Possum Kingdom

Last weekend we met my parents at the lake. The boys played golf while Mom, Hampton and I hung out in the condo 2 of the afternoons, but the highlight for H was riding in the boat. He talked about it the whole way there and has not stopped talking about it since, "Go ride...Pop's boat." Mom and I took him for a ride asap when the boys went to play their first round. He loved watching and hearing the other boats.

Enjoying berries with Sweetie and Mommy

Sweetie spoiled Hampton with unlimited berries...his favorite!!!

Feeding Pops' pet crow Sunny

He gave it a shot, but was not super fired up about riding the tube...very different from his first lake experience. We were mindful not to force him to do anything he was afraid of doing. He did enjoy parts of his tube ride. However, I don't think he enjoyed it as much as Daddy and UD enjoyed their tube ride.

Daddy and UD

Hampton much preferred watching Daddy and UD with a good snack...and of course Sweetie.

You might not be surprised to know that Hampton LOVED the pool, especially the waterfall. As soon as he would wake up he would ask, "Go see waterfall? Come on Pops.) This boy is fearless in the water... as long as he has his ring on. Daddy, Pops and UD threw him back and forth, he jumped off the side, ran under the pounding waterfall and even jumped off of the 3 foot planter box. Fearless I tell you... Squealing out of sheer delight!!!

Fun in the Sun

Hampton L-O-V-E-S the water...watching it, playing in it, driving over it, talking about it...anything to do with water.

We spent the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend at J and A's house. They have a huge inflatable water slide. Hampton was pretty intimidated at first, but warmed up quickly when Daddy joined him.

We met everyone for lunch and the girls wanted to sit by Hampton. He kept pulling them tight for a hug and saying, "cheese". So I took their picture. Pretty cute, I must say.

Everyone enjoyed popsicles after the water slide. It was Hampton's first! He would bit into it and then make a horrible face...like he was eating a lemon. I hate the feeling of your teeth biting into a popsicle...nails on a chalk board. He kept eating though.

It is so much fun to see the relationship he is building with his cousins. He absolutely adores them...all of them...and talks about them often.

We spent a good portion of our day at the pool today and I have to say, considering he has not been taught to swim other than, "kick your legs, kick kick kick" he's quite the water bug. I am so thankful for our neighborhood pool, but so much more thankful for sweet friends to play with.

please, do not make fun of the girly flotation device...it works, so we'll just have to be a little girly :)

We are so excited to go to the lake with Sweetie, Pops and UD to celebrate UD's birthday! Hampton will love the boat.

Daddy and UD have started playing on a men's softball team. Hampton gets excited to go watch, but he doesn't do much watching. Jack and Caleb's daddies play too, so his best buddies are there...you absolutely cannot sit still if your best buddies are around!!!

Big hugs for UD

Hitchin' a ride with Daddy

The Big Number 2...part 2

We returned from The Farm on Thursday and drive to Sweetie and Pops'on Friday (Hampton's actual birthday). He was excited to go to their house to see the horses, ponies and Reba (my dad's mule). We didn't eat dinner until about 9, because we couldn't get Pops and Hampton to stop exploring outside. They were made to be buddies...they would much rather be outside than anywhere else! Saturday morning we met GiGi, Uncle Jerry, Julee, Carolina and Olivia for breakfast. Hampton was fascinated! He couldn't take his eyes off of them and was eager to share his stale cheerios with everyone. After breakfast we went home to P-L-A-Y and enjoy the absolutely beautiful weather. Daddy, Pops and Hampton walked across the creek to the pond to throw rocks and sticks into the water. Hampton (and Pops) loves to throw things in the water. The grass was taller than he is, but I don't think that slowed him down one bit.

Carolina and Olivia were great with Hampton. He drug them all over the place and they were ready to entertain him. We had a great dinner and a few heated rounds of horse shoes before our guests arrived.

watching Daddy pitch horse shoes
Olivia loved the puppies and wanted to take one home so badly!


We had a cowboy themed party for Hampton...it was really an excuse to visit with some of our close friends.

The whole Ashmore clan came as well as the Puckett family. It was fun to see Cody's bump and hear about her excitement to be a mom. It is weird to think of her as being a mom! We would have been due within 3 days of each other :(. I was a little emotional about it, and found myself wondering what my tummy would look like. I'm still holding. Hampton was very into his cake again and loved opening presents.



Sharing a lick with Cody

He would open a gift and name what was inside followed by yippee or wow. (I have video on our video camera, but don't know how to get it on the blog.) He got some really fun gifts...not that we needed any of them.
opening "Bad Dog, Marley" from Cody and Jeremy...he sleeps with Marley now :) This boy loves his animals!!!

Sunday we enjoyed lunch at Gigi's and some more fun with Jerry, Julee, Carolina and Olivia before they had to leave. Ben flew home on Sunday while H and I stayed until Tuesday. It was nice to spend a little extra time there. Sweetie made Hampton train and airplane shaped pancakes with blueberries and syrup...What a treat! At about 4 on Monday, H became very anxious for Pops to come home from work. He got there around 6 and they didn't come inside until dinner time. Heaven on earth... On our way out of town we enjoyed lunch with Janet at Bravo. It was delicious, to say the least. I ordered Hampton a kids pizza and they brought him raw dough, marinara and cheese. He played with the dough a bit and then I constructed what I thought was his pizza. We took it over to the brick oven where we watched it cook. Hampton was distraught when they took his pizza away, but then enjoyed watching the fire. When we returned to our table, they brought him another adult sized pizza...he didn't even touch it. Sweetie and I enjoyed a couple of pieces though. I love their idea and will return asap...wish they had one here.

SWEETIE AND POPS ARE THE BEST!!!

Thanks for such a fun weekend.

Hampton slept most of the drive home and then zoned into Cars...his new favorite movie (He watched the whole movie on the plane to TN...earphones and all and didn't move a muscle. Gotta love the portable dvd!). We were very excited to see Daddy who had dinner and flowers waiting. He is too good to us!

The Big Number 2

I'm pretty late with this post, but much better late than never. We spent the week of Hampton's birthday in at Gran and Poppy's house and then at Sweetie and Pops' house. Of course we had parties in both places.

Hampton thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend some time with his cousins. We got to meet sweet Amelia. She was almost 3 weeks old while we were there and was just as precious as can be. She pretty much ate and slept. I enjoyed holding a tiny baby! He also got to meet Easton...the biggest 2 month old I have ever seen. It was such a blessing to witness Matt and Tiffany as parents...finally. He shared his first ice cream cone with Carrigan, and would ask for her as soon as he woke up...quite an improvement from the last time they saw each other. AK and Isabelle were such great helpers and played so patiently with him. He is still talking about all of them.

They all played well together, but I was especially impressed with H and C. One afternoon, they played together in the basement for at least an hour. All you could hear were squeals and laughter...such a precious relationship. It made me excited for H to have siblings :).

Naturally, he enjoyed snuggles from Gran (and Poppy).

We told him early in our trip that we would go see the animals and feed the horses. With his excitement for animals, we couldn't get there soon enough. Every day he would ask, "horses, food, fruit?" He was dying to feed the horses apples. He also enjoyed throwing rocks at the chickens, gathering fresh eggs (and throwing them back in...oops),mimicking the peacocks and "whistling" for the goats to come closer.

Although he enjoyed everything about our trip, the highlight had to be the birthday party and the train.

He absolutely loved Gran and Poppy's Thomas train track...so much so that they decided he needed his own at home. He loves it and plays with it daily! He and Daddy made a special trip to the toy store to get a battery operated Thomas the Tank Engine. He was so excited to show me, he could hardly stand it. I couldn't open it fast enough. I think he played with it for close to 2 hours. I love to see him so excited, but I want to be cautious to avoid teaching him that things make you happy.

Big Hug

Gran had a very special cake made just for Hampton's party. He loved it and cried when we had to leave it on the table to go eat.

Poppy also had a backhoe delivered to the farm just for Hampton. He was excited to look at it from a distance, but wasn't too confident around it up close. He wasn't too sure about sitting in the cab with Daddy and certainly didn't like it when Ben started it. I don't think Hampton understood that all the people and festivities were to celebrate him, but he definitely enjoyed everyone being there. As soon as people, mainly the kids, started arriving Hampton invited them to come play in the basement with him..."Come on people, come on." All the kids played in the basement while the adults visited up stairs.

Hampton did not hesitate to leave the fun when we told him it was time for cake. He has learned to love cake...and ice cream! He was such a big boy eating his cake and ice cream all by himself and not in a highchair.

I was surprised to see how much he was into opening his gifts. He loved the presents, but was very grateful. He gave kisses and thank yous freely.

I made a pinata that didn't work as well as I had planned, but the kids loved the candy inside. Gran even found Tonka fruit snacks to put inside. She is so special!

Hampton was so excited about the candy, he tried to eat it without taking the paper off...we don't eat candy much around here.

We are so thankful for Gran and Poppy!!!

I will post about our party at Sweetie and Pops tomorrow...this post has taken me 2 days :(. I already have it typed...just need to load pics.