Rawlins Family

Rawlins Family

Thursday, August 20, 2009

My peeps.

Cameron

P1030801 (Check out the eyebrows...)

Likes

  • Coloring. Cameron could sit for hours with a stack of scratch paper and a box of crayons. He mostly draws super heroes, but occasionally will deign to draw pictures of family/friends. He gives me such enormous piles of pictures. I need to find a way to adequately show off some of them. Also too, Cameron loves to give his pictures as presents.
  • Super heroes. Everything in Cameron's world is somehow related to super heroes. He comes by this naturally. His father is somewhat of an expert in the realm of super hero knowledge.
  • Books. Cameron is a big reader and has always loved books. My favorite thing in the world is stumbling upon my children tucked away in quiet corners of the house engrossed in a book. Miles and Sophie have followed this pattern of book worship. I support it, naturally, with frequent trips to the library. But the beloved books on the shelf get plenty of play.
  • His siblings. Regardless of how little they are, Cameron is usually quite patient (to a point, anyway) with them and is great at making compromises as the need arises.
  • KINDERGARTEN! We met the teacher  tonight and Cameron is thrilled at the idea of starting school on Monday. He's counting down the days.
  • Cars, action figures and the world of make-believe. Cameron is famous for setting up little towns all over the house. He'll clear a couple shelves on my bookcase, or use his megablocks to set the scene. Then his cars and "guys" can be found for hours on end in their own little world. If I'm being honest I'll tell you it reminds me of playing with my Barbie dolls; the cars all talk to each other. Though, there were probably far fewer threats of bodily harm issued during my Barbie play...
  • Caesar salad. The kid loves caesar salad and would probably willingly eat it until his gut exploded.
  • Taking showers. He thinks he's pretty cool now that he showers on his own.

Dislikes

  • Going to bed.
  • Most of the Newberry Award books (with the exception of Where the Wild Things Are) I try to read to him. He knows I'm trying to broaden his horizons and he's having none of it.
  • Cleaning his room. He HATES to help me clean. He'll do it, but there's usually a fair amount of garment-rending, wailing, gnashing of teeth involved.

Miles

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Likes

  • Having his back scratched. He asks us so often to scratch his back I'm surprised there's any skin left.
  • Staying close to mom and dad. He loves us. What can I say?
  • His gee-gee (hard g sound). It's his blanket. It's in tatters and it's filthy from being dragged all over the world. But he loves it and he's only little once, so I don't fight that battle. He has to leave it in the car most places, but otherwise I'm cool with it.
  • His thumb. Of course the Geeg and the thumb go together. So yes, 2018 Miles, go ahead and blame me for the dental work you're going through.
  • Music. Anyone who has spent any considerable amount of time with Miles knows that he has excellent musical taste. He demands Keane, Coldplay, Radiohead and the Beatles. Oh, and the Move It song from Madagascar and "I'm Blue" from Eiffel 65. But that's because it mentions the color blue.
  • The color blue. Miles is insane about blue. He loves Sonic the Hedgehog because it combines the color blue AND music. His favorite outfit is blue shorts and a blue shirt. He loves brushing his teeth because our toothpaste is blue. When I pick him up from nursery I never have to guess which color page is his because it's always the one that's entirely blue. The kid just really, really loves blue.
  • Songs at bedtime. yes, more music. But he REALLY loves his bedtime songs. He just lays there looking like an angel and snuggling up close, having his back scratched and listening. It's the best time of day for everyone in our house. The song "lullaby" from the Children's Songbook is his very fave.
  • Swords, nun-chucks and other ninja paraphernalia. Just because.
  • His trike. The look of sheer joy on his face when he's riding like the wind is a better gift than I deserve.

Dislikes

  • Stuff that's not blue.
  • Not being allowed to watch TV/Movies all day.
  • Sophie getting in his face.
  • Time-outs.
  • Eating vegetables except broccoli and asparagus.
  • Large groups of noisy people. It's just overwhelming, poor guy.

Sophia

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Likes

  • Being a diva. Girlfriend is a diva. There's no other way to say it.
  • Getting her way. See above.
  • Telling her brothers what's what.
  • High heels. She was in Drama Queen Heaven (not to be confused with Dairy Queen Heaven, which is where I live) when we went to Nana Rawlins' house tonight and discovered high heel dress-up shoes! There was so much strutting going on tonight.
  • Following Miles and Cameron around and taking their toys and then acting like a victim when they take their toys back. See above.
  • Babies. She loves seeing real-life babies, and she loves playing with her doll/animal babies. She pulls out her old baby bathtub and bouncer chair and plays house. It's suuuuuuuuper cute.
  • The thumb and the gee-gee. Our future orthodontist can go ahead and plan that Caribbean cruise anytime.
  • Books. Sophia is also into books. As soon as I sit down to rock her before bed she points to the stack of books on her dresser and says, "book!" I'm not complaining.
  • Eating three calories a day.
  • Dancing and jumping. Dancing is at least safe. And it makes my heart hurt it's so stinkin' cute. She especially loves to get on my bed and hold onto the footboard and wiggle her bum. Oh thank heavens she was blessed with a cute bum. I think I would miss it if she didn't have it.

Dislikes

  • Eating any kind of food unless it contains mass quantities of artificial preservatives. What's with that anyway, Soph? Enjoy your starvation diet. I'm not giving in.
  • Getting her diaper changed. We're in the limbo land of not wanting diapers anymore but not quite ready for potty training yet. It's going to be a fun couple of months.
  • Being carried. I'm thinking of changing her name to Kelly Clarkson she's been so independent lately! She screams "WALK" the minute I unbuckle her carseat. If I dare try to carry her she flails and flips and makes an enormous scene until I put her down - which I absolutely do.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

More vacay pics...

Okay, so we had our camera with us but we had memory card issues. That's why I only came home with pictures of the jumps and karaoke. Here are a few more that I've stolen from my SIL Sara.

chase in a waterfall Chase in the rapids again Chase jumping off stuff again

If you didn't know it, my husband is part fish. At our last reunion in Colorado he earned his reputation (with my family, anyway...his family knows all about his amphibious tendencies) by immersing himself - for no good reason - in the icy, mountain stream that ran behind our condos. This year he maintained his rep by never letting any body of water pass him by.  The man is loco for liquid.

alpine slide with cambo Me and Cambo (rhymes with Rambo...)people i love hanging in the air People I love hanging in mid-air.water slide chase and cam Chase and Cam on the waterslide.

Ober Gatlinburg was awesome. Particularly the Alpine Slide. If you've never done one, you should! Just maybe not the one in Winter Park, CO. My sis, Lyss, lost her hide on that Alpine Slide.

Kilgore Reunion 1 All of us.Kilgore Reunion 2 How we normally look.Kilgore siblings 1The sibs. I'll admit I don't love pics like this now...only because our family feels "naked" without the spouses. I prefer pics with my Siblings-in-law who are so awesome they make me want to start a fan club...

kilgore siblings 2 33 people in my family. 33 reasons why being a Kilgore is basically better than being almost anything else...Just sayin'. And our t-shirts? That's a skull and cross banjos logo. Yeah, I know. We're that cool.

we'relikethis

Hanging with my main man, B. We'relikethis.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Okay class...

image We've all read this by now, right?

The second book, "Catching Fire" is coming out in a couple weeks. I just pre-ordered it (thanks again for that gift card, Eric!) and will be sitting by the mail box until it gets here. Will Katniss choose Peeta or Gale?!?! And what's going to happen when they get back to District 12?!

September 1, where are you!? (and while we're at it, November 20, where are you?)

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Great Smoky Mountains Vacay

Alright, so first off let's clarify that SMOKY is actually a correct spelling of that word. Looks weird, right? According to dictionary.com the word smokey refers specifically to police cars, while smoky describes all things having to do with actual smoke. This is as great a shock to me as it is to you (unless you're Chrysta and you just happen to know these things as a result of your freakish' DNA).

With that out of the way, I'll tell you we had one flippin' good time. Great place to stay, great activities, GREAT FOOD, great company, GREATAMAZINGFABULOUS food. Did I mention that the food was outrageous? It was.

We all arrived Saturday and sat around starving while we waited for Chrysta to arrive with the food. Which she did around, oh, 1 or 2 AM if I'm not correct? Yes? Anyway, we eventually ate and we liked each other a lot more after that.

Sunday we laid around catching up and eating food (this will be a theme). Jerry and Sam - both triathletes (the former getting ready for his 2nd Iron Man), decided a scenic bike ride was in order. They left at approximately 10 AM and returned about 8 hours later. At which point we all went on a lovely waterfall hike. It was described to us as family-friendly. Meaning, if you place your children in a headlock the entire way they will narrowly avoid falling to their deaths over the sheer cliffs that lined the entire trail. In fact, while hiking the trail we happened upon a man who had done just that and was sitting, bloody, in the middle of the trail waiting for the National Park Service Search and Rescue team to, well, Rescue him. Happy Sunday everyone! We stepped gingerly over him and kept trekking. By the top my nerves were utterly shot and I was an anxious mess. Chase, who thinks nothing of risking his life, de-robed, climbed the rocks and held himself in the largest part of the waterfall for a few minutes. On the way back down the mountain we got to stand in line while the Search and Rescue team stabilized the aforementioned bloody man.

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Monday began with the first Kilgore 5k run, which was later re-named the Fanny Autrey Memorial 5k (because our finish line was in a cemetery right next to dear Fanny's tombstone). Before setting out we drove around looking for a flat course. In the middle of the Smoky Mountains. So yeah. What we ended up finding was the Great Diablo Course From Hell. My IronMan brother was driving and I was in the backseat. My sisters-in-law Christy and Sara who are half-marathoners and triathletes respectively, were all, "Oh yeah, this looks okay." I was crying and shaking. So let's just cut this description short by saying that what I ran was the Fanny Autrey Memorial 2.5k. And I have zero shame. I nearly died on that course more than once. I will add that I cruised in at 21+ minutes AFTER my IronMan brother who finished the entire thing and then pranced around for a couple minutes before saying he needed to get more miles in and proceeded to run up the Pikes Peak look-alike that our lodge sat atop of.

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In order, Triathlete, Army Guy, Half-Marathoner, IronMan, Triathlete, uh, me, Marathoner/Navy guy.

After the FAM5K (wow, that looks like Fam 5K, which is what it was), we gathered the rest of the crew and went tubing on the river. That was so sweet! There were lots of mild areas and lots of areas with rapids. At one point you could paddle over to the side and jump off a rope swing. All told it lasted about 2.5 hours and was a slamming good time. Cameron and Miles were able to go with us, too! Cam even got his own tube and we teamed up while Miles rode on daddy's lap. Cam got so good by the end that he was telling ME when to lift my bum to avoid slamming it into rocks (which I did - OUCH!).

Tuesday was free day #1 and we did some additional laying around before heading back to the Park to find a good swimming hole. We found one with some decent sized rocks and Chase, Jerry and a couple of the kids decided to jump off of them. This, of course, set the scene for Wednesday.

I can't let Tuesday end without including our Iron Chef cook-off. There were so many good dishes I almost became diabetic. Mmmmm...

image Sweet obesity, that cobbler was good.

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Wednesday. The boys had their usual golf day in the morning and when they arrived home that afternoon we decided to go jump off some cliffs. I am not usually one to do things like cliff jumping, but I figured why not. When we arrived we saw a sign that detailed exactly how many deaths had occurred at that location and advised us not to "be next." That's always encouraging.

So we hiked up to the spot and jumped in:) My first jump was nearly fatal, I'll admit. I lost my nerve just as I was jumping and ended up kinda falling. My husband and brother were NOT happy, but I resolved to try again. It looked VERY high from the top but once you were at the bottom it looked manageable.

Chase, Jerry and Scott all took turns scaring the daylights out of me by jumping off higher rocks or doing backflips off the cliffs (and asking me to TAPE their almost-deaths! WHO DOES THAT?! "Hey honey. I'm going to try to kill myself. Can you make sure to hit the record button on time?!"). Anyway, it ended up being a freaking good time.

Just FYI, we're meeting with our insurance agent (Bro-in-law) tonight to discuss more life insurance. Not kidding.

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Bird                                              Bird and Carl about to launch

My brother, Scott. He can fly planes and go to POW training but jumping off of cliffs is a little scary.

P1040006Sara and Lylla (and Bird) took turns yelling crazy things whilst jumping. My faves were some Harry Potter spells and "I Like it Chunky" from Madagascar 2.P1040013 Jerry ponderingP1040029

Thursday was Girls Day Out (a much-anticipated day by all the females over the age of 12). We hit Gatlinburg for some window-shopping and people-watching. Good things to do in Gatlinburg - lots to see:) We mostly just enjoyed being together. I'm blessed to have sisters and sisters-in-law who are just rad. I just love being with them.

That evening the real party began with Kilgore Idol. I've already posted some videos of the event but let me tell you it was AAAAAAA-Mazing. Who knew we had so much raw talent in our family? Mom and Dad even joined in the fun! Sara earned some serious UMC bonus points when she appeared looking like this to sing Pat Benatar. Ooohhhhh yeah.

P1040033 "One ticket for the side-pony express, please!"

image Scott got censored. Supafreak indeed.

image Lydia singing "I Will Survive." The girl's got soul! (Apparently not inherited from her black-hearted mom)

Friday was the last real day of the reunion and a free day. We started by hitting Ober Gatlinburg to do the Alpine slide and some other rides before heading back to the cliffs for some more jumping. After everyone returned for jumping I served Heart Attack Chili for dinner followed by Coronary Cupcakes. Mmmm...

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Saturday it was time to pack up and head west. A horrendously sad day. I'm not going to bother giving you the details of our 15 hours in the car. You can probably guess.

But it was totally worth it:) Love my fam.

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I'm not afraid to embarrass those I love either.

And I don't mean just by the fact that I exist (Chase can assure you that my very existence has embarrassed him many, many times).

Here's sister Chrysta attempting to sing The Rose. She was rocking some sappy affectations when other sisters Cathryn and Alyssa (Bird and Lylla) had to show some "support."

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

We'll start in order of Most Ridiculous.

If you ever wondered if I was afraid of making a complete idiot of myself, wonder no more. Behold, Kilgore Idol Karaoke Night. If anyone has the video of me Kanye West-ing it into Bird's finale please let me know. Until then, you'll just have to make due with my version of Respect by the venerable Aretha Franklin (who I sound JUST LIKE, right?!).

Monday, August 10, 2009

Don't worry, I'll post about the reunion soon...

because it was AWE.SOME.

But today I'm in serious need of some laughter and light-heartedness. And these little youtube videos fit the bill nicely, thank you.