A Little Farewell & An Ode to Blake

Well, folks, this is actually going to be my last post for about a month or so. But I wanted to leave a quick little update before I go...okay, so maybe it will be neither "quick" nor "little", it will be more "long" and "enormous"...but bear with me anyways, it's a fun one.

AND...

I have been meaning to do an "Ode to Blake" post for a while now, so I'll do that first and then dribble on about my own cute son afterwards :)

This is Blake, Charlie's cousin, our nephew, our favorite little monkey-clown-boy:

Blake likes to get into trouble. Not "bad" trouble, per say; more like "harmful" trouble. Such as this morning when we were all busy getting ready to go to church and I heard him screaming from the living room. I ran to him to see what happened and he literally had the handle of a toy umbrella STUCK in his mouth. No joke. I had to pry it out of his mouth, and I thought he was gonna lose a tooth over the whole incident while I was attempting to wrench the umbrella out of his mouth. I was literally picturing Mike and Christine driving him to the emergency room with an entire umbrella sticking out of his mouth.

Or, the other time when I was "watching" him, and he went over to the dining room table where his mommy's coffee was sitting and reached up to grab it, dumping the entire mug-full of coffee over the top of his head, in his eyes, up his nose, etc.

Or how about the time when he stuck his hand into the running vacuum cleaner?
(Yes, it left a mark, and no, it was not pretty...)

Or the time he launched head-first off of the piano bench into the computer hutch, hitting the hutch 3 times with his head as he fell to the floor.

I'm not making this stuff up, people. I have personally witnessed almost all of the above incidents.

Blake, while still maintaining his manliness, loves to play with baby dolls. The other day we were all in the living room, and Blake had been gone for a few minutes and it was eerily quiet. Suddenly, we hear a "toilet" type of sound coming from the bathroom. Everyone looked up, yelling in unison "WHERE'S BLAKE?!?!?!" Here's what we found:

A silly, goofy bundle of blue-eyed cuteness, that's what Blake is to me. And at the end of a long day of trouble-making, a busy boy needs his rest.

Yes, he fell asleep while eating popcorn, before he could even get that last bite in...

We love you, Blakey.

* * *

Boy, I don't have anything nearly as cute or exciting to say about Charlie. But here are some recent pics.

Eating a sandwich like a big boy:

Going for a walk with Ellie:

What's left of Halloween at the Miller/Fletcher house:

Just hanging around:

As most of you are aware, times are dificult for me personally right now, but look at what I have to keep me going:

Makes it all worth the fight.

Birthday Post (ie: an excuse to post ten gazillion pictures of our family...)

So, finally, the birthday party post. Come on, it only took me a week, is that so bad? :)

On our way to PARTY CENTRAL: Oma and Opa's House.
I played with the color in this pic:


Apparently I was afraid that the 700 pictures I was about to take at the party might not be enough, so I took a few on the way out the door.

Our little cheeseballs...


Awww...

I love this sweet face

Oh, yes, and this one, too. :)

In the car, on the way, Charlie decided it would be a good idea to blow "spittles" the whole way...and I do mean THE WHOLE WAY...

All the cousins on the Fletcher side:
Blake, Eli, Jasmine, Charlie, & Ellie

(note the "spit dew" dribbled down the front of Charlie's sweater)

Below is a more accurate reflection of how the majority of these "group shots" turned out

A big smile for Opa

The birthday boys: eating pizza, being silly.

Yaya with her girls

Charlie and Oma

My favorite 2-year-old in the whole wide world

Party on the swing set!

The party moves to the wheelbarrow

Jack

Blake

Lucie Rose

Yeah! Baby Cody is here!

"Finally, they bring us a REAL baby to play with!"

Yet another failed attempt at the ever-elusive "group shot"...seriously, is it too much to ask of 5 toddlers to just HOLD STILL for 3 seconds???!!!

Cruising with daddy

Jasmine

Another wheelbarrow ride!

I could eat him up (but I promise I won't, Melissa)

It's my birthday, look at me, I'm cute!

Play-doh, mommy's new best friend

Trying out the new top

Time to blow out the candles!

Yay, cupcakes!

"Yes, but where is Charlie?", you ask.


Oh, there he is, in the background checking out his new blocks - right where he was for the entire "sing-Happy-Birthday-To-You-and-blow-out-the-candles" part of the party.

Jazz and Eli

3 of the Huntley 4

"Hmmm, this looks kinda tasty."

"Well, the frosting part, anyways."

A birthday kiss