Ford Family Outing...Guess what we did... :)

Can you tell yet?

We went shooting!! J.J. shot the gun for the first time. He'd been asking for a while to go, but it just never worked out. So this time, we ALL went. I could tell J.J. was scared when he shot it. I don't think he knew that it would be so loud or hard. When I tried to talk about it with him later, he got a little anxious until I asked him if he was a little scared. He didn't really want to say he was, but after I admitted that I got scared too, he willingly said he was a LITTLE scared.

Jaren has been wanting to show me how to use the gun in case I ever needed to use it (crossing my fingers here that it'll never happen!). I thought it was horrible and scary. I think I need a smaller gun without so much bang. The first time I shot the gun, I had my hand in a different spot and when the gun recoiled, it got my thumb. Ouch. I am glad to know how though.

Here's the master. (Jaren asked me not to write this...but since this is my blog, I can do what I want) J.J. and I watched him from the car and he nailed some pretty good shots. I kept thinking, maybe I'll be better next time. And then I'd remember that I didn't really want a next time. :)

Here are the boys...watching The Incredibles. Chase just woke up; therefore, he's not happy.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day.

A very blessed day...

Yup, we blessed our sweet baby today. We had LOTS of family come and we were so grateful they could make it. The last two baby blessings we had I think one family member came to one of them (thanks Mindy!) We've finally got more family around and are LOVING it.

Sweet daddy gave sweet baby a great blessing. I'm so grateful for him!

Ryan loves his little brother. They all do. If Chase sees someone give Clawson a kiss, he has to too! J.J. is great at holding and feeding his little baby brother and they're all so good to him. He's one lucky baby.

We also celebrated Chase's birthday. He's recently loving Elmo and when he saw his cake pops (that kept me awake until 1:30 the night before), he gasped and cried "Meh-mo!" Yup, it was worth it!

J.J. wasn't feeling so good. He had a little fever and it kept him on the couch and not eating much that night. :(

Ryan liked eating the candy off the pops. I've never seen him open his mouth that wide!

Chase got some cute little toys that he really enjoyed. Thanks to his grandparents (Ford and Armstrong!) for the fun play things!

We got him a lot of batteries for his birthday so he could actually start playing again with the toys he's loved. This mischeivous look on his face is a very common one! Happy Birthday, buddy!!

He's Here!!! Welcome little Clawson!

Clawson Noble Ford was born at 10:38 am on Tuesday, January 5. He was 7 lbs 8 oz (my biggest!!) and 19" long. It took pretty much exactly three hours from the time they started the Pitocin until he was delivered. So much faster than before!

This little guy is such a sweetheart. He hardly ever cries. And don't you think he looks tons like J.J. when he was born? Whenever he puckers his lips I can't help but remember when J.J. used to do it and how much alike they look.

Daddy has already been a super sweet daddy to little Clawson. He's also been a super sweet husband. I came home to two different bouquets of flowers, a totally clean bedroom that had been moved around to better accommodate a portacrib, and help whenever I needed it! What a great man (and a total hunk, dont you think?). :)

The boys were really excited to meet their little brother! This is exactly what they do whenever he's awake and around. They all crowd him and try to touch him as much as possible! Chase likes to kiss his head and J.J. likes to put his hands all over his face and lean down and put his face next to Clawson's. Ryan still has a few issues, but he has kissed his own hand and placed it on Clawson's head to show his love for him!

J.J. is such a good big brother. He's ALWAYS asking to hold him and gets upset when mommy and daddy want a turn!

Ryan is a little more shy with him. He likes to hold him for a few seconds and then, he's done!

Chase is really good at crowding Clawson...as you can tell, he's already starting to get on his nerves! :) Not really though...I think...

Well, there he is! The happy little addition to our growing family! We love you little Clawson!

Just some cute pics!

The football season is basically over now. J.J. and his daddy sure had fun going to the games together.

And it's no wonder! Look at that stash...hot chocolate and hot tamales. Plus, they both got to go with friends.

Is it my turn to go do something fun yet?

Yep, this is Ryan. He's such a goober and we love him for it. Jar and I laughed pretty hard when Ryan said he wanted to be a ninja when we went to Wal-Mart. I grabbed the camera cuz I thought it would be pretty funny to see Ryan (and other people's faces too for that matter) in a big shopping center with a swim diaper over his head. He took it off when we got out of the car to go inside, but he wore it the entire ride over! He's so funny!

I thought I'd catch this moment on film too (or memory card). Chase is beginning to stop taking naps during the day. (Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!) He's taking after J.J. - not even two yet! Sigh. However, if the house is quiet and I put on Baby Einstein, he'll fall asleep with his blankie that Aunt Kristen made (THANK YOU!!!) and one of his bears (either the one pictured from gma and gpa Armstrong or the one that his daddy had when he was little - thanks again!). I could just watch him sleep all day long, he's too cute! But then I remember that this is the only time I have to get things done, so I don't.

Don't you just love these little rugrats?! I sure do! Life is fun with them around.

J.J.'s 6th Birthday

J.J. had a Power Ranger Birthday party and had a really good time with his friends. When the boys first got to our house, we had their own power ranger pizzas for them to decorate. I can't believe how excited some of them were to put on their own toppings! They also chose their power ranger color of drink (just put food coloring of their choice in with their 7-up!). Kids are so easy to please! They had fun with that too.

Here are some of J.J.'s friends from school and his old pal Jonathon. They're sitting on part of the training course to become a real Power Ranger.

More friends from church. This was a fun ramp Jar put together as part of the training course too.

After they did a power stone hunt (easter eggs with candy in them), we had cupcakes. I wasn't up to decorating them, so I bought the frosting from the store that comes with a star tip spray. Didn't work that well, but they tasted good!

I decorated a cake for Sunday's family dinner and party. J.J. only really cared about the Power Ranger's on it, but I like to at least do a little decorating anyway! And Jaren has fun putting them on. :)

We were lucky enough to have lots of family here! We had Jordan and Kelly, Grandpa Clark, and Julie, and Jenny and her kiddos came and gave J.J. his own BIG bucket of licorice. Life doesn't get better than that!

Once again, J.J. got spoiled by his Grandma and Grandpa Ford. :) We've had lots of fun with the magnets, and the boys watched Jimmy Neutron three days in a row.

Can someone please tell me how to get your child to smile when he's the center of attention?

We had so much fun with J.J. He really is a sweetheart. He makes me so happy. I'm proud of the little guy he's becoming...kind and thoughtful. He really looks out for the people he loves.

P.S. Julie babysat for us last Saturday night so we could go Christmas shopping. When we told J.J. we were going to go get toys for him for Christmas, he told us that we shouldn't get him anything cuz he didn't want us to spend too much money on him. Besides, Santa would get him LOTS of presents! :) Just another way he shows his sweetness to us!

Two Weeks Later...

Happy Halloween! So, yes, it takes me a while to get to things done these days. But the wait is over! I know you've all been dying to see how we dressed up, but I'm sure (somehow) you made it through these last two weeks. :) We kept trying to get get J.J. to dress up as Dracula cuz you know he's got that great dark widows peak. Eventually he said he wanted to be him, so we shouted for joy and got some face paint.

Ryan has said for weeks that he wanted to be a tarantula, no a spitting spider, no a tarantula, spitting spider, etc........and on and on. We went with tarantula b/c who wants to figure out yellow spots?

Chase didn't have a choice in the matter. Although I think it's a bit obvious that he had some say in how much face paint we put on him. He got really good at wiping it the second I tried to put some on. He's such a cute little guy! He really got into it this year. At first he ran down the sidewalk in the other direction. Then he realized that he got candy at the houses and came faithfully. He even started saying tikoteet (trick or treat for those not affluent in toddler talk) and tantu (thank you).

This is J.J. in all his glory. He really started getting into the act!

Can anyone tell what I dressed up as? I'll give you a hint: that's a patch on my head. Pumpkin + patch = ? Not that I really expect anyone to get it. Jaren came up with it and I loved it. Nobody else seemed to get it. So, I'll tell you. A pumpkin patch! And believe me, I feel like one. It seems like it's one pumpkin after another these days.

Running Blacked Eyed Pumpkins

I'm smushing together three different posts. The first is of J.J.'s fun run at his school. They had a 5k as a fundraiser. He was so excited! For the last three years, Jar and I have run a 10k on the 4th of July and this last year he really wanted to run the mile race. We told him that he might be able to do it next year and that we'd have to see if he could really run that far. This was his chance to prove himself!

He didn't want to smile for this picture, but he did...probably because he was so excited!

When J.J. saw me, he started to run faster. I was able to snap a pic before he took off out of sight!

Here he is finishing up with Dad. I was so proud of him!!! Most kindergartners stopped running the race after the first lap and got their ice cream. Not J.J.!! He wanted to do the whole thing...and he did! He ran almost three miles! Jar said he walked some of the way too, but WOW, I was so impressed! He's got a real competitive side to him and didn't want his Dad to beat him. I think he won! He didn't even want to stop to get water at the tables...he had to keep going.

J.J. having his well deserved treat at the end.

Well, I don't know if you can see it very well, but this is the second post. Look at Chase's left eye. How many colors can you see? The other day I was doing dishes (yes, it's a miracle), and Chase was in the front room with J.J. I heard a thunk and then crying. When I got in there, I could see some color and swelling already starting to form by his eye. He was not a happy camper. Chase wouldn't let me put ice on it, so I just held him for a while. It was so sad...but at least he still has his eye! I was a little worried when I saw how close it came. Apparently, he got onto the couch and fell off right onto the coffee table. OUCH! Sorry, buddy. That'll teach me to clean house!

Post #3. Carving pumpkins for FHE was a lot of fun. J.J. couldn't wait to actually do some of the cutting. Ryan just wanted to eat the Sweettarts he had picked out at the store for the treat (well actually, he opened it at the store; therefore I HAD to buy it for our treat). J.J. pretty much designed the smaller pumpkin. Ryan was supposed to help daddy with the big one, and I think he did get out some of the "guts".

As always, Chase had to be right in the middle of things. I gave him one of the Sweettarts, thinking he'd chew it up, but he swallowed it instead. He had a hard time breathing for a while, but eventually he puked it up. Poor, poor Chase. What's it gonna take for Mommy to learn her lessons? Maybe some carpet cleaning (yes, that was my job for FHE).

What a cute bunch of guys! As you can tell, this is Chase's first experience with pumpkins and he was totally enthralled with the candle inside. We had a lot of fun!!!