Christals blog of 4th July 2010

When I see my boy laughing and smiling like this, i know we must have done something right. On this day, 4th of July, Brad was not doing well from some new medication - so I set him up with mum in charge and ventured out with the kiddo's for some in the sand fun as our own way to celebrate Independence Day!

Thanks Aunty Sharon for my fab outfit! Maggie rocked this one in style!

Hope all our American family and friends enjoyed the day! Love to everyone - Jackson and Maggie Grace.

Australia - making memories

Welcome to Australia!
My Nanna (87yrs), my Dad and my kids.
Lachlan (Sonja and David Meeks youngest son) entertaining Jackson on our arrival.
Old friends, Lisa and Shane.
Sonja with Maggie.
Maggie - 9 months.
First swing with Dad and LOVING it!


First big boy bike (with parent handle :))- a Wiggles bike and spider man helmet!
Aunt Pearl with Maggie
Maggie Grace - happy, fun and loving baby.
The cape - heaven forbid we should misplace this item. It is almost always with him, on him or close at hand. seriously - a cape? this is your chosen security item? something that implies you can fly, jump from high places without worry and fall down mid-stride flat on the ground in an airport because you are indeed a superhero.
Hello I'm Edwina and its nice meeting you, now your the best thing I've seen at the Zoo. (Edward the Emu is a hit book of ours)

Crawdad Boil 2010

Christal's Blog
So toward the end of the night....



some of the guys - Nelson, Pat, Sam, Brad, Allen, George.
The feast!

Justin's girlfriend Jansen.
Sam - soon to be Dad!

Enjoying some music from Chris.
Jen and the big blue cup I never saw leave her hand :)
Michelle and Joy - came up from Little Rock with their hubbies - Kyle and Chris.
Pat has been around to help us out, hang out and eat out with us ever since they moved to Springdale - we'll miss him and Liz heaps when we move to Harrison. love you guys.
Kate and Nelson our great friends - cruised up from LR in the corvette of the week :) "Its just a red car" says Kate - while every guy drooled. George and Jen - not sure if I can say how grateful we are to have these two great people around.

Well since this is my blog - and its usually kind of a diary - I figured I try to keep it like that -
I've been a bit of a mess lately - trying to figure out my place in the life of my family, my kids and support Brad as best I can, which at times I fail in. Some days I pretend that my husband is not slowly dying, some days I face it head on, and other days I fall apart secretly sobbing in the shower, or yell at someone or throw something at the wall and just scream. Most of the time I just look at our kids and Brad and just smile, for I am so very grateful for this life I have and enjoy life so very much. The 2010 Crawdad boil reminds me that friends make moments of life entertaining and amusing, and I'm thankful that all of Brad's friends wives/partners/girlfriends welcomed me after all those years away.

Cousins!

We leave for Australia on Tuesday - so before we left we called around and last minute got the cousins together as Jackson LOVES all of them so very much and will miss them all over the summer, however no doubt will bring back many stories to tell of the deep ocean and catching fish. As we will miss Ashlyn's birthday we also had a little fun with some cake and candles!


O.k I just have to say Maggie is adorable - is such a happy little baby - now 8 months she has almost 4 teeth - can pull up on everything but cry when she can't figure out how to get down, laughs ALL the time at anything her brother does. Is always trying to get his toys - and only when he wants to play with them! So I hear " No MAGGIEEEEEEE NOOOO" followed by Maggie crying and then the plod of her crawling as fast as she can after Jackson and the treasure toy of the moment. I still breast feed her - a ... lot.... :) but as she also takes a bottle I get a little relief for nights out and Joy took her and J overnight last night and aparently she was the happiest little angle ever - only trying to bite Jackson twice and pulling his hair once. She gets mad when she doesn't get what she wants :) She also came back growling - something new. Thanks Nee Nee for giving us a chance to really enjoy ourselves at the Crawdad boil - I didnt' know how much I needed a bit of a break until it was forced on me!
nothing better than a big chunk of watermelon - they all raced to see who could finish first.

Good times
something got them laughing :)
Butterfly cake for our adorable Ashlyn! - chocolate, pink icing and sprinkles - delish! Followed by singing Happy Birthday to Makena, Kammy, Jackson and Christopher! Sharon, Angie and I laughed how great it would be to just get one big cake and line them up - sing 8 times and be done! Easy for us - no fun for the kids. We were so happy to have the kids over and loved watching them play hard - digging around in the mud in our yard (which Kammy discovered actually isn't that pleasant when its all over your pants) I wish I could have them over every weekend, it was just a nice relaxing time and I enjoyed having my sisters in law to laugh with and hug on. There was more to come - in the 2nd annual Crawdad Boil 2010 - seriously laughed till our cheeks hurt :) Thanks Sharon and Angie for taking time to hang out, even with everyone's busy schedules - love you both.

opening presents from Aunty Pearl! He sat right down and read all of these Wiggles books. He also got a GIANT kangaroo which I have no idea how she made it fit in the package!
Blowing bubbles is Maggie's fun thing to do - at 7 months she can now sit up and has started to try to crawl - and will often push her entire body off the floor except for her toes and hands. she loves to get anything of Jackson's - which would usually be a book lying around - in fact she was so pleased to get one of his little men books without him noticing that she happily sucked on it for 1/2 hour and only grumbled when he noticed it was in her mouth!
Maggie Grace - our perfect little girl.