In Loving Memory of James Faith Sr...

I love and miss you so much, Pap! There are no words for the kind of sadness I feel.  There are so many things to say but no words to express them.  I have so many wonderful memories to keep with me though.  You spoiled me when I was a child and that's what grandfathers are good for. Your house was my favorite place to be as a kid. And every time I came up, you would always let me get a horse out. Or you would send me off into the pasture with one lead line and I'd somehow come back with all the horses... I will miss the long trail rides that you, Dad & I used to take the most.  Pap Jim, I think, was the most excited when I told him that Dylan was on the way. He was so happy to have his first great-grandson. All of his grandchildren & great-grandchildren were spoiled by him in one way or another! We were all very loved...

I miss you so much already but I still have memories to keep with me forever...

James Faith Sr. 

1939-2009

Surrounded by Girls

Aunt Joan, Nicole & Baby Kiersten came up to visit us this week. Dylan spent the day hanging out with 4 girls. I know...poor boy right, haha. If the twins would have been with them...it could have been a total of 6 girls, lol. But Dylan loves all the girls, haha. Dylan had a blast playing with Aunt Joan, who always seems to know how to get him wound up and giggling. He chatted like crazy with Nicole and even stopped to say "Hiiiii" to the baby. After soaking up baby time, I grabbed my camera to get a few pictures of the sweet pea. She has grown so much already. Time just seems to fly by. So here are a few adorable pictures of Kiersten.

Kiersten, almost 7 weeks old, sleeping peacefully in Mommy's arms.

Dylan & Aunt Joan playing. Well actually, he was doing the milk thing at the moment, lol. But resumed playing as soon as he was replenished.

Nothing can compare to being curled up & sleeping on Mommy's shoulder! 

Aunt Joan & Nicole being amused by some of Dylan's antics, lol.

Beautiful Mommy...Beautiful Baby...

Uncle Dustin's Birthday Party

Uncle Dustin's birthday was last Friday. This above picture is actually on that day. However, my Mom threw a birthday cookout/party for Dustin's birthday a few days later on that Sunday. Here are a few pictures from his birthday party.

You know you are getting old when the number of candles on your cake are no where near the actual age that you are, LOL. Happy 23rd Birthday Dust!

Dylan playing with some of his cars for a bit. He is really starting to be quite a social butterfly now. He is still shy at first but it usually takes seconds for him to warm up. It helps that Justin & Kennady were there to play with him too!

Great-Grandma Guyer & Dylan hanging out in the kitchen. I'm not sure if it's Grandma's blonde hair or Dylan's orange shirt, but oh dear does his hair look red!

Kennady & Dylan posing for a picture together. Dylan had fun playing with the older kids. He especially loved it when we were all outside running around & playing.

Uncle Dustin got an awesome Eagles hat for his birthday and Dylan, also being an Eagles fan, had to put it on and try it out, ha ha ha!

Silly Daddy = Silly Boy

Jeff can get Dylan to laugh like crazy by doing just about anything. It usually involves some silly faces & sound effects. In this video Dylan had moved from coloring to trying to stand crayons up on the table. Jeff did some silly things and he completely lost it. Of course, I didn't catch the best of the laughing because I still had to run to grab the camera but I caught the tail end of the two boys being silly goof balls!

Monkeys Love Bananas!

Dylan has always loved his bananas. It was his favorite thing to eat for breakfast for the longest time. Usually when Dylan has a banana to eat, Mom has at least already peeled it and sometimes I cut it up for him too. Dylan wanted a banana for a snack the other day and I decided to let him eat it like a big boy. I started the peel for him and let him eat his banana like "Big Boys" do, ha ha. He was pretty excited about that! Here are a couple of pictures of the little monkey eating his yummy banana.


He is more than excited to be growing up into a big boy and loves all the new things he gets to do! Even if it is peeling a banana as he eats it, LOL!

So Many Changes in a Year

I was watching some older Dylan videos today. I always talk about how fast time goes and how much Dylan changes. You can notice the obvious things but it's really hard to realize how much he has changed in the past year. Last summer, Dylan was walking but very wobbly, talking but mostly jibberish, and was bald & a chunky monkey. This summer, Dylan runs so FAST, talking non-stop and even in sentences, and grew upwards to slim out his chunky monkey rolls & dimples. Oh yeah...and grew a whole head of bright red hair, LOL. These videos are from July 2008 so almost exactly a year ago. Enjoy the flashback!


Dylan practicing his walking skills. It seems like it took him no time to master that thing called walking and moved right on to running.


One day I was trying to find something to watch on T.V. and Dylan started dancing like crazy to some techno-sounding Madonna song that I randomly came across. I put down the remote and ran for the camera. You have to check out the face he makes around 9 seconds in or so, LOL.

Bye-Bye my sweet little chunky monkey...Hello my energetic, curious toddler.

A Weekday in July

These are just a few random pictures of Dylan & I playing, hanging out, and relaxing outside during the week. I love summer!

Dylan & Mommy's hands. 

Dylan was having a blast looking at the pictures I just took. He is very very interested in cameras, lol.  

Dylan ditching his sandals. I love how he has his feet crossed in this picture. My little boy is getting so big!

Dylan "hanging out" and resting for a bit. He did a few laps up and down the hill and then crawled up on the chair in the shade for a short break.

This is how Dylan throws a ball or anything really. He brings his arm the whole way back like a softball pitch or something. You can always tell when he's about to throw something really hard because his arm goes behind his back with it, lol.

ABC's & 123's

Dylan seems to pick up on so many things quickly. I know that I say it all the time, but it seems like he honestly learns something new every single day. He is constantly adding tons of new words to his vocabulary and trying to speak in sentences all the time. Some of the times, you can understand most of the words. Other times, he fills in the words he doesn't know how to say with his own Dylanese words, lol. Among many of his new activities, Dylan picked up on all of his ABC's and can count up to 10 now too! It took him some time to learn all of his ABC's. He started with a couple familar letters like "D" and then before we knew it, he knew them all! We are so proud of our little boy! Now he has moved on to trying to actually sing the alphabet. I'm sure before I know it, he'll have that mastered too, lol. Oh man...time goes by SO fast!


(June '09) In this video, Dylan was playing with his foam bathtub letters.


(June '09) In this video, Dylan was singing. At first I thought he was trying to sing his ABC's, but there were a lot of "J" & "K"'s in there, lol. Maybe he was just making up his own little song, ha ha.

I have still yet to capture his counting on camera.  He will do it all day until I grab my camera and then suddenly he has no interesting in numbers and counting and wants to do what Mommy is doing, lol! So when I do, I will be sure to post it for you.  It's quite adorable.  Although, Dylan is not shy about showing off his skills either.  Last weekend, Dylan was showing Grandma & Grandpa Gray how smart he is by telling them all of his ABC's and counting while we were at the lake.

A Sunny Day at the Lake

It's that time of year again! Instead of riding MX bikes on Sundays, we have moved on to riding jet-skis on Sundays, lol. Last summer, Jeff, Dylan & I spent almost every Sunday at Raystown Lake. And why not...it is absolutely beautiful up there and you have an enormous lake to cool off in, ha ha. There is also a little "beach" area too for the kids (and adults). Last Sunday, the weather was perfect so we headed to the lake.

It was a great day in the sun! Dylan was trying on Daddy's new gloves, lol. To me, going to Raystown on Sundays is like a mini-vacation every week. I think we all are looking forward to more fun Sundays at the lake!!!

A Day with Miss Autumn

A good friend of mine from high school asked me if I could watch her daughter for the day as she finished moving the rest of her things to Carlisle. I'm still super-excited to have one of my best friends be that much closer to me! Anyway, I told her that I could watch her for the day and I'm sure Dylan would be excited to have a friend over too! Lauren & Miss Autumn arrived early in the morning and we had a full & fun day ahead of all of us.

 

Dylan & Autumn spent the morning coloring, playing with cars, and watching cartoons here and there. Dylan was pretty happy about having a buddy stay with us all day to play. I decided to pack the kids up and head to the park before the sun & heat became too much. So later in the morning, we all headed to the park/playground to play for a couple of hours.

Dylan climbing the jungle gyms at the playground. He loves to come here & play. It's a really great way to wear him completely out too, lol. He is usually all over the placing, climbing, running, jumping, and sliding. He gets quite the workout, lol.

Autumn loved the playground too. But of course, all kids love playgrounds. She climbed every piece of equipment there and tried out everything, lol. 

Dylan was extra brave this day, lol. Anything that he saw Autumn do, he decided he wanted to try. He got on the big kid swings, went down the biggest slides, and climbed to the very top of all the gyms.

Silly girl, Autumn, 

posing for a picture!

After we left the park, we went home and made lunch. Autumn asked if they could each lunch on the patio and I thought it was a pretty good idea. So that's what they did. They sat outside in the beautiful summer weather (under the big umbrella, lol) and ate their lunch. It was quite adorable! Dylan was about wiped out shortly after that and the sun also decided to go in for a bit. As the thunderstorms hit, Dylan slept peacefully. Autumn and I did some crafty things while Dylan & the sun took their naps. Dylan woke up from his nap quite rejuvenated and we continued to play outside (the sun was back) with bubbles, chalk, and the cars. Overall, the kids had a blast that day. I had a lot of fun too. However, whew!!! Two kiddos are a lot of work especially when the Mom is used to at least one hour of down time a.k.a. nap time every day, lol. I was definitely ready for bed last night, lol. I still had fun having Miss Autumn over to play and looking forward to more days of play for these two.