Mondays with Crosby

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 2 years and 9 weeks old!!!  At 1:41pm, Caroline would have been three.  Three years have come and gone. Yet, when I sit here thinking of that dreadful day in February, it almost feels like yesterday.  How easily my mind returns to that place of overwhelming grief and sorrow.  The pain and agony of childbirth was exceeded tenfold by the loss of a second daughter.  A perfect and healthy daughter.  I close my eyes and see the delicate features of her lips, the blonde hair covering her head, the lines swirling at her fingertips, creating prints all her own.  And those feet.  They  were one and three eighths of an inch long and slender, with toes shaped like her momma's.  Beautiful Caroline.  What I would give to have known her more.  24 weeks and 2 days was not long enough and was not part of my plan.  

Neither was her brother.  

Praise the Lord, He had other plans.

I don't begin to understand this path we have walked.  But I will praise HIM for my children.  All three of them.  I will tell my precious boy of his sisters.  He will see their pictures.  He will know their names, for they will ever be spoken in this house.  Their impact on our lives will not be forgotten.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Caroline...    

"The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!" Job 1:21 NET

Mondays with Crosby

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 2 years and 8 weeks old!!!  Yep.  This 2+ year old STILL has his bubba.  He still LOVES bubba.  In fact, he attempted to manage 2 bubbas at one time last night.  He thought it was so funny that he actually sat and let Blake run downstairs and get the camera without protest! I guess he will do most anything for bubba.  He only gets it at bedtime so I think that is pretty good.  I will cut him off soon.  I will...

The weather has been FABULOUS lately.  We have spent LOTS of time outside.  I almost hate posting anything about it in fear that MY post will somehow jinx mother nature and the awful cold will return!  We spent Friday morning at the part with "Baby Jack" and Danielle.  Crosby loves "Baby Jack"...who does not look like such a "baby" anymore... 

Swinging for the first time...

Then there is Miss Moo...

She and Melissa joined us as well.  Let me just say...this adorable thing with pigtails looks sooooo sweet and innocent, right??  We'll just see about that...  

There is no doubt this one is a mess.  He didn't anymore want to sit, confined in that swing than I want to have my teeth pulled...

No.  He wanted to be off with the big kids.  Trying to take the big girls PINK skateboards.  Like he can even skateboard...

He was all over that Parmer Park.  The child couldn't stay in one place for the life of him  That was until we made it back to Margaret's house.  Little Miss Innocent put my wild boy in a choke hold like none other.  She can get her way with him...

When she wants a hug...

She gets a hug!!!

And if she wants another one...

She will get that one too!!!

Don't let me fool you.  Crosby loves every second of it!!  We are gonna have our hands full with these two!!! ;-)

On Sunday, we headed down to Columbia after church.  Lulu and GranBuddy gave Crosby a few books from cousins Sam and Gid.  If you will notice the pictures on the pages, you will understand why he thinks they are AWESOME...

Kinda like Gee Gee's scooter...

He had a good ole time at Gee Gee and Pop's house...

Be he had tons of fun when he got to go visit a few goats down the road...

It put a pretty big smile on this boys face to see them eating bread from Pop's hand!

The babies were presh...

The big ones were pretty sweet too.  Quite the interesting creature if you stare at it long enough...

This was my favorite adult.  Not sure why but she stole my heart.  For a minute anyway...

Getting a closer look, much to my dismay...

I had visions of him being head-butted across the pen...

We all walked away unscathed.  He had a good time until we made him head toward the car.  He wanted to stay and run in the fields and check out the barns.  Luckily we made it home and this made him forget his woes...

We got to spend this morning with MORE friends.  A few folks weren't able to make it to playgroup.  But those who did, had a great time.  I was especially thrilled when sweet Leighton walked right up and crawled into my lap and cuddled.  We had to take a picture of the sweetness...  

The kiddos were willing to sit thanks to a Thomas video playing right behind my head!  We will stoop to low levels for the sake of a picture!  Hey...it worked!!!  Leighton, Cros, Dean, Charlotte and Emery...

And I am pretty sure we have another handful in the Malone family.  SHE looks super sweet and innocent...

But she is a feisty one...

She was ALLL about kissing on Dean...

Something tells me Dean didn't mind! ;-)

These kids.  They are so much fun!

Tear jerker

I think this on a daily basis but could never explain it the way she does. Too precious not to share...

Mondays with Crosby

At 11:24 am, Crosby Fox turned 2 years and 7 weeks old!!! Halfway through February? Seriously? Where in the world did January go? Was it not just Christmas? And I have yet to post Christmas pictures. OR 2nd birthday pictures. He will be 3 before it happens... Although there is hope. I do have the Lipscomb Family Christmas uploaded to a draft. Now I just need to sit down, write and post the thing. Not today. Too much is going on here. That is why I am working on this now!! Something tells me Blake did not plan on me blogging during our Valentine's evening to Chappy's and the Opryland Hotel. Just sayin'...

There are weeks that I take all of 5 pictures. Then there are weeks like the last one. I took millions. They aren't necessarily fabulous works of photography. They aren't. But I did some photo documentation of this boys busy week and need to share... First things first. Snow. Again...
The boys got bundled up. I wasn't exactly in the snow frolicking mood, seeing how I had a fever the day before! But I threw on a coat to take pictures of the boy who likes snow about as much as his momma likes snow...

Well, that is only sorta true. I like snow when it is useful. Say when you are taking a ski trip to Colorado. Or Lake Tahoe. Then, I like the snow. And I am fine for the first snow of the year, when everything looks really pretty for a few hours and then promptly melts. Other than that, there is no real need for snow in Middle Tennessee. This is the South. Where it is supposedly warm. Somebody needs to explain that to Snow Bird and tell him to get a job elsewhere... But like I good parent, I let the little fella enjoy it and simply want to take a picture or two (or 15) of him in it. What do I get in return? Tears...

And the horrific squawking sound he makes every time he sees the camera now...
"Nnnuawwk!" Some of you have heard this lovely sound and agree it needs to stop! Here is an action shot of the squawk...

Have mercy! So I settled for a picture of the family footprints, which Blake didn't do so carefully and kinda messed it up. Whatever...

Good thing a day of love was to follow. We had a little Valentine's party with friends on Friday. Aren't the red velvet cupcakes adorable. I didn't get a picture of the Italian Sweet Potatoes Au Gratin and salad we had for lunch but they were equally delish as well. Still need these recipes, Jenny and Courtney...

YUMMY!!!!

The kiddos got to decorate Valentine mailboxes...

And here is the proof that Crosby actually participate in the craft!!

It may have lasted all of 30 seconds but it happened people!! Oh and then we heard a rumble in the distance...
All the kiddos lined up to see the train outside the back door. Can you tell Crosby LOVED it???

After bribing Crosby to first eat his lunch, he got to dive into his cupcake. He specifically requested the "green one", referring to the green "sweet" heart on top of the cupcake.

Believe it or not, we were able to get all of our love bugs sitting side by side for a group photo...Crosby, Addy, Dean, Lucas and Leighton. If this isn't the cutest bunch of Valentine's I don't know what is!!!

So this is random but pretty funny. Blake was vacuuming (he kind of loves to vacuum) Saturday morning and put Crosby's rocker on the couch to get it out of the way...

You turn your back for 2 seconds and that happens! The boy is quite the fearless climber these days! Grammie (Gee Gee) and Pop came up for a visit Saturday. The weather was gorgeous so the boys spent some time outside riding the bike...
I am pretty sure Crosby was doing just that...riding! Pop did all of the work!

Saturday night, we had a gathering of the Fox Family Cousins. We did this last year and had a great time. There were lots more babies to add to the mix this year. We took a girls and babes picture first. From left to right, momma then babes...Jodi and Kate, Carina with Greta and Bennett, Lori and Isla, Anne Claire and Charlotte, Me and the Cros, sporting his Fox shirt for the occasion!

Then we added the rest of the gals and boys to get the entire Fox Cousin Photo... The girls on the couch stayed put but from left to right, we added Jeremy (now holding Charlotte); back row: Matthew, Derek, Darin, Lee, Daniel; in front Jen (now holding Greta) and Jamie, who just happens to be holding her on 17 week babe right there in her belly! Too bad Jason, Kerri, Sam and Gid and Sarah Jane and Craig were missing! :( Fun times had with this fun family of cousins...
I tired to get a cute picture of our little Fox in his Fox shirt. Instead I got the squawk and sheer hand smacking defiance...
This is a baaaad boy face FOR SURE...
And if it doesn't seem like the week was busy, let's talk about Sunday! We took a trip to Birmingham to celebrate Gid's 4th birthday...The party was held at Jason's brewery, Good People Brewing Company. Lots of room for kiddos to play in a huge warehouse! I had to put Crosby back into his Valentine red because he looked so cute on Friday. Don't worry, I did laundry! Crosby is ALLLL about "presents" now. He just stood there, staring at Gid's gifts...
He tried to dig in so I had to put him on a lower level in hopes of keeping his hands away...
And then he disappeared! The little sneak thought he would take one of Gid's gifts around the corner and play with it!!!The kiddos LOVED the "jump jump" with a huge slide! Sam took Charlotte for several rides... Crosby went down plenty of times too! He managed to get himself stuck in the corner a time or two! Looked pretty cute trying to get out...

Fun times!!!

There were lots of riding toys and push toys. Charlotte loved the lawn mower just like Crosby!Crosby was all about this bike...
He was so intense while riding...You will never believe what he did when I tried to snap a picture...That's right! He would smack his hands down on the handle bars and squawk at me!!! Landing himself right here...Yep folks! That is time out... Time out at a birthday party, nonetheless! The only problem... you ask him if he wants to go to time out and he replies, "Okay!" Sigh. What good is this doing? He just says, "I sorry mommy" and is off again...Oh dear. At least he wasn't squawking at me???

It was time for cake! Gid blew out the candles with a little help from his friends! Would you look at the tiny thing at the end of the table sitting in a chair like a big boy!!! ;-) Kerri got the deal of the century! 3 - 9 inch round cakes for free from Whole Foods because they didn't make the sheet cake she requested! And they were really good. See...These two liked it anyway!!!

A good time was had by all!! Crosby was even thrilled when we left. Mainly because we got to give Sam a ride back to his house...
Poor Sam had his ear talked off the entire way home! " See A Donalds, Som? (McD's)... Ambuhlance, Som, See?...Som, green light, Som?... Loooook!!! Tower!!! See tower, Som?" You get the idea...
And then he got to sit in Sam and Gid's playroom and pull out millions of trucks and cars! heaven for this boy...
Happy 3rd Valentine's Day Sweet Crosby! (at least I think this makes 3. Even though he is 2... ;-)) You are loved so much more than my words could begin to describe...