toe tricks

Clark has some really long fingers and toes. It's pretty weird that his fourth toe is his longest--he is always curling it around the others.

First Fish

Audrey caught her first fish, a perch, at Bebe and Pop's house. She now has a new Dora fishing rod, so she can go fishing with dad anytime. Clark is rolling over now which is a skill I believe he developed to escape Audrey's smothering.

Lauren and Kathy

Audrey's new best friends from the family reunion, Lauren and Kathy (Katherine). There is a mutual love for swimming between them. Watching her interact with Lauren and Katherine did make me sad that she won't have an older sister, because she loved copying what the older girls did. I'm posting this at work because I'm missing my kids real bad right now and needed to see some pictures myself.

Father's Day Pics

Belated pics from Father's Day. The church sermon was pretty emotional for me (turning into my dad more and more everyday) as they emphasized how important my role is to my children. Everyday just gets better and better with them. After my first week back to work after vacation, I had some serious withdrawal problems because I only get to spend like 4 hours with them per day now. Shannon and I are constantly amazed at the Lord's love as we realize no matter how much we love Clark and Audrey, the Lord loves us more which is beyond comprehension. We are putting the wraps on a great weekend as we had few plans and we just got to spend time as a family. Audrey has been very funny as she asks for "FH" which is short for Family Holding. She wants everyone to come into the bed and just snuggle. There is nothing in the world that I'd rather do.

Beaumont Pics

We visited Beaumont and Nacogdoches after our vacation. Here's some pictures. Clark is about to go to sleep in the one picture. Also you can see that Audrey doesn't mind splashing water on other people, but she sure doesn't like to have water splashed on herself.

Boston

We went to Boston for a conference and took Clark and Lil' A with us. Alston, Ben, Henry and Spencer live in Cambridge and we got to spend some great time with them. One day we went with them to Frog Pond site of the infamous Billman engagement. Their engagement was in winter, so didn't have the backdrop of half-naked kids playing. Amy House lives in Boston so we met her at Harvard for burgers at Mr. Bartley's and she graciously babysat for us. Our tour guide told us that the most popular attraction in Boston was the site of the Cheers entrance. All of the stereotypes that you've heard of Bostonians are all true.

Fenway

We took Clark to his first baseball game at the best baseball stadium in the world, Fenway Park. I think Clark is going to be a Red Sox fan as he smiled pretty large whenever the Sox scored and we saw Manny Ramirez outside of our hotel. So I think it's destiny. For some unknown reason, Pop and Pat are Yankee fans so they are now Clark's rivals. We also took the tour which was pretty awesome as we got to go on the field and sit atop the Green Monstah.
Say what you want but Boston isn't stroller friendly and I did Baby Bjorn it.

Smothering, I mean mothering

Lots of you have asked how Audrey is doing with Clark. I've uploaded some video to show you what happens at our house about 10-15 times per day. Poor Clark.

Old Friends

We took a whirlwind trip to Houston to go see some old friends. We are so happy Chris, Abbey and Ellie are back home for the summer and are actually subletting our old house in Houston! We got together last night with the email group for some fun--how our girls' nights have changed. What used to be late nights at Collina's or Barnaby's are now all out playgroups with a ton of kids. Here's a cute pic of Sara and Julie meeting Clark for the first time and Ellie, Audrey and Isabella on our old front steps. (Macy missed out--she was home with her grandmom.) I thought Audrey might remember our old digs but I don't think she did at all. A lot has changed in our re-gentrifying neighborhood in the last ten months.

Just like Mom

Audrey learned how to play Guitar Hero from her Mom's countless hours playing. She's even so advanced that she now can play with her teeth. I bet Jimi Hendrix wasn't doing that at her age. Also to dispute claims that Clark lives in the bouncer, here is a pic of him on his floor gym. (Every now and then the batteries have to be changed out of the bouncer). Sorry Pat, but Audrey slobbered on your guitar.

I won't be ignored!

Quick cute story: Yesterday Audrey wanted some milk while I was nursing Clark. So in typical toddler fashion, she started chanting, "I want milk, I want milk." Five times in a row I told her, "Sure, Audrey, I'll fix it in five minutes." She still kept repeating herself, whining, "I want milk" over and over again, so I just ignored her. She climbed up in the recliner still saying it and then pushed down on my chin so my mouth would open and said, "Talk, mommy. I want milk! Talking! Talking! I want milk! Talking!"

Poor Clark

As Clark cried this afternoon, Audrey grabbed him and said that he was hungry. She lifted up her shirt and put him up to her chest. After a couple of seconds, she pulled him away and said "good burt," meaning good burp. Kind of disturbing but I couldn't stop laughing.

Birthday visit

What better birthday present for Gigi today then to spend it with her grandkids. Grandma Audrey and Grandpa got to see Clark for the first time. We also found out today that he weighs 12 lb 2 oz, so he's packing on the pounds. Audrey loved swimming in the pool that Granddad and Gigi brought her. She played in it for about an hour and a half.

Extra helper

One of the main reasons we had children was so they could start cleaning the house up after us. We've already got Audrey on floor duty. As you can see, she's really excited about it.


I hope everyone knows that we are kidding.

Softball Tourney

Audrey likes to go watch baseball and came to support her dad in his work tournament. They even had a moonwalk set up and Audrey loves "jumping, jumping" especially with Gigi.

Parenting 101

Shannon demonstrates her new parenting skills. "Clark, you sit here and be quiet while I rock out."

First Haircut and other various events

Audrey had her first haircut last week. Nothing drastic but just a little trim and she did very well. Here's some other pictures of our boy since he hasn't been getting much face time lately on the blog. I would like to thank Talladega Nights (I think I watched it like 3 times on our cruise) because now when I think of how handsome my boy is becoming, I immediately think of this exchange from the movie.

Ricky Bobby: I hope you have sons. Beautiful, handsome boys. Articulate, educated, and athletic. And I hope they have their legs taken from them, so you can know what this pain is like.
Lucius Washington: [enraged] Don't you put that evil on me, Ricky Bobby! You are NOT paralyzed!

Audrey learns to share

I found this mess a couple weeks ago after lunch. Audrey said proudly, "Look, mommy, I share my pisketti with Ming-Ming!" (Thanks to the WonderPets, Audrey thinks every duck is named Ming-Ming.)

Weekend in San Antonio

This weekend Josh took Friday off and we went to San Antonio for Andy and L'erin's wedding. What a blast (though we were sad to miss Daniel and Keshia's wedding)! While we were there we got to see Ma-Ma and Da-da, Uncle Pat, and Danny. Here's a cute pic from Saturday brunch with Ma-Ma and Da-da.