Happy Halloween

Today will be Abby & Cody's first Halloween together. Their school is having a party this afternoon and all the kids are supposed to dress up in their costumes. Abby will be a fairy princess and Cody will be a penguin. If you didn't read the earlier posting about Abby's costume, it is really just a Build-A-Bear outfit that just happens to fit her. Is that bad to use clothes made for a stuffed animal to dress up your baby? I hope not....because she looks so cute!

We had not watched the movie Happy Feet when I bought his costume....I just thought it was cute and it didn't require too much other stuff (mask, gloves, make-up, etc.) The movie Happy Feet just happened to be on HBO last night and I tried to get Cody excited about watching it. He watched the first 30 minutes or so, but lost interest. I watched the whole thing and told Clay that I really don't care to see it ever again. It was animated well, but the story was just ok. It wasn't like Finding Nemo or Cars...now, I could watch them over and over, but not Happy Feet. Bummer.
I had to do a few test runs with the penguin costume over the last 2 weeks to make sure that he wasn't going to have a meltdown at school when I put it on him. There is still no guarantee of that, but at least I am trying to plan ahead. He seems to like wearing it now and has learned that the head is "a hat" as he calls it.


Then later this evening, we also have a neighborhood "Not So Scary" Halloween Gathering for the kids. I'm really excited about it and can't wait to see all of the neighborhood kids in their costumes. I think it will be fun. I'm not sure how we will hand out candy and trick-or-treat at the same time. Hmm...maybe we will have to take shifts? I haven't thought it all out that far. Hey, I'm just happy that I remembered to get costumes! Now I just need to get the candy, carve the pumkins, light the candles, and the list goes on and on. I love being a mom!

Cute Cody

Our cute little Cody Man just gets cuter everyday. Here are some pictures from this weekend. One is of him reading a book...and ripping out the pop-ups. Another one is him figuring out how to open the source on the Sesame Street website...still not sure how he did that. One is of him in his diapers, with his blanket around his neck...as a super hero cape (of course). And the video is of Cody "shooting two" with cheers from mom & dad. Gotta love him...

Hi Abby!

Abby is still sleeping in her pack-n-play in our room at night. We will be moving her into the nursery with Cody soon since she is pretty much sleeping through the night now. Here is a picture of her in her pack-n-play getting her exercise with the little things I have hanging down for her to kick.

Cody was so persistent to see what she was doing, so he moved his chair over to her crib, climbed up and eventually made his way in there with her. Nothing is out of his reach anymore!

This video clip is me trying to get Abby to smile...she saves them all up for Clay! At the end of it you can hear her say "Hi"!

If the shoe fits....

Cody has been doing such a great job of getting himself dressed lately. His favorite thing to do is putting on his own shoes. As you can see in this video, he has the concept, but the accuracy is still off a little. (His other favorite thing to do is taking off his diaper...no video of that yet!)

Pumpkin Patch - Take 2

The Mommies Group planned a get-together at the Pumpkin Patch today (different one than last time). I had the bright idea to bring Cody along for the experience, hoping that I would be lucky enough to catch a picture-perfect moment of the 2 of them together....yeah, not so much.


I think I am the only one who didn't use my camera for the big group shot at the end. Hopefully I can get a copy that I can post later. So, here are the best of the pictures that were taken today. There are some pictures of my friend Amber & her little guy David (aka D.J.). Most of the others are of Abby crying, Cody not looking at the camera, or me losing my wits trying to get the two of them posed for just one picture...is that too much to ask? Ahhh!

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

We took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch at Boone Hall Plantation this weekend. Most of these pictures are of Cody. Abby was asleep the whole time. We realized (too late) that we should have come earlier because Cody had a meltdown on our way out and screamed at the top of his lungs as Clay carried him out to the car.

It was a great time overall. Cody went up to pumpkins and kicked them as he said "ball"! He wanted to pick up the big ones but he couldn't get them to budge. I tried giving him little ones to hold, but he just threw them down on the ground. I guess to Cody bigger is better!
In this picture of him with a little girl, he was telling her "no"! I guess out of 100,000 pumpkins they had to fight over that one.


We tried to get him to go in the jumpcastle, but he didn't want anything to do with it. He did like the maze, but figured out that you could just lift up the wall and crawl out. Who needs to go back & forth through a maze when you can just cut through the wall?

The next big adventure was the goats and rabbits. You could buy feed to give to the animals, but I didn't want him to get it on his hands (I'm not a germaphobe, but it was kinda gross). Plus, I thought he would try eating it. So, he just watched the other kids try to feed the animals. It was going well until he went over and tried to pull the rabbit poop out of the cage. Yum!


I was hoping that we could get a nice family picture of us all together. (I'm still not sure if we have a nice one of the four of us yet - that's sad!) But no luck getting a family photo that day. It was hard enough keeping track of Cody running around everywhere. I did manage to get a picture of Clay & Cody together. I couldn't get Cody to look at the camera, but that was around the time of the meltdown, so that's not too bad taking it all into consideration.


Here's a couple other pictures from the day. One was of me trying to get Cody to stand in front of the measurement sign. You can tell that he was thrilled to do that. You can see my hand trying to position him while he was refusing, but....resistance is futile!

This is the cutest one we could get of him with the pumpkins....still not looking at the camera. Oh well! Maybe next year...

37 Reasons to Love Clay

Clay had a birthday yesterday! We went to Blackbeard's Cove for some put-put golf, go-carts, and lots of video games. Let's just say I smoked him in about everything. I think he was letting me win! In honor of Clay's birthday (I won't say how old), I have randomly listed 37 things I love about Clay:

1. the way he dances
2. the way he cooks
3. his smile
4. his sideburns
5. his humor (always funny)
6. his wit (not always funny)
7. his cool, hip style
8. his shopping style
9. his hair
10. his will power
11. his foot massages
12. the way he plays bass guitar
13. the way he drums
14. the way he makes me laugh
15. his "blanket monster" for Cody
16. the way he can carry both kids effortlessly
17. his knowledge of woodworking
18. his knowledge of electronics
19. his knowledge of just about everything
20. the way he looks driving his car
21. the way he sleeps on his belly
22. the way he looks in a suit
23. his eyes (without glasses)
24. his belly (which is currently shrinking)
25. his eagerness to try new things
26. his desire to travel
27. his ability to make friends
28. his natural leadership ability
29. his positivity
30. his charisma
31. his willingness to help others
32. his mild temperment
33. the way he watches TV
34. the way he listens to music (rock on)
35. the way he loves his friends
36. the way he loves his family
37. the way he loves me

...oh you can't take that away from me. Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

Abby's first day at school

There is about a year-long waitlist to get into a good school (daycare) around here. Many people get their names on lists right after they get their first sonogram. We had our names on several lists with the expectation that we would still be waiting for several more months before Abby would be accepted into a daycare. We were hoping it would be at the same place Cody goes, but we weren't sure if it would work out that way.

Well, yesterday I received a call that a spot opened up at Cody's school, so we sent Abby off for her first day and I think it went very well. She ate and slept well according to her report card. And she ended up with the same binky from this morning and with both socks still on when we picked her up....I can hardly accomplish that! : )

Above is a picture of her in her crib which has a Care Bear theme. It also had mirrors and activity things attached to it. That's what she was looking at when I took the picture. The other one is when we picked her up. She was in a baby papazon chair just kicking her legs around and content as could be. She was looking at Daddy and Cody off to her side.

I know this is a good thing, but I miss her already!

Baby Dedication

Abby was dedicated to the church on Sunday. Pastor Jerry prayed for us - he was also the Pastor we counseled with before we were married, so he has been a part of our life for some time now. We had many friends who were there...mostly because they were all having babies dedicated too! Lee & Marth Ann also came to see Abby get dedicated. They joined us along with the Evangelistas as we were called up to the front. Abby received her first Bible and Cody quickly claimed it as his own (of course). Abby slept through most of the ceremony, but I think we got one picture of her with her eyes open!

Big Band U.S.O. Show on the USS Yorktown

Clay & I celebrated our anniversary at a Big Band U.S.O. Show on the USS Yorktown. It was so much fun! There were lots of people there - many were old war veterans who were in their military uniforms. Our friends from the Charleston Swing group were there as well. We were able to tour the ship and look off the deck into the Charleston harbor...so romantic! The best part was dancing to the Joe Clarke Big Band. We have got to go out dancing more often. Here are some pictures from the night.

Happy Anniversary - 4 years together!

Today is our 4 year anniversay! Wow, it seems longer than that....but in a good way!

As I was looking through some wedding pictures to put on the blog, I came across an old journal that I had started several years ago. It documented how we met, our first date, first kiss, etc. The cool thing was that I found a note that I had written to Clay after he proposed to me. Here is that journal entry:

January 8, 2003

I’m engaged!!!!!

Clay asked me to marry him tonight while we were at JB Pivots for a swing night. I am so excited! I can’t wait! We are going to have an awesome life together. I just finished writing him a letter that I am going to give to him tomorrow morning. I thought I would copy it to my journal, in case he would happen to lose it. Here it goes:

Dear sweetheart,

As I am writing this, I am still trembling from the excitement. Tonight, you have made a dream come true – you asked me to marry you! We’re engaged!!!

As a little girl (and often as a bigger girl) I have tried to imagine what it would be like to find “The One” and finally know that you want to spend the rest of your life with that one person. But all of my hopes and all of my dreams don’t even compare to the love & happiness that I have found in you.

Your love of God, your dedication to your work, and your devotion to your friends are only a few characteristics of how awesome you are. Your consistency in our relationship shows me the true commitment you have for me.

I have never doubted your love for me and I promise never to cause you to question the depth of my love for you. There are two things I know for certain: 1. That God is my eternal and 2. You are my now. I couldn’t imagine anyone else who I would rather spend the rest of my life with.

May the music of our love play only louder each day. May each movement we make be together, balanced, and connected by our hearts and our hands. And may this dance last a lifetime…together!

I love you so much!

Your loving fiancé,
Terri

Clay, I love you more today than I ever have. You are so special to me and together we have an amazing life and a beautiful family. I cherish every day I have with you. Thank you for marrying me 4 years ago and I look forward to sharing many more wonderful years with you as your loving wife. Happy Anniversary sweatheart! - Terri