last one (for today) I promise

Videos that only Grandparents could love, so everyone else, feel free to look away.

what's the use of a cell phone if you can't shoot video with it

you knew it was coming after all the cell phone picture posts. Video.

Gus is signed up for a class called Sing Dance Act (creative name). I had a blast watching the class. The video quality is horrendous but you get the idea. I realized after I recorded for awhile that I could zoom in and out. I'm a technological whiz kid! In this video they're making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches after having made pizza and put it in the oven.

more camera phone

First soccer practice

Standing with his foot on the ball because that's what his coach said you're to do. He was very precise about it.

A healthy, post-soccer practice snack: chocolate chip waffles with whipped cream on top

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This is how Gus prefers to have his picture taken. He makes me take them ad infinitim and then "lemme see, lemme see".

so now I'm really cool

*not*

I finally got around to getting pics off my cell phone. Here's a sampling:

This is the hat Gussie picked out for winter. I'm glad he agreed to wear one this winter- because last winter it just wasn't happening.

We took this picture to send to Kailey. This is the necklace she made him in WDW.

This is my camera wallpaper.

My friend Ilka just told me today that the only pics she has of her daughter Morgan as a newborn are on her cell phone (her DH John was in the hospital when Morgan was born... long tragic story etc etc), so will one of our Panama City friends (Deb, Linda, Georgia etc) please go over there and make her buy a micro SD card to get those off her phone? TIA.

Gus's 4th birthday

We had Gus's birthday last weekend and it went well. It was a very chilled affair and we just had a few friends over. It was extremely last minute and I debated having anything at all since he had a party at school, but Gus wanted to do something so we did. I took pics of the school party but my memory card went kaput and the pics are lost. Bummer.

I made this cake. Now I know what people mean when they say "The piping is what takes so long". That stuff takes for forever to do (piping = outlines, which I was previously unaware of). And apparently, it is possible to make black icing. I didn't really finish the cake, but it was finished enough. Gus looooooves some Wall E. Cara introduced him to the movie when we first moved here- which totally traumatized her- because he got so upset when he watched it the first time that he yelled "THAT MAKES ME SAD" and ran around the island then threw his spoon at the tv (or maybe he threw his spoon first, then ran around, I don't remember). Anywho, he still said he loved it and wanted to watch it again right away and now it's probably his favorite movie. Cara is still traumatized, however.

Tim got his promotion YAY! But that's not why I have a picture of this cake. I have it because this is a Cake Love cake. It's called My Downfall. What is a Cake Love cake you might ask? Only one of the reasons that God has so kindly given us for living. Could be the best food ever- we also got one of the strawberries and cream, a teeny one. I don't even really dig cake but OMG this cake is awesome. In all honesty, I think half the reason we had a birthday for Gus was so we could get a cake made with love. Not that Duncan Hines isn't great, but from here on out, any person that comes to visit us will probably serve as a reason to buy a Cake Love cake- there's a Cake Love store right down from Tim's work. May God bless Warren Brown.

Gus told me to take a picture "right when I twap (clap...still no C's or L')".

After the party was over, Gus's friend Liam and his mom and dad stayed the rest of the day with us. It was a great day.

*ok, the pictures didn't resize and I have no idea why, but next time I promise they'll be easily clickable. Sorry!

first day of school

Official school, not camp school. It went well and now we're fully in the swing of things. He started on August 31, but I'm behind (you think I'd be all caught up with things because Gus is in school, but noooooooo).

museum

When Nana was visiting, we went to the National Museum of Natural history to see an Ant Exhibit. I happened upon this kickbootay leafcutter ant shirt for $4.99 the week before, and I bought it specifically to wear to the museum (goober!). Gus went bonkers as soon as he saw it and wanted to wear it right away- which meant changing his clothes in the mall...like in the mall, on the bottom floor, outside of some closed store (WTG economy!). Modest, Gus is not. So you can also see the shirt in the earlier juicer post. He's worn it as often as possible since then. So glad the shirt is mainly white because it's so easy to keep clean (not).

On the train.

Gussie with Nana in front of the Washington Monument (aka the All Youse Guys Schlongs Don't Amount to a Hill O' Beans, Take a Look at Ours! Monument).

Gus was ready to go into the museum, but Nana and I were hungry, so we had a mini picnic outside the museum and some Gussie funk ensued. Lucky for us, the funk didn't last long as some 110 and 130 lb Great Danes and their owner approached us and entertained Gus. Those were some HUGE dogs. O man, the poop (take it from one that knows dog poop, I shudder to think of the poop those dogs produced...the food bill....ooooooooooo).

The Dung Beetles are still Gus's favorite.

juicer

Gus has been going coocoo to make juice for ages- lemonade and orange juice specifically. I told him that was a Nana Project (because it was, trust me). So when she came for a visit, she got him a juicer.

Crawford Trait.

That machine gets every teeny bit of potential juice out of an orange.

This is about 4,000 oranges worth of juice (j/k).

That's some good OJ, no joke.

butterfly

We found a butterfly with a broken wing in the backyard. I think the dogs might have contributed to its brokenness....not sure, just saying.... they had a guilty look about them when I went outside.

So Gus made it his pet and placed it in a plant we keep on the back deck to see if it would get better.

Gus was obsessed with it- as he is with all things insect- and wanted to name him George, and hug him and pet him and squeeze him and rub him and stroke his antenna and rub his pretty wings...

It's hard to believe, but the butterfly didn't make it. So it goes.

Gus, what does your garden grow?

It grows a tomato or two! He's been eating a yellow cherry tomato here and there- and he always pronounces them delicious- but a few got by him and actually made it to red, along with one big tomato. I'm just shocked any of the plants lived long enough to produce edible fruit, as I'm not long on green thumb (I'm short on cultivating plants and fish).

We'll see how the cucumbers and green peppers fare. The bees like the flowers and Gus likes the bees almost as much than he likes the growing the garden and eating the homegrown food.

What G learned at school

Apparantly, he learned to spear fruit, then make homemade whipped cream and dip it. Such food is called fruit kabobs, and he made it on Wednesday at school then we had to make it Friday at home.

Camp park day

G's camp went to Cabin John Park for a picnic last week, and if the 3 yos wanted to go then a parent had to attend, so I went. It was fun but Gus mainly wanted to play with a wooly bear caterpillar rather than on the playground. They had a train there and he dug riding on that.

Wearing his school's fabulous maroon scarf (that drove him bonkers until I took it off).

Curled up wooly bear caterpillar.

Ticket for the train.

First day of camp (at school)

Gus started camp today at the school he'll be attending in the fall. He's been incredibly excited about it all week, but staying there without me was hard for him (and for me, too, boo hoo), at least at first, but he adjusted quickly. He got a worm to bring home from the Mad Science Lady that came to his class, he painted, and played outside and then I picked him up. Tomorrow we both go with the school on a field trip to a park around here- and we ride on a bus to get there so I feel a thousand verses of 'wheels on the bus' coming on....

Before camp

That was then....

Sept 1998... after our wedding reception


This is now- July 2009, after Lucky's wedding reception


Who knows, maybe Cade will be next.

A few more pics

After the reception we stuck around for a little while to hang out. Gus and Janie chilled in a bedroom at the lodge and watched movies while Tim and I hung out. That was so much better than having to go back to the hotel before the reception was over because Gus wouldn't go to sleep and was driving Janie nuts. We paid for it the next day though, oy, our aching heads!

Me and Lucky

Tim caught this huge Silence of the Lambs moth for Gus. The thing was mammoth and Tim smacked it down a number of times before he was able to capture it.

I have another picture I'll post as soon as Tim gets back from LA and can access a scanner.

The wedding

Lucky was nice enough to invite Gus and Janie along to the wedding events- which Gus got totally excited about, he was thrilled that Lucky was getting married even though I don't think he knows what that is (clearly, he does not, heh)- so that we could hang out and visit longer. Tim was in the wedding party and so was our friend Cade. The 3 of them were stationed together at Tim's first assignment in Washington state at Fairchild, AFB.

It was really great to see both Lucky and Cade, the last time we were all together was about 9 years ago when we went to Hawaii together- Cade lived there, that lucky dog! Lucky visited us a couple of times when we were in LA but we hadn't seen him in a couple of years.

Putting M & M's in his pocket. Apparantly, there are multiple places that they do not melt. I think Gus had 4 boxes of them.

Gus and Cade

Requisite family photograph.

Leaving on a jet plane

Last weekend we went to Jackson, Mississippi (actually it was Brandon) for our friend Lucky's wedding. Janie picked us up at the airport so she could help out with Gus so we could spend more time with our friends.

FYI, for anyone going to Brandon, we just wanted to inform you in advance that it's located in a dry county. Lucky should have given us a head's up, but we'll forgive that oversight seeing as how he was about to get hitched and all.

At Dulles airport. Janie hates it when Gus opens stuff with his teeth.

Gus took this picture. If only my boob was this huge in reality!

Picnic + Painting

Backyard picnic- Gus, Megan, and Ryan

Fingerpainting

Ryan's portrait of Gussie. It's the spitting image of him!