oh, what a beautiful MOOOOrnin'......

can't you just hear gordon macrae's golden tones singing through the corn fields? we have had some seriously beautiful weather lately and i am loving every minute of it. because, let's just be honest....this is michigan. i can almost guarantee there will be another "last blast" of winter. it might not snow, but it will be stinkin' cold. (*i started this last night when we actually had our window open....this morning i woke up to a little snow on the grass....sheesh!) at least it's not below zero.

on tuesday we (nic, katie, myself, all our kids) went on a great little walk around our 'hood. we hit wendy's for lunch which was great fun. it was awesome just to get out of the house, but it was fun to hang out with big people and have a conversation deeper than, "ball? up? book? milk?" not that i have a problem with those conversations of course....please, connor and i have great times. that morning we had gone to meijers to pick up a few little things. we were picking out some oranges and connor was just sitting there being cute, until he decided to declare to the entire produce section that mommy wasn't buying oranges but in fact, she was buying a bag of balls.

"ball! ball! ball!"
"no, sweetie. it's not a ball, it's an orange. can you say orange?"
"ball."
"alright then."

but he's not a total airhead. in fact, the other day he surprised me with his know-how. i was washing the dishes when connor came whining into the kitchen. of course, i told him to turn off his whiner and talk with words. he begged, "milk, milk.....milk, milk" (which btw he says like me, "melk" :~) i said, "connor, if you want some milk go get your cup and i'll fill it." he wandered out into the living room and i thought that might be the last i would see of him. next thing i know he's wandering back in with his cup saying, "milk peas." HE'S A GENIUS! well, maybe he just understands more than he's letting on.... yep.

last night we were getting connor ready for bed, just chilling out with dad and going through all the names connor could say. the list is pretty long but it's funny how he says names so i'm going to plop down all the ones he knows.

HAIRGROVE'S
(name: sounds like)
poppa jo-g: poppa doe-d
momma jo-g: momma doe-d
uncle jo-g: i'll give you two guesses.....doe-d....you got it!
aunt christy: kiki
uncle steven: uh teebee
grace: ace
faith: afe
aiden: ainey
hudson: huddy

TALLY'S
grampa: sometimes rampa sometimes bampa.
granny b: be be lately
aunt nic: annie
uncle mike: uh me
ava: aba


he's got some of the extended fam down too. uncle paul's fam is uh pah, ah nane, josh--pretty clear, wawa, the dorans he said baby for david, and nanel for daniel but couldn't seem to get dillon and derek. so nathan decided to hit five with just the initials dmd-that was super easy. go ga was aunt claudia. uncle mitchells fam was shish, neena, aus, cocky, up. gramma and papa (his great grandparents) are mamma and papa. great great gramma sanders is shoe-re since susie tends to be easier.
he did ok with the wheeler connection too. uh mock is uncle marc, noney is aunt colleen, kk is kennedy. ahnon is the famous aunt dawn and g-momma and g-poppa (more great grandparents :~) quickly morphed into d-poppa and d-momma.

i was talking with gramma tally about how kids always have cute ways to say all the names they know. david used to call nicole and me "kissy-cole". both of us were happy to go running when we heard that name, and whoever was chosen by the blue eyed boy would beam with excitement. laura called gramma "tally" for the longest time, and she called my mom "bubba". derek called me "fishy" for about two weeks and i thought it was great. i was totally bummed the first time each cousin called me "christina". it was like my "chrissy" status was gone and they were growing up out of that super cute stage. now they were going to stop saying things like basgetti, helipoptor, hangaber, and all the other mutilations of the english language that we hold so dear. oh, well, time marches on. there's always something to enjoy at each stage of the game. even now, my dad tells us all the time how excited he is that he doesn't have to pay for us "leaches" anymore.....(fess up, dad. i know you love spending money on the kids anyway, and if that means we have to eat your food you'll pay my friend. you'll pay. mwahahahaha!)

daddy pulled out some hockey moves while they were wrestling

ahhh! i'm stuck!!

somebody help me! help me!

good morning, crazy hair.