Whew! What a week!

Tis the season. So, Charles has moved my 'gifting season' up by a couple of days. It took me a couple of years after our marriage to realize that starting with Father's day, there is someone with a special day of honor every 5-10 days until Aug 7th (Clay's Birthday) With Charles being born on June 10th, the season now starts early. He's followed by Father's day, Steve's birthday, Tomas's birthday, Caleb's birthday, our anniversary and Clay's birthday. WHEW, so our summers are filled with friends and bbq's and pool parties and yesterday was our 'kick off' so to speak. We celebrated Charles birthday with some of our friends. It being the day before Father's day, it was still relatively quiet.
Prior to the party, however, Caleb, Clay, Charles and I all helped out at VBS at our church 1/2 day all week.


A Salisbury family tradition...Baskin Robins ice cream cakes.


Thank you for all your generosity !

Last Week

I'm volunteering at church all week so not much to report except that Charles is getting more and more social as he is spending 1/2 day in the nursery for 5 days. The closest thing to day care. This morning I took him out of the car and he high tailed it on his own 2 feet right to the nursery with a smile on his face like he was reporting to duty. We have such a fantastic church that he would be that excited to arrive in the morning.

But, here are some pictures from LAST week. My "OLD" church (it's been close to about 8 years) is on facebook too, so I joined their group and heard they were having a Kid's Fun Day. So Steve and I went. I attended there for close to 15 years. I only saw 3 people I knew (one is still our CPA) but it was fun for the 3 of us to visit our old stomping ground.
Not to mention how cute are THESE pictures??

There was no way Charles was going to get the concept of fishing these duckies out of the bucket so I took them all out and he got right to work putting them back in their rightful place before they waddled off.


Baby praising Jesus. No kidding, there was a Christian song playing and he made this move!



I am SO BLESSED to have a daddy like this this time around!


Also, he's been playing with his tongue all week and making this funny face. I caught the face on 'film.' The tongue thing, might be from cutting more teeth but he's either chewing on his thumb or his tongue.

Please post a comment by clicking below. We love to see who our devoted fans are and are getting REALLY curious about some of our international followers. The Kualla Lampur connections was figured out...one cousin told me another cousin was there on vacation.

BIRTHDAY BOY

THAT'S RIGHT...YOU'VE BEEN FOLLOWING FOR A YEAR NOW!!
Off the top of my head, can YOU say you've accomplished as much as this little man?
1-gained 20 lbs! LOL (poor you)
2-learned to move around 2 different ways
3-go from sleeping every 2-3 hours to only sleeping ONCE for 2-3 /day
4-get nearly smothered in kisses all day long
5-find someone to spend nearly every waking moment servicing your every need 24/7 (lucky you!)
6-ok you get the idea...

Again the power of digital...take 100 photos and you'll end up with one as cute as this.

Bless Caleb's little heart and all the parents involved in his life for raising him right...sometimes... He and Clay are supposed to be at their mom's this week but a few weeks ago he declared that he wanted to be here on the 10th for Charles's birthday. Good thing he has his family priorities straight, if nothing else, and we'll have to remember that the next time he does something wrong--which I'm sure will be momentarily...LOL (JK Caleb!!)
So to make the extra day together special Steve suggested THEY make the birthday cake! yumm-o!
The boys and Tomas's girlfriend, Stephanie, who joined us for the evening of festivities. And NO, she had NO part in the cake making/decorating what-so-ever...We gals need to stick together. Supposedly it says "Happy Bday CEL" I see the Happy and the B and a C...but well, it's pretty much what I expected. LOL


Charles's one cupcake.



On to a few presents....We're actually having a birthday party for him on the 20th...so if you're around. Stop by for more festivities.
Brains, brawn and snuggles. Love those old fashioned wooden toys! I was thinking of those old pup up Jack-in-the-boxes with the crank. Has anyone seen those around? I suppose if I actually bit the bullet and ventured into a Toys r Us, I might find what I'm looking for but the place scares me.



And Caleb & Clay won these back on Mother's day and saved them for their little baby brother. I'll be darned if some childrearing isn't starting to pay off.

Post us a comment below...What are the toys WE grew up with that I'm forgetting about? AND what you know about summer festivals this summer. I know the Pear Festival is coming up, Gilroy Garlic festival. Thanks!

Happenings Lately

To make up for my lack of updating lately....here's what's been going on on the kid front, away from the sick bed. LOL
Charles is developing quite a little personality. He's been babbling on a great deal. Every now and then it sounds like something. We COULD have heard "Caleb" and "Yeah" and "That's right" a lot of "dadadadadadad" but not much "mamamamam" His latest thing is keeping up with his big brothers. He wants little to do with mommy and daddy when all the brothers are in the back of the house doing something. No matter how many times we pick him up, he squirms away and makes a B-line for the back bedrooms like he's missing the party! Here's an example. Caleb and Clay are shooting hoops and Charles wants a piece of the action. He's completly uninterested in the playground equipment.







I've got to get a picture of him cruising along in his diaper for you because he bears a remarkable resemblance to a plucked chicken. He walks with his torso leaning forward and his arms out for balance. It's pretty funny.

In church last Sunday we volunteered in the nursery again. For some reason the door was left open between the crawler's room and the toddler's room and the two groups were intermingling. There was also a helper there who we'd never met and who had never met Charles. Since Charles was having NO trouble at all keeping up with the toddlers (who are 2-3) she went with the flow and the next thing I knew he was seated with the rest of them for snacktime. With all his food cut up on a plate (as if he knows what a plate is or it's function!) It cracked me up to see him with all the big kids. He's still just a little baby to me but it was bittersweet to see how well he fit in and and how quickly the 'baby years' are zooming by...Though we are just on the cusp of our FIRST baby year still.

Still no table manners. He just shoves everything in his mouth like a chimpmunk until he can no longer chew or move his jaw, then he spits it all out and starts over again.

And this one just cracks me up. I don't know if he was telling a joke as the life of the party or about to spew everything.


Next on the morning's agenda was coloring time. Again, before I knew it, Charles was at the table with a color book page and all the toddlers. This was when as he did his usual dump everything onto the floor over and over and over again routine, the helper said, "hmmm, is he not used to coloring?" That's when I told her what we'd been keeping secret "He's not even a year old yet." She burst out laughing that he'd kept up so well the whole time.


"I WANT OUTTA THIS PLACE! It's for BABIES!!"


It's WAAAY past time for Charles's monthly picture and he was NOT cooperating yesterday. He was moving all over the room. He loves his iTunes and it really gets him grooving. Here are some out takes and some "it's the best I could do" shots. He's outgrown my little "studio" as you can see in the background.




T-T-T-T-That's all folks!
Oh wait, one of daddy hanging out with the girls!!


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