The Sandbar

We went with the Roses on their boat to the sandbar. This is a place on the river where when the tide is down there's a sandbar in the middle of the river. So essentially you have beach without all the waves. The boys loved it! There were crabs everywhere and we found some shark's teeth. The boat next to us accidentally caught a sting ray (he must have wandered a little too far up river). At one point, dolphins went swimming by. S0000 cool! I wasn't fast enough with the camera though. We also played some baseball and bacci ball, and took rides in the kayak. The boys slept for 3 1/2 hours that afternoon!

A Night on the Town

We went with some friends by way of boat to an outdoor concert at Palmetto Bluff. It was a gorgeous evening to take a boat ride, have a picnic and enjoy some big band!
















This is Bryan and Rhonda (he's our discipleship pastor)





This is Kurt and Carey. They live down the street and moved here from KC. They are also adopting through Bethany(domestic)and got the great news this week that a mom has chosen them for her baby. They should have a brand new baby boy sometime in July!!

A Man after Randall's Heart!

Our nephew Randall loves Thomas trains, and we've tried repeatedly to get Jackson to play with them. We realized this week that we were working on the wrong kid :) Jonah loves the trains. So much that we moved the train table into his room. He actually leaves the track set up and pushes the train around. He will play quietly forever. Unlike his brother, who was Godzilla with the train track.

First Swim

We went to the neighborhood pool for the first time yesterday. We've been playing in the baby pool in the backyard for a couple weeks, but I decided to brave the big pool. Our pool has a zero depth entry which is really nice with small children. We had lots of fun and even did our own animal rescue! We had to get one of our balls out of the drain and when we lifted up the lid there was a frog trapped in there. So, of course, we got it out and helped it back to safety. Renae will be so proud!!

The Winner

Jonah's new phrase is "I win". It started when the guys play ready,set,go. Jackson or Clay was always saying "I win" at the end of the race. Now Jonah just uses it anytime he thinks he's done something good whether its throwing the ball or jumping off of something. "I win, I win!!" of course it sounds like "I ween, I ween!"

Little Stud!

Jackson and his tuxedo bear pose in my parents backyard the morning of the wedding!

The Happy Couple!

Clay and Amy McCalmon (this was actually before the wedding, during the pictures!)

The Big Day!

Here's Jackson dancing with the flower girl. He totally fell in love with her, and that's the only way we got him down the aisle. He held her hand the whole way. We laughed later b/c we spent so much time talking to Jackson about walking down the aisle that we never explained to him what happens after that. He was pretty antsy sitting in the front row. He didn't get that we had to sit there for 20 minutes and watch the actual ceremony. He got that all out of his system by the end of the night. We had the two most tired boys I've ever seen. They danced their little hearts out. We're still waiting for the photographer's pics, but I'm guessing that there are more of the boys at the reception than anyone else.

The Rehearsal

In typical 3 year old fashion, Jackson wanted nothing to do with walking down the aisle at rehearsal. Gotta love the pout!


















He quickly recovered at dinner especially after receiving a koala bear from Build a Bear, complete in a tuxedo.









He shows off his new bear to Jaime.















Following tradition, Clay and Amy got married the day after her birthday. Clay suprised her with an awesome present. Notice the look of shock!!














...Followed by tears!

The Day Before!

The day before the wedding, we went to the hotel to get somethings ready. The guys had fun putting together the arch.








How poor Jonah spends most of his time at major events.























Da Boys! (patiently waiting)











Jackson practices being the wedding singer!

Mother's Day!

So apparently I can't upload videos to my blog. So to see the cute Jackson video, click on this link.
http://web.mac.com/claycartwright/iWeb/claycartwright.com/Happy%20Mothers%20Day.html
This video was taken with my new digital camera that the boys got me for mother's day. I've been wanting a little one that I can carry around in my purse. Jackson pre-recorded this on the camera, so it was there when I opened it. This has been a fun mother's day b/c Jackson is starting to understand holidays. He asked me the other day if there was a dad's day too.

Tour of the State

So Clay and I left at 9am this morning and drove to Charleston which is just under 2 hours away. We had to go to the Dept of Homeland Security to get fingerprinted as part of the adoption process. We then drove to Columbia which is about 2 hours from Charleston to visit the Secretary of State's office to get documents apostilled. Yes, we already did this once, but there were a few that we forgot to sign, so we had to redo them. We dropped these documents off at the Bethany office along with more money :) and then headed home, a 2 1/2 hour drive. All of this was in the lovely stormy weather we're having here. The good news is that we're done with everything now until we actually get the referral for a child. Then there will be another mad rush of paperwork. The other good news is that I still know to parallel park!! Please pray that the Russian government will finish their paperwork so that the agency can get re-accredited. They are dragging their feet right now. We will not be given a referral until the accreditation is approved. To read more on the situation, click on the link below and scroll down to the Russia section. http://www.bethany.org/A55798/bethanyWWW.nsf/0/CB3D3587F93F2A67852572CE00537FE4

You know you're in the South when...

You go to a MOPS council meeting and the breakfast is biscuits and gravy with bacon and eggs!! Yes it really happened to me yesterday. I went to Savannah to meet with other MOPS leaders and they provided breakfast, cooked by 2 little old ladies :) It was not your typical Johnson County bagels and fruit! Gotta love the South!

Me and My New Sis

This is Amy, my bro's new wife, and me at her bachelorette party at Cheesecake Factory. I got to spend sometime with her while back in KC and my bro is very lucky. I am looking forward to many fun years together as family!