Rays Game with Pops and Gigi, July 2009

Back in July when Pops and Gigi visited, we were given tickets to a Tampa Bay Ray's game.When we got to the game, it wasn't raining, thankfully! When we left, it was POURING!! Here we are, most of us decked out in our Rays paraphernalia. Pops and Claire:Jonah and Daddy:Hanging at the game:The babies, munching on some free PB&Js (I wonder if Mommy had any coton candy??):Claire's sporting Pops' hat:Cutie Patutie Claire and Mommy:2 Handsome Men:Claire with Pops and Gigi:Jonah, running the bases:Claire...not exactly running the bases:Gigi and Claire:Gigi and Jonah:Needless to say, a great time was had by all during Pops' and Gigi's visit!

4th of July, 2009 Style

We had a visit from Gigi and Pops for the week of the 4th of July. We went to Lake Mirror to enjoy the fireworks celebration. Here's the gang, walking to the lake:Pops, hanging out with the babes:The kids, all decked out in their patriotic gear, Claire:Jonah:C&J:Claire was a little nervous about the fireworks at first:She warmed up to it eventually:Jonah liked viewing them from the shelter of Daddy's arms:
Stay tuned for a fun Rays game with Gigi and Pops.

Randomness and Socks

These are some old pictures again, but maybe it will hold you over until another real post. These socks were not staged. They love helping with clothes. They also love putting on Mommy and Daddy's socks.And again...sleeping lovelies:

Mythbusters, Camp 2009 (yeh, back in June)

First I have to apologize for no kid pictures in this post ;). I do want to get better at blogging about life in general (which mostly means youth group stuff!). We had a lot of fun at camp!We had a BUNCH of our teens on staff this year. They did an awesome job! This is a picture of all of the Highlands people at camp this year.Here are the youth group kids (campers and counsellors).We had awesome interactive classes by Randal.Massive slip-n-slide, oh yeh! Trey got a few bruised ribs from a camper (a girl). The girls go down way harder than the boys!Cierra and Erin were my roomies. Erin is playing softball for Florida Southern so she had to do all kinds of crazy exercises.No camp will be complete without FIRE! The theme is mythbusters afterall.And no camp in Florida in the summer would be complete without torrential downpours! Me and Tony, staying doubly dry:Some of the drenched gang: Brandon, Erin, Misty, Natalie, and Cierra in front:Singing in the Rain...Me and Paige (she adores my shirt!):Cierra (looking confused as usual), Me, Brandon, and Trey:Hanging out, having fun-Erin, Cierra, Misty, Brandon:Thea and Brad (Thea keeps the babies for us):And, last, but not least, no camp will be complete without thoroughly embarrassing campers and staff with a rousing rendition of "Get your elbows off the table". This one ended up with our camp stud, Colin, walking around the room with all female campers:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDMA!!

We love you lots and we miss you! See you soon!! Happy Birthday!

T-W-O

Well babies (and yes, I still call you babies, even though Publix and others have started referring to you as toddlers), the good news is that we will be celebrating your birthday for at least a month! Just like the year you came into our lives, and just like the year you had your first birthday(s), Mommy and Daddy are running crazy! You guys are always super-troopers, up for all the adventures that we drag you on. You make us smile and make us laugh and make us proud and drive us crazy…you know, in that good way, where we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jonah-Man, as you can see in these pictures, you have helped us make the decision not to have your 2 year old birthday pictures on your 2nd birthday. You took a nose dive at the church building Monday night and have a beautiful carpet burn on your nose. But you had fun getting it there! You LOVE to run around and you LOVE to play, especially with a ball…any ball…anywhere…anytime you see a ball…you don’t snub other toys either. You love books. You play hard and you sleep hard. Definitely related to Mommy, you go to sleep very quickly and sleep longer than Claire. You LOVE to be so helpful. You love to help Mommy and Daddy do just about anything. You look out for Claire and get her paci for her, her cup for her, and this morning you got an extra brush so you could give her one. And you love your Sesame Street. You love to hit and throw and kick, but not really in a mean way. More in a “gotta get all of this energy out” way. You’re very sweet, like to give hugs and kisses and spend snuggle time at night. Wuv Vu, Buddy!

Claire-B, you are definitely the one in charge, bossy pants and I mean that in the “it’s still cute that you’re bossy” way. You, too, are definitely related to Mommy. You like to be in charge and notice when people are not doing what they are supposed to be doing (Doh Doh, no sir!). You LOVE babies and banetets (blankets) and animals and books. You put your babies nite-nite. You LOVE to say Hi and Bye to everyone you see. You are very friendly and smile LOTS. You give sweet kisses and hugs at night. My favorite is the kiss on the forehead. You don’t really like to take naps. You usually go to bed nicely, but love to play with your babies and your toes and your blanket or anything else you can in order to keep yourself awake. You like to take care of Jonah. You always check to make sure you know where he is and you help us keep up with what he is doing. You like to cheer with Mommy and you like to dance. Tonight in the car, you were telling me to dance, and then to clap. You love your bows, love clothes and love shoes. And I wuv vu, Baby!

MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU GUYS!! WE ARE SO HAPPY THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WITH US FOR TWO WHOLE YEARS AND SAD THAT IT IS FLYING BY SO QUICKLY!

They sang Happy Birthday to Jonah and Claire at church.

Here they are with their cradle roll teachers. They will be moving up to the 2 year old class at the end of the month. Wait, my kids are in the 2 year old class?!?!?

The boy:The boy and the girl:
The girl:Stay tuned for our month long birthday celebration!

Misplaced Crayons

No, it's not red blood. No, it's not blue blood. It's crayon. I was on a phone call and turned to look and see the pretty pictures they were coloring. Apparently, they thought it would be fun to not only shove the crayon up their nose, but to twist and turn and then draw a mustache. The color was WAY up in their nostrils. I wonder who started it...guess I'll never know ;). Oh, and they're crying because they got in trouble :).

Jonah's First Haircut

It's time...for THAT day...The day that all of the little "first curl" trinkets lead up to...The day my baby becomes a little boy. The day Jonah gets his first haircut. And this is the reason...So we grabbed a camera or 2,and headed off with Daddy to the Reflections Barber Shop. The kids watched Daddy get his hair cut first.Then it was Jonah's turn.He was very stoic the whole time.He didn't get excited, he just sat there quietly, taking it all in.

Don't worry, Jo Jo, I am here for moral support.

Bye, Bye, hair.Clip, Clip...How do I look?His hair kept tickling his nose so he kept trying to wipe it off.The clippers kept tickling him, too! He is trying to be still and not laugh.The brave boy with Daddy:And Mommy:Claire took care of the baggie full of first curls.Brush it all off.Jonah and Mrs. Teena:Congratulations, Buddy!Show off your certificate! "This is to certify that Jonah Griffies has bravely met all of the requirements of receiving his first haircut and has graduated from babyhood on the 24th day of September in the year of 2009."And then it was Claire's turn.Sike! We just wanted to let her have a turn in the chair with the "blanket".Brush it off.Well, we all survived and it was a very pleasant experience. I only teared up a little...

You know it's time to Potty Train when...

I was changing Claire's diaper on Thursday, and she said, "No, No, Potty, Potty". She has been telling us lately not only after she poops, but before she poops. Jonah has been telling us after he poops (it is actually cute when they say, "poop").

[I have to insert here, that we have been talking about potty training for a while. We were going to try to do it this summer when things slowed down, and then I got a new job, which I'm not even sure I have blogged about yet. And then we were going to potty train, but our house was on the market and we didn't want little potties sitting out when people came to look at the house...so basically we have meaning to start but we haven't yet]

Anyway, since Claire was asking for it, I put her on the potty and she actually peepeed! This is Claire's first PeePee picture. One for the scrapbooks ;).

I am SO far behind with other posts. Life has been INSANE, lately (but GREAT) so I will blog about July-September as soon as I can!

Camp Grandma '09 (June 27, 2009)

Once again, Grandma, Aunt Grandma Nancy, and Aunt Anne came to hang out with the babies while we went to Central Florida Bible Camp. Unfortunately, Jonah started running a fever before we left and Claire ran a fever later on during the week. We had taken them to the daycare at the YMCA a couple of times while we worked out. I am pretty sure they picked it up there. Here we are, all 4 sad to be leaving each other:I have to say that Camp Grandma does a pretty good job operating by the rules! Here are the babies enjoying a meal:

And playing (and staying) in the safe zone, talking on the phone as usual:

Notice that Jonah is handing Claire her sippy cup. They do that for each other often. They hand each other toys, pacis, etc. They are very considerate of each other a lot of the time! I hope that continues!!They also love grabbing the bag and pretending like they are leaving. They will grab it and say "bye, bye". We asked where they were going one time and Claire told us "church"!Did I mention they love shoes?? Their shoes, somebody else's shoes, anybody's shoes! Here is Claire in Grandma's shoes:They also give hugs and kisses!

Here are the 2/3 of the heroes of the week! They learned quickly that it probably wouldn't be as easy as last year! (and both ended up being sick themselves by the time they got home) Aunt Grandma and Aunt Anne:

Grandma getting in some snuggle time with Claire:

Aunt Anne:Aunt Grandma and the monkeys:Like I said, the babies were sick so here is Grandma on breathing treatment duty (notice Grandma's brace...she had back surgery just a couple of weeks before. also notice that she made the trip anyway :) ): Here is Grandma, loving every minute of this!!I may be slightly biased, but I'm pretty sure this is the cutest little girl I have ever seen! This is also proof that I do attempt to tame the wild hair when going out in public. She has wild hair in most pictures we take just chillin' at home!

This is a picture in the dark when we got home after being away from the babies for 6 WHOLE DAYS!"You mean Grandma, Aunt Nancy, and Aunt Anne are leaving us??"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOThanks Grandma, Aunt Grandma, and Aunt Anne! We had a great time!!