Why we love our Grandparents

Even though we live much too far away from our families they still manage to love our little guys very well.

Grandma Diane loves to send packages full of interesting articles/pictures and TREATS. Grandma Candi indulges the boys' obsessions

(Gray with his new WALL-E toy, compliments of Grandma Candi)

Grandpa Greg books long and circuitous flights in order to have lunch with us.

"CRUNCHING"

A rare quiet moment

So blurry, but so sweet

Healthy Sleep Habits...

Yes, he was sick. But, the middle of the floor? Such a reverent boy.
A new meerkat cave

Check out my Slide Show!

The Fourth of July

It seems that I start the majority of my posts by stating how busy we've been and yet, I never seem to know exactly what we've been busy doing.

We did have a great 4th of July. We started out the day with a HIKE at Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield. Matts was, of course, thrilled to be "training" at an actual military site especially since the trail was littered with canons and sniper holes. It was a little awkward trying to explain the "bad" and the "good" guys of the Civil war (actually, the "war of northern aggression"). I love living in the South :). We were all exhausted after the hike (it was quite a hike) so we just relaxed the rest of the day and watched fireworks from our neighbor's deck.

The old and the new

Gray has found a new best friend

To all of you who knew Mattson at this age; does this look familiar?

Let the training begin

Mattson has received his first deployment:

Greetings from NAS Jax - hope you are enjoying your summer! The Commanding Officer of NAS Jax would like to personally invite Mattson to attend his upcoming airshow. If you could email me your mailing address, CAPT Scorby will send Mattson a VIP Invitation when he mails them out at the end of July. Invitation will include 4 passes to the CO's chalet - please have him include the name of his guests, my guess is that it will be Mom, Dad, and younger brother. Thanks!
Commander Mark C. Scott - Naval Air Station Jacksonville

How cool is that?

BU-BYE

By way of background; at his 18mth check-up we were referred to a specialist because Grayson had exactly 0 words. More specifically he only had 1 sound; "Uhh". It is a very expressive sound and can be varied to fit the situation. Where do you want to go? "Uhh" Would you like some yogurt? "Uhhh".

Theories ranged from ear infections to not needing to (we already have running commentary courtesy of Matts) to developing a new language (gruntese). Needless to say, we have been working on this with Gray. Now he points to everything and wants you to name it. It goes like this; "Banana; uhh. oatmeal; uhh. water; uhh". You get the idea. This week he finally started mimicking a few sounds although Mattson astutely noted "Gray only likes "buh" words".

But, as of today we have a word. That's right; a full-on, understandable, independently generated word. Today was Reed was leaving for work Gray raised his little hand (he does the high school, I'm too cool to really wave, wave) and said Bu-Bye!!!!!

"Bu-Bye"

The little Hun (see below)

In semi-related news; Matts has started training for the Imperial Navy. This entails diving practice (without his lifejacket but with goggles, of course), running around our house doing acrobatics and launching "firepower" at every surface. Gray alternates between being a trainee and "the little hun". Finally, all training MUST be accompanied by the "We are man" song from Disney's Mulan.