Look out for trees!

A dream of Colton's has always been to be able to fly. The other day I overheard Colton giving flying instructions to his action figures. Here are bits and pieces of what I could hear... "Do you know how difficult flying is?"... "Look out for trees!!!"... and this was the best one, "Put all distractions away and trust in God to give you the strength to fly." He amazes me every day! I just love him and his imagination!

*** Does anyone notice how double jointed he his? He can do the most unbelievable things with his body! We tell him that this is one of his many gifts from God. He doesn't exactly know how he's supposed to use this gift yet but we tell him, "You never know, maybe someday a job position will open up at the circus!" After all, he would love to fly! Maybe he can be a trapeze artist or even shoot out of a cannon! Wouldn't that be fun!

Our little Fletcher is growing up so fast. More and more each day we find him being able to keep up with the big kids. He follows them around and wants to do anything and everything that they are doing. He's such a busy body. He is not the toddler who will sit and play with toys or watch tv for any period of time. He wants to go, go, go! He certainly keeps us on our toes! Our dog Lucy is his absolute best friend. We got her when I was pregnant with Fletch and Lucy was just a tiny puppy so really, they've been growing up together. Lucy goes to work with Josh every day so when the two of them walk in the house after a day of work, Fletch screams with excitement to see her. He immediately goes up to her and hugs her like you see in the picture. She is so very tolerant of him. It amazes me! He's getting gentler with her as he gets older, but he used to stick his fingers in her eyes, pull on her big lips, her tail, her ears or really anything he could get a hold of. He still tries to ride her and rough houses with her but she usually doesn't mind. I think she truly loves him as much as he loves her especially since he'll stop whatever he's doing to give her love and attention.

Dump truck or Disney

Last Wednesday we decided if we're ever going to use up our last Disney tickets, today had to be the day since they expired that Friday and there was no way we could go on Thursday or Friday due to our schedule. So... we woke the kids up in the morning and Josh asked them if they'd like to come with him to go look at a dump truck (he's a diesel mechanic). Even though they were told it would be a 2 hour drive, an excuse to sneak away from school made them say SURE!!! Little did they know that we'd be doing a mini school lesson on the drive up to Orlando. I sneak in school any way I can : ) So as we drove into the Walt Disney World entrance the look on their faces was priceless! They were so very excited to be going to DISNEY WORLD they couldn't believe it!!! We were just there last August for Gracie's 4th birthday and then we went to MGM Studios in September for Fletch's 1st birthday (and mine too :) but regardless, they were so overjoyed to be going again. The day was perfect! The longest we waited for a ride was 5 maybe 10 minutes tops! It was great! The weather was perfectly beautiful and the best part... the kids behaved awesome! We never once had to get on them for anything and Fletch happily sat in the stroller taking it all in. Lately we can hardly get him to sit for 5 minutes so this was a big surprise that throughout the day he never even attempted to escape from the stroller. I was so proud and relieved since I truly was expecting it to be difficult with him. He's just in that stage where he doesn't want to be restrained for anything. He wants to be independent to explore as he pleases and if he's asked to sit still for any length of time, it's not a pretty situation. But he did perfect! I'm sure it made all the difference that we were in Disney World and come on, how can a child not be perfectly happy at Disney. It's the happiest place ever!!! On the ride home, Colton said "Dad, I was pretty excited to see a dump truck. That wasn't really nice of you to tease me like that." We then felt a little bad about our dishonestly but explained to him that it was our attempt at creating a fun surprise for them. We promised that we would soon take him to see a dump truck and that made him feel much better : )




Gracie and I on Tom Sawyer's Island


Gracie's $17 "Happy 4 1/2 birthday" gift


3 happy kids after a long day of fun

Cutest little baby ever

Fletcher thinks it's so much fun to curl up inside Gracie's new stroller and be the "baby" and go for walks around the house.

Afternoon at the sandbar

Fletch after his chip fell into the water