Clay's 1st Birthday: Part Two

Here's the video I promised. The oatmeal one is actually from today, but the other two I've had for a month or so.

So, this morning I was sharing my banana oatmeal with Clayton and because it was very hot I had to blow on it a lot before feeding it to Clay. After a few bites, Clayton joined in and blew on every spoonful before eating it. I went to get my camera and got him to do it one more time. So cute.

Psst!!

Awww.. love Shady!

Happy 1st Birthday, Clay!!!

Here are some pictures of Clayton in his new toybox before I put the toys in it. His toybox was a gift from his Grandma Dee. I will add pictures of his party after tonight and some video I've had for awhile later today, so stay tuned!






Oh, Clayton had his one year check-up yesterday and we found out that he now weighs 22.9 pounds and is 29.4 inches long. That puts him in the 48th percentile for weight and 39th for length. Still a pretty average little guy! The poor thing also got 4 shots yesterday... :-( Two nurses came in and did 2 in each leg at a time. He was NOT happy. But on the bright side, we got a green light from Dr. Taylor to turn Clay's car seat around. You should have seen his face when I put him in it facing forwards. He was all, "Why didn't you think of this before, Mom?!" Hahaha.

Olympic Games: USA vs. Brazil

Being that I lived in Brazil for 18 months, I was as interested in how they did during these Olympics as I was in how the USA did. Imagine my glee when there were two great games for gold medals fought between Brazil and the US: Women's Soccer and Women's Volleyball. Both games were nail-biters. The US women didn't score in soccer until overtime and it was thanks to some awesome saves by their Goalie that US Women's soccer came out with the gold win by 1 to 0 over Brazil.





The Brazilian volleyball team won the first set and then the US Women's volleyball team won the second. Brazil then beat them 25 to 13 and next closely 25 to 21, securing their first ever gold medal in volleyball at an Olympics. It was good fun. Congrats to all the Olympic athletes!

Owen Mark Ricks

I finally got to see my little nephew yesterday. He was hooked back up to a bunch of stuff, but is back off it today. He's on a light-bed for his bilirubin. That's why it's all blue underneath him like that. His hair is so soft and fluffy! He is so tiny, especially compared to Clay. :)



Here he is holding on to his Grandma's pinky finger. Too cute.



Love him! We can't wait to get him home.. still no word on how long that might be, though. Hopefully soon.

**To clarify for those of you who don't know or who haven't read my Mom's blog yet, this is what happened with Owen.
Cristin was actually due to have him on September 18th, so he was approximately 5 weeks early when he was born on August 16th. He weighed in at 5 pounds, 10 ounces and was 16 inches long. At first his lungs were watered down and still premature and the doctors thought he might have some sort of infection. Fortunately, his lungs matured quickly and all his blood work came back clean. However, his new thing is that his heart rate keeps dropping to the 50s and 40s (should be between 120 and 180). So yesterday they had a ton of monitors hooked to his chest when I saw him. They also did an ultrasound on his brain (right through his soft spot) but that also came back clean. So far they don't know what's up with his heart rate dropping sporadically, but they are still testing the poor little guy. Occasionally he refuses to eat so they've got a tube up his nose going into his stomach for when he won't eat. He's already lost a few ounces, but that is normal for any newborn. Anyways, that's all the information I have so far, but I will update if there are any significant changes. Did I mention that he is dang cute?!

Cache Valley Fair and Rodeo

Here's some pictures from the County Fair this past weekend. Clayton loved being on the tractors. He also sat and watched the whole 2 and a half hour rodeo. It was a little past his bedtime, so he pretty much passed out in the car on the way home.

Aquatic Center Fun

These pics are from July 19th. It was Benson Ward's day at the Aquatic Center (Logan's only public outdoor pool). There is a kid area that only has 6 inches of water and Clay liked to sit in it and also crawl around in it and try to drink the water. It didn't take him long to realize that chlorine is not tasty. After a while, Jer took him into deeper water and tossed him around for awhile. He loved it and giggled like crazy! I have some videos that I'll load later, too.

SYTYCD: Final Four

Courtney and Twitch: Hip Hop - It was cool when she walked over and jumped off him. It was a fun routine, I liked it. Chelsie would have done it better, but whatever. :)
Courtney's solo: Same old, same old.
Katee and Joshua: Contemporary - Wade Robson's stuff is interesting. I thought it was pretty good - that style isn't my cup of tea, but they danced it well.
Courtney and Katee: Broadway - What the crap were they wearing? I thought it was pointless. I didn't like it at all. I felt myself wondering how much longer they were going to flounce around the stage... yawn! Mandy Moore is insane - she thought the costumes were 'beautiful'? Goo!
Twitch's solo: It was good. Entertaining.
Joshua and Twitch: Russian Dance (Trepak?) - The height on Joshua's jumps is freaky. This was a strange routine. It hardly seemed choreographed. It just looked like they were trying to out-do eachother, which I think was the point of the routine. It was hilarious. Loved it.
Katee's solo: Yawn.
Katee and Twitch: Foxtrot - Great music. Twitch looked a little stiff at first. Overall, though, I thought they really sold it. It was lovely. Twitch did look fancy in that suit.
Joshua's solo: He's awesome. Love that he got on the judge's platform. Ha.
Courtney and Joshua: Jive - It was defintely high-energy. I thought it was pretty good. Not my favorite, though.
All four dancers: Contemporary - Why kilts? It was okay. Poor Courtney and Joshua looked exhausted compared to Katee and Twitch.

I can't wait for tonight's show. I love when they re-dance the best routines of the season. One I for sure hope to see again is Chelsie and Mark's hip-hop dance to "Bleeding Love". Also, the Bollywood routine would be fun to see again. I'd also bet they do the ballet number again and the Mia Michaels 'Door' routine to "Mercy" by Duffy.

Okay, predictions. I think Twitch will win. I think Joshua is the more talented, but Twitch is the more popular. The girls are there just cause they have to have girls. Katee is talented, though, she can really do anything. Courtney has always been blah for me.

PS. Megan, do you remember last year when all the dancers did the same routine to "Waiting on the World to Change"? I forget why they did that.. something about the war? Just something I remembered just now and couldn't recall what the point was. I remember that Pasha wasn't good, though!

Thursday:
Well, I loved the show. I thought it was an awesome finale. The dancing was all great. It was interesting to see Mary do her thang and Nigel get his tap on. And I adored seeing all the past 'stars' of previous SYTYCD seasons do that big number near the end. And how psyched was I that JOSHUA won it!? He's an unbelievable dancer and totally deserved it. I also thought it was way cool that they gave Katee $50,000 for being the 'top girl'. Nice. The popping-dance-off was fun, but I'm with Mia and liked Phillip's dancing more than Roberts'. Overall, it was a phenomenal show and the best man won. Hurrah for season 4, now bring on season 5!!! :-)