Hadababy Itsaboy

We're proud to welcome Clayton "Asher" to our family. Born May 10, he weighed in at 8 lbs 6 oz and 20.5 inches. Clayton is a family name-- the last name of Trav's grandmother and her 4 sisters. All of them married and none of them passed the "Clayton" name on. "Asher" means happy or blessed. He's a champion eater and had already gained almost a pound over his birth weight by his 2 week appointment. Already, we can't imagine life without him. Yes, he looks like his brother and his daddy, but he's a momma's boy!

My #1

Travis has taken interest in bike riding. His best friend Jacob encouraged him to start riding and now they ride as often as their schedules and weather allow. Before Asher was born, Travis had asked me about riding the Tour de Cure which is a fundraising race benefitting the fight against diabetes. Travis has been fighting type 1 diabetes since he was 15, so this was very personal to him. He'd wanted to do for a long time, but with the arrival of Asher just last week, we didn't know if it would really be feasible. After settling in a bit, we decided we could all handle it. So Thursday night, he and Jacob signed up and began their fundraising efforts. In just two days, they raised over $1000 together AND they came in FIRST in their division (50k)!

One "benefit" to being a diabetic-- you get a cool red jersey when you ride. Here's my #1 after the race (check out those awesome shorts!).

Always trying to be like Daddy, Pax wanted to put on his red shirt and ride his bike, too!

Happy Mother's Day!

The two best moms I know.

GiGi with her grandkids-- 3 boys and a big belly-- pure joy!

My mother's day gift arrived just a little late... 6:03 a.m. Monday. Welcome Clayton "Asher!" Thanks for making me a mom again! I always imagined myself a mom of boys... and now I am!

The Lord said to Noah, "There's Gonna be a Floody-Floody!"

Get those animals, out of the muddy-muddy, Children of the Lord!

We've been experiencing some interesting weather here in Middle TN this weekend. While we've had some flooding in our neighborhood and yard, our family and our belongings have not sustained any damage. Unfortunately, many of our neighbors and friends in neighborhoods close-by have not been as fortunate. This shows some rescues from our neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. In the Nashville area, there have literally been buildings floating down interstates. Words and pictures can't quite describe it, but here are a few pictures from our yard...




Click here to view photos

Here are a few videos I took earlier-- not stellar quality, but it gives you an idea of the rushing water on both sides of our home.
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The Chattanooga Choo Choo...

Our last little get away before Baby G's arrival was a quick trip to Chattanooga.

He's a little young for white water rafting this time, but thanks the the Children's Discovery Museum, he'll be ready when he's older!


Unexpected free fun-- playing in the fountains in the park... now if only we'd brought a change of clothes...


Ok, so taking a two year old on a swinging rope bridge is probably as scary for him as it was for his parents... maybe we'll try the stone bridge next time!


This kind of fun is more our style.



Raise the roof? Or hold it up? Either way, we got to See Rock City!


You can't read the sign by my head very well, but it says "Fat Man's Squeeze." I'll have you know, I squeezed just fine!


Pax's favorite part of the Tennessee Aquarium.


Even through glass, it's intimidating to see a shark swim by your family...


My favorite flowers and my favorite little blond guy-- glad we got to spend some special time before we grow into a family of 4!

Daddy's Hooker

For his birthday, my parents got Travis a bike rack to carry his bike on the back of the car. Paxon was totally into the process of assembling it and attaching it to the car. He wanted to know all about it and what it did. Travis patiently explained that it was something that went on the car that he could hook his bike on and drive it somewhere different to ride. He even got out his bike (and Paxon's tricycle) and hooked them on the bike rack to show Pax how it worked.

Pax, very excited about the new equipment, responded, "Daddy, I like your hooker!" Not to worry, though, I am not in the dark about this situation...Paxon came in the house and told me all about "Daddy's hooker." Let's hope this one doesn't come up at preschool...

Onomatopoeia

The other day while traveling in the car, we were enjoying the dance party remix of "The Ants Go Marching." (If you don't have kids, you are thinking, "Never never will I listen to that" and if you do have kids, you are probably thinking, "Oh yes! I know that one!"). In this version, the song revs up for each new verse with the words "crash-boom-bang!" Pax thinks this is very funny and kept asking "what that mean?" after that part of the song. Apparently, my initial answers were insufficient for our inquisitive child. He kept asking me about it over and over, so with a bit of sarcasm, I finally switched my answer and explained that those words were onomatopoeias and gave a brief explanation of other words that qualified as onomatopoeias (e.g., Moo, Pow!, etc.) as well as other words that don't really qualify (e.g., floor, tree, mailbox). I thought this might at least distract him and we could move on.

Well...Paxon LOVED the word "onomatopoeia" and talked about it the rest of the way home. I didn't think he really got the concept, just a fun new word to say. Besides, teaching metalinguistics to our two-year-old is not really on the priority list no matter how precocious he is. A few days later, we were walking out the garage door and as I pulled it shut quickly, I said, "BANG!" Pax promptly turned around to me and said, "Mommy, that an onomatopoeia!" He then went on to name several others: crash! Oink oink! Pop!

And it occurred to me again it has so frequently lately... he is such the little sponge right now and is absorbing so much of what we say (and do) lately...SLURP!