Sloan

Just finished proofing Sloan's 2 yr. pics and thought I'd post a couple. She sure is a doll and *very* photogenic. We had a lot of fun at a neighbor's house playing in their Bee-oo-tiful backyard. Sloan was quite enamored with the fish in their man-made pond, especially the yellow one. :) We had to keep coming back to check on him.

She was very busy and definitely kept me on my toes! I basically just followed her everywhere and tried to get her to look at me occassionally. I think I got a few that Sean and Jen will be pleased with, but we'll see. I'm excited to convert to B/W too, didn't get to that tonight -- but it's almost 1 AM and I'm tired so I'm going to bed!

I don't want to spoil the surprise of seeing all of them, so I'll stop at these two and hit the hay!

The Results of Owen's Testing....

Well, this morning Owen had an occupational testing to determine if there was a possibility of some sort of sensory disorder, in particular, Autism. Other tests have led up to this point...hearing, speech and developmental evaluations, etc. and this was kindof the final hurrah after other tests. Thankfully, the therapists believe that Owen does NOT have any sort of sensory impairment or autism. *hear gigantic sigh of relief*
We've suspected that something with Owen was "off" for quite awhile...his speech is delayed and he has some strange behaviors that we weren't quite sure about (clenching his hands under his chin, obsessions with certain objects - i.e. doors) but the therapists observed and played with him, interacted with and tested him with tasks for over an hour this morning and determined that his quirks are nothing more than that...quirks.
She also said that he is very above-average on a lot of his developmental and intelligence tests that she administered, so not only is Owen "normal" (whatever that means) but he's also pretty stink'n smart too. :) But of course we already knew that. And she also commented several times on how adorable he was (but I knew that too).
Anyway, just thought I'd share. I was so relieved and excited that he's ok...just quirky and funny and just...Owen. I got in the car after the assessment and just cried. *sigh* so I'm on cloud nine now.
Have a wonderful day, everyone! I know I will! :) lol

Happy 4th of July! (a day late)

So I suppose I should say Happy 5th of July.

Hopefully everyone had a fun and safe holiday full of friends, family, BBQ, fireworks, and if you live down in the south with us - boiled peanuts and corn on the cob. (I usually pass on the boiled peanuts-gross).

We celebrated the holiday twice this week. Once on Sunday night at the Freedom Festival, sponsored by our very own Sherwood Baptist Church. Over 7,000 people in the community come through this big event hosted by the church and other businesses in the community at the high school campus where Steve works. A live band, inflatables, cotton candy, dipp'n dots, balloons, watermelon - you name it, it was there. The boys were particularly impressed (especially AJ) when the local military base brought down a Black Hawk helicopter. They did a low-altitude pass over the football field (note A.J.'s jaw drop to the ground) and then they went up and dropped 6 parachuters (is that a word?) that landed in the soccer field right next to us. AJ was thrilled and he literally grabbed my hand and dragged me across the field to the where the jumpers had landed, his little feet pounding as fast as they could across the lawn. He was even MORE excited when the helicopter came and landed right there on the soccer field as well. *GASP* "Oh WOW!! LOOK AT DA BIG HEWICOPTA!". He was a little geeked, if you can't tell.

Cue the fireworks, sponsored by Chick-Fil-A, which AJ was soundly entertained by and Owen lay face-down on the blanket with his hands over his eyes. Obviously not a big fan.

Yesterday we were invited to hang out with the incredibly large Perkins family and were invited out to one of many aunts' house for BBQ, swimming & boating in the Flint River. It was relaxing to hang out and meet new people and eat good food on a holiday. The boys had a grand time swimming in the river - AJ literally swam for a couple of hours and cried when it was time to leave. Here's Owen getting his feet wet when we first arrived. For awhile, he stuck to the pool, but when he saw how much fun AJ was having in the river, he came over to join him.

And of course, what's Fourth of July swimming without a little skinny dipping?? Of course, our nudist children only remained clothed for about an hour until they stripped it all off and were having a good 'ole time swimm'n in they birthday suits.

As you can see, Ayden was quite comfortable in jumping off the dock, which he did multiple times throughout the day. I gave him an extra vitamin at breakfast this morning though, because he actually DRANK quite a great deal of river water yesterday, much as I tried to stop him. *sigh* This color one is my favorite of AJ from yesterday though....it reminds me of him...full of life and color, very vivid, and with a great deal of motion blur. I think I might frame it and hang it in the house somewhere - I think it looks like a painting, what do you all think? :)

We also went on boat rides on the river, so I took my camera and took a few shots of various scenery. Scenic is not my thing, but I came up with a couple that I didn't think were half bad. Here's someone's dock that was starting to collapse. Casey told me that once a summer they lower the water in the river so that people can work on their docks. Hopefully they do it soon or these people may not have a dock left to work on!

At the picnic, there were SO many people there (makes me want to have a large family!) There was probably 60-70 Perkins family members and their various offspring coming and going throughout the day, children of all ages, toys, water toys, tubing, swimming...there was a lot going on. Of course there was seating for all these people scattered throughout the yard as well. I liked this stone bench. :)

And then I saw this old rusty car tucked away in the corner of the yard. Casey kept asking me why I was taking so many pictures of junk and I should get my butt over to the water and "take more pictures of pretty things". Junk has so much more character, doncha think? :)

Anyway, hope everyone had a great holiday! Happy 5th of July!

Ode to Casey

Meet Casey Perkins. He is our: new best friend/children's favorite person/cat sitter/ house sitter/ ex-student/ fashion faux-pas police/ movie buddy/ coffee mate/ surrogate child-brother.

After graduation, with the lines between teacher and student eliminated, Steve started hanging out endlessly with Casey Perkins. I was in Michigan with the boys when I began hearing (every night), "Casey and I went out for coffee" "I had dinner with Casey" "The Perkins invited me over for dinner". Good thing I knew Casey was male, or I might have been a little worried. :)
While on vacation, the boys most commonly requested (after grandma and grandpa) that we "go see Casey" or "go to Casey's howse". Just today, when Steve came home from the school, Owen and I were in the other room playing when the front door creaked open. Owen popped his head up from his blocks and with a gasp said, "it's Casey!". Obviously, the boys are enthralled.
Casey is funny, thoughtful, eccentric, unassuming, out-of-the-box. We originally called him our surrogate child, due to the fact that he is at our house at least once a day and we talk on the phone with him at least twice, but upon further consideration, he is way too old to be any child of ours. Steve counts him as a friend....I think of him as a little brother. Always there, fun to be with, occassionally annoying, but overall lovable.
A welcome addition to our "family". :)

Home Again, Home Again

Ahhh....it's good to be home. :) Our vacation was fun...long....enjoyable...but I'm glad to be back in our house, in our bed, in our own town. The boys have had a great time getting re-acquainted with their toys and I'm enjoying sleeping in my own bed again. Steve is off to the school today to catch up on some pre-planning and put into execution some inspiration he gained from his conference in Nashville.
I thought I'd post some more pictures from the rest of our vacation since I left off in Grand Rapids, and we still traveled for another week and a half after leaving Michigan. We had so much fun in GR, and it was so good to see family that I'm seriously jones'n to move back to Michigan. And then I remember that it snows there. A Lot. And I have second thoughts. :)
Robby lost his first tooth at breakfast one morning while we there, so that was fun to see. That little tooth had been hangin' by a little stringer for about a week, so I don't think any of us were surprised when it popped out in his cheerios. At least he didn't eat it! :) You can't see it in this picture though - it was a bottom tooth. Even toothless he's a good look'n kid, though, wouldn't you agree?? :)
I think he cashed it in to the tooth fairy for $2 that night - is that the going rate these days?? I think he should've bargained for more - pure ivory has got to be worth more than $2 an ounce, doncha think??

Here's some pictures of the crew jumping on the bed. I think Owen was off reading a book or playing quietly by himself (typical).

:) AJ jumped right in with the rowdy Teis boys though, and they had a grand time jumping on the bed....thankfully, no one acquired a broken limb or flesh wound.

Of course I can't forget Abby ( I may face the wrath of her temper if I do), so here she is in all her audacious glory. Don't let her sweet smile deceive you, though, her red hair suits her mood and temperment perfectly. I think she would get along fabulously with her great Aunt Dee - they are truly of the same gene pool, although I'm not sure I'd want to be in the same room with both of them at the same time. :) Watch out! lol

Next point of interest: a pit stop in Indiana. Indianapolis is the halfway point between Grand Rapids and Nashville and also conveniently, where my birth parents live. So we stopped over there for the night. The boys (and Steve too!) took full advantage of the Minkners pool so it was truly a pit stop. We relaxed and grilled out and talked and recharged for the next portion of the trip. Steve took this picture up above (notice his toes in the bottom of the picture). And no, I don't know what I was thinking when I bought that hideously ugly swim suit.
We haven't seen the Minkners in over 2 years so it was good to catch up with them and I'm sure they enjoyed seeing how much the boys have grown. The last time we were there was when AJ was about a month or 2 old, and I vividly remember him crying on the entire 5 hour ride car trip there and back. Not fun. Thankfully, he seems to have overcome his vehicular anxiety and doesn't cry endlessly in his seat.

Next up: Nashville, TN where Steve had his conference. I thought I'd be bored all day with the kids but we had a fun time exploring Nashville, swimming in the pool, and lounging in the room. Nashville is pretty, although you DO have to overcome the incessant sounds of country music wafting through the streets of downtown. But it seems to be a clean city and they've built the downtown around old churches and cathedrals (""oooh! look at the castles!!" AJ would squeal whenever we walked outside). Owen loved all the belltowers with clocks in the top of them. When I asked the boys what they wanted to do each day we were there (assuming they would want to swim), they would say without fail: "go look at da city!" Makes me glad that despite our current geographical location, they have city-genes within them somewhere! Steve had a good time at the conference and said that unlike past conferences he's attended in which he was bored silly, that this one was good and gave him lots of good ideas.

Last leg was back to Atlanta to pick up our van and head home. We stayed there until Tuesday morning (Steve wanted to get in one last round of golf with Sean). It was raining a lot that weekend, but I did manage to get in a mini-shoot of our niece Sloan, who just turned 2. I haven't proofed her session yet, but I couldn't resist opening a couple and playing around a little bit, so here's a couple of her. She's a cuti-patootie, so she was fun to take pictures of and fairly easy too (she didn't run away when I brought out my camera -such as my children do).

And of course, I can't leave out her little sister Sammi, who I snapped just a few of right before her naptime. I think she spent most of that 10 minutes or so wondering why the heck I had stuck her in a basket. Look at that face!! You can almost hear her saying, "you've GOT to be kidding me." She's normally pretty smiley (unless her uncle Steve is around, who petrifies her for some reason) but like I said, it was nap time, so she was less than amused.

Whew! Thus concludes our eastern United States tour.....hope you enjoyed the trip along with us via the blog.

On the Road Again.....

Sadly, our time in Grand Rapids has come to an end and we're heading out today. The past week has flown by and we didn't get to spend nearly enough time with friends and family as we would have liked, but, such is life, and so we're heading out. To any friends that we missed this time around, we promise to see you next time!
The kids have had a TON of fun with their cousins and I'm sure we'll hear a lot of request for robby?johnny? on our trip to Indi today, but they'll get over it. I think the kids might be getting tired of traveling....yesterday and today Owen has asked me, "time to go home yet mama?" He's so cute. :)
Anyway, Indiana is next on our list, where we'll stay the night and then head to Tennessee for Steve's conference. I'll try to blog again once we get to Nashville, but I'm not sure if I'll have a lot of time for internet access between chasing kids around the hotel and trying to keep them from drowning themselves in the pool! :)
Hope everyone is having a great summer so far....
Until next time!!

Ahhh....vacation

I haven't had much time to post the past week or so because, blissfully, we've been on a sort of summer vacation. Our trip began in Atlanta, from which we flew to Ohio, then drove to Michigan. That's where we are now, and we'll be heading out from here on Monday for a pitstop in Indiana, then on to Nashville for a conference that Steve has. Then back to Atlanta to pick up our car, then finally home to Albany towards the end of the month. We decided we wanted to get all our summer traveling done in June so that we can relax the rest of the summer, so we've been on the road for almost 2 weeks now, and it's been fun.
Last week in Ohio, the boys had a great time with grandpa and we all went to an Indians game one sunny afternoon. Here's a few snaps of the guys at the game. A.J. loved it and was very excited to be at the game - he kept saying, "c-mon! c-mon! we go to baseball game!" We were also subjected to multiple renditions of "take me out to the ballgame" on the car ride there - Owen would start it up, and AJ would tweak the ending slightly: "....cuz it's one...two...three....four....five.....six....seben...eight trikes you're out! at the 'ole game game" to which Owen would loudly shout, "NO A.J!". Oy vey.

So, the boys were sad to leave "granpa's howse" and asked about him several times on the car ride to michigan, but were quickly appeased upon the arrival to their cousins house. That usually is said in all one word: *gasp* robbyjohnny house! yay!

Anyway, more to come as we go along....I'm keeping busy with some photo shoots while here and we're trying to jam in visits will all our friends while spending quality time with family as well...a difficult task when we only have 5 days here, but we're doing our best.

See....I'm not doing so bad keeping up with this thing - maybe I DO finish some things that I start! :)