Mark's injuries and bumps

Here are a few pics of Mr. head bonk. As soon as one thing heals the next incident happens! He bonked his eye at the bookstore, fell into a tree and cut his lip, and then was bit by a mosquito on his ear...thankfully it didn't turn black!

I'm gonna get in trouble for this one!

But I just can't help it! I tried to tell John that it is healthy for little kids to play dress up, but he just won't listen! I will say that I did not encourage this activity, but Mark was putting on all the shoes in the closet that he could find and I just happened to get the camera out for this one pair. John threatened to delete every form of this picture that I have so my only hope of preserving it is putting it online!

Also, a funny story from yesterday. I was loading Mark into the car and he saw my stethoscope and said, "harpy". For the life of me I couldn't figure out what he was saying and then it dawned on me...."heartbeat!" A couple of months ago I got out my stethoscope and said, "Do you want to listen to my heartbeat?" And then put it in Mark's ears. So naturally, its now called a heartbeat!

Daddy Time

Since I am working in OKC this month, Mark and his daddy are hanging out a lot together. One of their new favorite activities is watching TV. At first I thought, "oh no! Not yet! I don't want to turn Mark into a little couch potato!" But other than in the picture above, they really just watch TV after bathtime and right before bed. And it really is cute to watch them snuggle on the couch watching football or tennis.

So I love reading my friend's blogs about the funny things their kids say. Well Mark doesn't really do that yet but he does say some stuff we think is cute. For example, he quotes the turtles in Finding Nemo and says, "Dude." He also is always saying, "I'll get it" or "I'll do it", or "I'll fix it." Mr. Independent I guess. But he does love to do things with his hands, like blocks or legos or stacking cups etc. He really is his dad's mini-me when it comes to working with your hands. John says its a German trait.

Cletis

In an attempt to make Mark a perfect clone of himself, John bought Mark his first bicycle this past week. It's actually pretty cool, it doesn't have any pedals so kids are supposed to learn how to balance on a bike at an earlier age. Supposedly they can then ride without training wheels sooner. We'll see. Anyway, Mark also got a new helmet and of course, it had to be a real cycling helmet...Giro. He actually likes to wear it because he always sees John wearing his. I burst out laughing every time I see this next picture...we really should have named him Cletis...



Does it look like Christmas morning or what? Mark saw me with the camera and said "Cheeeese!"

Oh my...as if they don't already look enough alike!!

We had some water fun this evening in the backyard. Mark climbed right up into his water table as John was filling it up. He's probably not allowed to do this at day care which is why its the first thing he did at home. Anyway I love this picture because it tells me that I have a great camera if I just knew how to use it.

Mobley and Rocky are so spoiled. Mobley specifically only drinks freshly poured water. They both had several drinks out of the water table while Mark was playing. Here's one of Rock...

Jackson Trip

John's grandfather, "Unc", passed away last year and his family had a large reunion last week to celebrate Unc. It was fun to get to meet some of John's family that I hadn't met before and catch up with some that we never see. It was even more fun that the event was in Jackson, Wyoming! BEAutiful. And to top it all off, my college roomate and her family live in Jackson so we got to hang out with them too!

By the way, I am intentionally saying "Jackson" and not "Jackson Hole" because apparently if you live there or are cool or something you know to call it Jackson. The town is offically Jackson and the surrounding area is referred to as Jackson Hole. Ya learn somethin' new everyday.

Well these pictures are all out of order now that I've downloaded them to the blog and I am too lazy to rearrange them...but here are a few from the trip.

John, Mark, Lindsay, and I took one last hike up SnowKing the morning before our flight left.


This is Mark's second cousin, Zoe. She turned two last week. Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of two toddlers while they are playing? I mean with both of them looking at or in the general direction of the camera. I figure you have all seen Mark's face so I would post this one of beautiful Zoe. We were actually at a cocktail party but as you can tell the little ones couldn't sit still for very long so we went out back to play with some sticks and rocks and stuff in our dress clothes.

This is Miss Hayden. My roomie from college's gorgeous daughter! We got to spend a few hours with them eating breakfast and they took us on a cool little hike to Sky Lake. We really want to go back and spend some more time with them!

We had a great little lunch out on a patio at the Teton Village ski resort. (Linds- what does Teton stand for again?) =) Here are Rick and Debi enjoying the great weather.


And here are Josh (Uncle CaCa) and Lindsay (Aunt Ninny) also enjoy the scenery. (They came up with their own names!)

We saw a buffalo!!! He was just walking down the downtown streets of Jackson!

We for real saw a moose! Mark learned the word moose this trip. So we bought him a stuffed moose who sleeps in bed with him at night. Mark has really started talking more and more and it seems to have cut down on the whiny-ness because I think he can communicate better. He has even said 3-5 word sentences!!! Seriously..and I'm not the only one who has heard it. So of course, we think he is a genious! =) But anyway, here's the moose.

One night John's family had a picnic/bar-b-que out at String Lake. The three of us took a little hike around it. It is beautiful and so peaceful out there. I didn't want to leave.

And last but not least my roomie and her family on our little hike. The pictures never do justice to the beautiful scenery but take my word for it, it was breath-taking! Speaking of breath-taking John has decided that Mark needs to go on a diet. After carrying the 30-some lb kid up a mountain we realized that Mark is definitly built "solid" there is nothing light about him. I kinda felt bad because as you can see I was the only one not carrying a kid! My roomie is 28 weeks pregnant! So I wasn't allowed to complain or ask to take a break...but I did. I just disguised them as photo opportunities!! =)

Family

We had some pictures taken of Lexi and Mark before Lexi left town. Well most of you know our photographer Kelly, but man is she like the kid-whisperer or what? I mean....Lexi and Mark don't hold still or pose for anyone! They are typical toddlers but she worked some sort of magic with them...we can't wait to see her proofs!



This is Mark flirting. See his little head tilt? I think he's saying, "Hi Ms. Kelly."

She even taught them how to play ring around the rosie!!!

Have you ever seen two happier grandparents?

More pics from the 4th...Britton, Leyton, and Mark.

Mark and Lexi

So after all the toy stealing, hair-pulling, screaming, etc...they really do love each other! This is Mark attempting to kiss Lexi

Like I said earlier we had a family reunion a couple weeks ago at MarVal campgrounds in Gore, Ok. Here is an attempt at a group photo of what was left of my most immediate family. There were sooooo many people there I didn't know. I think there were about 200 people there.

Our new lawn man

Aunt Brenda bought Mark a bubble lwan mower and guess who loves mowing the lawn now? We thought these pics were just too cute. And Mark insists on parking his mower right next to daddys. Oh and he prefers not to mow the lawn alone, so sometimes John has to go prance around the front yard with his lawn mower too. Its pretty funny.

So have you ever forgotten about some potatos you bought? I bet you haven't forgotten about them for as long as I did. That, or I just have the perfect climate in my pantry for a potato.