Ready for a Wife

For the last few days, I've been letting Samuel help me with the dishes.

He used the sprayer to rinse them and to rinse a few other things (like the counter, the floor and himself!). And just a few days ago he brought me a flower from the plant outside our house.

I was beginning to think that he was just about ready to get married, since he's able to do so many things that wives love (washing dishes, giving flowers), until I thought about the fact that he's still wearing a DIAPER! I'm not sure his wife would go for that! I guess we still have some work to do in the dishes department too, because at the end of the rinsing he started drinking the water from the spoon he had just rinsed.

OH WELL!! We'll have to do a bit more training before the big wedding day! I think we'll start on the "no drinking the water from the rinsed dishes" first, cause I'm just not ready to tackle the diaper yet. Maybe by the time he's 25 we'll have that one accomplished!

I DID IT!!

This may not seem like much, especially to my pregnant-with- two- other- children -age 2- and-under-who-took-a-4 day-camping-trip-friend Carissa Smith, but I went to the grocery store today with BOTH of my children. I was actually quite proud of myself. I fed Kara at 8:45am and then scrambled around to gather everything up and write my list. I realized as I was making beds that Samuel's bed smelled VERY badly (IF you know what I mean) =) and so I had to change his sheets. I was on a very tight time schedule to get back here before Kara's next feeding at 11:45. At 11:45, however, I was just checking out and still had to load my $150 shopping order and come home to unload the car, get Samuel his lunch and then feed Kara. By 12:00 she was screaming bloody murder. I was trying to stay calm and just move quickly, so the poor baby wouldn't starve to death. Samuel was in charge of holding her pacifier in her mouth, so that I could get him in his chair for lunch, so I could feed her. It was quite a challenge, and I'll try not to make this a regular habit, but I just wanted to see if I could do it. Millions of mothers do it every day...why not me??!! =) By the way, you can check out my very brave friend, Carissa's camping trip here. You are my inspiration, my good buddy ol' pal! I'm actually really enjoying being a mom. It's definitely a challenge, but I'm so grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to influence 2 lives in such a profound way. I love you, Sam and Kara! =)

Little Fingers Make Quick Work

Aren't these cute little fingers? Well, they weren't so cute to us, today. If you look closely, you'll see that Samuel made quick work of our laptop today while Becky was resting with Kara back in the bedroom. Samuel woke up from his nap around 4:00pm. Becky told him he could go play out in the living room, while she finished resting on the bed with Kara. Samuel seemed to be having a good old time like always, running from one end of the house to the other yelling, singing, and playing. Having a good old time, he certainly was. This is what he was up to.

Our wonderful 2 1/2 year old removed all 86 keys from our laptop and some of the other parts that make a keyboard work. Needless to say, Becky was thrilled with the mechanical abilities our our over-achieving toddler. Actually, she called me with about as good of a cry as she had when pregnant -- pretty bad, huh? I'm guessing she thought I would be a bit livid, but for some reason I took it quite well. Anyway, I'll bet you can guess what I did tonight. That's right. It took about three hours with a little help from my techie partner, Becky.

Miraculously, we got it all back together and, as you can see, it is working perfectly. This ranks right up there with Sam's unloading his poopy diaper all over his crib, coloring on our khaki furniture with his crayons, pulling a big pot of very greasy leftover beef noodle soup out of the fridge and spilling it all over the kitchen floor (which by the way is carpet), etc., etc. He has definitely been sent here to teach us patience. We love you our Tazmanian Devil!!

The Family Keeps Growing

Well, the Gravley family keeps on expanding. My sister, Tammy, and her husband Jeff were blessed with a third son last Sunday, June 10th. Stephen Allen Jones came into the world weighing 8 lbs. 10 oz. and measuring 22 in. long. Praise the Lord for a safe C-section. Welcome, Stephen. We love you!
Uncle Travis

World's Longest and Most Random Post

We are so blessed to have 2 wonderful, beautiful children. We thank the Lord for His great blessing to us: Samuel Travis and Kara Suzanne!

We sent Samuel to spend the afternoon and then overnight with Trav's parents (Friday into Saturday) and this is how he came home...with his head all scraped up! I like to pretend I'm really mad about it, since I know it made Trav's mom and dad feel so bad that he got hurt at their house. Actually, Samuel absolutely LOVES to go to Ninny and Pappop's house. He asks about them everyday.
We finally got to bring my dad home (to my brother's house) on Friday, June 8. Samuel and Kara were so happy to see their Mammo and Pappy again. We have missed you so much, mom and dad. We love you and can't wait to be with you again as a family. Thank you all for praying. Please keep praying for my mom and dad (my mom especially) for God's strength to be hers as she cares for my dad everyday. It is an overwhelming task.
The auntie for whom Kara is named: AUNT SUZANNE (or Aunt Uzanne, as sam calls her). She is a very dear sister to me, having dated my brother from the time I was 12 years old. We have so much in common, the best of all being that we both know what a MORON my brother is! =) I love you, Andy, you big nerd.
Travis, Andy and my dad taking a stroll around the house. They had to stop and admire Kara along the way.

I just love it when kids suck their thumbs or variations of it. I know everyone says it's not good for your teeth, but it's so cute! Kara has found her fingers in a few different ways. I thought this one was great! =)

Our neighbor, "Miss Betty," as Samuel affectionately calls her works at a book club and frequently brings us AWESOME books for Samuel. His latest are ones to help him with his recent feat of potty going, which by the way, is NOT HAPPENING! I'm so disgusted, but I won't talk about that right now! Anyways, this has been the absolute favorite of the books she's given us. It's a book that turns into a school bus and also a play mat (with a road on it for pushing your cars around). THANKS MISS BETTY!

A few days ago Kara got her first bath. She didn't even cry. The second picture of her looks so much like the one of Samuel that we used on his birth announcements. A lot of people are saying that they look very much alike.

This is Travis' grandfather holding Kara on Memorial Day. He's 90 years old. He actually said he was too nervous to hold her because she was too small, but then after a minute he decided he'd try it! =) We love you Pappy McMinn!

William (Sam's cousin) and Samuel found the hose and swimming pool in the garage ALL BY THEMSELVES, stripped down to their shorts (or in Will's case, underwear!) and began to fill the pool with water. Such big boys!! I wonder where their parents were?! =)

Well, I guess that's about it! Talk about random pictures! There's really no rhyme or reason to the order of these; part of it has to do with the fact that I can't figure out this blog and how to upload pictures and put text with it. Call me dumb!