Sweet, sweet randomness....

Oh dear blog... how I have missed you!!!! I have had such great intentions of posting, but something ALWAYS comes up and then my creative juices are gone! :( Anyway, over the past .... oh, who knows how long, we have had lots of fun finishing up Mother's Day Out, T-ball, Dave Ramsey garage sale, 1 day trip to the beach, kindergarten registration, our 8th anniversary, and summer..... and a wild and crazy 2 year old! I apologize for the randomness of this post and I promise I will get it together and post more frequently.... and my posts will stick to their original topic! haha!

Barrett climbed onto the counter to wash all of the mud off of his feet after playing in puddles he made with the water hose..... what a helpful boy! HA! This is just how I found him!!!


I might have been a tad too busy to blog because I have A VERY BUSY 2 YR OLD BOY.... who loves to eat his cereal on the floor!!!! Don't worry, son, Mommy has nothing else to do besides cleaning up cinnamon toast crunch off of the hardwood floors!




And this might be how we have some super cost effective fun at the Clayton House when Mother's Day Out is not is session! :) Macey and Barrett doing a little dress up..... I'm gonna give you one guess who the costume designer might be!
















My sweet , sweet girl on her way to Kindergarten screening! Mrs. Parker took Macey to her room and spent a few minutes with her. When I met them in the hall, Mrs. Parker showed me what she wrote on Macey's screening sheet...... just one word.... CONFIDENT! :) Macey wrote 15 words and spelled them all correctly..... she is so ready for school, but is Sequoyah ready for her? .... And what will Barrett and I do all day without her!?!



Macey, Barrett, and I had so much fun at VBS the first week of June. I feel so blessed to have such amazing friends that I got to hang out with during the week and loved planting seeds of God's word in so many little lives. Macey and Barrett had a great time learning about God and making new friends. They both had wonderful teachers who just loved on them all week. I really thought I was volunteering just so they could go to preschool VBS, but God really blessed me during the week too. .... On a less serious note: All staff and children were asked to buy shirts, and as a mom, it did get a little hectic making sure all of our clothes were washed AND dried in time each morning, but that little blue shirt may have been the high-light of Barrett's week. Every day he would wake up and say, "My bible tory chirt? " (Interpretation: Do I get to wear my Bible Story Shirt again? ..... for some reason he called it bible story instead of school.... but it was just precious!)



Well, this is how I found Barrett at about 10 am today. I am not really pushing the potty training bit..... I think I'm really afraid of the whole undertaking! But he is a little interested in it. Today he told me he needed to potty and I told him that I would take him to my bathroom in just a minute. Apparently, he couldn't wait.... or didn't want to, so this is what I walked in to find. He took a detour in the kitchen, grabbed himself a couple of pringles, and went to sit on the potty! :) This little boy sure keeps me on my toes!.... or maybe my knees!




Needless to say, thank you Kelly's Korner for the chocolate bundt cake recipe. I haven't had this in years ..... and to treat myself for surviving the last few weeks, we all enjoyed nice, warm pieces with ice cream tonight.

Once again, I know this is a very random post, but I just wanted to share a few things that have kept us busy lately. I cherish every day I spend with Macey and Barrett and am so proud to be their mommy. It truly is the best job ever! ....




~Chrissy

What's In a Name?

In Response to "Show Us Your Life" from Kelly's Korner Blog, I thought I was share the stories behind the names we chose.

Macey was almost an Avery! From the beginning of our pregnancy, we loved that name and had just about decided on it for sure..... until I mentioned "Macey". David loved it immediately and so did all of our family members. Her name means "Enduring". We debated over and over again on a middle name.... should we go with trendy or something with family ties. In the end, we chose Reenay for her middle name, which she shares with her mommy and nana!

Barrett was almost a Conner! We have loved this name for ages. Having taught school, it was very hard to decide on names because some horrible kid can ruin a good name! I had a precious boy in my class named Garrett and thought about tweaking it a bit to "Barrett". I wanted something masculine, and of course David always had to try out the name in his sports announcer voice..... "And Barrett Clayton, #12, for the touchdown!!!!" Barrett means strong as a bear and my paternal great-grandmother's maiden name was Reeder. Grandma Great, as we called her, was an amazing, Godly woman and I hope to instill her love of God to both of my children.

David and I both mention names we like quite often knowing that we would love nothing more that to have 1 or 2 or 10 more babies!!! HAHA.... ok, just one or two.... and several years down the road!

T-ball Spring Training

Decisions, decisions.... With such a vast number of followers on this blog, I suddenly feel like I have so much that I could write about. However, I finally decided on the high light of our day!

To start off, T-ball sign ups were several weeks ago, and when I heard about it I didn't race down to put Macey on the list. I must be turning into my mother, because I could hear myself saying, " You may choose one activity"! With that being said, she is already in gymnastics and I just confirmed swimming lessons yesterday, so I was thinking to myself that she really has already made her choices.... and besides that, I mean, I personally wouldn't consider myself a T-ball/softball hall-of-famer. So maybe I was just thinking that since I have very limited athletic ability she wouldn't even be interested.

Well, I was wrong. Who ever knew that peer pressure started in the church nursery when they are babies comparing passies? Ok, so maybe that is an exaggeration.... but she is barely 5 and has told me that she is going to be SOOO far behind if she can't play t-ball OR do ballet until next year! WOW! I'm sure you can guess where this is going..... Anyway, David and I make some calls but never get anything confirmed about her playing until today. And it was truly like we won the lottery! We were soooo excited! We went and got her little shorts, and cleats, and a bright pink bat and some t-balls...... and we were almost done and realized that we had a right handed glove..... and Macey is left handed. I suggested that since she really doesn't know how to catch at all, she could just learn to play right. That was quickly vetoed by the In-house athletic director AKA "Daddy". So after several stops, we FINALLY found a pink lefty glove for our girly girl!

As soon as we got out of the car, all four of us were getting the gear together for a little t-ball practice in the front yard.

Even though you can't see it, I am being coached by Macey.... she thinks she is a pro now... and decides to take my picture!

I had my camera ready while David was giving her her first catching lesson. After 2 failed attempts, she said, "I'm gonna catch this one. I really am!" And she did!!!! This is the actual picture of that very moment! Priceless!

And you-know-who couldn't miss out on the action! Barrett kept saying, "me, t-ball". As I think back on this afternoon, I am grinning from ear to ear! Thank you God for all of your blessings! Thank you for trusting me so much that you would give me these 2 precious lives to train up in your ways! Help me do the best I can! Spring Training, Day 1: Definite success!

Our family photo from Disney World, April 2010. David and I holding Barrett and Macey.

I have finally caved....

Ok, I am one of these people who find it very difficult and overwhelming to commit to scrapbooking. Even though my creative juices run wild, I think I am too much of a perfectionist and always want to change or redo the pages I have already finished. Well, keeping with that mentality, I have stayed far away from the world of blog for as long as I can! Until now, that is!

I have been keeping up with several blogs lately and apparently, I have been sucked into this hobby... or possibly "addiction"! I spent hours just trying to come up with a name for this sucker! Anyway, I want this blog to be used to cherish precious.... and I'm sure not-so-precious, times in the daily lives of our family. Since all of my scrapbook pages look a tad rough, I think this avenue might be a better way to preserve Macey and Barrett's childhood.

Overtime, I promise to customize this site with fun backgrounds, clever posts, and lots of pictures. Thanks for joining me on this journey to capture the Claytons!