other brother” and NLB’s roommate) before he went back to school. I didn’t carry the camera into church, which was probably a good thing. Especially since Honor’s rash was much worse (again) and she looked like a leper child.

After church, we got lunch at Sonic and met Brandon and Jill at the park for lunch. I left my camera in the car, and again, it was probably a good thing. The wind was crazy and Jill’s hair was quite bothered by the wind. It was so good to see them. And I’m glad Brandon was there to take Caedmon to pee on a tree (shhhh!) and push him “higher and higher!” on the swings. We miss them terribly. Jill also worked her magic on Honor, because when we got home, the child took a 3+ hour nap, which she desperately needed.

We hung out at Mom & Dad’s the rest of the afternoon & evening. The rest of the family came over for dinner, and the only ones we were missing were Husband and Squirt.

Caedmon and Q played together on the trampoline.

NLB helped guard our dinner while it was cooking.

Mom cooks ”cowboy style” a lot of times when we have family gatherings.

Ribs? Good. Potatoes? Good. Peach Cobbler? Goooood.

Dad made Caedmon a sling shot. He’d been asking for one for weeks, and was so excited that Papa Duke was going to make one for him.

First, they had to locate a proper stick.

Then came the fabrication.

Finding a perfect rock. (We moved to shooting acorns later.)

And then? Figuring out how the thing works.

Demonstrating it for me.

He went back to the slingshot later, but quickly moved on to roping Taco, Papa Duke’s roping dummy.

Cousin E was hanging out in the exersaucer.

Honor and her little leper rash hung out with Mimi and Meemom.

Caedmon and Q played on the swings.

And we finally got to eat.

Uncle HLB was late to the party, but not too late to shoot some acorns with Caedmon.

We stayed up too late, but had a ton of fun with everyone.

Cousin Day at Mom and Dad’s

Honor got to meet Cousin E for the first time the other day. We all ended up at Mom and Dad’s for the afternoon and had a great time letting the Aunts, Uncle, and Grandparents wear our boys out while the girls hung out together.

Cousin E (1 1/2 weeks) and Honor (8 weeks)…6 weeks difference in age is a big deal right now. Very soon, it won’t be.

Cousin Q was getting ready to go swimming with Caedmon.

He didn’t really want to get in…he thought putting his feet in was just fine for a while. Caedmon swam with Fidget until she had to go to work.

Mimi and Dad supervised from their shaded spot.

Uncle HLB stopped by on his lunch break and loaded up the water gun.

Aunt Trump and Honor hung out inside, out of the heat.

Then the boys took their water gun fight to the trampoline.

Oh, but Caedmon wasn’t done swimming. He convinced Aunt Squirt to get in with him.

And then Q decided to get in, so Mom got in with Caedmon and Squirt swam with Q.

They paused for a while and Caedmon helped Squirt water her horses.

But he refused to take off his swim vest. Because that meant swimming was over. He was not done. He and Squirt ended up back in the pool for a while. I think Caedmon wore out three people that day – besides himself. He was one tired little boy when we got home. And that’s the way I like it.

Lots of Love for NLB

**I set this to auto-publish, not knowing if we would have power at home this morning to do it myself. Last night when I went to bed, we were expecting by now to be in the midst of what everyone around here is lovingly referring to as “Snowpocalypse ‘11.” My motto is this: “Ice isn’t nice.” We’re just hoping that we get less ice and more snow because not only would that be more fun, it would mean a lot fewer power outages for everyone involved.**

As we prepare for NLB to head to the Sand Box, we decided one last big family dinner was the way to go. Everybody was able to make it, thus the reason Mom & Dad’s yard looked like a used car lot on Sunday.

Yes, there are 12 vehicles. Just think what it would look like if we invited extended family and not just “us”!

We all hung out until lunch was ready.

Dad and Grade A discussing deep things with Papa…like fishing.

Deputy Guy was trying to watch something on TV. Quite a feat with that bunch.

Fidget (who is home from military school…for a while, anyway) deeply involved in a text.

Mom, cookin’ in the kitchen with Mimi taking her photo. NLB was having a meaningful convo with Curly.

Trump took the little guys outside for a bit.

And there had to be some goofiness.

And wrestling.

And eating.

And somehow, Mom was still in the kitchen. Don’t worry. She did eventually sit down and eat.

But then came the most painful thing of all. Pictures. Where we all had to stand still. And be nice. And pretend to like each other and stuff.

Trump wasn’t too keen on being lined up on the front row with the preggo girls.

(Fidget, NLB, HLB, Squirt; Trump, Curly and me)

Mom was trying to direct traffic.

Just for a brief second, we were all there (minus Cousin Q – he was napping).

(Back: NLB, Grade A, Deputy Guy, Husband, HLB, Fidget. Front: Trump, Curly, me, Caedmon, and Squirt)

And then we added more people. This is as good as it got.

(Everybody plus Mimi and Papa Sam, Mom and Dad)

Those of us who remained after all the picture-taking torture put the little guys down for naps and played cards. And ate more. It’s what we do.

We’ll miss you, little brother. Be careful over there and give those who participate in malfeasance for malfeasance’s sake a whoopin’. Stay safe and come home to us, preferably all in one piece. I will hold up my end of the bargain by praying daily for your safety and sending cookies (not daily). Caedmon will miss his wrestling buddy. I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun things to teach him when you get home and your niece will be old enough to give you some slobbery smiles.

Most of all, remember who you are, where you come from, to Whom you belong, and that we love you!