Silly Adults, Tricks Are For Toddlers!

I L-O-V-E this age. This is when the little baby becomes a mini adult, copying everything we do. Afton's current tricks include: talking on the phone, praying, talking and cuddling with her toys, brushing her hair and teeth, reading, saying "eyes" and pointing to them, answering every question with a "Mmm-Hmm!" and following us everywhere we go with her Miss Priss walk. I have footage of the walk, but our computer is about ready to die, so you'll have to wait until the new one comes in. Finally a computer with enough ram to hold all of these pictures and videos!!

Ayden's eye view

Okay, so we took a little trip to the Cortana Mall Playland today and I had no idea that Ayden had my camera on the whole 20 or so minute drive there. This had us laughing, so Josh told me to share some of the 82 pictures he took. I will try to narrate by guessing what went through his mind. Note: he looks at the images after every shot.

Oh, my mom has no idea that I got this out of the diaper bag.
This is gonna be so cool.

I wonder if I can get a picture of EVERY house we pass.

Watch for the cars, Mom.
We're getting on the busy street.

I need a close up.

Oh, there's a red light. I'm going to take a picture of EVERY car that passes.

This one with Ian's foot will be funny.

Hmm...I'm running out of ideas.
What if I take my shoes off and get a picture of them?

Oh, and my hand up close would be cool.

The clouds are so fluffy.

Here I am moving to the middle seat to get ready for our friends.

There's Laney.

I need a picture of my Mom and her friend, Lindsay.

See any boogers?
**Update: I read this to Ayden and he corrected me on this one.
He was trying to take a picture of the inside of his mouth.**

How about Erik's feet?

And Laney's.
This is so much more fun now that I have company back here.

How about my stash of garbage that Mom hasn't found yet.

Close-up of Erik!

I wish I could see Ian from here. DOH! We're parking.
Let me give Mom back her camera, QUICK!

Aquarium of the Americas

Josh helped this Brazilian guy out by taking his picture,
so he returned the favor and took one of us! Ian did NOT want to participate!

I love this one.

We went with the Mangum fam. Here's Dakota with the boys checking out the leucistic alligator-not albino as it turns out b/c it's eyes are dark instead of pink. Who knew? Thanks to Brent for reading the signs!

They're nuts!

Pacifier snatcher caught on camera!
Afton and Annie are always swapping binkies and bottles.
Not too far from now it will be clothes and jewelry!

BTW, Afton climbs on everything now.
Things much higher than this clam like the boys' train table and such.

We had a great time, except for the swarms of people. Note to self: Never go to the aquarium on the weekend in the heat of the summer. The End.

Josh was on the news!

Go HERE to see Mr. Joshua Hutchinson in his element.

The Latest

I hosted a Mom's night out last night which was really "in" because it was at my house. Anyway, there were 11 or 12 of us moms making hairbows and I showed everyone how to make headbands from knee highs, lace bows and a boutique style bow. Then everyone either just talked or made as many bows as they cared to. I had all of my ribbon out and lots of other supplies for everyone to get creative with. These are the ones I made for myself/Afton:

The flower in the middle is something I created out of my head, so I think I might start selling them on etsy or something. How much should I charge? Who wants one? Input please.

The kids. What else would I be posting about?

Can you guess why Ian's hands are stained blue right now?
They look so tired. Trust me, they aren't.

Afton at 14 months.
We love these kids.

We haven't been up to much lately. We're just enjoying the summer for the last few weeks before both boys start school and Afton gets all of my attention. It's bittersweet for me. It's hard for me to accept that Ian is old enough for Pre-K3 already, so I've been loving on him extra while I still can. Ayden will be 6 soon and starting the 1st grade. Again-denial. At the same time, I'm excited to be able to run errands and go shopping with only one child in tow. Our pocketbook might suffer with this future freedom!

Happy Independence Day!

All decked out in their red, white and blue.
This was the best we could do out of 12 pictures!
Afton was chanting, "Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!" with her brothers.
( Just in case you're wondering, I made Afton's dress this morning before church.
Third dress this week. Crazy, I know.
I've been on a creative kick, so I went with it.)

Crazy Days Of Summer

Piggy Crazy

Crazy Ay

Crazy Mr. Charles

Super charged! But wait for the grand finale of craziness...

If you're not laughing, there's something wrong with your giggle detectors!
If I could choose a sound effect for this face it would be the sound of a fog horn.
WHAAAAAAH!

Afton wins the race!

She's walking at 13 1/2 months of age. Let me be more specific. She's been taking about 5 steps going back and forth from me to Josh for a while now. Just yesterday she started letting go of furniture and walking to the nearest safe place. She's the earliest walker out of our three. Ayden started at 15 months and Ian waited until the week before he turned 18 months. So anyone out there who's comparing your baby's milestones to others and getting frustrated, don't be. My kids always work on their verbal skills before they concentrate on the motor department.
In other news, Afton has been doing so much better since she had her tubes put in and her adenoids removed. Her 2 week check-up scared us b/c she failed her hearing test, but just yesterday she re-tested and passed perfectly. We weren't extremely concerned because she's a little chatterbox and also copies everything we say, but now we are definitely relieved to know for sure that her little drums are A-OK.
She discovered my cell phone and "talks" to people-thank goodness for the phone lock function.
Her new source of crankiness is three teeth currently cutting through (could be more, that was all I felt before she got super mad and screamed at me for invading her gums). Good times.
Here's a clip of Afton AND the boys showing how well they can walk...