While all of you technically are winners, Tracy has to take top prize for guessing that it’s the slide on the new treehouse! My mom had the awesome idea of having my dad and Clay build a treehouse for the grandkids in their backyard. Well, the idea became a plan, and the plan became a lot of trips to Lowe’s, several variations on a treehouse (or a tree mansion as our preacher dubbed it), and then finally, a playable treehouse – complete with bucket and slide. The guys worked really hard on this, and enlisted some help from Paul – one of the teens from church. It is the best treehouse I’ve ever seen, and of course now all Ethan wants to do is be up there…mission accomplished.

I think my dad would have been fine with a platform in a tree, but of course the architect in Clay just couldn’t have that. So, we now have a treehouse with siding, a roof on half, a slide, a window, etc. Addi, Ethan & Libby loved playing in there together – I just wish the weather would have been nicer when they were all here. It’s pretty exciting to think about all of the friends we’ll have over to play in there, all of the campouts Ethan will have with his friends, the times Rachel will sneak away to get away from Ethan, and on and on. Thanks, Mom & Dad for the great getaway for the kids. I just hope you don’t mind them being over ALL THE TIME!

The beginning:

The roof goes on!

Just need the slide

Ethan watching from the window

The hard workers (aka the very tired workers)

It’s FINISHED! (well, except for adding the sandbox underneath)

Everybody loves the treehouse

Another cousins shot (minus Rachel)

A couple of days ago I sat Rachel up on in the corner of the couch and put her snail (one of Ethan’s baby toys that our friend Meredith gave him) in her lap to play with. In a matter of seconds, she had the snail’s antenna in her mouth just chewing away. I then remembered a very similar experience with Ethan when he was also 3 1/2 months old. Here are the pictures:

Ethan vs. the snail

Rachel vs. the snail

Our little Ray-Bug has started exploring the world around her. I forgot how sweet it is to watch a 3 month old soak up the world around them. She’s really started studying my face – reaching for my nose, glasses, ears, hair, etc. I think the past few days have been the best days of her life because her 2 cousins just ooh and aah over her. Here are a few pictures of Rachel over the past week or so:

First time in the exersaucer:

She loves to chew on anything and everything:

Content just watching what’s going on:

Hanging out with Dad:

After her bath:

Rachel and her best friend:

She definitely prefers her thumb over a pacifer:

And she definitely loves her Poppa (I love this picture!):

A little update on her eating – we’ve been making sure she eats 5 times a day to get her back on track. Last Monday she weighed 13.3 pounds, and the pediatrician wanted her to gain 0.5 pounds in 2 weeks to be comfortable with how she’s doing. Well, we did an unofficial weigh-in today at the 1 week mark and on our scale she was 13.6 pounds…yippee! (Let’s just hope that wasn’t with a wet diaper)

The Parkers are in town!  Rachel finally got to meet her Uncle Bryan, Aunt Ginny, cousin Addi and cousin Libby.  They came in Thursday afternoon, and it was so good to pick them up at the airport.  The best news is, we get to spend quite a bit of time with them since we’re going to Raleigh in a couple of weeks to stay with them.  Here are just a few pictures – there will be many more to come!

Meeting Rachel for the first time

Aunt Ginny getting to hold Rachel

Best seat in the house

Addi loving on her new baby cousin

Uncle Bryan making himself useful

CALISSA!  Way to go!  While others followed your line of thinking, you were the original dumbbell guesser (although I really did like Mark’s guess the best).  Yes, that is the end of one of Clay’s dumbbells.  As always, I do have a story for this one. 

Clay, I just wanted to take a minute and tell you how proud I am of you (in case some of you haven’t seen Clay in a while, he’s lost 30 pounds!).  I know how diligent you’ve been about losing weight, and you look amazing – reminds me of the summer you spent at CBS.    You’re setting such a good example for Ethan and Rachel…and me!  Just know that your biggest fans are behind you, and we love you.  And seriously – how in the world do you lift those weights 60 times…I can’t even pick one up to move it to vaccuum!

(Now that Clay is buff, he does tend to walk around the house A LOT flexing his muscles…and monkey see, monkey do.  Just don’t pay any attention to the nasty, red eye…I think Ethan got into some soap that didn’t agree with him.)

This is a good one!

This one is just for our sweet Great Aunt Ginny the hygienist…

There’s nothing like a moonpie (you really need to click on the picture for more … um… detail!).

It’s been too long!  We had a very busy weekend and today has been busy as well.  Clay went to the men’s retreat at church Friday and Saturday, the kids and I went to Cara’s for a while Friday morning to let the kids play, I took Ethan to Macy’s birthday party Saturday morning while my mom kept Rachel, we went to a church picnic Saturday night, Clay had a meeting at church Sunday afternoon, and we had a graduation party Sunday night after church.  We didn’t spend a lot of time together as a family, but it was a good weekend. 

Ethan continues to crack us up.  Yesterday in church after singing “Thank You, Lord,” he said (in his not so quiet church voice), “Oooooh, Mommy, I LOVE that song!”  He informed me that dishwashers are only for girls to use.  He saw a letter “Q” and said that it was like Q-Bert (no idea).  He then saw the letter “C” and said it was like Chuck E. Cheese (let’s get our priorities straight here!).  We have discovered Fisher-Price online games and Ethan calls it typing like Mommy.  Poppa asked him to get his britches and shoes to which he replied, “Poppa, it’s not britches – it’s shorts.  And it’s not shoes – it’s Frocs (crocs).”  He told me this morning that it was very yucky when the big fish spit out Jonah.  Oh, and the really “funny” thing that happened today was when I heard Clay’s electric trimmer buzzing in the bathroom.  I went in there to find that Ethan had cut a small chunk of his hair right in front – nice.

And little Rachel is of course just as sweet as ever.  After many concerns about her sleeping habits (now 13-14 hours at night and a few daytime naps) and eating habits (she only eats 4 times a day), I took her to the pediatrician this afternoon.  While the doctor isn’t too concerned, she does weigh about 2.5 pounds less than she should for her growth curve, she apparently has starvation stools (you really don’t want a description), and her skin is what he called “doughy.”  So, since babies her age should be eating 6-10 times a day and she eats 4 times a day, I’m supposed to be getting her to at least eat 1 more time a day, and hopefully 2 more times.  So, we’re now in eat mode here.  If you have a moment, just say a little prayer for our Ray-Bug that there isn’t anything more to this issue than she just doesn’t make eating a priority right now.

I guess that’s about it for now.  My brother, SIL and nieces will be here in 3 days!!!  We’re so excited and can’t wait to just catch up and let them meet Rachel!

…most of you!  (And while I’m thinking about it, Rachel and Nicole are never allowed to guess again.  Seriously, what would we do?!?)  So, it is a digital thermometer, but the real story is where I found this digital thermometer, and who was it hanging out with.  Well, apparently you can tell a lot about someone from the contents of their dryer.  Here were the contents of my dryer on Sunday:

Yes, all of this came out of our pockets.  The thermometer was in Clay’s pocket because Ethan had a fever Friday and Saturday.  I’ll claim the safety pin because I was having to pin Ethan’s shorts up over the weekend to get them to stay on.  Let’s see – the crumpled up paper…I think we all know that was Clay’s receipt from lunch or something else like that.  The rubber bands are mine, and the drill bit…another product of Clay building a treehouse.  So, there you go.  These are the most treasures I’ve ever found in the dryer, and I was cracking up that none of them were Ethan’s!  Thanks for all the guesses (except Rachel and Nicole), and I know you’re on pins and needles for next week’s installment.

Let the guesses begin!