Henry has a birthday!

Shirt pictured here a sweet gift from "Auntie" Donna! We love it!

OK, well a HALF a birthday! Henry turned 6 months old 2 days ago. We celebrated with the ritualistic singing of the birthday song that my mom always sang to us. It goes like this:

Henry has a birthday,

We're so glad!

Let us see how many

He has had.

As we count our fingers

We are told:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6!
Yes, our fingers say he's

6 MONTHS OLD!

If you need the tune to this, then you'll have to call me or e-mail me and I'll send you the video (hdunham[at]knology.net) . I do have it documented on video, but it's much too embarassing for the WORLD wide web. :-)

Happy half-birthday, sweet angel Henry! Mommy and Daddy love you and we are so proud and blessed by you every day!

Being a Dad

Being a dad must be great! My friend Donna's post from the other day made me think about this and I've started to notice that dad's have some pretty special talents. (The picture here is Jason throwing Owen on the sofa repeatedly tonight. Apparently this was super cool. "Again, daddy! Again daddy!") For instance, Jason can come up with any game to make Owen laugh in fits. The other night, I was downstairs and they were in his room playing. Jason took all Owen's rubber ducks and put each one on top of a fan blade- then he turned the fan on! Ducks flying everywhere! Owen thought this was hysterical- as you can imagine. They must have done it 10 times. I asked Jason how he ever thought to do that (and if he could dust while he was up there) and he said that he just thought it would be cool, so he knew Owen would like it. Must be a guy thing. Jason thinks of things like this ALL the time while I'm counting and singing alphabet songs. Good thing our boys have both of us to balance out their nerdy (me) and cool (Jas) sides.

Here's a link to Donna's post with wonderful poem: http://deusnosconjuxit.blogspot.com/2008/03/childrens-hour.html

Jason and I both are very blessed to have both had strong, Christian, active and caring dads.

Here's my dad and mom with us at Harris's baptism in January:

This Jason's dad with Jason and Owen at Grandma Dunham's house on Thanksgiving:

They are our heroes and set such strong examples of how to raise a family- without us realizing it as children! While balancing discipline and humor, lessons and sermons and love and punishment, they set the tone to a grounded and stable home. Of course, we have wonderful moms that love and support us, too, (that's another post) but dads are pretty special. They taught us how to hit softballs (my dad) and defend soccer balls (Jason's dad), how to win multiplication flash card games (my dad) and how to read (Jason's dad). My dad even stayed up LATE one night teaching me the strategy of tic-tac-toe in 3rd grade so I wouldn't get beaten by the boys every day. Can you tell where I get my competitive streak!?!

Our dads have always been to church with us and never missed sports games. They've always told us they loved us, but never spoiled us. They've always loved our moms (super important) and never made us doubt the strength of our family.

I am so thankful to our heavenly Father for setting such a wonderful example for them and so overwhelmed at the blessings of their following His direction.

We have big shoes to fill (size 11D and 12, if you're shopping), but I'm thrilled and honored to get the opportunity to try.

Thanks, dads! We love you!

Spring Social at the Balch's

We had so much fun tonight at a last minute get together at Kat and Vic's house! They were trying to unload some food from their freezer before a trip out of town and we were the lucky recipients! Apparently, word of yummy food travels fast because Cate and her daughter Ellie, Marydae, Solveig, Jackson and their daughter Linnea and a newly engaged Alyssa were all there! The kids were with me and Jason got to come by before his softball game tonight. And Kat, Vic and their children Denton and Evelyn were at their own home, of course.
This is the scene just a few minutes after we arrived with Owen, Denton and Ellie:

That didn't take long for the tornado to hit!

Evelyn and Harris are only 3 weeks apart and they are so much fun! This is Evelyn and Kat and then Kat, Evelyn, Harris and me.

That's right- 3 weeks. Kat and Vic have nice petite children and we have linebackers. They both seem to resemble their older brothers quite a bit!

Its a good thing we all have beautiul children! Linnea is too adorable- and looks a lot like Jackson! Little Ellie was precious and keeping up with Owen and Denton pretty well. She's such a cute little girl- very sweet like her mama! I could just eat them all up!!

The play and eating soon moved outside and this is my favorite picture:

Denton is in his swim suit, with astronaut helmet while raking dirt for his trucks to play in! ha! Talk about multi-tasking!

Lucky for him, Owen thought this was perfectly normal (he was in a dragon costume earlier today). Who cares when 2 guys have some dirt and trucks to play with?

Thanks to Kat and Vic for a great time! We love y'all! Have a great trip- you should leave and clean out your freezer again soon!

Harris's First Food!

Harris had bananas today for the first time!! He had some at breakfast and he didn't like them all too much, but we tried them again at lunch and he warmed up to them (even though they were cold then- maybe that was it!?!). Here's a little video of it! Just overlook the fact that he's still in his pajamas at lunch...

About the Author

I have lived in Alabama all my life, but I've traveled a lot, so I know how you other people live. I am a Suuth-un girl by all counts: Southern accent (when needed), big hair (when needed), I love a monogram and I’ll call you ma’am if you don’t watch out. I am actually proud that Forrest Gump was from here. And I feel bad for Yankees because they don’t know what they’re missing. Bless their hearts. It’s a state of mind, not a location and I hope you’ve experienced it.

I am a jack of all trades, but a master of none. I pretend to be domesticated: I like to do crafts that involve whatever is around my house and they normally look like- well- poop. But that's okay because my kids don't have high expectations.

The things I do best are laugh and eat. Oh, and I’m a decent cook- which leads to my accomplishments in the eating arena.

My husband (Jason) and I have 2 boys: Ollie, 4 and Henry, 2- (not their real names) and we are expecting another baby in late July 2010.

I love chocolate-not the dark kind that’s good for you- the “milk” variety. And I prefer it to come in pretty wrappers (some call them candy bars) and paired with peanut butter.

I am officially allergic to chocolate AND peanut butter.

I am a crier and I get it honestly from my mom. She cries at every Andy Griffith Show- especially if Opey learned a hard lesson. And I grew up within very close proximity to a television, so please excuse the countless TV references. I'm particularly fond of 80s sitcoms.

My kitchen sink is usually full, my baseboards are filthy, I dust with wet wipes and you have to step around the laundry piles to get to my guest bathroom (I’ll hide them in the dryer, though, if you come over). But our home is full of laughter and God. And you don’t have to clean those up.

I try to please God in all that I think, say and do (and write), but always come up short. That’s because I’m human and I’m pretty sure God gets that. I think that the journey is about the constant attempts to get closer to Him. So I’m blogging about the journey: my attempts at being a child of God, a mother, a woman, a wife and enjoying this season with 2 young boys.

My grandmother always told me to keep a diary and I never did, so this is my attempt to make up for lost time. Pull up a chair feel free to flip through my diary pages. I won’t mind. But if you are a crier, too, or you laugh too hard, just dab your face with a wet wipe. You’ll perk right back up.

But why The Other Mama?

Photo credit: Candace Sanderson